Nichols Cries as Ex-Wife Reads Letter About Son

Terry L. Nichols did something Wednesday so unlike Timothy J. McVeigh. He cried.

He began weeping when his ex-wife testified at his capital murder trial in the Oklahoma City bombing case. As Lana Padilla read tearfully from a letter he had written her about their son, Nichols burst out crying, removed his glasses and put his hands over his eyes.

His chief defense attorney, Michael Tigar, leaned over and hugged his client--the man the government is trying to prove helped McVeigh purchase and stockpile ammonium nitrate and fuel oil and then mix them to make a bomb that killed 168 people at the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building.

McVeigh was convicted earlier this year and sentenced to death. Throughout his nine-week trial, he virtually never betrayed an emotion, never winced or showed any sorrow, even as family members begged a jury to spare his life and dozens of bomb victims told heart-wrenching stories about their losses on April 19, 1995.

Indeed, the most emotion McVeigh ever showed was a rare laugh when a former Army pal testified about the bomber’s past as a tank gunner during the Persian Gulf War.

Testimony in the Nichols trial began 20 days ago, and the defendant has been sitting ramrod straight in a chair, flanked by his two chief attorneys. Dressed each day in a sport jacket, shirt and turtleneck, he has shown nothing more than a blink of the eye.

But when Padilla took the stand late Wednesday morning, dressed in a black sweater and a silver cross necklace, it was clear that the 42-year-old Nichols, a farmer by background who grew to hate the federal government, would be moved.

The couple married in 1981 and divorced eight years later. They have one son, Josh, now 15. They lived in Michigan and worked together for a while selling insurance and real estate. The marriage dissolved after Nichols left to join the Army.

Padilla was called as a government witness, her testimony intended to show that her ex-husband was deeply involved with his former Army buddy McVeigh in preparing the bomb. According to the prosecution, McVeigh and Nichols acquired the ingredients in September and October 1994, then waited for the April 19 anniversary of the 1993 FBI raid on a religious compound near Waco, Texas, to make their strike.

As Padilla talked about her life with Nichols, she began to cry each time she mentioned Josh. Chief prosecutor Larry Mackey questioned her about an incident in November 1994, when Nichols was visiting her and their son in Las Vegas.

At that time, Nichols was leaving for the Philippines to reunite with his new wife, Marife. But before departing, he hid a package of letters and $20,000 in cash, which Padilla said she later found in a kitchen drawer.

One letter was addressed to her, and she said she immediately interpreted it to mean that Nichols feared he was going to die soon.

“I was very concerned, real concerned,” she testified. “I cared about Terry, and I was worried about something awful, that he was not coming back.”

The letter gave her instructions on what to do about Josh should Nichols not return and told her to be sure some of the cash went to the boy’s support. “Josh has just a few years before he’s capable of being on his own,” Nichols wrote.

It was at that point in her reading that Padilla cried on the witness stand, and then Nichols wept too. The faces of two of the 18 jurors and alternates were also wet with tears.

The second letter was addressed to McVeigh, and it told him to clear out various storage lockers that he and Nichols had rented. The government suggests that this was a veiled instruction for McVeigh to assemble the bomb should Nichols not return from the Philippines.

The letter ended: “Your [sic] on your own. Go For It!!”

Under cross-examination, Padilla said that last phrase--”Go For It!”--was something she and Nichols used while working as salespeople in Michigan.

She also described her ex-husband as a hard worker who tried a variety of jobs before settling on his last one, selling military surplus items in central Kansas. Specifically, she mentioned that he was going to sell Army Meals Ready to Eat, commonly known as MREs.

Only Padilla called them MRIs. Then she looked at her ex-husband, and he at her, and they both smiled.