Killer Stories with Harvey Guillén - The Atlanta Child Murders Pt. 1

Episode Date: November 8, 2021

In the late 1970s, a killer stalked the streets of Atlanta, Georgia, abducting and murdering young Black kids. The city was paralyzed with fear and theories abounded on the identity and motivation of the killer. But when a suspect was finally apprehended, it wasn’t who anyone expected. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Due to the graphic nature of this episode, listener discretion is advised. This episode contains discussion of murder, suicide, and sexual assault that some listeners may find disturbing. Extreme caution is advised for listeners under 13. In March of 1981, teenager Jerry Lee was at his job at the Cap and Pegg restaurant in Atlanta. He was hard at work, running the seafood joint and attending to its steady stream of customers. At some point during his shift, the restaurant's phone rang, and Jerry, Harry hustled over to pick it up. But instead of a customer, he was surprised to hear the panicked voice of someone he knew.

It was 15-year-old Joseph Jojo Bell, an employee at the restaurant. The thing was, everyone knew that Jojo had been missing since the day before. But if Jerry felt any relief at finally hearing from his friend, it was replaced by dread as Jojo spoke. He sounded terrified as he said, I'm about dead. They're about to kill me. Jerry, they're about to kill me. Then the line went dead, and Jojo was gone.

Hi, I'm Greg Poulson. This is Serial Killers, a Spotify original from Parkast. Every episode, we dive into the minds and madness of serial killers. Today we're taking a look at a series of crimes known as the Atlanta Child Murders. I'm here with my co-host, Vanessa Richardson. Hi, everyone. You can find episodes of serial killers and all other spotting originals from Parcast for free on Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Between the summer of 1979 and 1981, the city of Atlanta was plagued by a killer targeting young black locals. Today we're discussing the victims of the bloodthirsty streak. The police's lacklustre response and how a community tried to fight back. Next time we'll dive deep into the life of the investigation's prime suspect, his trial and why some people, including the city's current mayor believe the real killer is still out there. We've got all that and more coming up. Stay with us. This episode is brought to you by ZipRecruiter. Whether you're hiring for a role or searching for a killer, the hunt can be exhausting.

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If you've ever been the victim of a serious crime, you probably call the police, fully expecting them to come to your aid. If you're lucky, you trust that they'll be there to help and find the perpetrator. That's their job after all, right? To protect and to serve, to catch the bad guys to make you feel safe. But it's not always that simple. For some communities where crime is more prevalent, the police aren't always called. and when they are, their presence isn't always welcome. It's a common assumption to think that crime is more pervasive in poor neighborhoods, and it's probably tempting to believe that poverty causes crime.

But perhaps it's that authorities are less concerned with ending crime in these pockets of society, which is why it persists, often with little resistance. Atlanta in the 1970s was a city well acquainted with crime. In 1978, it had the highest crime rate per capita among the largest cities in the United States. However, the crime rate was often overlooked because of the wealth pouring in. Despite the crime, Atlanta was on the up-and-up, gaining global prominence as a bustling metropolis. People were calling it the capital of the New South. Others said Atlanta was the city too busy to hate, a place that had moved past its racial history

into a future where everyone was welcome. Undiscoring that point, the city boasted the largest association of historically black colleges and universities in the United States. More than 50% of the city's population was black, many of whom made up one of the largest black middle classes in America. Black businesses thrived in Atlanta. There were black-owned banks, hospitals, insurance companies, nightclubs, movie theaters, and more. And in 1973, the city elected its first black mayor. The first in any major city in the south, Maynard Jackson. But while there was a burgeoning middle class, poverty persisted relentlessly.

Atlanta had many community housing projects, which were neighborhoods providing low-rent housing to low-income families. The average yearly income in these neighborhoods was as low as $2,500. In comparison, the nation's average in 1979 was $19,600. dollars. And as poor as these communities were, the government didn't seem interested in investing money back into them. In short, the city was in a tug of war for its identity. Poverty and wealth existed in the same intensity, while Atlanta's reputation as a progressive city competed with its racist reality. This was Atlanta in 1979, teetering between poverty and wealth, between its racist past

and its reputation as a stalwart of black commerce and success. And that summer, on July 21st, 14-year-old Edward Hope Smith went missing. Edward had spent the evening at the Greenbrier skating rink with his girlfriend. They said good night around midnight, and he started walking home to the Kimberley Court housing project. But he never made it. A few days later, on the afternoon of July 25th, Edward's friend, 18-year-old Alfred Evans left his house in the East Lake Meadows housing project. He was heading downtown to see a Kung Fu movie.

