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Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Ottis Toole: Adam Walsh case transformed missing kid searches.
Six year-old Adam Walsh of Hollywood, Fla who was murdered in 1981.
Authorities in South Florida say they've finally solved the 1981 killing of the boy-
Ottis Toole
Toole was a suspect in the killing of six-year-old Adam Walsh, whose 1981 disappearance from a Hollywood, Florida mall set off a nationwide manhunt. Toole confessed to killing the boy, but he later recanted and was never charged.
John Walsh, Adam's father, says that the Hollywood Police Department made mistakes that could have proved Toole was the killer. A bloody piece of carpet taken from Toole's car and potentially bearing Adam Walsh's DNA was lost by the police.
Toole was associated with Henry Lee Lucas, who at one point claimed he and Toole had killed as many as 600 people. Lucas later recanted his claim but was convicted in Texas of one murder and has been on Death Row since 1985. Otis Toole, who was serving a 20-term for arson in Florida, died in prison in 1996.
Source
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Adam Walsh case transformed missing kid searches
HOLLYWOOD, Fla. – The abduction happened 27 years ago, at a time when parents routinely left their children playing in the toy store, unattended, and continued shopping.
But when Reve Walsh returned to pick up her 6-year-old son, he wasn't there. Over the mall loudspeaker, the plea came: "Adam Walsh, please come to customer service."
Two weeks later, fishermen discovered the boy's severed head in a canal 120 miles away from the Hollywood mall. His body was never found.
The case led to advances in police searches for missing youngsters and a notable shift in the view parents and children have of the world.
On Tuesday, police closed their investigation. They said a serial killer who died more than a decade ago in prison was responsible for Adam's death. They admitted making crucial errors in the case and apologized to the Walshes.
But Adam's death, and his father's transformation from a hotel developer to an activist, helped put missing children's faces on milk cartons and in mailboxes, started fingerprinting programs and increased security at schools and stores.
It spurred the creation of missing persons units at every large police department. And it prompted legislation to create a national center, database and toll-free line devoted to missing children. It also prompted the television program "America's Most Wanted," hosted by John Walsh, which brought such cases into millions of homes.
"In 1981, when a child disappeared, you couldn't enter information about a child into the FBI database. You could enter information about stolen cars, stolen guns but not stolen children," said Ernie Allen, president of the Center for Missing and Exploited Children, which was co-founded by John Walsh. "Those things have all changed."
Jim Larson of Orlando witnessed the effects of John Walsh's work. His wife, Carla, was abducted in a grocery store parking lot one afternoon in 1997 and was raped and strangled. He credits "America's Most Wanted" with catching her killer.
"Maybe, eventually, they would have gotten there," Larson said of police. "But it seemed like right after the show aired, calls were coming in and leads were followed and they got him."
The man convicted in the killing, John Huggins, is now on Florida's death row.
Others are more hesitant to dole out credit. John Walsh's efforts, said Mount Holyoke College sociologist and criminologist Richard Moran, have made children and adults exponentially more afraid of the world.
"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.
Police closed the case without any new evidence or even anyone they could charge with the crime.
"For 27 years, we've been asking who can take a 6-year-old boy and murder and decapitate him. We needed to know. We needed to know," said John Walsh. "The not knowing has been a torture, but that journey's over."
Police said the man long considered the lead suspect, Ottis Toole, was conclusively linked to the murder, but largely with circumstantial evidence.
"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."
The Walshes, on network TV morning shows Wednesday, said they were grateful that Wagner had launched a fresh review of the investigation after taking over the department last year and finally ended the case.
"This helped us close a chapter. No closure, I hate that word. It's about justice. It's not about revenge or vigilantism," John Walsh said on ABC's "Good Morning America.".
Reve Walsh, on NBC's "Today" show, added: "You never get over it. It's like losing a limb. You just live without it and try to get around it."
Authorities made a series of errors over the years, losing the bloodstained carpeting in Toole's car — preventing DNA testing — and the car itself.
In 1997, Adam's father, John Walsh, released the book "Tears of Rage," that criticized the police department's work.
"So many mistakes were made," he said. "It was shocking, inexcusable and heartbreaking."
John Walsh has long thought Toole was responsible, saying investigators found a pair of green shorts and a sandal similar to what Adam was wearing when he was abducted.
"I have no doubt," John Walsh said. "I've never had any doubt."
Toole confessed to the killing, but later recanted. He claimed hundreds of murders, but police determined most of the confessions were lies. Toole's niece told John Walsh her uncle gave a deathbed confession to the crime.
Toole died in prison of cirrhosis in 1996 at the age of 49. He was serving five life sentences for murders unrelated to Adam's death.
Copyright © 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The information contained in the AP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.
Copyright © 2008 Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved.
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Police name Florida child killer
A serial killer who died in prison in 1996 was guilty of the murder and decapitation of a six-year-old boy 27 years ago, say Florida police.
The naming of Ottis Toole as Adam Walsh's killer brings an end to one of America's best-known unsolved cases.
Police said the discovery was made after a thorough review of records.
