Reverend Raymond Walker resigned his pastorate at the Graniteville Baptist Church in Johnston in 1909. Soon after he would be residing at the RI State Hospital for the Insane.

Born in England in 1875, Walker was married in 1904. His wife, Nellie, a native of Pennsylvania, became pregnant with their son in 1909. The baby was born three months premature in February 1910 and died that same day at Providence’s Lying-In Hospital. The loss of the baby only added to the despair that hovered over Nellie’s life. It had been discovered that, on Nov. 4, 1909, her husband had stolen a blank check from the checkbook of his friend G. Lambert Newhall, and made the check out to himself for $35, forging Newhall’s signature. On Dec. 7, police went to Walker’s home to arrest him. The retired minister became physically combative.

Walker was hauled into court where he was charged with forgery. He had spent the check at the Shepard Company Store. When a designation of insanity was placed upon him, following an examination by a physician, he was taken to the State Hospital for Mental Diseases in Cranston instead of prison.

On March 30, 1910, Walker managed to sneak past the nurse who had been tasked with watching him. He exited the institution, scaled the 12-foot wall surrounding the grounds, and escaped. He went to Boston where, on April 2, he visited the Board of Charity and asked if they might help him as he wasn’t feeling well. They transported him to the city relief hospital where it was determined that he had ingested a dose of poison. Walker made no attempt to hide his true identity and Rhode Island police soon learned of his location.

When Walker was released from the hospital on April 6, police officers were waiting at the doors of the hospital to arrest him and bring him back to RI. Walker put up a fight, swearing that he would never return to RI voluntarily. This presented a problem for the lawmen who had to follow procedure. One of the officers returned to RI where he quickly obtained legal paperwork charging Walker with being a fugitive then went back to Boston and assured Walker that he was being taken to the RI State Hospital again, whether he went voluntarily or not.

In April of 1911, Walker escaped from the state hospital again. Without being seen, he changed his clothing, broke a window, climbed out and fled. He was located and brought back to the facility but, by 1913, he had been released and departed for somewhere in New Jersey. Nellie had taken as much hardship as she could. She filed for divorce on the grounds of extreme cruelty and neglect to provide. She alleged that he had humiliated her in front of their church congregation, stated that he wished their two living children were dead, and once threatened, “I will follow you to the end of the earth and blow your brains out.” The divorce was granted in September 1913 in Walker’s absence, and Nellie was given custody of both children. It isn’t known what happened to Reverend Walker following his removal to New Jersey.