A neighbor who gave Alfred a ride to the bus stop was the last person to see the teenager alive. Edward and Alfred's families both reported their boys missing, but police didn't think much of the disappearances. They guessed that the teens had just run away from home. The truth was, Atlanta's missing person squad was already overwhelmed. They were a tiny team of three, handling nearly 500 cases a year. Two teenagers missing from the city's poorest neighborhoods just weren't high in their list of priorities. But the boys weren't missing for long. A few days later, a woman foraging for cans and bottles in a wooded area of southwest Atlanta came across a terrifying site.

The heavily decomposed body of a teenage boy. Police swarmed the scene to search the woods for evidence. Instead, they found a second body. The two were later identified as Edward Smith and Alfred Evans. Medical examiners determined that Edward had been shot with a 22-caliber gun. Alfred, whose body was more decomposed, was harder to identify. It was eventually decided that he'd probably been strangled to death. Since the causes of death were so different, police didn't initially believe the murders were related.

But if they were, they were more than happy to chalk them up to drive. drugs. Police had received a tip that before they went missing, both boys had attended a party where they smoked marijuana. To police, that suggested the boys were involved in some shady dealings. Whatever the reasons, it seems police didn't give much attention to the case. They either didn't care or didn't have time to investigate the death of two black teenagers. And with no one looking for the killer, they were free to strike again. September 4, 1979 was supposed to be 14-year-old Milton Harvey's first day. stay back at school. But his mom bought the wrong kind of shoes for him. They just weren't in,

so he decided to stay home. Since he wasn't going to school, Milton's mother sent him on an errand to pay a credit card bill. That afternoon, the teen left his home in the Nash Road Housing Projects, riding his bike to the citizens and Southern Bank. The bank staff were the last people to see him. Milton's mother reported him missing that night, but like Edward and Alfred, police didn't take his disappearance seriously. Once again, they guessed that Milton had just run away. They were wrong. A pattern was emerging, but the authorities didn't seem to notice it. That pattern continued a month later on October 21st. That day, nine-year-old Yusuf Bell left his house to pick something up from a convenience store.

Witnesses saw him getting into a blue car. Like Milton, Yusuf never made it back home. Following his disappearance, police again suggested that Yusuf had run away. Despite the fact that he was only nine years old, he and the other boys weren't the first to vanish in Atlanta, and according to what police knew about runaway children, they seemed to fit the profile. Vanessa is going to take over on the psychology here and throughout the episode.

As a note, Vanessa is not a little. licensed psychologist or psychiatrist, but we have done a lot of research for this show. Thanks, Greg. Running away from home is something kids from all walks of life have done. But according to the official journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics, there are risk factors that make some kids more likely to undertake it than others. Runaways often have learning disabilities and mental health issues. Depression and anxiety are common, and a large percentage of them have attempted suicide at

least once. They have a difficult time at school and many of them drop out altogether. Running away is also more common in households that struggle financially, especially if that struggle creates tension in the home. All of that considered, the most likely reason a child will run away from home is due to an unsafe or stressful home environment. This is important because the presumption that many of the missing kids simply ran away significantly impacted how and how quickly. Investigating responded. Most of the kids that went missing came from poor neighborhoods, and many of them had unstable home environments. Because of that, police dismissed calls to investigate their disappearances as connected. The kids also represented a segment of society that is often

overlooked and ignored by structures of power. Problematic thinking tells us that bad things happen in bad neighborhoods. So to the authorities, the disappearances were just business as usual. However, Yusuf's mother, Camille Bell, insisted that her son wouldn't run away. Yusuf was intelligent and well-liked. He was an honors student and was running for treasurer of the student council. He was in band, did karate, and attended a boys' club in his community. In other words, he didn't match the profile of a kid who would run away from home. For Camille, the police's response was inadequate, and since they seemed unwilling to look into her son's disappearance, she turned to the media instead.

She went to the local news stations, got on camera, and pleaded with whoever took her little boy to let him go. As days turned to weeks, Camille continued her efforts, organizing searches and keeping Yusuf's name in the news, begging for her son's safe return. It felt like a nightmare, one she couldn't wake up from. And unfortunately, it was only the beginning. Coming up, police make a startling discovery. This is Story Booth Daily. Tune in to this new podcast for your daily fix of real life stories from real people around the world. We've received thousands of stories that we want to share with you, from talking about being ghosted, or realizing that being popular isn't all that great sometimes.

