OU Bomber Story Finally Makes National News

Joel H. Hinrichs III strapped himself with the explosive “Mother of Satan” and blew himself up on October 1, 2005, 100 yards from a packed stadium of 85,000 fans watching the OU-KSU football game. The story is finally making its way into the MSM two weeks later.

Well, this is a first… Hannity and Colmes are going to discuss the Oklahoma “Sooner Bomber” story tonight.

It’s about time a major media news outfit carried this story.

The Oklahoma Representative who was interviewed on the news segment said that there is an ongoing investigation on this story. No new information was shared on the segment and not much was shared on the story.

* * * * *

Also, the Wall Street Journal wrote a piece in their Media and Marketing section on Thursday about Joel Hinrichs. (Thanks to Jacob below for the link which may expire in one week) I was interviewed for the story but was not cited in the article. I guess it is just as well since the article I felt was not favorable to bloggers. It lays out the startling facts about his very unusual suicide and his unsuccessful purchase of explosives at a local feed store:

Several facts about the case fed the speculation: Suicides committed with bombs are rare, as are those committed in public near a crowded event. Mr. Hinrichs (pronounced HIN-ricks) had a Pakistani roommate. They shared an apartment one block away from the only mosque in Norman — the same mosque attended in 2001 by Zacarias Moussaoui, who pleaded guilty earlier this year to helping plan the 9/11 terrorist attacks. In some photographs, Mr. Hinrichs can be seen with a scraggly beard.

Adding to community concern was the revelation that two days before he blew himself up, Mr. Hinrichs visited a feed store and inquired about buying ammonium nitrate — the same chemical Timothy McVeigh put in the bomb he used in 1995 to blow up the Alfred P. Murrah federal building in Oklahoma City, 20 miles to the north. An off-duty Norman police officer, overhearing Mr. Hinrichs’s conversation in the store, ran a check on his license plate and found no cause for alarm.

But then the story takes a sharp turn:

To that unsettling set of facts, blogs and local Oklahoma TV Stations added several apparent inaccuracies, including: that Mr. Hinrichs was a Muslim and visited the mosque frequently; that he tried to enter the stadium twice but was rebuffed; that he had a one-way ticket to Algeria; that there wee nails in the bomb and that Islamic extremist literature was found in his apartment.

None of these claims are true.

Interesting, Ryan Chittum and Joe Hagan who wrote the piece, next say it was depression and it was an isolated event when Mr. Hinrichs took his life! What do you say to that? It was a shame that they did not read all of the blog postings on this article, they may have learned something.

It is just too amusing that they would actually state that it was just depression that caused a young man to strap a bomb of “Mother of Satan” around himself and go out to a stadium of 85,000 Sooner fans and blow his depressed self up! How many depressed people do you know that are driven to be near a crowd of 85,000 people. How many depressed people in the US blew themselves up last year with “Mother of Satan”?

Joel’s father, who your heart does go out to, says, “This blog stuff is just smoke. It’s bilge.” It is understandable that he would not want to believe the worst of his son’s explosion, but that does not make him an ideal source. It always amazes me when family members confess they knew nothing about their children’s arsenal of weapons and explosives they have been stockpiling in their bedroom. It just makes me pause and wonder.

The WSJ next cites Michelle Malkin, Powerline, Tapscott’s Copy Desk, and Texas Rainmaker.

** Mark Tapscott taped a segment for CNN today and has updates on the Sooner Bomber Story! **

The article did confirm that authorities did find additional explosive material (as noted by several bloggers) and that they detonated them at the police firing range the next day, jolting the city again.

Also, the WSJ says that News 9 claims that Hinrichs spent much of his time at the local mosque. OU President Boren says this was not true. (How he is an expert on this I could only imagine) News 9, however, is sticking by their story!

The article offers much speculation and leans towards the “blog stuff is smoke, it’s bilge” philosophy while offering nothing. And, the WSJ takes nothing away from the strangeness of this suicide bombing story.

Previous Reports on the Sooner Bomber Story:
Bomb Blast at University of Oklahoma!
More Information Emerging on Sooner Bomber
Sooner Bomber Wanted to Buy Ammonium Nitrate!
OU Student was 1st Suicide Bomber Since 9-11
Oklahoma Police Investigated Hinrichs
MSM is Picking Up Sooner Bomber Story

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Jim Hoft is the founder and editor of The Gateway Pundit, one of the top conservative news outlets in America. Jim was awarded the Reed Irvine Accuracy in Media Award in 2013 and is the proud recipient of the Breitbart Award for Excellence in Online Journalism from the Americans for Prosperity Foundation in May 2016. In 2023, The Gateway Pundit received the Most Trusted Print Media Award at the American Liberty Awards.

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Thanks for sharing!