Ex-Klansman’s Alibi in ’63 Church Bombing Refuted

A former Ku Klux Klansman suspected in a 1963 Alabama church bombing that killed four black girls claimed he watched wrestling on TV at home the night before the explosion, but the Jackson Clarion-Ledger reported that no such program aired.

Bobby Frank Cherry, now 69 and living in Mabank, Texas, has been questioned by a federal grand jury considering new charges in the bombing, which tore through a church wall on a Sunday morning and illustrated to the nation the depth of racial hatred in the South.

Cherry’s granddaughter has told the grand jury that he had bragged about helping with the bombing.

Cherry has denied any role in the crime. The only person convicted was a Klan member, Robert Chambliss, who died in prison.

The dynamite bomb planted outside the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham exploded Sept. 15, 1963, killing Denise McNair, 11, and 14-year-olds Cynthia Wesley, Carole Robertson and Addie Mae Collins.

Authorities believe that the device was planted the night before.

In an interview with the Clarion-Ledger, Cherry said he was at a Birmingham sign shop the night before the bombing but left about 9:45 p.m. to get home to watch live studio wrestling on WBRC-TV.

The retired truck driver said the 10 p.m. program was a Saturday night ritual for him.

But there were no wrestling programs on Birmingham TV stations in September 1963. According to TV listings for Sept. 14, 1963, WBRC aired “Films of the Fifties” at 10 p.m. and WAPI aired “Route 66.”

Asked to explain, Cherry said: “Something’s wrong. Wrestling was on.”

Cherry didn’t mention the wrestling program in 1963 statements to the FBI, according to reports obtained by the newspaper.