GA GA - Five child murder cases reopened, Dekalb County, 1980-1981

[concernedperson]

CourtTv's Crime Library has an extensive and comprehensive series on the Atlanta Child Murders at http://www.crimelibrary.com/serial_killers/predators/williams/index_1.html

I have never been convinced that all the children were killed by the same person or that the deaths were all part of a serial killing spree.

Excellent, thanks. I will spend the time over the next days to review and couple wth my memories of the time. The few I read are coming back to me like yesterday but I know more now than I did then. I was really young. So, lets look at it all.

I have got to say Atlanta has always been progressive.I moved here in the 70's. It was a shock to my New Iberia,La. existence. Everyone was on a fast track and I had to learn fast and I had to apply as necessary. The segregation was in New Iberia, Louisana. I never experienced segregation in Atlanta. I have many black friends, I have many gay friends and I have surburban housewives calling me to figure out how to pastthe real estate exam.I am a people person. And, I don't hold back. I am honest as the day is long. So, the people know what to expect. I never lie to them. They may not like it but it is what it is.

 

[LovelyPigeon]

Amraan, I didn't arrive in Atlanta to live until 1983, but I'd been visiting Atlanta from Alabama (as a resident) and Auburn University (as a student) since before 1966. Segregation, although not legal, was certainly IMO a pressed issue well into the 80's, when I moved to Marietta, GA. You probably remember, as I do, ('72 Gov Lexter) Maddox handing out ax handles in the 60's, then selling autographed ax handles from his restaurant years later.

There were lots of opinions in the 80's that the Atlanta Child Murders were at the hands of Ku Klux Klan member/s. It may persist as a theory today for all I know.

I was very pleased, though, when moving to Cobb County in '83 that most churches seemed to be integrated and integration was no longer an issue in churches at that time. The church my family joined was happily and comfortably integrated, which was a big change from the church we left behind in Florida.

(P.S.- I didn't ever hang in bars in Dunnellon, but I found central Florida to be a very segregated place in the 70's-late 80's when I lived there)

 

[concernedperson]

Lester Maddox was a joke to most everyone I knew. Remember I am white middle class and my neighbors were the same like Lovely Pigeon. We lived across the road from each other. We were fighting for women's rights in the workplace at that time.I actually had to sign a document from Citizens and Southern Bank that said I wouldn't have anymore children in order to qualify for a mortgage. We needed both incomes to qualify.

It wasn't so much segregation as it was only a superiority complex from those in power. The area has greatly changed and has been a great roosting point for many years. It is blended and a tribute to all that have made it so. But the traffic is beyond horrible.We have crime like every major metro area but we have trees and we have seasons. All pretty mild. I will take the bad with the good as I have made Atlanta my home for the better part of 34 years. I did leave a few times but always came back.

 

[LovelyPigeon]

Alabama remains "home" to me, but I lived in Cobb County from '83 through June '95. I was pleased that metro Atlanta was less segregated in '83 and beyond than other southern states (Alabama & Florida) I'd lived in previously. My recall is that my peers in Georgia also thought that the case against Wayne Williams was slim to none when he was brought to trial.

The Atlanta Child Murders remain mostly unsolved IMO. I think Wayne Williams might possibly have murdered the 2 adult males he was tried for killing, but the evidence was sadly lacking. As for the other 20+ children of the assumed murders spree, Williams has little or no connection.

 

[Amraann]

LOL I never hung in the bars either but a friend of mine said she remembered when she first moved there that it was segregated and I think once as a teenager maybe we needed the phone because the car broke??
SOmething like that .. We went in to use the phone.. (they weren';t really strict about underage people going in)

ANyhow I recall this looong bar that ran through two rooms.

My friend later told me "yeah because it was segregated"
I was soo shocked that anything would be segregated in the 80's

 

[Wudge]

The police files are being sought by Williams' defense attorneys, who have no access to those police records unless granted by a judge. Police files aren't open and available to the general public, or to defense lawyers.

I hope the defense is given access, and can further investigate the Atlanta Child Killings. Wayne Williams as the final resolution of those child murders has been very unsatisfying on several levels.

Defense lawyers denied and without access to potentially mitigating/exculpatory/exonerating evidence, sounds familiar. I think that I previously heard of something similar. (chuckle...like everyday)

It will be interesting to see if this goes anywhere.

 

[Bobbisangel]

I watched a documentory on Wayne Williams not that long ago. It was about him being accused of all of those crimes but the belief was that he had not been involved. After listening to the whole thing I came away thinking that it didn't sound like he killed those kids. There was some pretty good evidence given to prove that he hadn't been involved.

