Editing Wayne Williams

{{Short description|American murderer and suspected serial killer}}
{{other people}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=November 2023}}
{{Infobox murderer
| image             = [[File:Wayne Williams.webp|center|Wayne Bertram Williams|225px]]
| caption           = Wayne's [[mugshot]] after his arrest in 1981 <!-- Assumed based on file metadata -->
| birthname         = Wayne Bertram Williams
| birth_date        = {{Birth date and age|1958|5|27}}
| birth_place       = [[Atlanta]], Georgia, U.S.
| other_names       = {{Unbulleted list|Atlanta Monster|Atlanta Boogeyman|Atlanta Child Killer}}
| victims           = 2 convicted, 24–30 suspected
| country           = United States
| states            = [[Georgia (U.S. state)|Georgia]]
| endyear           = May 22, 1981
| apprehended       = June 21, 1981
| conviction        = [[Murder]] (×2)
| penalty           = [[Life imprisonment]]
| imprisoned        = [[Telfair State Prison]]
| alt               = Photo of Wayne Williams
}}
'''Wayne Bertram Williams''' (born May 27, 1958) is an American convicted murderer and  [[serial killer]] who is in [[life imprisonment]] for the 1981 killings of two men in [[Atlanta]], Georgia.<ref>{{cite book |last=Saferstein |first=Richard |title=Criminalistics: An Introduction to Forensic Science|location=Upper Saddle River, New Jersey|publisher=[[Prentice Hall]]|date=1987|isbn=978-0-13-193269-2|page=75}}</ref> Although never tried for the additional murders, he is also believed to be responsible for at least 24 of the 30 [[Atlanta murders of 1979–1981]], also known as the Atlanta Child Murders.<ref name="wp">{{Cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1982/02/28/atlanta-jury-convicts-williams-of-two-murders/b2e80d83-6fb0-4a00-86d9-8e9d5ba6b270/ |title=Atlanta Jury Convicts Williams of Two Murders |first=Art |last=Harris |date=February 28, 1982 |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] |access-date=November 8, 2019}}</ref>

==Early life and education==
Wayne Williams, son of Homer and Faye Williams, was born on May 27, 1958, and raised in the [[Dixie Hills, Atlanta|Dixie Hills]] neighborhood of southwest [[Atlanta]], Georgia. Both of his parents were teachers. Williams graduated from Douglass High School and developed a keen interest in radio and journalism. He constructed his own [[carrier current]] radio station and began frequenting stations [[WIGO (AM)|WIGO]] and [[WAOK]], where he befriended a number of the announcing crew and began dabbling in becoming a pop music producer and manager.<ref>{{cite news|first=Reginald|last=Stuart|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1981/06/22/us/suspect-in-atlanta-young-big-ideas-but-a-career-of-limited-achievements.html|title=Suspect in Atlanta: Young, Big Ideas, But a Career of Limited Achievement|newspaper=[[New York Times]]|location=New York City|date=June 22, 1981|access-date=August 20, 2019}}</ref>

==Atlanta murders==
Williams first became a suspect in the Atlanta murders on the morning of May 22, 1981, when a police surveillance team, watching the James Jackson Parkway Bridge spanning the [[Chattahoochee River]] (a spot where multiple bodies had been discovered previously), heard a "big loud splash", suggesting that something had been thrown from the bridge into the river below.<ref name="NYTimes">{{cite news |last1=Rawls  |first1=Wendell Jr. |title=Atlanta Officer Says Suspect Car Halted on Bridge |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1982/01/09/us/atlanta-officer-says-suspect-car-halted-on-bridge.html |access-date=October 21, 2019 |work=[[The New York Times]] |date=January 9, 1982}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1891&dat=19820221&id=MqUfAAAAIBAJ&pg=3807,3137509|title=Police Officer possibly asleep on bridge: expert|newspaper=[[Gadsden Times]]|date=February 21, 1982}}</ref> The first automobile to exit the bridge after the splash, at roughly 2:50&nbsp;a.m., belonged to Williams. When stopped and questioned, he told police that he was on his way to check on an address in a neighboring town ahead of an audition the following morning with a young singer named Cheryl Johnson. However, both the phone number he gave police and Cheryl Johnson turned out to be fictitious.<ref>{{cite AV media|people=[[Soledad O'Brien]] (host)|url=http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1107/04/se.02.html|title=CNN Special: Atlanta Child Murders|date=July 4, 2011|website=[[CNN]]}}</ref>

