Bombing Suspect in Custody : FBI Questions 2nd Man; Death Toll Hits 65 : Terrorism: Officials theorize that attack on federal building may have been aimed at agent who led raid on Branch Davidians in Waco, Tex.

OKLAHOMA CITY —  FBI agents arrested a crew-cut suspect Friday in the bombing of a federal building in Oklahoma City, where at least 65 people died in the worst terrorist attack in American history. A second man surrendered, but federal authorities said they were only questioning him and had not placed him under arrest.

The suspect, Thomas James McVeigh, 26, was put under federal arrest at a jail in the small town of Perry, Okla.--where he had spent the two days since the bombing in custody on minor traffic and weapons charges. His arrest and the surrender of Terry Nichols, 40, in the town of Herington, Kan., made it apparent that the bombing was domestic terrorism.

Authorities said they found strong ties between McVeigh and the Michigan Militia, a paramilitary group that opposes government taxes and gun laws. The group believes that the federal government was guilty of tyranny in its fatal raid two years ago on the Branch Davidian religious cult in Waco, Tex. Federal and state officials theorized that the bombers may have been out to kill the FBI agent who had been in charge of the Waco raid.

There were these additional developments Friday:

* Hope waned that any survivors remained inside the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building. The identities of only 13 victims have been confirmed. As many as 150 bodies were still believed to be buried in the wreckage created by Wednesday’s bombing.

* Federal authorities said their fast-moving investigation involved searches and witness interviews in states across the country. One search, of a Michigan farm from which fertilizer used in the bomb may have come, is expected to continue into today.

* McVeigh and Nichols apparently served together in the military. McVeigh was heavily armed when he was first arrested speeding north away from Oklahoma City only 90 minutes after the bombing.

* President Clinton told reporters in Washington that he and the First Lady would fly to Oklahoma City on Sunday to attend services for victims of the atrocity.

Federal and state authorities in Oklahoma City said they now believe the bombing was in direct retaliation for the Branch Davidians being killed by federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agents and FBI officers.

More specificially, they now theorize that the bombing may have been meant to kill Bob Ricks, who as special agent in charge of the FBI office here in Oklahoma City led the federal standoff against the Branch Davidians in Waco.

They also noted that many of the ATF agents sent to Waco were assigned to Oklahoma City, and that the bombing came on the second anniversary of the fireball that destroyed the religious compound.

“The only motive we can suggest is that this was to get even with Bob Ricks,” one source said. “Ricks was the head FBI guy and he was the focal point of the Brand Davidian assault. And ATF agents here participated in signifant numbers in that assault.

“But other than that, maybe they were just driving through Oklahoma City and decided this was a good enough place to hit.”

Ironically, Ricks was not injured in the blast. The local FBI offices are not even located in that federal office building, although ATF, drug enforcement and Secret Service offices were.

The authorities said they have found strong ties betweeen McVeigh and the Michigan Militia, and they discount statements from the militia that the group has had no involvement with the suspects.

“The individual arrested by the Highway Patrol in Perry (Okla.) is tied into the Michigan Militia by family and other social relationships,” said Oklahoma Gov. Frank Keating, who as a former federal law enforcement official in Washington is being briefed by federal authorities on the case.

“The relationships are strong, and that’s the way it all pieced together.”

Another investigator close to the case, who asked not to be identified, said the connection runs from the suspect and his activities--alleging leasing a truck that was used in bombing the building-- all the way back to activities by the Michigan Militia.

“There’s no question about the lease, the bomb, Perry and Michigan,” the investigator said. “It was revenge for the Branch Davidian. They (the Michigan Militia are anti-tax, anti-gun and anti-federal government.”

Officials also recounted an incredible tale of how McVeigh was first stopped just 90 minutes after the bombing on Wednesday morning going northbound on Interstate 35 in Perry, where a highway patrol officer pulled him over for not having a license plate on his vehicle.

As it later turned out, they said, the vehicle was last registered last year in Arizona.

The governor said the state trooper found a loaded semi-automatic Glock military-style pistol inside the car, along with a knife.

