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This chapter explores how family members and survivors of the Oklahoma City bombing dealt with the death of their loved ones by joining advocacy groups. It shows how relationships between group members helped victims to make sense of the bombing and to ascertain their own relationships to it. To better understand how group membership benefited survivors and family members, the chapter considers the profound emotional and psychological suffering that participants experienced in the bombing's aftermath. It also discusses community and memorial practices in Oklahoma City in the wake of the bombing, with particular emphasis on the work of the Oklahoma City Murrah Federal Building Memorial Task Force, the “habeas group,” and the Oklahoma City Murrah Building Survivor's Association. Finally, it analyzes the functions of groups formed in the wake of the Oklahoma City bombing, along with the narrative benefits of companionship offered by advocacy groups.

This chapter explores how family members and survivors of the Oklahoma City bombing dealt with the death of their loved ones by joining advocacy groups. It shows how relationships between group members helped victims to make sense of the bombing and to ascertain their own relationships to it. To better understand how group membership benefited survivors and family members, the chapter considers the profound emotional and psychological suffering that participants experienced in the bombing's aftermath. It also discusses community and memorial practices in Oklahoma City in the wake of the bombing, with particular emphasis on the work of the Oklahoma City Murrah Federal Building Memorial Task Force, the “habeas group,” and the Oklahoma City Murrah Building Survivor's Association. Finally, it analyzes the functions of groups formed in the wake of the Oklahoma City bombing, along with the narrative benefits of companionship offered by advocacy groups.

This book concludes by focusing on the memorialization of Timothy McVeigh ten years after he was executed. It suggests that the presences of McVeigh and his co-conspirators have not been altogether banished, noting how attention has shifted from the duties of prosecution and execution to incorporation—how best to acknowledge and explain the role played by McVeigh, Terry Nichols, and Michael Fortier in the Oklahoma City bombing without giving them further credit or airtime. It also considers the impact of the task of incorporation on the ways survivors, victims' families, and Oklahoma City National Memorial and Museum personnel negotiated the perpetrators' presences. Finally, it discusses the issue of including McVeigh in museum exhibits.

The purpose of this chapter is to present an overview of the science that has been disseminated over the past decade on the psychological impact of terrorism. Both short- and longer-term research on the psychiatric and medical effects of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks is first presented, and then compared to other studies within the United States (e.g., following the Oklahoma City bombing) and internationally (e.g., in Israel, England, Spain, France, etc.). Data are presented on both the general population as well as specific sub-groups that may be vulnerable to negative outcomes (e.g., those directly exposed, children, service professionals, etc.). Overall, this research suggests that while spikes in psychopathology occur immediately following an act of terrorism, these rates decline over time and return to baseline rates 6 to 12 months following the attack. However, specific populations exhibit more chronic rates of psychopathology over time (e.g., populations directly exposed, those with prior psychiatric history, etc.).

This book concludes by focusing on the memorialization of Timothy McVeigh ten years after he was executed. It suggests that the presences of McVeigh and his co-conspirators have not been altogether banished, noting how attention has shifted from the duties of prosecution and execution to incorporation—how best to acknowledge and explain the role played by McVeigh, Terry Nichols, and Michael Fortier in the Oklahoma City bombing without giving them further credit or airtime. It also considers the impact of the task of incorporation on the ways survivors, victims' families, and Oklahoma City National Memorial and Museum personnel negotiated the perpetrators' presences. Finally, it discusses the issue of including McVeigh in museum exhibits.

This chapter focuses on media coverage of suspects in the Oklahoma City bombing, their motivations, their families, and their life histories. It suggests that Timothy McVeigh was counting on the media to cement the bombing's place in American memory and considers how media coverage became a source of crucial information to family members and survivors concerning the bombing site's status. It also shows how the media became an avenue for victims to air their opinions and a forum where they could advocate for change, along with media coverage of the other perpetrators, namely, Terry Nichols and Michael Fortier. Finally, it examines the mass media's efficacy as a site of collective memory as well as the criticisms against the media for exaggerating, sensationalizing, or overreporting information.

This chapter examines how Timothy McVeigh confronted his public image. It considers the media's portrayal of McVeigh as a malicious, even monstrous, individual and McVeigh's response to this treatment with media interviews and an authorized biography. It also analyzes the increase in McVeigh's public visibility between June 13, 1997, when he was sentenced to death, and June 11, 2001, when he was executed; the two-way, reciprocal relationships that developed between McVeigh and journalists and victims after the bombing; and McVeigh's attempts at reputation management and his feelings toward victims. Finally, it cites the publication of McVeigh's biography, American Terrorist: Timothy McVeigh and the Oklahoma City Bombing.

