Its been grueling, Stephanie Stearns told reporters after hugging her tearful parents, who sat in the front row throughout the trial. Stephanie did testify on her own behalf and was able to give her version of events. Its been grueling, Stephanie Stearns told reporters after hugging her tearful parents, who sat in the front row throughout the trial. On June 26, 1974, a small sailboat, called The Iola, docked at one of the makeshift harbors in Palmyra. Help others learn more about this product by uploading a video! She most likely changed her name multiple times again over the years. 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 two of them were arrested and brought in for questioning. Stephanie Stearns was tried separately in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California in San Francisco. The Mac and Muff Graham murders frustrated authorities until a container holding human remains washed up onshore. They showed up at 6:30 PM but the Grahams weren't there. Stephanies defense was that she blamed Buck Walker for the murder. 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.. He tried again a couple of days later and over the following weeks. There was no sign of Mac's body. Meaning the wear to Muffs skull came from the hard lining of the aluminum container, not from the bottom of the harbor. Stephanie Walker Education. It includes substantial portions of the original trial testimony that were excluded in ATSWT. VINCENT BUGLIOSI, acclaimed prosecutor of CHARLES MANSON, now working on the other side, defended STEARNS. The FBI thought Buck was still in prison in Washington state when they went to serve him but soon found out that he had escaped after serving 42 months (3 years of a 10-year sentence). You'll receive an email with an opt-in link to complete your subscription. But there was a problem as there was no record for a Roy Allen. Her boyfriend, Buck Walker, was convicted of This was the Grahams home port and several of Muffs family are interred in this area.. "It was a very high-profile case at the time," said Partington, who called Walker a "very bright guy, very sociable." Buck Duane Walker was a convicted felon and fugitive. A careful reading of FINAL ARGUMENT answers these, and many more questions that should have been asked, but were not. In 1985, Walker was convicted, despite Partington's defense efforts. There are evidently makeshift memorials to the Grahams on the island, which is private property and illegal to trespass upon, but naturally being so remote it's difficult to police. Muff was a wonderful gal, he says. It became a 1991 miniseries of the same name starring James Brolin as Graham. Unable to add item to List. His friend decided to reach out to any yachtsmen in the Pacific by radio asking if anyone had seen The Sea Wind. learn from my experience - do not waste your money, Reviewed in the United States on December 31, 2017. Bernard immediately contacted The Coast Guard who had been aware of the search for The Sea Wind. But Walker is close. 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. Since there was no activity on the boat the Coast Guard posted a lookout to see if anyone showed up. After this he wrote an "allegorical" novel about the events on Palmyra, in which he asserted that he was having an affair with Muff Graham, and that Mac went crazy after discovering them in the act. The book went to No. Stephanie Stearns and Roy Allen introduced themselves to the impromptu welcoming committee. 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. Her husbands body, presumed to have been dumped at sea, has never been found. By this time the Grahams had been alone for 10 days with Roy and Stephanie. I worked my way through the last half of the book by skimming repetitious portions of the court transcripts. 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 charged with murdering Eleanor Muff Graham of San Diego, who disappeared along with her husband, Malcolm, from Palmyra atoll in August, 1974. Stephanie Walker Salary. 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. For the past 10 days, he had been hiding out in the lava flows on the big island of Hawaii. Sanders had a run-in with Roy where he tried to give him some advice regarding his boat and suggested he and Stephanie set sail for Samoa for more supplies. On August 27th, Mac radioed his friend in Hawaii. The skull also showed charring and a hole in the left eye socket which was consistent with a gunshot wound, but investigators could not say conclusively it was due to a bullet due to its deterioration. In April, the two sailed it to Oahu for its maiden voyage to face drug charges in federal court. Buck got 10 years for his original drug conviction and 5 years for the stolen property. Stearns said she would return to work as an office manager in a Los Angeles telecommunications company. WebFind helpful customer reviews and review ratings for Final Argument: An Inquiry into the murders of Mac and Muff Graham on Palmyra Island by Buck Walker and Stephanie Stearns at Amazon.com. 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 The author does a reasonable job of analyzing & proving that Stephanie Stearns was definitely involved in the brutal murder of Muff Graham. By continuing to use our site, you accept our use of cookies. We have provided a link on this CD below to Acrobat Reader v.8 installer. He found out that the soil was not amenable to growing marijuana. Something went wrong. If you think there should be more material, feel free to help us develop more! Who was Stephanie Stearns in and the sea will tell? After WWII the Palmyra Islands are mostly used as a stopover point for sailors traveling to Samoa. Final Argument is so bad, in so many ways, that's it's hard to know where to start a review. Inside were Eleanor Graham's remains, identified with dental records. The Grahams were able to communicate with both of their mothers. The next morning they had found Grahams inflatable Zodiac boat overturned and washed up on shore in the shark-infested lagoon. Mac Grahams remains have never been found. They also found The Iola hatch cover onshore which told agents that Roy and Stephanie had planned on scuttling The Iola as no one would go to sea without a hatch cover for their vessel. They found nothing, but sharks. , ISBN-10 She was taken to the Coast Guard offices for questioning. This revealed that it had been lying against a hard surface, such as a container. He felt that something had happened to Mac and Muff Graham and that Roy and Stephanie were behind it. Its been grueling, Stephanie Stearns told reporters after hugging her tearful parents, who sat in the front row throughout the trial. When Stephanie and Roy arrived they could see how the Sea Wind outshined The Iola in every way. The duo has been together since 2004. Her boyfriend, Buck Walker, was convicted of murder in June and sentenced to life in prison. She had moved to Seattle, and since has died. The owners had covered the button with a layer of fiberglass in the hopes of making it more