Atlanta child murders
The Atlanta child murders are a series of murders that occurred in Atlanta , Georgia, from July 1979 to May 1981 . Most of the 30 victims officially assigned to the series of murders were African-American children and adolescents.
The main suspect is the African American Wayne Williams, who was found guilty in two of the murders in 1982 and each sentenced to life imprisonment. After his conviction, the local law enforcement authorities also found the remaining cases to be resolved and closed the investigation. Much criticized discrepancies in the police investigation into the series of murders, however, give rise to doubts to this day as to whether Williams was actually the (only) perpetrator. Williams himself protests his innocence.
Case analyst of the FBI believe that not all victims of the serial murders were originally allocated, were killed by the same perpetrators. In 2019 the investigation was resumed by the local police.
Chronology of the series of murders
1979
The first two victims assigned to the series of murders were 14-year-old Edward Smith and 13-year-old Alfred Evans, whose bodies were found on July 28, 1979 in a thicket on Niskey Lake Road in Atlanta. Smith, who had been missing since July 21, 1979, was shot with a .22 caliber pistol . Evans had been strangled according to the coroner's suspicion . Both boys were of African American descent. 14-year-old Milton Harvey was cycling in his neighborhood when he disappeared on September 4, 1979. His body was discovered near the intersection of Redwine Road and Desert Drive in Atlanta in November 1979. The cause of death could not be determined. On October 21, 1979, nine-year-old Yusuf (or Yusef) Bell disappeared, whose strangled body was found on November 8, 1979 in an abandoned school building. Harvey and Bell were also African American.
1980
Twelve-year-old African American Angel Lenair (or Lanier) disappeared on March 4th or 5th, 1980 on her way to school. On March 10, 1980, she was found strangled on the side of a street. Her body was fully clothed and her hands were tied behind her back to a tree with a cord. There are different sources of information about whether she was sexually abused. On March 11 or 12, 1980, 11-year-old Jeffrey Mathis disappeared on his way to a department store. His remains were found in February 1981. Due to the advanced decomposition, Mathis' cause of death could no longer be determined. 14-year-old Eric Middlebrooks received a phone call from a stranger on May 18, 1980, prompting him to leave home. A day later he was found with fatal head injuries caused by a dull object. On June 9, 1980, 12-year-old Christopher Richardson disappeared on his way to the swimming pool. His remains were found next to the body of the later victim Earl Terrell. Richardson's cause of death could no longer be determined.
Six or eight year old LaTonya Wilson was kidnapped from her nursery in the early hours of June 22, 1980 - the day before her birthday. Her remains were discovered on October 18, 1980, and the cause of death could no longer be determined in her case due to the advanced decomposition. On June 23, 1980, eight or ten year old African American Aaron Wyche was reported missing. His body was found a day later with a broken neck by a search party under a railroad bridge in DeKalb County . His death was initially classified by the investigators as an accident, but later also assigned to the series of murders. Nine year old Anthony Carter disappeared while gambling in his neighborhood on July 5 or 6, 1981. His body was found behind a warehouse on Wells Street the day after he disappeared. He had been stabbed several times. In the absence of traces of blood at the site, investigators concluded that the boy had been killed elsewhere.
Ten-year-old Earl Terrell was missing from July 30 or 31, 1980. His family received several calls from a stranger demanding a ransom for the boy. However, it turned out that the caller was a free rider . Terrell's skeletonized body was discovered on January 9, 1981 near the site of Richardson's body. The cause of death could no longer be determined. On August 20, 1980, twelve-year-old Clifford Jones was kidnapped on the street. His strangled body was found in October of the same year. Eleven-year-old Darren (or Darron) Glass, who disappeared on September 14, 1980 and was reported missing two days later, was never found. Twelve-year-old Charles Stephens was reported missing on October 9, 1980. His asphyxiated body was discovered a day later. The nine-year-old Aaron Jackson, who was reported missing on November 1, 1980 and found one day later, was also suffocated. On November 10, 1980, 15-year-old Patrick Rogers disappeared. His body was found in February 1981 after having been fatally injured in the skull by being beaten.
1981
On January 3, 1981, 14-year-old Lubie Geter was kidnapped. His strangled body was found on February 5, 1981. Investigators found that in the past Geter had rammed a Ku Klux Klan supporter's car with his go-kart , whereupon the man allegedly threatened a friend that he would strangle Geter. However, the act could not be proven. Terry Pue, 15, was reported missing on January 22, 1981, and was found strangled the following day. The investigators were able to secure fingerprints on his corpse, but the subsequent database comparison did not produce any results. In mid-February 1981, the strangled body of the twelve-year-old Patrick Baltazar (or Blazer), who had been missing since February 6, 1981, was found near the site of the find of the remains of Jeffrey Mathis.
