Wayne Williams was a patsy used by officials who were more concerned about the citys reputation and closing the book on this horrific chapter than in finding the real killer. Many journalists and community leaders also have their doubts, and wonder why other leads werent pursued. TV Talk blog, Atlanta MayorKeisha Lance Bottoms announced that multiple crime agencies will use modern technology to re-test evidence from the four-decade old murdered and missing children case just two days before ID debuts the documentary "The Atlanta Child Murders.". Allwith the exception of Glasswere found dead. All of Atlanta's problems, all of the crime, everything negative, is down to white America. The documentary talked to victims' family members as well as former investigators, cops and journalists. As some of the killings were not pinned on Williams in court, many wounds still remain. Williams, however, did not graduate college, one in a series of many personal failures, notes former FBI agent Susan E. Lloyd who recently wrote about the ATKID case for the Grapevine. Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms and Police Chief Erika Shields are leading a charge to reopen the investigation. Forty years later, with the official re-opening of the case by Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, the series tells the inside story of this shocking tragedy, shedding new light on the horrific killings through exclusive archival material as well as interviews with those closest to the children and investigation. However, he was never tried for those. Victims relatives, journalists, people who were children at the time, and other Atlantans speak to the dread that settled over black neighborhoods, and to their indignation that officials couldnt seem to stop the killing or identify its perpetrator. "Mindhunter" has always taken extra care when it comes to the casting and costuming for the actors playing real convicted murderers and serial killers. A special task force is created. Although Sanders did not publicly claim responsibility for any of the deaths, he told an informant for the Georgia Bureau of Investigation in a 1981 recording that the killer had "wiped out a thousand future generations of niggers". based on the real events of FBI investigations in the 1970s and 80s, All the real serial killers featured on Netflix's 'Mindhunter' and how the actors compare to the real men, Everything we know about the real Kansas serial killer teased on Netflix's 'Mindhunter', Watch the real-life interviews with serial killer Ed Kemper that were recreated on 'Mindhunter', All the real serial killers and convicted murderers featured on Netflix's 'Mindhunter', Warning: Spoilers ahead for season two of Netflix's. It will also include interviews with the victims' families and a reexamination of the trial of Wayne Williams. Hairs and fibers retrieved from the body of another victim, Jimmy Ray Payne, were found to be consistent with those from his home, car, and dog. A lot of vintage AJC headlines are used. And he drove on. with Cl Bennett playing Williams. Days after Williams was sentenced to two life terms, most of the childrens cases were closed and attributed to Williams, without ever going to trial. All rights reserved. Though no fingerprints or murder weapons were presented as evidence, prosecutors pointed to 19 sources of fibers and hairs that matched those on the victims. After the abduction of a 7-year-old girl in 1980 (the ninth victim), the FBI and the Behavioral Sciences Unit joined the investigation. This is a story Ive wanted to tell for a long time, he said. Williams is convicted but was justice truly served for the families? Douglas wrote that Williams likely used the killing to assert control and give his life notability, success. Then, in 1981, Atlanta police arrested 23-year-old Wayne Williams, a freelance news photographer and self-styled music promoter, for the murder of Nathaniel Cater, 27. The series was semi-fictional, but generally stuck to the real story. Ultimately, the cops arrested a promoterWayne Williams, who was imprisoned for life for the murder of two adults but was tied to most of the dead kids. In documents obtained by the newspaper the Atlanta Journal Constitution (AJC), Douglas described Williams after his arrest as an angry young man seeking power, who wears a mask to cover his personal inadequacies. Douglas said that Williams was not dissimilar to the serial killers he had interviewed over the course of his researchincluding Ed Kemper, Jerome Brudos, and Charles Manson. I think that if those cases had been solved in some ways, if there had been more than one murderer, it would have changed the political structure. However, both the phone number he gave police and Cheryl Johnson turned out to be fictitious. Most of it consists of fibers found on the bodies of many (but not all) of the victims attributed to the Atlanta child murderer, particularly an unusual green carpet fiber combined with dog hairs and traces of a bedspread found in the house where Williams lived with his parents. the fibers, dumped bodies in h2o and he then changed his ways to make them nude. Between 1979 and 1981, more than 28 people, mostly children, were found dead or declared missing. In January 1982, he was found guilty of the murder of two adult men. Everybody has an opinion or a gut feeling or a theory in the engrossing, sobering HBO five-part docu-series Atlantas Missing and Murdered: The Lost Children. Nearly every surviving relative and loved one is convinced Williams wasnt the killer. He constructed his own carrier current radio station and began frequenting stations WIGO and WAOK, where he befriended a number of the announcing crew and began dabbling in becoming a pop music producer and manager. Most of them were boys. My hope is that the families experience some solace as these cases get the renewed national attention they deserve. Georgia Attorney General Thurbert