I didnt want to harm the man. Smith stopped Hickock from raping a young woman in the Clutter attack. Cold Blooded: The Clutter Family Murders: With Beth Tedrow, Larry Welch, Kevin Bascue, Gwyneth Frack. There were still gifts underneath the Christmas tree. 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. Evidence is the exact same in both cases. Your California Privacy Rights / Privacy Policy. Cliff was ambushed and killed by gunshot. To be sure, Clark had told Myers, scientists would have to pinpoint Christine's DNA and remove it from the mixture. Through the years there have been almost 600 suspects but to this date, the case remains unsolved. Smith and Hickock denied participation and claimed they were in Miami, four hours away. Larry Hendricks wipes his eyes as he recounts finding the bodies of four members of the Clutter family that were murdered in Holcomb, Kan., in 1959. "This case don't want to be solved," he said. But he told police he had seen the Walkers' neighbor, Wilbur Tooker, at their house at least two dozen times. The surviving relatives of Bonnie Clutter who hated In Cold Blood because it portrayed her as emotionally impaired weren't necessarily just being defensive. Christine had a lot of admirers. ", "Did 'In Cold Blood' killers murder Sarasota's Walker family in '59? The detective persuaded officials to dig up the bodies last December in Kansas, where Smith and Hickock murdered the Clutter family in 1959 one month before the Walker slaying and were . Capote was obsessed with the case of the . So, again, he dialed the detective he trusted most. Out of ammunition, the killer took the baby to the bathroom and drowned her in the bathtub. They were in the area at the time and had already committed one atrocity. [7] Spencer's confession was "determined to be cleverly constructed from real murders written up in newspapers and true-crime novels that he liked to read. This could have been because he was curious or concerned about the other car, but he cant have been too worried, as he left his loaded shotgun in the back of the jeep. This week on Out of the Past: The Walker Family Massacre. After running some errands that day, 24-year-old Christine Walker arrived home alone, at around 4:00 PM. He dove deep on the murders in 2019, the same year he closed about two-thirds of his 130 cases. [13] Said relative was later proven innocent through DNA testing.[14]. Cliff Walker wanted to trade in the family car for a 1956 Chevrolet, a two-tone . Afterward, he left the bodies in the house and left the scene. They had decided to unearth Christine from her grave in the next month. However, based on the personal items that were stolen, Katherine Ramsland, of the University of Pennsylvania, finds Smith and Hickock unlikely and instead suspects that the killer knew at least one member of the Walker family. The Kansas Bureau of Investigation lab had pulled partial DNA from the men's femurs and teeth. He hooked up his horse trailer, loaded his horse, and set off in good spirits for the day ahead. Somebody was inside but ignoring his calls. Clark said he still hoped to get Christine's DNA, to clear up longstanding confusion. There came a point that his older sister, Novella, couldn't handle going anymore. The morning of December 20, 1959, started out as a normal day for Daniel McLeod. All rights reserved. On the Walkers' final day, they headed a dozen miles north for used car lots in bustling Sarasota. Im also active on Twitter. Brought in for questioning, McCall denied having any romantic interest in Christine and evasively said he had sold the weapon not long ago. However, for one Florida family, the Christmas season became a nightmare.. 15) Tony von Carruthers: In February of 1994, Tony shot his mother, her teenage associate, and his drug dealer in the Memphis area. This didnt alarm Christine, and logically, the occupant of that car was then known to her, letting them in before being attacked. 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. Cliff didnt take the time he would ordinarily take to unload the cattle feed he had bought in town before going inside. A bloodied high heel shoe was found at the scene, suggesting that Christine fought hard against her attacker, and possibly injured him. They listened as a fellow inmate bragged about a farmer who kept lots of cash in a safe. 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. The Walkers dwelled amongst country folk, whose women were sorted by their morals and men by their prowess roping cattle or catching hogs. All had been shot in the head. His femur turned up another unknown female profile. A family of four was killed in Florida five weeks after the murder of the Kansas family featured in Truman Capotes In Cold Blood.More than six decades later, a brother fights for answers. Christine had grown up in one of those households. Smith, a drifter from Nevada, had been placed in an orphanage at age 13 after his mother, an alcoholic, choked on her vomit. And if he didn't push for this, who would? Tooker, a 65-year-old retired railroad telegrapher, had made advances on Christine, which she rebuffed. Grant's department store, seven miles from the Walker home, on the day of the murders. When she was well, Ella had vocally supported his efforts to find answers. Several problems. Myers wondered how much longer he would be able to make the three-hour drive to Sarasota. All Rights Reserved. In 2010, however, over 50 years after the crime, the Sarasota County Sheriffs Office took another crack at the Walker family murders case. The actual cause of death is unknown, and she could have been shot in the bathtub. interactive scene of 1959 walker family murdersgriffin park demolishedgriffin park demolished Sign up for The Lineups newsletter and get the creepiest cases delivered straight to your inbox. "I'm interested foremost in the living cases, where there is a danger to the public or when someone is wrongfully convicted or where a victim is wanting to find an answer," said Hampikian, the DNA expert. A Florida Department of Law Enforcement serology supervisor confirmed the news to McGath and apologized. Tire tracks from the mystery car were likely gone now that there was a police vehicle parked in its place. The National Institute of Justice, the research arm of the Department of Justice, has called on agencies to create teams dedicated to handling these seemingly unsolvable cases - more than 100,000 of them from the previous two decades alone. If you nenjoyed this story, please consider purchasing my book: Nordic Noir: 14 Unsolved True Crime Cases available now at Amazon. When Don discovered the bodies of the Walker family, he was heartbroken and terrified. It's important to keep that in perspective.". First, he turned on "Gunsmoke" - their daily routine. Described as wild, he was