Nichols Said to Get 2nd Look in Bomb Inquiry

Investigators are again eyeing the possibility that Terry L. Nichols is the elusive second suspect in the Oklahoma City bombing, a magazine said.

Nichols, an Army friend of suspect Timothy J. McVeigh, initially was thought by some to be suspect John Doe No. 2. But Nichols bears little resemblance to the FBI sketch of the suspect.

“Wherever we look, it’s Terry and Timmy, Terry and Timmy--and nobody else,” one investigator told Newsweek in its May 15 issue.

Nichols is being held in Kansas as a material witness and is to be brought to Oklahoma to testify at a grand jury hearing this week for McVeigh, the only person charged so far in the April 19 federal building bombing that killed 167 people.

Also expected to testify is Nichols’ ex-wife, who told the syndicated TV show “American Journal” that Nichols gave her a package in November and told her to open it if he failed to return after 50 days.

Lana Padilla of Las Vegas said she opened the package the next morning, finding letters of instruction for her and McVeigh.

In the letter to McVeigh, which she said she never delivered, Nichols asked him to clean out a storage unit “in the event of my death.”

Newsweek also reported that six weeks before the bombing, the FBI told agents to gather intelligence on militia groups. But the FBI was so cautious after the 1993 Branch Davidian raid in Texas and 1992 Idaho shootout with white separatist Randy Weaver that it barred agents from recruiting informants without evidence to begin a criminal investigation.