Last Chance for Justice: How Relentless Investigators Uncovered New Evidence Convicting the Birmingham Church Bombers - Hardcover

Thorne, T. K.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1613748647 ISBN 13: 9781613748640

Publisher: Lawrence Hill Books, 2013

Synopsis

On the morning of September 15, 1963, a bomb exploded outside the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, killing four young girls. Thirty-two years later, stymied by a code of silence and an imperfect and often racist legal system, only one person, Robert “Dynamite Bob” Chambliss, had been convicted in the murders, though a wider conspiracy was suspected. With many key witnesses and two suspects already dead, there seemed little hope of bringing anyone else to justice.

            But in 1995 the FBI and local law enforcement reopened the investigation in secret, led by detective Ben Herren of the Birmingham Police Department and special agent Bill Fleming of the FBI. For over a year, Herren and Fleming analyzed the original FBI files on the bombing and activities of the Ku Klux Klan, then began a search for new evidence. Their first interview—with Klansman Bobby Frank Cherry—broke open the case, but not in the way they expected.

            Told by a longtime officer of the Birmingham Police Department, Last Chance for Justice is the inside story of one of the most infamous crimes of the civil rights era. T. K. Thorne follows the ups and downs of the investigation, detailing how Herren and Fleming identified new witnesses and unearthed lost evidence. With tenacity, humor, dedication, and some luck, the pair encountered the worst and best in human nature on their journey to find justice, and perhaps closure, for the citizens of Birmingham.

About this title

About the Author:

T. K. Thorne served as an officer in the patrol and detective bureaus of the Birmingham Police Department for more than twenty years, retiring as precinct captain in 1999. She is the author of an award-winning historical novel, Noah’s Wife.

From Publishers Weekly:

Revisiting an historic civil rights–era cold case, a retired officer of the Birmingham Police Department lauds the persistent efforts of police detective Ben Herren and FBI special agent Bill Fleming in reopening the investigation into the deadly September 15, 1963, bombing of Birmingham's Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, and ultimately bringing the two surviving culprits to justice. Picking up the trail again after over 30 years, the relentless sleuths must contend with a dearth of living witnesses (many had died in the intervening decades), and the fact that only two suspects—Bobby Frank Cherry and Thomas Blanton—were still alive. In recounting Herren and Fleming's investigation, Thorne examines the legacy of racism and resistance in Birmingham, from Bull Connor's brutal policing methods to violent Klansmen and Reverend Shuttlesworth's coalition of activist black churches. He also reveals the surprisingly effective efforts of white bigots determined to thwart the FBI's inquiry into the bombings. Herren's interview with one of the bombers, and the subsequent trials of Blanton and Cherry, are truly gripping. Thorne's story is a stunning reminder of just how tough the fight for freedom—and justice—really is. (Sept.)

About this edition

• Publisher: Lawrence Hill Books
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 1613748647
• ISBN 13: 9781613748640
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 288