13-year-old Curtis Walker was found strangled on the day he disappeared, February 19, 1981. On March 2, 1981, 16-year-old Joseph Bell was suffocated. Timothy Hill, 13, disappeared on March 13, 1981 and was drowned. The asphyxiated body of 20-year-old Larry Rogers - the first adult victim that investigators assigned to the series of murders - was discovered on March 30, 1981. A day later, 21-year-old Eddie Duncan was found murdered, although the exact cause of death could not be determined. On April 1, 1981, the also asphyxiated corpse of 23-year-old Michael McIntosh was discovered and assigned to the series of murders. Jimmy Payne, 21, was reported missing on April 21, 1981. His asphyxiated body was found on April 27, 1981. William Barrett, who was reported missing on May 11, 1981, was also found suffocated a day later. On May 24, 1981, the body of 27-year-old Nathaniel Cater was pulled from the Chattahoochee River . He is officially considered the last victim of the series of murders.
Investigations and suspects
Local police investigation
After Anthony Carter's body was found on July 6, 1980, the Atlanta Police Department set up a special commission, sometimes consisting of more than 50 people, to investigate the murder and missing persons. However, the police did not confirm a link between the cases until after the body of Clifford Jones was found in October 1980. The police checked all known sex offenders in the area and narrowed the suspect to 1,500 people. Police officers visited schools to question children about suspicious incidents, distributed flyers with photos of the missing, and covertly investigated in the city's gay bars.
FBI investigation and perpetrator profile
The add-drawn during the police investigation case analyst of the FBI assumed that not all 30 victims who were officially assigned to the series of murders by the local police, had been killed by the same perpetrators. So it is likely that the two girls were murdered by someone else. The different methods of killing also suggest that the perpetrators were different. In some cases, there were also indications that rather suggest that the perpetrator came from the victim's family. Nonetheless, the case analysts assumed that some of the acts were committed by a serial killer. So they created a profile of this offender with the following characteristics:
- Afro-American descent (because serial killers would almost exclusively seek victims from their own ethnic group and a white person would have been noticed in the areas where the children disappeared)
- male
- single
- Age between 25 and 29 years
- Affinity for police work; it is to be expected that the perpetrator will be secretly involved in the police investigation (e.g. give clues)
- in possession of a (typical police) vehicle and dog (e.g. German Shepherd or Doberman )
- act like a figure of authority to his victims
- probably a musician or other artist
- sexual preference for boys, but no evidence of sexual abuse
- sexual inferiority complex
- kill due to rejection by the victim.
The FBI is also investigating the Ku Klux Klan . An informant smuggled into the Klan told the authorities that the Klan murdered the children in order to start a race war. However, the FBI case analysts thought this was unlikely. Hate crime is usually expressed through symbolic acts that are on public display (e.g. lynch mob ), but the bodies of the victims were often so hidden that they were only found months later. Klan members would also have been noticed in the Afro-American-dominated neighborhoods where the children disappeared. Serial murder is mostly personal, not politically motivated. Since there was no evidence of the clan's involvement, the investigation into him was eventually closed.
Arrest and sentencing of Wayne Williams
As some of the victims had been rescued from rivers in the area, the police observed the roads and bridges along these waters at night. Early in the morning on May 22, 1981, one of the officers reported hearing a "splash" near a bridge on the Chattahoochee River. The police and FBI agents then stopped the driver of a car that had just driven over the bridge. The driver was the then 23-year-old African American Wayne Bertram Williams, whom the officers interrogated for two hours and finally let go after a search of his car.
After Cater's body was pulled out of the Chattahoochee River on May 24, 1981, the police focused their investigation on Williams. Experts concluded that fibers found on some of the victims matched those on a rug that was in the house where Williams lived with his parents. According to the opinion of the experts, other fibers that could be found on the bodies of Terrell and Stephens, among others, matched the fibers of the interior lining of the trunk of a Ford (Terrell) and a Chevrolet (Stephens) that belonged to the Williams family. It was ignored that Williams had no access to the Ford at the time of Terrell's disappearance because the car was in a garage for repairs, and that the Chevrolet was not purchased until October 21, 1980 - 12 days after Stephens' disappearance was.
Williams was arrested on June 21, 1981 and found guilty by a jury on February 27, 1982 of the murder of two of the adult victims - Payne and Cater. He was sentenced to two life imprisonment. Although he was never charged or convicted in any of the other murders, the law enforcement authorities considered those cases to be resolved with his arrest and closed the investigation. The series of murders officially ended after Williams' arrest. Williams, who is still in prison, protests his innocence to this day. His requests to retrial have all been rejected so far.
On the orders of Keisha Lance Bottoms, the mayor of Atlanta, the investigation into the murders was resumed in March 2019.
Criticism of the police work
In the course of their investigation, the law enforcement authorities came under public criticism. Among other things, they were accused of failing to investigate several testimonies that indicated a white person as the perpetrator. The list of victims was also incomplete and arbitrary. For example, the writer Dave Dettlinger criticized the fact that 63 murder cases, which in his opinion corresponded to the pattern of the murder series, were not included in the official list of victims. Of these 63 cases, 25 had occurred after Williams' arrest.
