Don Vinson, longtime OCSO investigator who arrested serial killer Frank Walls, has died

SHALIMAR — Don Vinson, a dedicated career law enforcement officer whose life story, for better or worse, will always be inexorably linked to the sordid tale of serial killer Frank Walls, has died.

Vinson, who was 84 when he died Monday, worked as a homicide investigator for the Florida Highway Patrol before joining the Okaloosa County Sheriff's Office in 1977 when his friend Frank Mills was elected to office.

He would serve as chief investigator from 1985 to 1989 and as assistant chief investigator from 1989 to 1993. He retired in 1996.

The saga of Frank Walls: Serial killer remains reviled after 30 years

Friends and family who knew Vinson during and after his career remember him as easy going and open, qualities that made him a wily investigator.

"Don was a good cop, a good investigator and a good person all around. I enjoyed his sense of humor," said Dennis Haley, a former Florida Department of Law Enforcement agent who worked with Vinson to solve several homicides, including a handful attributed to Walls.

"He was not a big guy, but he could get into your head," Vinson's daughter Leah Osterman recalled. "His style was to be friends with the criminals, and it was effective. His was 'Hey buddy, we've all done that, we've all been there. Why don't you tell me about it?' "

Osterman remembered her father showing her the confession he'd obtained from Walls to the 1987 killings of Edward Alger and Ann Louis Peterson. They were the first homicides authorities were able to tie to the 19-year-old Ocean City resident, and a year later he would receive the death penalty for the brutal way in which he had executed Peterson.

"He showed us the confession before anyone else saw it. Frank's attorneys were very upset. He got it without them being there," Osterman said.

Florida Department of Corrections records show that Walls was sent to death row at Raiford Prison Aug. 24, 1988. He remains there to this day and likely has at least a couple years worth of appeals left before a death warrant is signed in his case.

Vinson used to joke that Walls would probably outlive him.

"I remember Don saying that. It's ironic it happened that way. Don would laugh about it," Haley said.

The five murders Walls is known to have committed occurred between 1985 and 1987, most in the vicinity of Ocean City close to where Walls lived.

34 years on death row, and counting: Serial killer Frank Walls ruled smart enough to be held responsible for 1980s-era murders

Along with Alger and Peterson, Walls would take a plea in the murder of Audrey Gygi and confess to Haley and Vinson that he had also killed Tommie Lou Whiddon in 1985 and Cynthia Sue Condra in 1986.

"One of the big cases in his career was the Frank Walls case. It was very significant in his career in more ways than one," Haley said of Vinson.

Even though Walls had been convicted in 1988 for killing Alger and Peterson, a number of area homicides remained unsolved through the end of the decade. Vinson recalled in a 2016 interview the fear that many in the community felt.

"This town was terrorized back in that time," he said.

Osterman remembered those years as well.

"I was scared to be alone," she said.

The string of unsolved murders attracted a lot of press scrutiny, Haley said, and then-Sheriff Larry Gilbert eventually removed Vinson as chief investigator and replaced him with Robbie Hughes.

The Florida Supreme Court threw out Walls’ murder conviction in 1991, deciding Okaloosa County Circuit Judge Robert Barron should not have allowed testimony from a corrections officer, Vickie Beck, who had befriended Walls and been told by him, among other things, that he was faking mental incompetence to help himself at trial.

Walls was brought back to Okaloosa County in February 1992 to be retried. Jury selection was aborted, though, when the court couldn’t find enough people who hadn’t heard about the murders to seat a jury. The trial was moved to Marianna, but Walls, after being convicted for the second time, was returned to Okaloosa County for sentencing.

Barron again ruled that he should die.

Justice delayed: Walls competency hearing set — for 2020

Haley and Vinson began working together in the 1990-91 time frame when Haley sat down with the Sheriff's Office to discuss the Walton County murder of a woman named Lindsey Sams.

Sams, who lived in Mississippi, had been badly beaten inside the condominium she was staying at in 1986 and died a year later. Haley was initially convinced Walls had beaten Sams to death. He now believes another suspected serial killer, Frank Riebe, committed the act.

The use of DNA evidence was in its infancy in the late 1980s and early 1990s, but investigators had obtained a great deal of it in the form of semen from the scene of the 1987 Audrey Gygi murder, Haley said. In 1993, authorities were able to secure Walls' indictment in that case based on the DNA he had left behind at Gygi's house trailer on Duval Street.

"We got a profile and Don and I wrote a search warrant for Frank's DNA, and it was a match," Haley said. "That led him to want to sit down and discuss the other cases."

Walls returned to Okaloosa County on Oct. 6, 1994, after agreeing to plead no contest to the Gygi murder. It was a deal that ensured he would not receive a second death sentence. At that time he also acknowledged killing Whiddon and Condra.

Whiddon’s throat had been slashed in the spring of 1985 when Walls happened upon her as she sunbathed on Okaloosa Island. He was on the beach doing community service for crimes that included cruelty to animals and peeking into people's windows, Haley said.

Related: Death row inmates from Northwest Florida

Condra, a 24-year-old mother of three, was stabbed 21 times on Sept. 16, 1986. Walls left her body in a wooded area off Lewis Turner Boulevard.

Although the Walls case played a significant role in the life of Don Vinson (his daughter continues to keep tabs on the fate of the convicted serial killer), it did not consume him. He was a 42-year member of the Fort Walton Elks and worked for the local lodge following his retirement.

He was born on May 14, 1937, at Lake Okeechobee. His father worked on the Flagler railroad and Vinson spent many of his formative years in work camps.

He graduated from Bunnel High School, and there is a page dedicated to him in his yearbook for his sports prowess, according to Osterman. He joined the FHP following a four-year stint in the Air Force.

Vinson joined the Sheriff's Office to work as then-Sheriff Mills' chief of administration. He was made an investigator four years later when Gilbert took office.

He retired in 1996 and his wife Melinda died two years later, Osterman said.

"After that, I worried," she said. "Then the lucky man met another soulmate, Janine. She was an angel when dad was sick. I believe he lived longer because of her."

A memorial service for Vinson will be conducted at 3 p.m., Sunday, Jan. 30, at the Fort Walton Elks Lodge 1795.

This article originally appeared on Northwest Florida Daily News: Don Vinson, OCSO officer who arrested killer Frank Walls, has died