When Klansmen Killed “a thousand future generations of n*ggers”

---

FBI’s own evidence and unclassified documents prove Wayne Williams wrongly convicted for the murder of 30 black children…

“Mrs. Catherine Leach is enraged that the best kept secret from the public in this crisis is the brutal manner in which most of the children were mutilated.  It is common to find among the bodies— castrations, hands amputated, feet amputated, lips and ears cut off, as well as part of the face. Why, the secret?  It reads like old-fashion racist killings.”

Ms. Catherine Leach regarding Curtis Walker, one of the murdered children

---

Back when this was originally written we received an email from a woman in Atlanta, Georgia who said her father was in the Klan and that he boasted of being involved in the Atlanta Child Killings. She said he once took her to a shed where, preserved in a jar, were the severed fingers of some of the black children that had been murdered. At the time, it seemed too far out to believe and I wondered how she could not bring herself to report it if true. Now it all makes sense.

In Atlanta, at least 30 children were murdered between 1978 and 1981. Fingerprints on pornographic magazines at a murder scene, phone calls directing the authorities to the bodies, witnesses and even Caucasian hairs at the crime scene pointed to a white man, with possible accomplices. Others proudly boasted of their involvement in the killings, offering grisly details never released by the police. Blamed for the crime, however, was a gay black man.

Williams wasn’t charged with the child killings because prosecutors knew their evidence was so weak they’d have no chance of conviction. Instead, he was prosecuted and convicted for the murder of two adults. What the FBI did is groundlessly blame the killings on Williams when their own evidence proved he couldn’t have done it, because someone else claimed responsibility and there was irrefutable exculpatory evidence proving that they did do it. What they did is close all the open cases in the Atlanta Child Killings to avoid prosecuting the Klan.

 

Were they that strong? Yes, in 1982 the Klan was still very, very strong. In fact, Klan influence in high office reached as high as the Supreme Court and at least one American President, Harry Truman, was a member (he would soon leave the Klan after being pressured to never hire Catholics). At least two 20th century Supreme Court judges were in the Klan, one of which was a Chief Justice who headed the infamous Warren Commission. (Chief Justice Earl Warren was once a Klan leader in Bakersfield, California.) The other Supreme Court Justice, appointed by FDR to appease the South, was Hugo Black. The latter has his Klan robe in the Smithsonian. The Klan was never something to be dismissed.

By the time WWII came around they had members, a Vice-President and Supreme Court Justice, hand picked by Franklin Delano Roosevelt. FDR wasn’t exactly a conservative icon. FDR was widely derided as a socialist. The Republicans and Dems were subject to Klan influence because they were the political engine that powered the South for well over 100 years. Just as Roosevelt couldn’t win the South without appeasing them, neither could Republicans. In fact, when President Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act in 1964, he declared that the Democrats had just lost the South for decades.

At the time of the terrorist anti-integration campaign, the Senate Committee on the Judiciary, which came to officially “question” the FBI Director on misconduct in the Atlanta Child Killings investigation, had at least two known senators with Klan ties. One, Sen. Robert Byrd (D) had been a Kleagle in the Klan, a recruiter. The longest filibuster in American history would come in opposition to the Civil Rights Act, and it would come from Byrd, who would be on the same committee tasked with facing killings of the Atlanta Children. The other was a strident segregationist who made Klansmam/Kleagle Robert Byrd look like Malcom X. Strom Thurmond (R) was the Chairman of that Committee. An illustrative quote:

“I wanna tell you, ladies and gentlemen, that there’s not enough troops in the army to force the southern people to break down segregation and admit the nigger race into our theaters into our swimming pools into our homes and into our churches.”

Strom Thurmond (R), 1948

It was a show hearing, and there was more than one fox in the hen house. There was no way the Klan would go after the Klan, so their entire mission was to conceal any Klan role in the killings by reminding the FBI of their ultimate authority, and their ability to fire any director who went as far as leaking any document pointing to Klan involvement.

In essence, it was like closing the Jack the Ripper case because Charles Manson was convicted of murder, and then blaming the murders on Manson because they “fit a pattern.”  What pattern? Williams was convicted of killing two adults, not children. Well, this info was all released there, for a while, until now. The original PDF on the FBI Records Vault containing this information, atchi3b, is now missing over ten pages.  In fact, practically every significant page on white supremacist involvement is now missing in all 24 PDFs of the case now posted, each PDF averaging about 100-120 pages.  Some of these missing pages are herein.

They “wiped out a thousand future generations of niggers”. Those were the words of Don Sanders, Atlanta Klan leader, captured on tape in 1981. The burning question is whether the voice print matches that on a cassette left at the burial site of two victims. Those results, of course, are blacked out in the case files now available to the public. At least 30 murdered children in a space of less than two years…in one city alone.

Even more remain missing. Yet the case was practically solved. They had Caucasian DNA in brown hair samples, they had his latent prints on a porno magazine found at the burial site of two victims, along with a cassette tape with the taunting voice of the killer. They had eyewitnesses ranging from a white woman in a bar who heard the suspect predict the next boy would be found strangled in a river, which in fact was the case; to a young boy who barely escaped a man fitting the same description: a white male, brown hair, scar on neck or check. Yet they let the original suspect go because “he passed a lie detector test”, which if even true, is a standard of proof that wouldn’t hold up in any court of law. If they were infallible, they would not be optional.

[pullquote]“It should be noted that on January 8, 1981, The Rockdale County Sheriff’s Department received an anonymous call from an apparently white male who advised that he had placed the body of Lubie Gater out on Sigmon Road. The caller then threatened to place another body, of a white child this time, out on Sigmon Road before February 1.[/pullquote]Worse, none of this exculpatory evidence was presented to the defense in the Wayne Williams trial. Wayne Williams was, in fact, convicted in the murder of two adults, on questionable carpet fiber evidence that has since been discredited; yet the judge allowed prosecutors to tack on the child killings because “they fit a pattern”!

