Cold Case Chronicles: Mysteries, Murders & The Missing

by Silvia Pettem

Overview

COLD CASE CHRONICLES tells the stories of victims –– some missing, some murdered and some with changed identities. All are true, and each are mysterious in their own ways. The cases in this nonfiction narrative date from 1910 through the 1950s and include evolutions in forensics, as well as historical context in order to view the men, women and children through the lens of time.

Included are recent theories on the cases of Judge Joseph Crater (missing from New York City in 1930) and film director William Desmond Taylor (shot in Hollywood in 1922). Other chapters help to unravel the mystique of individuals with changed identities. Included, too, is a case of aerial sabotage, the "Boy in the Box," and unusual disappearances of young women, along with child abductions and four missing adventurers –– Everett Ruess, Joseph Halpern, and Glen and Bessie Hyde. Readers are encouraged to draw their own conclusions, consider how detectives would handle these and other cases today, and learn how genetic genealogy brings new hope for the future.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781493044559
Publisher:	Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	06/01/2021
Pages:	248
Sales rank:	673,511
Product dimensions:	6.30(w) x 9.20(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Silvia Pettem (www.silviapettem.com) is a longtime historical researcher, newspaper columnist, and author of more than twenty books. After decades of work for individuals and governments, her life took a new turn in 1996, when she stumbled upon the gravestone of a Jane Doe –– a murder victim from 1954. Pettem then applied her research skills to both old-fashioned detective work and the power of the internet by entering into a partnership with her local sheriff and with forensic experts of the Vidocq Society to successfully determine the young woman's identity. Pettem chronicled their work in Someone's Daughter: In Search of Justice for Jane Doe.

In 2008, the Boulder County Sheriff's Office gave Pettem a Sheriff's Commendation Award for doing the "lion's share of the research" on the Jane Doe case. Then, in 2010, the Vidocq Society presented her with its Medal of Honor and made her an associate member. In addition, Pettem became a longtime volunteer in the Detectives Section of the Boulder Police Department and is a recent recipient of the City of Boulder's Lifetime Achievement Award. She also is a NamUs instructor in classes sponsored by the Colorado Bureau of Investigation –– expanding her expertise and working with colleagues all over the country.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations ix

Foreword xi

Part 1 Up for Grabs, an Introduction 1

Chapter 1 Judge Joseph Force Crater: Cabs and Cabarets 5

Lost in a Crowd 5

Early News Reports 7

Early Investigations 8

Grand Jury 10

Ongoing Speculation 12

The Rest of the Story 14

Chapter 2 Dorothy Arnold: As Though She Never Existed 17

Upscale and Uptown 17

Puzzling Investigation 19

Dangers and Possibilities 20

Fruitless Searches 21

Digging Deeper 24

Uncertainty Remained 25

Stepped into Oblivion 26

Chapter 3 Lost Souls and a Buried Past: Hart Island 29

Potter's Field 30

The Island's Allure 32

Insane and Detained 33

Twentieth-Century Uses for Hart Island 35

More on the Cemetery 36

Finding the Deceased 38

Advocate for the Island 40

Part 2 Missing Adventurers, an Introduction 43

Chapter 4 Everett Ruess: He Kept His Dream 45

Missing in the Desert 45

Continued Searches 48

Everett's Wanderings 52

Stepped-Up Investigations 53

A New Theory 54

Modern-Day Forensics 55

Wilderness Song 56

Chapter 5 Glen and Bessie Hyde: Grand Canyon Honeymoon 59

To Give Me a Thrill 59

Readers Follow Their Journey 62

News Reports Turn Ominous 63

Disappearance and Initial Search 65

The Hydes' Predecessors 67

Mystery or Mishap? 68

Later Theories 69

Chapter 6 Joseph Laurence Halpern: Reaching for the Stars 71

The Road Trip West 72

Temptation to Linger 73

Initial Search 76

Halpern Family Goes Home 78

Ongoing Investigations and Theories 79

Some Resolution 81

Into the Next Generation 83

Part 3 Changed Identities, an Introduction 85

Chapter 7 Lawrence Joseph Bader: Gone Fishing 87

Presumed Drowned 88

Home and Family 89

Legal Presumption of Death 90

Double Life 91

Voluntary Disappearance or Amnesia, or Both? 96

Chapter 8 Twylia May Emfarey: Don't Fence Me In 97

Twylia's Nebraska Years 98

A Sister's Search 100

Was Twylia Murdered? 103

Twylia as Theresa 104

Chapter 9 The Hatbox Baby: A Christmas Miracle 109

The Foundling 110

The Secret 112

Unburdening Her Soul 114

Sifting through the Data 115

Faith's Love 116

Sharon's Story Came Full Circle 118

Part 4 Ten and Under, an Introduction 119

Chapter 10 Young Child Abductions and Black-Market Babies 121

Marjory West 121

Tennessee Children's Home Society 123

Steven Damman and Freddie Holmes 125

Unwed Mothers and Their Newborns 128

Help and Hope 130

Chapter 11 The Boy in the Box: America's Unknown Child 131

Discovery and Evidence 132

Early Leads and (First) Burial 136

Keeping the Story Alive 137

The Vidocq Society and a New Burial 140

Jonathan, Maybe? 142

New Hope for the Future 144

Chapter 12 Connie Smith: Camper from the West 149

Road to Lakeville 150

Initial Search 152

Early Leads 154

False Confessions 156

Back to Arizona 157

Family Still Seeks Resolution 158

Part 5 In Cold Blood, an Introduction 161

Chapter 13 Marion Joan McDowell: Taken from Toronto 163

Initial Investigation 164

Ongoing Investigations 166

Marion and Her Family 167

Interest from Abroad 167

Later Years 170

Chapter 14 "Daredevil" DeLay: Aerial Sabotage 171

Formative Years 172

Flying High 173

Dangers and Disconnect 175

Murder and Its Aftermath 177

Another Aerial Murder: United Airlines Flight 629 178

Chapter 15 William Desmond Taylor and His Brother: Double Blood Bond 181

Behind the Scenes: Act I 182

Behind the Scenes: Act II 184

In Front of the Screens: Act I 187

In Front of the Screens: Act II 189

Postmortem 192

Part 6 Through the Lens of Time 197

Early Forensics 198

Early Twentieth-Century Missing: Dorothy Arnold and Judge Crater 199

1920s Murders: William Desmond Taylor and "Daredevil" DeLay 201

Missing Adventurers of the 1930s 202

Missing in the 1950s: 202

Murdered in the 1950s 204

Technological Advances 205

Acknowledgments 207

For Further Reading 211

Index 221