After the Oklahoma City Bombing in 1995, and the guilty verdict and subsequent execution of Timothy McVeigh, Anne Ryder reports on the healing process of the city and the survivors of the terrorist attack.
(0:22): “April 1995” appears on screen before footage of the Oklahoma City bombing.
(0:37): “June 1997” appears before footage of Timothy McVeigh’s face, and then a newspaper revealing his guilty verdict.
(0:48): “June 2001” appears before aerial footage of a prison. A voiceover reads that Timothy McVeigh was killed by lethal injection.
(1:12): Ann Ryder’s voice comes in. She says on the day that McVeigh was executed, they turn their focus to Oklahoma City as it heals.
(01:38): 260 family members of those killed in the bombing watch a private broadcast of the execution of McVeigh.
(02:12): Cuts to a woman who says, “It’s not gonna change what happened to me. It’s not gonna bring my friends back.”
(02:22): Witness and reporter to McVeigh’s execution describes it, says he laid there very still and didn’t say a word.
(03:42): President George W. Bush said the execution was about justice, not vengeance.
(4:04): Shortly after the execution, the Oklahoma City Museum installed a new permanent
exhibit to mark McVeigh’s death.
(04:33): Cuts back to Ann Ryder in the studio, who asks what we are to learn in the six years since the bombing.
(05:07): Ann Ryder describes the start of the day on April 19, 1995, when the Oklahoma City Building was bombed.
(06:20): A woman named Priscilla, who was there during the bombing, describes falling from the fifth floor to the second floor as the building pancaked. Ryder says she fell into what would have been the childcare center, where many children were killed.
(06:38): Priscilla describes being wedged between a 25-foot pillar and the ground below her during the attack. She broke ribs and collapsed a lung.
(07:09): She describes feeling a hand below her. She wondered if it belonged to her coworker. She said she would hold the hand and pray.
(07:50): She describes falling into a deep survivor’s guilt after being rescued.
(08:13): Priscilla says she treasures Bible verses picked out for her by her coworker, Paul Ice, who was killed. She says she owes her life to God.
(10:10): The footage cuts to the countryside, miles away from the city, where Mike and Kathleen Traynor couldn’t hear the bomb. But their daughter, Ashley, was with her grandparents in the city the day the Oklahoma City building was bombed. Mike’s parents and Ashley were killed.
(11:45): Kathleen talks about what it means to lose a child, to never get to see that child grow up. “She’ll always be four,” she says of her daughter. She said she doesn’t expect to find any peace or closure in McVeigh’s death.
(12:30): The Traynor’s revered the surgery that tied Kathleen’s tubes and had a second daughter two years later.
(13:17): Ann Ryder says Kathleen Traynor told her the love and care that poured out of
Oklahoma City after the bombing was incredible.
(14:14): The camera cuts to footage of the Oklahoma City bombing memorial, which Ryder
described as being peaceful for some families.
(14:44): Ryder describes the memorial. She says it includes 9:01 a.m. to mark the last moment life seemed normal, and 9:03 a.m. to represent the moment after the wreckage, but it does not include 9:02 a.m., the moment the bomb went off.
(15:26) Doris Jones, mother of a bomb victim, said she feels more peaceful at the memorial. Her daughter, Carrie Ann Lens, was 26 years old. She worked in the federal building and was six months pregnant when she was killed. Rescue workers found ultrasound photos in the rubble.
(16:06): Carrie and her unborn son share one of the chairs at the federal building memorial.
(16:50): Rescue workers like Dorris staff the museum next to the memorial.
(17:32): There’s a room in the museum that has been left since the bombing. It's full of items that were damaged in the wreckage: a child’s shoe, a door, a stopped clock, a blown up day planner.
(18:53): “Oklahoma City hopes its pain is not in vain,” Ryder says. The hope is that future
generations will learn about what happened so that history doesn’t repeat itself.
(19:35): Susan Urbach, an Oklahoma City native, says, “How dare someone try to rip my
community apart?” She was across the street during the bombing. She was injured from shrapnel and glass.
(21:13): Susan, a musician, no longer felt like playing or singing after the bombing. She also says there are plenty of ways to let your feelings be known without violence.
(23:07): Ryder says that even though the day began with death, it ends with the knowledge that life does go on after great pain. She thanks the people of Oklahoma City for welcoming the newscast into their homes.
(25:50): All the names of those killed in the bombing are displayed on screen.
Clips:
(13:08) “Kathleen Traynor said…” to (14:08) “...after the blast.”
Explains the emotional relevance of the video and emphasizes that the focus is on how the
people of Oklahoma City came together after the violence.
Photographer: Steve Starnes
Reporter/Writer: Anne Ryder
Editor: Jason Richards
Graphics: Janet Birkhead, Steve Wolfe
Senior Executive Producer: Judy Mulder-Palermo
Planning Manager: Theresa Wells-DittonClips:
(13:08) “Kathleen Traynor said…” to (14:08) “...after the blast.”
Explains the emotional relevance of the video and emphasizes that the focus is on how the
people of Oklahoma City came together after the violence.
News Director: Jacques Natz
Program Director: Rod Porter
Senior V.P. and General Manager: Rich Pegram