WEBVTT
1
00:00:05.080 --> 00:00:10.039
Tapes from the Dark Side contains descriptions of violence and sexuality.
2
00:00:10.560 --> 00:00:13.439
Listener discretion is advised.
3
00:00:20.640 --> 00:00:25.120
On a quiet morning, April nineteenth, nineteen ninety five, Oklahoma
4
00:00:25.199 --> 00:00:29.480
City stirred awake like any other spring day, cloudless, bright,
5
00:00:29.559 --> 00:00:32.719
and filled with the mundane rhythms of the Midwestern weekday.
6
00:00:33.200 --> 00:00:37.240
Office workers filed into the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building Downtown.
7
00:00:37.759 --> 00:00:40.640
Parents drop children off at the daycare inside the building,
8
00:00:41.159 --> 00:00:46.119
and the streets buzzed with the easy calm of routine.
9
00:00:46.439 --> 00:00:48.479
No one could have known that the next few minutes
10
00:00:48.520 --> 00:00:52.159
would etch themselves into the darkest chapters of American history.
11
00:00:52.759 --> 00:00:56.600
And at precisely nine o two am, dot calm shattered.
12
00:00:58.399 --> 00:00:59.719
Jimmy pay the TV nine News.
13
00:01:00.000 --> 00:01:02.920
If you are anywhere downtown, you probably heard it and
14
00:01:03.000 --> 00:01:03.439
felt it.
15
00:01:03.520 --> 00:01:05.040
An explosion of some kind.
16
00:01:05.200 --> 00:01:07.239
Downtown, Oklahoma City.
17
00:01:07.280 --> 00:01:08.280
Take a look at this picture.
18
00:01:08.319 --> 00:01:08.920
This is our.
19
00:01:08.879 --> 00:01:12.959
Tower cam shot, a plume of smoke rising in the air.
20
00:01:13.400 --> 00:01:14.959
I was on the phone with that one of.
21
00:01:14.959 --> 00:01:15.920
The fire chiefs.
22
00:01:16.200 --> 00:01:22.719
Was an attack on innocent children and defenseless citizens. It
23
00:01:22.799 --> 00:01:27.799
was an act of cowardice, and it was evil. The
24
00:01:27.920 --> 00:01:30.760
United States will not tolerate.
25
00:01:30.359 --> 00:01:36.280
It without warning. A deafening explosion ripped through the heart
26
00:01:36.280 --> 00:01:39.439
of the city. A rider rental truck parked in front
27
00:01:39.480 --> 00:01:43.519
of the Murrah Building detonated with catastrophic force, its cargo
28
00:01:43.680 --> 00:01:48.280
of ammonium, nitrate, fertilizer and fuel, igniting into an inferno
29
00:01:48.400 --> 00:01:52.439
of fire and steel. In a single blinding instant, one
30
00:01:52.519 --> 00:01:55.840
third of the nine story federal building was reduced to rubble.
31
00:01:56.519 --> 00:02:00.000
The blast wave obliterated glass and a several block radius,
32
00:02:00.400 --> 00:02:05.760
tossing cars, snapping trees, and collapsing nearby structures. As panic
33
00:02:05.840 --> 00:02:09.039
screams filled the air, first responders rushed to the scene,
34
00:02:09.120 --> 00:02:12.240
weaving through a war zone of twisted metal and concrete.
35
00:02:12.439 --> 00:02:14.879
One of the very first people unseen that day was
36
00:02:14.919 --> 00:02:18.000
a man named Terence Yiki. He helped save at least
37
00:02:18.000 --> 00:02:20.599
three people's lives, pulling them out of the rubble and
38
00:02:20.599 --> 00:02:24.719
carrying them to safety. Smoke billowed skywards as sirens wailed
39
00:02:24.759 --> 00:02:28.560
and survivors staggered through dust and blood, dazed and disoriented.
