10 Things You Probably Didn't Know About The Death Star
9. Timothy McVeigh Used It As A Justification
In April 19th, 1995, right-wing extremist and anti-government conspiracy theorist Timothy McVeigh detonated a truck bomb outside the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. 168 people died and hundreds more were injured when the front portion of the building collapsed. It was the deadliest terrorist attack on American soil until the September 11th attacks in 2001.
Lou Michel and Dan Herbeck, in their book American Terrorist: Timothy McVeigh and the Oklahoma Bombing, described the baffling though process behind McVeigh's murderous act. In their account, McVeigh envisioned himself as Luke Skywalker attacking the Galactic Empire, which he equated with the US Government.
The office workers and passers-by in the Oklahoma City bombing weren't innocent victims in McVeigh's mind - they were like the workers and troops on the Death Star when Luke blew it up, essential components of a genocidal machine whose deaths were unfortunate but necessary.
The fact the Death Star wasn't real, but the Oklahoma City deaths very much were, suggests the lengths McVeigh had to go to when justifying his actions to himself.