Happy True Crime Thursday!
Last week's story was about serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer, for this week's story I'm talking about a case that at one point was thought to be tied to Dahmer, but was later dismissed and linked to another serial killer.
I don't know about you guys, but I grew up watching the show America's Most Wanted, and never knew until later on that the host John Walsh had experienced a terrible crime committed towards his family himself. Today I am talking about the kidnapping and murder of Adam Walsh.
Adam John Walsh was born on November 14, 1974 to John and Reve Walsh. Unfortunately when Adam was just 6 years old a monster would end his short life.
On July 27th, 1981 Adam and his mom Reve were shopping at the Hollywood Mall in Hollywood, Florida at a Sears store. Reve left Adam at a kiosk with several other boys who were taking turns playing Atari, she wanted to ask an employee about a lamp that was on sale. When she was done around 12:15 she returned to find that Adam and the other boys weren't there. When she went to a store manager she was told that a scuffle had broken out over whose turn it was at the kiosk, a security guard demanded that the boys leave. He first asked them if their parents were in the store and they said no, Adam being the timid kid that he was didn't say anything. That's when he made them leave through the doors that they had came in, which was a different entrance than the one Adam and his mom had come through. Most likely after the other boys dispersed Adam was left alone and at an exit he wasn't familiar with.
Meanwhile, Reve was looking all over the store and had him paged over the store intercom. By pure coincidence she ran into her mother in law Jean and she joined in the search for Adam. After looking for more than 90 minutes, she called the Hollywood Police at 1:55.
The Walsh's launched a massive search for their son that continued for weeks.
On August 10, 1981, two fishermen found a severed head floating in a canal off the Florida turnpike. The Walsh's not thinking it was their son went on National television the morning of August 11th saying they hoped Adam was still alive and were offering a $100,000 reward for his safe return. Sadly later that day it was confirmed that the head was in fact Adam's. His cause of death was ruled as asphyxiation, and that Adam had died several days before the discovery. The rest of his body was never found.
It became widely known that both John and Reve personally believed that the Hollywood police department botched the treatment of not only Adam as a missing person, but also the investigation into his murder. John stated that the lack of coordinated planning by the police after his son was reported missing resulted in crucial hours being lost. "They were a tiny local police agency that had limited resources and never manned a search anywhere near this size. We did have a gut intuition that mistakes were being made. Everything seemed so chaotic and disorganized." Over the years, he also claimed that police lost critical evidence.
Adam became the poster child for child abductions. His parents became activists in the aftermath of their son's murder. They started the Adam Walsh Outreach Center for Missing Children out of their garage just a few days after Adam's funeral. Later on the couple lobbied for the Missing Children's Act, which would create a system for data to be entered into the FBI's National Crime Information Center database. In 1984, John cofounded the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children and just a few years later he became the host of America's Most Wanted. In 1994, large retail stores implemented "Code Adam," it alerts and requires all store employees to be on the lookout. In 2006, George W. Bush signed The Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006, this expanded the national sex- offenders registry and created a national sex-abuse registry.
The suspects;
* The Walsh's had a family friend James "Jimmy" Campbell who was questioned by police. He was cleared after he passed 2 polygraphs and went through hypnosis.
* Edward James, a man who was arrested for abducting a boy in Florida was investigated in connection to Adam's case. According to a report by Detective Mark Smith, James had confessed to a cellmate that he had abducted and murdered Adam. They learned that James had been gone from his apartment complex for 2 weeks, and that he had a seat cover installed by an upholstery shop on August 27, 1981. After they interviewed James they took the recording and it was subjected to a computer voice stress analysis and showed no signs of deception. Based upon this and the fact that they lacked evidence, detectives dismissed James being involved.
* Jeffrey Dahmer, as you guys may have read last week he was arrested in Wisconsin in 1991 after killing more than a dozen boys and men. Jeffrey's father actually called the America's Most Wanted hotline shortly after his sons arrest, he told them that Jeffrey had been living in Miami Beach at the time and that he believed his son was a pedophile. Two eyewitnesses even came forward saying they saw Dahmer at the mall on the day that Adam was abducted after they saw his picture in the papers. One saw him in the toy department while the other saw him throw a struggling child into a blue van and speed off. The delivery shop that Dahmer worked at had a blue van at the time. His MO did include severing his victims heads. When they interviewed Dahmer about Adam in 1992 he denied up and down about being involved. He stated "I've told you everything, how I killed them, how I cooked them, who I ate. Why wouldn't I tell you if I did someone else?" After this surfaced John Walsh stated the he had seen no evidence actually linking Dahmer to Adam's abduction. Lack of evidence dismissed him as a suspect.
*Ottis Toole. Fast forward to 2008, Florida police announced that they believed serial killer Ottis Toole had kidnapped and killed Adam Walsh and that they were closing Adam's case. Ottis was a drifter, arsonist and serial killer. He made things complicated with police because he confessed to many murders and than later recanted. According to police Ottis had been a suspect in the case since 1983. Ottis originally claimed that it was his accomplice Henry Lee Lucas that had decapitated Adam, Lucas even backed up Toole's claims. Investigators shot this down when they discovered that Henry Lee Lucas was in prison at the time. So then Ottis changed his story. He said he abducted Adam in the Sears mall parking lot after luring him with toys and candy. He stated that when Adam started crying, he punched him in the face, raped him and decapitated him with a machete. Then he drove around with Adam's severed head for several days because he "forgot about it" before he eventually tossed it in the canal.
He wasn't convicted of Adam's murder, but was convicted of 6 other murders. He died in prison when he was 49.
