McVeigh and the Second Ryder Truck
Witnesses Confirm McVeigh Had Smaller Truck Before Renting Bomb Truck
One of the enduring mysteries of the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing case is the little-known but well-documented and indisputable fact that Timothy McVeigh and the “others unknown” involved in the attack used two different Ryder trucks in the later stages of the bombing plot. Whatever happened to this second truck and its purpose remains unknown today.
Dozens of witnesses in Kansas observed two distinctly different Ryder trucks between April 11th and April 18th, both at Geary Lake and the Dreamland Motel. One of the trucks was a smaller, faded yellow vehicle with no visible Ryder logo. The other truck was larger, newer, and was ultimately used to deliver the bomb on April 19th.
Each of these witnesses saw the second truck with McVeigh at the Dreamland motel (in some cases with a group of still-unidentified men), or among a group of still-unidentified men at Geary Lake.
The “Bomb Truck”
Records and witness accounts presented at the McVeigh and Nichols Federal trials establish that the bomb truck was rented on Monday, April 17, 1995. The “bomb truck” was picked up at Elliott’s Body Shop by two suspects, known as John Doe #1 and John Doe #2. Each witness from Elliott’s Body Shop described both suspects in great detail, providing the FBI with descriptions just days after the rental. The truck was traced to the body shop using a partial VIN# located on an axle of the truck, which was found buried in the windshield of a car more than a block down the street from the Murrah building.
The “Second Truck”
The evidence presented at trial also includes clear and convincing witness accounts from the Dreamland Motel and from Geary Lake, which establish that Timothy McVeigh must have had a different, smaller Ryder truck for several days before the April 17th rental.
This fact can be confirmed by reviewing the accounts of those who stayed at the Dreamland Motel and the FBI 302 reports from commuters who passed by Geary Lake during the week of April 10th to 17th. The FBI had set up a roadblock on Route 77—by the Geary Lake turnoff—and canvassed daily commuters for their observations during the week of April 10th through 17th. The results were compelling and notable: many credible, compelling, and convincing witnesses observed a smaller Ryder truck at the lake, during the same time period when the witnesses at the Dreamland also observed a smaller “faded yellow” Ryder truck.
This second Ryder truck has never been clarified by anyone; it has not been addressed by the FBI, nor have most contemporary writers and researchers exploring the case examined it in any substantial detail.
In the 2012 Andrew Gumbel & Roger Charles book “Oklahoma City—What the Investigation Missed and Why It Still Matters,” Oklahoma City field office Special Agent in Charge Bob Ricks is quoted commenting on the FBI investigation into the possibility of two trucks. Unlike other FBI agents who have discussed the case, Ricks was surprisingly straightforward and accurate in his assessment of the quandary:
"Some things that were reported were obviously physically impossible," he said, “but you have to weigh all of that… That’s the nature of eyewitness testimony. "The roadblock also led to people we believe were highly credible, who could give us valid descriptions of what was taking place there at Geary Lake. It doesn’t have to be consistent with the theory. What we are trying to find are the facts."
This second truck, with a few exceptions, is generally omitted from most contemporary accounts of the bombing, which is why we must rely on a book over ten years old to review the details regarding the FBI roadblock, and compare those results to the documents we now have from witnesses at the Dreamland Motel.
A half dozen people at the Dreamland Motel—where McVeigh stayed the week before the bombing—have McVeigh parking the smaller Ryder truck at the motel on Easter Sunday and on Fri/Sat—before the bomb truck was rented at Elliott’s.
The witnesses recounted their observations of the comings and goings at the motel during multiple interviews with the FBI, where they all provided details that are consistent and corroborate one another’s individual accounts. Taken as a whole, the testimony of these witnesses clearly indicates that a smaller Ryder truck was present at the Dreamland with McVeigh before he rented the 20-foot truck on Monday, April 17th.
The Dreamland Witnesses
Consider the following account from Apache helicopter mechanic Shane Boyd. Boyd stayed in room #28 at the Dreamland Motel for several weeks in April 1995 while he was working at nearby Ft. Riley. Boyd told FBI SA Mark Bouton that around 6:00 AM on Friday, April 14th, he saw a Ryder truck with a steel-framed trailer pulling out of the Dreamland Motel's parking lot. Boyd also informed the FBI that he is certain he saw the Ryder truck parked at the Dreamland Motel again on Saturday the 15th and on Easter Sunday. During the Nichols trial, Boyd testified that when he returned from work daily between 3:00 and 3:15, he would almost always see the Ryder truck parked at the motel, as he had to walk past it each day after exiting his vehicle and heading to his room.
