Some believed it was an act. She didn't want to cross a line. Myers could not imagine it being anyone else either. A similar circular print had been found in blood near Christine's body and at the Kansas scene. A neighbor had observed him in the area the afternoon of the murders. The public looked at Smith and Hickock as serious suspects for the Walker case, and their whereabouts at the time suggest that their involvement isnt impossible. This was such a young family. Gossip created a lot of fruitless investigations. 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. At the second, the killers took personal things related to Christine, namely her high school majorette uniform and marriage license. Cliff had threatened to kill him but he had a watertight alibi for the time of the murders. At another, the cowboy test drove a Hudson Jet. From grisly serial killers to unsolved mysteries, True Crime Detective is the place. / AP. Even after Christine married, authorities documented instances of half a dozen men propositioning her, patting her on the rear, grabbing her, trying to kiss her, especially when they had been drinking, which was often. Now, Clark was telling Myers, as he had several times before, that his suspicions lay elsewhere. But he told police he had seen the Walkers' neighbor, Wilbur Tooker, at their house at least two dozen times. 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. Her captain, she said, wanted a DNA connection. The house was dark as McLeod approached, but as he got closer, he saw a light flickering through the window. 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. But the police stopped investigating him after he passed a polygraph. High among them: The killers made infamous in Truman Capote's true crime classic "In Cold Blood.". A lieutenant told him that Clark had presented the plan to the sheriff. The pair were among the many suspects given a polygraph which they both passed, being dismissed from the inquiry. Learn more about the murder scene by using the interactive graphic below. Hickock had once said his philosophy was to "leave no witnesses.". McGath had also considered Wilbur Tooker, Clark's favored suspect and the Walkers' closest neighbor, the one pushy with Christine. The slaying of . In recent years, as suspicion amassed around the "In Cold Blood" killers, Myers grasped at the hope of closure. As the sun set shortly after 5 p.m. on December 30, 1959, a driver stopped a 1956 Chevrolet . Butch Dennison was also a popular suspect among armchair detectives. At the time of the murders, the Walkers had been thinking about buying a 1956 Chevrolet Bel Air, and this was the same car that Smith and Hickock had stolen back in Kansas, using it during their flight across the country. Elbert, on the other hand, would be on the police radar for some time. Clark, 41, was the latest of a dozen investigators to examine the cold case. In He went on a killing spree in 1959, confessing after his capture. Courtesy of Las Vegas Review-Journal Archive. 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. Boyer's conviction about a local killer influenced the probe for decades. He used to live there. Its hard to ignore the fact that he was connected to another mass murder and confessed to having homicidal thoughts. Cliff and Don went hunting, while Christine and Dons wife Lucy stayed behind with the children. Only partial DNA had been retrieved, and any conclusions were therefore uncertain. 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. He'd lied to Novella before she died in 2021. Cliff and another ranch hand, Don McLeod, headed off to hunt. Sarasota Police sent out county deputies to investigate. And if he didn't push for this, who would? One by one, Kenyon, Nancy, and Bonnie were executed with a shotgun blast to the head. The culprits were eventually arrested six weeks after the killings in Las Vegas and ultimately executed by hanging on April 14, 1965. 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. [3][4] News stories noted there were gifts around the Christmas tree. The same day, they were positively identified at a department store just a few miles away. As it turned out, the tests exposed contamination at the lab. And Pat promised her he would make sure to keep it alive, to fight for a resolution. Christine drove home first that afternoon. 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. Herbert and Bonnie, and their children, Nancy, 16, and Kenyon, 15, died from shotgun blasts to the head. McLeod passed a polygraph and was quickly eliminated in any case. www.boxingaddictions.net > Blog > Uncategorized > interactive scene of 1959 walker family murders. Brandon Clark done, since they'd met a year and a half earlier, to solve the murder of his sister? 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. When Don discovered the bodies of the Walker family, he was heartbroken and terrified. Before she left the agency, McGath said, her supervisors declined her requests to do more genetic testing of the stain. The list goes on. He was seeking permission to exhume her from her grave. Herbert Clutter, 48, his wife, Bonnie, 45, their daughter, Nancy Mae, 16 and son Kenyon, 15, were bound hand and foot and gagged. One spring day in 2013, Myers sat alone inside his barbecue restaurant in Lake Placid, where a painting of cowboys wrangling a steer hung on the wall. At the same time, DNA analysis has become more exact, especially in the past two decades, with testing that once required a million cells now potentially able to identify someone with a single cell, said DNA expert Greg Hampikian, director of the Idaho Innocence Project and a biology professor at Boise State University. Could the two men behind the infamous Clutter family murders have killed the Walkers as well? Arriving at the house when Christine was alone, she wouldnt have suspected their real intention. 