Replies

The Oregonian

April 20, 1995

IF HE'D BEEN AT WORK . . . FORMER PORTLANDER SAYS

Summary: Wayne Alley, a federal judge born in Oregon, takes the day to work at home and escapes the devastation from the blast

As a federal judge whose office faces looks across the street at the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building across the street in Oklahoma City, Wayne Alley felt lucky that he didn't go to his office Wednesday.

Alley, who was born and raised in Portland, had taken the rare opportunity to work at home. ``Of all the days for this to happen, it's absolutely an amazing coincidence,'' Alley said in a telephone interview from his home.

The judge said the bombing came just a few weeks after security officials had warned him to take extra precautions.

``Let me just say that within the past two or three weeks, information has been disseminated . . . that indicated concerns on the part of people who ought to know that we ought to be a little bit more careful,'' he said.

Alley, who started his law career in Portland, said he was cautioned to be on the lookout for ``people casing homes or wandering about in the courthouse who aren't supposed to be there, letter bombs. There has been an increased vigilance.''

He said he was not given an explanation for the concern.

Asked if this might have just been a periodic security reminder, he said, ``My subjective impression was there was a reason for the dissemination of these concerns.''

An FBI spokesman in Oklahoma told reporters during a news conference that he was not aware of any warning.

Not all of Only some members of Alley's staff were as lucky as he was Wednesday.

Some were in his suite of offices in the courthouse, which is across the street on the other side of the federal building from where the bomb exploded Wednesday.

Still, the force of the blast smashed the windows of his office, and one of his law clerks was injured by the flying glass.

Alley attended Washington High School in Portland and was a law clerk for an Oregon Supreme Court justice.

Despite the damage to his office, Alley said the destruction of a child care center in the federal building hit him hardest. He said his son and daughter-in-law in Oklahoma City had a baby 4 1/2 months ago, and they had considered using the facility before deciding on other child care.

``The thought that our grandchild might have been in there was the thing that was the most chilling about all of this,'' the judge said.

Camera saw figure in bomb truck , Oklahoma City video is unclear, but it may show John Doe No. 2

The Kansas City Star
October 28, 1995
Section: NATIONAL/WORLD
Edition: METROPOLITAN
Page: A4

Camera saw figure in bomb truck

Oklahoma City video is unclear, but it may show John Doe No. 2.

The Associated Press

OKLAHOMA CITY - Videotape from a surveillance camera captured a glimpse of a shadowy figure in the passenger seat of a bomb-laden Ryder truck minutes before it blew apart the federal building, a federal law enforcement source says.

The footage is not clear enough to identify anyone, but it adds to the body of evidence that a third figure - perhaps the long-sought John Doe No. 2 - took part in the attack with two other persons, the source said.

``There's a shape in there, but they can't see a face,'' the source said of footage, which was taken by a camera on a nearby apartment building. The camera picked up the shadowy passenger about three minutes before the bomb went off April 19 at the Murrah Federal Building.

The government says Timothy McVeigh drove to Oklahoma City in the truck, parked it in front of the federal building and made his getaway in a yellow Mercury Marquis. But prosecutors have given no indication that Terry Nichols, also charged in the case, was in Oklahoma City the day of the bombing.

Although a federal grand jury indicted only McVeigh and Nichols on murder and conspiracy charges, agents scoured the country for a third conspirator, known only as John Doe No. 2, who was portrayed in sketches distributed shortly after the blast.

Authorities later said that an innocent Army private resembled the sketches. But the drawings were never withdrawn. Moreover, the indictment accuses McVeigh and Nichols of acting with ``others unknown,'' and agents were still hunting for other conspirators.

A call Friday to Assistant U.S. Attorney Steve Mullins, a spokesman for the prosecution team, was not returned immediately.

Prosecutors repeatedly refused to discuss surveillance tape or other evidence in the case.

McVeigh's lawyer, Stephen Jones, said he had not seen the tape and could not comment.

A senior federal official in Washington said recently that agents currently searching did not expect to turn up another key player in the plot.

The law enforcement source, however, said many investigators remained convinced that John Doe No. 2 was still at large.

McVeigh and Nichols go on trial May 17.