Since when does any judge have the right to convict on suspicion alone and deny a citizen a right to a trial on a murder charge, let alone 30?

Unable to find a connection between Williams and the actual child murders, the FBI concluded that there was enough evidence to close the remain cases. Williams was never prosecuted for any of the missing children, in other words. This is not merely one of inept or corrupt officials unwilling to challenge powerful Klan elements in southern law enforcement and the Atlanta judicial system. It goes beyond that and challenges all of us to confront the question posed by the Klansmen of the time.

Would anybody “really care about a bunch of murdered nigger children”? Though Georgia officials at first suspected the Klan in the Atlanta Child Murders, they abruptly changed course and refused to provide the Williams defense with the exculpatory evidence they had accumulated. But it wasn’t just the Georgia Bureau of Investigations who had such evidence in the hands. So did the FBI: fingerprints and hair samples from a Caucasian male left at the crime scene.

The Blue-eyed White Man with the Scar

On February 9th,1981, a young black child was followed home from school. His apartment door was opened, the area was ransacked as the child hid under a bed. Nothing of value was stolen. Two days later, this suspect was seen in the vicinity of the boy’s school. Later that day another attempt was made to gain entry into the apartment. His mother screamed and the the child saw the same man peering through the window, a blue-eyed white male with a scar on his neck.

Following this incident, an unidentified caller threatened “I am going to kill the boy in 48 hours” By then his mother had purchased a padlock and took extra precautions. While at his grandmother’s house on Feb. 17, however, the same man chased the boy for several blocks. At around that time latent prints had been lifted from two pornographic magazines found at the burial site of two victims. The accosted boy viewed five photographs and selected the man to whom the latent prints belonged. Incredibly, investigators dismissed his claims due to a discrepancy in witness reports of beard growth between mid Feb and March. The suspect was never charged, despite the latent prints and this positive identification from a child that well-remembered his face. It gets better. Consider this FBI teletype [bold type mine]:

[pullquote]“My son was bragging and said that he killed the one that was stabbed in the stomach—the one that was found over there off Moreland.” Mr. A, White Male Witness[/pullquote]FBI Teletype 1/16/81

Re Atlanta telephone call to the FBI Laboratory Technical Services Division, dated 1/16/81.

Enclosed for the FBI Laboratory, Technical Services Division, are the following items:

1)    Realistic Cassette Tape with a copy of the recorded interview of [suspect] on 1/15/81,  by [redacted] and [redacted], Conyer’s Sheriff’s Office, CID Unit, [redacted] Georgia. 2)    Ampex Cassette Tape with a copy of the recording of two telephone calls from an unknown white male placed to the Conyers Sheriff’s Office at 7:30 p.m. on 1/8/81, and at 11:45 a.m., 1/15/81.   Also, included on this tape is a copy of the voice exemplars taken from fl| at 3:00 p.m. on 1/15/81. The enclosed items were provided to the FBI, Atlanta, by the Conyers Sheriff’s Office on 1/15/81.

REQUEST OF THE BUREAU

The Bureau is requested to have its Laboratory, Technical Services Division, make a voice comparison of the two calls received from the unknown white male called on 1/8/81, and 1/15/81 (Enclosure Number 2), and the recorded interview of    on 1/15/81 (Enclosure Number 1) , and the test exemplars of [suspect] on 1/15/81 (Enclosure Number 2).

The Bureau is further requested to have its Laboratory prepare copies of the enclosed cassette tapes and furnish copies to the following individual

1)    SA [redacted] Behavorial Science Unit, FBI Academy, Quantico, Virginia, so that the Behavorial Science Unit can make an analysis of the context of the recordings of the unknown caller and 2)   Dr. [redacted] via Syracuse Resident Agency of the FBI, Syracuse, New York, in order that a psyco-linguistic analysis can be made of the enclosed recordings.

By way of background information, the Conyers Sheriff’s Office, Conyers, Georgia, received a call from an unknown white male on 1/8/81, claiming responsibility for the recent murders in the ATKID investigation.   The unknown caller gave directions where the last victim, (Lubie “Chuck” Geter) was buried.   The unknown caller did not refer to Geter by name.

A search by the Conyers Police Department and the Sheriff’s Office was conducted on 1/9/81, in the area described by the caller with negative results.

Suspect, [redacted] was developed by the Conyers Sheriff’s Office and interviewed on the morning of 1/15/81.    Shortly after interview of [suspect] by investigators of the Conyers Sheriff’s Office, the Conyers Sheriff’s Office received a second call from an unknown white male saying the search was conducted in the wrong area.   The unknown caller furnished additional directions where the search should have been made. The Conyers County Sherrif’s Office advised that calls from the unknown caller were made from a local convenience store located approximately two blocks from suspect [redacted] residence.   [Suspect] admitted being in the store at approximately the time of the second call, however, [suspect] denied making the call to the Conyers Sheriff’s Office.

The unknown caller advised he was responsible for the child murders in Atlanta and made an additional threat to kidnap and kill a white child from one of the subdivisions off of Sigman Road in Conyers, Georgia. The unknown caller gave a 2/1/81, deadline in which he would carry out his threat.

 

FBI Teletype 1/26/81

“It should be noted that on January 8, 1981, The Rockdale County Sheriff’s Department received an anonymous call from an apparently white male who advised that he had placed the body of Lubie Gater out on Sigmon Road. The caller then threatened to place another body, of a white child this time, out on Sigmon Road before February 1. The caller told of an area on Sigmon Road that should be searched for Jeter’s body. The caller also related that he had three of the children still alive. An area on Sigmon Road was searched subsequent to this call and nothing was found. The caller then called back and advised the Rockdale County Sheriff’s Department that the wrong area had been searched, subsequent to this call the area described by the caller was searched with negative results. Terry Pue’s body was located on Sigmon Road within a mile of the areas previously searched.”

