When Jon Ronson began his exploration into the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, Carol Howe was a mere footnote in the web of intrigue surrounding America’s deadliest domestic terror attack. Did convicted bomber Timothy McVeigh act alone? Then why, beforehand, did he phone Elohim City, the white-separatist community accused of breeding anti-government militias? Did Howe, the wealthy debutante turned white supremacist stationed inside this rural retreat, provide intelligence that should have helped the FBI stop this deadly attack?

^{Picture: Steve Ullathorne}

‘It was the one that got away,’ says Ronson, explaining why he’s returned to Howe’s story now in The Debutante. ‘There’s nothing more frustrating than starting a story you can’t finish.’ This is also a jaw-droppingly baffling tale about an heiress who, bored in hospital with two broken feet, phoned a ‘Dial-A-Racist’ hotline, fell in love with the voice of Dennis Mahon (‘America’s strangest neo-Nazi’), and relocated to Elohim City. ‘It’s like a Nazi Patty Hearst mystery,’ says Ronson. ‘Why did her life turn out the way that it did? I thought that was kind of funny too, that she made this series of hilariously bad choices. It’s a dark comedy, but still a comedy.’

In the first episode, Ronson calls Howe’s alleged intelligence ‘tantalising’ because it sounds so plausible. Does part of him hope the conspiracies he uncovers turn out to be real? ‘With this one, I really did,’ he says. ‘There are all these clues that are enough to make even a poster-boy sceptic think maybe this is true.’ He remains close-lipped over whether he is now persuaded of Howe’s thwarted heroism, though he does admit that other revelations about government and police negligence (the FBI’s failure to prevent 2021’s Capitol assault, say, or endemic misogyny in the Met) added to her story’s draw. 

‘But I wanted to not try and steer the ship,’ he clarifies. ‘Ultimately, what my show is about, amidst all the noise and clamour, is slowing down, thinking carefully, weighing up evidence. It’s almost a tribute to the more old-fashioned type of journalism where you’re only interested, as much as you possibly can be, in the facts.’ It’s tempting to view Howe as a cautionary tale about our vulnerability to indoctrination, but Ronson is careful not to award her too much clemency. ‘I think Carol wasn’t a passive passenger in her radicalisation. She seems to be very into it. But I’m glad that I always look at each story holistically, because I’m constantly drinking the Kool-Aid with my stories. Probably this story is more about how we’re all prone to radicalisation.’

All episodes available now on Audible.