On this day, May 22, in 1981, police question the Atlanta Child Murderer before releasing him.
Police staking out a bridge over the Chattahoochee River heard a loud splash, then pulled over Wayne Williams as he tried to drive away in a station wagon.
Police questioned him about the unprecedented string of child murders over the two previous years, then released him.
Two days later, the body of Nathaniel Cater, 27, was found in the river near the bridge. Police kept constant surveillance on Williams for several weeks, while he taunted them before they arrested him on June 21, 1981.
He was convicted of killing two men, and is serving two life sentences. Police declared that he was responsible for the killing of 23 children, mostly black males between 7 and 14 years old, between 1979 and 1981.
-Scott McCabe
