Atlanta murders of 1979–1981

The Atlanta Child Killer
Background information
Birth name	Wayne Williams
Killings
Number of victims	29–31
Country	United States
State(s)	Georgia

The Atlanta Child Murders, known locally as the "missing and murdered children case", were a series of murders committed in Atlanta, Georgia, United States from the summer of 1979 until the spring of 1981. Over the two-year period, a minimum of 28 African-American children, adolescents and adults were killed. Atlanta native Wayne Williams, also African-American and 23 years old at the time of the last murder, was arrested for and convicted of two of the murders.

The Murders

In the summer of 1979, Edward Hope Smith and Alfred Evans, both 14, disappeared four days apart. Their bodies were both found on July 28. Their confirmed deaths were the beginning of the series of murders believed to be committed by the "Atlanta Child Killer", so-called because it was popularly assumed there was only one perpetrator. Milton Harvey, the next murder victim and who was also 14, disappeared on September 4, 1979 while traveling to the bank to pay a credit card bill for his mother. His body was later recovered.

On October 21, 1979, Yusuf Bell went to the store to buy snuff for a neighbor, Eula Birdsong. A witness said she saw Yusuf getting into a blue car before he disappeared. His body was found on November 8, 1979, in the abandoned E.P. Johnson elementary school. He was still wearing the brown cut-off shorts he was last seen in. He had been strangled. The police did not immediately link his disappearance to the previous killings.

The next victim, 12-year-old Angel Lenair, was the first female victim of the killer. She disappeared March 4, 1980 and was found 6 days later, strangled, tied to a tree and possibly sexually assaulted. On March 11, 1980, Jeffery Mathis disappeared while on an errand for his mother.

On June 9, Chris Richardson went missing on his way to a local pool. On June 22 and June 23, seven-year-old Latonya Wilson and 10-year-old Aaron Wyche went missing. The extended wave of disappearances and murders panicked parents and children in the city, and the government struggled to ensure the safety of children. Nonetheless, apparently linked murders continued.

The murders of two children, Anthony Carter and Earl Terell, occurred in July 1980.

Between August and November 1980, five more killings took place. There were no known victims during the month of December. All the victims had been African-American children between the ages of nine and 14 and most had been asphyxiated.

The murders continued into 1981. The first known victim in the new year was Lubie Geter, who disappeared on January 3. Geter's body was found on February 5. Geter's friend Terry Pue also went missing in January. An anonymous caller told the police where to find Pue's body.

In February two murders occurred, believed linked to the others. In March, four Atlanta linked murders took place, including that of Eddie Duncan, the first adult victim.

In April, Larry Rogers was murdered, as well as adult ex-convict John Porter and Jimmy Ray Payne.

After William Barrett went missing on May 16, 1981, his body was found close to his home. The last victim added to the list was Nathaniel Cater, 27 years old.

Investigator Chet Dettlinger created a map of the victims' locations. Despite the difference in ages, the victims fell with the same geographic parameters. They were connected to Memorial Drive and 11 major streets in the area.

Capturing the suspect

As the news media divulged that physical evidence was being gathered from the corpses, the FBI privately profiled that the killer would dump the next victim into a body of water to remove any evidence. Some victims had already been put in the river. Police staked out nearly a dozen bridges including the James Jackson Parkway/south Cobb Drive bridge over the Chattahoochee River between Atlanta/Fulton County and suburban Cobb County to monitor suspicious activity that might be connected to the murders. On the last night of their stake-out, May 22, 1981, detectives got the first major break in the case when an officer heard a splash in the water beneath the bridge. He saw a white 1970 Chevrolet station wagon turn around and slowly drive away from the bridge.