40
00:02:29.159 --> 00:02:32.840
The building's daycare center, once filled with laughter and finger painting,
41
00:02:32.960 --> 00:02:36.960
was gone, buried beneath wreckage. Office walls that once held
42
00:02:37.000 --> 00:02:41.840
calendars and cubicles now hung like dollhouse dioramas exposing the
43
00:02:41.840 --> 00:02:44.639
wreckage of lives and the horror of what had just occurred.
44
00:02:45.360 --> 00:02:48.560
As the rescue efforts began, the magnitude of the attack
45
00:02:48.639 --> 00:02:52.919
became clear. One hundred and sixty eight dead, including nineteen children,
46
00:02:53.199 --> 00:02:57.159
and hundreds more injured. But even in the chaos, investigators
47
00:02:57.159 --> 00:03:00.879
began piecing together clues, bits of axe from the truck,
48
00:03:01.159 --> 00:03:05.639
security camera footage, witnesses accounts. By that evening, the haunt
49
00:03:05.680 --> 00:03:09.280
for a perpetrator was already under way. Within ninety minutes
50
00:03:09.280 --> 00:03:12.240
of the bombing, a man named Timothy McVeigh, arrested for
51
00:03:12.319 --> 00:03:16.680
traffic violation, was unknowingly in custody. What seemed like a
52
00:03:16.719 --> 00:03:19.479
senseless act of violence would soon be revealed as a
53
00:03:19.479 --> 00:03:24.520
calculated act of domestic terrorism, forever changing the nation's understanding
54
00:03:24.520 --> 00:03:27.960
of threats within. But what one man saw that day,
55
00:03:28.520 --> 00:03:31.680
that man named Terence Yeeky, would come to challenge the
56
00:03:31.719 --> 00:03:35.319
official narrative. When Terry returned home that night, he was
57
00:03:35.360 --> 00:03:38.080
a broken man. What he had seen would haunt his
58
00:03:38.159 --> 00:03:40.919
dreams that night and the dreams of many nights to come.
59
00:03:41.759 --> 00:03:44.560
But there was one detail that shook Terrence to his core,
60
00:03:45.039 --> 00:03:47.400
something that simply didn't make sense in light of the
61
00:03:47.479 --> 00:03:52.360
narrative he had seen undetonated bombs inside the Murrh building.
62
00:03:55.680 --> 00:03:58.960
Earlier that day, Terry's wife, Tonya received a phone call
63
00:03:59.000 --> 00:04:02.560
from Presbyterian Hospital informing her that Terry was there with
64
00:04:02.680 --> 00:04:05.039
a back injury and that he needed a ride home.
65
00:04:05.520 --> 00:04:07.840
Tonia picked him up from the hospital, and on the
66
00:04:07.919 --> 00:04:11.280
drive home, he began to cry, Tonia, it's not what
67
00:04:11.319 --> 00:04:14.080
they're saying it is, he told her. They're not telling
68
00:04:14.120 --> 00:04:17.600
the truth. They're lying about what's going on down there.
69
00:04:21.120 --> 00:04:25.160
Terrence Yeki's life can be divided into two distinct categories,
70
00:04:25.839 --> 00:04:29.399
his life before the bombing and his life after the bombing.
71
00:04:29.920 --> 00:04:33.720
You see, after that day on April nineteenth, nineteen ninety five,
72
00:04:34.360 --> 00:04:39.160
Terrence developed something of an obsession. Sergeant Yiki was attending
73
00:04:39.240 --> 00:04:42.079
night classes and working as a security guard during his
74
00:04:42.160 --> 00:04:45.240
off hours to pay child support. He also worked with
75
00:04:45.319 --> 00:04:48.240
kids in his off time in the DARE program, but
76
00:04:48.480 --> 00:04:51.519
any moment that wasn't spent at work or with DARE
77
00:04:51.839 --> 00:04:55.839
was spent on another passion, figuring out exactly what he
78
00:04:55.879 --> 00:04:59.399
had seen inside the Federal building that day in nineteen
79
00:04:59.480 --> 00:05:03.439
ninety five. In the years following the Oklahoma City bombing,
80
00:05:03.680 --> 00:05:08.199
doubts began to stir among seasoned explosive experts. One of them,
81
00:05:08.319 --> 00:05:14.079
a retired Air Force Brigader General Benton Parton, publicly questioned
82
00:05:14.079 --> 00:05:18.560
the official narrative. His analysis suggested that the sheer scale
83
00:05:18.600 --> 00:05:22.600
of destruction couldn't have come from a truck bomb alone.
