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Walsh was never a suspect. And I do blame the security guard and would have brought civil charges against him. However, the mother was as well, negligent.
There was no security guard -- it was a 17-year-old store clerk. Female.
I disagree that Adam's mom was negligent. Millions of moms let their kids stay at the video games while they shop and NOTHING bad happens. That's what the games are there for.
The mother was responsible 100% the security guard was doing the job he was paid to do and the person that said they would have filed a civil suit against him is an idiot! Parents are supposed to watch their own children. Now because of this woman's stupidity there have been hundreds of stupid even idiotic laws passed to protect children but in reality protect no one! There are so many laws that even the people making them don't know what the laws are and there are so many laws that everybody is guilty of something, in fact there isn't a person anywhere in the world that hasn't broken the law, before you disagree, think! Have you ever not come to a complete stop at a stop sign or red light? Have you ever exceeded the speed limit? Have you ever sped up when the yellow light came on so you wouldn't have to stop for the red light? Have you ever made an illegal u-turn? Have you ever sampled the grapes as you walked through the local grocery? Have you ever missed your exit it on a freeway and backed up to it? Have you ever crossed a city street in a place other than a crosswalk? You may think these are minor infractions, but what about the person that backed up when they missed their exit off the freeway and caused the death of 6 people? Don't you think this is a crime? A crime that seems to me to be just a bit more serious than possession of child pornography, where their is no actual victim as far as the possessor is concerned and nobody dies!
The mother was responsible 100% the security guard was doing the job he was paid to do and the person that said they would have filed a civil suit against him is an idiot! Parents are supposed to watch their own children. Now because of this woman's stupidity there have been hundreds of stupid even idiotic laws passed to protect children but in reality protect no one! There are so many laws that even the people making them don't know what the laws are and there are so many laws that everybody is guilty of something, in fact there isn't a person anywhere in the world that hasn't broken the law, before you disagree, think! Have you ever not come to a complete stop at a stop sign or red light? Have you ever exceeded the speed limit? Have you ever sped up when the yellow light came on so you wouldn't have to stop for the red light? Have you ever made an illegal u-turn? Have you ever sampled the grapes as you walked through the local grocery? Have you ever missed your exit it on a freeway and backed up to it? Have you ever crossed a city street in a place other than a crosswalk? You may think these are minor infractions, but what about the person that backed up when they missed their exit off the freeway and caused the death of 6 people? Don't you think this is a crime? A crime that seems to me to be just a bit more serious than possession of child pornography, where their is no actual victim as far as the possessor is concerned and nobody dies!
Add to that sex offender laws are over broad and Mr. Walsh could qualify himself for having been with his wife before she turned 18.
Absolutely he was. I've said, many times, I am a police officer, for the past 22 years. 8 of those years were as an investigator. You don't think I haven't been to conferences and training classes, regarding this particular issue and others? When those classes were put on by the original investigators of this case? MANY things, which you do not know, and for that matter I do not know, aren't released to the public.
You and others, sit back and read a newspaper and THINK well geez, that is it. You are foolish, mistaken, ignorant, and nieve. There is alot more to this story, then you will ever know.
PEOPLE like things wrapped up in box, with a bow. They like simple and easy. Crimes aren't simple and easy; all the time.
When someone said, "What is the motive?" Well to a TRAINED INVESTIGATOR, that shows how ignorant that person is. The motive means very little. You don't focus on the "motive." MANY people have motives to kill people. If you focused on that, you would be chasing your tail.
You focus on the FACTS. What FACTS pointed to O'tool? He confessed? Yep. He did. Why is it, anywhere in the US, a confession to a murder IS NOT enough to arrest, prosecute, and convict someone. Oh, because people LIE and say they did it? O'Toole admitted to alot of murders; many have been proven HE DID NOT COMMIT. So how, now, do you or anyone else say HE DID IT????
Well, it makes me feel better. I have "closure." I can say he did it. And it allows me to sleep better at night.
Did he do it? Maybe. Maybe not. NO ONE can be certain. Except he and god. Everything is just speculation.
excellent post.
It could apply to the Ramsey case as well, where the public was duped and thrown dis-information by the defense team for over a decade.
Murderers and sociopaths often walk out of criminal court free because some people say " he/she "doesnt look" like a killer, criminal"
Criminal defense attorneys seek out naive, inexperienced jurors. The system is broken.
