Frank Asen Walls’ victims included a 19-year-old college student sunbathing, a young Air Force couple sleeping, and a mother of four who had just become a grandmother.
US expands death penalty methods
In modern history, most death row inmates faced one method of execution. There are now many other ways to die.
19-year-old Tommy Lou Whiddon was sunbathing on a bright March day in Florida when a fledgling serial killer attacked her.
On March 26, 1985, 17-year-old Frank Asen Walls slit Ms. Whiddon’s throat as the junior college student lay helpless and alone in a bikini on Okaloosa Island. He left Ms. Whiddon bleeding and disappeared without anyone witnessing the murder.
Over the next two years, Walls went on to kill at least four more people, all before he turned 20. Two of the other victims were mothers, one was a newborn grandmother, and one was an Air Force officer who died trying to protect his young girlfriend. Police dubbed the case the “Tuesday Murders” because all were killed before dawn on a Tuesday or Wednesday.
Forty years later, Florida plans to execute Walls on Thursday, December 18th. This makes him the 19th inmate executed in the state this year and the 47th in the nation, a number not seen since 2009.
Many of the victims’ families have died waiting for justice, but the living hope Walls’ death will bring some peace.
“I’m going to have a drink and toast my grandma and close this chapter,” said Jessica Gigi Hickingbottom, 40, who was 2 years old when Walls killed her grandmother, Audrey Gigi, 47.
“I don’t think I’ll ever get better,” Hickingbottom told USA TODAY this week. “But it’s comforting to know that it’s over and the rest of the family will all be able to sleep better knowing he has no way to fight back.”
Here’s what you need to know about executions, crimes, and lives taken.
Who are Frank Asen Walls’ victims?
The following crimes in the Florida Panhandle have been attributed by police to Frank Asen Walls:
- March 26, 1985: A man walking his dog on Okaloosa Island discovered the body of 19-year-old Tommy Lou Whiddon. Her throat had been slit while she was sunbathing during the day. Walls was doing court-ordered community service at the beach after abusing animals and peeping into windows. According to the Associated Press, Wall later told police that he had raped Whiddon.
- September 16, 1986: The body of 24-year-old Cynthia Sue Condra, a mother of three, was found along a road in Fort Walton Beach. She had been stabbed 21 times. Walls later told police he attacked her after they had sex and they got into a fight, according to the Associated Press. “Everything just clicked and I went crazy,” Walls said.
- May 20, 1987: Concerned colleagues discovered the body of 47-year-old Audrey Gigi, a mother of four and two granddaughters at the time. Gigi was stabbed to death in her Fort Walton Beach home.
- July 22, 1987: Edward Alger, a 22-year-old Airman serving at Eglin Air Force Base, and his 20-year-old girlfriend, Ann Louise Peterson, were ambushed around 2 a.m. as they slept in their Fort Walton Beach home, just a block away from Gigi’s home. Mr. Alger had his throat slit three times, and Mr. Peterson was shot twice. Both were found completely naked. According to court records, Walls used the money he stole from Alger to pay for drinks and dancers at a strip bar an hour after the crime.
“This town was in fear,” Don Vinson, former Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office chief investigator, said in 2018.
It was Walls’ own roommate who ultimately helped put a stop to the killing spree, telling investigators about her suspicions and saying that Walls was “constantly talking about raping and killing people.”
Police initially arrested Walls only for the murders of Alger and Peterson. After Walls was convicted and sentenced to death, he also confessed to other murders. Investigators told the Northwest Florida Daily News, part of the USA TODAY Network, that all attacks were sexually motivated in some way.
Walls did not contest Gigi’s murder and wrote a letter of apology to Gigi’s family in court in 1994.
“Throughout my life, I have experienced completely inexplicable episodes of losing touch with reality and experiencing uncontrollable rage,” he wrote to them, according to an archived Associated Press article. “But honestly, I want you to know that I am truly sorry for the loss of your loved one.”
Granddaughter talks in detail about the patriarch
Audrey Gigi was a loving mother who enjoyed large family gatherings. Gigi’s granddaughter, Jessica Gigi Hickingbottom, said the Christmas gatherings and pool parties she hosted with her Air Force husband were legendary.
“The way they say it, she was the life of the party,” Hickingbottom told USA TODAY this week. “She was the most wonderful outgoing woman I ever met. I wish I had more memories of her.”
Jessica was 2 years old and her younger sister Erin was 4 months old when Audrey was murdered. Audrey not only missed Jessica and Erin’s life, but had she lived, she would have been a grandmother to two more girls and 15 great-grandchildren, Mr Hickingbottom said.
Hickingbottom said Audrey’s two children died and her husband died while Walls was on death row.
“They couldn’t see justice,” she said. “It’s frustrating how long he was on death row. Every time I got paid and taxes were taken out, I knew it went to his food and medical expenses. I was just paying for him to live in prison. So was everyone.”
She has thought about her grandmother’s murder for decades, but said the scheduled execution evoked many emotions and long-unanswered questions.
“Why her?” she said. “Why did he target her? What happened? Unfortunately, we’ll never know.”
Hickingbottom said he decided not to attend the execution and instead would honor his grandmother’s memory by cracking open a Busch, Audrey’s favorite beer, and offering it to her.
Lawyers argue Walls is too mentally retarded to be executed
Walls’ lawyers have long argued that his intellectual disability is too severe for him to be executed under the U.S. Constitution.
In their latest attempt to block the execution, they said in a Dec. 15 filing with the U.S. Supreme Court that “Florida is in imminent danger of executing an intellectually disabled person.”
The Florida Attorney General’s Office rejected the claim, saying Walls was not and does not have an intellectual disability.
“The people of Florida, and the surviving victims and their families, deserve better than the excessive delays now typical of death penalty cases,” the state said, adding that courts must carefully guard against last-minute motions that amount to delay tactics.
In sentencing for the murders of Alger and Peterson, the judge in the case said he found the couple’s killings particularly heinous and cruel, describing how Walls had mocked Peterson for killing her boyfriend before taking his life.
“We will never know the full extent of the ridicule, cruel teasing and emotional torment that Ann Peterson suffered,” said Okaloosa County Circuit Court Judge G. Robert Barron. “Knowing that her own certain death was imminent at the hands of this evil intruder, who had already claimed the life of Edward Alger, must have caused an incomprehensible level of fear, panic, and utter hopelessness.”
Contributor: Tom McCLaughlin, Northwest Florida Daily News
Amanda Lee Myers is a senior crime reporter covering cold case investigations and capital punishment for USA TODAY. Follow her on X at @amandaleeusat.
