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. 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. McGath understood why Myers needed this. But McGath's supervisors shut down her efforts to gather the men's boots from Kansas. Some thought he was in love with Christine. Don met the deputies at a local grocery and led them to the horrifying scene. The Walkers' wood frame cottage stood plain and white, surrounded by pasture land and hardwood forest. 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. Together, they interviewed hundreds of locals and the investigators working on the case. They were inconclusive. For all of the agency's early efforts, even obsession, investigators left stones unturned, resulting in dozens of men in the tiny Sarasota County town living under the frost of suspicion, many until their deaths. Last Updated On: November 20th, 2019. [Via: Wikipedia; NY Daily News; Tampa Bay Times;Daily Mail], Featured Photo of The Walkers: What Lies Beyond. But then in 1987, this settlement was rocked by a grisly murder that still remains unsolved today. Memories forged 'in cold blood' - Arizona Daily Sun "[8] In 1994, a bartender in Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania contacted the Sarasota County Sheriffs Office, claiming that one of her customers had boasted of killing the Walker family; this tip was never verified.[9]. Still, Kansas and Florida investigators have contended that there are flaws in the account, with some witnesses standing against the alibi. With a little investigation, however, it was determined that so much information had been leaked to the media that any civilian could have that kind of knowledge of the crime. Will genealogy sites help solve cold cases? What started as a robbery ended in the violent deaths of the mother, father, and two teenaged children. In her final report in 2013, McGath said she believed there was enough circumstantial evidence to tie Hickock and Smith to the Walker murders. After the murder, rumors flew around that Christine was having an affair with Curtis McCall. At another, the cowboy test drove a Hudson Jet. The sheriff had Hickock and Smith's pictures published on the front page of the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. Your California Privacy Rights / Privacy Policy. Some think Christine called one of them on the phone from the McLeod residencethis could have been their way in. Finding out who had murdered Christine had consumed his family for decades, and now, with many of them dead or far-flung, it had fallen on him to keep up the pressure. Clutter murders - Forensic Files Now They also stopped to put air in the tires, and probably arrived home at about 4:30. In recent years, as suspicion amassed around the "In Cold Blood" killers, Myers grasped at the hope of closure. Now, Myers asked her, "What I don't get is, how did they get in the house with the dogs sitting there?" To be sure, Clark had told Myers, scientists would have to pinpoint Christine's DNA and remove it from the mixture. 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. Both had relatively minor items stolen. Yet, Spencer was a known pathological liar, and his claims were soon dismissed as a false confession by Sarasota County Sheriff Ross Boyer. The waitress reported all of this to the police, but didnt provide a name for the man. All four were bound and gagged as the search continued. interactive scene of 1959 walker family murders But national clearance rates have sunk. On December 20th, 1959 Don McLeod, a coworker and friend of Cliff Walker, arrived at the Walker home at sunrise to pick up Cliff for hog hunting trip they had planned. As he saw his own health slipping, he felt the weight of that vow. Please enter valid email address to continue. The discovery was interesting as it would be unlikely that a stranger to the area would know the shed. December 20, 1959, was seemingly an ordinary morning in Osprey, Florida. A Florida Department of Law Enforcement serology supervisor confirmed the news to McGath and apologized. June 17, 2022 . Consequently, investigators have stated that Smith and Hickock still remain the most viable suspects. Tooker, a 65-year-old retired railroad telegrapher, had made advances on Christine, which she rebuffed. Mystery with local connection captures headlines in 1959 The year before, she had convinced a judge in Kansas to exhume the remains of Hickock and Smith to see if their DNA matched an unknown profile in Christine's underwear. Richard Eugene "Dick" Hickock and Perry Edward Smith were a team of mass murderers, family annihilators, and robbers responsible for the massacre of the Clutter family after their attempted robbery went astray in 1959. Sunday Favorites: What Really Happened to the Walkers? Myers could not imagine it being anyone else either. Smith and Hickock had recently been released from the Kansas State Penitentiary. Another three were seen drinking on the road to the Walkers' house. He was referring to the Walkers' three hound dogs in the yard - just another stray detail he picked at, worried over. There was a problem. 