Consider also the accounts of Dreamland residents David King and his mother, Herta King. The Kings both saw the smaller Ryder truck the weekend before the bomb truck’s rental.
FBI special agents Robert Knox and Leslie Gardner interviewed David King on April 27 regarding activities in and around the motel during that weekend and the following Monday. King told the FBI that on Easter Sunday, his mother, Herta King, visited him at the Dreamland around half past noon. King stated that both he and his mother saw a yellow Ryder truck parked directly in front of his room that Sunday afternoon.
Herta King later testified at the McVeigh trial that she saw the Ryder truck parked at the Dreamland on Easter. She stated that she was friends with the motel owner, Lea McGown, and that they had even discussed the truck being there on Easter Sunday. King testified that Lea McGown told her "it doesn't make sense that a truck was there on Sunday, if McVeigh rented it on Monday." Indeed, it doesn’t make sense. Consider, then, what does make sense: the truck seen before the 17th was a different truck. This is what the evidence tends to indicate.
Supporting this theory is David King's statement that he saw two different Ryder trucks at the Dreamland. King’s observations are crucial for understanding the Ryder truck sightings that occurred before Monday, April 17th. On April 16th, Easter, King saw the older "faded yellow" Ryder truck parked at the Dreamland.
King then noted a change in the truck from Sunday to Monday: on Monday, McVeigh arrived driving a "brand new” and “more aerodynamic" model Ryder truck. This was the bomb truck that was rented from Elliott’s, and its appearance was distinctly different, much larger than the truck King and his mother had seen that weekend.
King also saw McVeigh and two other men attaching a trailer to the new Ryder truck and engaging in some sort of activity with the truck and trailer. King recalls this because the Ryder truck blocked access to his parking spot. He noted that something was inside the trailer wrapped in a dirty white canvas tarp: “It was a squarish shape, and it came to a point on top, about three or four feet high,” King told the New York Times.
Witness Connie Hood described a similar scene involving the older Ryder truck that weekend: it had a trailer attached and a group of guys working there. Hood told McCurtain Gazette reporter J.D. Cash, "I saw John Doe No. 2 with McVeigh in the parking lot, and a couple of other guys were helping them. They were working on that old truck they had. There was a trailer hooked to the truck that afternoon, and it had a lot of stuff in it. I couldn't tell what because a tarp covered the trailer." Witness Shane Boyd also observed a trailer attached to the older model truck that weekend. Whatever its purpose, it seems the trailer was clearly moved from the older truck and then attached to the new one when McVeigh showed up with it on Monday.
In addition to Shane Boyd, Herta King, David King, and Connie Hood, the owners of the Dreamland Motel also noticed the other older model truck. Motel owner Lea McGown and her son, Eric, described the truck to the FBI and reporters, and their accounts were published in the newspaper. It was shortly after an Easter lunch when the McGowns saw McVeigh trying to park the Ryder truck. Lea McGown's recollection to reporters was vivid, saying, "He backed in jerky, jerky, jerky. Like somebody who doesn't know how to drive a truck. I thought he was going to smash my roof!" Upon watching this, Lea McGown sent her son, Eric, to tell McVeigh to move the truck to the open area in front of the office. Eric McGown got a good look at the truck as he did this, and described it in detail:
"It was medium-sized. It wasn't one of the newest models. It was not so rounded. It had a different compartment for the one cab, and it had the trailer portion." Consistent with other sightings of this second truck, it had a trailer attached and it was older-looking: "its yellow paint was faded and worn, and it had no writing on the back."
The Geary Lake Witnesses
Along with the Dreamland witnesses, there were also individuals who observed a Ryder truck parked at Geary Lake days before the bomb truck was rented.
According to the official narrative, McVeigh built the bomb with Terry Nichols at Geary Lake on April 18th.
Yet, witnesses interviewed by the FBI put a conspicuous yellow Ryder truck at Geary Lake fishing park for four consecutive days the week prior: on the 11th, 12th, 13th, and 14th.
