The Real Batman

Today I attended a Get Motivated Seminar in Fort Lauderdale. The speakers were Rudy Giuliani, Zig Ziglar, Gen. Colin Powell, DR. Robert Schuller, Dwyane Wade, Dan Marino and John Walsh. They were all great motivators but the one who I connected with the best was John Walsh from the TV show “America’s Most Wanted”. John has always been a personal hero of mine. I always tell my kids that he is the real life version of Batman. In 1981, John’s six year old son was abducted and murdered by a drifter in Hollywood, Florida. His son Adam was in the Sear’s toy department watching some older boys play Colecovision and Atari video games. A teenage security guard kicked the rowdy boys out of the store along the six year old Adam who was waiting for his mom while she picked out a lamp. That was the moment that serial killer Ottis Toole capitalized on. No one knew that Adam was thrown out of the store. That was information that was just released last year by the Hollywood Police Dept. At the time there was no system in place to help locate missing children. No tracking system of known pedophiles or communications between police organizations and morgues. John and his wife Reve fought to change that. They helped bring about the Missing Children’s Assistance Act and help form the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. John was approached by the newly created Fox Network to host a reality show AMW that would track down criminals. He reluctantly agreed to host the Pilot since it’s focus was a child serial killer.

I have always felt a connection to this case. As a twelve year old boy, I played the video games daily at the Sears Mall where Adam was abducted. Except that day. I was even on the local News playing the very same games the next day. I thought that carrying a pocket knife would protect me from any one who would want to harm me. I remember the posters for Adam all over Hollywood. The freedom to go out and play was lost. Parents were terrified that their kids would be next. How a once vibrant neighborhood became almost vacant around Halloween. Everyone was scared, it took awhile before the murderer was caught. John is one guy who turned a horrible situation into an opportunity to make the world a better place to live. He has helped capture over 1000 fugitives…and that was done with video.



Reenactments to tell a story, that is how America’s Most Wanted is able to relay the information in a gripping format that requires a call to action from it’s viewers. You too can use reenactments in your own video biographies to tell a visual story. Stock footage is readily available on the Internet and entire low cost libraries can be purchased off websites like www.digitaljuice.com. Old historical film can be downloaded for free from www.archive.org. These clips can help move along a narration and help illustrate the subjects recollections of their lives.