Atlanta Child Murders Research Paper

The Atlanta child murders began on July 28, 1979, when a woman came across two bodies hidden under some bushes by the side of the road. Both bodies were black male children and one body was of a 14 year old that was reported missing a week before and shot with a .22-caliber weapon. The other body was that of a 13-year-old that was also reported missing three days before and was murdered by asphyxiation. These 2 murders would mark the start of a string of murders and it would continue lasting 22 months. In the end of 1979 2 more child victims were found that had also been strangled. When two more bodies continued the killing spree in the spring of 1980 and a 7-year-old girl had been reported missing, the FBI was called in and a profiler was assigned to work on the case as well. After this the killer changed his MO dumping the bodies into the Chattahoochee River and this allowed for the search to become confined to the bridges in the area that went across the

As his vehicle exited the bridge police stopped and questioned Williams about where he was headed. His reply was the he was on the way to audition a singer in a town close by. Two days after being stopped by police and questioned, a body was found of a young man that had been missing for three days. Police had a theory that Williams had dumped the body over the bridge the night that officers heard the splash in the water. Throughout the investigation Williams taunted police that were staking out his parents' home. During a press conference held outside his home to proclaim his innocence, he volunteered that he had failed the polygraph tests. He was arrested on June 21, 1981 for the murders of Nathaniel Cater and Jimmy Ray