The discovery was interesting as it would be unlikely that a stranger to the area would know the shed. A while later, Cliff and the children were invited to stay at the McLeods for dinner, but he declined, wanting to get home to his wife. Sarasota Sheriff Ross E. Boyer believed he was searching for someone local. Clutter's throat was slashed. For all of the agency's early efforts, even obsession, investigators left stones unturned, resulting in dozens of men in the tiny Sarasota County town living under the frost of suspicion, many until their deaths. I thought so right up to the moment I cut his throat. Perry Smith. Elbert knew where the house was. But the results were too tangled to isolate any individuals. Both killings involved a home invasion, and both involved the occupants being executed with a firearm. A ranch worker for the Palmer Ranch, McLeod started his morning by getting ready, and then travelling to the home of his coworker Cliff Walker. But evidence suggests that it wasnt too long before the attack began. The morning of December 20, 1959, started out as a normal day for Daniel McLeod. memorial page for Clifford "Cliff" Walker (16 Oct 1934-19 Dec 1959), Find a Grave Memorial ID . These polygraph machines were outrageously unreliable and werent administered by experts, but DNA eliminated all suspicion when they tested the semen in 2005 and McLeod didnt match. Considering how far away the Walkers lived, and the fact that Christine stopped to put air in the tires, its likely she would have arrived home around 4. Could they be from Christine's heel? Her voice even sounded different. The house was dark as McLeod approached, but as he got closer, he saw a light flickering through the window. Shell casings were found at the site, but the murder weapon was never retrieved. Hickocks former cellmate had worked for the Clutters, telling him that the father, Herb Clutter, kept a large amount of cash on the premises. Due to the passage of time, only partial samples could be retrieved from the bodies, and these could not be matched to samples taken from the Walker home. Authorities acted on a lead that connected the 1959 murder of the Walker family with an earlierand much more famouscrime: the slaying of the Clutter family, the very case that inspired Truman Capote's groundbreaking book, In Cold Blood. 15) Tony von Carruthers: In February of 1994, Tony shot his mother, her teenage associate, and his drug dealer in the Memphis area. He told Myers, if he could get the OK, he was still after a true copy of Christine's DNA. 2023 The Associated Press. There came a point that his older sister, Novella, couldn't handle going anymore. And what appeared to be a bloody fingerprint on the family's faucet apparently did not match either man. Yet, Spencer was a known pathological liar, and his claims were soon dismissed as a false confession by Sarasota County Sheriff Ross Boyer. Together, they interviewed hundreds of locals and the investigators working on the case. The slaying of . She found it interesting that a car the Walkers were test-driving resembled the 1956 Chevy Bel Air the men had stolen in Kansas and driven to Florida. Twenty-four-year-old Christine Walker was raped before being shot to death, while Christines husband Cliff, 25, and their children, three-year-old Jimmie and one-year-old Debbie, were all shot to death. What exactly had Det. He'd been able to make this trip only because his wife of 51 years, whom he cared for at home in Lake Placid, was in rehab after a fall. In 1965, according to FBI statistics, agencies closed 90% of the year's homicides. With Hickock and Smith long dead and now reburied, though, its likely their connection to the Walker murders will remain strictly hypothetical. Dead trails, missing bits - but also so many pieces of evidence that lined up. They didnt find it; Herb, in reality, did all his business by check and there was no safe. Alex Murdaugh sentenced to life in prison for murders of wife and son, Biden had cancerous skin lesion removed last month, doctor says, White supremacist and Holocaust denier Nick Fuentes kicked out of CPAC, Tom Sizemore, actor known for "Saving Private Ryan" and "Heat," dies at 61, Biden team readies new advisory panel ahead of expected reelection bid, At least 10 dead after winter storm slams South, Midwest, House Democrats unhappy with White House handling of D.C.'s new criminal code. "Behind every good woman, there's a good man," he said, as he filled her cup. The Herald-Tribune gained unprecedented access to investigators' files, which span more than four decades. Now, Myers asked her, "What I don't get is, how did they get in the house with the dogs sitting there?" Sarasota forensic supervisor Michael Gorn told McGath that footwear impressions could be as reliable as fingerprints. An