Every Town - Osprey, Florida: The Unsolved Walker Family Murders

Episode Date: August 19, 2020

Go to https://deadboltmysterysociety.com/ and use the promo code: deadbolt20 for 20% OFF your first order!Scary Mysteries Youtube:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCiE86yS_VM7qjiICqRPmwLQ?view_as=subscriberContact US: [e-mail] December 19, 1959, while the rest of the Christian world was in a frenzy preparing excitedly for the Christmas holidays, the small place of Osprey in Florida was in hysteria.  A young family was inconspicuously murdered taking the lives of 25-year old Cliff Walker, his 24-year old wife Christine, their 3-year old son Jimmie, and 1-year old daughter Debbie. Investigations had been conducted, 587 people had become suspects at one time or another, American novelist Truman Capote and one of his best-selling true crime books had been indirectly enmeshed in the case, yet the Walker family murders remain unsolved as of its 60th anniversary on December 19, 2019.  Support the show Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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the promo code deadbolt 20. Come join the deadbolt mystery society today. Every town has a dark side. The following is a story from one of them, but there's still many more to uncover. Today we check out Osprey, Florida, and the unsolved. Walker family murders. On December 19, 1959, while the rest of the Christian world was in a frenzy preparing excitedly for the Christmas holidays, the small town of Osprey in Florida was in hysteria. A young family was inconspicuously murdered, taking the lives of 25-year-old Cliff Walker, his 24-year-old wife, Christine, their three-year-old son, Jimmy, and one-year-old daughter Debbie. investigations have been conducted.

587 people become suspects at one time or another. American novelist Truman Capote and one of his best-selling true crime books have been indirectly enmeshed in the case. Yet, the Walker family murders remain unsolved as of its 60th anniversary on December 19th, 2019. I'm Andrew Fitzgerald and this is Everytown. In this week's episode, I will walk you through the details of a gruesome quadruple murder and the efforts that have been done to resolve the case. Yet the perpetrators haven't been accurately determined,

and justice still remains elusive for the Walker family. Cliff, Christine, and their kids lived a simple life in their small home on a 100,000-acre Palmer Ranch and Osprey, a census-designated place in Florida's Sarasone County with a population of 6,734 as of 2017. It's known for a few tourist attractions, such as the historic Spanish Point, a museum and environmental complex, the Oscar Sherr State Park with its rich vegetation and recreational activities,

and the Blackburn Point Bridge, a historic one-lane swing bridge that is listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places. But if there's one notoriety that is tainted Osprey seemingly unassuming existence, it's the 1959 Walker family murders. At the center of the heinous crime was Christine, who at the young age of 19 married Cliff Walker and became a mother of two just five years later. She was described as an attractive, vivacious, drummajorette in high school. Many men pursued Christine, but she chose to marry cattle rancel.

ranch worker Cliff, and they started a family at an isolated ranch house with Cliff's moderately sufficient income. Sometimes, when she looked at their framed marriage certificate, Christine would just keep the sadness to herself. She would tell her mother that she may not have had a financially stable marriage, like her sisters, but she and Cliff had a happy home. And on that fateful day in December of 1959, a Saturday, the Walker family was out shopping six days before Christmas. The family's first stop was at a supermarket to buy some groceries. Christine mentioned to the store manager named Thelma Tills

that she was upset with Cliff because he had gotten into a fight a couple days earlier. The following day, Christine told her visiting mom-in-law, your son liked to get killed yesterday. But when she saw Cliff approaching, she clamored up and said nothing more about the incident. From the supermarket, the walkers drove to Altman, Chevrolet, and Sarasota, where they test drove a Hudson jet and checked on a green and white Chevy sedan. Cliff had wanted to trade in the family car for a 1956 Chevy Bel Air, the same car model that two suspects and their murders were seen driving. After visiting the car lot, the family bought candies, cookies, and drinks for the kids, and a pack of cool cigarettes for Cliff. Then they visited their good friends Don and Lucy McLeod.

Christine decided to go home first at around 4 p.m. Well Cliff and the kids kept a McLeod couple company. Don and Cliff, who were also co-workers on the cattle ranch, went out for a short hunting trip. As it turned out, it was the last time the Walker family was seen together in public and spent time with the McLeod's. Sadly, their plan to visit their families in Arcadia, Los Angeles, California on Christmas Eve, never materialized. Before the day ended on December 19th, the walkers met their grotesque deaths. They each died from close-range gunshot wounds to the heads, while Christine also suffered from being beaten up and raped, and the poor young Debbie was drowned in the bathtub.

