the FBI formally closed their investigation into the bombing without filing charges against any of their named suspects. The files were sealed by order of J. Edgar Hoover. When Baxley reopened the dormant investigation shortly after being elected in 1971, he told one interviewer that "There are some people in Jefferson County who ought to be pretty nervous right now", and later told a Birmingham radio station that the list of suspects had been narrowed down, stating "We know who did it." Baxley confirmed that he had talked to Gary Thomas Rowe, an FBI paid informant and agent provocateur within the KKK. Baxley said that Rowe had been cooperative, but that "we were working on this thing long before that. We had a lot of stuff already. Rowe was just another person we interviewed." Baxley succeeded in gaining a guilty verdict by the jury in Chambliss's trial. The families of the four girls who were killed felt that some justice had been achieved. In the early 21st century, when two more suspected conspirators were tried, Baxley was dismayed to learn that the FBI had secretly obtained audio tapes in which defendants had implicated themselves, which had never been offered to him for his own prosecution. Runs for governor In 1978, Baxley, then the sitting attorney general, ran to succeed the term-limited George Wallace as governor of Alabama. Baxley lost the Democratic primary to political newcomer Fob James, who defeated Republican nominee Guy Hunt of Cullman. Baxley's campaign had highlighted the fact that James had been a Republican and returned to the Democratic Party to pursue his candidacy. Baxley was endorsed by University of Alabama football coach Bear Bryant, largely because James was a former football letterman for the Crimson Tide's bitter archrival, the Auburn Tigers and their Hall of Fame coach, Shug Jordan. In 1986, the Democratic primary for the gubernatorial race resulted in then Attorney General Charles Graddick of Mobile in a runoff with Baxley, then the lieutenant governor. Graddick won the run-off election by a few thousand votes, but Baxley appealed to the Alabama Supreme Court. It ruled that Graddick had violated primary regulations by encouraging Republicans to "cross over" and vote as Democrats. The court told the Democratic Party to hold another election, or to affirm Baxley as the nominee. The party confirmed Baxley as its candidate. Although there had nominally been a ban on crossover voting