Living Officials (2025)

W. Wilson Goode:

• Age 87
• Living in Philadelphia area
• Works as minister and consultant
• Periodically speaks about bombing with regret
• Has never been criminally charged
• Enjoys full mayoral pension

Other Officials:

• Most deceased due to age (bombing was 40 years ago)
• Those still living have not been identified publicly in recent years
• None have faced criminal charges
• All who worked for city/state received pensions

The Victims:

• Eleven dead since May 13, 1985
• Michael Moses Ward (Birdie Africa) dead since 2013
• Tree and Delisha’s remains mishandled until 2021
• Families still seeking justice
• Edward Goodman Africa still in prison at 72

WHY THIS MATTERS

Forty years. Eleven deaths, five of them children. Sixty-one homes destroyed. An official commission calling it “unconscionable.”

And every single person responsible either retired with a pension or continued their career without interruption.

That’s not justice failing. That’s justice working exactly as designed—to protect officials, not citizens.

When I covered Birmingham in the 1970s, people told me: that was different era, that was the South, things have changed. Then I covered MOVE in 1985. Then Waco in 1993. Then countless police killings from 2000-2025.

The patterns don’t change because the accountability never comes. Officials learn: you can kill with impunity if you’re acting under color of law.

This document exists because documentation is the only accountability we have left. The courts failed. The prosecutors failed. The grand jury failed. The political system failed.

But the historical record doesn’t fail. Names last. Facts last. Documentation lasts.

W. Wilson Goode approved dropping a bomb on children. He served eight years as mayor and retired with honor.

Gregore Sambor directed an operation that killed eleven people. He resigned and collected a pension until he died.

William Richmond ordered firefighters to let a neighborhood burn. He got reassigned and retired with benefits.

Frank Powell built the bomb. He faced no consequences.

William Klein dropped the bomb. He faced no consequences.

The officers who fired 10,000 rounds faced no consequences.

Ramona Africa survived the fire and went to prison for seven years.

The MOVE 9 served 40+ years for a death many believe was police crossfire.

Edward Goodman Africa is still in prison at age 72, forty-seven years later.

That’s American accountability. That’s why the patterns persist.

I’m 71 years old. I don’t have many more years to document this. But I’ll use every one I have left to make sure the record is clear:

They dropped a bomb on children. They let the neighborhood burn. They faced no consequences.

And until that changes—until officials who commit atrocities actually go to prison—the next MOVE bombing is just waiting to happen.

Truth Has No Borders.

Updates

True Signal Media will update this document as:

• FOIA requests return additional information about officials’ decision-making
• Any official makes public statement about their role
• Edward Goodman Africa’s status changes
• New information emerges about accountability evasion

Last updated: January 6, 2026

James Theodore Wilson is a Senior Investigative Reporter at True Signal Media focusing on historical accountability. He has spent fifty years documenting institutional violence and the officials who escape consequences.

Contact TSM with information: [email protected]