29 Black Children MURDERED, Police Did Nothing — Sinatra and Sammy’s Concert Caught the Killer

29 Black Children MURDERED, Police Did Nothing — Sinatra and Sammy’s Concert Caught the Killer 

July 1979, Atlanta, Georgia. A 9-year-old boy named Edward Hope Smith disappeared on his way to the store. His body was found a week later in a wooded area, strangled. The police said it was an isolated incident. Then another boy disappeared. Alfred Evans, 14 years old, found dead. Then another. Milton Harvey, 14 dead.

 Then another and another and another. By the summer of 1981, 29 black children and young adults had been murdered in Atlanta. 29. And the police response was slow, inadequate. The black community begged for help, organized search parties, held vigils, but the murders continued. Then Frank Sinatra got a phone call.

 Someone told him what was happening in Atlanta. Told him the police weren’t doing enough. told him families were burying children and nobody with power seemed to care. Frank hung up the phone, called Sammy Davis Jr., said four words. We’re going to Atlanta. What Frank and Sammy did in the next 3 weeks, raised $400,000, forced the FBI to get involved, and led directly to the arrest of Wayne Williams. This is that story.

 To understand what happened, you need to understand what Atlanta was in 1979. A city trying to move past its segregated history. The first major southern city with a black mayor, Maynard Jackson, a symbol of the new south, progressive, integrated, forward-looking. But underneath that progress, the same old divisions remained.

 Black neighborhoods got less police protection. Black families had less political power. And when black children started disappearing in the summer of 1979, the response was slow. Edward Hope Smith disappeared on July 21st, 1979. He was 9 years old. His mother reported him missing immediately. The police took a report, but they didn’t mobilize, didn’t issue alerts, treated it as a runaway case.

 A week later, Edward’s body was found. He’d been strangled. The police said it was an isolated incident. Tragic, but not part of a pattern. Then Alfred Evans disappeared. September 14th, 1979. 14 years old. His body was found days later, strangled. Then Milton Harvey, 14, disappeared November 1st, 1979. Found dead.

 By early 1980, five children were dead. All black, all boys, all from poor neighborhoods in Atlanta. And the police still weren’t calling it a serial killer, still weren’t mobilizing resources, still weren’t treating it as a crisis. The black community in Atlanta knew something was wrong. Mothers started keeping their children inside, organizing neighborhood watch groups, escorting kids to and from school.

 They held meetings, demanded the police do more, but the response was always the same. We’re investigating. By the summer of 1980, the body count was 12. 12 dead children, and still no arrests, no suspects, no real progress. The national media started paying attention. Atlanta child murders became a story.

 Reporters descended on the city. The pressure on Atlanta’s police and mayor increased. But the murders continued. By early 1981, the number was 23. 23 dead children and young adults, all black, all from Atlanta’s poorest neighborhoods. The city was in panic. Parents were terrified. The black community felt abandoned.

 That’s when Frank Sinatra heard about it. Frank was 65 years old in 1981, semi-retired, performing occasionally, spending more time in Palm Springs than on stage. But he still paid attention to what was happening in the world. And when someone told him about the Atlanta child murders, about 23 dead black children, and a police response that seemed inadequate, Frank couldn’t stay silent. He called Sammy Davis Jr.

Frank and Sammy had been friends for 30 years, had performed together hundreds of times, had stood together through civil rights battles in the 50s and 60s, had integrated Las Vegas together, had fought racism together. Sammy Frank said, “Have you heard about Atlanta? The child murders?” Yeah, it’s horrible.

The police aren’t doing enough. The families don’t have resources. The community is desperate. What are you thinking, Frank? I’m thinking we do a concert, raise money, force attention on this, make it impossible to ignore. Sammy didn’t hesitate. When as soon as possible, within a week, Frank and Sammy had organized a benefit concert at the Atlanta Civic Center, July 18th, 1981.

All proceeds would go to the families of the victims and to funding the investigation. They recruited other performers, reached out to Atlanta’s black community leaders, made it clear this wasn’t just a concert. It was a statement. The announcement made national news. Sinatra and Davis to hold benefit concert for Atlanta murder victims.

 The tickets sold out in hours, not just because it was Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jr. because people wanted to help, wanted to do something. Frank and Sammy arrived in Atlanta 3 days before the concert. They didn’t just rehearse and leave. They visited the families, sat in living rooms with mothers who’d buried their children, listened to their stories, held their hands, promised them they wouldn’t be forgotten.

