Last Updated: May 26, 1999
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Times writer immersed herself in story
By Rick Farrant
Jo Thomas was an assistant national editor at The New York Times when
the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City was ripped apart
April 19, 1995, by a powerful bomb, killing 168 people.
Three months later, she was dispatched as a national correspondent to
uncover the circumstances of the bombing, including who was responsible
for the most devastating terrorist act in U.S. history.
Thomas, an Illinois resident, has been at it ever since, traveling to
at least nine states: Arkansas, Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Kansas, Ohio,
Oklahoma, Oregon and Pennsylvania in search of clues.
Her exhaustive (and exhausting) 60- to 70-hour-a-week pursuit, she said,
has given her the kind of background that was invaluable in covering the
Timothy McVeigh trial and verdict. And it showed: A group of editors of
the ASNE Wire Content Committee regarded her stories written on the day
of the guilty verdict as among the best produced by all the major news
services.
"I could notice little nuances and other things that would come up that
might not mean anything to anyone else," said Thomas, who expects to cover
Terry Nichols’ trial, as well.
A married mother of two young daughters, she has worked for The New
York Times in various capacities since 1977, including chief of the newspaper’s
Caribbean bureau. She also held newsroom positions at the Cincinnati Post
and the Detroit Free Press and was an associate professor of journalism
at the University of Illinois between 1987 and 1994.
Thomas graduated summa cum laude, with a bachelor’s degree in English,
from Wake Forest University in 1965 and earned a master’s in English from
the University of North Carolina in 1967. She was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard
in 1970-71.
Thomas, who credits Suzanne Spector of the Times’ National Desk for
the stellar editing of her stories, continues to investigate the Oklahoma
City bombing case.
"I’m worried that this will wind up like the Kennedy assassination,
where questions remain unresolved years later," she said. "If there’s a
conspiracy, I want to find it."
Rick Farrant is regional editor of The Journal Gazette in Fort Wayne,
Ind.
