by JT Hunter
Curtis McCall, Christine Walker’s high school boyfriend who failed a polygraph question asking if he withheld any information about the Walker murders, would have been 56 years old at the time of the anonymous tipster’s call.
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Detective Albritton’s tenure in charge of the Walker case file included an important period of activity when new DNA samples were provided to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement for analysis. The process generated a DNA profile for Christine’s attacker in 2004, which eventually eliminated more than thirty top suspects, including Elbert Walker and Don McLeod, whose DNA did not match the suspect DNA profile attributed to Christine’s killer.
In 2007, Albritton retired from the Sheriff’s Office, sharing Ross Boyer’s burden of having failed to solve the Walker case and being unable to bring closure to the community. It was a disappointment he hoped to see remedied by his successor.
“To the people who grew up in this community, to the relatives of those families – all these people deserve that closure,” he said emphatically.
*****
Beginning in September 2007, thirty-seven-year-old Kimberly McGath took over the Walker case. Detective McGath, a four-year veteran of the force who earned the nickname “Bulldog” due to her tenacity and determination, requested the infamous cold case that many believed unsolvable out of a deeply held desire to identify the killer and bring closure to the victims’ surviving family members, as well as to Don McLeod and many others who had been waiting so long for justice.
“The family compels me to do the work,” McGath explained. “They deserve those answers.”
McGath began her work on the case by familiarizing herself with the file, a mammoth task considering the reams of documents it contained: over thirty-three volumes of documents in all. Day after day, she spent countless hours reviewing and organizing the relevant reports, newspaper articles, crime scene photographs, and witness testimony. McGath read many of the documents multiple times, scouring them for overlooked leads or forgotten nuggets of evidence that might warrant devoting renewed resources to the long-cold case.
While sifting through hundreds of case file documents, McGath began to home in on assorted pieces of information that intuitively seemed connected.
“Some things started jumping out at me,” she said.
McGath decided to focus her attention on one particular aspect of the Walker family’s last day alive: their whereabouts and activities as they shopped for a new car.
*****
As she researched the files, McGath noticed that J.W. Thornton, the operator of AAA Motors Used Car Lot on Ringling Boulevard in Sarasota, had informed investigators that Cliff and Christine Walker and their two children came to the lot on December 19 to look at some of the dealer’s vehicles. The Walker family stayed at the lot until shortly before noon, at which time they mentioned that they were going to Altman’s Chevrolet. They returned to AAA Motors at about 12:40 p.m. and test drove one of the cars, then left the used car lot at 1:00 p.m. but returned again at 1:30 to look for a set of car keys that one of their children had thrown out of the window during the test drive.
McGath also noted a DeSoto County Sheriff’s report reflecting that Cliff Walker had been at Altman Chevrolet in Sarasota on the day of the murders “making a car trade with Harry Rauchenberger,” one of the dealership’s salesmen. According to the salesman, the car that Cliff wanted to trade for was a 1956 Chevrolet, 210 model, two-toned with a greenish bottom and white top. The report also stated that, following the murders, Rauchenberger attended the Walker family’s funeral, although he did not appear to have known them prior to their visit to the dealership that day. Rauchenberger later denied that he attended the funeral.
As she reviewed the witness testimony, McGath wondered whether the Walkers’ errands that fateful December day had attracted the attention of two fugitives of the law, two men who had backgrounds in automobile painting and body work, and who frequented gas stations and used car dealerships looking for odd jobs. McGath discovered that, despite their representations to the contrary, substantial evidence supported that Dick Hickock and Perry Smith were prowling the streets and automobile dealerships of Sarasota at the same time that the Walkers were in town car shopping.
December 17, 1959
The owner of a tire shop reported that on December 17, 1959, just two days before the Walker family was murdered, two men matching Hickock's and Smith’s descriptions pulled up to the curb of the Frosty Mack Tire Company in Tallahassee. They said that they wanted to sell the new whitewall tires on their car for cash and a replacement set of used tires. After one of the men produced a bill of sale for the tires reflecting that they had paid $60 for them, the tire shop’s owner agreed to buy the tires for $20 and exchange them for used ones. As the two men departed, one of the workers at the tire shop asked them where they were going. They answered that they were going “hunting.”