Aside from proving the killer(s) white, this was damning evidence that Wayne Williams did not kill either Terry Pue or Lubie Geter, two boys the FBI claimed Williams had killed. In the case of Lubie Geter, in fact, police did worse than drag their feet. Georgia Rep. Mildred Glover , representing the families of the children and writing to the Assistant Attorney General at the time, writes:

“Mrs. Assie Geter is disturbed by the informality and indifferent manner in which business is carried out in the Homicide Division of the Atlanta Police Department. She reports that her son’s case was only pursued when a family member, also a police officer, saw the report of Lubie’s death on a shelf, unattended, and took it upon himself to bring it to the attention of the proper authorities.”

Then there were the witnesses that were ignored. Consider this excerpt from the same letter regarding a witness the FBI and GBI turned away:

Mr. A—A White Male Witness

On August 14, 1982, at his request, I visited the home of a middle-aged white male in Atlanta (hereafter referred to as Mr.  A) who gave a comprehensive accounting of the implementation of a calculated plan by whites to kill the black children.   An excerpt from that conversation follows:

Q.    “Mr. A—you said that you thought you wife and your wife’s mother hated the fact that your sons, who are white, went to school and played with the ‘colored’ boys—do you think that could be ft serious motive (racism, prejudice) for your family to take the lives of Atlanta’s black children?”

A.  “Yes ma’am. Sure do. I mean, let me put it this way. They say, the South down here–the white people, the colored people and all—(Lincoln freed the slaves, you know)—well they say that everybody is happy and living together but there’s still a lot of old folks white old folks don’t feel that way. And her mother (wife’s mother) was one of the ones.

…Every morning she (wife’s mother) would come over here and have a cup of coffee with us before she went to work–and she was constantly every morning pouring that garbage in my kids’ heads.

…She didn’t talk about one specific boy—she didn’t know one specific boy—she just,  ‘cuse my French—she just said ‘them damn niggers running over everybody.’ They were going to school with them down here at Benteen and them kids would get in fusses and fights just like any kids do—you know—but yet just because they was black, they’d come   home and tell their grandmother, and then she’d say,  ‘them damn little niggers, if it wasn’t for them, you wouldn’t have got in a fight like that.’

…Constantly, every morning, she’d come over here and it was nigger this and nigger that.

Her daddy–when she was little–they was raise in Jonesboro.    And he’d come up to Atlanta in a horse and wagon ’bout every two weeks and he was up here, when the Ku Rlux was killing colored people and carrying them to the river in a wagon , and she was bragging to them young’uns and all–saying that’s what they ought to do again.”

At another taping in Mr. A’s home, he reported:

“My son was bragging and said that he killed the one that was stabbed in the stomach—the one that was found over there off Moreland.

As a matter of information, Mr. A lives in a predominantly black area of Atlanta.   A resident of fifteen years at that address, he is one of the few whites that has remained in his community despite the high incidence of white flight common to urban transition.   Mr. A and his family, themselves being poor, lived a similar lifestyle as their black neighbors.   His immediate family members whom he accuses of mass murder, were frustrated by having to contend with, “their black environment—despising their children’s attendance at the black school; their social life at the same boys’ club; the fusses and fights at recreation centers; their forced joint involvement in every area of life.

Their only escape were the frequent visits to relatives in Conyers, Georgia who he accuses of providing the opportunity for murder through the use of their motor home.

Mr. A expresses strong familiarity with several victims by name.    In fact, on my first visit to his home (accompanied by two parents),  I was amazed at not only his knowledge of the children but also the parents.    He greeted us and upon recognizing Mrs. Annie Rogers said, “Good evening, you’re Miss Rogers, aren’t you—Patriot Rogers was your boy.”

Mr. A claims to have an understanding of the route used by his family in the placement of the bodies.    He says that his relatives’ motor home was used to:

1) Drop bodies in the Chattahoochee River from the side door of the vehicle; and

2) Circle the perimeter on the ground route that was used by him (Mr. A) and his wife in their employment with the Dillard Mumford E-Z Food Shops (a.k.a. Magic Markets).    He says:

“Well, there’s one route–coming up 20 from Conyers going around 285—they was stopping at Moreland Ave down there at 285 where they was transporting the kids from a car to the motor home.   They was going on around 285 and getting off at 166 and Campbellron Road (which they’re both the same street) and then turn left going to Fairburn Road and taking another left and going down Redwine Road which is approximately 3 miles from the E-Z Food Shop at Fair-burn and Campbellton.

This compelling and vivid account of hate murders as described by Mr. A clearly violates the very same protection as established by the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States.

Despite its potential for providing answers to the most heinous mass murders in the history of this country, Mr. A’s testimony was ignored and door were closed to him at every level of law enforcement.    It is questionable whether his testimony would have been denied if 30 whites had been slain instead of 30 blacks.

Instead of pursuing slam dunk leads and charging Klan suspects they already had in custody, prosecutors charged Wayne Bertram Williams, lacking witnesses and credible physical evidence. Williams was initially charged with killing two black men, but prosecutors were allowed to pin him with the Atlanta Child Killings, and close their cases, simply because “they fit a pattern.”

The FBI Already Theorized a Klan Terrorist Operation

---

The following profile is one of several FBI documents detailing their concerns regarding Klan involvement in the Atlanta Child Killings, including notes that some right-wing elements in the local police department could very well have been involved….

“GOALS OF A TERRORIST GROUP: There are three main goals of any terrorist group that fit into the pattern in Atlanta.

1: To instill a sense of terror in the community in which the group operates.

2: By being able to act and not get caught, the group shows the weakness of the government, and undermines public support for and confidence in it.

3: To replace the existing government with one made up of supporters of the group), or that the group supports. In Atlanta, goals 1 and 2 have been achieved, and the next election will determine if goal 3 is reached.

