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

Revealing the story of the reopening of the case of the Birmingham, Alabama, church bombing of 1963, this insider’s account divulges the ins and outs of the investigation led by detective Ben Herren of the Birmingham Police Department and special agent Bill Fleming of the FBI. For more than a year, they 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. Herren and Fleming unearthed lost evidence and convinced long-silent witnesses to tell their stories. 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.

This is an important examination of the Birmingham bombing on its fiftieth anniversary. —Booklist This is a story that desperately needed to be told, to be shared. —Alabama Booksmith“Really masterful. It tells me things I didn't know about a story we all know a lot about. . . . A very compact, impactful narrative.” —Robin deMonia,Birmingham News

T. K. Thorneserved as an officer in the patrol and detective bureaus of the Birmingham Police Department for 20 years, retiring as precinct captain in 1999. She is the author ofNoah’s Wife. This is the first account that focuses specifically on the most recent investigations that led to the trials and convictions of Bobby Frank Cherry and Tommy Blanton.