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John Walsh's 'America's Most Wanted' Reaches 1000th Episode
A true crime-stopping milestone
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'America's Most Wanted' TV
show reaches 1000th episode,
a true crime-stopping milestone |
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John Walsh's 'America's Most Wanted' Reaches 1000th Episode
A true crime-stopping milestone
by Jeanne Wolf
Parade Magazine
March 5, 2010 |
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John Walsh has become a force for justice, channeling his anger about the abduction and murder of his son Adam into the Fox TV series America's Most Wanted. Since 1988, he has helped capture a chilling array of violent criminals.
In the 1000th episode, which airs tomorrow night, Walsh is joined by President Obama, who declares his commitment to fund the Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act, which would create a national sex-offender registry. Parade.com's Jeanne Wolf discovered the fire that fuels Walsh to stand up for the victims of crimes around the world.
Who Are The World's Most Wanted?
Even he's surprised at his success.
"I don't think anybody would have seen America's Most Wanted lasting past a week. I remember the naysayers going, 'How can you take the father of a murdered child and make him the host of a show trying to catch bad guys?' People forget we were the first reality show. I'm not sure anything on TV, reality-wise, these days is in touch with reality like we are. We're in our twenty-second year after doing a thousand episodes and capturing eleven-hundred criminals."
One he's especially proud of.
"Probably one of our biggest captures ever was late last year. It was Paul Merhige, the guy wanted for that quadruple homicide in Florida. He was estranged from his family, but went to Thanksgiving dinner and shot a 73-year-old woman, twin sisters, one of them pregnant, and then went into the bedroom of a little girl who had just danced 'The Nutcracker Suite' for him and shot her five times. My wife focused me in on it and said, 'We're from South Florida. You've gotta saddle up and bring him down.' I met the surviving family members and said, 'I hope we can catch this guy and I'm putting it on the show.' Ten minutes after it aired we got the tip that got him caught. It was unbelievable."
See photos of Fugitives at Large
The one he'll never forget.
"It was the first. He was an FBI top-ten most-wanted killer named David James Roberts who escaped while serving five life sentences. He raped 17 women. He murdered four people, two of them small children. We got the tip that led police to him three days after our show aired."
Casting a worldwide net.
"We caught more violent criminals in 2009 than we've caught in any year since this show's been on the air. The bad guys know no boundaries. We caught a guy in China, we caught a guy in India, countries where we never caught anybody before. It's because of our Web site and because of the globalization of the world through the Internet. So you look at what you're doing and there's that time when you say, 'Boy, this is one powerful, kick-ass tool.'"
New Ways To Stop Crime
Trying to leave the nightmares at work.
"Going home keeps me humble. Like my wife is saying, 'You gotta take out the garbage.' And with your kids, you're just 'dad.' I try to do everything I can to forget about things we put on the show. I do not want you to come to dinner and talk about murder, death, mayhem. It's not good for you. It's not good for the family. You have got to put that behind you."
The ones that get away.
"I don't think anybody knows the total of unsolved rapes and murders and molestations in this country alone. One thing I've learned in traveling these 23 years is that we are the most violent industrialized society. There's no excuse for it. We put up with this huge level of gun violence and we desensitize it. On the show, we just scratch the surface of unsolved crimes. We're the court of last resort. Eventually, a cold case becomes a statistic because there are 15 new ones to deal with. I know that pain."
Why he's crusading for a law requiring DNA samples.
"We need every state to have the guts to pass a law saying, 'We're going to swab upon arrest.' I'm a civil libertarian. I do not believe in 'Big Brother.' But if you've ever had a credit card, everybody's got your identity -- everybody in Nigeria, Romania and everywhere else, the bad guys have got your information. So I don't think we should over-emphasize privacy when it comes to catching violent criminals. We need that law. I hope one day that every state will take DNA upon arrest and the Federal government will be able to do it on a timely basis." |
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