Cops: 1981 Adam Walsh Murder Solved

Police Link Chief Suspect To Slaying Of Florida Boy, Son Of "America's Most Wanted" Host

(CBS/ AP)  A serial killer who died more than a decade ago is the person who decapitated the 6-year-old son of "America's Most Wanted" host John Walsh in 1981, police in Florida said Tuesday.

The announcement brought to a close a case that has vexed the Walsh family for more than two decades, launched the television show about the nation's most notorious criminals and inspired changes in how authorities search for missing children.

"Who could take a 6-year-old and murder and decapitate him? Who?" an emotional John Walsh said at Tuesday's news conference. "We needed to know. We needed to know. And today we know. The not knowing has been a torture, but that journey's over."

Walsh's wife, Reve, at one point placed a small photo of their son on the podium.

The suspect, Ottis Toole, had twice confessed to killing the child, but later recanted. He claimed responsibility for hundreds of murders, but police determined most of the confessions were lies. Toole's niece told the boy's father, John Walsh, her uncle confessed on his deathbed in prison that he killed Adam.

Police said Toole was long the prime suspect in the case and that they had conclusively linked him the killing. They declined to be specific about their evidence and noted they had no DNA proof of the crime, but said an extensive review of the case file pointed only to Toole, as John Wash long contended.

"Our agency has devoted an inordinate amount of time seeking leads to other potential perpetrators rather than emphasizing Ottis Toole as our primary suspect," said Hollywood Police Chief Chadwick Wagner. "Ottis Toole has continued to be our only real suspect."

Wagner acknowledged numerous missteps in the investigation and apologized to the Walshes.

"I have no doubt," John Walsh said. "I've never had any doubt."

Walsh said there is no closure, only justice, reports CBS News correspondent Kelly Cobiella, and his family finally has it.

Many names have been mentioned in connection to the case in the years since the killing, including serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer, but Toole's has persistently nagged detectives. John Walsh has long said he believed the drifter was responsible, saying investigators found at Toole's home in Jacksonville a pair of green shorts and a sandal similar to what Adam was wearing.

The Walshes long ago derided the investigation as botched. Still, he praised the Hollywood police department for closing the case.

"This is not to look back and point fingers, but it is to let it rest," he said.

Adam Walsh went missing from a Hollywood mall on July 27, 1981. Fishermen discovered his severed head in a canal 120 miles away two weeks later. The rest of his body was never found.

Authorities made a series of crucial errors, losing the bloodstained carpeting in Toole's car - preventing DNA testing - and the car itself. It was a week after the boy's disappearance before the FBI got involved.

"So many mistakes were made," John Walsh said in 1997, upon the release of his book "Tears of Rage," which harshly criticized the Hollywood Police Department's work on the case. "It was shocking, inexcusable and heartbreaking."

For all that went wrong in the probe, the case contributed to massive advances in police searches for missing youngsters and a notable shift in the view parents and children hold of the world.

Adam's death, and his father's subsequent activism on his behalf, helped put faces on milk cartons, shopping bags and mailbox flyers, started fingerprinting programs and increased security at schools and stores. It spurred the creation of missing persons units at every large police department.

It also prompted national legislation to create a national center, database and toll-free line devoted to missing children, and led to the start of "America's Most Wanted," which brought those cases into millions of homes.

What it also did, said Mount Holyoke College sociologist and criminologist Richard Moran, is make children and adults alike exponentially more afraid.

"He ended up really producing a generation of cautious and afraid kids who view all adults and strangers as a threat to them and it made parents extremely paranoid about the safety of their children," Moran said.

[john20082009]

I am happy the Walsh family finally has answers to this long mystery.
I do have new concerns though. Much of my previous fear & loathing of %u201CSex Offenders%u201D had been based on the Adam Walsh case & now I find that the person who brutally murdered Adam was not a *** Offender at all.
In fact one of the most recent & restrictive National laws regarding *** Offenders is named the Adam Walsh Act. My problem with this is I%u2019ve seen recently on new shows that we now list children on *** Offender Registries & this is usually a life sentence which stigmatizes not only them, but their families & precludes any possibility of a normal existence.
I am beginning to feel poor Adams name has been used to manipulate society in order to gain political favor by instilling fear & paranoia where it may not be needed.
We really need to create a registry where it is not just the %u201CSex Offender%u201D, but make it a High Threat to Social Order Registry including all crimes. Even if the killer of Adam had been previously prosecuted he would not have been listed on any public forum & if he had been listed on today%u2019s Registry his name & face would have been sandwiched between someone who had possibly been caught urinating in public & perhaps a 15 year old kid who got in trouble pinching a girls bottom.
Please explain how the public is supposed to evaluate who is a true threat to society when this is our current law?

