Walter Collins' Mother Was Put in A Psychiatric Hospital For Not Believing That An Imposter Was Her Son.

 

Walter Conrad Collins was a happy boy. He was quiet and well behaved. He had a dog named "Tiny" who was his best friend. 

Walter was born on September 23rd, 1918 in Venice, Los Angeles County, California. His parents were Walter Joseph Anson Collins and Christine Ida Dunne Collins.

Christine worked as a manager for the telephone company when she had met a man who went by the name Walter Joseph Collins. 

Walter Joseph Collins worked for the streetcar system and is real last name was really Anson. Anson had been sentenced in 1910 for 4 robberies totaling $179. He got 10 years in Folsom but was paroled. He also spent 3 years in San Quentin.

Christine and Anson married in 1916. They moved to Lincoln Heights where Christine gave birth to Walter two years later.

In 1923, Anson was sentenced to Folsom State Prison for armed robbery of street cars.

On March 10th, 1928 nine year old Walter had been given money by his mother to go to the movies. As darkness begin to settle in, and Walter was not home yet, Christine began to worry. She thought that maybe Walter was playing somewhere nearby, but after a few hours she decided to report him missing to police.

At first, Christine Collins, and the police believed that enemies of Anson had abducted Walter, but they never found any evidence to support their suspicions. After a nationwide search turned out to be fruitless as well, the police were faced with negative publicity. That is, until five months after Walter disappeared.

A boy claiming to be Walter was found in DeKalb, Illinois. Letters and photographs were exchanged and Christine paid for the boy to be brought to California. A public reunion was then organized by the police, who hoped to negate the bad publicity.

When the boy arrived, even though he resembled Walter, Christine knew that he was not her son. The police were under immense pressure and refused to believe Christine's out cries that the boy was not Walter. However, eventually Christine caved to the cops urgings to "try the boy out" and she took him home.

The boy seemed to have memory problems but after a while he began to tell fragmented stories of working on a farm. He also about after he was abducted, his captures made him steal and then abandoned him to live a "hobo life."

Christine still wasn't convinced that the boy was her Walter. Even though she was armed with dental records proving her case, Christine was committed to the psychiatric ward at Los Angeles County Hospital under a "Code 12" which meant that she was jailed or committed because she was deemed difficult or an inconvenience.

Eventually, police discovered a "murder farm" in another part of California. They were looking for Sarah Northcott and her son Gordon. They seemed to be involved in the murder of four boys. The police also had picked up a boy named Sanford Clark who claimed that one of the murder victims was Walter Collins.

Clark was Gordon's nephew. Gordon moved from British Columbia to Los Angeles, California with his parents in 1924. Two years later, Gordon asked his father to purchase a plot of land in the community of Wineville, California, where he built a chicken ranch and a house with the help of both his father and Clark. Upon Clark's arrival to the Wineville ranch, Gordon began to beat and sexually abuse Clark.

In August 1928, Clark's 19-year-old older sister Jessie visited him at the Wineville ranch. Clark told her that he feared for his life. Jessie learned from Clark that Gordon had murdered four boys at his ranch with an ax. Once she returned to Canada one week later, Jessie informed an American consul there of what Gordon had done. The consul then wrote a letter to the Los Angeles Police Department detailing Jessie's sworn complaint. 

On August 31st, 1928, two Immigration Service inspectors visited the ranch and took Clark into custody while Gordon and his mother had fled to Canada.

Clark told authorities about three shallow graves at the ranch. When the graves were searched there were a few body parts discovered. 

Now the police didn't want to believe the story that Clark was spinning. However, Clark was so resolute in his resolved they decided to re-question the boy whom they assumed was Walter. And when they did they got the shock of their lives. The boy broke down and cried, "No, i am not Walter Collins. I was only playing that i was." He admitted that he was really 12-year-old Arthur Hutchins Jr., a runaway from Iowa. His motive for posing as Walter was to get to Hollywood so he could meet his favorite actor, Tom Mix. Christine was released ten days after Hutchins admitted that he was not her son and filed a lawsuit against the Los Angeles Police Department.

Finally Gordon and Sarah were arrested near Vernon, British Columbia on September 19th, 1928. Two months later, the police took Gordon back to his ranch to get more information. While there, he verbally confessed to five murders, including Nelson and Lewis Winslow, Walter Collins, and a Mexican boy named Alvin Gothea. He However later that day, Gordon changed his tune and in a written confession claimed that his only victim was Alvin.

Sarah also confessed to the murder of Walter Collins. She said she delivered the final blow to the boy and then buried him in a hole near the chicken coop. She was placed on trial for Walter's murder and was found guilty. At her sentencing Clark testified that Gordon had kidnapped, molested, beaten, and killed three young boys with the help of Sarah and Clark himself. Clark also testified about Alvin's murder, after which Gordon had forced Clark to help dispose of the victim's head by burning it in a fire pit and then crushing the skull. Gordon stated that he "left the headless body by the side of the road near Puente because he had no other place to put it." He stated that quicklime was used to dispose of the remains and that the bodies were buried on the ranch.

Sarah was sentenced to life in prison in December 1928. She served less than 12 years of her sentence before being paroled. And died in 1944.

Gordon’s trial began in January 1929.  He fired several defense attorneys and decided to defend himself. He admitted to abusing boys because he loved them. His mother testified for him and claimed she was actually his grandmother. She said that her husband had raped her daughter Winnefred and Gordon was Winnefred’s son. Gordon also claimed to have an incestuous relationship with Sarah and that his father had molested him. Sarah didn’t prove to be a very credible witness since the only continuous statement she made was that she would do anything for Gordon.

After a 27-day trial and two hours’ deliberation, the jury found Gordon guilty of the murders of the Winslow boys and Alvin. He was sentenced to death on February 19th, 1929. He was hanged in San Quentin on October 2nd 1930.

Clark spent a number of years at the Whittier State Industrial School for Boys. He was released and sent back to Canada and was never heard of again.

Christine did not accept the results of the trial and chose to believe and hope that Walter had survived because the State of California had never been able to find the entire body. Also a fifth suspected victim was found alive and well years later, leading Christine to believe there was a chance that Walter was still out there alive somewhere. Christine used aliases and lived alone through the 1950's. She died in Los Angeles on December 8th, 1964, at the age of 75.