Did the Oklahoma City bomber have another accomplice? One man's mystery death in a jail cell and his brother's 19-YEAR quest for justice that could reopen case of attack that killed 168

  • Jesse Trentadue believes his brother Kenneth was arrested by the FBI after the 1995 bombing in the belief he was Timothy McVeigh's accomplice
  • Trentadue fit the description of the mysterious John Doe No. 2 and his brother believes he was killed by overzealous interrogators
  • Kenneth Trentadue was found dead in a federal holding cell after authorities say he hanged himself
  • Trentadue is suing the FBI to try to get them to reveal information he believes they've withheld from the public for nearly 20 years
  • The FBI now maintains McVeigh acted alone on the day of the bombing, but had an accomplice in Terry Nichols and confidante in Michael Fortier
  • Fortier was jailed for his role in the crime, which authorities say was failing to tell authorities what he knew
One man's quest to explain his brother's mysterious jail cell death 19 years ago has rekindled long-dormant questions about whether others were involved in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing.
What some consider a far-flung conspiracy theory will be at the forefront during a trial set to begin Monday in Salt Lake City. The Freedom of Information Act lawsuit was brought by Salt Lake City attorney Jesse Trentadue against the FBI.
He says the agency won't release security camera videos that show a second person was with Timothy McVeigh when he parked a truck outside the Oklahoma City federal building and detonated a bomb, killing 168 people. The government claims McVeigh was alone.

Scroll down for video
In this July 16, 2014 photo, Salt Lake City attorney Jesse Trentadue speaks during an interview in Salt Lake City. Trentadue's quest to explain his brotherís mysterious jail cell death has rekindled long-dormant questions about whether others were involved in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing. Trentadueís Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against the federal government goes to trial Monday, July 28, 2014, in Salt Lake City. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)
In this July 16, 2014, photo, Salt Lake City attorney Jesse Trentadue holds a photograph of his brother, Kenneth Trentadue, in the early 80's showing his dragon tattoo on his left forearm which fit the description the FBI was circulating of  "John Doe 2" during an interview, in Salt Lake City. Trentadue's quest to explain his brotherís mysterious jail cell death has rekindled long-dormant questions about whether others were involved in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing. Trentadue's Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against the federal government goes to trial Monday, July 28, 2014, in Salt Lake City. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)
On a mission: Jesse Trentadue is on a quest to explain his brother's mysterious jail cell death that has rekindled long-dormant questions about whether others were involved in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing


Looking for answers: Kenneth Trentadue was found bruised and stabbed by his family after the FBI said he hanged himself
Looking for answers: Kenneth Trentadue was found bruised and stabbed by his family after the FBI said he hanged himself
Unsatisfied by the FBI's previous explanations, U.S. District Judge Clark Waddoups has ordered the agency to explain why it can't find videos from the bombing that are mentioned in evidence logs, citing the public importance of the tapes.
Trentadue believes the presence of a second suspect in the truck explains why his brother, Kenneth Trentadue, was flown to Oklahoma several months after the bombing, where he died in a federal holding cell in what was labeled a suicide.
What do they know? The FBI claims Timothy McVeigh was alone when he planted the car bomb that killed 168 in 1995, but some conspiracy theorists believe Trentadue died as part of the agency's investigation into a second man who was on the scene with McVeigh
What do they know? The FBI claims Timothy McVeigh was alone when he planted the car bomb that killed 168 in 1995, but some conspiracy theorists believe Trentadue died as part of the agency's investigation into a second man who was on the scene with McVeigh

His brother bore a striking resemblance to the police sketch that officials sent out after the bombing based on witness descriptions of the enigmatic suspect 'John Doe No. 2,' who was the same height, build and complexion. The suspect was never identified.
'I did not start out to solve the Oklahoma City bombing, I started out for justice for my brother's murder,' Jesse Trentadue said. 'But along the way, every path I took, every lead I got, took me to the bombing.'
The FBI says it can't find anything to suggest the videos exist, and says it would be 'unreasonably burdensome' to do a search that would take a single staff person more than 18 months to conduct.
Jesse Trentadue's belief that the tapes exists stems from a Secret Service document written shortly after the bombing that describes security video footage of the attack that shows suspects - in plural - exiting the truck three minutes before it went off.
A Secret Service agent testified in 2004 that the log does, in fact, exist but that the government knows of no videotape. The log that the information was pulled from contained reports that were never verified, said Stacy A. Bauerschmidt, then-assistant to the special agent in charge of the agency's intelligence division.

