Former Friend Links Nichols to Bomb Plot

The prosecution’s star witness in the Terry Nichols murder trial testified in McAlester that Nichols was deeply involved in the plot to blow up the Oklahoma City federal building, gathering several components used to make the giant bomb.

Members of the jury listened with rapt attention as the soft-spoken Michael Fortier testified for more than five hours about his contact with Timothy McVeigh and Nichols, his former Army buddies.

“[McVeigh] told me that him and Terry had been making trips to local feed stores to buy ammonium nitrate,” Fortier said, referring to the fertilizer that was mixed with racing fuel in the homemade bomb.