Forensic Files - Season 7, Episode 1 - The Cheater - Full Episode | Forensic Files

the song is called the cheater here Bob cubin and the inmen in the 1960s for lead singer
Walter Scott the cheater became both his signature song and a hit single but like so many others Walter
Scott was a on hit wonder never able to repeat the success with another song after 14 straight years of performing on
the road mostly one nighters Walter Scott disappeared many believed that the lyrics watch out for the cheater weren't
just words but an omen [Music] the famous Arch in St Louis missou stands as a symbolic Gateway recalling
its role as the last stop for Pioneers before heading west later St Louis became a well-known
stop along America's music Corridor which included meis and New Orleans pop Legends Chuck Barry and Tina
Turner launched their careers here as did a local boy Walter [Music] Scott for the
cheater make way for the CL Walter Scott was the lead singer for the rock and roll band Bob Cuban and the Inman in
1966 the group started recording and gained national attention thanks to Walter's stage presence and vocal
range I can't get over how he can remember all those words in those in those songs cuz I couldn't do it he was
really good at that he loves singing though he really loved it when he was in the bathtub the neighbors next door used
to come out and sit in their yard to listen to Wally saying Wally's taking a bath Wally could have been doing the
showrooms in Las Vegas let's put it that way his chops were so good that last rehearsal we had I couldn't believe it I
mean the guy just blew me away I had no idea his voice had gotten that good eventually the band's signature song the
cheater reached number 12 on the Billboard Chart along with the notoriety came the
women well that's true he was quite a lady and man you take a good-look guy and he's like a like a movie star back
then you know to to a lot of women I'm sure and uh you know he he liked the ladies throughout the 1970s and 80s
Walter continued to sing with various bands throughout the United States doing what are called one
nighters this kept Walter away from home for most of the time anyway this song Sold over main copies in my way of
saying thank you to sing it for you it's now it wasn't long before Walter's Life
mimicked the lyrics of his hit song watch out for the [Music] cheater while Walter was married to his
first wife Doris he was having an affair with the girl he met while on the road Joanne Kolkata it wasn't long before
Walter divorced Doris and married Joanne although his family didn't approve Jo was false she was false from day one
everything was joying joying joying I still didn't feel like I could trust her and I didn't think she was
good for Wally but I what could I do ladies and gentlemen Miss Susan with Walter's travel schedule his
second marriage didn't work out any better than his first and he got involved in a sexual relationship with
one of his dancers Suzanne Flynn not surprisingly Walter wasn't the only one cheating his wife Joanne was
having an affair with an electrician Jim Williams whom she met while he was doing
some work in her home her and I just kind of HD it off you know we just really liked each other's conversation
she was really down about Walter being on the road a lot because he was on home like about 10 12 weeks out of the Year
Jim Williams was cheating too he had been married to his wife Sharon for 20 years it was like Payton Place everybody
was running around with each other's wives husbands in October of 1983 the Williams family received some
terrible news Sharon Williams had been in a serious automobile accident her car had run off the road and down an
embankment just a few miles from her home when help arrived there was a grass fire of foot high burning beside the car
Jo I got a victim here I got a female Vic car pretty good we Sharon was on the floor of the car she was unconscious and
barely alive give me hand I got it I got it somewhere around 7:30 in the evening
I get a call from the uh Sheriff's Department told me that my wife had been in a bad car
accident not to leave the house an officer would come out and pick me up there was only minor damage to the car
but Sharon had received a serious head injury okay I got a pul county got to get she was rushed to a local hospital
there wasn't much that could be done her skull was fractured she never regained Consciousness the doctor comes to me he
said we can pull the plug and let her go or you can leave the plug plugged in and
keep her like this for years well what are you going to do Jim Williams took her off life support the following day
no autopsy was performed 2 months later there was more bad news this time for Walter Scott's
family it was Christmas time and Walter Scott had just returned home from his concert tour to spend the holidays with
his wife and children friends said said that Walter didn't appear to be himself that he was
distracted 2 days after Christmas Joan Scott called police to report Walter missing she said he had left for a
garage to get a new battery for his car and that he had not returned home the owner of the garage said Walter never
arrived the next day the police found Walter's automobile abandoned in a parking lot at the St l Lewis
airport but none of the flight manifests listed Walter Scott as a [Music] passenger when Walter Scott was first
reported missing his father wasn't terribly concerned Walter had a reputation for taking quick trips out of
town I didn't figure nothing wrong with it but my wife says something wrong with wal Ah hell here'll
