Two days after the OKC bombing, President Clinton vowed: “Justice for these killers will be certain, swift and severe. We will find them, we will convict them, and we will seek the death penalty against them.” Attorney General Janet Reno and FBI Director Louis Freeh likewise promised that “no stone will be left unturned” in pursuing all of those responsible for this terrible act.
Fine words, tough words, but what really happened? In the months and years that followed those promises, the most extensive and expensive investigation in history turned into the model of official coverups. Evidence was intentionally lost, misplaced, tainted, and destroyed. Important witnesses were ignored or harassed and intimidated. Witness testimony was altered and misrepresented. Some of the most important suspect leads were inexplicably ignored, while federal investigators were sent on wild goose chases and interviews with nut cases.
On December 23, 1997, following the verdict in Terry Nichols’ federal trial, Janet Reno said: “Two and a half years ago, when the Murrah Building was bombed, FBI Director Louis Freeh and I promised to follow every lead and bring those responsible to justice. Today, that promise has been kept.”
That statement was a monstrous, cruel lie, as everyone who has followed this magazine’s investigation of the bombing is well aware. The Clinton/Reno/Freeh “investigation” went to incredible lengths to dispose of all evidence that McVeigh and Nichols had other accomplices, especially the mysterious “John Doe No. 2,” who was seen with McVeigh at the Ryder truck rental shop and other locations. Despite the testimony of dozens of credible eyewitnesses who placed McVeigh with additional John Does in the days immediately before the bombing and on the day of the bombing itself, the John Doe sightings were dismissed at trial by federal prosecutor Beth Wilkinson as mere “Elvis sightings.”
Now, a seemingly unrelated case offers new hope of breaking through the official lies and coverup. In August 1995, four months after the OKC bombing, an inmate died in the Federal Transfer Center in Oklahoma City. Federal officials ruled the death of Kenneth Michael Trentadue a suicide. However, when Trentadue’s family finally got his body, they knew the “suicide” was really a homicide. Moreover, it was obvious that he had been tortured, brutally beaten, and strangled. His body was covered with bruises and lacerations. The Oklahoma Medical Examiner and the federal government’s own forensic pathologists agreed that this was a case of murder, not suicide. But crucial evidence was “lost,” the crime scene was destroyed, and witnesses were pressured to change their testimony.
The Trentadue family refused to give up, despite incredible threats and roadblocks thrown in their path. In 2001, the family won a $1.1 million judgment in U.S. District Court against the U.S. government for intentional infliction of emotional distress.
How is Kenny Trentadue’s death related to the OKC bombing? Jesse Trentadue, a trial lawyer and Kenny’s older brother, thinks he now has important clues that finally may lead to the answer to that troubling question. FBI documents he recently acquired under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) indicate a connection between Timothy McVeigh and a group of notorious neo-Nazis known as the Aryan Republic Army. Also known as the Midwest Bank Robbers, these extremists operated out of a backwoods Oklahoma compound known as “Elohim City.” Trentadue believes his brother Kenny was mistaken for Richard Guthrie, one of the bank robbers, who is mentioned in an FBI memo along with McVeigh. This would agree with the statement of David Paul Hammer, one of McVeigh’s death row inmates, who claims McVeigh once stated his opinion that Trentadue had been killed by federal authorities who thought he was Guthrie.
Another individual who appears in an FBI memo obtained by the Trentadues is Andreas Strassmeir, an illegal alien of German nationality who served as the “chief of security” at Elohim City. His name is blacked out of the memo, but there is no doubt that it is Strassmeir whose identity is being hidden. This magazine has reported extensively on evidence pointing toward both Strassmeir and Guthrie as prime conspirators with McVeigh in the OKC terror attack. We reported also on the important information provided by Carol Howe, an undercover operative for the federal government inside Elohim City who warned her superiors of the upcoming attack and fingered Strassmeir as the key suspect. Evidence continues to build indicating that Strassmeir also was a government operative, quite probably working for the CIA. Is that why the government has gone to such lengths to keep him out of the OKC picture?
This is not an “Elvis sighting.” The Trentadue family has uncovered important evidence and is suing the government to force the release of more documents. The truth may yet come out.
