Separated by over a hundred years,
two extremists who attempted to destroy
the foundations of democracy and freedom in America.
In Washington, the plot to assassinate one man - president Abraham Lincoln.
And in Oklahoma City,
a bomb that will kill and maim hundreds.
This is a dramatised reconstruction of events
as they happened - on two days that shook the World.
It is April 14, 1865.
In London, physician Joseph Lister
is pioneering the use of antiseptics in surgery.
In New Zealand, the indigenous Maori people
are at war with invaders from Britain.
And in America, after five years of fighting,
the civil war is finally drawing to a close.
John Wilkes Booth.
One of America's most famous and flamboyant actors,
he has trodden the boards in hundreds of plays.
But Booth is a man who wants to see his name writ up not just in lights -
but in the annals of history.
And as a passionate defender of the South in the civil war that has been raging,
he has a plan to ensure his name will never be forgotten.
On the other side of Washington
an ordinary scene - a family sitting down for breakfast.
But this is no ordinary family
- for it is America's first family,
the family of the president of the United States, Abraham Lincoln.
At the White House breakfast table,
his wife Mary Todd Lincoln,
his sons Tad and Robert.
His eldest son is just back in Washington from the frontline
where he has witnessed the surrender five days earlier
of the leader of the Confederate Army Robert E Lee
at Appomattox Court House.
But now, with the union on the brink of victory,
a renewed sense of purpose and vision grips the White House.
Later that day, Lincoln's Cabinet will meet
to discuss the rebuilding of the war-torn states.
And that night, the president and Mrs Lincoln
will visit the theatre as guests of honour,
where the people of Washington
will have a first chance to see their great war hero.
John Wilkes Booth, is going for his regular shave at Booker and Stewart's barbershop on East Street.
Oh, Mr Booth. How nice to see you again. How have you been?
Known for his compelling stage presence,
Booth had been dubbed "the handsomest man in America".
But behind the charming bohemian exterior lies a passionate and committed defender of the South.
As usual. Oh you've gonna like this... oh yeah... the girls are gonna like this.
Can I have the paper please?
Born and raised among slaveholders in Maryland,
Booth had toured the South as a young man,
and saw nothing wrong with its way of life -
neither the traditions and romanticism of the southern white gentry,
nor the entrenched racism and system of slavery
that went hand in hand with it.
Now, with the South facing the inevitability of defeat,
the Northern newspapers are revelling in the humiliation of the Confederacy.
Would you take this please?
Booth can scarcely hide his disgust.
Booth claimed to have links to the Confederate underground,
and in the summer of 1864,
he had formulated an extraordinary plan
to help tilt the balance of the war in the South's favour:
He would kidnap president Lincoln.
But despite several attempts, the plot has come to nothing.
After five years of fighting, the South's capital has fallen,
and its greatest general has surrendered.
For a man anxious to be remembered by history,
Booth knows time is running out.
His only chance lies with striking a blow so devastating
that it will allow the Confederacy to rise again.
And with the situation so desperate,
Booth knows he must strike immediately
- or not at all.
It is just six weeks since Lincoln's second inauguration,
and with the war drawing to a close,
the president is full of plans for the reconstruction of the war torn states.
With just two years as a member of Congress
and an unsuccessful Senate bid to his name,
Lincoln had been a political unknown
when he'd won the fledgling Republican party's presidential nomination in 1860.
But his gift for political oratory
had come into its own during the war.
His speech in memory of the fallen at Gettysburg in 1863
would become famous.
...we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain,
that this nation shall have a new birth of freedom,
and that government of the people, by the people,
for the people shall not perish from the earth.
For the first time, Lincoln will have the chance to turn those formidable political powers
to the task of building the peace.
The theatre is not just a home for performance - for working actors,
it is also a place to pick up on news and gossip,
and for John Wilkes Booth, somewhere he has his mail delivered.
So how is the house tonight?
