State Aide Sues Convict in Alleged Poison Plot

A deputy state attorney general has sued a Folsom Prison inmate and his family, charging that they are plotting to poison him and several other deputy attorneys general and judges.

The unusual suit, filed Monday in Sacramento Superior Court by Deputy Atty. Gen. William George Prahl, seeks a permanent restraining order against G. Daniel Walker, his family and anyone else acting with them.

Walker’s crimes became material for a book and television production, “A Death in California.”

His case drew popular attention, because of the romance he carried on with socialite Hope Masters, after killing her boyfriend on a Tulare County ranch in 1973.

Prahl became acquainted with Walker after representing the state in several actions against Walker and his family.

The suit said that more than 44 actions against officials and attorneys within the Department of Corrections and the attorney general’s office have been filed by Walker, his family members or his business, Investigators Paralegal Services.

The suit accuses Walker’s wife and two stepchildren of threatening physical harm, watching Prahl’s home, obtaining his financial and credit history and rummaging through his home garbage cans, all on orders from Walker in his prison cell.

Darryl Doke, the deputy attorney general representing Prahl, said Prahl decided to file suit Friday, after discovery of Walker’s alleged poisoning plot.

The suit said a handwritten document found in a repossessed car that had belonged to Walker’s wife, Olivia, outlined a conspiracy to harm Prahl and the other officials.

The document also instructed Olivia Walker in the use of brucine, a poison similar to strychnine, and revealed a plan for her to escape from California, before the conclusion of pending criminal cases against her.

Olivia Walker, who met her future husband while working as a nutritionist at San Quentin, is in custody in Solano County Jail and faces other felony charges in Placer and Alameda counties.

She and her children, Aurora and John F. Walker of El Cerrito, were named as defendants in the lawsuit.

Walker was sentenced to life imprisonment for the gunshot killing of Los Angeles advertising executive William Ashlock. He reportedly raped and terrorized Ashlock’s girlfriend, Masters, who later reportedly fell in love with Walker.