DENVER - The prosecution in the Oklahoma City bombing trial yesterday read into evidence a dramatic letter from the defendant, Mr Timothy McVeigh, in which he described himself as becoming "an animal" ready to "cut the bastards' heads off".
The often vague letter, written two months before the April 19th, 1995, bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah federal building, was to a woman friend in Michigan, trying to get her to join a citizens' militia, a self-styled patriotic group opposed to the federal government.
McVeigh has been accused of having blown up the government building, killing 168 people.
In the letter, the decorated Gulf War veteran said his body was wearing out, possibly from his war service, and "I might as well do something good while I can still be 100 per cent effective. My whole mindset has shifted from the intellectual to the animal."