Out to make a buck

From the Sun-Sentinel-

Authorities in South Florida said Monday they are re-examining statements in the unsolved 1981 slaying of 6-year-old Adam Walsh to see if notorious serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer might have been Walsh's killer.

The possible link connecting the 26-year-old cold case and Dahmer, who was convicted of brutally killing 17 men and boys, comes in the wake of calls from two retired FBI agents to re-examine the possibility that Dahmer abducted and killed the youngster in Hollywood.

New questions about Dahmer's possible role in Walsh's killing are contained in a soon-to-be-published book by crime author Arthur Jay Harris. The book is based largely on the release of a 10,000-page investigative file on the Walsh slaying. Harris talked with two Florida men who said they saw a man fitting Dahmer's description on the day that Walsh was last seen. One of them said he saw a man carrying a struggling boy into a blue van that police believe was used in Walsh's abduction.

Authorities noted that they took statements from these two men in 1981. When asked Monday whether the Hollywood Police Department will re-examine the case, Capt. Mark Smith, who leads investigations into cold cases, said through a spokeswoman that he "has no new information" to act upon.

The Broward County State Attorney's Office said in a statement that "if necessary, we will interview those witnesses again to make sure nothing was missed."

The statement said the prosecutor's office had been in contact with John Walsh, Adam's father, who is the host of the popular syndicated television show America's Most Wanted. Walsh's office did not return a call seeking comment.

Serial killer Ottis Toole, who confessed to scores of killings across the country in the 1970s and '80s and allegedly partnered in many of them with fellow serial killer and lover Henry Lee Lucas, was named a suspect in Walsh's murder in 1983. Toole confessed twice to the crime but recanted each time. Walsh, while critical of Hollywood police's handling of his son's case, stated in his 1997 autobiography, Tears of Rage, that he believed Toole abducted and killed his son.

Dahmer briefly lived in South Florida in 1981, at the time Adam Walsh disappeared. Under questioning, Dahmer repeatedly denied killing the boy.

The Miami Herald also reported it here. Then this 'story' has been around for a while. For Jay Harris wrote an article in The Daily Business Review almost two months ago.

Police heard from two men who say they saw Dahmer at the Hollywood Mall on the day of the abduction.

“Hi there, nice day, isn’t it?”

The banal words belied the terror Willis Morgan felt when a man approached him around noon that day. Morgan, a Miami Herald pressman, was browsing the red tag sale table in the doorway of a RadioShack in the mall on his day off.

The man was drunk, disheveled and spoke inappropriately loud. Morgan looked around for help or a witness, but the mall was mostly empty. The man stepped closer, got angry and repeated his comment at the same volume. Morgan had the feeling the man was carrying a knife and wanted to pull him out of the store.

The man was taller than Morgan, then 34. The man stared at him. “He had a look on him, like the devil was in him,” Morgan recalled in an interview.

Finally the man abruptly turned around and left. Morgan said he realized the man might approach someone else. At a safe distance, Morgan followed him — through the mall into Sears and its toy department, where he lost sight of the man. Adam’s mother, Reve Walsh, said she left her child alone in the toy department.

Back at work, Morgan told his Miami Herald co-workers of his encounter. They urged him to contact Hollywood police, whose search for Adam was already in high gear. At the end of his overnight shift, Morgan telephoned. He said a police officer took his tip but seemed disinterested.

Ten years later in 1991, while still working at the Herald, Morgan proofed a story about the arrest of a man in Milwaukee with severed heads in his apartment. A thumbnail-sized mug shot accompanied the story.

“I was freaking out. This is the guy! This was the guy I followed in the mall!” Morgan recalled.

His friends had to calm him. At the end of his shift, he visited Hollywood police.

After waiting three months, lead Detective Jack Hoffman took Morgan’s sworn statement.

Bob at The Daily Pulp wrote-

Two things struck me. One is the powerful emotional response that both of these witnesses, who indeed seem credible, had to Dahmer’s picture. It’s eerie. The other is that the guy who did it seemed drunk and demonic — which fits Dahmer in predator-mode to a tee.

The problem is that Dahmer, while admitting to all kinds of horrific killings, denied that he killed Adam Walsh. And that has kept Hollywood police and Broward prosecutors from taking the theory seriously. Harris talked to two FBI agents, however, who debriefed Dahmer and now believe it’s worth looking into.

FBI agent Neil Purtell thought Dahmer tacitly admitted killing Adam.

“It’s my experience when people overemphasize their denials, it’s usually an admission,” Purtell said. Dahmer prefaced one denial with “Honest to God, Neil.”

He added: “When someone says ‘Honest to God,’ I know they’re lying.”

Take that for what it’s worth, but I’m hooked.

I respect Bob, but the reason the Herald and Sun-Sentinel passed on Harris' article is probably the same opinion I have at present.

The Dahmer theory is all a load of bunk to sell a book.

Dahmer is dead, and like a lot of famous or infamous people, he lives on still today because of the horiffic crimes he committed. TFM has written on this topic before, but after someone famous dies they can become the subject of all sorts of theories, some reasonable and others very fanciful if not outright bullshit. Witnesses and FBI agents stepping forward 25 years after the crime sound just don't sound credible to me. Why now and not when Dahmer was still alive?

Harris has a book and story to sell. That doesn't mean TFM or the local media have to buy it.

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