Killer Stories with Harvey Guillén - “The Jacksonville Cannibal” Pt. 2 - Ottis Toole

Episode Date: October 29, 2018

A man hungry for murder, and other things… The Cannibal Kid invites you to his famous BBQ, but this isn’t your standard Fourth of July celebration. Scheduled around the satanic calendar, human flesh will be on the menu. Sponsors! Hunt A Killer - Go to HuntAKiller.com/KILLERS for 10% off your first box. Pretty Litter - Go to PrettyLitter.com and use promo code SERIALKILLERS for 20% off your first order.  Upstart - Hurry to Upstart.com/SERIALKILLERS to find out how low your Upstart rate is! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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And now you can try it for free at ZipRecruiter.com slash killers. That's ZipRecruiter.com slash killers. Meet your match on ZipRecruiter. Yamava Resort and Casino at San Manuel is California's number one entertainment destination for today. superstars. Catch the Jonas Brothers return to the Yamava Theater stage on April 30th, the powerful vocals of Demi Lovato on May 17th, and the signature Southern Country Rock of Eric Church on July 19th. Tickets on sale now at Yamavatheater.com, only at Yamava Resort and Casino, celebrating its 40th anniversary. You in? Must be 21 to enter. Due to the graphic nature of

this killer's crimes, listener discretion is advised. This episode includes discussions of murder and assault that some people may find offensive. We advise extreme caution for children under 13. Satan, Lucifer, the devil, the angel who rebelled against God, the ruler of hell and all its horrors, the embodiment of evil itself. What happens when a person chooses to worship the Prince of Darkness and everything he stands for? Some of his more extreme followers go so far as to take. teach children to rob graves, steal body parts, and drink blood in the service of their master.

Sometimes these children grow up and commit heinous acts in the name of the Prince of Demons. When Satan demanded the blood of the innocent, Otis Toole claimed that he was more than willing to do the spilling. Hi, I'm Greg Polson, and this is serial killers. Today we're going to conclude our deep dive into the life of Otis Tool, sometimes referred to as the Cannibal Kid. I'm here with my co-host, Vanessa Richardson. Hi, everyone. Many of you've been asking us how you can support the podcast.

If you enjoy the show, one of the best ways to help us is to leave a five-star review wherever you listen to podcasts. While you're there, you can listen to previous episodes of serial killers, as well as parcasts, other podcasts. A new episode comes out every Monday. You can also find us on Facebook and Instagram at Parcast and on Twitter at Parcast Network or in our website, parkast.com. Otis Tool killed his first victim in 1961 and continued killing until his capture in 1983. He was convicted of six separate murders, but he confessed over 100. It's clear that most of his confessions relies.

But the exact number of people he killed is still unknown to the day. Toul was a drifter, and he committed many crimes throughout the country, mostly focused in the southern United States. His most notorious crimes happened in his hometown of Jacksonville, Florida. He claimed to have killed in almost every way imaginable, including in satanic rituals, although his first convicted murder was committed through arson. He became most known for his cross-exam.

country crime spree with fellow serial killer Henry Lee Lucas and his confession in the abduction and murder of six-year-old Adam Walsh. Last week, we covered Otis Tool's horrific childhood. Almost everyone in his life abused him mentally and sexually. The only person who treated him relatively well, his maternal grandmother, was a practicing Satanist who called him the devil's child. She taught Otis how to rob graves and perform dark magic rituals. We covered Otis's diagnosis, antisocial personality disorder, and showed how that explains his disregard for the suffering of others, his pursuit of abhorrent pleasures, and his fire-setting behavior. And we covered his first few murders, as well as the majority of his cross-country romantic and criminal affair with his fellow serial killer, Henry Lee Lucas. The first hiccup in Otis and Henry's relationship occurred in July, 1980.

after Otis, Henry, and Otis's niece and nephew, Frida and Frank Powell, traveled north from Florida to Delaware in a stolen truck. Otis was hospitalized with an unknown illness. Henry didn't want to pay any hospital bills, so he abandoned Otis and took the children. Vanessa is going to take over the psychology here and throughout the episode. Please note, Vanessa is not a licensed psychologist or psychiatrist, but she's done a lot of research for this show. Otis was diagnosed with antisocial personality disorder. According to the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, or the DSM-5, this partly means that Otis was incapable of true intimacy with another person.

Otis was never able to wholly trust another human being or let them see him in a vulnerable state. However, when Otis had first met Henry, he met a man with whom he shared almost everything. including an appetite for rape and murder. Henry was the only person Otis had met with a similarly dark heart. Their shared interests made Otis believe he could trust Henry, but when Henry left Otis at the hospital, Otis felt betrayed. When Otis was released from the hospital, he tried to find Henry. He discovered that Henry had been caught by police

and imprisoned on July 22, 1981, for stealing the truck they had used to get north. He also discovered that the police had returned Frank and Frida to Jacksonville, Florida, where they lived with their mother, Drusilicar. When Otis discovered that Henry had been put in prison, his anger towards Henry was lessened, but he was now alone and angry at the world. He began traveling back to Jacksonville, but ended up traveling much farther south to vent his anger.