MEMBERS: As indicated earlier (page 1) the members of the group are white males, age 25-4o, and in good health. And a check of the weekday disappearance chart (page 4), shows that it is most likely that they work at a job where they have Tuesday and Wednesday off (a list of such people would include not only police and fire officials, but also hospital or chain store employees). A list of known right-wing organization members, should be checked against employment, and this with schedules in an attempt to come up with a list of suspects fitting this pattern.

It is important to keep in mind that the members of this group do not look upon their actions as simple murder, but as a form of civic duty. It is the only way that they know to return their city to the proper form of government. Additionally, it is quite possible that they deplore the non-related killings, and that in some way they may serve as part of the justification for their acts. After all, any government that lets that many little children be killed does not deserve the right to be in office, and should be replaced by a new power structure that will be able to control the situation.”

THEORY: That the core killings, of children, in Atlanta, are the work of a small, fanatical, right-wing cell (possibly linked with the KKK, American Nazi Party, Minutemen, or other right-wing organization). Other killings are the work of copycat or cover-up killers, or the victims of random inner city violence.

MOTIVE: The motive of the killings is to discredit the black power structure in Atlanta. During the next city election, a “law and order,” candidate (backed by the major organization- but unaware of the true nature of the killings) will run for the office of mayor, and the killings will end.

METHOD: Nothing can instill in a population a feeling of fear and lack of faith in its leadership as fast as a series of seemingly random murders. And if the victims are children, the most defenseless members of the society, the sense of terror is heightened. It is for this reason that the killer group has chosen children as their victims. Their work has been made easier by the actions of copycat killers and random killings in Atlanta, that have served to conceal their actions.

GROUP COMPOSITION: It is my estimation that the killer group is made up four to five, white males, twenty-five to forty years old. These would be males in their top years of physical condition, powerful enough to overcome the resistance of a child without help. As to the size of the group, four men is the most that can fit, with ease, into a single car, and retain freedom of movement. It is also the size of a standard military rifle team, the base unit of any infantry organization. A fifth individual, if involved, would be the team leader and have the closest contact with the major organization.

SUPPORTING EVIDENCE: Several, unrelated facts and trends point to the possible team theory:

1: In recent months right-wing organizations around the nation have established paramilitary units, trained in guerrilla warfare methods.

2: Incidents of right-wing terrorist acts, such as the group of six recently apprehended in North Carolina in connection with a bombing plot stemming from the “death to the Klan” killings, are on the rise.

(page now missing from original PDF)

3: Atlanta, is a city on edge, and even assuming the existence of two or three copycat killers, any single individual trying to coax children into a car would draw attention to himself, and provide witnesses for police.

HOW TO GET THE CHILDREN INTO A VEHICLE: There are several possible methods that the grout) could employ to get the victims into a vehicle.

1: Money: The child is offered a relatively large sum of money (twenty or thirty dollars, and up front) to do some work for the killer. Later the money is removed from the body.

2: An accomplice (possibly a woman or another child) lures the victim to the vehicle with an offer of money or safety.

3: One member of the group), on foot, follows the intended victim for several blocks (or stands near him, if he is stationary). After a short period of time a second (and possibly a third) member of the group drives up to where the child is in a plain looking, four-door sedan. He rolls down the window or opens the door, calls out to the child, flashes some form of shield or ID, says he is a law enforcement official, and tells the child that the person following him is a suspect in the killings. The child gets into the car, while a fourth member of the group (in a second car) picks up the individual on foot. They may go so far as to have some form of radio contact between the cars (over a C.B. net), and then drive out of the area to a pre-determined location for the murder.

TYPE OF VEHICLE: If the groups is using a method like number three above, they must be using one or two, clean, plain looking sedans, of the type most common to the Atlanta police department. However, a more promising type would be a small van of some kind. Hot one with a fancy, “Star Wars,” paint job (that would attract too much attention) or a window van, but a simple panel van (probably with one way decals on the rear windows). Such a vehicle would draw little attention to itself, and could provide a rolling trader scene (and if the vehicle is carpeted inside, it could account for some of the fibers found on a few of the bodies).

RAPID RATE OF LAST FIVE KILLINGS: There are several possible explanations for the five killings between January and March, 1981.

1: They are the work of five, unrelated killers, who just by random chance struck within such a short period of time.

2: One of these killings is the work of the group, and the other four are random (as in number one, above).

3: All five are the work of the group, in one of the following patterns:

a: They are a, “Christmas bombing,” pattern, of several killings, to be followed by a lull in action by this group until a time closer to the elections.

SUMMARY: Based upon available data, the following are my tentative conclusions regarding the child killings in Atlanta

I: Killings number 1, 3, 5, 6, 10, 12, 13, are the work of the single right-wing cell, and are politically motivated. These six killings all share specific characteristics: all the victims were black, boys (except #5, see below), age 10-14, all were either killed by strangulation or asphyxiation (forms of death more inclined to instill a sense of terror in others than a shooting or knifing), no major effort was made to conceal the bodies, and all were last seen on a Tuesday or Wednesday.

IMPORTANCE OF AGE: A part of the motivation for these individuals to join the major organization s paramilitary unit, is the fear of a racial civil war in the next five to six years. In that case the children age ten to fourteen now, would be young men between sixteen and twenty when the war starts. In this way they are both sending a political message to the community and killing their enemy at the same time.

KILLING #5: The killing of, Angel Lanier, was a mistake. By that I mean that the members of the group did not realize that she was a girl until she had been lured into a trap. At that point they felt they had no choice but to kill her and make it look like a sexual motive was behind it.

RANDOM PATTERN OF GROUP KILLINGS: There are two prime reasons for the random and prolonged pattern followed by the group in its actions:

a: SCHEDULING: The members of the group have to find a time when they can meet, without some personnel or family situation keeping them from joining the rest of the team.

b: NEED: The act of the group are not the only child killing in the city, and so to keep the situation hot and in the public eye, they need only strike every few months.

II: Other killings, not related to group actions:

1) Killings 1 & 2, would seem to be related to each other (according to newspaper accounts), however, they are not related to the group) killings.

