Walker Browning was a computer programmer for Springbook Electronics in Palo Alto, employed in creating data disks for Global Positioning Satellite units. He was fired in or around October 2002.
In 1999, after going to a baseball game on an invitation from his friend, Browning happened to be the fan who caught a baseball hit by star player Darryl Grant, marking the new record for home runs hit in a single season. The ball, a "little piece of history," was therefore worth around $3 million.
After losing his job, Browning finally decided to sell the baseball, but by then, Scott Gregorio was closing in on Grant's record, and there were no buyers. Browning panicked and tried to protect his investment. He first tried putting Gregorio out of action by attacking him with a baseball bat as he was leaving the stadium. But Gregorio was able to ward off the attack, albeit without seeing Walker's face, and was thereafter assigned a pair of bodyguards by the team, thus stopping Browning from getting at him again, at least directly. But by following Gregorio around, Browning learned that he was having an affair with Erin Hammond, the wife of billionaire Lawrence Hammond.
Without another choice, Browning broke into the parking garage of Lawrence Hammond's office, and planted a homemade disk in his car's GPS device that would guide the Hammonds to a deserted parking lot, where Browning lay in wait. As soon as they stopped, Browning approached and shot both Hammonds. Erin died first from her four gunshot wounds, while Hammond, whom Browning shot only once, before Browning ran him over with his car, lingered long enough to give a clue to the killer's identity in the form of a mnemonic device to give the killer's license plate.
As Browning hoped, grief over Erin's death sent Gregorio into a slump, and he eventually failed to break the record. Also, in his overconfidence, Browning came to believe that he had gotten away with everything and would soon be rich, believing that the police would focus their murder investigation on Hammond's many enemies and write Erin's death off as collateral damage. But Browning was identified by Adrian Monk, and arrested by the SFPD before he could sell the ball. In the fracas in his home with his guard dog, Toby, the $3 million baseball was destroyed, making his murders all for nothing.
Trivia[]
- Walker Browning aparently knew some German, as he gave Toby a command in German.