by Paul R. Spitzzeri
The reason so much of part one of this post was directed toward the lengthy criminal career of Walter Anson, who took the name of Collins later in life and who was the father of the vanished 9-year-old Walter Collins, the subject of the featured photo from the Museum’s collection, is because, very soon after the boy was reported missing by his mother, Christine (neé Dunne), the Los Angeles Times of 15 March 1928 stated,
She fears he has been kidnaped [sic] by enemies of her husband, said to be serving a prison term, and requested detectives to look for the lad.
The following day’s edition of the Los Angeles Record published a photo of Walter sitting on a horse, probably a common type in which itinerant photographers went house-to-house taking these inexpensive images, and a caption observed that “mystery surrounds the disappearance,” though the paper seemed to know little about the Collins home.
It began its brief article by dramatically commenting that “a small bed is empty; a seat in a Lincoln Heights [neighborhood of the Angel City] school is empty, and the hearts of two parents are almost at the breaking point” as Walter was said to be missing from the residence of both Walter and Christine—it being apparent that the paper was unaware that the elder Collins was in prison.
The account continued, despite an earlier statement that he vanished when away from home at a movie theater and asserting that “the boy was extremely fond of his home and mother and dad, and seemed dissatisfied every minute he was away from them,”
When last seen, Walter was playing, happily and by himself, on the front porch of the Collins home, but when his mother went to call him to dinner, he was not there. Frantically, his mother searched the neighborhood, but no trace of the lad could be found.
Nearly three weeks elapsed before anything substantive was reported and the 4 April edition of the Times stated that “partial identification of the lifeless body of small boy seen in the rear of an automobile in Glendale . . . as that of Walter Collins . . . spurred police to a State-wide search for the kidnapers.” A gas station owner told police he saw the body under newspapers with the head sticking out and a local resident followed the vehicle, the Italian-looking driver of which asked for direction to the police station, but the car paused there and then drove away.
The vanishing of Walter was “deepened by the inability of the police or the boy’s mother . . . to supply even the faintest motive” and there were no reported ransom demands or threats, though it was added that “there is a possible revenge motive” and “some fear is expressed that former prison mates of the father have abducted the child in a revenge plot for some real or fancied wrong.” While this was considered an unlikely scenario, one wonders if the elder Collins told the police of his prior claims of extortion from former prison mates that was part of his criminal past, as part one of this post noted.
The Times observed that a Lincoln Heights neighbor of Christine and young Walter last saw the boy at the corner of North Avenue 23, the street on which all three lived, and Pasadena Avenue and Los Angeles Police Department officials told the paper that there were “reports that the boy later was seen in an automobile with two ‘foreign-looking people’ and was pleading to be released.”
Moreover, other Collins neighbors told authorities that they noticed a man “resembling an Italian” and “slouchily dressed” in the neighborhood as he “inquired at several neighborhood residences” and a “dark-complexioned” woman remained in their car. While it was remarked that there was some corroboration of the Glendale station owner’s claims, with respect to dark-skinned people and a car, the difference in dress was noted.
There was another strange report in the article concerning Christine Collins in that “especial attention is being paid to a San Francisco clew [sic],” which apparently revolved around the idea that “Mrs. Collins is understood to have been negotiating with a party in the Bay City for her husband’s release and complications are said to have arisen which may offer a fruitful clew.” Obviously, a release of the senior Collins could only be obtained through the state, so it is unclear what this could have involved.
Under a page-wide banner headline of “STATEWIDE HUNT FOR MISSING BOY,” the Los Angeles Express of the 5th commented that, because of the Glendale identification, San Francisco police officials were involved in the hunt for little Walter, but how was not articulated, other than that the car heading north seemed to indicate that the Bay City was a likely destination.
Meanwhile, the paper noted that “belief that Walter may have been murdered by enemies of his father, now serving a term in Folsom penitentiary, and the body thrown into the Lincoln park lake, led police to order the lake dragged today.” This was undertaken because he was fond of playing in the park and “the fear was . . . that he may have been followed there by one or more of his father’s foes, clubbed to death and his body tossed into the lake.”
Yet, there was also the possibility that Walter simply fell into the body of water and drowned—recall that the first reporting was that he was at the movies that Saturday he disappeared—because he was reported to have been at the park and went to a friend’s house for a playmate there, though he ended up alone. Another tidbit was that a San Francisco lawyer, named by Walter’s mother, perhaps in connection with the purported Folsom plot, was cleared as he had an alibi for the day her son vanished. The Express concluded its article with,
Mrs. Christine Collins, who has bravely maintained hopes that her son would be returned to her safely, today was on the verge of a collapse, as one clew after another failed to provide police with any tangible assurance the boy is still alive.
The Times of the 5th informed readers that “the State-wide search . . . was extended by police into neighboring States” because “information here from the north tending to strengthen a police theory that revenge was the motive” was received. The paper noted that,
A lengthy letter from Walter J.S. Collins, father of the boy, who is serving a lengthy term at Folsom following his [1923] conviction on charges of robbery, furnished the police here with several rather vague clews that are being run down. One of them, centering in San Francisco [likely involving the attorney], is being watched closely.
As to the car seen in the Glendale service station, the investigation of four numbers purported to be from the license plate yielding nothing. The Record had a blaring headline of “DRAG LAKE FOR VANISHED BOY” in its coverage from that day, with little varying from other accounts, though it did note, as did others, that there was apparently some confusion of identification of potential suspects with the kidnapping of a three-year-old, Wesley Dixon, who was found unharmed at a downtown Los Angeles hospital.
