After a thorough review of records of a serial killer - who died in prison in 1996 - the Florida police has discovered that the man, Ottis Elwood Toole, identified on Tuesday as the killer of 6-year-old Adam Walsh in 1981, was the lover and partner in crime of serial killer Henry Lee Lucas.

According to TV show "America's Most Wanted", started by Adam Walsh's father John Walsh, Toole met Lucas in 1978, and the two "joined forces as a homosexual crime team, criss-crossing the country from 1978-1983."

It is not known exactly how many people Toole killed in all, other than the murder and decapitation of a six-year-old boy, Adam Walsh, 27 years ago. Adam went missing from a shop in Hollwood in 1981. His head was recovered from a canal two weeks later, but his body was never found.

In October 1983, Toole confessed to kidnapping and murdering of Adam, but he later recanted. Toole - a convicted killer and paedophile - pleaded guilty to four more murders and received four more life sentences in 1991.

Hollywood Police Chief, Chad Wagner, said Tuesday that though Toole was dead, "it is our determination and conclusion that Ottis Toole was the abductor and murderer of Adam Walsh."

The naming of Ottis Toole as Adam Walsh's killer brings an end to one of America's best-known unsolved cases. John Walsh had been critical of a botched police investigation, but he praised the police for finally bringing an end to the case.

Walsh said: "We needed to know and today we know. The not knowing, it's been a torture, but that journey is over."