Where is Walter Collins? (Walter Collins)

·47 min·3 clips

Captain J.J. Jones had Christine committed under a Code 12 after she said the boy was not Walter.

1. Cold Case Chase centers this episode on the 1928 disappearance of Walter Collins in Los Angeles. 2. Matt Ruckstar hosts and Renee reacts in real time, and their banter matters because it frames the case as both narrative and commentary. 3. The episode asks where Walter Collins went after he left for a movie in the Mount Washington neighborhood. 4. Walter Collins was nine years old, Christine Collins worked as a telephone operator, and Walter J. Collins was serving time in Folsom Prison on robbery charges. 5. Walter left home on March 10, 1928, wearing a lumber jacket, black oxfords, brown corduroy trousers, and a gray cap. 6. Christine reported him missing on March 15, 1928, after five days without his return. 7. The host links the public fear to the Marion Parker kidnapping and murder three months earlier in Los Angeles. 8. Tips came from Oakland, San Francisco, and Glendale, including one report that Walter was wrapped in newspapers in the back of a car. 9. The police searched for months and followed hundreds of leads that went nowhere. 10. The case became nationally visible because Los Angeles police faced pressure to solve another child disappearance. 11. Five months later, police in DeKalb, Illinois found a boy claiming to be Walter and exchanged photographs and letters with Christine. 12. Christine paid $70 to have the boy brought to Los Angeles, and she told police he was not her son when they met. 13. Captain J.J. Jones told her to take the boy home and later accused her of trying to make fools of the police. 14. Jones committed Christine to Los Angeles County Hospital under a Code 12 after her refusal persisted. 15. The boy later identified himself as Arthur Hutchins Jr., a 12-year-old runaway from Iowa. 16. Arthur said he had posed as Walter because he wanted to reach Hollywood and meet silent cowboy star Tom Mix. 17. Christine sued the LAPD, won a judgment of $10,800, and Jones was suspended and later reinstated. 18. The episode then shifts to Gordon Stewart Northcott, his mother Sarah Louise Northcott, and the Wineville chicken coop murders tied to Sanford Clark. 19. The tone is dark, argumentative, and joking at times, with Renee challenging the hosts’ assumptions and Jones’s conduct. 20. Listeners interested in historical true-crime, LAPD history, and wrongful institutional treatment will get the most from it.

As heard by us

A missing boy, a false identification, and police eager to close the case.

Cold Case Chase treats Walter Collins' disappearance in 1920s Los Angeles as a story about people wanting the wrong answer to feel good enough.

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Why you'd press play

You get a very dark 1920s Los Angeles disappearance case with enough banter to keep it moving.

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