Authorities said McVeigh was arrested for carrying a non-registered firearm and driving an unlicensed vehicle.

But according to authorities, the connection with the bombing did not crystalize until Friday morning. Just 30 minutes before McVeigh was to be taken to a Noble County courtroom in Perry for a bond hearing, local authorities matched up McVeigh’s Social Security number with one listed as belonging to a suspect in the bombing.

The FBI was called, and a federal hold was placed on McVeigh, cancelling the bond hearing. But Noble County officials said that without that connection, McVeigh probably would have been released on the $500 bond on the weapons and license charges.

Officials said McVeigh was arrested with slightly more than $200 in cash, which probably would have been enough of a deposit to secure his release on bond.

“This all came out of the blue,” said Noble County Sheriff Jerry Cook.

Other authorities in Oklahoma City acknowledged that it was a routine traffic stop and an alert highway patrolman that led to the arrests. Otherwise, they said, it could have been weeks, if not months, before officials finished combing through the building wreckage for clues or before the name of a suspect surfaced.

“The key domino is that there is no question that the guy who leased this van and has been identified as such after his arrest in Perry came to Oklahoma City with that bomb,” said one source.

Keating said it did not matter what the motive was for the bombing. He said the people of his state will not forget what happened, regardless of whether the deaths were caused by foreign terrorists or fellow Americans.

“It’s irrelevant to me whether it was international or domestic,” he said. “What’s relative is that evil people did an evil thing in my town. And that we are, as a people, outraged and justifiably angry about this.

“Whether the motive was a protest against the ATF or the FBI or the tax laws, it’s irrelevant. What is relevant is that a lot of innocent children and adults were savaged and the people responsible should be brought to justice.”

McVeigh and Nichols

Little by little, information began to emerge about Thomas James McVeigh and Terry Nichols.

McVeigh told authorities he was born in New York state and had a mailing address in Michigan. But apparently he had no recent place he could call home.

“He said he was living on the road,” said Noble County Dist. Atty. Mark Gibson. “He told us he didn’t really have a residence. He just kept on moving.”

Gibson said McVeigh had short-cropped hair, was about 6-foot-3 and 26 years old. He said McVeigh’s birthday will be Sunday.

At one point, McVeigh was in the Army, according to military officials. His military records were taken from the Army’s Personnel Center, a records archive in St. Louis, Mo., by the FBI, a spokesperson for the records center said.

Senior Pentagon officials, who requested anonymity, said McVeigh had left the service around 1990, apparently with an honorable discharge. There was no indication that he had been trained as a demolitons expert, the officials said, although they did not rule out the possibility.

The Army’s top public information officer, Maj. Gen. Charles McClain, said that McVeigh was not in the service when he was arrested.

In Michigan, where McVeigh stayed at the Nichols farm on occasion, he was known as someone who might have served in the Army with Nichols--and who was interested in guns.

McVeigh apparently also had an interest in bomb-making.

A salesman at Fatigues and Things, an Army-Navy store in Junction City, Kan., said that two men--including one with a crew cut whom he recognized from an FBI’s composite sketch of the suspects--came into the store about two weeks ago.

They looked around, the salesman said, saw a book about bomb-making, bought it and left.

“I’m afraid I’m the one who sold them the book on how to make bombs,” said the salesman, who asked to remain anonymous. He said the book was Army-issue and called the “Improvised Munitions Handbook.” It sells for $3.99.

“It’s one of three or four books we sell,” the salesman noted, “on how to make bombs out of things like fertilizer and gasoline.”

The salesman said the FBI asked him Wednesday if he recognized a photo of a hat one of the men might have been wearing. He said it was a Dallas Cowboys cap with blue flames depicted on the front.

He said he did not recognize the hat.

Junction City was where the FBI said two men rented a Ryder truck used in the bombing.

David Russell, vice president of operations at Elliott’s Body Shop, which is the Ryder rental office, said the FBI asked him not to talk to reporters.

