Michael Terry

Michael Devern Terry (born 1960) is an American serial killer active between 1985 and 1986, who killed six gay men in Atlanta, Georgia following sexual encounters. Whilst he claimed they were done in self-defense, Terry was nevertheless convicted and given three life imprisonment terms, which he is still serving.

Early life Michael Terry was born in 1960, in Tallassee, Alabama. Little is known about his personal life, but after dropping out of the 10th-grade, Terry evidently began committing small crimes, amassing convictions for burglary, robbery, simple battery, aggravated assault and carrying an unlicensed firearm. In 1983, he moved to Atlanta, first staying at a rooming house near Morris Brown College, before asking Gus Jones, a co-worker at the tire company where he was employed, to help him find another location. He would not approach the victims himself, instead leaning on walls or sitting until a suitable target offered their services to him. If the man was to his liking, the pair would go to an isolated area to have sex, right after which Terry would either stab or shoot the victim to death. In total, he killed six men:

Richard Williams (24): found in a vacant building behind a house at 867 Mayson Turner Road on December 6, 1985. He had been shot in the back of the head and stabbed twice. After some time, however, Detectives Sheila Cumberworth and Marcellus Head noticed a pattern in several cold cases that had occurred in the city, and presented their theory that a serial killer was operating in the area to Lt. Horace Walker, the commander of the local police unit. Nevertheless, he was brought to a trial on murder charges, with a jury composed of three men and nine women. At his trial, Terry revoked his previous statement and confession, claiming that he had confessed because the police officers would not believe him either way. Regardless, he was found guilty and convicted in the murders of Richard Williams and Curtis Brown, receiving two consecutive life terms for each. In order to avoid further trials, Terry later pled guilty to the remaining murders, for which he was given three additional consecutive life terms. He was then imprisoned, remaining incarcerated as of October 2021.