Two days later, on May 24, the nude body of 27-year-old Nathaniel Cater, who had been missing for four days and was last seen with Williams, was discovered in the river. The [[medical examiner]] ruled he had died of probable [[asphyxia]] but never specifically said he had been strangled. Police thought that Williams had killed Cater and that his body was the source of the sound they heard as his car crossed the bridge.<ref name="cnnVictimsList-2010"/>

The results for all three of Williams’ polygraph tests were inconclusive. Hairs and fibers retrieved from the body of another victim, Jimmy Ray Payne, were found to be consistent with those from his home, car, and dog. Co-workers told police they had seen Williams with scratches on his face and arms around the time of the murders which, investigators surmised, could have been inflicted by victims during struggles.<ref name="cnnVictimsList-2010">{{cite news |title=Victims linked to Atlanta serial killings |url=http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/05/31/atlanta.murders.victims/ |website=[[CNN]]|access-date=November 4, 2013 |date=June 1, 2010}}</ref> Williams held a press conference outside his home to proclaim his innocence, volunteering that he had taken three polygraph tests and all were inconclusive; in any event they would have been inadmissible in court.<ref>{{cite news|first1=Jim|last1=Polk|first2=Christina|last2=Zdanowicz|url=http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/06/11/atlanta.murders.poll.ireport/|title=CNN viewers: Williams 'guilty' in Atlanta child murders|work=[[CNN]]|date=September 6, 2010|access-date=September 8, 2014}}</ref>

Williams was questioned again by police for 12 hours on June 3 and 4 at FBI headquarters and released without arrest or charge, but remained under surveillance.<ref>{{cite news |first1=Ken |last1=Willis |first2=Tony |last2=Cooper |title=Fiber evidence leads to arrest |url=https://www.ajc.com/news/crime--law/wayne-williams-charged-nathaniel-cater-slaying/l11zKO68bhhQsA9ce1C6UJ/ |newspaper=[[The Atlanta Journal-Constitution]] |date=November 10, 1981 |access-date=October 21, 2019}}</ref>

==Arrest and trial==
Williams was arrested on June 21, 1981, for the murders of Cater and Payne.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1987/08/30/us/lawyer-sees-hope-for-retrial-in-atlanta-murders.html|title=Lawyer Sees Hope for Retrial in Atlanta Murders|work=[[The New York Times]]|location=New York City|date=August 30, 1987|access-date=December 10, 2015}}</ref> His trial began on January 6, 1982, in [[Fulton County, Georgia|Fulton County]]. During the two-month trial, prosecutors matched to a number of victims 19 sources of fibers from Williams's home and car: his bedspread, bathroom, gloves, clothes, carpets, dog, and an unusual trilobal carpet fiber. Other evidence included witness testimony that placed Williams with several victims while they were alive, and inconsistencies in his accounts of his whereabouts. Williams had also lied about when the carpet was installed in his home, claiming it was installed in 1968 (which would undermine the testimony of prosecution experts, who said it was a rare type not manufactured until the 1970s) only for it to be discovered that the company that manufactured the carpet did not even exist until 1971.<ref name="rawls1982">{{cite news|first=Wendell Jr.|last=Rawls|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1982/02/25/us/final-testimony-hurts-defense-in-atlanta-trial.html|title=Final Testimony Hurts Defense In Atlanta Trial|work=[[The New York Times]]|date=February 25, 1982|access-date=May 29, 2018}}</ref> Williams took the stand in his own defense but alienated the jury by becoming angry and combative.<ref name="rawls1982"/> After 12 hours of deliberation, the jury found him guilty on February 27 of the murders of Cater and Payne. He was sentenced to [[life imprisonment]].<ref>{{cite news|first=Kevin|last=Rowson|url=https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/local/2015/04/30/wayne-williams-hair-evidence-fbi/26678019/|title=Atlanta Child Murders: Wayne Williams hopes for appeal|work=[[USA Today]]|date=April 30, 2015|access-date=May 29, 2018}}</ref> After Williams became a suspect, the killings stopped.<ref name="wp"/>