During this trip, Otis committed his most infamous murder. On July 27, 1981, Otis Toole went looking for a victim in the town of Hollywood, Florida. He went to a heavily populated area to hunt for someone vulnerable, much like a lion stalking a herd of antelope for old or injured prey. He entered a Sears department store and began combing the aisles. He stumbled across a video game display and immediately noticed a child playing a game with no adult supervision. This child was six-year-old Adam Walsh. His mother, Ravei Walsh, had stepped away for just a second to purchase a lamp only a few aisles away. Otis Toole saw his opening and took it.

He approached Adam and offered the boy candy. Otis said the candy was in his car. If the boy wanted candy, he would have to follow him out of the store. The young, innocent boy trusted Otis and took his hand. They walked together to the parking lot of the Hollywood. mall. Otis brought Adam to his car, but instead of giving him candy, Otis threw the child into his back seat and drove away. Adam was terrified. He began screaming and crying for his mother. He shouted at Otis to take him back. This only angered Otis more. Adis lashed out at the child.

The 34-year-old serial killer punched the six-year-old boy in the face with all his strength. Adam fell unconscious and his nose began to bleed. The child was now silent and Otis was pleased. He ruminated on all the weapons he had available in his trunk and after driving to a remote location made his decision. Audis laid Adam across the carpet of the car. Then he opened his trunk and pulled out a machete. Otis went back to the unconscious boy,

strangled him with a seatbelt, dragged his body out of the car and chopped at his neck, severing Adam's head from his body. He incinerated the body when he returned to Jacksonville. He kept the head in his car and forgot it on the carpet of his back seat. A few days later, he noticed Adam's head and threw it into a drainage canal near Vero Beach, Florida, 120 miles north of Hollywood, Florida. Adam's parents looked desperately for the boy, organizing several large search parties as they combed the marshes surrounding Hollywood, Florida. When Adam's head was found two weeks after his disappearance, his father, John Walsh, became an outspoken child's rights advocate.

You may recognize John Walsh's name. Otis Tool's heinous actions had a dramatic effect on John Walsh's personality. He became singularly devoted to the capture of his name. of criminals and the rescue of abducted and missing children. John and Ravei Walsh founded a nonprofit organization called the Adam Walsh Child Resource Center and dedicated their time to legislative reform. Meanwhile, 34-year-old Otis Tool continued on to his home in Jacksonville, Florida, completely safe and completely unknown to the people investigating Adam's case. He returned to his job at the Roofing Company, where he worked until October 6th,

1981, when 45-year-old Henry Lee Lucas was released from jail. Henry quickly returned to Jacksonville. Otis was happy to see Henry return. They rekindled their love affair, but Henry secretly had his sights set on Frida, Otis's 13-year-old niece. Henry had been molesting Frida for several years prior, and he believed his lust for her was true love.

However, Frida had been returned to the custody of her mother, Drusilla, Last week, we said Drus Till's older sister. When they were children, she enjoyed seeing Otis wear a dress, and Drusilla would sexually abuse her younger brother, following in the pattern of abuse that her parents had taught her. Given Drus' shared childhood traumas, it's clear that Drusilla struggled with her own demons. The return of Drusilla's children only pushed her to a state of further mental instability.

While Otis Tool dealt with his trauma by hurting others, Drusilla turned her anger upon herself. In December of 1981, Drusilla Carr died of a drug overdose. The authorities deemed her death a suicide. A study done by James T. Carrigan titled The Psychosocial Needs of Patients who have attempted suicide by overdose, found that people who attempt suicide by overdose lacked self-esteem, felt that they were not loved, felt they had no control over their lives, and felt they were not supported by the people in their lives. It's safe to assume that despite the return of her children, Drusilla felt she was lacking those four things. After the death of their mother, Frank and Frida were placed by the state in a children's shelter in Barstow, Florida. Otis Toul and Henry Lee Lucas were not happy about this.

Otis and Henry were used to having these children around. Henry specifically wanted Frida back, so he could. continue molesting her. In January of 1982, Otis and Henry drove to Barstow, Florida, and broke Frida out of her shelter. As far as we know, Frida went with the men willingly.

This may make little sense to us, knowing that she had waited in the car while Otis and Henry murdered multiple people throughout the years, and that she had been frequently raped and molested by Henry. But remember, Frida was only 13 at the time. She was also slightly.

intellectually disabled, and these men had been her caregivers for much of her life. This also provides some evidence that despite her being present for several of their murders, she was likely unaware of what they were up to when they'd tell her to wait in the car. The trio returned to Jacksonville. When Henry heard that the police were looking for him in connection with Frida's escape, he convinced her to run away with him. Two days after Frida's escape from the children's shelter, she and Henry skipped town. They left Otta's tool behind.