agency spokesperson declined to comment. There is ample circumstantial evidence to suggest that Smith and Hickock may have been responsible for the Walker family murders. The Kansas Bureau of Investigation lab had pulled partial DNA from the men's femurs and teeth. On a couch in an adjoining room was 15-year-old Kenyon Neal Clutter, bound, gagged and shot in the head. But within weeks, Sheriff Boyer's attention turned - for a while - to two other suspects accused of murdering a family 1,600 miles away in a Kansas farm town of 270 called Holcomb. Some fingerprints and shoe prints were found on the property, but even more contamination was revealed when one of the boot prints was proven to have come from a county-issued sheriffs deputy boot. Whether the one-year-olds death came from the bullet wound or the water was never ascertained. As it turned out, the tests exposed contamination at the lab. Im going to go over a few of the main suspects, then tell you a little bit about my own personal theory. [13] Said relative was later proven innocent through DNA testing.[14]. He stopped at a local gas station and inquired about the location of the Walker home, as if looking for Cliff. It sounds like his night could have been too busy to carry out the crimes. But the police stopped investigating him after he passed a polygraph. The Clutter case bore eerie similarities to the Walker case: both were quadruple homicides, with both parents and two children slaughtered (the Clutters other children escaped the violence because they were not home at the time). He saw it as a blatant copycat killing. ". 1. [2] Jimmie and Debbie were then murdered. The leads went nowhere, and the case was soon going cold until police believed they had a break in 1962 when serial killer Emmett Monroe Spencer claimed responsibility. Still, it's a shame that the DNA test was inconclusive, because "Smith and Hickock did it" wasn't a terrible theory. This peeved Myers. And though Clark was earnest, Myers feared the result would be no different. He and his sister, Novella Cascarella, had spoken with the agency more than 15 years ago about exhuming Christine. Working at the scene, police began to search the home for evidence and soon discovered that items were missing; some of them seem quite bizarre. A lieutenant told him that Clark had presented the plan to the sheriff. Despite these clues, and despite upward of 500 suspects over the years, the case could not be solved. It was time to give Clark, the Sarasota detective, another nudge. She earned praise for securing confessions and for her enthusiasm and empathy. Brandon Clark. But the next morning, they vanished. It was quiet, which was odd as the family was known to rise early. She wasnt accosted immediately as she entered her home. One by one, Kenyon, Nancy, and Bonnie were executed with a shotgun blast to the head. 1959. Myers wondered how much longer he would be able to make the three-hour drive to Sarasota. He just wanted someone to write it in a report, to confirm it, to put it to rest. The brutal murders of Christine and Cliff Walker and their two children in Osprey, Florida had long been connected to Richard Hickock and Perry Smith of In Cold Blood infamy. Cold Blooded: The Clutter Family Murders: With Beth Tedrow, Larry Welch, Kevin Bascue, Gwyneth Frack. The police heard about what had happened by around 5:45 that morning. He claimed that he only saw Christine rarely and the last time he had seen her, she had been with her husband. Whether they were already in the house or Christine let them in is unknown for sure, but it seems likely the reason the family car was in a different location is that somebody else had parked in the family spot. Myers, 71, had pleaded for answers most of his life, sometimes dropping into the sheriff's office when the phone fell quiet. Her captain, she said, wanted a DNA connection. His sister's murder was never far from his mind. McGath understood why Myers needed this. It was among Florida's oldest unsolved crimes on record, notorious for its brutality, as well as for a pool of suspects that numbered over 600. With the possible perpetrators in the Walker murders dead - the "In Cold Blood" killers were executed in 1965; Tooker suffered a heart attack while playing the violin in 1963 - there is scant possibility of an arrest. Yes! The infamous killers hanged for the murders of a Kansas family may have also been responsible for the deaths of another family in Florida. June 30, 2022 . In December of 2012, it was announced that Smith and Hickocks bodies would be exhumed to match their DNA to semen samples taken from Christine back in 1959. The waitress reported all of this to the police, but didnt provide a name for the man. Im also active on Twitter. Police never identified a motive, and 587 people were