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skewV\»'?M■tviiik:% -fki:S\e*‘'fc*W5t*lt;r--SnwHowWalterFooledPsychologistsPoliceEvenJilPV.. XMotherWalter” Told of a Stranger 'Who Offered to Buy Him Clothes.By MARJORIE DRISCOLL.HAT has happened to Walter Collins, ten-year-old Loswho was kid-Ang-eles ladnaped five months ago? Is he dead, the victim of some fiend’s fury, tortured, perhaps, in revenge for actual or fancied wrongs in the darksome shadows of Folsom Penitentiary? Or is he alive, mocking the efforts of experts to establish his identity, and secure behind the impenetrable mask of a talented childactor?This strange enigma, which confronts Los Angeles authorities, constitutes one of the moBt involved and baffling juvenile cases on recordf The drama is furnished by a child undeniably keen and gifted, and the “plot” is being worked out against the colorful background furnished by a “murder farm” where at least four boys have met death, smoldering prison feuds, and the mysterious actions of a band of abductors.{ Walter Collins, happy lad of ten Summers, disappeared something over five months ago. So far as his mother, Mrs. Christine Collins knew, he was playing near their Los Angeles homb. As darkness settled and he did not return she became apprehensive. Then, after a few hours of tense waiting, she reported his disappearance to'img?2 The Boy Toldof Leading aHobo Existence with His“Abductors.”Thenh ym m.* :■. ■ X VS $I-,-m•..N*%Told!'iV.-X.’Aiponce. .A nationwide search was made, but there was io clue Co Walter’s whereabouts. Finally he was given up for lost, and his mother mourned her son as dead. Then, a few weeks ago, a lad appeared in Lob Angeles and said he was Walter Collins. He was in charge of police officials and[here ia the story they told:“Walter” had been turned over to them by e police of Illinois. When Mrs. Collins’ son wasreported missing his picture was printed on circulars and these were widely distributed overthe country. The Illinois officers said they recognized “Walter” from gne of these pictures.It was a strange case, the Illinois officers said, for the lad at first had denied his identity. Then, after long and patient questioning, he had confessed that he was “Walter Collins” and had seemed anxious to return to his “mother” in Los Angeles.Rut Mrs. Collins’ joy at the restoration of her “son” was tempered with apprehension. “Yes,” she said, “he looks like Waiter. And in someways he acts like my son. But still I’m not certain about it. You see, Walter was quiet and well behaved. He always called me ‘mother.’ This child calls me ‘ma,’ and at times he is hard to handle. I certainly hope he is my son—but somehow I can’t bring myself to believe it.”Then the experts raised their eyebrow’s in surprise. For it is a very unusual thing for a mother not to know her own child. So far as they were concerned there was no doubt of “Walter’s” identity. And they based their belief upon seemingly convincing evidence.' W1hen “Walter” was brought to Los Angelesit was apparent that his memory had been affected by his five months with the kidnapers. He did act a bit strange, the psychologists and police officials agreed, so they planned and executed an elaborate series of tests to prove that the boy really was Walter Collins.First, the lad was asked to take a map to the hoi^se where he used to live.He “remembered” the man, and,to the satisfaction of the authorities, he led his companion straight to Mrs. Collins’ front porch nor would he be thrown off the track by suggestions of other routes.Next “Walter” was takeninto the homes of several friends and asked to identify pieces of furniture with which the kidnaped child had been familiar. He met this test readily, remarking that one “former playmate” had a new cabinet for his radio, and identifying some sketches on the living room wall of another. But, in contrast to this, he failed to remember the names of many of the boys with whom the Collins boy had played, and in some instances hisfailed himtirely.The experts were convinced however. “He your son,” they told Mrs. Collins.“Evidently his abductorstold him that he was to forget all about his lifeAgain the opinion of the experts was vindicated. No sooner did “Tiny” see “Waltep” than he rushed to him, licked his hands, and evidenced every sign of affection. “That proves it,” said the experts—and this time MrST Collins was forced to agree.“Yes,” she said, “I suppose it does. I suppose he is Walter, after all—but I can’t seem to rid myself of this lurking fear that th« boy is not by son.” She was advised by the psychologists to take objective measures to free herself from this haunting suspicion, andshe joined with them in planning to send “Walter” to camp, where he might start life anew and forget his chaotic past.For a week or so everything was considered satsifactorily settled. The psychologists . spent many hours going over their notes on the strange case. “Walter” had been very reluctant to tell about his “abduc- -tion.” jHe furnished only meagre details. He was playing, he said, when a man told him that his mother wanted him to have new clothes.The man would buy Cthem, said “Walter,” so he went along with the stranger.Then he told fragmentary stories of how he wandered about the country, living a hobo existence—how his captors tried to make him steal and how he refused, and finally how (they abandoned him. He got work on a farm, heEven With “Walter” in Her Arms Mrs. Collins Was Not SureSon. Finally, However, After the Dog “Recognized”Accepted the Boy as Her Own. vThat He Was Her Him, She“memory”en-“Tiny,” the Dog Which Experts Used in TheirAttempts to Solvethe “Mystery-Boy” Enigma.return to normalcy if given an opportunity to find new friendships and “establish confidence in some-99one.«*3 Walter” Was “Identified” by Posters Which Were Printed by the Los Angeles Police and Broadcast Over the Country. At First the Child Said He Was Not Walter Collins. Then He Admitted That He Was, and Now He Says He Isn’t!prior to his kidnaping, and undoubtedly theythreatened him with physical violence. Undersuch circumstances it is thoroughly possible thatthe child would forget many obvious connections of memory, but just the same we are sure he is WTalter Collins.”Still Mrs. Collins was not convinced, and atlast a new test was devised. Walter Collins’ closest companion and dearest friend was “Tiny,” a small black spaniel. Men’s judgment might err, the experts conceded, but the dog would recognize his playmate of six months before. So they agreed that “Tiny” should decide.said, and that was where the Illinois authorities found him. His story, however, was very hazyon all important points. 