Atlanta child murders
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The Atlanta child murders, known locally simply as the "missing and murdered children case", were a series of murders committed in Atlanta, Georgia from the summer of 1979 until the spring of 1981. Over the two year period, twenty-nine African-American children, adolescents and adults were killed.
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[edit] The Murders
The murders of Edward Smith and Alfred Evans, which were just two days apart, began the series of murders committed by the Atlanta Child Killer. The next murder victim, Milton Harvey (who was 14 years old at the time) disappeared on September 4, 1979 while traveling to the bank to pay a credit card bill for his mother.
Yusef Bell went to the store to buy snuff for a neighbor. A witness said she saw Yusef getting into a blue car before he disappeared. Still, the police did not make a link to the four recent killings.
The next victim, 12 year old Angel Lenair, was the first female victim of the Atlanta Child Killer. Within the next two weeks, Jeffery Mathis and Eric Middlebrooks had also disappeared.
Then on June 9, Chris Richardson went missing while on his way to a local pool. On June 22 and June 23, 7 year old Latoyna Wilson and 10 year old Aaron Wyche went missing.
Two Atlanta Child murders occurred during July of 1980, those of Anthony Carter and Earl Terell.
Between August and November, five more killings took place. However, there were no known victims during the month of December.
The murders continued into 1981, and the first known victim in the new year was Lubie Geter, who disappeared on January 3. Geter's body was found in February. Lubie Geter's friend, Terry Pue, went missing in January also. An anonymous caller and told police where to find his body. [1]
There were two more murders in February, and March was the month which saw the most Atlanta Child murders (four in total, including the first adult victim, Eddie Duncan).
Larry Rogers was murdered in April, as well as an ex-convict named John Porter and Jimmy Ray Payne.
Juvenile delinquent William Barrett went missing on May 16, 1981 and his body was found close to his home. The Atlanta Child Killer's last known victim was Nathaniel Cater, who was 27 years old.
After this, the investigation created a map about the victims' whereabouts. Despite their ages, the parameters were the same. They were connected to Memorial Drive and eleven major streets in the area.
[edit] Capturing the Suspect
Police staked out the James Johnson bridge to monitor any sign of suspicious activity in connection with the murders. On the last day of their stake-out, May 22, 1981, they got the first major break in the case when an officer heard a splash in the water beneath the bridge. Shortly thereafter a white 1970 Chevrolet station wagon was seen slowly driving in the vicinity of the bridge. The driver was 22 year old Wayne Bertram Williams. During questioning, he said he was going to help a woman named Cheryl Johnson to audition to be a singer. Police found no record of Cheryl Johnson or Williams' apparent appointment with her.
On May 24, the naked body of Nathaniel Cater was found in the river just a few miles from the bridge where Williams' car was stopped. Based on this evidence, including the splash, police believed Williams killed Cater and disposed of the body while police were there without his knowledge.
Several pieces of evidence finally made police consider Williams a prime suspect. Finally, on June 21, 1981 , they arrested and indicted Williams for first degree murder in the deaths of Nathaniel Cater and Jimmy Ray Payne. The trial date was set for early 1982.
[edit] Trial
Jury selection began on December 28, 1981 and lasted six days. When seated, the jury was composed of nine women and three men, with a racial breakdown of eight blacks and four whites.
The trial officially began on January 6, 1982 with Judge Clarence presiding. The most important evidence against Williams was the fiber analysis between victims and the 10 pattern murder cases.
On February 27, 1982 , Wayne Bertram Williams was found guilty of the two murders and was sentenced to two consecutive life terms in the Fulton County prison.
On May 6, 2005, DeKalb County, Georgia Police Chief Louis Graham ordered the re-opening of the murder cases of the four boys killed in DeKalb county between February and May 1981 that were attributed to Williams. Chief Graham believes that Williams may be innocent of all of the murders. However, the remaining cases are under the jurisdiction of Fulton County, Georgia and are still considered closed by the relevant authorities.
[edit] Recent Developments
Now 47 years old, Wayne Williams continues to maintain his innocence.
About six months after he became DeKalb chief, Graham reopened the investigation into the deaths of the five DeKalb victims: Aaron Wyche, 10; Curtis Walker, 13; Joseph Bell, 15; William Barrett, 17; and Patrick Baltazar, 11. Graham, one of the original investigators in the case, 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, it was revealed that Charles T. Sanders, a white supremacist affiliated with the Ku Klux Klan who had been investigated for a role in the Atlanta child killings, once praised the crimes in secretly recorded conversations. Although Sanders did not claim responsibility for any of the deaths, lawyers for Williams believe the evidence will help their bid for a new trial. Sanders told an informant for the Georgia Bureau of Investigation in the 1981 recording that the killer had "wiped out a thousand future generations of niggers." Police dropped the probe into the KKK's possible involvement after seven weeks, when Sanders and two of his brothers passed lie detector tests.
John E. Douglas, world famous criminal profiler, has stated that while he believes Williams committed many of the murders, he did not commit them all. He adds that he believes law enforcement has 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 DeKalb County police dropped their reinvestigation of the Atlanta child murders. Graham resigned last month and was replaced by 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 in our reach.".
On January 29, 2007 lawyers for the state of Georgia agreed to allow DNA testing of dog hair that was used to convict Wayne Williams. The decision came in a response to a filing as part of Williams' efforts to appeal his conviction and life sentence. Williams' lawyer, Jack Martin, asked a Fulton County Superior Court judge to allow DNA tests on dog and human hair and blood that might help win Williams a new trial.
[edit] Victims
| Name | Age | Date of Disappearance |
| Edward Smith | 14 | July 21, 1979 |
| Alfred Evans | 13 | July 23, 1979 |
| Milton Harvey | 14 | September 4, 1979 |
| Yusef Bell | 9 | October 21, 1979 |
| Angel Lenair | 12 | March 4, 1980 |
| Jeffery Mathis | 10 | March 5, 1980 |
| Eric Middlebrooks | 14 | May 18, 1980 |
| Chris Richardson | 12 | June 9, 1980 |
| Latoyna 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 2, 1980 |
| Patrick Rogers | 16 | November 10, 1980 |
| Lubie Geter | 14 | January 3, 1981 |
| Terry Pue | 15 | January, 1981 |
| Patrick Baltazar | 11 | February 6, 1981 |
| Curtis Walker | 15 | February 19, 1981 |
| Joseph Bell | 15 | March 2, 1981 |
| Timothy Hill | 13 | March 12, 1981 |
| Eddie Duncan | 21 | March 20, 1981 |
| Michael McIntosh | 23 | March 25, 1981 |
| Larry Rogers | 20 | April, 1981 |
| John Porter | 28 | April, 1981 |
| Jimmy Ray Payne | 21 | April 22, 1981 |
| William Barrett | 17 | May 16, 1981 |
| Nathaniel Cater | 27 | Unknown |
[edit] Notes
- Mindhunter by John E. Douglas and Mark Olshaker
[edit] 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.