[jo4dolphins]

So what are they actually going on to prove by no doubt that Ottis Toole did this.

[eggy1620]

So if YOUR child disappears on the way home from school, you''''re going to blame yourself? Posted by imperfexshun

As a matter of fact I would. I would blame myself for not being a stay at home parent who drops off and picks up my child each day.

[eggy1620]

I never said I walked away from my child, Posted by anonbychoice

You do not have to say that. I can tell from the way you defend Mrs Walsh that you have also taken the same risk she did so many years ago, but you choice did not result in tragic consequences. As for your insistence that there was an idyllic time when perverts and murderers did not exist; please excuse me for not sharing the background of assumed safety, privilege, and most likely, wealth, that you enjoyed.

[slim1h2o]

Im not paranoid. Im far from paranoid. I leave my car unlocked when I go shopping. I figure if they have to steal it they need it worse than I do. Stupid way of thinking to most. But fear is what makes you more dangerous than the person stealing the car

Posted by anonbychoice at 02:33 PM : Dec 17, 2008

Btw,,what makes people more dangerous when it comes to fear is,,,is the fear that they will get caught, and the punishment for whatever they have done is far greater than what they got caught doing.

I.E the 3 strikes you''re out laws comes to mind.

Of course, for a qualifying statement, most people that get caught up such laws deserve what they get.

I hate liars theives, cheaters, molesters,,,and the rest,,

[imperfexshun]

Imperfexshun, this stuff did happen long ago. We did not hear about it because Nancy Grace did not have her own cable network. John Wayne Gacy predates this case. The Chicken Coop child murders happened back in the 30%u2019s. Heck, a subplot in To Kill A Mockinbird is about a child being abducted on her way home from school. It happened, and parents must be forced to point the first fingers at themselves for allowing it to happen.
Posted by eggy1620 at 12:45 PM : Dec 17, 2008
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Gacy''s youngest known victim was 14 and most were runaways or prostitutes; they weren''t little kids doing what they are supposed to do. As far as the Chicken Coop Murders go, that was 50 years before Adam and you didn''t hear of bad things happening to little kids in the decades prior to what happened to Etan Patz and Adam Walsh. I apologize for not remembering the precise details of To Kill a Mockingbird as it''s been 40-some years since I read it.

So if YOUR child disappears on the way home from school, you''re going to blame yourself? I doubt it.

Anyway, the Walshes have been through enough. I remember the day they were scheduled for the talk show to publicize Adam''s disappearance was when his head was found. I can''t imagine having to cope with the murder of a child. By God''s grace, they were able to go forward from their tragedy and do so much good for others. John and Reve, Adam''s in Heaven waiting for you. I hope this announcement of closure helps you.

[slim1h2o]

But fear is what makes you more dangerous than the person stealing the car

Posted by anonbychoice at 02:33 PM : Dec 17, 2008

I lock my car up when I go shopping, I''m not affraid, just want my car to be there when I get back.

Now,,,can you explain that last statement, without bringing paranoia into the equation?

I don''t think you can.

[anonbychoice]

oops my bad.....I take back my last statement. Sorry I didn''t see it all, had another convo going on here

[anonbychoice]

Posted by dmjakers

He''s been dead for 27 years.

[anonbychoice]

It''''s people like John Walsh, and our loving government that has turned people into parinoid freaks with their "fear and conquer and divid methods of governing".

Posted by slim1h2o at 02:26 PM : Dec 17, 2008
---------------------------------------------
Im not paranoid. Im far from paranoid. I leave my car unlocked when I go shopping. I figure if they have to steal it they need it worse than I do. Stupid way of thinking to most. But fear is what makes you more dangerous than the person stealing the car

[slim1h2o]

No I''''m 49 and no I didn''''t grow up in the country. No I''''m 49 and no I didn''''t grow up in the country. But I do remember a time when you didn''''t have to FEAR for every decision you made, unlike now.
As for your last sentence "has gone to hell in a handbasket" the KEY word in there is HAS!


