All language subtitles for Atlantas.Missing.and.Murdered.The.Lost.Children.S01E02.WEBRip.x264-ION10

WOMAN: These young people
were murdered.

Their cases were never solved.

Somebody know something
other than Wayne Williams.

♪ (DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYS) ♪

This is a case of politics,
racism and murder.

WOMAN 2:
A lot has changed in our world

since there was a conviction
of Wayne Williams

for two of these murders.

This is a really ugly, dark
chapter, but we need to own it.

Do the police work.

If Wayne didn't kill
the children, then who did?

[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 ♪

- If there are those who think
that by killing black children

that they're gonna crush
the spirit

of the black community,
they're mistaken.

If they think that by
coming in to kill our children

they're gonna divide us

and make us turn
on each other,

they're mistaken.

We're not gonna turn
on each other.

We're gonna turn
to each other,

and out of the death
of these children

will come a new determination
to shake off the shackles

of poverty
and injustice everywhere.

[dramatic music]

♪ ♪

- Okay, we got it covered up,
I think.

[indistinct chatter]

- I don't know.
- Hey, Michael.

Are you here yet?

- Put those on for now.

- Hey, darling.
How you doing?

Good.
- Okay.

- All right, welcome back
to News & Talk 1380 WAOK,

the voice of the community.

We are broadcasting live

from West Hunter Street
Baptist Church,

and the United Youth
Adult Conference

has opened up
this conversation.

Did Wayne Williams
kill anyone?

And maybe you were not
in Atlanta at the time.

Some of us born
and raised here.

I was born here,
so 40 years ago, I was 13,

and in my own neighborhood,
one of my classmates--

playmates that
was in my school,

Perkerson Elementary School,
Charles Stephens was snatched

and he was subsequently
killed,

and he became a part
of the list.

- Police say Charles Stephens
was asphyxiated then dumped.

- So it was indeed a era
of terror.

- Somebody somewhere
out there knows

who's doing this
insane series of acts

and attacks on our children.

♪ ♪

- Insanity is how Atlanta's
mayor has described it.

In a little more than a year,

eight Atlanta children
have been found strangled,

bludgeoned,
or shot to death.

Six others are missing.

- When the task force
was formed

to look into these cases,

that was a year into
the killings,

and of course
the first question was,

what cases
are they looking into?

And that's when the list
was created,

which became
extremely controversial.

- The list was intended
to give the parents

of the victims the impression
that by putting the name

of their child on the list,

that warranted
a deeper commitment

to solving the cases,

but at the same time,

there were these other
disappearances and murders

of children which didn't
make the list.

- You have to remember
even with the list

that became known as the
Missing and Murdered Children,

it took a while before people
realized there was a pattern,

and so we're looking to see if
the list is an accurate list.

We won't be surprised
if the list grows.

The Atlanta Police Department
has already gone back

to look back and forward
several years

at all of the murders
of children in our city

and the number is staggering.

There were 158 murders
of children

and 33 are still unsolved.

So we don't know if there was
something else going on

that we still
haven't pieced together.

- It was 40 years ago
where we--

unfortunately our young
brothers were snatched up,

picked up.

We don't know when,
don't know how.

After 40 years we're still
searching for answers.

If you would, I want you
to touch the hand

of someone close and near.

I know someone's saying,
"I didn't come for all that,"

but this is the house
of prayer.

all: Amen.

- All right, now I'm asking you
to touch someone's hand

because this may be the last
hand that you may touch.

That's how fragile life is.

Just like those young men
40 years ago.

Left home,
never made it back.

Never had a chance to tell
loved ones they love them

'cause they thought that they
had all the time in the world.

- To have to tell
your children to be careful

because people are murdering
people your age

is a horrific thing
to have to do.

There was
a concerted effort

for people to be
on street corners

or pathways to school

and community programs.

People were kind of
teaching children

how to keep safe,
travel in groups,

and, you know,
go straight home, don't...

- It was frightening because
I'd just had a son,

Tyrone, Jr.,

and I was worried
about my little boy.

♪ ♪

It was--you couldn't sleep.

I mean, you go to work,
and you take your children

to daycare,
you drop them off,

and you wonder,
"When I go back,

"is my child gonna be there?

Can I afford to let
my child play in the yard?"

I mean, it was--
it was painful.

- I wouldn't let my daughter
sleep in a bedroom

that had an unlocked window
until she was probably 10.

I wouldn't let her on
the other side of the aisle

in the grocery store.

I would not let her
out of sight any time.

- You should always know where
your children are going,

what time they should arrive,

and what time they'll
come back home.

Other things
to remind them of:

travel in pairs,

know your address
and phone number,

never accept rides
with anyone,

don't accept money or gifts

without
the parents' permission,

don't open the doors
to strangers,

and always know how
to dial...

♪ ♪

- For me, being
a seven-year-old at the time,

I wouldn't necessarily say
I was street smart,

but there were certain things
I knew.

It had been instilled in us
never to go anywhere alone.

I knew that, you know,
if I didn't know you,

then there's no way
I'm going anywhere with you.

You know?
As a matter of fact,

I may just scream 'cause you're
a little bit too close to me.

- Nobody here will be getting
into anybody's car.

Is that correct?
- Yes.

- I don't hear you, children.

all: Yes.
- Okay.