In the late 1990s, Williams filed a ''[[habeas corpus]]'' petition and requested a retrial. [[Butts County, Georgia|Butts County]] Superior Court judge Hal Craig denied his appeal. [[Attorney General of Georgia|Georgia Attorney General]] [[Thurbert Baker]] said that "although this does not end the appeal process, I am pleased with the results in the habeas case" and that his office will "continue to do everything possible to uphold the conviction."<ref>{{cite press release|first=Daryl A.|last=Robinson|date=July 10, 1998|title=Attorney General Baker Announces Wayne Williams' Convictions Upheld|url=https://law.georgia.gov/press-releases/1998-07-10/attorney-general-baker-announces-wayne-williams-convictions-upheld|location=Atlanta, Georgia|publisher=Department of Law, State of Georgia|access-date=May 29, 2018}}</ref> In early 2004, Williams sought a retrial again, with his attorneys arguing that law enforcement officials covered up evidence of involvement by the [[Ku Klux Klan]], and that carpet fibers purportedly linking him to the crimes would not stand up to scientific scrutiny.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.accessnorthga.com/detail.php?n=175831&c=2|title=Convicted killer blamed for Atlanta child murders seeks new trial|agency=[[The Associated Press]]|work=[[WDUN (AM)|WDUN]]|date=February 24, 2004|access-date=May 29, 2018}}</ref> A federal judge rejected the request for retrial on October 17, 2006.

==Aftermath==
Williams was never tried for any of the Atlanta Child Murders. However, police attributed 22 other deaths, including those of 18 minors, to Williams.<ref name="cnnVictimsList-2010"/>

Williams is serving his sentence at [[Telfair State Prison]].<ref>{{cite news|first=Christian|last=Boone|url=http://www.gdc.ga.gov/GDC/Offender/Query|title=Wayne Williams' old car finds a new home|work=[[Atlanta Journal-Constitution]]|date=August 10, 2012|access-date=May 29, 2018}}</ref> On November 20, 2019, Williams was again denied parole. He will next be eligible for parole in November 2027.<ref>{{cite news |agency=[[Associated Press]] |title=Atlanta child murders suspect denied parole |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/gdpr-consent/?next_url=https%3a%2f%2fwww.washingtonpost.com%2fnational%2fthe-power-and-politics-of-parole-boards%2f2015%2f07%2f10%2f49c1844e-1f71-11e5-84d5-eb37ee8eaa61_story.html |newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] |access-date=February 15, 2020}}</ref>

==Reopening investigations==
Williams has maintained his innocence from the beginning and claimed that Atlanta officials covered up evidence of [[Ku Klux Klan|KKK]] involvement in the killings to avoid a [[race war]] in the city. His lawyers have said the conviction was a "profound [[miscarriage of justice]]" that has kept an innocent man incarcerated for the majority of his adult life and allowed the real killers to go free.<ref>{{cite web|first=Melanie|last=Radzicki McManus|url=https://people.howstuffworks.com/was-wrong-person-convicted-in-atlanta-child-murders.htm|title=Was the Wrong Person Convicted in the Atlanta Child Murders?|website=[[HowStuffWorks]]|date=January 26, 2018|access-date=May 29, 2018}}</ref> In contrast, Joseph Drolet, who prosecuted Williams at trial, has stood by Williams's convictions. He has emphasized that, after Williams was arrested, "the murders stopped and there has been nothing since."<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.foxnews.com/story/police-reopen-atlanta-child-killing-cases|title=Police Reopen Atlanta Child Killing Cases|publisher=[[Fox News]]|agency=[[Associated Press]]|date=May 7, 2005|access-date=May 29, 2018}}</ref>

