Atlanta Child Murders

1547 Words4 Pages

From the summer of 1979 to the summer of 1981, at least twenty-eight people were abducted and killed during a murder spree in Atlanta, Georgia; these killings would come to be known as the Atlanta Child Murders. While the victims of the killings were people of all races and genders, most of the victims of the Atlanta Child Murders were young African-American males. These murders created great racial tension in the city of Atlanta, with its black population believing the murders to be the work of a white supremacist group. (Bardsley & Bell, n.d., p. l) However, when police finally apprehended a suspect in the case, they found it was neither a white supremacy group, nor a white person at all; it was a 23 year-old African-American man named Wayne Williams. (“What are”, n.d.) Wayne Williams was born in Atlanta on May 27, 1958, to school teachers Homer and Faye Williams; Williams’ parents were overly supportive of him to the point of coddling, having reportedly “spent every cent they had supporting his entrepreneurial ventures.” (Bardsley & Bell, n.d., p. 22). Williams graduated high school with an honors degree and attended college for a year before dropping out (Bardsley & Bell, n.d., p. 22). After leaving school Williams would become a talent scout and producer for local Atlanta artists, although he never achieved much success in this endeavor. Williams developed a reputation for being a pathological liar, did not have many friends, and was known to impersonate a police officer, eventually being arrested for doing so (Bardsley & Bell, n.d., p. 23). Williams eventually emerged as a suspect after police officers that were staking out a bridge near where previous bodies had been found heard a splash in the water and stopped his veh... ... middle of paper ... ...c business, and that the stress from these factors along with his antisocial personality made him want to kill people so he could have some feeling of control. I believe Williams targeted mostly young African-Americans in his killing due to feelings of resentment towards his peer group and those that had failed to make his business successful. Works Cited Bardsley, M., & Bell, R. (n.d.). The Atlanta Child Murders. Famous Atlanta Child Murders and Wayne Williams — Setting the Stage — Crime Library on truTV.com. Retrieved December 3, 2013, from http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/serial_killers/predators/williams/index_1.html What are the Atlanta Child Murders?. (n.d.). Atlanta Child Murders. Retrieved December 3, 2013, from http://cases.laws.com/atlanta-child-murders Siegel, L. J. (2011). Criminology: The Core (4th ed.). Belmont: Wadsworth/Cengage Learning.

Show More
Related

  • Book Review For Hair's Carnival Of Fury

    872 Words  | 2 Pages

    ...s aimed at blacks. I was horrified while reading the fate of Georgia resident, Sam Hose (or Holt), and believe that that occurrence alone would motivate Robert Charles to murder. I was also disgusted with the South's lack of justice. Some whites were tried for murder, and although clearly guilty, received no punishment.

    Read More

  • Fire in a Canebrake: The Last Mass Lynching in America

    711 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Moore’s Ford lynching shows that the Ku Klux Klan was still very powerful in Georgia just after the Second World War. Blacks who lived in these areas which were overwhelmingly rural and contained large plantations owned by white men were regularly browbeaten into submission by the white minority and sporadic outbreaks of violence were not uncommon. There was a wealth of evidence against several white men who were prominent citizens of the county, but no prosecution was ever conducted and the murderers went to their graves without having paid for their crime....

    Read More

  • The Watsons Go to Birmingham, by Christopher Paul Curtis

    2133 Words  | 5 Pages

    Despite the passing of the Civil Rights Act and Affirmative Action, racism evolved from the blatant discrimination of the 1960s like segregation, to the slightly more passive racism of the 1990s such as unfair arrests/jail time (Taylor). Curtis’ writes three decades after the aforementioned progress and yet, looking back on the 90s, there is an alarming amount of similarities between the two.

    Read More

  • The Murder of JonBenet Ramsey

    1811 Words  | 4 Pages

    Bardsley, Marilyn, Bellamy Patrick. “Murder of JonBenet Ramsey.” Crime Library. Turner Entertainment Networks, (2010). Web. 21 Feb. 2014.

    Read More

  • African American´s Limitations from 1865-1900s

    578 Words  | 2 Pages

    The population of African Americans from 1865 to 1900 had limited social freedom. Social limitations are limitations that relate “…to society and the way people interact with each other,” as defined by the lesson. One example of a social limitation African Americans experienced at the time is the white supremacy terrorist group, the Ku Klux Klan or the KKK. The KKK started as a social club formed by former confederate soldiers, which rapidly became a domestic terrorist organization. The KKK members were white supremacists who’s objective was to ward off African Americans from using their new political power. In an attempts to achieve their objective, Klansmen would burn African American schools, scare and threaten voters, destroy the homes of African Americans and also the homes of whites who supported African American rights. The greatest terror the KKK imposed was that of lynching. Lynching may be defined via the lesson as, “…public hanging for an alleged offense without benefit of trial.” As one can imagine these tactics struck fear into African Americans and the KKK was achiev...

