All language subtitles for Atlantas Missing and Murdered The Lost Children S01E04

(SCHOOL BELL RINGS)

FRANK TASSONE:
I wanted to make a difference.

We did!

WOMAN:
This is a criminal matter.

TASSONE:
If this scandal gets out,

we will lose everything.

(BLENDER WHIRRING)

♪ The hardest button to button ♪

The FBI developed
detailed profiles

of the suspect.

MAN: He checks all the boxes.

When the body of Nathaniel Cater
washed up, I said,

"I think Wayne Williams
has a problem."

♪ (DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYS) ♪

MAN 2: Trace evidence
was a critical aspect

of an investigation.

MAN 3: Fiber samples
from the Williams' home

matched fibers
on multiple victims.

-This is it.
-But that really wasn't it.

I hadn't killed anybody.

MAN 4: Why was Wayne Williams
on the bridge?

'Cause he was dropping
a body.

MAN 5:
They had to close the case.

They were going to implicate him
by any means necessary.

MAN 6: He was being charged
with the murder of two men.

Where is the solution
to these dozens of children?

[TV static drones]

[bright tone]

["Save Me"
by Joan Armatrading playing]

♪ ♪

- ♪ Sinking ♪

♪ Caught up
in a whirling motion ♪

♪ Such a strange sensation ♪

♪ ♪

♪ The currents uncertain ♪

♪ Like sails of a mill,
I spin ♪

♪ Like wheels,
I move in a circle ♪

♪ While you stand ♪

♪ On the bank ♪

♪ Immune or evasive ♪

♪ Throw me a lifeline ♪

♪ Save me ♪

♪ ♪

♪ Save me ♪

- In an Atlanta courtroom
yesterday,

testimony began in one
of the most widely publicized

murder trials in recent times.

- Williams is charged

only with 2 of the 28 murders

on the special task force
list,

those of Nathaniel Cater
and Jimmy Ray Payne.

But the prosecution
wants to introduce evidence

linking Williams
to ten additional victims.

[dramatic music]

- Wayne Williams' team
knew the prosecution intended

to introduce evidence
of one or more

of the official child murders,

but they didn't know how many.

And in the middle of trial,

they announced that
they are introducing evidence

of ten other murders.

Good luck with that defense.

- Joe Drolet notified
Judge Cooper

the state would like to show
the jury a pattern of killings

it claims Wayne Williams
committed.

Drolet read the names
of ten other victims:

Alfred Evans,
Eric Middlebrooks,

Charles Stephens,
Lubie Geter,

Terry Pue, Patrick Baltazar,

Joseph Bell, Larry Rogers,

John Porter,
and William Barrett.

- The prosecution said,
with magic dust and mirrors,

"We're gonna," you know,

"Give you an additional
ten murders."

- It was absolutely crazy.

How do you defend
against what we did not know?

[solemn music]

[indistinct chatter]

- No comment.

- Mary, it's the first time
that the police

have publicly stated
that Wayne is the suspect

in more than the two cases
he is charged in.

Any comment on that?

- I have no comment
on anything.

- The state built its case
around this notion

that if Wayne Williams
killed one, he killed them all.

- Similar transactions
have been used

as long as there have been
courts

in the Anglo-American system.

First case I found in
the United States Supreme Court

on it was in 1842,

saying that it is
a common practice

and it is completely
appropriate to use

evidence of another crime,
proves the crime on trial.

[indistinct chatter]

- Normally in cases
where they allow

pattern evidence,
they stop the trial,

and you have a hearing
to determine whether or not

these cases should be allowed
as pattern evidence.

We didn't have that.

Judge Cooper did not help
the defense at all.

He decided to allow
the prosecution

to bring on
the pattern evidence.

- Out of 11 choices,
the computer picked this man

to sit in judgement
over all future decisions

about accused murderer
Wayne Williams.

Ironically, Judge Cooper,
randomly selected

from that computer,
knows both sides real well.

In fact, he worked for

Fulton County District
Attorney Lewis Slayton

for eight years.

Cooper was then an assistant
district attorney.

He still refers to
Lewis Slayton as "the boss."

- Clarence Cooper
was the city of Atlanta's

first black
superior court judge,

and I don't really think
he wanted the case.

It was almost as if
the cards were being stacked

so that if this black man
is found guilty,

it's black people who did it.

So the black community
will therefore accept it.

There were so many other judges
who could have done it

who had more tenure.

So why was it given to him?

And I think it was
given to him

because he was the most
prominent black judge.

- With every
critical decision,

Judge Cooper is ruling
in favor of Lewis Slayton,

and so here comes
the pattern evidence.

[ominous music]

- They said, "This person
should be considered

"a part of the pattern
because that person was black,

"found partially clothed,

either stabbed or strangled
or drowned."

Every case could have been
a part of the pattern,

because how many other ways
is there to die?

- They were under 12.

They were over 25.

They were very tall.

They were very small.

Find me a pattern.

- Wayne's been charged
with two murders.

The task force has
more than 20 murders.

Do the investigators think
he's guilty of more than two?

Is it 10?
Is it 22?

Is it all of them?

- There were so many things
that just pointed directly

at Wayne Williams.

The 12 cases were
logically connected,

because the same fibers
kept showing up

over and over and over again.

♪ ♪

- Okay.

So this a summary chart
that I put together

to help me keep track of
the number of associations

with the different victims.

If you take
any particular victim

and you look across,
some victims only had

one association.

Some had as many
as eight or nine

different types
of associations.

