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Birmingham, Alabama Sixteenth — Part 29
Page 171
171 / 249
; four years despite repeated re-
_ quests for the date. -
i The state's Attorney General,
; William Baxley, confirmed that,
_ the puréau had withheid its ex-'
tensive inforomation —= which.
other sources said included the
incriminating results of a poly-'
e@raph test given to a man sus-
pected of making the bomhs—
_from the time of his fnitial re-|
quest in 1971 until last 'De-|
" cember. Mr, Baxley’s office’
, been conducting its own in-
, Mestgiation into the bombing,
i whick killed four black chil-
: on, since he took office in
‘The F.B.1. information was!
‘ given to Mr, Baxley only after
1@.newsman learned of the
: bureau's refusal to cooperate
with the Baxley investigation
- ahd inquired about it in Wash-
ington,
@An FBI spokesman in
Washington said that when the!
‘request for the information|
Twas received in 1971, it wasi
i sent to the Civil Rights Division .
‘of the Justice Department,
‘which had control of the in-
: formation, the spokesman said.:
‘ Four years later, he said, the
, Justice Department got around
_ to responding.
~ ™ No Reason Offered
t The spokesman had no ex-
“plantion of why the informa-
‘tion was held up. Local law
enforcement officials, particu-
“larly in racially troubied South-
‘ern areas, often have com-
{plained of difficulty in obtain-
pe such F.BJ. data,
t A Justice Department official,
‘gaid, in response to the state-
ent from the F.B.I. spokes-
‘man, that no one in the Civil
ts Division could be found
'Federial levels, when
Hey took office in 1971
t, Baxley, asked aljout the
Prticuity in getting FB.
information, said that he under-
Stood the bureau's reluctance
to" release such information
during the early 1960’s, when
‘there was somte fear on the part
of the bureau that it’s informe-
tion might be leaked by un-
sympathetic law enforcement
officers in the South. But he
sajd he considered such fears
gujundiess today. a
Investigation Hindered
e refusal of the bureau to
provide the information meant
that state investigators were
Unable to develop leads turned
up by the bureau at the time,
and it also entirely forestalled
ithe questioning of certain in-
dividuals since it was felt that
jthere should not be any con-
tact with them until it was
‘known what they might have
i@ld the FBT.
Among the withheld informa-
ition, the Times has fearned,
{was he report of He detector
. test administered to a suspect
. believed to have made the bomb
used in the explosion, and be-:
ieved placed by another party,
fa prime target of the Baxley
inquiry. The test showed that
the suspect lied when he denied
having made the bomb in his
home workshop. Polygraph test
results are not admissible in
court as evidence in such cases,
but they do provide important
etree to investigators.
. Bax-
The man {fs now dead,
' As a result of the renewed
[etate inquiry into the church
‘bombing, Mr. Baxley, offige has
ready brought unrelated) mur-
j Indictments against Ithree
: e¢ Ku Klux Kiansm@n ac-
sed of forcing a blaci{ man
could make a case on riltht
now,” Mr. Baxley said, “Dut
the statute [of limitations] has
Tun out.”
Mr, Baxiey said those bomb-
ings were related to the church
bombing in Birmingham, :
“We're about a smidgen of an
inch away from solving one
that occurred nea an occupied |
dwelling —-and there fs no
Tmitation on that,” Mr, Baxley
sa) :
_ Motivated by Hatred
Asked about the relationship
between the Birmingham bomb-
ings and those in Montgomery
and elsewhere in the South, Mr.
Baxley said, “The relationship
is haphazard. Some were re-
lated, some were not.”
“All were motivated by in-
tense hatred. Another relation.
sinp ts that they were all done
the scum of the earth.
Mr, Baxley said that sojhe of
, the individuals implicated? in
, the fatal Birmingham eljurch
' bombing referred to themselves
‘as “the missionaries” or “the
}fni sionary group.” ~ '
a a 3s _ Dep. AD tt Ad
oe 03 BOMBING DATA “Soa
. - ! Admin.
t Comp. Syst.
"WITBHELD BYERL at
; : cue aie Files & CPx
Pgy WAYNE EING Algbama Official Confirms ident: von
js Special to The New York . ‘That Duraan lnnavad Ute Inspection _
t "MONTGOMERY, Als., (March ities ourcau ignored nig Intell. —__
18 -@The Federal Burgau of ~~ Requests for 4 Years Laboratory
Investigation withheld re- a ao |, Legal C
‘sults of its inquiry into the’ * a ego! ~oun. ——
‘1963 bombing of a Birmingham Althea “There were & whole series _ Plan, & Eval. —
jtorney General for more than inactive, both at the state and previously Unsolved — that lve Training
Talephone Rm. —.
Director Sec'y —_
Th, Washington Post
W
Date
ington Star-News
tly News (New York)
he New York Timea
The Wall Street Journal
The National Observer
The Los Angeles Times
MAR 2 0 to76
"FN cLOSURE
remembered the bureau ; jump to his death from a NS em ncaa
‘patsing on Mr. Baxley'sirequest r bridge outside Montgomery 18 Vi _ J fi at cor am
tn a | byes ago o/ B’ RoR = won 1) a
i Mr. Baxley said, thal! his in- S APR S 1976 | fF JD
REC-36
- 4 ae 4
name b& Uy MD EE AM
B\Z0\TG
"vestigation of the bomithg was
‘continuing, adding, “We're con-
ident that we're making
baton Sr eg
Et seen
7
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