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Between 1979 and 1981 at least 29 Black children were killed in the city of Atlanta. The horrific string of killings was dubbed the “Atlanta Child Murders.”
Police arrested Wayne Williams, a suspect in the child murders, on June 21, 1981. He was later convicted for the murder of two adults, but would never be charged in any of the child murders. Police have attributed a number of the child killings to Williams, but those cases were never formally solved.
Atlanta native and Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms remembers how horrific it was for the city when the child murders took place. The city was conflicted about if Williams was the true murderer. For years citizens wanted answers but were never able to get definitive closure.
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During the height of the murders the city imposed curfews, parents removed their children from school, and over 100 agents worked on the investigation night and day.
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Media coverage around the murders was none stop, which caused a lot of fear in the community. Even after Wayne Williams was arrested a lot o people living in the city still had questions. How could one man, with no help commit all these atrocities for such a long time and not get caught?
Source: Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms Making Progress Finding Justice In Famous Atlanta Child Murders Case
