“Tears of Rage”

I bought it at the Centenary Book Sale years ago and read it this month because he is coming to speak at the Gingerbread House event, which I attend every year.

Plot: Walsh traces the steps that led him from being a grieving father to the host of “America’s Most Wanted,” the Fox true-crime show that hunted down criminals every week through a toll-free tip line. Walsh is driven by the unsolved 1981 abduction from Sears and murder of his 6-year-old son, Adam. His anger and frustration over a “bumbling” police investigation of his son’s murder is evident throughout. Walsh and the show have been instrumental in the capture of nearly 450 of this country’s most dangerous fugitives.

Why you would recommend this book: I recommend the book for anyone who is grieving and needs a purpose or is interested in crime. It is gruesome, heart-breaking and not easy to read, but intriguing. Adam’s death is gut-wrenching; he was beheaded. One story from the “America’s Most Wanted” show was about a woman who used to put cocaine up her baby’s nose and then spray him with insecticide because she liked to watch him go into convulsions. So, be prepared to cringe.

That moment you were on the edge of your seat: I was enthralled throughout the book. It was hard to put down even though I knew the outcome. It’s interesting that Walsh once saved someone from drowning in his younger years and how grateful that child’s father was. But then Walsh loses his own precious son. I also did not know his wife was having an affair with a good family friend. Walsh does not turn on her; their marriage continued to work, and they had more children together.

Lasting impressions: I work as a legislative assistant for State Sen. Barrow Peacock. He often gets his bill ideas from constituents. So, the part that struck me was how a heartbroken couple from Florida with no money and no lobby and no resources and nobody behind them except a bunch of caring, passionate people with no real power actually helped get federal bills passed.

This took place back before you really heard much about missing children. Walsh has been to all 50 state Legislatures. I have already used him as an example in a talk that I gave about my job as a legislative assistant and how one person can make a difference.

The impression on the grieving angle occurs as Walsh saw a banner that said, “If His song is to continue, then we must do the singing,” which he applied to Adam. A medical examiner’s words helped Walsh cope. Here is a summary of his words. There is goodness and there is evil. It’s the old saying that all evil needs to succeed is for good men to do nothing. What you are living will not destroy you in and of itself. But if you let it, it will take you down, and then the evil will have victimized you twice. You will become the second victim of this killer. If you allow him to, he will destroy you as well. The medical examiner said he loved it when his testimony put someone who deserves it onto death row because that meant he was on the side of good and others are on the side of evil.

I think the book reiterated how a strong family is so important in upbringing. Walsh’s father was very organized from his military service, and it trickled down to his son. There was a line from the father that I particularly liked that said, “I’m training you for the fourth quarter, when the other team is as tired as you are. Everybody’s got bloody noses and broken fingers, but what wins in overtime is guts. Victory belongs to the person who stays calmest and coolest, who hangs in and toughs it out and goes the distance.” The elder Walsh said nothing was more dangerous in the world than a disorganized crew and that preparation is important.

Walsh seemed very organized in the crisis. It’s amazing how many ways he sought to find his son. They used pilots carrying posters of Adam. Psychics stepped in. He found out that morgues only had information on missing bodies of those in their own county and no real way to communicate that to other parts of the state and that teletypes coming into the police station from other counties were not read. The media was crucial in his story. In fact, there is a Shreveport connection. Jay Grelen, a former Times columnist, is mentioned. As a Mobile Register reporter, he examined the Walsh case 15 years after Adam’s disappearance and successfully sued to force the Hollywood, Fla., police department to release its investigative file.

– Mary Ann Van Osdell