The June 21, 1981, arrest of Wayne Williams, by Fulton County district attorney investigators began another chapter in the Atlanta Missing and Murdered Crisis. The Father’s Day arrest came a month after the 23 year old first became a suspect in the deaths of young blacks in the metro-Atlanta area.
The early morning events of May 22, 1981, that first drew Wayne Williams, unknowingly into the cases, were only a small part of one of the largest suppressions of facts in US history by local, state and federal authorities.
Fears of race war began to materialize nearly 3 years earlier with the first known murder cases of 14 year olds Alfred Evans and Edward Smith. Evans had been strangled, while Smith had been shot under unknown circumstances.
Virtually no effort was made to solve these and other cases involving the disappearances and murders of young blacks, until the hot summer of July 1980.
A group of enraged murdered-victims’ parents’ called world attention to what came to be called the Atlanta Child Missing and Murdered Cases. However, few people realized the problem was far greater. The murders included adults, males and females that would continue after Williams’ 1982 conviction, in connection with 2 adult deaths.
The crisis was compounded when local, state and federal authorities clashed over suspects and the investigation. The so-called missing and murdered task force was a myth, as was the existence of an Atlanta serial child killer. In fact, there were separate investigations and several groups of known suspects that were never prosecuted.
In one case, police were blocked from arresting a man seen committing a murder, by high ranking officials concerned with Atlanta’s image of a thriving tourist center. The same indifference existed among state authorities who suppressed knowledge of white supremacists’ involvement in several murders. Federal officials were committed to protecting the Georgia based seeds of what later became known as the Iran Contra Affair that led to the flooding of American cities with cocaine and crack.
Despite the existence of other suspects, Wayne Williams was the only person ever charged, and then, for the deaths of two adult victims linked to the cases by authorities. Williams was never a suspect until events of the early morning of May 22, 1981, which ignited an unprecedented media circus and led to official pressure to prosecute Wayne Williams and close the cases.
Exhaustive re-investigation of the Missing and Murdered Cases in the years since Williams’ arrest and conviction has provided an understanding and what did and did not happen in Atlanta, starting in 1979. The murders of black youths and adults did not end with the 1982 conviction of Wayne Williams and there are several killers still at large.
Subsequent investigation also has uncovered deliberate efforts to secure Williams’ conviction through the misrepresentation of critical evidence that continues to come forth.
The following is a comprehensive look at the Atlanta Murders and the Wayne Williams case, in an effort to bring about truth and justice.
CATHERINE MYRICK says
I hope that all is well; personally Mr. Williams, I wish you could be home for Christmas. Perhaps, the Almighty has something up on your behalf. May his Angels continue to keep you… pack your bags, baby you’re going home!!!
God Speed.
CATHERINE MYRICK says
To the interested parties involved in this struggle to free an innocent Black man from the cruelty of American prisons: I, Catherine Myrick, Author of the soon to be published “Ghost Killer: The Return of Darkness” do wish to be heard. This six Chapter true crime novel, is about the federal, state, and joint jurisdictional investigation of the child murders in Atlanta; however, my novel is compiled from the federal investigation known as ATKID Major Case #30, Missing and Murdered Children. Located within the federal investigative notes, were several ‘overlooked’ files of documentary evidence; documents which contradicts the public’s view of the entire investigation by the local federal bureau in Atlanta.
I do not wish to give away the remarkable exonerating evidence found in the investigation after three years of research and compilation; but I will however, state a few facts behind the investigation.
First, Mr. Williams seem to think that the federal agents ‘panicked’ when he was first stopped on the James Jackson Parkway Bridge, the early morning of May 22, 1981; Mr. Williams, what I have found is the one moment you had forgotten. In January of 1981, you were physically present at the crime scene body dump of the murdered trial court victim, Terry Lorenzo Pue; found in Rockdale County, Georgia. There, you were approached by the crowd control officer who asked you for identification, as you were loaded down with camera equipment.
You obliged the Rockdale officer and handed him your ‘business card’ on the spot. in a document found within the federal investigative notes, this officer handed the business card over to the second on scene detective, Lt. Hunter of the Rockdale PD, who, perhaps, filtered that small piece of information on you taking pictures, began you ‘background federal investigation.’ The officer who asked for your credentials, was later promoted to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation within that six-month period; the file is dated in June, and the incident was that previous January. Now, I also have proof, based upon the two indictments brought against you; which shows that it was virtually impossible for you to have committed either of the murders according to a federal record stating Cater’s actual time of death ‘in the water.’
Now, for the second indictment, Payne was listed, according to a NYT account as the 26th victim found, and found in the Chattahoochee River. According to a Senatorial Q&A about the federal joint investigation, a representative for the FBI deliberating on the investigation stated after being asked a series of questions about the difficulty encountered in the joint investigation was that of “an individual, after 26 slain victims, desired not to be caught and went about his business unobserved without leaving evidence.”
Now, a review of this evidence, based on the truthfulness of the answers given in November of 1981, the reflection of the entire investigation must have been significant to their own briefing about the investigation for him to have state, precisely the number of victims dead, and the suspect they were dealing with. Mr. Williams, “no evidence” means, no evidence.
Throughout my soon to be self published novel, you will discover amazing documentary facts, that if brought before the Grand Jury, a No Bill would have been handed down, based on common sense. FYI: The Bureaus in Washington and Atlanta, including your attorney, received copies of the last two chapters implicating those involved in criminal intent and probable cause to obstruct justice. However, no one has responded, not even District Attorney Howard of Fulton County, who by the way, was present and on scene during your indictment, 33 years ago, under the helm of D.A. Lewis Slaton, who is now deceased.
God Speed, Wayne
Cat
willie says
I really didn’t think you could have done this I feel so sorry for you and the victims families I really hope you get a new trial and can come home