Thomas Blanton, KKK bomber of 16th St Baptist Church, dies
Source: Associated Press
Updated 3:01 pm CDT, Friday, June 26, 2020
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (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. He was 82.
. . .
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. 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."
. . .
Sen. 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."
"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.
Read more: https://www.chron.com/news/article/Thomas-Blanton-KKK-bomber-of-16th-St-Baptist-15369119.php
Denise McNair, 11; Carole Robertson, 14; Addie Mae Collins, 14; and Cynthia Wesley, 14; from
left, are shown in these 1963 photos
A civil defense worker and firemen walk through debris from the explosion in this 1963
photograph
Thomas Blanton, as a younger monster
Older monster Blanton
Wikipedia:
The 16th Street Baptist Church bombing was an act of white supremacist terrorism[1][2] which occurred at the African-American 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, on Sunday, September 15, 1963. Four members of a local Ku Klux Klan chapter planted at least 15 sticks of dynamite attached to a timing device beneath the steps located on the east side of the church.[3]
Described by Martin Luther King Jr. as "one of the most vicious and tragic crimes ever perpetrated against humanity",[4] the explosion at the church killed four girls and injured between 14 and 22 other people.
Although the FBI had concluded in 1965 that the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing had been committed by four known Klansmen and segregationists: Thomas Edwin Blanton Jr., Herman Frank Cash, Robert Edward Chambliss, and Bobby Frank Cherry,[5] no prosecutions were conducted until 1977, when Robert Chambliss was tried and convicted of the first-degree murder of one of the victims, 11-year-old Carol Denise McNair.
In a revival of effort by states and the federal government to prosecute cold cases from the civil rights era, the state conducted trials in the early 21st century of Thomas Edwin Blanton Jr. and Bobby Cherry, who were each convicted of four counts of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment in 2001 and 2002, respectively.[6] Herman Cash had died in 1994, and was never charged with his alleged involvement in the bombing.
More:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/16th_Street_Baptist_Church_bombing
It seems the human race should thank Democratic former prosecutor Doug Jones for finally being able to convict someone for this filthy, evil crime against humanity.
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May you (not) enjoy your time in hell, Mr. Blanton.
