S4 Ep26: How the Horrifying Murder of Adam Walsh Changed America

Crimes of the Centuries

Amber Hunt and Audioboom

True Crime, Documentary, Society & Culture, History

4.6 • 3.8K Ratings

🗓️ 9 September 2024

⏱️ 62 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In 1981, a 6-year-old boy accompanied his mother to a Sears department store, where she left him for mere minutes in the toy department. Two weeks later, the boy's head was discovered in a ditch. Learn how the horrifying case -- and the South Florida police department's decades-long bungling of it -- changed parenting in America.

"Crimes of the Centuries" is a podcast from Grab Bag Collab exploring forgotten crimes from times past that made a mark and helped change history. You can get early and ad-free episodes on the Grab Bag Patreon page.

DON'T FORGET ABOUT THE CRIMES OF THE CENTURIES BOOK! Order today at www.centuriespod.com/book (https://www.centuriespod.com/book)!

Follow us on Instagram and Twitter: @centuriespod

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey true crime fans, tired of ads interrupting your gripping investigations.
0:04.5	Good news. With Amazon Music, you have access to the largest catalogue of ad-free top podcasts
0:10.3	included with your Prime membership. After all, ads shouldn't be the scariest thing about true crime.
0:16.0	To start listening, download the Amazon music app for free
0:19.0	or go to Amazon.co. UK slash ad-free podcasts. That's Amazon. That's Amazon.
0:23.4	That's Amazon.
0:24.4	K.k.
0:25.1	slash ad-free podcasts to catch up on the latest episodes without the ads. Some crimes are so heartbreaking or shocking that they change laws, change society or even earn the label Crime of the Century.
0:47.0	But the stories that made headlines in decades past aren't necessarily remembered today.
0:53.0	I'm Amber Hunt, a journalist and author,
0:56.0	and in each episode of this show,
0:58.0	I'll examine a case that's maybe lesser known today
1:01.0	but was huge when it happened.
1:05.0	This is crimes of the centuries. The She had seen the ad in the local newspaper and thought,
1:33.0	with the sale on, this was the perfect time to buy a new lamp.
1:38.0	She dressed her six-year-old boy comfortably in green shorts,
1:41.0	yellow flip-flops, and a captain's hat. It was South Florida, it was July,
1:47.0	and in 1981, the world seemed so much safer than it was. Parents didn't hover so much. So when she got to the Sears store in
1:58.7	Hollywood, Florida around noon, she didn't think all that hard about leaving him briefly in the toy department to watch as two sets of boys battled it out on this brand spanking new thing called a video game.
2:11.0	So yeah, she said, I'll be right over there, and the lamps.
2:15.7	It's just a couple aisles over.
2:19.0	She wasn't gone that long.
	...

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