An Atlanta police patrol car and a second unmarked car carrying federal agents first followed and then stopped the station wagon about a half mile from the bridge. The driver was 23-year-old Wayne Bertram Williams, a supposed music promoter and freelance photographer. The Chevrolet wagon belonged to his parents. Dog hair and fiber evidence recovered from the rear of the vehicle were later major factors in the police building a case against Williams, as they matched his dog and carpet in his parents' house. During questioning, Williams said he was on his way to audition a woman named Cheryl Johnson as a singer. Williams claimed she lived in the nearby Cobb County town of Smyrna. Police did not find any record of Cheryl Johnson nor of Williams's claimed appointment with her.

Two days later, on May 24, the naked body of Nathaniel Cater, 27, was found floating downriver just a few miles from the bridge where Williams had allegedly stopped his car. The medical examiner determined the body had been in the river no more than 36 to 48 hours. Based on this evidence, including hearing the splash, police believed that Williams had killed Cater and disposed of his body while the police were nearby.

Many pieces of evidence led the police to consider Williams the prime suspect. One was the fact that he was the only person stopped during the month-long stakeout of 12 bridges and that Williams had stopped on the bridge when the splash was heard. Another was the fact that Williams' appearance, when stopped by the police, was very similar to a sketch-artist drawing of the suspected killer, including a unique bushy afro sticking out from the sides of a baseball cap, and a birthmark on the back of the left cheek. Another was the fact that the federal agents who stopped Williams' on the bridge saw a 24-inch nylon cord, which was of a diameter consistent with the choke marks on Cater and other victims, laying in the car. Another was the fact that Williams chose to spend much of his time seeking out and auditioning African American boys in the age range of most of the victims. Another was the fact that Williams quite strongly failed a lie detector test administered by FBI polygraph examiner Richard Rackleff. (Williams was re-administered the test two more times and failed both. In particular, he thrice "flunked" the three key questions: "Did you kill Nathaniel Cater? Did you kill him that night that you were on the bridge? and Did you throw Nathaniel Cater into the river?") Another was the fact that very unique, identical, boomerang-shaped green carpet fibers were found in the carpet in Williams' house and on two of the victims. (Other fibers from Williams' house and cars would later be matched to fibers on victims.) Another was the fact that witness Robert Henry saw Williams holding hands and walking with Nathaniel Cater on the night he is believed to have died. On June 21, 1981, they arrested him. A Grand Jury indicted him for first-degree murder in the deaths of Nathaniel Cater and Jimmy Ray Payne, age 22. The trial date was set for early 1982.

Trial

Jury selection began on December 28, 1981, and lasted six days. The jury was composed of nine women and three men, with a racial composition of eight African Americans and four Caucasians.

The trial officially began on January 6, 1982, with Judge Clarence Cooper presiding. The most important evidence against Williams was the fiber analysis between the victims Williams was indicted for Jimmy Ray Payne and Nathaniel Cater and the 12 pattern-murder cases, in which circumstantial evidence culminated in numerous links among the crimes. This included witnesses testifying to seeing Williams with the victims, and some witnesses suggesting that he had solicited sexual favors.

On February 27, 1982 - after eleven hours of deliberation - the jury found Wayne Bertram Williams guilty of the two murders. He was sentenced to two consecutive life terms in the Georgia state prison at Reidsville.

On May 6, 2005, the DeKalb County, Georgia, Police Chief Louis Graham ordered the reopening of the murder cases of five boys who were killed in DeKalb County between February and May 1981 that had been attributed to Williams. Police Chief Graham believed that Williams may have been innocent of these and other murders. The remaining cases are under the jurisdiction of Fulton County, Georgia, and those authorities consider their related murder cases closed with the arrest and trial of Williams.

Aftermath

Musicians performed concerts to honor the victims, and to provide benefits to the victim's families. Performers included Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jr.. The Jacksons performed on July 22, 1981 at the Atlanta Omni Coliseum during their Triumph Tour raising $100,000 for the Atlanta Children's Foundation in response to the kidnappings and murders. Wayne Williams's father, who was a media photographer in Atlanta at the time, could be seen on stage with Frank Sinatra. Still in 1981 Gladys Knight & The Pips from Atlanta, Georgia recorded Forever Yesterday (For The Children). A song in memorial of the victims written by Glenn Smith.