84
00:05:22.639 --> 00:05:25.959
In a nineteen ninety seven letter to a federal prosecutor,
85
00:05:26.040 --> 00:05:27.519
he wrote, quote.
86
00:05:27.240 --> 00:05:30.879
There is strong evidence that demolition charges were in the building,
87
00:05:31.160 --> 00:05:33.519
irrespective of the size of the truck bomb.
88
00:05:34.160 --> 00:05:37.920
Terrence was not alone. There were others who were not convinced.
89
00:05:38.600 --> 00:05:41.399
Terry thought that he had seen things that he wasn't
90
00:05:41.399 --> 00:05:46.120
supposed to see. Friends and colleagues recalled his unease, especially
91
00:05:46.120 --> 00:05:50.480
after witnessing an unexpected federal presence in the immediate aftermath,
92
00:05:51.040 --> 00:05:55.360
agents and tactical gear already on site within moments. It
93
00:05:55.439 --> 00:06:00.319
didn't add up. His sister, Lashawn Hargrove, later recounted one
94
00:06:00.319 --> 00:06:02.839
of Terry's observations, quote.
95
00:06:02.759 --> 00:06:04.879
You know how they said the truck bomb blew in.
96
00:06:05.480 --> 00:06:09.839
He saw evidence of it blowing out, like something exploded
97
00:06:09.879 --> 00:06:11.399
from within the building.
98
00:06:12.120 --> 00:06:16.000
That contradiction gnawed at him. Just days after the bombing,
99
00:06:16.160 --> 00:06:19.360
Terry asked his ex wife Tonya to drive him back
100
00:06:19.360 --> 00:06:22.240
to the site under the cover of darkness. He was
101
00:06:22.279 --> 00:06:25.360
searching for something beneath the section where the daycare center
102
00:06:25.439 --> 00:06:29.560
had once stood, something he needed to see again, maybe
103
00:06:29.600 --> 00:06:33.279
even document. But as they approached the restricted zone, they
104
00:06:33.279 --> 00:06:38.120
were stopped. From an interview with Tonya yik quote, we.
105
00:06:38.160 --> 00:06:41.199
Did go down there, probably between nine point thirty and ten.
106
00:06:41.959 --> 00:06:43.959
He said that we were going to look underneath where
107
00:06:44.000 --> 00:06:46.480
the daycare had been. There was something he wanted to
108
00:06:46.480 --> 00:06:49.720
see over there and get a picture if possible. As
109
00:06:49.759 --> 00:06:51.920
we went down there, we were stopped and I can't
110
00:06:51.959 --> 00:06:55.160
remember which personnel it was, but I know definitely it
111
00:06:55.199 --> 00:06:59.079
was either atf or FBI, and Terry had attempted to
112
00:06:59.160 --> 00:07:01.879
badge his way through and the guy told him no,
113
00:07:02.519 --> 00:07:05.319
and he says something a little more specific, like you know,
114
00:07:05.560 --> 00:07:08.360
you're not supposed to be back down here. It made
115
00:07:08.399 --> 00:07:10.879
me realize the two of them recognized each other, and
116
00:07:10.920 --> 00:07:15.279
the interaction was very antagonistic. I think had I not
117
00:07:15.360 --> 00:07:17.519
been with Terry, he would have said a little more
118
00:07:17.560 --> 00:07:20.439
to the man and maybe a little more forcefully about
119
00:07:20.439 --> 00:07:23.399
getting through, But it seemed like he thought better of
120
00:07:23.439 --> 00:07:26.879
it since I was with him, and we laughed later,
121
00:07:27.000 --> 00:07:30.279
Terry told her he'd written a lengthy report to telling
122
00:07:30.319 --> 00:07:34.120
what he saw that day, about nine pages long, but
123
00:07:34.240 --> 00:07:39.000
that report mysteriously vanished. His superiors, he said, ordered him
124
00:07:39.040 --> 00:07:43.120
to rewrite it, this time just one single page, omitting
125
00:07:43.240 --> 00:07:47.000
most of what he had originally included. When he resisted,
126
00:07:47.279 --> 00:07:50.160
Tony received a call from one of the commanding officers,
127
00:07:50.560 --> 00:07:53.639
a woman who was abrupt and borderline belligerent.