According to Ted Smith, the operator of a gas station in Sarasota located at Cattlemen’s Road and Fruitville Road, two men who matched photographs and physical descriptions of Hickock and Smith came to his station later that afternoon asking if anyone needed auto painting. One of them claimed to be a “car painter” and inquired about automobile paint shops in the area.
Another witness, G.W. Moye, reported that around 4:30 p.m. on the same day, a man matching Perry Smith’s photograph came to Moye’s home driving a car with an out-of-state license plate. The man asked if Moye would pay him to repair a dent in the fender of Moye’s car. He told Moye that he and his partner, a blond-haired man who remained in their car, did odd jobs and automobile body work, stating, “Mister, we do body work and we noticed that your fender is bent. We do good work and we would like to fix your fender”.
In her investigative report, McGath noted that Perry Smith had worked for a time as a car painter and Dick Hickock had experience working as an automobile mechanic and a used car salesman.
December 18
As verified by hotel records, on December 18 shortly before dark, Hickock and Smith checked into the Somerset Hotel on Ocean Drive in Miami Beach. The hotel clerk on duty took their payment for one week’s rent and filled out a receipt to provide a record of the transaction.
December 19
The morning of December 19, Hickock and Smith appeared at the front desk of the Somerset Hotel and requested a return of the unused portion of the week’s rent money that they had paid in advance as they “intended to leave the hotel.” Their request for a refund was denied, and no one at the hotel recalled seeing the two men after that.
Kathy Rudis and Mary Reynolds, saleswomen in W.T. Grant’s Department Store in Sarasota on Tamiami Trail near U.S. 41, reported seeing Hickock and Smith shopping in the store on December 19. Although Rudis could not recall the exact time, it had to have been during her work shift between 10:00 a.m. and sometime in the afternoon. She distinctly remembered seeing the two men because of their odd appearance: they both wore coats that did not match their pants, their hair was long, and their shoes were missing laces. The department store was located only about seven miles away from the Walker home.
McGath noted that Hickock and Smith had shopped in a department store for various supplies the day before they committed the Clutter family murders.
December 20
Several witnesses near Arcadia positively identified Hickock and Smith as having stopped in the area on December 20, asking for directions on how to bypass Arcadia – Cliff and Christine Walker’s hometown – but still connect with Highway 27. The witnesses stated that the two men were driving a dark-colored car and they noticed that the taller, blond man had scratches on his face.
Buck Wever reported that, between 10 and 11 a.m. on December 20, a man he described as approximately 20-25 years old, 6’1”, 165 pounds, blond-haired with a “scratched-up” face and small “round” cuts and bruises on his forehead the “size of a dime,” had stopped at his gas station. The man came into the station in a hurry and
asked how to get to the Bair’s Den restaurant via the town of Nocatee. The man had been adamant that he did not want to travel through Arcadia. Wever also noticed another man who remained sitting in the car that the man with the scratched-up face had been driving. After some quick research, McGath found that the Bair’s Den restaurant had been located on U.S. 27 at the intersection of State Road 70 in December of 1959.
McGath deemed it significant that Wever reported his December 20 encounter with the two men the very next day, on December 21, before Florida authorities were aware that Hickock and Smith were wanted for the Clutter family murders or that they were even in the state. It was also well before the Sarasota Herald Tribune published photographs of the two men on January 24, 1960, under the caption, “Have you seen them?” Since law enforcement did not know the two fugitives were in Florida, Wever could not have known it either. Yet, his description of the man with the scratched-up face was uncanny in its resemblance to Hickock.