No topic is off the table. This is a podcast that's not only for you, but by you. Story Booth Daily premieres November 8th, so be sure to check us out Monday through Friday. Story Booth Daily is a Willhouse and Spotify original from Parcast. Want to support your gut health? Take Activia's gut health challenge by enjoying two Activia yogurt today for two weeks and see if you feel a difference. With billions of probiotics and 20 years of scientific expertise, Activia is one of the easiest and tastiest ways to start your gut health ritual.

Try Activia today. Enjoying Activia twice a day for two weeks as part of a balanced diet and healthy lifestyle may help reduce the frequency of minor digestive discomfort, which includes gas, floating, rumbling, and abdominal discomfort. Now back to the story. In the summer of 1979, young black boys began disappearing from the poorer neighborhoods of Atlanta, Georgia. By November, two boys had turned up dead, and two others were still missing, though that was about to change. On November 8th, a former janitor at the abandoned E.P. Johnson Elementary School came across the body of a little boy hidden beneath the floor

boards. It was nine-year-old Yusuf Bell. Yusuf had been hit over the head twice, then strangled to death. Curiously, his killer had then washed the bottom of the boy's feet. A week later, on November 16th, the remains of Milton Harvey, who disappeared in September, were discovered by a man collecting cans and bottles at a dump in the south side of the city. His body was in such an escalated state of decomposition that he was little more than a skeleton. Medical examiners couldn't figure out how Milton died, so his death wasn't investigated as a homicide. Not only that, investigators didn't see or acknowledge any correlation between the cases.

The boy's parents, especially Yusuf's mom, Camille, disagreed. Four black boys had gone missing in a span of a few months, and all of them turned up dead. No one official seemed interested in finding out what happened to their boys or who was responsible. The pain of their loss was compounded by this lack of urgency from police and the local government. The families felt neglected by the authorities. They believed police weren't investigating the deaths as seriously as they would be if the boys were white, and came from the wealthier parts of town. In response, the police told Camille and the other parents that they were overreacting.

And for a short while, it seemed like maybe they were, They were right. For the next few months, the murders stopped, offering a short reprieve for the community. But whoever was behind the killings was just getting started. On March 4, 1980, 12-year-old Angel Lanier spent the afternoon watching her favorite TV show at her friend's house after school. When the program was over, she left to go home. But she never made it. That evening, her mom practically called the police to report her missing. Despite her panic, the officers believed that Angel had just run away. So instead of starting an investigation, they decided to wait and see if she'd turn up.

Six days later, she did. Angel's body was discovered in a wooded area three blocks from her house. She was tied to a tree, and her hands were bound with electrical cords. She'd been strangled to death, likely with the same type of cord restraining her hands. The startling and horrific discovery of Angel's body was quickly followed by realization. The murders that had terrorized the community were starting again, but police still didn't believe that black children were being targeted. Angel was the fifth black child to be killed since the murders had begun the previous summer.

All of the kids came from poor neighborhoods, and three of the victims were confirmed to have been strangled to death. However, Angel was the only girl so far. She was found with a pair of white underwear that wasn't hers stuffed in her mouth, a bizarre departure that suggested there was a sexual nature to her murder. Still, police didn't believe there was much tying the cases together, other than race in the neighborhoods where the kids lived, so they were all investigated separately, and predictably the pattern continued. On March 11th, just one day after Angel's body was found, 11-year-old Jeffrey Mathis disappeared while running an errand for his mom. At least two weeks, witnesses came forward to report that they saw Jeffrey getting into a blue car that day.

Shortly after Jeffrey's disappearance, students out of elementary school reported something troubling to their principal. A man in a blue car, much like the one Jeffrey was seen getting into, had tried to entice them to leave school with him. The quick-thinking boys took down the license plate of the car and gave it to the police, but it appears the car was never investigated. The families of the missing and murdered children were incensed. The authorities were ignoring their concerns, fears, and leads. The black community at large was furious. They were sure the deaths weren't coincidental.