Frida's decision to leave with Henry would prove deadly for her. The two traveled around the country, Henry disguising the one-sided abusive relationship by pretending Frida was his wife. But after a year of traveling cross-country, Frida became more comfortable in her role as fake wife and began nagging Henry, according to his own recollection of the events. Henry quickly grew tired of her new attitude and killed. Frida in a fit of rage. If you'd like to know more about this incident, listen to our episodes on Henry Lee Lucas.

For now, we'll return our attention to Otis Tool. After discovering that he was abandoned by his lover and his niece, Otis was upset. He said that he would pace the floor and obsess over Henry's betrayal. He plotted to take bloody vengeance on Henry the next time the two crossed paths. However, Henry never returned. So Otis decided to take his anger out on other people like he had many times before. Otis Toole wandered the country alone. Between January 1982 and February 1983,

Otis claimed to have killed nine more people. Many of his claims were never proven. However, enough material evidence was gathered to verify that several of his claims were in fact true. The first of these nine alleged victims was a 64-year-old man named George Steele. Sonnenberg. Sonnenberg lived in a boarding home. At the time, Otis worked as a handyman for the owner of the boarding home, and the two presumably met through this connection. Otis claimed the two started having sex shortly after. After losing his longtime lover, it makes sense that Otis would look for another sexual partner. However, unlike Henry Lee Lucas, George Sonnenberg was not a violent

criminal, and he was dreadfully unprepared for a relationship with Otis' tool. After the two got into a fight, what Otis would call in court a lover's quarrel, Otis grew angry. On January 12, 1982, Otis had had enough of George. He waited until George fell asleep. He spread accelerants throughout the boarding house, like gasoline and propane. He boarded up the exits and entrances, and then he set the house. house ablaze. Otis crossed the street and lowered his pants. He masturbated to the blaze.

George started screaming from inside, and Otis masturbated a second time. This behavior is highly disturbing and makes it tempting to label Otis tool a pyromaniac. During one of his court appeals on this specific case, they listed pyromania as one mitigating factor to help him avoid the death sentence. However, as we told you last week, Otis Tool was not a true pyromaniac. A diagnosis of pyromania would prove Otis's behavior was beyond his control and primarily motivated by pleasure from setting fires. While Otis Tool did take pleasure from watching flames, Otis primarily intended to do harm. George Sonnenberg was pulled from the ruins, still alive. However, one week later, he succumbed to his burns and passed away.

This was Otis Tool's only proven use of fire to murder. Meanwhile, as Otis Tool was killing people, John Walsh, father of six-year-old Adam, tried to save people. John's ceaseless work pushed Congress to pass the Missing Children Act of 1982. This law was intended to require the Attorney General to acquire and exchange information to assist federal, state, and local officials in the identification of certain deceased individuals and in the location of missing persons. John Walsh pushed for this law to help police departments share information about missing persons more quickly and efficiently.

John hoped more open communication would help police find abducted children more easily. Unfortunately, Otis Toole still wandered the country and his spree of murders would continue in Tallahassee, Florida, where two 19-year-old girl's lives were about to meet a violent end. Let's pause for a moment. We've got something we think you should know about. Welcome to Sephora. I'm looking for a perfume that's not too perfuming. I got you.

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Hi, I, uh, let's get you a basket. Now back to the story. On February 9, 1983, 35-year-old Otis Tool entered a Tallahassee Bar, looking for a victim. He spotted a 19-year-old girl named Ada Johnson, alone in the bar, and he approached her. Somehow he managed to convince her to return to his car. where he forced her into the car at gunpoint. We don't know if Otis's story about picking her up at a bar is entirely true. He may have snatched her off the road or at some other location,

but if he did find her at the bar, it is possible that she was drunk, making it somewhat believable that he could convince her to go to his car willingly. Holding her at gunpoint, he drove her to a secluded location. He pulled a knife and cut her multiple times, after having sadistic fun with her, he shot her in the back of the head. He dragged her body deep into the woods and left it there. On February 27th, two weeks after the murder,

a couple looking for firewood discovered Ada Johnson's dead body in the underbrush. By that time, Otis Toole had already claimed another victim. During that same February, while still in Tallahassee, Otis Toole killed another 19-year-old girl named Sylvia Roger. Instead of using a gun, his typical weapon of choice, Otis strangled Sylvia. After hiding Sylvia's body in a different forest, Otis Toole returned to Jacksonville.

