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The same day, they were positively identified at a department store just a few miles away. The morning of December 20, 1959, started out as a normal day for Daniel McLeod. Tennessee has its own rough past, drenched in murderous stories that will keep you locking your doors. He was seeking permission to exhume her from her grave. Unable to find a safe, they obliterated all four members of the Clutter family. He implicated an old girlfriend in his confessions, speaking specifically about her in his confession for the Walker murders. What started as a robbery ended in the violent deaths of the mother, father, and two teenaged children. In every direction McGath turned, she was met with blunders and blurred results, common problems in cold cases. Some try to blame the attack on Christine. It was hard to imagine, McGath often told Myers, in their sometimes meandering phone calls, that anyone wouldn't classify the men as suspects. 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. 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. The family was young and growing and look set to be pillars of the community for many years to come. Equally, Smith prevented Hickock from carrying out a rape at the Clutter Farm, whereas Christine was assaulted before her execution. 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. He confessed to everything, even crimes with which he was obviously uninvolved. It seemed to authorities for years that he would never be ruled out, but when technology changed, he was happy to provide a sample of DNA. Perry Smith, 31, and Richard Hickock, 28, met as petty thieves serving time at the Kansas State Penitentiary. Meanwhile, Tooker was seen as a local pervert, having tried to kiss Christine in the past, and regularly making indecent propositions. Mortally wounded, he crawled to his dead father, seeking his protection. For example, in 1994, a woman called the Sarasota County Sheriffs Office and claimed to be a bartender in Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania. After calling out and making further attempts to ascertain the problem, Daniel looked further around the property. Months later in 2013, McGath was at her desk in Sarasota reading a report on the DNA from the Kansas Bureau of Investigation. 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. Florida analysts spent the equivalent of 44 full lab days that first year poring over evidence, making 2,920 fingerprint comparisons and conducting ballistics tests on more than 75 guns. 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 . 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. Kansas authorities told Boyer they passed. Don McLeod got up at 5:30am on December 20th, 1959 in Osprey, Florida and headed over to his friend Cliff Walker's place so they could go out together to hunt wild hogs. He cried as he told his story. There in tiny Osprey, on the southern tip of the vast Palmer Ranch, the family's nearest neighbor was half a mile away. In 2010, however, over 50 years after the crime, the Sarasota County Sheriff's Office took another crack at the Walker family murders case. Sarasota forensic supervisor Michael Gorn told McGath that footwear impressions could be as reliable as fingerprints. 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. [5], Physical evidence left at the scene included a bloody cowboy boot, a cellophane strip from a Kool cigarette wrapper, and a fingerprint on the bathtub faucet handle. I also want to get the Early Bird Books newsletter featuring great deals on ebooks. Another is that it might have been someone she knew and voluntarily let in. In a 2014 email to her supervisors, McGath wrote: "It feels like there's been a negative cloud surrounding me in regards to the cold cases." Christine had grown up in one of those households. Christine had a lot of admirers. Now the killer turned to Debbie and shot her too. After six decades, several police agencies had destroyed or misplaced evidence connected to the Walkers. But the killers, who had confessed to the Kansas murders, said they'd never been to Sarasota. ", "Did 'In Cold Blood' killers murder Sarasota's Walker family in '59? Alongside the items missing, there was also a significant amount of evidence left at the scene by the culprit. LANSING, Kan. (AP) The bodies of the two men executed for the 1959 murders of a Kansas family that became infamous in Truman Capote's true-crime book "In Cold Blood" were exhumed Tuesday in an . Love triangles can certainly make people do crazy things, but killing small children? The best piece of evidence they obtained was the semen sample left behind from Christines rape, though that kind of bodily fluid was of no use to police in 1959. This peeved Myers. What does society owe, say, the family of Cliff and Christine Walker? Smith stopped Hickock from raping a young woman in the Clutter attack. It seems likely that Debbie also somehow survived. Courtesy of Las Vegas Review-Journal Archive. So unfortunately, we can't really tell anything from these DNA results. However, for one Florida family, the Christmas season became a nightmare.. But he told police he had seen the Walkers' neighbor, Wilbur Tooker, at their house at least two dozen times. Both killings involved a home invasion, and both involved the occupants being executed with a firearm. His hands were bound and his mouth was taped shut. Emmett Monroe Spencer was a multi-murderer who was captured some time after the Walker massacre. Capote was obsessed with the case of the . interactive scene of 1959 walker family murders. The children also stayed behind to watch. Hickock and Smith confessed to the murders of the Clutter family, for which they were hanged in April of 1965. As the sun set shortly after 5 p.m. on December 30, 1959, a driver stopped a 1956 Chevrolet . Since 2004, multiple detectives had sought answers in DNA. He stopped at a local gas station and inquired about the location of the Walker home, as if looking for Cliff. Spencer actually got a lot of things right in his confession, so at first listen, authorities thought it must be true. Even the worst fears of his imagination couldnt have prepared him for the carnage that greeted him. Why kill the children unless the perpetrator had been recognizable? The infamous killers hanged for the murders of a Kansas family may have also been responsible for the deaths of another family in Florida. Two suspects. 