52 Facts About Terry Nichols

Terry Lynn Nichols was born on April 1,1955 and is an American domestic terrorist who was convicted for conspiring with Timothy McVeigh in the Oklahoma City bombing plot.

Terry Nichols held a variety of short-term jobs, working as a farmer, grain elevator manager, real estate salesman, and ranch hand.

Terry Nichols met Timothy McVeigh during a brief stint in the US Army, which ended in 1989 when he requested a hardship discharge after less than one year of service.

Terry Nichols was sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole after the jury deadlocked on the death penalty.

Terry Nichols was tried in Oklahoma on state charges of murder in connection with the bombing.

Terry Nichols shared a cell block that is commonly referred to as "Bomber's Row" with Ramzi Yousef and Eric Rudolph, as well as Ted Kaczynski until his transfer in 2021.

Terry Nichols was raised on a farm, the third of four children of Joyce and Robert Nichols.

Terry Nichols attended Lapeer High School where he took elective classes in crafts and business law.

Terry Nichols graduated from high school in 1973 with a 3.6 grade point average, with ambitions of becoming a physician.

Terry Nichols completed one term of 13 credit hours with B grade average.

Terry Nichols had Cs in biology, chemistry and trigonometry, a B in literature and an A in archery.

Terry Nichols tried farming with his brother James for a while, but they did not get along; he felt his brother was too bossy.

In 1980, Terry Nichols met real estate agent Lana Walsh, a twice-divorced mother of two who was five years his senior.

Terry Nichols had never liked farm life, and in 1988, at the age of 33, he tried to escape it by enlisting in the United States Army.

Terry Nichols was sent to Fort Benning next to Columbus, Georgia for basic training.

Terry Nichols's wife filed for divorce soon after he joined the Army.

In 1990, Terry Nichols, 35, married 17-year-old Marife Torres from the Philippines, whom he met through a mail-order bride agency.

Terry Nichols sometimes traveled to the Philippines alone, while she remained in Kansas.

Terry Nichols left a cryptic note and a package of documents with his ex-wife, Lana Padilla, prior to one of his many visits to the Philippines.

Terry Nichols spent most of his adult life in the Lapeer and Sanilac County areas of Michigan where mistrust and resentment of the federal government was common, especially after bank foreclosures of many farms during the 1980s farm crisis.

In May 1993, Terry Nichols appeared before a county judge regarding an $8,421 unpaid credit card debt.

McVeigh and Terry Nichols grew closer after McVeigh's discharge from the Army.

In December 1991, Terry Nichols invited McVeigh to join him in Michigan and help him out selling military surplus at gun shows.

Terry Nichols then went to Las Vegas to try working in construction but failed.

Terry Nichols's employer said Nichols was hard-working but had unusual political views.

Terry Nichols began purchasing large quantities of ammonium nitrate fertilizer and storing it in three rental storage units.

Terry Nichols robbed an Arkansas gun dealer who had befriended him and McVeigh at various gun shows.

In February 1995 Terry Nichols bought a small house in Herington, Kansas, with a cash down payment.

Terry Nichols was charged with failing to notify authorities in advance of the crime and sentenced to 12 years in prison.

Terry Nichols said he helped McVeigh survey the building before the attack.

Terry Nichols testified that Nichols had robbed an Arkansas gun dealer to finance the cost of the bombing.

Fortier provided "solid bricks of evidence" for the cases against McVeigh and Terry Nichols, according to the prosecutor.

Terry Nichols said her husband had been living a double life prior to the bombing, using aliases, renting storage lockers and lying that he had broken off his relationship with McVeigh.

Terry Nichols testified that Nichols traveled to Oklahoma City three days before the bombing, supporting the prosecution's contention that Nichols helped McVeigh station a getaway car near the Murrah building.

The prosecution argued that Terry Nichols helped McVeigh purchase and steal bomb ingredients, park the getaway car near the Murrah building and assemble the bomb.

The defense attempted to cast doubt on the case against Terry Nichols by calling witnesses who said they saw other men with McVeigh before the bombing and by claiming the government had manipulated the evidence against Terry Nichols.

Terry Nichols received a concurrent 48-year sentence for his eight involuntary manslaughter convictions, six for each victim.

Terry Nichols was sent to the Federal Supermax Prison in Florence, Colorado.

Oklahoma County District Attorney Wes Lane denied the state prosecution was conducted solely for the purpose of having Terry Nichols executed, saying it was important Terry Nichols be convicted of killing all the victims.

Terry Nichols was brought from the prison in Colorado to Oklahoma in January 2000 to face the state trial on 160 capital counts of first-degree murder and one count each of fetal homicide, first-degree arson, and conspiracy.

Fortier testified that McVeigh and Nichols stole cord and blasting caps from a rock quarry, and that Nichols robbed Roger E Moore, a gun collector, to obtain money for the plot.

Terry Nichols' lawyers said he was the "fall guy" and that others, Moore included, had conspired with McVeigh.

Terry Nichols's relatives testified that he was a loving family man.

The defense argued that Terry Nichols had been controlled by a "dominant, manipulative" McVeigh and urged jurors not to be persuaded by the "flood of tears" of the victims who testified.

The defense said that Terry Nichols had "sincerely" converted to Christianity.

Terry Nichols apologized for the murders and offered to write to survivors to "assist in their healing process".

Terry Nichols's mother claimed that her son had Asperger syndrome, was manipulated by McVeigh and didn't know what the bomb was for.

Terry Nichols said that in 1995 McVeigh told him that FBI official Larry Potts, who had supervised the Ruby Ridge and Waco operations, had directed McVeigh to blow up a government building.

Terry Nichols claimed that he and McVeigh had learned how to make the bomb from individuals they met while attending gun shows.

Terry Nichols, who had been employed in Marion County as a ranch hand, was familiar with numerous quarries there.

Terry Nichols admitted that he had helped McVeigh mix the bomb ingredients in the truck the day before the attack, but he denied that he knew the exact target of the bomb.

Terry Nichols wanted to testify in more detail in a videotaped deposition, but a federal appeals court ruled against it in 2009.