On July 27th, 1981 Adam and his mom Reve were shopping at the Hollywood Mall in Hollywood, Florida at a Sears store. Reve left Adam at a kiosk with several other boys who were taking turns playing Atari, she wanted to ask an employee about a lamp that was on sale. When she was done around 12:15 she returned to find that Adam and the other boys weren't there. When she went to a store manager she was told that a scuffle had broken out over whose turn it was at the kiosk, a security guard demanded that the boys leave. He first asked them if their parents were in the store and they said no, Adam being the timid kid that he was didn't say anything. That's when he made them leave through the doors that they had came in, which was a different entrance than the one Adam and his mom had come through. Most likely after the other boys dispersed Adam was left alone and at an exit he wasn't familiar with.
Meanwhile, Reve was looking all over the store and had him paged over the store intercom. By pure coincidence she ran into her mother in law Jean and she joined in the search for Adam. After looking for more than 90 minutes, she called the Hollywood Police at 1:55.
The Walsh's launched a massive search for their son that continued for weeks.
On August 10, 1981, two fishermen found a severed head floating in a canal off the Florida turnpike. The Walsh's not thinking it was their son went on National television the morning of August 11th saying they hoped Adam was still alive and were offering a $100,000 reward for his safe return. Sadly later that day it was confirmed that the head was in fact Adam's. His cause of death was ruled as asphyxiation, and that Adam had died several days before the discovery. The rest of his body was never found.
It became widely known that both John and Reve personally believed that the Hollywood police department botched the treatment of not only Adam as a missing person, but also the investigation into his murder. John stated that the lack of coordinated planning by the police after his son was reported missing resulted in crucial hours being lost. "They were a tiny local police agency that had limited resources and never manned a search anywhere near this size. We did have a gut intuition that mistakes were being made. Everything seemed so chaotic and disorganized." Over the years, he also claimed that police lost critical evidence.
Adam became the poster child for child abductions. His parents became activists in the aftermath of their son's murder. They started the Adam Walsh Outreach Center for Missing Children out of their garage just a few days after Adam's funeral. Later on the couple lobbied for the Missing Children's Act, which would create a system for data to be entered into the FBI's National Crime Information Center database. In 1984, John cofounded the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children and just a few years later he became the host of America's Most Wanted. In 1994, large retail stores implemented "Code Adam," it alerts and requires all store employees to be on the lookout. In 2006, George W. Bush signed The Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006, this expanded the national sex- offenders registry and created a national sex-abuse registry.
The suspects;
* The Walsh's had a family friend James "Jimmy" Campbell who was questioned by police. He was cleared after he passed 2 polygraphs and went through hypnosis.
* Edward James, a man who was arrested for abducting a boy in Florida was investigated in connection to Adam's case. According to a report by Detective Mark Smith, James had confessed to a cellmate that he had abducted and murdered Adam. They learned that James had been gone from his apartment complex for 2 weeks, and that he had a seat cover installed by an upholstery shop on August 27, 1981. After they interviewed James they took the recording and it was subjected to a computer voice stress analysis and showed no signs of deception. Based upon this and the fact that they lacked evidence, detectives dismissed James being involved.
* Jeffrey Dahmer, as you guys may have read last week he was arrested in Wisconsin in 1991 after killing more than a dozen boys and men. Jeffrey's father actually called the America's Most Wanted hotline shortly after his sons arrest, he told them that Jeffrey had been living in Miami Beach at the time and that he believed his son was a pedophile. Two eyewitnesses even came forward saying they saw Dahmer at the mall on the day that Adam was abducted after they saw his picture in the papers. One saw him in the toy department while the other saw him throw a struggling child into a blue van and speed off. The delivery shop that Dahmer worked at had a blue van at the time. His MO did include severing his victims heads. When they interviewed Dahmer about Adam in 1992 he denied up and down about being involved. He stated "I've told you everything, how I killed them, how I cooked them, who I ate. Why wouldn't I tell you if I did someone else?" After this surfaced John Walsh stated the he had seen no evidence actually linking Dahmer to Adam's abduction. Lack of evidence dismissed him as a suspect.
*Ottis Toole. Fast forward to 2008, Florida police announced that they believed serial killer Ottis Toole had kidnapped and killed Adam Walsh and that they were closing Adam's case. Ottis was a drifter, arsonist and serial killer. He made things complicated with police because he confessed to many murders and than later recanted. According to police Ottis had been a suspect in the case since 1983. Ottis originally claimed that it was his accomplice Henry Lee Lucas that had decapitated Adam, Lucas even backed up Toole's claims. Investigators shot this down when they discovered that Henry Lee Lucas was in prison at the time. So then Ottis changed his story. He said he abducted Adam in the Sears mall parking lot after luring him with toys and candy. He stated that when Adam started crying, he punched him in the face, raped him and decapitated him with a machete. Then he drove around with Adam's severed head for several days because he "forgot about it" before he eventually tossed it in the canal.
He wasn't convicted of Adam's murder, but was convicted of 6 other murders. He died in prison when he was 49.
Over the years, some experts have expressed doubt that Toole was responsible for Adam's murder. When they announced that Toole was the killer, police did not announce any new physical evidence linking him to the crime. Toole's car could not be tested for DNA due to the fact that police had reportedly lost the evidence. However, John Walsh has said publicly many times that he believes that Ottis is his son's killer.
Even though the Walsh's went through this tremendous heart break that no one should ever have to experience, they decided to try to use Adam and his story for good. To help prevent other children and parents from going through the same thing they did. To make people more aware, and as a soon to be parent I can't thank them enough for all they did to advocate for childrens safety.
Resources:
https://time.com/4437205/adam-walsh-murder/
https://www.investigationdiscovery.com/crimefeed/crime-history/5-facts-to-know-about-kidnapping-and-murder-of-adam-walsh
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Adam_Walsh
No comments:
Post a Comment