Clinton Bankston, Jr. Accused of Murdering Five People in Athens, Ga. (8/18/87)
35 years later: Remembering the Athens murders of 1987
Many things come and go in the city of Athens. College students enter and leave, businesses open and close, but one thing that has stayed constant is the vast array of beautiful homes lining the busy streets.
One of these beautiful homes is a faded yellow brick house with antique architecture and its two elegant columns framing the front porch.
In 1987, the property was home to distinguished professors Glenn and Rachel Sutton, who both led illustrious educational careers. Glenn Sutton taught finance and served as a chairman and director in various positions at the University of Georgia for 26 years before being appointed to the U.S. Tariff Commission by President Dwight D. Eisenhower. Rachel Sutton also taught elementary education at UGA for the College of Education division for nearly four decades until her retirement.
The Suttons were known for being somewhat isolated in the neighborhood and often kept to themselves.
On the morning of April 25, 1987, Athens police stopped by the Sutton home to conduct a wellness check after being called by the couple’s only son — William Sutton — who was unable to get in contact with his parents after calling several times.
After forcing their way into the home, the police found the bodies of Glenn and Rachel Sutton wrapped together in a roll of carpet with multiple aggravated stab wounds. After clearing the scene, the killer was not identified and for the summer of 1987, Athenians were left on edge, fearing the killer would not be found.
The crime brought a lot of attention to the city of Athens with the Atlanta-Journal Constitution, The New York Times, Associated Press and several other outlets covering the crime.
Athens police searched all summer for any leads or clues to help find the killer and according to a Red & Black report on July 16, 1987, had questioned more than 300 people to help solve the case.
On August 15, 1987, a triple-homicide struck the Athens community. Ann Morris, Sally Nathanson and Helen Nathanson were found stabbed to death in the Nathanson’s home in the Carr’s Hill area. The police arrived at the scene after Ann Morris’ husband Kenneth Morris called the police to report her missing.
With another horrific homicide scene, the police were on the lookout once again, but did not need to search long. The next morning while on patrol, police spotted Sally Nathanson’s Cadillac parked in front of a home on Moreland Avenue.
When the police knocked on the door they were introduced to 16-year-old Clinton Bankston Jr., who had the keys to the car wrapped around his belt.
Bankston originally blamed the murders on a friend named Chris, but the friend was found to not exist. Bankston also gave inconsistent details in his original story including giving the police information on the Sutton home that led to police to charge the 16-year-old for killing five Athens residents.
“When officers pulled out a diagram of the house and pointed to the wrong room, Clinton Bankston corrected them,” Clarke County Assistant District Attorney Gerald Brown said to The Red & Black in a May 13, 1988 article.
Cameron Harrelson, also known as Cameron Jay, is the host, writer and producer of the Classic City Crime podcast. Harrelson covered the murders in a 7-part series that dove further into the history behind them.
Bankston was charged and pleaded insanity during his trial. Bankston would go through several changes during the trial while going back and forth on confessing to the murders. On May 12, 1988, his 17th birthday, Bankston was sentenced to five life sentences after pleading guilty but mentally ill.
With the murderer behind bars, the family and friends of the five victims were able to begin their healing process. While doing research on this case for a new series on the Classic City Crime podcast, Harrelson wanted to put a spotlight on the five victims and the lives they lived and who Athens had truly lost from the murders.
“Once I started reading the case, I realized that Athens had truly been robbed,” Harrelson said. “We always talk about the murder, but Athens itself was robbed of five very important individuals. People who had extraordinary lives. It was really the victims of this case, not the perpetrator or the crime itself, that led me to cover them so in-depth.”
Bankston is still serving life in prison and had his sentence of five life terms in prison upheld by the Georgia Supreme Court in 2020. Bankston is now 51 years old.
The murders of Glenn Sutton, Rachel Sutton, Ann Morris, Sally Nathanson and Helen Nathanson occurred over 35 years ago, but their legacies live on. While the city of Athens has changed in many ways since the murders of 1987, the quiet yellow home on Oglethorpe Avenue has mostly stayed the same.