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Murder In The Bayou

    1407 Words  | 3 Pages

    The book Murder in the Bayou: Who Killed the Women Known as the Jeff Davis 8?, written by independent journalist and private investigator Ethan Brown, tells the horrific true story of the bayou town of Jennings, Louisiana located in the heart of the Jefferson Davis parish. During the four year duration between 2005 and 2009, the town of Jennings was on edge after the discovery of the bodies of eight murdered women were found in the filthy canals and swamps. The victims became known as the “Jeff Davis 8.” For years, local law enforcement suspected a serial killer, and solely investigated the murders based on that theory alone. The victims were murdered in varying manors, but when alive they all shared many commonalities and were connected to

    Read More

  • negroes with guns

    528 Words  | 2 Pages

    -     Williams had been in the Marine Corps and when he got out he knew he wanted to join the NAACP, so he did

    Read More

  • The Conflict Theory Of Crime In The Central Park Five

    1457 Words  | 3 Pages

    On April 19th, 1989, Trisha Meili was the victim of violent assault, rape, and sodomy. The vicious attack left her in a coma for 12 days and The New York Times described it as “one of the most widely publicized crimes of the 1980’s.” The documentary, The Central Park Five, reveals the truth about what happened the night of April 19th, and how the subordinate group of young black boys were wrongly convicted. Analyzing the conflict theory of crime in association to the case of the central park five, understanding the way they were treated based on setting, why it was so easy for the law enforcement to pin the crime on the young black boys, and how wrongly convicting someone has great consequences along with relating it

    Read More

  • The Cocaine Kids: The Inside Story Of A Teenage Drug Ring By Terry Williams

    2169 Words  | 5 Pages

    ...lliams wrote in The Cocaine Kids was accurate. Instead of just writing more facts and statistics about these teenagers and cocaine, he told a story. He wrote something that more individuals can read and relate too. I believe the Williams successfully brings value and importance to these drug dealers lives. Williams shows drug dealing in the inner city in a very humane way. Their lives are closed to almost all outsiders because of the fact they are involved with illegal drugs. But after reading this book it showed me that even though they live a very difficult and dangerous way of life, they are not as different to us outsiders then we think. They too, have to continuously make tough and valuable decision to live and be successful within society. These dealers are just kids who had little time to be young and are trying to survive in a violent and corrupt world.

    Read More

  • Documentary 'Rize' by David LaChapelle

    947 Words  | 2 Pages

    Throughout, the documentary one can come to the conclusion that most of these African- Americans who live in this area are being judged as violent and bad people. However this is not the case, many of them are just normal people who are try...

    Read More

  • Redemption for Whom?

    683 Words  | 2 Pages

    First, Lemann documents horrible accounts of violence against freed blacks. The casual observer views the underlying reasons for these attacks as simple racial hatred. However, Lemann connects the acts of violence to show an orchestrated movement intended to undermine both keys to the freed blacks’ quality of life, organizing abilities and voting rights. Violence against blacks existed for years, but in the form of a master supposedly disciplining his slave. The acts of violence outlined by Lemann show a shift from fear and ignorance to organized intimidation. After all, whites of the time viewed themselves “as protectors of [the] natural order” meaning racial superiority (65). What first started as a fear of being the minority turned quickly to a fear of losing political power and economic wealth. In the end, the use of violence all...

    Read More

  • Unpacking the Concept of White Privilege

    1028 Words  | 3 Pages

    Coates first speaks of the non-indictment of Darren Wilson in the death of Michael Brown through his words to his son“…You stayed up till 11 pm that night, waiting for the announcement of an indictment, and when instead it was announced that there was none you said, “I’ve got to go,” and you went into your room, and I heard you crying. I came in five minutes after, and I didn’t hug you, and I didn’t comfort you, because I thought it would be wrong to comfort you. I did not tell you that it would be okay, because I have never believed it would be okay... (Coates, 2015)” Secondly, he narrates the story of Mabel Jones who worked hard to give her children comfortable lives including learning in private schools and frequent trips to Europe. Regardless of her social status and wealth, her son was tracked and killed by a policeman in what was considered a mistake. Surprisingly, Coates does not believe that only white officers discriminate against young black males. While it is clear that Darren Wilson, a white police man, is behind the death of Michael Brown who was a black teenager, he also reveals that Prince C. Jones, Jr. was killed in an altercation with a Prince George 's County, Virginia policeman who happened to be

    Read More

  • Unraveling the Roots of Racial Superiority

    2021 Words  | 5 Pages

    Racial superiority is a concept created to rationalize social inequality and though we live in a country with much diversity, why is racism still a prevailing problem? How are beliefs of superiority ingrained and maintained in people’s minds? What leads certain cultural groups to believe they are “biologically” superior to others? What live style do people with these mentality have? How is racial discrimination a continuing problem if, throughout the years, movements have been created to fight this very same social issue? In the book, American Swastika, Pete Simi and Robert Futrell answer these questions by exploring the white power movement through extensive fieldwork. They examine the factors that drive white supremacist to form their beliefs

    Read More

  • Persuasive Essay On Racism

    1162 Words  | 3 Pages

    Every generation faces new challenges and new problems to which we have progressed, conquered or simply just swept right under the rug. In today’s world we are increasingly facing numerous social problems, such as income disparity, unemployment, political instability amongst many others, but racism seems to have resurfaced in these past years. Although, the United States has come a long way in the issue of racism, it has never completely conquered it. Incidents such the shooting at Ferguson Missouri has raised an upheaval of protesters against the Country’s system that claims equal treatment and equal opportunity for all, regardless of race or gender. Incidents such as the one previously mentioned, clearly depicts that white-power continues

    Read More

  • Hidden Color Reflection

    913 Words  | 2 Pages

    I boarded a bus in New York City recently as I entered into the bus I saw a vacant seat in the back section of the bus I hastily went and sat in it, while I was sitting there my eyes caught and add that was displaying a bow they window at the back of the bus. The odd red as follows; “homelessness has many faces”, but when I looked at the big terrorists on display beneath the writing I saw that all the individuals in the picture were black in color. Immediately my thoughts opened up to a documentary I saw in my sociology class prior to boarding that bus. I could distinctively recall a section of the documentary that speaks to the inferior way that the so-called white supremacy treats people of color. The hidden color is a documentary, an instrument

    Read More

More about Atlanta Child Murders

Open Document