Otis Toole was intellectually disabled, and his anger over Henry Lee Lucas' abandonment made him more prone to slip up in hiding his crimes. However, surprisingly, he was not arrested for any of these murders. His constant movement across state-line, and his random choice of victims meant his crimes lacked a clear pattern. He often left town long before the bodies were discovered, and long before he could become a suspect.

In fact, he was never actually arrested for murder. Instead, in 1983, when Otis Toul was 36 years old, he burned down two abandoned houses in his Jacksonville neighborhood, one on May 23rd and the second on May 31st. The police came looking for the arson. Police caught two teenage boys who were seen watching the fires. The teenage boys admitted to helping start the fire, but rather than take the fall, these two boys pointed to the man who had burned the houses with them, Otis Tool.

They claimed they'd been walking down the street when they saw Otis spreading accelerants. They asked if they could join in, and Otis let them. Otis never said why he let the boys join him in burning the houses. He probably didn't think much of it at the time. However, that decision landed him in jail. Otis was arrested on June 6, 1983. Police convinced Otis that they had enough evidence to prove he had set the fires and that there was no way he could avoid jail time.

Otis was proud of having burned the houses, so he confessed. After confessing to two arsons, he finally saw a chance to claim public acknowledgement of all the houses he had burned. Kuhl then confessed to over 40 separate arsons that he had committed over the course of the last 20 years. Otis was convicted of second-degree arson on August 5, 1983. Meanwhile, in Texas, on June 11, Henry Lee Lucas was arrested for the unlawful possession of a firearm.

At that time, he had been suspected in the murder of Frida Powell and the 82-year-old Kate Rich. Henry and Frida had been living with Kareem. Kate, and after he killed Frida, Kate began to suspect the truth. Henry killed Kate to cover his tracks and left town. But Kate's family knew that Henry had been the last to see her alive. Henry had already been detained in relation to the murders, but they couldn't find enough evidence to charge him with the crimes.

Instead, he was sentenced to jail time for owning the firearm. After a few weeks in jail and intense grilling at the hands of a sheriff investigating the murders, Henry confessed to the killing of Frida and Kate, but Henry didn't stop there. Claiming to be overwhelmed by guilt, Henry began confessing to murder after murder. Every time Henry confessed, authorities would fly Henry to crime scenes all across the nation. To Henry, these were free vacations from prison. He gained massive media attention, was able to sleep in hotel beds instead of prison cots, and he enjoyed eating fast food instead of prison slop.

With all these incentives in place, Henry confessed to over 3,000 murders. Henry often mentioned Otis' tool as his accomplice. With this newfound evidence against Otis, the state pushed Otis for information. Police allowed Otis and Henry to speak over the phone and recorded their conversation, hoping to glean new details on any murder that they might discuss. Instead of providing any valuable information, Henry urged Otis to confess and told Otis that he was having a great time telling the truth. Audis decided he should start confessing as well. In 1983, Otis confessed to the murder of George Sonnenberg by burning George alive in his home.

He received a death sentence for first-degree murder. After receiving his death sentence, for a period of time, Otis continued. He continued confessing, figuring that he had nothing left to lose. He confessed to the strangulation murder of Sylvia Rogers, the abduction and murder of Ada Johnson, and the murder of Jarrell and peoples, whom he killed with Henry Lee Lucas. However, as Henry Lee Lucas's confession count grew, so did the grandeur and scope with which Henry confessed.

He began telling a grand narrative of a satanic death cult called the Hand of Death. He told police that this death cult contracted Henry and Otis to kill people for dark rituals. He also told police that Otis had been the one to bring him into the cult. At the time, the investigators in charge of Henry's case believed his stories. In the 1980s, a confession was the most powerful evidence a prosecutor could have. The general thinking was that most people would never confess to a crime they didn't commit. So when Henry confessed to thousands of murders, the investigation, the investigation. Investigators believed they had captured the devil himself.

Their initial gullibility only helped Henry to tell more convincing lies. Much like a phony psychic, Henry would read his interrogators and tell them what they wanted to hear. Sometimes detectives would even let Henry look at case files to see if he remembered committing the crime. This only allowed Henry to gather details that he otherwise wouldn't have known. He would then add details to flesh out his story, often attributing occult action as the motive for his crimes. Police questioned Otis about the cult. Despite his low IQ, Otis was a skilled manipulator. The detectives often asked leading questions, and Otis was able to piece together most of Henry's stories from the questions the detectives asked. If Otis got caught in a lie, he would explain away

the discrepancies by saying, Henry doesn't remember it right. He then built his own credibility by saying he had been in the cult longer than Henry, and he started to tell stories about secret cult activities that Henry knew nothing about. Otis claimed the cult was nationwide. He claimed that the cult paid him and Henry $10,000 for each killing. He also claimed that they taught him how to abduct children and traffic them across the border,

where the kids would be used as sacrifices, sold to people on the black market, or used as fodder in pornographic snuff films. Otis's own father had sold Otis's body when Otis was only five years old. These experiences taught Otis that children could be used as tools for personal pleasure. So Otis was certainly capable of selling children on the black market. However, there are no confirmed stories of him having done so. His stories took a more gruesome turn when he would describe specific rituals and the part he played in them.

