Countdown to 4/19: McVeigh and John Doe #2 at Phillips 66 | Part Two in a Series
Duo Stopped For Just $1.71 in Gas
PART II: McVeigh and John Doe #2 at Phillips 66 in Stillwater/Perkins, OK
April 19th, 1995
Stillwater, OK
Approximately 7:00 AM
One of the most unusual aspects of the witness timeline is how many times Tim McVeigh and his convoy stopped for gas on the way to Oklahoma City.
It’s easily between 6 and 10 times—with several sightings clearly identifying McVeigh with certainty. It almost seems that McVeigh was obsessed with keeping the truck’s diesel tank full (probably to help add to the petrochemical explosion), or maybe the perps were intentionally creating witness accounts that could be contradictory? ]
We may never know what motivated these people to seemingly stop for gas in every city they passed on the way from Kansas. It’s such a “thing” that one author made a joke about the oddly frequent gas stops in their book on the bombing.
Now, this account took place at a Phillips 66 gas station about an hour from Oklahoma City, off of Perkins Rd which is technically located exactly where Perkins (a city) and Stillwater (a city) meet. Perkins was just 10 minutes from Stillwater, and in fact this author lived there for a time in 1999, just a few hundred feet from this very gas station.
This particular stop highlights just how unnecessary these frequent stops were—as in this case, McVeigh rudely cut to the front of the line of customers to pay for less than $2 worth of gasoline, and did so in a way that he (and his companion, John Doe #2) would be remembered. Was that intentional?
The Witnesses: Two Men
Jackie L. Padgett was working the morning shift at the Phillips 66 the morning of the bombing. She said that sometime very early in the morning—between 7 and 8 perhaps—a yellow Ryder truck with two occupants pulled into the gas station.
The two occupants of the truck entered the store together, with John Doe #2 standing just inside the door.
Padgett’s co-worker, Robbi Starling, got a good look at John Doe #2, who she said stood inside the door next to a Coca-Cola display, behaving strangely.
John Doe #2 Stands Around Acting Stupid
Starling watched John Doe #2 as he began nervously fidgeting and “playing with a Coca-Cola display sign” that was sitting atop a stack of two-liter bottles just inside the doorway. Starling described the man as 5’10”, stocky, dark skinned, and wearing a baseball cap. A perfect match for our suspect.
The FBI later arrived and removed the Coca-Cola display, possibly to locate fingerprints on it. If they found any, nobody ever found out about that (see FBI fingerprint examiner Louis Hupp’s testimony, where he reveals that no fingerprints in the investigation were identified except for those of McVeigh and Nichols).
While John Doe #2 stood by the soda display being strange, Jackie Padgett got a good look at the truck driver who she said paid for the gas. Padgett remembered the encounter because the man who paid, described as “in a hurry” and “rude,” cut to the very front of the line of waiting customers. Only to then pay for $1.71 worth of gasoline, which was less than two gallons.
Padgett recalls telling her co-worker, Robbi Starling, that the man had been very rude to her. She commented that she didn’t understand why someone would “buy such a small amount of gas for such a big truck.” Indeed, it doesn’t make any god damn sense at all.
Padgett commented that she didn’t understand why someone would “buy such a small amount of gas for such a big truck.”
Constantly Stopping For Gas: Strange Behavior
McVeigh’s behavior here is very strange, as he could have simply stopped for gas just three times: fill it up when he began the journey, again at the halfway point, and finally, assuming he wanted the truck to have a full gas tank when he delivered the bomb, a third time just before he delivered the bomb. Maybe four times, due to the poor fuel economy of Ryder trucks.
Yet, we know from the records that McVeigh made many stops for fuel on the 18th and 19th, and in at least one case paid for a mere gallon and a half of fuel.
Jackie Padgett was interviewed by FBI SA Ray Hammergren on April 21st, 1995 when she recounted what she had seen that morning. SA Hammergren spelled the witness name wrong, writing it down as Jackie L. TAGGERT. Co-worker Robbi Starling was interviewed several days later, a couple times, by FBI SA Angela Byers.
Starling and Padgett told the FBI agents that after paying for the gas, the men got into the Ryder truck and departed southbound. Oklahoma City is about 60 miles south of Perkins/Stillwater, about an hour away.
This pinpoints the sighting at probably just before or near 7:00 AM, as the Ryder truck and its occupants would next be spotted in downtown Oklahoma City, about an hour before the bombing.
TO BE CONTINUED…
UP NEXT: McVeigh and John Doe #2 at the Post Office, and a ‘Dry Run’ at the Murrah Building, read Part III 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
Endnotes
The primary sources for this come almost entirely from FBI investigatory files. Find below the various FBI 302 reports, and an Insert, relating to the sighting:
Strange indeed. Perhaps the fuel gauge didn't work. That John Doe has never been Identified sounds very much of government agents or coverup.