2) Killing 4, this is a case of strangulation, however three points stand out from the group acts. First, the child was only nine years old (two years younger than the group victims mean age of 11.3); second, his body was concealed in an abandoned building; and third, he was last seen on a Sunday.

3) Killing 7, also is unrelated to the group acts.

1: The numbers assigned to the killings come from the, New York Times, Sunday 15 March 1981. “Investigators Believe Many Killers, Separately, Slew Atlanta Children” F.A. Barber

An Incredible Exchange of Letters

---

The aforementioned exchange of letters between Georgia Rep. Mildred Glover and Assistant General Attorney Bradford Reynolds came after the Williams trial, which had enraged the parents of the dead and missing children whose cases had been closed and falsely attributed to Williams. As noted before, Williams was not charged with killing any of the children, only two adults, yet the FBI concluded that Williams was responsible for the murders. The simple truth was they never had any evidence pointing to his involvement in the child killings which would stand up in court, especially since preparations were already being made to introduce irrefutable evidence of Klan involvement if he was charged.

August 19, 1982

Mr. William Bradford Reynolds

Assistant Attorney General

Civil Rights Division

U.S. Department of Justice

Washington, D. C.    20530

Dear Mr. Reynolds:

After a nine-week trial in early 1982, Wayne Williams was convicted and sentenced for the murder of two adults in the Atlanta Child killings. Subsequent to his conviction, local authorities announced that twenty-two (22) children cases which appear to be related could also be closed.   Not one of the closed cases was brought to trial.

Parents of the children, first bewildered by the investigative treatment given their children’s murders and enraged at the knowledge that the conviction of Williams for two murders would suffice for all of them, sought my assistance for justice beyond the state of Georgia. They contend that their children were killed because they were black and that they, themselves, have been treated as second-class citizens in their effort to seek relief because they, too, are poor and black. Furthermore, their opinions are substantiated by extensive testimony in the form of written and recorded information which provide names, dates, and places suggesting a racist intent in the children’s murders.

It is against this background that parents and I entered into regular and lengthy discussions of the missing and murdered children in Atlanta.    As a State Representative from a district where many of the children lived, or were last seen, or were found, I consider it an important stewardship responsibility to respond to the parents in their request.

After a careful study and review of the information, I am led to believe that the parents’ contention that discrimination was the motive in their children’s deaths is, indeed, a valid one.

It is in the parents behalf that I write this letter to present the case of discrimination in the Atlanta child killings — that the children were killed because of color.

Evidence strongly suggests that the children’s civil rights have been violated.    Further I am charging that the improper and indifferent treatment accorded the children’s deaths by law enforcement officials and the inadequate and insensitive response to parents is proof-positive that they were ignored because of color.    It is fair to assume that our government leaders would have declared a state of emergency   (and conceivably a state of war) had the thirty victims been white, slain en masse, and virtually ignored by law enforcement officials.

In my response to the parents to seek justice beyond the state of Georgia,  I appeal to you under Title IX of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Section 902 which authorizes the intervention of the United States government in civil rights cases.    It states:

“Whenever an action has been commenced in any court of the United States seeking relief from the denial of equal protection of the laws under the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution on account of race, color, religion, or national origin, the Attorney General for and in the name of the United States may intervene in such action upon timely application if the Attorney General certifies that the case is of general public importance.    In such action the United States shall be entitled to the same relief as if it had instituted the action.”

63 Stat. 102

Title 28 of the U.S. Code

 Section 1447(d)

General Overview

During the summer of 1979, a crisis of unparalled proportions came to light in Atlanta, Georgia that was to continue for the next two years.    Black children and young adults were murdered in massive numbers.   The murderer(s) of unknown identity stalked the streets of the city snatching and killing our children and dropping their bodies along highways, byways, and in rivers.

During the period, a total of thirty young persons were identified as victims of the mass slaying and placed on an official Task Force List for on-going investigation.   The group included twenty-five (25) children and five (5) young adults.   Children ages ranged from 7 to 17; young adults, 18-28.

 On June 21, 1981, a suspect, Wayne B. Williams, was apprehended near the Chattacboochee River—a dumping ground for many of the victims. Williams was subsequently charged for the murder of two adults— Jimmy Ray Payne, 21 and Nathaniel Cater, 27 and convicted on both counts following a nine-week trial during the first part of 1982.

The books have been closed on cases that have indeed not been prosecuted with an understanding that they all can be linked to Wayne Williams—without the benefit of trial by jury.   There is no precedent for this procedure in court history.    The decision to establish a pattern and make all cases fit a mold in view of the critical nature of the case is indeed an unfit decision.    If anything, a pattern, having been established, should be used merely as a point of departure for a trial by jury in each and every case.

To date, there has been no attempt to learn the identity of the mass murderer(s) of our children.    For this reason, we are concerned that we may never know the circumstances surrounding our children’s deaths. Questions abound in every area of the situation.

Essentially, Mr. Reynolds, I believe that the civil rights of the children and parents have been violated for the following reasons:

1) Testimony given by Mr. A–a white male witness who alleges that other white persons have “bragged” to him about killing “them damn niggers.”    I am in possession of taped recordings detailing the contents of his testimony.

2) Testimony given by Mrs. B–a white female witness who reports that an acquaintance is killing the children to hide his homosexual activity with the boys.    Mrs. B has detailed her observations in a written report and submitted it to me.

3) Testimony given by Mr. C—a young black male (16) whom I consider a survivor because of his narrow escape with death.    Mr. C describes his homosexual prostitution activities with white males in Northside Atlanta.    His tape recorded testimony describes the activities of a club of members which included two of the victims.

4)   Parents were subject to indecent and indifferent treatment by police officials at every level of the crisis: i.e., delayed action early on: insensitive and improper police procedures;—all of which were tolerated because victims were black and not white.

5) In many instances, citizens desiring to offer information were either discouraged or ignored in their attempt to cooperate with investigative authorities.    Even parents’ offer of information was often ignored or simply refused.

