{"product_id":"jeffrey-dahmers-dirty-secret-the-unsolved-murder-of-adam-walsh-book-one-finding-the-killer-9781439236277","title":"Jeffrey Dahmer's Dirty Secret: The Unsolved Murder of Adam Walsh - Book One: Finding The Killer","description":"\u003cp\u003eYou may \u003ci\u003ethink\u003c\/i\u003e you know the whole story of Adam Walsh-the 6-year-old found killed, whose father, John Walsh, became a crime-fighting TV host. We've long been told that the dead child was Adam-\u003ci\u003ebut \u003c\/i\u003e\u003ci\u003eastonishingly, \u003c\/i\u003e\u003ci\u003ethe medical examiner file doesn't legally confirm it.\u003c\/i\u003e It should be in an autopsy report, since an autopsy was done-but\u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003eas Harris reported in the Miami Herald, \u003ci\u003ethere is no autopsy report\u003c\/i\u003e. \u003ci\u003eThat never happens. \u003c\/i\u003eWithout legal proof of who's been killed, how can you have a murder trial?\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA famous old crime. No linking physical evidence. For decades, the murder of Adam Walsh, the iconic face of Missing Children, the boy on the milk carton, was an unsolved mystery. Suddenly police declared a solution resurrected on a theory of theirs they'd long discredited. At a live nationally-televised police press conference, the victim's family was tearful and grateful.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe national media bought it. The local press, however, realized it was a convenient fiction.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eOn July 30, 2021, days after the 40th anniversary of Adam's disappearance, Fred Grimm wrote in the \u003ci\u003eSouth Florida Sun Sentinel\u003c\/i\u003e: \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003e\"A sensational alternate theory blamed serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer, who was living in Miami in 1981. But in 2008, despite no new evidence, Hollywood police hung the crime on long-dead Ottis Toole.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003e\"The only mystery left unsolved was how any cop could have possibly believed Ottis Toole.\"\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhile Toole was still alive and in state custody, and could have been charged with Adam's murder on the same information, John Walsh had belittled the idea: \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003e\"A lot of people still think Ottis Elwood Toole did it. But he and [his partner] Henry Lee Lucas confessed to a lot of murders they didn't do. It's a great ploy for convicts: They read about a murder and they're in solitary. They call the police, desperate to clear a murder, and they say, 'Fly me there and buy me a pizza, ' and they get out of their cells for two days!\"\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003e-South Florida\u003c\/i\u003e\u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003emagazine, July 1992\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePolice had statements from six separate witnesses at the mall who said they saw Dahmer when Adam disappeared, but police couldn't confirm that Dahmer had been in town then. Then reporter Art Harris, working with ABC Primetime, found a Miami police report with Dahmer's name dated 20 days before Adam was taken. Still they weren't interested. But by 2008, both Dahmer and Toole were dead, so did it matter? Although the police's conclusion was eye-rolling, it seemed harmless.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eGrimm was wrong only in that police's belief in Toole was the only mystery left.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eProbably without realizing it, by closing the case police unlatched a door locked nearly 30 years before to a guarded secret.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eInside Harris discovered a much larger convenient fiction, but this one not at all harmless. In looking back it explained everything irregular in the investigation that had followed. As long as the secret was kept, the case could never be truly solved. Harris was then working with t\u003ci\u003ehe Miami Herald\u003c\/i\u003e, but even when they confronted them, the chief medical examiner who'd hidden it, the police-\u003ci\u003eand most surprisingly, even the Walshes\u003c\/i\u003e all turned blind eyes.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eWhat was the never-meant-to-be-seen or spoken-of truth in Adam Walsh's murder?\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWas it that the evidence that the child was Adam was either inconclusive-or showed that it likely \u003ci\u003eactually wasn't him?\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eArthur Jay Harris\u003c\/b\u003e is the author of the investigative true crime books \u003ci\u003eSpeed Kills, Flowers for Mrs. Luskin, Until Proven Innocent\u003c\/i\u003e and the two-book series with a Single Edition, \u003ci\u003eThe Unsolved Murder of Adam Walsh\u003c\/i\u003e, all stories that challenge the official findings by police and prosecutors. He lives in Florida. For the Adam Walsh case, he has appeared on television many times: ABC \u003ci\u003ePrimetime; Anderson Cooper 360; Nancy Grace; Ashleigh Banfield; The Lineup; Inside Edition; Catherine Crier; Cold Blood\u003c\/i\u003e, and on local TV in Miami and Milwaukee. He has also written stories on the case that have appeared in print in \u003ci\u003eThe Miami Herald, Broward-Palm Beach New Times\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eMiami Daily Business Review.\u003c\/i\u003e In addition, Art has presented on television other crime stories he has investigated at length, including on the shows \u003ci\u003eSnapped; City Confidential; Prison Diaries, Inside Edition, A Current Affair\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eHard Copy\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Booksurge Publishing","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50504492515602,"sku":"9781439236277","price":15.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_c21ce39b-02ed-4b88-a848-f4be3ae71beb.jpg?v=1737220035","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/jeffrey-dahmers-dirty-secret-the-unsolved-murder-of-adam-walsh-book-one-finding-the-killer-9781439236277","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}