Ottis Elwood Toole (March 5, 1947 – September 15, 1996) was an American serial killer who was convicted of six counts of murder. Like his companion Henry Lee Lucas, Toole made confessions which resulted in murder convictions, and which he later recanted. The discrediting of the case against Lucas for crimes for which Toole had offered corroborating statements created doubts as to whether either was a genuine serial killer or, as Hugh Aynesworth suggested, both were merely compliant interviewees whom police used to clear unsolved murders from the books.
Toole received two death sentences, but on appeal, they were commuted to life imprisonment. He died in his cell from cirrhosis, at age 49. Police attributed the 1981 murder of Adam Walsh to Toole on the basis of recanted statements. Lucas had backed Toole's confession to the Walsh murder, claiming that he had been in possession of the victim's severed head, though Lucas had a reputation for false confessions.
Early life
Ottis Toole was born and raised in Jacksonville, Florida. Toole's father was an alcoholic who abandoned him, while his abusive mother would dress him in girls' clothing and call him Susan. He stated that his maternal grandmother was a Satanist who exposed him to various Satanic practices and rituals in his youth, including graverobbing. Toole claimed this abuse began when he revealed his homosexuality to his family.
Toole was often classified as having a mild intellectual disability, with an intelligence quotient (IQ) of 75.
In the documentary Death Diploma, Toole stated that he was forced to have sex with a friend of his father's when he was five years old. He felt he knew that he was gay when he was 10 years old and that he had a sexual relationship with a neighborhood boy when he was 12. Toole dropped out of school in the ninth grade and began visiting gay bars. He also stated he had been a prostitute as a teenager and that he became obsessed with gay pornography at some point. Toole later claimed to have accompanied Lucas in 108 murders, sometimes committed at the behest of a cult called "The Hands of Death". Police, however, discounted the uncorroborated claims about the cult's existence.
Two months later, in June, Lucas was arrested for unlawful possession of a firearm. It was then that Lucas began boasting about the murderous rampage orchestrated by the two. At first, Toole had denied involvement but later began backing up Lucas's confessions. Lucas also backed Toole's confession to the murder of Adam Walsh. Journalist Hugh Aynesworth and others investigated for articles that appeared in The Dallas Times Herald. It was calculated that Lucas would have had to use his 13-year-old Ford station wagon to cover in one month, i.e., around per day, to have committed the crimes police attributed to him. Lucas became widely regarded as a compliant interviewee who was used by police to clear up unsolved murders that he had not been involved in, aided by Toole giving false statements in collaboration.
During Toole's trial for murdering George Sonnenberg, Toole claimed that he did not light the home on fire and only signed the confession so he would be extradited back to Jacksonville. Later that year, Toole was found guilty of the February 1983 strangulation murder of a 19-year-old Tallahassee, Florida woman, and received a second death sentence; on appeal, however, both sentences were later commuted to life in prison.
After his incarceration, Toole pleaded guilty to four more Jacksonville murders in 1991 and received four more life sentences. The murders of which Toole was ultimately convicted were those of John McDaniel, Jerilyn Peoples, Brenda Burton, Ruby McCary, George Sonnenberg and Ada Johnson, all of whom were killed in Florida between 1980 and 1983.
Murder of Adam Walsh
On October 21, 1983, while he was imprisoned for two unrelated murders, Toole confessed to the 1981 murder of six-year-old Adam Walsh. A few weeks after Toole made the confession, however, police officers who were investigating the case announced that they had lost Toole's impounded car and machete. John Walsh, Adam's father, continues to believe that Toole was guilty. On December 16, 2008, 27 years after the 1981 murder, Hollywood, Florida, police announced Toole as the murderer, and the Adam Walsh case was closed. The police did not reveal any new physical evidence and pointed out that they still had no DNA evidence.
Toole claimed that he picked Walsh up in a Sears mall parking lot. Toole stated that Walsh came willingly because he offered Walsh candy and toys. Walsh soon wanted to go home and began to cry. Toole said that he then punched Walsh in the face. Walsh started to cry again, and according to Toole, he began to "wallop" Walsh, knocking him out. Toole eventually pulled over in a rural area and decapitated Walsh with a machete. He drove around with Walsh's head for several days, forgot about it, and, after he rediscovered it, he tossed it into a nearby canal. Police officers inexplicably lost Toole's impounded car and its bloodstained carpeting, hindering their ability to proceed with the investigation into Adam Walsh's murder. Psychiatrists Dr. Urbina and Dr. Sanches testified at Toole's 1984 Florida Supreme Court appeal that he was extremely impulsive and exhibited antisocial behavior as a result of a personality disorder and that he was a pyromaniac. The court found sufficient evidence that Toole could be diagnosed with antisocial personality disorder.
Death
Toole died of cirrhosis at the Florida State Prison on September 15, 1996, at the age of 49. His body went unclaimed, and he was buried in the Florida State Prison cemetery.
See also
- List of serial killers in the United States
- List of serial killers by number of victims