- When I think about it now,
it's still crazy.

Your dinner conversation was,

when you go to school
tomorrow,

you make sure you all walk
to school together,

you come home together,

you go in the house,
you lock the door.

I mean, it was like a monster
was out there creeping.

- We want to ask all
of those individuals

who are in the room tonight
who actually participated

and were a part
of the search efforts

if you would stand just
for a moment.

Be recognized.

I just want you to look around
at some of these heroes

and sheroes...

[applause]

Who showed up every
Saturday morning,

rain, sleet, or snow
for over a year.

Thank you very much.

Many of them are gone on
to glory now,

but we thank them
for their contributions.

- You know what police
are doing

and you've seen meetings
like this one,

but now these talk sessions
are turning into act sessions.

450 people--
police, marshals,

college students,
community volunteers--

are expected to take part
in a search Saturday.

- What we are fighting
here in this city

involving these
very serious cases,

vicious attacks
on our children,

I think is more powerful than
we seem to understand.

- Saturday morning,
Arthur Langford,

who was the city councilman
at the time,

said he was gonna have some
volunteers come search.

We gonna find these kids--
these missing kids.

- 16, 17...

The first Saturday
for the search effort,

we didn't know what to expect,

but we had 600 people
who showed up

with their boots
and their sticks

ready to go out
and do something.

- The volunteers gathered
at Clark College

but did their search in the
Dixie Hills area of Atlanta.

- Definitely don't touch
any bodies

if you find anybody.

- It's one of those memories
you have that you really

wish you didn't have it.

- The volunteers chopped
and picked their way

through overgrown vacant lots
and buildings.

- The feeling was so intense

of wanting to help
and to find these babies.

- The only thing we found
thus far was an old dead dog

back over there.

That's about it.

Well, let's keep moving.

- But not wanting to be
the one who found them.

- Just an hour and a half
after the search began,

a discovery
in this wooded area.

- We found a--we found
a little girl's body

about 12--
[indistinct radio chatter]

- Okay.
- She's about 12.

What have they found?
- We found a skull.

- Wait a minute,
wait a minute, wait a minute.

- On that very first Saturday,
we found a body.

- The body was discovered
by a group of college students

and neighborhood residents,

volunteers who began searching
the neighborhoods

where the children
have disappeared.

- The body was of
seven-year-old LaTonya Wilson,

missing since June.

- She was kidnapped during
the early morning.

When her mother checked
around 1:00 a.m.,

LaTonya was in bed
with her sister

safe and sound.

Later that morning,
she was gone.

- The first little girl
that was found

was found directly
across the street

from our parents' home.

The first thing my father
said they found was a hair bow

with hair in it,

and that--that traumatized me
for a long time.

She was over in a gated area

where my father kept
his horses.

Everybody was trying
to figure out

how did she even
get over there?

- The gate was locked, always.
- And the gate was locked.

- Police had searched
this area

soon after the girl
was kidnapped.

That search did not
find anything.

- All the way back over
to the right,

there was a wooded area
right here.

- We were probably--
- Back over in there.

- Back over in there.
There were so many people.

The majority of them was upset,

crying, and--
for an hour or two.

- Was there any brushes on top
of her or anything?

- No.

I was upset and--because
the police had been out here

the day before.

- Now that was all--

- From what they told us
at the meeting

at West Hunter,
do not come out here

because they had been out here
that Friday

and searched this area
thoroughly.

- The police said they
had already been out here.

- I said, "If you all searched
this area thoroughly yesterday,

"and then we found a body
today,

there's something
that ain't right."

♪ ♪

- That was a real turning
point for the administration

'cause they're
all the sudden like,

"Oh, my God, these volunteers
have found this body

"blocks from her house

in the field they said
they'd searched."

What do we do?

So Maynard had a problem
in Lee Brown and the police.

Less than competence
came up repeatedly.

- We would like
to thank you all

for coming out
this morning.

- And it became from then on

a logistical nightmare
in planning.

- All of the bus drivers
are on their bus.

[all speaking at once]

- We never announced
in advance

what area we were going to
to search

because we didn't know
who was responsible.

We didn't know if
the person responsible

was a part of the search team.

So it was a great deal
of anxiety at that time.

- Investigators are after
any possible lead.

They've been looking
at television news tapes

of the funerals
and volunteer searches,

hoping to find a suspect.

- I recall seeing Wayne
and his father on the search.

They were a part
of the search efforts.

[tense music]

♪ ♪

- Wayne was the kind of guy
who was always around.

He was a silent film
photographer.

He would cover accidents,
fires,

murders, even,
particularly at night.

- Police officers knew him
to be the man who showed up

at their scene
from midnight to 8:00

and he was just part
of the landscape.

- I knew Wayne Williams
because he had been

a freelance photographer
for our TV station.

That's how he saw himself,
as a crime reporter.

- This film of a pre-dawn
house fire was shot

by Wayne Williams and aired
on Action News

in October of 1978.

- At one point he wanted
to be a radio broadcaster.

He set up a little
radio station

in the basement of his home.

It attracted the attention
of Benjamin Hooks,

the NAACP leader.

♪ ♪

- Who is this guy,
Wayne Williams?

He's smart,
he is, uh--

he's, like, a nerd.
He's geeky.

- And here's where
I really found out

just how smart Wayne was.