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Posted by anonbychoice at 02:16 PM : Dec 17, 2008
As for your last sentence "has gone to hell in a handbasket" the KEY word in there is HAS!

Posted by anonbychoice at 02:16 PM : Dec 17, 2008

You know whats ironic about the whole situation, regarding kids and these "Stranger Danger" ideas, is that Walsh started the whole concept. It''s been proving that kids are harmed, raped, killed, kidnapped by their parents, or relatives than any stranger.

And I see that you have been affected by that "mass hysteria" with your comment that "But I do remember a time when you didn''''t have to FEAR for every decision you made, unlike now."

It''s people like John Walsh, and our loving government that has turned people into parinoid freaks with their "fear and conquer and divid methods of governing".

Why now? What''s the point? He''s been dead for 12 years. They should have prosecuted him 27 years ago if they were so confident. Or at any time while he was alive. There is no benefit whatsoever from bringing this up now, right before Christmas. Somebody ought to be punished for waiting so long.

[anonbychoice]

Apparently you must be about 26-28 yrs old, there was hardly a time that you could leave your doors unlocked. Esp if you lived in a city.
Now if you lived in a small town, or in the country, you might have gotten away with leaving your doors unlocked.

The country has gone to hell in handbasket....

Posted by slim1h2o at 02:12 PM : Dec 17, 2008
-------------------------------------
No I''m 49 and no I didn''t grow up in the country. But I do remember a time when you didn''t have to FEAR for every decision you made, unlike now.
As for your last sentence "has gone to hell in a handbasket" the KEY word in there is HAS!

[slim1h2o]

And YES there was a time when you would NOT have to lock your doors or your car, for fear of being robbed. Apparently you grew up in the wrong country or wrong part of town!!

Posted by anonbychoice at 02:05 PM : Dec 17, 2008

Apparently you must be about 26-28 yrs old, there was hardly a time that you could leave your doors unlocked. Esp if you lived in a city.
Now if you lived in a small town, or in the country, you might have gotten away with leaving your doors unlocked.

The country has gone to hell in handbasket....

[anonbychoice]

Dont cast stones.. I am sure she has lived and will live the rest of her life with guilt. the good from this is many things now in place to help and educate the millions out there.


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Posted by peetre at 02:07 PM : Dec 17, 2008

THANK YOU!! Well said.

[peetrerb]

Dont cast stones.. I am sure she has lived and will live the rest of her life with guilt. the good from this is many things now in place to help and educate the millions out there.

[anonbychoice]

Statistically, you have gotten lucky in being a negligent parent

Posted by eggy1620 at 01:52 PM : Dec 17, 2008
------------------------------
Who The F Do you think you are?? A negligent parent?? I never said I walked away from my child you moronic piece of ***. You don''t KNOW me so how DARE you judge me!!!!!!!!! Go back to your rubber room and bounce off a few more walls! You are a selfish NON caring human being. I hope to GOD you NEVER lose a child. And YES there was a time when you would NOT have to lock your doors or your car, for fear of being robbed. Apparently you grew up in the wrong country or wrong part of town!!

[eggy1620]

And I suppose you were there when she did so? Posted by anonbychoice

She said as much in her police statements. She left Adam at a videogame, walked away to shop, and then a security fool kicked him out of the store. Anyhow, there was NOT A TIME when you could do all those things you stated. Statistically, you have gotten lucky in being a negligent parent.

[anonbychoice]

And I suppose you were there when she did so? I think these people have been thru ENOUGH without someone like you adding to it. Do you think she doesn''t relive that nightmare every day of her life? And here''s one for you....SO what if she did? That was a time when you weren''t supposed to be afraid of your child being 2 ft away from you. You could leave your car unlocked and loaded with presents, or leave change in the ashtray. You could leave your front doors unlocked without fear of some nut job coming in to kill you. So I FEEL alot of sympathy for the Walsh''s and if you had any kind of a heart, you might also!!

[eggy1620]

Anonbychoice, I am not referring to parents who do not notice a child wander off. I am casting blame at Reve Walsh who KNOWINGLY WALKED AWAY FROM ADAM in a store.