Wever also reported that the Chevrolet the two men were driving had the number “16” as part of its license plate number, a significant fact since the stolen Chevy Bel Air that Hickock and Smith drove while they were in Florida had a stolen license plate with tag number JO-16212. Moreover, Wever later picked Hickock out of a photographic lineup and confirmed that he was the tall blond with the “scratched up face” who had stopped at his gas station on December 20.
A witness at another gas station, Holland’s Pure Oil located at Magnolia and U.S. 17 in DeSoto County about forty miles from the Walker family home, reported that two white males came to the station between 10 and 11 a.m. the day after the Walker murders and asked how to get to the Bair’s Den. According to the witness, the man who got out of the car to ask directions had dark hair and wore a cowboy hat. The other man, who stayed in the car, had a “badly scratched-up” face.
The witnesses’ reports about the taller of the two men having a scratched-up face with “round” cuts and bruises the “size of a dime” particularly piqued McGath’s interest. After all, crime scene evidence indicated that Christine Walker, who was wearing high-heeled shoes, had fought ferociously as she attempted to defend herself from her attacker. McGath also noted a St. Petersburg Times article from December 22, 1959, entitled “Brutal Killer of 4 May Have Cut Face,” which stated that the Walker family’s killer “may be marked by cuts from a woman’s high-heeled shoe.”
Another witness, Dick Brown at Nocatee Cities Service in DeSoto County, reported that around 11:00 a.m. the same day, two white males drove up to the station, bought candy and drinks, and asked how to get to U.S. 27. Brown described one of the men as being 6’1”, 165 pounds, with blond hair and a “badly scratched-up face.” He described the other man as being shorter and older, with dark-colored hair and a cowboy hat.
McGath noted in her report that Hickock had a known affinity for candy and that he had purchased some candy at a gas station the day before murdering the Clutter family.
*****
Upon reviewing Richard Hickock's and Perry Smith’s inmate cards, as well as Hickock’s Kansas Bureau of Investigation (KBI) card, McGath confirmed that their height, weight, and hair colors matched the descriptions given by the witnesses who reported encountering two men asking for directions on December 20.
The multiple sightings of Hickcock and Smith at gas stations and car lots also rang true to the two men’s history of seeking odd jobs painting or fixing vehicles, as well as their habit of visiting gas stations and car lots. Indeed, as McGath noted in her final investigative report, when Hickock and Smith were identified as the prime suspects in the Clutter murders, the Kansas Bureau of Investigation issued an “All-Points Bulletin” notifying all car lot owners of their descriptions.
The more she studied the case file, the more McGath became convinced that it was not mere coincidence that multiple witnesses reported seeing Hickock and Smith around the Sarasota area both during the days leading up to the Walker murders as well as shortly afterward.
Other Evidence Pointing to Hickock and Smith
In addition to the numerous sightings of the two men around the area, McGath noted that two suspicious hairs had been found at the scene of the Walker murders. Both hairs were tested and determined to be inconsistent with any members of the Walker family. A dark hair had been discovered in the bathroom near Debbie’s body, and it was undisputed that Perry Smith had dark hair. The other suspicious hair was a long, blond hair that had been recovered from inside Christine’s dress. Dick Hickock, who by his own admission had a history of sexual assaults, had the same type of hair.
Very early in the investigation, Sheriff Boyer had requested that Hickock's and Smith’s fingerprints be checked against the latent impressions recovered at the scene of the murders from the Walkers’ bathtub faucet handle. On January 29, 1960, the Director of the Florida Sheriff’s Bureau (predecessor of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement) advised that he had received copies of the two men’s fingerprints from the FBI, but they did not match the impressions found at the crime scene. However, subsequent analysis determined that the prints recovered from the Walkers’ bathroom were most likely a partial palm print, rather than fingerprints. Similarly, both Hickock and Smith took polygraph tests about the Walker murder in 1960, and both men passed the tests. However, in 1987, the polygraph expert for the Sarasota Sheriff’s Office concluded that polygraphs given decades earlier were extremely unreliable and essentially worthless, an opinion shared by most contemporary polygraph experts.
