I was watching the Steven Cox case a few days ago and got to wondering if he ever met up with Dennis Walker or they ever had business dealings. Both of their cons took place in Medford, Oregon and I believe it was around the same time frame (late 80's). Also when Steven Cox was eventually apprehended in Lake Mead he had a lot of valuable in his possession including some valuable baseball cards. It made me wonder if maybe he had even bought them from Dennis Walker. Any thoughts on this?

You know I would bet you a doughnut they knew each other. Both were involved in investments right in the same town so I'm sure they "knew of" each other if not had direct contact with each other. The thing is I think that their cases are not that unique the kind of swindels they both pulled happened to a lot of people in the 80s when everyone and their mother thought they could strike it rich through investments like the ones Walker and Cox proposed.

The problem is very few did and some just dug holes they couldn't get out of.

CrystalDawn, I had actually thought the same thing a few weeks ago, then stumbled on this thread serendipitously. Interestingly, the same police officer or investigator is interviewed in both of their segments. I would wager that Cox and Walker probably did do a transaction.

I came across this old article that mentions Dennis Walker. They say he was murdered and it appeared to be a mob hit.

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=990CE6DC133FF936A15756C0A963958260

did anyone else think UM was trying to paint Steve Cox in a better light than he deserved? Calling him a "hometown hero" and saying that he was good looking? Just because he was good at local sports doesn't make him a hero IMO, and I didn't think he was at all attractive.

It was also said that it was believed he had good intentions to start, but once some of his investments went sour, he turned bad. I don't know though, I think he was shady from the start. His ROI was 25%, which was the exact same as Dennis Walker, so I defintely think there was a connection there.

Steve Cox was scum, taking the entire savings of people like the lady who was paralyzed by a drunk driver, and a recent widow, and using them to buy tons of lavish gifts for himself.

and even though Eugene Richmond turned himself into the police and asked Steve Cox to do the same, I think he is scum as well. He wouldn't give any info about Cox, lied about not having received the additional money from the widow, lied about not telling her money was safe, lied about the supposed threat on Cox's life.

did anyone else think UM was trying to paint Steve Cox in a better light than he deserved? Calling him a "hometown hero" and saying that he was good looking? Just because he was good at local sports doesn't make him a hero IMO, and I didn't think he was at all attractive.

It was also said that it was believed he had good intentions to start, but once some of his investments went sour, he turned bad. I don't know though, I think he was shady from the start. His ROI was 25%, which was the exact same as Dennis Walker, so I defintely think there was a connection there.

Steve Cox was scum, taking the entire savings of people like the lady who was paralyzed by a drunk driver, and a recent widow, and using them to buy tons of lavish gifts for himself.

and even though Eugene Richmond turned himself into the police and asked Steve Cox to do the same, I think he is scum as well. He wouldn't give any info about Cox, lied about not having received the additional money from the widow, lied about not telling her money was safe, lied about the supposed threat on Cox's life.

Steve and Eugene seemed like a couple of shady characters that's for sure. I remember reading a few years ago that Steve Cox had again found himself in trouble due to some sort of alleged scam or something which if true probably tells us all we need to know about this individual.

As to whether or not they were con-artists from the start? That I'm not sure of. Going purely on first-hand knowledge the eighties seemed to foster a great amount of dreamers who clearly should have never been involved in investment banking or real estate or whatever they were involved with to begin with. There were a lot of people who got involved in these sort of things hoping to make their fortune and realized very quickly that they were in over their heads. Many of them ended up broke. Some of them (many of whom were featured on UM) instead of realizing this decided to "push it" and took a number of other people down with them.

I bet they knew each other, back in the 80s if you wanted old rare baseball cards who would you go see in the PNW?

Dennis Walker

Does anyone know what Cox's original sentence for the crimes he committed on the UM segment was? I know he served time and was released from prison as he was arrested again in 2005 for (among other things) parole violation.

Does anyone know what Cox's original sentence for the crimes he committed on the UM segment was? I know he served time and was released from prison as he was arrested again in 2005 for (among other things) parole violation.

According to this article he was convicted on all charges and sentenced to 20 years in prison....but served less than 3. :rolleyes:

http://www.mailtribune.com/article/20051021/BIZ/310219992

Interestingly enough, the same investigator (Medford PD Sgt Michael Sweeney) was assigned to both the Cox and Walker cases and interviewed in the segments! Coincidence? Probably not...

I think it's reasonable to think that Cox and Walker were working together, after all they were working schemes out of the same town with a relatively small population and upon Cox's apprehension, there were numerous vintage baseball cards found in his posession.

However, I will speculate that while Cox was a despicable scam artist, it seemed like Walker might have actually been able to set up a legitimate business. Keep in mind, his investors were well aware that he was using their money to buy baseball memorabilia and set up a museum and actually had faith in that regards. It seems like it was mainly a legal technicality of selling unregistered securities that prompted the state to come after him. Had he actually showed up in court based on his summons' received, his business might actually have become legitimized.