City of Fear

Progress, but still no breakthrough in Atlanta

With 20 black children missing or murdered since July 1979, Atlanta is increasingly a city of fear (see BEHAVIOR). There are indications, however, that a strenuous police investigation into the killings is beginning to show at least some progress. TIME learned last week that law-enforcement officials think they know who killed "two or three" of the children. These murders, though, are apparently isolated crimes, allegedly committed by black individuals against children they knew. Officials still believe that there is a "pattern" murderer who is responsible for most of the killings. Some authorities also believe there may be one or more "copy cat" killers. The pattern, many blacks fear, is part of a racial plot or vendetta. Still, there have been no arrests, and au thorities do not consider their new findings to be a breakthrough.

Atlanta's 35-member police task force, which is being aided by the FBI, had two new cases last week. Curtis Walker, 13, was reported missing on Feb. 19, when he failed to return home from a job at a snack bar in northwest Atlanta. The task force is also hunting for Darron Glass, 10, who was last seen in September. The death of Aaron Wyche, 10, whose body was found last June in De Kalb County beneath a railroad trestle, was originally classified an accident; investigators have now determined that his death was due to asphyxiation and was similar to some of the other cases.

Just two weeks ago, Patrick Baltazar, 11, had been found asphyxiated behind an office building in De Kalb County after he had disappeared from the Omni amusement complex. Medical examiners have ascertained that Baltazar was strangled by a rope in the same manner that Terry Pue, 15, was killed three weeks earlier. Fibers found with Baltazar's body may provide evidence that links his death with five others. A dental assistant, who said that she had seen a man in a green car near the place where Baltazar's body was discovered late the same day, was hypnotized by the FBI to help her remember the auto's license number.

The investigators have also given lie detector tests to parents and begun helicopter surveillance over remote areas of the city's south side. Retired police officers have been questioning drunks drying out in county and city jails. Information is being fed into a computer to determine any common threads of evidence--a 'blue car, say, or a bearded stranger in a neighborhood. Authorities even called in a psychic from New Jersey. Says Public Safety Commissioner Lee Brown, who is black and worried himself about his ten-year-old twins: "You usually have an eyewitness, or a confession, or a great deal of physical evidence. We have none of these."

The investigation has been a steady drain on the police budget. Atlanta Mayor Maynard Jackson has asked for additional state police to help free more Atlanta police to work on the murders. The city is offering a reward of $100,000 for information leading to a solution of the crimes. Entertainer Sammy Davis Jr. has offered a benefit performance in March to help raise funds for the police. Said Frank Sinatra: "I'll be there too."

Vice President George Bush last week dispatched a task force from Washington to coordinate federal assistance. In an attempt to halt the body count, the Atlanta city council has barred youths under 16 from city streets between 7 p.m. and 6 a.m. unless accompanied by someone 18 or older. Parents can be fined after a child's first violation. Says Camille Bell, mother of one slain child: "When your city council passes an ordinance that is in violation of the U.S. Constitution, that shows how scared we are."

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