In Mindhunter season 2, Holden and Bill travel to Georgia to investigate the on-going Atlanta Child Murders. That’s a big reason why the case has been reopened. In an emotional interview following the announcement, Bottoms recalled what it was like growing up during this terrifying time: “It was like there was a boogeyman out there, and he was snatching Black children.”, Bottoms added, “It could have been any of us… I hope that [reexamining the case] says to the public that our children matter. Tragically, he had disappeared just three days earlier. Mindhunter's second season introduced us to the horribly-named and absolutely devastating Atlanta Child Murders—here's the true story behind the case. Actors Holt McCallany, Jonathan Groff, and Albert Jones portray the FBI agents involved in the Atlanta Child Murders case in, 11 famous murders that remain bone-chilling to this day. Years later, a 2015 report by Spin magazine uncovered shocking details of a high-level secret investigation by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and various other law enforcement agencies. Bell, the fourth victim, had been living in a housing project just four blocks away from where his body was found. His body was discovered in 1981, just weeks after Sanders’ threat. Upon arriving, they soon realize that city officials are rightfully concerned about how Atlanta will be depicted in the media, as news reports about a potential serial killer would not only frighten citizens but potentially scare off people from visiting. In a rare interview in 1991, Williams revealed that he had befriended some of the brothers of the victims — as they had ended up in the same prison. His death hit the local community especially hard. That’s what it’s always going to be,” said Lois Evans, the mother of the first victim, Alfred Evans. Horrifically, Geter ended up becoming one of the victims. A student is comforted by his teacher during the funeral of his friend Patrick Baltazar, 11, who was murdered. The committee was supposed to act as a community-powered coalition to push for accountability over the stalled investigations of the slain kids. Then, a month later, a police officer working the department’s stakeout operation along the Chattahoochee River heard a splashing sound. Everything We Know, Netflix's 'Unbelievable' is a 'Mindhunter' Fan's New Obsession. Frustrated by Atlanta Mayor Maynard Jackson’s inaction and the reluctance of the Atlanta Police to recognize the murders as connected, the community began organizing on their own. On April 13, 1981, FBI Director William Webster announced that the Atlanta Police had identified the killers — seemingly indicating multiple perpetrators — of four of the slain children. Bettmann/Contributor/Getty ImagesDoris Bell, the mother of another Atlanta murder victim, Joseph Bell, cries during her son’s funeral. Lead characters Holden Ford, (Jonathan Groff), Bill Tench (Holt McCallany) and Wendy Carr (Anna Torv) are all fictional, but the FBI's Behavioral Science Unit and its survey of serial killers are not. The reality that Black youths were being preyed on and murdered in Atlanta sent shockwaves through the city’s communities. While you eagerly await the release of the second season of ‘Mindhunter,’ you can get familiar with some of the real-life killers the season will be focusing on. Now, she wants 'Mindhunter' to compensate the victims' families. Getty ImagesFamed FBI profiler John Douglas believed that Wayne Williams was responsible for some of the Atlanta murders — but perhaps not all of them. Though he didn't kill the child, Brian is the one who suggests placing him on a crucifix in hopes of reviving him. Wikimedia Commons/NetflixWayne Williams after his arrest (L), and Williams portrayed by Christopher Livingston in Mindhunter (R). And discrepancies in witness testimonies cast more doubt on Williams’ guilt. Bottoms said that evidence should be retested using the latest forensic technology, which was not available during the investigation four decades ago. He once said, “It isn’t a single offender, and the truth isn’t pleasant.”. Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms announces the reopening of the Atlanta Child Murders investigation in 2019. They were almost all boys, except for two girls. African American communities in and around Atlanta were gripped with fear and anxiety, but they were also extremely frustrated — since the Atlanta Police had still not drawn a connection between the cases. The deaths of Evans and Smith were brutal. A few months after the committee’s formation, Georgia officials requested that the FBI join the investigation. Eerily, the body wasn’t far from where the body of 21-year-old Jimmy Ray Payne had been found just a month earlier. Even with heightened vigilance in the community, kids kept disappearing. While the murder was real, it had no connection to the Behavioral Science Unit agents or their profiling work—and Ressler's son was never involved. But one of the most widely believed theories is that the Ku Klux Klan was behind the Atlanta Child Murders. This investigation apparently found that Sanders — and his white supremacist family members — planned to kill more than two dozen Black children to incite a race war in Atlanta. The culprits, whose names were not made public, were never charged with a crime, but rather were given intensive therapy and placed in foster care. Sheila Balthazar lost her stepson Patrick when he was 12 as part of the Atlanta Child Murders. Tench, who undergoes a major family crisis in Season 2, is based on real-life FBI profiler Robert Ressler. Mindhunter Season 2 picks up where the ... Atlanta to help investigate the abduction and murder of numerous black children in the area. Keisha Lance Bottoms/TwitterAtlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms announces the reopening of the Atlanta Child Murders investigation in 2019. We were saying that if you tolerated crime in your neighborhood you were asking for trouble.”