this is the first time wayne williams has talked on tv in at least a decade. why do you think you were convicted? fear. what do you mean? atlanta, at the time, was in a panic. they wanted any suspect that they could find. and let s just be honest. it had to be a black person, because if it had been a white suspect, atlanta probably would have gone up in flames. it came very close to that. do you think you ll ever be free? no doubt it s not a matter of if to me. it s a matter of when. some 30 years after wayne williams trial and conviction, there is still debate and some doubt. this time, you can be the judge and the jury. we ll lay out the evidence on both sides and you ll hear from wayne williams at length. then we ll invite you to reach your own verdict, guilty, innocent, or a third choice, not proven. the first clue was found on a dead boy s tennis shoes. the victim was eric middlebrooks. his body left here in a rainy alley. a foster child who rode his bic
atlanta georgia. in all, more than two dozen victims. most of them strangled. by may, 1981, the police and f.b.i. were hiding in the brush beside and below theiver bridges. this was toe be the last niekt. almost the last hour. i heard the splash. reporter: bob campbell, a police recruit, jumped to his feet. i was really startled. it sounded like a body entering water. he looked up at the bridge. and i saw brake lights of a car. i saw red lights. the car started slowly moving away from me across the bridge. reporter: campbell radioed the other team members up above him. i asked did a car stop on the bridge. i couldn t believe what i saw. and each person told me they didn t see it. reporter: then, a policeman in a chase car hidden on the other side came on the radio. he just said the car is pulling in the parking lot. they re turning around in front of me and started coming back across the bridge. reporter: this is that white station wagon. police followed i
this was to be the last night, almost the last hour. i heard the splash. bob campbell, a police recruit, jumped to his feet down beside the chattahoochee river. i was really startled. it sounded like a body entering the water. he looked up at the bridge. and i saw brake lights of a car coming. i saw red lights. the car started slowly moving away from me across the bridge. campbell radioed the other team members up above him. i asked, did a car stop on the bridge? because i couldn t believe what i saw. and each person told me they didn t see it. then a policeman in a chase car hidden on the other side came on the radio. he just said, the car is pulling in the parking lot here turning around in front of me and started coming back across the bridge, coming back in my direction. this is that white statn wagon. police followed it and stopped it nearby. fbi agent mike mccomas rushed to the scene. the driver was standing by the highway. he was talking with the
the best that i could describe was a ski rope type. the woven type and it was my guess about 24 inches long. no. williams denies there was any such cord. because if that rope had been in the station wagon that night, i m sure they would have taken it. the fact that i didn t confiscate it didn t make it go away. the nylon cord would never be seen again. could have been the murder weapon as far as i know. fbi supervisors decided to let wayne williams go that night. we didn t have a body. secondly, there was no who saw wayne williams outside of his car. there was no one that saw him throw anything overboard. two days later, only a mile downstream from that bridge, another body. after two years, one suspect now, wayne williams. when we come back, the lie detector test. the surprise that he didn t beat that. he was convinced he could beat a polygraph test. he was like i ll be darned. the guy we have been looking for for two years. hmm, it says here that c