6) The court’s failure to issue subpoena to persons known to have had continuous contact with many victims (based on eye-witness accounts as opposed to fiber evidence) is also contrary to proper judicial procedure.   As a matter of information, court documents, depositions, and other testimony provide identities of such persons.

The following discussion attempts to elaborate on the reasons listed above.

Mr. A—A White Male Witness

On August 14, 1982, at his request, I visited the home of a middle-aged white male in Atlanta (hereafter referred to as Mr.  A) who gave a comprehensive accounting of the implementation of a calculated plan by whites to kill the black children.   An excerpt from that conversation follows:

Q.    “Mr. A—you said that you thought you wife and your wife’s mother hated the fact that your sons, who are white, went to school and played with the ‘colored’ boys—do you think that could be ft serious motive (racism, prejudice) for your family to take the lives of Atlanta’s black children?”

A.  “Yes ma’am. Sure do. I mean, let me put it this way. They say, the South down here–the white people, the colored people and all—(Lincoln freed the slaves, you know)—well they say that everybody is happy and living together but there’s still a lot of old folks white old folks don’t feel that way. And her mother (wife’s mother) was one of the ones.

…Every morning she (wife’s mother) would come over here and have a cup of coffee with us before she went to work–and she was constantly every morning pouring that garbage in my kids’ heads.

…She didn’t talk about one specific boy—she didn’t know one specific boy—she just,  ‘cuse my French—she just said ‘them damn niggers running over everybody.’ They were going to school with them down here at Benteen and them kids would get in fusses and fights just like any kids do—you know—but yet just because they was black, they’d come   home and tell their grandmother, and then she’d say,  ‘them damn little niggers, if it wasn’t for them, you wouldn’t have got in a fight like that.’

…Constantly, every morning, she’d come over here and it was nigger this and nigger that.

Her daddy–when she was little–they was raise in Jonesboro.    And he’d come up to Atlanta in a horse and wagon ’bout every two weeks and he was up here, when the Ku Rlux was killing colored people and carrying them to the river in a wagon , and she was bragging to them young’uns and all–saying that’s what they ought to do again.”

At another taping in Mr. A’s home, he reported:

“My son was bragging and said that he killed the one that was stabbed in the stomach—the one that was found over there off Moreland.

As a matter of information, Mr. A lives in a predominantly black area of Atlanta.   A resident of fifteen years at that address, he is one of the few whites that has remained in his community despite the high incidence of white flight common to urban transition.   Mr. A and his family, themselves being poor, lived a similar lifestyle as their black neighbors.   His immediate family members whom he accuses of mass murder, were frustrated by having to contend with, “their black environment—despising their children’s attendance at the black school; their social life at the same boys’ club; the fusses and fights at recreation centers; their forced joint involvement in every area of life.

Their only escape were the frequent visits to relatives in Conyers, Georgia who he accuses of providing the opportunity for murder through the use of their motor home.

Mr. A expresses strong familiarity with several victims by name.    In fact, on my first visit to his home (accompanied by two parents),  I was amazed at not only his knowledge of the children but also the parents.    He greeted us and upon recognizing Mrs. Annie Rogers said, “Good evening, you’re Miss Rogers, aren’t you—Patriot Rogers was your boy.”

Mr. A claims to have an understanding of the route used by his family in the placement of the bodies.    He says that his relatives’ motor home was used to:

1) Drop bodies in the Chattahoochee River from the side door of the vehicle; and

2) Circle the perimeter on the ground route that was used by him (Mr. A) and his wife in their employment with the Dillard Mumford E-Z Food Shops (a.k.a. Magic Markets).    He says:

“Well, there’s one route–coming up 20 from Conyers going around 285—they was stopping at Moreland Ave down there at 285 where they was transporting the kids from a car to the motor home.   They was going on around 285 and getting off at 166 and Campbellron Road (which they’re both the same street) and then turn left going to Fairburn Road and taking another left and going down Redwine Road which is approximately 3 miles from the E-Z Food Shop at Fair-burn and Campbellton.

This compelling and vivid account of hate murders as described by Mr. A clearly violates the very same protection as established by the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States.

Despite its potential for providing answers to the most heinous mass murders in the history of this country, Mr. A’s testimony was ignored and door were closed to him at every level of law enforcement.    It is questionable whether his testimony would have been denied if 30 whites had been slain instead of 30 blacks.

Mrs. B—A White Female Witness

Through a mutual acquaintance, I met Mrs. B and her husband who report a number of experiences surrounding a suspect whom they believe to have young black boys in homosexual trysts.   She believes her life to be in danger because the suspect is aware of her suspicion.   Her testimony however, does not put the suspect with any of the victims.

Mr. C–A Young Black Male (16)

Mr. C is a young man, not retarded but slow in some ways, who reports that he is a part of a group of youngsters who engage in homosexual prostitution.   Be expresses a disgust at his involvement and an interest in getting out.    His friend, however, in an effort to get out was assaulted by fellow members of the homosexual club and because of this, Mr. C. fears that be, too, will be hurt.   Mr. C does, in fact, link two child victims as former members of the club who accompanied him on many occasions on “jobs.”

Parents Cite Reasons for Civil Rights Violations

Parents cite a number of reasons why they believe their children’s civil rights have been violated.   The following comments describe their major concerns.

Patrick Baltazar —

Mrs. Sheila Baltazar questions the motivation of the Task Force which directed her son, Patrick, to another department when be called for help.    She is further perplexed since his name was officially on Task Force list and he gave his name and reported that he was being followed.   This telephone call is part of the public record which was aired on local television.

Joseph “Jo-Jo” Bell

Mrs. Doris Bell believes that Wayne Williams did, in fact, kill her son and wonders why he cannot or will not be brought to trial for it.    Basing her conclusion on testimony by siblings, she thinks that if the victims were white, Wayne Williams would   be brought to trial for all victims connected to his pattern, and tried for each.

