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15 infamous serial killers in Atlanta

Atlanta has had its own share of serial killers who have continued to cement their place in history throughout the years. These serial killers have remained the top chat of news, crime tv shows, podcasts, books and the entertainment industry. Some of them have remained hidden for years and their cases have been left unsolved. Those who have been caught are severely punished by the law either through a long-term sentence, lifetime sentence or even the death penalty. It is shocking how they committed these unlawful acts either by strangulation, poisoning, stabbing or shooting.

They clearly had different motives behind the murder of their victims. It was either for financial gains, anger, sex, thrill or attention seeking. Therefore, today in this article we are going to look at the most notorious serial killers in the streets of Atlanta.

1. Wayne Williams

Wayne Williams is a suspect and serial killer who is currently serving his life imprisonment sentence. He murdered two men in Atlanta Georgia in 1981. He is also a suspect for at least 24-30 of the Atlanta Child murders that occurred between 1979 and 1981. William was never tried for the children鈥檚 murders. Although he was found guilty, William continues to appeal his conviction.

2. Carol Eugene Watts

Carol Eugene Watts also known as 鈥淭he Sunday Morning Slasher鈥� was a prolific serial killer who killed over 80 women and girls in different places including Atlanta. He murdered all these women within an eight-year period before being arrested. Carol was convicted for the murder of two women; Helen Dutcher and Gloria Steele. The number of women he might have killed may be over 100. Carol died of prostate cancer while his lifetime sentence at the Michigan prison.

3. Gary Michael Hilton

Gary Michael is an Atlanta native who killed four people between 2007 and 2008. In 2008 he was sentenced to life in prison for the murder of Meredith Emerson who disappeared near Atlanta while she was hiking in the Dawson Forest north of Cumming. Gary is linked to several other murders. He is currently receiving his four life sentences at the Union Correctional Institution.

4. Carlton Gary

Carlton Gary also dubbed the 鈥淪tocking Strangler,鈥� was a sexual abuser and a serial killer who raped and murdered three elderly women in Columbus, Georgia and Atlanta between 1975 and 1978. Carlton might be linked to at least four other killings. In 1978 he was arrested and sentenced to 21 years in prison for an armed robbery. In 1983 he escaped from prison but was arrested again after he was found guilty of the earlier murders. In 1986, Carlton was sentenced to death. He was executed by lethal injection

in 2018.

5. William Bonin

William Bonin was also known as the “Freeway killer” because most of his victims鈥� bodies were dumped alongside freeways in Southern California. Bonin raped, tortured and murdered twenty-one young men and boys between 1979 to June 1980. He is also suspected of committing fifteen other murders. Two of his victims were teenage boys from Atlanta. He died after he was executed by lethal injection in 1996.

6. Fred Tokars

crime scene tape. , CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

Fred Tokars was a former lawyer who hired a hitman to kill his wife because she had discovered that he was using his law practice for drug dealing and money laundering. His wife was also seeking a divorce and Fred wanted to avoid going through a messy divorce. On Thanksgiving weekend in 1992, Sarah, Fred’s wife was kidnapped with her young sons Ricky and Mike. The hitman instructed her to drive to a hidden area before shooting her in the head Infront of her two sons. Tokars was arrested and granted multiple life sentences, both for the murder of his wife and money laundering. He died of natural causes while serving his sentence in Pennsylvania prison.

7. Brian Gene Nichols

On March 11, 2005, Brian Gene Nichols was on trial for rape when he escaped and murdered four people in the Fulton County Courthouse in Atlanta, Georgia. The four people he murdered were; the judge, a court reporter, a Fulton County Sherrif鈥檚 deputy and An ICE special agent. After a thorough search, Brian was found and taken into custody. He was proven guilty of all four murders and was sentenced to life imprisonment. He is currently serving his sentence in Georgia Diagnostic and Classification State Prison.

8. Samuel Little

A mugshot of Samuel Little. , Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Samuel Little was known as the most prolific serial killer who confessed to the murder of 93 women in the United States, including one in Atlanta. He killed all his victims within a thirty-five-year period. Of the 93 murders he confessed, Samuel was connected to at least 60 murders which is the largest number of any serial killers in the United States. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Unfortunately, he died on December 30, 2020, in a hospital. The cause of death was never known since he suffered from multiple diseases such as diabetes and many other heart problems.

9. William Pierce

William 鈥淛unior鈥� Pierce murdered nine people from different states including Atlanta. He murdered all his victims between June 1970 and January 1971. Pierce was eventually arrested immediately after robbing a gas station in Baxley. He later confessed to all nine murders and was sentenced to life imprisonment. In 1974, William made an appeal for a retrial but it was rejected. He died in May 2020 while serving his sentence at Georgia Diagnostic and Classification State Prison in Jackson, Georgia.

Check out this article on the 10 most ruthless serial killers from Indiana here

10. Robert Lee Yates

Robert Lee Yates was based in Georgia which is basically in the surrounding area of Atlanta, but he mostly operated in Spokane, Washington. Between 1975 and 1998, Robert murdered at least 11 women in Spokane. In 2002, Lee was sentenced to death for killing two women who lived in Pierce County, but his death sentence was later withdrawn after capital punishment was ruled as unconstitutional in 2018.  

11. Eddie Lee Mosley

A mugshot of Eddie Mosley. , Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Eddie Lee Mosley was a serial killer and a sexual assailant who committed a series of eight murders between 1973 and 1987. Some of his victims were from Atlanta, Georgia. In 2001 he was immediately arrested after a DNA test was done and it turned out to be a match. Before he was arrested, two individuals were wrongly accused. One had spent 15 years in prison and the other had died while serving his sentence while the other had spent 22 years in prison being released. Eddie is accused of committing 16 murders and numerous rapes.

12. Michael Curry

On August 29, 1985, Michael Curry called the police to inform them that someone had invaded his home and murdered his family members. When the police arrived at the scene, they found Curry鈥檚 pregnant wife and his two children; Erika and Ryan bodies covered in blood. They had all been murdered with an axe. After several investigations, Michael was found guilty of the murders and he later confessed to killing his wife and his two children. He was sentenced to three consecutive life sentences by Judge John Allen.

13. Gary Ray Bowles

A mugshot of Gary Ray Bowles. , Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Gary Ray Bowles was also dubbed the 鈥淚-95 Killer,鈥� since most of his victims stayed close to the Interstate 95 highway. In 1994 he murdered six men in different states including Atlanta, Georgia. He was found guilty of three counts of murder and sentenced to death in 1999. In August 2019, Gary was executed by lethal injection.

14. Atlanta Ripper

This unknown serial killer terrorized the people of Atlanta from 1911 to 1915. The serial killer is suspected of killing and mutilating more than 20 women in Atlanta. The Atlanta Ripper targeted young black or mixed-race women. When the police arrived at the murder scene, they found notes signed 鈥淛ack the Ripper鈥� followed by many threats. These cases have remained unsolved until today, no one has ever been caught.

15. Atlanta Child Murders

The serial killer responsible for the murder of children who were between 7 and 16 years old has not been apprehended to date. The serial killer鈥檚 modus operandi was asphyxiation and his victims were discovered in wooded areas. Notorious serial killer was believed to be the man behind the brutal murders, but he was only convicted for two murders. Therefore, to date the identity of the killer is not known.

Check out this article on the 10 most notorious New York Serial Killers here