DeKalb County Police Chief Reopens Four Atlanta Child Murders, Saying Wayne Williams Is Innocent
Chief Louis Graham, who served on the task force that led to Williams's arrest, formed a cold-case squad. A former prosecutor questioned whether it could be objective.
Published
More than two decades after Wayne Williams was convicted, a police chief who had helped build the case against him said he was innocent. In May 2005, DeKalb County, Georgia, reopened four killings from the Atlanta child murders.
Police Chief Louis Graham formed a cold-case squad to look into the deaths of four boys and young men killed in DeKalb County, east of downtown Atlanta, between February and May 1981: Patrick Baltazar, 11; Curtis Walker, 13; Joseph Bell, 15; and William Barrett, 17. "Quite frankly, I don't think Wayne Williams is responsible for anything," said Graham, who had served on the multi-agency task force that led to Williams's arrest. "At this point, there are just too many open questions."
Between 1979 and 1981, about 29 Black children, teenagers and young adults were killed in the Atlanta area. In 1982 Williams, then 23, was convicted of murdering two men and given two life sentences, and the investigation was closed. After the trial, law enforcement linked him to 20 more of the killings, though he was never charged in them. Williams has always maintained his innocence. His conviction was controversial, partly because the case rested on circumstantial evidence apart from technical fiber evidence.
Jack Mallard, a former Fulton County assistant district attorney, questioned whether the squad could investigate objectively after the chief had pronounced Williams innocent. "There's no harm in reopening or continuing the investigation of any unsolved murder," Mallard said, but he remained convinced Williams was guilty. Chet Dettlinger, a former assistant Atlanta police chief, welcomed the review and noted that Williams was never convicted of killing the four boys.
The FBI says law enforcement linked Williams to 20 more of the killings after his trial, while CNN reported that police declared him responsible for more than 20 others.
Sources
- Cold-case squad to probe decades-old Atlanta murders, CNN
- Atlanta Child Murders, FBI Records: The Vault (Federal Bureau of Investigation)
Related News
- June 26, 2007: Atlanta Prosecutor Says Dog-Hair DNA Ties Wayne Williams to Child Murders; Lab Says Test Can't Single Out His Dog
- March 21, 2019: Atlanta Will Re-Test Evidence in the 1979-81 Child Murders, Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms Announces
In the Archive
- Wayne Williams
- WAYNE WILLIAMS IN THE COURTS: GEORGIA, 1983
- BUNDY WRITES TO THE GREEN RIVER TASK FORCE
- MICHAEL OWEN PERRY IN THE COURTS: LOUISIANA, 1986-1992
- 1992 JOHN WAYNE GACY INTERVIEW WITH WALTER JACOBSON
- WAYNE WILLIAMS: THE ATLANTA CHILD MURDERS
- THE BLACK DAHLIA LITTLE SUZANNE DEGNAN AND THE MISSING WEST POINT CADET
- CONSPIRACY. COLLUSION. COINCIDENCE.
- SERIAL KILLER COMMUNICATION
- TEN DNA REOPENINGS THAT ANSWERED A DIFFERENT QUESTION
- THE KILLER ABC'S: KILLER A'S PART TWO
- EVERY STATES MOST NOTORIOUS SERIAL KILLERS