John Edward Walsh is an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 television personality, criminal investigator

Private investigator

A private investigator , private detective or inquiry agent, is a person who can be hired by individuals or groups to undertake investigatory law services. Private detectives/investigators often work for attorneys in civil cases. Many work for insurance companies to investigate suspicious claims...

, human and victim rights advocate

Human rights

Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...

 and formerly the host, as well as creator, of America's Most Wanted

America's Most Wanted

America's Most Wanted is an American television program produced by 20th Television, and was the longest-running program of any kind in the history of the Fox Television Network until it was announced on May 16, 2011 that the series was canceled after twenty-three years, with the final episode...

. Walsh is known for his anti-crime activism, which he became involved with following the murder of his son, Adam, in 1981; in 2008, the now dead serial killer Ottis Toole

Ottis Toole

Ottis Elwood Toole was an American serial killer, arsonist and cannibal. Toole was an accomplice of convicted serial killer Henry Lee Lucas...

 was named as the killer of Walsh's son. Walsh is part owner of the Museum of Crime & Punishment

National Museum of Crime & Punishment

The National Museum of Crime & Punishment is a privately owned museum dedicated to the history of criminology and penology in the United States. It is located in the Penn Quarter neighborhood of Washington, D.C., half a block south of the Gallery Place station...

 in Washington, D.C.
Walsh was born in Auburn, New York

Auburn, New York

Auburn is a city in Cayuga County, New York, United States of America. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 27,687...

.