Oh it's going to be a great evening. We should be full...
But today, theatre treasurer Henry Clay Ford
also has information in his possession that to Booth is explosive.
...it will be all the more exciting because
the president and Mrs Lincoln are going to attend the performance.
Well isn't that interesting?
Ever the actor,
Booth is careful to mask his reaction to the information he's received,
but it is just the news he's been waiting for
- here at last is his opportunity to get up close to his bitter enemy.
- Good day to you, John. - Good day to you.
With the meticulous choreography that befits a master of the stage,
Booth begins to wander through the theatre he knows so well.
He can picture exactly how Lincoln will enter, and where he'll sit.
He even knows the play they'll be watching - line for line.
In the second scene of the third act,
the theatre house would be ringing with laughter
as the play reaches its comic climax.
It will be the perfect moment to make his entrance.
Here would be the chance to strike a devastating blow in favour of the south.
Not another kidnapping attempt, but something far bolder.
Booth makes up his mind:
This will be the time to assassinate the president.
A newly qualified physician, Dr Charles Leale,
is getting ready for his day at the Military Army Hospital in Washington,
where he cares for wounded officers.
As one of Lincoln's most ardent supporters,
he had watched in awe the newly elected president's inauguration weeks earlier,
vowing to do everything he could to see Lincoln up close again.
His chance will come at the Ford's theatre this evening.
Now that Booth knows where Lincoln will be tonight,
a plan comes into focus.
He will assassinate Lincoln,
while two of his associates
will go to kill the Vice president Andrew Johnson
and the Secretary of State William Seward at their homes.
The coordinated attack will be so overwhelming as to trigger chaos.
At the White House,
the security detail is waiting to be relieved at the end of his shift.
His replacement is three hours late.
Meanwhile, Booth is carrying on with his preparations for the night ahead.
At the Ford's theatre, all is quiet.
Booth has lured away the stage hands to the local saloon
with the promise of a bottle of whisky,
and now has the empty theatre to himself.
Though rumours of assassination plots have been rife in Washington throughout the war,
Lincoln has always refused any formal protection.
For the last year,
the Washington police have been posting
security officers at the White House
- but most, including the man on duty tonight, John parker,
see theirjob more as
protecting the building than the president.
Booth bores a small peeping hole in the door to the presidential box.
It will allow him to watch Lincoln unobserved.
He will be able to pick his moment precisely.
Good evening. You are in the second row, third and fourth seat in.
Thank you.
Good evening.
Good evening Mr port, how are you?
At the Ford's theatre, people are beginning to arrive for the evening's performance.
Second row, on the right.
The young Dr Charles Leale's seat in the Dress Circle
will be near the State Box,
from where he will be able to get a good view of his hero Lincoln.
Good evening.
Good evening. Thank you very much.
It is now eight o'clock and Booth holds a final meeting with the few people
who remain involved in his conspiracy
- Lewis powell, George Atzerodt and David Herold.
He instructs powell to assassinate Secretary of State Seward.
Atzerodt will kill the Vice president Andrew Johnson,
and Herold will coordinate the timing of the attacks.
The president and Mrs Lincoln are late
and the performance of My Little Cousin is in full swing.
The house is packed
for actress Laura Keane's last night.
It is just before ten fifteen.
The play is reaching its Third Act climax.
It is the moment Booth has been waiting for.
In the state box, the president and Mrs Lincoln
are joined by a young couple,
Miss Clara Harris, the daughter of a former New York Senator,
and her fianc^m Major Henry Rathbone.
I guess I know enough to turn you inside out, you sockdologizing old mantrap!
Sic Semper Tyrannis!
Revenge for the South!
Proclaiming "death to all tyrants",
Booth makes his escape across the stage.
Dr Leale is the first physician at Lincoln's side.
When I entered the box,
Mr. Lincoln was sitting in a high backed armchair
with his head leaning towards his right-side.
Mrs. Lincoln was weeping bitterly.
