Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building
Encyclopedia
Federal government of the United States
The federal government of the United States is the national government of the constitutional republic of fifty states that is the United States of America. The federal government comprises three distinct branches of government: a legislative, an executive and a judiciary. These branches and...
complex located at 200 N.W. 5th Street in downtown Oklahoma City
Oklahoma city
Oklahoma City is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Oklahoma.Oklahoma City may also refer to:*Oklahoma City metropolitan area*Downtown Oklahoma City*Uptown Oklahoma City*Oklahoma City bombing*Oklahoma City National Memorial...
, Oklahoma
Oklahoma
Oklahoma is a state located in the South Central region of the United States of America. With an estimated 3,751,351 residents as of the 2010 census and a land area of 68,667 square miles , Oklahoma is the 28th most populous and 20th-largest state...
, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. The building was the target of the Oklahoma City bombing
Oklahoma City bombing
The Oklahoma City bombing was a terrorist bomb attack on the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in downtown Oklahoma City on April 19, 1995. It was the most destructive act of terrorism on American soil until the September 11, 2001 attacks. The Oklahoma blast claimed 168 lives, including 19...
on April 19, 1995, which killed 168 people, including 19 children. The remains of the building were imploded a month after the attack, and the Oklahoma City National Memorial
Oklahoma City National Memorial
The Oklahoma City National Memorial is a memorial in the United States that honors the victims, survivors, rescuers, and all who were affected by the Oklahoma City bombing on April 19, 1995. The memorial is located in downtown Oklahoma City on the former site of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal...
was built on the site.
Construction and use
The federal building was designed by architect Wendell Locke of Locke, Wright and Associates, and constructed using reinforced concreteReinforced concrete
Reinforced concrete is concrete in which reinforcement bars , reinforcement grids, plates or fibers have been incorporated to strengthen the concrete in tension. It was invented by French gardener Joseph Monier in 1849 and patented in 1867. The term Ferro Concrete refers only to concrete that is...
in 1977 at a cost of $14.5 million. The building, named for federal judge Alfred P. Murrah
Alfred P. Murrah
Alfred Paul Murrah was an American attorney and judge. The Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, which was named after him, was destroyed in the April 19, 1995, Oklahoma City bombing.-Early life and education:...
, an Oklahoma
Oklahoma
Oklahoma is a state located in the South Central region of the United States of America. With an estimated 3,751,351 residents as of the 2010 census and a land area of 68,667 square miles , Oklahoma is the 28th most populous and 20th-largest state...
native, opened on March 2, 1977.
By the 1990s, the building contained regional offices for the Social Security Administration
Social Security Administration
The United States Social Security Administration is an independent agency of the United States federal government that administers Social Security, a social insurance program consisting of retirement, disability, and survivors' benefits...
, the Drug Enforcement Administration
Drug Enforcement Administration
The Drug Enforcement Administration is a federal law enforcement agency under the United States Department of Justice, tasked with combating drug smuggling and use within the United States...
(D.E.A.), and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is a federal law enforcement organization within the United States Department of Justice...
(A.T.F.). The building also contained recruiting offices for both the Army
Army
An army An army An army (from Latin arma "arms, weapons" via Old French armée, "armed" (feminine), in the broadest sense, is the land-based military of a nation or state. It may also include other branches of the military such as the air force via means of aviation corps...
and the Marine Corps
Marine corps
A marine is a member of a force that specializes in expeditionary operations such as amphibious assault and occupation. The marines traditionally have strong links with the country's navy...
. It housed approximately 550 employees.
Prior bombing plots
In October 1983, members of the white supremacist group The Covenant, The Sword, and the Arm of the LordThe Covenant, The Sword, and the Arm of the Lord
The Covenant, The Sword, and the Arm of the Lord was a radical Christian Identity organization formed in 1971 in the small community of Elijah in southern Missouri, United States.- Leadership :...
, including founder James Ellison
James Ellison (polygamist)
James Ellison former student at Lincoln Bible College, Lincoln, IL was a white supremacist leader from San Antonio, Texas who, in 1971, founded the radical organization The Covenant, The Sword, and the Arm of the Lord. Ellison purchased a strip of land near Elijah, Arkansas to serve as his compound...
and Richard Snell
Richard Snell (criminal)
Richard Wayne Snell was a convicted murderer executed in Arkansas for killing two individuals.-CSA membership:...
plotted to park "a van or trailer in front of the Federal Building and blow it up with rockets detonated by a timer." Richard Snell was executed on April 19, 1995 after Associate Supreme Court Justice
Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States
Associate Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States are the members of the Supreme Court of the United States other than the Chief Justice of the United States...