That's different objects
that linked the victim

to Williams' environment,

the ones that I considered

kind of the more primary
fiber types.

In terms of the dog hair,
there 18 cases

where dog hair is associated

with Sheba,
the German Shepherd

from the Williams home,
were found to have

a positive association.

There are fibers that match
different vehicles

that the family had access to

throughout the time frame
of the cases,

fibers that matched a throw rug
that was in the kitchen...

and a bath mat set.

The only fiber type
that had more matches

than the 18 dog hairs was
the violet acetate,

where there were
21 different victims

that had fibers matching
the violet acetate.

One of the distinctive fibers
was this green carpet,

and the green carpet fibers
had 15 different cases

where there were associations

that matched
the Williams home.

Both Payne and Cater
had the green carpet,

both had the violet acetate.

All of it matched
the Williams environment.

- As the defense watched
intently,

an FBI expert
used detailed charts

to make his conclusion

that fibers
removed from the 12 victims

were similar
to those taken from

the home and car
of Wayne Williams.

[dramatic music]

- Man-made carpet fibers have

a very specific
chemical composition

and specific shape.

Wayne Williams'
green carpet fiber was

man-made
by a specific factory,

by a specific company,

during a relatively short
period of time.

- Because most fibers have
identifiable characteristics,

investigators had hoped
to trace

the Williams carpet fiber
to its source.

A breakthrough led quickly
to Wellman Industries

of tiny Johnsonville,
South Carolina.

Today a company official
testified

the fiber in question
was indeed a Wellman fiber.

We know of no one else
in the world

who makes a fiber like that.

- Wellman was a small company

in Johnsonville,
South Carolina,

so small that people
in the industry

didn't consider them
as a source.

West Point-Pepperell
used the Wellman fiber

to make a carpet
called the Luxaire line.

It was an English Olive color.

They had only used
the 181B fiber in 1970.

820 rooms of carpet
was distributed

into ten southeastern states.

So we did not know how much was
shipped to these ten states.

But if you consider
an equal distribution,

that would put roughly
82 rooms of that carpet

for the entire state
of Georgia.

- It's unique, you know,
this fiber.

- Remember, this is 1980.

You're in cloth country
down here.

This our business
in the South.

The industries all up and down
the river, you know,

are dumping
right into the river.

Of course it was
full of fibers.

Not only the green fibers
or the red fibers

or the German Shepherd
hair follicles,

there was everything in there.

[foreboding music]

- Dr. Randall Bresee
conducted several tests,

one by placing a so-called
"fiber-free" pillowcase

into the Chattahoochee River
for 30 minutes.

- We bought two pillowcases,

and we took 'em down
to the Chattahoochee

and dragged 'em in the water.

- He told the jury
when it came out,

hundreds of fibers clung
to the material,

suggesting fibers found on

Cater and Jimmy Payne's bodies
may have been picked up

from the river,
not Williams' home and car.

♪ ♪

- I got to examine the fibers

on this pillowcase study
he had done,

and there were about 35 fibers
total.

And none of them were
remotely close to anything

of any of the fibers
from any of the cases.

I was so immersed
into the fiber and the hair

and production of exhibits
for the trial.

It was just
an overwhelming task,

even though the trace man
from the FBI lab and myself

were sharing that load.

There was work underway
even after the trial started,

and exhibits were being
produced at the FBI

and flown back and forth.

[dynamic music]

- At the trial,
the FBI lab in Washington

came up with the charts

to give a two- or three-day
education to the jury

and to the judge
on how fiber is made.

- It was a very deliberate
strategy

on the part of the prosecution
to impress the jury

with the overall weight
of the evidence.

[tense music]

- It was a lot of charts,

and we did see
the comparison,

what they found on the rug,

what they found
on the dog hair.

We just kind of had to go
by what they said,

and we didn't--we w--of course,
we not scientists.

♪ ♪

- They made all these
different matches

to Wayne's carpet, bedspread,
et cetera,

and then they drew
statistical probabilities.

1 in 100 chances
that this child

was in this environment,

1 in 200 chances that
he was in this environment,

1 in 1,000 in this environment.

They multiplied 'em
all together,

and the probabilities
were off the chart

that it could be
any other environment

other than Wayne Williams'.

♪ ♪

- The coincidences
were literally astronomical

that all of these victims

could have ended up
with fibers

identical to those found in
Wayne Williams' house and car

without them being
in his presence.

♪ ♪

- "Unique" doesn't make sense.

Homer Williams buys carpet.
He puts it on the floor.

If it's only one place,

it's only in
Homer Williams' house,

but that's not the case.

Other people bought
that carpet.

- There's no direct evidence

that Wayne Williams
committed the murders.

The fiber
and the hair evidence

does not put Wayne Williams'
hand or a ligature

killing these victims.

It's a connection
to the environment.

Whether Wayne Williams
killed these victims or not

are beyond the scope of what
the evidence directly shows.

[dramatic music]

But the evidence supports
the fact

that they were clearly
in his environment--

collectively home, car,
person--

shortly before
they were killed.

So someone has to be wrong.

♪ ♪

- I could see
where this was going.

Basically, they overwhelmed us.

- It was a beautiful
orchestrated dog and pony show

that they put on.

The prosecution
started presenting

eyewitness testimony.

They said that, one,
Wayne was homosexual;

two, that he was bisexual;

three, he was a virgin.

- One witness came forward
to say that

Wayne Williams picked him up,

very friendly,
and then he starts asking him

about whether he has sex
with women

and--and then reaches over
and starts grabbing his penis.

