Myrtle Point, Oregon
Jeremy Doland Bright was a 14-year-old Oregon boy whose mom and stepdad, Ollie, got divorced, after which his mom moved from Myrtle Point, which was about 15 miles from the Pacific Ocean to Grants Pass, Oregon, 111.9 miles away in the center of the state. Jeremy was described as a happy, good kid. He was an athlete, enjoying a degree of success as a basketball player on his school team. He also had an artistic flair, enjoying drawing and sketching. Jeremy was over 6' tall at age 14 and had a size 13 shoe. Both parents were still on good terms, so Jeremy asked his mom to let him and nine-year-old sister go to the Coos County State Fair in Myrtle Point, so they could visit their friends, family and their stepdad. Mom said yes. Jeremy and his sister arrived at the fair with friends at 2 PM, then split up but promised to roundez-vous at 5 PM by the Ferris Wheel, Jeremy never showed up. At some point he ran into a friend from school named Johnny, but later the two had became separated waiting to get on one of the rides, losing touch, before 4:30 PM. Everyone agrees Jeremy was a good kid, who got in no more trouble than any other kid would. And he didn't hang around with the wrong crowd.
Detectives did an investigation of Jeremy and his life. Though he didn't want to move away from Myrtle Point, he had already made friends in his new neighborhood and seemed reasonably happy, with no signs of depression. He kept in touch with old friends by phone and maintained a good relationship with his stepdad, who loved Jeremy and his sister. He adored his mom and sister. Jeremy called his Mom from the fair and said he was having the time of his life. A decisive factor in determining foul play, was the fact that he promised to roundez-vous with his sister and never showed up. She was almost 10 and he had responsibility for getting her home. He looked upon taking care of her very seriously, he was also very protective of her and would have never left her alone at the fair or broken his word to her, if he had any say in the matter. On top of that, he would never let his mom down unless it was as the result of circumstance beyond his control. One report is that Jeremy came by his stepdad's bar in Myrtle Point and borrowed money. These arguments weigh against Jeremy running away, committing suicide or any other voluntary act on his part. He never came to get her, because he wasn't able to.
Terry Steinhoff under arrest for the stabbing murder of a 32-year-old mother of two, Patricia Morris in Coos Bay Oregon in 1989. He dumped her body behind the Pan American Bar.
On Sunday, August 17th, the fair left Myrtle Point. Their departure gave birth to several rumors, including one that Jeremy had been kidnapped and became a sex slave. Police checked the fair troupe at its next stop and no sign of Jeremy was found. Also none of the troupe were missing or unaccounted for. Other stories, with almost all with NO foundation began to swirl about Jeremy's disappearance. While the fair was in town, Myrtle Point took on a Mardi Gras atmosphere. Police received one report that Jeremy attended one of these parties and was offered a "Mickey Finn" beer which had been laced with a powerful, illegal drug. One investigator was able to find witnesses that placed Jeremy at two parties that week, and it is possible that he died accidentally from an overdose at one. It was also possible that he had a heart murmur which caused his death. A jailhouse stoolie reported to jail personnel that three local teenagers showed up and harassed Jeremy and a few of his friends while they were swimming in a local lake. One apparently had a gun and began shooting at him for "target practice". According to the source, he was then shot and seriously wounded. The teenagers took him to a local cabin in an attempt to nurse him back to help. However, he later died from his wounds, according to the source. Then, the teenagers buried Jeremy's body in the woods near the cabin. Authorities searched the surrounding area, but found nothing.
Then authorities also talked to another informant. She said that on the day after Jeremy vanished, between midnight and 1am, she and a friend were leaving her sister's apartment when they ran into a neighborhood teen, a relative of Terri Steinhoff, whose clothes were all covered in blood. Shocked, they asked what happened, and he responded "This happened hours ago". He laughed and then went into another apartment.
For his family, the sadness of Jeremy's absence will never disappearance end
Who should be the #1 Suspect in a child's disappearance or murder, someone who had done it before?
Should you suspect someone for murder simply because they have murdered someone else? YES! 99.9% of us, will never cross that line, but once you have and you conscience does not stop you, there is no impediment from you doing it again.
