The 27th Victim

Atlanta's ordeal goes on

The news was distressingly familiar. A poor, black youth had been found strangled to death near an intersection of Interstate 20, just outside Atlanta. William Barrett, 17, a ne'er-do-well with a police record for burglary, had been reported missing only hours before he became the 27th known victim in the string of murders that has plagued the Georgia capital since 1979 and left investigators thoroughly baffled.

In Barrett's case, however, officials thought they might finally have a break. His body was discovered only 2 1/2 to seven hours after he died, as opposed to the days, weeks and even months later of previous cases. This meant that both the body and the scene of the crime were pretty much as the murderer had left them. Said Fulton County Medical Examiner Robert Stivers: "The fresher the crime scene, the better off we are." To further preserve the integrity of the scene, police asked newspapers to wait 24 hours before printing Barrett's picture. That way, any possible witnesses would not be influenced by news coverage. Barrett's murder resembled several others being investigated by Atlanta's special task force. Like three previous victims, he had disappeared from the McDaniel Street area, where he had gone on an errand. A number of others had, like Barrett, been found fully clothed on a roadside, close enough to be spotted by passing motorists. Four of them had also been discovered in the general area around the 1-20 interchange. He was also linked to perhaps as many as 17 other victims by what police call "trace evidence."

While Atlanta Public Safety Commissioner Lee Brown refused to comment on the nature of this evidence, Georgia Crime Lab Director Larry Howard identified it as "fibers" that were similar to some but not all of the fibers mentioned as evidence in earlier cases. "It is a link," said Stivers of the material, "if a somewhat tenuous one."

There were, however, enough differences between Barrett's case and earlier ones to make a connection somewhat questionable. He is the first victim to be found with puncture wounds believed to have been inflicted with a knife after his death. Two other children had knife wounds, but both had been stabbed or bludgeoned to death, probably by someone other than the presumed mass killer. Barrett is only the second victim in the last six to be under age 20. His death will doubtless rally support for a proposed summer program to protect Atlanta's youth and bolster ongoing efforts to obtain needed federal funding.

The plan may well be the most comprehensive children's summer program in urban history. It will provide supervised recreation or jobs for all of the city's 69,000 public school children, ages 6 to 18, for up to twelve hours a day. It will begin the Monday after school lets out and continue until classes resume in September. The program, expected to add $1.2 million to the city's budget, will feature a child-staff ratio of 20 to 1, police and civilian patrols assigned to observe children at pickup and delivery points, free lunches for the needy and special T shirts, issued two to a child, displaying the wearer's name, group number and location. But as far as Atlantans are concerned, the program need only live up to its name: Safe Summer '81.

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