Mystery Monday: The Walker Family Murders
This case is an older case, but one that is interesting due to the lack of evidence and also it’s ties to the Clutter Family murder, famously written about in Truman Capote’s true crime novel In Cold Blood.
December 19, 1959 was no doubt a day like any other in Osprey, FL. It was only days before Christmas, and the Walker family had already begun to put a few presents around the tree in anticipation of Christmas morning.
After running some errands that day, 24-year-old Christine Walker arrived home alone, at around 4:00 PM. Immediately upon entering her home she was ambushed, raped, and then fatally shot in the head.
Christine’s husband Cliff, 25, arrived home shortly after with the two children: 3-year-old Jimmie and 2-year-old Debbie. Cliff was also murdered by gunshot. Their two children unfortunately met the same fate, with Debbie being drowned in the bathtub, and then shot.
The only items missing from the Walker’s home were Cliff’s pocketknife, Christine’s majorette uniform, and the couples’ marriage licence.
The two main suspects in this case were Richard “Dick” Hickock and Perry Smith. Police believed that the Walkers’ were looking to buy a 1956 Chevrolet Bel Air, the exact same car Smith and Hickock had stolen and were driving through Florida at the time. It is possible that the two men had devised a plan for murder after meeting with the Walker’s under the ruse of selling them the car.
Although Smith and Hickock were the prime suspects in the murders, they were never arrested due to insufficient evidence, as well as having alibis that they were nowhere near Osprey, Florida at the time. The two men also took lie detector tests which they passed. However, Smith and Hickock were arrested for the murders of the Clutter family, which they had committed a month before in Holcomb, Kansas on November 15, 1959. They were convicted and eventually executed for that crime. But they never admitted to the Walker family slayings, even though the similarities between the crimes were hard to ignore, and a pocketknife matching the one that Cliff Walker owned was found on the killers at the time of their arrest.
In 2012, based on new information that Smith and Hickock were actually spotted many times in Florida during the time of the murders, as well as their alibis and lie detector tests being examined with more intensity, investigators once again began looking at possible links between the Walker and Clutter family murders. They had both of the killers’ bodies exhumed so that they could compare DNA to the DNA left behind at the scene of the Walker murders. Unfortunately, due to too many years and degradation of evidence, the findings were inconclusive. This did not mean that the two men were completely ruled out as suspects, though they could not be charged posthumously for the crime.
The case has never officially been solved.
Theories
The first theory, which was quickly disproved, was that serial killer Emmett Monroe Spencer killed the Walkers. He admitted to committing the crime, but law enforcement quickly realized that he was lying and wanting to take credit for the crimes, as some weird criminals are want to do for notoriety..
The second one, and the one that I can see being the one that actually happened, was that Smith and Hickock were travelling through Florida, on the lam from the police due to the Clutter slayings, they saw an opportunity and they took it. Since only strange things were stolen from the Walker’s home, the question is why? No money seemed to be missing. The two were most likely two psychopaths on the loose and didn’t care about anything other than destroying people’s lives.
The third and final theory is that the murders were committed by someone close to the Walkers. This has been speculated by Katherine Ramsland, professor of forensic psychology at the University of Pennsylvania, due to the items that were taken at the crime scene. The couple’s marriage license, and Christine’s majorette uniform: two items that were personal to the family. This theory was further tested when Cliff Walker’s niece found the marriage certificate among a few things handed down to her by family in 2013.
What do you believe about this tragedy?
*Disclaimer: Everything I have written about here is public knowledge that I have researched and compiled for use in this blog post. It is for educational purposes only. It shouldn’t need to be said, but I do not condone violence, murder, or any other kind of brutal acts towards ANYBODY. I only find these topics interesting. Also, please be kind to each other in the comments!
