After resigning from the British Welsh Guard, Strassmeir moved to Washington, D.C. to pursue a career within the U.S. Department of Justice. According to Strassmeir himself, he had hoped to work for the operations section of the Drug Enforcement Administration. His efforts to obtain a career within the federal government were aided by Vincent Petruskie, a retired U.S. Air Forcecolonel who had apparently met Strassmeir's father while he was stationed in Berlin. In interviews, Strassmeir has referred to Vincent Petruskie as "a former CIA guy my father had known". Petruskie confirms that he had assisted Andreas Strassmeir in finding such a job, but denies having any connection to the CIA. Strassmeir moved to Houston, Texas in 1986 where he started working as a salesman for a computer company. During this time, he became involved with the Texas Light Infantry militia before eventually getting expelled due to speculation from members that Strassmeir was a government agent. Afterwards, he became active in right wing and neo-Nazi circles where he eventually met his future attorney, Kirk Lyons. Andreas Strassmeir was also reported to have spent some time in Knoxville, Tennessee, where he obtained a state drivers license. According to Ray Woodruff, a landlord of Strassmeir's, he had rented a 1,300-square-foot house which was located on 7613 Thorngrove Pike but never actually lived in it - simply only claiming residency.
In 1991, Kirk Lyons introduced Andreas Strassmeir to Elohim City - a white separatist community in Oklahoma. A year later, Strassmeir moved there and became the chief of security and weapons training. According to Lyons, Strassmeir hoped to marry an Elohim City woman and gain permanent resident status in the United States. During this time, he struck a friendship with Michael William Brescia, a member of the Aryan Republican Army. The two shared a room together on the compound. While working as a confidential informant for the ATF, Elohim City resident, Carol Howe informed her agency handler about Andreas Strassmeir and how he would frequently talk about "blowing up federal buildings" and using "direct action against the U.S. Government". At the time, Carol Howe was unaware of Strassmeir's full name, and simply knew him as "Andy the German". After the OKC Bombing, Strassmeir fled the compound with fellow Elohim City residents Pete and Tony Ward.
On April 5, 1995 - exactly two weeks before the bombing - Timothy McVeigh telephoned Elohim City just minutes after he had reserved the Ryder rental van that was used to blow up the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building. This telephone call was answered by community resident Joan Millar, the daughter-in-law of Robert G. Millar.
Relationship With McVeigh
Information from various sources, regarding the relationship between the two, tend to conflict with one another - making it difficult to determine such an aspect. However, it is known that Andreas Strassmeir and Timothy McVeigh first met at a gun show in Tulsa, Oklahoma in 1993.
Departure from the United States
Robert Millar quickly "expelled" Andreas Strassmeier from Elohim City soon after he became aware that the FBI was looking at Strassmeir for possible ties to McVeigh and the bombing. Notes from a 1997 FBI investigation state that sometime after the bombing, CIA pilot Dave Halloway flew Andreas Strassmer out of the United States. While that same report records that Strassmeir was flown to Berlin, many have speculated that he was instead flown to Mexico. However, In a letter to the McCurtain Gazette from Strassmeir's attorney, he says his client's sudden departure from the U.S. was aided by members of Germany's elite counterterrorism unit, GSG 9.