But Sylvia Niemczyk, 36, manager of a Texaco mini mart in Junction City, said a man who looked like McVeigh and another man were regular customers for the past four months.

She described the two men as casually dressed, usually in blue jeans and T-shirts. They visited the mini mart twice a week, Niemczyk said, to purchase gasoline, Coke by the bottle, chips and cigarettes--Kools Filter King and Marlboros by the carton.

They were “very nice and very polite,” she said, “but not very talkative.”

She could not recall whether they had a Ryder truck.

Clearly, McVeigh and Nichols were friends. A bartender at the Silverado Bar and Grill in Herington, Kan., where Nichols surrendered Friday, said the two men had been regular weekend customers for about a month.

They were in the Silverado last Sunday night, the bartender said, shooting pool and drinking Budweiser and Coors Lite beer and “not botherin’ nobody.”

Jeff Hallam, an agent for American Family Insurance in Herington, said he sold Nichols a policy a month ago on a house that he was buying on contract as well as on a 1984 GMC Sierra pickup truck.

Based on information he supplied to the agent, Nichols once lived in Manhattan, Kan., about 45 miles to the west. He told Hallam that he sold surplus government items that he bought at an auction regularly held at Ft. Riley, a nearby Army base.

Nichols gave his age as 40 and said that he was married to a woman named Marife, whom he identified as a Philippina. He said they had a 1 1/2-year-old baby whose name was Nicole.

“Part of our requirement is a Social Security number,” Hallam said, “but he said he did not have one.” His application for the insurance was accepted nonetheless, and Hallam said Nichols paid $220 in cash

The house he was buying is small and light blue with asbestos siding. It has a wrought-iron trellis and a weedy front lawn. A neighbor, Marla Jarvis, said she noticed Nichols and another man changing locks on the screen door a few nights ago.

The house was under guard Friday by three FBI agents.

Two blocks away, cashier Billi Jo Sorenson, 20, said Nichols and McVeigh were at her gasoline station and mini mart on Monday evening.

“The guy with the crew cut bought a pack of Camel filters,” Sorenson recalled. “He asaked for Pall Malls, and we did not have them.

Both men were “grungy,” she said. “They had a strong odor, like they worked at a pig farm.” Fertilizer is thought to be one of the components of the bomb. She said that Nichols wore blue jeans and a dirty denim shirt and that McVeigh wore a flannel shirt, blue jeans and boots.

The Investigation

The fast-moving federal investigation began to bear fruit Friday, as the Justice Department announced that one of its prime suspects, McVeigh, already was in custody in Perry and that the other, Terry Nichols had surrenderd voluntarily to local police in Herington.

The two men initially were described by law enforcement officials as fitting the descriptions of “John Doe 1 and John Doe 2”--the names attached to the composite drawings released by the FBI Thursday.

Later, however, Justice Department officials backtracked, saying that Nichols was not under arrest and was no longer considered to be John Doe 2. He was being questioned by FBI agents as a possible witness, and officials said they were uncertain whether his status would change and result in arrest later.

In addition, officials said that James Nichols, his brother, was not under arrest and also was not considered to be John Doe 2. “We do not now have anyone we consider to be John Doe 2,” a Justice official said late Friday.

At a Washington, D.C., press conference Friday afternoon, Atty. Gen. Janet Reno personally announced that the FBI had arrested McVeigh. FBI Director Louis J. Freeh said that federal officials matched up McVeigh to “John Doe 1”--a man with light brown crew-cut hair--after local officials in Perry received the composite drawing issued by the bureau.

The Justice Department was notified that he was in custody on Friday, officials said, and federal agents then descended on the tiny town 60 miles north of Oklahoma City. McVeigh was moved to Oklahoma City Friday afternoon for an arraignment before a federal magistrate.

Soon after Reno’s press conference, Justice Department officials announced that Terry Nichols--then thought to be John Doe 2--originally of Decker, Mich., surrendered to local police in Herington, not far from Junction City.

