On July 5, 1987, a man was found dead in the bathtub of a Las Vegas motel room.  Charles Lee, the name under which he had checked in two days earlier, was bogus, and the Phoenix, Arizona, address he had provided was non-existent. On the bathroom counter sat a prescription pill bottle and an asthma inhaler, both bearing the name of Dennis Walker, an Oregonian who had been running from the law. Dental records confirmed the forty-three-year-old was the deceased man, but it was not determined if his death was an accident, suicide, or homicide.

Rickey Henderson is baseball’s stolen bases king, but Dennis Walker, a chunky former college professor, could legitimately be called baseball’s biggest crook (and it is not because of his weight.)

Dennis Walker

Reno, Nevada, native Dennis Walker obtained his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from the University of Nevada-Reno. After earning a Doctorate from Washington State University, he embarked on his academic career.

In 1971, Walker became a Political Science professor at Southern Oregon State College, now Southern Oregon University, in Ashland, two-hundred-eighty-five miles south of Portland. He, his wife, Sharon, and their five sons lived in Talent, five miles northwest of Ashland.  When not instructing in the classroom, Walker was active in the community, serving on the Phoenix-Talent School Board and as a bishop for the Ashland Mormon church.

In June 1980, Walker quit teaching to embark on a new career as an investment advisor. He attracted a multitude of clients across Oregon, Washington, California, and Utah by offering an astounding 25% interest rate. He proved financially savvy, paying off early investors on schedule for four years.

After purchasing a bank charter from the island of Tonga in 1984, the now multimillionaire Walker established the “International Bank of the South Pacific,” which he and four partners managed. Between November 1984 and July 1985, upwards of one-hundred-forty people gave Walker over $7 million to invest in exchange for promissory notes stating he owed them their investment plus the interest in one year.

An avid numismatist, Walker used much of his money to purchase several rare and valuable coins. He was also a sports fan, particularly of baseball. When his young son began collecting baseball cards, Walker took him to a card show; soon, dad was also hooked on the hobby.

As his money continued flowing in, Walker began acquiring more valuable and cherished items from America’s national pastime, such as World Series rings and uniforms worn by star players.

College Professor Turned Investment Guru

To house his new collection of increasingly growing sports treasures, Walker leased a 4,000-square-foot building of a former Medford bank located off Interstate 5. In February 1985, after expanding the building to 6,000 square feet, he proudly opened his personal “National Sports Hall of Fame.”

The Building Leased By Walker

Pete Rose served as the Master of Ceremonies for the grand opening of Walker’s sports shrine. The soon-to-be all-time Major League Baseball (MLB) hits leader donated several jerseys and other memorabilia.

Pete Rose Talking With A Young Fan

At Walker’s National Sports Hall Of Fame

(At Least Rose Made It Into One Hall Of Fame)

Walker’s prized collection, the bulk of which showcased vintage items from the national pastime’s yesteryear, included two Honus Wagner 1910 baseball cards, among the scarcest cards in the world, and a mint-condition uncut sheet of 1933 baseball cards.

                                             

1910 Honus Wagner Baseball Cards   1933 Uncut Sheet Of Baseball Cards

Other items showcased included the purported World Series uniforms of the two most exalted players of baseball’s most illustrious franchise, those of New York Yankees greats Babe Ruth and Mickey Mantle, from 1924 and 1956, respectively. The Ruth uniform was also said to have worn by him in the 1942 film Pride of the Yankees.  Walker also had a baseball signed by the Babe.

Babe Ruth Uniform And Autographed Baseball

The highlight of Walker’s collection were his approximately one-hundred-fifty World Series champion rings; among those he had accumulated were one from the 1953 champion New York Yankees as well the personal Fall Classic hardware of Babe Ruth (1927), Lou Gehrig (1936), Bob Feller (1948), Willy Mays (1954), and, he claimed, that of Pete Rose (1980). He also had the Hall of Fame rings of Feller, Harmon Killebrew, Frank Robinson, and Willie Stargell.

Walker also had two other unique items of Mays’ memorabilia; his cap from when he played for the Minor League’s Minneapolis Millers and his glove with his #24 etched on the thumb.

Among the other baseball items acquired by Walker were a replica New York Yankees player trophy, a Ty Cobb bat, and a snakeskin-wrapped cane he used in his later years.

                                                                         

1953 New York Yankees             Replica New York Yankees Player Trophy

World Series  Ring

Baseball memorabilia comprised the bulk of Dennis Walker’s sports treasures, but he had an extensive collection of valuable items from other sports as well. On the football front, he possessed approximately one-hundred Super Bowl rings, along with Jim Brown’s 1964 NFL championship ring, and a uniform worn by Buffalo Bills great O.J. Simpson. Hockey-related collectibles included a ring awarded to Gordie Howe and Jim Craig’s gold medal from the 1980 Winter Olympics (the “Miracle on Ice.”) Other prized sports collectibles included a Wilt Chamberlain jersey, Muhammad Ali’s gloves, and a bronze medal from the first modern Summer Olympics held in 1896.

