Revisiting the Walker Case: Old Posts Never Die

Richard Hickock & Perry Smith

In the comments of this post from 2008, "Lonnie" reminds me I never followed through on this.  Now it seems investigators are giving this case another, another look.  Now I have to admit, I haven't followed this case very carefully due to lack of information coming out.  The last I heard, two of the original suspects were cleared by the DNA evidence.  The primary suspect was a cousin of Mr. Walker's who was believed to have been having an affair at one time with Christine Walker.  The affair likely didn't happen and the DNA cleared the suspect.  The other man who was cleared was Cliff Walker's friend, Don McLeod  the man who discovered the crime.  The investigators still had about 20 suspects to test.  With this latest news of the exhumation of Hickock and Smith for testing, I can only assume the other twenty people have been cleared as well.  In all, 30 suspects have been ruled out.  Now they are exhuming the bodies of the Hickock and Smith and personally, I think this is a high profile waste of time. Update: I was right; no match.  

The original investigation in 1959 cleared the notorious killers of the Walker murders.  The fingerprint evidence didn't match and they could only prove the pair were in Miami the morning of the murders, not in Osprey.  I'm happy to be wrong but I would also be very surprised if I was.  This article speaks of two different colors of hair being found at the crime scene, none of which belonged to the Walkers.  It's also very likely neither of the hairs belongs to the killer(s).  One former piece of solid evidence, a bloody boot-print in the room where Christine's body was found, turned out to have been made by one of the several deputies that swarmed over the house right after the murders were discovered.  The hairs being found in spots where a deputy would naturally kneel down to look, next to Christine and around the bathtub.  Again, crime scene control is front and center here, also, crime scene control is absent.  In my opinion the killer was someone known by the family and probably obsessed with Christine Walker.  She was the target and had Cliff and the children arrived at the house one hour after Christine instead of 20 minutes after, they would be alive today.  The Sarasota Herald-Tribune has links to current and past stories, including an interactive crime scene graphic and links to original source documents. Warning: some links not for faint of heart.