Recent developments

Now 54 years old, Wayne Williams continues to maintain his innocence.

About six months after becoming the DeKalb County Police Chief, Graham reopened the investigations into the deaths of the five DeKalb County victims: Aaron Wyche, 10; Curtis Walker, 13; Yusuf Bell, 15; William Barrett, 17; and Patrick Baltazar, 11. Graham, one of the original investigators in these cases, said he never believed Wayne Williams, the man convicted of two of the killings and blamed for 22 others, was guilty of any of them.

On August 6, 2005, journalists reported that Charles T. Sanders once praised the crimes in secretly recorded conversations. Although Sanders did not claim responsibility for any of the deaths, lawyers for Williams believed that the evidence will help their bid for a new trial for Williams. (The police had investigated Sanders in relation to the murders, but dropped the probe into his and the KKK's possible involvement, after Sanders was closely surveilled for seven weeks, during which four more victims were killed, and after Sanders and two of his brothers volunteered for, and passed, lie detector tests.)

The criminal profiler John E. Douglas stated that, while he believes that Williams committed many of the murders, he does not think that he committed them all. Douglas added that he believes that law enforcement authorities have some idea of who the other killers are, cryptically adding, "It isn't a single offender and the truth isn't pleasant."

On June 21, 2006, the DeKalb County Police dropped its reinvestigation of the Atlanta child murders. After resigning, Graham was replaced by the Acting Chief, Nick Marinelli, who said, "We dredged up what we had, and nothing has panned out, so until something does or additional evidence comes our way, or there's forensic feedback from existing evidence, we will continue to pursue the [other] cold cases that are [with]in our reach."^{[citation needed]}

On January 29, 2007, attorneys for the State of Georgia agreed to allow DNA testing of the dog hair that was used to help convict Williams. This decision was a response to a legal filing as a part of Williams' efforts to appeal his conviction and life sentences. Williams' lawyer, Jack Martin, asked a Fulton County Superior Court judge to allow DNA tests on canine and human hair and blood, stating the results might help Williams win a new trial.

On June 26, 2007, the DNA test results were published, but they failed to exonerate Williams. In fact, the results were that the hairs on the bodies contained the same mitochondrial DNA sequence as Williams' dog, and that the DNA sequence occurs in only about 1 out of 100 dogs. Dr. Elizabeth Wictum, director of the UC Davis laboratory that carried out the testing, told The Associated Press that while the results were “fairly significant,” they "don't conclusively point to Williams' dog as the source of the hair", because the lab was able to test only for mitochondrial DNA which, unlike nuclear DNA, cannot be shown to be unique to one dog.

Later in 2007, the FBI performed DNA tests on two human hairs found on one of the victims. The mitochondrial DNA sequence in the hairs would eliminate 99.5% of persons by not matching their DNA. The mitochondrial DNA sequence in the hairs would eliminate 98% of African American persons by not matching their DNA. However, they matched Williams' DNA and so did not eliminate the possibility that the hairs were his.

Known child victims

Name	Age	Date of disappearance
Edward Smith	14	July 21, 1979
Alfred Evans	13	July 25, 1979
Milton Harvey	14	September 4, 1979
Yusef Bell	9	October 21, 1979
Angel Lenair	12	March 4, 1980
Jeffery Mathis	10	March 11, 1980
Eric Middlebrooks	14	May 18, 1980
Chris Richardson	12	June 9, 1980
Latonya Wilson	7	June 22, 1980
Aaron Wyche	10	June 23, 1980
Anthony Carter	9	July 6, 1980
Earl Terell	11	July 30, 1980
Clifford Jones	13	August 20, 1980
Darren Glass	10	September 14, 1980
Charles Stephens	12	October 9, 1980
Aaron Jackson	9	November 1, 1980
Patrick Rogers	16	November 10, 1980
Lubie Geter	14	January 3, 1981
Terry Pue	15	January 22, 1981
Patrick Baltazar	11	February 6, 1981
Curtis Walker	15	February 19, 1981
Joseph Bell	15	March 2, 1981
Timothy Hill	13	March 13, 1981