He didn't go out and hire
all these technicians

and engineers
and electricians

and everybody to--far as
wiring up the radio station.

He did the whole radio station
his self.

- Wayne calls me up.

I'm at the headquarters
of SCLC,

and he tells me who he is,
and he tells me

he has a radio station,
and I didn't believe him.

He says, "I do have a radio
station in my backyard."

I said, "Okay.
I'll maybe head over there."

I go to the back door.

Before I could ring the bell,

he's coming out of the garage
where the station is housed

and he has this beautiful dog--
beautiful dog, beautiful dog.

I guess it was
a German Shepherd.

I don't remember if it--
what it was,

but it was a beautiful dog.

And so we go into
the radio station

and sure enough,

he's got all of the equipment
lined up.

So I sat there with him in awe.
I was like, "Wow."

He had lined up Julian Bond
and Hosea Williams

and Ralph David Abernathy
and others to be on his show.

I was just amazed.

- We met Wayne
through our father.

Homer Williams
and my father

were more acquainted friends.
- As friends.

- We didn't hang out with him
every day or any of that,

but we knew him as coming to
our home to the basement

to work on CB radios.

Wayne was just interested
in that

and became more acquainted
with my father,

teaching him
about the CB radios.

CB radios was a technology then
just like we do FaceTime now.

You know, we can see each other
and talk,

you know,
back and forth,

but then you could talk back
and forth on the radio.

He was there with his father
to learn about the radios.

Wayne didn't want to play.

Wayne wanted to learn about
the radios and stuff

so you know what I'm saying?

He wasn't really into
children's games

or anything like that.

I just thought that he was just
pursuing his career.

- The murders
of Atlanta black children

have so aroused residents there
that one group

has formed its own
self-defense patrol.

- They displayed the weapons
they would carry.

These included baseball bats,
four pistols,

and a rifle.

- There were a lot of men
and women

in the black community
who were armed

and patrolling
the black community

outside of the police work.

- The task force
that they have

is not doing their job,

so we decided as a community

to do our protecting
our own children.

- They were on patrol,
protecting their communities,

and when it got to that point,

it probably was not
a good thing.

They were like vigilantes.

- Police in Atlanta
have another problem

to deal with now:

armed vigilantes
who have their own ideas

about how to protect
the city's black children.

- The media referred to them
as vigilantes,

but they weren't in fact.

It was black men stepping up
to protect their children,

and that is never the way
it is portrayed.

- With residents carrying

painted baseball bats
and guns,

the so-called
bat patrols continued

at Techwood Homes today.

- Residents, mostly men,
would stop anybody coming

in their community, whether
it was the delivery man

or the milkman or whoever,
wanting to know

what was their reason for being
in their community.

- They would stop you.
It's like a TSA checkpoint.

They would want to see
who was in the car,

and, boy, they were mean
and ornery

and they were swinging
and winging,

and those were aluminum bats,
I might add.

They were not wooden bats,

'cause I got hit
with one of 'em.

- The only thing
that we intend to do

is to get out on the streets

and look out after
our children.

- His name
is Chimurenga Jenga.

He is 31 years old
and has lived all his life

in Atlanta except for the time
he spent in Vietnam.

- I met my husband
Chimurenga Jenga

when he was involved
in the effort

to desegregate
Atlanta Junior College

and we had a little newsletter
and I was actually sent out

to go interview him
for the newsletter.

Chimurenga was very,
very smart.

I think the most brilliant
mind I've ever met.

He started thinking
about things from the big bang

and moved on from there.

But he grew up
in segregated schools,

which he actually said
were much better

than the desegregated versions
that came after them

and joined the Marine Corps
in 1968,

so he was in Vietnam.

He came back to Atlanta
in 1975

expecting that lots of things
would have changed

for the better,

and I think that
it was his disappointment

in seeing that his community
was really worse off

in many respects than it had
been when he left in 1968.

That really politicized him.

- The arming of Techwood
is turning into a battle

between the residents
and the police.

- What's he charged with?

- I'm not going, man.
I am not going!

- One of the two arrested

was spokesman
Chimurenga Jenga.

- Look at what you're doing,
man.

They are killing little
children in the street!

You're locking up--no, man.
It's wrong!

- The police were really afraid
that somebody

was gonna kill somebody.

Of course there was also
the implied criticism

that our own police could not
protect their children,

so there was that tension.

[dramatic rock music]

- There was a great mistrust
because of past experiences

with the police department.

♪ ♪

- In the '40s, '50s, and '60s,

there were a lot of Klansmen

in the Atlanta Police
Department.

[laughs]

So that gives you an idea

of what black people
had to deal with

in terms of the police

as a kind of an occupying army
in a sense--

an occupying force
in the black community.

- You know, years ago,

it hadn't been too long since
the first black officers.

They had to go
to the Butler Street YMCA

just to change clothes.

Black officers could not
arrest a white individual.

- Just the idea that you could
be a law enforcement officer

and you see a white person
committing a crime

and you can't arrest them,

you've got to call
your white superior.

From Reconstruction
all the way up,

Klan and law enforcement
was one and the same.

You would keep your Klan
regalia in the trunk of the car

just in case you had to go
to a Klan meeting.

♪ ♪

- Even though we had
our first black mayor

who had taken on
some great changes

within the police department,

we knew you wouldn't just
change that culture overnight,

but it was something
that you had to weed out.

