It is a shish kebab, and it looks suspiciously like all the other greasy shish kebabs sold at the store every day. Except this one is "especially fried".

A little way along State Highway 63, directly opposite the prison where the Oklahoma City bomber, Timothy McVeigh, will be executed next month, Tom Norris has already leased a parking spot in his front yard to a television crew for $US1,000 ($2,000) a day.

"They've all been tellin' me it's morbid to make money out of this thing," he says. "Morbid, my ass! If those TV fellas want to go and pay me a thou' for parking in my yard, then I'm here to take it from 'em."

Mr Norris's son, Ronald, is building a sandwich wagon from which to sell food when the protesters, reporters and onlookers arrive for McVeigh's May16 execution.

Next door, Larry Taylor has rented the roof of his house to Rupert Murdoch's Fox TV network, so it can set up a Web cam for a 24-hour Internet broadcast of events in the jail compound before, during and after the event.

Around the corner, Matthew Worthington, a devout Mormon, says his five children will probably sell lemonade from their yard on the day.

"People will get thirsty, I suppose," he says.

Terre Haute's hotels have been sold out for months. All the rooms went for top dollar just hours after the date of the execution was announced.

Now locals are offering rooms in their homes for up to $US200 a night. Some will throw in a "traditional Indiana breakfast" of ham and beans.

Terre Haute, an otherwise unremarkable industrial town, is proud of its title of "City of Character". However, in recent days the town has displayed a jarring characteristic of modern America. In the land of opportunity, the birthplace of modern capitalism, no opportunity to turn a buck is beyond the pale.

But the town is not without a conscience. A spirited debate has raged for weeks between the various local churches over the morality or otherwise of putting a man, any man, even Timothy McVeigh, to death.

The participants in this cross-denominational discussion will be easy to spot on May16. They are the ones who won't be wearing the T-shirts that read: "I was there on McV day".

Copyright © 2001 Sydney Morning Herald

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