Media adaptations

The first national media coverage of the missing and murdered children was in 1980, when a team from ABC News 20/20, Stanhope Gould and Bill Lichtenstein, and a producer, Steve Tello and correspondent Bob Sirkin, from the ABC Atlanta bureau looked in the case. They were assigned to the story after ABC News president Roone Arledge read a tiny news story in the newspaper that said police had ruled out any connection between a day care explosion, which turned out to be a faulty furnace, and the cases of lost and missing children, which had been previously unreported on in the national media. In a week, the team reported on the cases of the dead and missing kids, and they broke the story that the Atlanta Police Task Force was not writing down or following up every lead they received through the police hotline that had been set up.

In 1981 British novelist Martin Amis published "The Killings in Atlanta" for The Observer, later compiled into The Moronic Inferno: And Other Visits to America (1986).

In 1985, a film was released titled The Atlanta Child Murders. The film was centered around the murders that took place and the arrest of the suspect. Like JFK, the film revolved mainly around the aftermath of the killings and the trials. The film starred Calvin Levels, Morgan Freeman, James Earl Jones, Rip Torn, Jason Robards, Martin Sheen, and Bill Paxton. Atlanta officials criticized The Atlanta Child Murders film, claiming that it distorted the facts of the case. After a series of negotiations, CBS executives agreed to insert a disclaimer alerting viewers that the film is based on fact but contains fictional elements, however the film is based on a true story.

In 2000, Showtime released a drama film titled Who Killed Atlanta's Children? Like JFK and Frost/Nixon, the film centered mainly around the intensity of a conspiracy.

On June 10, 2010, CNN broadcasted a documentary, The Atlanta Child Murders involving the case, with real interviews by Soledad O'Brien of the people involved including Wayne Williams. The two-hour CNN documentary invited CNN viewers to weigh the evidence presented and then go to CNN.com to cast votes on whether Williams is "guilty," "innocent"—or the case is "not proven." According to poll results, 68.6 percent of respondents said Williams was guilty. Only 4.3 percent said he was innocent. The remaining 27.1 percent chose a third option, "not proven," which was added to the CNN poll to offer a middle ground."

Further reading

• Keppel, Robert. The Riverman: Ted Bundy and I Hunt for the Green River Killer. New York, Pocket Books, 2004 (revised and updated). Contains a chapter on the Atlanta Child Murders and Keppel's participation as a consultant with the investigation.
• Jones, Tayari. Leaving Atlanta. New York, Warner Books, 2002. A novel that focuses on children during the time of the murders.
• Bambara, Toni Cade. Those Bones Are Not My Child. New York, Pantheon Books, 1999. A novel about a mother who lost a child as part of the murders.
• Reid, Kim. No Place Safe, New York: Kensington Publishing Corp., 2007. A memoir by the daughter of one of the police investigators.
• James Baldwin, The Evidence of Things Not Seen 1985. Holt, Rinehart and Winston
• Chet Dettlinger, Jeff Prugh, The List 1983. Philmay Enterprises, Inc. The most comprehensive account in print written by the private detective once considered a suspect because of his thorough knowledge of the case.
• John E. Douglas and Mark Olshaker, Mind Hunter: Inside the FBI's Elite Serial Crime Unit, Scribner, 1995, See: Chapter 11, Atlanta, paqes 199-224.

External links

• IMDB – The Atlanta Child Murders
• IMDB – Who Killed Atlanta's Children?
• FBI file on the Atlanta Child Murders
• Crime Library: The Atlanta Child Murders