Adis said he and Henry would abduct young virgins in Texas and bring them down to Mexico to be sacrificed. Otis said the cult would chain a woman down on an altar, then chant. One priest wearing intricate robes and an authentic goathead would get behind the woman. The other would stand in front of her with a ceremonial dagger. Once the chanting reached a fever pitch, the goat-headed priest would rape the woman.

As soon as the woman screamed, the priest with the dagger would slid. the woman's throat and collect her blood in a goblet. The goblet was passed around, and each member would drink the blood. As they finished their chanting and drinking, the priest would light the sacrificed woman's body on fire as a burnt offering to the devil. Otis claimed that these rituals were performed year-round, but in accordance with the satanic calendar, the cult would annually sacrifice 13 virgins, one at a time, from sunset to sunrise. The last virgin slain became the sun princess,

because she would be sacrificed specifically to Lucifer, son of the morning. Otis claimed they would perform other rituals that involved eating the genitals of the victim. These rituals could have both male and female sacrifices, and consuming their genitals was intended to increase the sexual potency of the cultist. Otis said he wasn't sure if he believed that the rituals ever worked, but he took part because he enjoyed the taste of fried testicles.

Otis's claims of cannibalism didn't stop during the ceremonies. He said the cult would sometimes let him take the corpses and eat them on his own. He also claimed that he would cruise highways looking for a juicy victim to cook up in a barbecue. He even had different parts of the human body that he enjoyed eating from people of different ageing. None of Otis's proven victims showed any signs of having been cannibalized. It's impossible to know if Otis actually ate human flesh. However, Otis did have a recipe for barbecue sauce made specifically for the purpose of barbecuing human flesh. The ingredients in his sauce were half a can of tomato puree, two cloves of garlic, one and a half teaspoon of salt,

one cup fresh jalapeno peppers, half a cup of mushrooms, mushrooms, one-sixth of a cup of vinegar, and most importantly, one full cup of fresh, red, human blood. It's possible that Otis copied the recipe from a recipe book in the prison and simply added blood as an ingredient to scare people. It's also possible that Otis actually used the recipe on human flesh. Henry Lee Lucas attested to Otis' cannibalism and even said that he tried Otis's barbecue sauce.

He said it tasted good, but Henry didn't like barbecue in general. Most people avoid cannibalism for moral reasons. For Henry Lee Lucas, it was just a matter of dietary preference. Otis Tools and Henry Lee Lucas's extraordinary claims of a cult activity helped spark a nationwide panic of satanic cults in the 80s. Terrified of a nationwide conspiracy, police forces investigated Henry and Otis's claims. They even searched for the base of operas. that Otis and Henry claimed existed deep in the Florida Everglades.

No evidence ever arose indicating the cult's existence. Fellow inmates in the prison told journalists that Otis liked to play with the police by telling wild stories or confessing to crimes and later recanting his confessions. When police confronted Otis about the non-existent cult, Otis claimed the cult included high-level politicians and policemen, and that they must have covered their tracks when word read, them of an investigation. While detectives eventually began to doubt Henry's 3,000 murder confessions, Otis only confessed to 108. Even though Otis reveled in telling juicy stories,

his confessions had a much stronger ring of truth to them than Henry's. For instance, in the case of Ada Johnson, Otis' confession made him the prime suspect, but material evidence directly connected him to the crime. According to former Leon County detective, Johnny Miller, Toole's confession held details about Ada Johnson's murder weapon, the placement of the bullet that killed her, and the location of the crime scene that only the killer would know. And even more convincing, they found physical evidence, animal hair, and fabric fibers linking tool directly

to the murder. This evidence convinced police that in the case of Ada Johnson, they had found the actual murderer in Audis Tool. Last week, we told you about the murder of Jeryl and peoples. Audis and Henry had broken into her house while she was away. They had Frank and Frida Powell waiting outside the house, and when Jerylain returned home, Otis and Henry shot her. External evidence proved Audis's involvement in this crime as well. Upon searching the crime scene, police found gloves that belonged to Frida Powell. Also, an 11-year-old Frank Powell testified in court that he remembered a drum set being present in a side room of the house. Further adding credibility, to Toll's confession.