Other observers have criticized the thoroughness of the investigation and the validity of its conclusions.<ref name="AP">{{cite news|first=Allen G.|last=Breed|url=http://truthinjustice.org/wayne-williams.htm|title=Atlanta Revisits 1981 Child Murders|agency=[[Associated Press]]|date=May 15, 2005|access-date=May 29, 2018|via=truthinjustice.org}}</ref> The author [[James Baldwin]], in his essay ''[[The Evidence of Things Not Seen]]'' (1985), raised questions about Williams' guilt. Members of his community and several of the victims' parents did not believe that Williams, the son of two professional teachers, could have killed so many.<ref name="Investigators">{{cite episode|series=The Investigators|series-link=The Investigators (American TV series) |title=Missing in Atlanta|network=[[TruTV]]|air-date=May 20, 2004|season=5|number=141}}</ref>

On May 6, 2005, [[DeKalb County, Georgia|DeKalb County]] Police Chief Louis Graham ordered the reopening of the murder cases of four boys killed in that county between February and May 1981, whose deaths had been attributed to Williams.<ref name="Investigators" /><ref>{{cite news|url=http://chronicle.augusta.com/stories/2005/05/07/met_452415.shtml|title=Police reopen some Atlanta child killing cases|newspaper=[[The Augusta Chronicle]]|date=May 7, 2005}}</ref> The announcement was welcomed by relatives of some victims, who said they believe the wrong man was blamed for many of the murders.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://chronicle.augusta.com/stories/2005/05/10/met_452723.shtml|title=Atlanta murder cases are reopened after 20 years|newspaper=[[The Augusta Chronicle]]|date=October 5, 2005}}</ref>

Graham, who was serving as an assistant police chief in neighboring [[Fulton County, Georgia|Fulton County]] at the time of the murders, said his decision to reopen the cases was driven solely by his belief in Williams's innocence. Former [[DeKalb County, Georgia|DeKalb County]] [[Sheriff]] and convicted murderer [[Sidney Dorsey]], who was an Atlanta homicide detective at the time, also said he believed Williams was wrongly blamed for the murders. "If they arrested a white guy," he said, "there would have been riots across the U.S.."<ref>{{cite news|url=http://chronicle.augusta.com/stories/2005/05/11/met_452832.shtml|title=Police chief reopens 5th child slaying case|newspaper=[[The Augusta Chronicle]]|date=May 11, 2005}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Cold-case squad to probe decades-old Atlanta murders |publisher=CNN Justice |date=May 7, 2005 |url=https://www.cnn.com/2005/LAW/05/07/wayne.williams/index.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120708220719/http://articles.cnn.com/2005-05-07/justice/wayne.williams_1_unsolved-murder-cold-case-squad-murder-cases?_s=PM:LAW |archive-date=July 8, 2012}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=http://chronicle.augusta.com/stories/2005/05/30/met_454629.shtml|title=Former DeKalb sheriff prefers talk of Williams' innocence|newspaper=[[The Augusta Chronicle]]|date=May 30, 2005}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=http://chronicle.augusta.com/stories/1998/06/04/met_230150.shtml|title=Child killer called innocent|newspaper=[[The Augusta Chronicle]]|date=June 4, 1998}}</ref> Dorsey is now serving a life sentence after being convicted of ordering the murder of his election opponent [[Derwin Brown]].<ref>{{Cite news|date=July 11, 2002|title=Former Sheriff Guilty in Successor's Killing|page=A14|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|agency=[[Associated Press]]|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2002/07/11/us/former-sheriff-guilty-in-successor-s-killing.html|url-status=live|url-access=limited|access-date=March 25, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210506034002/https://www.nytimes.com/2002/07/11/us/former-sheriff-guilty-in-successor-s-killing.html|archive-date=May 6, 2021}}</ref> 

[[Fulton County, Georgia|Fulton County]] authorities have not reopened any of the cases under their jurisdiction.<ref name="Investigators" />

