http://debianws.lexgopc.com/wiki143/index.php?action=history&feed=atom&title=Robert_Edward_ChamblissRobert Edward Chambliss - Revision history2026-05-15T18:17:10ZRevision history for this page on the wikiMediaWiki 1.43.1http://debianws.lexgopc.com/wiki143/index.php?title=Robert_Edward_Chambliss&diff=2012385&oldid=previmported>WikiCleanerBot: v2.05b - Bot T19 CW#25 - Fix errors for CW project (Heading hierarchy)2025-05-09T02:08:55Z<p>v2.05b - <a href="/wiki143/index.php?title=User:WikiCleanerBot&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="User:WikiCleanerBot (page does not exist)">Bot T19 CW#25</a> - Fix errors for <a href="/wiki143/index.php?title=WP:WCW&action=edit&redlink=1" class="new" title="WP:WCW (page does not exist)">CW project</a> (Heading hierarchy)</p>
<p><b>New page</b></p><div>{{Short description|American mass murderer}}<br />
{{Infobox criminal<br />
| name = Robert Edward Chambliss<br />
| image = Robert Edward Chambliss.jpg<br />
| image_size = <br />
| alt = <br />
| caption = <br />
| birth_name = <br />
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1904|01|14}}<br />
| birth_place = [[Pratt City, Alabama]], U.S.<br />
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1985|10|29|1904|01|14}}<br />
| death_place = [[Birmingham, Alabama]], U.S.<br />
| death_cause = <br />
| resting_place = [[Elmwood Cemetery (Birmingham, Alabama)]]<br />
| residence = <br />
| nationality = American<br />
| other_names = "Dynamite Bob"<br />
| occupation = <br />
| known_for = Participant in the [[16th Street Baptist Church bombing]]<br />
| penalty = [[Life imprisonment]]<br />
| spouse = <!--Do not include spouse unless notable or they are relevant to the crime.--><br />
| children = <!--Do not include children unless notable or they are relevant to the crime.--><br />
| parents = <!--Do not include parents unless notable or they are relevant to the crime.--><br />
| allegiance = <!-- [[Lucchese crime family]] --><br />
| motive = [[White supremacy]]<br />
| conviction = [[First degree murder]]<br />
| reward_amount = <br />
| wanted_by = <br />
| partners = {{Plainlist|<br />
* [[Bobby Frank Cherry]]<br />
* [[Thomas Edwin Blanton Jr.]]<br />
}}<br />
| wanted_since = <br />
| time_at_large = <br />
| escaped = <br />
| escape_end = <br />
| comments = <br />
| apprehended = <br />
| imprisoned = <br />
| footnotes = <br />
| criminal_status = [[Deceased]]<br />
}}<br />
'''Robert Edward Chambliss''' (January 14, 1904 – October 29, 1985), also known as "'''Dynamite Bob'''",<ref name=chambliss-obit/> was a [[white supremacist]] [[terrorist]] convicted in 1977 of murder for his role as conspirator in the [[16th Street Baptist Church bombing]] in 1963. A member of the [[United Klans of America]], Chambliss also [[firebombing|firebombed]] the houses of several [[African American]] families in [[Alabama]].{{fact|date=August 2021}}<br />
<br />
==Investigation and conviction==<br />
A May 13, 1965, memo to [[Federal Bureau of Investigation]] (FBI) director [[J. Edgar Hoover]] identified Chambliss, [[Bobby Frank Cherry]], [[Herman Frank Cash]] and [[Thomas Edwin Blanton Jr.]] as suspects in the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing that killed four young African-American girls.<ref name=clary-lat>{{cite news|last1=Clary|first1=Mike|title=Birmingham's Painful Past Reopened|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2001-apr-14-mn-50901-story.html|access-date=21 June 2014|work=[[Los Angeles Times]]|date=14 April 2001}}</ref><br />
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The investigation was originally closed in 1968; no charges were filed. Years later it was found that the [[FBI]] had accumulated evidence against the named suspects that had not been revealed to the prosecutors by order of [[J. Edgar Hoover]]. Edgar Hoover stopped and shut down the investigation in 1968. The files were used by Alabama [[attorney general]] [[Bill Baxley]] to reopen the case in 1971.<ref name=clary-lat /> In 1977, Chambliss was convicted of first degree murder for the bombing in the death of Carol Denise McNair. He was sentenced to life imprisonment. Chambliss died in Lloyd Noland Hospital and Health Center in Birmingham on October 29, 1985,<ref name=chambliss-obit>{{cite news|title=Robert E. Chambliss, Figure in '63 Bombing|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1985/10/30/us/robert-e-chambliss-figure-in-63-bombing.html|accessdate=21 June 2014|work=[[The New York Times]]|date=30 October 1985}}</ref> still proclaiming his innocence. He was 81.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Chambliss v. State |url=https://law.justia.com/cases/alabama/court-of-appeals-criminal/1979/373-so-2d-1185-0.html |access-date=2023-08-15 |website=Justia Law |language=en}}</ref><br />
