True Crime · 1937
Flagstaff’s Walkup Family Murders
A Shocking 1937 Tragedy
In the summer of 1937, the mountain town of Flagstaff emerged from the Great Depression with an eye toward the future. Few people were better positioned for success than JD Walkup, chairman of the county board of supervisors and a father of four. One cool summer evening, his wife, Marie, and their children were found dead, and the town soon faced the disturbing knowledge that Marie was the culprit.
The murders shook Flagstaff to its core. Susan Johnson reconstructs the case with care from records and contemporary reporting, and with respect for a family whose story the town spent decades trying to forget.
Where to find it
The facts
- TitleFlagstaff’s Walkup Family Murders: A Shocking 1937 Tragedy
- AuthorSusan Johnson
- PublisherThe History Press, True Crime series
- PublishedSeptember 27, 2021
- Paperback ISBN978-1467147156 · $21.99
- HardcoverISBN 978-1540249685 · Print on demand
- Pages112
The case behind the television special
This is the case Susan Johnson brought to Travel Channel’s The Dead Files in 2022, when the program came to Flagstaff for its two-hour season finale. She treats it on television the way she treats it on the page: as a loss the town carried quietly for generations, owed accuracy and respect.
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