Died in prison on October 29, photo gallery Robert Edward Chambliss aka: Dynamite Bob January 14, —October 29, was a truck driver for an auto parts company who joined the Ku Klux Klan at age 20 and firebombed the houses of black families throughout the s to the s, culminating in the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing in Blanton, Jr..
Chambliss was initially acquitted of the murder charges, but years later it was found that the FBI had accumulated evidence against the bombers that had not been revealed to the prosecutors, by order of Hoover.
But in Chambliss was convicted for the murders by prosecutor Bill Baxley, and sentenced to several terms of life imprisonment. He died in prison in , still claiming he was innocent. Robert Edward Chambliss. A witness identified Robert Chambliss as the man who placed the bomb under the Church steps on September 17, He was arrested and charged with murder and for being in possession of sticks of dynamite without a permit.
Chambliss died in an Alabama prison on October 29, On this morning, five girls were changing into their choir robes in the church basement. At a. The Sixteenth Street Baptist Church had served as an important part of the African-American community and was used as a meeting place during the civil rights movement.
The church was used for mass rallies and Martin Luther King Jr. It had also been the headquarters for several desegregation protests. When the church was bombed, it was a sign of the hostility that segregationists had against the civil rights struggle.
While the bomb came as a surprise, bomb threats had been made in the past. In those instances, the church had been able to take special precautions.
This time, no threat had been made. The explosion blew a hole in the east side of the church. It shattered windows, walls, doors, and the air was filled with a thick cloud of dust and soot. As community members dug through the debris in search of survivors, they discovered the bodies of the four victims.
Grief was not only felt in the African American community, but white strangers expressed their sympathy to the families of the four girls. At the funeral of three of the girls, Martin Luther King gave the eulogy, which was witnessed by 8, mourners, both white and black.
The FBI led the initial investigation into the bombing. According to a FBI memorandum to director J. Edgar Hoover, it was determined that Robert E. Blanton Jr. Based on the investigation, the Birmingham FBI office recommended prosecuting the suspects.
Hoover, however, blocked their prosecution by rejecting the recommendation that the federal prosecutor receive the testimony that identified the suspects. By , charges had not been filed and the FBI closed the case. On November 18, , Robert Chambliss was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison. The case was again reopened in and in July , after the FBI received a tip. Herman Frank Cash was still one of the prime suspects, but before a case could be established against him, he died in On May 17, , Thomas Blanton Jr.
Blanton was tried, convicted, and sentenced to life in prison on May 1, For the jurors who convicted him, the taped conversations that the FBI secretly recorded, weighed heavily on their decision. The tapes had remained secret until , when the case was reopened. In one recorded conversation that took place between Blanton and his wife, Blanton told her that he was at the Klan meeting where both the bombing was planned and the bomb was made.
In another recorded conversation, Blanton spoke about the bombing to an FBI informant while driving in a car. For the jurors, the taped conversations provided enough evidence to convict Blanton of murder.
Bobby Frank Cherry's trial was postponed after the judge ruled that he was mentally incompetent to assist his attorney. After Cherry was found competent to stand trail, on May 22, he was found guilty of four counts of murder. He had been taken to Lloyd Nolan Hospital on Monday because of a history of heart problems, a prison system spokeswoman said.
Chambliss was convicted of first-degree murder in the Sept. Police said the bomb was made of up to 15 dynamite sticks and placed in an outside stairwell of the church that Dr.
Martin Luther King Jr. It exploded as the four girls were changing into choir robes in a basement restroom area. The bombing went unsolved for more than a decade, but an investigation was reopened in the mids by Alabama Atty. Bill Baxley, who personally prosecuted the Chambliss case and several other civil rights cases that had lain dormant. Chambliss was convicted in and sentenced to life in prison. Birmingham's public library has a new resource about the city's civil rights history: Letters written from prison by one of three Ku Klux Klansmen….
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