No one knew what happened to the owners of the yacht Sea Wind -- Malcolm and Eleanor "Muff" Graham -- until Muff Graham's bones were found on Palmyra in 1981. In that first e-mail, Walker said Parker wrote, "I wonder if you would consider renting to an old man who has been wrongly convicted of murder.". The federal system generally does not parole aging offenders until they reach 70 at the earliest, he said. Macs friend radioed the following week as planned, but there was no response from The Sea Wind. (Most egregious were her August 5th log remarks about drooling and dreaming anticipating possession of the SEA WIND on execution of the Grahams.) , Paperback Part 1 aired on February 24, and Part 2 was aired two days later. Please try again. Meanwhile, Mac Graham was keeping up his weekly contact with his friend in Hawaii filling him in on the exploits of Stephanie and Roy. While talking to his friend he told him that Stephanie was on her way over to the Sea Wind in her dingy with what looked like a cake. Officials granted Walker release into Northern California, although the specific city was not named. The two of them were arrested and brought in for questioning. The Grahams were upper-crust people, pretty conservative and reserved. The Palmyra Islands are primarily unoccupied but do host a transient population mostly made up of scientists and researchers. Wesley Walker (AKA Buck) Stephanie Stearns Buck and Stephanie They buy a boat that had sunk and was raised from the harbor in Maui. Conservatives are terrified of the past. Walker was tried first, convicted and sentenced to life in prison for Muffs murder, thanks, in part, to the testimony of a fellow inmate to whom hed made a jailhouse confession. They purchased a beat-up 30-foot sloop in Maui and named it the Iola. Learn more. Back at the Coast Guard offices, Stephanie told her story again this time to the FBI. Island Search Fearing for the Grahams the FBI agents traveled to Palmyra Islands to see if they had been stranded there. So too, there is considerable variance between Bugliosis cross-examination as revealed in the original trial transcript re Pollock and Shoemaker and his recounting this same testimony in his book. The fate of the Grahams was unknown until Muff Graham's charred bones were found on Palmyra in 1981. Walker lived off his Social Security check and paid $400 a month in rent. Stearns claims to have studied mathematics, yet in her supposed log she cannot engage in simple addition. Her boyfriend, Buck Walker, was convicted of murder in June and sentenced to life in prison. Fearing for the Grahams the FBI agents traveled to Palmyra Islands to see if they had been stranded there. Duane Buck Walker was convicted in 1985 for the grisly murder in 1974 of a San Diego woman on an island paradise on Palmyra atoll about 1,200 miles from Honolulu. It includes substantial portions of the original trial testimony that were excluded in ATSWT. Months passed with no word or sighting of the Grahams. But Walker is close. While researching the case of a San Diego sailing couple brutally murdered on Palmyra Island in 1974, retired L.A. deputy public defender Tom Bucy, made a surprising discovery. The bones had fallen out of an aluminum box found open on the beach. Things were not going well and tensions were high. The Grahams had planned on staying around Palmyra for about 6 months. Macs friend tried to get authorities involved, but they declined to investigate at the time so he had a friend fly over Palmyra to see if he could spot The Sea Wind. Stearns and Walker were arrested in 1981 for murder and tried separately in federal court in San Francisco. They do like to release prisoners in declining health so the system will not have to pay for the prisoner's medical care, Partington said. The friction between the two materials caused a crack in the hull and it had taken on water. The couple had no children, and he has been searching for close relatives. The trial lawyer who represented Walker, Earle Partington, sued Bugliosi for defamation, claiming that both the book and the docudrama portrayed Partington in a negative light. When it arrived its motor had frozen up and it was barely limping along. Her body was stuffed inside the metal container and weighted down to sink in the lagoon, but in 1981 it floated up. After they arrived they found the abandoned camp that Roy had made on the beach. True Crime Stories: 