Walker also ventured outside of the sports world, acquiring more rare coins, several gold nuggets, and a collection of rare gems, including a one-hundred-seventeen-carat diamond and a 6,100-carat blue topaz, the second-largest in the world, worth $300,000 by some estimates.

Dennis Walker may have had the most valuable sports memorabilia collection in the country. Authorities were suspicious as to how the items had been accumulated.

A Shot Of Walker’s Sports Shrine

Following a nearly year-long investigation initiated by the Oregon Attorney General’s Office, Dennis Walker and his four bank partners, Raymond Cluff, Larry Dotson, Rex Jackson, and William Mills, were charged with securities fraud and racketeering on February 6, 1986.

Walker, specifically, was charged with selling unregistered securities totaling between $6–7 million. From November 1984 to July 1985, these CDs had been sold with the promise of a 25-35% return to investors in Oregon, Washington, California, and Utah, without being filed in any of the states or with the federal government. Walker’s increasingly growing sports memorabilia collection was found to have been funded by his investors’ money. He was, in essence, operating a Ponzi scheme, as a few investors received big payoffs for luring other investors.

Bank records showed that after Walker had deposited over $7 million of his investors’ money into his account at Western Bank in Ashland, he then wrote checks on the account to purchase much of the memorabilia, as well as to rent and remodel the former bank building into a museum.

The manner in which Walker was charged largely unique in that the authorities had discovered the fraud before any apparent victims. Because of this, investigators had difficulty getting Walker’s investors to cooperate with them.

Peggy Stewart, an employee as well as an investor with Dennis Walker, said, as far as she knew, everyone had received their principal and/or interest, and no one had complained to the Attorney General’s Office.

Peggy Stewart

Employee And Investor

Knowing he was under investigation and fearful of the state confiscating his prized and valuable sports assets, Dennis Walker had already hit the road, having cleaned and closed his National Sports Hall of Fame in November, after only nine months of operation. One of his former employees, Sandy Sanders, had helped him load his possessions and supported hiding the memorabilia to “. . . keep the state from getting their cotton-picking hands on it.”

Sandy Sanders,

Former Employee Of Dennis Walker

Circuit Court Judge Loren Sawyer issued a temporary restraining order freezing Walker’s multiple bank accounts, all actions commencing from his Tonga bank, and the sale of his memorabilia.

Walker’s lawyers filed a $600 million countersuit against the Oregon Attorney General’s Office, alleging libel and slander. Multiple summonses issued to Walker went unanswered, and he owed his attorneys $12,000 in legal fees when he bolted.

Walker was believed seen across the country in late 1986 in Purchase, New York. In December, a default judgment was issued against him, his Tonga bank, and two funds connected to the bank.

Walker Runs

Seven months later, on July 5, 1987, a Las Vegas motel manager found a man ultimately identified as Dennis Walker dead in the bathtub. His body was in the decomposing stage; he was believed to have been dead for at least two days, meaning he had succumbed shortly after checking into the motel room. Speculation abounded that Walker had been murdered for his valuable collection, while others theorized he had been killed in a professional hit after it was learned the Oregon Attorney General’s Office found he possibly had ties to organized crime.

It appeared baseball aficionado Dennis Walker had been caught in a rundown and would be out no matter who tagged him; the authorities would take him out of business while the mob may just take him out. The manner of his demise, however, could not be determined. No drugs or poisons were found in his system and a toxicological study was inconclusive.  Because nothing at the scene suggested foul play, Walker is believed to have died of natural causes.

The Oregon Attorney General’s Office placed a lien on Walker’s missing multimillion dollar memorabilia, hoping to use it, upon recovery, to repay his investors. In his former museum, they located an inventory list among his papers appraising his collection’s value at $7.6 million but found few receipts, certificates of authenticity, or other paperwork verifying the value. After further investigation, much of Walker’s collection was believed not to have been listed.

The papers suggested Walker may have shipped his inventory to southern California upon fleeing Oregon, but no specific location was listed. Fellow vintage sports memorabilia collectors had instead heard rumors that many of the items had been obtained by wealthy East Coast collectors or were being sold in underground markets. The scuttlebutt was supported by the recovery of several small portions of the missing memorabilia in New York, Connecticut, North Carolina, and Ohio in the fall of 1987, several months after Walker was found deceased. Additional trace amounts were located the following year.

Some Memorabilia Is Found

In October 1988, Babe Ruth’s purported 1924 uniform was turned into the New York police by sports memorabilia collector Malcolm “Sonny” Jackson. He was vague as to how he had acquired the jersey.

In 1992, a judge ordered the still unclaimed uniform returned to Jackson. He sold it the following year to sports store owner Thomas Catal for only $1,500, as the buyer believed it was a reproduction. Catal later sold it for $2,500 to Mark Lassman, president of a sports memorabilia club.

