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Dennis Walker

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Dennis walker

Dennis Walker

Real Name: Dennis Lyle Walker
Nicknames: Charlie Lee
Location: Medford, Oregon; Las Vegas, Nevada
Date: April 1986; July 5, 1987

Case[]

Details: Forty-three-year-old collector Dennis Walker amassed a trove of sports memorabilia valued at nearly $10 million. It included items from baseball players Babe Ruth, Mickey Mantle, and Pete Rose. Today, his irreplaceable collection is missing, and America's national pastime has been robbed of a major portion of its history.
At conventions across the country, millions of avid collectors have made baseball memorabilia a multimillion-dollar business. Walker was one of the most ardent of these collectors. He grew up in Reno, Nevada, and received a bachelor's and master's degree from the University of Nevada-Reno. He also received a doctorate from Washington State University.
Walker lived in Talent, Oregon, with his wife, Sharon, and their five sons. He was a lay bishop for his Mormon church in Ashland, Oregon. He also was a member of the Phoenix-Talent School Board. In 1971, he became a political science professor at Southern Oregon State College in Ashland. However, in June 1980, he quit his job and set up an investment company in his hometown of Medford, Oregon.
Walker concocted grandiose investment schemes. In early 1984, he purchased a bank charter from the South Pacific island of Tonga and opened the "International Bank of the South Pacific." He offered an amazing 25% interest rate and paid off early investors on schedule. Between November 1984 and July 1985, over 140 people, including many fellow church members, gave him over $7 million to invest. In return, they received certificates of deposit (or CDs) from his bank.
Sergeant Michael Sweeny of the Medford Police Department called it a "whale of an investment." Walker told investors that if they gave him $10,000, they would get $12,500 in return immediately. However, Walker did not give them $12,500; he gave them a CD saying that he owed them $12,500 in one year.
Walker had investors in several states, including Oregon, Washington, California, and Utah. His employees were also investors. His assistant, Peggy Stewart, believed he was a fair, intelligent, astute businessman. She invested a considerable amount of money with him. She and his other employees trusted him. She believed that every employee invested with him.
Walker was an avid baseball fan and had a "passion" for sports collectibles. He used his newly accumulated investors' money to buy rare and expensive sports memorabilia. It was as if he were acting out a childhood fantasy. According to Assistant Attorney General Jim McLaughlin, Walker freely indulged in his sports memorabilia passion with his investors' money.
According to sports memorabilia dealer Rob Wochnick, Walker did not know how much the memorabilia was worth and sometimes paid two or three times extra. He usually paid in cash and did not ask for receipts. According to Wochnick, some items Walker bought were fakes, but Walker did not realize it. Walker did not ask questions and did not seem to care.
Stewart was somewhat comforted by Walker's collection because he had what she believed was between $5 and $22 million worth of collectibles. The investors were not concerned because he had a large amount of assets. Soon, he graduated from $1,000 baseball cards to the major collectibles, building one of the most prized collections in the country.
Walker leased an empty bank building on E. Stewart Avenue in Medford and opened the "National Sports Hall of Fame," a sports memorabilia museum. In February 1985, at the museum's grand opening, Pete Rose was Walker's special guest and master of ceremonies. Walker had bought several pieces of memorabilia from Rose, including his diamond-studded Hickok Belt, silver bat, jersey, and diamond-studded world champion ring. Walker paid him $20,000 cash and gave him a $50,000 CD.
Walker displayed Rose's memorabilia elaborately among his vast collection spanning nine decades of sports history. Some of the most prized items included two Honus Wagner baseball cards from 1910, valued at $70,000; Babe Ruth's 1924 New York Yankees uniform, 1927 World Series ring, and autographed baseball, valued at over $52,000; a pristine, uncut sheet of baseball cards from 1933, worth $10,000; a 1953 Yankees World Champion Ring, worth $10,000; Mickey Mantle's 1956 World Series uniform, valued at $15,000; and a replica Yankees Player Trophy, worth $3,500.
Walker also displayed Muhammad Ali's gloves, Wilt Chamberlain's uniform, O.J. Simpson's uniform, and a collection of rare coins and gems, which included a 117-carat diamond, a 6,100-carat blue topaz worth $300,000, and several gold nuggets.
In November 1985, Walker's museum closed. In February 1986, the Medford police obtained a warrant and searched Walker's office. The Oregon Attorney General's Office had been watching him for a year and had filed a civil suit. They charged him and his four bank partners, Rex Jackson, William Mills, Larry Dotson, and Raymond Cluff, with securities fraud and racketeering.
Attorney General Dave Frohnmayer alleged that the CDs Walker sold to his investors were not registered in any state or with the federal government. He called Walker's operation a "Ponzi scheme," wherein a few investors receive big payoffs to lure others into investing. The search of Walker's office yielded enough evidence to prosecute him for illegally selling unregistered securities.
Investigators reviewed bank records and found that Walker deposited over $7 million of his investors' money into one of his accounts at Western Bank in Ashland, Oregon. He then wrote checks on the account to purchase memorabilia, rent space for his museum, and remodel exhibit space. A judge issued a temporary restraining order, freezing bank accounts that belonged to Walker, his Tonga bank, and his museum.
Meanwhile, investigators had trouble getting Walker's investors to cooperate. According to Peggy Stewart, everyone had gotten their principal and/or interest, and no one had complained to the Attorney General's Office. Walker maintained his innocence. He filed a $600 million countersuit against the Attorney General's Office, alleging slander and libel. He received several summonses but continually failed to appear in court.
Anticipating the Attorney General's Office would confiscate his assets, Walker asked employee Sandy Sanders to pack up his prized sports collection. Sanders wanted Walker to get the collection out of there so that it could be turned into liquid assets and given to the investors. He also wanted to keep the Attorney General's Office from getting their hands on it.
In April 1986, Walker took his collection and left Oregon. Most of it would never be seen again. When he left, he owed Pete Rose over $70,000. The CD he had given Rose was worthless. He also never paid his lawyer $12,000 in legal fees. The FBI became involved in the investigation. Later that year, he was seen in Purchase, New York. However, he quickly disappeared again. In December 1986, a default judgment was issued against Walker, his bank, and two funds connected to the bank. However, no trace of him or his collection was found.
Fifteen months after Walker disappeared, on July 3, 1987, a man using the name "Charles Lee" checked into a motel on Las Vegas Boulevard. He was alone and did not have a vehicle. Two days later, on July 5, motel workers noticed a foul smell coming from his room and found his badly decomposed body in the bathtub. There was no apparent cause of death and no signs of identification, except a prescription bottle bearing the name "Dennis Walker."
After Assistant Attorney General McLaughlin reviewed the autopsy photographs, records, and dental charts, he was certain that "Lee" was Walker. A few days later, on July 8, the body was positively identified as Walker through dental records. His collection was nowhere to be found. There were several theories as to why he died, but no one ever determined what caused his death. A toxicological study was inconclusive, and no drugs or poisons were found in his system.
Las Vegas police and the coroner's office did not think Walker's death was a homicide. However, Medford police found it "questionable." The FBI and members of the sports memorabilia community suspect he was murdered for his collection. His death, combined with the missing memorabilia, leaves many more questions open than closed in the case.
The Attorney General's Office placed a lien on Walker's memorabilia, hoping to use it to repay his investors. In his museum, they located an inventory list among his papers. However, it is believed that other memorabilia are not included in the list. He reportedly did not keep receipts, proofs of authenticity, or other paperwork.
Among Walker's missing memorabilia are Babe Ruth's 1924 uniform, 1927 World Series ring, and autographed baseball; a 1953 Yankees World Champion Ring; Mickey Mantle's 1956 World Series uniform; and a replica Yankee Player Trophy. Also missing are several pieces of memorabilia from Pete Rose, including his 1980 World Champion ring, Hickok belt, World Series rings, a Hall of Fame trophy, several batting awards, and his silver bat.
Only $120,000 of the $7 million invested in Walker's schemes has been recovered. In the fall of 1987, the FBI located a small portion of his collection in New York, Connecticut, and Ohio. Other items were located in North Carolina. The rest is still missing. Investigators theorize it is being sold in underground markets. Any item from his collection is officially viewed as stolen goods, and anyone who traffics in such items is liable to prosecution.
Suspects: One theory is that Walker was the victim of a mob hit. Another is that he was killed for his collection. However, no suspects have been identified.
Investigators theorize that some of Walker's collection has been sold in underground markets. Dealer Rob Wochnick heard rumors that the collection was in the possession of wealthy East Coast collectors.
Extra Notes:

