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One of the men responsible for the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing is behind bars with the longest prison sentence in the world after assisting in the killing of more than 160 people.
The tragic attack took place on the morning of 19 April, 1995, when former solider Timothy McVeigh parked a rented truck in front of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in downtown Oklahoma City and ignited a timed fuse attached to a bomb.
McVeigh fled the scene in a getaway car and the bomb exploded at precisely 9:02am local time, causing damage to more than 300 buildings and killing 168 people, including 19 children.
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The FBI was able to link the van to McVeigh, and learned a friend of his named Terry Nichols had helped him construct the bomb.
Just 90 minutes after the bomb went off, McVeigh was pulled over by a State Trooper for having a missing license plate and was found to be carrying a concealed weapon. He was arrested, meaning he was already in jail when he was linked to the bombing the following day. Nichols then surrendered to police one day later.
McVeigh was handed a death sentence after being convicted on 15 counts of murder and conspiracy, and was executed in 2001 for his crimes. Nichols, meanwhile, was initially handed a life sentence in a federal trial found guilty on one count of conspiracy and eight counts of involuntary manslaughter.
However, his time behind bars increased dramatically following a later Oklahoma state trial in which he faced charges of 160 counts of first-degree murder, one count of first-degree manslaughter for the death of an unborn child, and one count of aiding in the placement of a bomb near a public building.
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A jury returned a verdict of guilty on all charges, and Nichols was handed a sentence of 160 consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole. It's recorded as the longest sentence in the world, followed by Michael J. Devlin, who received 74 life sentences plus 2,020 years for kidnapping and attempted murder, among other crimes.
Nichols was not in Oklahoma City on the day of the bombing, instead residing at his home in Kansas. However, prosecutors claimed Nichols helped McVeigh make the bomb the day before the attack, constructing it with a cocktail of agricultural fertiliser, diesel fuel and other chemicals, according to the FBI.
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Topics: Crime, True crime, US News
Emily Brown