Expert Says McVeigh May Be Paranoid

A noted criminologist says Oklahoma City bombing suspect Timothy J. McVeigh has a paranoid personality that may have led him to bomb the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, according to a newspaper report Sunday.

“There are strong dynamics of this guy’s life that indicate paranoid personality, and that could have been the driving force for his crime, if in fact he did it,” said retired FBI criminologist Robert Ressler, retained by the Dallas Morning News to assess McVeigh’s personality.

Ressler helped develop the FBI’s criminal personality program and was a consultant for the psychological movie thriller “Silence of the Lambs.”

The criminologist said McVeigh may have been motivated by a deep-seated insecurity that could have led him to believe the April 19 bombing was a heroic act against the federal government.

McVeigh and Army buddy Terry L. Nichols are the only two people charged in the bombing that killed 168 people and injured hundreds. McVeigh is expected to be indicted next month.

McVeigh’s attorney, Stephen Jones, dismissed Ressler’s analysis as worthless, telling the newspaper that the criminologist had not interviewed or tested McVeigh.

Forensic psychologist Richard Ratner said McVeigh’s extraordinary neatness and stinginess are also signs of an obsessive personality, the newspaper reported.

McVeigh is having a routine psychological evaluation before the indictment, said his attorney, who added McVeigh is competent to stand trial.