They believed their kids were being preyed on by a killer or a set of killers because of their race. Camille Bell, along with the mothers of other victims, formed the Committee to Stop Children's Murders. The organization began as a support group for the group. the grieving mothers, but it evolved into something larger when they got fed up with how they were all being treated by police. Speaking with People magazine, Camille revealed that the police simply stopped communicating with her and the other mothers. She said they wouldn't call us back.

Nothing was being done. Frustrated and angry, the group started giving more interviews to the media, working hard to keep the names of their children on the public's mind. and whenever another child went missing or turned up dead, they held press conferences. The committee also pressured police to consider that the murders were the work of a serial killer or killers. They often showed up to the police station and the mayor's office, demanding answers and updates on the investigations. They also encouraged the community to be more diligent and to watch out for each other.

If the police weren't going to keep them safe, they would have to protect themselves. But even with the community keeping watch over the streets, black children continued to disappear. At around 10.30 p.m. on May 18th, the phone rang at Evelyn Miller's home. Her foster son, 14-year-old Eric Antonio Middlebrooks answered it. After a short conversation, he darted out the door, hopped on his bike, and rode off. The next day, Eric's body was found nearby with his bike next to him. His pockets had been turned out, and despite,

Despite the small stab wounds on his chest and arms, he died of blunt force trauma to the head. At this time, forensic technology was still fairly rudimentary, so analyzing biological evidence like blood and semen wasn't possible. But forensic scientists still had some options to work with. And one detective found something he believed could be important. Detective Bob Buffington noticed a red fiber on the bottom of Eric's shoe, and he sent it to be tested. But with nothing to test the fiber against, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation filed the evidence away. As spring turned to summer and the weather heated up, the cases turned cold.

The only thing that seemed to change was the number of victims. On June 9th, 12-year-old Christopher Richardson was walking toward a recreation center in Midway Park to go for a swim. But he never made it. A few weeks after that, Latanya Wilson was kidnapped from her bed in the most brazen abduction yet. A neighbor claimed to have witnessed a man entering through the seven-year-old second-floor window at least four times before slipping out the back door with the girl under his arms. Latanya was sleeping next to her sister in the room she shared with her two siblings when she was abducted.

Her brother's bed was underneath the window, so her abductor would have had to climb over the bed without waking any of the children. It was a terrifying thought. A child plucked from her bed, but there was barely time for the community to process it. One day after Latanya was abducted from her bed, 10-year-old Aaron Weich disappeared. A witness said she saw Aaron walking towards a blue and white car with a tall, broad black man with a goatee. The next day, Aaron's body was found underneath a bridge. The preliminary cause of death was asphyxiation, resulting. from a broken neck. Police presumed that he climbed the bridge's guard railing and fell.

But Aaron's family wasn't so sure. The guard railings were nearly as tall as the 10-year-old, and he was deathly afraid of heights. His family said he wouldn't have been up there unless he was being chased, but by who or what no one knew, and they had very little time to figure it out before another child went missing. On July 6th, around 1 a.m., 9-year-old, old Anthony Carter was playing hide-and-seek with his cousin outside his house when he went missing. His body was found just hours later, behind a warehouse less than a mile from his home. He'd been stabbed multiple times. The discovery of Anthony's body brought the death toll to nine in the 11 months since the murders

began, and three kids, Latanya, Jeffrey, and Christopher were still missing. With no end in sight, the committee to stop children's murders was putting tremendous pressure on police to solve the cases. Finally, in late July, authorities announced the creation of the Special Task Force on Missing and Murdered Children. It's important to note that although the task force was formed to address the rise in crimes against these children, police still hadn't officially announced a connection between the cases. And despite the renewed efforts to solve the cases, the abductions and killings continued unabated.

On July 30th, 10-year-old Earl Terrell headed to a community pool where he planned to spend the day swimming. At the pool, the staff kicked Earl out for misbehaving. But where he went after that, no one knows. By nightfall, he still hadn't come home, and his family began a frenzied search. The next day, Earl's family received a phone call from a man who said that he had the boy, but said little else before he hung up. The man supposedly sounded white and had a strong southern drawl. Later that day, he called back to say that they were in Alabama,

and he wanted $200 for his safe return. But then he never contacted the family again. However, because he claimed to have Earl in another state, the FBI finally got involved in the case. The Bureau quickly began analyzing the details to build a psychological profile of the killer or killers. But as police and FBI agents worked to solve the already overwhelming caseload, more and more children continued to vanish.

