Kenneth Michael Trentadue
Suspicious death in custody
Kenneth Michael Trentadue (December 19, 1950 – August 21, 1995) was an American citizen who was found hanged in his cell at Federal Transfer Center, Oklahoma City during the investigation of the Oklahoma City bombing. His death was officially ruled a suicide three years after it occurred. Trentadue's family maintains that he was murdered by members of the FBI who mistakenly believed he was involved in the Oklahoma bombing and that officials at the prison engaged in a cover-up. Oklahoma City's chief medical examiner said it was "very likely he was murdered". Convicted bomber Timothy McVeigh stated that he believed Trentadue was mistaken for Richard Lee Guthrie, a suspected co-conspirator in the bombing who also died in federal custody, allegedly from suicide by hanging.
Early life
Kenneth Trentadue was born to a family of coal miners and raised in Number 7, a coal camp located between Cucumber, West Virginia, and Horsepen, Virginia. In 1961, when the coal business was facing hard times, Kenneth moved with his family to Orange County, California. In high school, despite being an accomplished track and field athlete, Kenneth dropped out. He enlisted in the army and soon developed an addiction to heroin. He attempted to find a job doing factory work and carpentry, but eventually turned to robbing banks with a fake gun.
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This entry incorporates text from “Kenneth Michael Trentadue” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.