On This Day In Alabama History: Bobby Frank Cherry Died In Prison

By Alabama NewsCenter Staff

November 18, 2004: Days after the 1963 bombing of Birmingham’s 16th Street Baptist Church that killed four young girls, authorities homed in on Bobby Frank Cherry as a suspect. Yet, nearly 40 years went by before Cherry was brought to trial and convicted. Cherry and three other Klansmen – Robert Chambliss, Thomas Blanton and Herman Frank Cash – were known in Birmingham for their violent behavior. While the local FBI office wanted to prosecute, then-FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover pushed back, reportedly because he doubted the men could be convicted in Alabama. The case was closed without any charges being filed. Six years later, then-state Attorney General Bill Baxley re-opened the case. He learned Hoover had blocked testimony, and that the FBI had failed to turn over thousands of files to state prosecutors, including audio surveillance tapes. In 1977, armed with the additional evidence, a jury convicted Chambliss. He was sentenced to life in prison.

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