FL FL - Adam Walsh, 7, Hollywood, 27 July 1981

[CCJD]

Hi. Thanks for starting this thread. I know that they found the head of a child not long after Adam was abducted, but it was badly decomposed and I don't think that there was ever a positive ID on it. In my mind, he could still be alive. I have found a guy on facebook that looks just like an age progression of him. I wonder?

13 Aug 1981, 243 - The Miami Herald at Newspapers.com
(subscription required)

 

[AlwaysCoffee]

Wouldnn't Dahmer have been too young?

Hi Lucky Digger!

I don't think I understand what you're asking here. Dahmer killed his first victim in 1978 just after turning 18. He would have been about 21 in 1981, which I would not say is too young.

I'm guessing you meant to ask if Adam was too young. Honestly, I don't think he was. MOO. I could have sworn I read somewhere that he did assault kids around Adam's age, but I can't seem to find a source... I definitely do not want to spread misinformation, but Dahmer was such a creep that I wouldn't put it past him. MOO.

 

[meliaber]

Hi Lucky Digger!

I don't think I understand what you're asking here. Dahmer killed his first victim in 1978 just after turning 18. He would have been about 21 in 1981, which I would not say is too young.

I'm guessing you meant to ask if Adam was too young. Honestly, I don't think he was. MOO. I could have sworn I read somewhere that he did assault kids around Adam's age, but I can't seem to find a source... I definitely do not want to spread misinformation, but Dahmer was such a creep that I wouldn't put it past him. MOO.

 

[meliaber]

I recently saw an interview of JD, I’m not 100% positive but want to say it was on Inside Edition or similar show (watched on YT).
The interviewer stated to Dahmer that he had molested his 14 year old victims younger brother.
JD didn’t protest, I think you’re right, JD was known to have molested/raped at least two children.
His 14 year old victim and the victims younger brother.
IMO, JD could very likely be Adam’s killer.

 

[cnmccarthy]

I'm convinced Jeffrey Dahmer was the killer. I cannot now remember where I read this, but a few years ago I was reading an account of this by someone who had found a witness placing Dahmer in that same Sears store from which Walsh vanished, just before he vanished. That can't be a coincidence.

The witness statements sure are compelling to point towards Dahmer, and seems as though the police dismissed a lot of info that led them away from OToole, but why would Dahmer not admit it if it had been him? Was Dahmer ever linked to any child murders or abductions? I can’t remember.

Coincidentally, I grew up in Hollywood and my mom was in that very Sears when he was taken. She told me that she was getting my dad a birthday present- for his bday the next day- and my two siblings and I begged to go but she wanted to make a quick trip. We were around Adam’s age and younger and this was when it was common for us kids to wander to stores a bit while mom shopped. She remembered hearing them call for Adam over the intercom and said it reinforced the strange feeling she had that morning to not bring us along. Said it haunted her for a long time thinking it could have been any of us that wandered too far that day into that monsters path. Such a horrible tragedy what happened to that sweet boy.

there was an article or book excerpt I read that gave a compelling reason for him to not admit to killing Adam. He made a comment along the lines of “child molesters get killed in prison”.

 

[Oakie]

there was an article or book excerpt I read that gave a compelling reason for him to not admit to killing Adam. He made a comment along the lines of “child molesters get killed in prison”.

Dahmer got killed in prison anyway!!

 

[cnmccarthy]

Dahmer got killed in prison anyway!!

Good riddance! Makes you wonder what they knew.

 

[mistertheplague]

there was an article or book excerpt I read that gave a compelling reason for him to not admit to killing Adam. He made a comment along the lines of “child molesters get killed in prison”.

However, this is exactly the same reason Ottis Toole might have recanted his confession.

 

[mistertheplague]

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1439236275/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_glt_fabc_DXTTXRC9KV1411WBWNCM

Anybody read this? I'm thinking about ordering it. Thoughts

I would definitely recommend Art Harris’ series, even though he and I disagree about some of his major conclusions, and despite my feeling that his final entry about meeting the alive-and-well Adam Walsh is simply wacky. I wrote the following review of Art Harris’ book in 2013, and still mostly agree with it today, except for the part about leaning in favor of Toole as the killer. As it stands, there are too many question marks to favor any suspect:

“I recently had the opportunity to talk to Art Harris at some length about his outstanding work covering the Adam Walsh case -- work that goes back over 15 years and includes his two books as well as articles in the Miami Herald and other newspapers. Art is very gracious with his time, intensely knowledgeable, and eager to talk about and hear various ideas on the subject from knowledgeable and perceptive readers.

