About the American Terrorist Collection
American
Terrorist describes the role of Timothy McVeigh in the
April 19, 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Office Building in
Oklahoma City. 168 people were killed, and more than 500 were
injured, in the explosion. The book recounts the path McVeigh
followed which finally brought him to the Murrah building on that day, and the
trial and execution which followed.
Authors
Lou Michel and Dan Herbeck , both Buffalo News reporters, were able to interview McVeigh for over 75
hours in preparing this book. They also had the cooperation of his
parents and sister, giving them access to previously unavailable family
materials.
American
Terrorist was published by ReganBooks, an imprint of HarperCollins, in
2001.
Dan
Herbeck is a graduate of the journalism program at St. Bonaventure. The
authors donated this material to the school to aid journalism
students and other researchers. The collection provides an inside
view of how such a journalistic coup comes about and the effort it takes
to turn out the final product. It includes original source
materials, such as letters from Timothy McVeigh, as well as drafts leading
up to the published version of the book.
The collection
at St. Bonaventure was donated in two parts. The first section
consisted of material that demonstrated the process of writing the book.
It includes some source material, samples of the writing and editing
necessary to complete the book, promotional work done to market the book
and reaction to the book after it was published. In 2010,
a large
collection of correspondence from Timothy McVeigh was added to the
collection. It includes over 100 letters where McVeigh discusses
the bombing, the book, the death penalty and his own life. It also
includes the enclosures he added to many letters. These include
magazine and internet articles, official documents and correspondence
with other people, both within and outside of his personal circle.
In the future a collection of audio interviews with McVeigh will become
part of the collection.
The library has
added other books and digital files related to the Oklahoma City Bombing
to the collection. A list of those additions may be found
here.
Please
Note: No
electronic reproduction of any of the material in this collection may be
made without the written permission of the authors.
This collection is available for the
use of St. Bonaventure University faculty, staff and students.
Outside researchers must first get permission from the authors. Contact us at archives@sbu.edu to be relayed to the authors. |