suspects at one time or another. Deputies were already working hard in the Walker home when the sheriff arrived. Authorities acted on a lead that connected the 1959 murder of the Walker family with an earlierand much more famouscrime: the slaying of the Clutter family, the very case thatinspired Truman Capotes groundbreaking book, In Cold Blood. Truman Capotes wildly popular book In Cold Blood was written about the crime, and is considered the first real true crime novel. The FBI had purged the "In Cold Blood" killers' palm prints - a crucial loss, as a fingerprint examiner told McGath the faucet print used to exonerate the men was actually a partial palm print. Sign up for The Lineups newsletter and get the creepiest cases delivered straight to your inbox. Chilling crime scene photos within the book. Christine, his half-sister, was dead - beaten, raped and shot with two different handguns. True Crime Detective covers some of the worlds most baffling murders. how many kids does jason statham have . Clark, 41, was the latest of a dozen investigators to examine the cold case. Could the two men behind the infamous Clutter family murders have killed the Walkers as well? But, as she would find time and again, neither Kansas nor the Las Vegas Police Department could locate any of that evidence for her. He'd opened the place after two decades in the orange groves. But science has ruled him out. On December 19, 1959, Christine and Cliff Walker and their two children were murdered at their home in Osprey, Florida. He'd met Ella, now 68, on the school bus and proposed to her over the lunch table in high school. By 2020, the rate was 54% - meaning more cases grow cold. In every direction McGath turned, she was met with blunders and blurred results, common problems in cold cases. The Walker family and the utter family. Cliff and Jimmie were slumped in the corner, and upstairs, Debbie lay in a blood-filled bath. Local gossip was that McCall was engaged in an affair with Christine Walker, and he was known to own a .22-caliber gun. It is therefore believed that Smith and Hickock may have gained entry to the Walker home on the pretense of selling their car. Finding out who had murdered Christine had consumed his family for decades, and now, with many of them dead or far-flung, it had fallen on him to keep up the pressure. Neither of their children ever got an opportunity to go to school or play on a sports team, or kiss a person they loved. In New Jersey, he handed Madame Florence, a psychic consulted by police departments, a pair of Christine's bobby pins, department records show. Hickock soon concocted a plan to rob the familys safe and flee to Mexico, enlisting Smith, who had also once been his cellmate. As the sun set shortly after 5 p.m. on December 30, 1959, a driver stopped a 1956 Chevrolet . He was seeking permission to exhume her from her grave. Police are said to have investigated Butchs father, but never even spoke to Butch. Wilbur Tooker, a neighbor of the Walkers, was thought to have an obsession with her. Herbert Clutter, 48, his wife, Bonnie, 45, their daughter, Nancy Mae, 16 and son Kenyon, 15, were bound hand and foot and gagged. "Let me say this, Mr. Myers," Clark said. There were still gifts underneath the Christmas tree. So when he called one day in late August 2022, she responded. He had no criminal record. Want more true crime? . He meant that agency officials didn't want to expose their bungling and lack of commitment. McLeod didnt know it at the time, but one-year-old Debbie was also dead in the bathroom. Christine drove home first that afternoon. Despite this, many still believe that Hickock and Smith are the most likely suspects in the slaying. For example, in 1994, a woman called the Sarasota County Sheriffs Office and claimed to be a bartender in Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania. "The challenges of a case from that long ago you're bound by what was done in 1959," Giasone said. She didn't want to cross a line. But national clearance rates have sunk. After killing four members of the Clutter family in Kansas, 34 days before the Walker murders, Smith and Hickock fled to Florida in a stolen car, and were spotted at least a dozen times between Tallahassee and Miami. After the murder, rumors flew around that Christine was having an affair with Curtis McCall. Here are 10 revelations from the series: 1. December 20, 1959, was seemingly an ordinary morning in Osprey, Florida. The Christmas tragedy that fell on Osprey in 1959 was an unimaginable horror and one that by all rights deserved justice. Myers wanted to feel relief. Six decades later, one morning last June, Pat Myers hobbled into the Sarasota County Sheriff's Office and sank into a seat across from a detective in a crisp white shirt. Christines car wasnt parked