Since Friday, millions of people have plunged into the brains of America’s worst criminals, with the release on Netflix of the highly anticipated season 2 of “Mindhunter”. This series, which is inspired by the book “Mindhunter: Inside a Profiler” by Mark Olshaker and John E. Douglas, tells the story of FBI agents Holden Ford (Jonathan Groff) and Bill Tench (Holt McCallany ) who will meet with several serial killers.
This shocking duo, led by an actor whose resemblance to Emmanuel Macron has marked many viewers, will revolutionize the way of investigating in the United States with the help of psychologist Wendy Carr (Anna Torv). Their goal: to identify the personality of these “serial killers” in order to acquire the knowledge necessary for the resolution of ongoing criminal cases. A challenge.
At the heart of this second season, which also focuses on the case of Charles Manson, one of the most horrific cases of serial murder in the history of Uncle Sam’s country: the “Atlanta Killer” or the “Night stalker” as many have also nicknamed him, accused of having killed about thirty children in two years in the capital of the state of Georgia.
Child murders
The summer of 1979 marked the beginning of a litany of disappearances and murders of minors in the poorest districts of the city. On July 29, 1979, 14-year-old Alfred Evans was found strangled on Niskey road southwest of Atlanta. Next to him lies the body of Edward Hope Smith, last seen on the 25th. In August, authorities uncover the body of 9-year-old Yusuf Bell. The young boy was strangled and abandoned at the nearby elementary school. The child was last seen on October 21 of the previous year. In the series, his mother Camille Bell is the one who launches the alert with the “Behavioral Science Unit”, the specialized team of the FBI who invented modern profiling techniques.
Yusuf Bell, one of the first deaths attributed to the “Atlanta killer” ./DR
A total of 30 children died between July 1979 and the summer of 81. Each time, the child disappeared and was then found suffocated, strangled or stabbed. Another similarity, many victims are found in the Chattahoochee river, which crosses the city. Disturbing elements for investigators and for the FBI team in charge of the case in the early 1980s.
The indictment and the trial
In real life as in the series, the police end up getting their hands on the man he thinks is the “night stalker”. Wayne Bertram Williams becomes a suspect in the Atlanta murders of May 1981, when a police surveillance team, observing a bridge spanning the Chattahoochee River, hears a “loud noise” suggesting that something has just been thrown into the river. .
At the wheel of the car which, at around 2 a.m., exits this bridge, Wayne Williams. Immediately arrested and questioned, the 22-year-old told police he was going to check an address in a nearby town for an interview with a young singer named Cheryl Johnson scheduled for the next morning. It quickly turns out that his “alibi” was made up from scratch, including the artist who doesn’t even exist.
