The Atlanta Murders

Everyone is helping in the search for the child killers

From Manhattan came Detective Charles Nanton; from Oakland, Calif., Sergeant Alexander Smith. The detective credited with solving the seven "Merritt Parkway Bra" murders in Stamford, Conn., Lieutenant George Mayer, arrived. Detroit police lent the services of Lieutenant Gilbert Hill, who cleared up the "Browning Gang" case that had claimed 15 victims. And out of retirement came Captain Pierce Brooks, who caught the killers of a Los Angeles policeman in the celebrated "Onion Field" case.

The five top sleuths are all in Atlanta as consultants to local police in one of the most bizarre, puzzling cases any of them has ever faced. During the past 16 months, eleven children have been found murdered; another four are missing. The victims share certain similarities: all are age 15 or younger, all are black, all come from poor families, and all but two are male. Yet no clear pattern connects them or confirms that they were attacked by the same killer or killers. Despite the offer of a $100,000 reward and what Public Safety Commissioner Lee Brown calls "the most intensive investigation in the history of this city," the Atlanta police remain stymied.

In addition to the visiting detectives -- quickly dubbed the "supercops" by Atlantans--the case has attracted a growing cast of professional and amateur investigators as officials try a host of measures, some rather unorthodox, to come up with a lead. A 35-member police task force is assigned solely to sifting through the 150 or so tips received daily. The FBI beefed up its local office last week with approximately a dozen agents and began its own inquiry. For the past six weekends the city's neighborhoods have been methodically scoured for clues by thousands of citizen volunteers (among them: Mitchell L. WerBell III, the founder of a counterterrorist school in Powder Springs, Ga., and eleven of his instructors). Dog patrols are being run by Don Laken, a chunky former Marine from Philadelphia, with his two trained German shepherds. Authorities even briefly brought in a psychic named Dorothy Allison from Nutley, N. J.

Such moves have drawn considerable criticism as publicity stunts, and the Atlanta Journal and Constitution has even made the suggestion that the local police, though devoted, are not up to the job. "I have the utmost confidence in our investigation," retorts Commissioner Brown, who defends enlisting outside help by saying, "I don't believe all knowledge resides in Georgia." Most Atlantans, especially in the anxious black neighborhoods, appear to support the wide-ranging efforts to break the case. qed

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