A few weeks later, on August 20th, 12-year-old Clifford Jones was in town visiting his grandmother from Cleveland. That day, he headed to the grocery store with his aunt and brother. When they arrived at the store, Clifford stood outside helping people carry and unload their groceries for some extra cash while his aunt and brother shopped. When it was time to go, Clifford was nowhere to be. found. His family reported him missing, but it was already too late. Clifford's body was found the next day, dumped behind a laundromat in the Hollywood Plaza

shopping center. He had cuts and bruises on his face, and there were contusions around his neck from the rope used to strangle him. Curiously, Clifford's underwear was missing, and he was wearing clothes that didn't belong to him, a pair of blue and red jogging shorts and white tennis issues. After Clifford's murder, police could no longer ignore the pattern. This wasn't a random escalation of violence against black children. They finally announced that they would be investigating the murders as connected and not just as a series of unfortunate coincidences. The announcement brought little comfort to the families of the victims. In fact, the community was now dealing with a different kind of terror altogether, and this one was psychological.

The deaths were taking a heavy toll on the black community in Atlanta, especially the kids. The media reported on new abductions and deaths daily, and for many children, the fear of becoming the next victim was painfully real. According to a report by the Georgia Psychological Association, anxiety was high among black children at the time, and many troubling symptoms emerged. Children developed a fear of going to school and of strangers. Escaping the anxiety, was a nearly impossible task. So many of the kids clung to their parents like they were babies again. The murders also disturbed the family dynamics and way of life for many households. Atlanta was an outdoor city and kids were used to spending their days playing outside.

They also enjoyed a healthy amount of freedom and used to be able to wander their neighborhoods without supervision. But now, the fear of a killer stalking the streets changed everything. More families insisted on kids staying home. causing tension and conflict to escalate. In October of 1980, a citywide curfew was implemented, prohibiting children under 15 from being on the streets between 11 p.m. and 9 a.m. But that wasn't all.

By that point, the murder set escalated to the point of gaining national and even international attention and criticism. People across the country condemned authorities' slow response to the killings. There was no way the murder of white children would be met with so little urgency. But even as pressure mounted, nothing seemed to work. And as hard as the authorities tried to get the situation under control, the killer or killers were always two steps ahead. Eventually, people in the community got sick of waiting around for investigators to crack the case.

So in October, they decided to take matters into their own hands. Coming up, a devastating search, and the killer's MO changed. changes. Are you looking for support in your weight management journey? Zepbound terseptitide may be able to help. Zepbound is a prescription medicine used with a reduced calorie diet and increased physical activity to help adults with obesity, or some adults with overweight who also have weight-related medical problems to lose excess body weight and keep the weight off. Zepbound is approved as a 2.5, 5, 7.5, 10, 12.5 or 15 milligram injection. Zep bound contains terseptide and should not be used with other terseptide containing products or any GLP1 receptor agonist medicines.

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Slow burns, second chances, chemistry you can feel through the screen. Your next obsession is waiting. Watch only on Prime. Now back to the story. By the fall of 1980, tensions in the black community of Atlanta were at an all-time high. The Atlanta Child Murder's case now had 14 victims, and many children were still missing. So in October 18th, the community decided to mobilize a search for some of those children. More than 300 people combed through wooded areas in the Dixie Hill neighborhood of northwest Atlanta,

looking for anything that would help them find answers. In hours, they found the skeletal. remains of a human child. Seven-year-old Latanya Wilson, who had been snatched from her bed that June, was found in a fenced-in area just a few blocks from her home. Authorities guessed that she'd probably been killed shortly after her abduction and her body dumped soon after. But because of decomposition, they couldn't figure out how she died.

The community was devastated and outraged. The fact that they found Latanya's body so quickly intensified the belief that police weren't doing enough. By November, 16 kids had either been slain or were still missing. The investigation was going nowhere, and detectives hadn't turned up any leads or suspects, but the case was about to shift in a way that no one saw coming. Patrick Rogers was a 16-year-old boy living in the Thomasville Heights Housing Project. Everyone in his neighborhood knew him as Patman, and he was often seen digging through crates of vinyl in record stores across the city. Patrick loved music, wrote songs with his good friend Joe Harper,

and sometimes performed in local talent shows and open mics. Patrick was a popular and well-liked kid, and he knew at least five of the victims of the Atlanta child murders. After one of his friends, Aaron Weich, was found dead earlier that summer. He told his mom that the killings were getting a little too close to home. He was scared. On November 10th, Patrick headed over to his friend Joe's house, excited to tell him something, but Joe wasn't home, so he told Joe's mom the news instead.