128
00:07:54.040 --> 00:07:54.560
Quote.
129
00:07:54.879 --> 00:07:58.279
She was being pretty hostile, pretty aggressive, and asked me
130
00:07:58.319 --> 00:08:01.600
where Terry was. He said, you tell Terry if he
131
00:08:01.639 --> 00:08:04.319
doesn't get in that other report, that he's going to
132
00:08:04.319 --> 00:08:05.240
be reprimanded.
133
00:08:05.920 --> 00:08:09.360
In the weeks that followed, Terry changed. He was exhausted,
134
00:08:09.560 --> 00:08:14.040
emotionally afraid, and often afraid. Tonia remembered him showing up
135
00:08:14.120 --> 00:08:17.759
late at night, unsettled and desperate. One night he pleaded
136
00:08:17.800 --> 00:08:19.319
with her, quote.
137
00:08:19.240 --> 00:08:20.800
He wanted me to leave in the middle of the
138
00:08:20.920 --> 00:08:23.839
night with him. Right then, he said, we need to
139
00:08:23.839 --> 00:08:27.439
get remarried. Don't ask me any questions. This is the
140
00:08:27.480 --> 00:08:29.360
only way I can make sure you and the girls
141
00:08:29.399 --> 00:08:31.839
are taken care of in the event that something happens
142
00:08:31.839 --> 00:08:32.080
to me.
143
00:08:32.919 --> 00:08:36.559
She reported his erratic behavior to police, not because he
144
00:08:36.559 --> 00:08:40.720
seemed suicidal, but because his paranoia felt justified, he had
145
00:08:40.759 --> 00:08:44.559
begun saying his days were numbered. Then one day, without explanation,
146
00:08:44.759 --> 00:08:47.919
he handed her a VCR. There was a tape inside,
147
00:08:48.000 --> 00:08:50.519
but she never got to watch it. He spoke of
148
00:08:50.559 --> 00:08:54.080
insurance papers, then left. It was the last time she
149
00:08:54.080 --> 00:08:58.320
saw him alive. Lashaw and his sister recalled a visit
150
00:08:58.440 --> 00:09:02.200
not long before his death. Terry was in tears, exhausted
151
00:09:02.279 --> 00:09:05.080
but still lucid. He lay down for a nap in
152
00:09:05.120 --> 00:09:08.200
their home, and when he woke, he began speaking cryptically
153
00:09:08.200 --> 00:09:09.480
about the bombing.
154
00:09:09.720 --> 00:09:12.240
Quote, It's just not what they say it is.
155
00:09:12.879 --> 00:09:16.960
But when pressed, he refused to elaborate. I can't, he said.