The murder of Geraldine Peoples was only one of six murders that Toole was convicted of in a court of law. Unfortunately, Toole's lack of credibility caused plenty of controversy as well. We covered the robbery, rape, torture, murder, and arson of Sunok cousin in last week's episode. If you recall, a man named Park Esteppe was arrested for that crime, despite the fact that he did not match Yon Chaliy's description of her assailant. He had an alibi and he had no criminal record. This murder happened in 1974, and when Otis Toul confessed to the crime in 1983, it caused a

firestorm of debate. Upon hearing Toul's confession, the governor of Colorado at the time, Richard Lamb, publicly announced that he would pardon Parchastep if the original prosecutor of the case, El Paso County District Attorney Bob Russell agreed that Otis Tool's confession was compelling. Even though Otis's confession was impeccably detailed, he matched Yon Chal Lee's description perfectly and the fact that Otis was present in Colorado when the murder took place,

Bob Russell felt the confession was tainted. Many people think Bob Russell's dismissal of the confession was politically motivated, and even Bob Russell said something that indicated that to be the case. Toul's confession came in the midst of a tough re-election campaign for the prosecutor's post that Russell had held for 20 years. He told reporters, quote, Can you believe this is happening to me just before my election? I'm going to lose votes if people think I've convicted an innocent man, end quote.

Russell then flew down to Florida where Otis Toul was being held, and he grilled Toul on his confession personally. After Russell's intense scrutiny, Toul recanted his confession, saying, well, if you say I didn't kill her, then maybe I didn't. After Russell left, Toul confessed again, and he began fluctuating on whether or not he had done it every time people asked. During a court case to determine the truth in his claims, he gave some explanation as to why his story kept changing.

Why should I tell me the truth? If I tell the truth, they say you a lie. If I don't tell the truth, they'll still say you a lie. Largely due to Russell's influence, Otis was not convicted of the murder of Sunaw cousin, and Park Estep remained in prison. Estep was eventually released on his first parole hearing in 1991, which many people took as a quiet admittance by the state of Estep's innocence. But the controversy surrounding Park Estep's case paled in comparison to the controversy surrounding Otis' tools' final and most infamous confession.

In 1983, Otis Toole wrote a letter to John Walsh, confessing to the murder of Adam Walsh, and he claimed he had the bloody machete to prove it. Let's take a breather and discuss happier news. And now, back to the story. While detectives grew disgusted by Otis Toul's horrid confessions, people across the nation became inspired by John Walsh's passion. TV executives, working for NBC, saw an opportunity to tell John's story, They acquired their rights to Adam Walsh's story,

and on October 10, 1983, the TV movie entitled Adam, aired across the country and was seen by 38 million people. One of those 38 million people may very well have been Audis Tool. It is possible that he never saw the film, but it would be quite the coincidence if he hadn't. The day after Adam aired on national television, Otis Tool wrote a letter that he quickly sent to John Walsh,

The letter he sent is fairly long, but we're going to read most of it with some of the language toned down. It provides a rare glimpse into the mind of Otis Tool, and it shows why many people doubted the truth of his confession. The letter said, quote, Dear Walsh, I'm the person who snatched, raped, and murdered, and cut up the little teaser, Adam Walsh, and dumped him into the canal. You know the story, but you don't know where his bones are. are. I do. Now you're a rich guy, money you made from the dead body of that little kid. I want to make a deal with you. Here's my deal. You pay me money, and I'll tell you where the bones are so you can get them buried, all decent and Christian. I know you'll find a way to make sure I get the electric chair, but at least I'll have money to spend before I burn." End quote.

This letter puts many of the aspects of Otis Tools anti-social personality disorder, or APD for short, on full display. As we discussed last episode, according to the DSM-5, people with APD pursue their goals and personal gratification without any regard for social or ethical norms. Otis Toul not only killed a six-year-old boy, but he ransomed the body to the boy's father in an attempt to profit off of the murder. People with APD also lack empathy and behave antagonistically through manipulation, deceit, and hostility. Otis Toole wrote to the father of his victim and called the six-year-old boy,

Smelly, a prick, and a teaser. These words are designed specifically to antagonize. Imagine having the rapist and murderer of your child call that child a tease. Otis went even further to say that John Walsh was profiting off the death of his own son. Otis' father treated Otis as a me, means of making money instead of a human being.

And Otis seemed to think John Walsh viewed Adam the same way. Of course, Otis wrongly thought that this accusation would result in John Walsh paying out. The effect this letter had on John Walsh's psyche was immediate and dramatic. He broke down in tears, but quickly resolved that he would stop Otis' tool and people like Otis from harming children ever again. The end of Otis's letter told John, Quote, if you send the police after me before we make a deal, then you don't get no bones and what's left can rot. Now you want his bones or not. Tell the cops and you don't get anything, end quote.