Several investigators and prosecutors who worked the case told The Associated Press in 2004 they had never seen video footage like that described in the Secret Service log.
The FBI has released 30 video recordings to Trentadue from downtown Oklahoma City, but those recordings don't show the explosion or McVeigh's arrival in a rental truck.
If he wins at trial, Trentadue hopes to be able to search for the tapes himself rather than having to accept the FBI's answer that they don't exist.
Kathy Sanders and Jannie Coverdale, who both lost grandchildren in the bombing, are grateful for Trentadue's pursuit of the case. Sanders said she's been waiting 19 years to see the tapes.

The wreckage of the Alfred P Murrah building burned itself into the national psyche in 19956 but did McVeigh have company when he planted the bomb that did it?
The wreckage of the Alfred P Murrah building burned itself into the national psyche in 19956 but did McVeigh have company when he planted the bomb that did it?

FILE PHOTO 10MAY95 - The jury in the second Oklahoma City bombing trial convicted Terry Nichols of conspiracy and involuntary manslaughter in the 1995 attack that killed 168 people December 23. Nichols is pictured leaving the Federal Court Building in Wichita May 10 1995 after being charged in the bombing... .. BOMBING VERDICT - RTR9P7V
FILE PHOTO 2MAY95 - Michael Fortier, the man convicted of failing to warn police about the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing that killed 168 people lost his bid on October 8 to get out of jail earlier than his sentence of 12 years. A federal judge returned Michael Fortier to prison for the full term, rejecting Fortier's request to be released after an appeals court ruled in June that his original sentence was invalid. Fortier, who has served four years of his 12-year sentence, is shown at a doorway in Kingman, Arizona receiving a pizza delivery in this May 2, 1995 file photo... .. SV/JP - RTRRCZT
Was another man involved? Terry Nichols (left) was sentenced to life in prison for helping McVeigh plot his terrorist act. Michael Fortier, the star witness in the Oklahoma City bombing trials, was released from federal prison in 2006 after serving a sentence for failing to inform authorities of what he knew about the bombing plot

'It is worth pursuing,' Coverdale said. 'I know there was somebody else. I have never stopped asking questions.'
But former Oklahoma Rep. Susan Winchester, whose sister, Dr. Margaret 'Peggy' Clark, was killed in the bombing, said she is satisfied that officials have identified everyone responsible for the bombing.

'I was very comfortable with the decisions that came out of the federal and state trials,' Winchester said. 'I have reached that point in my life where I can continue.'
Jesse Trentadue's mission began four months after the bombing when his brother died at the U.S. Bureau of Prisons' Federal Transfer Center in Oklahoma City. Kenneth Trentadue, 44, a convicted bank robber and construction worker, was brought there after being picked up for probation violations while coming back to the U.S. at the Mexican border, Jesse Trentadue said.
His death was officially labeled a suicide. But his body had 41 wounds and bruises that his brother believes were the result of a beating. In 2008, a federal judge awarded the family $1.1 million in damages for extreme emotional distress in the government's handling of the death, but the amount was reduced to $900,000 after an appeal.
Jesse Trentadue's best guess about the motive is that his brother died in an interrogation gone wrong by investigators demanding information Kenneth Trentadue didn't have.
Jesse Trentadue filed the Freedom of Information Act lawsuit in 2008.
Taking the feds to court: Now Trentadue is on a mission to reveal the truth about his brother's death and his suing the FBI to get answers
Taking the feds to court: Now Trentadue is on a mission to reveal the truth about his brother's death and his suing the FBI to get answers


Going toe-to-toe with the federal government has come at a personal price for Jesse Trentadue, 67, who says he's lost time with his children and wife that he can't recover.
But he has no regrets, fueled by his love for his brother. Just three years apart, the two shared a bed, hunted coons together and played on the same sports teams growing up in a coal camp in West Virginia.
Their paths diverged as adults - Jesse becoming an attorney while Kenneth fell into drugs and crime - but the brotherly bond never broke. Before his death, Kenneth Trentadue had overcome his heroin addiction and had a newborn baby at home in San Diego, Jesse Trentadue said. The brothers spoke by phone from jail the night before his death, with the two discussing how he would soon be out.
'What I learned growing up in the coal fields is that you fight even when you know you can't win,' he said. 'Because you have to make a stand on some things. Justice for my brother is certainly one of them.'