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Wayne Bertram Williams (born May 27, 1958) is an American alleged serial killer and was identified as the key suspect in the Atlanta Child Murders that occurred in 1979 through 1981. In January 1982, Williams was found guilty of the murder of two adult men. After his conviction, the Atlanta police declared that an additional 23 of the 29 child murders were solved, with Williams shown to be the murderer.

Early life

Williams was born and raised in Atlanta's Dixie Hills neighborhood, from which many of the Atlanta Child Murderer's victims would later disappear. An aspiring radio disc jockey, he ran an amateur radio station from his parents' house. He was well-known in the area for scouting local musicians, particularly teenagers. His only encounter with the law prior to becoming a murder suspect was in 1976, when he was arrested (but never convicted) for impersonating a police officer.

Investigation

He first became a suspect in the child murder case in May 1981. His car was spotted directly above the sound of a loud splash heard in the river by a stake out team. He was stopped by police and questioned, and claimed that he was going out of town to audition a young singer. This alibi fell apart after police found that the address and phone number he gave them didn't exist.^[1]

Three days later, the nude body of 27 year-old Nathaniel Cater, who had been missing for days, turned up in the river. The medical examiner on the case ruled he had died of "probable" asphyxia, but never authoritatively said he had been strangled. Police theorized that Williams had killed Cater and had thrown him off the bridge the night they had pulled him over. Their suspicions about Williams increased after he failed a polygraph test, and hairs and fibers on one of the victims' bodies were found consistent with those from Williams's home, car, and dog. Throughout the course of the investigation, police staked out Williams's home for several weeks while he taunted them with insults and jokes. During this time, people working in Williams's studio also told police they had seen him with scratches on his face and arms around the time of the murders, which the police thought could have been inflicted by victims during a struggle.

Williams held a press conference outside his parents' home, proclaiming his innocence. He was nevertheless arrested on June 21, 1981, for the murders of Cater and 29-year-old Jimmy Payne.^[1]

Trial and conviction

The trial began on January 6, 1982. The prosecution's case relied on an abundance of circumstantial evidence. During the two-month trial, prosecutors matched 19 different sources of fibers from Williams's home and car environment: his bedspread, bathroom, gloves, clothes, carpets, his dog, and an unusual tri-lobal carpet fiber to a number of victims. There was also eyewitness testimony placing Williams with different victims, blood stains from victims matching blood in Williams's car, and testimony that he was a pedophile attracted to young black boys. Williams himself took the stand, but he seemingly alienated the jury by becoming angry and combative. Williams never recovered from that outburst, and on February 27, the jury deliberated for 12 hours before finding him guilty of murdering Cater and Payne. Williams was then sentenced by the Court to two consecutive terms of life imprisonment.^[1]

Controversy

Williams's guilt has been disputed by some. Some people in his community, and several of the victims' parents, did not believe that Williams, the son of two professional teachers, could have killed so many children and adults.^[1] On May 6, 2005, the DeKalb County Police Chief Louis Graham ordered the reopening of the murder cases of four boys killed in that county between February and May 1981 which had been attributed to Williams.^[1] However, the legal authorities in the neighboring Fulton County, where the majority of the murders occurred, have not moved to reopen any of the cases under their jurisdictions. Williams has always vehemently denied the charges.^[1] Dekalb County finally closed its case after finding no new evidence.

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, Williams's lawyers 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. The case was once again closed on July 21, 2006.

The former FBI profiler, John E. Douglas, wrote in his book Mindhunter that, while he believes that Williams committed many of the murders, he doesn't think that he committed all of them. Douglas added that he believes that law enforcement authorities have some idea of who the other killers are, and that, "It isn't a single offender and the truth isn't pleasant."

Trivia

• In Prince's 1981 album Controversy, the song "Annie Christian" referes to the murders in Atlanta.
• In 1985, James Baldwin wrote a book about the Atlanta child murders titled The Evidence of Things Not Seen.
• Chris Rock referred to Williams during a comedy routine called "Blacks Aren't Crazy" featured on his 1991 comedy album, Born Suspect.
• On Goodie Mob's 1995 album Soul Food, Andre 3000 raps about playing games as a child and says "the only thing we feared was Williams, Wayne" on the song "Thought Process".
• On Ludacris's 2001 album Word Of Mouf, the song "Growing Pains" refers to Wayne Williams.
• In 2000, Toni Cade Bambara published These Bones Are Not My Child, a novel from the point of view of a mother whose son went missing during the murders.
• In 2002, Tayari Jones published Leaving Atlanta, a novel from the point of view of three children growing up in Atlanta during these murders.
• In the 2002 song "Keep You Chullin out the Street" off Lil Jon's album Crunk Juice, Big Gipp refers to Wayne Williams as a part of his verse.
• Big Gipp also wrote an entire song about the killings, 2003's "Creeks" on his solo album, Mutant Mindframe.
• In 2005, Deep Purple recorded a song called "Wrong Man", which was sung from Williams's perspective - a protest of innocence. It is featured on their Rapture of the Deep album.
• In 2007, No Place Safe, written by Kim Reid was published. The book surrounds her life as a child of a police officer investigating the case.
• In 2007, "Big Gee's" song, "I'm a rider", referred to growing up in Atlanta at the same time as the murders.
• In the 2007 song "Paper", from the "Back Up N Da Chevy" album by "Boyz N Da Hood", Big Gee referers to the conviction and sentencing of Wayne Williams in his verse.

See also

• Atlanta Child Murders

References

1. ^ ^{a b c d e f} "Missing in Atlanta". The Investigators. TruTV. 2004-05-20. No. 141, season 5.

External links

• Williams' biography and details of the murders
• Crime Library case details