The University News (Irving, Tex.), Vol. 32, No. 7, Ed. 1 Wednesday, October 23, 2002 Page: 3 of 18
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The University News October 23, 2002 3
News
Victim's father protests death penalty
Man speaks of healing process after OKC bombing
by Jodi Dickens
Photography Editor
Overcoming rage and forgiving
others have been a major journey
for Bud Welch.
That journey began more than
seven years ago after his only
daughter, Julie, died in the Okla-
homa City bombing April 19,
1995.
Welch, a member of Murder
Victims Families for Reconcilia-
tion Board of Directors, spoke of
his healing process Oct. 16 in the
Church of the Incarnation on the
UD campus.
"I want to try and take you in
my footsteps as to how I went
through from a horrible rage to
reconciliation," Welch said. "I'm
going to try and place a face on
one of the 168 that was killed in
the Oklahoma City bombing."
Welch described his daughter's
early interest in languages, which
led her to study in Spain for 11
months during her junior year in
high school. Her love for lan-
guages would eventually lead
Julie to graduate from Marquette
University in 1994 with a degree
in Spanish and minors in French
and Italian.
Julie was hired as a Spanish
translator by the Social Security
Administration and worked in the
Murrah Federal Building in Okla-
homa City, the site of the bomb-
ing.
Julie's life: lay before her,
Welch said, emphasizing the dif-
ficulty he had in coming to grips
with her death. During the last
seven months of her life, Julie
dated a lieutenant at Tinker Air
Force Base, a young man she met
while attending a prayer group.
"I learned two weeks after her
death, that she and Eric [the lieu-
tenant] had planned to announce
their wedding engagement," he
said.
On the morning of April 19,
1995, Julie had attended daily
Mass. She had a meeting with a
Mexican man who could not
speak English. She, her client, and
his friend were walking from the
front of the building to her office
when the bomb exploded at 9:02
am, Welch said.
"That was on Wednesday
morning, and all three bodies were
found together on Saturday morn-
ing," he said.
The aftermath
Welch was not prepared for the
grief and rage that followed.
"I frankly didn't want trials for
either one of them [Timothy
McVeigh and Terry Nichols], I
simply wanted them fried. That
was the retribution, that was the
rage that Was released within me,"
he said.
I could see this
large man,
physically
stooped in
grief, and he
had a deep
pain in his eye.
I recognized it
immediately,
because I was
living the same
pain.
- Bud Welch,
on meeting Tim
McVeigh's father
Welch had spoken out against
the death penalty his whole life.
"Quite often a friend or ac-
quaintance when we'd be discuss-
ing it would say, 'Well, if it ever
happens to you [if you have a
loved one murdered], you'll
change your mind,"' Welch said.
"When it did happen to inc. I
didn't realize how drastically I
would change my mind."
After about a month, Welch re-
alized that the two men must have
trials in order for the truth to come
out, but he still struggled with the
issue of the death penalty for an-
other nine to 10 months after the
bombing.
To deal with his pain, Welch
resorted to alcohol abuse and
smoking three packs of cigarettes
a day.
"If I drank enough, when I went
to bed I could go to sleep. It was
the next day that I was paying for
it," he said. "The hangovers
would last until 9 o'clock in the
morning, then until 10, then until
noon, and the last 30 days or so of
that horrible period of my life, I
was hung over all day long."
Welch reflected on the destruc-
tion the bombing of the Murrah
Building caused.
"People didn't realize that there
were over 300 buildings either
damaged or destroyed by that
bombing until they arrived in
Oklahoma City and saw that it
looked like a war zone," he said.
Personal change
Recognizing he had a problem,
Welch began to ask himself seri-
ous questions.
"I went to asking myself a
whole series of questions because
this was unlike any way that I had
ever lived my life," he said.
"There's three questions that stuck
in my mind for the next 20 to 25
days and that is: Do you need tri-
als to begin now? Do you need
convictions? Do you need execu-
tions?"
photo by Jodi Dickens.
Bud Welch, an internationally-known speaker against the
death penalty, described his struggle to forgive Tim McVeigh
after his daughter died in the Oklahoma City bombing. He
spoke at the Church as part of Respect Life Month.
Welch pondered these ques-
tions and determined that the did
not want Tim McVeigh and Terry
Nichols to be executed.