Baker said that "although this does not end the appeal process, I am pleased with the results in the habeas case" and that his office will "continue to do everything possible to uphold the conviction. But there are a half-dozen different and incompatible ways of quarreling with it. ", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wayne_Williams&oldid=1141011948, American prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment, People convicted of murder by Georgia (U.S. state), Prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment by Georgia (U.S. state), Short description is different from Wikidata, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 22 February 2023, at 22:39. Wayne Williams: The Atlanta Child Murders Name:_____ 1. Wayne Williams and the Atlanta Child Murders: Directed by Mark Mori. 138K subscribers Wayne Bertram Williams is an American serial killer who is serving life imprisonment for the 1981 killing of two men in Atlanta, Georgia, and the police believe that he is. He has appealed his convictions, but they have been denied several times. Till this day, no person has been tried for these murders and the killer has never been confirmed. Contact See company contact information Filmmakers See writer See producer Cast See preliminary cast More info Project notes, plot, and industry news For me personally, I came to the conclusion that Wayne didnt kill anybody.. Due to the failed polygraph tests, an unconvincing alibi, and these fibers, Wayne was arrested for the murder of Carter and Payne. Wayne Bertram Williams (born May 27, 1958) was identified as the key suspect in the Atlanta Child Murders that occurred between 1979 and 1981. The Atlanta Child Murders: With Jason Robards, James Earl Jones, Rip Torn, Morgan Freeman. Atlanta producerWill Packer-behind hit movies such as"Ride Along" and"Girls Trip" - is the executive producer who created the documentary and Bottoms called him out by name at a press conference. The exact same racist blame game as the latest effort. John Legend is one of those interested in the case. All went missing. However, the HBO documentary series main focus is on the re-opening of the case by Atlantas mayor, Keisha Lance Bottom. And then, in January 1981: Lubie Geter (14) and Terry Pue (15). He will next be eligible for parole in November 2027. Other evidence included witness testimony that placed Williams with several victims while they were alive, and inconsistencies in his accounts of his whereabouts. I grew up under that., After college, he moved to Atlanta and got to know people who lived through it. We walked into this project thinking Wayne was the killer, Pollard said. LOS ANGELES (AP) Anthony Terrell believes an imprisoned man currently serving two life sentences may not have been the person who murdered his brother as part of a killing spree that rocked Atlanta four decades ago. All contents 2023 The Slate Group LLC. Series premiere. It gripped the city, he said. The 61-year-old Williams says in the documentary that he never killed anyone. "DNA test strengthens Atlanta child killings case", "DA: DNA Tests Link Williams to Killings", "Atlanta Child Murders: Wayne Williams hopes new information leads to appeal", "Police plan to re-test Atlanta Child Murders evidence", "Atlanta's Mayor pushes for review in 'Child Murders' cases", "Atlanta Child Murders: Man says he escaped Wayne Williams", "Was Serial Killer Wayne Williams Really the Atlanta Monster Who Murdered Dozens of Black Kids? He is now remembered for a 2 year reign of terror in Atlanta, Georgia that involved at least 23 homicides and became known as the "Atlanta Child Murders". It seems driven more by the need to entertain than a desire to get at the truth. In April 1981, at roughly 2:50 a.m. under Atlanta's James Jackson Parkway bridge where the body of a boy had been found one month prior . He was stopped by the police since they had heard a splash in the river. [35], Dog hairs found on Baltazar's body were tested in 2007 by the genetics laboratory at the University of California, Davis School of Veterinary Medicine, which found a DNA sequence also present in the Williams family's German Shepherd. Before the trial, Douglas advised prosecutors how to treat Williams on the stand, suggesting that they focus on Williams failures in life. That same day, another body: Yusef Ali Bell (9), strangled and left in a vacant lot. His lawyers have said the conviction was a "profound miscarriage of justice" that has kept an innocent man incarcerated for the majority of his adult life and allowed the real killers to go free. [35] The FBI report stated that "Wayne Williams cannot be excluded" as a suspect in the case. He maintains his innocence to this day. All were later found dead. The FBI had titled the case ATKID, Atlanta Child Murders. See full bio More at IMDbPro Contact Info: View agent, publicist, legal on IMDbPro Known For Another Level: I Want You for Myself Wayne Williams (1999) I didnt hear one thing about it, said Legend, an executive producer of the project with Mike Jackson through their film company Get Lifted, in association with Roc Nation. Name: _Tram Nguyen_ CSI: Atlanta Child Murders Video Guided Questions 1. However, the director of the laboratory, Elizabeth Wictum, said that, while the results were "fairly significant", they were not conclusive. Say Her Name: The Life and Death of Sandra Bland, The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst. [27], Fulton County authorities have not reopened any of the cases under their jurisdiction.[20]. Netflix's "Mindhunter" dove back into the life of serial killer Wayne Williams, who was only convicted of killing two men in Atlanta, Georgia, but whom many believe to be responsible for at least 23 murders during the period of 1979 to 1981. Visit Insider's homepage for more stories. Most of the law enforcement and government officials, of course, are certain they got the right guy in Williams.