Who could have mercilessly killed them? At this point, you might be thinking that the man Cliff had an altercation with a few days before the murders transpired could be the culprit. After all, Christine was so upset about it, right? But that's getting a little ahead of ourselves. In the early morning of December 20th, it was Don McLeod who discovered and reported the murders of the walkers. Before separating the previous day, Don and Cliff planned to go hog hunting that Saturday. He knew Cliff as an early riser, so he drove to his friend's house at 5.30 a.m., expecting the

aroma of brewing coffee. But the Walker house was totally dark and silent. Thinking that Cliff was still asleep, Don knocked loudly on the door, but there was no response. The front door was locked and there was a cut tree and some Christmas gifts lying on the porch which Dawn found strange. Sensing that something wasn't right, Don slipped the screen of the back door, made a hole and reached for an unlocked doorknob. He switched on the kitchen lights upon entering and saw Christine lying in the doorway in the living room and thought she was still alive. But when Don bent down and saw the blood on the wooden floor, he knew Christine was beyond. help. His shock

intensified with what he saw next in a corner of the Walker's living room. Clay lay on his back with little Jimmy curled up beside him, both soaked in blood. Dawn rushed outside and drove rapidly to a pay phone and reported the

bloody crime to the Sarasota police. Immediately, Sheriff Ruff Boyer and his deputies started the investigation. Ironically, Boyer had an aversion to blood, so the sight of Cliff, Christine, and Jimmy, lying on the bloodied floors, must have been too much for him to handle, but the sheriff wasn't prepared to see something much worse,

how Debbie was actually killed. When Boyer got inside the bathroom, there lay inside the tub, the hapless toddler, who was turning two years old at the time. Debbie suffered a gunshot wound to the top of her skull, and signs of drowning were evident. The investigators, aided by the relatives and friends of the walkers were able to determine the missing items,

which presumably were taken by the killers. The framed marriage license of Cliff and Christine, the former's pocket knife with a fruit tree design, and the latter's banned majorette uniform, and a few dollars. They also recovered evidence from the crime scene comprised of the victim's blood-soaked clothes, one of Christine's blood-smeared high heels on the front porch, and a fingerprint from the bathtub faucet.

Based on what they discovered, Boyer and his men surmise the timeline of how the murders unfolded. Upon arriving at their house around 4.10 p.m., Christine placed her handbag and put away the grocery items in the kitchen while she entertained a visitor she knew well enough for to let him in. Boyer thought the man fancied Mrs. Walker and made an amorous pass at her, which she resisted. It took an ugly turn when Christine fiercely fought her attacker, who punched her in the face. She managed to get out the door, but her assailant dragged her back. Christine kept fighting using the heel of her shoe, which was later found on the front porch. Brought back inside the house, Christine was thrown onto her son's bed and shot twice in the head,

either before or after she was raped. The first shot was superficial, but the second one pierced through the top of her skull. The killer then dragged her across the floor into the living room where she was found by dawn. The brutality was carried on when Cliff and the other two kids arrived. Boyer deduced that the murder dealt cold-bloodedly with Cliff the moment the family man walked into the home. In the presence of his children, he was fatally shot in between the bridge of the nose and the corner of his right eye. The killer then turned to Jimmy and pounded three bullets into his head. As we all know, Debbie wasn't spared from the gore.

In Bory's opinion, the killer used his last bullet on the young girl. But when she didn't die immediately from the gunshot, he brought her to the bathtub, blocked the drain using a sock, and held Debbie's face down in the water until she went limp. With four lives taken in the most inhumane way, the authorities had to find the answers to the questions, who did this, and what was the motive for the brutal murders? Hundreds of suspects were questioned and underwent polygraph tests.

On top of Sheriff Boyer's list was Dom McLeod simply for being the one who discovered the dead bodies of the walkers. He readily submitted himself to a lie detector exam saying, Put the some bitch on me. Expectedly, Don proved that he definitely didn't have any motive for killing his friends. There were auspicious suspects on the list that Boyer's team likewise investigated. one of them was a 65-year-old retired railroad worker named Wilbur Tucker, who was the Walker family's closest neighbor, living a mile away from them. According to Christine's mother, Wilbur visited her daughter at home,

attempted to kiss her and made sexual advances towards Christine, who detested the old man's inappropriate actions. Christine had confided to her sister that all it took to stop Wilbur was with a bullet, this infuriated Cliff, and so he warned the senior citizen not to come to their house again, otherwise he would kill Wilbur. Did the old man retaliate by killing

the Walker's instead? Wilbur was eventually dropped from the list of suspects because he presented an airtight alibi. Another suspect that was likewise close to home, so to speak, was Cliff's cousin Albert Walker,

described by his relatives as wild, rowdy, and belligerent, Elbert's odd behavior during the funeral of Cliff and his family was noticeable. He wailed unabashedly, and was so distraught, that he fainted twice. But for the family members,

it was just a show. Did Elbert stage his hysterics and grief to cover up his guilt, fear, and anxiety for committing the despicable crimes? He was interrogated thoroughly by the authorities, then subjected

to a polygraph test which he passed. In the process of elimination, Elbert was crossed out from a list of suspected perpetrators, which surely gave him a deep sigh of relief. In a small place like Ospre, rumors could spice up the humdrum lives of the residence. Unfortunately, Christine was the subject of a gossip alluding to an extramarital affair