in its usual spot, where it would have been most convenient to unload the groceries. Yet, the test showed that he was highly likely lying when asked if hed withheld information. The name "Dardeen" resonates with the residents of Ina, Southern Illinois, who think back to a gruesome quadruple murder that took place in their sleepy hamlet in the late 1980s. Some suspect Stanley Mauck, the man who read the meters for the Walker residence, as he was the same meter reader who serviced the home of another recently murdered family. In recent years, as suspicion amassed around the "In Cold Blood" killers, Myers grasped at the hope of closure. The murder is of particular note because it potentially involved the suspects of the murders that inspired the creative non-fiction novel In Cold Blood by Truman Capote. Perry Edward Smith (October 27, 1928 - April 14, 1965) was one of two career criminals convicted of murdering the four members of the Clutter family in Holcomb, Kansas, United States, on November 15, 1959, a crime that was made famous by Truman Capote in his 1966 non-fiction novel In Cold Blood. He told a Sarasota newspaper reporter he relied on Kansas authorities to ask those questions. She told him he had already spoken to the murderer, someone with a face scar who "wore glasses. There in tiny Osprey, on the southern tip of the vast Palmer Ranch, the family's nearest neighbor was half a mile away. The Clutter murders were the topic of Truman Capote's 1965 best-selling true crime book In Cold Blood. Mortally wounded, he crawled to his dead father, seeking his protection. Many people assume that Christine was the main reason the killer was there in the first place. Their bodies were found by . Another three were seen drinking on the road to the Walkers' house. Myers could not imagine it being anyone else either. They likely had been comparing their suspects all these years to Christine herself. In 2010, however, over 50 years after the crime, the Sarasota County Sheriffs Office took another crack at the Walker family murders case. The assailant covered little Debbies face with Jimmies hat and shot her in the head, failing to kill her. After calling out and making further attempts to ascertain the problem, Daniel looked further around the property. Determined not to leave any witnesses, Smith cut Herb Clutters throat and then shot him. "You get an arrest occasionally. Smith and Hickock denied participation and claimed they were in Miami, four hours away. Tooker had apparently gone out to dinner, then went to perform in the violin section of the West Coast Symphony Orchestra. He ran from the house and jumped into the jeep, as his own truck had a trailer attached and he needed to get to a telephone as fast as possible. The bartender never called again. All had been shot in the head. One of Cliff's cousins also aroused suspicion after he grew hysterical outside the Walker gate upon learning of the deaths and fainted at the funeral. He realized something must be wrong in the house and took the decision to enter, cutting through the screen door. Perry Smith and Dick Hickock are notorious as the perpetrators of one of the most grisly mass murders of the 20th century: the slaying of four members of the Clutter Family in Kansas in 1959. DNA has failed to connect two men featured in Truman Capote's In Cold Blood to the 1959 murders of a family of four in Osprey, but relatives still think all the evidence points to notorious killers. Unlike Sheriff Boyer decades before her, she thought there was something to the men of "In Cold Blood.". Jimmie was curled up next to his dad, blood smeared on his clothes and in his hair, suggesting he'd crawled to his father as the killer shot him three times in the head. On November 15, 1959, Perry Smith and Richard Hickock broke into the home of Hetb and Bonnie Clutter in a failed robbery that ended up with the brutal murder. Elbert had also previously made advances toward Christine, and family members thought the grief shown was fake, the suspect fainting twice at the funeral. The year before, she had convinced a judge in Kansas to exhume the remains of Hickock and Smith to see if their DNA matched an unknown profile in Christine's underwear. And if he didn't push for this, who would? Cliff was ambushed and killed by gunshot. Police said 77-year-old Glen Samuel McCurley was in custody Tuesday in connection with the 1974 murder of Carla Jan Walker, who was 17-years-old when she was abducted, held captive and sexually . While the killers were still at large, legendary writer Truman Capote learned of the killings and decided to write about the slaughter, traveling to Kansas alongside childhood friend Harper Lee, author of To Kill a Mocking Bird. A Florida Department of Law Enforcement serology supervisor confirmed the news to McGath