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Riddle of the fibers T : hen, in the summer o f 1979, bodies o f strangled children

1 V were found in Atlanta, the city police did not suspect a serial

killer. As the body count soared toward 30 in just 10 months, te r r i f ied

parents demanded action. Then, on May 22, 1981, a stakeout trapped

a man dumping something heavy into the Chattahoochee River.

Surveillance personnel flagged d o w n

Wayne W i l l i a m s ' car a l i t t l e way f r o m the

James Jackson river br idge , and quizzed

h i m . W h e r e was he g o i n g at 2 :00 A.M.

on a Friday? The music promoter's reply

was tha t he had been l o o k i n g for

the address o f a young w o m a n he was

p l a n n i n g to promote . W h a t had he

t h r o w n i n the river? "Just trash," he said.

Police became more suspicious w h e n

he gave t h e m a nonexistent address and

telephone n u m b e r for his p r o m i s i n g

young s i n g i n g ta lent . However , a search

o f his car produced n o t h i n g i n c r i m i n a t i n g ,

nor d i d d r a g g i n g the r iver under the

br idge . S t i l l not ent i re ly satisfied w i t h his

story, the police had W i l l i a m s f o l l o w e d .

O n Sunday, the body o f N a t h a n i e l

Cater was washed u p a m i l e downs t ream

f r o m the br idge . H e had been reported

miss ing a few days earlier. H e had been

asphyxiated, and he was naked, b u t i n

his hair was a single strand o f n y l o n .

A fiber thread Some months earlier, trace experts

at the Georgia State C r i m e

Laboratory had

begun to notice

f iber evidence

l i n k i n g the murders . T h e b o d i e ? o f the

earliest v i c t i m s had been d u m p e d f u l l y

dressed, and studies o f the i r c l o t h m g

revealed a s imi l a r thread s tuck to v i r t u a l l y

al l o f t h e m . I t was a coarse, yel lowish-green

fiber. U n d e r the microscope i t was clear

that the fibers had a lobed cross-section

characteristic o f f u r n i s h i n g or carpet

fabric. I n i t i a l l y , the discovery proved to be

a b l i n d alley because forensic experts cou ld

not i d e n t i f y the source o f the fibers. B u t

w h e n this l ine o f inves t i ga t ion was leaked

to the press, the A t l a n t a k i l l e r changed

his habits . H e cont inued to strangle

or smother his v i c t i m s , b u t he began

s t r i p p i n g t h e m and d u m p i n g t h e m i n

rivers to remove the te l l ta le t ex t i l e traces.

T h e n y l o n thread i n Cater's hair was

ye l low-green , and had a lobed cross-

section. T h e police got a search warrant .

Finding a match O n June 3, they combed W i l l i a m s ' car

and the house where he l ived w i t h his

parents, and t o o k away thousands o f f iber

samples. T h a t n i g h t , detective Larry

RIVER RECOVERY T On March 30, 1981, Atlanta police pulled the body of

13-year-old Timothy Hill from the river. He was the

last child victim of the killer, who then went

on to target young men.

CHILD KILLER • Wayne Williams' indulgent parents bankrolled his

career as a music promoter, but he had little abilit)

for recognising real talent, and he developed a

reputation for promising more than he could delivery

Peterson w o r k e d late at the cr ime lab,

c o m p a r i n g fibers taken f r o m v i c t i m s w i t h

those col lected i n the search.

H e made a remarkable discovery,

f o u n d o n some o f the v i c t i m s matche

hairs taken f r o m the W i l l i a m s ' German

shepherd. M o s t o f the v i c t i m s also had

fibers on t h e i r clothes tha t were ident ica l

to those taken f r o m a bedspread i n the

house. A n d the yel lowish-green fibers

matched the ol ive-colored carpet tha t

covered most o f the floors. I n the earjl

hours o f the m o r n i n g , Larry phoned '

D e a d m a n , a detective f r o m the FBI's

Microscopic Analys i s U n i t , w h o was a l so '

w o r k i n g o n the case:

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"I've made some matches . . . " he said.

"You 'd better come over here."

Hal dressed and w e n t over to the lab,

and together the t w o m e n s tudied the

fibers. "Larry and I were convinced that

someone i n the "Wil l iams env i ronment was

involved i n the murders , " he recalled later.

Combining probabilities They bo th k n e w that the significance

of the match depended on h o w c o m m o n

the fibers were, so they traced the

manufacturer: 'Wel lman , I n c . The

company had sold the n y l o n yarn, 1 8 I B ,

between 1967 and 1974. Several carpet

manufacturers had b o u g h t i t , b u t only

one had dyed the fibers ye l low-green. In

1970 and 1971 the "West Po in t Pepperell

Corporation had woven yel low-green

181B yarn i n t o Luxaire Eng l i sh O l i v e

carpet. They made on ly 16,39"' sq y d

(13,710 sq m ) — e n o u g h to carpet

roughly two-and-a-hal f footba l l fields

or about 52 tennis courts. F rom sales

figures and average room sizes, Larry

vand H a l est imated that the chances o f

an A t l a n t a home chosen at r andom

being carpeted w i t h thi s brand and

color were around

7,792 to 1.

B u t th i s was just one k i n d o f fiber. Other s

t o l d the same story. Rayon that matched

the'carpet i n W i l l i a m s ' 1970 Chevrolet

was found o n the bodies o f four v i c t i m s .

O n l y 680 cars i n the A t l a n t a area had

s imi l a r carpet. A n d the odds against a

m u r d e r e d c h i l d p i c k i n g the f iber u p by

chance were 3,828 to 1 . C o m b i n i n g the

tv/o p robab i l i t i e s made the case even more

c o m p e l l i n g : the odds against f i n d i n g b o t h

fibers at r a n d o m were 29 m i l l i o n to 1 .

Some o f the bodies had 10 di f ferent fibers

tha t a l l matched samples taken f r o m

di f ferent places i n the W i l l i a m s house.

I t was v i r t u a l l y impossible that such a

m a t c h w o u l d occur by chance.

Material witness W a y n e W i l l i a m s , meanwhi l e , protested

his i n n o c e n c e — w i t h a h i g h - p r o f i l e press

conference at

his home.

T h i s p roved t o be a mis take . I n the frenzy

o f p u b l i c i t y tha t now engulfed the case,

witnesses came forward to say they had

seen W i l l i a m s w i t h some o f the v i c t i m s .

T w o recording s tudio staff recalled tha t

they had seen deep scratches on his

forearms—the k i n d s t r a n g l i n g v i c t i m s

i n f l i c t as they fight for t h e i r last breath.

A t l a n t a prosecutors were hesitant about

basing so m u c h o f the i r case on fiber

evidence, w h i c h they fe l t was h i g h l y

technica l , and cou ld confuse the jury. B u t

under pressure to get a c o n v i c t i o n , they

w e n t ahead. W a y n e W i l l i a m s was t r i e d

and f o u n d g u i l t y o f t w o o f the murders .

H e was sentenced to t w o l i fe terms.

THE ARREST T Police: had enough evidence to convict Williams,

despite the fact that he and his father had

cleaned up their house and cars and burned

photographs in a backyard barbecue.