violent and boisterous when drunk, many believing him to be mentally unwell. Out of bullets, he took her to the bathroom, where he had filled the tub. Police theorized that they had been grabbed and used to wipe the blood off the killer or killers. But, as she would find time and again, neither Kansas nor the Las Vegas Police Department could locate any of that evidence for her. Boyer interviewed suspects in at least five other states. Reconstructing events, police ascertained that the family had been out running errands and believe that Christine arrived home first, around 4pm on Saturday, December 19. He wore paja mas. The list goes on. "Let me say this, Mr. Myers," Clark said. He was photographed outside the house the day the bodies were discovered - with no marks on him, McGath commented. Despite this, many still believe that Hickock and Smith are the most likely suspects in the slaying. The bullet only brushed against the side of her skull; she died of a gunshot wound to the chest, though it is unknown if the shot came during the original struggle or some time afterward. Elbert knew where the house was. I thought he was a very nice gentleman. And in Kansas, authorities had been focused on the Clutters, an agency spokeswoman said, and they have no evidence that officers interrogated the killers about the Walkers. The long-unsolved Walker murders bore surface similarities to the . Her captain, she said, wanted a DNA connection. Consequently, investigators have stated that Smith and Hickock still remain the most viable suspects. About a month earlier, Smith and Hickock slaughtered the four-member Clutter family in Kansas, creating the tragedy that was immortalized in author Truman Capote's 1966 true . Christine was likely still struggling at this point as the first bullet barely grazed her. Hickock, a car mechanic and father from Kansas, had suffered a severe head injury in a car accident when he was 19. Clutter's throat was slashed. (The Walkers and McLeods were both employed by the wealthy Palmer family, on whose ranch land they both lived.) He caught a glimpse of Cliffs wife Christines feet on the floor, toes pointed toward the ceiling. After the murder, rumors flew around that Christine was having an affair with Curtis McCall. Curtis had apparently been violent in the past. Want more true crime? Many justice experts recommend prioritizing cases where an arrest can be made. 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. The bodies were exhumed on December 18, 2012, but it wasnt until August of 2013 that results were officially announced. One by one, Kenyon, Nancy, and Bonnie were executed with a shotgun blast to the head. Over the next six weeks, Hickock and Smith traveled about 10,000 miles, from Kansas and California to Mexico and Florida. The Walkers and their two toddlers were murdered on December 19, 1959 in Osprey, Florida. But science has ruled him out. One witness said that the taller of the two men "had a scratched-up face. 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. Knowing they were seen throughout the state looking for work, investigators have theorized that the duo bumped into the Walker family and got talking or simply contacted them, either way under the pretense that they were planning on selling the vehicle. Butch Dennison was also a popular suspect among armchair detectives. The police heard about what had happened by around 5:45 that morning. Herbert Clutter, 48, his wife, Bonnie, 45, their daughter, Nancy Mae, 16 and son Kenyon, 15, were bound hand and foot and gagged. Some were also bludgeoned . It did not match the semen at the scene. [5], According to Sheriff's records, the Walkers had been considering buying a 1956 Chevrolet Bel Air, the same kind of stolen car that Smith and Hickock were driving through Florida. Shell casings were found at the site, but the murder weapon was never retrieved. Daniel McLeod rose at his ranch and began to set about his day. Officers found, beneath the car seat, a toddler shirt and a pink jacket that could have matched Christine's dress, as well as an Army gas can and burlap bags that could have come from Cliff's military-style Jeep. Truman Capotes wildly popular book In Cold Blood was written about the crime, and is considered the first real true crime novel. The slaying of . Some families, she knew, played their traumas over and over 50 or 60 years later. Another is that it might have been someone she knew and voluntarily let in. Sixty years ago, a prosperous farmer, his wife, and two of their children were murdered in their rural Kansas home in the middle of the night, by a pair of strangers. On December 19, 1959, the entire Walker family was brutally murdered in their home in Osprey, Florida. He and Kimberly McGath went back to 2007, when she expressed an interest in the languishing Walker file. 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. There was no shortage of suspects. Solving these murders, McGath believed, was also about sending a message that law enforcement would doggedly pursue old crimes despite the passage of time. He said detectives have no physical evidence, so far, connecting Hickock and Smith to the Walker murders, no fingerprints. 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 . But Jimmie didnt die. Writing on true crime, mysteries, politics, history, popular culture, and more. Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting. Richard Luscombe in Miami. Together, they interviewed hundreds of locals and the investigators working on the case. Then she was taken to Jimmies bedroom and raped on the bed before being shot with a .22 firearm. The year afterward, Capote published the book. What does society owe, say, the family of Cliff and Christine Walker? A special was scrawled on the chalkboard: half a barbecue chicken and two sides for $7.95. Spencer actually got a lot of things right in his confession, so at first listen, authorities thought it must be true. The infamous killers hanged for the murders of a Kansas family may have also been responsible for the deaths of another family in Florida. However, the best suspect at the time was possibly Curtis McCall, a man described as a troublemaker with a history of violence. Months later in 2013, McGath was at her desk in Sarasota reading a report on the DNA from the Kansas Bureau of Investigation. Myers asked, five rows of wrinkles amassing above his large blue eyes. The duo entered the home through an unlocked back door and searched for the safe, the family remaining asleep. And what appeared to be a bloody fingerprint on the family's faucet apparently did not match either man. It is said that he complained to psychiatrists about homicidal tendencies. ", But he never went to Kansas to interview Hickock and Smith.
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