Known victims
| Surname | Age | Date of disappearance | Date the body was found |
|---|---|---|---|
| Edward Smith | 14th | July 21, 1979 | July 28, 1979 |
| Alfred Evans | 13 | July 25, 1979 | July 28, 1979 |
| Milton Harvey | 14th | 4th September 1979 | November 1979 |
| Yusuf (or Yusef) Bell | 9 | October 21, 1979 | November 8, 1979 |
| Angel Lenair (or Lanier) | 12 | March 4th or 5th, 1980 | March 10, 1979 |
| Jeffrey Mathis | 11 | March 11 or 12, 1980 | February 1981 |
| Eric Middlebrooks | 14th | May 18, 1980 | May 19, 1980 |
| Christopher Richardson | 12 | June 9, 1980 | January 1981 |
| LaTonya Wilson | 6 or 8 | June 22, 1980 | October 18, 1980 |
| Aaron Wyche | 8 or 10 | June 23, 1980 | June 24, 1980 |
| Anthony Carter | 9 | July 5th or 6th, 1980 | July 6 or 7, 1980 |
| Earl Terrell | 10 | July 30 or 31, 1980 | January 9, 1981 |
| Clifford Jones | 12 | 20th August 1980 | October 1981 |
| Darren (or Darron) Glass | 11 | September 14, 1980 | never found |
| Charles Stephens | 12 | October 9, 1980 | October 10, 1980 |
| Aaron Jackson | 9 | November 1, 1980 | November 2, 1980 |
| Patrick Rogers | 15th | November 10, 1980 | February 1981 |
| Lubie Geter | 14th | 3rd January 1981 | 5th February 1981 |
| Terry Pue | 15th | January 22, 1981 | January 23, 1981 |
| Patrick Baltazar (or Blazer) | 12 | February 6, 1981 | in the middle of February |
| Curtis Walker | 13 | 19th February 1981 | 19th February 1981 |
| Joseph Bell | 16 | March 2, 1981 | March 2, 1981 |
| Timothy Hill | 13 | March 13, 1981 | Late March 1981 |
| Eddie Duncan | 21st | March 20, 1981 | March 31, 1981 |
| Larry Rogers | 20th | March 22, 1981 | March 30, 1981 |
| Michael McIntosh | 23 | March 25, 1981 | April 1, 1981 |
| Jimmy Payne | 21st | April 21, 1981 | April 27, 1981 |
| John Porter | 28 | April 1981 | unknown |
| William Barrett | 17th | May 11, 1981 | May 12, 1981 |
| Nathaniel Cater | 27 | May 22, 1981 | May 24, 1981 |
reception
In 1985, the miniseries The Atlanta Child Murders appeared with Jason Robards and Morgan Freeman . The case was also picked up in the second season of the Netflix series Mindhunter in 2019 .
literature
- Michael Lister: Atlanta Monster: Wayne Williams and the Atlanta Child Murders. Pulpwood Press, Panama City, FL 2015, ISBN 978-1-947606-06-7 .
Web links
- FBI Records: The Vault - Excerpts from the FBI's archived case files
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t Michael Newton: The great encyclopedia of serial killers . VF Collector, Graz 2002, ISBN 3-85365-189-5 , p. 14th ff .
- ^ A b c John Douglas, Mark Olshaker: Mindhunter: Inside the FBI Elite Serial Killer Crime Unit. Arrow Books, London 2017, ISBN 9781787460614 , p. 211.
- ↑ a b c d e f g John Douglas, Mark Olshaker: Mindhunter: Inside the FBI Elite Serial Killer Crime Unit. Arrow Books, London 2017, ISBN 9781787460614 , p. 212.
- ^ A b c John Douglas, Mark Olshaker: Mindhunter: Inside the FBI Elite Serial Killer Crime Unit. Arrow Books, London 2017, ISBN 9781787460614 , p. 213.
- ↑ John Douglas, Mark Olshaker: Mindhunter: Inside the FBI Elite Serial Killer Crime Unit. Arrow Books, London 2017, ISBN 9781787460614 , p. 225.
- ↑ John Douglas, Mark Olshaker: Mindhunter: Inside the FBI Elite Serial Killer Crime Unit. Arrow Books, London 2017, ISBN 9781787460614 , pp. 213, 217 f.
- ↑ John Douglas, Mark Olshaker: Mindhunter: Inside the FBI Elite Serial Killer Crime Unit. Arrow Books, London 2017, ISBN 9781787460614 , p. 216 f.
- ↑ John Douglas, Mark Olshaker: Mindhunter: Inside the FBI Elite Serial Killer Crime Unit. Arrow Books, London 2017, ISBN 9781787460614 , pp. 214, 216 f.
- ↑ John Douglas, Mark Olshaker: Mindhunter: Inside the FBI Elite Serial Killer Crime Unit. Arrow Books, London 2017, ISBN 9781787460614 , pp. 214-216.
- ↑ a b Audra DS Burch: Who Killed Atlanta's Children? In: The New York Times. April 30, 2019, accessed January 4, 2020.