Run them over with a car. Strangled them with stockings, skip ropes, phone cords. You name it.Q: And shot them?A: Oh yeah, shot ’em. Sure. In the head. In the chest. In the back. In the stomach.Q: And sometimes in the top of the head . . .A: . . . sometimes, if somebody’s been going down on you. You have to be careful there, though.Q: And this is with a handgun?A: Usually. A .22, a .25, a .357 magnum. But sometimes a shotgun. And I’ve used a rifle, too.Q: Is there any weapon you never used?A: I never used an ice pick. That would have been good, though. I wish I would have used an ice pick, just once.—Ottis Toole to Texas Rangers,March 24, 1984Hollywood, Florida—November 14, 1984Given the train wreck that the investigation of Ottis Toole had become, the November Wednesday that would have marked the celebration of Adam Walsh’s tenth birthday instead seemed to serve as a milestone of frustration. A year or so before, it appeared that his killer had been found, and while it would not bring their son back, John and Revé Walsh might have found a certain kind of relief had Toole been charged and tried.
