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CNN Saturday Morning News
Terra Haute, Indiana Braces for McVeigh Execution
Aired June 09, 2001 - 07:04 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.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Timothy McVeigh is preparing himself psychologically and emotionally for his execution, that word from his attorneys.
The Oklahoma City bomber is scheduled to die 49 hours from now at the federal penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana, and that's where we find CNN's Jeff Flock this morning.
Good morning, Jeff.
JEFF FLOCK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Morning to you, Miles.
Maybe you can see out there behind me, that's the federal penitentiary off in the distance, and that fog kind of gives it a surreal feel out here this morning, and I guess maybe the surreal feel is about more than the fog, but what is to come here over the next course of the next 49 or so hours, as you report.
What can we tell you this morning? Well, number one, in this town of about 60,000, we are really in a major ramp-up mode. We've got some pictures from yesterday that kind of give you some sense outside the prison here of what is going on.
They have issued some 1,700 media credentials. We don't know exactly how many reporters will be here, but it is quite a large contingent. As for what's going on inside the prison, what people are watching as they see that scene out there of people preparing for all of this, the other inmates, we are told by prison officials, are aware of what's going on, although they will not be able to see the next key event, that is, the move of Tim McVeigh from that special confinement unit, that is, federal death row, to the death house.
In fact, that could happen at any time, and prison officials say we will not be informed of it, that is, we reporters will not be informed of it until after it takes place and McVeigh is secured.
Now, there has been some -- a good deal of speculation about what we will see of that. To try and clarify it, Bureau of Prisons officials will photograph the vehicle that McVeigh is riding in. It's about a 500-yard ride, we are told, from one facility to the other, and McVeigh at this point has not signed a waiver that would allow him personally to be photographed. And if he does not sign that, we will have seen already the last of Tim McVeigh. If he does, perhaps we'll get another look at him before all this happens. At any rate, no indication that that has taken place yet. We'll get with the Bureau of Prisons a little later this morning and try to get back to you on it.
That's all we can tell you this morning about what is happening out here, Miles. Back to you.
O'BRIEN: CNN's Jeff Flock, Terre Haute, Indiana, thanks very much.
It was a combination of good luck and hard work that led authorities to Timothy McVeigh.
CNN's Susan Candiotti sat down with the FBI's lead investigator for the tale of the trail.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DANNY DEFENBAUGH, FBI: Probably the first mistake that he made is allowing himself to get wrapped up into a lot of the different rhetoric that was placed where he was looking at the government as being all evil. I was surprised throughout the investigation on how many people within the United States are -- have such antigovernment type of views.
SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: What other simple mistakes did he make when he went to rent the truck, or...
DEFENBAUGH: Getting a hot apple pie at McDonald's before renting the truck...
CANDIOTTI: I think I...
DEFENBAUGH: ... because we got -- because we got him on tape, what, 17 minutes before the actual rental and, what, a mile, mile and a half away.
CANDIOTTI: That put him there.
DEFENBAUGH: That put him there and showed also how he was dressed, and whether or not there was anyone else with him, and there was not.
CANDIOTTI: What lessons can we learn from this crime, this act of terrorism?
DEFENBAUGH: I think that it shocked everyone that you could have someone with that type of hatred to do that type of act that would be homegrown. I think that it has scared a lot of people and made them more wary. And maybe they should be.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
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