156
00:09:17.600 --> 00:09:21.480
What happened next centers around a woman named Ramona McDonald,
157
00:09:22.039 --> 00:09:26.399
a businesswoman and survivor of the bombing. McDonald had become
158
00:09:26.440 --> 00:09:31.720
a sort of informal archivist of suppressed stories, photographs, documents,
159
00:09:31.840 --> 00:09:36.200
and survivor testimony. She helped publish a book called Angels
160
00:09:36.240 --> 00:09:39.759
Over Oklahoma City, and her home became a sanctuary for
161
00:09:39.840 --> 00:09:44.279
skeptics and whistleblowers. Among her collection was a full copy
162
00:09:44.360 --> 00:09:48.320
of Terry Yeekey's original report, the one the police department
163
00:09:48.360 --> 00:09:51.879
allegedly buried At one point, two men claiming to be
164
00:09:51.960 --> 00:09:56.879
federal investigators visited Ramona's home. They poured over her material,
165
00:09:57.000 --> 00:10:01.200
paying particular attention to the evidence surrounding the bomb. Terry
166
00:10:01.279 --> 00:10:04.519
later described two men he was scheduled to meet Ramona
167
00:10:04.600 --> 00:10:07.559
was convinced they were the same ones. On the morning
168
00:10:07.600 --> 00:10:11.600
of that meeting, Terrence was visibly conflicted. He believed this
169
00:10:11.720 --> 00:10:14.320
might be his final chance to be heard to hand
170
00:10:14.360 --> 00:10:17.639
over his evidence to someone with real authority, but he
171
00:10:17.759 --> 00:10:23.879
also sends to trap. Find out what happened to Terrence
172
00:10:23.960 --> 00:10:28.919
after a quick break, We'll be right back. Don't go anywhere.
173
00:10:29.200 --> 00:10:32.120
And as a reminder, we have all of our episodes
174
00:10:32.200 --> 00:10:35.559
add free on Patreon, So if you want to feel
175
00:10:35.559 --> 00:10:39.120
good about supporting a show that you love, please consider
176
00:10:39.200 --> 00:10:43.080
throwing us a couple dollars on Patreon. That's patreon dot
177
00:10:43.120 --> 00:10:57.679
com slash Tapes from the Dark Side. On the morning
178
00:10:57.720 --> 00:11:01.480
of that meeting, Terrence was visibly conflict. He believed it
179
00:11:01.559 --> 00:11:04.200
might be his final chance to be heard to hand
180
00:11:04.240 --> 00:11:07.759
over evidence to someone with real authority, but he also
181
00:11:07.919 --> 00:11:11.600
sensed a trap. In a strange but telling precaution, he
182
00:11:11.679 --> 00:11:14.919
chose to go unarmed because he didn't want anyone to
183
00:11:15.080 --> 00:11:20.639
use his own weapon against him. The meeting was to
184
00:11:20.679 --> 00:11:23.919
take place near El Reno, at or close to the
185
00:11:23.919 --> 00:11:28.440
Federal prison. Terrence left Ramona's home with his materials and
186
00:11:28.519 --> 00:11:33.120
headed for the rendezvous. He never came back. That evening,
187
00:11:33.200 --> 00:11:38.799
Ramona received a call Terence Yiki was dead. His body
188
00:11:38.919 --> 00:11:42.159
was discovered west of Elreno, just two miles from the prison.
189
00:11:43.000 --> 00:11:48.200
The circumstances were and remained deeply suspicious. The following is
190
00:11:48.200 --> 00:11:51.679
a clip from an interview with Terence Yeki's mother, taken
191
00:11:51.720 --> 00:11:55.799
from a documentary called A Noble Lie, released in twenty
192
00:11:55.919 --> 00:11:56.960
and eleven.
193
00:12:00.240 --> 00:12:00.919
Of his death.
194
00:12:01.559 --> 00:12:04.279
When my daughter called me, I left work went to
195
00:12:04.320 --> 00:12:10.720
El Reno to help because I could hear the seriousness
196
00:12:10.720 --> 00:12:13.320
in her voice that she was getting upset. Why would
197
00:12:13.360 --> 00:12:17.440
the police be calling her looking for Terrence? And when
198
00:12:17.480 --> 00:12:21.759
we went to the apartment where he lived, the manager
199
00:12:21.799 --> 00:12:25.480
there stated to us, well, why are you looking for him?
200
00:12:25.480 --> 00:12:28.360
The police have already been here and taken his cruiser.
