Toole was a suspect in the killing of six-year-old Adam Walsh, whose 1981 disappearance from a Hollywood, Florida mall set off a nationwide manhunt. Toole confessed to killing the boy, but he later recanted and was never charged.

John Walsh, Adam’s father, says that the Hollywood Police Department made mistakes that could have proved Toole was the killer. A bloody piece of carpet taken from Toole’s car and potentially bearing Adam Walsh’s DNA was lost by the police.

Toole was associated with Henry Lee Lucas, who at one point claimed he and Toole had killed as many as 600 people. Lucas later recanted his claim but was convicted in Texas of one murder and has been on Death Row since 1985. Otis Toole, who was serving a 20-term for arson in Florida, died in prison in 1996.