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. I also want to get Early Bird Books newsletter featuring book deals, recommendations, and giveaways. The husband was stabbed, while the wife was raped and shot. interactive scene of 1959 walker family murders. This article was originally published in the Tampa Bay Times. Instead, it was parked a cars width to one side, possibly indicating that another car was parked in her usual spot when she arrived. The Walkers' wood frame cottage stood plain and white, surrounded by pasture land and hardwood forest. He'd played his violin - badly, according to the conductor - at a concert in Bradenton. Some were also bludgeoned . The Walkers dwelled amongst country folk, whose women were sorted by their morals and men by their prowess roping cattle or catching hogs. Their funding has helped to solve about 2,000 violent crimes, including killings by the Golden State Killer and the Boston Strangler. The culprits were eventually arrested six weeks after the killings in Las Vegas and ultimately executed by hanging on April 14, 1965. Sarasota Police sent out county deputies to investigate. Elbert knew where the house was. The sheriff had Hickock and Smith's pictures published on the front page of the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. As it turned out, the tests exposed contamination at the lab. Together, they interviewed hundreds of locals and the investigators working on the case. 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. "I always looked at the Walker case as 'Keep looking,' because it's not Hickock and Smith.". "[5] The pair was arrested in Las Vegas, Nevada, on December 30, 1959, for the Clutter murders, and were executed by hanging on April 14, 1965. A chilling account of two murders with multiple victims. The duo entered the home through an unlocked back door and searched for the safe, the family remaining asleep. Christine asked Lucy if she could use their telephone. The day before, the Walker family had driven into nearby Sarasota to run errands. But evidence suggests that it wasnt too long before the attack began. "You get an arrest occasionally. The house was dark as McLeod approached, but as he got closer, he saw a light flickering through the window. Wilburs alibi doesnt start until after the murders. Herbert Clutter, his wife Bonnie, and their two youngest children, Nancy and Kenyon . By continuing to browse, you accept the use of cookies and other technologies. And if he didn't push for this, who would? 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. 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. That motive has to be discounted in the Walker family case. www.dailymail.co.uk. Some authorities were positive he was the perpetrator, and throughout the history of this case, he was a favorite suspect for many, although his window of time to commit the crime was small. 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. He wore paja mas. When she was well, Ella had vocally supported his efforts to find answers. 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. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement had lost an early semen sample from Christine's underwear. Its frustrating to think that well never know the answer. Could those dolls have been for Debbie? I dont know if anyone ever collected or tested his DNA. However, its possible that the police already had the killers in custody. There came a point that his older sister, Novella, couldn't handle going anymore. With the DNA testing in shambles, McGath turned to boot prints. The Herald Tribune reports investigators are probing the possibility that the killers, who were the inspiration for Truman Capote's "In Cold Blood," brutally murdered the Walker family of Osprey, Fla. in 1959. But national clearance rates have sunk. 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. Smith and Hickock had recently been released from the Kansas State Penitentiary. McGath stopped calling Myers. Join Mike and Gibby for this 'Best Of' episode as they discuss the facts of the murders and walk through the various suspects. The order of killings of the family members down to the way they were killed. "However," the release said, "DNA testing seems unlikely to provide conclusive evidence one way or the other.". In 2012, their bodies were exhumed to have DNA extracted to . The 1959 murder of Herbert Clutter and his wife and kids in Holcomb, Kansas by Perry Smith and Richard Hickock was, by itself, rather unextraordinary. Along with Richard Hickock, Smith took part in the burglary and multiple murder at the Clutter . "It was them, the 'In Cold Blood' killers," he'd said. Meanwhile, the head of the Kansas Bureau of Investigation told a reporter that, had he been facing a similar situation, "I'd have had an investigator down here weeks ago.". Homicide detectives often are told to work on older cases when they have time. 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. 2 men found drugged after leaving NYC gay bars were killed, medical examiner says. The case is unsolved as of February 2023. Cliff wanted to teach him a lesson, but ended up only telling him to stay away. Hickock soon concocted a plan to rob the familys safe and flee to Mexico, enlisting Smith, who had also once been his cellmate. . He said what was thought to be sperm was more likely Christine's blood or skin cells. Only partial DNA had been retrieved, and any conclusions were therefore uncertain. Keep in mind that over 500 suspects have been questioned since 1959. As he saw his own health slipping, he felt the weight of that vow. He used to live there. Dick Hickocks body was too degraded to get a sample, which is unfortunate, because if they were the perpetrators, it is most likely that he would have been the rapist. Evidence is the exact same in both cases. Hickock, a car mechanic and father from Kansas, had suffered a severe head injury in a car accident when he was 19. In early January, Myers called Clark and his boss six times with no reply. Worrying that the family had succumbed to a gas leak, he broke in with his pocket knife. Solving these murders, McGath believed, was also about sending a message that law enforcement would doggedly pursue old crimes despite the passage of time. 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. Richard Luscombe in Miami. There are countless other rumors about other individuals or groups who could have committed these crimes.