Last Chance for Justice

By :"T. K. Thorne"

Published on 2013-09-01 by Chicago Review Press

Category :"History"

On September 15, 1963, a bomb exploded outside the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, killing four girls. Thirty-two years later, stymied by a code of silence and an imperfect and often racist legal system, only one person had been convicted in the murders, though a wider conspiracy was suspected. With many key witnesses and two suspects already dead, there seemed little hope of resolution. But in 1995 the FBI and local law enforcement reopened the investigation, led by police detective Ben Herren and FBI special agent Bill Fleming. For over a year, Herren and Fleming analyzed the original FBI files on the bombing and the Ku Klux Klan, then began a search for new evidence. Their first interview broke open the case, but not in the way they expected. Last Chance for Justice is the inside story of one of the most infamous crimes of the civil rights era, told by a 20-year member of the Birmingham Police Department. T. K. Thorne follows the ups and downs of the investigation, detailing how Herren and Fleming unearthed lost evidence and convinced long-silent witnesses to talk. 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. T. K. Thorne served as an officer in the patrol and detective bureaus of the Birmingham Police Department for 20 years, retiring as precinct captain in 1999. She lives in Springville, Alabama.

Last Chance for Justice

Lenght : 288

Language : en

This

Last Chance for Justice

was ranked 39 by Google Books