She was acquitted Friday by a federal court jury. 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. You may occasionally receive promotional content from the San Diego Union-Tribune. Jurors announced they were deadlocked 6-6 before noon Friday, but were told by U.S. District Judge Samuel King to keep deliberating. Her body was stuffed inside the metal container and weighted down to sink in the lagoon, but in 1981 it floated up. Macs friend in Hawaii would get their mothers letters and would read the Grahams responses during his weekly radio contact. Because no bodies were found, Walker and Stearns were initially prosecuted only for the yacht theft and convicted in August 1975. No signs of Mac Grahams remains have been located. In April, the two sailed it to Oahu for its maiden voyage to face drug charges in federal court. Use of this site signifies your agreement to the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy/Your California Privacy Rights , updated March 2009. 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. The trip to Palmyra atoll typically takes about a week, but the Iola got lost and the journey took Stearns and Walker nearly three weeks. While Walker was represented by a public defender, Stearns, from a well-to-do family, was defended by high-profile attorney Vincent Bugliosi, Charles Mansons prosecutor. Is he still in the other metal box? Her attorney, Vincent Bugliosi, and Bruce Henderson wrote a book about the case, "And the Sea Will Tell." The ex-con, Buck Duane Walker, and his girlfriend, Stephanie Stearns, had arrived at Palmyra in their shabby, poorly stocked boat while the Grahams were anchored there. The prosecution said Stearns helped Walker in the murder in order to get the Grahams yacht and food supply and leave Palmyra. Stephanie Stearns and Roy Allen introduced themselves to the impromptu welcoming committee. Authorities had a difficult time tracking down the other sailors who had run-ins with Stephanie and Buck in Palmyra. He was happy sitting there listening to books on tape," she said, adding Walker contacted her by e-mail through a Craigslist ad for a rental. Her body was then placed in a small metal storage container that had been removed from one of the old military rescue boats on the island and then finally dumped into the lagoon. The fate of the Grahams was unknown until Muff Graham's charred bones were found on Palmyra in 1981. Logically, if there were two boxes, it doesn't make much sense that Walker would have done something different with his body than he did with Muff's, but we'll never know. Bugliosis careful analysis of the tides revealed Stearns was lying about her activities purportedly occurring on the 30th and 31st of August 1974. The conviction in part resulted from photographs taken by Walker from the Sea Wind showing the badly damaged Iola on the open seas sailing away from the Sea Wind. She had a terrible premonition that she would die a horrible death. That premonition, which she had shared with others before her voyage, turned out to be terribly true. Buck Walker was not as fortunate as Stephanie and was found guilty and received a life sentence. The Sea Wind thieves were tried for murder. Do you love reading true crime? 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. Both were found guilty. Walker was found guilty in 1985. Island Search Fearing for the Grahams the FBI agents traveled to Palmyra Islands to see if they had been stranded there. The jury deliberated 2 1/2 days. The Big Book of Serial Killers (An Encyclopedia of Serial Killers), Edmund Kemper: The True Story of The Brutal Co-ed Butcher (Real Crime by Real Killers). Months passed with no word or sighting of the Grahams. Betty Fullard-Leo said the Graham case left the family shocked and disturbed. Read honest and unbiased product reviews from our users. After Bugliosi argued that Buck Walker had committed the Palmyra murders himself without Stearns's participation or knowledge, and following her testimony at the trial, the jury returned a verdict of not guilty. The yellow container was similar to the two missing containers that FBI agents had found in the abandoned Navy warehouse years earlier. He has already approached the San Diego Yacht Club, which declined to get involved. Well, kind of, Video shows Memphis jailers beating Black inmate before his death. Although authorities strongly suspected the couple had murdered the Grahams, no bodies were found. Macs friend radioed the following week as planned, but there was no response from The Sea Wind. 'Buck' Walker infamous for high-profile Palmyra deaths. IIn October 1974, 37-year-old Buck Duane Walker and 27-year-old Stephanie Stearns sailed into Hawaii on a boat others instantly recognized as the Sea Wind. And I long ago accepted I'll never know what happened down on that island.". Roy meanwhile was not enjoying the islands as much as Mac was. Its been grueling, Stephanie Stearns told reporters after hugging her tearful parents, who sat in the front row throughout the trial. On August 30, according to Stephanie Stearns, Buck Walker told her that the Grahams had invited the two of them over for dinner aboard the Sea Wind. San Diego sailors Malcolm Mac Graham III, 43, and his wife Eleanor Muff LaVerne Graham, 41, sailed the 37.5-foot ketch Sea Wind into Palmyra in July. 