Ottis Toole was convicted of committing six murders between 1980 and 1983, but he admitted to killing more than 100 victims, including Adam Walsh, the six-year-old son of America's Most Wanted host John Walsh.
Warning: This article contains graphic descriptions and/or images of violent, disturbing, or otherwise potentially distressing events.
Public DomainOttis Toole was convicted of killing six people between 1980 and 1983, but that number may be much higher.
If Ottis Toole’s confessions are to be believed, he may have been one of the deadliest serial killers in modern American history. He and his partner-in-crime, Henry Lee Lucas, claimed that their murder spree in the 1970s and early ’80s resulted in more than 100 deaths — and Toole even admitted that he cannibalized some of their victims.
However, the men’s confessions would prove to be riddled with falsehoods, and Toole was ultimately convicted of just six murders. Investigators have also attributed the 1981 death of Adam Walsh, the six-year-old son of America’s Most Wanted host John Walsh, to Toole. He was never officially charged with the crime, as the police lost all the physical evidence against him, but he did admit to kidnapping and killing the boy before recanting his statement in 1983.
Toole’s disturbing story begins long before he met Lucas, however. His childhood was full of abuse, he had an IQ that classified him as having a “borderline” intellectual disability, and he dropped out of school and began his life of crime when he was just a teenager.
Ottis Toole was ultimately sentenced to life in prison for his grisly crimes, and he died behind bars from liver failure in September 1996 at age 49.
The Horrific Early Life Of Ottis Toole
Ottis Elwood Toole was born in Jacksonville, Florida, in 1947. After his father abandoned the family, he was raised by his cruel and abusive mother, who purportedly forced him to wear dresses and called him Susan. His life was marked by trauma from a young age, as he was sexually abused by friends and relatives, including his own sister.
Toole’s grandmother had a detrimental impact on his early life, as well. According to The Encyclopedia of Serial Killers, she was a Satanist who enlisted him to help her rob graves to collect body parts that she then used in her “charms.”
In addition to this disturbing home life, young Toole also struggled with academics. He had an IQ of just 75, and he dropped out of school in eighth grade. He began his criminal career not long after.
Jacksonville Sheriff’s OfficeOttis Toole after his arrest for arson in 1983.
Toole claimed that he committed his first murder when he was just 14. A traveling salesman coerced him to have sex, and Toole responded by running the man over with his own car. Around the same time, he began burning down abandoned houses, committing petty theft, and loitering.
While his activities over the next decades remain unclear, authorities believe Toole drifted across the country, supporting himself through sex work. In 1974, he became a suspect in the murder of 24-year-old Patricia Webb, who was fatally shot in Nebraska. Two similar crimes that took place in Colorado later that year have also been attributed to Toole. However, he was never charged in any of the murders, and he’d returned to Florida by 1976.
It was then that he met a man at a Jacksonville soup kitchen who would change his life forever.
The Grisly Killing Spree Of Ottis Toole And Henry Lee Lucas
Henry Lee Lucas had already served 10 years in prison for killing his mother when he met Ottis Toole.
Like Toole, Lucas had survived a childhood full of abuse before dropping out of school at a young age, drifting around, and committing various crimes. He was sentenced to four years in prison for burglary in 1954 at the age of 17, and just four months after he was released, he fatally stabbed his mom in the neck during an argument.
Lucas claimed he’d acted in self-defense, but he was convicted of second-degree murder and sent back to prison. His initial sentence was for up to 40 years, but he was released in 1970 after just a decade due to overcrowding. Then, in 1971, he was imprisoned once again for attempting to kidnap a 15-year-old girl. He spent four more years behind bars, and it wasn’t long after he gained his freedom once more that he met Ottis Toole in Jacksonville.
TCD/Prod.DB / Alamy Stock PhotoHenry Lee Lucas was ultimately convicted of 11 total murders, though he also claimed to have killed hundreds of victims.