Although just two months out of Medical School,
he immediately takes charge of the situation.
Though the president is still breathing,
Booth's bullet has entered his brain just behind the left ear.
Where are you taking him?
We're moving him...
Booth is now at the pre-arranged spot in Maryland
where he has arranged to meet his fellow conspirators before fleeing to the south.
Only Herold is able tojoin him,
having fled from the city
without even waiting for the other attacks to begin.
What neither man realises is
that the rest of the plot has ended in disaster.
Atzerodt has refused to do his part and attack the Vice president.
While powell's attack on Secretary of State Seward
has been foiled by members of his household.
Though the capital is gripped by panic,
the wider coup d'etat
that Booth had dreamt of has failed.
The president has been carried across the street to the boarding house of William petersen.
As he lies in the small bedroom there,
Washington's great and good gather in the adjacent parlour.
The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court has been put on notice
to swear in the vice president in the event of Lincoln's death.
All roads into and out of Washington
are now sealed.
Within hours of the shooting,
Washington's establishment has moved swiftly and effectively
to prevent political chaos.
Booth is now hiding out in the Maryland house
of a doctor by the name of Mudd.
I'd say we definitely have a break here. A rather bad break.
The most wanted man in America
has broken his leg during the escape,
and it needs to be set and bandaged
if he is to stand any chance of carrying on with his escape to the South.
We'll need you to keep this elevated as much as possible,
this going to hurt a bit, go easy on that...
As a physician, Dr Mudd has a duty to tend to Booth's wounds...
I'm going to do the best that I can do to set it...
but he wants to see the back of him as quickly as possible.
...get some rest and be prepared to ride out of here first thing tomorrow morning.
Would you ask Mrs Lincoln to come in, please.
Lincoln's fight with life is coming to an end.
Dr Leale is still by his hero's side,
a watch in hand.
It will allow him to record the precise moment of death.
Lincoln takes one final breath.
I'm so sorry.
The time is twenty-two minutes and ten seconds past 7 am.
I took two coins from my pocket,
placed them over his eyelids.
I had been the means, in God's hand,
of prolonging the life of president Abraham Lincoln for nine hours.
For the conspirators,
justice is swift.
In the days after the attack,
the government launch an intensive manhunt, arresting hundreds.
Within days, Booth's accomplices are in custody.
Lewis powell, David Herold, and George Atzerodt,
are among those hanged for the part they played in the conspiracy.
As for Booth, it will not be until the next day
that he is well enough to continue his journey.
He will meet his end in Virginia two weeks later.
Surrounded by federal troops,
he is killed in a shoot out
while trying to escape from a tobacco shed that the soldiers had set on fire.
During his escape, Booth would record his thoughts on the assassination in his diary.
I do not repent the blow I struck.
I may before my God, but not to man.
I think I have done well.
Though I am abandoned, with the curse of Cain upon me,
when, if the world knew my heart,
that one blow would have made me great,
though I did desire no greatness.
President Lincoln's assassination
would see the name of John Wilkes Booth enter the history books
- but not for the reasons Booth had hoped.
Instead, Lincoln's death would see him canonised
as one of the great presidents of the American Republic,
the leader who had kept the union intact in the face of a ruinous civil war
- and thanks to who's actions slavery would forever be abolished.
It is April 19, 1995.
In Rwanda, Government troops are preparing
to murder hundreds of Hutu refugees.
Russian Cosmonaut Valeri polyakov
is back from a record stay in space.
And in Los Angeles,
OJ Simpson is on trial for the murder of his wife.
A man wakes up and gets out of his truck
by a Northern Oklahoma roadside.
It is an unremarkable scene,
but for the driver's t-shirt.
It bears the infamous words
spoken by Abraham Lincoln's assassin, John Wilkes Booth.
Sic Semper Tyrannis -
Death to all tyrants.
