Atlanta Child Murders Outraged the U.S. From 1979-1981
Twenty nine victims fell prey to a killer between 1979 and 1981. A conviction was ultimately made for just two murders. All were African American, most were kids, and most were male. Aside from that there was no clear pattern. There seemed to be no preferred method of attack.
Civil rights groups fought for answers; many thought the murders were racial hate crimes. President Reagan even set aside federal funds to be used in tracking down the murderer. Muhammad Ali and Burt Reynolds also donated funds to help solve the Atlanta Child Murders.
An arrest was finally made in May of 1981. To many people's surprise, the suspect arrested was not white - he was a young black male. One night, police near the bridge over the Chattahoochee River heard a splash. They quickly stopped a car leaving the bridge. A body was fund in the river and the driver of the car, Wayne Williams, became the prime suspect.
Police found evidence over the next month, such as fibers on the victims that matched fibers in Williams' house and car, and hair matching his dog. Wayne Williams' behavior was also suspicious. He liked to impersonate police officers and lied often. He was arrested in June, convicted of two counts of murder for the deaths of Jimmy Ray Payne and Nathaniel Carter. Williams was sentenced to life for each count. The apparent resolution to the Atlanta Child Murders did not appease everyone. Many believed that Williams was railroaded, citing inconclusive fiber matches and circumstantial evidence. The fiber evidence was ruled admissible by Judge Cooper. Additionally, testimony linking Williams to other murders was allowed.
In May 2005 the case was reopened in DeKalb County, where four murders took place. Being cleared of these four murders would have no effect on Wayne Williams however, since the two murders he is serving time for were outside of this county. DNA testing was done in January 2007; results were inconclusive. Not everyone believes that police have the wrong man, though. The Atlanta Child Murders stopped after Williams was taken into custody.
Wayne Williams continues to claim he is innocent.
Sources:
The A to Z Encyclopedia of Serial Killers; Schechter, Harold and Everitt, David; Pocket Books, 2006.
http://ourgeorgiahistory.com/ogh/Atlanta_Child_Murders
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlanta_child_murders
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5 Comments
Post a Commentnot admit on camera to having ties to the C.I.A. because he's in prison where anything can happen to him (read: where he could be stabbed tomorrow in a "dispute over a lunch tray" or something.)
If the C.D.C. needed a kidnapper/disposal man for their experiments on black kids it's not out of the realm of possibility that because of his connection with the C.I.A. and unarmed combat training (including putting someone in a chokehold) that his name may have come up as the perfect man for the job.
Also consider, these kids weren't molested. As horrible as it sounds, when kids turn up murdered by people they don't know it's typical to hear that they were molested. So why would Williams kidnap and murder little kids if he wasn't doing so in order to molest them? It only makes sense if Williams was instead only the pick-up and drop-off man for someone or something else, like the C.D.C.
Additionally, for several years after Williams was convicted abductions and killings of black ki
into a van and speeding away would be way too obvious. But a black man ostensibly giving a black kid a ride to the store in his dad's stationwagon would arouse no suspicion whatsoever.
And consider that Soledad O'Brien in her interview with Williams read from his autobiography where he details having been approached by the C.I.A. when he was in his late teens and recruited to undergo weapons training, evasion and unarmed combat training in the woods as part of a program intended to train up a bunch of young black men to infiltrate countries in Africa having leftist governments or to infiltrate leftist guerilla movements in African countries. Possibly left unsaid was an intention to use these men to infiltrate groups like the Black Panthers stateside. In the interview Williams denied none of this but simply refused to discuss it, sounding for all the world like in between the time his book was published and he was interviewed someone came to him and warned him that he'd better not a
Regarding the Atlanta child murders I wouldn't be surprised at all if the C.D.C. was behind it. This doesn't mean that Williams wasn't involved however. D.N.A. and carpet fiber evidence as well as an eyewitness seeing one of the children getting into William's (dad's) car as well as the suspicious splash at the bridge later on, all these point to Williams as being involved.
But consider: What else was going on at the time? The A.I.D.S. situation was just starting. Where is the headquarters of the Centers for Disease Control? In Atlanta. For a disease affecting humans it only stands to reason that human subjects would provide infinitely more accurate specimins for study than rats or dogs or cats. And surely if the C.D.C. was doing experiments on little black kids to try to find a cure for A.I.D.S. it would need a highly-paid black man to be the one who actually goes and gets the kids and when they're done with them disposes of the bodies. White men in labcoats dragging a black kid
well i yhink he did it and should spend the rest of his life in prison
I think the klu klux klan was very involed in the murders. In th late '70s and early '80s white men could fit in anywhere and nothing was said of it.