Digital Collections of the Los Angeles Public LibraryChristine Collins, the mother of Walter Collins.
On March 10, 1928, Christine Collins gave her nine-year-old son Walter a dime so he could go see a movie. But Walter didn’t come back home.
Over the next five months, Christine desperately waited for news about her missing son. And that summer, when police announced that they’d found him, she thought that her terrible nightmare was finally over.
In fact, it was just beginning.
When Christine went to pick up her son, she was shocked to find a strange boy waiting for her. But the police insisted that the child was Walter and, when Christine insisted that it was not, they began to turn against her. The Los Angeles police accused Christine of being a bad mother and a “difficult” woman, and had her forcibly committed to a mental hospital.
This is the chilling true story behind the 2008 movie Changeling.
Walter Collins Goes Missing — And Is Replaced By An Imposter
Before Walter Collins vanished, Christine Collins lived a quiet life in the Mount Washington neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. She was raising her son alone — her ex-husband was in jail — and worked at a telephone company. But on March 10, 1928, nine-year-old Walter vanished.
Digital Collections of the Los Angeles Public LibraryWalter Collins went missing in March 1928.
As the Los Angeles Times reports, the police conducted a massive manhunt for Walter. They dredged a local lake, collected tips, and launched a national campaign to find the missing boy. But Walter remained missing.
Then, that August, a boy claiming to be Walter emerged in Illinois. As the Los Angeles Times reports, Christine Collins paid his $70 in travel fare, and eagerly waited to welcome her son home.
But when the boy arrived, Christine felt that something was very wrong.
“I do not think that is my son,” she said.
Christine Collins And The True Story Of Changeling
Despite her hesitation, the Los Angeles police urged Christine Collins to take the boy home. They were under enormous pressure and wanted to close the case; they purportedly told Christine to “try the boy out.”
Overwhelmed and emotionally exhausted, Christine agreed. But as the days passed, she became more convinced than ever that the boy was not her son, Walter. After three weeks, she went to the police and told them so.
With Walter’s dental records and the testimony of her friends, Christine confronted the police and insisted that the boy they had given her was not Walter. But police captain J.J. Jones refused to hear it.
Digital Collections of the Los Angeles Public LibraryLos Angeles police captain J.J. Jones, one of the main investigators into Walter Collins’ disappearance.
“What are you trying to do, make fools out of us all?” he allegedly exclaimed. “Or are you trying to shirk your duty as a mother and have the state provide for your son? You are the most cruel-hearted woman I’ve ever known.”
But Christine Collins refused to back down. As she later testified, Jones then told her: “You’re insane and ought to be in a madhouse. You’re under arrest and I’m going to send you to the psychopathic ward.”
Sure enough, the police had Christine forcibly committed to the Los Angeles County General Hospital’s psychiatric ward, under “Code 12” internment – meant for someone who is “deemed difficult or an inconvenience.”
The Truth About Walter Collins’ Imposter
During the five days that Christine Collins was in the psychiatric ward, the boy who claimed to be Walter Collins admitted that he had lied. He was not Walter. His name was actually Arthur Hutchins.
Digital Collections of the Los Angeles Public LibraryArthur Hutchins, a 12-year-old from Iowa who claimed to be Walter Collins.
As Hutchins confessed, he was 12 years old and from Iowa. After his mother died, he had run away from home to get away from his father and stepmother, hitchhiking and working odd jobs to survive. While at a cafe in Illinois, a fellow diner told him how much he looked like Walter Collins, whose image had appeared in newspapers across the country. Hutchins, primarily motivated by the idea of moving to Hollywood and meeting his favorite actor, Tom Mix, decided to impersonate the missing boy.
Christine Collins was subsequently released from the hospital, and she sued the city and the Los Angeles police for false imprisonment. Though it took two years and two trials, a judge ultimately ordered that Jones pay Christine $10,800 dollars. Claiming to be perpetually broke, Jones never did.
Meanwhile, the search for Walter Collins continued. And when the police discovered a serial killer, Gordon Stewart Northcott, who had been murdering young boys, they suggested that he’d killed Walter as well.
The Sad Final Years Of Christine Collins
In September 1928, Gordon Northcott was arrested while trying to flee to Canada. He was ultimately found guilty of kidnapping, molesting, and murdering three boys in the so-called Wineville Chicken Coop Murders. However, he could have had as many as 20 victims.
Los Angeles Public LibraryThe true number of children Gordon Northcott sexually abused and murdered is still unknown.
However, Christine Collins was never sure if Walter had been one of them.
She certainly had reason to distrust the police. And since neither Walter’s body nor his clothing or possessions were ever found at Northcott’s infamous ranch in Wineville (now called Mira Loma), Christine had reason to believe that Walter was still alive.
As the Los Angeles Times reports, Christine even received permission to visit Northcott before he was executed. Northcott had hinted that he would tell her the truth and provide closure, but when she arrived at the prison, the serial killer refused to reveal anything at all.
“I don’t want to see you,” he said when she arrived. “I don’t know anything about it. I’m innocent.”
Though most believe that Walter was, in fact, one of Northcott’s victims, one of the other boys Northcott was accused of killing later turned up alive. This gave Christine Collins a shred of hope about Walter, too.
She clung onto it for the rest of her life, hoping that Walter Collins would reappear. Sadly, by the time she died in 1964, just before her 76th birthday, her son remained missing.
After learning about Christine Collins, Walter Collins, and the true story behind “Changeling,” go inside the case of Bobby Dunbar, another missing child replaced by an imposter. Then, read about Nicholas Barclay, the missing 13-year-old from Texas who was replaced by 23-year-old imposter from France.
The post Christine Collins’ Nine-Year-Old Son Went Missing — Then The Los Angeles Police Tried To Send Her Home With An Impostor appeared first on All That’s Interesting.
