#Thomas edwin blanton jr driver#

“I think I was cleverly set up by the government … and that’s why I’m here,” Blanton told the television station from St. In a 2006 interview with Birmingham station WBRC-TV, he claimed the government used trumped-up evidence and lies to gain his conviction. senator, said in the trial.īlanton proclaimed his innocence years after being sent to prison. “Tom Blanton saw change and didn’t like it,” Jones, now a Democratic U.S. The targeted church was a rallying point for protesters. Attorney Doug Jones, appointed as a special state prosecutor, said Blanton acted in response to months of civil rights demonstrations.

“We were getting ready to be there to oppose it,” said Rudolph’s husband, George Rudolph.ĭuring the trial, then-U.S. Glass fragments remained in her chest, left eye and abdomen for decades after the explosion.Ī parole hearing was scheduled next year for Blanton. The bodies of Denise McNair, 11, and Addie Mae Collins, Cynthia Wesley and Carole Robertson, all 14, were found in the downstairs lounge.Ĭollins’ sister, Sarah Collins Rudolph, survived the blast but lost her right eye. 15, 1963, a bomb ripped through an exterior wall of the brick church, killing four girls who were inside preparing for a youth program.

Cherry was convicted in 2002 and died in prison in 2004. Chambliss was convicted in 1977 and died in prison in 1985. The investigation into the bombing was stalled early and left dormant for long stretches, but two other ex-Klansmen, Robert Chambliss and Bobby Frank Cherry, also were convicted in the bombing in separate trials. Moderates could no longer remain silent and the fight to topple segregation laws gained new momentum. The church bombing, exposing the depths of hatred by white supremacists as Birmingham integrated its public schools, was a tipping point of the civil rights movement. Kay Ivey’s office said Blanton died of natural causes. When asked by the judge if he had any comment, Blanton said: “I guess the good Lord will settle it on judgment day.” In May 2001, Blanton was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison for the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham. Thomas Edwin Blanton Jr., the last of three one-time Ku Klux Klansmen convicted of a 1963 Alabama church bombing that killed four black girls and was the deadliest single attack of the civil rights movement, has died in prison, the governor’s office said Friday. Acquaintances claimed that Cash was too nervous to be capable of committing a crime of the magnitude of the bombing.BIRMINGHAM, Ala. He maintained his innocence and passed a polygraph test given by the FBI. Bombing role Īlthough officially named by the Federal Bureau of Investigation as a suspect as early as 1965, Cash was never formally charged with any crime. He served in the United States Army during World War II. Cash was a member of United Klans of America, a Ku Klux Klan organization.

#Thomas edwin blanton jr driver#

He was a truck driver for Dixie-Ohio Express Company. Cash died in 1994 and was never tried for his alleged involvement in the bombing.Ĭash was married to Myrtle Cash and had two children, Carolyn and Maurice. Herman Frank Cash (J– February 7, 1994) was a suspected fourth conspirator in the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing of 1963 along with Thomas Edwin Blanton Jr., Robert Edward Chambliss, and Bobby Frank Cherry, all of whom received prison sentences for their involvement in the incident. Suspected co-conspirator in the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing