The Atlanta Child Murders

End to the Lull

Angel Lenair

The lull came to a nasty end on March 4, 1980 when twelve-year-old Angel Lenair finished her homework and left her apartment in southwest Atlanta. When she didn't come home for her favorite television show, her mother Venus Taylor called the police. As Angel was approaching puberty, her mother worried more and more. Their home was near Fort McPherson and men were starting to take an interest in Angel.

Venus Taylor's worst fears were confirmed on March 10, 1980 when the police found Angel's body tied to a tree with an electrical cord around her neck and a pair of panties that did not belong to Angel stuffed into her mouth. Cause of death was asphyxiation by strangulation with the electrical cord. Although Angel's hymen had been broken and there were some minor abrasions in the genital area, the medical examiner did not interpret those facts to mean evidence of sexual assault. Those findings became controversial and did not mean that Angel was not the victim of some sexual abuse.

This particular case was quite different than the previous cases, in that the victim was female and her body was found under different circumstances than the previous male victims. There were two suspects, who were eventually cleared of the murder.

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1. Setting the Stage
2. The Looming Crisis
3. Ominous Beginning
4. Two More Boys
5. End to the Lull
6. Jefferey
7. A Murderous Rampage
8. STOP
9. Ransom
10. Witnesses to Murder
11. The List
12. Making Sense of the Crisis
13. No End In Sight
14. Links
15. A Murderous Change of Pace
16. The Jo-Jo Connection
17. Chaos
18. A Deadly April
19. The Last to Make the List
20. Dettlinger and His Map
21. A Splash From the Bridge
22. Wayne Bertram Williams
23. Up to No Good
24. Building the Case
25. Pulling it Together
26. Gearing Up
27. The Trial
28. Patterns
29. Damaging Testimony
30. Mounting Evidence
31. On the Stand
32. Going Down!
33. Fiber Analysis
34. Under a Microscope
35. Challenging Evidence
36. Probability
37. Reasonable Doubts
38. Unfair Trial?
39. Race War?
40. More Than One
41. A New Investigation in 2005
42. New Chapter 2006 — Ku Klux Klan Connection
43. New Chapter 2006 — The Child Molester Theory
44. Bibliography