With the Glendale clue falling apart, the Times of the 6th, focused on the “Folsom Felons’ Feud” angle, with a photo showing the unsuccessful dragging of the Lincoln Park lake, and began its coverage with, “hatred bred within prison walls yesterday served the police with crews by which they hope to penetrate the veil of mystery surrounding the strange disappearance, and probably kidnaping.”
It was reported that a pair of LAPD detectives “placed considerable faith in” the senior Collins’ letter and its “assertion that his son may have been taken and possibly murdered by former inmates of the prison whose enmity he incurred.” The paper went into further detail, not previously reported, that
Folsom records show that Collins is a “boss” in the prison mess hall and in his line of duty he has been forced on several occasions to report some of the convicts to the warden for infraction of rules. Several times, police say, threats of revenge against Collins have been made.
In a section subtitled “Ground Retraced,” the Times cited a grocer and two residents on Pasadena Avenue regarding claims they had that seemed to have bearing on the case. The merchant, whose store was where Los Angeles Fire Department Engine and Truck companies #1 are located today, told police that “on the day of the boy’s disappearance several of his patrons told of seeing an automobile speeding from the neighborhood with a boy inside screaming.
One woman stated that she heard a child screaming from a moving car “as if being taken away against his wish,” while another “saw in a foreign sedan a ‘foreign-looking’ man acting in a suspicious manner” and that “he appeared to be looking for someone.” Christine Collins told of how she and a girlfriend were walking to the Collins residence and “were followed by a suspicious-acting man.”
Lastly, aside from the dragging of the park lake, it was remarked that “squads of police also combed all freight yards and hobo camps to no avail,” while “other out-of-the-way places have been searched without success.” In outlying areas like Long Beach, on the coast south of Los Angeles, police “thoroughly searched amusement zones but have been unable to find the slightest trace of the child.”
In its edition of that day, the Express ran a banner headline of “NEW CLEW TO BOY KIDNAPER BARED,” in which it reported that,
Police throughout the state were electrified into renewed action this afternoon in the search for the missing 9-year-old Walter Collins, when Lloyd Turor, 7, a neighbor, walked into [the] Lincoln Heights station and described a man who was looking for Collins the night before the youth disappeared.
The boy was quoted as saying that the driver of a Dodge touring car pulled up and asked where Walter lived and offered to deliver a message, but the man merely replied “I want to give it to him myself. I’m after his hide” before heading towards the Collins place. In Napa County, north of San Francisco, a report of a “small boy, hopelessly bound and gagged and believed to be the missing youth, was seen in the back seat of a speeding automobile.
It was also revealed that the San Francisco lawyer wanted for questioning was a defense attorney for the elder Collins and that he “might be able to shed some light on the case.” Significantly, the Express related that “people were definitely convinced today that the mysterious disappearance . . . is the outgrowth of a gangster’s feud fanned into murderous heat within the stone walls of Folsom prison,” while it was added that a pair of “degenerates” were identified by the senior Collins on a “blanket charge of kidnaping and murder.”
The account went on that, as part of his role in the prison mess, “three months ago Collins reported serious infractions of rules against the eight prisoners [in a gang], who after receiving a stiff punishment, openly threatened Collins with vengeance, which if they could not effect on him, they would mete out to his family.” Of the octet, two were soon released “and were said to have gone into hiding in this vicinity” and:
News of the disappearance of his son only reached Collins within the last few days, and frantic with grief, he is said to have confided in his fellow prisoners his fear that his enemies had taken their promised revenge in the murder of his boy.
Yesterday the “con boss” wrote Los Angeles police, giving them a detailed account of the feud that sprung up in Folsom, and charging that one or more of the men aligned against him there, had abducted his son.
Authorities in San Francisco and ten southern California communities “joined in dropping a dragnet for the convict suspects, while it was positively determined that the Glendale “foreign looking couple” were no longer of interest in the investigation. When the Times of the 7th offered its coverage of the young neighbor, it identified him as Lloyd Tutor, but said he was 12 years old, a considerable difference from what the Express reported.
Yet, again, the “foreign-looking man” description was provided for what the paper said was a “partial identification of one of several ex-convicts sought in the mystery, while a detective headed to San Francisco and Oakland to follow the aforementioned lead “that a young boy, apparently held captive, was seen in an automobile in that vicinity.”
Both were tied at that point to the alleged threats from the elder Collins’ Folsom enemies, but it was added that “young Tutor was a shown a photograph of one of the suspected ex-convicts and partially identified him as a man who stopped him and inquired, “Sonny, do you know anyone in this neighborhood by the name of Collins,” to which the answer was that Tutor knew a Walter Collins from his school, though he wasn’t sure which of two streets was where his schoolmate resided.
Additionally, Tutor told the police that his story could be corroborated by a Lincoln Heights gas station owner for whom he was running an errand when he was accosted by the stranger. When Christine Collins was interviewed, she told the paper that she was forced to continued her work as a telephone operator and had no idea why Walter was missing, though she was “inclined to accept the imprisoned father’s theory.”
As for her hope of her son’s return, the Times recorded that “the passing hours and days are slowly wearing away her faith in his safety” and Christine told the paper, “I wish they might have taken me instead of crucifying me in this manner.” It was reiterated that her theory in the lawyer “with whom she has been negotiating for her husband’s release” and his involvement was dashed by the revelation that he could not have been involved because his whereabouts checked out.
The Hollywood Citizen-News, also of the 7th, added another tidbit as it recorded that “detectives today were sent to search in the hills and ravines near Lincoln Park for the body” as it was believed that young Walter was murdered. It was added that 30 officers were ordered to comb those areas under the prevailing view that the Folsom plot was the most likely explanation for the child’s disappearance.
As the hunt continued, leads followed and the Folsom theory remained at the top of the list of theories for vanishing of Walter, we’ll return with part three, so check back in with us for that.