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. Authorities believe that 24-year-old Christine Walker arrived at the family's farm home around 4pm on Saturday, December 19, 1959, where she was raped, then murdered by gunshot. She wasnt accosted immediately as she entered her home. The sheriff's office recently said it did not have any transcripts of those interviews. 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. Equally, Smith prevented Hickock from carrying out a rape at the Clutter Farm, whereas Christine was assaulted before her execution. This site uses cookies to improve user experience. Theyd only been married for five years. Love triangles can certainly make people do crazy things, but killing small children? Clutter's throat was slashed. Behind many closed doors, kerosene lamps and frying pans flew. Entering, she wasnt attacked straight away and had enough time to store the groceries before she was ambushed by the assailant or assailants. Kansas authorities, hearing of the Walker murders, suggested Sarasota's sheriff take a look. Murderpedia. First published on February 6, 2023 / 12:00 PM. I also want to get Early Bird Books newsletter featuring book deals, recommendations, and giveaways. This page was last edited on 9 February 2023, at 12:07 (UTC). She also was there when he spoke with former Det. Hickock and Smith confessed to the murders of the Clutter family, for which they were hanged in April of 1965. | https://linktr.ee/MichaelEast. 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. The best chance to solve a decades-old quadruple murder in Florida ended Tuesday when sheriff's deputies said they could not link DNA to the two killers profiled in the book "In Cold Blood." The . Hickock, a car mechanic and father from Kansas, had suffered a severe head injury in a car accident when he was 19. McLeod later stated that it was odd . I also want to get the Early Bird Books newsletter featuring great deals on ebooks. In 2019, Clark was able to test the stain again. "I always looked at the Walker case as 'Keep looking,' because it's not Hickock and Smith.". Unable to find a safe, they obliterated all four members of the Clutter family. Police never identified a motive, and 587 people were suspects at one time or another. And he did move extraordinarily quickly. Their bodies were found by . The actual cause of death is unknown, and she could have been shot in the bathtub. To be sure, Clark had told Myers, scientists would have to pinpoint Christine's DNA and remove it from the mixture. Her husband Cliff, 25, then arrived with their 3-year-old son Jimmie and 1-year-old daughter Debbie. Through the years there have been almost 600 suspects but to this date, the case remains unsolved. In 2010, however, over 50 years after the crime, the Sarasota County Sheriffs Office took another crack at the Walker family murders case. But Jimmie didnt die. After six decades, several police agencies had destroyed or misplaced evidence connected to the Walkers. Read on to learn about the Walker Family Murders, who were found brutally murdered in their home on December 20, 1959. The agency issued a press release, noting Hickock and Smith were the most likely suspects. Such killings the extermination of an entire family don't happen every day, but they're not so statistically rare as . Unlike Sheriff Boyer decades before her, she thought there was something to the men of "In Cold Blood.". No one had documented the wrapping paper, and the minister was long dead. There was no shortage of suspects. She read a report that the pair sold two dolls to a minister in Louisiana for $1.50 in gas money after they had left Florida. Some think Christine called one of them on the phone from the McLeod residencethis could have been their way in. The ex-cons thought that the Clutters, who owned River Valley Farm in Holcomb, Kansas, had a safe containing $10,000 in cash in their house. All rights reserved. He told Myers, if he could get the OK, he was still after a true copy of Christine's DNA. The house located in Osprey Florida was rent free for the Walkers in exchange for the hard, honest work Cliff did on the large Palmer Ranch. The Wilbur Tooker theory also holds some merit, but theres just no real evidence for it. interactive scene of 1959 walker family murders. He and Kimberly McGath went back to 2007, when she expressed an interest in the languishing Walker file. Elbert had also previously made advances toward Christine, and family members thought the grief shown was fake, the suspect fainting twice at the funeral. Yet, the test showed that he was highly likely lying when asked if hed withheld information. Truman Capotes wildly popular book In Cold Blood was written about the crime, and is considered the first real true crime novel. Curtis had apparently been violent in the past. The folks at the gas station told him the Walkers were dead, and they took him to the house where he fell apart. The relief the 82-year-old felt had come through on the phone. McGath's recommendations at this time.". "I've got mothers calling me who want to get their sons out of prison. Or maybe it was a home invasion that, for a second time, ended in slaughter. She sifted through thousands of pages, looking for the original DNA test of Christine's underwear that had detected a male suspect - a result detectives had leaned on for years. Leonora LaPeter Anton went with Pat Myers to the Sarasota County Sheriff's Office to witness him talking to Det. It was hard to imagine, McGath often told Myers, in their sometimes meandering phone calls, that anyone wouldn't classify the men as suspects. For those few crime drama aficionados who aren't familiar with the case, in late November of 1959 two petty felons, Richard Eugene Hickock and Perry Smith, arrived at a house near Holcomb, Kansas. This article was originally published in the Tampa Bay Times. Cliff, 25, lived with his wife Christine, 24, and their two young children, Jimmie, 3, and Debbie 1. Clifford and the children had been ambushed, the young father on his back in the living room, still wearing his straw cowboy hat, a bullet hole in his right eye. The Herald-Tribune gained unprecedented access to investigators' files, which span more than four decades. However, for one Florida family, the Christmas season became a nightmare.. He'd opened the place after two decades in the orange groves. However, the Clutter family killing resulted from false information, with the home deliberately targeted in the belief it contained significant cash. 