Albert Johnson Walker was born on August 9th, 1946 in a small town called Paris, Ontario. He was a high school drop-out but eventually got hired on as a bank teller for a trust company and also did personal income taxes for people on the side. About 2 years later, he quit his job to establish his own freelance bookkeeping business, “Walker Financial Services Incorporated” In over a decade, his company grew into a six-branch operation with about 30 employees. In 1986, a stock deal that Walker had invested in collapsed. As a mortgage broker and financier, Walker defrauded about 70 Canadian clients of $3.2 million. In 1990 he fled to Europe with the 2nd of his 3 daughters, Sheena who was 15 at the time. In 1993, Walker was charged in Canada with 18 counts of fraud, theft and money laundering. Over a period of time, Walker became Canada’s most wanted criminal and the 2nd most wanted by Interpol.
Walker eventually made his way to Harrogate in North Yorkshire where he lived with his daughter who was posing as his wife. During this time, Sheena had 2 children whom the paternity of has never been revealed. Walker changed his name to David Davis (how original) and began a business career with television repairman Ronald Joseph Platt. Platt was raised in Canada and wished to return to his home country. Walker paid for the trip but claimed he needed Platt’s driver’s license, signature stamp and birth certificate for the business. When Platt left for Canada in 1992, initially with the intent of permanently settling there, Walker assumed his identity. Platt was out of money and returned to England in 1995 which ofcourse made things very difficult for Walker. So, he decided to take things into his own hands. He and Platt went out on a fishing trip on July 20th, 1996. This is where Walker murdered Platt by hitting him over the head with an anchor, weighed him down with the anchor and dumped him into the sea.
Two weeks later, a fisherman named John Copik discovered the body of Platt in the English Channel. The only identifiable object on his body was a Rolex wristwatch which had stopped working 2 days after the murder. British police were aware that Rolex kept strict records of any servicing done on their watches. There was a serial number on the watch and special markings which led investigators to the owner, Ronald Joseph Platt. Walker was apprehended shortly thereafter.
In the spring of 1998, Walker’s preliminary hearing was held in the village courtroom in Teignmouth, England. On April 27th, 1998, Walker pleaded not guilty in his murder trial in the English city of Exeter. He was found guilty in 1998 and was automatically sentenced to life for murder. If he wasn’t convicted, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office would have transferred him back to Canada to face his fraud charges.
On February 22nd, 2005, the Globe and Mail reported that Walker would be transferred to a Canadian prison, where he faced additional charges of fraud, theft and money laundering (what a piece of shit this guy is). His daughter was shocked about hearing that he would be transferred back to Canada. She stated that she would have preferred he lingered and died in an English prison (I think we all can agree with that).
On July 23rd, 2007, Walker was sentenced to four years for fraud and one year concurrent for violations of the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act in Kingston, Ontario. When the jail closed in 2013, Walker was transferred to a prison in British Columbia. He applied for parole in 2015 but later abandoned the bid. I couldn’t find any recent information about whether he applied for parole again or will just suffer and die in prison. He is currently 72 years old. Most of the money that Walker laundered and stole has never been accounted for.
Walker’s story appeared on an episode of Forensic Files titled “Time will tell” and National Geographic also did a documentary detailing the crime called “Interpol Investigates – Body Double”