  • This case first aired on the October 12, 1988 episode.
  • Pete Rose declined to be interviewed for the show.
  • Interestingly, Walker and another man wanted for fraud, Steven Cox, both operated similar frauds in Medford, Oregon, at around the same time period.
  • Some sources state that: Walker promised returns ranging from 25 to 35%; his body was found on July 3; he was the victim of a mob-style killing; and an asthma inhaler with Walker's name on it was found in the motel room.

Results: Unresolved - After the broadcast, collector Malcolm "Sonny" Jackson turned in Babe Ruth's missing 1924 uniform to the New York police. He was vague about how he had come into possession of it and said he "did not want to be involved." In the years since Walker's death, a few more items from his collection have been found, including Babe Ruth's 1927 World Series ring and a jacket and a jersey worn by Pete Rose.
In February 1989, the FBI reopened its investigation into the case after $10,000 worth of memorabilia from Walker's collection turned up in New York. In March, allegations surfaced that phony Pete Rose memorabilia was being collected and sold throughout the United States. At least five collectors claimed to have his silver bat. It is not known if any of these bats were from Walker's collection.
In 1992, a judge ordered the police to return Babe Ruth's uniform to Sonny Jackson since no one had claimed it. In 1993, he sold it to sports store owner Thomas Catal for $1,500. Catal believed it was a costume and not the real uniform. He later sold it to Mark Lassman, president of a sports memorabilia club, for $2,500.
Ironically, on May 23, 1995, the uniform was stolen from the trunk of Lassman's car while he was visiting New York. A few days later, Rodney Medley contacted Lassman and offered to sell back the uniform. The police set up an undercover operation and met with Medley, who led them to William Wilson. Wilson had stolen the uniform and used Medley as a "go-between." The police recovered the uniform from Wilson's apartment. He and Medley were then arrested.
In July 2012, actor Charlie Sheen claimed to own Babe Ruth's 1927 World Series ring. He bought it from auctioneer Josh Evans, who had purchased it from New Jersey collector Barry Halper. Halper reportedly had other items from Walker's missing collection, including Pete Rose's 1962 autographed spring training jersey and Rose's silver bat. Halper died in 2005, and the jersey was sold at auction in 2007. It is not known how Halper came into possession of these items.
According to the Oregon Attorney General's Office, Walker's case is now closed and is likely past the statute of limitations.
On September 30, 2024, Pete Rose passed away at the age of eighty-three.
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