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. Stephanie did testify on her own behalf and was able to give her version of events. A graduate of the University of Michigan with a bachelor's degree in psychology, Juris Doctor degree from the San Fernando Valley College of Law. As Bucy, a graduate of San Diegos Cal Western School of Law, did research for his own book on the high-profile murder and what he believes to be Stephanie Stearns role in it, he hardly expected to discover that the Hawaii FBI still had custody of Muffs remains 28 years after Stearns acquittal. [2], Walker was released on parole in September 2007 at the age of 69, after serving 22 years of a life sentence, and died of a stroke on April 26, 2010 at the age of 72. According to trial testimony, the Iola was not considered seaworthy and would not have made it even to Fanning Island about 175 miles away, the nearest location for equipment and supplies. Muff wanted to leave the area, but Mac stubbornly did not. You'll never find him." ATSWT reviewed the supposed facts surrounding the murder of the Grahams on Palmyra, and followed STEPHANIE STEARNS (aka JENNIFER JENKINS) upon her arrest and trial for her role in the planning and participation in those murders. A theory started to develop where perhaps Stephanie and Roy had tied the Grahams up and then put them on The Iola and sank the Iola to cover up their crime. Read honest and unbiased product reviews from our users. The boat is wooden and they have it covered in berglass to prevent it from leaking. She was taken to the Coast Guard offices for questioning. , Dimensions He died from a stroke in 2010. Forty-fiveyears ago today, on August 30, 1974, at least one and probably two grisly murders occurred in one of the most faraway locales on planet Earth--a small Pacific atoll called Palmyra, a thousand miles south of Hawaii, which has no permanent human population. A law school student in Hawaii had written an article about handling a bag containing the skull of one of the victims in the spring of 2009 during a classroom lecture by an FBI agent. Top subscription boxes right to your door, 1996-2023, Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates, Learn more how customers reviews work on Amazon. But Walker is close. FINAL ARGUMENT was written in response to VINCENT BUGLIOSIS best seller AND THE SEA WILL TELL (ATSWT) which recounts the brutal murder and torture of MAC and MUFF GRAHAM on PALMYRA ISLA8ND August 29, 1974. Column: FlingGolf is catching on with San Diego in limelight, Column: Martin Luther King III helps launch Say It Now in San Diego, Column: Treasure trove of Gregory Peck memorabilia goes to auction, Column: S.D. Stephanie Walker Education. : Murderous Minds: 30 Stories of Real-Life Murderers That Escaped the Headlines (Murd BLOODY ALPHABET: The Scariest Serial Killers Coloring Book. The skeleton was identified as Muff Graham, and she died in very grisly fashion--hit over the head, dismembered, and her face burned with a welding torch. I absolutely LOVED this book! Buck Duane Walker was a convicted felon and fugitive. He had a rougher appearance and gave off an aura of being dangerous. While Stephanie is placed under arrest, authorities were still searching for Roy who had evaded police at the marina. I believe that Walker, and possibly Sterns are guilty, but other possibilities are a murder suicide (husband shoots wife and then himself), or that they really did drown, someone finding a body on the beach at some time later and burying it in a trunk. 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. The other sailors noticed that Roy had the name Buck tattooed on his arm. Having Roys picture and knowing about Roy trying to grow marijuana gave the FBI a starting point in their search. However, when he dove off the pier he left his wallet behind. Other factors, especially a recent, self-published 895-page book in which Walker still denies he killed the Grahams, work against his release, Partington said. Their boats were anchored in a lagoon near each other, and the couples inevitably came into conflict. The motive according to prosecutors was theft and desperation since their boat was not seaworthy and they were running out of provisions. Bernard Lenard spotted a 38-foot ketch with distinct lines in a Honolulu marina that looked like The Sea Wind, but it had been repainted. Bernard immediately contacted The Coast Guard who had been aware of the search for The Sea Wind. Brief content visible, double tap to read full content. When I read Vincent Bugliosi's book "And the Sea Will Tell," I found it a captivating story. Final Argument: An Inquiry into the murders of Mac and Muff Graham on Palmyra Island by Buck Walker and Stephanie Stearns. This revealed that it had been lying against a hard surface, such as a container.
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