Terry Nichols Was Timothy McVeigh's Co-Conspirator in the Oklahoma City Bombing — Where Is He Now?

In 1985, Terry Nichols joined the Army at the age of 33. According to The New York Times, he was a directionless man in need of a north star. Before that, he was a reluctant jack-of-all-trades who dabbled in farming, real estate, and college. He was married but on the precipice of divorce and reportedly preferred to stay home with his children and bake bread all day. A man with a family has to work, which is how he ended up in the military, where Nichols would meet Timothy McVeigh in May 1988.

The two bonded over their shared distrust of the United States federal government and their troubled childhoods. Nichols undoubtedly shared his survivalist beliefs, which involved stockpiling food in the event of a nuclear war. Nichols didn't even last a year in the Army and was discharged in 1989. Six years later, he was helping McVeigh plan a horrific terrorist attack. Where is Nichols now?

Upon learning that he was a person of interest, Nichols surrendered to police in Herington, Kans. on April 21, 1995 — two days after the Oklahoma City Bombing, per Fox News. He was charged with direct involvement in the attack, and in December 1997, Nichols was convicted of conspiracy and involuntary manslaughter of eight federal agents. The prosecution requested the death penalty, but a "federal jury failed to reach a consensus on whether Nichols should face execution," reported the outlet.

Nichols was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. He is serving his time at USP Florence Administrative Maximum Facility, a federal prison in Florence, Colo. When Nichols was convicted, he was married to his second wife, a woman he brought over from the Philippines. When she arrived, she was six months pregnant with another man's child. That baby was born in September 1991 and was named Jason Torres Nichols. Two years later, he died by suffocation. His death was ruled an accident.

The Associated Press reported that in June 2023, 40-year-old Joshua Isaac Nichols was sentenced to between five and more than 17 years in prison by Clark County District Court Judge Carli Kierny in Las Vegas. Nichols and a co-defendant pleaded guilty to kidnapping and armed robbery from a February 2020 attack on a 67-year-old jeweler. The two lured the man to a vacant home and robbed him at gunpoint.

This was not the first time Nichols's tormented son had seen the inside of a courtroom. Joshua "previously served prison time for felony convictions dating to 2005 including armed assault, vehicle theft, and resisting a police officer," per the AP. He also struggled with substance abuse issues. He is serving his time at Ely State Prison in Ely, Nev. His co-defendant apologized to the court prior to sentencing, but Joshua declined to speak.