Fast Facts: Violent Acts Against U.S. Government

Below is a list of violent and attempted violent acts against the U.S. federal government compiled by the Fox News Brainroom.

• Timothy McVeigh:

On April 19, 1995, he killed 168 people in the worst act of home-grown terrorism when he exploded a truck bomb in front of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in downtown Oklahoma City. McVeigh was allegedly motivated by his anger over the events at Waco, Texas two years earlier.

[source: FBI, THE FBI: A Centennial History, 1908-2008, <http://www.fbi.gov/fbihistorybook.htm#chapter7>]

• Joseph Bailie and Ellis Hurst:

Baile was convicted, and Hurst pled guilty, in 1996 for attempting to bomb an IRS office. The bomb - discovered by an IRS employee on December 18, 1995 - was a 30-gallon plastic drum packed with 100 pounds of ammonium nitrate and fuel oil and had been placed behind a vehicle in the parking lot of the IRS building in Reno, Nevada. A three-foot fuse had apparently been ignited the prior evening when the building was empty, but went out prior to reaching the explosive.

[source: "TAX DODGER GUILTY OF IRS BOMB PLOT RENO JURY CONVICTS MAN OF MAKING DEVICE THAT FIZZLED IN PARKING LOT," June 12, 1996, Associated Press]

• Walter Leroy Moody:

In December 1989, Moody killed a federal court judge and an Atlanta attorney in separate mail bomb attacks. The acts were motivated by Moody's unhappiness with the federal court system. In the 1970s, Moody was convicted of possessing a bomb that had hurt his wife when it exploded. His conviction and failed appeals in that case had led him to harbor a long-festering resentment of the court system. His contact with Judge Vance in a 1980s case led to even deeper resentment and a personal animus that led to revenge.

[source: FBI, "A BYTE OUT OF HISTORY: The Mail Bomb Murders," December 26, 2006, <http://www.fbi.gov/page2/dec06/vanpac122606.htm>]

• David Roland Hinkson:

On April 4, 2003, the FBI arrested David Roland Hinkson, a constitutionalist and tax protestor, for attempting to arrange the murders of a federal judge, an Assistant U.S. Attorney, and an IRS Agent whom he blamed for his legal problems regarding a tax evasion case against him. Between December 2002 and March 2003, Hinkson offered two individuals $10,000 for committing all three murders. On January 27, 2005, Hinkson was found guilty on three counts of solicitation to commit murder after a three week jury trial in Boise, Idaho. On June 3, 2005, Hinkson was sentenced to 43 years in federal prison.

• Paul Douglas Revak:

On June 9, 2003, the FBI arrested Paul Douglas Revak for plotting to bomb a U.S. Coast Guard facility in Bellingham, Washington. Revak, who had previously declared himself to be an anarchist, was reportedly attempting to precipitate a revolution in the United States and had discussed the targeting of several nearby military installations. Revak was arrested when he negotiated with an undercover FBI employee for the purchase of explosive device components. Under a plea agreement, Revak was charged with threatening to use a weapon of mass destruction and sentenced to five years' probation.

• Gale William Nettles:

On August 5, 2004, the FBI arrested Gale William Nettles in connection with his attempted sale of a half ton of ammonium nitrate to an undercover agent purportedly associated with a foreign terrorist organization. The FBI also had information that Nettles intended to use ammonium nitrate to bomb Chicago's Dirksen Federal Office Building. Nettles planned to counterfeit U.S. currency in order to earn money to purchase bomb components for his attack. On September 15, 2005, Nettles was found guilty of attempting to bomb the Dirksen Building.

• Demetrius Van Crocker:

On October 25, 2004, Demetrius Van Crocker was arrested in Jackson, Tennessee, for attempting to obtain C-4 explosives and Sarin nerve gas from an undercover FBI agent. Van Crocker was planning to use these materials to blow up a federal or state courthouse in furtherance of his hatred toward the U.S. and State of Tennessee governments.

[source: U.S. Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Terrorism: 2002-2005, <http://www.fbi.gov/publications/terror/terrorism2002_2005.htm#page_9a>]