Edward Walton: The Drifter Who Confessed to Five Murders
Overview
Edward “Eddie” Walton was an American serial killer and itinerant laborer who confessed to killing five people in five states between 1896 and 1908. Born in Wilkes County, Georgia, Walton spent much of his adult life moving through the eastern and central United States. He frequently changed his name, using aliases such as Frank Harris and Frank Johnson to conceal his identity and distance himself from earlier crimes.
Walton’s murders were not recognized as the work of one man while they were occurring. The crimes were separated by hundreds of miles, committed over approximately twelve years and investigated by different local authorities. Several of his claims could not be independently confirmed, and at least one victim’s body was never recovered. Most of what is known about the wider series came from a confession Walton made shortly before his execution in 1908.
Early Life and the Beginning of His Criminal Activity
Walton said that he was born near a community known as Pistol, sometimes identified with Delhi, in Wilkes County, Georgia. His year of birth remains unknown. According to his later confession, his first serious act of violence occurred in 1890, when he killed a horse. That offense did not involve a human victim, but Walton described it as the beginning of his criminal history.
By 1896, Walton was traveling outside Georgia. He claimed that while in Blossburg, Alabama, he killed and robbed an unidentified man. Walton provided few details that could be used to identify the victim, and later efforts reportedly failed to locate a corresponding murder investigation. No surviving record has conclusively established the victim’s name or exact date of death.
The Murder of Edith Hanna in Chicago
Walton eventually traveled to Joliet, Illinois, where he became involved with a woman usually identified in contemporary accounts as Edith Hanna. Walton claimed that her surname was Hannon, but newspaper reports generally used Hanna or Hannah. The two were married or lived together as husband and wife beginning around 1902, but their relationship deteriorated, and they separated for approximately two years.
In August 1904, Walton attempted to persuade Edith to return to him. When she refused, he went to her residence at 81 South Peoria Street in Chicago. Walton shot her and fled before authorities could arrest him. Edith remained unconscious after the shooting and died three days later. Available accounts do not provide a consistently verified calendar date for either the shooting or her death beyond placing both events in August 1904.
Walton was reportedly known among people associated with Edith as the man responsible for the shooting, but investigators did not have a reliable description of him or a clear understanding of his true identity. He left the area before he could be taken into custody. Walton later claimed that he also attacked a man in Joliet who had some connection to Edith, but that victim survived.
Aliases and Continued Movement
After leaving Illinois, Walton traveled under assumed names. He used the identity Frank Harris while heading toward Raton, New Mexico. Concerned that he might be recognized, he changed his plans, continued to Gallup and began calling himself Frank Johnson. The use of aliases allowed him to move between communities at a time when law-enforcement agencies had limited means of rapidly sharing photographs, fingerprints and criminal records across state lines.
Walton continued committing crimes while traveling. In 1906, he admitted participating in the robbery of a stranger in Youngstown, Ohio. That victim was not included among his five admitted murder victims, and the available historical accounts provide little additional information about the robbery.
The Shooting of Marion Blue in Pennsylvania
During July 1906, Walton passed through Shippenville, Pennsylvania. He later claimed that he learned a man named Marion Blue and several companions intended to rob him. When Walton encountered Blue on a road, he believed Blue might draw a weapon. Walton fired three or four shots at him.
Blue did not die immediately. According to Walton’s confession, he survived for several months before dying from the effects of the shooting. The surviving accounts do not provide a verified exact date of death. Walton left Pennsylvania and was not prosecuted for the shooting during his lifetime.
The Killing of Mamie Gill Near Steubenville
Walton later traveled to Steubenville, Ohio, where he met a woman identified as Mamie Gill. Walton also suggested that she might have used the additional name Staunton. She was reportedly from Roanoke, Virginia. Walton and Gill represented themselves as a married couple and stayed at the home of a woman named Mrs. Brown at 132 South Seventh Street in Steubenville.
Walton took Gill to an area known as Crow Hollow, where he was apparently waiting to receive money. They remained there for several days, accompanied for at least part of the time by a man with whom Gill had previously lived. Walton later said that jealousy and repeated arguments fueled the violence that followed.
During the night of November 16–17, 1907, Walton and Gill quarreled after returning from a walk. Several miles from the residence where they were staying, Walton knocked her to the ground and beat and kicked her. He claimed that he was wearing heavy shoes and that one of his kicks struck her near the heart, killing her.
Walton said that he carried Gill’s body on his back for approximately half a mile before concealing it in bushes near a riverbank. He believed the body was later carried away by the water. No body conclusively identified as Gill was recovered, and authorities apparently had no corresponding record of her remains being found. Because the killing was known almost entirely through Walton’s confession, the precise date is generally given as the night spanning November 16 and November 17, 1907.