with a 21-year-old guy named Kernas McCall. Furthermore, authorities believe that the innocent Walker children were also shot dead because the killer feared he would be identified by three-year-old Jimmy, unlike if he were a stranger, unfamiliar to Osprey residents. But as it turned out, the most probable guilty perpetrators were not from Florida, but convicted criminals involved in an eerily similar killing that happened in Holcom, Kansas, on November 15, 1959. 34 days before the Walker family was murdered,

a family of four was also killed in a farming community in Holcom. It became known as the Clutter family murders with 48-year-old father Herbert, 45-year-old mother Bonnie, 16-year-old daughter Nancy, and 15-year-old son Kenyon as the victims. Fortunately, they posthumously received justice with the conviction of the confessed killers,

Perry Smith from Nevada and Richard Hickok from Kansas. They were recently paroled from the Kansas State Penitentiary when they hatched a plan to steal money from Herbert, a plan which Hickok described as a cinch the perfect score. They were tipped by Hickok's former cellmate, Floyd Wells, who used to work on Herbert's farm, that the prosperous farmer businessman kept a stash of cash in a safe. On the evening of November 15th, the pair was disappointed to find out that no safe existed,

and there was nothing substantial in the clutter home. Enraged, the mentally unstable Smith slit Herbert's throat, then shot him in the head. The three other clutter family members also died of gunshot wounds to their heads. Smith and Hickok left the crime scene, taking a portable radio, a pair of binoculars, and around $50. in cash. Six weeks after the murders, Smith and Hickcock were arrested and both were executed by hanging on April 14, 1965. American novelist Truman Capote got interested in the case and started

researching about it before the duo of killers were apprehended. It took Capote six years to write the book, In Cold Blood, which was finally published in 1966, and went on to become the second best-selling true crime book and publishing history. But how did Smith and Hickcock get involved in the Walker family murders? Let's rewind this a little bit. After murdering the clutter family in Kansas, Smith and Hickcock fled to Florida driving a stolen car, a 1956 Chevrolet Bel Air,

ironically the same car model which Cliff Walker wanted to buy. The killers were spotted at least 12 times, between Tallahassee and Miami, while they stayed in a Miami Beach motel four hours away from Osprey. They checked out on December 19th morning the day of the Walker family murders and were seen shopping at a Sarasota department store.

Three days after the walkers were killed, a witness saw the pair and recalled that the taller one had a scratch on his face. Smith and Hickok were finally arrested for the clutter family murders on December 30th, 1935. in Las Vegas, Nevada. Found in their stolen getaway car where children's socks, a toddler's soiled undershirt, and a pocket

knife with a fruit tree design. The same one discovered missing in the Walker House the morning after they were killed. The authorities, of course, figured out the parallels between the clutter family and Walker family murders. Consequently, Smith and Hickok were also considered suspects in the latter case. investigators theorized that the pair pretended they were selling the stolen car they drove, thus Christine Walker let them into their Osprey home. One question, both vehemently denied killing the walkers.

Additionally, it was backed up by their negative polygraph test results. But in 1987, a polygraph test expert asserted that lie detector machines in the 1960s were notoriously defective. Capote also mentioned the Walker family murders in his best-selling book and asserted that Smith and Hickok had no connection with the Osprey killings because they had an alibi for that day, despite records and witness accounts contrary to Capote's claims. The death sentence imposed on Smith and Hickok in 1965 may have killed the chances of finding out their actual involvement in the Walker family murders.

However, interest in the case was revived in 2004. The Kansas Bureau of Investigations explained that their intention was to provide closure to the Walker family and that no prosecution would happen in case the perpetrators had already died. Moreover, the historical interest in the Walker family murders was high too. In 2008, a DNA profile of Christine Walker was obtained based on a test done. using her underwear. The plan was to check her DNA against the semen sample of the killer or killers. Thus, on December 18, 2012, 53 years after Christine's family met their tragic deaths, the bodies of Smith and Hickcock were exhumed from their graves at Mount Muncie Cemetery

in Leavenworth County, Kansas. Mitochondrial DNA was extracted from the man's bones and matched with the semen sample found in the Walker home. The results were figured out in August of 2013. The test was unable to find a match either in Smith or Hickok. Experts explained that only partial DNA could be retrieved due to the degradation of the DNA over the decades or because of a storage contamination. Alas, the test yielded uncertain results,

neither confirming nor negating Smith and Hickok's involvement, and the Walker family murders. Despite this, the dead killers still remain as the most viable suspects until today. Since all the key players are already long gone, all we can do is pray for the eternal rest of the souls of Cliff, Christine, Jimmy, and Debbie Walker. So that's it for this week's episode of Everytown. Please subscribe and let us know if you have any stories that you'd like us to cover. and for more creepy stories, make sure to check out our other podcast and YouTube channel called Scary Mysteries. Tune in next week for another episode filled with scary, strange, and mysterious stories about every town out there.

And who knows, maybe your town will be next.