THIS GUY IS A NATIONAL TRAGEDY

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The FBI has set up a command post in Kingman, Arizona, McVeigh's last known permanent residence, and will remain there for several months. More bits of information keep seeping out from the dusty desert town: McVeigh allegedly purchased fertilizer there in 1994, and his radical views and fascination with guns were widely known. "I still can't believe it," says Walter McCarty, a former Marine who talked politics several times with McVeigh and was his instructor in a weapons-training class. "If he's found guilty, I'd be the first one to volunteer to blow him away in a firing squad." Agents removed five boxes and two garbage bags of possible evidence from the trailer of Kingman resident Michael Fortier, an Army buddy of McVeigh's. Though Fortier has been interviewed and released, one of his neighbors, James Rosencrans, who also knew McVeigh, is now being held.

Meanwhile, Oklahoma City residents reached an emotional milestone on Friday. Workers finally abandoned their search for the last two missing bodies in the rubble of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building; soon the fbi too will halt its search of the dangerously unstable structure. About 60% of the Ryder truck has been retrieved in fragments that are being analyzed for bomb traces and fingerprints. So far, there has been no evidence in this debris that John Doe No. 2 perished in the explosion. Oklahoma City police chief Sam Gonzales admits to frustration about the pace of the investigation, even though he is briefed twice daily by the FBI. Still, Gonzales is convinced the feds will get their man. "I'm optimistic," he says. "I can't really discuss [why], but I'm confident." --Reported by Elaine Shannon/Washington, Patrick E. Cole/ Oklahoma City and Margot Hornblower/Kingman