Posted on 10/16/2005 11:02:43 AM PDT by MizSterious
The FBI read the message to the father Friday, after he came to Oklahoma to clear out his son's university-owned apartment.
Joel "Joe" Henry Hinrichs III, an engineering student, died when his bomb went off about 100 yards from the packed football stadium during the second quarter of OU's night game against Kansas State.
Hinrichs, 21, was from Colorado Springs, Colo. He had a reputation as a loner and had struggled at times with his grades. His parents had begun divorce proceedings.
Joel Hinrichs Jr. said he understood investigators found the message on the computer screen when they arrived at the apartment.
"It was a single line of text on his computer," said the father, who lives in Colorado Springs. "The cursor was still blinking at the end."
The father said he could not recall the exact wording but said his son used profanity in the message and was obviously very angry. "He wrote he was dissatisfied with the situation and was going to quit living," the father said.
His description of the message is consistent with the recollection of others who have been briefed about the investigation by the FBI.
No links to terrorist groups
FBI officials have said they may never know whether the student wanted to get inside the stadium. The student did not have a season ticket.
FBI officials also have said the investigation has not found any links between the student and terrorist organizations.
His father said he thinks his son was just committing suicide and never intended to hurt anyone else.
The father said the FBI on Friday showed him the fractured bench where his son was sitting when the bomb exploded and photos of his son's headless body and a tattered backpack.
The father said when cleaning out the apartment, he learned his son apparently had been having trouble sleeping and had bought Sominex, a sleep aid.
The younger Hinrichs had a long fascination with ammunition and bombs, his relatives and friends said. Inside his bedroom in Norman were several used metal artillery shells -- the largest about 2 feet long. He had belts of used brass shell casings, a box of spent bullets and military ammo containers.
He also had items more typical of many college students -- textbooks, empty liquor bottles, magazines and a martial arts movie videotape.
The father allowed two reporters from The Oklahoman into the bedroom briefly Thursday.
Bomb experts removed explosive-related materials from the apartment Oct. 2. Contributing: Randy Ellis
I explained--sorry you missed it. When they said "blinking cursor" I was thinking of the big white blinking cursor back when we used DOS. The same one that appears on "Lost." This so-called "blinking" on Word doesn't hold a candle to those old ones. You barely notice it.
The situation was that the Sooners were 1-2 going into the K-State game. His self-explosion was just the only Boomer Sooner we heard about.
your post to me was rude. You and others seem to think that only your beliefs are the standard and all else on here are wrong. Dont like it? ignore me, now.
Do you remember which brother it was? Tom or Chris? I'm trying to figure something out by process of elimination. The brother named Tom has given interviews to media before this, but not Chris. TIA
It was also published in our local papers.
It's a linked quoted source, Bob Troester, first assistance U.S. attorney in Oklahoma City, not "3rd hand rumors trumpeted as facts."
Well, you know, it wasn't REALLLY a "note" in the traditional sense of the word. ::parse, parse::
I don't have XM radio, so, no, I haven't heard this guy. Locals who knew Hinrichs (I should say, saw him around--not many actual friends) said he'd been seen at the Islamic Center, which doubles as a mosque. DougFromUpland posted some pics I took one evening at the place, it looks like a house with a LOT of security, not the way you'd expect a mosque to look at all.
Ding dong, Avon calling. Maybe it was "Amway for Allah" and he had been forced to buy a lot of inventory just to get started.
And wasn't Kasich said to be Nick Dunne's "source" for the "you know"?
Wordpad will leave a blinking cursor.
Goodbye Cruel World
It said, "Life is b*llsh*t...I can't f*ck*n'
take it anymore.....signed, the dead guy."
And I never did get to look at your pix, just a red "X" box. There were too many in one post, I think.
You appear to be correct on that. I thought was one of the properties you could select at the font setting, but it doesn't appear to be. (And if nothing in this post is blinking, you are probably using IE.
No, I don't think I regret a single thing I said. That he killed himself is obvious. What does this current revelation prove to you? Why did the FBI seal everything if this is so clear cut? Are you so easily led by the "official line" or do you just like trolling onto websites where people explore all the possibilities. You probably believe that McVeigh was suicidal,too, and that he did a very bad thing all by himself just so the evil Govt. would have to execute him....
There wasn't that much to see. It looked like a large residential house, except with high fencing and lots of security cameras. DFU had some great captions for them, though. :)
Hi Miz,
Thanks for posting the article. Here is another version - this one from ABC Ch. 7 TV in Denver: http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/5104187/detail.html
This whole thing is a complete mess...
A.) As others have pointed out how could his father not have remembered what was said in the "note". He is an incredibly intelligent man and what he does remember it "said" is remarkably similar to what Hinrichs father himself said he supposed Joel III felt like in past interviews.
B.) What would be the point of the FBI saying there was no note, and now saying there is?
C.) How could there be any proof the note was actually written by Joel III?
D.) Why did the FBI wait until Hinrichs father was in Oklahoma to call him and tell him about the note? (Was it the FBI that called him? - Can he be SURE about this?)
E.) WHEN did the FBI enter the apartment and find the note? Did anyone have access to the apartment BEFORE the FBI arrived?
F.) Still wondering how the FBI is allowed to discuss these items seeing as the search warrant and the file is still sealed by the DOJ???
Still more questions than answers...and the above are just the questions about the note itself. Still other HUGE questionsdiscrepancies regarding Cheema - his actual time of arrest (minutes vs. hours), the mysterious "5 others" reportedly (Ch. 9's Tamara Pratt) being looked for for helping with the bomb or taking things out of the apartment, Boren (who would know the security procedures declared after 9/11) insisting within 1-2 hours of the event that it was a "lone suicide" instead of treating it as a possible terrorist attack, etc.. etc...
Answer to "E"--as has been suggested by several others, the roommate most certainly had access to the computer.
If this were a regular suicide, I don't think so many other places (high schools, universities, etc.) would have beefed up their security as much as they have since this happened. It's way to expensive to be a simple "suicide prevention" measure.
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