Bomber's Fate

"This man has the sympathy of the State of Arkansas and the sunny South," said the defense co-counsel, gesturing toward Segregationist E. A. Lauderdale Sr., 48, charged with masterminding the Labor Day bombings of Little Rock's school board offices, the mayor's business office and the fire chief's city-owned station wagon (TIME, Sept. 21). "Don't let New York or Chicago or TIME Magazine tell you what to do in this case," cried the attorney before the all-white jury.

His fiery appeal was not enough in the face of the evidence. The nine men and three women needed only an hour and 25 minutes of deliberation to judge Citizens Councilman Lauderdale, a building supply dealer, guilty of what the prosecution had called "a diabolical scheme." The jury's proposed sentence: three years in prison, a $500 fine. He was the third of five accused Little Rock bombers to be convicted (another pleaded guilty), with trial of the fifth still to come.

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