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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.