Story highlights Gregory Arthur Weiler II was arrested at a motel last week 
 
 Authorities found bomb-making materials and a handwritten journal 
 
 He is charged with threatening to use an explosive or incediary device 
 
 He also is charged with violating the Oklahoma Anti-Terrorism Act 
 
 Authorities in Oklahoma have arrested and charged a 23-year-old man who they say planned to blow up 48 area churches. 
 
 Gregory Arthur Weiler II was arrested last week at a motel in Miami, Oklahoma, according to Ben Loring, first assistant district attorney for Ottawa County. 
 
 Authorities were tipped off to the plot by workers at the motel about 90 miles northeast of Tulsa. One discovered a duffel bag full of Molotov cocktails near the outside trash, while a room service employee reported suspicious items in Weiler's room, said Loring. 
 
 Police searched the room and allegedly found various documents outlining his plan to set off bombs at 48 churches in and around Miami. 
 
 Among the documents were a list of churches, a hand-drawn map with the churches grouped and circled, instructions for making Molotov cocktails and a handwritten journal, said Loring. Some of the documents had been torn up and needed to be assembled. 
 
 Loring said one of the journal entries read as follows: "Self-Promote for the next 4 years while beginning list of goals written out in Oklahoma having to do with destroying and removing church buildings from U.S., a tiny bit at a time -- setting foundation for the years to follow." 
 
 Authorities also recovered 50 brown glass bottles with cloth wicks attached by duct tape, a funnel and a 5-gallon gasoline can, Loring said. 
 
 Weiler was charged Friday with threatening to use an explosive or incendiary device and violating the Oklahoma Anti-Terrorism Act. He is being held without bond. 
 
 Weiler appeared in court Monday and was appointed representation -- attorneys Andrew Meloy and Daniel Giraldi, said Loring. Both work at the Hartley Law Firm. A woman answering the phone there said that the office would have no comment. 
 
 The suspect, who is from Illinois, is expected to appear in court next on October 22. 
 
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 This undatedphoto provided by the Ottawa County (Okla.) Sheriff Department shows Gregory Arthur Weiler II. Prosecutors have filed charges against the Illinois man accused of plotting to bomb nearly 50... (Associated Press) 
 
 Gregory Arthur Weiler II, 23, of Elk Grove Village, Ill., has been charged under a strict Oklahoma anti-terrorism law put in place after the federal building bombing in Oklahoma City in 1995. The law makes terrorism hoaxes a crime as well as any effort to plan or help plan an act of terrorism. 
 
 Weiler was arrested Thursday after a worker at a motel in Miami, Okla., spotted bottles and other suspicious items in a garbage bin, according to a police affidavit. 
 
 Officers found bomb-making materials in Weiler's room along with torn bits of paper that, when assembled, contained directions for making Molotov cocktails, a list of 48 local churches, a hand-drawn map of the churches, and an outline of a plan to plant bombs. 
 
 Weiler has been held without bond on charges of threatening to use an explosive or incendiary device and violating the Oklahoma Antiterrorism Act. Online court records indicate he has applied for a court-appointed attorney and is due in court on Oct. 22. 
 
 According to an affidavit filed by Det. Jeff Frazier, a maintenance worker alerted Miami police after noticing a pile of brown bottles with cloth wicks attached by duct tape in a trash bin at the Legacy Inn and Suites, which sits just off a major interstate. A funnel and 5-gallon red gasoline can also had been dumped in the bin. 
 
 While background checks were being done on the hotel's 18 guests, the maintenance worker accidentally walked into Weiler's room and saw Weiler with similar items and a Walmart receipt showing the purchase of other items, the affidavit said. 
 
 Police found pieces of paper in the trash with details of the plot, plans to videotape the bombings and the words: "Try to get away with it ... maybe a plan out of town?" 
 
 Weiler's family said he has a long history of mental illness, and Miami Police Chief George Haralson said his answers during questioning ranged from rambling to coherent. 
 
 Haralson said it wasn't clear whether Weiler posed a real threat to churches and the community. 
 
 "He had the means and the ability to carry this out," he said. "How does one assess the threat?" 
 
 Weiler's parents both committed suicide, and Weiler has battled drug addiction and "a lot of mental illnesses" that led to a suicide attempt in the eighth grade, said his cousin Johnny Meyers. 
 
 Weiler has been admitted to mental hospitals multiple times, but "with his medication, he was perfectly fine and functional," Meyers said. He said family members in suburban Chicago believe Weiler must have stopped taking his medication and planned to go to Oklahoma to see him. 
 
 Meyers, whose parents cared for Weiler and his siblings, said his cousin had been out of touch for several years after leaving Illinois. 
 
 A pastor at a homeless shelter operated by a church in suburban Kansas City, Mo., said Weiler lived there for about six months within the past year. 
 
 Doug Perry said Weiler showed no violent tendencies and was active in the group's food pantry and various ministries, but he was clearly troubled. Among other things, he blamed himself for his parents' deaths, Perry said. 
 
 "I knew he was in a bad place," the minister said. He said he last saw Weiler about three months ago, when he left to take a roofing job in Houston. 
 
 "We really, really tried hard to love Greg and put up with his sort of sullen detachment," said Perry, pastor of The Church of Liberty in Liberty, Mo. "We poured a whole lot of love, a whole lot of time, a whole lot of prayer into trying to help him. I grieve because I really do love the kid." 
 
 Perry's church opposes denominational divisions and advocates for one Christian church in each community. 
 
 "We're supposed to be ONE Body and we're supposed to be about JESUS," its website says. "We're not supposed to split off and let theologies and philosophies of Man and personal grudges divide us into little pieces." 
 
 Perry said his beliefs are based on Christian teachings and his church does not advocate physical violence or the destruction of buildings. He said it would not support any plan Weiler had to harm churches. 
 
 "We've never advocated any kind of violence at all," he said. "This has nothing to do with physical violence." 
 
 Back in Oklahoma, youth pastor Chris Carlisle of First Baptist Church of Miami, said the community in the northeast corner of the state is usually very safe and Weiler's arrest hadn't caused great alarm. 
 
 "We haven't changed anything," Carlisle said. "We just pray for him that God would do a work in his life. We know that God has a different plan for his life." 
 
 ___ 
 
 Associated Press writer Don Babwin contributed to this story from Chicago.
– A 23-year-old from Illinois has been charged in connection with an alleged plot to blow up 48 churches in northeast Oklahoma. Gregory Weiler, who has a long history of mental illness, was arrested after motel workers in the town of Miami spotted suspicious items in a garbage bin, CNN reports. Police found 50 Molotov cocktails in the trash and bomb-making materials in Weiler's room, along with documents outlining his plans to set off bombs at dozens of churches. He has been charged under state anti-terrorism laws. Miami's police chief says Weiler's answers in custody ranged from rambling to coherent and it's not clear whether he was going to actually carry out the plot. "He had the means and the ability to carry this out," the chief tells the AP. "How does one assess the threat?" Weiler's parents both committed suicide and he has battled drug addiction and "a lot of mental illnesses," his cousin says. "With his medication, he was perfectly fine and functional," but family members believe he must have stopped taking the medication, the cousin says.