Clarence Thomas
Clarence Thomas
Clarence Thomas is an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. Succeeding Thurgood Marshall, Thomas is the second African American to serve on the Court....
declined to hear further appeal, the same day as the bombing of the federal building was carried out.
Bombing
Nitromethane
Nitromethane is an organic compound with the chemical formula . It is the simplest organic nitro compound. It is a slightly viscous, highly polar liquid commonly used as a solvent in a variety of industrial applications such as in extractions, as a reaction medium, and as a cleaning solvent...
, and diesel fuel was detonated in front of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, destroying a third of the building and causing severe damage to several other buildings located nearby. As a result of the massive explosion, 168 people were killed, including 19 children, and over 800 others were injured. It was the most deadly terrorist attack, with the most property damage, on American soil before the September 11 attacks. It remains the deadliest act of domestic terrorism in American history.
Timothy McVeigh
Timothy McVeigh
Timothy James McVeigh was a United States Army veteran and security guard who detonated a truck bomb in front of the Alfred P. Murrah Building in Oklahoma City on April 19, 1995...
was found guilty of the attack in a jury trial and was sentenced to death. He was executed in 2001. A co-conspirator, Terry Nichols
Terry Nichols
Terry Lynn Nichols is a convicted bomber's accomplice. Prior to his incarceration, he held a variety of short-term jobs, working as a farmer, grain elevator manager, real estate salesman, ranch hand, and house husband. He met his future co-conspirator, Timothy McVeigh, during a brief stint in the...
, is serving multiple life sentences in a federal prison. Third and fourth subjects, Michael Fortier and his wife Lori, assisted in the plot. They testified against both McVeigh and Nichols in exchange for a 12-year prison term for Michael Fortier and immunity for Lori. Fortier was released into the witness protection program in January 2006.
McVeigh said that he bombed the Murrah building on the two-year anniversary of the Waco Siege
Waco Siege
The Waco siege began on February 28, 1993, and ended violently 50 days later on April 19. The siege began when the United States Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms attempted to execute a search warrant at the Branch Davidian ranch at Mount Carmel, a property located east-northeast of Waco,...
in 1993 to retaliate for US government actions there and at the siege at Ruby Ridge
Ruby Ridge
Ruby Ridge was the site of a violent confrontation and siege in northern Idaho in 1992. It involved Randy Weaver, his family, Weaver's friend Kevin Harris, and agents of the United States Marshals Service and Federal Bureau of Investigation...
. Before his execution, McVeigh said that he did not know a day care center was in the building and that, had he known, "It might have given me pause to switch targets." The FBI said that McVeigh scouted the interior of the building in December 1994 and likely knew of the day-care center before the bombing.
Demolition
Stephen Jones (attorney)
Stephen Jones, , is an attorney and Republican activist from Enid, Oklahoma. He is best known for serving as Timothy McVeigh's lead defense lawyer during McVeigh's trial on 11 counts regarding his actions in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing....
, called for a motion
Motion (legal)
In law, a motion is a procedural device to bring a limited, contested issue before a court for decision. A motion may be thought of as a request to the judge to make a decision about the case. Motions may be made at any point in administrative, criminal or civil proceedings, although that right is...
to delay the demolition until the defense team could examine the site in preparation for the trial. More than a month after the bombing, at 7:01 a.m. on May 23, the Murrah Federal building was demolished. The final three bodies, those of two credit union employees and a customer, were recovered. For several days after the building's demolition, trucks hauled 800 tons of debris a day away from the site. Some of the debris was used as evidence
Evidence (law)
The law of evidence encompasses the rules and legal principles that govern the proof of facts in a legal proceeding. These rules determine what evidence can be considered by the trier of fact in reaching its decision and, sometimes, the weight that may be given to that evidence...
in the conspirators' trials, incorporated into parts of memorials, donated to local schools, and sold to raise funds for relief efforts.
Remnants and replacement
Several remnants of the Murrah Building stand on the site of the Oklahoma City National MemorialOklahoma City National Memorial
The Oklahoma City National Memorial is a memorial in the United States that honors the victims, survivors, rescuers, and all who were affected by the Oklahoma City bombing on April 19, 1995. The memorial is located in downtown Oklahoma City on the former site of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal...
. Its plaza (on what was once the south side of the building) has been incorporated into the memorial; the Murrah Building's original flagpole is still in use. The east wall of the Murrah Building (within the building's footprint) is intact, as well as portions of the south wall. The building's underground parking garage survived the blast and is used today, but it is guarded and not open to the public.
The Federal government began construction of a new building to replace the Murrah Building in late 2000. This new building was sited north of the Murrah Building. It incorporates numerous security measures implemented in federal designs nationwide after the bombing of the Murrah Building.