Good gawd...KKK bastard may have killed some of those Atlanta kids back...

[JanMichael]

...in the 70's.

Here.

I wonder what effect it will have if it's pursued? Which I must add it ought to be.

Fuckers.

Oh and Williams isn't "innocent" by this news, just that there could be some serious reprecussions if it turns out that a KKK shithead was behind some of the murders.

[AlCzervik]

1. I've been following this since they decided to reopen the case

this is HUGE news.

[JanMichael]

2. It's incredibly huge news. I remember when this was happening...

...I was young but I remember thinking that it seemed too obvious that some rascist shit was doing it. Then Williams was captured and I all but laid those feeling to rest because the reality of them being true was just too sick.

Now it looks like the speculation has legs, even if a couple of decades late.

[charlie]

3. Not just laid to rest

Those who assumed it was a bigot got a good dose of chiding and a bit of flatout rebuking for jumping the gun, inflaming racial tensions, magnifying blacks' fears for their safety...

[funflower]

8. I was living abroad when this was going on, and it was huge news over

there, too.

I thought Williams seemed a surprising serial killer.

Anybody know when the killings stopped?

[madrchsod]

4. i work where atlanta mag is printed

and read about the sheriff`s take on this...very interesting

[dannofoot]

5. Have you followed the case?

I've seen a couple of TV reviews of the case, and read some great magazine pieces over the years about the amount and type of evidence they used to convict Williams.

Given today's "CSI"-educated juries, I don't believe Williams could possibly be convicted in a retrial. A few carpet fibers (common) were all they had, while there were other likely suspects to a number of the murders.

It's worth reopening this case....

[newyawker99]

16. Hi dannofoot!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[Ladyhawk]

6. I thought it happened in the 80's...?? n/t

[JanMichael]

7. Late 70's early 80's IIRC.

Just going off a vodka addled memory here.

Edit: Perhaps I should have read the article that I linked...

"Although Charles T. Sanders did not claim responsibility for any of the deaths, lawyers for Wayne Williams, the black man convicted in two of the murders and blamed for 22 others between 1979 and 1981, believe the evidence will help their bid for a new trial."

[peacebaby3]

9. The evidence against Williams was very weak. The sheriff who wanted

the case reopened (I think he is in Dekalb County) worked on the case back then and he stated in an article about the reopening of the case a few months ago that he didn't think Williams was guilty at all. There was just some carpet fiber as far as forensic evidence and was always inconclusive if my memory serves me correctly.

Some reporters from Spin Magazine dug up a bunch of info on this case back several years ago and there was an HBO (I think) movie made about their work. I think it was called "Who Killed Atlanta's Children" or something like that. It's a movie based on a true story. The reporters wrote an extensive article for Spin magazine regarding what they had found.

It's going to be interesting to see what happens with this.

[JanMichael]

10. It will be interesting to watch.

Wow...Can you IMAGINE the outrage if it's true????

[Clark2008]

11. Is this part of the "Peaches" mystery?

I remember the little girl - who was about my age - named "Peaches" that turned this into a national story.

Isn't it the same story?

[alcibiades_mystery]

12. This has been an open secret since Wayne Williams' conviction

Williams probably killed one or two of the older victims. But all those kids? Wasn't Williams, and most people know it. Now, you have to remember that Atlanta was selling itself as the face of the new South at the time: airport, rejuvenated downtown, etc. Nobody in power wanted to see the old Klan relics lynching black kids in public streets (one of the victims was found tied to a tree in plain sight). There was a lot of pressure to hush the whole thing up and take a conviction where you got one. Nobody in the black community in Atlanta ever believed that Wayne Williams killed all those kids, as far as I know.

With proviso on edit: Atlanta had a black mayor at the time, but that doesn't discount the economic pressure.

[JanMichael]

13. Actually I didn't realise that.

I was West of the Mississippi for all of this.

The only thing I've seen since it was big news was some forensic show on some cable channel some years back.

I guess this will vindicate those that cried "KKK" so many years ago, at least I hope it will.

[WhiteTara]

14. Why would Williams have "killed one or two"

I thought he was framed from the beginning. He was just convenient. Do you have some new information? :shrug:

[alcibiades_mystery]

17. Nah

The main problem, as I see it, was the conflation of all the murders into one grouping. The victims that Williams was convicted of murdering (Nathaniel Cater and Jimmy Payne) were not children at all, but aged 21 and 27 at their times of death. I think these crimes were unconnected with the child murders, but the Atlanta police and prosecutors had to find someone. Is Williams guilty of these? The evidence is a bit shallow, and I don't think I would have been able to convict. There were also quite a few legal rulings against Williams that prevented a vigorous defense. So, you may be right. My main point, however, was that the general conflation of all these murders was the first error.

[WhiteTara]

21. thanks for the clarification

:hi:

[Catherine Vincent]

15. I remember when all of that was happening.

And I had my suspicions of this guy killing all of those guys. Especially the later ones because they were older. Williams was a little guy and I thought no way he could do all that.

[mr mister]

18. Where was Michael Savage at the time?

That's what I want to know.

[Modem Butterfly]

19. This is NOT news to the African American community in Atlanta

Folks have believed this since the beginning.

[Connie_Corleone]

20. Plenty of us have been saying this all along.

When I was about 8 or 9, I remember my family members not believing Williams killed those kids. When I saw the movie about it later, I thought he was guilty of killing the 2 adult men, but there was no evidence linking him to the children.

The family members in Georgia cancelled the family reunion when that was going on. Which was a good thing, because I told my mother I wasn't going down there and get killed. I was scared to death to go anywhere near there.

[alcibiades_mystery]

22. I lived outside Atlanta at the time (age 6-8 years when it was going on)

We lived in Cobb County, specifically Marietta.

I remember seeing all this on the news, and being afraid, and asking my Mom about it. My Mom, a transplanted New Yorker (we subsequently moved back to NYC) kinda smiled and said "You don't have anything to worry about, hon." I remember her words and the sardonic look on her face very well. "Why not?" I asked. "Whoever is doing this," she said, "Is killing black kids in the city, not white kids in the suburbs." As a seven year-old, this confused me mightily, but I think it may have been my introduction to race and power in American society. Then my Mom said "Are you still scared." Strangely, I wasn't. Then she said something I'll never forget: "Are you angry now? Because you should be."

As I understand the literature on memory, really shocking childhood events stand out in most explicit detail. I can see this entire scene unfold in my head like it was yesterday. I also remember the day Williams was convicted: they interrupted the programming in the Atlanta metro area. My Mom and Dad were on the couch, and my Mom said "What a crock." My father, a kind of sarcastic sonovabitch (love him, just saying), shook his head, and said "Welcome to Georgia."