- "I can't forget his face,"
the boy claimed.

"It's that man over there,
Wayne Williams."

- This case had a lot of
witnesses who said they saw

victims with Wayne Williams,

many of them
shortly before their death.

♪ ♪

Robert I. Henry
was a witness who saw

Wayne Williams holding hands
with Nathaniel Cater

the night before he died.

He said, "I saw a guy,

"and he was holding hands
with him

near the Rialto Theater
in downtown Atlanta."

And then he pointed
directly at Wayne Williams.

- Come on,
we said we wouldn't--

- Don't stand
in front of the car.

Give him room.

- And so many other witnesses
who claimed

that they saw Wayne
with victims.

♪ ♪

[indistinct chatter]

- Lady in the brown coat...

- Ruth Warren happened to be
at the shopping center

and saw Lubie Geter talking
with Wayne Williams

about whether or not
he could go with him.

♪ ♪

- I ain't gonna say
he murdered all of 'em,

but he was in it.

♪ ♪

He acted like he was gonna
put 'em in movies

and make pictures of 'em.

And you know what he was.

And I ain't gonna say it,
but you already know.

He was a homosexual.

♪ ♪

- Wayne Williams
was a total fraud.

He had no contracts
with recording studios.

He didn't sell anything.
He never made any money.

He was using it as a cover.

He might have been trying
to make money, but he failed.

His failure was directed

at young black men
that he resented.

I believe he was
a homosexual

who hated young
African American men.

Witnesses testified to that.

♪ ♪

- He's a narcissist.

He's a predator
motivated by whatever demons

are inside his head
to make him want to do this.

He felt some kind of anger
towards these kids

because of some kind of rage
he had inside against hisself.

[tense music]

- Bobby Lee Toland was
one of the crucial witnesses,

if not the most crucial
witness

for explaining why.

♪ ♪

- He was an ambulance driver

who testified that Wayne
was a racist.

He had heard Wayne
talking about

how poor kids
should all be killed.

- Bobby Toland said Williams
asked him once,

had he ever considered

how many blacks
could be eliminated

"by killing one nigger child"?

♪ ♪

- Toland then testified
Williams even had numbers

on a piece of paper
answering his own question.

♪ ♪

And then the final witness,
who said she was a friend

of Wayne Williams,
took the stand.

♪ ♪

- Sharon Blakely
was our last witness.

We knew she would
be an incredible witness.

She knew a lot about Wayne.

She worked with Wayne.

She liked Wayne.

She was trying
to protect Wayne.

She could say things
that had happened

that were very damning
of Wayne Williams.

- In a final dramatic episode,

Ms. Blakely
told the jury this:

"I said to him, 'The game's
gotta end someday.

"'If they get enough
evidence on you, Wayne,

will you confess
before you get hurt?'"

Williams allegedly replied,
"Yes."

[tense music]

- You could tell she was
very troubled in testifying.

She did not want to be there.

She did not want to say
what she knew,

that Wayne was complaining
about these street kids.

♪ ♪

And she said, "Wayne,
you need to be careful.

You know, some of those kids
might hurt you."

And he said, "No,
they're not gonna hurt me.

"I know a way to squeeze
their neck,

and they won't hurt me then."

You know, and it was like,
"Oh, my golly."

So we wanted to get that in.

And she kept
looking over at Wayne

like she was apologetic
about it, almost.

Wayne was so confident that
she was going to cover for him

that he had Al Binder
ask a question

that Al did not want to ask,
and that was,

"Do you think Wayne Williams
killed anybody?"

And Sharon Blakely
took the longest time.

It was an extremely
dramatic moment.

♪ ♪

She stared at Wayne.

She began crying,
tears coming down her face.

Now the jurors are all
just leaning forward,

and we are leaning forward.

"What's she gonna say?"

She said, "Yeah, he did.
I'm sorry."

And it was just like...

you could hear the air being
let out in that courtroom.

You know, it was just an
incredible--incredible event.

Um, and that was
our last witness in the case,

and we rested after that.

- After 5 weeks
and more than 100 witnesses,

the prosecution today
rested its case

in the Wayne Williams
murder trial.

Bob Sirkin reports.

- As of now,
the defense plans to call

some 70 witnesses,
and ABC News has learned

one of them will be
Wayne Williams.

- He wanted to tell his story.

He would be in the spotlight.

This would be his moment
for stardom.

We decided it would be best
for him to be heard saying,

"I didn't kill any children."

- The FBI said
that in the short run,

he will look wonderful,

and that's what happened.

- At one time
during questioning,

when Binder told him
to speak up

so the jury could hear him,

the 23-year-old said,
"I'm scared."

"Have you ever known Cater
or Payne?" Binder said.

"I don't know them.

I've never seen them before
in my life,"

explained Williams.

- He sounded, you know,
like this all-American kid,

but the strategy was
when he gets stressed,

he's gonna do
something different.

Just keep him on the stand
as long as possible.

[dramatic music]

- Most observers said
that it was probably a draw

with no clear-cut winners.

However, the prosecution will
have another chance tomorrow

to score some points
with the jury,

because Wayne Williams will be

back on the stand
in the morning.

- And the first day
on the witness stand,

I was nervous, of course,

but Mary would come back
to the jail--

Mary Welcome--
and talk to me and say,

"Well, Wayne, uh,
you're being too cool.

You're being too calm
on the witness stand."

I say, "Well, Mary,
I've never done this before.

"This is how you said be.

"'Just get up and just
be yourself,' which I did."

