News
Manson follower Susan Atkins dies in prison
Henry K. Lee, Chronicle Staff and News ServicesSaturday, September 26, 2009
CHOWCHILLA, MADERA COUNTY -- Susan Atkins, the Charles Manson follower and convicted murderer who lost her last chance at parole this month, died Thursday at the women's prison in Chowchilla (Madera County), state corrections officials said.
She was 61 and had been suffering from brain cancer.
Ms. Atkins was convicted of seven murders committed in the summer of 1969, including the stabbing of actress Sharon Tate, who was 8 1/2 months pregnant.
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She was sentenced to death, but her sentence was changed to life imprisonment when the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the death penalty in 1972. The death penalty was reinstated in 1976.
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Vehicle in Atlanta Child Murders case moved from Columbus
Ledger-Enquirer Columbus, GA
August 20, 2009
The old station wagon had been forgotten.
Once a central piece of evidence leading to the conviction of Wayne Williams in what became nationally known as the Atlanta Child Murders, it was left to rot among the weeds and fallen tree branches in a backyard along Meadow Drive in Columbus.
That was until Wednesday afternoon when Edward Blackwelder, an ordained minister and retired criminal justice professor from Piedmont, Ala., retrieved it from oblivion, while a CNN camera crew captured the moment for a future documentary on the infamous case.
"There were several cars introduced at trial," Blackwelder said as two men from Carroll’s Wrecker Service out of Piedmont strapped chains to the station wagon’s bumper. “But this is the most infamous. This is the one Wayne Williams was driving when he supposedly dumped the body into the Chattahoochee.”
Wayne Williams’ old car finds a new home
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Fort Mill Times (Fort Mill, SC)
Station wagon at center of Ga. murder case rescued
(Published August 20, 2009)
COLUMBUS, Ga. — A retired criminal justice professor from Alabama has rescued a rotting car that was at the center of the Atlanta Child Murders in the 1980s.
Edward Blackwelder of Piedmont, Ala., was given custody of the car by the family of Wayne Williams, who was convicted in 1982 of two murders in Atlanta and implicated in 22 more killings of mostly boys and young men. Dog hair and carpet fibers linked to the 1970 Chevy station wagon Blackwelder now owns were key pieces of evidence in Williams' trial.
The car belonged to Williams' father, Homer, who died in 2005. Blackwelder says he wants to keep the car safe in case someone finds new evidence that leads to a new trial for Williams, who has maintained his innocence for three decades.
The Anniston Star (Anniston, AL)
Brett Buckner
August 13, 2009
Piedmont man met Manson follower during trial
After 34 years in prison for the attempted assassination of President Gerald Ford, Charles Manson follower and earliest member of The Family Lynette “Squeaky” Fromme will soon be set free.
Local retired professor and serial killer expert Edward Blackwelder, who met and has corresponded with Fromme, believes she could vanish quietly into the shadows of history … given time and proper supervision.
Speaking at his home in Piedmont recently, Blackwelder said Fromme could wind up leading a normal life, but not without someone keeping a watchful eye on her.
“Without adequate supervision she will be back,” he said.
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