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Atlanta child murders

Also known as: Atlanta murders of 1979-1981, Atlanta's Missing and Murdered

Active
1979–1981
Region
Atlanta, Georgia, USA
State
GA
Kind
Serial
Status
Convicted
Victims
30

Between July 1979 and May 1981, at least 28 Black children, teenagers and young men were killed or went missing in and around Atlanta. A city and federal task force staked out bridges over the Chattahoochee River, and in May 1981 officers stopped Wayne Williams, 23, after hearing a splash below a bridge; Nathaniel Cater's body surfaced downstream two days later. Williams was convicted in February 1982 of murdering two adults, Cater and Jimmy Ray Payne, and sentenced to two life terms. He was never charged in any other death. After the trial, Atlanta police attributed 22 more deaths to him and closed those cases without a trial; the remaining cases are unresolved. Williams maintains his innocence. In 2019 Atlanta's mayor and police chief reopened the cases for new evidence testing.

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Victims

We remember the people whose lives were taken.

Timeline of locations

  1. July 21, 1979
    Atlanta (victims whose deaths were never tried) (Other, approximate area)

    Children and young men disappeared across Atlanta and were found in woods, vacant lots, roadsides and rivers in and around the city. Twenty-two of these deaths were later attributed by police to Williams without a trial; the rest remain unresolved. Individual sites are not mapped.

  2. 1981
    Williams family home, Dixie Hills (Killer's residence, approximate area)

    Williams was raised in the Dixie Hills neighborhood of southwest Atlanta. The station wagon he was driving when he was stopped belonged to his parents.

  3. May 22, 1981
    Chattahoochee River bridge stakeout (Other, approximate area)

    Around 3 a.m. on May 22, 1981, officers watching a bridge over the Chattahoochee heard a splash and saw a station wagon cross; they stopped it about half a mile away. The driver was Wayne Williams. Sources differ on which bridge (James Jackson Parkway or South Cobb Drive).

  4. May 24, 1981
    Chattahoochee River (Cater) (Recovery site, approximate area)

    Nathaniel Cater's body was found in the river on May 24, 1981, a few miles downstream from the bridge where Williams had been stopped. The exact spot is not mapped.

  5. January 6, 1982
    Fulton County Superior Court, Atlanta (Court / trial, approximate area)

    Williams was tried only for the murders of Nathaniel Cater and Jimmy Ray Payne. On February 27, 1982, after about 11 hours of deliberation, the jury convicted him of both; he received two consecutive life terms.

  6. 2019
    Telfair State Prison (Prison)

    Williams is serving his life sentences at Telfair State Prison. He was denied parole in November 2019.

Watch, listen, read

Watch

  • Atlanta's Missing and Murdered: The Lost Children (2020, HBO)

Listen

  • Atlanta Monster (2018, Payne Lindsey, Tenderfoot TV and HowStuffWorks)

Read

  • The Evidence of Things Not Seen (1985, James Baldwin)

Sources

Each location also lists its own sources in the data file.