Kaplan University | Serial Killer | Deviance and Violence | | Tasiana Thompson | 3/26/2012 |

Atlanta’s local serial killer
The Atlanta Child Murders also known as the "missing and murdered children case". A series of children and teen African American youth where murder in Atlanta, Georgia 1979 to 1981. A minimum of 28 people were killed within the short time of about two years. Atlanta local Wayne Williams also African American and 23-years-old at the time of the last murders, now 52 years old, Wayne Williams continues to maintain his innocence. Wayne Williams is currently serving a consecutive life sentence for just two of the murders, but there where more than a half of dozen African American children and young men that was killed. In this case media divulged the physical evidence, but the FBI privately profiled the killer(s). Assumptions of the killer dropping the next body in a river to deplete evidence, the police and FBI officials staked out the James Jackson Parkway/ South Cobb Drive Bridge over the Chattahoochee River. May 22 1981 the last night of the stake out an FBI agent heard a splash in the water under the bridge. He saw a white 1970 Chevrolet station wagon slowly driving away, the same station wagon Eula Birdsong seen victim Yusuf Bell (14) get into a few years before in October 21 1979. When police pulled the car over that night a 23 year old Wayne Williams was the driver. The FBI took dog hair and fiber evidence from the car that was later found to be the key evidence in building a case against Wayne Williams. The car was later to be found to be his parents. The fibers matched the dog and fibers from the Parents house where Wayne lived at the time, he was convicted of the last two murders. Georgia Officials are fighting to Release KKK Files in the Atlanta Child Murders Case. State attorney General’s office is fighting a judge's order to turn over wiretaps that where collected implicating the KKK members collected during the investigation of the late and extremely brutal Atlanta child murders of 1979-1981. May 31 2005 judge's order that would give lawyers for convicted killer Wayne Williams’s access to juvenile records of a key witness. Williams was convicted in 1982 of killing two young black men but was implicated in more than 20 other deaths in a killing spree that terrorized Atlanta's African American community. A local police chief January 3 2005 reopened the case and now believes Wayne Williams may have not of been involved in those five murders. Wayne was never charged for any other murders but the last two. Recently Williams lawyer Jack Martin ask the Fulton County Superior Court Judge to allow DNA test on January 29 2007. There after the following June 26 2007 the DNA test Williams and his lawyer requested failed to exonerate Williams. CNN REPORTS (June 11 2005) A two-hour CNN documentary, "The Atlanta Child Murders," invited viewers to weigh the evidence and hear from witnesses in the case, and then go to CNN.com to cast votes on whether Williams is "guilty," "innocent" -- or the case is "not proven. “Nearly two out of every three persons who voted in the nonscientific poll said they would convict Williams. According to poll results, 68.6 percent of respondents said Williams was guilty. Only 4.3 percent said he was innocent. The remaining 27.1 percent chose a third option, "not proven," which was added to the CNN poll to offer a middle ground. More than 55,000 persons took the opportunity to register their opinions about the case on CNN.com. By March and April of 1981, bodies were turning up at the rate of one a week, stoking fears among Atlanta residents and many people across the nation.)
In conclusion of the Wayne Williams case I believe the psychics are absolutely no help whatsoever in identifying serial killers or providing any breaks in these cases. Instead, Wayne Williams was stopped and brought to justice due to diligent police work (primarily the bridge-stakeout) strategy and the use of fiber comparison and, more recently, DNA analysis. There was one other factor a jury that was able to understand and assess the evidence using critical thinking skills, which in this case should have been a jury of all African Americans, or at least a majority of African American considering the claim of racial profiling in this case.

References http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/serial_killers/predators/williams/index_1.html http://articles.cnn.com/2010-06-11/justice/atlanta.murders.poll.ireport_1_atlanta-child-murders-two-life-sentences-killings?_s=PM:CRIME