Anna Daniels
Between 1979 and 1981, 30 African American children and young adults either disappeared or were murdered all throughout Atlanta. Wayne Williams was eventually convicted of two of the crimes, and the general assumption at the time – at least according to law enforcement – was that Williams was guilty of all of the murders. But was he? Or was the case closed too quickly? The new HBO docuseries Atlanta’s Missing and Murdered: The Lost Children delves into the story.
Atlanta’s Missing and Murdered Trailer
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GP9dJPBnSjM?feature=oembed&w=740&h=416]
Atlanta’s Missing and Murdered claims to offer “a never-before-seen look at the abduction and murder of at least 30 African American children and young adults that occurred over a two-year period in Atlanta in the late-‘70s and early-‘80s, from the initial disappearance and discovery of two murdered teenage boys and the fear that gripped the city, to the prosecution and indictment of 23-year-old Atlanta native Wayne Williams and the rush to officially shut down the case. With unprecedented access and a treasure trove of archival material, this timely documentary series brings new evidence to light as the cases are reopened, providing a powerful window into one of America’s darkest chapters.”
The series “hears from the victims’ families and examines the original trial materials and court documents, raising new questions for further investigation, and takes a closer look at the racial tensions and cultural clashes that brought Atlanta to a boiling point and caught the nation in a moment of transition.”
The Atlanta child murders will be familiar to anyone who watches Mindhunter, as the second season of David Fincher’s Netflix series focused heavily on that story, and concluded with Wayne Williams being caught and tried. The series also briefly touched on how there were still many unanswered questions, and how Williams’ was only convicted of two of the murders.
However, as Rolling Stone reports, last year “Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms and Atlanta police chief Erika Shields announced that they would be retesting evidence from the child murder case, as DNA has advanced far beyond what was possible 40 years ago.”
The five-part docuseries premieres on HBO on April 5.
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