be home here come here we come showing up the next day Walter's parents visited their son's home and were surprised by
what they saw okay Jim Williams was sitting at the kitchen table going through Walter's jewelry case how you
guys he looked as if he was a valuating the quality of Walter's jewelry about the gun two of Walter's guns were
sitting on on the edge of the table his third a 22 caliber pistol was missing are those waterers
guns yes what are they doing there I was just looking at and police learned that
Jim Williams car had been parked in front of Joanne's home the entire night before Joanne insisted the Jim had slept
on the sofa Walter was missing for only 24 hours before Joanne called Walter's manager cancelling his performances for
the next nine weeks can two days later Jim Williams and Joan Scott drove to Pennsylvania where they
looked through the band's trailer for any personal items Walter may have left behind while there they shared a motel
room we stayed in a motel together she was in this bed and I was in this bed she you never took her clothes off I
took my shirt off I had a t-shirt under the search for Walter Scott continued throughout the spring and summer no
family member or fellow musicians had seen or heard from him the trail had turned
cold I had doubts I I really did I had doubts that we would ever find him I held out I thought that Wally had taken
off the last thing in my mind was that something had happened to him desperate for any help she could find
Walter's mother even consulted a psychic and he told me that he's in cold cold water it's not moving
water and there's a big red Barrel or something Red by the side of the road where he's at and he's not far
from home it was then that Mrs Noti had an inkling of where Walter might be and Jim Williams had a red door on his
house police searched Jim Williams property but found nothing suspicious 9 months after Walter disappeared Joanne
filed for divorce citing abandonment and adultery Joanne then married Jim Williams at about the same time there
were some big changes being made at the medical examiner's office in St Louis a forensic pathologist was hired to
conduct autopsies on all suspicious deaths Dr Mary case was the new forensic pathologist so they asked me if I would
look at an old case that they had and they brought me this it was like a twft stack of material it was the Sharon
Williams automobile accident case the car accident was rather a minimal front-end collision and there was no
explanation for why she should have any kind of impact injuries to the back of her head there were a number of
suspicious elements in this accident the driver's side door was wide open the driver's seat pushed back as far as it
could go yet Sharon Williams was not a tall woman there was no damage to the car's fuel line yet a grass fire burned
near the car and in the emergency room nurses reported a strong smell of gasoline on Sharon's body body with so
many unanswered questions Dr case ordered Sharon Williams body exume for an autopsy the body told a far different
story than the accident report there were two blunt impacts to the back of her head that caused vertical
lacerations and very massive skull fracturing this is not consistent with a head-on collision of a very minor nature
so um her death was then considered a homicide Dr case believes that a pipe or crowbar caused these head injuries not
the automobile accident but who had orchestrated Sharon's death to look like an accident
I didn't kill Sharon Williams but police weren't too sure [Music] once Sharon Williams death was ruled a
homicide her ex-husband Jim became the prime suspect police also suspected that Walter Scott's disappearance was somehow
connected by this time Walter had been missing for 3 years when police heard that Jim
Williams AR strange son jimy was serving time in a Florida prison for an unrelated crime they decided to pay him
a a visit during questioning Jimmy Jr made some provocative statements about the
3year search for Walter Scott's whereabouts he was kind of sarcastic he I guess was kind of making fun of the
police making comments like you guys aren't smart enough to figure this out it was cold it the rivers were frozen
the Lakes were frozen you couldn't the the ground was frozen where would my dad get rid of a
body he was very very suspicious that his father built a flower box over the sistern and that sistern has been
exposed his whole life police took out a warrant to search Jim Williams home at 5647 gutmouth Road the sistern was in
the backyard covered with concrete there was a flower box on top upon taking the cover off the flower
box we immediately noticed that the sistern was full of water after looking down
inside the sistern we could see what appeared to be a body floating on top of the water in the same type of jogging
suit that Joan had reported Walter wearing the last time he was seen after the body was removed the
sistern was drained there were several large concrete blocks at the bottom along with a sealed plastic bag with
Walter's credit cards and driver's license Walter's body was bound with a yellow
rope the wrists were bound the knees were bound and the ankles were bound and there was a length of that rope
extending from the body that had a large loop tied in it surmising that it was tied do some bricks that were in the
bottom of the system Walter Scott's autopsy revealed he had been shot in the back what I could see on the X-ray was
what we call a snowstorm effect tiny little fragments of Leed where a high velocity bullet has kind of shattered in
the body and that's a very typical thing that allows um a forensic pathologist to
