Atlanta Child Murders/Wayne Williams FBI Files & City of Atlanta Files

Atlanta Child Murders/Wayne Williams FBI Files & City of Atlanta Files

5,840 pages of files from the FBI and the Atlanta City Archives covering the Atlanta Child Murders. Between July 1979 and May 1981, the disappearance and murder of 30 children and young adults occurred in Atlanta, Georgia.

Some of the bodies were found in the Chattahoochee River. On the morning of May 21, 1981, police staking out a bridge crossing the Chattahoochee heard a splash. A car driven by Wayne Bertram Williams was stopped. Two days later, the body of 27-year-old Nathaniel Cater was found downstream from the bridge. On February 27, 1982, Williams was found guilty on two counts of murder in Fulton County Superior Court, Atlanta, Georgia. He was sentenced to two consecutive life terms. Two days later the task force disbanded and announced that 24 of 30 cases were considered solved and attributed to Williams.

The Atlanta Police Department in March of 2019 announced that it would re-open the cases, hoping that modern technology will lead to new insights into the murders. On June 21, 2021, about 40% of the original DNA evidence was sent to a private lab for testing. In July of 2021, then Atlanta mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms announced that new DNA had been identified and sampled in two cases that would be subjected to additional analysis by a private lab. 


FBI Files

2,982 pages of files copied from FBI Headquarters in Washington, D.C., covering the Atlanta Child Murders. The FBI gave this case the code name ATKID. The files date from 1980 to 1983. The files contain memos, letters, lab tests, and a detailed account of the trial. The files show the handling of civil-rights questions regarding the case raised by Georgia Representative Mildred Glover and others. These murders were investigated by an FBI task force that believed the crimes were linked. At the time many, including the mayor of Atlanta Maynard Jackson, believed the FBI was not giving enough assistance in the case. On November 6, 1980, the Attorney General directed the FBI to participate in the investigation of the missing and murdered children. In addition to working an independent investigation, the FBI assisted the local task force with manpower, guidance, and technical assistance.

Highlights in the files include a March 20, 1981, report on the possibility that the murders might be the work of a far-right organization such as the KKK, American Nazi Party, or Minutemen.  The report gives possible motives, methods and 

supporting evidence. An April 27, 1981, memo says that the Atlanta Bureau would institute surveillances of 14 selected bridges which could be possible dumping sites over the Chattahoochee River. It was at one of these points that police encountered Wayne Williams.
 

City of Atlanta Archives

2,858 pages of documents from the City of Atlanta archives related to the Atlanta Child Murders.

Files include papers of the Mayor of Atlanta Maynard Jackson's office, documents from the Committee to Stop Children's Murders, newspaper clippings, correspondence related to the reward fund, press releases, various documents concerning Atlanta's missing and murdered children’s cases, correspondence between Mayor Jackson and people concerned about the Atlanta cases, and bulletins on the missing children.

All files in this collection contain a text transcript of all recognizable text embedded into the graphic image of each page of each document, creating a searchable finding aid. Text searches can be done across all files in the collection.