ATLANTA — The question of who killed as many as 30 African-American children and young men from 1979 until 1981 has lingered for years. Authorities say Wayne Williams, who is serving a life sentence for two of the murders, committed the string of killings. But many people, including family members of some of the victims, don't agree with the official conclusion.
Williams, a local free-lance photographer, was convicted in 1982 of killing Jimmy Ray Payne, 21, and Nathaniel Cater, 27, and sentenced to consecutive life sentences. He continues to maintain his innocence.
After the trial, law enforcement authorities said Williams was responsible for an additional 22 deaths. There was never any prosecution of those cases.
Though the cases were dubbed "missing and murdered children, " the victims ranged in age from 8 to 27. Nearly all were male.
The victims in the five DeKalb cases were:
> Patrick Baltazar, 11, found strangled Feb. 13, 1981, in a wooded area behind Corporate Square Office Park.
> Curtis Walker, 13, found dead of "asphyxiation/strangulation" March 6, 1981, in the South River near Flat Shoals Road.
> Joseph "Jo-Jo" Bell, 15, found dead of asphyxiation April 19, 1981, in the South River near Browns Mill Ferry subdivision, south of Lithonia.
> William Barrett, 17, found dead of asphyxiation May 12, 1981, beside Winthrop Road.
> Aaron Darnell Wyche, 10, found dead of a broken neck June 24, 1980, beneath a Moreland Avenue bridge.
A sixth child, Christopher Richardson, 11, was kidnapped from DeKalb County, but his body was found in Fulton.
Williams's arrest on Father's Day over three decades ago led him toward infamy. Prosecutors portrayed him as a domineering manipulator with a disdain for uneducated young blacks and likened him to Adolf Hitler, Attila the Hun and Idi Amin.
Of the 24 murders attributed to Williams, 18 of the victims were between the ages of 9 and 17. Victims were last spotted at Church's Fried Chicken, a bus stop, a mall, a gun shop. Beleaguered Mayor Maynard H. Jackson sat next to a stack of fresh bills in a bank - the reward money. Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jr. later lent help, in concert.
The nine-week trial linked fibers pulled from the Williams family home and automobiles to fibers found on victims' bodies. The media came from as far as India. The case led to a book, then to a controversial movie.
The jury deliberated 11 hours. One juror, requesting anonymity, recalls the most incriminating evidence: "His presence at places you wouldn't ordinarily think he should be. He did seem to have a connection with all of the boys."
The bodies of the two victims Williams was accused of slaying were found, a month apart, in the same brush-choked portion of the Chattahoochee River. Prosecutors contend the defendant tossed the bodies off the Jackson Parkway bridge, about a mile upstream from where the bodies were recovered.
Homer Williams, father of Williams stood steadfastly by his son. He had even kept the 1970 Chevrolet Concourse station wagon that prosecutors allege was used by Wayne Williams to carry the bodies of some victims.
"How they railroaded that poor boy is unbelievable!" he says. He accuses, among others, Ronald Reagan, George Bush, former FBI Director William Webster and Mayor Jackson. Mr. Bush, then vice president, helped secure $4.2 million in federal funds for the Atlanta case. Homer Williams adds, "They were trying to cover things up. . . . Atlanta was in turmoil."
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Clarence cooper immediately sentenced Williams to two consecutive live prison terms.
After the guilty verdicts were announced, Williams and his father addressed the court. Williams, dressed in a brown suit and an open-necked shirt, instead he is innocent.
“I maintained all along through this trial my innocence, and I still say so today,” he said. “I hold no malice toward the jury, the prosecutors or the court. I hope the person or persons who committed these crimes can be brought to justice. I did not do this.
Police announced Thursday a plan to re-test evidence from the child murder cases that rocked Atlanta in the late '70s and early '80s.
Mayor Kiesha Lance Bottoms and police Chief Erika Shields made the announcement Thursday at a news conference.
Bottoms said she remembered hearing about the horrific crimes as a 9-year-old, and felt robbed of an innocent childhood as a result.
“It may be there is nothing left it be tested,” Bottoms said. “But I do think history will judge us by our actions and we will be able to say we tried.”
The operation will be a joint one, with authorities from the Atlanta Police Department, Fulton County and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation using modern technology in examining the evidence.