- I said, "Wayne,
you're being charged

"with killing two persons,

"and the implication is that

"you've killed
all these children,

and you're showing
no emotion whatsoever."

Something should come out
showing that this is not right.

He had a right to be outraged,

because not only had they said
he killed these two adults,

but the implication was that
he killed all these children.

- We went through
all the questions

that we knew
he could not answer

and just had a list of 'em.

What we did was just repeat
the questions

that we had asked him
the day before,

and it was the bridge
that did it.

That messed him up

because his whole explanation
of the bridge

varies with every telling
of the story.

That's when he blew up.

- Assistant DA Jack Mallard
came at him

with a verbal ice pick.

"Didn't you start dumping
your victims in rivers

because of the publicity
about fiber evidence?"

Williams:
"I haven't killed nobody."

The suspect continued
his tirade,

calling several FBI agents
"goons."

- Then he blurted out,

"Mr. Mallard,
I am no more guilty

of killing these children
than you are."

- The prosecuting attorney
continued,

"Isn't it true that

"when you were choking them
to death,

"with their last breath,

they were scratching
your arms and face?"

"No," said Williams.

- At that point he said,

"I'm not answering
any more of these questions."

And he jumped up
from the witness stand.

"You want the real
Wayne Williams, you got him."

And the jury, you know,
is looking at that.

- Boom!

According to the prosecution,

this person became
a violent killer.

- "And now you see
the real me."

And that's like, you know,
"Whoa.

Jekyll, Hyde.
Jekyll, Hyde."

- Of course he blowed up.

Who wouldn't?

[suspenseful music]

That didn't prove that
he killed the childrens.

That we supposed to be
satisfied with what

they just made him do?

You know, so that wasn't
a big thing to us.

It really wasn't.

It didn't find the piece
to the puzzle.

♪ ♪

- They used that outburst
in their closing argument.

"See, he's a violent man.

He's prone
to these violent outrages."

The question has been asked
of me several times.

"Did you tell him to do that
or was that done?"

I said, "Blame me,
because I suggested to him

that he show--
show some emotion."

And that's what he did.

♪ ♪

- District Attorney
Lewis Slayton

had the last word,
calling Wayne Williams

"cunning" and "evil,"
saying he's like

"Attila the Hun,"
"Adolf Hitler,"

and "Idi Amin,"

believers in a master race
all doing away with inferiors.

♪ ♪

- It's now up
to the jury to decide

who the real
Wayne Williams is,

the psychotic killer
the prosecution claims

or the innocent young man
the defense charges

was brought to trial
as a scapegoat.

Williams now has only to wait
and wonder

whether the jury will decide
he's innocent or guilty.

[indistinct chatter]

- What do you think the jury
is likely to do?

If you were to call it,
what would you say?

- I'd say it'd be guilty.

- I think they gonna find him
not guilty.

- Think they're gonna find him
not guilty?

Why?

- Because they don't have
the concrete evidence,

you know, on Wayne Williams.

- They just didn't prove it
beyond a reasonable doubt?

- Yes.

[solemn music]

♪ ♪

- I saw this pretty
little girl down here

that I need to talk to.

What you doing--what you
doing standing out here

in the snow?

[indistinct chatter]

He--they might take him out
the back door.

Sometimes they, um,
you know--they switch up.

Why do you want to see Wayne
anyway?

♪ ♪

- Wayne Williams,
guarded by three deputies,

settled into a borrowed office

on one of the top floors
of the courthouse.

He told one visitor
he felt nervous inside.

- Whether or not District
Attorney Lewis Slayton

was pressured into making
the arrest last June,

the gamble paid off.

The jury came back
with a verdict

much sooner
than anyone expected.

- The jury came out
after 11 hours.

After weeks of evidence,

there's no way
they could've considered

all the evidence presented.

- The first vote
was not--choo-slam-bam.

Mm-mm.

It was more people wanting

to see some more evidence

before they made up
their minds.

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

- Jurors were led
under tight security

from the hotel where
they'd been sequestered

for eight weeks.

One man nodded when asked
if he felt

they made the right decision.

- Judge tell you not to talk?

Your own decision?

- Who was--whose was it?

- I can only go by what was
presented to me, to the jury.

We can only go by
what they gave us.

And to be quite honest
with you,

I do think I was the last one
to vote against him.

[laughs]

- It's over.

You know, Williams
is the Atlanta Child Killer.

- Guilty as charged.

Guilty of two of that city's
series of killings.

- The sentence,
imposed immediately,

"Two consecutive life terms."

- Here.
Come here.

Mr. Williams, here.

- Mr. Williams, any thoughts?

- Homer Williams' exit
from the courthouse tonight

reflected his fury at what
had been done to his son

and to him and his wife.

- Move back.
Move back.

[engine revs]

- He's innocent.

Not only do I feel
he's innocent,

but if the prosecuting team

had to make one last statement
before they die

and that statement would
cause them to go

to heaven or hell,
they would say he's innocent.

There's no such thing
as justice

as far as this case
is concerned.

[indistinct chatter]

- When we went
into that courtroom,

we were facing
a prosecution team

directed, supported,
and financed

by the Federal Bureau
of Investigation.

They spent about $2 million.

My parents were retired
schoolteachers.

I think we gave Mary Welcome
$5,000.

After that, we were shot.

How in the world
can you tell me

that you've got justice

when a prosecution
has this much to work with,

and we have this?

There's no way.

- The FBI was heavily involved
in this.

Vice President Bush
came to Atlanta

and brought some money.

