Adam Walsh Murder Solved

Originally posted by Tinkabit
but hey , that's just me.... grow an empathy apendage ..... call me immature......

Who could take a 6-year-old and murder and decapitate him? Who?" an emotional John Walsh said at Tuesday's news conference.

That is pandering. John Walsh has hosted a show devoted to gruesome crimes, often depecting real life stories of torture and death, for 20 years. Yet he gets up there and says "Who could do this? Who???" as if the mere idea of such a gruesome killing is totally foreign to him.

Why add the fake drama? Because it is about ratings! It is about publicity! And it IS fake drama when he carries on like he can't even CONCEIVE of a person that could murder a kid.

It lacks dignity because it is so insincere.

I have not posted on ATS in maybe 2 years... but this story has brought me out.

First off, those depicting John Walsh as a man riding the fame train off his sons death are way off the mark. I do understand however, where you guys are coming from, and recognized how it would seem so.

My family has met John Walsh many times. Not in Hollywood and not at a book signing, but at the "Missing and Exploited Children's Fair". My family has gone there every year for the last ten years to help. This fair would not be possible if not for contributions from the private sector and John Walsh himself.

He has brought awareness to many, many missing children. I am glad that he has true closure now. I also hope he continues to be an advocate in helping find those who we have lost...

...like my sister, who went missing those ten years ago. Her name is Wendy Hudakoc.

There is SO much about this that just doesn’t pass the smell test. A botched investigation, authorities refusing to give their reasons for determining guilt so many years later, and after the death of the perp, only the head ever being found, jailhouse ‘confessions’ which are notoriously suspect, and the fame of the father after the fact.

There is something very not right about all this.

people that say john walsh used his sons death to become an icon is just ridiculous. he simply does not want parents to lose their children because he knows how it feels and he knows no parent should feel like he did.

Back when I was going to college, I would see Toole along the interstate hitchhiking. Sometimes he would be alone and sometimes he was with Lucas and a couple of times I seen a woman with them. Every time that I saw him, a cold chill went down my spine for some reason. When I found out who he was, I swore that I would never pick up a hitchhiker again unless I knew them.

Originally posted by Xayden
I have not posted on ATS in maybe 2 years... but this story has brought me out.

First off, those depicting John Walsh as a man riding the fame train off his sons death are way off the mark. I do understand however, where you guys are coming from, and recognized how it would seem so.

My family has met John Walsh many times. Not in Hollywood and not at a book signing, but at the "Missing and Exploited Children's Fair". My family has gone there every year for the last ten years to help. This fair would not be possible if not for contributions from the private sector and John Walsh himself.

He has brought awareness to many, many missing children. I am glad that he has true closure now. I also hope he continues to be an advocate in helping find those who we have lost...

...like my sister, who went missing those ten years ago. Her name is Wendy Hudakoc.

I starred you for this post. I have met Mr. Walsh myself on several occasions and can attest to the amount of support this man has offered to those who have missing family members. He has used the media to get criminals off the streets before they can harm anyone else & I will not ever fault him for that.

To those who say he has scared an entire generation of people, my response is this, you have reason to be fearful. There are many monsters like Otis Toole out there and they don't always look scary. Anyone who has no fear of these monsters hidden among us are just sitting ducks IMO.

people that say john walsh used his sons death to become an icon is just ridiculous.

Well, I'm not sure that's how I feel about it.

The guy's six-year-old son was decapitated by a maniac, who basically got away with it

That would get me going on some anti-crime crusade for sure, if not locked up in a mental hospital for the rest of my life. I mean I just can't imagine how that would feel

However, the media exaggerating the fear of crime in this society has caused nearly as much damage as crime itself.

That's not something we can blame on Mr. Walsh, who merely tried to turn the horror of his son's murder into something noble & good, but it's true nonetheless.

Spreading fear is how authoritarians get their way, sadly.

Originally posted by xmotex

people that say john walsh used his sons death to become an icon is just ridiculous.

Well, I'm not sure that's how I feel about it.

The guy's six-year-old son was decapitated by a maniac, who basically got away with it

That would get me going on some anti-crime crusade for sure, if not locked up in a mental hospital for the rest of my life. I mean I just can't imagine how that would feel

However, the media exaggerating the fear of crime in this society has caused nearly as much damage as crime itself.

That's not something we can blame on Mr. Walsh, who merely tried to turn the horror of his son's murder into something noble & good, but it's true nonetheless.

Spreading fear is how authoritarians get their way, sadly.

This fear IMO is needed, just look at the stat's yourself.
www.missingkids.com...

Now that is just children and those numbers are conservative, at best. Now factor in the many adults who are missing and the numbers can be overwhelming. This is just one type of crime, imagine if you add in annual stat's for rape victims, murder victims, muggings, etc. and you will come up with something that should scare the heck out of you.

Many of us have been personally affected by a serious crime, regardless of what that crime is, Mr. Walsh just decided to utilize a valuable tool to help in the best way he could, he tries to get these monsters off the streets before they have a chance to reoffend.

Yeah and take a closer look.... you know where most of those kids are?

With parents that abducted them as part of a custody fight.

Not with creepy pedophile strangers...

The fear of pedophiles, serial killers, etc. is grossly exaggerated, by a media that butters it's bread by selling you fear. Yes, there are serial killers & violent perverts out there - in a country of three hundred million people, there are going to be a number of dangerous crazies.

But they're not lurking around every corner. They are, in fact, very, very rare. The media just knows it can get ratings, sell papers, etc. by scaring people out of their wits with stores of spectacular savagery, especially when kids are involved. And politicians, too, know they can get you to offer them more power if they frighten you enough.

And what's the best way to frighten someone?

