ATLANTA CHILD MURDERS: REPORTED BY SOLEDAD O'BRIEN (TV)
Summary
This news report special explores the hunt for and prosecution of Wayne Williams, the Georgia man accused of murdering over two dozen boys and men in Atlantic in the 1980s. Reporter Soledad O'Brien explains that in May 1981, twenty-two-year-old Williams was caught by police on the bridge from which many bodies had likely been dumped, and immediately mentioned the murders when questioned. Now in his fifties, Williams asserts his innocence from prison and states that he was convicted because of "fear" and racism. Detective Bob Buffington explains that his observations of a "disturbing pattern" in the strangulation murders of several young black boys were dismissed, and Camille Bell states that she and other poor, black mothers of murdered children were told that they were "overreacting" and that the deaths were random, not the work of a serial killer. FBI officials speculated that the killer himself was black, as a white man would have stood out in the neighborhood, though black serial killers were almost unheard of at the time. Kasim Reed, who became the mayor of Atlanta, recalls his childhood sense of fear as body count soon rose to fifteen.
A reward was offered for information, and forensic scientist Larry Peterson tested endless pieces of physical evidence found on the bodies and eventually noticed a highly distinctive green fiber in January 1981. Williams' co-worker Kathy Andrews recalls seeing disturbingly deep scratches on his arms, which he blamed on a bush, shortly before the discovery of another body bearing defensive wounds, and the killings began to increase in frequency, which FBI profiler Ray Hazelwood attributes to the murderer's reckless sense of confidence and invincibility. One boy, Patrick Baltazar, declared that he himself would catch the killer, and his stepmother Sheila suspected the worst when he too then went missing. The telltale green fiber was found on his body as well, and Sheila requested an open casket to point out that he "could have been anybody's child." In February, the police received a tip that a family of brothers affiliated with the Ku Klux Klan may have been involved, though they managed to pass lie-detector tests about the killings. A witness observed Williams giving a ride to yet another victim, Jo-Jo Bell, though Williams denies it to O'Brien, and the murders soon received such widespread attention that Sammy Davis Jr. and Frank Sinatra arrived in town to give a benefit concert – photographed by Williams' father, Homer.
When the police announced that fibers and hairs had been found on Baltazar's body, the next several boys were found in the Chattahoochee River, prompting FBI agent Mike McComas to suggest nighttime stakeouts of fourteen different bridges. Williams was spotted on the final night and provided a questionable alibi, and though a nylon rope was spotted in his car, he was released on lack of evidence. A twenty-seventh and final body, that of 28-year-old Nathaniel Cater, was then found in the river, and Williams failed the FBI's polygraph three separate times. A green carpet was found in Williams' bedroom, and Peterson was startled when he definitively matched the fibers to those found on the bodies. Williams made strange statements to reporters about the boys "opening themselves up" to danger by wandering around unsupervised, and he was finally arrested on Father's Day 1981. The trial began in January 1982, and though he was technically only tried for the murders of Cater and Jimmy Payne, another adult, the children's deaths were linked via forensic evidence. Defense attorney Mary Welcome states that he was "a most unlikely killer," but the prosecution made their case based on the carpet fibers as well as blanket threads and dog hairs, a tactic largely unheard of at the time. Williams declares that he never met any of the victims and suggests that the fiber evidence was "manipulated," though the detectives point out the impossibility of all of the physical evidence being false.
Robert Henry then stated that he saw his co-worker Cater holding hands with Williams at a local movie theatre, and Williams "blew up" at the prosecutor while on the stand, belligerently challenging them to convict him and deriding the victims and the lawyers as "useless." He was soon found guilty of the Cater and Payne murders and given two life sentences, and Detective Welcome Harris notes that no such similar murders have occurred in Atlanta since his conviction. Williams' various appeals were denied, which he attributes to prosecutorial "bullying," though trial errors later came to light, including the revelation that one witness had used a false name and in fact had a criminal record of his own, and evidence of other victims who were allegedly killed by people other than Williams, according to witnesses and sketches. Furthermore, some of the boys' mothers have voiced their anger that Williams was never officially convicted of any of their sons' deaths, though the prosecutors point out that he is serving a life sentence all the same. Henry, himself imprisoned for sex crimes, later changed his story about seeing Williams and Cater together, cryptically suggesting that he was "told to say" so, and Williams too altered his alibi, though unconvincingly, for the night on which he was questioned on the bridge, likely also the night of Cater's death.
In 2007, hairs found in Baltazar's shirt were matched, though not with 100% scientific certainty, to Williams, and Sheila Baltazar emotionally states that she is convinced of his guilt. O'Brien then questions Williams about his bizarre "autobiography" in which he wrote that he received secret CIA training as a teenager and was taught "unarmed combat techniques," among other things. Williams remains evasive, refusing to directly answer O'Brien's questions about his ability to kill with a chokehold, as most of the boys likely were, leaving the veracity of his claims uncertain. The various interviewees then give varying answers about their belief in his guilt or innocence, and O'Brien invites viewers to share their own opinions on the CNN website poll. (Viewers eventually agreed that Williams was indeed guilty.) Commercials deleted.
Details
- NETWORK: CNN
- DATE: 9:00 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 1:26:54
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: 108099
- GENRE: News
- SUBJECT HEADING: African-American Collection - News/Talk; News; Homicide
- SERIES RUN: CNN - TV, 2010
- COMMERCIALS: N/A
CREDITS
- Soledad O'Brien … Reporter
- Wayne Williams … Interviewee
- Bob Buffington … Interviewee
- Larry Peterson … Interviewee
- Camille Bell … Interviewee
- Roy Hazelwood … Interviewee
- Kasim Reed … Interviewee
- Kathy Andrews … Interviewee
- Sheila Baltazar … Interviewee
- Mike McComas … Interviewee
- Mary Welcome … Interviewee
- Robert Henry … Interviewee
- Welcome Harris … Interviewee
- Patrick Baltazar
- Yusef Bell
- Nathaniel Cater
- Sammy Davis Jr.
- Jimmy Payne
- Frank Sinatra
- Homer Williams