As she has done every day for the last twenty four years,
Florence Rogers is getting ready to go to work in Oklahoma City
where she is Chief Executive Officer of the Federal Credit Union.
I got up that morning about six thirty,
I got my coffee going, fed my little dog...
I was anxious to get to work that day
because I had a whole picture album of a wonderful cruise
that my sister and I just returned from,
that I was anxious to show all my staff members.
Have a good day we'll see you later girl.
It is rush hour,
and office workers are pouring in to the City from all directions.
Every move over the next few hours
has been planned by the truck's driver with meticulous detail.
Timing is critical,
and he knows he must not arrive at his destination too early.
It will take him just under two hours
down the l-35 freeway to reach Oklahoma City.
It is just before eight o'clock,
and office workers pour into
the Murrah building in downtown Oklahoma City.
Built in 1977, the distinctive nine storey building
of reinforced concrete houses
the offices of three private businesses -
and 19 federal agencies
and the America Kids day care centre on the second floor.
On this morning, 600 people are arriving for work in the building,
as well as 250 visitors.
The yellow truck is now on the outskirts of downtown Oklahoma City,
the skyline looming ahead above the freeway.
It is nowjust a few miles away from its intended destination.
Federal Credit Union Chief Executive Florence Rogers
arrives at her parking lot in the Murrah Building
where she works on the third floor.
It is five past eight.
Just days earlier, the Federal Credit Union's offices
had been filmed on a camcorder by an employee to show to her Mother.
I had 33 employees in April of 95.
We were a very close knit group.
And we were - some of them were like my daughters.
Some of them were like my sisters.
And we were all one family
Just before nine, Florence Rogers will hold a meeting
with 7 of her colleagues in this same office.
At a golf course 30 miles to the east of Oklahoma City,
Bob Ricks is heading out with three colleagues to tee-off.
It was a golf outing that was sponsored by our state bureau of investigation,
and we had most of our law enforcement personnel from around the state...
we would generally get together on one of these outings about once a year.
As the FBI Special Agent in Charge of Oklahoma,
Ricks is one of a hundred senior law enforcement agents
on the golf course this morning,
looking forward to a day of bonding outside the office.
The Yellow Rental Truck has now reached its destination in Oklahoma City.
It parks in a loading bay on the North Side of the Murrah Building,
directly below the America Kids nursery.
It is precisely nine o'clock.
...I'm Tammy in the TV Nine newsroom...
if you are anywhere down town
you probably heard it and felt it an explosion off some kind down town... Oklahoma city...
The blast is felt and heard for a range of more than fifty miles.
On local Station Channel Nine,
programmes are interrupted to bring news of the explosion.
...there are numerous injuries... initial reports... numerous injuries...
This is in the hole, gentlemen.
It was my turn to hit and then my cell phone went off.
And I said hold on just a second.
Yeah this is Bob.
When was this?
First question I had was how bad is it?
Because often times you have all kinds of bombings.
At the same time every body else's pagers, cell phones started going off.
You could see the tension was starting to mount.
That there was something very much amiss.
State Court House... emergency vehicles on the way...
We've got an explosion.
So we said we better get back to the city,
so we went back to my car,
and proceeded - driving about a hundred miles an hour - back to the city
The scene in the streets of Oklahoma City is one of terror and chaos.
The first reaction of the emergency services is that a natural gas line must have exploded
- or that an aircraft has crashed into a downtown building.
There is thick smoke still coming from the building and on the ground,
I can see... It looks like part of the building has been... blown away,
we'll have to go back round the other side so I can get a better view of it...
It's the federal building we're being told.
My mike is open is that correct?
Wow. Holy cow.
Look at that shot it is absolutely incredible...
About a third - about a third of the building has been blown away...
A vast explosion has ripped the heart out of the Murrah Building,
which is now engulfed in clouds of acrid smoke and dust.