201
00:12:30.639 --> 00:12:33.000
I'm not sure what was going on. It was strange,
202
00:12:33.320 --> 00:12:37.480
and about ten o'clock at night, I had put my
203
00:12:37.639 --> 00:12:43.799
grandkids to bed, the phone rang, and when I picked
204
00:12:43.799 --> 00:12:46.080
the phone up, I could hear my daughter screaming in
205
00:12:46.120 --> 00:12:51.480
the background, and I assume something bad had happened, but
206
00:12:51.960 --> 00:12:56.159
I didn't think death. And my son said, Mom, they
207
00:12:56.279 --> 00:12:58.080
found Terry. He's dead.
208
00:13:00.279 --> 00:13:04.159
Body was discovered alone in an open field three hundred
209
00:13:04.279 --> 00:13:08.120
and eighty five days after the Oklahoma City bombing. He
210
00:13:08.120 --> 00:13:11.000
had been shot in the head, his wrists and neck
211
00:13:11.039 --> 00:13:15.840
were slashed. Authorities called it a suicide, but those who
212
00:13:15.919 --> 00:13:19.639
knew Terrance, his friends, his colleagues, and his sister, Lashawn
213
00:13:19.720 --> 00:13:24.480
Hargrove have never accepted that explanation. They believe he was
214
00:13:24.559 --> 00:13:28.240
silenced not by despair, but by something far more sinister.
215
00:13:29.080 --> 00:13:32.840
There's little dispute over two facts, one that the police
216
00:13:32.879 --> 00:13:36.360
department planned to award Terence a medal of valor for
217
00:13:36.440 --> 00:13:40.559
his heroic actions during the bombing, and two that Terrence
218
00:13:40.600 --> 00:13:44.279
flatly refused to accept it. What compelled him to reject
219
00:13:44.320 --> 00:13:47.639
that honor remains unclear, but those close to the case
220
00:13:47.720 --> 00:13:49.840
say the answer may lie at the heart of what
221
00:13:49.960 --> 00:13:52.840
happened to him. After all, it was only three days
222
00:13:52.879 --> 00:13:57.039
before the ceremony that Terrence turned up dead. A CNN
223
00:13:57.159 --> 00:14:01.039
investigation which has been the basis of much of this episode,
224
00:14:01.399 --> 00:14:03.720
and I highly recommend you read if you have any
225
00:14:03.759 --> 00:14:08.120
passing interest in the story. Later unearthed a disturbing pattern
226
00:14:08.639 --> 00:14:13.240
inconsistencies in the official story, records that don't quite line up,
227
00:14:13.639 --> 00:14:16.440
and a wall of silence from those tasks with uncovering
228
00:14:16.480 --> 00:14:20.840
the truth. Most chilling of all, Despite the gunshot wound
229
00:14:20.840 --> 00:14:25.679
to Terence's head, no autopsy was ever performed. Authorities claimed
230
00:14:25.720 --> 00:14:28.919
it wasn't necessary that the cause of death was obvious,
231
00:14:29.399 --> 00:14:33.720
but three former law enforcement officials familiar with the case disagree.
232
00:14:34.200 --> 00:14:37.440
In their eyes, the circumstances demanded far more than a
233
00:14:37.480 --> 00:14:42.840
cursory glance. They demanded answers. Yet, when press, the silence deepened.
234
00:14:43.279 --> 00:14:47.639
An Oklahoma City Police Department spokesman, Master Sergeant Gary Knight
235
00:14:47.919 --> 00:14:52.679
deflected the question, directing reporters to the State Medical Examiner's office,
236
00:14:53.120 --> 00:14:56.159
But there too, the trail went cold. According to the
237
00:14:56.279 --> 00:15:00.039
CNN article it's titled why did this Cop turn up Dead?
238
00:15:00.080 --> 00:15:04.440
By Thomas Lake, published in twenty twenty three, the office's
239
00:15:04.480 --> 00:15:10.919
director of Operations, Carrie Learned, responded with a single, opaque sentence, quote, our.