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“, ” OPTIONAL FOBM NO. 10 3010-106 oa one tre ro a , Pa o., Toison UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT “ eee A Memorandum JUNE Bicycle = Gale TO : MR. TOLSON bate: April 23, 1964 S Sateen eae p ty fi: Tavel “Y > C . Trotter — \ FROM; J. H. GALE *. ? — — / SUBJECT: BOMBINGS OF THE Ith itth STREET FE BAPTIST < CHURCH : Wade fC BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA, 9/15/63 3 Tete BACKGROUND: vets eh By letter dated April 8, 1964, President Lyndon B. J ohnson inquire conceming the status of the Birmingham bombings. He was appropriately advised ,”;\ ie on April i0, 1964, and Mr. Rosen recommended, and it was approved, that I proceed t to the scene to determine whether there are any additional pressure points that can be brought to bear and to assure that all possible steps to solve these cases are being taxen. Mr. Tolson instructed that all 6 bombings we are investigating in ~ Birmingham be looked into. a\ he! Wh: u RESULTS OF INQUIRY: | ~ A thorough review was made into all aspects of the 6 unsolved bombings and it was the Inspector's conclusion that all of these cases have been given a most vigorous and intensive investigation. Thousands of persons nave been interviewed, _ a great many ingenious techniques were used to solve these cases without success” } to date. All of the iw estigation conducted to date indicates strongly that allé s~ bombings were probably perpetrated by members of the Eastview Klavern of theA->- Ku Klux Kian (KKK) with possible assistance of several individuals from the Bessemer, Alabama, Klavern. Approximately 16 men from these two grouvs form a select hard core "action" group who are undoubtedly responsible for personal violence and bombings against Negroes in this area for a long period of time. baat Inspector feels that there is a good possibility that we would have already solved some of these bombings had it not been for the interference of the Alabama Highway Patrol, the Birmingham City Police, and the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office. They not only arrested several of the key suspects at a most inopportune time, but they were extremely crude in placing technical coverage on the various suspects. Infact, they were so crude that they were caught climbing telephone poles to put on wire taps; one installation that they put under the seat in a suspect's car ne rolled out by. the suspect's féet . (kes resets REC 45 company employees sympathetic to the Kian, aequested that we remove our installations in November, 1563. We had some technical coverage apd very limited microphone coverage at that time. ohh? enclosure “HGwin} (3) eee ee a \ 6c Rasey . 4 }ir Mohr 1- Mr DeLoach *** ~ A§ oe ae \ N@atiahan oP Mr. Conrad Mevey & —_ “eed ite “lias a) i