48 Terrifying True Crime Murder Cases (List of Twelve Collection), Killer Moms: 16 Bizarre True Crime Stories of Murderous Moms. You Cant Fool A Legally Educated Sailor, Reviewed in the United States on March 15, 2021. She was acquitted Friday by a federal court jury. They would exchange marijuana for supplies that friends brought them. It was a circumstantial case and if they lost they wouldnt be able to charge them again should their bodies ever be discovered. Walker and Graham were both convicted for the theft of the boat. Buck got 10 years for his original drug conviction and 5 years for the stolen property. Stearns, herself, taunts her pursuers with photographs and spurious log notes. , ISBN-10 It was revealed that Buck and Stephanie had been living on the island of Palmyra as well and had known the Grahams. Necrophilia, cannibalism, and dismemberment were all part of his routine in his attempts to satiate his morbid desires. In January 1981 a South African couple visiting the atoll, found a human skull and other bones that had apparently fallen out of a World War II vintage metal box washed up on the beach after a storm. A woman acquitted on charges that she helped her boyfriend murder a yachtswoman on a remote Pacific atoll in 1974 says her faith in the American judicial system has been reinstated.. UPD: Ukiah man arrested for alleged assault at motel, Mendocino County Jail bookings: Friday, March 3, 2023, Mendocino County Jail bookings: Feb. 28, 2023, As Adderall shortage continues, DEA plans to limit some telemedicine prescriptions, House where JonBenet Ramsey was found dead listed for sale for almost $7M, Columbia University permanently drops SAT, ACT admissions requirement, The Waterbed Doctor: California retailer lays claim to retro bed with nearly 40 years of service, sales, Felonious Florida podcast: Missing teenage girl leads to several cases of child sex trafficking, Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information. Stephanie Walker Education. She most likely changed her name multiple times again over the years. So when Aug. 28 arrives, will Walker go free after serving 22 years of a life sentence? Stearns, whose defense attorney was Vincent Bugliosi, was acquitted. It also sparked a TV miniseries by the same name starring James Brolin and Rachel Ward. Stephanie ended up being acquitted of all charges. On September 11, 1974, after days of searching and waiting for the Grahams to return to their boat, Stearns said she and Walker scuttled the Iola and sailed for Hawaii on the Sea Wind. Stearns and Walker were convicted in 1977 of the theft of the Sea Wind, theft of certain personal property of the Grahams aboard the Sea Wind, and transportation of stolen property in interstate commerce. However, the organization of the book is erratic, confusing at points, & chopped full of grammatical errors & poor punctuation. Privacy Policy/Your California Privacy Rights. A writer attempted to raise funds to bury Muff back in San Diego where the Grahams were originally from. Meaning it didnt get caught up on the reef and sink. Earlier visitors had reported that tensions were high between the two couples remaining at the atoll, due in part to Walkers pit bull attacking Muff in July. The FBI flew to Palmyra to try to verify if, in fact, the bones were one of the Grahams. Buck Duane Walker was a convicted felon and fugitive. Murderous Minds: 30 Stories of Real-Life Murderers That Escaped the Headlines (Murd BLOODY ALPHABET: The Scariest Serial Killers Coloring Book. Its been grueling, Stephanie Stearns told reporters after hugging her tearful parents, who sat in the front row throughout the trial. The ex-con, Buck Duane Walke r, and his girlfriend, Stephanie Stearns, had arrived at Palmyra in their shabby, poorly stocked boat while the Grahams were anchored there. Its been grueling, Stephanie Stearns told reporters after hugging her tearful parents, who sat in the front row throughout the trial. Teach important lessons with our PowerPoint-enhanced stories of the pioneers! In 1981, Muff Graham's bones were found on a Palmyra beach. When King asked jurors to consider whether further deliberation would be unproductive, the verdict to acquit was returned less than an hour later. Its been grueling, Stephanie Stearns told reporters after hugging her tearful parents, who sat in the front row throughout the trial. She was acquitted Friday by a federal