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Kathy Graham Wilburn lost two grandsons when Timothy McVeigh bombed the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building on April 19, 1995. Yesterday in Oklahoma City, she was one of nearly 200 victims who privately viewed his execution via closed-circuit television.

Wilburn will be online Tuesday, June 12, at 1 p.m. EDT, to discuss the execution of Timothy McVeigh.

Wilburn is also working on a documentary, "A Cry For Justice: The Untold Story Behind the Oklahoma City Bombing," which contends that McVeigh and Terry Nichols had help from a right-wing network.

A transcript follows.

Editor's Note: Washingtonpost.com moderators retain editorial control over Live Online discussions and choose the most relevant questions for guests and hosts; guests and hosts can decline to answer questions.

Kathy Graham Wilburn: Hello, I'm Kathy Wilburn. I'm glad to be here with you today. I've spent six years researching the Oklahoma City bombing after having lost both my grandchildren in the bombing. Yesterday, I watched Timothy McVeigh die and I would be happy to answer any questions you might have.

Leesburg, Va.: With respect, I have difficulty in understanding how witnessing the death of Mr. McVeigh, which I consider a horrific thing -watching another person die], can attone for the deaths of your family members. Psychologically, witnessing one horrific event to dispel another just does not seem logical to me. I would think this would simply add another wretched memory that you will now have to live with.

Kathy Graham Wilburn: It absolutely in no way attoned for the death of my grandchildren. I didn't want to go, but there are no rules of protocol. There's no book to open to tell you what to do and I went out of respect for Chase and Colton. I thought some member of our family should be there in their honor.

Reston, Va.: How would you describe your experience as a witness to the execution?

Kathy Graham Wilburn: I would describe it as a bump in the road of life. We're a generation that has grown up watching violence on TV and the movies and what I saw yesterday was a man who laid down and went to sleep. It really didn't affect my life.

OKC, Okla.: Kathy,
My son was friends with Chase and Colton, and I respresented him at their funeral. It was there that you took a small teddy bear and gave it to me to give to my son. I want you to know that he cherishes the teddy bear to this day (he is now 11). The teddy bear sits on a shelf between the framed pictures of your grandsons. I will continue to pray for you, your family, and the many other families who were affected by this tragedy.

Kathy Graham Wilburn: Thank you for keeping the memory of our boys alive.

Washington, D.C.: Hi Ma'am. First of all, I am deeply sorry for your loss. I would like to ask though, do you feel closure now that he is dead? Do you think you will reach a stage in your life where you will be able to forgive him for what he did? What did you feel when you watched him dying?

Thank you ma'am.
Willow

Kathy Graham Wilburn: I don't know what closure means. There's a hole in my heart that will follow me to my grave over the deaths of my grandchildren and they're just as dead today as they were before McVeigh was executed. His execution meant nothing to me.

I forgave Tim McVeigh long ago and I wrote to him on three different occasions and he never responded to my letters.

Washington, D.C.: While I am generally opposed to the death penalty what disturbed me particulary in this instance was the way in which McVeigh got to call the shots, bringing forward his date of execution because he was tired of 23 hour days in prison. When you murder 168 people you revoke your civil rights. I think solitary confinement for the rest of his natural life without books or any of the little luxuries he was permitted in jail would have been a far more effective punishment for him than a painless death and an insolent stare at those he hurt.

Kathy Graham Wilburn: McVeigh said in his book that he won the war. The body count was 168 to 1. There is no punishment suitable to the act that he perpetrated on us. There's nothing we could have done to him that would have justified what he did to our families.

Alexandria: On C-SPAN, reporter after reporter came to the podium to reflect what they had seen, the color of his skin, the gulping for breath, etc. Looking at these reporters, what would make them want to report as they did. None of them I saw reflected on the lives of 168. Their reporting did nothing to honor the memories of the lost family members. Is that the closure that the family members wanted?

Kathy Graham Wilburn: Again, I don't know what closure means. All of our families will miss the people that once graced our lives.

McCutchenville, Ind.: Comment:
I firmly believe that the extensive media coverage will do a great deal to provoke another Tim McVeigh. As he thought he must avenge Waco, another will want to avenge Tim McVeigh. As an anti-death penalty advocate, I join others who say "enough is enough". Since we believe so strongly in separation of church and state, I feel that religious feelings should not dictate the actions of the state. The strong anti-crime rhetoric, "shoot them on sight" mentality of those who wish to get elected is in most cases nothing more than political posturing.

I ask the United States to join the rest of the civilized world and refrain from "pay-back" mentality. Enough .. please .. enough.

Kathy Graham Wilburn: The Bible says obey the laws of the land. If someone is given a death sentence, then I think it should be carried out. At one time the death penalty was a deterrent to crime, but that's when there was pain associated with it. People were afraid ... they didn't want to be hung or electrocuted or go to the gas chamber. I'm not so sure that what we have now is a deterrent to crime.

Marshall, Ill.: Now that McVey is DEAD and no longer around, don't you think it is time for everyone to go back to their own homes and deal with their grief in their own way? As long as you and the other victims keep giving interviews to the media, they are going keep this madness in the public's eye. I feel very sad for the survivors of this awful circumstance and wish them only the best. However, I am getting tired of the frenzy that the media has created. He is no longer on this earth. Leave us to deal with the awful memories of a monster.

