I’m kind of at a loss for how to start this post. On Saturday, at the launch for my book Dynamite Nashville at the Tennessee State Museum, Mayor Freddie O’Connell opened the celebration by announcing that the police are assigning an investigator to reexamine the Hattie Cotton Elementary School bombing (1957), the Jewish Community Center bombing (1958) and the bombing of Z. Alexander Looby’s house (1960). He said he has asked Metro Legal to work with Public Records to examine how the city retains records and to make recommendations for improvement.
Holy shit. HO. LEE. SHIT.
Here are some things a police investigator could do that I couldn’t: 1. Get access to the TBCI (the precursor to the TBI) files on these cases. 2. Get nonredacted FBI files. 3. Track down witnesses with really common names. 4. Use their actual police training to meaningfully question people who might have firsthand or second-hand knowledge of the bombings. 5. Honestly, I don’t even know what might be possible — but they could reexamine the Looby site (and his neighbor’s) and the Klan hangout near the Jewish cemetery with current forensic tools. Might there be some way to examine the soil at the Looby site and, I don’t know, something at the Klan hangout to see if we can definitively say that the Looby bomb was made there? The JCC and the land it was on is gone. There has been massive construction at Hattie Cotton over the years. But other than rebuilding the house and repaving the parking lot from time to time, the site has remained remarkably stable. And I don’t think anything was ever put on the neighbor’s lot after her house was torn down.
Scene contributor Betsy Phillips’ new book about Nashville’s three integration-era bombings is out July 16
And here is the kind of thing a police investigator could do now that no Nashville police could do in 1957 to 1960: Make a bunch of phone calls to police departments in other cities with similar crimes. During the first investigations of these bombings, in order to make a long-distance call, you had to first arrange it with your local telephone operator. You would tell her who you were trying to reach and where. She would then give you a time when the call could take place. While you sat around and waited, she would be alerting a string of operators between you and the place you wished to call of the desired call. When the time came, all the operators would literally connect your call on their switchboards, and when all the wires between you and the person you wanted to talk to were connected, the local operators to you both rang you and got you on the phone with each other. The call quality was iffy at best, and it was incredibly expensive. So it was cost-prohibitive for the police in Nashville to repeatedly call detectives in other cities with similar bombings to compare notes.
The same kinds of issues hold true for sharing copies of reports. Imagine the expense and time it used to take to make a copy of a police file and to mail it from, say, Miami to Nashville. Now the investigator will just be able to call down there, ask for any information they have on the 1958 Temple Beth-El bombing, and someone in the cold-case department down there will be able to scan that stuff in and email it. The only time element will be how long it takes Miami to locate the files.
During his remarks, Mayor O’Connell pointed out how current forensic techniques allowed the Metro Nashville Police Department to glean all kinds of information about what happened at Sunnyside — the house in Sevier Park — during the Civil War, and how he hopes these cases might similarly benefit from forensic advancements.
That may be true. But I can’t even wrap my head around that yet, because I’m still stuck back here at, “My God, for the first time, someone will be able to call the Miami police as often as necessary.”
This is amazing.
Below is the full text of Mayor O'Connell's press release, sent out Saturday afternoon. (Side note: The book launch was so great, and I love you all, and thanks to everyone who has made this all possible.)
Mayor Freddie O’Connell Announces Cold Case Review of Three Nashville Civil Rights Era Bombings
Asks Police Chief Drake to assign cold case investigator
Nashville, Tn: Mayor Freddie O’Connell today released the following statement regarding three cold case bombings from Nashville’s Civil Rights era:
“Today, I was pleased to join and introduce Betsy Phillips as she launched her book, Dynamite Nashville: Unmasking the FBI, the KKK, and the Bombers Beyond Their Control.
This book is not the last word on the bombings of Hattie Cotton School in September 1957, the Nashville Jewish Community Center in March 1958, and the home of Council Member Z. Alexander Looby in 1960. For 64 years, the question of who is responsible for three bombings has gone unresolved. The book doesn't have all the answers, but it can be the beginning of new discovery and a new conversation.
Today, I announced that I have asked MNPD Chief John Drake to assign an investigator from the cold case unit to become a lead investigator into who is responsible for these bombings.
In addition, because information relating to these cases has been lost to us due to the destruction of records over time, I’ve asked the Metro Department of Law to work with the Metro Public Records Commission on recommendations for improvements in records retention so important records are not lost to future generations.”
