In the quiet community of Manchester, Michigan, the life of 28-year-old Floyd Beatty was brought to a violent and tragic end on March 1, 1979. On that fateful day, Beatty was fatally shot as he answered a knock at the front door of his home in Manchester Township. The sudden and brutal nature of his death left the community in shock and his case went unsolved for many years, becoming a painful cold case for law enforcement and a long-held mystery for the residents of the small town.
For decades, there were no answers and no justice for the young man whose life was cut short.
The silence surrounding Floyd Beatty's murder was finally broken in 2010 with a stunning confession from a man already behind bars. Anthony Guy Walker, who was serving a prison sentence for a 1996 rape conviction, admitted to being the one who pulled the trigger and ended Beatty's life. Walker's confession revealed a chilling tale of a contract killing. He told investigators that he had been hired to kill Beatty and was paid $2,000 to carry out the act. His calm recounting of the events from that day in 1979, where he simply knocked on the door and shot the man who answered, brought a dark chapter in Manchester's history to a close.
Further investigation into Anthony Guy Walker's past unveiled a horrifying truth; he was a serial killer. His confession to the murder of Floyd Beatty was part of a larger admission to a string of other killings. As part of a plea deal, Walker pleaded guilty to multiple murders, ensuring he would spend the rest of his life in prison. While the motive for the contract on Beatty's life was believed to be drug-related, the resolution of the case after more than three decades finally provided long-awaited answers and a measure of closure to the family and community that had been haunted by his unsolved murder.
