Sunday, May 6, 2007

Reporter J. D. Cash Dead At 55

From NewsRadio 1000 KTOK ~ Journalist J. D. "John" Cash, best known for his 12-year investigation of the Oklahoma City bombing, died today at a hospital in Tulsa. He was 55.
Cash had been diagnosed recently with liver disease and developed pneumonia after being released last month from St. Francis hospital in Tulsa. He had been living with his mother for nearly the past month, but developed pneumonia and was rushed to the hospital Saturday night. He died at 1:30 Sunday morning.
Cash once was a mortgage banker and held a law degree from the University of Tulsa. He went to live in a cabin that he had constructed in the hills in northern McCurtain County, then began writing stories for the McCurtain Daily Gazette. His writings about the Oklahoma City bombing first gained attention because they included interviews with an undercover IRS operative who maintained that she had warned the government of the plans of right-wing extremists to attack federal buildings in 1995. Cash went on to delve deeper and deeper into Tim McVeigh and others who had lived or visited Elohim City, the religious compound in eastern Oklahoma. Using the Freedom of Information Act, he was able to make a case that the FBI had McVeigh and other members of a gang of Midwest Bank robbers under investigation prior to the 1995 bombing of the Murrah building.
In recent years, Cash and fellow journalist and investigator Roger Charles were preparing a book about their findings. Cash was recently interviewed by the BBC about his documentation of his written stories. Cash lived alone in his mountain cabin and was a co-host of a morning radio talk-show on KKBI in Broken Bow. Until he turned seriously ill in April, he would make the 45-minute morning drive from his home to the radio station to hold interviews and do commentary. Cash is survived by his mother. A private service is planned in Tulsa.

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