Police in New Jersey are trying to determine whether a man charged with dealing drugs may be connected to unsolved murders of children.
Charles T. Williams was one of 135 people arrested earlier this week in a Hackensack drug sweep. Authorities allege he sold heroin and oxycodone out of his home.
Williams, 62, has an extensive criminal history as a child predator, and police tell The Record newspaper that they are tracing where he traveled to see if he might be connected to any slayings.
Williams was convicted of molesting several boys, including the son of a police officer, in northern New Jersey in the 1970s. According to The Record, he dragged an 11-year-old boy playing with friends at a park into a secluded area and raped him, then threatened to drown him in the river.
In another case, Williams raped a 13-year-old boy who went fishing with him. The boy identified him to police and he pleaded guilty to aggravated sexual assault in 1974.
During questioning in the New Jersey cases, Williams admitted to murdering two boys in Virginia as a teenager in 1969. The two dead boys had both been sexually assaulted; one body was found with a dozen stab wounds in a ravine and the other was found with severe head injuries in a shallow grave near his home. The second boy had also been suffocated. Williams, then 17, was their neighbor.
He pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in 1976 and was sentenced to 20 years in state prison. He served 13 years.
Williams moved to Hackensack in 2004 and police tell The Record they'd had no complaints about the registered sex offender until this month, when he was allegedly caught selling drugs to an undercover officer on three separate occasions.
Williams was arrested as part of the larger sting that also had targeted Richard Shoop, the Teaneck man who opened fire at the Garden State Plaza Mall in Paramus in November before shooting himself in the head. Undercover officers also received information connecting Williams to the Feb. 6 stabbing of a 24-year-old man in the chest; he faces aggravated assault charges in that case.
In court this week, Williams' attorney said he's been working at a furniture store in Hackensack for nearly two decades.
Williams is being held in the Bergen County Jail on a bail of $750,000.
Charles T. Williams was one of 135 people arrested earlier this week in a Hackensack drug sweep. Authorities allege he sold heroin and oxycodone out of his home.
Williams, 62, has an extensive criminal history as a child predator, and police tell The Record newspaper that they are tracing where he traveled to see if he might be connected to any slayings.
Williams was convicted of molesting several boys, including the son of a police officer, in northern New Jersey in the 1970s. According to The Record, he dragged an 11-year-old boy playing with friends at a park into a secluded area and raped him, then threatened to drown him in the river.
In another case, Williams raped a 13-year-old boy who went fishing with him. The boy identified him to police and he pleaded guilty to aggravated sexual assault in 1974.
During questioning in the New Jersey cases, Williams admitted to murdering two boys in Virginia as a teenager in 1969. The two dead boys had both been sexually assaulted; one body was found with a dozen stab wounds in a ravine and the other was found with severe head injuries in a shallow grave near his home. The second boy had also been suffocated. Williams, then 17, was their neighbor.
He pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in 1976 and was sentenced to 20 years in state prison. He served 13 years.
Williams moved to Hackensack in 2004 and police tell The Record they'd had no complaints about the registered sex offender until this month, when he was allegedly caught selling drugs to an undercover officer on three separate occasions.
Williams was arrested as part of the larger sting that also had targeted Richard Shoop, the Teaneck man who opened fire at the Garden State Plaza Mall in Paramus in November before shooting himself in the head. Undercover officers also received information connecting Williams to the Feb. 6 stabbing of a 24-year-old man in the chest; he faces aggravated assault charges in that case.
In court this week, Williams' attorney said he's been working at a furniture store in Hackensack for nearly two decades.
Williams is being held in the Bergen County Jail on a bail of $750,000.
Copyright AP - Associated Press