LE should keep on this case because it really isn't right if there is someone else that committed those murders while an innocent person has been in prison for them all of these years. Maybe the Innocense Program can get the DNA and have it retested if the attorney can't get a court order.

 

[dark_shadows]

But up first tonight, reopening old wounds. A murder investigation in Atlanta. 29 victims, all of them black, most of them young boys. One man for now is the main suspect. Now if this sounds familiar, then you were paying attention to the news nearly a quarter century ago.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LIN (voice-over): That's when this man, Wayne Williams, was sent to prison for life. Convicted of two of the killings, believed responsible for the others.

Case closed, right? Not so fast. Enter Louis Graham. He's the chief of police in Dekalb County near Atlanta and now is reopening the case. He believes the man locked up behind bars for so many years is innocent. What makes him think so, what he plans to do about it, and the stir that reopening such an old case is causing, all of that is our top story tonight.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LIN: CNN's Sara Dorsey has some more background and what's driving a very determined law man.
Read entire transcript on the link below aired may 7,2005

CNN transcripts

 

[LovelyPigeon]

As I remember it, this was one of the first cases to depend on fiber evidence.

I wonder if today's forensic technology would bear the same conclusions on the fiber evidence used against Wayne Williams.

 

[christine2448]

http://www.startribune.com/484/story/968728.html



The decision Monday to allow DNA testing came in a response to a filing as part of Williams' efforts to appeal his conviction and life sentence.

But while saying they had no objections to the testing, state lawyers also said it "would not change the results of this trial. Defendant cannot show that DNA tests, no matter what the results, would create a reasonable probability that the verdict would have been different at the time of trial."

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.

During his original trial, dog hairs found on most victims were consistent with hairs removed from the Williams' family dog. During the trial, witnesses testified they saw Williams with the victims even though most of the case against him was based on analysis of fiber and hair evidence found in Williams' car and his parents' home, where he lived.

"The good news is they've agreed to DNA testing," Martin said. "We just want to see what the testing shows and we'll argue about what it means later. It's odd that they should claim the dog hair evidence doesn't make any difference when they made such a big deal about it at trial."

 

[hipmamajen]

Interesting. I remember these cases being on the news when I was about 10 or so.

I'm interested to see how this goes.

 

[Richard]

Where the Suspected Atlanta Child Murderer Is Today
APR 3, 2020

• Wayne Williams is widely believed to be the serial killer behind the Atlanta Child Murders.
• However, he was never tried for those crimes.
• Here's what to know about where Wayne Williams is now...

LINK:
Where Is Suspected Atlanta Child Murderer Wayne Williams Now?

 

[Sdot_TheProfiler]

Williams was caught crossing a bridge where a police stakeout was taking place. They'd set up hoping to catch the Atlanta child murderer. A couple days later, 2 bodies washed up under the same bridge. Williams was convicted because of this and other evidence that just doesn't seem to fit. The green fibers, the dog hair, which came out to be a German Shepard and hair fibers that was tested and did not match any of the children or the 2 men he is convicted of killing. I'm wondering what is left to test in this case. The green fibers that they tried to tie to Williams is a very common fabric and it seems that the investigators stretched to make this fit in the case. In my opinion, Williams does not fit the profile. He has no criminal record of any kind. There was no horrific events perpetrated in William's childhood? He didn't isolate himself from his peers, he wanted to be a news reporter/photographer and freelanced from time to time. The most damning evidence to me is the confidential informant who cooperated and wore a wire to speak with 2 brothers from the KKK who he had heard make some horrifying statements about the child murders. One brother had a German Shepard dog and had green carpeting throughout his home. I love that Keisha Lance Bottoms has reopened the case and I can not wait to see where this leads. It is very heartbreaking to see and hear the moms on the anniversary of their child's death.

 

[Richard]

This debate will probably go on for years. Was Wayne Williams the Atlanta Child Murderer? Was he completely innocent? Did he kill some but not others? Was it just a coincidence that after he was arrested the string of murders came to an end?

This thread was started 15 years ago and not much has changed in that time. It seems that all the questions remain. Here is a link to a recent (April 2020) news article on Wayne Williams:

Who is Wayne Williams And What Is His Connection To The Atlanta Child Murders?

 

[goldendove]

This debate will probably go on for years. Was Wayne Williams the Atlanta Child Murderer? Was he completely innocent? Did he kill some but not others? Was it just a coincidence that after he was arrested the string of murders came to an end?

This thread was started 15 years ago and not much has changed in that time. It seems that all the questions remain. Here is a link to a recent (April 2020) news article on Wayne Williams:

Who is Wayne Williams And What Is His Connection To The Atlanta Child Murders?

Are the children murdered's cases still open? Or did they close once Williams was caught?