. But eerily, he was found just 150 feet away from Evans. He also said that he had been in touch with some of the victims’ mothers. The infamous case became the main plot in season two of the Netflix crime series Mindhunter. And two U.S. Justice Department officials were also dispatched to the city to provide support. “He was God-gifted.”. In 1991, it was revealed that a police informant allegedly heard a KKK member named Charles Theodore Sanders verbally threaten to choke a Black teenager named Lubie Geter after the boy accidentally scratched his truck — while the Atlanta Child Murders were still happening. Mindhunter Season 2 examines Tench's relationship with his son, Brian (Zachary Scott Ross), who reveals his involvement in a child's death. The fictional show, which centers around 1970s FBI agents Holden Ford and Bill Tench as they interview and profile serial killers is expected to focus on the Atlanta Child Murders during its second season. Four murdered Black kids in the span of a few months raised suspicion among the victims’ families that the crimes could be related. A break comes in the case when they find Wayne Williams. "Mindhunter" Season 2 will follow the FBI's Behavioral Science Unit as they investigate the Atlanta child murders, a case with many open questions decades later. Natasha Ishak is a staff writer at All That's Interesting. He said, “I truly hope they find out who killed their children.”. And the cast have analogs in some of the unit's founding agents and researchers. AJCA 1981 article from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution after Williams’ conviction. The actual facts of the infamous Atlanta child murders, including all the major details that Mindhunter didn’t cover in its second season. And that same year, the real Atlanta Child Murders case was reopened in the hopes of finding the truth. On a balmy summer day in July 1979, the first body linked to the Atlanta Child Murders case was discovered. “We were encouraging the busybodies to go back to dipping into everybody’s business. The season kicks off with Tench’s wife, Nancy (played by Stacey Roca), explaining that she doesn’t like talking about serial killers or anything else of that nature — but she's eventually forced to deal with the horror of murder and death when a toddler is found killed, dead on a cross, inside the basement of a house she was trying to sell. The Republican Push to Ban Critical Race Theory Reveals an Ugly Truth, How to Watch True Crime Series 'Unbelievable' on Netflix, 8 Best Things To Watch On Netflix When You Finish 'Mindhunter', Will There Be A 'Mindhunter' Season 3? He had been strangled — and his genitals, lower pelvic area, and both feet were all missing. His remains were found a year later. I don’t talk to strangers,'” Mathis recalled. AJCYusuf Bell, 9, was the fourth victim discovered during the Atlanta Child Murders case. After reading about the Atlanta Child Murders, discover the true story behind Jerry Brudos, the shoe fetish killer in ‘Mindhunter.’ Then, take a look at 11 famous murders that remain bone-chilling to this day. The case is featured in season 2 of 'Mindhunter.' Brian, who is in grade school, admits to his father he was playing with a group of older adolescents and witnessed them suffocate a 20-month-old and place his body on a makeshift crucifix. Decades later, one of them recounted the gruesome crime in an interview with Frontline: "I think the most disturbing visual memory I have is seeing a bruised baby, and it wasn't moving," said "Billy," using a pseudonym. He had been killed by strangulation. By May, the grieving families had still not received any significant updates on the investigation. Still, the Atlanta Police did not establish any official links between the murders. Netflix’s criminal profile drama Mindhunter enters further dark territory in season 2, covering a series of murders that took place in Atlanta, Georgia in the late 1970s and early 1980s. They mattered in 1979 and [they matter] now.”. In March 2019, Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms — who grew up during the height of the Atlanta Child Murders — reopened the case. The Atlanta Child Murders was a series of killings carried out in Georgia from 1979 to 1981. But although he was accused of being the Atlanta child killer, he was never convicted of any other murders. Meanwhile, local citizens armed themselves with baseball bats, volunteering for the city’s neighborhood patrol. Camille Bell, the mother of Yusuf Bell, joined forces with other parents of victims to form the Committee to Stop Children’s Murders. But despite authorities’ efforts to conceal evidence linked to the KKK, many of the city’s Black residents already — and still — suspected that the white supremacist group was responsible for the crimes. Wayne Williams after his arrest (L), and Williams portrayed by Christopher Livingston in. Although the homicides appeared to stop after Williams was arrested, some believe that he was not responsible for the Atlanta Child Murders — including some of the victims’ families. In March 1980, Willie Mae Mathis was watching the news with her 10-year-old son Jefferey when they both saw investigators moving the body of one of the victims. By March 1980, the