He'd been approached by a man named Wayne Williams, who said he wanted to record the duo's music. Patrick was ecstatic. Singing was his lifelong dream, and it felt like things were finally starting to happen for him. But unfortunately, that dream would never be fulfilled. Joe's mother was one of the last people to see Patrick alive. Initially, police didn't suspect any foul play when Patrick was reported missing. They were so sure that nothing bad had happened to him that two days after his disappearance, police issued a burglary warrant in his name.

But their certainty couldn't have been more off the mark. Patrick's body was found on December 7th in the Chattahoochee River, tangled up on raptor cables in the water. He'd been killed by a fatal blow to the head. Patrick's was the final death of 1980, but the pause was only a short one. On January 3rd, 1981, a 14-year-old disappeared. Luby Jeter was selling car deodorizers outside of a shopping center when he vanished. Witnesses reported seeing him get into a number of different cars that afternoon.

On January 9th, while police were conducting a search for Luby's body in a wooded area, They got a tip from a man who was walking with his dog nearby. The man told police that his dog smelled bad and might have gotten into something. As it turned out, he had. It was a dead body. But it wasn't Luby. Instead, police found the heavily decomposed bodies of 12-year-old Christopher Richardson and 10-year-old Earl Terrell, who had both disappeared the previous summer.

Medical examiners couldn't figure out how either of the boys died. In addition to the two boys, police also found shotgun shells, adult magazines, a cigarette butt, and magnetic recording tape in an area near the bodies. They also found a set of fingerprints, evidence that might finally help point them towards a suspect. When police tested the fingerprints, they got a match, someone they could place at the scene of the crime. They brought the man in for questioning, but for reasons that are unclear, they decided he wasn't their guy and let him go. Now they were back at square one.

The killer or killers had outsmarted them at every turn. Even still, Atlanta's PD-Tip hotline continued to receive calls. In early February, a young boy called the hotline, terrified and convinced that the killer was coming after him. However, authorities didn't take the call seriously and never followed up. That boy was 12-year-old Patrick Baltazar, and he was an enterprising young man. He sold newspapers, washed dishes at Papa's Country Buffet, cleaned at the Fisherman's Cove Restaurant where his dad worked, and sold cotton candy at the Amni Entertainment Complex. On February 6th, Baltazar went to the Fisherman's Cove seafood restaurant where his dad worked to get some money to spend at the arcade.

Witnesses reported seeing him at the arcade until midnight, but later that night, he disappeared. After he vanished, one of his teachers said she received a phone call from a little boy. boy, who she believed was Baltazar. The little boy never said his name. He just cried into the phone. A week later, Baltazar's body was found behind an office complex. Like so many of the other victims, he'd been strangled. Despite the tragedy of Patrick's death, the discovery of his body gave investigators more

evidence to work with. There were hair and fibers found on his body, which police matched to similar evidence found on some of the others. Crucially, a careless officer leaked this information to the media, who eagerly shared the update with the public. Despite the promising news that progress was being made, tensions in the community remained alarmingly high. Many parents forbade their kids from leaving their houses, especially by themselves. But as kids are wont to do, many still went out anyway. That was the case with 13-year-old Curtis Walker. On February 19th, he ignored his mother's please and headed to a local gun shop to see if they had any work for him.

Curtis then walked to a local shopping center, which is where he was last seen. When he didn't return home that day, his mother reported him missing, and a search was immediately launched. But investigators came up empty-handed, just like all the others. By this time, in the spring of 1981, national media had picked up the story, and it was garnering the attention of people all over the country. Money poured into Atlanta from the federal state governments and from celebrities like Muhammad Ali. The heavyweight boxer donated $500,000 to a reward fund. Others, like Gladys Knight and Bert Reynolds, donated money to the families of the victims and to help out the task force investigating the murders. Things were so bad that in March

1981, President Reagan got involved. He granted the city over $1 million to fund activities that would keep the kids supervised, occupied, and most importantly, off of the streets. Meanwhile, the Committee to Stop Children's Murders continued holding press conferences and kept the names of the missing children in the public's mind. But money and media attention couldn't make up for the lack of evidence, and the police continued to struggle. Tragically, it was Atlanta's children who were paying the price. On March 2nd, 15-year-old Joseph Jojo Bell left his job at the cap and peg restaurant to play basketball with his friend Eugene. After the game,