- There were a lot
of animosity

toward the police
at that time.

The Black Panthers,
Hosea Williams,

almost every time
something happened,

there was hatred stirred up
against the police.

- There were never
police there!

- The police department
was not well liked

in the African American
community.

As a former mayor,

some of that
was probably accurate

and some of it
is probably exaggerated,

but the fact of the matter is
the African American community

saw the police as enforcers.

- Everybody was suspect
of the police.

Nobody thought
they were doing enough.

Many in the black community
didn't think they cared enough,

that they were not protecting
young black lives.

- We were finding that the city
was taking the attitude

of your kids are dead,
and we don't care.

I contend that the Atlanta
Police Department

couldn't catch a cold.

- There was a lot
of public pressure,

so much so that
the Reagan administration

even had to respond.

- Yes, ma'am.

- Mr. President, what will
you do to honor the request

by federal officials--well,
from Atlanta officials

for you
and the federal government

to intercede
in the Atlanta case

of 17 missing black children?

- For FBI, for example,
on any other thing,

there's been no evidence
of crossing state lines

or anything and--
yet we want to be helpful

because that is
a most tragic case.

- Since the administration
here was Democratic,

and they have a Republican
president saying,

"We need to do something
about this,"

was unusual.

But it still didn't solve
the case.

- The FBI,
which is required to have

interstate jurisdiction,

alleges it cannot find
a peg to hang its hat on

in Atlanta.

- Maynard Jackson went up
to the White House

in Washington,
and I'm paraphrasing,

but he said,

"The Lindbergh baby
was a single white child.

"I've got 14 murdered
and missing black kids.

I want every living FBI agent
on the planet in Atlanta."

And that's when the Bureau
was ordered into the case.

[dramatic music]

- Nine-year-old
Anthony Bernard Carter

was found dead
in this grassy stretch

behind a building
on Wells Street Southwest.

- We were assigned two agents
to each victim at that time,

so I was initially assigned
Anthony Carter.

Anthony was a unique case.

The first thing that grabbed
my attention was

is he and I had the same
birthday, and so I went, "Wow.

You know, he would have been 10
on August 31st."

He raised himself.

His mother, Vera,
well, was a prostitute.

♪ ♪

I remember
when we walked in after

when we started
our investigation,

there was a mattress
on the floor

and that was basically it
in the living room,

and according to neighbors,

Vera would get up,

and she would start
her business.

She would go out
into the streets

but before she did,

she most of the time
would get Anthony

a McDonald's meal
and set him on the mattress,

sometimes no electricity
if she didn't pay it.

So here we have
a nine-year-old

sitting on a mattress
in the dark,

eating a McDonald's,
and his mother leaves.

What do you expect
the kid to do?

He's gonna go outdoors.

If you looked at Tony Carter's
coroner's report,

he was stabbed
I think three times,

once over
the left shoulder blade

and two times
in the upper left chest.

I was pretty convinced
that Vera killed him.

I was pretty convinced
that she chased him down

and stabbed him with a knife.

She admitted to Dick Radcliff
and I that she killed her son,

but we never could get enough
to prosecute her.

She told us that.

- Was she ever indicted
for killing her child?

Why?
He has a confession, right?

There's no way
she confessed to it.

If he says she confessed,

let him show you
the confession.

There is nothing
in the FBI files

about Vera Carter confessing.

- If you go back
and look at the manner

that she took care of him,

the first people
that you eliminate--

close family members,

anybody that had
immediate access.

So when we started
putting it all together,

Vera looked--she had a knife,
she had the motive,

she wasn't running
for mother of the year.

He did get in her way
quite a bit.

- Last night, members

of the Committee
to Stop Children's Murders

held a closed-door meeting

to decide on a formal reaction
to FBI allegations

of some parents'
responsibility

in the murders.

Today, victim Curtis Walker's
mother told me

such talk was nothing new.

She says police repeatedly
accused her

of killing her son.

- What they was trying
to say that I had something

to do with it, but I told them
that was a damn lie,

'cause I ain't killed my child,

and they kept saying
they gonna try to make me say

that my child was a street kid
or a hustler or a runaway

and I told them to get the hell
out of my house

and don't come back.

- Camille Bell, making
the formal statement

for her Committee
to Stop Children's Murders,

called the situation
a circus

and accused authorities
of playing games.

- Basically, though,
the general feeling

is if they think I killed
my child,

tell them to come get me.

♪ ♪

- The dogs were given shoes
to sniff.

A label identified one
of the shoes as belonging

to Earl Terrell.

- Do you feel that there's
a possibility

you might find something today?

- You know,
I really hope we don't.

- The dog men are also expected

to meet with
the task force tomorrow.

They want to find out
if their K-9s are needed

to look for 16-year-old
Patrick Rogers.

Rogers has been missing
since last Monday.

- For some reason that day,
I stayed home from school,

so I was watching the news,

and I'd watch the news
every day.

I was a seven-year-old,

but I was a avid news-watcher,

and, um, they'd made
and announcement

that they found the body
in the Chattahoochee River.

They kind of did, like,
a flash like,

"A body's been found,"

and then they went--I guess
it was like a teaser.

They wanted to keep you
watching, you know?

Then they went to commercial,
and then the phone rang,

and it was my mama.

