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Yvettep
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Yvettep
Post Number: 257
Registered: 01-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, May 11, 2005 - 09:44 pm: | 
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DeKalb County Police Chief Louis Graham told reporters he has been "nagged" by the way authorities handled the murders that "terrified" the Atlanta area.
The six boys were listed among the 29 children and young adults killed or reported missing in the Atlanta area between 1979 and 1981 who some residents thought were victims of a serial killer.
Graham said he was not prompted to reopen the cases because of any new evidence -- only his doubt about the fiber evidence used to convict Wayne Williams, who is serving two life sentences for two of the killings... (More: http://www.cnn.com/2005/LAW/05/11/williams.investigation/index.html?section=cnn_ topstories)
Reading this chilled me. These murders were a central part of my high school years. It was the first time I had a real sense that people who were my age were not beyond mortality.
I remember at one point a bunch of us students in my high school decided to wear green arm bands to show our support for the Atlanta community, and for the missing young people. (I can't remember...Maybe it was a national campaign that we were joining...)
Most important at the time was that this was the very first time the "high achieving" African American students and the "larger masses" of African American students ever were cohesive around anything.
However, school administration nixed our symbolic gesture. They said wearing the armbands would pose a "distraction"...
Wow. What memories.
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Chrishayden
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Chrishayden
Post Number: 1137
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, May 13, 2005 - 10:24 am: |
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Yvettep:
The cowardice of that school administration is disgusting. Have you seen any of those people since? I think if you do you ought to bring that up to them.
Shameful. |
Abm
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Abm
Post Number: 2675
Registered: 04-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, May 13, 2005 - 08:35 pm: |
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I know this may sound odd. But I hope/pray this guy killed ALL the kids. Because I shudder think that Wayne Williams may have been falsely imprisoned for almost a QUARTER CENTURY.
And, worse than even that, the REAL killer(s) have lived FREE for all that time. Plus, they may have killed other people!
AGAIN. I REALLY hope Williams killed those kids! |
Yvettep
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Yvettep
Post Number: 266
Registered: 01-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, May 14, 2005 - 10:05 am: |
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Chris: yeah, they were pretty sad--scairt what might happen if their normally well-behaved colerds and their trouble making colerds got together for a common cause, plus throw in some random sympathetic non-colerds--GASP!
No, I don't see these people anymore, not even when I went back to my 10th HS reunion in 92.
And ABM, that doesn;t sound odd at all. I know exactly what you mean. In Baldwin's "Evidence of Things not Seen" he talks about this whole case as a deep wound of racism, Black self-hatred, an "old South" in action, Black class-ism, and more. Also, I don't remember him talking about it directly in that book, but I imagine if I read it again today I would see some hints about his dismay at our (Black) homophobia to have possibly been involved.
...Anyway, a very deep wound in our community. I don't know how I feel about this fragile scab being torn off. And if that wasn't enough, it is now the 10th anniversary of the MOVE bombing in Philly: More painful memories... |
Abm
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Abm
Post Number: 2694
Registered: 04-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, May 14, 2005 - 10:40 am: |
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'Vette,
Yeah. The Williams' actual or alleged homosexuality definitely worked against him.
Because even Blacks - especially those 'good Christians' of the (pre-"Will/Grace") Deep South - who might have viewed the slipshod work of the investigators more suspiciously were more apt to support persecuting/prosecuting a homosexual. |
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