Serial killers and true crime

Adam Walsh

I remember when Adam Walsh disappeared, I think most people who were alive then still do. I also remember when his head was found and the investigation that followed. The news reported on the search for the body, for clues, for the killer. The press showed the parents and extended family on the news almost every night. I think many people began to feel that they ‘knew’ this family.
Then John Walsh became a figure-head in the rights and search for missing kids and eventually he became a ‘face’ for all victims, not just children. I have watched AMW from the start and I have great respect for this family, for them turning such a tragedy into something that helps all of society. I can not imagine their pain, what it di to each of them individually or as a family.
I watched over the years as the suspects were looked at and I smiled when the police finally named Ottis Toole the killer. I was even happy that it did not happen until after his death, Ottis never got to be the ‘Walsh Kid Killer’. He died as a loser, known best as Lucas’ gay lover, a known liar and at most a mere arsonist in many’s eyes. (Not that I don’t take arson as a serious crime, but in the caste-system of criminals it is nowhere near serial killer status.)
It’s like how no matter who Lucas did kill he will forever be the one who did not kill Orange Socks, no matter how much wanted to have been her killer.
They both confessed to so many killing, for causing so much pain that they never did they became jokes. I know that they did kill people, but in the mind of the public in general they are wanna be serial killers, no matter what they actually did. They tried to be the scariest monsters and ended up dismissed by most.
Serial killers get off on being the biggest monster in the closet. They like to dangle possible information in front of the police, the public and the families of those that they have killed. All to often I have read how Bundy, Lucas, Shaffer, Olson and so on tried to make deals for bodies! They like to almost confess, just to keep attention on themselves. It is sickening.

Toole did that with Adam. He used that poor baby’s pain and the family’s (and societies) pain for attention. He mentioned it to other prisoners, to the guards and to detectives. He always said just enough to gain attention but never enough to give any closure to the family or to the world. He would confess then retract. It was a game, a sick game that he played to get attention.
Some might think that the game gave Toole ‘something’ even if it only gave him some of the attention he craved, but I do not think so. His claims went largely ignored. He did not get what he wanted.
Toole could only get the occasional glimmer of a spotlight but he could never hold it or have it full force.

So why am I writing about this now?

Seems that there is a new book coming out that has stirred some debate. The book supposedly has new information (or at least information not released to the public before) that proves Toole was the killer. I think that the book is actually about the entire case, but in pointing out all that the police missed, messed up, forgot and overlooked the author pulls out some new information including the fact that some photos of the carpet from Toole’s trunk show what might be Adam’s facial outline in a Luminol glow. (An article about the controversy here, no real information on the book though.)
There is a lot controversy going on about the upcoming book. I am not going to spend too much time trying to disprove or prove something that I have not even seen. I can not do that. Maybe after I read it I will have an opinion, I’m funny like that.
What I do want to write about is the other controversy that was stirred back up by this book.
The battle of the monsters.

The book is from the camp that believes that Ottis Toole killed Adam but there is another camp out there. They believe that Jeffery Dahmer was Adam’s killer.

Let me just say I think the killer was Toole.

I have read a good deal of the evidence and I do think that the right monster was named as Adam’s killer. I admit, this opinion is based on web information, the fact that John Walsh thinks Toole did it and the fact that the police think that he did it. The police admit that they screwed up and due to their screw ups the prosecutor decided not to prosecute Toole, waiting for more evidence to hopefully come to light. That acknowledgement alone says volumes.

Of course there are some things that point at Jeffery. He was Florida at the time. He was later found to be a killer that dismembered his victims. Some of his victims were just teens. There were a few eye witnesses that said they saw Jeffery at the mall that day. There was a blue van at the mall and Jeffery had access to a blue van.

My issues with these things:
Jeffery wanted a companion. Yes, he was attracted to younger looking guys but Adam was a little guy and only 6 years old. He was not what Jeffery was looking for. Jeffery had already killed a man his age so he knew that he could do ‘get what he wanted’ and would not have needed to kill a helpless child to gain courage to do what he really wanted to do. I doubt he would have went after a 6-year-old in a mall.
Jeffery was not the abduction type. He lured and drugged and seduced his victims. It was part of the game to him, his fantasy. The witnesses report a boy screaming and fighting and resisting. That was not how Jeffery operated and in my opinion that would have scared him, he would have known the attention he was getting and he (not all would, I am just referring to Jeffery’s personality) would have stopped.
The eye witnesses came forward AFTER seeing Jeffery on the news for his other killings. They were associating him with the crime. One of the witnesses gave a description, then said it could have been the security guard until they saw Jeffery on the news, then they said it was him. They swear that it was him even though it was 10 years later when they saw him on the news. I have serious doubts, I am not saying that they are lying I am saying I think they are probably mistaken.
The blue van at the mall was illegally parked. Jeffery was not stupid, if he was going into a mall to find a victim he would not have parked in a way to attract attention. Also, it has been reported that the van at the mall was a different make than the van that Jeffery had access to.
Also, in 1992, Florida police interviewed Dahmer in a prison in Wisconsin. At the request of John Walsh who had heard that some thought that Dahmer could be his son’s killer the Broward County district attorney took the death penalty off the table. They figured that that would increase the odds that Dahmer would confess if he did kill Adam.
Jeffery denied it. He admitted to so many other killings in great detail but denied this one.

There are more things that people say point to Jeffery Dahmer and things that contradict those things.

I agree with the police and with John Walsh, Jeffery Dahmer did not kill Adam. Jeffery was a monster and the world is safer and a better place without Jeffery but not because he had anything to do with the awful crime against Adam Walsh.

Well the new book coming out, as I said, is supposed to prove Toole killed Adam and this has greatly upset those that think that Dahmer did it. It has upset some of those people enough that they are suing the authors and the Hollywood, Florida police department to make them release documents and photos from the book and from the case records.

I find that suspicious. I can not help but think that the man doing this, a man who is one of the witnesses that says that he saw Dahmer at the mall that day, is up to something. I wonder if he has own book that he was going to have released that could be hurt by this. I mean if there is indisputable proof in the book he could be left looking like an ass.

The public records suit that seeks the release of Matthews’ report was brought by retired Miami Herald press operator Willis Morgan. Morgan, who lives in Hallandale Beach, claims to have encountered Jeffrey Dahmer, another notorious serial killer at the Hollywood Mall on the day Adam was abducted. The defendants are Wagner, Broward State Attorney Michael Satz and Matthews.

I think that I am more interested in why Mr. Morgan is so upset about all this than I am in the actual book.
I just hope that Adam’s family can ignore this. I think if I am going to read a book about this case now though, it will be Tears of Rage by John Walsh.

More Information here

Here is the made for tv movie Adam based on this story. I only the link for part one as this post is long enough. It is easy enough to follow the links to watch the whole thing.

Another article.