Wayne Bertram Williams is an American convicted murderer and suspected serial killer who is serving life imprisonment for the 1981 killings of two men in Atlanta, Georgia. Although never tried for the additional murders, he is also believed to be responsible for at least 24 of the 30 Atlanta murders of 1979–1981, also known as the Atlanta Child Murders.
The year 1985 involved some significant events. Below is a list of television-related events of that year.
Gregory Oliver Hines was an American dancer, actor, choreographer, and singer. He is one of the most celebrated tap dancers of all time. As an actor, he is best known for Wolfen (1981), The Cotton Club (1984), White Nights (1985), Running Scared (1986), The Gregory Hines Show (1997–1998), playing Ben on Will & Grace (1999–2000), and for voicing Big Bill on the Nick Jr. animated children's television program Little Bill (1999–2004).
The Atlanta murders of 1979–1981, sometimes called the Atlanta child murders, are a series of murders committed in Atlanta, Georgia, between July 1979 and May 1981. Over the two-year period, at least 28 children, adolescents, and adults were killed. Wayne Williams, an Atlanta native who was 23 years old at the time of the last murder, was arrested, tried, and convicted of two of the adult murders and sentenced to two consecutive life terms.
Jim Davis was an American actor, best known for his roles in television Westerns. In his later career, he became famous as Jock Ewing in the CBS primetime soap opera Dallas, a role he continued until he was too ill from multiple myeloma to perform.
Penny Fuller is an American actress. She received two Tony Award nominations for her performances on Broadway stage: for Applause (1970), and The Dinner Party (2001). For her television performances, Fuller received six Emmy Award nominations, winning once, in 1982 for playing Madge Kendal in The Elephant Man.
Anthony Jared Zerbe is an American actor. His notable film roles include the post-apocalyptic cult leader Matthias in The Omega Man, a 1971 film adaptation of Richard Matheson's 1954 novel, I Am Legend; as an Irish Catholic coal miner and one of the Molly Maguires in the 1970 film The Molly Maguires; as a corrupt gambler in Farewell, My Lovely; as the leper colony chief Toussaint in the 1973 historical drama prison film Papillon; as Abner Devereaux in Kiss Meets the Phantom of the Park; as villain Milton Krest in the James Bond film Licence to Kill; Rosie in The Turning Point; Roger Stuart in The Dead Zone; Admiral Dougherty in Star Trek: Insurrection; and Councillor Hamann in The Matrix Reloaded and The Matrix Revolutions.
Samuel Vernon Washington was an American actor who starred in film and television.
Veronica Redd is an American actress, known for her role as Mamie Johnson in the CBS daytime soap opera, The Young and the Restless.
Abby Mann was an American film writer and producer.
Deborah Iona Raffin was an American actress, model and audiobook publisher.
William Leon Goldenberg was an American composer and songwriter, best known for his work on television and film.
Who Killed Atlanta's Children? is a TV movie about the Atlanta child murders starring James Belushi and Gregory Hines. It was directed by Charles Robert Carner and first aired on Showtime on July 16, 2000. This movie projects a conspiracy theory about the murders: that they were committed by the Ku Klux Klan, who then framed Wayne Williams.
Sins is a 1986 CBS television miniseries starring Joan Collins. An adaptation of the 1982 novel of the same name by Judith Gould, it is the story of a woman who survives the horrors of the Nazi occupation of France and endures a succession of challenges as she rises in the world of fashion.
William Robinson Finnegan was an American television and film producer whose well known credits included The Fabulous Baker Boys, Hawaii Five-O and the cult hit, Reality Bites. he was a five time Emmy Awards nominee.
Sidney Dorsey is an American former law enforcement officer who served as sheriff of DeKalb County, Georgia from 1996 to 2000. Dorsey was the first African American to serve as sheriff of DeKalb County. When Dorsey lost a 2000 runoff election to challenger Derwin Brown, he arranged Brown's murder.
Ennis William Cosby, the only son of American comedian Bill Cosby, was murdered on January 16, 1997, near Interstate 405 in Los Angeles, California. He was shot in the head by 18-year-old Mikhail Markhasev in a failed robbery attempt. Cosby was 27 years old.
Benjamin Crowninshield Bradlee Jr. is an American journalist and writer. He was a reporter and editor at The Boston Globe for 25 years, including a period when he supervised the Pulitzer Prize–winning investigation into sexual abuse by priests in the Boston archdiocese, and is the author of a comprehensive biography of Ted Williams. His book, The Forgotten: How the People of One Pennsylvania County Elected Donald Trump and Changed America, about Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, and the 2016 United States presidential election was released on October 2, 2018.
The Evidence of Things Not Seen is a book-length essay by James Baldwin, published in 1985 by Holt, Rinehart and Winston. The book covers the Atlanta murders of 1979–1981, often called the Atlanta child murders, and examines race relations and other social and cultural issues in Atlanta. Baldwin had ventured to Atlanta as a literary reporter on assignment for Playboy magazine, which had previously published many prominent black writers, such as Alex Haley and James Farmer. Walter Lowe, the magazine's first black editor, had proposed this assignment to Baldwin. The book's title draws from Hebrews 11:1.