and apologized. It generated pieces of two people's DNA, one male and one female. All rights reserved. McLeod also fell under suspicion. Learn more about the murder scene by using the interactive graphic below. Now Myers related to McGath what he'd heard from Clark: Though not a conclusive match, Tooker could not be discounted. The year afterward, Capote published the book. Maggie and Paul Murdaugh. This story is based on more than 8,000 pages of records, most from the Sarasota County Sheriff's Office, but also the Kansas Bureau of Investigation, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and archives of the Sarasota Journal, the Sarasota Herald-Tribune and the St. Petersburg Times. Boyer's conviction about a local killer influenced the probe for decades. In 2012, the Sarasota County Sheriff's Office began investigating possible links between the Walker family murders and Perry Smith and Richard "Dick" Hickock, who had been convicted and executed for the 1959 murders of the Clutter family in Holcomb, Kansas. Soft-spoken. Tennessee has its own rough past, drenched in murderous stories that will keep you locking your doors. They also stopped to put air in the tires, and probably arrived home at about 4:30. He was shot from a considerable distance as he entered his home. The bodies were exhumed on December 18, 2012, but it wasnt until August of 2013 that results were officially announced. Homicide detectives often are told to work on older cases when they have time. COLD BLOODED: THE CLUTTER FAMILY MURDERS is a docuseries that focuses on the crime that shocked the nation - the 1959 brutal murder of four members of the Clutter family. Or maybe it was a home invasion that, for a second time, ended in slaughter. Truman Capote devoted several pages of In Cold Blood to the murder of the Walkers, but ultimately, concluded that Hickock and Smith couldnt have been the killers, as they had alibis. Initial suspects in the case included Daniel McLeod himself, a local by the name of Wilbur Tooker, and a cousin of Cliff by the name of Elbert Walker. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Capt. Over the past decade, though, the Walker family murders have taken on another chilling dimension, as the prime suspects are, at present, Perry Smith and Dick Hickock. She had graduated first in her police class, with a perfect entrance exam. Im not sure which theory I favor. They wondered if this could be some sort of revenge killing. Stanley was committed to an asylum soon after the murders. Joe Giasone, a 30-year veteran of the Sarasota County Sheriff's Office, said the agency has 32 cold cases, ranging from the 1959 Walker murders up to a 2019 missing boater. "I think we're closer now than we've ever been.". They'd killed a family of four in Kansas. [1] Her husband Cliff, 25, then arrived with their 3-year-old son Jimmie and 1-year-old daughter Debbie. On December 19th, 1959, an entire family was found brutally murdered in Florida. [6], In December 2012, Sarasota County investigators announced they were seeking an order to exhume Smith's and Hickock's bodies from Mount Muncie Cemetery, in the hopes that mitochondrial DNA extracted from their bones could be matched to semen found at the Walker home. Tooker, a 65-year-old retired railroad telegrapher, had made advances on Christine, which she rebuffed. The day before she died, Christine told her mother and mother-in-law that Cliff had been in a fight and "liked to got killed yesterday.". Somebody was inside but ignoring his calls. Emmett Monroe Spencer was a multi-murderer who was captured some time after the Walker massacre. What started as a robbery ended in the violent deaths of the mother, father, and two teenaged children. After killing the Clutter family, Hickock and Smith fled to Florida in a stolen car, where they bought items from a department store in Sarasota, just a few miles away from the Walker home, on the very day that the Walkers were killed. Tire tracks from the mystery car were likely gone now that there was a police vehicle parked in its place. The same day, they were positively identified at a department store just a few miles away. We saw the caution tape scene. Christine left a few minutes before 3:30, but Cliff had some chores to finish with Don. Or herself. Equally, Smith prevented Hickock from carrying out a rape at the Clutter Farm, whereas Christine was assaulted before her execution. Joe Giasone, a 30-year veteran of the Sarasota County Sheriff's Office, said the agency has 32 cold cases, ranging from the 1959 Walker murders up to a 2019 missing boater. McLeod passed a polygraph and was quickly eliminated in any case. Robbery was ruled out pretty quickly, though some things were taken from the house. Writing on true crime, mysteries, politics, history, popular culture, and more. But Myers observed that letting the case languish, passing it from one detective to another and failing to exhume Christine 15 years ago to obtain her DNA, as he and his sister had asked, had cost the agency more money and delayed the results. 