'In Cold Blood' house: Rare photos show home where Clutters were They were seen a dozen times on the way. What does society owe, say, the family of Cliff and Christine Walker? However, the Clutter family killing resulted from false information, with the home deliberately targeted in the belief it contained significant cash. Capt. At around 3:30 PM on December 19, 24-year-old Christine pulled into the family farm after running a few errands. Hickocks former cellmate had worked for the Clutters, telling him that the father, Herb Clutter, kept a large amount of cash on the premises. Its theorized that the outlaws were interested in dumping the car they were currently using, and when they learned the Walkers were in the market, proposed an exchange. Police are said to have investigated Butchs father, but never even spoke to Butch. Nov 14, 2022 at 9:00 am. In this photo taken Oct. 19, 2009, the former home of the Herbert Clutter family is seen in Holcomb, Kan. Fifty years ago, the home was the scene of the brutal murder of Clutter, his wife Bonnie . We saw the caution tape scene. Myers, 71, had pleaded for answers most of his life, sometimes dropping into the sheriff's office when the phone fell quiet. As late as the 1990s, police got a tip from a woman that an elderly gentleman she served at a bar had confessed to her about committing the murders. PodcastOne: Best Of - The Walker Family Murders 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. Giasone wasn't sure why previous leaders didn't pursue additional testing 10 years ago. Blood evidence suggests that he wasnt killed by the first bullet and that the assailant continued to shoot at him while he crawled over to be next to his fathers body. 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. It would be arguably the most significant true-crime work of all time, In Cold Blood. Chilling crime scene photos within the book. On a couch in an adjoining room was 15-year-old Kenyon Neal Clutter, bound, gagged and shot in the head. Tire tracks from the mystery car were likely gone now that there was a police vehicle parked in its place. McGath stopped calling Myers. 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. Boyer's conviction about a local killer influenced the probe for decades. Many justice experts recommend prioritizing cases where an arrest can be made. It generated pieces of two people's DNA, one male and one female. 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. In February of 2018, DNA testing found that Smith did not provide the semen at the Walker crime scene. It was cold, but not expressly so, and he was headed to meet his friend and co-worker Cliff Walker to go hog hunting. She also was there when he spoke with former Det. Join Mike and Gibby for this 'Best Of' episode as they discuss the facts of the murders and walk through the various suspects. McLeod didnt know it at the time, but one-year-old Debbie was also dead in the bathroom. Detectives had told the public to look out for suspects with cuts. 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 . Indeed, the Walker family killings are given several pages in In Cold Blood, the author dismissing any connection. Evidence is the exact same in both cases. In 2010, however, over 50 years after the crime, the Sarasota County Sheriffs Office took another crack at the Walker family murders case. Christine was 24. 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. Christine left a few minutes before 3:30, but Cliff had some chores to finish with Don. Christine asked Lucy if she could use their telephone. Cliff was 25. 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. Unsolved Mysteries: The Walker Family Murders | by Michael East | True At some point the assailant moved her body to the living room and made attempts to clean up the scene. Unlike Sheriff Boyer decades before her, she thought there was something to the men of "In Cold Blood.". Did 'In Cold Blood' killers murder Sarasota's Walker family in '59? In early January, Myers called Clark and his boss six times with no reply. Either before or after Cliff and the children arrivedits unclear whichthe attacker forced Christine into Jimmies room, where she was raped and shot in the head. A chilling account of two murders with multiple victims. She had time to hang up her purse and start putting the groceries away. Clark hoped to test the underwear stain containing the sperm cell. His femur turned up another unknown female profile. 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. Still, it's a shame that the DNA test was inconclusive, because "Smith and Hickock did it" wasn't a terrible theory. 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. The Wilbur Tooker theory also holds some merit, but theres just no real evidence for it. Myers asked, five rows of wrinkles amassing above his large blue eyes. 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. He meant that agency officials didn't want to expose their bungling and lack of commitment. He said detectives have no physical evidence, so far, connecting Hickock and Smith to the Walker murders, no fingerprints. Indeed, the Walker family killings are given several pages in In Cold Blood, the author dismissing any connection. Would he ever get an answer? For example, in 1994, a woman called the Sarasota County Sheriffs Office and claimed to be a bartender in Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania. 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. Sign up for The Lineups newsletter and get the creepiest cases delivered straight to your inbox. Her voice even sounded different. Some believed it was an act. A while later, Cliff and the children were invited to stay at the McLeods for dinner, but he declined, wanting to get home to his wife. The assailant covered little Debbies face with Jimmies hat and shot her in the head, failing to kill her. When they were arrested, they had a pocket knife similar to the one described as missing from Cliff Walkers body. Perhaps a secret lover had been spurned. ", But he never went to Kansas to interview Hickock and Smith. No DNA link between Walker murders, 'In Cold Blood' killer "This case don't want to be solved," he said. [11] Hickock's and Smith's bodies were exhumed and DNA extracted. They had decided to unearth Christine from her grave in the next month. