Defendant Told of Church Blast, Ex-Wife Says

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. —  A former wife of an ex-Klansman testified at his murder trial Thursday that he claimed to have placed the explosive device and lighted the fuse in the 1963 church bombing that killed four black girls.

“He said he got out of the car and put the bomb under the stairs the night before,” said Willadean Brogdon, who was married to Bobby Frank Cherry in the early 1970s.

The 71-year-old Cherry is accused of joining other Ku Klux Klansmen in planting the bomb at the 16th Street Baptist Church, a rallying point for protests against segregation.

Brogdon, who was married to Cherry from August 1970 to April 1973, said he called her once when his car broke down near the church.

“I went to get him and he said that was the church where he put the bomb under the stairs,” she said. “He said he lit the fuse.”

Under cross-examination, defense lawyer Mickey Johnson questioned her description of the church. Brogdon testified that Cherry told her the stairs where he placed the device looked different when rebuilt after the bombing, but Johnson pointed out that there are no stairs now on that side of the building.

The bomb exploded about 10:20 a.m. on a Sunday. Whether Cherry placed the bomb on a Saturday and might have returned later to light the fuse was not explained.

Other witnesses Thursday testified that Cherry claimed responsibility for the blast, but with key differences.

Brogdon’s brother, Wayne Brogdon, said Cherry never mentioned planting the bomb or lighting the fuse. “He told me he made the bomb but it wasn’t supposed to hurt anybody,” he said.

But George Ferris, Willadean Brogdon’s nephew, quoted Cherry as saying the church “was supposed to be full.”

The bombing on Sept. 15, 1963, was the deadliest act of violence against the civil rights movement. Killed were Denise McNair, 11; and Addie Mae Collins, Carole Robertson and Cynthia Wesley, who were 14.

Klan member Thomas Blanton was convicted of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment last year for his role in the church bombing.

A third Klansman, Robert Chambliss, was convicted of murder in 1977 and died in prison. A fourth suspect, Herman Cash, died in 1994 without being charged.