Kathy Graham Wilburn: We victims have had six years to deal with our loss. McVeigh really doesn't affect us anymore and the reason I continue to give interviews is bacause I don't believe we've been given the truth from our federal government about what really happened in the Oklahoma City bombing. The facts in this case do no add up to one lone bomber downtown alone on April 18, 1995.

Bent Hatchet, Utah: What evidence, if any, is there that Timothy McVeigh was part of a larger conspiracy? And are you suggesting that the government is covering up part of the truth about what really took place with respect to the bombing?

Please accept my condolences for your loss. I can't imagine how difficult it must be.

Kathy Graham Wilburn: There are many things about this case that bother me. First, the fact that the FBI had over 50 eyewitnesses that saw Timothy McVeigh downtown the day of the bombing. They did not have one eyewitness that saw him alone. They never ran the fingerprints removed from his car or the hotel where he stayed the week before the bombing through FBI computers to check for a match. The FBI said that it wasn't cost effective, and yet the federal government spent $83 million prosecuting Timothy McVeigh. And why are the 22 security videos that were removed from the building that surrounded the Murrah Building ... why are they under a gag order today? If there's nothing to hide, why can't we see them?

Arlington, Va.: Let me start by saying that I am very sorry for your loss. I believe that Tim McVeigh was an evil and horribly misguided man. And that this was a horrible tragedy.

But I must say that it is extremely sad that in our country things have gotten to the point that the death of any human being can be reduced merely to a "bump in the road of life." I do understand that what he did is as close to unforgivable as any act I have heard of. But human life, no matter how tainted, is sacred.

Kathy Graham Wilburn: Certainly everyone is entitled to their own opinion. What I'm saying is that the death of Timothy McVeigh did not change my life like the very act that he committed.

Kathy Graham Wilburn: I have no control over the media. The whole world was interested in the demise of Timothy McVeigh. I would have preferred that McVeigh would have been led into the execution chamber and that no one would've shown up. He would have been disappointed. But that didn't happen.

New York, NY: If McVeigh had not been executed but left to fester in prison like Sirhan Sirhan, for example, the media would not have been clotted with his image these past few weeks. It seems to me that the execution opened sores that were in the process of healing. What good, if any, did his execution serve?

Kathy Graham Wilburn: I was not in favor of killing McVeigh because I believe with the death of McVeigh dies the truth. But he no longer has the opportunity to bombard the media with his letters. And I don't think that McVeigh's death has hindered the healing process for the victims of the Oklahoma City bombing.

20016: Ok, he lay down and went to sleep. Further evidence that we, the public, have become desentized. Watching a real man die a real death had no impact on you?

Kathy Graham Wilburn: McVeigh wasn't a real man. He was a monster that hideously murdered 168 innocent men, women and children. And he died the way he lived -- like a coward.

Washington, D.C.: Are any items that belonged to your grandsons now part of the memorial there in Oklahoma City?

Kathy Graham Wilburn: Yes there are. They have commemorative photo boxes of the people that were killed and some of their personal effects are in there. With Colton, my 2-year-old grandson is the little pound puppy he liked to sleep with, and with Chase, my 3-year-old grandson, was a little toy wolf named White Fang.

Enough already: People, this lady and so many others lost lives because of this one person. I would have gone to see him die in a heartbeat. Knowing that he can't hurt anyone anymore has had to help all of these hurt people. He deserved to die, he's a waste of a life.

Kathy Graham Wilburn: For some victims Timothy McVeigh's execution was almost medicinal -- like salve on a wound. Everyone was affected differently. And I think the one thing that we would all agree on is that none of us would want to trade places with Timothy McVeigh today.

Lorton, Va.: I am so sorry for the death of your grandchildren. The bombing was a horrible, horrible crime. I know that you can't speak for others, so I guess I'm making more of a comment. Again, what happened was wrong, but killing Timothy McVeigh can't change what happened. I don't understand, after watching another human being killed, that some of the survivors could actually be gleeful. I don't understand how, after feeling indescribable pain and grief, that anyone would want another family to feel that. I don't understand how they could say the way he died was "too easy." How does that separate them from him? He was wrong in what he did--he killed 168 people. But I just can't see how that makes it okay to kill him. Killing is killing.

Kathy Graham Wilburn: McVeigh was not brutally murdered. My youngest grandson was found alive. There was a glass shard in his stomach that literally gutted him. He cried and whimpered in his rescue worker's arms as he gave his last breath. My older grandson was found toe-tagged in the back of a truck being used for a makeshift morgue with a rock lodged in the back of his head.

Certainly if if knew there was a rabid dog loose on my community, I would want the dog to be put to sleep so it could not injure my family and friends. And that's what happened yesterday. Timothy McVeigh was humanely put to sleep, unlike his victims.

Washington, DC: Thanks for your response about the boys'
belongings. I got choked up reading it.

I must say that I am more touched by the
tragedy now that I feel I have actually spoken to
someone who was victimized during the
bombing. All the TV coverage can be viewed
passively like a movie of the week, but now it's
come alive -- your time here was well spent.
Thank you.

Kathy Graham Wilburn: Thank you for your comments. Someday I would like to step out of this nightmare and back into the light and feel the sunshine on my face on a warm April morning and remember fondly the two little boys that once graced my life.

washingtonpost.com:

That was our last question today. Thanks to everyone who joined the discussion.

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