'' American Terrorist : Timothy McVeigh & The Oklahoma City Bombing '' ( 2001 ) is a book by Buffalo , New York journalists Lou Michel and Dan Herbeck that chronicles the life of Timothy McVeigh from his childhood in Pendleton , New York , to his military experiences in the Persian Gulf War , to his preparations for and carrying out of the Oklahoma City bombing , to his trial and death row experience . One of the appendices lists all 168 people killed in the blast , along with brief biographical information . ( There were plans to include a chapter about his execution in the softcover edition . ) It is the only biography authorized by McVeigh himself , and was based on 75 hours of interviews that the authors had with McVeigh . McVeigh was said to be pleased overall with the book , but disappointed with the way he was portrayed and the explanation of his motive . Coauthor Michel said he viewed McVeigh as a " human being with a limited range of feelings in the areas of empathy and sympathy and with an oversized sense of rage and resentment . " According to '' Salon '' , McVeigh is portrayed in the book as an extremist : On April 19 , 2010 , a two-hour special , the " McVeigh Tapes " , narrated by Rachel Maddow , was aired by MSNBC which was based on 45 hours of the interviews that Michel conducted with McVeigh while he was in prison . The program was criticized as providing a forum for McVeigh to air his viewpoints , and as blunting the effect of McVeigh 's cold statements with flashy , computer generated images
Oklahoma City bombing
Oklahoma City bombing
American Terrorist