You know, she was like,
"That's him."

I'm like,
"What are you talking about?"

She's like,
"That's gonna be Pat-Man."

I don't know how she knew it
but she knew it,

and I remember watching it.

I remember seeing them pulling
him out of--

out of the river and, um,

I think one of his--one
of his feet kind of...

Became exposed from under the--
the cover, you know?

And I'm like,
"Oh, no."

I was watching it.
I was like, "Wow."

And I'm still like,
"No, that can't be him."

You know, 'cause he was
a martial art expert,

and they can't take him.

Nobody could hurt this guy.

I mean,
I think later that night,

that's when they came.
They came.

They knocked on the door,
and it was that knock--

it was that knock that
you dreaded, you know?

And so that's when
we had become part of a club

that no one wants to be
a part of.

- Patrick Rogers,
who wrote music,

sang, and appeared in several
local talent shows.

Neighbors are telling police
Rogers had met a man

he called his manager

and on the night
Rogers disappeared,

he was on his way
to a recording studio

to meet that man.

Rogers never told neighbors
the man's name.

- I think this was
just somebody

that he hadn't
too long ago met.

- Back then,
all the neighborhoods

would have talent shows.

Like, this neighborhood would
challenge this neighborhood,

vice versa.

- ♪ She likes the boys
in the band ♪

♪ She says that I'm
her all-time favorite ♪

[dramatic rock music]

- Pat-Man loved to sing.
He loved to perform.

So he would go all around
the city to compete

in all the talent shows.

Anywhere there was
this talent show,

anywhere there was a showcase,
he was there.

♪ ♪

I learned later on
that the guy

who I knew was Wayne Williams

was actually putting on
some of the shows.

- I mean, he allegedly went
around to kids saying,

"I can make you the next
Michael Jackson,"

and claimed to be a record
producer, a music producer.

- His fliers that he put out

indicated he was
a talent scout

and if you have any ability,
call me.

♪ ♪

He had the perfect bait
to gain the confidence

of young people,
and I might add mostly boys.

I'm not talking about girls.

- He said he owned
a radio station.

He said, "These are
transmitters right here."

He had even, like, a mic
and the little, um--

you know, the cover.

I just knew that I wanted
to sing

and I knew that this guy
was providing a space

for us to do it.

Me and my brother Chris,
actually,

we both ended up auditioning
for Wayne's group--Gemini.

He was a Gemini and so,
you know,

the idea of the group
I think just came out

of his zodiac sign.

You know,
"I'm a Gemini."

♪ ♪

- Wayne, he felt fun.
He was, like, light.

You know, he felt like
a big brother.

His jokes were kind of corny.

You know,
he was trying--

I feel like he would sometimes
try to be cool,

and he really wasn't cool.

♪ ♪

Never felt unsafe around Wayne.
Not at all.

My mom's like a hawk.

She doesn't play,

so she thought
he was a legit manager.

I mean, his reputation--
this guy was like--

he was known as, like,
a genius,

as being someone really smart.

And she knew his parents.

I think that's what made her
feel kind of safe.

His goal was to make us
a family type group.

And the song
that sticks out to me

that I remember laying
the lead vocal for

was a song called
"The Games We Play."

It went something like, um--

♪ The games we play ♪

♪ Here to stay every day ♪

♪ The games we play ♪

♪ Don't go my way ♪

♪ Don't come my way,
yeah, yeah, yeah ♪

That's what I remember.

- It had to be somebody that
the kids knew and trusted.

He was gonna make them stars
like the Jackson Five.

We had this connection between
all of these victims.

He was the connection.

- With my theory, the person

is not abducted, not kidnapped,

not snatched off the street
at that particular time

but is willingly going
with somebody for something

at least at the instance
they get in the car.

- During the child murders,

there was always speculation
about who was doing this,

but for us there was always
concern about trying

to make sure that
the kids knew to be careful

not just about
the known suspects, right?

You know not to go with the man
who's offering you candy

into the car.

But we also had to say
the sources of authority

that normally we would
tell you you should trust

and believe in,
you can't believe in them.

Only trust the adults
that you know personally.

[tires squealing]

- Hi, little boy.

You want to go along with me?

Yeah, you can.

No, you can't.

- You have probably heard
that voice before.

That is Bill Cosby.

It is that special magic
that Bill Cosby can work,

his rapport with children,

his way of putting things that
has community leaders hoping

the message will get across.

- You just say,
"Adios, kemosabe."

- That message has never been
as important as it is now.

- You start having celebrities
speak out.

Muhammad Ali put
a lot of money forward.

It was a lot
of heavyweight people trying

to put their resources
behind it.

- 22-year-old Michael Jackson
got a brief glimpse

of his fans,
but that was all it took.

Mayor Jackson tried
to calm the crowd

but his bullhorn didn't work.

- So now you have piles
of money.

They were offering
this massive reward

but nobody really
knew anything, you know?

- The Atlanta Police will say
nothing about the progress

of the investigation,

but according to Don Laken,
who works with them,

the signs are that there
is more than one child killer.

- The first classification
would be a religious, um,

cult type of situation.

The way certain bodies
had been found

is the way they would lay
the body out.

We also feel that there's
a drug and porno group around

who would take advantage
of these children.

We feel that there is
a copycat killer,

and then you have
family-oriented

killing of the child.

