on August the 15th of 1987 three women were savagely hacked to Pieces by a Madman with a hatchet it was so bad that the way they had to identify the victims was through fingerprint and dental Impressions and they had to do this the day after the murders the same time one of the victims cars was stolen and a patrol officer spotted that victim's car parked outside of the home of a 16 year old high school dropout with no criminal record named Clinton Bankston Jr Bankston would go on to confess to these vicious murders as well as the murders of another couple that had occurred four months prior after the murders and before the trial Clinton Bankston Jr spent Hills of imaginary friends and mental instability but by May of 1988 on the day of his 17th birthday pled guilty to five counts of first-degree murder it's been 35 years since the murders and because this case has gone to trial and it has been settled I have received the case File from law enforcement as well as Clinton Bankston Junior's interrogation despite the fact that it was taken in 1987 you know they didn't record a lot of those things back then but I do have his video confession I guess they did it on VHS and converted it to digital later I don't know but today we're going to travel all around Athens to the locations where Clinton Bankston Jr murdered his five victims and I'm gonna tell the story that is the 1987 Athens murders by Clinton Bankston Jr it's very sad and very brutal and not necessary foreign today I'm here at the North Oconee River Greenway in Athens this was a like a popular album cover this area here from rem's album you know they're from here in Athens and they are now finishing that bridge as I said in the intro this video today uh it's a it's a tough one five people were killed ultimately all together by a 16 year old High School Dropout who obviously has no conscience at all this story that I'm going to be telling today I'm not going to add any extra I'm just going to get straight to the details and go through the story from the start to the Finish now this whole story revolves around the 16 year old boy his name was Clinton Bankston Jr he was born and raised here in Athens and obviously he was troubled on an early Saturday morning in April of 1987. Neighbors in this area here called 9-1-1 and reported that they had not seen some of their neighbors the Suttons in several days and they wanted a welfare check Glenn and Rachel Sutton both worked and taught at the University of Georgia they were well liked and they were both kind of a big deal here in Georgia they were at the top of their fields Glenn was part of the finance department for uga's business administration College he actually left at one point because he was appointed to the U.S tariff commission under President Dwight D Eisenhower and then he served as a naval Commander during World War II he then returned to the University of Georgia in his same capacity Rachel Sutton served as the administrator in the elementary education department and she was responsible for training anyone who attended UGA and would go on to teach in Georgia's public school system that morning officers made entry into the home only to uncover a dark discovery that would haunt some of them for some time to come after this once the officers entered the home they discovered that there was blood all over the place it was covering everything inside of the home they would say that it looked like it had been pulled straight out of a horror movie as they searched room by room at one point they discovered the bodies of Glenn and Rachel Sutton the sentence had been stabbed to death with many different stab wounds all over each of them and they were rolled up together in a roll of carpet as law enforcement investigated they actually discovered that the killer scaled up a balcony outside of the home and they actually went through one of the windows up on that balcony which led them into the stairwell inside of the home after a little bit more investigating they discovered that the Suttons actually had an exterior garage that wasn't attached to the house and there was a window busted out on it which looked like The Killers had gotten into this garage so they opened it up to take a look and at the the first thing they noticed is that it looks like one of the Sutton's cars had you know the killers had tried to steal one of these cars but it looks like they had put the car in Drive instead of reversing they actually ran into the wall inside of the garage meaning that this person was probably not a very experienced driver and so they just abandoned the car but when law enforcement opened up the trunk of the vehicle they discovered that the killer had brought a lot of stuff out of the house that he was going to attempt to take with him like some rugs that had blood all over them there were squares of carpet that had blood all over them and there was a bowl that had like a bunch of Rags where the killer had cleaned up blood and he was going to take all this with him in the Sutton's car when he left but because he didn't know how to drive it he wound up leaving it all behind detectives pulled some fingerprints and a few pieces of evidence from the home and in the end they believed the murderers were the result of a home invasion gone bad for months law enforcement didn't have any leads to connect them to a killer they ran fingerprints collected from the scene but they didn't match anyone in their files and they had no eyewitnesses that could give them a description of a murderer for four whole months the murders of Glenn and Rachel Sutton would be unsolved the Sutton's son still owns this home to this day he shows up to the house every now and then but for the most part the house just sits here empty on August the 15th of 1987 law enforcement was again called to do a welfare check this time it was right here at this home that belonged to Sally Nathanson and her 22 year old adopted daughter Helen now the officers who arrived on scene to do the welfare check they came right here now as you can see this is a Private Drive unfortunately it's private property and we can't get back there but I did bring my drone with me today so I'm going to send it up and we'll fly over it and see what the house looks like today now from what I can tell I do believe that someone else actually owns this home to this day they've done a bunch of remodeling on it I'm not so sure that it is still in the family as like the Sutton's home everything that I can tell it looks like it was sold off now Sally's Sister Anne Morris had come over here to the home to visit her sister and her niece and she never returned home so Ann's husband called the police and had them stop by to do a welfare check when law enforcement entered the home they wouldn't cover the most gruesome crime scene anyone in this area had ever seen all three women had been butchered and hacked up with a hatchet it was very clear that two of the women had been sexually assaulted including including Helen Nathanson the 22 year old and Helen's nightshirt was found to be ripped and torn and pulled down a runner waist in and around this crime scene law enforcement uncovered fingerprints DNA and Sally nathanson's car was missing this was a huge piece of evidence for detectives essentially find her car find her killer so police immediately put out an APB for Sally's car