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“Sonny” Alexander said his brothe: Henry Al- exander, 61, who died of lung cancer in Decem- her, told him he was inynalyved in the Dicmingham uv a wre akiyUaW CU da tik DAP Edi pilaelt church bombing and other viotent acts, including the murder of Montgomery truck driver Willie Edwards and an unknown black man in Elba. Edwards was abducted and made to jump from a bridge into the Alabama River. The Elba man was placed in a barrel that was spiked with nails; the barrel was rolled down a hill. The man died, the brother said. Henry Alexander has been identified as an FBI informant. The latest revelations about Alexander have brought new calls for a reopening of the church- bombing case as well as a look at the Montgom- ery and Elba cases. The Rev, Abraham Woods, president of the Bir- mingharm Chapter of the Southern Christian Lead- ership Conference, said that even though 30 years have passed, the horror of the bombing demands the case be reopened. “I think what Baxley did was good and com- mendable,” he said, “but it was just the tip of the iceberg. The blood of those little girls is still cry- ing behind the altar, ‘How long? How long? As long as this case is not completely solved and there are perpetrators of this horrendous act at large. Alabama ts going to have a black eye. “When I first heard about the deathbed confes- sions in Montgomery, I became hopeful that some revelation will be made about the church, and justice can take its course and seek to prasecute.” Rk p Wake Banded Gah Dees promises probe Morris Dees, founder and chief trial counsel! of the Southern Poverty £ Law Center in Montgomery, who is representing the Edwards family, said there should be another investigation of the church bembing. “I think there is enough smoke out there that vou need to look for fire,” he said, Dees said earlier probes into the church bomb- ing revealed a possible Montgomery link. “It would seer logical to me for the Klan to get peopie out of Birmingham who would not be as easy to track,” he said. “Alexander had plenty of experience. There were four churches bombed in Montgomery, and a Klansman made a statement that Alexander was involved.” Dees said he is also curious about the tie be- tween Alexander and another FBI informant, Gary Thomas Howe, who lived in Jefferson County during the 1960s. “We know that Gary Thomas Rowe was a friend of Alexander’s,” he said. Rowe, who was active in a Birmingham KKK unit, was riding in a car with three other men in 1965 when shots were fired that killed a white civil rights activist, Viola Liuzzo of Detroit. He became the chief witness in a federal court case in which the other three men were convicted of violating Mrs. Liuzzo’s civil rights. After serving prison terms, two of the Klan- smen said that Rowe had fired shots at the woman. In 1978, a Lowndes County grand jury re- turned a murder indictrient against him, but US. District Judge Robert Varner dismissed the charge, saying too much time had elapsed. Rowe saw Chambliss Dees said he once took a statement from Rowe about KKK violence and asked him about the Sat- urday night before the bombing of Sixteenth Street Baptist. He said Rowe told him he was rid- ing around the streets of Birmingham and saw Chambliss and other Klansmen riding about. “That seems odd to me that Rowe would just happen to be out riding around that night,” he said. The original FBI investigation, which included Birmingham police reports, revealed that the night of Sept. 14, 1963, was active in the down- town part of the city. Theres owas a KAR moturcade through the Streets, which required a police presence. Later, around midnight, a caller said a bomb had been nlaced at a Police were dis- paced at a GowntLoy race 1s patched to the site. It was later determined by state investigators that the activity was a diversionary tactic to draw police patrols from Sixteenth Street Baptist. Bob Eddy, the lead investigator in Birmingham for Baxley, said he believes the probe was cen- _ tered on the right people. “T thought the case was solved, although there were others involved,’ he said. “We had the names of other suspects. But we didn't have the strong evidence we needed to go after them.” He said Alexander's name was not prominently mentioned in the Birmingham case. downtown motel MOLE 1.