Jack Mallard wants the public to know what the jury saw back in 1982.

Mallard, a retired prosecutor who handled the Wayne Bertram Williams trial, spoke to the Kiwanis Club of Gainesville on Tuesday about his new book that describes what happened with the man convicted of murdering children in the Atlanta area.

"When I retired, I had the time on my hands. I pulled out the boxes full of information and just started writing," Mallard said. "People had so many questions about the case and the authenticity of the fiber evidence and testing."

Mallard was a prosecutor from 1967-2007, taking on high-profile cases such as the Williams trial, Fred Tokars' murder of his wife Sara in 1992, Lynn Turner's murders of her husband and boyfriend with antifreeze, and James Robert Caldwell's rape of his daughter in 1990. The Caldwell trial was the first to allow DNA evidence in the courtroom.

"Prosecutors are people who are not fully understood by the general public," he said. "We're not in the office for money. I never ran for (district attorney) and was always second in command. I was always the bridesmaid, but never the bride. I came into the courtroom wanting to try cases."

Between 1979 and 1981, 30 young black children and men between ages 9 and 28 were killed or declared missing.

The victims' bodies were found in wooded lots, vacant buildings or the Chattahoochee River.

In his book "The Atlanta Child Murders," released in January, Mallard talks about the media craze, 200 witnesses and 1,000 pieces of evidence that were part of the trial. The jury, sequestered for nine weeks on the case, turned around a guilty conviction in 14 hours.

"This case was landmark because of the trace evidence, such as fibers and dog hair," Mallard said. "It was also significant for the patterns. We only tried him for two murders, though there were 28 other suspected with matching fibers, because of the burden of proof that comes with prosecuting a case."

Plus, a person can only serve one lifetime sentence, whether he was convicted of one or 30 murders, Mallard said.

The book also includes the investigation leading up to the arrest.

"There were images in the newspapers of people out searching and searching," he said. "There was also a task force looking for the victims, and at one point it had 100 agents."

During the "splash heard around the world" on May 22, 1981, officers posted at an Atlanta bridge heard a body splash into the Chattahoochee River near their patrol cars, Mallard said. The "silent killer" had been dumping bodies in the river, so officers staked out every bridge around the Atlanta area. The last body found in the river - one of the two used to convict Williams - was one of the strongest cases of evidence with fiber remains.

"We also had a devastating witness who saw the victim and Williams at the Rialto Theater the night before the splash at the river, and they were holding hands," Mallard said. "... There were several possible motives.

He believed the young street children were dragging down his race. He came from an educated black family, went to college and had parents who were teachers. Possibly another Hitler?"

Mallard also debunked the idea that Williams had ties to the government or secret intelligence operations.

"He lied his head off the two days during cross-examination," he said. "He lied to everybody around him up to that. He told people he was a NASCAR driver and listed that he was a jet pilot on his resume. It's all part of the stuff that makes up Wayne Williams."

The trial, Mallard estimated, cost the state $150,000, which includes the hotel stay for the sequestered jury.

Sentenced to a lifetime in prison, Williams is at Hancock State Prison in Sparta. Though he has been eligible for parole six times, Williams remains in prison.

"The trial was really something," Mallard said. "In one headline, it said, ‘Williams vs. Mallard: A Test of Endurance.' It really was that."