49 Facts About Erwin Walker

Erwin Walker was born Erwin Mathias Walker in 1917 to Weston and Irene Walker, and was raised in Glendale, California.

Weston Walker was a Los Angeles County flood control engineer, and his uncle Herbert V Walker was a prominent Los Angeles lawyer and Chief Deputy District Attorney who became a Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge.

Erwin Walker was stationed in Brisbane, Australia, where he attended the South West Pacific Area US Army Officer Candidate School at Camp Columbia, Wacol.

In 1944, Erwin Walker graduated from OCS and was commissioned a second lieutenant in the US Army.

Erwin Walker was apparently well liked by the soldiers who worked with him, and he was reputed to be more than usually considerate of them.

In later testimony, Erwin Walker related that upon arrival at Leyte, he and another officer, a close friend, selected the emplacement for the radar and took routine security measures but did not post a day guard because of standing orders.

Erwin Walker learned that John Brake of Rocky Mount, North Carolina, his closest friend, who was his commanding officer and fellow Signal Corps OCS graduate, had been bayoneted in the neck and disemboweled in the initial assault.

Erwin Walker was released from active duty in the South Pacific in December 1944, but was promoted to first lieutenant in July 1945, three months after his arrival in the United States.

Erwin Walker later described his guilt over his best friend's death, which he believed might have been prevented if he had ordered his men to dig foxholes.

Erwin Walker's family said that he was morose, melancholy, taciturn, brooding, rough with small children, secretive, and difficult.

Erwin Walker took several jobs but always quit them after a short time.

Erwin Walker turned down an offer from the Glendale Police Department to return to his old job, reportedly because of the low pay.

Erwin Walker was reportedly often seen brandishing a machine gun.

Early in 1945, still on active duty as an Army First Lieutenant, Erwin Walker burglarized an auto repair garage, taking a set of tools, voltmeter, and radio tuner.

Erwin Walker next broke into a clothing store and took several pieces of men's clothing.

Erwin Walker next targeted the warehouses and offices of record and film companies, taking amplifiers, electronic equipment, records, movie projectors, recording turntables, cameras, and other equipment.

Erwin Walker rented a garage, fitting it out as an experimental workshop.

Erwin Walker later explained that his crimes were motivated by a desire to gather funds and equipment to build an electronic radar gun so that he could force the government to pass legislation raising soldiers' pay.

Erwin Walker opened fire, and Forbes was hit in the abdomen at pointblank range after his own pistol jammed.

Erwin Walker recovered although doctors were unable to remove the bullet and had to leave it in place.

In May 1946, Erwin Walker committed another burglary by stealing rolls of safety-detonating fuse and priming cord.

On June 5,1946, Erwin Walker drove to a meat market at the corner of Los Feliz Boulevard and Brunswick Avenue in Glendale, California.

Erwin Walker then hid the bolt cutters in an adjoining area, got into his car, and drove around the block to see if he had been observed.

Erwin Walker watched the person with the flashlight enter a car and drive it toward him.

Erwin Walker responded that he was going to see a girlfriend.

Erwin Walker testified that he shot Officer Roosevelt twice, ducked, and ran, abandoning his own car and again escaping via the storm drains.

Erwin Walker then elaborated that Roosevelt had asked him to call an ambulance, and Erwin Walker responded that he would do nothing for him.

Erwin Walker's abandoned car was found to contain bolt cutters, a loaded Thompson submachine gun, a bag of tools, sap, sash cord, bell wire, hacksaw blades, hand drill, electric drill, crescent wrenches, pry bar, extension cord, hammer, pliers, wire cutters, nitroglycerine, adhesive tape, a percussion-type dynamite blasting cap crimped to a white blasting fuse, and a primer cord attached to the percussion cap.

Erwin Walker then experimented with making California license plates and drivers' licenses, which could be used in selling several cars that he had stolen.

Erwin Walker's apartment was filled with weapons, ammunition, and license plates; three cars that had been stolen by Erwin Walker were found nearby.

Erwin Walker had apparently been expecting to be stopped by police again, as one of his stolen cars was fitted with a loaded Thompson submachine gun set to automatic fire and fixed in position so as to fire through the driver's door.

Erwin Walker stated that he had treated those on his own.

Wynn stated that Erwin Walker "kept asking me for opiates" and asked the detective to request some from the doctor.

Wynn stated that after he tried unsuccessfully to reach Girard, he asked if Erwin Walker had any objection to going to Griffith Park and Soledad Canyon to recover articles that Erwin Walker had left there.

Finally, one of Erwin Walker's cousins was intellectually disabled, while the cousin's father had "psycho-neurosis".

Mrs Walker stated that Erwin was kind and affectionate while he was growing up but returned from the war as a depressed loner.

Erwin Walker was sent to death row in San Quentin to await execution of his sentence.

Erwin Walker was successfully revived, and the execution was postponed indefinitely while a psychiatric examination was performed.

At his competency hearing, Erwin Walker was declared insane by a jury and committed to the Mendocino State Hospital in Talmage, California, where he would remain the next 12 years.

In 1961, Erwin Walker was declared sane by a newly convened panel of psychiatric examiners.

Erwin Walker was sent to the CMF State Prison Facility, Vacaville to serve out his sentence, where he continued studying chemistry while he worked in a laboratory on the prison campus.

Erwin Walker was reportedly well-liked by both patients and staff, and as a result, he was granted a "white card," which permitted him access to hiking trails located outside the hospital building but within the boundaries of institutional property.

Erwin Walker was concerned about eventually being sent back to death row and so he put together a back pack with food and escaped, walking several miles through nearby hills.

Erwin Walker was returned to the hospital and his white card privileges revoked, but he re-established himself as a model patient and was recruited to be a mentor in a Senior-Junior Big Brother type program on Ward 21, which housed responsible adult men, mostly military veterans, and dysfunctional teenage boys.

Erwin Walker continued to do well at Atascadero State Hospital until one day, without notice, he was given just a few minutes to get ready to be transferred back to the state prison system.

Erwin Walker took time to make sure that the property he borrowed from other patients was returned and to say goodbye to many of his friends.

In 1970, Erwin Walker filed a habeas corpus petition with the Supreme Court of California, which was denied without a hearing.

Erwin Walker filed a similar petition in the Solano County Superior Court and sought to have his 1947 trial set aside on several grounds, including an allegation that his 1946 confession had been made involuntarily.

Erwin Walker applied for parole in 1974, which was granted, and he was released from Vacaville.