Excellent, gripping Made-For-TV story of the abductions and murders of African-American children, adolescents, and adults in Atlanta in the early 80's, and the sensational trial of the one man brought to justice for these crimes. The murders and trial polarized the communities of Atlanta and its environs, and the TV Movie re-creates this stunningly well in its deliberately ambiguous portrayal of suspect Wayne Williams, the evidence against him, and the issues of presenting a capital case based almost solely on circumstantial evidence. Just as the case inspires controversy up to this day, so does this movie.Calvin Levels has Wayne Williams down pat in this production - alternately charming, charismatic, strange, and menacing - and creates a web of confused desires and motives that deliberately leaves audiences guessing - what REALLY happened on that bridge? Co-stars Morgan Freeman, Jason Robards, Rip Torn and Gloria Foster provide equally interesting performances throughout. While some viewers, especially those living in the Atlanta communities affected by these events, may be dismayed or even angered by the portrayal of the law-enforcement authorities attempting to make sense of this case, their issue is more with the deliberate manner in which no real sides are taken by the producers of this film. If in more recent decades the historic portrayal of White apathy towards crimes committed on Blacks is universally deemed insulting or unacceptable, then perhaps some progress has been made after all.

I remember watching this movie, I was about 14 years old living in California at the time, and it still scared the hell out of me. Even to this day I don't know if I would or could watch it again due to that fact. Most people think that the killings stopped when Wayne was put behind bars but they didn't. The FBI, even the President of the United States knew that a race war could blow up in downtown Atlanta if the public knew what the FBI knew of certain members of the KKK's involvement. The FBI have phone taps of certain members of the KKK, one person more then any other knew a lot of those kids that had been killed, even telling an FBI informant that he was going to kill one of them. Guess what that kid ended up being killed.Now im not saying that Wayne is innocent of any of the killings, but things don't make since. A serial killer hardly ever changes his course. Ted Bundy loved brunettes with parts down the middle of their hair, Wayne Gacy loved white men who were gay. The Green River killer killed street walkers. Are we to believe that Wayne Williams went from killing little kids to full grown adults??? Are we to believe that Wayne Williams killed these adults by himself, strangled them even though some were bigger and stronger then he was and then toss them into a river.No murder weapon was ever found, stories have been changed to fit Wayne Williams must of been the culprit.Wayne Williams have recently tried to get DNA testing, which I do not know has been passed or denied, but why would it be denied? That one person the FBI had hard feelings about stated he had a Siberian Husky, Wanye Williams had a Shepard. EArly stories of some of the killings stated that Husky hair had been found, Later they to changed to Shepard hairs in changing of stories.5 of the kids that were found were found in a park where this person and his brother visited on a regular basis.Also most serial killers keep trophies, nothing like this was ever found at any spot where Wayne Williams lived or worked at? People say he hated black youths, but then the same people say he loved to seduce black teens.I don't think we will ever know what happened in Atlanta, so many witness have changed stories, people have died, Aids probably killed a lot of witness, or people close to the case. The victims were raped, and Aids being pretty much a fast death sentence at that time could of probably killed the killer(s) as well.I for one do not thing Wayne Williams was given a fair trial. The trial was rushed, his lawyers were buried with a mountain of evidence to sort thru in such a limited time. Witness changed their stories in mid trial. Williams' layweres were not allowed certain evidence that would help to release him.

I saw this movie as a young girl in the mid eighties and needless to say, especially being a young black child, it scared me. I just wanted to comment on what the previous commenter said. Though I am in no way claiming Wayne Williams is innocent, the murders and disappearances didn't stop with Williams' conviction as he stated, they actually continued until early '83 sparking talk that he may not have actually been the killer.The evidence used to convict him was flimsy at best and there were actually over 100 children and young adults declared missing and or found dead. Williams was described as a "very weird" individual and did he commit these murders? Who knows but, the majority of evidence did not point towards him, there were over 100 children and young adults killed about 30 of them AFTER he was in jail.

Robards and Torn are the best part of this long crime drama that you must struggle to stay with. The plot gets confusing and the already mentioned stars give the film its only stand out performances