![]() “She hopes that he found Jesus Christ and repented,” George Rudolph said on behalf of his wife. 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 and is known as the “fifth little girl.” Glass fragments remained in her chest, left eye and abdomen for decades after the explosion.Ī parole hearing was scheduled next year for Blanton, and Rudolph and her husband planned to attend in opposition to his release, which was denied during a previous hearing. 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. Police arrest woman in stabbing at Tiger Plaza.Shooting leaves one teen dead, another injured in Hammond.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. “That he died at this moment, when the country is trying to reconcile the multi-generational failure to end systemic racism, seems fitting,” Jones said in a statement. Doug Jones, who prosecuted Blanton, said the fact that Blanton remained free for almost 40 years after the bombing “speaks to a broader systemic failure to hold him and his accomplices accountable.” When asked by the judge during sentencing if he had any comment, Blanton said: “I guess the good Lord will settle it on judgment day.” Ivey, in a statement, called the bombing “a dark day that will never be forgotten in both Alabama’s history and that of our nation.” 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. He was being held at Donaldson prison near Birmingham, prison officials said. Kay Ivey’s office said Blanton died of natural causes. ![]() (AP) - Thomas Edwin Blanton Jr., the last of three one-time Ku Klux Klansmen convicted in a 1963 Alabama church bombing that killed four Black girls and was the deadliest single attack of the civil rights movement, died Friday in prison, officials said. Donaldson Correctional Facility from unspecified causes while serving his life sentence, six days after his 82nd birthday.BIRMINGHAM, Ala. On June 26, 2020, Blanton died at William E. Parole was denied and deferred until 2021. Blanton went before the parole board on August 3, 2016. He was sent to Holman Correctional Facility in Atmore, Alabama. He got four life sentences in state prison. Blanton, and Bobby Frank Cherry, were convicted in 2001 in a highly publicized cold case trial. to bring charges against him and three other men because Hoover thought a successful prosecution was unlikely.Īt the time of his arrest, Blanton was working at a Walmart store and living in a trailer with no running water. Edgar Hoover prevented attempts by the Birmingham office of the F.B.I. Blanton was a suspect from early in the investigation, but J. He was an accomplice in the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing in Birmingham, Alabama, on September 15, 1963, which killed four African American girls (Carole Robertson, Cynthia Wesley, Addie Mae Collins, and Denise McNair). ![]() Blanton had a tenth-grade education and served as an aircraft mechanic in the Navy from 1956 to 1959.īlanton was a member of the Ku Klux Klan in the early 1960s. The latter is described as a notorious racist in Birmingham, Alabama. He was the son of Thomas Edwin "Pops" Blanton Sr. He was a white-American terrorist and convicted felon. ![]()
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