Terry Nichols
Terry Nichols is held at ADX Florence, a super maximum security prison near Florence, Colorado. His cell block is commonly known as Bomber's Row.
The men who shared that block with him include Ramzi Yousef and Eric Rudolph. Ted Kaczynski lived there too, until his transfer in 2021.
Nichols is an American domestic terrorist, convicted of conspiring with Timothy McVeigh in the plot behind the Oklahoma City bombing. He is not the man most people picture when they think of that attack. He was not the one who detonated the bomb.
How did a man from rural Michigan end up on that cell block? What drew him so close to McVeigh? Why did two separate juries refuse to send him to his death? And what did he say about it all, years later, from behind bars?
Terry Lynn Nichols was born on the 1st of April 1955 in Lapeer, Michigan. He was the third of four children of Joyce and Robert Nichols.
The family farm shaped his childhood. He helped his parents there and learned to run and repair the equipment. According to the Denver Post, he also nursed injured birds and animals.
At Lapeer High School he chose crafts and business law as electives. Friends remembered him as shy. He played junior varsity football, wrestled and joined the ski club. His brother James, who later self-published a 400-page book about the bombing, called Terry book smart and good at artwork. He graduated in 1973 with a 3.6 grade point average and hoped to become a physician.
At Central Michigan University he finished a single term of 13 credit hours with a B average. He earned Cs in biology, chemistry and trigonometry, a B in literature and an A in archery.
In 1974 his brother Leslie was badly burned in a fuel tank explosion on the farm. Nichols offered his own skin for the grafts. He tried farming with James for a while but found him too bossy. He then moved to Colorado and earned a real estate license in 1976. Soon after his first big sale, his mother told him she needed help on the farm, and he went home.
In 1980 he met real estate agent Lana Walsh, a twice-divorced mother of two who was five years older than he was. They married and had a son in 1982. Over those years he drifted through carpentry, grain elevator management, life insurance and real estate sales. Lana later said she was the one with a career. She described him as a house husband who cooked, gardened and looked after the children.
Nichols had never liked farm life, and by 1988 he was ready to find a way out.
In 1988, at the age of 33, Nichols enlisted in the United States Army. He reported to Fort Benning, next to Columbus, Georgia, for basic training.
As the oldest man in his platoon, he struggled with the physical demands, and the others sometimes called him grandpa. His age also earned him the job of platoon guide.
Timothy McVeigh was in that platoon, and the two quickly became close friends. Both had grown up in white rural areas. Both had tried college for a while, and both had divorced parents. They shared political views, along with an interest in gun collecting and the survivalist movement. Later they were stationed together at Fort Riley in Junction City, Kansas. There they befriended Michael Fortier, a future accomplice.
Soon after Nichols enlisted, his wife filed for divorce. A conflict over childcare led him to request a hardship discharge. He received it in May 1989 so that he could care for his seven-year-old son. As he left, he told a fellow soldier that he would soon start his own military organization and have an unlimited supply of weapons.
In 1990, at 35, Nichols married 17-year-old Marife Torres of the Philippines. He had met her through a mail-order bride agency. When she arrived in Michigan several months later, she was pregnant with another man's child.
That child died at the age of two. He suffocated after becoming tangled in a plastic bag from a banana box left overnight in his bedroom. Marife first suspected foul play by either Nichols or McVeigh. The child had no bruises or other signs of trauma, and the death was ruled accidental.
Nichols and Marife had two more children. She was working on a degree in physical therapy at a local college in the Philippines, and the couple visited often. He sometimes made the trip alone while she stayed in Kansas.
Before one of those trips, Nichols left a cryptic note and a package of documents with his ex-wife Lana. When he returned, he learned she had opened too early a letter telling her what to do if he died. He then made a series of phone calls to a boarding house in Cebu City.
His marriage to Marife ended in divorce after his arrest, and she returned to the Philippines with the children.
In February 1992, Nichols wrote to a county clerk in Michigan to renounce his United States citizenship. He called the political system corrupt and declared himself a "non resident alien."
His distrust of Washington did not appear overnight. He spent most of his adult life around Lapeer and Sanilac County, Michigan. Resentment of the federal government ran deep there, especially after banks foreclosed on many farms during the 1980s farm crisis. His ex-wife Torres fed his views as well, because some Filipinos, especially Filipino Americans, held anti-government attitudes rooted in their history with colonialism. Neighbors said he went to meetings of anti-government groups, experimented with explosives and grew more radical over time.
