A Case That Should Have Never Taken 25 Years to Solve
Review by Kim Cantrell
On the afternoon of July 27, 1981, six-year-old Adam Walsh disappeared from a Hollywood, Florida, Sears store. As was common for the time, Adam’s mother Revé allowed him to play at the video game displayed as she shopped for lamps.
Little could she or Adam have known it was an decision that would forever change America.
Bringing Adam Home: The Abduction That Changed America details the case from it’s very beginning to it’s official conclusion in 2008 as told by Detective Sergeant Joe Matthews, a man who would work the case from that July afternoon until the very end.
In 1997, I read John Walsh’s Tears of Rage, which was a father’s account of Adam’s untold story in which he took Miami police to task for their unethical actions, underhandedness, and politics that resulted in leaving his son’s case cold.
Now in 2011, the officer who knew Ottis Toole was guilty after his very first confession also exposes the police department that let Toole die without ever paying for the crimes he committed against Adam Walsh.
Where John Walsh provided a victim’s relevation of such arrogance and stupidity in those who have vowed to protect and serve, Les Standiford with Matthews delivers an insider’s point-of-view and behind-closed-doors accounting of the case against Ottis Toole.
Just as readers were outraged after Tears of Rage, so will they be (and even moreso) as Matthews discusses how a department had a serial killing child killer fall into their lap but never charged him with his most famous of crimes.
AND – readers will be shocked and dismayed (and outraged again) at the pertinent questions that were never asked, the key witnesses that were never interviewed, and the people who had information but never told simply because they were never asked. (Seriously, folks, you have to be asked? Give me a break!)
I was just a year older than Adam when he disappeared and I remember the changes his disappearance brought, even to small town rural America. I remember my mother suddenly holding me closer, the restrictions on freedom, and the whispers and tears shed among the adults as they discussed Adam Walsh.
As an adult, I watch faithfully each week as John Walsh hosts America’s Most Wanted and, being familiar with his story, watch with admiration as he holds a steady gaze into the camera and speaks with sincerity to criminals telling them they will be brought to justice. (And he has a track record to prove it!)
So it goes without saying I was eager to read Bringing Adam Home.
With such familiarity of the Adam Walsh story, I’ll admit that much of the book was a repeat for me. But there was just as much that was new information. For anyone with little to no knowledge about Adam Walsh however, would find it a gripping, riveting, albeit sickening at times, book that tells the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
Or, even if familar with the case but you’re one of the individuals who doubted Ottis Toole’s confessions (or recanting of same), as I did at one time, Brining Adam Home will leave you with no doubts that Ottis Toole did indeed murder Adam.
Finally the little boy who changed my generation’s life and those of future children forever is now at peace thanks to parents who were content with being quiet and an investigator who was willing to penetrate the blue wall and finally solve a case that otherwise would have never been.
Add Bringing Adam Home to your reading list!
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