Eugene saw Jojo getting into a car with a young black man with an afro. It was the last time Jojo was seen alive. The next day, one of Jojo's co-workers received a startling call at the Cap and Pegg restaurant. It was Jojo begging for help. He said that he was almost dead right before the line cut off. The co-worker told his manager, who quickly alerted police, It's unclear if police investigated the call, but since Jojo had run away before, they didn't think his disappearance was anything to worry about. As the searcher Jojo continued, the searcher Curtis Walker came to an end. He was found on March 6th when firefighters spotted a body in the South River.

He was missing all of his clothes except his underwear. Five days later, on March 11th, 13-year-old Timothy Hill was playing in his backyard with his niece before he left in a taxi. The details of where he went next are unclear, but according to at least one account, he was last seen at the house of a man named Thomas Uncle Tom Terrell. Tom was a known pedophile and was seen with Timothy in the days before his disappearance. He was also purportedly connected to some of the other victims as well. One witness claimed to have seen Jojo Bell at Tom's house before he died. Despite his suspicious connections to some of the victims, Tom was eventually released. Whatever information police used to clear his name is unknown.

But at any rate, the investigation was back to square one. Then on March 20th, the case took a turn when the killer or killers claimed their first adult victim. Eddie Duncan was a 21-year-old man who lived in the Techwood Holmes housing projects. When he disappeared, investigators believed he was targeted because he had some physical and intellectual disabilities, making him easier prey. His body was found at the Chattahoochee River on March 31st. He was only wearing his underwear, and medical examiners couldn't figure out how he died. Just days later, Timothy Hill's body was also found in the Chattahoochee River in nearly the exact same condition. When the body of 23-year-old Michael McIntosh was discovered in the Chattahoochee,

investigators noticed that a new pattern had emerged. The bodies were showing up in the river, which meant that the water was washing away any evidence that the killer might have left behind. This was important because it indicated that the killer was keeping up with the case in the media. After it was reported that hairs and fibers were found on the bodies following Patrick Baltazar's death, the killer self-corrected. He was changing his MO to stay ahead of investigators.

The victims were also included. increasing in age. The next to disappear was 21-year-old Jimmy Payne, whose body was discovered on April 27th, again in the Chattahoochee River. At this point, one investigator had an idea. FBI agent Mike McComis suggested that the killer was throwing the bodies off of bridges, which seemed a more likely scenario than the killer driving down to the river to dump them. So he proposed setting up surveillance on the city's bridges to try and catch the killer in the the act. With little else to go on and no better ideas, the team went ahead with Macomba's idea.

The police set up surveillance on 14 bridges in the city and surrounding counties, watching for any suspicious activity or persons. If someone was dropping bodies in the water, they were sure they would catch them in the act. Between 140 and 145 people worked the bridge operation, including FBI, Atlanta Police, Fulton County PD, and even police recruits who were pulled from the classroom to help out. The officers were working almost around the clock for 30 days, but they still got nothing, until the final day of the stakeout. On May 22nd, investigators finally caught a break. An officer is taking out the James Jackson Parkway Bridge, announced over the radio that he'd heard a splash in the water. When officers looked to see where the noise came from, they saw white Chevrolet station wagon driving slowly across the bridge.

They stopped the car and went to speak with the driver. He was 23-year-old Wayne Williams, and he would soon capture the full focus and attention of investigators and the entire country. Thanks again for tuning into serial killers. We'll be back soon with part two of this story. We'll get to know Wayne Williams and look at you. of the evidence connecting him to the Atlanta child murders, and why some people think he's innocent. You can find all episodes of serial killers and all other Spotify originals from Parcast for free on Spotify. We'll see you next time. Have a killer week. Serial Killers is a Spotify original from Parcast. Executive

producers include Max and Ron Cutler, sound designed by Michael Motion with production assistance by Ron Shapiro, Trent Williamson, Carly Madden, and Bruce Katovich. This episode of serial killers was written by Sarah Hussein, with writing assistance by Joel Callan, fact-checking by Kara McElene, and research by Brian Petrus and Chelsea Wood. Serial Killers stars Greg Poulson and Vanessa Richardson. This is Story Booth Daily. Tune in to this new podcast for your daily fix of real-life stories from people around the world. Story Booth Daily

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