say well that's a high velocity gunshot wound because of the severe decomposition it was impossible to
determine what type of weapon was used I didn't kill Walter Scott if I'm going to
kill a man I'm going to shoot him right between the eyes I ain't going to take a
chance of missing the heart shooting them in the back Walter's family believes that he
was murdered at home now I'll tell you the reason why every time he'd come in the house he took off his
shoes when they found his body he was fully closed even his socks were still on his feet but no
shoes Jim Williams was arrested and charged with the murder of both Walter Scott and his wife
Sharon Joanne Williams was also charged in Walter's murder k and Walter notti inomed their
son at the Valhalla mosum in St Louis after 3 years and a sistern under water they wanted to keep his body above
ground with Jim Williams and their ex-daughter-in-law awaiting trial they believed the worst was behind them or so
they thought [Music] Jim Williams and Joanne Williams were tried separately for murder Jim Williams
trial was first this house Liv prosecutors believe that on October 19th 1983 Jim and Sharon
Williams got into some kind of argument possibly about Jim's affair with Joanne yeah well who is the [ __ ] anyway why
don't you bit some other time all right I'm out of here and you're going to go back to don't you worry about where I go
[Music] the argument at some point turned violent she was hit twice in the back of
the head fracturing her skull causing massive internal bleeding to make the death look like an
accident prosecutor say Jim placed Sharon's body in her car and drove down the embankment
[Music] he then Set Fire to the grass nearby and fled the scene before police arrived with Sharon out of the way the
only one standing between Jim and Joanne was Walter the forensic evidence shows that
Walter was shot in the back with a high velocity [Music] pistol Walter's body was placed in the
sistern on Jim Williams property there were no eyewitnesses the murder weapon was never
identified the Rope which bound Walter Scott did not match rope in the Williams Garage however Witnesses saw Jim
Williams pouring concrete over the sistern and building the flower box a few weeks after Walter's Disappearance
in 20° weather during a snowstorm no one knows how Walter Scott's car found its way to the
airport or how williams got home after his wife's accident Jim Williams said he was
innocent and took the stand in his own defense for the first time he revealed he had seen Walter on the night he
disappeared I went on into Ken's aut Supply and come out and I seen Walter standing over there with some guy a big
guy you know a big black coat and a black hatat you know they were talking well the guy was in in the coat got in a
in a Cadillac a black Cadillac and Walter pulled out right behind him but Williams had no
explanation for how Walter's body mysteriously found its way into the sistern Jim Williams was convicted of
two counts of capital murder and was sentenced to life in prison without parole with only circumstantial evidence
against Joanne Williams her trial never made it to court in a plea agreement prosecutors
dropped the murder charge against Joanne in exchange for a guilty plea to the felony charge of hindering the prosec
ution it was a decision I made along with my family Joanne was sentenced to 5 years
in prison and a $5,000 fine she was released after serving only 18 months as far as I'm concerned there still is no
justice she would have been tried with Jim Williams uh I believe she would be in prison also for the same
offense in his first television interview since his arrest Jim Williams still maintained his innocence and now
says his son may have had something to do with Walter's murder how did my son know he was back there Jimmy says it was
a guess awful good guess to send the cops to the right place right on the button Kay and Walter no ties are
appalled that their former daughter-in-law served only 18 months in prison there's only one person
that would ever get close enough to W to to kill him without him even suspected it and that would be
joyan and that's the reason I think that Joanne was the one that shot Wally Walter Scott is missed by his
family friends and those who loved his talent his wit and his spirit I listen to his records all the
time and golly when you walk in the stores and they're playing the songs that he sang all the time it used to
bother me but it doesn't now makes me feel good he really made it good on and uh in the music
business and but I still don't understand how he can remember all those words the who used to build you up to
let you [Music] one [Music] [Applause] [Music]

Brief Summary

Walter Scott's life, affairs, disappearance, and murder are examined, revealing dark connections and a tragic legacy in music.

Key points

The Rise of Walter Scott. Walter Scott's song 'The Cheater' became a hit but he was a one-hit wonder.
A Troubled Love Life. Walter's life mirrored the lyrics of his hit song as he faced infidelity.
The Mysterious Disappearance. Walter Scott goes missing, leading to a complex investigation.
A Shocking Discovery. Walter's body is found in a cistern, raising questions about his death.
The Trials of Jim and Joanne Williams. Jim and Joanne Williams face trial for the murders of Walter and Sharon.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

Watch out for the cheater weren't just words but an omen.

Lyrics reflecting Walter Scott's life.

0:40WatchSep 16, 2024

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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