SBU Alum to Discuss McVeigh on MSNBC

Fifteen years after the Oklahoma City bombing, MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow will bring viewers the inside story on the deadliest terror attack of the 20th century on U.S. soil.

The two-hour special airing at 9 p.m. Monday — called “The McVeigh Tapes: Confessions of an American Terrorist” — includes excerpts from 45 hours of never-before-released interview audiotapes recorded during Timothy McVeigh’s prison stay by Buffalo News reporters Dan Herbeck, SBU class of 1978, and Lou Michel.

All of the original notes taken by Herbeck and Michel, and some letters written by McVeigh, were donated by the reporters to St. Bonaventure University’s archives this year for scholarly research. Copies of their audiotapes are also housed in the archives. The film’s closing credits will acknowledge the university.

The materials were the foundation of the reporters’ book “American Terrorist: Timothy McVeigh and the Oklahoma City Bombing,” published in 2001. The New York Daily News called the book “an important contribution to history.”

Herbeck and Michel are interviewed extensively in the film, which reveals the bomber’s descriptions of the planning and execution of the horrific attack and offers insight into how a decorated American soldier became a dangerous, anti-government terrorist.

The two-hour documentary employs state-of-the-art computer recreations of the interview with McVeigh and his actions on and leading up to the day of the bombing. It also provides biographical background of McVeigh’s life and the path that led to his transformation into an “American terrorist.”

Survivors and family members of the bombing victims also are given a voice in the film, bravely stepping forward to offer the final word on the true impact and meaning of McVeigh’s brutal attack.

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