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Then she was taken to Jimmies bedroom and raped on the bed before being shot with a .22 firearm. He said . The family was young and growing and look set to be pillars of the community for many years to come. And if he didn't push for this, who would? Kansas authorities stated that they would process the DNA samples with active cases taking higher priority, and that results would take "weeks or months. Cliff was ambushed and killed by gunshot. But like other detectives, he had to handle them alongside other investigations. The Herald-Tribune gained unprecedented access to investigators' files, which span more than four decades. [10], The Sheriff's Office admitted that Hickock and Smith had been considered suspects as far back as 1960. COLD BLOODED: THE CLUTTER FAMILY MURDERS is a docuseries that focuses on the crime that shocked the nation - the 1959 brutal murder of four members of the Clutter family. From grisly serial killers to unsolved mysteries, True Crime Detective is the place. On Nov. 15, 1959, the Clutter family home was the scene of an unforgettable tragedy. 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. Solving these murders, McGath believed, was also about sending a message that law enforcement would doggedly pursue old crimes despite the passage of time. She was at Myers' home when he spoke with the detective on the phone. Cold Blooded: The Clutter Family Murders: With Beth Tedrow, Larry Welch, Kevin Bascue, Gwyneth Frack. It was time to give Clark, the Sarasota detective, another nudge. Maggie Murdaugh Facebook. Still, eight years off the job, she felt a certain duty to him. Only partial DNA had been retrieved, and any conclusions were therefore uncertain. One of them had a scratched face. In 1959, the Walker family was found murdered in their Florida home Their bodies were found by . They were arrested in Las Vegas in late December after the inmate who had told them about the safe tipped off police. 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. Leonora LaPeter Anton went with Pat Myers to the Sarasota County Sheriff's Office to witness him talking to Det. 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 . Christmas 1959 was supposed to follow this tradition. Hickock had once said his philosophy was to "leave no witnesses.". Kimberly McGath in 2013 and last summer. As it turned out, the tests exposed contamination at the lab. I also want to get the Early Bird Books newsletter featuring great deals on ebooks. 2023 www.heraldtribune.com. The brutal murders of Christine and Cliff Walker and their two children in Osprey, Florida had long been connected to Richard Hickock and Perry Smith of In Cold Blood infamy. Junk science was enough to clear Youmans in the eyes of authorities. Arriving in Miami Beach, the pair was located just four hours away from the Walker family home and checked out of their motel the morning of the killings. Scientists managed to capture partial DNA for both of the men, however. However, its possible that the police already had the killers in custody. In December of 2012, it was announced that Smith and Hickocks bodies would be exhumed to match their DNA to semen samples taken from Christine back in 1959. He had no criminal record. All rights reserved. In a recent interview, retired Sarasota Lt. Dario Valente recalled speaking with one of Boyer's chief investigators, who told him that while one of the Kansas killers denied the Walker murders, another confessed. The morning of December 20, 1959, started out as a normal day for Daniel McLeod. Gossip created a lot of fruitless investigations. 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. ". Initial suspects in the case included Daniel McLeod himself, a local by the name of Wilbur Tooker, and a cousin of Cliff by the name of Elbert Walker. Courtesy of Las Vegas Review-Journal Archive. Unable to find a safe, they obliterated all four members of the Clutter family. The same day, they were positively identified at a department store just a few miles away. They found nothing. Brought in for questioning, McCall denied having any romantic interest in Christine and evasively said he had sold the weapon not long ago. True Crime Detective covers some of the worlds most baffling murders. At the second, the killers took personal things related to Christine, namely her high school majorette uniform and marriage license. The house was dark as McLeod approached, but as he got closer, he saw a light flickering through the window. Whether the one-year-olds death came from the bullet wound or the water was never ascertained. Over the next six weeks, Hickock and Smith traveled about 10,000 miles, from Kansas and California to Mexico and Florida. Both killings involved a home invasion, and both involved the occupants being executed with a firearm. It did not match the semen at the scene. One by one, Kenyon, Nancy, and Bonnie were executed with a shotgun blast to the head. Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting. McGath had also considered Wilbur Tooker, Clark's favored suspect and the Walkers' closest neighbor, the one pushy with Christine. The relief the 82-year-old felt had come through on the phone. A lieutenant told him that Clark had presented the plan to the sheriff. The Walker family of Osprey, Florida, included father Cliff (25 years old), mother Christine (24 years old), a son named Jimmie (three years old), and a daughter named Debbie (two . The Clutter murders were the topic of Truman Capote's 1965 best-selling true crime book In Cold Blood. They listened as a fellow inmate bragged about a farmer who kept lots of cash in a safe. The doubt, the what-ifs, kept at him like a jackhammer. According to the sheriffs department, the Walkers had been considering buying a car of the exact make and model that Hickock and Smith had stolen.