For folks that grew up in the 80’s the America’s Most Wanted TV show was part of life. The Fox network was new and starting in 1988 we watched America’s Most Wanted most every Saturday night. We were also a generation that grew up with the fear of crime: kidnappings, murder, etc. We saw it on TV and in the case of AMW it was and is real, very real. We may have been the first generation that wasn’t let out of our parents’ sights.
To me John Walsh, the host of AMW, was just another TV host. My parents had introduced me to Dragnet years earlier and I saw a similarity in the shows – Walsh’s deadpan presentation. I didn’t know at the time where his passion came from. Maybe my parents told me, but I don’t think I knew until much later that Walsh’s crusade for bringing criminals to justice had a very personal origin. In 1981 John and Reve Walsh’s 6 year old son was kidnapped and murdered.
For me this story represents so much of why our childhood was the way it was and is an origin story for our own parenting paranoia. Now in Bringing Adam Home Les Standiford chronicles the crime and the police case surrounding the crime – telling the story of why it took until 2008 for the case to be officially closed. This story is one of police incompetence and mis-communication. It’s not a fun story, but an important story. Please consider coming to meet Les and Det. Sgt. Joe Matthews.
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