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. When officers arrived, Herb Clutter, 48, lay sprawled on a mattress in the basement, stabbed, his throat slashed and a shotgun charge fired to his head. After lunch, they went to the McLeods. More than half a dozen cuttings came from Christine's underwear alone, with multiple partial DNA samples detected, as well as a stain containing a single sperm cell. 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. He said the agency remains committed, however long it takes. 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. He stopped at a local gas station and inquired about the location of the Walker home, as if looking for Cliff. 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. Im also active on Twitter. It generated pieces of two people's DNA, one male and one female. "The morning of the murders all bus drivers were told to avoid that street due to the caution tape scene. People gossiped about a fight Cliff had gotten into a few days before the murder. Somehow, they still made the smart decision to store the sample, in hopes of greater technology coming along. "This case don't want to be solved," he said. After calling out and making further attempts to ascertain the problem, Daniel looked further around the property. On a couch in an adjoining room was 15-year-old Kenyon Neal Clutter, bound, gagged and shot in the head. By continuing to browse, you accept the use of cookies and other technologies. A blonde hair was found in Christines dress, and neither Smith nor Hickock were blonde. This didnt alarm Christine, and logically, the occupant of that car was then known to her, letting them in before being attacked. "The challenges of a case from that long ago you're bound by what was done in 1959," Giasone said. Whether the one-year-olds death came from the bullet wound or the water was never ascertained. 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. On December 19th, 1959: The entire Walker Family was shot to death as the suspect left the home, Christine walker was home at the time of the attack to fight off her attackers as police believe that she was raped and shot, her husband; Cliff Walker was also shot as he came home along with their three year old son Jimmie and Debbie, who was two years old was drowned in the family's bathtub. But the results were too tangled to isolate any individuals. The first person worth talking about is Don McLeod, the man who found the bodies. armed forces vacation club for veterans 082 825 4557; welsh keith brymer jones wife zapperstore.xyz@gmail.com Herbert Clutter, his wife Bonnie, and their two youngest children, Nancy and Kenyon . The detective picked up almost immediately, and Myers told him he wanted an update. 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. He'd had an alibi for most of the evening, she explained. "Let me say this, Mr. Myers," Clark said. Her voice even sounded different. Freelance writer. 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. All Rights Reserved. Myers wanted to feel relief. He meant that agency officials didn't want to expose their bungling and lack of commitment. He had also been convicted of attempted rape. So, if youre looking for a publication that will keep you up at night, True Crime Detective is the perfect choice! Unfortunately, the sheriff noticed when he walked in that several things had been done to contaminate the crime scene. He passed a polygraph, and even though there is significant controversy over the validity of early tests, in 2006, Elbert was eliminated through DNA. 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. Authorities suspected the pair of murderingthe Walkers as well, but could never secure acharge after Hickock and Smith werecleared by the results of a polygraph test. Capt. [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. These days McGath, 52, works with rescue horses and writes books. Myers had grown up around people devastated by the family's deaths, relatives who also made trips over the years to the sheriff's office, who visited Christine's and Cliff's graves and held them close. 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. Two suspects. He caught a glimpse of Cliffs wife Christines feet on the floor, toes pointed toward the ceiling. But the Walker murders had consumed detectives, then spit them out, for half a century. He'd made a promise. He dove deep on the murders in 2019, the same year he closed about two-thirds of his 130 cases. On the Walkers' final day, they headed a dozen miles north for used car lots in bustling Sarasota. However, in 2012, the Sarasota County Sheriffs Office once again began to look into a possible link, having originally considered them suspects as early as 1960 around the time of their arrest. True Crime Detective covers some of the worlds most baffling murders. Now her strokes had robbed her of articulation. Baby Debbie, they found in the bathtub, facedown in 4 inches of water, also shot in the head. Smith stopped his friend from raping Nancy first but was likely responsible for pulling the trigger on all four killings. Don met the deputies at a local grocery and led them