4The experts had little trouble in finding a motive for the kidnaping. Walter’s father is in Folsom Penitentiary, where he is serving a long term. He is a “straw boss,” placed over a group of other convicts, and most of them are degenerates. Several of them have been released since Walter’s father entered the prison, and two in particular recently were freed. The authorities surmised that Walter was kidnaped in revenge for some actual or fancied wrongs in the prison, and they expressed the opinion that he wouldAnd then the other day, like a bolt from the blue, came new revelations. Police had uncovered traces of a “murder farm” in another part of California. They were looking for a woman and her son, believed implicated in the murder of four boys, and they picked up a boy who gave the name of “Clark” and told of having been held at the farm, and then of escaping.Could Clark identify any of the murder farm victims? He could— and he told of two of the boys. One was “Walter Cdllins,” he said!“But,” police objected, “Walter Collins has returned home. He isback with his mother, and has toldall about his abduction. Surely Walter Collins couldn’t have been a ‘murder farm victim.’ ”But young Clark was adamant, so a new checkup was started, and it was then that the police, the psychologists and even “Tiny” got the shock of their lives. The returned “Walter^’ was closely questioned—and finally he broke down. “No, I am not Walter Collins, only playing that I was!”The authorities were astounded. They hardly could believe their ears, for they had been thoroughly convinced of “Walter’s” identity. “But,” objected the psychologists, “this boy must be Walter Collins. Didn’t he lead a man tohis home? Didn’t he recognize furniture in the homes of his friends? Didn’t he pass all of our intricate tests—and, finally, didn’t the dog recognize him?”“That may be,” replied Mrs. Collins,“but I felt all along that this child was not my son, and I believe his confession. He is not my Walter.”The examination proceeded, and the deeper the experts delved into the strange case the more mystified they became. Finally they have been forced to give up in bewilderment. Who, and where, is Walter Collins? No one seems able to answer.The boy from the Illinois farm said he was Walter Collins, and he “proved” it to the satisfaction of the authorities. Now he says he is not Walter Collins, and his new story is so plausable that the authorities have been forced to agree that it sounds true. He does not even know his own name, he says, and he simply posed as the Collins boy because he was tired of working on the farm.Meanwhile the Clark boy sticks to his storythat Walter Collins was a victim of brutal murder at the “murder farm,” and police are making every effort to establish the identity of remains found at the farm.Two of the most remarkable things in connection witl the case are the certainty with which the authorities accepted the testimony of Tiny as final against the doubt of the mother, and the way psychologists, after trying every scientifictest known to man, finally relied on the age-old test of whether the dog would recognize the boy or not.There was seemingly good foundation for the dog test. The ability of dogs to recognize their masters has been an acknowledged fact for some thousands of years.In relating the story of Ulysses’s return home from his wanderings in disguise as a beggar, the poet Homer narrated how the dogs were undeceived by the warrior’s tatters. They came and licked hft* hands and jumped all over him in gladness at his return.There have been many instances in the courts of the United States where disputes have arisen over the ownership of dogs and have been decided by letting each of the claimants call the animals involved and declaring the owners to be the ones to which the dogs responded most enthusiastically.Tiny Did Not Hesitate, But Rushed to Walter,” Licked His Hands, and Gave EveryEvidence of Recognition.ititSo the people of Los Angeles were quite contented in their almost unanimous opinion thathe said. “I wasthe real Walter had returned.What really happened to Walter Collins may possibly never be known, but authorities agree that his strange case has contributed much in the annals of psychological knowledge. The specialists vindicate themselves in very plausible fashion. They admit that empirical reasoning must be applied in the realm of psychology; deductions must be based on past experiences.“For example,” they say, “at first the logical solution to the affair seemed to lie in the fact that the returned boy, whom we jtssumed to be the missing Walter, had ‘closed aisles of memory,’ as we say in the profession. Thisseemed to be borne out when the murder farm story came to light. We believed that Walter had been on that farm and that the events there had been responsible.His brain was ‘tangled,’ so we thought, and that would easily explain the ‘closed aisles of memory.’ The history of psychology is filled with similar examples.“When the lad returned to his ‘home,’ he found his ‘mother’ acting strangely toward him. Of course this is explained now, and Mrs. Collins' conduct is entirely justified, but certainly it appeared at first that his more or less cold welcome had served only to increase the cloudiness which enveloped his brain. We believed that his condition actually was intensified bythe circumstances of his return, and we were ready to accept many discrepancies in his story. We expected them as the natural result of his experience and his cool reception upon his ‘return.’ ”Thus the “mystery boy” has furnished LosAngeles experts with the most baffling enigma they have faced for years. He convinced them that he was one person, and now he has convinced them that he is someone else. What next? Certainly the police can’t answer that question. They only fear that “Walter” will again change his story, and if he does they’re afraid that he’ll be able to convince them that he is a third person! And that would be an awful mess, everybody agrees.New*p«per J*e»tur» Setrtc*, 19 Jg.!**/
Newspaper Details
Sarasota Herald
Sarasota, Florida, US
Sun, Oct 14, 1928
Page 9
Full Page
Clipped by
Anonymous
USA 07 Feb 2019
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