On May 23, 1995, the uniform and some baseball cards were stolen from the trunk of Lassman’s rented car while he was visiting a friend’s New York office. A man named Rodney Medley contacted Lassman a few days later offering to sell the stolen jersey back to him. Undercover police met with Medley who took them to the apartment of William Wilson where the uniform was found. Wilson was the thief and had used Medley as the go-between. Both men were arrested.

Another $10,000 worth of Walker’s collection was retrieved in New York in February 1989.

     

The Babe’s Jersey Is Again Stolen

In July 2012, Hollywood bad boy and avid baseball fan Charlie Sheen revealed he had Babe Ruth’s 1927 World Series ring. The actor had purchased it from Josh Evans, founder and chairman of Lelands.com, considered the original sports memorabilia auction house, shortly after Evans had bought the ring in the early 1990s from the late New Jersey collector Barry Halper. It is unknown how Halper acquired the ring.

In 2017, Sheen sold the ring, through Lelands.com, for $2.09 million.

Charlie Sheen Had Babe Ruth’s Ring

Found amongst Walker’s papers at his former Medford, Oregon, museum was an inventory list of Pete Rose memorabilia totaling $350,000. The authenticity of the value, as well as whether the items were all actually in Walker’s possession, however, cannot be verified.

Rose confirmed selling many valuable items to Walker, including his ring spelling out 3631, representing the number of hits making him the National League career leader in 1981, and the ring awarded him after getting his 4,000^th career hit in 1984, both of which were diamond-studded and valued at $30,000 at the time. Other notable items included Rose’s diamond-studded Hickok Belt awarded as Player of the Year for 1975, a fifty-two-ounce silver bat for winning the National League batting title, and another jersey.

Some sources state Walker paid Rose $20,000 in cash and gave him a $50,000 CD said to mature in two years, but that Rose never collected the money because Walker had closed his bank, rendering the CD worthless.

A March 1989 Baseball Card News article says at the time of his 1987 death, Walker owed Rose over $70,000.  

Left: Pete Rose’s 4,000 Hits Ring,

Right: Rose Holding His Hickok Belt

Rose disputed Walker’s contention that he had his 1980 World Series championship ring, saying it was a reproduction, as he had kept his original ring. Bob Feller said the Hall of Fame ring and 1948 World Series ring displayed as his at Walker’s museum were copies as well.

Did Walker Really Have The Real Ring?

In March 1989, shortly after Major League Baseball began investigating gambling allegations against Rose, allegations surfaced that phony Rose memorabilia was being sold nationwide, after at least five collectors claimed to possess his silver bat. It is speculated but not known for certain if any of those bats had been in Dennis Walker’s collection.

Several collectors, Walker amongst them, also claimed to have the bat Rose used in collecting his record-breaking hit #4,192, but that can also not be verified.

Phony Rose Memorabilia On The Market

A September 1989 Penthouse article states that after learning of Dennis Walker’s July 1987 death and hearing many of the unpaid items he had given Walker might be in New York, Rose sent a friend there hoping to retrieve them, but he could not locate the items.

As Unsolved Mysteries prepared to do a segment on Dennis Walker’s death and his missing sports memorabilia in1988, UM producers requested an on-camera interview with Rose. The Penthouse article reported he had told a friend he declined to do so because he feared “They’ll start digging and find out I got paid cash for some of that stuff. That’ll bring the IRS on me.”

In July 1990, just under a year after Rose accepted a permanent ban from Major League Baseball in exchange for no formal finding of the gambling allegations levied against him, he pled guilty to tax evasion and was sentenced to five months in prison.

The Subject Was Rose

The criminal component notwithstanding, many baseball lovers view Pete Rose’s gambling as one of the gravest misdeeds committed against Major League Baseball. Another is Dennis Walker’s pilfering of America’s National Pastime.

Rose and Walker;

 Black Marks On Baseball

Dennis Walker had the reputation of a sports memorabilia guru, who knew exactly what his items were worth. Portland sports collectibles dealer Rob Wochnick says that could not be further from the truth.

Wochnick says Walker rarely knew or cared what the market value of the memorabilia was and often forked over two or three times above the figure to acquire the items. He generally paid in cash, did not request receipts, and did not ask questions. Wochnick contends Walker also did not realize some of the items he purchased were fake and seemed apathetic even after learning so.

At various times, Walker claimed his collection was worth $18-$30 million, but the FBI says the figure ranges between $5 and $7 million. Much of the memorabilia was legitimate, but some items were likely knockoffs.

Dennis Walker appears to have carried out a childhood fantasy in acquiring his treasure trove of sports collectibles and memorabilia using other people’s money. The Oregon Attorney General’s Office says his case is now closed as the statute of limitations has elapsed for any prosecutions of possession of any of the stolen memorabilia.

Dennis The Baseball Menace

Sources:

• Cincinnati Enquirer
• Cleveland Plain Dealer
• Las Vegas Sun
• Los Angeles Times
• New York Times
• The Orgeonian
• Statesman Journal (Salem, Oregon)