All around us there are dazed people, some with blood,
some the shirts are hanging off of them, blast debris everywhere...
fires burning in a parking lot...
the devastation at the Alfred Murrah Federal building appears to be almost total...
there is also heavy damage at many of the other buildings here in the down town area...
some structural damage, perhaps...
The violent energy unleashed by the blast
has ripped through the surrounding area like a firestorm.
All the surrounding buildings are in tatters.
Pieces of paper, blasted free from desks
and cabinets swirl around the area like snow in a blizzard.
From the fire service to the police,
the first priority is getting people out of the building.
At 9:02, something terrible, terrible happened.
It threw me down on the floor, in a tornado like rush,
and I saw the whole building literally blow up before my eyes.
Florence Rogers will never see the seven colleagues from her meeting again.
After a breakneck journey back into Oklahoma,
FBI Special Agent in Charge Bob Ricks arrives at the scene
...it was just almost overwhelming.
Literally you could see the floors from the top to the bottom
had collapsed on each other and were pancaked on top of one another.
Responsibility for managing the disaster falls to the FBI.
As agent in charge, Bob Ricks will now lead that response -
and he has no doubt about what he is dealing with.
I did not at this point believe in any way
that this was a gas explosion or anything of that nature.
It was just too destructive in its character.
So based on experience that I had had before,
I had no doubt that this was a bombing that had taken place.
An intentional act of terrorism.
While rescue still remains the first priority,
Bob Ricks immediately begins putting into place
the infrastructure to investigate who
and what was responsible for the bombing.
Downtown Oklahoma was about to become
one of the largest crime scenes in American history.
...several fatalities reported including six children
and as Jennifer emphasized just a moment ago
there is concern that there is a second...
...having some difficulty with it.
Folks, if you are thinking about going to down town Oklahoma
and having a look at this thing you are not going to get...
The streets in the area around the Murrah Building
are now crammed with the rescue services,
who slowly battle to impose a sense of order on the chaos caused by the explosion.
...Laura Kennedy... I can't find...
It's not something that's supposed to happen in Oklahoma City.
It's not something that's supposed to happen... At home...
But it has.
The detailed chain of events that culminated in the Oklahoma City bombing
began at a remote lakeside in Kansas over twenty four hours earlier.
Two men carefully prepare a mixture that will blast the Murrah building sky high.
Fifty five gallon plastic barrels,
thirteen in total,
are each carefully laden with fertiliser mixture.
It takes the two men the best part of the morning to complete the task
- but the plan is the brainchild ofjust one of them.
It is he who will drive the truck into Oklahoma City
and light the fuse.
And it is he who has researched the lethal recipe
needed to blow the Murrah Building into oblivion.
His name is Timothy McVeigh.
He is assisted by Terry Nichols.
The two had met in the army,
and had come to share an extreme right-wing view of the Federal Government
as conspiring to deprive ordinary people of their rights.
It was with Nichols that McVeigh
had observed the violent end to the Waco siege in 1993,
where members of the Branch Davidian cult had been involved in
an armed standoff with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.
Waco would be the catalyst for McVeigh's extreme views.
He would summarise them in a letter to a friend
Those who betray or subvert the constitution
are guilty of sedition and or treason,
are domestic enemies and should and will be punished accordingly.
Blood will flow in the streets.
Good versus Evil.
Free men versus Socialist Wannabe Slaves.
Pray it is not your blood, my friend.
As he completes his preparations,
the second anniversary of the end of the Waco siege is but hours away.
McVeigh has picked his target with deliberate hate.
The Murrah Building housed several federal agencies,
including the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms
- the agency behind the Waco siege.
Now safely at street level,
Florence Rogers has been moved away from the Building itself.
She is beginning to feel the effects of shock.
I was standing there, devastated,
and all of a sudden a young man appeared
And the young man said why don't we say a little prayer?
We bowed our heads -
And he said a beautiful prayer...
...watch over us during this time and watch over the people in the building
in Jesus' name we pray - amen...
