McVeigh's father says he'll have to 'start all over again'
By Karin Grunden
Tribune-Star
As much as any parent could, the father of Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh had prepared for his son's death.
He'd said his final goodbye a month ago at the U.S. Penitentiary in Terre Haute, where McVeigh was scheduled to be executed on Wednesday.
He had made plans to get away next week, isolating himself from the inevitable flurry of media questions.
"Now I've got to start all over again," Bill McVeigh said in an interview from his home in Pendleton, N.Y.
On Friday, Attorney General John Ashcroft announced Timothy McVeigh's execution would be postponed until June 11.
The delay followed the FBI's admission that thousands of documents from the bombing investigation were never turned over to defense attorneys. McVeigh was convicted in 1997 of blowing up the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, killing 168 men, women and children.
Bill McVeigh first learned of the developments about 11 p.m. Thursday when he returned home from playing bingo at the Lockport, N.Y., Eagles club.
When he got back to his house, there were 18 messages on his answering machine, two from family and the others from reporters seeking comment about the news.
Bill McVeigh said he was relieved his son will live, if only for another month. But he was surprised that this new evidence came to light now, six years after the 1995 bombing and only days before his son's execution.
"That's a little puzzling," he said.
Bill McVeigh said the last week has been an emotional roller coaster ride for the family. "I'm taking one day at a time," he said.
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