The image I remember from the Oklahoma City bombing — even more clearly than the one of little Baylee Almon in the arms of fireman Chris Fields — is one of another fireman. He was crawling through a treachery of collapsed walls and dangling wires and sagging floors, over bodies and parts of bodies, looking for life.

        His voice crackled over a walkie-talkie. “All I've found here is a baby's finger and an American flag. You find out who did this.”

        Now we know “who did this.” On April 19, 1995 — four days before his 27th birthday — Timothy McVeigh killed 168 men, women and children with a 7,000-pound bomb in a truck parked on the north side of the Murrah Federal Building. Now some of his victims say we know too much about him.

"Opened old wounds'
        Buffalo News reporters Lou Michel and Dan Herbeck interviewed Timothy McVeigh for 75 hours and wrote a book, American Terrorist, which is in bookstores this week. Kathleen Treanor, who lost her 4-year-old daughter and her husband's parents in the bombing, says the book makes her sick. And angry.

        “These two authors prostituted themselves to a convicted murderer,” she told Bryant Gumbel on CBS's The Early Show. “This is the second Timothy McVeigh bomb. It has opened old wounds.”

        Anybody who has lived through the murders in Oklahoma City would know a lot about wounds. And at every turn, people there even in their earliest anguish have behaved just the way you'd hope Americans would.

        There was no evidence of looting. None. Not once. Not ever. The people of Oklahoma City lined up to give blood. They collected bedsheets and tarps to serve as makeshift body bags.

        They raised $7 million for scholarships for the 70 children orphaned and 120 who lost one parent. They paid for the funerals of strangers. They were at the bedsides of survivors, 29 of whom are permanently disfigured. They planted trees. They prayed. A slippery elm, scarred from the blast, became their survival symbol.

Refusing money
        That tree became part of the permanent memorial to those who died. Empty stone chairs on the site where the federal building once stood face a reflecting pool and the sturdy elm. Officials from the memorial refused royalties from the sale of the new book: “Any book dealing with the life and philosophy of Timothy McVeigh is not consistent with our mission.”

        The memorial, funded by private donations and federal money, was dedicated in February by President Bush.

        “We all have a duty to watch for and report troubling signs,” Mr. Bush said then. “All of us have a duty to confront evil wherever and whenever it manifests itself. And we have a duty to watch for warning signs.”

        There is is a stone chair for every person who died, but certainly not for every victim. More than 500 were injured and thousands bear the kind of “old wounds” that sickened Kathleen Treanor. How ugly and hurtful it must be for her to hear that her baby was simply a PR problem for this murderer.

        But if Timothy McVeigh had blown himself up, we would have wondered who he was, really. And why he would do such a thing. Perhaps buried in his conversations with the two reporters is some clue, some “warning sign” that might help us “confront evil.”

        We know who did this. And now we can know more than just his name.

       E-mail Laura at lpulfer@enquirer.com or call 768-8393.

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