Meanwhile, Justice Department officials said late Friday that their investigation was continuing, echoing Reno’s statement that the FBI was pursuing other suspects in the case besides the two men in the composite drawings.

“There is a strong likelihood that other persons are involved in this tragedy as well,” Reno said.

But Justice Department officials refused to comment on their search operation at the Nichols’ Decker, Mich., home, where James Nichols was said to be cooperating with authorities. “Searches are being planned and executed at several locations around the country this afternoon,” Reno told reporters.

And Reno and Freeh would not comment on any links to the 1993 Branch Davidian tragedy in Waco; the bombing occurred on the second anniversary of the final bloody federal raid on the Waco compound.

The rapid arrests of at least one of the men whose faces have been splashed across the nation’s media since Thursday culminated a day quickly shifting developments.

Early in the day on Friday, Justice officials appeared confident that a break in the case was imminent, dismissing earlier speculation that the bombing was the work either of Middle Eastern terrorists or vengeful drug dealers.

That confidence was apparently based on the fact that Justice officials were told early Friday morning that McVeigh was in custody in Perry, where local officials had matched him up to the composite drawing.

The man who arrested McVeigh was Oklahoma highway patrol Charlie Hanger, 42, a 22-year veteren of the force. He stopped the suspect on I-35 near Billings, 20 miles north of Perry. Hanger’s wife, Nancy, said “he told me Wednesday night he was on his way into the city (Perry), and he made the arrest of a guy with a loaded gun.”

She said the arrest went without incident. “My husband was curious about him. Anybody he arrests gets him interested.”

According to Gibson, the local deputy district attorney, McVeigh said he was born in New York state and had a mailing address in Michigan. “He said he was living on the road,” the prosecutor said. “He very polite, very military-like. It was all yes-sir and no-sir. “He told us he didn’t really have a residence. He just kept on moving,” Gibson said. When McVeigh was stopped driving north, he told the officer he was on a cross-country driveand was going to be traveling for eight or 10 hours. That triggered the officer’s suspicions,” Gibson exaplained. “He was suspicious because people don’t drive that long wearing a jacket.”

Friday afternoon, agents from the FBI, ATF, State Policy desceded on McVeigh’s battered yellow Mercury truck, which had been left parked near a wheat field and a line of Chinaberry trees.

At a gas station mini-mart called Cardies Corner, just two blocks from the Perry jail where McVeigh was held, cashier Billi Jo Sorenson, 20, said Terry Nichols had been in the store between 1 and 2 p.m. Friday. Sorenson said he asked for the key to the restroom, then returned to the store, where he walked aimlessly around.

“It was just wierd. He kept looking at me funny,.” she said.

She said Terry Nichols and McVeigh had been in the store together on Monday evening.

“The guy with the crew cut bought a pack of Camel filters, but he asked for Pall Malls and we did not have them,” she recalled.

she also said that both were “grungy.” Nichols wore blue jeans and a soiled denim shirt. McVeigh wore a flannel shirt, dirty jeans and boots.

“They had a strong odor, like they worked at a pig farm,” Sorenson said.

Fertilizer is thought to have been a component of the Oklahoma City bomb.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Where Events Occurred

Suspect Timothy McVeigh was arrested in Perry, Okla., about an hour outside Oklahoma City, just 90 minutes after the bombing Wednesday. On Friday, the farm of James Douglas Nichols was searched but no arrests were made. His brother, Terry, turned himself in to federal officers but was not considered a suspect.

Decker (Michigan): James Nichols farm searched

Herington (Kansas): Terry Nichols surrendered to authorities

Perry (Oklahoma): Timothy McVeigh arrested

Oklahoma City: Site of bombing

Bombing Incidents

The number of bombings investigated annually by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms has been increasing gradually since the mid-1970s. Figures include any incidents under ATF jurisdiction in which a device using explosives and a blasting agent explodes, including premature detonation.

1993: 1,880

Sources: Sourcebook of Criminal Justice Activities, 1993; 1993 Explosives Incidents Report; Researched by JOHN BECKHAM AND VICKY McCARGAR / Los Angeles Times