Return to Transcripts main page

American Morning

Woman Remembers a McVeigh Who Babysat Her Children

Aired May 04, 2001 - 10:01   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
STEPHEN FRAZIER, CNN ANCHOR: And letters with love from one of the worst killers in U.S. history. This woman remembers him as a caregiver for her two children. You know him as Timothy McVeigh, mastermind of the Oklahoma City bombing.

DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: And we're going to start this hour with those letters, written from death row and rooted in a much more innocent time. Their author, condemned Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh. McVeigh has a pen pal far removed from the hatred that ignited the worst terrorist attack on U.S. soil. She's a former next door neighbor, the mother of two kids that McVeigh used to baby-sit.

CNN's Susan Candiotti has the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ELIZABETH MCDERMOTT, FORMER MCVEIGH NEIGHBOR: These are letters from Tim.

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Elizabeth McDermott has saved every letter from the boy in prison who used to live next door, Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh.

MCDERMOTT: I think Tim still believes that what he did needed to be done. I think he still sees himself as still on that same mission and his execution will complete it, showing again the violence of the government in taking life.

CANDIOTTI: McDermott received two calls from death row in recent weeks. McVeigh told her he was ready to die.

MCDERMOTT: Don't worry about me. Death is not something to be mourned, but a step into a new existence.

CANDIOTTI: McDermott struggles to reconcile the teenager who babysat her two children with the man responsible for so many deaths.

MCDERMOTT: I hate what he did but I love Tim. I can't really explain that.

CANDIOTTI: Without excusing what McVeigh did, McDermott prays capital punishment will be outlawed.

MCDERMOTT: No matter how you commit murder, it's murder. And because Tim did that in our name our government's going to do it to him and the cycle of violence just goes on.

CANDIOTTI: McDermott would share only one sentence from the last letter he sent to her. McVeigh asked her to fight for others on death row.

MCDERMOTT: "Again, I urge you to rally the troops, not for me, but for the opportunity to their cause. Take good care. Tim."

CANDIOTTI (on camera): What did you ask Tim in your last letter to him?

MCDERMOTT: I asked him to say I'm sorry.

CANDIOTTI: Has he told you he's sorry?

MCDERMOTT: No. And it's not important that he tells me. It's important that he tells the people of Oklahoma City and even more important that he tells his god.

CANDIOTTI: Susan Candiotti, CNN, Pendleton (ph), New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAGAN: McVeigh's death will resonate deeply across much of the country, but the epicenter will be Terre Haute, Indiana. That is the site of the May 16 execution. The federal penitentiary there is bracing for an army of death penalty opponents. Twenty prison buses will transport protesters to the prison grounds for the first federal execution in nearly four decades.

A 25-acre tent city will be erected for some 1,500 journalists from around the world and locals will find everyday life disrupted. The city is closing its schools on execution day.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com