Mindhunter Season 2: Which serial killers will make an appearance?
By Rachel Roth
Wayne Williams
Wayne Williams wasn’t convicted of the crimes he’s most associated with but remains the prime suspect in the deaths of 28 children in Atlanta, GA. He was only convicted and imprisoned for the murders of two adult men despite the mounds of evidence linking him to over 20 deaths.
Between 1979-1981, approximately 28 black children, teens, and young adults, mostly boys, were kidnapped and murdered. The event was dubbed the Atlanta Child Murders. Not all the murders followed the same pattern, leading investigators to believe that more than one killer was involved, but the majority of them shared common details.
The first victims were believed to be Edward “Teddy” Hope Smith and Alfred “Q” Evans, two 14-year-olds who disappeared just four days apart. Their bodies were found together on July 28 in a wooded area.
Another victim that went missing in 1981, Terry Pue, lived in the same apartment as Smith. A killing spree quickly followed and lasted about two years until the arrest of Wayne Bertram Williams.
The C.O.D’s of the victims almost never matched, and they were all found in different locations. The damaged inflicted on the bodies didn’t appear to match either. Out of all the mismatched clues, one thing remained certain: at least two men were responsible.
Multiple eye-witnesses identified a blue car and two men, one white and one black, near several of the crime scenes. It was a blue car at the scene, but Williams drove a white Chevrolet station wagon, so it can be assumed the blue car belonged to the unidentified accomplice. Serial killers rarely break their patterns, like all humans they’re creatures of habit and it’s their methods they enjoy. Such disorganization suggests either an extremely self-aware psychopath, which is very unusual considering almost all psychopaths are egotistical individuals lacking empathy (which is required for some level of self-awareness), or there were two murderers.
Police were able to link Williams to the murders of 27-year-old Nathaniel Carter and 22-year-old Jimmy Ray Payne. Though there’s plenty of evidence to conclude he’s killed many more, none of it was strong enough to go to trail with.
John E. Douglas gave his own opinion on the case in his book, “Mindhunter.”
"“Forensic and behavioral evidence points conclusively to Wayne Williams as the killer of eleven young men in Atlanta.” However, there was “no strong evidence linking him to all or even most of the deaths and disappearances of children in that city between 1979 and 1981.”"