- The suspicion
started spreading,

and that's when
people were speculating

that there's somebody stealing
the children

and taking their bodily fluids
for interferon or something.

- Now when you talk about
$22 billion a pint

for the best interferon,
what is interferon made from?

White cells, okay?

What is the best way
to get those white cells?

It is to draw it out the head
of the penis of little boys

aged 5 to 17.

- I mean, there were bizarre
theories that people had.

- Part of the underground
conversation

about these young people
is they were castrated

and that their, uh,
male members were shoved

into their mouths, so this just
enraged people all the more.

- The mothers talked about
they just wanted to know

what happened
to their child's penis

or what happened
to their child's hands

and stuff and just different
parts of their organs

was moved, you know?

- There have been
a lot of rumors about

the genital organs
in the children, uh,

that have been found dead.

Out of all the cases
that I have personally done

and have been personally
associated with,

the genital organs have been
completely intact.

- Some people would say,

"You think the government
was involved?"

There's plenty of evidence
for black people

to believe that, so it's not
like a wild conspiracy theory.

For black people
there's plenty of evidence.

The Tuskegee experiment
is an example.

- The United States government
injected syphilis

into 400 black men
under the false pretense

they was giving them
a cold shot.

- This was in Tuskegee?
- In Tuskegee, Alabama.

Not only was it
the United States government,

but the Department of Health.

- And so these ideas
that people are dismissing,

it's hard for
the black community to dismiss.

Why is this happening, then?

Somebody give us an
explanation that makes sense.

♪ ♪

And that explanation
never came,

and nobody's being
held accountable.

- All these theories
are useful

to the extent that they show

something that James Baldwin
talked about,

and that is how fear works
on people.

When people are not given
rational reasons

to believe the truth,

they will create
conspiracy theories.

- We had 1,000 theories.

One of the things you have
to do when you're conducting

an investigation,
you do a profile.

What are we looking for here?

Well, back then you could not
go into a neighborhood

and not be noticed
if you were white.

Roy Hazelwood,
who was our profiler,

who came down from Washington
to help us,

we drove him into
a black neighborhood.

First thing Roy said,
"The killer's gotta be black."

He can't go
in this neighborhood

without being noticed.

So that's one of the things,

and we didn't eliminate--
it's been put out, I know--

that, "Well, that was kind of
narrow-minded of them

for them to eliminate
everyone else."

No, it wasn't.

Everyone was a suspect.
Everyone.

We didn't limit ourselves
by gender or sex at all.

Or race.

- But you just said
that you decided

that it was a black person.

- We didn't--it wasn't a--
it wasn't a decision that says,

"This is--we're gonna eliminate
all those

and only concentrate
on blacks."

We're saying,
you know,

"In looking at the killer,
it has to be a black person."

And that--that's just a fact.

It's not--we didn't limit
our focus to only black people.

Everybody and anybody
was a suspect.

- White men were
in Atlanta neighborhoods

back then for lots of reasons.

They were
the insurance salesmen,

they were the utility workers,

and let's not sugarcoat it.

Drugs are being sold
in the neighborhood.

So white people knew to come
to those neighborhoods

to buy drugs.

- Three black children
are still missing.

The last to disappear,

14-year-old Lubie Geter,
who vanished

from a south Atlanta
shopping center.

- We broke for Christmas
in December of 1980

and the agents from out
of town went home.

Then we come back
on January 5th.

Lubie Geter goes missing.

Four days later,
the powers that be decided,

"Maybe we ought
to conduct a search

"for the four missing kids
at places used by local thugs

to drop bodies."

So on Friday,
January 9th,

I headed out to Redwine Road.

I parked off to the side,

and I started into the woods,

and something caught my eye
at 11:00.

It looked like a milk jug.

It was the color of a milk jug,
and I walked over and I--

"Oh, my God.
I have another body."

So we found two that day.

- We have found the skeletal
remains of two human bodies

that appear--I emphasize
the word appear--

to be those of children.

- They found two bodies next
to each other--kids--

so that means somebody
dumped them both

and they went missing
at different times

from different locations,

so that means somebody
used that spot.

It worked one time.
He'll go again.

- Two victims,
same dumping ground.

One killer.

- The parents of each
of the four children

who have been missing
for several months

know that there's
a good chance

that their child
has been found dead.

- I'm trying not to worry,

but every time I see someone
on the news, I get upset,

and I'm about to go to pieces,

and I'm hoping
that it's not Chris,

because any time that
you don't hear anything,

you know,
no news is good news.

- She says she's close to
the breaking point despite...

- I missed him so much.

He was a comic.

Like a cracker jack
in the family.

We searched.
Couldn't find nothing.

Nothing of him.

[organ music playing]

- Now for Sirlena Cobb,
the wait is over.

The hope is gone.

- It was weird,
and it's still weird to me

for him to be gone like that.

♪ ♪

I'm fixing to get ready
to start crying.

That's--that's just me.

♪ ♪

- As a reporter, I was sent
to the family house

after the body turned up,
and I remember the pain

and the grief etched
on her face

was just so--
[exhales sharply]

It was--it was painful
to sit with her and see,

and then she said--we're
sitting and we're not talking.

We're not talking.

We're just sitting around
a table, the three of us,

and she said,

"I feel like somebody
balled me up

and threw me in the trash."

