At least twenty-nine black children and young adults were murdered by an Atlanta serial killer between the summer of 1979 and the spring of 1981. Drawing national media attention, the “Atlanta tragedy,” as it became known, was immediately labeled a hate crime. However, when a young black man was arrested and convicted for the killings, public attention quickly shifted. Noted criminologist Bernard Headley was in Atlanta as the tragedy unfolded and provides here a thoughtful exploration of the social and political implications of the case both locally and nationally. Focusing on a singular historical event, Headley exposes broader tensions of race and class in contemporary America.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
Review
“In a careful and poignant narrative analysis, [Headley] asks what conjunction of social forces produced twenty-nine murders of impoverished black children during the administration of a black mayor in the South’s most progressive and corporately successful city. He links Atlanta’s rise to the unraveling of the core city and the ghettoization of violent crime. A riveting narrative reveals a city of white business royals, black civic princes, and a surplus of black workers and their expendable children.”—Renny Golden, author of Disposable Children
“Bernard Headley has produced a solid piece of work about an important historical event which has wider and more profound implications concerning race and class in the United States. . . . In my judgment, his explication of the roles of race and class in Atlanta (and by implication the United States) is exactly accurate.”—Richard Allen Morton, Clark Atlanta University
About the Author
Bernard Headley is a professor of criminology and criminal justice at Northeastern Illinois University in Chicago. A former Senior Fulbright Scholar, Caribbean Regional Lecturing Program, he is the author of The Jamaican Crime Scene: A Perspective.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Get the book if you are a serious researcher on the subject,
By Blackbird (Decatur, GA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Atlanta Youth Murders and the Politics of Race (Elmer H Johnson & Carol Holmes Johnson Series in Criminology) (Paperback)
I understand how people can criticize Mr. Headley. However, his book is a vital part of any worthy collection regarding the Atlanta Child Murders. I can't argue with the socioeconomic analysis Mr. Headley does on Atlanta - circa the era in which the murders took place.
As the title implies, Bernard Headley details Atlanta's development leading into the tragedy, and the impact the murders had on the community. He provides a thorough, yet tidy account of the facts, and chronicles how the saga developed, leading to the conviction of Wayne Williams. I caution everyone, before you criticize Bernard Headley's book, read it first. As a longtime resident of Metro Atlanta, the controversy surrounding the Atlanta Child Murders has never really died, and there are several people who still believe Wayne Williams was railroaded. However...Mr. Williams - as is often stated - is his own worst enemy. We're not talking about an innocent bystander who was eating his ice cream, walking down the street - when the authorities swarmed in and arrested him for a heinous crime. At the very least, Wayne Williams was/is a habitual liar and antisocial individual. Do not discredit Bernard Headley for his eventual conclusion. Read the book and gauge it for what it is. At the very least, the book does an excellent job chronicling the social/racial dynamics and societal panic surrounding the staggering murder spree in Atlanta.
13 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
The Atlanta Youth Murders and the Politics of Mr. Headley,
This review is from: The Atlanta Youth Murders and the Politics of Race (Elmer H Johnson & Carol Holmes Johnson Series in Criminology) (Paperback)
I was so excited when I read the title of this book, however upon reading it, I am infuriated. Headley starts off strong, carefully illustrating the history of Atlanta and the backdrop upon which the murders took place. Headley ommitted several important facts and added many trivial comments in place of simple truth. Headley for some reason has convinced himself that Wayne Williams is guilty of the murders in spite of glaring inconsities with that theory. It is hard to believe and even more it is scary to think Headley is a criminologist. Headly ignores details that any untrained civilian could perceive as information contrary to the belief that Wayne Williams is guilty or more importantly got a fair trial. Headley often accuses anyone involved in trying to disprove the lone nut theory against Wayne Williams as a person with their own agenda or possibly a vendetta against the Task Force, FBI, GBI, and the various police departments who at the time were mishandling these cases. If you are a person well versed on this case however, at some point you will be compelled to ask, " What exactly is Bernard Headley's agenda?" It is hard to believe that someone who calls themselves a criminologist and attended Williams' trial could overlook the terrible investigation and the ultimate unfair trial that took place. In my opinion, Headley is the kind of conspirator that kept the lies that have dogged this case going strong for over 25 years now. He tries to come off so sympathetic when it comes to the victims and their loved ones but he has done a great disservice to them by writing this propoganda he tries to pass off as a book. He got his information from the FBI's freedon of information act files and they themselves are so redacted that it serves for the excuse of why his book and his assertions are so full of holes. The only saving grace of this book is its accounts of the victims, their ages, the last time they were seen alive and how and when they (if it was even them the investigation was handled so sloppily that many mothers never believed it was their sons who had been found) were found dead. I could go on and on on Headley's flawed account of a serious tragedy that has never been properly addressed, but I won't. I'll just end this with, Don't buy this book. For a more in depth and truthful look at this tragedy buy The List buy Chet Dettlinger or Those Bones Are Not My Child by Toni Cade Bambara. In addition there are recent documentaries as well as the movie Echo of Murder that further cast doubt on Williams' conviction and more plausible explanations of what happened to the murdered youth of Atlanta. I have written this review because the Atlanta Youth Murders have become very important to me and I hate the way Mr. Headley for some unapparent reason chose to write a book and ignore the glaring evidence that justice wasn't done. Here's a suggestion Mr. Headley, take a closer look at this case and try to see it without prejudice then write a new book and you can call it, The Atlanta Youth Murders and the Politics That Blinded Me.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Best Book on the Case,
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This review is from: The Atlanta Youth Murders and the Politics of Race (Elmer H Johnson & Carol Holmes Johnson Series in Criminology) (Paperback)
There's so much BS on this case, that's it's hard to find a very nonbiased book on a suspect. Anything I've read in other books seem to go to great lengths to try and prove that Wayne Williams is an innocent man. Instead this book presents the facts as it was, starting with what the police thought at the time of each murder, and their search for suspects. Along the way a few suspects show up, but none of them seems to pan out, when by chance they discover Wayne Williams. By the end of the book it's plain as day the right man is behind bars for these murders, although some of the victims may indeed have been killed by other individuals, the majority were all killed by Wayne. I fully suggest this book to anyone interested in this case. if you want just the facts, and want to Ignore any conspiracy theory crap on the case, this is the book for you.
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