In this chapter, the author traces the origins of the relationship between victims and offenders within the context of the Oklahoma City bombing. She begins by giving her first impressions of Timothy McVeigh, the suspect in the Oklahoma City bombing whom she saw on April 21, 1995. She then considers how viewers regard (or disregard) perpetrators' pictures, particularly in memorial spaces commemorating victims, and in particular pictures of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building taken shortly after the bombing as well as McVeigh's perp walk footage. She also examines the reactions of family members and survivors to McVeigh, along with the connections that they felt with him and media constructions of McVeigh as a para-social enemy. Finally, the author explores how the victim–offender relationship influenced the attempts of family members and survivors of the Oklahoma City bombing at memory work.

This chapter examines how Timothy McVeigh confronted his public image. It considers the media's portrayal of McVeigh as a malicious, even monstrous, individual and McVeigh's response to this treatment with media interviews and an authorized biography. It also analyzes the increase in McVeigh's public visibility between June 13, 1997, when he was sentenced to death, and June 11, 2001, when he was executed; the two-way, reciprocal relationships that developed between McVeigh and journalists and victims after the bombing; and McVeigh's attempts at reputation management and his feelings toward victims. Finally, it cites the publication of McVeigh's biography, American Terrorist: Timothy McVeigh and the Oklahoma City Bombing.

This chapter focuses on media coverage of suspects in the Oklahoma City bombing, their motivations, their families, and their life histories. It suggests that Timothy McVeigh was counting on the media to cement the bombing's place in American memory and considers how media coverage became a source of crucial information to family members and survivors concerning the bombing site's status. It also shows how the media became an avenue for victims to air their opinions and a forum where they could advocate for change, along with media coverage of the other perpetrators, namely, Terry Nichols and Michael Fortier. Finally, it examines the mass media's efficacy as a site of collective memory as well as the criticisms against the media for exaggerating, sensationalizing, or overreporting information.

This chapter attempts to redefine the term “closure” as applied in the context of the Oklahoma City bombing. By disturbing, inflaming, and frustrating family members and survivors, the Oklahoma City bombers' toxic presences commenced and compelled a quest for “closure.” The application of the term “closure” in the Oklahoma City context raised a host of other issues, such as the controversial assertion that Timothy McVeigh's execution would provide closure by soothing victims' troubled souls. This chapter examines how victims' family members and survivors define closure and attempt to achieve it, with particular emphasis on the link between the pursuit of closure and “memory work.” It also considers the extent to which closure is identified with capital punishment, the idea that victims' families require a death sentence or execution to heal. Finally, it discusses the interrelationships among closure, cultural trauma, and the journey from victim to survivor, along with the media and the criminal justice system as institutional sites of closure.

This chapter examines Timothy McVeigh's execution that put an end to the victim-offender relationship. The day before McVeigh was executed on June 12, 2001, survivors and victims' families who would witness his death live began the long journey from Oklahoma City and elsewhere to Terre Haute, Indiana. Other family members and survivors of the Oklahoma City bombing opted not to attend the execution. This chapter considers how, on the morning of McVeigh's execution, the healing, voluntary relationships that family members and survivors had formed with one another converged with other destructive, involuntary relationships that chained them to the perpetrators. It also describes McVeigh's execution as a modern spectacle and a site of memory work, his gaze prior to his execution which was interpreted by witnesses as confrontational or defiant, and images of his execution.

In this chapter, the author traces the origins of the relationship between victims and offenders within the context of the Oklahoma City bombing. She begins by giving her first impressions of Timothy McVeigh, the suspect in the Oklahoma City bombing whom she saw on April 21, 1995. She then considers how viewers regard (or disregard) perpetrators' pictures, particularly in memorial spaces commemorating victims, and in particular pictures of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building taken shortly after the bombing as well as McVeigh's perp walk footage. She also examines the reactions of family members and survivors to McVeigh, along with the connections that they felt with him and media constructions of McVeigh as a para-social enemy. Finally, the author explores how the victim–offender relationship influenced the attempts of family members and survivors of the Oklahoma City bombing at memory work.

