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| Ex-wife
says suspect admitted role in 1963 Birmingham church bombing Newhouse News Service Thursday, July 22, 1999
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - A former wife of Bobby Frank Cherry,
longtime suspect in the Sixteenth Street Church bombing, says that
he was involved in the deadly 1963 blast.
``He admitted it,'' Willadean Brogdon said in an interview
Wednesday at Birmingham's federal courthouse. ``He bragged about
it.''
Brogdon, 59, the third of Cherry's five wives, was married to
him between 1970 and 1972. Brogdon and her daughter, Gloria LaDow,
joined another of Cherry's relatives Wednesday in claiming that
the former Klansman was proud of participating in the
Sunday-morning church bombing nearly 36 years ago. The explosion
killed four young black girls.
Last month one of Cherry's granddaughters, Teresa Stacy of
Dallas, said after testifying before a Birmingham grand jury that
she had heard Cherry admit his involvement in the bombing more
than 10 years ago at a family gathering.
LaDow, 39, said Wednesday that her one-time stepfather was a
braggart. ``In certain circles, he bragged about lighting the
fuse, about being a big (Ku Klux) Klan leader.''
Cherry's oldest son, Thomas Frank Cherry, 45, who lives in
Mabank, Texas, was called before the investigative panel
Wednesday. He said prosecutors asked him about the morning of the
bombing and whether his father ever mentioned names of people who
his father said were responsible for the blast.
Thomas Cherry said he told the jury the names his father
mentioned, but would not give them publicly. The younger Cherry is
estranged from his father because of the renewed investigation
into the bombing, he said. They haven't spoken since the FBI
reopened the case in 1997, he said.
Thomas Cherry said he testified Wednesday that he was with his
father at Snow's Sign Shop, about six blocks from the church, the
morning of the Sept. 15, 1963 explosion. They heard the blast.
``People came in and said the church had been bombed and the
blacks were all in an uproar,'' he said. Thomas Cherry was 11
years old.
Bobby Frank Cherry, who also lives in Mabank, has been a
suspect in the bombing since 1963. He is now 67 and suffers from
heart disease. Fellow Klansman Robert Chambliss is the only person
ever convicted in the bombing. He died in prison in 1985. Other
longtime suspects are Tommy Blanton, who still lives in
Birmingham, and Herman Cash. Cash died in 1994.
Cherry and Blanton have repeatedly denied involvement in the
bombing.
A former wife of Blanton's, Jean Barnes, was subpoenaed to the
grand jury Wednesday. She declined to talk to reporters before she
was called to testify late in the afternoon. Before her testimony,
she sat quietly outside the grand jury room with a companion,
quietly reading from a Bible.
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