According to an August 2005 report, Charles T. Sanders, a [[white supremacist]] affiliated with the KKK and an early suspect in the murders, once praised the crimes in secretly recorded conversations. Although Sanders did not publicly claim responsibility for any of the deaths, he told an informant for the [[Georgia Bureau of Investigation]] in a 1981 recording that the killer had "wiped out a thousand future generations of [[nigger]]s".<ref>{{cite news|first=Harry R.|last=Weber|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/06/AR2005080601039.html|title=Klan Was Probed in Child Killings In Atlanta|newspaper=[[The Washington Post]]|date=August 7, 2005|access-date=May 29, 2018}}</ref> An anonymous alleged former friend of Sanders told documentarian Payne Lindsey (''[[Atlanta Monster]]'') that Sanders had taken credit for the murders mentioned in a 1986 ''[[Spin (magazine)|Spin]]'' article,<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.spin.com/featured/atlanta-child-murders-wayne-williams-1986-feature/|title=Atlanta Child Murders: Our 1986 Feature, "A Question of Justice"|work=[[Spin Magazine|Spin]]|type=Excerpt from original September 1986 article and full article investigating and exploring the Sanders brothers involvement.}}</ref> claiming that his brothers were also involved.

Sanders did not directly implicate the [[KKK]] or lead his friend to believe that anyone else from the organization was involved. Sanders allegedly mused over how lucky he was that he and Williams had the same carpet and that they both owned a white German shepherd. The anonymous former friend went on to say that, "Once it was pinned on Wayne Williams, they were through. That was their way out."<ref>{{cite web|url=https://atlantamonster.com/|title=Atlanta Monster|series=Season 1 Episode 7: Conspiracy? 36:50}}</ref> Police dropped the probe into possible Klan involvement when Sanders and two of his brothers passed lie detector tests in which they denied their involvement. The case was once again closed on July 21, 2006.<ref>{{cite news|title=Was Wayne Williams framed?/Recruiter for KKK said to admit role in Atlanta murders|url=http://www.chron.com/CDA/archives/archive.mpl/1991_814713/was-wayne-williams-framed-recruiter-for-kkk-said-t.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120615140549/http://www.chron.com/CDA/archives/archive.mpl/1991_814713/was-wayne-williams-framed-recruiter-for-kkk-said-t.html|work=[[Houston Chronicle]]|agency=Section A, Page 4, 2 STAR Edition|date=October 9, 1991|archive-date=June 15, 2012}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|first=Mark|last=Curridan|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PBxUpILloWwC&q=%22niggers%22&pg=PA36|title=New Questions in Atlanta Murders - Did prosecutors withhold evidence of Klan involvement in children's death?|journal=[[ABA Journal]]|publisher=[[American Bar Association]]|location=Chicago, Illinois|date=May 1992|page=36}}</ref>

Former FBI [[offender profiling|profiler]] [[John E. Douglas]] wrote in his book ''[[Mindhunter: Inside the FBI's Elite Serial Crime Unit]]'' that, in his opinion, "forensic and behavioral evidence points conclusively to Wayne Williams as the killer of eleven young men in Atlanta." He added, however, that he believed there was "no strong evidence linking him to all or even most of the deaths and disappearances of children in that city between 1979 and 1981".<ref name="Douglas, J 1986 p. 147-9">{{cite book|first1=John E.|last1=Douglas|author-link1=John E. Douglas|first2=Mark|last2=Olshaker|author-link2=Mark Olshaker|title=Mindhunter: Inside the FBI's Elite Serial Crime Unit|publisher=[[Heinemann (publisher)|Heinemann]]|location=Portsmouth, New Hampshire|date=1986|pages=147–9|isbn=0-434-00262-3}}</ref>

In 2007, the FBI performed [[DNA test]]s on two human hairs found on one of the victims. The [[mitochondrial DNA]] sequence in the hairs would eliminate 99.5% of people, and 98% of African-Americans, by not matching their DNA; the sequence found matched Williams's DNA.<ref name="Douglas, J 1986 p. 147-9"/>

