Atlanta Monster: The Consensus

After a whole season of podcast episodes, our host Payne Lindsey has come just about as close to solving the controversial mystery of the Atlanta Child Murders as the police had back in the 1980’s – which wasn’t exactly a satisfying solution. But, he has accomplished something no one else had, which was the goal of his podcast all along: “To find truth and open dialogue around a tragedy that can no longer be ignored.” For those of you who are joining for the first time, the podcast “Atlanta Monster” covered the Atlanta Child Murders that began in 1979. Over the course of two years, over 28 children went missing, and families in Atlanta lived in constant fear of the so-called “Atlanta Monster”. After a tumultuous investigation, a suspect by the name of Wayne Williams was finally arrested. The only problem was that he could only be positively linked to two of the 28 murders, and on top of that, he refuses to this day to admit any guilt. Nonetheless, the Atlanta police attributed all the murders to him anyways, and closed all the cases in an attempt to save face. Despite the arrest, however, families were uneasy. Something made them feel like the case wasn’t truly solved, and that this man might not be the only “Atlanta Monster”. As mentioned previously, the goal of this podcast was to take listeners back 40 years, to investigate (perhaps purposefully) uncovered ground, and to find what was true and what was false about the one of the most famous crime investigations of all time.

The consensus of the podcast was all thanks to the unbiased yet passionate investigation led by Lindsey, which is one of the most common identifying factors throughout the entire podcast. The way he led his investigation was so thorough and so unbiased that he was able to unsurfaced information that the police would never have been able to get their hands on. Of course, it helped that this case had been closed for 40 years and that the risk factor wasn’t quite as high, but he was still able to shed new light on a case that was known for being one of the darkest. Not only was he able to bring an end to his investigation, but he was able to bring an end to many other’s unresolved worries, frustrations, and fears with his consensus. The podcast ended with the conclusion that Wayne Williams wasn’t the only child murderer. Although there were many striking similarities between all 28 of the murders, it became clear through Lindsey’s investigation that there was no way only one man was responsible. While this seems like an unsatisfying end to the story, it at least has brought out the truth, confirmed the beliefs of many of the affected families, and has brought much-needed closure to those who needed it.

The podcast ends in a full circle, using it’s strategic layering of interviews to show how people who were once against each other’s viewpoints now agreed on the consensus brought by Lindsey’s investigation. Former Atlanta Police Officer “Popcorn”, who was at first convinced that Wayne Williams was the killer, now complimented Lindsey’s efforts for tackling misinformation and changing his viewpoint on the whole thing. When asked who he thought the Atlanta Monster was, he responded, “One of the best ways to attack this misinformation and to try and get people to open their eyes is by you telling this very difficult story, and you’ve done the best you could. That speaks for itself. After all Payne, you’ve attacked a case very few of us understand and I commend you for trying… We don’t know who the Atlanta Monster is. We really don’t know, but I think it’s clear at this point that there was never any single Atlanta Monster. I think that your monster is probably a group of some white supremacists, I think that your monster is probably the dangerous streets of Atlanta, and I think that your monster is Wayne Williams. I think we need to rename this ‘Atlanta Monsters’, not ‘Atlanta Monster’.” This new viewpoint from Popcorn is immediately followed by a new corroborating viewpoint from Monica Coffman Pierce, a news anchor at the time of the murders, who previously had her heart set on thinking that Wayne Williams was innocent. She said, “I don’t think [this podcast] is opening up an old wound, I think the wound is mostly healed because Wayne Williams is in jail and that’s it. But I think what it’s doing is informing a new generation because there’s a lot of people who’ve never heard about this case. And so now, it serves new purposes. One, it presents the historical aspect, and two, it also opens up new minds to investigate the clearly unsolved case. Although, now we’ll probably never know who exactly took those poor black children off the streets, or who has been holding this information inside for all these years.” Overall, in addition to the many aspects that make this podcast unique, an aspect that cannot be ignored is Payne Lindsey’s incredible investigation skills and his ability to bring so much new information to a case, that people changed their minds to agree with his consensus.

Word Count: 873