Wesley G. “;Buck”; Walker, who served 22 years in federal prison for a murder on Palmyra Atoll that led to a best-selling novel and television miniseries, has died in California at age 72.

Walker had lived in a trailer home in the forest in Willits, Calif., until suffering a stroke.

His landlady, who uses only her last name, Parker, said Walker responded to her rental ad on Craigslist.

“;He was very clear in saying he was a wrongly convicted murderer who had just spent 22 years in jail,”; she said in a telephone interview. “;One thing he said was he had a parole officer and you would always get your rent on time.”;

She said he was in poor health since his stroke and had been in a nursing home.

He died April 26, according to the Lake County Records Office.

Walker and his girlfriend, Stephanie Stearns, were arrested in Honolulu after sailing in a yacht stolen on Palmyra from Malcolm “;Mac”; and wife Eleanor “;Muff”; Graham of San Diego.

The couples met in 1974 on the remote Pacific island, 1,100 miles south of Honolulu. The Grahams were on the yacht Sea Wind, and Walker and Stearns on a leaky boat, Iola.

Walker and Stearns were convicted initially of theft since there was no sign of the Grahams.

Stearns served seven months of a two-year sentence and Walker 42 months of a 10-year sentence before escaping. He was arrested later in a drug sting in Arizona.

In 1981, Muff Graham's bones were found on Palmyra. Her husband's body was never found.

Walker, who lived on the Big Island in the early 1970s, was convicted of murder in 1985. He was released on parole weeks before his 70th birthday on Sept. 18, 2007, after serving 22 years of a life sentence.

Honolulu attorney Earle Partington, who represented Walker in the murder trial, said Walker maintained his innocence “;to the bitter end.”;

“;The real question was, Was his girlfriend, Stephanie Stearns, involved?”; Partington said, calling her “;the brains of the outfit.”;

Stearns was acquitted of the murders. Her attorney, Vincent Bugliosi, wrote a book about the case, “;And the Sea Will Tell.”; It was made into a 1991 TV movie starring James Brolin and Rachel Ward.

Partington said he had not had any contact with Walker since the trial in San Francisco but that a reporter told him he was “;living in a fleabag hotel”; there after his parole.

Mike Murray of Maine, a general contractor who published The Palmyra Gazette last year while on a construction job there for the Nature Conservancy, said he began exchanging e-mails with Walker through a third party.

“;He fancied himself a writer and spent a fair amount of his time writing,”; Murray said.

One of his works was “;The Convict's Cookbook,”; detailing prison life, he said.

“;He liked to spin his yarns.”;

In a letter to the Gazette, Walker described his move in April 2009 to a 22-foot travel trailer parked in a grove of redwoods with a seasonal creek and swimming pond nearby.

Walker “;kept me abreast of how he was doing and how he was getting along with his neighbors when he moved into the trailer,”; Murray said. “;He wrote for a little while, then disappeared. Maybe his health went downhill.”;

Parker said he “;lived on almost nothing,”; paying $400 in rent from a Social Security check.

“;He was really happy to be here in the forest,”; she said. “;He loved it up here. The trailer was small but had everything he needed. He loved being on the computer even though it was a land line.”;

He was comfortable because “;he was used to being in a small space and being alone,”; she said.

She said he spent his time writing and listening to books on tape. On hot days he would swim in the pond.

In his letter to Murray published in the Gazette, Walker said, “;Can't say I experience loneliness as such—all those years in a single cell and mostly enjoying lockdowns,”; although he said he looked forward to visits.

“;There is a library in town—next visit Tuesday when I will go mostly for audio books, 2-3 VCR movies—and will also do some grocery shopping,”; he wrote.

One female neighbor greeted him with a homemade lemon custard cake.

“;He very much kept to himself,”; she said. “;He was a very quiet, little old man.”;