The FBI setup a roadblock at Geary Lake to stop passers-by who traveled that route on the way to work to ask them what they had seen and in doing so obtained testimony from multiple credible witnesses who recalled seeing the truck parked there each morning when they were on their way to work, with some spotting the truck there in the morning, and also on their commute home after work.
Two of these witnesses were Kansas real estate agent Georgia Rucker and retiree James Sargeant, with the latter spending the week from the 11th to the 14th fishing at the lake each morning. Sergeant testified at trial that “it’s pretty hard to forget something you see four days in a row” – much less something so out-of-place as a giant yellow moving truck parked at a lake.
Perhaps the most curious account from the Geary Lake witnesses is that of Robert Nelson. Nelson testified that he drove into Geary Lake on April 17th or 18th—he wasn’t sure which day. It was there that he observed the Ryder truck, surrounded by several vehicles, and a group of four to five men. Nelson testified in the McVeigh trial about what he had seen, and his account was later cited in Kathleen Belew’s 2018 book Bring The War Home, excerpted below:
When the FBI interviewed witnesses who saw a Ryder truck—either in Kansas or downtown OKC—they showed the witnesses a Ryder company flyer illustrating four different models of Ryder trucks.
The FBI asked the witnesses to identify which type of truck they saw—was it the smaller one with a cab overhang, like the older truck spotted at the Dreamland?
Or was it the larger 20-foot truck used to deliver the bomb?
Below is the flyer introduced as an exhibit at the Nichols trial. I have marked the exhibit to identify the ‘second truck’ and the ‘bomb truck.’ If the FBI was asking people which truck they saw, then the existence of two trucks should be quite clear.
While Kathleen Belew’s account in ‘Bring The War Home’ states that the feds never ‘followed the lead’ of a second vehicle, that isn’t entirely correct.
FBI documents from that time include teletypes referencing leads related to a brown pickup truck, and a full seven months after the FBI identified the bomb truck as coming from Elliott’s Body Shop, they were still asking witnesses to indicate on the flyer which type of truck they saw.
Additionally, a November 1995 FBI teletype has FBI agents describing places where someone might purchase a used Ryder truck on the private market. They were doing this after the bomb truck had already been identified, and there’s a reason for that—it’s because the FBI knew just as much as anyone reading this will know that the bombers had a second truck.
The FBI was actively and quietly investigating where someone might have sourced that older second truck—a full seven months into the bombing investigation, indicating that this was a serious lead and not something dismissed early on or considered unimportant.
Records indicate that during the investigation, the FBI was actively looking into a bombing scenario that involved a second Ryder truck, which may have been used or rented.
The Trailer — And The Kansas Convoy
The trailer observed by witnesses at Dreamland was also seen attached to a Ryder truck driven by Timothy McVeigh and John Doe #2—in a convoy—departing Kansas in the early morning hours of April 19th.
Witness Richard Sinnett, a gas station attendant at Sav-A-Trip in Kingman, Kansas, stated that McVeigh and John Doe #2 stopped for fuel sometime after 1:00 A.M.
Both suspects entered the convenience store, and Sinnett mentioned that he saw the trailer attached to the Ryder truck in the lot. Sinnett noted that the trailer had a large tank mounted on it, with some kind of liquid sloshing around inside.
When McVeigh and John Doe #2 left the station, Sinnett stated that they pulled out of the parking lot in a convoy of vehicles: the Ryder truck, a pickup truck, and a sedan all traveling together. This brings the total number of people in the group to at least four: perhaps some of the others were among the 4-5 men spotted at Geary Lake a day or two earlier? If so, it aligns with the descriptions provided by the downtown Oklahoma City witnesses, many of whom said they saw McVeigh with 4-5 other people the morning of the bombing.
What all of this constitutes is compelling evidence that there is more to the Oklahoma City bombing than we’ve been told: more people involved, and at some point, a second Ryder truck that was smaller than the truck eventually used on April 19th, 1995.
The FBI and prosecutors at trial were unable to fully account for these other suspects observed by the witnesses, nor the other truck.
The second truck, like the accomplices, remain in the the OKC bombing case as an unresolved fact; yet both are crucial pieces of the puzzle that it will be up to the independent researchers and investigators to focus-upon and identify. The victims of the bombing, and the American people, deserve to know the truth.