Countdown to 4/19: April 18th Witnesses See McVeigh and Accomplices in Newkirk and Guthrie | Part Four in a Series
Eyewitnesses Identify McVeigh, Nichols, and John Doe #2
PART IV: McVeigh and John Doe #2 Stop at EZ-Mart in Newkirk, OK
In our fourth installment of this series—documenting various witness accounts from April 18 and 19, 1995—we find more stops for gasoline made by the bombing conspirators.
The following accounts are sourced from FBI 302 reports and several newspaper reports. Each details the bombing crew passing through Oklahoma in the afternoon of April 18th—Tuesday—sometime after McVeigh built his “half-ass” bomb with Nichols at Geary Lake in the morning. These accounts, both early to mid afternoon, appear chronologically prior to the crew being spotted doing a “Dry Run” in front of the Murrah building and visiting the Post Office, as described in Part III of this series.
April 18, 1995 (Tuesday)
Newkirk, Oklahoma
EZ-Mart on U.S. Highway 77
Mid afternoon
Two clerks at the E-Z Mart on U.S. Hwy 77 near Newkirk, Oklahoma, recall seeing a convoy of a Ryder truck and a pickup truck that pulled into the gas station to get fuel the day before the bombing. According to the witnesses, there were two men in the pickup, and one man driving the Ryder truck.
The driver of the pickup truck was the first to enter the store. The clerks identified him as Terry Nichols. Nichols bought half a dozen burritos from the freezer section, and also paid for the convoy’s gasoline. According to witnesses, the driver of the Ryder truck—who remained in the lot pumping gas into the Ryder truck—closely resembled Timothy McVeigh.
The witnesses said that sitting in the passenger seat of Nichols’ pickup truck was a man who had dark hair, olive skin, wearing a baseball cap and sunglasses—a description consistent with other witness accounts of John Doe #2.
Authorities interviewed the Newkirk witnesses within a week of the bombing, took statements from them, and collected fingerprint evidence from the store. During their investigation, the FBI interviewed customer Jeanne Shurtz, who was in the EZ-Mart when Nichols, McVeigh, and John Doe #2 showed up. Shurtz described seeing three men from the convoy go inside the store, while one man stayed in the Ryder truck.
Shurtz’s account matches what the clerks told reporters in a story published in the fall of 1995. Standing in line to pay for her soda, Shurtz observed three of the men and said that they appeared "impatient" as they stood in line behind her. Shurtz added that one of the men purchased a handful of burritos from the freezer section, as was noted by the EZ-Mart clerks, independent of Schurtz, in news reports.
Shurtz paid for her soda, and as she left the store, she turned and looked again at the three men. In the parking lot, Shurtz began talking to a friend, Frank Arnold, as she watched the trio exit the EZ-Mart. Shurtz watched one of the men get into the passenger side of the Ryder truck, while the man with the burritos went over to the driver's side of the Ryder truck—and handed the driver some burritos before himself getting into the pickup truck.
After leaving Newkirk, the convoy is documented traveling southbound towards Oklahoma City, where it was next spotted at a filling station just off the highway in Guthrie, Oklahoma.
McVeigh and John Doe #2 Stop at Conoco in Guthrie, OK
April 18th, 1995 (Tuesday)
Guthrie, Oklahoma
Star-Mart Conoco
Early Afternoon
A cashier at the Star-Mart Conoco near Guthrie, Oklahoma, off of I-35, observed a convoy consisting of a Ryder truck, an older yellow or off-white 4-door sedan, and a brown pickup truck.
According to the witness, the three vehicles pulled into the Star-Mart at the same time, in the early afternoon. The Star-Mart was about 88 miles south of Newkirk, Oklahoma, where the convoy was last seen hours before.
While all three vehicles pulled into the gas station's fueling area, station attendant Ingrid Willmurth told interviewing ATF agent Mario Reyes that only the Ryder truck was fueled during the stop.
Willmurth said that the sedan was old and yellow, matching the description of McVeigh’s Mercury Marquis. She noted that the brown pickup truck had a tarp covering the trailer bed area.
Willmurth said that after fueling, the driver of the Ryder truck and another man entered the store. The driver paid for the gas, and the second man used the restroom. The driver of the truck was identified by Willmurth as Timothy McVeigh.
The second man matched the FBI composite of John Doe #2. When Willmurth saw the John Doe sketches on television, she made the connection between the suspects and the customers.
Willmurth said that McVeigh paid for the gas using a VISA card rather than cash--a crucial detail. The store’s receipts and records of all transactions for the days of April 17th and 18th were handed over to ATF agent Mario Reyes at the time of Willmurth’s interview.
The only known evidence concerning this encounter thus far uncovered consists of a single FBI 302 report, which documents ATF agent Reyes’s investigation.
Interestingly, no FBI agent's name appears on the FBI 302 report, so it is unknown who transcribed or filed the report concerning ATF SA Reyes’s investigation.
McVeigh’s stop at the Conoco never appeared at trial, not through witness testimony, nor as an exhibit.
Video Tapes
One possible reason for the credit card transaction not appearing as evidence at trial is the fact that the Star-Mart Conoco encounter was captured on surveillance video cameras covering the area inside and outside the gas station. This footage was turned over to the FBI—though it has never appeared among indices or lists of the FBI’s 23 videotapes relating to the bombing.
Video footage of the convoy and the vehicle occupants would have proved the existence of accomplices in the bombing and would have provided potentially exculpatory evidence to the defense by introducing the idea of accomplices that the FBI was unable or unwilling to identify.
It is the author’s belief that the FBI most certainly located the credit card transaction from the Conoco, linking the cardholder to the Star-Mart fuel purchase, and likewise also had solid video footage. Both could never be used at trial given the FBI’s official position that John Doe #2 did not exist and that McVeigh acted alone. Such surveillance evidence had to remain suppressed, along with any corresponding credit card transactions.
TO BE CONTINUED…
UP NEXT: Downtown Oklahoma City, April 19th, 1995. Read Part V here!
Countdown to 4/19, all installments in the series:
Part I: The Bombers' Convoy at Sav-A-Trip
Part II: McVeigh and John Doe #2 at Phillips 66 in Perkins, OK
Part III: April 18th, Witnesses See McVeigh & Accomplices Downtown OKC
Part IV: April 18th Witnesses See McVeigh and Accomplices in Newkirk and Guthrie
Endnotes
Arnold Hamilton, “Ryder Truck, Trail of Food Take Bomb Inquiry Along Back Road,” Dallas Morning News, November 27, 1995.
FBI 302 Report 5/3/95 D-1339 interview with Jeanne SHURTZ 2pp OCR
FBI 302 Report 4/24/95 D-207 interview with Ingrid Mae WILLMURTH 2pp OCR