Blowback

An investigative journalist reopens the unsolved mystery of John Doe 2, the Oklahoma City bombing suspect who evaded a global FBI manhunt.

What if everything we know about one of America’s darkest days is wrong?

Tragedy unfolded on April 19, 1995, when a massive bomb exploded in America’s Heartland, killing 168 people, including 15 children in their daycare center. History says the Oklahoma City bombing was lone wolf terrorism. But haunting fresh evidence points instead to a neo-Nazi plot in which the FBI played a hidden role, allowing suspects to walk free, denying justice to the victims, and hiding the truth from all of us.

The FBI launched the biggest manhunt in its history for two suspected bombers and quickly arrested Timothy McVeigh, a twenty-six-year-old Gulf War Army veteran. Yet they never captured the other suspect, known only as John Doe 2, who rode next to McVeigh in the bomb truck. Soon the FBI canceled the search, saying eyewitnesses who saw John Doe 2 were mistaken.

None of this rings true to award-winning journalist Margaret Roberts. As former news director of America’s Most Wanted, she worked high-profile manhunts alongside the FBI. How could twenty witnesses be wrong?

More troubling clues lead Roberts to reopen the mystery of John Doe 2 before the 30th anniversary of America’s deadliest domestic terror attack. Blowback chronicles her shocking discoveries, including journalism’s only face-to-face prison interviews with McVeigh co-conspirator Terry Nichols. Roberts puts the puzzle together after a whistleblower steps forward, though one burning mystery remains: The FBI has kept surveillance video of McVeigh’s accomplice locked away all these years. Is John Doe 2 the FBI’s guilty secret?