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Jack Mallard’s book, “The Atlanta Child Murders: the Night Stalker,” is available online at www.amazon.com.
Jack Mallard’s book, “The Atlanta Child Murders: the Night Stalker,” is available online at www.amazon.com.
A former Fulton County prosecutor who now lives in Forsyth County has put pen to paper about a decades-old murder case that had children scared to leave their homes and authorities on a hunt that spanned two years.
Jack Mallard’s book, “The Atlanta Child Murders: the Night Stalker,” chronicles the investigation and the trial of convicted serial killer Wayne Bertram Williams.
Williams is thought to have killed 28 people, most of them children, between 1979 and ‘81 in Atlanta.
Mallard was the lead prosecutor in the case, which went to trial in 1982. He moved to Forsyth County in 2002 and retired in 2007 after 40 years as a prosecutor.
Mallard is no stranger to high-profile cases.
He also prosecuted the 1990s Fred Tokars murder case. Tokars was an attorney accused of hiring a hitman to kill his wife, Sara. He was convicted of murder in 1997.
In addition, Mallard was appointed as an assistant prosecutor in Cobb County in the first of two trials in which Lynn Turner was convicted of murder.
In Cobb County, Turner was tried for using antifreeze to kill her husband and former Cobb County police officer, Glenn Turner, in 1995.
Additional allegations against her arose after her boyfriend, Forsyth County firefighter Randy Thompson, died in 2001.
Both men’s lives ended after they showed “flu-like symptoms.” Investigators linked the two deaths and held Turner responsible for both.
She was tried and convicted for Thompson’s death in 2007.
Forsyth County District Attorney Penny Penn prosecuted the case, for which Mallard was appointed special prosecutor to assist her.
Turner is currently serving two life sentences, one without parole.
Mallard said he wrote “Atlanta Child Murders” to “get the truth out there.”
“There had been too much said that was untrue, half-truths and biased reports, especially in cheap publications and the Internet,” Mallard said.
“And there’s always been this beating of the drums by very few people that Williams was railroaded and didn’t get a fair trial.”
The book, Mallard’s first, took him a little more than a year to finish.
“It was almost a full-time job,” he said.
He pitched the book to agents and publishers, but with little luck.
“One feedback I got was, ‘Look Jack, you might as well forget it unless you’re writing a book which shows Williams was innocent,’” he said.
“I said, ‘Well, I’ll have to let the public judge for themselves when they read it.’”
The book was published in December and Mallard is currently promoting it, which he says also is akin to a full-time job.
While a second book isn’t in the works, Mallard said he may do it all over again.
“I did enjoy writing the book and also what I’m doing now,” he said. “I want people to read it because the idea was to get more people to read it and judge for themselves whether he was railroaded or got a fair trial. Then I’ll be happy with the end result.”
Jack Mallard’s book, “The Atlanta Child Murders: the Night Stalker,” chronicles the investigation and the trial of convicted serial killer Wayne Bertram Williams.
Williams is thought to have killed 28 people, most of them children, between 1979 and ‘81 in Atlanta.
Mallard was the lead prosecutor in the case, which went to trial in 1982. He moved to Forsyth County in 2002 and retired in 2007 after 40 years as a prosecutor.
Mallard is no stranger to high-profile cases.
He also prosecuted the 1990s Fred Tokars murder case. Tokars was an attorney accused of hiring a hitman to kill his wife, Sara. He was convicted of murder in 1997.
In addition, Mallard was appointed as an assistant prosecutor in Cobb County in the first of two trials in which Lynn Turner was convicted of murder.
In Cobb County, Turner was tried for using antifreeze to kill her husband and former Cobb County police officer, Glenn Turner, in 1995.
Additional allegations against her arose after her boyfriend, Forsyth County firefighter Randy Thompson, died in 2001.
Both men’s lives ended after they showed “flu-like symptoms.” Investigators linked the two deaths and held Turner responsible for both.
She was tried and convicted for Thompson’s death in 2007.
Forsyth County District Attorney Penny Penn prosecuted the case, for which Mallard was appointed special prosecutor to assist her.
Turner is currently serving two life sentences, one without parole.
Mallard said he wrote “Atlanta Child Murders” to “get the truth out there.”
“There had been too much said that was untrue, half-truths and biased reports, especially in cheap publications and the Internet,” Mallard said.
“And there’s always been this beating of the drums by very few people that Williams was railroaded and didn’t get a fair trial.”
The book, Mallard’s first, took him a little more than a year to finish.
“It was almost a full-time job,” he said.
He pitched the book to agents and publishers, but with little luck.
“One feedback I got was, ‘Look Jack, you might as well forget it unless you’re writing a book which shows Williams was innocent,’” he said.
“I said, ‘Well, I’ll have to let the public judge for themselves when they read it.’”
The book was published in December and Mallard is currently promoting it, which he says also is akin to a full-time job.
While a second book isn’t in the works, Mallard said he may do it all over again.
“I did enjoy writing the book and also what I’m doing now,” he said. “I want people to read it because the idea was to get more people to read it and judge for themselves whether he was railroaded or got a fair trial. Then I’ll be happy with the end result.”