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