Frank A. Walls

Frank Athen Walls (October 12, 1967 – December 18, 2025) was an American serial killer and rapist who committed five murders between 1985 and 1987 in Okaloosa County, Florida. He was initially convicted of two murders and sentenced to death on one count and to a 25-year-to-life term for the other. Years later, he was linked to a third murder via DNA and eventually confessed to the remaining two murders. He later pleaded guilty to avoid further prosecution.

Walls was on death row at Union Correctional Institution. He was executed on December 18, 2025, by lethal injection, following a death warrant signed by Governor Ron DeSantis.

Early life Walls was born on October 12, 1967, in Ocean City, Florida. He is known to have started committing crimes at an early age, ranging from burglaries to peeping on young women and abusing animals. At the time his crime spree began, he worked as a dishwasher at a restaurant called "Quincy's" and was roommates with a man named Thomas "Animal" Farnham. Farnham would later claim that he was wary of Walls, due to the fact that he often talked about morose topics such as raping and killing people. Brandishing a knife, he went up to her and slashed her throat, leaving her to bleed out. Walls then stole her car, which was found the following day parked behind a random building. That same evening, Whiddon's body was found by a random person walking on the beach.

On May 20, 1987, Walls broke into a mobile home near Fort Walton Beach, occupied by 47-year-old Audrey Gygi, an employee at a local Kel-Tec. While it is unclear what exactly transpired, it is believed that Walls raped her and then left, but later changed his mind, deciding to come back and kill her.

When Alger and Peterson arrived to check what the noise was, Walls forced Peterson to tie up her boyfriend's hands and ankles, before he did the same to her.

Arrest, investigation, and trials The day after Alger and Peterson's bodies were discovered, Walls was arrested after his roommate provided information to law enforcement officials.

While he was awaiting trial for the double murder, Okaloosa County Police Department created a special unit to re-examine recent unsolved murders in an attempt to link them to Walls, as they suspected that he had had previous victims. One case authorities paid special attention to was the Gygi murder, as a search of Walls' trailer led to the recovery of a fan similar to the one stolen from her mobile home and also had a single fingerprint, later identified to be hers.

Investigation As they had the most evidence with the Alger–Peterson double murder, prosecutors requested that Walls be tried for only this crime. While he was detained at the Okaloosa County Jail in Crestview to await trial, a grand jury was organized at the Shalimar Courthouse Annex in Shalimar to decide whether there was enough evidence for an indictment.

On August 11, 1987, Walls was officially indicted on multiple charges, to which he pleaded not guilty. His judge was set to be G. Robert Barron, with Chief Assistant State Attorney Drew Pinkerton acting as prosecutor while Assistant Public Defender Earl D. Loveless would act as Walls' public defender.

Prior to the trial's beginning, Judge Barron ordered that Walls must provide any biological samples necessary to the prosecutors, as well as undergoing a forensic psychiatric exam. Early was also charged with an additional charge of burglary stemming from the burglarization of a home he had done with Walls in mid-July. Larson's assessment led to a dispute with another witness, Dr. Theodore Marshall, who stated that while Walls suffered from a personality disorder, he was sane and exaggerating the severity of his mental deficiencies.

In the end, Judge Barron ruled that Walls was competent to stand trial and scheduled it for July 11. While considering arguments from both the prosecutors and the defense team, Barron included the testimony of Vickie Beck, a correctional officer at the Okaloosa County Jail. The testimony was considered controversial and Walls' public defender objected to it, claiming that Beck had not properly informed his client of his right to stay silent. The trial officially began on July 15 of that year.

After only six days, Walls was found guilty on two counts of first-degree murder. Walls was initially scheduled to be sentenced on August 18, but the verdict was delayed because Judge Barron fell ill. A week later, on August 25, Walls was officially sentenced to death for the murder of Ann Peterson, and to life imprisonment with a chance of parole after 25 years for the murder of Edward Alger.

Shortly after his conviction, Walls and his attorneys requested a new trial, claiming there were issues concerning his competency hearing. The Supreme Court of Florida eventually reversed Walls' convictions and ordered a new trial, moving the venue to Marianna to avoid pre-trial publicity.

In July 1992, Walls was found unanimously guilty, with Judge Barron reinstating his original sentences given at the first trial. In an attempt to avoid a second trial and another potential death sentence, Walls pleaded no contest to the Gygi murder and admitted responsibility for killing Whiddon and Condra, in exchange for avoiding trial for the former and not being prosecuted for the latter two. This was the murder of 35-year-old Lindsay Sams, a woman from Columbus, Mississippi who was found severely beaten at a condominium in Miramar Beach on October 5, 1986. Despite this, Riebe has never been prosecuted for the murder of Sams, which remains unsolved. This appeal was rejected in the following year, with Circuit Court Judge William Stone noting that Walls had taken multiple IQ tests in previous years and had scored around 100 IQ for most of them, leading Stone to believe that he intentionally underperformed so he can have a chance of having his sentence reduced on the grounds of intellectual disability.

In 2021, Okaloosa County Circuit Court Judge William Stone denied Walls's claim that an "intellectual disability" should prevent the state from sentencing him to death, and is subject to appeal at both the state and federal levels, according to Assistant State's Attorney John Molchan.

In 2023, Walls filed an appeal for post-conviction relief on the grounds that his intellectual disability should be judged by the new laws implemented in the state since his conviction, but this was also denied and his death sentence was upheld.

On December 8, 2025, Walls's attorneys filed a lengthy appeal to the Florida Supreme Court, asking to halt Walls's execution on the basis of intellectual disability, which would violate the Eighth Amendment under cruel and unusual punishment arguments.

Death warrant and execution On November 18, 2025, Florida governor Ron DeSantis signed a death warrant for Walls, scheduling him to be executed on December 18, 2025.

Walls' crimes left a lasting impact on Okaloosa County, with many residents claiming that he permanently scarred the community.

Walls' attorneys filed a last-ditch appeal to the U.S Supreme Court for a stay of execution on December 15, this appeal was denied.

On December 18, 2025, Walls was executed by lethal injection at Florida State Prison, and was declared dead at 6:11 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. His last meal was chicken, steak, baked potato, vegetables, cheesecake, and juice.

Nearing the end of 2025, Walls was one of 19 Florida death row inmates executed in the United States that same year, which became the highest number of inmates executed in Florida in a single year to date since the nation's 1976 resumption of capital punishment.