to the horrifying scene. One assumption is that he was already waiting for her when she got there and that he was the one who was parked in her usual spot. The doubt, the what-ifs, kept at him like a jackhammer. In a 2020 email, a spokesperson responded to a question about whether the agency was seeking boot testing this way: "We are not pursuing any of Det. Yet, Spencer was a known pathological liar, and his claims were soon dismissed as a false confession by Sarasota County Sheriff Ross Boyer. Myers wanted to feel that way too. In December of 2012, the Sarasota County Sheriffs Department requested a court order to exhume the bodies of Hickock and Smith, in order to run DNA tests in an attempt to connect them to the Walker family murders. In mid-September, Myers clenched his jaw as he lifted his wife with a gait belt, transferring her from wheelchair to recliner at their modest home. 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. Cliffs cousin Elbert Walker came into town for no reason the day after the murders. Sarasota Sheriff Ross E. Boyer believed he was searching for someone local. Both families lived in rural communities. The Walkers' wood frame cottage stood plain and white, surrounded by pasture land and hardwood forest. Perry Smith, left, and Richard Hickock were arrested in Las Vegas in connection with the November 15, 1959, murders of four members of the Clutter family in rural Kansas. This was a very odd thing to do. memorial page for Clifford "Cliff" Walker (16 Oct 1934-19 Dec 1959), Find a Grave Memorial ID . It was only days before Christmas, and the Walker family had already begun to put a few presents around the tree in anticipation of Christmas morning. Why kill the children unless the perpetrator had been recognizable? He realized something must be wrong in the house and took the decision to enter, cutting through the screen door. Cliff and the kids followed a half hour later in his work Jeep. [2] Jimmie and Debbie were then murdered. So when he called one day in late August 2022, she responded. 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. Capt. He kept making unwanted advances, and eventually Christine told her husband about her fear. Safe house. He drowned the toddler in this water. "You get an arrest occasionally. No child had been spared. And the day after the murders, in Nocatee, east of Sarasota, three people said they had seen the men, one with a "scratched-up face," seeking U.S. 27, the main road north. With Hickock and Smith long dead and now reburied, though, its likely their connection to the Walker murders will remain strictly hypothetical. 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. Rare photos show the "In Cold Blood" house in Holcomb, Kan., where the Clutter family was murdered was opened to the public in 2006 when the property was put up for sale. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement had lost an early semen sample from Christine's underwear. He learned, too, of the deaths of her husband, Cliff, 3-year-old Jimmie and 23-month-old Debbie. He saw it as a blatant copycat killing. As he saw his own health slipping, he felt the weight of that vow. Cliff was shot in the face immediately, followed by Jimmie, the young boy eating a lollipop hed been bought as a treat. Six days before Christmas 1959, the family went shopping in downtown Sarasota. A thought-provoking analysis of a quadruple homicide The author has presented a well-written and well-researched study of the horrific murders of the Walker family, Cliff, Christine, little Jimmy, and baby Debbie in Florida on December 19, 1959, just a month after the Clutters "In Cold Blood" murders in Kansas. Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting. It is strange to think about this being almost a blessing, but it did keep him from seeing what happened to his wife and children. Myers felt like he was ricocheting between theories, like a pinball. After committing the "In Cold Blood" murder of Herbert Clutter, his wife and two children on Nov. 15, 1959, Smith and Hickock hit the road, hiding out from law enforcement in Mexico and Florida . In any case, a family was wiped out in the most terrible circumstance, and the killings remain yet another dark and unsolved stain in Floridas long and inglorious criminal history. 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. 15) Tony von Carruthers: In February of 1994, Tony shot his mother, her teenage associate, and his drug dealer in the Memphis area. He discovered the grisly scene. There was a store, a gas station, a firehouse, a bank, a post office and little all else. The sheriff had Hickock and Smith's pictures published on the front page of the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. Authorities believe that 24-year-old Christine Walker arrived at the family's farm home around 4pm on Saturday, December 19, 1959, where she was raped, then murdered by gunshot. Indeed, the Walker family killings are given several pages in In Cold Blood, the author dismissing any connection. The crime, seemingly without motive, would later be chronicled in Truman Capote's seminal book, In Cold Blood. But they were on the run, skipping across the country after the murders as the Kansas Bureau of Investigation, or the KBI, had just started to decipher the crime scene. "Do you realize, in December, it's going to be 64 years?". Could they have crossed paths and made arrangements to trade cars? He was referring to the Walkers' three hound dogs in the yard - just another stray detail he picked at, worried over. Indeed, the Walker family killings are given several pages in In Cold Blood, the author dismissing any connection. They werent valuable items: Cliffs pocket knife, his cigarettes, and most strangely, Christines beloved drum majorette uniform she was saving in a chest so her daughter Debbie could wear it one day.