The Reagan administration
was invested

in the outcome of the trial.

[somber music]

- The FBI was pulling
the strings.

They orchestrated
the entire prosecution.

In the story
of David and Goliath,

David had more of an advantage
than we did.

He at least had a slingshot.

With the inadequate resources,

the inadequate time, um,

there was just no way
for Wayne Williams,

or anyone for that matter,

to defend--defend against

12, um, crimes...

The trial had
an unbelievable effect on me

that has lasted to this day.

Wayne was not an easy person
to love...

but I cared a great deal
for him.

And aside from that,
I cared a great deal

about the system,

and I was more disappointed
with the system

that I think failed him

and that I was a pawn
in that system

and felt that way
for many years.

Just, "What could I have
done differently?"

♪ ♪

- When you have all this
evidence presented before you,

and it is all leaning

toward guilt...

then what are you supposed
to do?

If at any point
they could prove that

he was innocent
or had no part in it,

then the only thing I could do
at that point would be

to ask God for forgiveness
for being a part of

sending someone somewhere
if he wasn't, um--

if he wasn't guilty.

That's all I can do
for my peace of mind.

- He dropped a body
off a bridge.

We had a police recruit there
that heard it.

He got arrested.
He got convicted.

He's gonna die in prison.

That's a success story.

[indistinct chatter]

- Reporters and photographers
and officials

who hadn't been here
since Williams was arrested

came together one last time.

- With the conviction
of Wayne Williams,

we have reviewed all
of the evidence

that's present today,
and as a result,

we've cleared 23 cases.

Effective one week from today,

we will officially close down
the task force operations.

The decision that was
made today

is based on the evidence.

The evidence allowed us to do
what we've done.

- Almost overnight
the 23 cases are boxed up,

closed out with these kids,
and it's like Wayne did them.

And to me,
that is shockingly negligent.

I think the pressures were
so extreme

that once Atlanta was
provided an out,

they took it.

- Will Williams be charged
with any of

the additional murders
with which he has been linked?

District Attorney
Lewis Slayton.

- We don't have any
present plans of bringing any

further indictments
in Fulton County.

- Commissioner Brown denied
that any murders

attributed to Williams
are being swept under the rug.

He said the attribution
is based on evidence.

- After they locked up
Wayne Williams,

city officials
didn't want to have nothing

to say to us anymore.

The case is closed,
and that's it.

And there it is.

They didn't want
to hear anything

the parents had to say.

- The mother of victim
Yusuf Bell

was very disappointed
with the outcome.

- Some people might say
this is just sour grapes

because they never have solved
your son's death.

- Um, if I believe that
Wayne Williams killed

the other 12 that they claim--

the same fibers that were found
on those bodies

were also found on
Yusuf's body--then I must

believe that Wayne Williams
killed my son.

But since I don't believe that
Wayne Williams killed anybody,

I can't believe that
Wayne Williams

therefore killed my son.

What it all boils down to is
now we have Wayne Williams, 23,

the 30th victim
of the Atlanta slaying.

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

- The disappointment
when Wayne Williams was tried

for the murder of
these two men was deep

in the black community.

Very deep,
because there's still no answer

to who killed--who kidnapped
and killed these children.

And...the public officials

were saying, "It's done.

We have him.
It's over."

- The disbanding of
the special task force is

the clearest indication that

as far as law enforcement
is concerned,

the Atlanta tragedy is over.

Former Atlanta Mayor
Maynard Jackson said

his city was stronger now.

- We trust now that matter
is behind us.

♪ ♪

- They wanted the world
to feel like it was over with.

You want to feel safe like,

"Okay, they got the man
who did all these killings,

and now the world is all right
now."

You know,
you want to feel like that,

but, you know,
that's just impossible.

♪ ♪

[traffic rumbling]

- After he got sentenced,

Wayne called me,

and I went to the jail.

And we talked about the trial,

and--and I knew it was gonna
involve a lot,

you know, of my time,
my effort,

but I think this has been
a part of my calling.

Looking back on it,

I wonder how
I'm still standing.

[melancholy music]

♪ ♪

This is my war room.

♪ ♪

I had to designate a room
for Wayne Williams' appeal.

This here is all stuff
about Wayne.

We got the trial transcripts.

♪ ♪

That's some of it there too.

And all that over there
and then all of this over here.

♪ ♪

It took us a year to get
the appeal ready.

♪ ♪

In '83, we took it
to the Georgia Supreme Court.

It was the longest brief
ever filed

in appeals court.

[dramatic music]

We took up 33 points of error
in the trial.

The big part of that
was the witnesses.

- The prosecution tried
to go out and find

any of these witnesses
they could to say,

"Well, we need you to say this
about Wayne Williams,"

or "You need to say that."

♪ ♪

- During the trial,
the prosecutors came up

with some
pretty damning witnesses.

But later on,
information came out,

and you realize
almost every key witness

against Wayne Williams
either committed perjury

or gave misleading testimony.

- Davis and Ruth Warren
had both earlier

given police descriptions
notably differing

from their trial testimony.

- Ruth Warren testified
on the Lubie Geter case,

but the person
that she identified to police

had a scar "like lightning"--
that's how she described it--

down his face.

- Wayne did not have this

lightning-type scar
on his face.

- In a brief conversation
on her front porch,

she made
the puzzling statement,

"I'd never seen Wayne Williams
before in my life

until I saw him
in that courtroom."

- Another witness,
Robert Henry,

who testified that
he saw Wayne holding

Nathaniel Cater's hand,
later recanted.