It remains unclear exactly what happened next. The two men began a sexual relationship and set off on a deadly crime spree, but nobody knows how many people they really killed. Toole ultimately admitted to playing a role in 108 murders throughout the late 1970s and early ’80s, but most investigators involved in the case believe that number is much lower.
This is because Lucas and Toole had a tendency to lie about their criminal exploits. Henry Lee Lucas even earned the nickname “The Confession Killer” due to his habit of admitting to unsolved homicides, and Toole seemingly gave false statements to corroborate these claims.
Ottis Toole also told investigators that they’d committed murders for a cult called “The Hands of Death.” The police were unable to find any evidence that this group ever existed.
In the end, Toole was convicted of six murders. The first was that of 64-year-old George Sonnenberg in January 1982, when he locked Sonnenberg in the boarding house where he lived and set it on fire. Toole confessed to this crime after he was arrested for an unrelated arson incident 15 months later, claiming that he and Sonnenberg were lovers and he’d started the fire after an argument.
Between Sonnenberg’s death and his arrest in April 1983, Toole killed 19-year-old Ada Johnson after kidnapping her from a Tallahassee nightclub at gunpoint. Johnson’s murder went unsolved until Toole admitted to it after his conviction for Sonnenberg’s murder.
It was also after his 1983 arrest that Ottis Toole confessed to his most infamous crime: the murder of Adam Walsh.
The Gruesome Crime That Inspired ‘America’s Most Wanted’
In July 1981, six-year-old Adam Walsh, the son of America’s Most Wanted host John Walsh, vanished from a mall in Hollywood, Florida. Two weeks later, his severed head was found in a canal over 100 miles away.
According to a 1984 UPI report, Toole told investigators, “I got in my mind I’m going to kidnap the kid, get him in my car and keep him for myself.” However, when Adam wouldn’t stop crying, Toole grew angry and beat him to death.
The serial killer then used a machete to cut off Adam’s head and drove around with the remains for a few days before dumping them. Detectives did find blood-stained carpet in the back of Toole’s car — but they lost the vehicle.
Public DomainAdam Walsh was just six years old when he was kidnapped and murdered in 1981.
Because Toole recanted his confession and there was no physical evidence remaining against him, he was never officially charged with the crime. However, officials attribute Adam’s death to Ottis Toole and consider the case closed.
While Toole wasn’t convicted of Adam Walsh’s murder, he was sentenced to life in prison for the deaths of George Sonnenberg and Ada Johnson. He later admitted to four other killings that took place in the Jacksonville area between 1980 and 1983 and was convicted of the murders of John McDaniel, Jerilyn Peoples, Brenda Burton, and Mary Ruby McCary.
He received four more life sentences for these crimes, but he wouldn’t be behind bars for long.
The Disturbing Legacy Of Ottis Toole
Ottis Toole died from liver failure in his prison cell on Sept. 15, 1996, at age 49. Before his death, however, he admitted to crimes that would cement him as one of the most deranged serial killers in American history.
In addition to killing 108 people alongside Henry Lee Lucas, Toole claimed to have engaged in cannibalism. According to transcripts from a November 1983 phone call between Toole and Lucas published by UPI, Toole stated that he’d eaten several of his victims.
NetflixOttis Toole and Henry Lee Lucas both died in prison.
“I been meaning to ask you,” Toole told Lucas. “That time when I cooked some of those people. Why’d I do that?”
Lucas replied, “I think it was just the hands doing it. I know a lot of the things we done, in human sight are impossible to believe.”
Toole then went on, “When we took ’em out and cut ’em up… Remember one time I said I wanted me some ribs. Did that make me a cannibal?… I even took fire and burnt the bodies. Some tastes like real meat when it’s got barbecue sauce on it.”
In the end, there is no evidence for Ottis Toole’s claims of cannibalism or proof that he murdered dozens of people aside from his own confessions. Still, his macabre story earns him a spot as one of the most chilling serial killers of all time.
After learning about the crimes of Ottis Toole, go inside the story of Doug Clark and the Sunset Strip Killers. Then, learn about David Berkowitz and the “Son of Sam” murders.
