In Kindness Goes Unpunished, Walt visits his daughter Cady in Philadelphia, where he joins forces with the Philadelphia Police Department to investigate an assault on Cady that has left her in a coma. During his tenure as sheriff 'of the least populated county in the least populated state in the union', five murders have occurred in Absaroka County with three of them taking place since 2004 (in The Cold Dish and Death Without Company). In Death Without Company, Walt investigates the death of a Basque woman who was, for a few hours in the 1940s, married to Lucian before her family had the marriage annulled.

He investigates the murders of two white teenagers who had been found guilty, but not severely punished, for raping a local Indian girl, Melissa Little Bird. In the first book, The Cold Dish, Walt is mentioned as having been the sheriff of Absaroka County and plans to run for re-election again the following year.

Walt was elected as the Absaroka County Sheriff after Lucian all but threw the race and decided to retire. Upon his discharge from the Marines, Walt spent some time working at an oil rig in Anchorage, Alaska, before returning home to Wyoming, where he was hired by Sheriff Lucian Connally as a deputy sheriff in 1972. After serving in Vietnam, Walt spent six weeks assigned as security at Johnston Atoll. He served in the Marines for four years, and earned, among other decorations, the Navy Cross, Silver Star, Bronze Star, and Purple Heart. He was assigned to the 1st Marine Division as a military police officer, and served in country at Tan Son Nhut Air Base during the Vietnam War. He then served in the Marine Corps and completed boot camp at Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island and Officer Candidates School at Marine Corps Base Quantico. He attended the University of Southern California, where he played offensive lineman for the USC Trojans and graduated with a degree in English literature. state called Absaroka out of three existing states. Walt is a native of Durant, Wyoming, the county seat of fictional Absaroka County, named after the real-life Absaroka Native Americans, the Absaroka Range, and the 1930s effort to declare a U.S.

Longmire kindness goes unpunished