Nichols began to follow sovereign citizen ideology. Several months after his letter to the clerk, he appeared in court over credit card bills. He owed about $40,000 in all. He refused to come before the bench and shouted at the judge that the government had no jurisdiction over him.
On the 19th of October 1992 he signed a second document renouncing his citizenship. In May 1993 he stood before a county judge over an unpaid credit card debt of $8,421. He also gave up his driver's license.
Meanwhile, his bond with McVeigh deepened. In December 1991 Nichols invited McVeigh to Michigan to help sell military surplus at gun shows. For the next three years McVeigh stayed with him off and on.
On the 19th of April 1993, the two men watched television at the Nichols farmhouse as the siege of the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas, ended in flames. Both were enraged, and they began plotting revenge on the federal government. By the fall of 1993 they were business partners, selling weapons and military surplus. For a while they followed the gun shows from town to town.
Nichols tried construction work in Las Vegas and failed. In March 1994 he found work as a ranch hand in Marion, Kansas. That month he wrote to the Marion County clerk, saying he was not subject to United States law, and asked his employer not to withhold federal taxes. The employer found him hard-working but politically unusual.
In the fall of 1994 Nichols quit the job, telling his employer he was going into business with McVeigh.
On the 22nd of September 1994, Nichols and McVeigh rented a storage shed and started collecting supplies for a truck bomb.
In late September or early October, they stole dynamite and blasting caps from a nearby quarry. Nichols bought large quantities of ammonium nitrate fertilizer and stored it in three rental storage units. He also robbed an Arkansas gun dealer who had befriended the pair at gun shows. The men drew heavily on techniques from the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, which involved similar bombs.
In February 1995, Nichols bought a small house in Herington, Kansas, with a cash down payment. In March he bought diesel fuel. According to McVeigh, Nichols handed him some cash on the 14th of April.
On the 16th of April, which was Easter Sunday, the two men drove to Oklahoma City to drop off the getaway car. On the 18th, Nichols helped McVeigh prepare the truck bomb at a lake near Herington. McVeigh later said that Nichols and Fortier had partly pulled out of the plot. He described them as men who liked to talk tough.
When the bomb exploded on the 19th of April 1995, Nichols was at home in Kansas with his family. The blast hit the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City and killed 168 people.
On the 21st of April, Nichols learned that he was wanted for questioning. He turned himself in and agreed to a search of his home. Agents found blasting caps, detonating cords, ground ammonium nitrate and plastic barrels like fragments from the bombing site. They also found 33 firearms and anti-government warfare literature.
Two more items stood out. One was a receipt for ammonium nitrate fertilizer bearing McVeigh's fingerprints. The other was a telephone credit card McVeigh had used while shopping for bomb-making equipment. Agents also found a hand-drawn map of downtown Oklahoma City. Nichols was held as a material witness until he was charged on the 10th of May.
Investigators also searched the Decker, Michigan, farm of his brother James, where Terry and McVeigh had stayed on and off in the months before the bombing. James was held on charges that he made small bombs there. He was released without charges on the 24th of May, after a judge said there was no evidence he was a danger to others.
Fortier, the third friend from Fort Riley, would soon become the prosecution's most useful witness.
McVeigh went to trial first and was sentenced to death. Nichols came next, and the government leaned on Michael Fortier to testify against both men.
Fortier had struck a federal plea agreement for reduced charges. He was charged with failing to warn authorities in advance and was sentenced to 12 years in prison. On the stand he said the two men had voiced anti-government feelings and conspired to blow up the Murrah building. He said he had helped McVeigh survey the building. He also testified that Nichols robbed an Arkansas gun dealer to pay for the plot. The prosecutor said Fortier supplied "solid bricks of evidence."
Nichols's wife Marife appeared as a defense witness, yet her account may have helped the prosecution. She said her husband had led a double life before the bombing. He used aliases, rented storage lockers and lied that he had broken off his friendship with McVeigh. She also testified that he traveled to Oklahoma City three days before the bombing, which backed the claim that he helped place the getaway car near the Murrah building. She could not give him an alibi for the 18th of April 1995, the day prosecutors said he helped assemble the bomb.