- Henry now declares
that he insisted

to interrogating officers,
quote,

"If my life depended on it,

"I could not say the man
I saw with Cater

was Wayne Williams."

But says Henry, quote,
"I was told I had to testify

I was positive in naming
the person as Williams."

- Bobby Toland,
an ambulance driver,

told the jury that Williams
didn't like poor people.

Toland gave the jury a motive.

- It was discovered
that Bobby Toland,

who testified to the motive...

- Williams despised, quote,
"lower class blacks."

- Had said earlier that
he hated that Williams kid,

that Bobby Toland
wanted the reward money.

- This guy testified,
it turns out,

under a fake name.

His real name was Williams.

- This was an utterly
unreliable witness.

Bias, motive to lie,
prior conduct

that put his own interests
above those of society,

hatred of the defendant.

I mean, everything!

He was sort of a classic
ball of impeachment

all wrapped into one,

but none of that information
was provided to the defense.

- And the kicker is that
Bobby Toland

was a member of the Klan.

- He said that
he was a member of Klan,

but Bobby said a lot of things.

I do know for a fact

that Wayne Williams did not
make that statement.

[suspenseful music]

♪ ♪

I know for a fact

that Bobby Toland
did make that statement.

- So this critical testimony
that was given at the trial

was in fact a lie?

- Yes.

No doubt about it.

- They lied to make
this story make sense.

You know, they say the thing
about a lie is that

once you tell one lie,

you have to tell another one
to cover that one

and another one
to cover that one.

For example, the dog hairs.

If you look at the FBI files
before Wayne Williams' arrest,

they all say these dog hairs
we're finding on these victims

are white with a tip.

They said the hairs
are from an Alaskan Malamute

or a Siberian Husky,

to the exclusion
of all other dogs.

[foreboding music]

Now, Wayne
had a German Shepherd

that was brown,
very little white hair.

Once Wayne becomes a suspect,

all of a sudden they're saying,
"Well, we're finding

German Shepherd hairs
on these victims."

♪ ♪

And they start putting
in their files

that these hairs
are now white or brown.

That really stuck out.

- The trial of Wayne Williams

marked one of the first times
that tiny fibers

were the key evidence
in a major murder case.

- Lawyers for convicted
murderer Wayne Williams

charged the prosecution used
unreliable fiber evidence

and unfairly characterized
Williams as a mass murderer.

- The state focused on
this green,

trilobal carpet fiber

made by the Wellman company

and tried to say that
that fiber was very unique.

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

- They blow up these enormous
pictures of the carpet fibers,

blown up, like,
a hundred times or whatever.

♪ ♪

You know, the jury's looking
at all this.

"Wow, they must really know
their stuff."

The prosecution claimed that

the fiber in Wayne's carpet
was rare.

But in fact,
they were only able to get

partial sales records
for the fiber

that went into that carpet
and the carpet itself.

In other words, they had
no way to account at all.

So what the FBI did was
just basically, you know,

"Well, we can assume this much
carpet was made."

But you can't assume that
if you don't have the records.

It was all fake math,

mathematical possibilities

that could not possibly
be justified.

And they presented it
to the jury as hard fact.

- One problem was the word
"consistent with."

For example,
if a murder was committed,

and the killer was described

as an older white male
with gray hair,

that description is consistent
with me.

But what you need to know is,
how many

old, white, gray-haired guys
are there?

And if there's just one, me,
that's pretty powerful.

On the other hand,
if there are,

for example, millions...

all that means
is I can't be excluded.

I could be one of the millions
of people

who could have
committed this crime.

And so it was with almost
all of the fiber evidence.

Without some sort of database

that showed their distribution

and their likelihood
of proximity to each other

and their overall commonality,

it was just junk science.

[tense music]

- Basically,
the experts overstated...

overstated their opinions.

♪ ♪

- Some people are just gonna
have doubts

no matter--no matter what
the evidence indicates.

We look at a lot of fibers.

For the rest of my career,

I never saw a Wellman
181B fiber of any color.

And no other forensic
scientist I'm aware of

in any other case ever saw
a Wellman 181B fiber.

♪ ♪

- The Supreme Court
only gets six months

to decide these cases.

And it was getting long,
you know.

The six months
was coming up on us fast,

and they hadn't ruled

and ended up ruling
on the last day.

- The court affirmed
Wayne Williams' conviction.

♪ ♪

And Georgia's Supreme Court
Justice George Smith

wrote an extremely powerful
and detailed dissent.

- I did not think he received
a fair and impartial trial.

I felt like legally
there was more wrong with it

than there was right.

But when you're one
out of seven

and the other six
go the other way...

30 pages doesn't have much
to do with it.

- About two weeks after
the appeal was denied,

I heard from George T. Smith.

A Supreme Court justice
is calling me?

That doesn't happen.

He said, at first,
the Georgia Supreme Court

decided to reverse,
to overturn this case

for a new trial,

but then there was
a phone call,

and the other justices
turned.

And they upheld the conviction
because of that phone call.

[dramatic music]

If I had to hypothetically say
who made that call,

it was either the governor

or the president...

or Bush,
who was vice president.

♪ ♪

I'm convinced
there was somebody interfering

in the decision-making process

by the Georgia Supreme Court.

♪ ♪

And Smith felt compelled
to say something, you know.

- I would have given him
a new trial then.

I'd give him a new trial now.

I did what I thought was right.

I did what I thought
should have been done,

and that was it.

But I was not applauded
for my stand.