The case radically affected police procedures over missing children and inspired the TV show "America's Most Wanted", presented by Adam's father.
Adam went missing from a shop in Hollwood in 1981. His head was recovered from a canal two weeks later but his body was never found.
Toole, a convicted killer and paedophile, had long been suspected of involvement in the murder and had admitted guilt at least twice, but later recanted.
At a news conference, Hollywood Police Chief Chad Wagner said that as Toole was dead, further legal action was not possible and the Walsh family were not seeking it.
"However, in the interest in justice, the Hollywood Police Department is announcing today that it is our determination and conclusion that Ottis Toole was the abductor and murderer of Adam Walsh," said Mr Wagner.
Journey over
John Walsh, Adam's father told the news conference: "For 27 years we've been asking, 'Who could take a six-year-old boy and murder him and decapitate him?'.
"We needed to know and today we know. The not knowing, it's been a torture, but that journey is over."
Mr Walsh had been critical of what was widely seen as a botched police investigation, but he praised the police for finally bringing an end to the case.
"This is not to look back and point fingers, but it is to let it rest," he said.
The murder of Adam, and Mr Walsh's subsequent campaigning, led to a raft of measures being introduced, including hotlines to report cases and images of missing children being printed on milk cartons.
Mr Walsh also presents the long-running true life crime programme America's Most Wanted, launched in 1988, which calls on the public to help identify fugitive suspects.
In 2006, US President George W Bush signed the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act, giving state authorities greater powers to track down and prosecute child sex offenders and to make it harder for abusers to reach children online.
- Ottis Toole/ Interview
- Ottis Toole Talks
- Ottis Toole: Adam Walsh's Killer
- Adam Walsh Case Closed
www.prisonpotpourri.com
Posted at 05:51 am by Vladd77
 | | | vladd77
December 19, 2008 08:05 AM PST
Case closed? Questions linger in Adam Walsh probe
By MATT SEDENSKY, Associated Press Writer Matt Sedensky, Associated Press Writer
23 mins ago
HOLLYWOOD, Fla. – A quarter-century ago, Adam Walsh's accused killer accompanied police to a bus bench outside a Sears where he claimed to have snatched the 6-year-old boy. Then, Ottis Toole went with authorities to a turnpike where he said Adam cried for his mother. Later, they stopped at a bridge where Toole said he hacked off the boy's head.
But did he really do it?
The story was one of several accounts Toole gave over the years. And while Adam's father, "America's Most Wanted" host John Walsh, has long believed Toole abducted and decapitated his son on July 27, 1981, it wasn't until this week that Hollywood police said they agreed, and closed the case. But there was no new evidence, nothing new that came to light.
New Hollywood Police Chief Chadwick Wagner said after a re-examination of the evidence, he believes Toole could have been tried and convicted before he died in 1996 serving a life sentence for other killings. Detectives were too hesitant, he says, partly because they didn't want to admit mistakes they made investigating Toole.
But the case against Toole has holes. An Associated Press examination of documents released with this week's announcement leaves many questions about the kidnapping and killing — there is nothing standing alone that points to Toole. There are no DNA or blood tests, no slam-dunk eyewitness accounts.
"If you're looking for that magic wand, that one piece of evidence, it's not there," Wagner admits.
Even basic details of what happened can't be determined because Toole never kept his confessions straight (when he wasn't recanting).
He said he picked up Adam outside Sears. Or was it by the mall merry-go-round? He said he bribed the boy with candy — except when he said he used a baseball glove. He said he threw the boy's body into the same central Florida canal as his head, the only part of Adam ever found. He also said he buried the body off a highway and burned it in his mother's yard in Jacksonville. He took credit for many murders — including some committed by others.
He once accused his sometime traveling partner, another self-professed serial killer, Henry Lee Lucas, of being Adam's slayer — but Lucas was jailed then. In a 1996 AP prison interview, Lucas said Toole confessed to him, even taking him to the mall to show him where he picked up Adam and to the spot where he supposedly killed him. Lucas died in 2001.
Jailed for the 1982 murder of a Jacksonville man, Toole began confessing to Adam's slaying and others in 1983, sometimes to detectives from other jurisdictions checking to see if he could be linked to homicides of children and adults they were investigating.
For example, despite having confessed to Adam's slaying, he told a Texas detective that he was incapable of killing a child. "I wouldn't do that. Not no little kid," Toole laughed, according to the documents.
A day later, in a conversation with the same investigator, Toole said he killed Adam then dismembered the boy's body. But later in the same interview he said he left the body intact.
In one of the most gruesome explanations of Adam's fate, Toole told a Brevard County investigator that he chopped off the boy's head, then brought his body back to Jacksonville and burned it in his mother's yard. "I ate a little bit of him," the detective recalled Toole saying. But Toole told others he buried it by the Florida's Turnpike or dumped it in the canal with the head.
When the Brevard investigator asked why he kept recanting if he really did it, Toole blamed the Hollywood detectives.
"Every time I'd tell them something, they would tell me I was lying and I was a liar," he later recalled Toole saying. "They finally just made me mad ... You are right, I didn't do it."