Nichols was represented by the criminal defense attorney Michael Tigar. The trial lasted nine weeks, and the prosecution called 100 witnesses. Prosecutors argued that Nichols helped buy and steal bomb ingredients, park the getaway car and assemble the bomb. The defense called witnesses who said they saw other men with McVeigh before the bombing. It also claimed the government had manipulated the evidence.
The jury deliberated for 41 hours over six days. On the 24th of December 1997, it acquitted Nichols of actually detonating the bomb. It convicted him of conspiring with McVeigh to use a weapon of mass destruction, a capital offense. It cleared him of first degree murder but convicted him of involuntary manslaughter in the deaths of the federal law enforcement officers.
The Washington Post pointed to several possible reasons. No evidence showed that Nichols rented the Ryder truck, and no one could positively identify him as the buyer of two tons of ammonium nitrate. The most troubling fact for the government was that he was at home in Kansas when the truck exploded. Some jurors may have accepted the defense argument that he had withdrawn from the conspiracy. His tears on the stand may also have swayed them.
After the penalty hearing, the jury deliberated for 13 hours over two days on a death sentence and deadlocked. On the 4th of June 1998, Judge Richard P. Matsch sentenced Nichols to life without parole. He called Nichols "an enemy of the Constitution." Nichols also received a concurrent 48-year term for the eight manslaughter convictions. He showed no emotion.
On the 26th of February 1999, a federal appeals court affirmed both his conviction and his sentence.
State representative Charles Key led a citizens group that circulated petitions for an Oklahoma grand jury. The federal jury had deadlocked on the death penalty, and petitioners hoped a state inquiry would uncover other conspirators.
The grand jury heard testimony for 18 months about possible accomplices. In March 1999 it returned indictments against Nichols alone. District Attorney Wes Lane denied that the case existed only to see Nichols executed. He said, "This case has always been about 161 men, women and children and an unborn baby having the same rights to their day in court as eight federal law enforcement officers."
Nichols was brought from Colorado to face 160 capital counts of first-degree murder. He also faced one count each of fetal homicide, first-degree arson and conspiracy. Prosecutors sought the death penalty.
The trial ran two months, and the state called 151 witnesses to present what it described as a mountain of circumstantial evidence. Its star witness was again Fortier. He said Nichols was intimately involved, helping obtain bomb ingredients including the fertilizer that was mixed with high-octane fuel. He said the two men stole cord and blasting caps from a rock quarry. He also said Nichols robbed Roger E. Moore, a gun collector, for money.
Nichols's lawyers called him the "fall guy." They argued that others, Moore included, had conspired with McVeigh. They wanted to introduce evidence that white supremacists had been McVeigh's accomplices. The judge refused, saying the defense had not shown that any of those people acted in furtherance of the conspiracy. In closing, the defense said, "People who are still unknown assisted Timothy McVeigh."
On the 26th of May 2004, the jury of six men and six women needed five hours to find Nichols guilty on all charges. He stared straight ahead and showed no emotion.
The penalty phase opened on the 1st of June 2004 before the same jury. Over five days, 87 witnesses took the stand, including victims and their family members. Nichols's relatives described a loving family man. The prosecutor said that 168 people had died so that Nichols and McVeigh could make a political statement. The defense countered that a dominant, manipulative McVeigh had controlled Nichols, and said he had sincerely converted to Christianity.
The jury deliberated for 19½ hours over three days and could not agree on death. Nichols then spoke publicly for the first time in the proceedings. He addressed Judge Steven W. Taylor in a long statement full of religious references. He apologized for the murders and offered to write to survivors to help their healing. Darlene Welch, whose niece died in the explosion, said she did not appreciate being preached to.
Judge Taylor called Nichols a terrorist and the "No. 1 mass murderer" in all of United States history. He sentenced him to 161 consecutive life terms without parole, the longest prison sentence ever given to an individual.
Nichols went back to the federal prison in Colorado, and his own account of the plot kept changing from there.
Ten years after the bombing, the FBI searched the crawl space of Nichols's former home in Kansas. The tip came from Greg Scarpa Jr., a reputed mobster and the son of mobster Greg Scarpa Sr., who was a fellow inmate of Nichols. Agents found explosives in boxes, wrapped in plastic and buried under a foot of rock. The tipster said they were buried before the attack.