The Murder of Beulah Martin
Walton’s final known murder occurred on March 3, 1908, near Gypsy in Harrison County, West Virginia. His victim was Beulah Martin, a Black woman whom Walton reportedly shot after she refused his sexual demands. Unlike several of his earlier alleged crimes, Martin’s murder led directly to an intensive search, Walton’s capture and a first-degree murder prosecution.
After the shooting, Walton fled into the surrounding countryside. A posse estimated in contemporary reports at approximately 400 people pursued him through the hills. Walton eventually barricaded himself inside a barn and resisted capture for about two days.
During the standoff, Walton fired at his pursuers and seriously wounded three men. His resistance ended only after Sheriff Flanagan threatened to destroy the barn with explosives. Faced with the likelihood of being killed inside the structure, Walton surrendered.
Known and Confessed Victims
- Unidentified man — 1896 — Blossburg, Alabama: Walton claimed that he killed and robbed an unidentified man. The exact date and the victim’s identity were never established, and investigators were unable to conclusively verify the crime.
- Edith Hanna — August 1904 — 81 South Peoria Street, Chicago, Illinois: Walton shot his estranged wife or partner after she refused to resume their relationship. She died three days after the shooting without regaining consciousness. A consistently verified exact date of death is unavailable.
- Marion Blue — Shot in July 1906; died several months later — Shippenville, Pennsylvania: Walton shot Blue three or four times after claiming that he believed Blue intended to rob him. The exact date of Blue’s subsequent death is not available in surviving accounts.
- Mamie Gill, possibly also known as Mamie Staunton — November 16–17, 1907 — Crow Hollow near Steubenville, Ohio: Walton beat and kicked Gill during an argument and later concealed her body near a river. Her remains were never conclusively recovered.
- Beulah Martin — March 3, 1908 — Gypsy, West Virginia: Walton shot Martin after she reportedly rejected his sexual demands. Her murder resulted in Walton’s capture, conviction and execution.
Trial and Death Sentence
Walton was tried for the murder of Beulah Martin. The evidence in that case was sufficient to convict him of first-degree murder, and he was sentenced to death. He was transferred to the West Virginia Penitentiary in Moundsville to await execution.
The other murders were not necessary to secure his death sentence. Authorities initially knew him primarily through the identity Frank Johnson, but investigations and Walton’s own statements gradually revealed that he had traveled under several names. As his execution approached, he admitted that Martin was only the latest victim in a series extending back to 1896.
The Confession
Shortly before he was scheduled to die, Walton signed or dictated a confession describing five killings in Alabama, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia. The confession provided the first unified account connecting crimes that had previously appeared unrelated.
Some portions of the confession were supported by contemporary records. Chicago authorities found evidence that a woman matching Walton’s description of Edith Hanna had indeed been shot at the address he provided and had died from her injuries. Beulah Martin’s murder was fully documented because it led to his conviction. Other claims, particularly the unidentified Alabama murder and the killing of Mamie Gill, were difficult or impossible to verify.
Walton reportedly accepted responsibility for his conduct and told those around him that he deserved to be hanged. While awaiting execution, he was baptized and appeared to express remorse. Whether his confession represented a complete account of his crimes remains unknown. His years of travel, repeated identity changes and the limited investigative communication of the period created the possibility that other offenses were never connected to him.
Execution at the West Virginia Penitentiary
Edward Walton was executed by hanging on July 17, 1908, at the West Virginia Penitentiary in Moundsville. Although he had reportedly maintained a calm appearance before entering the execution chamber, witnesses observed that he became physically unsteady and had to be supported by prison officials, including Captain Joseph Bloyd and Warden Dawson.
After Reverend Sanford completed a final prayer, Warden Dawson activated the mechanism opening the scaffold’s trapdoors. Walton lost consciousness as he fell. The drop broke his neck and damaged a vertebra. Dr. Boone examined him and formally confirmed his death.
Two prisoners removed Walton’s body and prepared it for burial. He is generally believed to have been buried in or near the penitentiary cemetery. His execution ended the life of a man whose murders had remained geographically scattered and largely unconnected until his own final confession brought them together.
Legacy and Unresolved Questions
Edward Walton’s case illustrates the difficulties authorities faced when investigating mobile offenders during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Walton crossed state lines, lived temporarily in numerous communities and adopted new names whenever he feared discovery. Local police departments had no centralized national system capable of immediately comparing suspects, warrants and unsolved killings.
Although Walton confessed to five murders, the strength of the evidence differs substantially from one case to another. The murders of Edith Hanna and Beulah Martin were supported by external records, while the exact circumstances and dates surrounding Marion Blue’s death remain incomplete. The unidentified Alabama victim was never conclusively located in historical records, and Mamie Gill’s body was never recovered.
For that reason, Walton is generally described as a confessed serial killer rather than a man judicially convicted of all five killings. He was convicted and executed only for the murder of Beulah Martin. Nevertheless, the details he supplied, including names, addresses and locations, convinced contemporary authorities that at least significant portions of his confession were truthful.
