Clinton Bankston

Serial Killer

Clinton Bankston Jr.: The Athens Murders of 1987

Clinton Bankston Jr. was a juvenile multiple murderer who is frequently included in accounts of American serial killers because he killed five people in two separate attacks in Athens, Georgia, during 1987. Bankston was only 15 years old when he committed the first double murder and had turned 16 by the time of the second attack four months later. His victims were two retired University of Georgia professors and three women from the same family. The extreme violence of the crimes shocked Athens and resulted in an investigation involving local police, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and assistance from the FBI.

The Murders of Glenn and Rachel Sutton

The first victims were Glenn Wallace Sutton, 82, and his wife Rachel Sutton, 78, both retired University of Georgia professors. Glenn Sutton had worked in the university's College of Business Administration, while Rachel Sutton had been a professor in elementary education. They lived quietly in their home on Oglethorpe Avenue in Athens. The later grand-jury proceedings placed the Sutton murders between April 22 and April 23, 1987. The couple was not discovered until April 25, when police went to their residence after concerned neighbors were unable to contact them. Inside the house investigators found Glenn and Rachel Sutton dead from multiple stab wounds. Their bodies had been placed together and wrapped in carpeting. The attack immediately became one of Athens' most disturbing unsolved cases. Investigators spent approximately two weeks processing the Sutton residence and continued returning to the property as the investigation progressed. Because there was no immediately obvious suspect, Athens police and Georgia Bureau of Investigation agents eventually sought assistance from the FBI. Authorities were reluctant at the time to publicly disclose many details about the crime, hoping to preserve information that could later be used to identify the killer. For nearly four months, the killings of the Suttons remained unsolved. The eventual break in their case would come only after three more people were murdered elsewhere in Athens.

The Carr's Hill Triple Murder

On August 15, 1987, a second extraordinarily violent crime occurred at a family property in the Carr's Hill area of Athens. The victims were Ann Orr Morris, her sister Sally Nathanson, and Sally's daughter Helen Nathanson. The women were attacked with a hatchet. Investigators recovered a hatchet associated with the crime, and the physical injuries inflicted on the victims made the scene immediately recognizable as an unusually severe homicide case. Ann Orr Morris was 63 years old and was a respected artist, silversmith, goldsmith and enamelist. Sally Nathanson was 59, and her daughter Helen was 22. Their deaths transformed what had initially appeared to be one mysterious double homicide into a broader investigation involving five victims killed in two separate incidents only months apart. ...

Confirmed Victims: (5)

Glenn Sutton , Date of Death: 1987-04

Clinton Bankston | Murderpedia