death toll had reached six. “There was other evidence, more fibers and dog hairs brought into court, along with witness testimony. Police officers, firefighters, and volunteers combed the city in search of evidence in the Atlanta Child Murders. The tragic case was later explored in the Netflix series Mindhunter in 2019. Currently, investigators are examining and reexamining every bit of evidence available. From the Atlanta Child Murders to "Co-ed Killer" Ed Kemper, the crimes portrayed on Mindhunter are based in reality. But Williams was only ever convicted of two murders — far less than the 29 slayings he was implicated in. Scotty Bowers: Pimp To Golden Age Hollywood's Biggest Stars — Both Gay And Straight, Yuncheng Salt Lake And Its Breathtaking Rainbow Of Colored Algae, What Stephen Hawking Thinks Threatens Humankind The Most, 27 Raw Images Of When Punk Ruled New York, Join The All That's Interesting Weekly Dispatch. In fact, some believe it’s basically already solved. He theorized that in order to have access to black children, the Atlanta killer would need access to the black community without arousing suspicion. Forty years ago in Atlanta, a serial killer brutally murdered at least 28 black children ages of 7 through 17. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, a mysterious killer terrorized Black communities in Atlanta. Alba was without his mother, allowing the boys, 7 and 10, to guide him into a secluded area in Pacific Heights. Inside The Gruesome Atlanta Child Murders — And Why This Case Remains Unsolved. Now, he throws them in … The Atlanta murders of 1979–1981, sometimes called the Atlanta child murders, were a series of murders committed in Atlanta, Georgia, between July 1979 and May 1981.Over the two-year period, at least 28 children, adolescents, and adults were killed. Wayne Bertram Williams (born May 27, 1958) is an American serial killer who is serving life imprisonment for the 1981 killing of two men in Atlanta, Georgia, and the police believe that he is responsible for at least 23 of the 30 Atlanta murders of 1979–1981, also known as the Atlanta Child Murders.He was never tried for the other murders (mostly of children). And all of them were Black. AJCThe victims of the Atlanta murders were all Black children, adolescents, and young adults. Once there they kicked and beat him with a brick, then fashioned a wooden crucifix and laid him on it to die. Even more chilling, the circumstances of the deaths varied in the Atlanta Child Murders. Wayne Williams is a serial killer. And to this day, Williams maintains his innocence. Police eventually arrested a local man named Wayne Williams in connection to the heinous crimes. The series itself was largely inspired by a book of the same name, written by former FBI Agent John Douglas — who is considered a pioneer in criminal profiling. After all, the murder of a tourist had made national news. Thirteen-year-old Alfred Evans was found in a vacant lot, his cold body shirtless and barefoot. So to “keep the peace” in the city, investigators allegedly decided to suppress evidence of possible KKK involvement in the Atlanta Child Murders. He would later be convicted of the murders of both men, who were among the few adult victims in the Atlanta murders case. But it’s difficult to say whether the renewed efforts will yield any significant closure for the families and the city at large. At long last, authorities were taking the case seriously. Bettmann/Contributor/Getty Images A student is comforted by his teacher during the funeral of his friend Patrick Baltazar, 11, who was murdered. “This is about being able to look these families in the eye,” Shields told the New York Times, “and say we did everything we could possibly do to bring closure to your case.”. In recent years, renewed interest in the Atlanta Child Murders has also permeated pop culture. After the detail about fibers is leaked to the press, the killer changes his MO for disposing of the bodies. Tragically, the very next day, Jefferey went to the corner store to get a loaf of bread — but he never made it there. Or will it just lead to more questions without answers? But as police were investigating the apparent crime scene in the vacant lot, they couldn’t help but notice a strong odor emanating from nearby vines. But no victims' families were consulted in the process. The officer then saw a station wagon pass overhead on the South Cobb Drive Bridge. And Williams was sentenced to life in prison. The character link is a creative liberty: In reality, Robert Ressler had three children—though none of them were involved in a murder like Brian. “He said, ‘Mama, I don’t do that. We spoke to Jonathan Groff and the rest of the 'Mindhunter' cast on the Atlanta Child Murders and Wayne Williams and how they prepared for playing the real life serial killers in season 2. Famed FBI profiler John Douglas believed that Wayne Williams was responsible for some of the Atlanta murders — but perhaps not all of them. Bell and the committee members also successfully galvanized the community to become active in safeguarding their neighborhoods. Getty ImagesPolice officers, firefighters, and volunteers combed the city in search of evidence in the Atlanta Child Murders. Like his fictional counterpart Ressler was credited with defining the term "serial killer." To continue reading login or create an account. Worse yet, the cause of death for some of the victims, like Jefferey Mathis, was left undetermined. The press quickly dubbed the homicide the "crucifixion murder.". In June 1981, Wayne Williams was arrested in connection to the deaths of Payne and Carter.