Nichols had denied any role in the plot until 2004. His mother claimed he had Asperger syndrome, that McVeigh manipulated him, and that he did not know how the bomb would be used.
In a May 2005 letter to a relative of two of the victims, Nichols claimed an Arkansas gun dealer had also conspired in the plot by donating some of the explosives. In 2006 he wrote to a judge asking for a light sentence for his son, who faced charges including assault with a deadly weapon, battery of a police officer and possession of a stolen vehicle. In that letter he admitted taking part in the bombing but said McVeigh had forced and intimidated him.
A 2007 affidavit went further. Nichols said that in 1992 McVeigh told him he had been recruited for undercover missions while serving in the military. He said McVeigh told him in 1995 that FBI official Larry Potts, who had supervised the Ruby Ridge and Waco operations, had directed McVeigh to blow up a government building. He also claimed the two had learned to make the bomb from people they met at gun shows.
In the same affidavit he admitted that he and McVeigh stole eight cases of the gel explosive Tovex from a quarry in Marion, Kansas. Some of it was later used in the truck bomb. He knew the quarries well from his time as a ranch hand in Marion County. He admitted helping McVeigh mix the ingredients in the truck the day before the attack. He denied knowing the exact target.
Nichols wanted to tell more in a videotaped deposition. A federal appeals court ruled against it in 2009.
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Common questions
Who is Terry Nichols?
Terry Lynn Nichols, born on the 1st of April 1955 in Lapeer, Michigan, is an American domestic terrorist. He was convicted of conspiring with Timothy McVeigh in the Oklahoma City bombing plot.
What was Terry Nichols convicted of?
In a federal trial, Terry Nichols was convicted of conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction and eight counts of involuntary manslaughter. In 2004 an Oklahoma jury found him guilty on all state charges, including 160 counts of first-degree murder, one count of fetal homicide, first-degree arson and conspiracy.
What sentence did Terry Nichols receive?
The state court sentenced Terry Nichols to 161 consecutive life terms without parole, the longest prison sentence ever given to an individual. Earlier, a federal judge had sentenced him to life without parole after the jury deadlocked on the death penalty.
Where is Terry Nichols imprisoned?
Terry Nichols is held at ADX Florence, a super maximum security prison near Florence, Colorado. He shared a cell block known as Bomber's Row with Ramzi Yousef and Eric Rudolph, and with Ted Kaczynski until Kaczynski's transfer in 2021.
How did Terry Nichols meet Timothy McVeigh?
Terry Nichols met Timothy McVeigh in the same platoon during basic training at Fort Benning, Georgia, after enlisting in the United States Army in 1988. The two became close friends and were later stationed together at Fort Riley in Kansas.
Why was Terry Nichols not sentenced to death?
Both the federal jury and the Oklahoma jury deadlocked on the death penalty for Terry Nichols. The federal jury deliberated 13 hours and the state jury 19½ hours without reaching a unanimous decision.
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62 references cited across the entry
- 104JE98HAThe University of Texas in Austin School of Law
- 2OSCN Case DetailsOklahoma Supreme Court
- 3ReportOklahoma City Bombing InjuriesSheryll Shariat et al. — Injury Prevention Service, Oklahoma State Department of Health — December 1998
- 4Terry Nichols gets life without parole2004-08-09
- 5MagazineInside Bomber RowMaryanne Vollers — November 5, 2006
- 7News'Unabomber' Ted Kaczynski transferred to prison medical facility in North CarolinaJames Anderson et al. — Associated Press — December 23, 2021
- 8Nichols, J. D., Freedom's End: Conspiracy in Oklahoma (Decker, MI: Freedom's End, 1997).
- 9Stickney, p. 95.
- 10Stickney, pp. 93-94.
- 11Stickney, p. 101.
- 13Stickney, p. 91.
- 14Sovereign Citizens A Growing Domestic Threat to Law EnforcementFederal Bureau of Investigation — September 1, 2011
- 15Stickney, p. 129.
- 16Stickney, p. 144.
- 17Stickney, p. 234.
