All about Wayne Williams
By: Vanessa Lopez
About him...
- Wayne Williams was born on May 27, 1958 in Atlanta, Georgia
- He was a free lance photographer
- He was known as the Atlanta Monster or the Atlanta Child Killer
How did it all begin?
- In the year of 1979 five children and young teens were found dead in different multiple ways
- In 1980 another child was found dead and one girl was missing at first the killer was leaving the bodies in wooded areas but soon changed to dumping them at the Chattahoochee River which helped minimize the area needed to be searched by the police
- In May of 1980 at around three in the morning the police heard a splash in the river and saw a car escaping which Wayne Williams was driving but they did nothing to him at the moment
- Two days later the body of twenty sever year old, Nathaniel Cater was found in the river and Williams was questioned
The Murders
- On February 27, 1982 he was found guilty for the murder of Nathaniel and Jimmy Ray Payne
- He was charged because the police found fibers that matched the ones the victims had in Williams possession and there was also two eyewitnesses so he was sentenced to two life terms in prison
- There was 19 different fibers found from his carpet, bedspread, dog, gloves and his clothes that were found on the victims
NO JUSTICE
- Williams was almost charged for the murders of 20 out of the 29 children and teens that were killed since his hairs were found on the victims or the crime scene but it was only 98% confirmed and because of the 2% needed he wasn't charged
- The first children to be murdered were Edward Hope Smith and Alfred Evans they were both only 14
- Most of the children were killed as they went on errands for their parents and that's when they were abducted and later murdered
- Most of the victims were asphyxiated
- Although he wasn't proved guilty once he was in prison the murders stopped
- $100,000 were raised by Frank Sinatra, The Jacksons, and Sammy Davis Jr. for the Atlanta Children's Foundation for the murders and kidnappings