Detective McGath also found it significant that Christine Walker had parked her car in an unusual location shortly before her murder, indicating that another vehicle was already parked in her customary parking spot. McGath highlighted a DeSoto County Sheriff’s report that included testimony from a Seaboard Railway brake foreman testifying that he had seen a 1956 two-tone dark green and white Chevrolet parked in front of the Walker home the day before the murders, while a former sheriff stated that the 1956 Chevrolet was parked at the Walker home on the actual day of the murders.
McGath noted that at least two friends of the Walker family testified that Christine kept a .22 pistol on the highest shelf of the closet in Jimmy Walker’s bedroom. She recalled that one of Christine’s blood-stained shoes was found behind the drape of that closet, suggesting that after being confronted by her attacker, Christine may have tried to retrieve the gun to defend herself. The fact that she was shot by a .22 caliber gun in the same room suggested the possibility that her attacker had wrestled the gun away from Christine and then used it against her.
McGath also highlighted the fact that when Las Vegas Police officers arrested Hickock and Smith on December 30, 1959, a pocketknife was among the items that Smith was carrying on his person. The knife had a fruit-tree design and a silver blade. The design and blade were strikingly similar to witnesses’ memories of Cliff Walker’s pocketknife, which was reported as missing after the murders.
Chapter 7: A New Theory Emerges
Based on the totality of the evidence tracing the Walkers’ movements during the hours leading up to their murder, and combining it with Hickcock's and Smith’s appearances around the area, McGath theorized that the two men had encountered the Walker family while they were in Sarasota car shopping. Assuming that the parties’ paths had indeed crossed, it was reasonable to conclude that the two seasoned con artists learned, either directly from the Walkers themselves or from one of the car salesmen they had been dealing with, that Cliff Walker was interested in trading for a car substantially similar to Hickock's and Smith’s stolen 1956 Chevy Bel Air. Armed with that knowledge, Hickock and Smith convinced Cliff to trade for the Bel Air, either as a way to obtain some much-needed cash or as a ploy to rob him. The parties then arranged to meet at the Walkers’ house later that afternoon to finalize the trade. During this discussion, Christine could have easily caught Hickock’s eye, arousing interest that would later prove fatal. Since Christine mentioned “trading” the Walkers’ Plymouth during her telep
hone conversation at the McLeod’s house, and Cliff subsequently commented to the McLeods about needing to leave because it was “nearly 4:00,” McGath surmised that Hickock and Smith arrived at the Walker house for their appointment sometime between 3:00 and 4:00 p.m.
Taking into account when Christine left the McLeods’ house and her brief stop to put air in her tires at the Phillips 66 gas station in Osprey, she would have arrived home at approximately 4:08 p.m., finding Hickcock and Smith parked in her usual spot next to the inner entry gate. This theory is supported by testimony from a witness, Chuck Downs, who flew over the Walkers’ home in his small plane at 4:20 p.m. and saw two vehicles parked in front of the house.
Considering Christine’s upbringing and southern hospitality, it would have been wholly within her character to invite Hickock and Smith into the house to wait for Cliff to return to further discuss or finalize a potential deal for trading cars. Once inside the house with her, Hickock’s physical attraction to Christine could have taken over his thinking, his sexual inclinations pushing aside any prior intentions of striking a deal for the car. Indeed, after his arrest for the Clutter family murder, Hickock revealed that his primary motivation for breaking into the Clutter home was to rape Nancy Clutter, and he confessed to having frequent desires to sexually assault young women. Moreover, as described in Capote’s novel, In Cold Blood, Perry Smith “almost had a fist fight” in order to stop Hickock from raping Nancy Clutter, a confrontation that he said he “wouldn’t care to repeat.” Not wanting to “repeat that particular test of strength” may have kept him from trying to stop Hickock from raping Christine Walker. McGath also knew that during his trial for the Clutter murders, psychiatrists who examined Hickock concluded that he suffered uncontrollable impulses and lacked a normal ability to tolerate frustration, a trait which often resulted in his committing antisocial acts, including violent ones.