- 18MagazineTHE MAN WITH TIMOTHY MCVEIGHJeffery Toobin — September 30, 1996
- 19NewsNichols Guilty of Conspiracy, ManslaughterLois Romano et al. — December 24, 1997
- 20NewsTimeline: Oklahoma bombingMay 11, 2001
- 22NewsEx-Friend of McVeigh Denies Fabricating Firearms RobberyRichard A. Serrano — November 19, 1997
- 25The 2007 statement by Nichols was filed in a wrongful death suit by the brother of a man who died in 1995 while in federal custody. The suit alleged that Kenneth Trentadue was killed while being inter
- 26NewsInterview: Brett Gelman, Ashley Benson and Anthony Carrigan get into the uncomfortable side of McVeighTyler Nichols — 2025-03-25
- 28NewsThe Second Suspect -- A special report.; With Extremism and Explosives, A Drifting Life Found a PurposeSara Rimer — May 28, 1995
- 29Terry Nichols Biography (1955-)Biography.com
- 31Nichols Guilty of Conspiracy and Involuntary ManslaughterNPR — December 23, 1997
- 32NewsTerry Nichols guilty on 161 murder counts in state trialNBC News — May 26, 2004
- 33NewsJury deadlocks, sparing Nichols from death penaltyCNN — June 11, 2004
- 35NewsWhat brought Nichols to the dock?September 21, 1997
- 36NewsNichols' family speaks outHoward Pankratz — August 30, 1997
- 37NewsKey Players: The Accused: Terry NicholsJune 11, 2001
- 38NewsNichols Called Drifter, Devoted DadSandy Shore — September 21, 1997
- 40NewsNichols' siblings testify in penalty phaseTim Talley — June 8, 2004
- 41NewsTwo Images of Nichols EmergedDenver Post Staff and Wire Reports
- 42Letter to Judge Joseph Bonaventure from Terry NicholsLas Vegas Review-Journal — April 2, 2009
- 43The Oklahoma City Bombing & The Trial of Timothy McVeighDouglas O. Linder — University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law website — 2006
- 44Saved by religionRachel Bell — TruTv
- 45NewsNichols says bombing was FBI opGeoffrey Fattah — February 22, 2007
- 46NewsSalt Lake Attorney Can Question Terry Nichols on VideotapeKSL.com — September 22, 2007
- 47Terry Nichols Will Testify On OKC BombingJ.M. Berger — INTELWIRE Terrorism Blog — September 21, 2007
- 48Inmate finderFederal Bureau of Prisons
- 49Amended Information, The State of Oklahoma vs. Terry Lynn NicholsFind Law — March 1, 2001
- 50NewsAccused of Interference in Bombing, Writer SurrendersJanuary 20, 1999
- 51NewsCharges Against Terry NicholsTime Daily — Time — December 23, 1997
- 52NewsBomber's Letter: 'Clearly Josh is a victim', Oklahoma City bomber sought leniency for sonGlenn Puit — May 18, 2006
- 53NewsDeadlock: Terry Nichols saved from death by indecisive juryJune 8, 2004
- 54NewsNichols' wife tells of FBI interrogationChance Conner — Denver Post — June 29, 1997
- 55NewsFBI at first dismissed tip on Nichols explosivesNBC News — April 14, 2005
- 56NewsFBI: Explosives Found in Nichols' Old HomeFox News — April 2, 2005
- 57NewsOklahoma City Bomber Nichols Says 3rd Man Took Part In Bombing PlotRichard Serrano — May 4, 2005
- 58NewsFortier Gets 12 Years in Bombing CaseLois Romano — May 28, 1998
- 59NewsNichols Spared Death PenaltyLois Romano — January 8, 1998
- 60NewsAppeals court overturns order allowing deposition of Terry NicholsPamela Manson — Salt Lake Tribune — July 2, 2009
- 61NewsNichols Defense Rests Its Case After Jury Hears More From WifeLois Romano — December 12, 1997
- 62BookAll-American Monster: The Unauthorized Biography of Timothy McVeighBrandon M. Stickney — Prometheus Books — 1996
- 63BookAmerican Terrorist: Timothy McVeigh & The Oklahoma City BombingLou Michel — ReganBooks — 2001
- 64BookHomegrown: Timothy McVeigh and the Rise of Right-Wing ExtremismToobin, Jeffrey — Simon & Schuster — 2023