4 The Walker Family Murder. Eyewitnesses have placed men matching their description in Sarasota that day. [11] Hickock's and Smith's bodies were exhumed and DNA extracted. But he told police he had seen the Walkers' neighbor, Wilbur Tooker, at their house at least two dozen times. A Miami Beach detective discovered that the day before the murders, the pair had checked in at a motel there, paying $18 for a week's stay. The sheriff's office recently said it did not have any transcripts of those interviews. Gossip created a lot of fruitless investigations. You Are Here: unblocked sticky ninja east london walking tour self guided interactive scene of 1959 walker family murders. They found nothing. https://t.co/zyzLrUZLRB. So, with that being said, I lean toward Stanley Mauck, the meter-reader. "It was them, the 'In Cold Blood' killers," he'd said. | https://linktr.ee/MichaelEast. At the second, the killers took personal things related to Christine, namely her high school majorette uniform and marriage license. "I've got mothers calling me who want to get their sons out of prison. A couple and their four children were systematically hunted down as they vacationed in their cottage near Good Hart in the summer of 1968. They'd found blood spattering the heels of Christine's suede pumps, surmising she'd used them as weapons. On December 20th, 1959 Don McLeod, a coworker and friend of Cliff Walker, arrived at the Walker home at sunrise to pick up Cliff for hog hunting trip they had planned. ", But he never went to Kansas to interview Hickock and Smith. However, in 2012, the Sarasota County Sheriff's Office once again began to . Kansas authorities stated that they would process the DNA samples with active cases taking higher priority, and that results would take "weeks or months. Indeed, the Walker family killings are given several pages in In Cold Blood, the author dismissing any connection. In Florida, several larger departments - including Tampa, Jacksonville and Miami-Dade - have such teams. Its hard to ignore the fact that he was connected to another mass murder and confessed to having homicidal thoughts. . Upon release, the pair met up and slipped into the Clutter farmhouse outside Holcomb late on the evening of Nov. 15, 1959 - about five weeks before the Walkers would be killed. Junk science was enough to clear Youmans in the eyes of authorities. He'd played his violin - badly, according to the conductor - at a concert in Bradenton. A similar circular print had been found in blood near Christine's body and at the Kansas scene. It seems likely that Debbie also somehow survived. Along with Richard Hickock, Smith took part in the burglary and multiple murder at the Clutter . They listened as a fellow inmate bragged about a farmer who kept lots of cash in a safe. The docuseries features people who knew her well and remember her as a great hostess and a lot of fun. Could those dolls have been for Debbie? They were arrested in Las Vegas in late December after the inmate who had told them about the safe tipped off police. www.dailymail.co.uk. Cliff, who earned $55 a week managing a herd of deep red cows, wanted to trade in his wife's 1952 Plymouth. Its theorized that the outlaws were interested in dumping the car they were currently using, and when they learned the Walkers were in the market, proposed an exchange. The Walkers and their two toddlers were murdered on December 19, 1959 in Osprey, Florida. The order of killings of the family members down to the way they were killed. The floors were soaked with their blood. She had never been able to fully put the case aside. Clark - with his "never-say-die" attitude, per one supervisor - had found a niche in such cases. Don McLeod got up at 5:30am on December 20th, 1959 in Osprey, Florida and headed over to his friend Cliff Walkers place so they could go out together to hunt wild hogs. It seems almost sure that there was more than one attacker, with forensic evidence discovering a dark-colored hair in the bathroom and a long blonde hair inside Christine Walkers dress. Before she left the agency, McGath said, her supervisors declined her requests to do more genetic testing of the stain. Not to mention this type of slut-shaming and victim-blaming has prevented real justice in our system for generations. Still, eight years off the job, she felt a certain duty to him. The Walker family was laid to rest in Arcadia, Florida on December 22, 1959. She was at Myers' home when he spoke with the detective on the phone.



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