DETOURS ON THE TRAIL OF THE BOMBERS

By ELIZABETH GLEICK

On the same day that Stephen Jones announced he would be defending Timothy McVeigh in the Oklahoma City bombing case, he hired a security firm to protect his home outside Enid, Oklahoma. But that has not stopped the phone calls. Late last week the 54-year-old lawyer received a threat from someone the fbi believes is a known violent offender. "I have to take this seriously," Jones says. "The man said if I represented McVeigh, he was going to send a Ryder truck to my house and blow it up."

Jones understands that he has set himself up for many such threats. He realizes too that in the coming months it will be necessary to explain repeatedly to Americans horrified by the blast why the Timothy McVeighs of this world deserve legal counsel. But the Louisiana-born, Texas-bred, aw-shucks county lawyer tells Time that he is fully prepared to stick with his role as champion of the underdog. After all, he has supported losing causes before: Nixon and Roger Dale Stafford, Oklahoma's most notorious death-row inmate, and his own three unsuccessful bids for electoral office. Says Jones of his court-appointed mission: "I think lawyers have to give something back to the state and the profession."

That task was made more difficult last week as evidence against Jones' client mounted, suspects were tracked down and prosecutors organized their case against McVeigh and his Army buddy Terry Nichols. The latest person drawn into the FBI's dragnet is Steven Garrett Colbern, 35, who was picked up Friday on an unrelated weapons charge in Oatman, Arizona. Colbern, a biochemist, lived in Oatman, about 20 miles from Kingman, where McVeigh once resided. There are a number of coincidences involving Colbern: he owns a brown pickup truck similar to one a witness allegedly saw alongside McVeigh's car in Perry, Oklahoma, the day of the bombing; he used the same Kingman mail drop as McVeigh; and agents found a letter addressed to ''S.C.'' among McVeigh's effects. One federal investigator, however, cautioned that Colbern was being sought as a possible witness, not as a suspect. Said another source: "The connection of any of this to the bombing is nebulous at best."

Earlier in the week Nichols was charged with "malicious damage" to the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building and with aiding and abetting McVeigh. According to an official affidavit presented last week, Nichols began stockpiling large amounts of fertilizer last September in several lockers near his home in Herington, Kansas. When agents searched Nichols' home after he turned himself in to police on April 21, they found 60-ft. primadet cords with blasting caps, fuel meters and a receipt for fertilizer that had McVeigh's fingerprints on it. During the search, Nichols allegedly asked the agents not to "mistake household items" for bomb ingredients, explaining that he was selling ammonium nitrate as plant food at gun shows. The affidavit revealed that Nichols wrote a letter to McVeigh last November, instructing him to clear out the lockers in case of Nichols' death. "Go for it!" Nichols wrote to his Army buddy.

And what of John Doe No. 2? There was speculation that Nichols' son Joshua, 12, who was staying with his father in the days before the bombing, was a prime candidate. However, the boy, although large for his age and husky, has light hair and no tattoo. John Doe's elusiveness has led some investigators to question his existence -- or at the very least the likeness currently being circulated. But authorities say the sketches are based on descriptions from witnesses at the Ryder-truck outlet in Junction City, Kansas, as well as from a woman at an undisclosed location.

Meanwhile, family members and known associates of Nichols' and McVeigh's are being questioned in the hope that such pressure will persuade the suspects to cooperate. Investigators tell TIME they are convinced that Joshua may provide them with insight into his father. For instance, the boy said in an interview on PrimeTime Live last week that his father "started going to gun shows and making little bombs" and in Kansas, showed him how to make and detonate explosives as well. Nichols' brother James and McVeigh's sister Jennifer are being pressed for new leads, as are McVeigh's Army buddy Mike Fortier; Ed Paulsen, proprietor of a gun store in Antigo, Wisconsin; and Paulsen's son David.

The Los Angeles Times reported last week that McVeigh frequented a house in Kingman where many people, including the suspect, bought, sold and used the drug crystal methamphetamine, a powerful form of speed increasingly popular in the area. If the allegation is true, it may explain how McVeigh was able to carry large amounts of cash and support himself without a job. According to Ralph McPeak, an associate of McVeigh's, many of these people fooled around with designing and detonating explosives. In February a bomb blew out the windows of McPeak's house; the authorities have not yet determined the origins of the blast.

While federal agents -- thousands of them from the FBI alone -- continue the sometimes tedious tracking of every last lead, the lawyers have set to work. In addition to more than 300 attorneys who have signed up to provide pro bono legal services to victims and their families, O.J. Simpson attorney Johnnie Cochran Jr. and Oklahoma City attorney John Merritt have filed a suit on behalf of several survivors against the maker of the fertilizer allegedly used as an ingredient in the bomb. (The company, ICI Explosives USA Inc., has responded that there is no evidence it was their fertilizer.) And last week University of Texas law professor Michael Tigar, well known in legal circles for his defense of such high-profile clients as John Demjanjuk and the Chicago Seven, took on the defense of Terry Nichols.

As for lawyer Stephen Jones, he has thrown himself into the challenge. His first order of business, he says, is to get his client's version of events. He insists that McVeigh does not resemble the stubborn, arrogant character portrayed in the media. "Mr. McVeigh is articulate and intelligent," Jones says. "He's definitely distressed and anguished about the charges. But when I saw him last, I think he was in good spirits." Jones has not yet disclosed whether he will seek a change of venue for the trial, but does say McVeigh wishes to plead not guilty. "I tell clients, based on what you tell me, I will construct a defense. If you're lying, it will crumble," Jones says. "I don't view this association with McVeigh as a suicide pact," he adds. "All I can say is, let's not have a prejudgment."

--Reported by Edward Barnes/Grand Junction, Patrick E. Cole/Oklahoma City and Elaine Shannon/Washington

With reporting by EDWARD BARNES/GRAND JUNCTION, PATRICK E. COLE/OKLAHOMA CITY AND ELAINE SHANNON/WASHINGTON