Instead of following Audice's orders, John Walsh immediately went to the authorities. News quickly broke that one of the most high-profile cases of child abduction finally had a suspect, and one who confessed to the murder, no less, the nation. watched as the drama unfolded. Investigators pulled Otis from his cell. Otis acted confused at first, but then the investigators showed him the letter he had sent John. Otis reacted angrily because John had gone to the police against his direct orders, but suspecting he could still get some money and enjoying the horrified looks of investigators,

Otis began to confess in gory detail to the police. He told police how he had taken Adam, Walsh from the mall, locked him in his car, punched him, strangled him, decapitated him with a machete and thrown his severed head into the drainage canal. However, he refused to tell them where he had hidden the body. Otis was holding out on information that he felt he could profit from, seeking his own gratification above all else. The police found Otis' car at his house in Jacksonville, and they noticed it had a large blood stain on the carpet. They also found a rusted machete

with what seemed to be dried blood mixed in with the rust. With renewed vigor, the police questioned Otis again, this time grilling him hard for information on where he buried the body. They accused Otis of lying, and Otis's pride kicked in.

Otis told police he had buried the child's body in his mother's old backyard. The police dug up the yard, but never found any bun. They did find a pair of shorts and shoes similar to the ones Adam had been wearing the day he was abducted. It's important to note, DNA analysis did not exist at the time. They had no way to prove that the blood in the car belonged to Adam Walsh, so they couldn't verify

Otis's story. Around the same time, Otis had confessed to 108 separate murders from around the country. As police started collecting the evidence in the Adam Walsh case, doubt fell on Audice. through his accomplice, Henry Lee Lucas. In 1984, one year after Henry Lee Lucas had been imprisoned, detectives grew suspicious of Henry's confessions. They invented fictional murders to see if Henry would confess to them. He did.

Henry's willingness to confess to murders that never actually existed was a major hint that he'd been claiming murders for notoriety and free fast food. A journalist eventually tracked Henry and Otis's movements across the conference movements across the country through pay slips, bank transactions, and work records. They claimed murders in Texas when they were actually working in Jacksonville. They claimed murders in Arizona when they were actually driving through Maryland. This journalist proved that most of Henry and Otis' confessions were demonstrably false.

The journalist could not disprove Audis' claim to have killed Adam. However, doubt crept in concerning Otis' confession in the Adam Walsh case. Despite that doubt, John Walsh's renewed passion influenced Congress to pass the Missing Children's Assistance Act of 1983. This act established a national toll-free telephone tip line dedicated specifically to information about missing children. It also established the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. The Adam Walsh Child Resource Center then merged with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. and John Walsh began to serve on the organization's board of directors. In 1984, Otis Tool's situation changed substantially.

He had received two death sentences, one for the arson murder of George Sonnenberg, and the other for the strangulation murder of Sylvia Rogers. Otis had sent his confession letter to John Walsh when Otis was already sentenced to death, and that letter shows that he felt he had nothing to lose, by confessing. However, after Otis' tools' court cases were appealed, his death sentences were commuted to two sentences of life in prison due to his mental instability. When these death sentences were commuted, Otis became fearful of receiving a new death sentence.

He was convinced the Adam Walsh murder would land him back on death row, despite his mental instability. Now that he was no longer on death row, he saw a new opportunity to cling to life. Skeptical detectives were convinced that Otis had seen the details of the Adam Walsh case in the TV movie Adam. They knew Otis had lied about many other murders, and they insisted Otis was lying about this one too. They arrived to interrogate Otis the second time, and they pressed him on his confession. They asked him if he was lying to get attention and make a little money. Seeing an opportunity to avoid a new death sentence, Otis Toole recanted his confession, claiming he had never and would never hurt a small child.

The skeptics were satisfied, but John Walsh and the initial investigators of the case were convinced that Otis had committed the murder. The initial investigators interrogated Otis a third time, and they told Otis that he wouldn't be sentenced to death if he confessed again. These investigators must have been convincing because Otis confessed a second time. Skeptics across the nation demanded that more evidence be presented. before Otis could be charged with the murder. Investigators agreed.

They pulled Otis from prison and flew him down to Hollywood, Florida. They drove him to every Sears Department store in and near the city and asked Otis to identify the store he had taken at him from. Otis correctly identified the Sears store without any outside influence. To some, this was proof that he had committed the crime, as the TV movie was filmed in Texas, so it would have been impossible for Otis to identify the correct store on that basis alone. However, skeptics remained unconvinced.

Accusations began to arise that the lead detective in the Adam Walsh case had convinced Otis to make a false confession in exchange for profits from a potential book deal. The accusations were baseless, but they magnified doubt surrounding the case. That doubt and Otis's recanted confession kept the courts from charging Otis with Adam Walsh's murder. Otis grew tired of the attention and constant interrogations, so he recanted his confession a second time. The police were split in their opinions of Otis's guilt. John Walsh was upset that the investigators didn't have the guts to charge Otis with the murder, but Otis had already received six life sentences for six other murders. John was convinced that Otis had

killed his son, but he was satisfied with Otis being stuck behind bars. John Walsh turned his attention away from Otis and put even more effort into his activism and work with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. The public work that he did and the attention he garnered gave him plenty of influence. In 1988, he used that influence in partnership with the Fox Television Network to create the TV show America's Most Wanted. John Walsh became the show's host. And if you've heard of John Walsh before now, you likely, know him from that show. The first episode aired on February 7, 1988. Within four days of the premiere, a tip provided by an audience member helped the police capture one of the fugitives featured on the show.