Alfred Evans

Mrs. Lois Evans questions the handling of her son’s case during the period he was missing. The Atlanta Police withheld from her the fact that her son bad been found by them and buried by them without her knowledge. Mrs. Evans who had reported her son missing fourteen months prior to this announcement does not understand why law enforcement officials felt the need to deny her the opportunity to identify her son.

Aaron Jackson

Mr. and Mrs. Aaron Jackson would like to know why Wayne Williams was not investigated earlier when their son talked about a “Williams acquaintance” of his.   The victims testimony was given to police but, nevertheless, ignored.

Lubie Geter

Mrs. Assie Geter is disturbed by the informality and indifferent manner in which business is carried out in the Homicide Division of the Atlanta Police Department. She reports that her son’s case was only pursued when a family member, also a police officer, saw the report of Lubie’s death on a shelf, unattended, and took it upon himself to bring it to the attention of the proper authorities.

Timothy Hill

Mrs. Annie Hill is disturbed by the way that people have smeared the reputations of the children.    She desperately wants the closed cases open and brought to trial.

Christopher Richardson

Mrs. Selena Cobb is upset because of the blatant racism she experienced with the DeKalb Police investigating officer who refused to come inside her home but rather sent for her and proceeded to investigate the case as she sat in her patrol car.    Mrs. Cobb does not believe that the rich white residents of Dunwoody would have been treated in like manner.

Patrick Rogers

Mrs. Annie Rogers believes that her son’s rights were violated because Cobb County closed the case on her son, Patrick, despite the fact that prosecution attorneys (during the Wayne Williams trial) stated publicly that “they were not charging Wayne Williams with the death of Patrick Rogers.”   Cobb County, however, reported that they (Cobb) do not have another suspect and have decided to close the case.

Earl Terrell

Mrs. Beverly Belt is concerned about many things, including the way the parents are treated; the fact that the bones of more than one body was often “thrown together” and aired on television.    She, too, desperately wants the closed cases open and brought to trial so that other perpetrators may be brought to justice.

Curtis Walker

Mrs. Catherine Leach is enraged that the best kept secret from the public in this crisis Is the brutal manner in which most of the children were mutilated.    It is common to find among the bodies— castrations, bands amputated, feet amputated, lips and ears cut off, as well as part of the face.   Why, the secret?   It reads like old-fashion racist killings.

Darron Glass

Mrs. Fannie Mae Smith wants to know why were the parents treated like suspects and why did the police have so little interest in investigating the cases.    Mrs. Smith is the foster parent of Darron Glass–the only missing child.

Observations made by parents above are also commonly shared by many Atlantans–many of whom welcome the opportunity to repeat their observations and experiences that might hopefully bring an end to this nightmare.

Police Indifference

Parents contend that the establishment of the special Task Force was a much delayed reaction.    They report that only after five of the children deaths in the face of constant cries for a special investigation was a special Task Force set up to handle the cases.   They could not understand the obvious limited value that was being placed on investigating such a terrible string of murders of their children.

They are now enraged at the sharp contrast that has appeared with the recent attempted murder of Atlanta lawyer Hirsch Friedman.    Within 48 hours after the attempt on this white citizen’s life, a Task Force was established to investigate it.    Even the FBI announced within 72 hours after the attempt that they would officially enter the investigating citing that their intervention was because of a possible violation of Friedman’s civil rights.    (see enclosed news clippings.)

The questions now on the parents’ minds—and certainly valid ones—

1)   Were our dead black children from Atlanta’s ghettos subject to the same equal rights of the law as an influential white male lawyer from Atlanta’s affluent Northside?   2) Had the children been white would the establishment of the Task Force taken place much quicker?

I, too, am bewildered and at a loss to understand the difference in treatment in the two cases.    Is it because of color?

Conclusion

Mr. Reynolds, the case of Atlanta’s missing and murdered children is one of the most heinous and bizarre crimes ever committee in the country and indeed the world.   Because of it, even the closure of the cases is one of the most talked about subjects in the city of Atlanta,

The evidence presented above would provoke the question in the mind of any constitutional lawyer as to the violation of the civil rights of these young black children.   Further, it strongly suggests that a person or persons still running free were responsible for some of these children’s deaths.

It continues to stagger the imagination of how poor blacks can be denied their civil rights almost twenty years after the passage of a law that guarantees it for them.

Hirsch Friedman is truly blessed because the same Civil Rights Act of 1964 that was designed to protect the civil rights of all Americans regardless of race, color, religion, or national origin is the very same vehicle by which you exercised authority to officially enter his investigation.

Mr. Reynolds, we seek that same equal protection under the law and trust that you will move with the same speed in responding to my call to give relief to the parents of Atlanta’s missing and murdered children.

Respectfully Yours,

Mildred Glover

The reply from the Civil Rights Division was insulting and dismissive, to say the least…

---

20 Sep 1982

Ms. Mildred Glover

State Representative,

District 32

735 Lawton Street, B.W.

Atlanta, Georgia   30310

Dear Ms. Glover:

The Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights has asked me to respond to your letter of August 19, 1982 concerning the investigation into the matter of the missing and murdered children in Atlanta.

As you know, the Task Force which investigated this offense was made up of State anp style=”padding-left: 30px;”d Federal agents.   You may be sure that all the evidence was carefully evaluated to determine whether violations of State or Federal statutes existed.   After careful examination of the evidence, Federal authorities concluded that no violations of the Federal criminal statutes could be established in any of the cases handled by the Task Force.

We are referring your letter to the FBI in Atlanta for consideration of the new evidence which you have brought to our attention.

Sincerely,

Wm. Bradford Reynolds

Assistant Attorney General

Civil Rights Division

By:

Daniel F. Rinzel

Chief

Criminal Section

The Security and Terrorism Subcommittee

---

On February 10, 1982, the following series of questions were posed by Sen. Patrick Leahy, a member of the Committee on the Judiciary, to FBI Director William Webster after his testimony at  the Security and Terrorism Subcommittee.