Dr. Sam Sheppard, his wife Marilyn and son Reese before the attack.
Reese Sheppard was called Chip by his friends and family
Richard Eberling was a handyman at the Cleveland Ohio home of Dr. Sam Sheppard and his wife Marilyn. They lived in the home on Lake Erie with their son Reese. On the night of July 4, 1954, an intruder broke into their home beating up Dr. Sheppard then raping and murdering Marilyn. Sam had been sleeping on a couch downstairs, having come home late and not wanting to wake-up his wife. He heard the intruder, ran up the stairs and confronted him. They struggled, but the intruder was able to escape after hitting him senseless, Sam regained his senses, then followed the intruder and they struggled on the beach where Sam received a severe beating, being beaten into unconsciousness. Dr. Charles Elkins, M.D., examined Dr. Sheppard and found he had suffered a cervical concussion, nerve injury and a spinal injury in the region of the second cervical vertebra in the back of the neck.
The Sheppard home being torn down in 1993
The Day Bed which Dr. Shepard had fallen asleep on after coming home late.
Boy Scouts searching Lake Erie behind the Sheppard Home for Evidence.
Dr. Sam Sheppard Under Arrest
Reese Sheppard with his Dad and his stepmom and Harvard defense attorney F. Lee Bailey, Dorothy Kilgallen, reporter and "What's My Line" Game Show panel member, told Bailey that the judge in Sheppard's case repeatedly said how much he would enjoy sending Sheppard to prison, before the trial. He and the police chief were quoted as saying they knew Dr. Sheppard was guilty because he was having an affair, not because of any evidence in the case. In fact, police DELIBERATELY covered up the fact that they discovered early in the investigation that the storm cellar door had been pried open.
F. Lee Bailey took the Appeal to the US Supreme Court in 1964. They ruled that the judges allowing a madhouse, a press circus, where jurors were interviewed during the trial and asked prejudicial questions. A retrial in 1966, led to a verdict of NOT GUILTY. But the damage was done, Dr. Sam Sheppard's life had been destroyed. Though he would later make a career of defending the guilty, F. Lee Bailey admitted defending Dr. Sam Sheppard was his finest effort, getting an innocent man out of prison. By 1966, many people considered Bailey America's finest defense lawyer.
After they divorced, Dr. Sam would try wrestling to make a living, He became an alcoholic and would be dead by 1970.
Many of F. Lee Bailey's future cases would involve guilty people, including Albert DeSalvo, the Boston Strangler. Bailey negotiated a plea deal which sent him to prison for life for the rapes and stranglings.
Unlike Alan Dershowitz, who had earned a reputation as a defender of the poor and the innocent, like F. Lee Bailey, then took up the defense of Claus von Bulow. Bulow was accused of injecting his wife, heiress Sunny von Bulow with insulin, attempted murder, and led to her being in a coma the last 30 years of her life. Found guilty during the first trial, Dershowitz won an appeal and an acquittal in the 2nd trial. Many people, including me, believed von Bulow was guilty as sin. Whatever reputation Dershowitz had before was ruined in his defense of von Bulow.
I remember listening to Sunny's children describing the incriminating evidence which convinced them of their stepfather's guilt. I believed them, not von Bulow or Dershowitz.
Sam Sheppard with his 2nd Wife and son Reese
Richard Eberling
Richard Eberling had a long criminal career, mostly burglary, culminating in his conviction for murder and life sentence. Eberling became friends with elderly Ethel Mae Durkin after doing some handyman repairs to her home, eventually becoming her guardian and home healthcare attendant. On November 15, 1983 police were called to Durkin's home where paramedics found her face down on a hardwood floor. Eberling claimed that she had gotten up from her chair and fallen. Eberling told the EMS team that he thought it was a heart attack, but her vital signs, combined with wounds to her face lead medical professions to think she had been attacked. On January 3, 1984, X-rays revealed that Durkin's neck had been broken.
