Comments on: Did Obsession with “Closure” Let Adam Walsh’s Killer Go Free?

By: egger

egger — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 18:34:53 +0000

You do not know of what you speak. No…..Lucas did not kill 360 people or as some of serial killer groupies claim….a 1,000.

But, he was a serial killer and probably killed 40 or 50 people.

Ottis Toole participated in a number of these murder with Lucas.

The fact that you met Toole doesn’t really give you any credibility.

By: Tina Trent

Tina Trent — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 21:41:43 +0000

It’s always fascinating to me, the swift willingness to believe a murderer is innocent of a crime, without feeling the need to explore evidence to the contrary.

So you met the guy and wrote about him?! Isn’t that grandstanding?

By: charlie finch

charlie finch — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 19:18:58 +0000

The press is as lazy as ever. When and if a press outlet has even tried to explain the so-called “resolution” of the case, there is some vague deal about a sherriff going over the details of the case in his office. Law enforcement has created an institutional desire to wipe open cases off the books by whatever hocus pocus. Anyone who has ever unwittingly crossed the path of a psycho knows that for every exposed one there are a hundred in the shadows.

By: Denny, Alaska

Denny, Alaska — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 17:32:04 +0000

Sorry: I’ve lost all respect for John Walsh with this episode.

By: B.L.

B.L. — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 00:47:45 +0000

I’m troubled by the overwhelming media and public acceptance of this. When did, “He’s always been our top suspect, so we’ll say he’s the killer so we can give the family closure,” become a legitimate method of solving a cold case? Maybe the Walsh family takes comfort in this, but if it were my family member I couldn’t and wouldn’t.

Toole and Lucas were serial liars. They were able to dupe many –law enforcement, mental health workers, the media — because these people believed they were too intelligent to be fooled by a pair of uneducated drifters who killed a few people. Why wouldn’t they confess to multi-state murders, especially when the police fed them information and took them on road trips away from a prison cell?

By: Jaci

Jaci — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 22:41:11 +0000

“Forgiveness of such criminals is a betrayal of the victims and a betrayal of justice.”

I disagree. Forgiveness does not mean withholding punishment. I know my parents forgave me every time I disobeyed as a kid, but they still punished me. Forgiveness does not mean escaping consequences. Families of murder victims find that forgiveness means being able to live their lives, but it doesn’t mean withholding justice. Forgiveness is a personal issue, not a legal issue, and the two are in no way related.

By: WR Jonas

WR Jonas — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 21:40:38 +0000

I remember a crime from decades ago in which a man ,I believe named Howard Unruh , went berserk in a little town in New Jersey. He walked through town killing and shooting everything he encountered. I remember hearing of the crime on radio and seeing the photographs in Life.
I remember thinking “here is a madman who deserves to be hung in the village to let people know there are serious consequences for cold blooded serial murder.”
Of course he could not be for the doctors all said he should be protected and the State dutifully put him in an asylum where he lived for decades.
I wonder if Henry Lee Lucas and Otis Toole would be so eager to confess to mass murder if they had a little fear in their hearts?
We have virtually institutionalized the concept of automatic mercy for killers who quickly realize that insanity may be their best friend. How many times have you heard of the doctors finding mass murderers sane?
I think they are in a special category of criminals for whom no mercy should be possible.

By: Chris H.

Chris H. — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 19:49:22 +0000

I was eight when this occurred and living in Miami. I have vivid memories of my mom’s tremendous fear of letting me out of sight. The anxiety this case caused was, to my mind at the time at least, all consuming.

By: Martin Berman-Gorvine

Martin Berman-Gorvine — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 16:42:59 +0000

This “closure” nonsense really has to stop. John Walsh is right about this at least, that the proper question to ask is about justice. The cult of closure is closely linked to the cult of cheap forgiveness, which for me is exemplified by South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission. How can a society trying to become just possibly “reconcile” with racist torturers and murderers who openly admired and aped the Nazis? It’s obscene to ask this of survivors or society as a whole, even in the name of peace.

Forgiveness of such criminals is a betrayal of the victims and a betrayal of justice. As Hannah Arendt wrote, there are some crimes men can neither punish nor forgive. And the sick fascination with serial killers is too obviously linked to the sick fascination that Nazism and related “movements” still inspire.