Episode description

The 1980s had some memorable fads and crazes—hair metal bands, neon leotards, the Walkman… and criminal profiling!

By the mid-1980s, profilers were regularly consulting with the FBI to solve challenging cases and the job was attracting big personalities. Soon after, criminal profiling became a pop-culture sensation, thanks in large part to the 1991 blockbuster, The Silence of the Lambs. 

One big name, and even bigger ego, in the criminal profiling world, was Richard Walter. Walter had an impressive resume, claiming to have reviewed thousands of murder cases, written criminology papers, lectured at universities, and served as an expert witness on hundreds of trials. Having worked as a staff psychologist at a prison in his earlier years, Walter had a profound understanding of the criminal mind. And he loved telling everyone about it. 

In 1982, Walter served as an expert witness on a trial that convicted Robie Drake of second-degree murder and sentenced him to more than 40 years in prison. Walter was able to convince the jury that an accidental shooting followed by panicked stabbing and body hiding was all based on a sexually perverse rampage by Drake in the name of piquerism (the sexual interest in penetrating the skin with sharp objects). What was the end of Drake’s freedom became the beginning of Walter's new career as a criminal profiler. Walter loved nothing more than cheeseburgers, cigarettes, reducing all motives down to sexual perversion, and being the centre of attention. 

Toward the end of 1989, Walter befriended Frank Bender, a forensic sculptor, and Bill Fleischer, an ex-FBI agent with a penchant for murder. The three of them hit it off and formed The Vidocq Society, named after Eugène-François Vidocq, a 19th-century French criminal turned detective who is considered the father of modern criminology. 

Before long, The Vidocq Society was helping the FBI and county police solve cold cases left, right and centre and they were a hit with the media too. There was even a book written about the club, leveraging heavily off Walter’s impressive resume. 

One case in the book which Walter claimed credit for solving was the famous Australian murder case of former beauty queen, Anita Cobby. But when lead investigator, Ian Kennedy, was questioned about Walter’s involvement in the case, he had never heard of him. 

The same goes for the case of Paul Bernard Allain. Walter very quickly concluded that Allain’s boss had murdered him in a homosexual affair gone wrong. However, even cursory fact-checking revealed Allain didn’t appear in any legal documents or publicly recorded databases. Walter’s rebuttal: “Oh, I work on many super secret, high-profile cases that you can’t find anything out about”.

Also for the record, Walter seemed to have a bit of a preoccupation with linking murders to sex crimes or homosexuality. Homosexual panic was his default motive. 

Now, back to Robie Drake. While serving his time in jail, Drake started doing his own profiling on Walter and asked for his case to be reviewed citing numerous lies from Walter about his own expertise. The courts eventually reviewed the case only to find further evidence against Drake (remember, Drake was definitely guilty) and extended his sentence to a further 10 years in prison BUT it was discovered that Walter had perjured himself.

This triggered several other cases reliant on Walter’s expert testimony to be revisited. And as of this year, at least three murder convictions have been overturned.

So how much of Walter’s resume was slightly padded versus a bold-faced lie? Why did he avoid detection and/or punishment? How many wrongful convictions and overly severe sentences remain out there? And tell me, listener, have the lambs stopped screaming?

SOURCES:

• The Case of the Fake Sherlock - Richard Walter was hailed as a genius criminal profiler. How did he get away with his fraud for so long? 11 April 2023
• The Vidocq Society: Murder on the menu Telegraph UK 21 November 2008 
• Drake a free man after 32 years | Local News | lockportjournal.com By Amy Wallace 6 Nov, 2014

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