This chapter examines Timothy McVeigh's execution that put an end to the victim-offender relationship. The day before McVeigh was executed on June 12, 2001, survivors and victims' families who would witness his death live began the long journey from Oklahoma City and elsewhere to Terre Haute, Indiana. Other family members and survivors of the Oklahoma City bombing opted not to attend the execution. This chapter considers how, on the morning of McVeigh's execution, the healing, voluntary relationships that family members and survivors had formed with one another converged with other destructive, involuntary relationships that chained them to the perpetrators. It also describes McVeigh's execution as a modern spectacle and a site of memory work, his gaze prior to his execution which was interpreted by witnesses as confrontational or defiant, and images of his execution.

This chapter attempts to redefine the term “closure” as applied in the context of the Oklahoma City bombing. By disturbing, inflaming, and frustrating family members and survivors, the Oklahoma City bombers' toxic presences commenced and compelled a quest for “closure.” The application of the term “closure” in the Oklahoma City context raised a host of other issues, such as the controversial assertion that Timothy McVeigh's execution would provide closure by soothing victims' troubled souls. This chapter examines how victims' family members and survivors define closure and attempt to achieve it, with particular emphasis on the link between the pursuit of closure and “memory work.” It also considers the extent to which closure is identified with capital punishment, the idea that victims' families require a death sentence or execution to heal. Finally, it discusses the interrelationships among closure, cultural trauma, and the journey from victim to survivor, along with the media and the criminal justice system as institutional sites of closure.

This chapter examines how it is to experience the victim–offender relationship, and particularly how Timothy McVeigh entailed feelings of helplessness and passivity. It describes McVeigh, the principal suspect in the Oklahoma City bombing, as an unwelcome, even toxic, intrusion into the lives of survivors and family members. It considers the criminal impact and personal impact of an offender's presence in a victim's life and argues that all participants who were aware of McVeigh's toxic presence, including victims, experienced both a criminal impact and a personal impact. It also discusses participants' personal impressions of McVeigh, the emotional consequences of McVeigh's toxic presence, and the unwelcome presence of Terry Nichols and Michael Fortier, the two other suspected offenders in the Oklahoma City bombing. Finally, it suggests that recovering one's identity and restoring one's dignity meant ejecting McVeigh and reasserting self-control.

This chapter discusses Night Moves as a political thriller about ecoterrorism, and focuses on Riechardt’s adjustments in form, style, and content as compared with her prior body of work. While on the surface, Night Moves appears to have more commercial intentions, it is an overt challenge to cinematic commercialisation. Although the thriller genre promises sex, action, and special effects, Night Moves, in true independent cinematic fashion, never shows these events on screen. Night Moves invites ethical questions through the ecoterrorist actions of the protagonists and the gender commentary supplied through the sparse dialogue and character interactions. Through interviews with Reichardt and her cast and crew the chapter covers production methods and makes connections with contemporary environmental activist groups, such as the Earth Liberation Front, the Occupy Wall Street movement and to terrorist acts such as the Oklahoma City bombing.

This chapter examines how canonical political texts from the American Revolution and the Civil War provide interpretive resources for consolation discourse. “Civil scriptures” such as the Declaration of Independence, George Washington’s 1789 inaugural, and Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address and second inaugural offered symbolic frameworks for coming to terms with national suffering that continue to reverberate in the aftermath of contemporary crises. The chapter first describes how these texts addressed the meaning of suffering and forged a place for it in larger national narratives. It then examines more recent moments when the civil scriptures have figured centrally in political speechmaking—the John F. Kennedy assassination, the Challenger explosion, and the Oklahoma City bombing—and underscores how these open-ended texts have been deployed in distinct and even contradictory interpretations of national crises.

This chapter examines how it is to experience the victim–offender relationship, and particularly how Timothy McVeigh entailed feelings of helplessness and passivity. It describes McVeigh, the principal suspect in the Oklahoma City bombing, as an unwelcome, even toxic, intrusion into the lives of survivors and family members. It considers the criminal impact and personal impact of an offender's presence in a victim's life and argues that all participants who were aware of McVeigh's toxic presence, including victims, experienced both a criminal impact and a personal impact. It also discusses participants' personal impressions of McVeigh, the emotional consequences of McVeigh's toxic presence, and the unwelcome presence of Terry Nichols and Michael Fortier, the two other suspected offenders in the Oklahoma City bombing. Finally, it suggests that recovering one's identity and restoring one's dignity meant ejecting McVeigh and reasserting self-control.