DENVER, May 12 -- Former members of a radical paramilitary group and a retired FBI agent believe the Oklahoma City federal building bombing may have been revenge for the execution of one of group's members, a Denver newspaper reported Sunday. Retired agent Jack Knox said the April 19, 1995, explosion may be linked to the execution on the same day of Richard Wayne Snell, a member of the Covenant, the Sword and the Arm of the Lord who killed a black Arkansas state trooper and a pawnshop owner. In a copyright story by the Denver Post, Knox said Snell had the ability to mastermind the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building bombing from his cell on Arkansas' death row. 'I think there was a liasion or a definite communication to the people who were in the movement and Snell,' said Knox, who spent several years of his long FBI career investigating the CSA. Snell and the violent far-right group had targeted the same federal building after the 1983 death of North Dakota rancher Gordon Kahl, who died in a confrontation with federal officers in Arkansas, the Post reported. Knox said members of the patriot movement were aware of Snell's execution date and believes the Oklahoma City blast that killed 168 people 'might be...in memory of him.' The Post also reported that Arkansas prison official Alan Ables said during the four days before the execution Snell reportedly predicted there would be an explosion or bombing on the day of his death.
April 19 is the anniversary of the fiery end to the Branch Davidian standoff near Waco, Texas, and Patriot's Day in New England. The blast marked the 10th anniversary of the peaceful end to a standoff between CSA members and 200 lawmen in Arkansas. Among Knox's sources in his probes of the CSA were Kerry Noble, once second-in-command of the group, and its founder Jim Ellison, who broke away and eventually became a government witness. Ellison and Snell specifically singled out the Murrah building in Oklahoma City in talks Knox had with them, the Post reported, because of its location in the 'middle of America -- the heartland,' and low security. 'No one would suspect it,' he said. 'It would be more shocking than if you blew up something in Los Angeles or New York. We knew nobody would expect it.'
