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A review by bookishblond
Bringing Adam Home: The Abduction That Changed America by Joe Matthews, Les Standiford
2.0
Bringing Adam Home is the result of extensive research on the Walsh family, the investigation into six-year-old Adam Walsh's 1981 disappearance, and Ottis Toole, the alleged murderer. This book is written by a writer of popular detective stories and the investigator who finally "closed" the Adam Walsh case, Joe Matthews. It is, as you can imagine, anything but unbiased.
Standiford and Matthews have so much they want to tell you about Ottis Toole. He is a bad, bad, man, who told everyone who would listen that he murdered Adam Walsh, but the Hollywood police department bungled the case because they are incapable, bumbling cops who should never have been on the case in the first place. The best thing that ever happened to the Hollywood police department was Joe Matthews... now that guy is cool. To illustrate just how cool he is, Standiford has included several stories about Matthews, including how he dared to write a parking citation for a fellow police officer. Now that takes daring! It doesn't matter that Matthews had no new evidence when he finally got the case or that Ottis Toole was long dead... he closed it, because he is the best cop ever.
As much as Standiford, Matthews, the Walshes, and Toole himself wanted Ottis Toole to be the villain behind Adam Walsh's disappearance... the truth is that there isn't much evidence at all to support his guilt. This book inspired me to dive head first into a rabbit hole that revealed many interesting tidbits, such as the original transcripts of Toole's confession, released 20 years, where it is very apparent that he had little to no knowledge of the specifics of Adam's kidnapping, the improbability of Toole's confession, and the bizarre theories that the decomposed head found didn't even belong to Adam. I definitely recommend scrolling through Reddit, including this thread and the Bizarrepedia page.
Please don't let this book be your introduction to the Adam Walsh case.
Standiford and Matthews have so much they want to tell you about Ottis Toole. He is a bad, bad, man, who told everyone who would listen that he murdered Adam Walsh, but the Hollywood police department bungled the case because they are incapable, bumbling cops who should never have been on the case in the first place. The best thing that ever happened to the Hollywood police department was Joe Matthews... now that guy is cool. To illustrate just how cool he is, Standiford has included several stories about Matthews, including how he dared to write a parking citation for a fellow police officer. Now that takes daring! It doesn't matter that Matthews had no new evidence when he finally got the case or that Ottis Toole was long dead... he closed it, because he is the best cop ever.
As much as Standiford, Matthews, the Walshes, and Toole himself wanted Ottis Toole to be the villain behind Adam Walsh's disappearance... the truth is that there isn't much evidence at all to support his guilt. This book inspired me to dive head first into a rabbit hole that revealed many interesting tidbits, such as the original transcripts of Toole's confession, released 20 years, where it is very apparent that he had little to no knowledge of the specifics of Adam's kidnapping, the improbability of Toole's confession, and the bizarre theories that the decomposed head found didn't even belong to Adam. I definitely recommend scrolling through Reddit, including this thread and the Bizarrepedia page.
Please don't let this book be your introduction to the Adam Walsh case.