OLEAN, N.Y. — Renowned journalists Lou Michel and Dan Herbeck will present “American Terrorist” at 1 p.m. Feb. 3 at Jamestown Community College’s Cattaraugus County Campus in Olean.
The program, sponsored by JCC’s Center for Continuing Education, will be held in Cutco Theatre. The registration fee is $45. To register, call 716-376-7506.
Michel and Herbeck, reporters for The Buffalo News, were granted an exclusive interview with McVeigh, during which he confessed to bombing the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City in 1995. The attack killed 168 people and injured more than 600.
The two reporters wrote “American Terrorist: Timothy McVeigh and the Tragedy of Oklahoma City,” based on more than 70 hours of death row interviews with McVeigh and interviews with more than 200 others.
The book reached #2 on the New York Times non-fiction bestseller list in 2001.
Herbeck and Michel still work together on investigations for The Buffalo News. In addition to McVeigh’s confession, James Kopp, the convicted murderer of Dr. Barnett Slepian, a women services physician fatally shot inside his western New York home, also confessed exclusively to the pair.
Michel has worked for The Buffalo News since 1992, starting as a bureau reporter and working his way up to the crime reporter. He moved to general assignment reporter, advanced to the paper’s investigative team, and is now the homeland security beat reporter. Michel is the recipient of several Associated Press awards and a national award. Michel has three children and resides in Wilson with his wife, Barbara.
Before joining The Buffalo News, Michel worked at The Tonawanda News for 15 years. He earned a journalism degree at Buffalo State College and was inducted into the Buffalo State College Communications Hall of Fame in 2003. During college, he was employed as a stringer for United Press International and as a summer intern at the former Buffalo Courier Express newspaper. Michel started in the newspaper business loading trucks at The New York Times.
Herbeck is an investigative reporter at The Buffalo News, where he has worked since 1977. He has covered crimes and the courts, and has won more than a dozen state and national journalism awards for investigative stories on government corruption, telemarketing fraud, bankruptcy fraud, criminal gun trafficking, child pornography, problems in the state prison system and other topics.
In addition, Herbeck has received several awards from police organizations in the Buffalo area for his contributions to publicizing criminal issues in Western New York. He lives in Tonawanda, and is married with two sons.