I conveyed to Art a few main points: first, as a former newspaper reporter myself, the quality and breadth of his research and reporting on this subject is just about jaw-dropping; second, in spite of his fine efforts, I don't think Jeffrey Dahmer killed Adam Walsh, though the reporting about Dahmer's presence in South Florida at the time of Adam Walsh's disappearance which he has done on his own as well as with David Smiley in The Herald has been extremely provocative, merits an award for journalism, and should have been followed up by the authorities; and lastly, the holes he has punched in the case against Ottis Toole as Adam's killer are grave and substantial. I make this last point as someone who still leans slightly in favor of Toole as the prime suspect in this case.

A couple of reader-related points: one of the compelling aspects of the Adam Walsh case is its extraordinary complexity. Art's work deals with that complexity as it exists. His books on the case are in-depth, detailed and about as exhaustive as is possible with a case as enigmatic and elusive as this one. If you want a glib, grand-standing, pseudo-literary treatment of the Adam Walsh case that glides over the case's innumerable inconsistencies in order to neatly nail the official perp to the wall, buy "Bringing Adam Home" instead. Art's books should be taken as a corrective to that authorized account.

That doesn't mean you have to agree with all of Art's conclusions or accept that all of the evidence he offers necessarily means what he argues it means. I don't. But I do appreciate and respect the integrity and quality of the work presented here.”

 

[mistertheplague]

It’s important to note that when Hollywood PD detectives went up to Wisconsin to question Dahmer, per John Walsh’s request the Broward DA agreed to waive the death penalty if Dahmer confessed to murdering Adam. So being extradited to Florida and electrocuted for Adam’s murder was never a consideration for Dahmer.

 

[Gloomy Bear]

Honestly I highly doubt Toole or Dahmer are involved. But I cannot blame Adam's family for wanting to believe Toole was the killer, and just wanting this whole ordeal to be over with and move on. Their pain and grief must have been unimaginable.

 

[SeesSeas]

Hudson filmmaker believes her childhood abductor also killed Adam Walsh
Hudson filmmaker believes her childhood abductor also killed Adam Walsh
Gina Garcia’s “Untold: This Is My Story” biopic about her abduction is now available on streaming services.
April 26, 2022
HUDSON — She knows her childhood abductor was a monster. That’s a given.

He snatched her from an Orlando mall, raped and likely would have killed her if she had not escaped.

But, for years, Gina Garcia wondered if he was an infamous monster.

Garcia wondered if she had been abducted by Ottis Toole, the serial killer whose victims include 6-year-old Adam Walsh.
[...]
Adam Walsh was abducted from a mall in Hollywood on July 27, 1981. His head was found two weeks later in Vero Beach.

On Oct. 12, 1981, 8-year-old Garcia was at the Fashion Square Mall in Orlando, three hours north of where Adam Walsh was abducted. After watching a movie, her mother went to Sears while Garcia and her sister visited the mall’s bookstore.

“My sister was in the science fiction section, and I was in the section with planetary stuff because I had to do a class project on Saturn,” Garcia said. “A man bumped into me, apologized and started a conversation.”

The stranger identified himself as mall security and said his car had books that could help with her research.

“I followed him to his car, and he shoved me inside,” Garcia said. “He drove behind the mall, and he sexually assaulted me with a knife to my throat.”

As he drove away with her, a car ran a stop sign, forcing him to “screech to a stop,” Garcia said. “That allowed me to jump out of the car and run, half naked, back to the mall.”
[...]

 

[Betty P]

Hudson filmmaker believes her childhood abductor also killed Adam Walsh
Hudson filmmaker believes her childhood abductor also killed Adam Walsh
Gina Garcia’s “Untold: This Is My Story” biopic about her abduction is now available on streaming services.
April 26, 2022
HUDSON — She knows her childhood abductor was a monster. That’s a given.

He snatched her from an Orlando mall, raped and likely would have killed her if she had not escaped.

But, for years, Gina Garcia wondered if he was an infamous monster.

Garcia wondered if she had been abducted by Ottis Toole, the serial killer whose victims include 6-year-old Adam Walsh.
[...]
Adam Walsh was abducted from a mall in Hollywood on July 27, 1981. His head was found two weeks later in Vero Beach.

On Oct. 12, 1981, 8-year-old Garcia was at the Fashion Square Mall in Orlando, three hours north of where Adam Walsh was abducted. After watching a movie, her mother went to Sears while Garcia and her sister visited the mall’s bookstore.

“My sister was in the science fiction section, and I was in the section with planetary stuff because I had to do a class project on Saturn,” Garcia said. “A man bumped into me, apologized and started a conversation.”

The stranger identified himself as mall security and said his car had books that could help with her research.

“I followed him to his car, and he shoved me inside,” Garcia said. “He drove behind the mall, and he sexually assaulted me with a knife to my throat.”

As he drove away with her, a car ran a stop sign, forcing him to “screech to a stop,” Garcia said. “That allowed me to jump out of the car and run, half naked, back to the mall.”
[...]

The article quotes her as saying John Walsh agrees with her, that it was probably Ottis Toole. She remembers how he looked including certain characteristics about his body that match Toole.

