Book: Bringing Adam Home by Les Standiford with Det. Sgt. Joe Matthews

Adam is Adam Walsh, the son of John and Reve Walsh who was abducted from a Sears store in Hollywood, Florida, on July 27, 1981. He was 6 years old. He was lured into the car by Ottis Toole with promises of candy. Ottis said he initially thought he would raise this little boy as his son but Adam soon became distraught as they were driving, and Ottis pulled off the road and abused and murdered him.

The book is elegantly written, and tells the sequence of events and the cast of characters involved in this horrific tragedy. Joe Matthews was/is a detective who never forgot Adam's death and who finally brought a measure of peace or justice and closure to Reve and John Walsh, but only 27 years after Adam disappeared.

While the details of what happened are laid out in this book, and while there are parts of this story that are nearly unbearable, there is not a sense of sensationalism, but it is rather a well-written account of both the police work and the psychosociology of a man and his known world, a man like Ottis who could and did repeatedly murder with little remorse. Adam was just one of those victims and Ottis told many family members about it.

"Everyone in the family knew Ottis had killed Adam Walsh, she said. It was simply common knowledge. Then why on earth had she never told anyone about these things? Matthews asked. Linda didn't miss a beat. 'Because no one ever asked,' she said. 'You're the first that ever did.' Matthews sat back in his chair and stared at the ceiling for a long time after his conversation with Linda McHenry Orand. Common knowledge among the members of a family that one of their own had kidnapped and killed Adam Walsh. And because no one had ever asked, not one of them stepped forward to tell."

I found this profoundly interesting, far removed from any personal experience, yet all the while also knowing there are in our society those who live only for the moment, those who do whatever they can for immediate gratification, those who are often of borderline intelligence, those who seldom think of consequences, those who do not recognize the rules of any higher authority, either secular or spiritual. Still, the author also managed to make Ottis Toole a recognizable human being and, while he was monstrous and without a moral compass, he was not born that way. So this book is sobering, of course for the heartbreak of Adam Walsh and his family, but also for those who flounder in poverty and despair, who are born into a bleak existence marked by gross deficiencies in their families, their neighborhoods and their schools.

And this book is an indictment of the Hollywood, Florida police department. It seems inconceivable that Ottis Toole died while in prison for murder, but not the murder of Adam Walsh. The Hollywood PD, as this book makes clear, lacked the diligence necessary to bring Ottis to trial.