court jury. Oswald acted alone: faith vs. fact in the assassination of John F. Kennedy. HILO In 1974, Buck Duane Walker and his girlfriend, Stephanie Stearns, sailed in a leaky boat to Palmyra Atoll and returned to Honolulu Harbor in a beautiful yacht owned by a San Diego couple who had been vacationing on Palmyra. Buck Walker was paroled from federal prison in 2007. She was acquitted Friday by a federal court jury. The book was well-written, despite being an obvious self-aggrandizing account by its author. HILO In 1974, Buck Duane Walker and his girlfriend, Stephanie Stearns, sailed in a leaky boat to Palmyra Atoll and returned to Honolulu Harbor in a beautiful yacht owned by a San Diego couple who had been vacationing on Palmyra. Like Roy and Stephanie, they were surprised to see so many people. The book is very repetitive and needs a good edit. He was tried for escape and sentenced to five years in prison. The Grahams had brought more than a year's supply of food for their voyage, but Walker and Stearns quickly consumed their own meager supplies and resorted to harvesting the island's few coconuts, often by chopping down entire trees, leaving scars on the island habitat. He had been awaiting sentencing on a drug conviction when he and Stephanie had absconded on The Iola. First edition published by W. W. Norton & Co. (1991), United States District Court for the Northern District of California, "Notorious atoll murderer dies after parole to Willits area", "Isle murderer Buck Duane Walker up for parole", BruceHendersonBooks.com - co-author Bruce Henderson's website, The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=And_the_Sea_Will_Tell&oldid=1133317524, Non-fiction books about murders in the United States, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 13 January 2023, at 05:23. The other sailing couples had enough supplies for themselves and a little bit left over for emergencies, but not to supply a couple who didnt prepare for their trip. The Fullard-Leo family bought Palmyra as part of a hui in the early 1900s for a fishing venture that never materialized. Stearns, 39, who was convicted along with Walker of stealing the couples yacht, testified that she lied to authorities to help him escape capture but knew nothing of the murder. : In 1974, a wealthy couple from San Diego, California, Malcolm "Mac" Graham III, 43, and Eleanor LaVerne "Muff" Graham, 40, sailed their 38-foot ketch, Sea Wind, to Palmyra Atoll 1,200 miles south of Honolulu hoping to find it deserted and to spend a year or more there. The Iola owners also had very few provisions along with them. They found nothing, but sharks. Authorities found out that a woman had visited Buck the day before his escape. An example of Roy being out of his element is that he would shoot his .22 caliber handgun into the water. Walker's case made Palmyra a household name. When they arrived at the atoll, they had already eaten most of the provisions meant to last six months and had to be towed into the atoll with a broken motor. Besides the zodiac was with the Sea Wind when it docked in Hawaii. Other impressions of the young couple were that Roy didnt really fit the image of someone who sailed or even had a lot of experience sailing. Their boats were anchored in a lagoon near each other, and the couples inevitably came into conflict. Please join me at my new blog, The Garden of Memory. Final Argument: An Inquiry into the murders of Mac and Muff Graham on Palmyra Island by Buck Walker and Stephanie Stearns Paperback May 1, 2014 by Tom Bucy (Author) 37 ratings See all formats and editions Kindle $5.99 Read with Our Free App Paperback $24.95 2 Used from $22.50 6 New from $23.02 1 on The New York Times hardcover bestseller list in March 1991 and is still in print as a trade paperback and ebook. HILO In 1974, Buck Duane Walker and his girlfriend, Stephanie Stearns, sailed in a leaky boat to Palmyra Atoll and returned to Honolulu Harbor in a beautiful yacht owned by a San Diego couple who had been vacationing on Palmyra. The zodiac was overturned on the beach as it is not designed that way to overturn. I read it again quite recently and, finding that Mr. Bucy had written what was apparently a rebuttal of the findings of Bugliosi - specifically that Stephanie Stearns, rather than being innocent of the murders as was determined at her trial - was, in fact, the instigator and sadistic killer behind both deaths.