Witness Recalls 2 White Men’s Flight After Bombing of Church

Two white men riding in a car with Confederate flags flying from the antenna sped off after a 1963 blast ripped through the 16th Street Baptist Church, killing four black girls, an eyewitness testified Monday.

In testimony that ran counter to other eyewitness statements made to investigators, retired chef Eddie Mauldin said he saw two men suspiciously circling the church in a Rambler station wagon and then racing off after the blast.

Thomas Blanton Jr., 62, a former member of the Ku Klux Klan, stands charged with four counts of murder in the bombing that galvanized the civil rights movement in the South.

Attorney John Robbins called only two witnesses to the stand Monday before resting the defense’s case, setting the stage for closing arguments and the start of jury deliberations today.

FBI case agent Bill Fleming was brought back to confirm that investigators had believed suspects in the bombing may have been driving a black 1957 Ford.

But the jury was never told about testimony during an earlier trial by another witness who said she saw a car like Blanton’s, who drove a Chevrolet, outside the church the night before the blast.