BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) Thomas Edwin Blanton Jr., the last of three one-time Ku Klux Klansmen convicted in a 1963 Alabama church bombing that killed four Black girls and was the deadliest single attack of the civil rights movement, died Friday in prison, officials said. He was 81.

Gov. Kay Iveys office said Blanton died of natural causes. He was being held at Donaldson prison near Birmingham, prison officials said.