A Local Urban Legend : The Walled Lake Child Killer & the Shoe Tree

Stories about "shoe trees" abound throughout the land, and thanks to the Internet, one particular shoe-tree yarn has taken root in Walled Lake.  Here's a brief version:

The shoe tree was on the site of the old Walled Lake amusement park. A child killer (the infamous Walled Lake Child Killer) kidnapped the children from the park, and buried their bodies in the nearby field around the tree. He threw their shoes into the tree. When the many dangling shoes were investigated, the bodies were found (but, the killer never was).

Several people have come to the Library seeking more information about the "Walled Lake child killer," but thankfully, this "shoe tree" story is simply not true.  It perhaps was inspired by the still-unsolved murders of four children that took place in Oakland County over a 13-month period in 1976-77.  In those cases, none of the children were from Walled Lake, and the bodies were found in Livonia, Franklin Village, Troy, and Southfield.

3/19/2005  Posted by the Library staff