Word: marilyns
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...happy, unremarkable manner that most parents wish for their children. "We were loud, normal kids," says Andrew Cleverdon, a boyhood friend of Walker's. "We played football and basketball, rode our bikes." John's father, attorney Frank Lindh, took the bus to his job at the Department of Justice. Marilyn Walker was a stay-at-home mom who kept her maiden name. They played with their three kids, went to Mass at St. Bernadette's Catholic Church and held a "Kentucky Derby Day" every...
...poor when he grew up. After a semester at a local high school, John transferred to Tamiscal High, an alternative school with 100 students and a self-directed, individualized course of study. As a freshman and sophomore, Walker studied world arts and culture, including Islam and the Middle East. Marilyn Walker had left Catholicism and become a Buddhist; John was intrigued by religion too. "She opened all those doors for her kids," says Bill Jones, a family friend, "instead of dragging her kids into Catholicism like she'd been dragged into...
...Apparently it was The Autobiography of Malcolm X that inspired Walker to convert to Islam. He talked with his parents about his plans. Frank Lindh, now a lawyer with Pacific Gas & Electric, was accepting. Marilyn Walker had reservations. "She was concerned," says Marilyn's friend Stephanie Hendricks. "You have a 16-year-old kid who gets involved in any kind of religion in a passionate way, and you're going to want to know more about it, right...
...John Walker's last contact with his family was in May 2001. He told his mother he was leaving Bannu and "moving somewhere cooler for the summer." He asked his father for money, and Frank Lindh sent him $1,200. It wasn't long before Marilyn Walker wondered just where her son had gone. In early summer, she contacted John's madrasah. According to the Marin Independent Journal, a teacher there wrote her back on July 27, saying John, whom he called Sulayman Faris, arrived at the school on Nov. 30, 2000, and "impressed [everyone] with his character" during...
...Sept. 11 came and went, and still John's parents heard nothing. Finally, on Dec. 1, Marilyn Walker and Frank Lindh saw their son on television. As the footage played, Marilyn Walker burst into tears. John was filthy and had a bullet wound in his leg. In a husky voice and accented English, John told CNN where he had been the past six months. "I was a student in Pakistan, studying Islam, and came into contact with many people connected with the Taliban," he said. "The people in general have a great love for the Taliban. So I started...