I'll tell you that.

[melancholy music]

♪ ♪

- After all that...

[sighs]

Well...

I didn't feel good
about the legal system,

but I just kept
chugging along.

The turning point
of the case was when

we learned there was
overwhelming evidence

not being shared
with the defense team.

♪ ♪

- Which way?
- Over there, sir.

[indistinct speech over PA]

- Pleasure.
You sit over here.

[indistinct chatter]

- I'm convinced
if the jurors had known

what we discovered,

they never could have
found him guilty.

When 28 young adults
have been murdered,

and those cases
have been closed,

it's incredible.

We are not gonna get
to the root of murder

and why people are murdering

if we're gonna close
murder files.

It's unheard of.

The public needs to know
certain information.

- Could you elaborate
on the eyewitness?

You said in your statement
you had an eyewitness

to one of the murders.

- S--um, sure, we can.

Okay, Clifford Jones
was found in a washerette.

They're talking about--
and a witness states that

he observed "X" person
kill a little boy

with a rope around his neck.

In the Clifford Jones case,
this is information

that will be made available
to you.

- That file was released
to Channel 2 News

under a court order today.

Bob Sirkin reports
on the contents

of the Clifford Jones file.

- The three-inch,
400-page investigative file

contains evidence
and statements by witnesses

given to police and the FBI

about the murder
of Clifford Jones,

reportedly inside this
northwest Atlanta laundromat

on August 20, 1980.

Eyewitnesses told police
of seeing a suspect carrying...

Around 1986, I was reporting

about the Clifford Jones case

in which there was new
exculpatory evidence

in Wayne Williams' favor.

The lead detective,
Sidney Dorsey,

came to me and said that
Clifford Jones was murdered

by another suspect
other than Wayne Williams.

♪ ♪

- I heard that
the Clifford Jones case

had been closed
along with the other cases,

and that's when I said,
"Wait a minute.

"I don't think that's right,

"because here's a guy
that I have every reason

to believe was responsible
for this kid's death."

- James Edward Brooks,

a 36-year-old
homosexual convicted felon,

was identified by witnesses

as killing or disposing of
Clifford Jones.

Jamie Brooks
was a known sex offender.

He actually admitted to having
sex with young boys,

and he had
a criminal background.

One eyewitness told police
of seeing a man

sexually attack Clifford Jones
inside this laundromat.

Fred Cosby,
then a 19-year-old

high school student,

claimed to have witnessed
the murder of Clifford Jones.

- We had eyewitness testimony
from an individual

who gave graphic details

of what took place
in the laundromat.

[sinister music]

- Jamie Brooks
and Calvin Smith

sexually assaulted him.

♪ ♪

Cosby's statement, quote,

"When the little boy
started crying real loud,

"Jamie put a rope
around the little boy's neck

and pulled on the rope."

♪ ♪

- He had bruises
all up and down his neck.

You can see where it
choked him so bad.

It just like the rope was just
rubbing up and down his neck.

- The witness sounded
extremely credible

'cause he was giving details of
a murder that he had witnessed.

And of course, it seemed
all we needed

is a search warrant

and find the evidence.

[ominous music]

And there was nothing there.

It ended up Jamie looked
like a good suspect,

but there was no evidence
Jamie had done it,

and the person
that was an eyewitness

was less than credible.

- Because Fred Cosby
was deemed a slow thinker

by police, bosses,
and prosecutors,

Cosby's statement against
Brooks was discounted.

- This boy was able to describe

every piece of clothes,

socks,
the stripes in his shirt.

That's a good witness.

- Even though the police
deemed him as being "slow,"

I thought that
he was very credible,

and he was not
the only witness.

- People who lived
behind the laundromat

saw someone lying an object
down out near a dumpster.

And then the body of Clifford
Jones was found there.

- The person carrying
that plastic bag

containing
Clifford Jones' body,

look like Wayne Williams?

- No, he didn't look like
Wayne Williams to me

'cause he looked
just like Jamie.

- I would have arrested
Jamie Brooks,

but the city fathers
at that time

of the task force hierarchy

apparently ruled him out
as a suspect

when Wayne Williams
was arrested.

That really bothered me.

- What would you like
to see done with this case?

What should be done with it?

- I'd like to see it reopened.

I think the investigation

should pick up
where it left off.

- After Sidney Dorsey
did an interview with me,

he was demoted
to the rank of lieutenant

for his public remarks
about the case.

Reopening the Jones case
could disprove

the 23 other murder cases
blamed on Wayne Williams,

all linked
by the same fiber evidence.

- The green trilobal fiber
was on the two charged cases,

plus ten pattern cases.

It showed up again
in the case of Clifford Jones,

which was not
one of those pattern cases.

- The state did not include
Clifford Jones

in its pattern cases
because the eyewitness accounts

named a killer
other than Wayne Williams.

In addition,
the prosecution alleged

that this green trilobal fiber
could only have come

from the carpeting
in Wayne Williams' home.

But in
the Clifford Jones case,

who is to say that
that fiber

didn't land
on Clifford Jones' body

in the laundromat
in which he was killed?

It calls into question
the uniqueness

of the green trilobal fiber,

so the Clifford Jones case
demolishes the state's case.

[dramatic music]

- They made
over 100 different matches

to environments
that Wayne was in.

I think the hair and fiber
evidence is good.

It links him
to the crime scene.

So, I mean, Bob Sirkin
can have his opinion.

I happen to be
the one that was there,

and I have my opinion.