ATLANTA YOUTH MURDER QUESTIONS

1. I believe you told the Congress that the Bureau had a “tenuous” jurisdiction under the federal kidnapping statutes and the Justice Department concluded there was “no basis for a civil rights investigation.” On what basis did the Federal Government have the authority to investigate the Atlanta slayings?

2. Why was the FBI unable to enter the investigation initially due to lack of jurisdiction, but able to enter later with no apparent change in the facts regarding jurisdiction?

3. Did the FBI enter the case, as some have suggested, simply because the Atlanta slaying had become an issue national” in scope and effect a “national crime disaster area” — irrespective of a sound jurisdictional basis?

4. When U.S. Attorney General Benjamin Civiletti “ordered” the FBI, as well as the Justice Department, to offer their full coopera­tion to the Atlanta police, did he in effect “order” the FBI to exceed its traditional jurisdiction?

5. Why was the federal response in Atlanta, particularly that of the FBI, so slow in coming?

6. The technical assistance of two investigators (specifically the services of a special agent who is an expert in the development of behavioral profiles and an FBI agent who is a specialist in the development of visual investigation aid systems) was offered to the city on November 6, 1980. “At some point in very late 1980 or early 1981, a decision was made to send in more assistance. (By February 11, 1981, “some 26 FBI agents” had been assigned to “work with” Atlanta’s 35-member special task force.) Who made that decision, at what time, and when did additional help actually arrive in Atlanta?

7. At some point, the FBI “assistance” in Atlanta developed into an independent investigation running on parallel, and sometimes counter, tracks to the local efforts. At what point did the “assistance” burgeon into a full investigation? Can you provide some idea — the number of agents and the dates on which they became active in the investigation — of how the investigation force grew?

8. Once the FBI became committed to the situation in Atlanta, their investigation proceeded on a separate track from that of the Special Task Force which was made up of local law enforcement officials, who made the initial decision that the FBI not be a part of the Special Task Force?

9. Is it possible — simultaneous inquiries by two independent investigating groups — fostered much of the difficulty encountered in the investigation? Wouldn’t such an arrangement hinder communications, increase the risk of duplicated effort, reduce the chance of apparently unrelated information “coming together” in the process of an integrated investigation, and in other ways fetter the often slow and piece­meal development of a successful Investigation?

10. Was the two track investigation in fact preferable in the beginning or did other factors determine the structure of the investigation? Was the FBI unwilling to be integrated into the Special Task Force or was there an inability or unwillingness to integrate the FBI into the Special Task Force?

11. You were criticized for your announcement that four of the child murders were “substantially solved” at a time when Atlanta police said that they were not aware that any case was near resolution. Could this have been avoided by having had the FBI integrated into the Task Force? Similar criticism occurred following statement by an FBI agent not assigned to the case at a Macon, Georgia, Civic Club meeting that four of the children had been killed by their parents because they were considered “nuisances.”

12. Regardless of their effect on the actual investigation, don’t such statements undermine public confidence that law enforcement officials are dealing adequately with these highly publicized cases?

13. Do you believe there is any validity to the criticisms raised against the FBI concerning the conduct of the investigation from May 22 to June 21, 1981?

14. Is there any internal investigation underway of possible FBI misconduct? If such an internal review is complete, were any problems discovered?

15. Was the investigation of Mr. Williams, especially the occurrences immediately following the incident at the bridge less than a first-rate job in your estimation?

16. Do you think it was appropriate for the FBI to press for an arrest in the case before local prosecutors felt they were ready?

17. Finally, a high-level official on the Special Task Force was quoted in the New York Times last July as saying, “The FBI wanted to solve the case themselves.” “They wanted all the credit, but instead they have made it more difficult to resolve the guilt or innocence of the suspect.” What can we do to minimize the rivalries, which can disrupt investigations, if the Federal Government is going to get involved more heavily in crimes, which in the past have been left to state and local authorities?

It was a show hearing, of course. Jack shit was done.

Why Nothing Was Done: the Senate and Congress Were Long Infested with the Klan

---

The members on the Committee on the Judiciary included at least one former Klansman, Sen. Robert Byrd (D), and Sen. Strom Thurmond (R), with deep ties to the same. Thurmond, perhaps one of the fiercest segregationists in high office at the time, was the Chairman of the Committee on the Judiciary. It was literally a matter of the fox in the hen-house. Please keep in mind this is an important fact, because the key motive behind the killings was the issue of integration; for example, “stop forced bussing (sic) or I will kill 3 more black boys in March” as noted in the top warning note above. Byrd and Thurmond spent most of their lives fighting integration. In fact, Robert Byrd had the record for the longest filibuster in history, and it was made in an effort to block the Civil Rights Act of 1964. In essence, the Klan was still fighting his fight, and Strom’s, and this time as brazenly as possible.

We’d see them again in the Oklahoma City Bombing, and again, Thurmond and Byrd were still in office and no less influential as before.

In the Atlanta Child Killings, rather than expose the Klan and violate an oath of secrecy and loyalty, they scuttled the investigation. These were powerful men who could bring the FBI Director to testify at will, let alone induce him to fire any subordinates. It should be noted that Klan members reached the highest levels of offices, and included at least two members on the Supreme Court between then and the 20s, Hugo Black and Chief Justice Earl Warren, formerly Klan leader in Bakersfield, California.

When Franklin Delano Roosevelt appointed Hugo Black to the Supreme Court, his Klan history was no secret, and there was controversy. But as he stated at the time he would either appoint him, or lose the Southern vote in the coming election. Unfortunately, this was very, very true.

Related:

• CNN Employs Actual Klan Propaganda
• When Cyanide Gas Attacks aren’t Terrorism
• Garrison Reveals Operation Northwoods in 1967
• Brown vs. Blue Eyes: A Class Divided