DNA testing was performed in 2010 on scalp hairs found on the body of 11-year-old victim Patrick Baltazar. While the results were not firmly conclusive, the DNA sequence found appears in only 29 of 1,148 African-American hair samples in the FBI's database, including that of Williams.<ref>{{cite news |author=Jim Polk |url=https://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/06/09/williams.dna.test/index.html |title=DNA test strengthens Atlanta child killings case |publisher=[[CNN]] |date=June 9, 2010 |access-date=June 10, 2022}}</ref> The Baltazar case was included among 10 additional victims presented to the jury at Williams' trial, although he was never charged in any of those cases.<ref name="washingtonpost2007">{{cite news|title=DA: DNA Tests Link Williams to Killings|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/26/AR2007062601058.html|author=Harry R. Weber|agency=Associated Press|date=June 26, 2007|access-date=November 26, 2017}}</ref>

Dog hairs found on Baltazar's body were tested in 2007 by the genetics laboratory at the [[University of California, Davis]] School of Veterinary Medicine, which found a DNA sequence also present in the Williams family's [[German Shepherd]]. However, the director of the laboratory, Elizabeth Wictum, said that, while the results were "fairly significant", they were not conclusive. Only mitochondrial DNA was tested; unlike nuclear DNA, mitochondrial DNA cannot be shown to be unique to an individual dog. The report said the hairs on the bodies contained the same DNA sequence as Williams's dog, a DNA sequence that occurs in about 1 in 100 dogs.<ref name="washingtonpost2007"/> The FBI report stated that "Wayne Williams cannot be excluded" as a suspect in the case.<ref>{{cite news|author=Jim Polk |url=http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/06/09/williams.dna.test/ |title=DNA test strengthens Atlanta child killings case |publisher=CNN.com |date=September 6, 2010|access-date=February 10, 2014}}</ref>

A [[United States Department of Justice|Department of Justice]] study, released in April 2015, concluded that numerous hair analyses conducted by FBI examiners during the 1980s and 1990s "may have failed to meet professional standards." Defense attorney Lynn Whatley immediately announced that the report would form the basis for a new appeal, but prosecutors responded that hair evidence played only a minor role in Williams's conviction.<ref>{{cite web|title=Atlanta Child Murders: Wayne Williams hopes new information leads to appeal|url=http://www.11alive.com/story/news/local/2015/04/30/wayne-williams-hair-evidence-fbi/26678019/|access-date=June 10, 2015}}</ref>

On March 21, 2019, Atlanta Mayor [[Keisha Lance Bottoms]] and Atlanta Police Chief [[Erika Shields]] announced that officials would re-test evidence from the murders, which will be gathered by the Atlanta Police Department, Fulton County District Attorney's Office, and Georgia Bureau of Investigation. In a news conference, Bottoms said, "It may be there is nothing left to be tested. But I do think history will judge us by our actions, and we will be able to say we tried."<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.ajc.com/news/breaking-atlanta-mayor-announces-new-look-atlanta-child-murders/3LXuKcCzoaIeJkzF0PwBkM/|title=Police plan to re-test Atlanta Child Murders evidence|last=Sharpe|first=Joshua|newspaper=The Atlanta Journal-Constitution|access-date=March 21, 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://thepublicsradio.org/article/atlantas-mayor-pushes-for-review-in-child-murders-cases|title=Atlanta's Mayor pushes for review in 'Child Murders' cases|date=March 21, 2019|website=The Public's Radio|access-date=March 22, 2019}}</ref>

In 2019, two Atlanta men, Derwin Davis and Isaac Rogers, claimed that Williams had attempted to abduct them in 1979 and 1981 respectively.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Sharpe|first=Joshua|date=August 19, 2019|title=Atlanta Child Murders: Man says he escaped Wayne Williams|work=The Atlanta Journal-Constitution|url=https://www.ajc.com/news/crime--law/says-escaped-the-atlanta-child-murders-suspect-now-talking/IHE056DNiE9FJZMgrFRpdM/}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|last=Pelisek|first=Christine|date=July 25, 2019|title=Man Recounts Fleeing as Child From 'Atlanta Monster Suspect Wayne Williams:'He Was on a Mission'|work=People Magazine|url=https://people.com/crime/wayne-williams-atlanta-monster-suspect-man-recounts-fleeing/}}</ref>