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Chambliss served his sentence in the [[St. Clair Correctional Facility]] near [[Springville, Alabama]].<ref name=raines-nyt>{{cite news|last1=Raines|first1=Howell|title=Alabama Presses the Klan to Answer for Its Most Heinous Bombing|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2000/05/21/opinion/alabama-presses-the-klan-to-answer-for-its-most-heinous-bombing.html|accessdate=21 June 2014|work=[[The New York Times]]|date=20 May 2000}}</ref><br />
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=== Gary Rowe ===<br />
Chambliss claimed that it was [[Gary Thomas Rowe Jr.]], an [[FBI Informant]] who had planted the dynamite at the church<ref>{{Cite web |last=Cavendish |first=Steve |date=2024-07-12 |title=FBI's role in Tennessee Ku Klux Klan revealed in new book |url=https://nashvillebanner.com/2024/07/12/betsy-phillips-nashville-klan/ |access-date=2025-05-03 |website=Nashville Banner |language=en-US}}</ref> <br />
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Investigative records show that Rowe, who was no stranger to dynamite, had twice failed polygraph tests when questioned as to his possible involvement in the bombing.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Tuscaloosa News - Google News Archive Search |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1817&dat=19781004&id=RggdAAAAIBAJ&sjid=_p0EAAAAIBAJ&pg=6171,1342250&hl=en |access-date=2025-05-03 |website=news.google.com}}</ref> Because of this, the FBI and [[Attorney General of Alabama|Alabama Attorney General]] prosecutor [[Bill Baxley]] did not use Rowe as a witness in Chambliss's trial.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Ocala Star-Banner - Google News Archive Search |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1356&dat=19780711&id=PP4xAAAAIBAJ&sjid=0wUEAAAAIBAJ&pg=6001,3275012&hl=en%20Ocala%20Star%20Banner |access-date=2025-05-03 |website=news.google.com}}</ref><br />
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==See also==<br />
{{Portal|United States|Biography}}<br />
*[[African-American history]]<br />
*[[Civil Rights Movement]]<br />
*[[Birmingham campaign]]<br />
*[[Mass racial violence in the United States]]<br />
<br />
==References==<br />
{{Reflist}}<br />
<br />
==Further reading==<br />
*{{cite book|last1=Sikora|first1=Frank|title=Until Justice Rolls Down: The Birmingham Church Bombing Case|date=2005|publisher=University of Alabama Press|isbn=9780817352684}}<br />
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{{Authority control}}<br />
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Chambliss, Robert Edward}}<br />
[[Category:1904 births]]<br />
[[Category:1985 deaths]]<br />
[[Category:20th-century American criminals]]<br />
[[Category:American Ku Klux Klan members convicted of murder]]<br />
[[Category:American mass murderers]]<br />
[[Category:American murderers of children]]<br />
[[Category:American people who died in prison custody]]<br />
[[Category:American prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment]]<br />
[[Category:American truck drivers]]<br />
[[Category:Criminals from Alabama]]<br />
[[Category:History of Birmingham, Alabama]]<br />
[[Category:People convicted of murder by Alabama]]<br />
[[Category:People from Birmingham, Alabama]]<br />
[[Category:Prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment by Alabama]]<br />
[[Category:Prisoners who died in Alabama detention]]<br />
[[Category:Serial bombers]]<br />
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