These 6 Famous Homicides In Georgia Will Never Be Forgotten

On August 6. 1887, a family was murdered with a hatchet at the Woolfolk Plantation near Macon, Ga. They were members of the Woolfolk family, and the accused murderer was Tom Woolfolk--a 27 year-old member of the family. He allegedly murdered 9 members of his own family-- a mother, father, 84 year-old relative of the father, and 6 children --one of which was just 18 months old.

Georgia had its own serial "ripper." During the years of 1911-1914, there were 21 murders attributed to the Atlanta Ripper. At least 15 of the victims were women, and they were murdered in the same way--with their throats slit. All of the victims were African Americans and all were in their early 20s. There never were any convictions, but as many as 6 suspects were found. By the end of 1914, the murders simply stopped.

It was a family's worst nightmare--3 escaped convicts murdered 6 members of the Alday family on May 14, 1973. The convicts escaped a Maryland prison 9 days prior, and were looking for guns and money when they arrived at the home of Jerry Alday in Seminole, GA. They shot and killed Jerry, Jerry's father, brothers and uncle. His wife was raped, killed, and found in a wooded area days later. The convicts were caught four days later in West Virginia. Carl Issac's was the longest surviving death row inmate, and was put to death via lethal injection. His accomplice, George Dungee, died in prison and Wayne Coleman is still serving a life sentence at the Georgia State Prison in Reidsville.

Between 1979 and 1981, 29 African American children went missing from the ages of 7-16. They were all found dead in the city of Atlanta--most killed by asphyxiation and found in wooded areas. Two more adults in connection with the child murders were also killed during this time period. Twenty-three-year-old Wayne Williams was believed to be the murderer, but was only convicted for the murders of the two adults.

This murder story inspired a book by Margaret Anne Barnes in 1976 and a 1983 TV movie on CBS starring Johnny Cash and Andy Griffith. A wealthy landowner in Meriwether County had a sharecropper work for him by the name of Wilson Turner. Wallace caught Turner doing some bootlegging work and subsequently fired him. Turner, in turn, stole two cows and money he felt was owed to him by Wallace. Wallace had a lot of political power and even had the Coweta County sheriff under his control. Turner was soon arrested, transferred to Coweta and released according to Wallace's orders. Wallace had Turner's truck drained of gas, and kidnapped and murdered Turner. Wallace was one of the richest men to be executed in Georgia.

Anjette was born in Georgia in 1917. She was supposedly a practicioner of black magic and voodoo. She was charged with murdering her 9-year-old daughter, two husbands and a mother-in-law via arsenic poisoning in the late 1950s. She supposedly did it for the insurance money. She was convicted and sentenced to death, and then later declared insane and was sent to the state hospital at Milledgeville for the rest of her life.