ATLANTANS PROTEST ‘CHILD MURDERS’

Former Gov. George Busbee and other civic leaders say they will ask CBS for free air time to present their concerns about an upcoming television movie about the killings of 29 young blacks.

More than 70 civic, business, political, religious and police officials met Thursday at the office of Jesse Hill, president of Atlanta Life Insurance Co., to discuss “The Atlanta Child Murders,” which is scheduled for two-part broadcast Feb. 10 and 12.

The film suggests that Wayne Williams, who was convicted in two of the slayings, “was railroaded as part of a conspiracy,” said Public Safety Director George Napper.

Several local leaders who saw a preview of the movie Wednesday called it an “indictment” of the city, distorting events surrounding Williams’ trial and depicting Atlanta as a city torn by crime and racial strife.

Busbee, who was governor during the killings between June 1979 through May 1981, told reporters after the meeting he wanted to talk with CBS officials “to see if we can mitigate somewhat the damage that will be done to Atlanta.”

“What we would like to do is have a counterpresence on the air the nights the movie runs,” said Hill. “We are thinking of before, during and after the movie.”

Abby Mann, who wrote and co-produced the drama, defended it as fair and accurate. “If anything, we bent over backward to strengthen the prosecution’s case,” he was quoted as saying in The New York Times.

The “docudrama” also was defended by Michael Silver, a CBS spokesman in New York.

“We think it’s accurate, and we think it’s balanced,” he told the newspaper. “Abby Mann read every word of the trial transcript, and so did our program practices department and so did our legal department.”

Williams, 26, was convicted in 1982 of two counts of murder in the slayings of Nathaniel Cater, 27, and Jimmy Ray Payne, 21, two of 29 young blacks slain during a 22-month period.

The Georgia Supreme Court has upheld Williams’ conviction and sentence to two consecutive life prison terms, and Atlanta police have publicly blamed Williams for 22 other slayings.