Seeing the show's immediate success, John Walsh was ecstatic that he could help law enforcement on such a large scale. He was happy to put more people like Audis Tool behind bars. Most of Otis Tool's prison life was uneventful. After his initial wave of confessions, he was mostly left alone. In 1996, he grew sick and his liver began to fail. Some sources claim his liver failure was a complication from AIDS, although we were unable to find proof that Otis was ever diagnosed with AIDS. At the same time, in 1996, DNA evidence became more widely available. However, a journalist noticed that the Hollywood Police Department seemed uninterested in re-examining the the Adam Walsh case.

DNA evidence could have proven that Adam Walsh was in Audis-Tools' car, so it seemed odd to the journalist that the police weren't jumping at the chance to get definitive proof. The journalist pushed the courts to make the case files public. Once the case was reopened, the public was shocked by what they found. The investigation had been sorely botched from the start. Instead of having Toul's car, the bloody carpet from the car, and the rusted machete on file, The police department had lost all significant physical evidence for the case. The car had been sold at auction and was crushed.

The carpet had been burned, and the machete had been misfiled and was irretrievable. John Walsh was livid with the police department, still convinced that Otis Toole had killed his son. This became a major scandal for the Hollywood Police Department, and they apologized profusely. Several police officers were fired. The department restructured their evidence collection methods and worked to ensure they never lost evidence again. Unfortunately, the damage had been done. They would never be able to definitively prove

that Otis Toole had murdered Adam Walsh. Before they had a chance to question Otis one last time about the case, Otis Tool died in his cell on September 15, 1996, from cirrhosis at the age of 49. One of Otis's nieces told John Walsh that Otis had confessed to killing Adam Walsh on his deathbed, but another confession was not as compelling as DNA evidence could have been. John Walsh continued to host America's Most Wanted, and it ran for 25 seasons. The Fox Network's second largest running series, only surpassed by The Simpsons.

The show helped capture 1,202 of America's Most of America's Most of the Fox Network's second. most wanted criminals. For John Walsh, that meant he had helped capture 1,202 Audis tools all across the country. Even though Otis died in 1996, his story wouldn't end until December 16, 2008, when the Hollywood Police Department closed Adam Walsh's case. They felt new information on the case had become impossible to acquire. After a third and thorough examination of all the evidence available. The Hollywood Police Department declared that Otis Tool was the man who murdered Adam Walsh. One common denominator remains following an additional 12 years of investigating leads and interviewing potential witnesses after the court order disclosure of the investigative files.

The pedophile convicted murderer, Otis Toul, has continued to be our only real suspect. John Walsh felt vindicated. After 27 years of police, inaction and incompetence, John was happy that his family could finally move on. He gave one last word on Otis Tool. I believe wherever he is, he is paying and being held accountable for his actions. Who could kill a six-year-old boy? We will never know how many people Otis Tool actually killed. His stories of satanic rituals and cannibalism are terrifying if they were true. But even if they weren't, we know it the man raped, tortured, burned, and murdered his way across the American countryside.

Not even six-year-old boys were safe from the devil's child, Otis Toole. Perhaps, like John Walsh, we should just be happy that the man is dead and gone. In honor of Adam Walsh's memory and the wonderful work of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, there's a national toll-free line dedicated to finding lost children. If you have information about a missing child or suspected child's sexual exploitation, please report it to 1-800-the-lost or 1-800-8-4-3-5678. Once again, that number is 1-800-the-Lost, or 1-800-843-5678. Thanks again for tuning in to serial killers.

You can find more episodes of serial killers, as well as well. as all of Parcasts, other podcasts, on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Google Play, CastBox, tune-in, or your favorite podcast directory. Several of you have asked how to help the show, and if you enjoy the show, the best way to help is to leave a five-star review. We'll see you next time. Have a killer week. Serial Killers was created by Max Cutler, is a production of Cutler Media and is part

of the Parcast Network. It is produced by Max and Ron Cutler. Sound design by Carrie Murphy, with production assistance by Ron Shapiro and Paul Mahler. Additional production assistance by Carly Madden and Maggie Admeyer. Serial Killers is written by Giles Hofseth and stars Greg Paulson and Vanessa Richardson. Do you want to hear something spooky? Some Monster, it reminded me of Bigfoot. Monsters Among Us is a weekly podcast featuring true stories of the paranormal.

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