Atlanta child murders
The Atlanta child murders refer to a tragic series of killings that occurred in Atlanta, Georgia, during the late 1970s and early 1980s, targeting primarily African American children. Beginning in July 1979, the discoveries of bodies and the increasing number of disappearances quickly drew public concern, culminating in the formation of the Committee to Stop Children's Murders (STOP) in 1980. This grassroots group aimed to raise awareness and improve safety for children, highlighting the need for a coordinated police response. The investigation gained national attention when the FBI joined the efforts, leading to the arrest of Wayne Bertram Williams in 1981. He was convicted of two murders, with authorities linking him to a total of twenty-one cases. Despite the resolution of the trial, significant controversy remained regarding the handling of the case and the reliance on circumstantial evidence. The murders brought to light systemic issues, including the impact of poverty and crime in marginalized communities, and sparked ongoing discussions about police protection and societal neglect.
Atlanta child murders
Identification A series of killings in the city of Atlanta
Date 1979-1981
Place Atlanta, Georgia
The murders of black children and young adults and law enforcement’s slow response to the initial crimes called attention to the vulnerability of poor, black children in what was considered to be an economically advanced and racially enlightened Southern city. They also drew attention to the phenomenon of the serial killer. Although the murders began in 1979, they did not come to general attention until 1980, and no suspect was found until 1981.
At the end of the 1970’s, the city of Atlanta had one of the highest crime rates in the United States. Much of the crime went unnoticed, however, even by the local newspapers. On July 28, 1979, the bodies of two African American children from different housing projects in different parts of Atlanta were discovered. The deaths of fourteen-year-old Edward Hope Smith and thirteen-year-old Alfred James Evans were followed in September by the disappearance of Milton Harvey, age seven. In October, Yusef Bell, age nine, also disappeared. The body count quickly accelerated throughout the summer of 1980 into a list that would eventually grow to thirty names by 1981.
Parents and Police Take Action
A group of parents whose children had been victims, along with their neighbors and other concerned citizens, formed the Committee to Stop Children’s Murders (STOP) on April 15, 1980. The group set up a hotline, provided safety education, hired private investigators, and held press conferences. They treated the increasing number of deaths and disappearances of children as related. At first, however, the police investigated each murder individually. As the disappearances continued, the Atlanta police finally recognized that there might be a relationship among the murders. On August 14, 1980, they formed the Missing and Murdered Task Force to deal with the series of murders.
In September, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) entered the investigation at the behest of Attorney General Griffin Bell, after the mayor of Atlanta, Maynard Jackson, asked the White House for help. The official case name assigned by the FBI was ATKID, also known as Major Case 30. Eventually, law-enforcement officials were able to provide a profile of a serial killer who targeted young, black males and to collect enough evidence to solve at least some of the murders.
Arrest and Trial
On May 22, 1981, police in the area stopped the car of Wayne Bertram Williams, a twenty-three-year-old African American man, after hearing a splash off the James Jackson Parkway Bridge. Two days later, they discovered the body of Nathaniel Cater, a twenty-seven-year-old man, in the Chattahoochee River near the bridge. On June 21, 1981, the police arrested Williams for the murders of Cater and another victim, Jimmy Payne, whose killing was considered the last in the series of murders.
Jury selection for the trial of Williams began on December 28, 1981, in Fulton County Superior Court with Judge Clarence Cooper presiding. Nine women and three men were chosen. The trial began on January 6, 1982. Williams was represented by Atlanta attorney Mary Welcome and attorneys Alvin Binder and Jim Kitchens from Jackson, Mississippi. District Attorney Lewis Slaton led the prosecution team. The prosecution presented a wide array of blood, fiber, and hair evidence tying Williams not only to the two victims with whose murders he had been charged but to ten other murders as well. In addition, a series of eyewitnesses testified to seeing Williams with some of the victims.
On February 27, 1982, the jury found Williams guilty of the two murders. Two days later, members of the task force declared that Williams had killed twenty-one others on the list, and these cases were declared solved. Williams was sentenced to two consecutive life terms in prison.
Aftermath and Controversy
Although there was a certain relief at the conclusion of the Williams trial, many people remained critical of the way in which the deaths of so many African American children had been handled and the prosecution’s perceived dependence on circumstantial evidence, which opened the possibility that all of the murders attributed to Williams might not have been committed by him. It was hard for some to conceive of a black serial killer, and the kind of profiling that would later become an accepted part of investigative practice was just establishing itself when the Atlanta murders came to public attention. Some even believed that Williams was innocent of all the murders, although these were in the minority.
Impact
The series of youth murders focused attention on the previously invisible poverty and crime that haunted Atlanta and especially on the inadequacy of police protection and investigation in the city’s poor, black neighborhoods. In the end, it became clear that the poor, black members of Atlanta suffered disproportionately from rampant crime and lack of police protection, a problem that would prove to be endemic—and would only worsen—in urban areas throughout the United States during the 1980’s.
Bibliography
Dettlinger, Chet, with Jeff Prugh. The List. Atlanta: Philmay, 1983. Criticism of the way in which the murder investigation was handled that calls attention to other murders not on the official “list” established by the task force. Coauthored by a former Atlanta police officer and a journalist and nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. Includes the list, maps, and photographs of the victims.
Douglas, John, and Mark Olshaker. Mindhunter: Inside the FBI’s Elite Serial Crime Unit. New York: Lisa Drew/Scribner, 1995. The chapter, “Atlanta,” tells the story of the murders from the perspective of one of the FBI’s best-known profilers, who was involved in the investigation of the murders, the arrest of Wayne Williams, and the prosecution’s trial strategy. Dispels myths about the involvement of the Ku Klux Klan and takes the position that Williams killed at least eleven of the victims.
Headley, Bernard. The Atlanta Child Murders and the Politics of Race. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1998. Academic study by a professor of criminology and criminal justice. Covers the various reactions to the crimes, the trial of Wayne Williams, and the verdict; takes the position that Williams was guilty of at least twenty-three of the thirty murders. Contains appendixes with a total list, photographs, and details of the murders, as well as the guidelines of the task force established to solve them.
Lopez, Nancy. “The City It Always Wanted to Be: The Child Murders and the Coming of Age of Atlanta.” In The Southern Albatross: Race and Ethnicity in the American South, edited by Philip D. Dillard and Randal L. Hall. Macon, Ga.: Mercer University Press, 1999. Places the child killings in the context of the economic, political, and racial history of Atlanta.