McVeigh 's original plan had been to detonate the bomb at 11:00 am , but at dawn on April 19 , 1995 , he decided instead to destroy the building at 9:00 am . As he drove toward the Murrah Federal Building in the Ryder truck , McVeigh carried with him an envelope containing pages from '' The Turner Diaries '' – a fictional account of white supremacists who ignite a revolution by blowing up the FBI headquarters at 9:15 one morning using a truck bomb . McVeigh wore a printed T-shirt with the motto of the Commonwealth of Virginia , '' Sic semper tyrannis '' ( " Thus always to tyrants " , according to legend what Brutus said as he assassinated Julius Caesar , also shouted by John Wilkes Booth immediately after the assassination of Abraham Lincoln ) and " The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants " ( from Thomas Jefferson ) . He also carried an envelope full of revolutionary materials that included a bumper sticker with the Thomas Jefferson slogan , " When the government fears the people , there is liberty . When the people fear the government , there is tyranny . " Underneath , McVeigh had written , " Maybe now , there will be liberty ! " with a hand-copied quote by John Locke asserting that a man has a right to kill someone who takes away his liberty
assassinated Julius Caesar
Assassination of Julius Caesar
Oklahoma City bombing