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Police Chief to Reopen Six Wayne Williams' Cases

By Jeralyn, Section Innocence Cases
Posted on Wed May 11, 2005 at 06:02:27 PM EST
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Update: At the press conference, De Kalb police chief Louis Graham said he will reopen the six murder cases occurring in that county attributed to Wayne Williams during the Atlanta Child Murders of 1979 to 1981. Williams was convicted of two murders in another county, and De Kalb County then closed its files on the six cases, believing Williams to have committed them. Williams has maintained his innocence, and Graham says he never believed Williams was the killer. Now that he's police chief, he says he can finally reopen the investigations.

CNN has more, including a link to TChris' earlier post, in their "What people are saying" box.

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Original Post:

There will be a press conference today in Atlanta on whether the police will reopen the Wayne Williams case.

Last week, Sgt. Charles Dedrick said a cold-case squad would look into about five of the killings that occurred in DeKalb County, east of downtown.

The man who police suspected of those killings, Wayne Williams, was convicted in 1982 of two murders -- Jimmy Ray Payne, 21, and Nathaniel Cater, 27 -- by a Fulton County court. After Williams' convictions, police declared most of the cases involving the other 27 killings of young black men, boys and two girls closed.

TChris' background is here. The case against Williams was circumstantial and relied upon dubious fiber analysis.

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    Police Chief to Reopen Six Wayne Williams' Cases | 3 comments (3 topical)
    Re: Police Chief to Reopen Six Wayne Williams' Ca (none / 0) (#1)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:58:58 PM EST
    Well, All Chief's have their hobbies, and I think cases can often be substantially filled out with the "heat off." Cold case squads in general have been pretty sucessful nationwide. I think I was a bit young at the time, so I didn't really follow the case at the time. Can anyone think of anyone proven to be a cross-racial serial killer? Jeffrey Dahmer comes to mind, since he would kill both caucasians and asians (at least that poor Vietnamese or Cambodian victim)...

    Re: Police Chief to Reopen Six Wayne Williams' Ca (none / 0) (#2)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Dec 17, 2005 at 12:58:58 PM EST
    I lived in Atlanta through the killings and I remember those times well. I also never believed that Wayne Williams was guilty, and he was never convicted of killing a child. I lived in the suburbs of Atlanta, and before I moved to Alabama I lived in Midtown Atlanta and most, if not all, of my African-American friends said that the killings did not stop with the arrest of Wayne Williams: the reporting of killings stopped. I have little hope that any sort of justice will come from the new investigations, but I do welcome them.

    WHY IS THIS GUY IN JAIL ? (none / 0) (#3)
    by Investigator21 on Fri Jul 11, 2008 at 02:49:07 AM EST
    This case was a complete sham from the start and Mr. Wayne Williams NEVER got a fair trial.
    What amazes me is this (then kid) ... now a growing old, man has been left to literally rot in jail for crime NOT committed by him nor did he have anything to do with any of this .
    Since his incarceration many many investigations have been done in this case both publicly ,However, many many done privately ... all whom have come to the same and only conclusion and that is "This kid did Nothing".
    I am an investigator and have a complete team who researched this case from A to Z several times (pro-bono)and still cannot figure out HOW they even got a conviction ?
    He had a poor legal defense, the politics in play were under much pressure to GET SOMEBODY and if neccessary anybody ... and make it FIT and so they did !...
    The prosecution had NO real evidence , actually to go a step further NO evidence .... Its just unbeleivable how this kid was railroaded !
    Even during the trial there were many who KNEW this was not thr right person,However, it appears they were under pressure to as already stated get somebody and most importantly the person they got had to be that of African American decent, this was done to immediately calm all the racial tension at the time down ... had someone been arrested for this that was white, an all out race war would have broken out which is what was beleived at the time.

    There is and have been much discovered about all of these murders and those actually involved but who are allowed to roam free just to cover up what really was going on .

    As for the question raised by another poster about the murders stopping after he was arrested ... the answer to that is a very Blatant NO !
    Those murders continued long after , However, were not connected to that case any longer .

    There was a lot of powers and influential persons involved in the mass cover up of this case .

    I remember at one point in time Geraldo Rivera was investigating this and was scheduled to air a show exposing a multitude of evidence depicting that of Waynes innocense in this case , However, mysteriously Geraldo's show on that never aired , research and a few insiders tips revealed that Geraldo was quietly or should I say strongly suggessted to NOT air that particular show and it did not air !
    He did at some point ... much much later in time , air a very very watered down version which did not even come close to touching on the points of that original show that did not air .

    Even the parents of those murdered kids did not beleive Wayne Williams had anything to do with the murders , some changed their story after receiving visits from certain individuals who basically pressured and intimidated them .

    I could go on for awhile with this ( but will keep it brief) as I and my team have spent a lot of man hours totaling about 1.75 years investigating and researching this case and its just a shame to see this travesty .

    Heck, if you simply start with the court transcripts pertaining to the case ( which IS public record) ... In just reading that , you'll be left with one question ... WHY IS THIS GUY IN JAIL ?

    Police Chief to Reopen Six Wayne Williams' Cases | 3 comments (3 topical)