seaworthy. Macs friend feared the worst. I keep waiting--in vain--for it to pop up on Netflix. The skull was identified as belonging to a caucasian woman in her late 40s early 50s. I was intrigued by this author's assertion that the supposed ignorance of the prosecutorial and defense lawyers of long distance yacht travel resulted in the female defendant, Stephanie Sterns, fooling everyone into believing she had no part of the murders of Mac and Muff Graham. Where is Mac Graham? "That's a parole consideration date," Partington said. The boat is wooden and they have it covered in berglass to prevent it from leaking. Notorious atoll murderer dies after parole to, Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window), Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window), Notorious atoll murderer dies after parole to Willits area, Bay Area honeymooners say snorkel boat abandoned them off Maui coast, Tahoe really does not want you to drive up this weekend, Ukiah business celebrates longtime employee with a billboard on Hwy. Stephanie Walker Husband. The FBI took Roys photo to the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) who recognized the picture as that of Buck Walker whom the DEA was also searching for. Two months after the Grahams vanished, Stearns and Walker sailed the Grahams yacht into Hawaii, 1,100 miles away; they were later sentenced to prison for stealing the yacht. The Sea Wind had already proven itself to be a seaworthy vessel as it had already been sailing all around the world. The Iola owners also had very few provisions along with them. This includes personalizing your content. They found other sailors already there, including two male Canadian scientists, but nonetheless stayed. and Macs messenger, Curtis Shoemaker. Stearns was acquitted, and her attorney, Vincent Bugliosi, wrote a book about the case, "And the Sea Will Tell," made into a 1991 TV movie starring James Brolin as Graham. Months passed with no word or sighting of the Grahams. Alas, poor Muff, her bones at the time of publishing, languish in the care of the FBI, forty years after her torture and murder by Stearns and Walker, still not at rest, forlorn and forgotten. Discover some of the worlds most infamous killers in perfectly-illustrated detail. 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. But the one body was enough: Walker and Stearns were arrested in Arizona for murder. "You just never expect anything like that to happen in a place that's so beautiful," Fullard-Leo said. I highly respect Bugliosi for his work on Manson & his criminal cult members, but it is obvious he wrote the book as a defence attorney, paid for by Stearns' rich family. WebStephanie Walker Photo Stephanie Walker Salary. Important Note: To access all the resources on this site, use the menu buttons along the top and left side of the page. For the most part he does this by omitting critical testimony that proves the lie such as Stearns patently absurd account of her sailing method re leisure sailing, or her improbable account of the Iolas supposed approach to Palmyra. The killer was Buck Duane Walker, also known as Wesley G. Walker, a tough ex-convict and noted con artist, who had also sailed to Palmyra that summer with his girlfriend, Stephanie Stearns. 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. The zodiac was overturned on the beach as it is not designed that way to overturn. So when Aug. 28 arrives, will Walker go free after serving 22 years of a life sentence? In contrast, the Grahams' ketch, the Sea Wind, was beautifully finished and impeccably outfitted, with an onboard machine shop equipped with a lathe and acetylene welding torch. Roy and Stephanie were not prepared for life at sea and had run out of supplies pretty quickly. I absolutely LOVED this book! She is merely married to her beloved husband whose identity is not known. In spite of these shortcomings. It was revealed that Buck and Stephanie had been living on the island of Palmyra as well and had known the Grahams. Buck and Stephanies trials were held separately in San Francisco due to the publicity the Graham case had in the media. He was tried for escape and sentenced to five years in prison. Unfortunately, her remains are still in FBI custody. Wesley Walker (AKA Buck) Stephanie Stearns Buck and Stephanie They buy a boat that had sunk and was raised from the harbor in Maui. However, the organization of the book is erratic, confusing at points, & chopped full of grammatical errors & poor punctuation. Do you love reading true crime? If released, Walker would normally be returned to the place he was tried, Honolulu. The mysterious deaths and conviction of Walker grabbed headlines nationwide and led to a best-selling account co-written by one of Walker's attorneys, Vincent Bugliosi, called "And the Sea Will Tell." Because no bodies were found, they were initially prosecuted only for the yacht theft and convicted in August 1975. She was acquitted Friday by a federal court jury. 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. It adds much needed objective, incisive analysis of Stephanie Stearns' role in the murders, which was absent from Bugliosi's books "And The Sea Will Tell," which I also read. Bucy's book is rivetting & he proves beyond a reasonable doubt in my mind what the evidence & common sense already indicated, that Stearns' was guilty of involvement in the murders of Mac & Muff Graham, obstructing justice, & much more than theft of a yacht. After Stephanie completed her high school education, she received a Bachelor of Science degree from Penn State University. She is merely married to her beloved husband whose identity is not known. Island Search Fearing for the Grahams the FBI agents traveled to Palmyra Islands to see if they had been stranded there. Stephanie Walker Salary. The home port for their sailboat, the Sea Wind, was a marina on Shelter Island, and they were well known in the San Diego sailing community. Wesley G. "Buck" Walker has been paroled from federal prison after serving 22 years of a life sentence for murder in a case that led to a best-selling novel and a TV miniseries. Copyright 2023 Ellen G. White Estate, Inc. On January 21, 1981, a South African couple Robert and Sharron Jordan were visiting the Palmyra Islands. It was believed he fled on foot after leaving the dinghy at the loading dock near the Ilikai Hotel. Betty Fullard-Leo said the Graham case left the family shocked and disturbed. It had a top-notch navigational system and plenty of supplies on board. 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. Roy changed direction and headed to the nearest dock where he jumped off and Stephanie started to row back to The Sea Wind. Wesley G. "Buck" Walker, the former Big Island marijuana grower convicted in the 1974 murder of a wealthy San Diego couple on Palmyra, has died in California at age 72. 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. WebBoat Bumpers from the sea wind still on Palmyra this image was taken in 2014.

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