Word: mcveigh
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William Maloney was watching television in May 1995 when he heard the name. For days, the news had been full of developments in the April 19 Oklahoma City bombing: first, suspect Timothy McVeigh was arrested; then his alleged accomplice Terry Nichols turned himself in. Now the FBI had picked up two men on suspicion of being associates of McVeigh's. Maloney, a real estate agent in the Ozarks, recognized the sound of one of the names--Robert Jacks. But then the drifter's face appeared on the screen. "When I saw him on TV," recalls Maloney, "I knew they...
...released Jacks and his companion Gary Land. However, according to sources close to the Oklahoma City case, the government has been quietly looking for another "Robert Jacks." The FBI has talked with Maloney, and believes he is credible when he says that several months before the bombing, he met McVeigh, Nichols and, most important, a third man, whom the FBI would very much like to question. An investigation for Impact, the TV newsmagazine produced by CNN and TIME, has uncovered not only the mystery of the Oklahoma case's missing man but his sketch as well...
Meanwhile, the Morning News declared it was standing by its story. The paper's account is almost novelistic in detail. The bomb, McVeigh allegedly said, was built with 5,400 lbs. of ammonium nitrate fertilizer--600 lbs. more than the government estimate--mixed with high-grade racing fuel. Total cost: $540 for the fertilizer, $3,000 for the fuel. The summer before the bombing, McVeigh was noted as saying he had an affair with the wife of Terry Nichols, the former Army buddy who would become his accused co-conspirator. The paper did not indicate whether Nichols found out. Still...
Jones, who has hinted at a strategy of casting suspicion on plotters still at large, told TIME that the alleged confession was "a deliberate attempt to protect other conspirators in the case." In 1995 news stories appeared in which McVeigh admits his guilt to unnamed sources. (McVeigh told TIME in March 1996 that "I've said I'm not guilty.") Still, even if the Dallas notes are authentic, they are covered by attorney-client privilege, and will probably never be entered as evidence. (The privilege protects confidential communications made by a client to a lawyer.) As for Jones, even...
Jury-pool contamination is the biggest problem created by the Morning News story. Says Gerald Shargel, a defense lawyer in New York City: "There's a potential for grave damage here. There's apparently no witness that puts McVeigh in Oklahoma City on the morning of the bombing." Says Peter Arenella, a law professor at the University of California, Los Angeles: "Just a report of this is extremely prejudicial to McVeigh's right to a fair trial. Even if the press reports all its caveats, the people still remember this news." When he spoke to TIME in March 1996, McVeigh...