McVeigh story to be made into TV series

WASHINGTON - The story of Timothy McVeigh and the victims of the Oklahoma City bombing is to be made into a television mini series.

The US television network CBS has bought the rights to a book about the bomber, just days after he was executed by lethal injection in Terre Haute, Indiana.

The mini-series will be based on the book American Terrorist: Timothy McVeigh and the Oklahoma City Bombing, written by Lou Michel and Dan Herbeck.

It was written after 75 hours of interviews with McVeigh, who killed 168 people during the 1995 attack.

A CBS spokesman confirmed its plans, saying: "We have optioned the book on McVeigh and it is in development at CBS."

Producer Gerry Abrams told Variety magazine that the series would not just be about McVeigh, but also about the others affected by the bombing of the Alfred P Murrah federal building.

"When I read the book, I was left feeling that because so much attention had been devoted to McVeigh, that the public was unaware of so many individual acts of heroism from people involved," he said.

"The mini-series we want to make will follow the template of Traffic, where seemingly unrelated people are involved in a common crisis."

While a number of the survivors and relatives of the victims of the bombing are likely to be upset by the project, Mr Abrams said the series would also feature people such as the policeman who arrested McVeigh an hour after the bombing for the minor offence of not having a registration plate on his car.

He said the last thing he wanted to do was to "further McVeigh's legacy".

- INDEPENDENT