...Kelly, we're getting some really bad news... just in...
children at this hour are being pulled out of the Alfred Murrah Building...
168 people lie dead,
including 19 children
- 15 of whom were at the America Kids Day Care Centre on the building's second floor.
Timothy McVeigh is making his escape north out of Oklahoma City
in an old Ford he'd dropped off earlier.
But in making his escape,
McVeigh has slipped up on one important detail:
His escape car is missing its number plate.
It's in violation of the traffic laws.
Stay where you are - let me see your hands.
You don't have a licence plate.
Huh? No but I got my licence.
What's That? Alright turn around.
- My gun is loaded. - So is mine.
McVeigh's decision to carry a gun will prove costly:
The weapon is unlicensed,
and together with the missing number plate,
is grounds enough to place him under arrest.
Though no one yet realises, less than two hours after the explosion,
the Oklahoma bomber is in police custody.
Now based in a temporary Command post,
Bob Ricks has directed the police and FBI to secure the crime scene
and begin the careful process of gathering clues.
He knows that with a bomb explosion of this kind,
evidence is likely to be strewn across a wide area.
Securing that perimeter is now critical.
In many respects a bomb is like ajigsaw puzzle
in that all the pieces have been scattered
and you have to bring back all these pieces back together and make them all fit.
But there has already been one significant lead
I came across a couple of FBI agents that said we found what looks like a piece of the truck
that was involved - the rear axle.
And I basically said to them - guard that with your life.
It is the first major clue in their quest to identify the Oklahoma bomber.
With the help of techniques normally used to trace stolen cars,
FBI agents are able to lift a Vehicle Identification Number from the axle
- a unique code that might allow them to trace the origins of the vehicle.
McVeigh is booked on four charges.
It is his first ever encounter with the law
- and the police still have no idea of his connection to the bombing.
Okay hold real still... little bit higher,
don't move, don't blink. Okay.
Step right over there for me, please...
Gradually the FBI noose around McVeigh is tightening.
...Leo... Bob Ricks here.
We've nailed down the axle to the Ryder Truck...
Checks on the truck axle have yielded further important clues.
It has been traced to a Ryder Truck rented in Junction City, Kansas.
Yeah, this is the lead of the case...
Bob Ricks immediately contacts his counterpart in Kansas City
to ensure that all is done to follow up on the lead.
By the next morning, Junction City will be teeming with Federal Agents.
At the Murrah Building,
rescue services have abandoned hope of finding anyone alive in the building.
Sniffer Dogs are called in to start locating dead bodies,
but at 7 pm, in an area known as the cave,
a worker is helping shore up the ceiling
when he seems to hear a moan from beneath the rubble.
Calling for quiet, the crew hear a muffled cry for help.
They have found a fifteen year old girl, Brandi Liggons.
It will take them a further three hours to extract her.
She is the last survivor to be lifted from the remains of the Murrah Building.
By the next morning,
old fashioned police work on the ground in Junction City
produces the second great breakthrough in the case.
From the rental shop where McVeigh hired the truck,
detectives have been able to get a good description of two men.
Hours later,
a motel owner recognises one of them.
He had been a guest a few days before.
His name: Timothy McVeigh.
When the name is run through the national police computer,
detectives strike lucky.
The prime suspect in the Oklahoma Bombing
is sitting in a police cell just seventy miles from Oklahoma City.
McVeigh is arrested on Friday April 21st.
Just fifty hours after the bombing,
the FBI had their man.
The arrest of his accomplice Terry Nichols would follow soon after.
The Oklahoma Bombing
claimed 168 lives and wounded 674.
After a trial lasting 9 weeks,
McVeigh was found guilty and sentenced to death.
He was executed in June 2001.
For his part in the bombing, Terry Nichols received a life sentence.
...the families of those who have been lost and wounded,
though we share your grief,
your pain is unimaginable,
and we know that...
Those who trouble their own house, will inherit the wind.
Justice will prevail.