By telling them day in and day out that their kids are in danger.

Seriously, look at local TV news ads even - "what NEW DANGER threatens YOUR kids?!?! Tune in at 11 to find out!"

It would almost be funny if the effects on society weren't so corrosive.



Look at the actual numbers from the site you linked:

* 797,500 children (younger than 18) were reported missing in a one-year period of time studied resulting in an average of 2,185 children being reported missing each day.
* 203,900 children were the victims of family abductions.
* 58,200 children were the victims of non-family abductions.
* 115 children were the victims of “stereotypical” kidnapping. (These crimes involve someone the child does not know or someone of slight acquaintance, who holds the child overnight, transports the child 50 miles or more, kills the child, demands ransom, or intends to keep the child permanently.)

In other words, of the 797,500 kids reported missing, less than half were actually abducted at all, the vast majority (around 80%) of those by family (almost always a custody case), and only 115 were actually the kind of thing the media likes to scare us with.

It still sounds like a lot, but that's less than half the number of kids killed every year in swimming pool accidents.

But we don't live our lives cowering in fear of swimming pools, do we?

Think about it.

Originally posted by xmotex
It would almost be funny if the effects on society weren't so corrosive.

The effects include people being afraid to assist young children in distress. If they are alone on the side of the road or crying in the street/mall many won't get near them for fear of being labeled a pedophile, especially men.

Does anyone have information on what led police to close this case? What new evidence was introduced?

Is information being withheld due to its graphic nature?

I don't understand how they have suddenly decided that O'Toole 'did it'. There is denial that any new evidence has been uncovered, nothing to confirm O'Toole's confession, other than a niece who says he also confessed to her on 'his death bed'. Call me cynical but, since the O'Toole family were, to say the least no strangers to incest and as a result could not be considered as anything above mentally sub-normal (as a rule), I would not consider his niece(/sister/daughter) as very reliable. From what I can gather then they held a press conference to say they have decided to believe Otis O'Toole after all....strange. Is a new book or TV special planned? Can't see much point to this otherwise

reply to post by elevatedone


I know that the "John Walsh Show" he hosted on daytime tv showed him to be an arrogant self-opinionated jerk, and I know that he was also one of the morons who called for a boycott of Aruba over the Natalie Holloway case.

He fits in very well over at FOX.

I could care less how many puppies he has pulled from raging rivers, the guy is certifiably obnoxious, and that was my point.

reply to post by Retseh


I suppose it just goes to show you that even obnoxious people can have their children taken from a Sears store during broad daylight, probably raped, and then murdered and beheaded.

I was a freshman in college when this kidnapping took place. I remember seeing John and Reva on all the morning tv shows begging for the safe return of their son. I remember seeing him interviewed after his child's head was found. He was not fake then and I don't think he's a fake now. He has educated the public, caught many, many dangerous people, and used his family's horrible tragedy to help organize missing person's cases in this country before he ever had a television show and before computers were around to make this information readily available. He is a hero in my book.

reply to post by Retseh


you are just a loser. hopefully someone can *snip*.

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[edit on 12/17/2008 by Badge01]

I can't even begin to imagine what the Walsh family went through. And the poor man could hardly contain his emotions about the case being solved.

To say that he is a jerk for starting a show is nothing short of cold hearted. AS a parent, I can say that I would do anything, ANYTHING, to bring my child's murderer in, and to do everything in my power to keep it from happening to someone else.

And to live for almost 30 years not having the case solved? and probably because of a police screw up? I would be obnoxious too.

And not a parent in the world would blame me either.

I can't say I am happy for him. Just happy they have an answer, and their child can RIP.

As far as the sudden info leading to the case, my guess would be DNA evidence must of come up.

Originally posted by xmotex
These days we live in a society where the media & public's obsession with spectacular acts of crime and violence have created a ridiculously fearful society, where parents won't let their kids go trick or treating because there is this idea afloat that their are serial killers and child rapists on every other corner - which is nowhere near true.

As someone who grew up in a middle class neighborhood with an uncaught child molester on one side of my house (who ended up abusing another kid I knew in the neighborhood) and a convicted rapist on the other, I can vouch for the prevalence of evil. It's bad out there, anyone who thinks otherwise should fake a young teen girl account and go into an unmoderated chatroom. Back when I was growing up there were no chatrooms and pervs would find their victims face to face. Nothing makes the hair on the back of your neck stand up like catching someone who you know is a sicko spying on you as you play in your own yard.

Originally posted by ngchunter
It's bad out there, anyone who thinks otherwise should fake a young teen girl account and go into an unmoderated chatroom.

Yup, you said it well. Fake a young teen girl account.

Most of the "young teen girls" that wander into unmoderated non-teen chat rooms ARE faking it! And a lot of people ASSUME they are! Especially in adult oriented chat rooms.

[edit on 17-12-2008 by Sonya610]

reply to post by Sonya610

Originally posted by Sonya610
And a lot of people ASSUME they are! Especially in adult oriented chat rooms.

Anyone doing that is behaving extremely irresponsibly as there is always a good risk that the person isn't faking it. "Most are," even if true, is not good enough. There are laws against that kind of thing and ignorance isn't excuse, especially when the person professes to be a minor, regardless of whether you claim to have believed them or not. My state's law covers it, I bet most other states do too.

Florida Law 800.04(7)(b):
"live over a computer on-line service, Internet service, or local bulletin board service and who knows or should know or has reason to believe that the transmission is viewed on a computer or television monitor by a victim in this state who is less than 16 years of age, commits lewd or lascivious exhibition. The fact that an undercover operative or law enforcement officer was involved in the detection and investigation of an offense under this paragraph shall not constitute a defense to a prosecution under this paragraph."