Oklahoma bomb plotter implicates third man

Oklahoma bombing conspirator Terry Nichols has broken a decade of silence to implicate a third man in the terror attack that killed 168 people.

In a letter sent from his prison cell, Nichols reportedly said he wanted to set the record straight, claiming Arkansas gun collector Roger Moore donated the explosives to bomber Timothy McVeigh.

He said Moore had also provided the bomb components recently found in Nichols’s former Kansas home, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Moore has always denied any involvement in the 1995 bombing but was investigated in the early stages of the probe because of his anti-government views and close relationship with McVeigh, who was executed in 2001. Moore was never charged.

Nichols’s revelations came in one of a series of letters sent to Kathy Sanders, who lost two grandchildren in the bombing but has befriended Nichols whilst conducting her own independent investigation.

He said that having turned 50 he wanted to begin speaking out about the bombing because last month’s 10-year anniversary had passed and he “felt the record should be set straight”, the LA Times reported.

The letter was dated April 18, the day before the anniversary.

He wrote that the government knew others were involved but would not prosecute them, and claimed he wanted to work with Congress “to help expose the gov’t cover-up in my case and thus reveal the truth in the OKC bombing.”

He said ongoing FBI tests of the components found at his home would support his allegation that the material came from Moore.

Moore has claimed that shortly before the explosion he was robbed at gunpoint by a masked man who stole dozens of firearms and other weapons worth about $60,000 (€45,000) from his home.

Prosecutors later blamed Nichols for the robbery, and proved that McVeigh had sold the firearms to raise money to purchase bomb ingredients.

Nichols maintains that the robbery was staged and that McVeigh helped plan it. He is serving two life sentences without parole after being convicted on murder and conspiracy charges in the bombing. He was spared the death sentence.