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Death-row diaries tell of the last days of McVeigh

As Timothy McVeigh approaches his day of execution tomorrow, he has been dieting so that he will look like a "concentration camp victim" in postmortem photographs, according to jail diaries kept by his fellow inmates on death row in Indiana.

Diary entries posted on the Web site Death Row Speaks (www.deathrowspeaks.net) throw light on the Oklahoma City bomber's state of mind and conditions inside the federal death row buildings in the small town of Terre Haute.

Jeff Paul, 24, who is facing the death penalty for robbing and shooting dead an 82-year-old man on a mountain path in Arkansas, observed in an entry dated May 25 that the security precautions around McVeigh had been stepped up, with waste paper from his cell being shredded.

"Apparently, a staff member was caught either smuggling things out of prison with his [McVeigh's] name on it or trying to sell some things of his on the Internet. Tim [McVeigh] is not sure which but is interested in finding out," Paul wrote.

"They put him in a cell with constant video surveillance a while back and instituted a policy that anytime he comes out of his cell he'll have at least three officers present, on top of the handcuffs and chains. The video bothers him to no end, though he was under this type of thing before. He couldn't care less about the three-man policy."

Officials in Terre Haute failed to return calls about the security precautions, but officials at the bureau of prisons said that they believed the Death Row Speaks diaries to be genuine.

The diaries consist mainly of the inmates' personal reflections on their past and their jail conditions, but two of them, Paul and David Hammer, make occasional observations about their notorious prison mate.

Paul reported that "for a long time he [McVeigh] was on a vegetable diet that comes in a special tray. I asked him why and he s aid it was because he wanted to look like a concentration camp victim for the postmortem photos."

Earlier in May, David Hammer wrote: "Tim is holding up well. In the most simplistic of explanations, he is a soldier on a mission of his own choosing.

"He appears to be in a `lock-n-load' mode. His expressions and his demeanour have changed: He appears to be focused, very serious and stoic."

Hammer, who is facing execution for strangling his cellmate in a Pennsylvania prison two years ago, wrote: "My friend Tim is a troubled and misguided man. We disagree on most issues, but he is also a kind, loving and caring person with a quick smile, keen wit and a sense of humor. I will miss him and I continue to pray for his soul."

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