he went barefooted in a pair of brown shorts. he got to the store. he bought the snuff. he started back home. less than half a block from this store, yusef bell stepped off this curb and vanished. and nobody saw anybody do anything or anything. but they did see him come back across the street. and that s the last that we saw him. camille bell called the police. they came and said they d write a report. that s all. days went by. camille waited with two older children and yusef s 3-year-old sister. and so she is terrified. if he can go to the store and they can steal him, then she doesn t want to leave the house. she doesn t want to do anything. camille hid her own fear from
the case. in the spring of 1980, no one wanted to believe a serial killer was loose in the city, even when bob buffington spotted a disturbing pattern. there had been a sharp increase in the number of children under the age of 14 who had been killed. when he told his boss at homicide, the major threatened to transfer him. and i truly think that they were afraid that there would be a panic. it was this mother, after the loss of her 9-year-old son, who finally forced police to listen, but not until almost a year after her boy died. camille bell and her children lived in these project apartments. poor to the eye, but rich in mind and spirit. yusef bell was an honor student in the gifted program at school. on a warm october sunday in 1979 he walked away on an errand to
way or the other, in the deaths of all of the children. camille bell. even if it takes 30 trials, i don t care. you know, prove it. the prosecutor s answer, it would serve no purpose. you can only serve one life sentence. just ahead a new alibi that backfires. he was out that night, no question in my mind. he was not at home. he was out and about. and after all these years, new dna evidence. it probably would exclude 98% or so of the people in the world.
wayne williams, you ve got him, i think all of us the jury understood that, yeah. i was probably my own worst enemy. i was an arrogant, bus-headed idiot at the time and i played right into these people s hands. i could see almost the shock in the jurors faces. my god, is this the same wayne that was up here yesterday? i could see that. patrick baltazar s stepmother was watching in court that day. i m like, this man got to be crazy. this man i mean, he it s like he s saying, yeah, i killed them, but you better prove it. can you prove it? he was doing everything he can to outsmart everybody. and it was like, i did it but can you prove i did it? camille bell, yusef s mother, believed wayne to be innocent. she feels that last day on the witness stand convicted him. and then when he flared off, then they were ready to say,
the fbi agent in charge. guilty of two double homicide. sheila baltazar. he could have killed all of them. the supreme court justice. not proven. the witness. guilty. camille bell. innocent but stupid. that first task force detective. no maybes, ifs. guilty. the right man for those homicides is in jail. the original audience verdict, guilty. 69%. innocent 4%. not proven either way, 27%.