 

[Find Brenda]

Thinking of Adam. Gone 41 years today

 

[GuyfromCanada]

JUL 27

MIAMI (CBSMiami) – Forty-one years ago today, July 27, 1981, Adam Walsh went missing. His disappearance forever changed how authorities handled missing kid cases as Florida became the first state to set up a clearing house for missing children.

Walsh was six years old when he was kidnapped in July 1981 after his mom briefly left him alone in the toy department of Sears store in Hollywood right across the street from the Hollywood Police Department.

A frantic manhunt followed.

More at The Case Of Murdered 6-Year-Old Adam Walsh: 41 Years Later

 

[ilovewings]

JUL 27

MIAMI (CBSMiami) – Forty-one years ago today, July 27, 1981, Adam Walsh went missing. His disappearance forever changed how authorities handled missing kid cases as Florida became the first state to set up a clearing house for missing children.

Walsh was six years old when he was kidnapped in July 1981 after his mom briefly left him alone in the toy department of Sears store in Hollywood right across the street from the Hollywood Police Department.

A frantic manhunt followed.

More at The Case Of Murdered 6-Year-Old Adam Walsh: 41 Years Later

Adam Walsh's father, John Walsh is a huge reason that missing children cases are handled differently than they were prior to that time. He was like a dog with a bone- he would not let the cops take the situation lightly - from what I recall he had a heck of a time getting law enforcement to do their jobs--- He is to be commended and spent his entire life fighting crime.

 

[Betty P]

Adam Walsh's father, John Walsh is a huge reason that missing children cases are handled differently than they were prior to that time. He was like a dog with a bone- he would not let the cops take the situation lightly - from what I recall he had a heck of a time getting law enforcement to do their jobs--- He is to be commended and spent his entire life fighting crime.

Yeah, I read his book several years ago. He and his wife had a very difficult time with the local PD. What he accomplished was amazing. The public owes so much to him for his work.

 

[mistertheplague]

The Walshes had a hard time with the Hollywood Police Department because frankly the cops were in miles over their heads. They were simply not equipped in training or manpower to conduct an effective search for a missing child following a stranger abduction.

Also, missing person searches as such didn’t exist at the time they way they do now. The Adam Walsh case was the catalyst for a lot of reforms in the way law enforcement — and society — approaches matters when a kid turns up missing. In 1981 they couldn’t even call in the FBI preemptively because there wasn’t evidence Adam had been taken across state lines. One of the things John Walsh pointed out at the time was that federal law enforcement had a nationwide database for missing vehicles but not missing kids.

Having said that, the local cops in Hollywood did no one any favors. They refused to ask for help from FDLE when they could have, and basically stonewalled/botched the case from start to finish — including, if you ask skeptics, pinning the murder on Ottis Toole once he was conveniently dead.

As for John and Reve Walsh, honestly as a dad I have no idea how they were able to get up in the morning every day and continue on. I don’t know how I would have survived, TBH, except that unlike them at the time Adam was murdered I have other kids who need me.

 

[mistertheplague]

Speaking of official incompetence/malfeasance, one of the things Art Harris and Miami Herald reporter David Smiley turned up in 2010 was that the Broward ME didn’t appear to have done an official autopsy on Adam’s remains. The upshot is that, had a suspect been arrested, per Florida law he couldn’t have been indicted. Unbelievable.

 

[Betty P]

The Walshes had a hard time with the Hollywood Police Department because frankly the cops were in miles over their heads. They were simply not equipped in training or manpower to conduct an effective search for a missing child following a stranger abduction.

Also, missing person searches as such didn’t exist at the time they way they do now. The Adam Walsh case was the catalyst for a lot of reforms in the way law enforcement — and society — approaches matters when a kid turns up missing. In 1981 they couldn’t even call in the FBI preemptively because there wasn’t evidence Adam had been taken across state lines. One of the things John Walsh pointed out at the time was that federal law enforcement had a nationwide database for missing vehicles but not missing kids.

Having said that, the local cops in Hollywood did no one any favors. They refused to ask for help from FDLE when they could have, and basically stonewalled/botched the case from start to finish — including, if you ask skeptics, pinning the murder on Ottis Toole once he was conveniently dead.

As for John and Reve Walsh, honestly as a dad I have no idea how they were able to get up in the morning every day and continue on. I don’t know how I would have survived, TBH, except that unlike them at the time Adam was murdered I have other kids who need me.

Yes, that's the way I recall it from the book and from news accounts at the time. LOL, I'm old enough to recall when this happened. The police would have been in way over their heads with a case like this. IIRC, they became a little angry with John's wife at first when she kept showing up at their police station.

Even today, there are local LE agencies that refuse to ask for outside help when they need it, but most are now better prepared to deal with missing children. It's still sad to look back on the many cases of missing teens from the 1960's and '70s who were written off as runaways.