Kathleen Heide, a criminology professor at the University of South Florida in Tampa, said Toole's confessions may have been his way of attaining notoriety or "immortality." But when he realized the disadvantage such a confession would have — say, retribution from fellow inmates — he recanted.
"Sometimes these people are thinking in terms of chess games," said Heide, who studies homicides and child abductions. "But they're not that smart, and they don't play chess. Somebody who is going to commit a crime like that has problems with human decency and morality."
But why confess and recant several times? Heide says Toole's low IQ, his troubled childhood and his inability to distinguish reality from fantasy all played a role.
"His hold on reality was likely quite slippery," she said.
Some eyewitnesses identified Toole as the weird man they saw at the mall the day Adam disappeared. Years later, others said they recognized the kidnapper the second he first appeared on TV — infamous Wisconsin serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer, who lived in South Florida in 1981. Some in the community still believe the case is stronger against Dahmer, who was killed in prison 14 years ago.
The two pieces of evidence that might have provided definitive answers with today's advanced DNA testing were lost by Hollywood police during their investigation — a bloodstained carpet taken from Toole's car and the car itself.
No one knows where they are.
___
Associated Press writers Sarah Larimer, Tamara Lush and Travis Reed in Miami; Mitch Stacy and Christine Armario in Tampa; and Mike Schneider in Orlando contributed to this report.
Copyright © 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The information contained in the AP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.
Copyright © 2008 Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved. | |
| | | vladd77
December 17, 2008 07:10 AM PST
Boy's killer revealed after 27 years
Robert Lusetich, Los Angeles |
December 18, 2008
Article from: The Australian
AFTER more than 27 years, the horrific kidnapping and murder of a young boy that indirectly led to the creation of one of American television's longest-running shows, and helped give birth to the reality genre, has been solved.
Police in Florida yesterday announced that a serial killer who died while in prison a decade ago was responsible for decapitating six-year-old Adam Walsh, whose father, John, would go on to host America's Most Wanted.
"Who could take a six-year-old and murder and decapitate him? Who?" John Walsh said during an emotional news conference yesterday. "We needed to know. And today we know. The not knowing has been a torture, but that journey's over. Today is a reaffirmation of the fact that he didn't die in vain.
"For all the other victims who haven't gotten justice, I say one thing: 'Don't give up hope."'
Adam Walsh was playing in the toy department of a Hollywood, Florida mall in July 1981 while his mother, Reve, shopped for a lamp. He was abducted and two weeks later his head was discovered in Vero Beach, about 200km away. The boy's body was never found. Walsh had long suspected Ottis Toole, a drifter who was serving five life sentences at the time of his death from cirrhosis in 1996. A sandal and a pair of shorts resembling those last seen on Adam Walsh were found at Toole's home.
Blood was found in Toole's car, but primitive DNA testing at the time could not prove it was the boy's blood.
When detectives tried to retest the car in the 1990s, they discovered it and other crucial evidence in the case had been lost.
Walsh has long railed against what he called "shocking, inexcusable and heartbreaking" bungling by the local police investigating the case.
Police chief Chadwick Wagner admitted yesterday that his department's flawed investigation dragged the case on for years and that despite looking at dozens of other possible perpetrators - including the notorious serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer - the evidence always pointed to Toole.
"This is a day that's long overdue. This case could have been closed years ago," he said.
Chief Wagner said there had not been any new development in the case but it had been closed because of the mountain of evidence pointing to Toole, who had twice confessed to the killing only to later recant his testimony.
Toole also confessed to hundreds of other murders, confusing detectives. Some of those killings were the work of his friend, another serial killer, Henry Lee Lucas. Toole's niece confirmed to Walsh that he had confessed on his deathbed that he had indeed taken Adam Walsh and driven him along dirt roads for about an hour, before cutting off his head.
The Walsh family's pain, however, changed the way the US dealt with the abduction of children. Department stores now close their exits and place staff at the doors whenever a child is lost.
The faces of missing children are on milk cartons and often appear quickly on local television stations. In California, freeway signs flash the registration plates of vehicles suspected of containing kidnapped children.
"In 1981, when a child disappeared, you couldn't enter information about a child into the FBI database. You could enter information about stolen cars, stolen guns but not stolen children," said Ernie Allen, president of the Centre for Missing and Exploited Children, co-founded by John Walsh. "Those things have all changed."
In February 1988, after seven years as a nationally recognised campaigner for the rights of victims of crime and their families, Walsh was made host of America's Most Wanted, which is the longest-running show in the history of the Fox network.
Within four days of the show's first airing, escaped murderer David Roberts - who was on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list - was recaptured after he'd been featured on the program. Television network executives saw booming ratings and a type of programming that was cheap to make compared with traditional drama. Reality shows, initially featuring real-life crimes, then began appearing across the networks. Fox took America's Most Wanted off the air briefly in 1996 but brought it back after howls of protest, including a petition signed by the governors of 37 states. The Walshes would go on to have three more children, all of whom were present at yesterday's news conference.
"It's not about closure," John Walsh said of his son's case, "it's about justice."
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24815556-2703,00.html
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