Sister Portrays McVeigh as Decent, Says He Is Not Evil

Her arms crossed, her legs shaking, her voice soft and trembling, the sister of accused Oklahoma City bomber Timothy J. McVeigh struggled Wednesday to portray her brother as a decent man who has been “unfairly demonized” and who feels terrible for the great tragedy that struck here last April.

“He’s not this evil thing that people make him out to be,” Jennifer McVeigh said.

Her comments came as she talked publicly about her brother for the first time. Standing before a phalanx of cameras and reporters in a crowded courthouse pressroom, she said the April 19 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, which killed 169 people and injured more than 600, has left her brother constantly criticized “for whatever he does.”

About the tremendous loss of life and injuries here, she said:

“I guess I feel about the same way as everyone else. But of course it’s different for me, having Tim accused of this. No matter what, he’s still my brother. I’m still going to be there for him. And I’m sure that any of the victims, if it was the same situation, they would feel the same if it was their brother up there.”

She said she cannot understand why half of the nation criticizes her brother for appearing stone-faced and evil after his arrest, and the other half for complaining that he has sat in court all week smiling, slouching and sometimes laughing--all in front of a hundred of the victims and the relatives of those killed.

“They criticized him on that first picture when he was in that orange jumpsuit walking out of the jail and he had that stony look on his face,” she said. “They criticized him because he didn’t show any emotion.

“Now, they’re criticizing him because he’s smiling. They’re going to criticize him for whatever he does.”

Since their arrests shortly after the bombing, McVeigh, 27, and co-defendant Terry L. Nichols, two Army buddies who authorities say turned against the government, have stood accused of the worst terrorist attack in the United States. If convicted, they could be sentenced to death.

To help put a softer image on her brother, Jennifer, a 21-year-old student on leave from her college classes in Buffalo, N.Y., said that even when she has provided more flattering pictures of her brother to the news media, they still show him walking out of the Perry, Okla., jail to the shouts of “baby killer” from an angry crowd.

“I don’t think his expressions were directed at anybody,” she said. “He has been unfairly demonized. He’s normal. He’s not this evil thing that people make him out to be.”

She drove here earlier this week, 20 hours from Buffalo, to show her support for her brother. She is the first family member since the bombing to appear in court on his behalf.

Almost immediately surrounded by more than 100 still-grieving Oklahomans, she felt nervous, threatened and overwhelmed. Still, she expressed sympathy for those who died and were injured here. And she echoed her brother’s defense attorneys’ insistence that a fair trial can only be held outside of Oklahoma.

“I think anywhere but Oklahoma--for obvious reasons. Media coverage here and everything else. The emotions of the people,” she said.

And about the victims at the courthouse who this week have craned and peered at her as she sometimes smiled and nodded her head at her brother:

“I know what the people of Oklahoma City think about my brother. So it’s probably the same about what they think of me. I’m nervous. I just feel a little unsafe here.”

But she carefully dodged any questions about his guilt or innocence, and she declined to discuss her expected role as a critical government witness at her brother’s trial later this year.

The government has granted her immunity from prosecution in exchange for her testimony. Prosecutors are particularly interested in a series of letters and conversations she had with her brother in which he allegedly discussed his anti-government views.

“I just don’t think I should talk about that,” she said.

Nichols’ family also has been attending the hearings this week, as they often have since he surrendered to authorities after the bombing.

His brother, James Nichols of Decker, Mich., still protests what he calls government abuses and unwanted intrusions into his family’s life.

He complained that government agents follow him and other family members, that they read his mail and monitor his phone calls and that they are keen on finding new evidence to implicate him as a defendant in the bombing.

Earlier this year, when McVeigh and Terry Nichols were arrested, James Nichols too was taken into custody. But after being held only as a material witness, a judge in Michigan ordered his release, ruling there was no compelling evidence to keep him behind bars.

“We don’t talk to Terry much any more,” James Nichols said during a break in Wednesday’s hearing. “Everything we do is recorded. We don’t trust anybody.”

Meanwhile, the mother of two little boys who died in the blast has filed a wrongful death suit against McVeigh seeking $30 million in damages, her attorney, Larry Oliver, told Reuters on Wednesday. Edye Smith’s sons, Chase, 3, and Colton, 2, were among 19 children who died in a day care center when the federal building was blown apart.