and checkpoints are set up going in and out of Athens looking for it and dozens of Patrol officers are designated to just simply ride around the city and look for her car on August the 16th an officer who was out searching for Sally's car he was driving down Moreland Avenue here in Athens when he spotted what he believed was the car they had been looking for now the home where Clinton Bankston Jr used to live at it is no longer standing but this is the exact location where it's set back in 1987. the officer quickly pulled into the driveway and he gets out and he walks up to the front door and Knocks and lo and behold 16 year old Clinton Bankston Jr answered the door Clinton lived here in this home with his half-brother Curtis Johnson the officer said that he was there to find out about the car sitting out front of their home and Clinton responded that he had stolen it as law enforcement searched Clinton Bankston Junior's home in his room they found quite a few items of jewelry that belonged to Sally and Helen Nathanson they found a firearm in one of his jackets they found two like massive knives they also discovered that he had um an affection for Michael Jackson and even owned several outfits that Michael Jackson wore Clinton Bankston Jr was immediately carried down to the police department here in Athens for an interview let me read your Miranda Warren again okay could you tell me your full name again Clint Clinton Junior Braxton where do you live then [Music] um 565 East Hollow Drive what's your birthday 1971 and how old are you 16. okay how far did you go in school 29th right okay can you read it right yes during the multi-hour interview with Bankston he claimed mental distress he told the detectives that he had done it and he confessed and at other times he said he did not do it and he also claimed that another person was there with him a man named Chris Ward and he would tell him that this Chris Ward was actually the one who had done all of this okay and he's hitting this girl in the living room area with this action sword thing um then what happened first though we didn't I went along with him and it's getting the money but I didn't kill nobody I just moved the roads and stuff because he didn't get rich like this and he asked me do I want to get rich with him and I said yes investigators didn't believe this Chris Ward story but in the interest of Clinton Bankston Junior's rights they investigated that person and later determined that there was no search person and plus Chris is full name will not do this Chris Ward how do you spell his last name see you on w-a-r-d but as this interview went along with Clinton Bankston Jr they had suspicions that Clinton was also responsible for the attack on the Suttons that it happened four months prior to this so just as they're sitting there talking they bring it up and without hesitation Clinton Bankston Jr also begins to confess to the murders of Glenn and Rachel Sutton as well hey Clifford going back approximately three months now on Oglethorpe Avenue okay I want you to tell me what you know about what happened over there at that residence okay I went up Carousel and I parked my bike outside this outside the door [Music] to get the cars and bring them back y'all went to his house to get the cars how many cars were y'all planning on getting oh um two who was the on Dodge or Buick or something like that that brown car was because they're the one that had run into the garage wall before I got my license that's the one you drove into the garage wall there yeah he told me you're backing out while he's watching see anybody coming during this interview Clinton Bankston Jr frequently talked about the old couple as he said referring to the Suttons and he gave police the locations where they found the hatchet used to kill the three women a bloody shirt that belonged to him and a diploma with Rachel Sutton's name on it that was covered in blood Bankston told detectives that he had dumped the items in a pile behind the Salvation Army store and sure enough when detectives came here the items were right where he said they would be on May the 12th of 1988 which was Clinton Bankston Junior's 17th birthday he stood in front of a judge and pled not guilty due to Insanity his lawyers argued that he was mentally ill and that he needed to be in a mental hospital rather than prison the prosecution however they argued that sure he probably had some mental illnesses going on but he knew what he was doing and he knew that it was wrong and it was evident because he got such a rush from killing the sentence that he stalked these three women and got so excited and turned on doing the home invasion that he actually sexually assaulted two of them because of it the judge in this case believed that yes Clinton had some mental issues but ultimately the judge found that he knew what he was doing during the murders and the judge sentenced Clinton Bankston Jr to five life sentences without the possibility of parole and any other place someone who did this someone who committed five heinous murders like this they would have gotten the death penalty but in Georgia they have a law that prohibits anyone under the age of 18 from getting the death penalty so Clinton Bankston Jr escaped from receiving a death penalty because he was only 16 at the time he murdered these five people here in Athens Clinton Bankston Jr is actually still alive to this day and he's serving those five life sentences here at Wheeler Correctional Facility in Alamo Georgia Clinton will never be released and he will eventually die behind bars for the atrocious acts he committed on Glen Sutton Rachel Sutton Sally Nathanson Helen Nathanson and Ann Morris the sad part though is even though he will have lived pretty much his whole life in there he was just a kid when he did all of this so he will still get to pretty much live out his entire life whereas all five of bankston's victims didn't all five of Clinton Bankston Junior's victims are all buried here at Athens prestigious Oconee Hill Cemetery memorialized not by their accomplishments to society and the university but by the heinous actions of evil in flesh and blood and that it that's Clinton Bankston Jr good news and Morris here's Sally Nathanson car seal which is just like right over here like the the their home where this happened was right next to the cemetery and then here's Hill and the daughter born in Honolulu Hawaii 22 years old 65 to 87. and then here on the other side of the property right by Sally nathanson's home is right on the other side of the fence row here is where Glenn and Rachel Sutton lay Clinton Bankston juniors first victims 1904 to 1987. and then 1909 to 1987. right here it's all of it's all five victims that is going to do it for this episode today from here in Athens Georgia and the 1987 Athens murderers I want to thank you all so much for watching if you're new here go down hit that subscribe button then hit that notification Bell so you get notified every time I upload a video if you're one of those asking about how you can help support the channel there's links in the description box below but just watching my videos and hitting the thumbs up that's that work that's perfect thank you all I will see you again in the next one please all of you stay safe and stay healthy much love to you all [Music] foreign [Applause] [Music] [Music]