- Ten-year-old Earl Terrell
lived here on Browns Mill Road

with his family.

For them, months of waiting
and wondering

came to an end
late yesterday afternoon.

Earl's mother Beverly Belt
told me today

that she had little doubt
at that time

that the remains found
were those of her son.

- From what they showed me
that I--I knew it was him.

You know,
there wasn't no doubt.

When they came by
and told me that

it was a positive ID,

I was, uh, all set for it.

Um...

It's a hurting feeling,

but I've lived to accept it.

- I can't walk these routes.

I just--it's--it's baring.

It's very, very, very baring
for me to walk this area

because I can see my brother
still walking.

And that's something,
you know,

I don't try to hide,
but I'm very emotional,

and I think that's where
my depression come from,

because it bothers me so much
to know that,

you know,
who did it?

You know, he went
from big brother to no brother.

- Every day they were finding
kids, back to back.

They all thought that,
you know,

the killings
was just gonna stop,

you know, and it just happened
to those people

and it, you know,
wasn't gonna happen to,

you know,
this family.

[dramatic music]

- There's a body found.

- Is it a black male?
- Yes.

[camera shutters clicking]

- Is it one
of the missing children?

- They do hope for an ID
tonight.

- Never thought that one
of those kids

was gonna be my kid,
you know?

♪ ♪

And it was just devastating.

♪ ♪

You know, I really wanted
his casket

to be open the whole time

because I wanted the world
to believe

that this could have happened
to anybody's child.

♪ ♪

- So-called street kids
have been most vulnerable.

Poor black children
from one-parent homes

out on their own,
hustling pocket money.

- Who were the victims?

Most of the victims were
products of broken homes.

They were street kids.

- I don't agree with that.

I know Yusuf Bell wasn't.
He was a smart kid.

And just because you were
in the street--

well, my son was in the street.

- The children who were being
killed were primarily poor,

primarily black,

and no one gets
terribly concerned.

- But, Mrs. Bell,

the police chief
and police commissioner

of this city are black.

- That has nothing
to do with poverty.

- The conversation that went on
was, you know,

"These kids are bad kids."

They do drugs,
they sell drugs,

they carry drugs for--
for grown-ups,

and then there's some
that are involved

in prostitution as well.

These kids will do anything
to survive

and to make a little money,

and that was sort of
the envelope

for the story of the killings.

- My mom and dad.

- Try to stay a little closer
to them, okay?

- Okay.

- The Omni is a complex
of amusement arcades,

theaters, restaurants, shops

in the heart of Atlanta.

It's a meeting place

for the city's footloose
young blacks,

a place which many
of the missing

and murdered children
used to visit.

- These victims were either
picked up off the street

in predominantly
black neighborhoods

or in areas frequented
by black kids,

popular areas--
the Omni.

- It is known that
Patrick Baltazar

did work here two months ago.

Now someone says they last saw
Patrick around midnight

on Friday near the Omni.

His father says the boy liked
to go there

and play the electronic games.

The family doesn't live far
from the complex,

only a few blocks away
on Foundry Street.

- In the Omni,
there were offices,

there were stores,

and there were also
game arcades,

and that attracted children
coming in to play the games

and interacting with
some bad, dangerous people.

- Today we confirm that two--
and as many as ten--

of Atlanta's murdered boys
have frequented this house

owned by 62-year-old
Tom Terrell.

- There were pedophiles
in an area

behind the old Omni,
literally in the shadows

of downtown Atlanta.

Tom Terrell admitted to having
sex with one of the victims,

Timothy Hill.

- On March 12th,

the day before he
was reported missing,

Timothy Hill spent the night
at Terrell's house.

- He was here on the 12th
'cause he was supposed

to come back on the--
on the 13th

and that was my birthday.

- But he didn't come back?
- He ain't been back here.

If he did,
I didn't see him.

- Baltazar, Timothy Hill,

Jo Jo Bell, all these kids

had definitely been
to Tom Terrell's house.

- There were several
known pedophiles

in the neighborhoods.

People knew who they were.

They called the police
and talked about it.

- Task force investigators
do not deny

they are working on the theory
that some of the killings

are sexually motivated.

- Sex was a big part

of the Atlanta underground
at the time.

The Peachtree Street
corridor

was full of bathhouses
and massage parlors.

I mean, sex was--
this was the '70s.

This was wild,

and Atlanta had a lot of it.

- Atlanta was considered
somewhat of a mecca

of definitely pornography.

We had the porn kingpin
Mike Thevis.

He had all these bookstores

and these little
peep shops downtown.

- Mike Thevis had
a reputation as being

an organized crime kingpin

and being a very
successful moneymaker.

- He was called the Sultan
of Smut.

He controlled probably 40%
of the pornography

at that time in this country.

A lot of that business
is child pornography.

- Three men arrested
for operating

a sex for hire ring that may
have existed for 17 years.

An East Point detective
working on the murders

ran across the ring,

and the defendants
are now in court.

It may have involved more
than 100 boys.

- These pedophiles
were actually taking

these photographs over
to Michael Thevis' businesses

and selling them.

- It took the jury only
an hour and five minutes

to decide that this paunchy,
gray-haired,

unlikely-looking defendant
was guilty.

- John David Wilcoxen
was running a house

for child prostitution
and child pornography.