"I finally came to the conclu-
sion that the day we would take
Tim McVeigh or Terry Nichols
from their cage to kill them that it
would be an act of revenge and
hate. And revenge and hate [are]
the very reason[s] that Julie and
167 others are dead in that great
city today," he said.
McVeigh bombed the Murrah
Building on the second anniver-
sary of the shoot-out at the Branch
Davidian compound in Waco.
Before he was executed, McVeigh
cited his dissatisfaction with the
way the government handled the
Waco situation as his reason for
choosing the same date for his
bombing.
Two fathers meet
After reconciling the death of
his daughter, Welch had a desire
to meet Bill McVeigh, Tim's fa-
ther, because he wanted to explain
that he cared about how Bill felt
and did not blame him or his fam-
ily for Tim's actions.
Shortly after the bombing,
Welch had seen a television inter-
view with Bill and empathized
with the man.
"I could see this large man,
physically stooped in grief and he
had a deep pain in his eye. I rec-
ognized it immediately because I
was living the same pain," Welch
said.
Three years after the bombing,
Welch met Bill and Bill's young-
est daughter, Jennifer, at Bill's
house in the Buffalo, New York
area. It was the same house where
Tim spent his high school years.
"I could see the love that a fa-
ther still had for his son in spite
of what he had done... You're go-
ing to love your children more the
more they need you. That's just
kind of the way God made moms
and dads," Welch said.
Jennifer hugged Bud Welch as
he was leaving, and she began to
sob.
"I said, 'Look honey, the three
of us are in this for the rest of our
lives. We can make the most of it
if we choose. I don't want your
brother to die, and I'll do eveiy-
thing I can to prevent it,"' he said.
As Welch drove away from the
McVeigh's house, he felt he had
reached a sort of peace.
"I've never felt closer to God
than at that moment," he said. "I
found a bigger victim of the Okla-
homa City bombing than myself,
and I say that in spite of the fact
that I no longer have Julie," Welch
said, reflecting on his meeting
with Bill McVeigh.
Welch speaks to groups around
the world and brags about Julie
wherever he goes, but unlike Bill,
he does not have to tell people the
bad things Julie did, Welch said.
"When Bill McVeigh meets a
stranger he probably doesn't even
tell them that he had a son," he
said. "And every morning for the
rest of his life, he must awaken
with that noose around his neck
that his son was convicted of kill-
ing Julie Welch and 167 others."
Tim McVeigh was executed
June 11,2001.
"That didn't bring me any
peace or a feel good, or anyone
else," Welch said.
"We had some family members
in Oklahoma City who were look-
ing for some type of relief when
we killed Tim McVeigh. I ve had
several tell me since they didn't
get it," he said. "Some have even
said, 'We should not have done
it.'"
Welch regrets the execution of
Tim McVeigh for other reasons as
well.
"I think Tim McVeigh took
some vital information to his
grave with him. I will never be
convinced that Tim McVeigh and
Terry Nichols were the only ones
involved in that bombing," Welch
said. "I do believe that there were
others involved with them and I'd
like to know who they were."
Closing Statistics
Welch closed his talk with a
condemnation of the death pen-
alty.
"We must get the death penalty
abolished in the United States. We
must join the rest of the free
world," he said.
Welch cited facts that states
without the death penalty have a
lower murder rate than those who
do have it. He also said Canada's
murder rate had decreased since
it abolished the death penalty 28
years ago.
"We have the death penalty; we
use it, and it doesn't seem to curb
the murder rate," he said.
Fr. Jeffrey Ott, campus minis-
ter, gave the introduction and
opening remarks.
"I admire Mr. Welch for his
courage and his faith. In the face
of tragedy, grief and pain, he has
given of himself in speaking to
thousands of people," Ott said.
Welch has testified before U. S.
Congress and many State Senate
and House Judiciary Committees
about stopping the death penalty.
Welch has addressed British
and European parliaments for
Amnesty International and testi-
fied in front of the Duma in Rus-
sia with Sister Helen Prejean, Ott
said. He has received many hon-
ors, including Abolitionist of the
Year award from the Coloradans
Against the Death Penalty.
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Hendrickson, Janet. The University News (Irving, Tex.), Vol. 32, No. 7, Ed. 1 Wednesday, October 23, 2002, newspaper, October 23, 2002; Irving, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth201556/m1/3/: accessed June 11, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting University of Dallas.