♪ ♪

- Throughout two searches
of the house,

20 hours of searching my car,

not one fiber from any victim,

their clothing,
or their environment,

was ever found in my house.

Not only did they not
find fibers in my house,

no fingerprints were found,

nothing indicating
a struggle or anything.

No--you know,
it's just preposterous.

If you've got
eyewitnesses that say,

"I saw so and so
kill somebody,"

they need to be in jail.

So why am I here?

- They know Wayne Williams
did not kill him.

They know that.

Jamie Brooks
and Calvin Smith.

That's who I think did it.

- We found out about
Jamie Brooks

after Jamie Brooks
was--died in jail.

They didn't tell us
about Jamie Brooks

at the time
Clifford was murdered.

We didn't find out about
Jamie Brooks until years later.

- Authorities blamed
Clifford Jones' murder

not on Jamie Brooks,
but on Wayne Williams.

- Parents of 13 missing
and murdered victims

have confronted Public Safety
Commissioner George Napper.

The parents are threatening
to sue Napper

and other city officials.

They charge police
with covering up the facts

behind 24 murders
blamed on Wayne Williams.

Here's Bob Sirkin.

- The parents of 13

missing and murdered
victims converging...

After we rolled out
five or six of these stories,

the families marched
on George Napper,

the police
commissioner's office,

demanding that
he reopen this case.

- We want to see
Commissioner Napper.

- Told that Napper
was away from his office,

the angry parents
staged a sit-in of sorts,

police officials ordering them

to stop chanting
civil rights songs.

- You did not accommodate us.
Why should we accommodate you?

- Napper and Police Chief
Morris Redding

arrived agreeing to meet
with the parents.

They were so desperate
for answers

and a more thorough
investigation.

They were really enraged.

- This may be strong language,

but I think the city became
an accessory to the murderer.

- If they had enough proof
to say he killed my child,

I feel they should
have enough proof

to bring him back to court

and try him
for killing our children.

- I'm really mad about it,

because I don't think the city
of Atlanta did us right.

- The angry parents
have now departed vowing--

It was very frustrating
that the police

never arrested Jamie Brooks

in connection
with Clifford Jones' murder.

- The question is,
would we charge somebody

without evidence?

And the answer is no.

And there wasn't
enough evidence to charge him

with the case
of Clifford Jones,

'cause there really
wasn't much evidence.

- The public needs,
and has a right, to know.

It was disgusting,
quite honestly.

To me, as a journalist,
that the city

would turn their backs
on a story like this.

- Bob Sirkin
live in our newsroom.

And when Action News returns...

- The issue for the world

is how are we gonna stop this

from happening in our cities
and countries again?

- The city administration
just wanted the community

to stop making
a big deal about this.

And of course, the community
was not going to,

because it was our kids.

- I'm convinced
Wayne Williams is innocent.

I'm convinced
that this was a political--

more of a political thing

than it was a trial
about guilt or innocence.

- So you don't think
he killed your son, either?

- I don't think
he killed anybody.

- It was also very clear
that the city

saw the mothers
as troublemakers.

They were being loud.

They were not shutting up

and sitting down
and going away.

- The Committee to Stop
Children's Murders sign

is still up on MLK Drive,

but its doors are locked,

and the phones
are disconnected.

- A lot of these women
were accused of,

you know, just being
in front of the camera

so that they could get
speaking engagement money,

or they could get donations.

Some people called them
hustlers or whatever.

Some ministers
said stuff like that.

Some politicians
said stuff like that.

It was outrageous.

- An investigation is underway
by the state government

to see why their Committee
to Stop Children's Murders

has not registered
as a fundraising organization.

- They did everything they
could to discredit Camille

and to drive her
out of the city.

♪ ♪

- You know,
Atlanta is funny because

I really, really love Atlanta
in a lot of different ways,

but I guess Atlanta's

like a bad spouse.

You know, like you don't stop
loving them,

but you can't keep
staying there with them.

♪ ♪

- I think going back
many generations,

there's a tendency,

in the African American
community especially,

for us to tuck our hurt
and our pain away.

We--I think it's something
that we've learned

as a survival mechanism
during slavery, even,

that we don't often talk about

those painful parts
of our history.

And I think
that's exactly what's happened

with the missing
and murdered children.

Remembering this part
of our story,

I think it's our
responsibility to do that.

A number of the investigations
were at various phases,

and as soon as
Wayne Williams was arrested,

they just cut them off.

No matter--
if they were pointing

towards family members.

One child they thought
may have actually been

an accidental fall
from a bridge.

I think what's clear already

is that some
of these children

perhaps should not have been
attributed to Wayne Williams,

and there also
may be other children

who should have been
included on this list

who weren't included.

They feel pretty certain,
and, Joshua, you can correct me

if I'm wrong on this,
that perhaps the two girls

were not victims
of Wayne Williams.

- Right.
That's what she communicated

during our last conversation.

- The investigators think
that there was at least

one other killer out there.

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

[bright tone]

MAN: The homicides stopped after
the arrest of Wayne Williams.

I'm 100 percent certain

that Wayne Williams
is the killer.

There is no justice
in the United States of America.

MAN 2: The Georgia Bureau
investigation had opened up

an entire investigation
focusing on Ku Klux Klan

involvement in the killings.

Charles T. Sanders admitted
killing Geter.

They've been trying to cover
this stuff for 40 years.

And they slipped up.

MAN 3: They chose Wayne,

but had they pinned this
on somebody white...

there would have been riots
all over America.

♪ (DRAMATIC OUTRO PLAYS) ♪