-Caveat Lector- McVEIGH'S MOM ON MOST-UNLIKED LIST AFTER COMMENTS by Bill Johnson American Reporter Correspondent Oklahoma City, Okla. OKLAHOMA CITY -- Timothy McVeigh undoubtedly would rank at the top of any Oklahoma most-hated list for blowing up the federal building, but comments by his mother in a television interview this week got her a pretty prominent spot. "Let's get it out of our minds," Mickey Hill said in the interview. "Let's get on with our lives." After all, she said, the bombing that killed 168 people happened four and half years ago. And McVeigh was convicted of killing only eight people, she said. Hill, 55, in the interview on WTSP-TV in Tampa-St. Petersburg, Fla., suggested that the worst terrorist attack on U.S. soil ranked along with airplane crashes and the murder trial of O.J. Simpson. "It was a big event, yeah, but so was the O.J. Simpson case, so was the bombing (of the World Trade Center) in New York," Hill said. "Every bombing or shooting is a big case," said Hill, who was identified as a dishwasher in a Pensacola, Fla., restaurant. The interview was replayed on Oklahoma City's KWTV. "Plane crashes. There's more people killed in a plane crash than was killed in Oklahoma City," Hill said. "And yet these people think they're the only victims? "I feel sorry for them. But let's face it: This happened 4=BD years ago. This happened four and a half years ago. Let's get it out of our minds. Let's get on with our lives." Bombing survivors and relatives of those killed said they weren't about to forget. "Let her walk a mile in my shoes," said Kathleen Treanor. "I had to bury my baby in pieces. She has no right to tell me how I should feel." Treanor's daughter, Ashley Eckles, 4, and her mother-in-law and father-in-law, Luther and LaRue Treanor, were killed in the bombing. Dennis Purifoy, one of the survivors, said the horror of the bombing must be remembered to keep it from happening again. "People need to remember and learn a lesson from what happened here," Purifoy said. In addition to the 168 who died in the April 19, 1995, bombing, more than 500 people were injured and some of them will never completely recover. McVeigh was charged with driving a rented truck loaded with a fertilizer bomb to Oklahoma City, parking it outside the federal building and touching off the explosives. Among those killed were 19 children in a second-floor day-care center. Under federal law, McVeigh could be tried for first-degree murder only in the deaths of eight federal agents who were on duty in the building at the time of the blast. He was convicted by a federal jury in Denver and was sentenced to die. Terry Nichols, a friend McVeigh met in the Army, was convicted by another Denver jury of conspiracy and eight counts of involuntary manslaughter. He is appealing his conviction and life sentence and the Oklahoma County district attorney plans to try Nichols in state court here on 160 counts of first-degree murder. The district attorney's plan has driven a wedge between the bombing survivors and the relatives of those who died. Some want a state trial to be held while others don't want to have to go through the emotional turmoil of another trial. The Daily Oklahoman has come out against a state trial. Hill and McVeigh's father, Bill McVeigh, separated in 1984 and were divorced in 1986. Tim, who was 16 when his parents separated, remained with his father in New York State. Stephen Jones, McVeigh's defense attorney, called her comments "unfortunate." But, he said, those comments should be considered in context with the fact Hill has a history of emotional troubles. She was involuntarily committed to a psychiatric hospital in February 1997 after reportedly suffering a psychotic episode. She used the name Mickey Frazer at the time. Hill recalled in the interview that McVeigh's father, when he saw an artist's sketch of a bombing suspect, asked whether it might be Tim. Hill said it was possible that her son "may have" been the one who masterminded the bombing plot. "Honest to God, I don't know," Hill said. Hill said in her son's trial that Tim was "a loving son and a happy child as he grew up. He was a child any mother could be proud of. I still, to this very day, cannot believe he could have caused this devastation. "There are too many unanswered questions and loose ends. He has seen human loss in the past and it has torn him apart. He is not the monster he has been portrayed as. ... He is a human being, just as we all are." Hill said in the tv interview she knew that some people put the ultimate blame for the bombing on her. "What I don't understand is, how differently should I have raised him?" she asked. "He never got in trouble in school. He never drank beer or liquor. He never smoked. He was never in trouble. "When he joined the Army, he was a happy-go-lucky kid. Eight years later, he's arrested for bombing a building. How would you feel? I mean, I don't feel responsible for something that happened eight years after he left home." DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. Proselyzting propagandic screeds are not allowed. Substance�not soapboxing! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory', with its many half-truths, misdirections and outright frauds is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRL gives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credeence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply. 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