Nichols Handwriting Tied to Bombing Plot Papers

Terry L. Nichols’ handwriting is on a variety of documents that investigators have linked to the Oklahoma City bombing plot, Nichols’ former wife testified at his murder trial Wednesday.

The documents identified by Lana Padilla include motel registration cards, prepaid calling card applications and rental agreements filled out in the names of Joe Kyle, Darryl Bridges and other aliases that have been linked to Nichols.

Prosecutor Sandra Elliott showed Padilla telephone records and questioned her about calls that were placed in 1994 and early 1995 to or from her home in Las Vegas with a calling card connected to Nichols.

Padilla, who was married to Nichols for eight years, said Nichols was the only person who could have made calls from her home with the prepaid card.

Although they were divorced in 1989, Nichols occasionally came to her home to visit their son, she said.

She also identified a Dec. 18, 1994, call to her home from a pay phone in Gilman, Ill., as coming from Timothy J. McVeigh. She said McVeigh was trying to get in touch with Nichols while Nichols was in the Philippines.

McVeigh was convicted on federal murder charges in the bombing and was executed in 2001.

Nichols is on trial on state charges that could bring the death penalty. He is serving a life sentence on federal charges for the April 19, 1995, bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building that killed 168 people.

Padilla testified that she was shocked by a sealed letter Nichols gave her months before the Oklahoma City bombing.

The letter included instructions on how to distribute Nichols’ belongings if he died during a 1994 trip to the Philippines, told her how to enter a storage unit in Henderson, Nev., and what to do with its contents.

Padilla said she followed the instructions in the letter and pried off the back of a kitchen drawer, where she found a package containing $20,000 in cash. She also went to the storage shed and found camping gear, bullion coins and a cigar box containing jade that prosecutors say was stolen from Arkansas gun collector Roger Moore as part of a plan to finance the bombing.

Padilla said she was stunned by the items’ value, adding that Nichols never paid child support and she thought he lived in poverty.

Also in the package was a letter to McVeigh instructing him to clear out two storage units prosecutors have said were used to store components for the Oklahoma City bombing.