Mcveigh Pointed To As Ryder Truck Renter Owner Of Rental Agency Says ‘That Man,’ As Government Builds Oklahoma City Case

“That man. Over there. In the blue shirt.”

With those eight little words, the owner of a Kansas rental agency identified Timothy J. McVeigh on Friday as the man who rented the Ryder truck that carried the bomb that killed 168 people in an explosion of the Oklahoma City federal building.

Eldon Elliott, who runs Elliott’s Body Shop, was the key witness in a series of people called to the stand as federal prosecutors sought to paint for the jury a mental picture of the days immediately preceding the April 19, 1995, bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building.

Eric McGown testified that McVeigh, using his real name, checked into Room 25 at the Dreamland Motel in Junction City, Kan., on Friday, April 14.

Yuhua Bai, owner of the Hunan Palace restaurant in Junction City, said McVeigh, using the alias of “Mr. Kling,” ordered a Chinese dinner of “moo goo gai pan” and egg roll on the evening of Saturday, April 15.

And Marife Nichols, the wife of co-defendant Terry L. Nichols, described how her husband abruptly left their home in nearby Herington, Kan., on Easter Sunday, April 16 - and, according to the government, accompanied McVeigh to Oklahoma City so he could hide a getaway car there.

Prosecutors presented photos taken by a surveillance camera at a McDonald’s restaurant in Junction City on Monday, April 17, that showed McVeigh at the counter buying a fruit pie before he allegedly took a 15-minute walk to the Ryder agency.

And then Elliott took the stand Friday afternoon, testifying that the man he saw in the courtroom - McVeigh, in the blue shirt - was the same man who rented the yellow Ryder truck using the alias of “Robert Kling.”

The truck rented for $280.32, including an $80 deposit. The customer said he wanted the 20-foot van to drive to Nebraska. Elliott asked him if he wanted insurance.

“I won’t need it,” the man said. “I am a good driver.”

McVeigh is standing trial in the worst incident of terrorism in the United States. If convicted, he could be sentenced to death.

He has pleaded not guilty. And despite the prosecution’s smoothly orchestrated testimony concerning the days before the bombing, McVeigh’s defense attorney still managed to raise some doubts about the government’s case.

Stephen Jones, his lead attorney, was able to get McGown to acknowledge that he was not sure whether McVeigh showed up at the motel with the Ryder truck on Sunday or Monday. That is a critical discrepancy, because McVeigh could not have had the truck on Sunday if Elliott is correct that it was not rented until Monday.

Jones also noted for the jury that Elliott remembers that McVeigh rented the truck with a second man. For two years, that mystery individual was known only as John Doe No. 2. He has not been found, and only recently did the government say it now believes there was no such person.

And yet Elliott, under cross-examination by Jones, stuck to his story that there was a second man with McVeigh that day. And when Jones asked him if he had tailored his testimony in the hopes of qualifying for the $2 million reward for McVeigh’s arrest, Elliott was very blunt and plain-spoken in his answer.

“No,” he said. “I don’t want no reward.”