Born to a firefighter father and accountant mother in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Michael William Brescia is a convicted bank robber who has also been alleged to have been involved in the Oklahoma City Bombing.

An Eagle Scout, Brescia was a member of the Aryan Republican Army and was a part-time student at La Salle University at the time of his arrest.

Private lawsuits by Edye Smith and Glenn Wilburn worked on the assumption that Brescia was the John Doe II seen in surveillance footage helping McVeigh orchestrate the bombings. The London Telegraph also ran an interview with a witness named Connie Smith who said "I kept telling them that the man in the (John Doe II) sketch was that Mike guy, a nice-looking guy, dark-skinned. But the FBI made me feel guilty, then ignorant, as if I didn't know what I was saying. Then, later, I tried to call in with more information and they wouldn't even talk to me."