Wayne Bertram Williams (born 27 May 1958) is an American convicted murderer and suspected serial killer who is serving life imprisonment for the 1981 killings of two men in Atlanta, Georgia. Although never tried for the additional murders, he is also believed to be responsible for at least twenty-four of the thirty Atlanta murders of 1979–1981, also known as the Atlanta Child Murders.
Background[]
Wayne Williams, son of Homer and Faye Williams, was born on 27 May 1958, and raised in the Dixie Hills neighborhood of southwest Atlanta, Georgia. Both of his parents were teachers. Williams graduated from Douglass High School and developed a keen interest in radio and journalism. He constructed his own carrier current radio station and began frequenting stations WIGO and WAOK, where he befriended a number of the announcing crew and began dabbling in becoming a pop music producer and manager.
Atlanta Murders[]
Williams first became a suspect in the Atlanta murders on the morning of 22 May 1981, when a police surveillance team, watching the James Jackson Parkway Bridge spanning the Chattahoochee River (a spot where multiple bodies had been discovered previously), heard a "big loud splash," suggesting that something had been thrown from the bridge into the river below. The first automobile to exit the bridge after the splash, at roughly 2:50 a.m., belonged to Williams. When stopped and questioned, he told police that he was on his way to check on an address in a neighboring town ahead of an audition the following morning with a young singer named Cheryl Johnson. However, both the phone number he gave police and Cheryl Johnson turned out to be fictitious.
Two days later, on May 24, the nude body of 27-year-old Nathaniel Cater, who had been missing for four days and was last seen with Williams, was discovered in the river. The medical examiner ruled he had died of probable asphyxia but never specifically said he had been strangled. Police theorized that Williams had killed Cater and that the sound they had heard as Williams's car crossed the bridge was Cater's body hitting the water.
Arrest[]
Williams was arrested on 21 June 1981, for the murders of Cater and Payne. His trial began on January 6, 1982, in Fulton County. During the two-month trial, prosecutors matched to a number of victims nineteen sources of fibers from Williams's home and car: his bedspread, bathroom, gloves, clothes, carpets, dog, and an unusual trilobal carpet fiber. Other evidence included witness testimony that placed Williams with several victims while they were alive, and inconsistencies in his accounts of his whereabouts. Williams had also lied about when the carpet was installed in his home, claiming it was installed in 1968 (which would undermine the testimony of prosecution experts, who said it was a rare type not manufactured until the 1970s) only for it to be discovered that the company that manufactured the carpet did not even exist until 1971. Williams took the stand in his own defense but alienated the jury by becoming angry and combative. After twelve hours of deliberation, the jury found him guilty on February 27 of the murders of Cater and Payne. He received two consecutive life sentences. After Williams became a suspect, the killings stopped.
Victims[]
Victims Williams was convicted of killing:
- Nathaniel Cater: The 28-year-old was reported missing in May 1981. His body was found in the Chattahoochee River two days after Williams was stopped by police near the same bridge.
- Jimmy Ray Payne: A 21-year-old found dead in April 1981. Fibers from Williams's car and home were found on Payne's body.
Victims attributed to Williams;
- Alfred Evans (age 13)
- Yusef Bell (age 9)
- Eric Middlebrooks (age 14)
- Christopher Richardson (age 12)
- Aaron Wyche (age 10)
- Anthony Carter (age 9)
- Earl Terrell (age 11)
- Clifford Jones (age 13)
- Charles Stephens (age 12)
- Aaron Jackson (age 9)
- Patrick Rogers (age 16)
- Lubie Geter (age 14)
- Terry Pue (age 15)
- Patrick Baltazar (age 11)
- Curtis Walker (age 13)
- Jo Jo Bell (age 15)
- Timothy Hill (age 13)
- Eddie Duncan (age 21)
- Larry Rogers (age 20)
- Michael McIntosh (age 23)
- John Porter (age 28)
- William Barrett (age 17)
Aftermath[]
Williams was never tried for any of the Atlanta Child Murders. However, police attributed twenty-two other deaths, including those of eighteen minors, to Williams.
Williams is serving his sentence at Telfair State Prison. In November 2019, Williams was again denied parole. He will next be eligible for parole in November 2027.