Walsh was never a suspect. And I do blame the security guard and would have brought civil charges against him. However, the mother was as well, negligent.
no, i don't agree. i am only responding to this old thread because i saw a docu on youtube about otis toole. worth looking up. if you search in youtube for his name it will come up.
it gave alot of info about the circumstances surrounding adam walsh's disappearance. what i found so chilling is the fact that many, many mothers, including my own, sometimes have let their child wander the store a bit and nothing ever happens. when you consider that this was a time before child abductions became a normal part of our lives, i found her actions even more motherly- he was only a few aisles over. you have to remember the times. no one is thinking, "if i let my child out of sight for one moment some wandering lunatic might kidnap and rape and behead him". now, you wouldn't be far off the mark. then, they would have considered that paranoia. hell, my mom let me walk around the mall by myself when i was 13. and this was in the eighties.
i can only imagine that the mother would probably agree with your assessment, however. in the footage i saw, john walsh is abjectly weeping, and the mother looks stunned. i could just see it in her face- "this is my fault. i let him out of my sight for a few minutes and if i hadn't....."
parents do it everyday. and it isn't negligence. its called being human, and trusting. no one can carry that in their minds on a daily basis, the fact that if i let my child walk an aisle or two over in a store someone might take them away from me forever. its like thinking when you leave your house someone is going to kill you in your driveway. it happens, but you can't carry that in your mind. it will drive you mad.
otis toole apparently wrote john walsh a letter to tease him. he said he read it, and promptly threw up. otis toole makes me wonder if my disbelief in total evil is appropriate. that man is more evil than i can even fathom.
The mother was responsible 100% the security guard was doing the job he was paid to do and the person that said they would have filed a civil suit against him is an idiot! Parents are supposed to watch their own children. Now because of this woman's stupidity there have been hundreds of stupid even idiotic laws passed to protect children but in reality protect no one! There are so many laws that even the people making them don't know what the laws are and there are so many laws that everybody is guilty of something, in fact there isn't a person anywhere in the world that hasn't broken the law, before you disagree, think! Have you ever not come to a complete stop at a stop sign or red light? Have you ever exceeded the speed limit? Have you ever sped up when the yellow light came on so you wouldn't have to stop for the red light? Have you ever made an illegal u-turn? Have you ever sampled the grapes as you walked through the local grocery? Have you ever missed your exit it on a freeway and backed up to it? Have you ever crossed a city street in a place other than a crosswalk? You may think these are minor infractions, but what about the person that backed up when they missed their exit off the freeway and caused the death of 6 people? Don't you think this is a crime? A crime that seems to me to be just a bit more serious than possession of child pornography, where their is no actual victim as far as the possessor is concerned and nobody dies!
I'm starting to not get surprised when I read the posts on C-D. Putting little kids outside of a store is more irresponsible than what you think the mother did. If anything, they should've located the parents if they were causing that much disruption.
I didn't know the part about them being asked to leave the store. It is kind of odd that the mom would be so far off that she didn't hear a disturbance or that a security guard would really be that stupid. I did know it was at Sears in the Games/Toys area..
I thought about this case recently, after seeing that FOX rebooted America's Most Wanted..
In the TV movie 'Adam', they never showed that Adam had been asked to leave the store with other kids.. which seems odd, because the movie was very detail oriented, and surprisingly candid. It seemed like a strange omission, unless this was withheld from the public at that time (1983)?
The movie did include an interesting, contemporary detail tho, when John Walsh was told a blue van was spotted by multiple eyewitnesses outside the Sears exit. This became part of the (later) Dahmer as suspect theory, because he reportedly drove a blue work van in 1981.
The movie was filmed 25 years before O. Toole was officially determined as the killer, and 8 years before Dahmer became a household name.. so the blue van mention is an interesting, revealed detail. The vehicle that Toole was believed to have transported Adam in was not a blue van, and was inexplicably lost to a junkyard.
I'm curious to hear others' thoughts, or deep dives, on the strength of the case against Toole.. I know there have been a couple books/videos both on the case against O. Toole and the speculation about Dahmer.
I've read John Walsh's book and I appreciate all he has done. I've read other accounts of people in law enforcement who were less flattering of the producers of his tv show.
John Walsh turned his grief into something positive - I give him lots of credit.
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