McVeigh archive quietly tucked away at UT center

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/texassouthwest/stories/112207dntexmcveigh.1ba5e72.html

Stashed in 700 feet of boxes tucked away at the University of Texas lies a detailed look at the case of Timothy McVeigh, the Gulf War veteran who was executed in 2001 for bombing the federal building in Oklahoma City.

Transcripts, FBI reports, correspondence, videotapes and other materials were donated to the university by Mr. McVeigh's lead counsel, Stephen Jones of Enid, Okla., a few years ago. The archive did not come into public light until a federal court ruled this month that Mr. Jones could not claim a charitable tax deduction for the gift.

The archive sits in the university's Center for American History and is a likely treasure trove for academic researchers, conspiracy theorists and others who are curious about the 1995 bombing that killed 168 people.

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"How come we haven't told anyone about it?" said center director Don Carleton. "We were faced with a situation of: 'How do you promote the existence of the research archive without seeming to be insensitive to victims' families?' We didn't want to make this appear in any way like a celebratory kind of thing. We just decided to preserve the collection and kind of sit on it. It's open to the public. Some congressional investigators have looked at it."

And how he got it, despite what the IRS says, shouldn't matter. If he'd sold that shit on ebay, some sicko woulda paid a bundle...

The Austin American-Statesman examined a small portion of the collection. A box in a series labeled "Most Sensitive McVeigh Files" contained a transcript of Mr. McVeigh speaking under oath to his lawyers five months after the bombing. ....An appraiser hired by Mr. Jones valued the materials at $294,877. Mr. Jones and his wife claimed a tax deduction for that amount, but the tax court said Mr. Jones received the materials as Mr. McVeigh's agent and "did not own the materials and was not entitled to dispose of them."

A "deed of gift" signed by UT and Mr. Jones in 2003 said the material would be available for public inspection. Photographs of victims would be sealed unless Mr. Jones gave written approval.

"We just don't want weirdos coming in and wanting to see dead bodies," Mr. Carleton said. "I hate to say that, but you'd be living in a fantasy world if you didn't think there were folks like that out there."

Jones practice was in Okla. Don't know if he went to UT Law School. Strange.

alongside other national myths.

http://www.statesman.com/news/content/news/stories/local/11/21/1121mcveigh.html


Jones grew up in Houston and earned his bachelor's degree at UT, Carleton said.
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It's unclear whether Jones plans to appeal. Carleton said he didn't think the ruling casts a cloud over the archive.

"As far as I know, it shouldn't have a detrimental effect on what we're doing," Carleton said.

He said the Center for American History would probably hold a conference or some other event in about a year to explore the Oklahoma City bombing. "We feel that's the best way to kind of bring attention to the collection, to do a conference on the tragedy."
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Included in the donation:

FBI interview reports
Medical examiner reports on victims
Photos taken by government investigators
Letters and postcards written by McVeigh
Receipt for ammonium nitrate
Text of the Declaration of Independence with McVeigh's notes
Confidential statement by McVeigh to his lawyers
Analysis of explosives
Phone records
Materials on the 1993 siege at the Branch Davidian compound outside Waco
Newspaper clippings
Trial transcripts