 One mother, Camille Bell, whose son Yousef had been murdered in 1979, met with Frank and Sammy. She later said, “They didn’t come to perform and disappear. They came to listen to bear witness to show us that someone cared. That meant more than the money. The night of the concert, the Atlanta Civic Center was packed. 7,000 people.

 Frank and Sammy performed for 3 hours. They sang. They talked about the victims. They brought families on stage. They made sure everyone in that room understood 23 children are dead. This is a crisis. This cannot continue. Frank spoke directly to the audience. We’re here because 23 children have been murdered in this city. 23.

 And until a few months ago, the national attention wasn’t there. The resources weren’t there. That changes tonight. We’re raising money. We’re forcing attention and we’re not leaving until something is done. The concert raised over $400,000. Part of it went directly to the families. Part went to fund private investigators.

 Part went to pressure the city and the FBI to increase resources and the pressure worked. Within weeks of the concert, the FBI dramatically increased its involvement. Agents flooded Atlanta. The investigation intensified. Surveillance increased. On May 22nd, 1981, police were staking out the Chattahuchi River where several bodies had been found.

 They heard a splash, saw a car on a bridge, stopped it. The driver was Wayne Bertram Williams, 23 years old, black, a freelance photographer and talent scout. Williams was questioned, released, but police kept watching him. 2 days later, the body of Nathaniel Kater, 27, was found in the river. Police connected Williams to several victims through fiber evidence.

 On June 21st, 1981, Wayne Williams was arrested. He was eventually convicted of two Nathaniel Kater and Jimmy Ray Payne, but police closed 23 other cases, claiming Williams was responsible. The murder stopped after his arrest. The concert Frank and Sammy organized didn’t directly catch Wayne Williams, but it did something crucial. It forced resources.

 It forced attention. It made the Atlanta child murders impossible to ignore, and that pressure led to the surveillance, the increased FBI presence, and ultimately the arrest. After Williams’ arrest, Frank and Sammy returned to Atlanta, not for publicity, just to check on the families to make sure the money was being used properly, to see if there was more they could do.

 Camille Bell, the mother who’d lost her Camille Bell, the mother who’d lost her son, Yousef, met with “You saved us,” she said. “Not just with money, with dignity. You showed up when nobody else would. You made our children matter.” Frank shook his head. “Your children always mattered. We just made other people pay attention.

” Years later, in interviews, Sammy talked about the Atlanta concert. That concert meant more to me than any other performance in my life. We weren’t entertaining. We were fighting. Fighting for children who couldn’t fight for themselves. Fighting for families who’d been ignored. That’s what music should do.

 That’s what fame should be used for. Frank never talked about it much. When asked, he’d say, “23 children were dead. We had a platform. We used it. That’s all. But the families never forgot. In 1985, several mothers of the victims organized a memorial. They invited Frank and Sammy. Both came sat with the families, listened to stories about the children, about who they’d been, what they’d loved, what they’d dreamed of.

 At the end of the service, one mother stood up. Mr. Sinatra, Mr. Davis, I want to thank you not just for the money, not just for the concert, but for seeing us, for seeing our children, for making the world see them, too. You didn’t have to do that, but you did. And that’s why our children’s names are remembered.

 That’s why Wayne Williams is in prison. That’s why the Frank stood up, walked over to her, hugged her, said something nobody else heard. She cried. So did he. Wayne Williams is still in prison. He has always maintained his innocence. Some people believe he was responsible for all 29 murders. Some believe he was responsible for only the two he was convicted of.

 Some believe he’s innocent entirely. But what’s undeniable is this. The murders stopped after his arrest. And the pressure that led to that arrest came in part from the attention Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jr. are forced on the case. The families of the victims have never forgotten. There’s a memorial in Atlanta now lists all 29 names.

 At the bottom, a small plaque in memory of the children with gratitude to those who fought for justice. Frank and Sammy’s names aren’t on that plaque. They didn’t want them to be, but everyone who was there knows the concert mattered. The money mattered. The attention mattered. 29 black children were murdered.

 The police response was slow. The community was desperate and two men with fame and power decided to use it. Not for applause, for justice. If this story moved you, if you believe using power for those who have none is what courage looks like, subscribe. Tell us in the comments when have you seen someone use their platform to fight for justice.