==Media==
Williams appears as the main antagonist in several media portrayals of the case. He was first depicted in the  1985 television miniseries ''[[The Atlanta Child Murders (miniseries)|The Atlanta Child Murders]]'' and was played by [[Calvin Levels]]. In 2000, [[Showtime (TV network)|Showtime]] released a [[Drama (film and television)|drama film]] titled ''[[Who Killed Atlanta's Children?]]'' with [[Clé Bennett]] playing Williams. In 2018, Williams and the Atlanta Child Murders were the subject of the true crime podcast ''[[Atlanta Monster]]'', hosted by [[Payne Lindsey]] and co-produced by Tenderfoot TV and [[HowStuffWorks]]. In 2019, Williams  was featured in season 2 of the [[Netflix]] series ''[[Mindhunter (TV series)|Mindhunter]]'' alongside others such as [[Charles Manson]] and [[David Berkowitz]];<ref>{{cite news|first=Laura|last=Barcella|url=https://www.aetv.com/real-crime/wayne-williams-atlanta-monster-child-murders-black-serial-killer|title=Was Serial Killer Wayne Williams Really the Atlanta Monster Who Murdered Dozens of Black Kids?|work=[[A&E Networks|A&E]]|date=February 1, 2018|access-date=March 15, 2019}}</ref> Williams was portrayed by Christopher Livingston.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.imdb.com/name/nm5651486/ |title=Christopher Livingston |website=IMDb |access-date=November 8, 2019}}</ref>

[[Tayari Jones]]'s 2002 novel ''[[Leaving Atlanta]]'', which portrays a fictionalised version of the Atlanta child murders, features a man heavily implied to be Williams at the end of the second chapter, "The Opposite Direction of Home". Williams is shown picking up Rodney Green, a black teenager who has run away from home, after showing him a fake police badge; in the next chapter, "Sweet Pea", Rodney is said to have become the killer's latest victim.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Leaving Atlanta|last=Jones|first=Tayari|publisher=Grand Central Publishing|year=2002|location=New York, NY}}</ref>

The 2006 song "Wrong Man" by British rock band [[Deep Purple]] was written by singer [[Ian Gillan]] from Williams' perspective, and the concept of false imprisonment.<ref>[https://www.gillan.com/wordography-56.html 56 Wrong Man]. ''Caramba!''. Retrieved 16 November 2024.</ref>

== See also ==
* [[Grim Sleeper|Lonnie David Franklin]], a [[serial killer]] whose victims were exclusively African-American people
* [[Samuel Little]], a serial killer whose victims were mostly African-American women

'''General:'''
* [[List of serial killers in the United States]]
* [[List of serial killers by number of victims]]

==References==
{{Reflist|30em}}

== Bibliography ==
{{refbegin}}
* {{cite book|last = Baldwin|first = J.|date = 1985|title = The Evidence of Things Not Seen|location = New York|publisher = Holt, Rinehart and Winston|isbn = 978-0-03-005529-4}}
* {{cite book|last1 = Whittington-Egan|first1 = R.|last2 = Whittington-Egan|first2 = M.|date = 1992|title = The Murder Almanac|location = Glasgow|publisher = Neil Wilson Publishing|isbn = 978-1-897784-04-4}}
* {{cite book|last = Wynn|first = D.|date = 1996|title = On Trial for Murder: Over 200 of the most dramatic trials of the 20th century|location = London|publisher = [[Pan Books|Pan]]|isbn = 978-0-330-33947-6}}
{{refend}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Williams, Wayne}}
[[Category:1958 births]]
[[Category:20th-century African-American people]]
[[Category:American male criminals]]
[[Category:American murderers of children]]
[[Category:American people convicted of murder]]
[[Category:American prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:People convicted of murder by Georgia (U.S. state)]]
[[Category:People from Atlanta]]
[[Category:Prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment by Georgia (U.S. state)]]
[[Category:Suspected serial killers]]
[[Category:Violence against men in the United States]]