[1][2] Trentadue's family maintains that he was murdered by members of the FBI who mistakenly believed he was involved in the Oklahoma bombing[1] and that officials at the prison engaged in a cover-up.
[3] Convicted bomber Timothy McVeigh stated that he believed Trentadue was mistaken for Richard Lee Jr., a suspected co-conspirator in the bombing who also died in federal custody, allegedly from suicide by hanging.
[2] District Judge Timothy D. Leonard would later write that during a check of Kenneth's cell at 2:38 a.m. on August 21, 1995, all was normal with no sign of blood or a suicide attempt; thus Trentadue's injuries and hanging occurred "in quite a short period of time" of 24 minutes or less[6] According to prison records, at 3:02 a.m., the morning of August 21, 1995, Kenneth was found in his cell suspended from a noose made out of his bed sheets.
[4] Oklahoma County District Attorney Bob Macy and federal officials determined that Trentadue had committed suicide by hanging himself.
[7] The FBI paperwork from the agent who received the medical examiner's call reads "murder" and "believes that foul play is suspect[ed] in this matter.
A telephone caller in 1996 told Jesse that his brother had been killed in a botched interrogation, vaguely mentioning bank robberies and alleging that Kenneth "fit a profile".
[2] Cash suspected that Kenneth Trentadue was mistaken for Richard Lee Guthrie, a member of the Aryan Republican Army (ARA), a white supremacist group that robbed over 20 banks across the US Midwest during the early 1990s.
Trentadue and Guthrie shared a strong physical resemblance – they were the same height, weight, and muscular build, both had dark hair and thick mustaches, and both had dragon tattoos on their left arm.
A convicted murderer, Hammer had struck up a friendship with Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh when both were imprisoned at Federal Correctional Complex, Terre Haute.
Hammer would make sworn statements alleging that McVeigh told him information about other conspirators in the Oklahoma City Bombing, including Guthrie.
"[4] Less than one year after Trentadue's death, Guthrie would also be found dead in his prison cell, the day before he was scheduled to give a television interview.
Trentadue family attorneys argued that Baker's hanging was "... pretty incredible because he's the only witness who really came forward and said he saw the guards go in there and murder Kenneth.
"[2] To review the case, the Department of Justice consulted forensic pathologist Bill Gormley, of the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology.
Gormley contacted Kevin Rowland, the original chief investigator assigned the case by the Oklahoma state medical examiner.
Or, worse, it was planned.Senators Orrin Hatch (R, Utah) and Byron Dorgan (D, N.D.) spoke publicly about the case, both raising suspicion about the suicide ruling.
[2] Hatch stated to Attorney General Janet Reno in April 1997 hearing that "I fear the Department [of Justice] is not taking this investigation seriously.
The report does however note that the FBI and Bureau of Prisons had poorly conducted the investigation, and that four employees of the federal government had "made false statements" under oath in connection to the Trentadue case.
In July 2009 the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit overturned Kimball's decision, barring Jesse Trentadue from conducting the interviews.