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Shortly after McVeigh left the truck, at two minutes past nine, a two-tonne homemade explosive device detonated inside it, killing 168 people and injuring a further 680. It was, and still is, the biggest act of domestic terrorism committed on US soil.

In her podcast, Two Minutes Past Nine, journalist Leah Sottile looks at the motivations behind McVeigh’s atrocity and how he fits in with extremist, anti-government right-wing groups, such as the patriot movement, and how he is still venerated by these groups today.

The first five episodes follow McVeigh through his army years to facing up to an empty life outside the military – one that he filled with conspiracy theories and hate.

McVeigh served in Iraq during the first Gulf War (1990-91) and is remembered by a fellow squad leader, Sgt. Anthony Thigpen, as someone who didn’t muck in with the other soldiers in terms of socialising, playing cards, swapping stories etc. “He would sit on top of his tank and read a book. He was always distant,” Thigpen recalls.

Thigpen also describes McVeigh as a disciplined soldier, but McVeigh had blind spots when it came to race and the two came to blows when McVeigh called Thigpen the n-word. McVeigh also wore – and was disciplined for wearing – a t-shirt with "White Power" written on it. He claimed it was a reaction to the black soldiers who wore "Black Power" t-shirts.

McVeigh’s time in the army is also significant because that’s where he met the men who were to become his co-conspirators in the Oklahoma bomb plot – Terry Nichols and Michael Fortier.

When McVeigh left the army – decorated with a Bronze Star Medal and a Combat Infantryman Badge – he was aimless, stuck in a dead-end job and unable to forge lasting relationships with women. He was also suffering from undiagnosed PTSD.

The north side of the Albert P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City after the attack on April 19, 1995.

McVeigh had few guiding lights and, unfortunately, the ones he did have were toxic. His "bible" was The Turner Diaries, a racist and propagandist novel about a revolution in the US that leads to the overthrow of the federal government.

In the book, the protagonist, Earl Turner, blows up a federal building as part of the path to a race war where all non-white people are killed.

The parallel to the Oklahoma City bombing is obvious. Academic and expert on extremism in the US, JM Berger, says that has chronicled “19 incidents with 200 victims killed by the actions of people who seem to be inspired by The Turner Diaries.”

When McVeigh was arrested, highlighted pages from the book were found on him. “He was trying to put context on why he had done what he did,” says Berger, “trying to frame the bombing as the first shot in an apocalyptic war that’s described in the book.”

One of the initial plot points of The Turner Diaries has the government seizing all guns belonging to civilians. This scenario has been pivotal to the existence and beliefs of many anti-government and extremist groups and militias in the US, such as the "patriot" movement.

When McVeigh left the army, he began to spend a lot of time on the gun show circuit where he met militia members and survivalists. He bonded with them over The Turner Diaries and over conspiracy theories about government secrecy and suppression, for example the legend of UFOs and aliens being stored at Area 51, a US Air Force base in Nevada (visited by McVeigh) and that Bill Clinton’s actions on gun ownership meant that the President was readying an army to seize privately-owned guns.

A few years before the Oklahoma bombing, two events happened that shocked the US and helped to galvanise anti-government and militia movements.

The Branch Davidians' Mount Carmel compound outside Waco, Texas, burns after an explosion which ended the standoff between David Koresh and his followers and the FBI on April 19, 1993.

The first was Ruby Ridge, an 11-day FBI siege of former "green beret"-turned-white separatist Randy Weaver and his family at their remote cabin in Idaho. The FBI had been called in to apprehend Weaver for a firearms charge. In a subsequent shootout, Weaver’s son Sammy and an FBI agent died. Weaver’s wife Vicki was subsequently killed by sniper fire while holding her baby.

The second event was another FBI siege, this time of cult leader David Koresh and his Branch Davidian community in Waco, Texas. The FBI had been called in over a claim that the group were stockpiling illegal weapons. The siege lasted for 51 days and ended with the compound engulfed in flames and the death of 76 of the Branch Davidian community, including Koresh and 25 children.

During the siege, the site attracted a lot of visitors. Among them was McVeigh, who sold bumper stickers there. They read:

"A man with a gun is a citizen, a man without a gun is a subject." and "Fear the government that fears your gun."

The stopping off points in McVeigh’s journey to committing his atrocity were numerous and clear. What is yet to be made known is just how much help he received. We’ll hear more about accomplices Nichols and Fortier, but there’s reason to believe that others were in the know. One of these people was white supremacist Chevie Kehoe, now serving three life sentences for murder. Kehoe is believed to have driven McVeigh to Ruby Ridge and to have had prior knowledge of the Oklahama attack.

Uncovering McVeigh’s network is investigative journalist Bill Morlin. “I don’t believe the full story has been told to the American public,” he says, adding: “it’s a much more complex web than we have been led to believe, in my opinion.”