Terry Nichols

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

Prior to his incarceration, he held a variety of short-term jobs, working as a farmer, grain elevator manager, real estate salesman, and ranch hand.

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

Nichols enrolled at Central Michigan University.

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

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

In 1974, after another brother, Leslie, was badly burned in a fuel tank explosion on the farm, he offered to give him skin for grafts.

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

Later he moved to Colorado and obtained a license to sell real estate in 1976.

Soon after he closed on his first big sale, his mother told him she needed his help on the farm, so he returned to Michigan.

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

They married and had a son, Joshua, in 1982.

During the marriage, Nichols engaged in a succession of part-time and short-term jobs: carpentry work, managing a grain elevator, and selling life insurance and real estate.

According to Lana, she was the one with a career; Nichols was a house husband, who spent most of his time at home with the children cooking and gardening.

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.

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

As the oldest man in his platoon, he had difficulty with the physical aspect of the training, and was sometimes called "grandpa" by the other men.

However, he was soon made the platoon guide because of his age.

Timothy McVeigh was in his platoon, and they quickly became close friends.

They had a common background: both men grew up in white rural areas.

Both had tried college for a while and had parents who were divorced.

They shared political views and interests in gun collecting and the survivalist movement.

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

In 1994 and 1995, he conspired with McVeigh in the planning and preparation of the truck bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, on April 19, 1995.

The bombing killed 168 people.

In a federal trial in 1997, Nichols was convicted of conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction and eight counts of involuntary manslaughter for killing federal law enforcement personnel.

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

He was also tried in Oklahoma on state charges of murder in connection with the bombing.

In 2004, he was convicted of 161 counts of first degree murder, including one count of fetal homicide, first-degree arson, and conspiracy.

As in the federal trial, the state jury deadlocked on imposing the death penalty.

In the longest prison sentence ever given to an individual, he was sentenced to 161 consecutive life terms without the possibility of parole, and is incarcerated at ADX Florence, a super maximum security prison near Florence, Colorado.

He 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.

Nichols was born in Lapeer, Michigan.

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

Growing up, he helped his parents on the farm, learning to operate and maintain the equipment.

According to the Denver Post, he also cared for injured birds and animals.

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

Throughout school, friends characterized him as shy.

While in high school he played junior varsity football, wrestled, and was a member of the ski club.

His brother James, who self-published a 400-page book about the bombing, has stated that Terry was book smart and good at artwork.