04 18 25 ABC News' Jim Ryan Looks Back on Two Tragic Anniversaries

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Tomorrow marks thirty two years since the fifty one day
standout between federal agents and a religious called outside of Waco,
Texas had ended in a massive fire killed dozens of people.
Exactly two years later, at domestic terrorists blew up a
federal building in downtown Oklahoma City Sunday.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
Also, we remember the Columbine tragedy as well.

Speaker 3 (00:16):
ABC News correspondent Jim Ryan joining us now on the
KOA Common Spirit Health Hotline, and Jim actually covered both
of those stories Waco and Oklahoma City when they happened
in ninety three and ninety five.

Speaker 2 (00:29):
Jim, let's start with Waco.

Speaker 3 (00:31):
For those maybe not old enough to remember, just give
us a brief idea of what happened then.

Speaker 4 (00:35):
Yeah. I was also a Columbine. Never been so cold
in my life. Yeah. The standoff at Waco began on
February twenty eighth, nineteen ninety three. Federal agents the ATF
specifically had word that this group, this religious group, the
Branch Davidians, had been modifying weapons. There were allegations of
child abuse at that compound outside Waco. They formed up

(00:58):
and decided to raid the place on four eight, But
the group, the Branch Davidians had been tipped off. They
knew that the Feds were coming. There was a gunfight,
Several federal agents were killed, a couple of the branch
Davidians were killed. The fifty one day standoff was on. Then,
as we know, on April nineteenth, nineteen ninety three, it
ended in this massive fire. This clapboard compound the group

(01:22):
had built over the years burned to the ground. Eighty
some odd people were killed, including many children. That would say,
April nineteenth, nineteen ninety three, it.

Speaker 1 (01:33):
Is, it's but with all these tragedies, this is kind
of there's always been a healthy mistrust, if you want
to say, of what people consider government ojery overreach, not
judging it, but in many ways, Jim, the thing at
Waco started what seems to be a movement of people
where they feel like the whole thing of encroaching the
government rights, the religiosity of things.

Speaker 2 (01:53):
Would you not say that that's kind of where this
sort of started.

Speaker 4 (01:56):
Well, I don't know if it started there. Chat I mean,
certainly people took that call as something that the government
had done, but it had been going on for some time.
The Turner Diaries had been written years before that this
sort of anti government paperback book. One guy who got
a hold of it read it was Timothy McVeigh. He

(02:16):
saw what happened at Waco. He actually made a visit
to the Waco standoff. He was so infuriated by what
happened in nineteen ninety three that two years to the
day later, he built a bomb, essentially turned the back
of a writer rental truck into a bomb, parked it
outside the Murraw Federal Building in Oklahoma City, and blew
it up. One hundred and sixty eight people were killed
on April nineteenth, two years to the day after the

(02:39):
Branch Davidian fire. But certainly the nation suddenly had this
awareness that even the heartland was susceptible to terrorism, not
terrorism from outside, but homegrown terrorists committed by a guy
from Pendleton, New York.

Speaker 3 (02:55):
And speaking of the Oklahoma City bombing, Jim Timothy McVeigh
was executed, but Terry Nichols remains in prison. He's actually
in the supermax prison here in Colorado.

Speaker 4 (03:05):
Yeah, doing one hundred and sixty one consecutive life prison sentence.
There's no chance of parole. I believe that still stands
as the longest sentence ever given to anyone. He's sitting
there on what's known as Bomber's Row with other domestic terrorists.

Speaker 1 (03:22):
In moving this forward, as we wrap up with you, Jim,
I know that law enforcement for these days, for this
weekend is very heightened because of whether there's a connective
thread as people sometimes try to say, because they're trying
to emulate these tragedies or whatever else for the date.
So I would imagine there's probably a lot of chatter
going on and people concerned about it because of the
two and then mentioning Columbine as well.

Speaker 2 (03:43):
On Sunday.

Speaker 4 (03:44):
Oh, absolutely, you know the FBI is on highler even
more so than usual and listening to that chatter online
about about anything that might happen. No word of anything
firm like that as yet, but certainly law enforcement nationwide
its years per cup when you start hearing April nineteenth,
April twentieth.

Speaker 3 (04:04):
And Jim, what are they doing in Waco and in
Oklahoma City to commemorate those events?

Speaker 4 (04:09):
Well, Waco, it's not. It's sort of an odd year,
thirty two years. There isn't anything formal planned Normally, they
don't do anything really organized at all in Waco for
this but tomorrow in Oklahoma City, an event is planned
starting at eight thirty in the morning. A former President
Clinton will speak there. He, of course, was the president
at the time of this. He went to the site

(04:30):
of Oklahoma City in nineteen ninety five. There will be
one hundred and sixty eight seconds of silence and the
reading of the names of the victims, the nineteen children,
the adults who died there that day.

Speaker 2 (04:42):
ABC News is Jim Ryan,