Indeed, Manson’s macabre pull took on a different kind of notoriety with the high-profile murders of Tate and her friends, which as Joan Didion noted in The White Album were highly symbolic as the end of the optimism and the shifting culture of the late 1960s. His rise to infamy was aided by bizarre elements of his persona, unconventional lifestyle and large following, which was made up of mostly young women. In March 2019, Atlanta mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms and Atlanta Police Chief Erika Shields announced they would be re-testing evidence from the Atlanta Child Murders in order to bring closure to the victims’ families.īefore Manson was convicted of these crimes, he had already had plenty of run-ins with the law for petty crime as a drifter and musician (he notably spent a summer with the Beach Boys’ Dennis Wilson). Many of the victims’ families also felt that linking some of the murders to Williams was a way for the authorities to close the cases without finding real answers, leaving many open questions - especially considering the speed with which the cases were closed without charging a murderer. Special Agent Douglas, however, felt that this wasn’t true, as a white killer would have been more conspicuous in the black communities that the children came from, and because serial killers generally kill within their own race. All of the victims were black, and many suspected that the murders were committed at the hands of the KKK Williams’ arrest seemed to make for a convenient cover-up, some alleged. Williams’ alleged connection to the Atlanta Child Murders, however, is controversial - and for many of the victims’ families, troubling. According to the New York Times, Williams maintains his complete innocence for all crimes suspected and convicted he is currently serving two life sentences in Telfair State Prison in Georgia for the Cater and Payne murders. During his trial for Cater and Payne’s murders, prosecutors tried to connect Williams to 10 of child victims, but he was only convicted of the murders of Cater and Payne. Williams was arrested for the murders of Cater and Payne and, as a result, became the primary suspect in the Atlanta Child Murders.

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