- The police raided his house
and they found volumes--

boxes of pornography,
magazines,

videos, et cetera,
of children.

- Pedophiles were paying
these kids

$5 for fellatio
and then $10 for photographs.

Now, these three guys,
between them,

they had tens of thousands of
pictures of, again, nude kids.

- Defense attorney
Catherine Lerow

said the children
and their parents

should bear some of the guilt.

In her closing argument,
she called the boys

nothing but male prostitutes.

- I definitely feel like
there's no supervision

and I don't--just because
my man has been convicted,

I don't think that's
gonna stop these boys

in the least.

- Two of the victims
had been known

to go into Wilcoxen's house

months before they
were kidnapped

and eventually killed.

Lubie Geter
and Earl Terrell.

- Whether it was happenstance
or not,

there's no question that they
were seen in this house

by witnesses.

♪ ♪

- This is what we used to do.

Walk through the park,
walk the street way,

so we would come up
this street here,

get to the stop sign,
then make a right.

That was our route.

The only route
that we used to make

was going through these houses
here because it was shorter.

And here is a suspect
right here

within the same direction that
I know my brother walked.

We used to go to South Bend
swimming pool

and walk around in the park.

We used to do all of that
every day.

It wasn't a problem.

We didn't know what
was going on.

- Nobody ever talked
to your family,

your mom,
about other suspects?

That never came up or maybe it
was just not in your earshot

'cause you were too little?
- Um, no.

Nobody never come to my mom
and told my mom nothing

about nothing until
they found my brother,

and that was the only
conversation we ever had

with the Atlanta
Police Department,

is that they found my brother.

"Well, we found your son."

And they showed us the graphic
pictures of him being

in my swimming trunks,
nothing but--I mean, bones.

♪ ♪

- The task force looked into
the pedophiles

by interviewing them

and interviewing
their neighbors.

They did extensive
investigation.

They did fiber samples
from some of those folks

in an attempt to link them
to any of these crimes,

but they were just suspects.

There were hundreds
of suspects.

- Mayor.
- Yes.

- I think it's one
of the hardest things

I had to do in my career

was the missing and murdered
children's story,

because I could never see
an end to it.

The bodies were adding up,

and we weren't getting
any closer to finding out

who was doing it
and why they were doing it.

- We have no idea
who's perpetrating them,

and even if we did have
an idea,

there would be no way to
substantiate that at this time.

We're concerned about
the children.

- Oh, Lord,
the whole thing became--

you know,
all the elements of it.

There were so many angles
to the story, so--

and a dramatic story,
and one that was building

and building, and everybody
expected at some point

something was going to break.

- Often at night I'd go home
and look for the answers

on my ceiling.

I'd stare up,
I'd say, you know--

couldn't figure it out.

Several of the guys
were physically--

became physically ill, and it--
it was different--

we could all relate to it
because many of us had kids

the age of the victims, so we--
it was personal for us,

and it was frustrating
because as hard as we tried,

as long hours as we put in,

we simply could not
figure it out.

- For me to understand what he
was doing,

I had to convince myself that
there was some reason for it

before I could start looking
for somebody.

Why is he doing this?
How is he doing this?

Okay, they're all children.

So he's a pedophile.

The bodies are all
killed somewhere,

clothed, disclothed,

dressed again, dumped.

Why would he do that?

He would do that because
he enjoys it.

That's why--that's how
he gets off.

Taking the life
and playing with them.

♪ ♪

Difficult, okay?

♪ ♪

He doesn't see the world
the same way you do.

He sees the world exactly
what he wants,

totally disregarding
any other person's wants,

feelings, emotions,

value,

and I'm gonna do with you
what I want to do with you.

Can you see the power that
that gives

the perpetrator
on something like this?

At any moment he knows he
can go into the neighborhood

and pick up one of these kids

and do with him whatever
he wants.

- If it's the will
of this body,

would you all like to hear
from Wayne Williams tonight?

All in favor say yea.

all: Yea.

- All opposed say no.

The yeas have it.

Well, I will say to you
if it is offensive to you

that you can excuse yourself.

I do not want anything
done here tonight

to be offensive to anybody.

Can we turn the volume up?

- Are we on?

- This is--of all of the people
who are in this room.

Do you believe
that Wayne Williams

had involvement in killing
any or all

of these children?

all: No.
- An adult--hold on. Hold on.

Raise your hand.

If you believe he did not
have any involvement

at all in this,
raise your hand.

Put your hand down.

If you don't know whether
he did or not,

raise your hand.

♪ ♪

If you know with a surety
that he did,

raise your hand.

♪ ♪

And therein, friends,
lies our dilemma.

We don't know.
We don't know.

And so it leaves a herculean
task for the mayor,

for the DA,
for these families,

and for all of us
in this search for truth.

- Hello.
How are you all?

- Mayor, how are you?
- Good.

♪ ♪

[bright tone]

♪ (DRAMATIC MUSIC PLAYS) ♪

MAN: In 1981,
the only thing people heard

about Atlanta was...
children were dying.

WOMAN: The FBI,
and everybody else,

was being embarrassed
by the murders.

The radio squelch broke

and I heard something
about a splash.

At that point,
I knew I was a suspect.

We found the killer, that's it.

But that really wasn't it.

♪ (MUSIC CONCLUDES) ♪