Durkin death was ruled -- without an autopsy -- an accidental fall. Her relatives were shocked to learn she had left 70 percent of her $1.5 million estate to "Dearest Richard, a gentleman who was to me the son I always wished for." Cleveland Plain Dealer
During the investigation which followed, it was determined Eberling had forged a power of attorney and stolen over $100,000 from the widow. In examining medical files, it was also found that Mrs. Durkin suffered a series of serious injuries while in Eberling's charge. The investigators determined Eberling had lobbied doctors to prescribe a large amount of sleeping pills for her. Friends describe Mrs. Durkin almost always unavailable to visitors because she was asleep. Mrs. Durkin "will" had left Eberling the largest bequest, but she also left other bequests. It was later determined that this will was a forgery and Eberling was originally set only to get a much more moderate bequest. Mrs. Durkin also left instructions that she wanted to be buried in her mink stole and expensive jewelry. Funeral home employees noted that after Eberling was left alone with the body, Mrs. Durkin's mink and jewelry had been removed.
It is now believed that Richard Eberling may have murdered five people during his long criminal career which ended in an Ohio prison, where he died July 25, 1998.
Who Was Richard Eberling?
Richard Lenardic's unwed mother was a menial laborer, who turned him over to Cuyahoga County Ohio Welfare Department after his birth, abandoning him. This occurred less than a month after the Stock Market Crash of 1929, beginning the Great Depression. Richard Lenardic grew up in a series of foster homes around Cleveland Ohio. Eberling was moved from one family to another because he was a troubled child who stole and lied constantly. One of the families which took him as a foster child was named Eberling.
In 1946, when he was 16, Richard Lenardic wanted to change his name to Eberling, the surname of his foster family. George Eberling, the head of the family, rejected the idea and barred him from doing so. Shortly after this, George Eberling died. Police at the time concluded he had taken the wrong medication, but the Sheppard estate contends the Richard Eberling POISONED George Eberling. They believe this was the first of many possible, at least 5 murders linked to Eberling.
Eberling made a rather remarkable recovery from his association with the Marilyn Sheppard Murder. He was later catapulted into Cleveland's social elite. Cleveland's Republican mayor, Ralph Perk, hired Eberling's partner, Obie Henderson, as a personal assistant. Though Obie's relationship with the mayor, Eberling succeeded in convincing the mayor's wife that she should hire him to decorate her home. Soon Eberling's interior decorating business took off, and he began hosting elaborate parties and landing ever richer clients. The Republican Mayor even helped Eberling to get a very lucrative contract in 1973 to restore Cleveland's historic City Hall. By 1977, however, his arrogance had made enemies, and he was fired by new DEMOCRAT Cleveland Mayor and 2004 Democratic presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich. https://www.famous-trials.com/sam-sheppard/10-evidence/
Eberling volunteered that he cut himself and the blood drops found on the stairway to the 2nd story of the Shephard home were probably his. He also explained while cutting wire, metal and glass he got cuts on his hands. He recalled it happening specifically the last time he worked at their home. It was later determined that the blood did not belong to Sam, Marilyn or Reese who all had type O Blood, while the mysterious unaccounted for Blood was Type A Blood. Richard Eberling had type A Blood.
Eberling was confronted with the fact that NONE of his handyman duties ever dealt with the Sheppard home 2nd story, which he was not authorized to access. He then countered that he may have gone upstairs looking for a band-aid. But the odd thing was Marilyn and Sam Shephard were home and available while Eberling was there and he never mentioned it to them, according to Dr. Shephard. A later investigation of another burglary/robbery during his handyman duties, turned up a couple of Marilyn Sheppard's rings, he confessed he stole them, but before Marilyn's murder.
August 19, 1998: Robert Lee Parks, an inmate at the Oriental Correctional Institution, says that shortly before he died, Eberling confessed to Marilyn Sheppard's murder.
Dr. Sam Sheppard was a focused, aloof doctor, who found making friends difficult. When he died April 6, 1970, he was an alcoholic still proclaiming his innocence. His son Reese never waivered in his belief that his dad was innocent.
For those who don't know THE FUGITIVE tv series premiered April 16, 1963 starring David Janssen was based on Dr. Sam Sheppard's case.
Dr. Richard Kimble, the Fugitive, Lt. Gerrard his pursuer and the "one armed man" who actually murdered Kimble's wife.
David Janssen played Dr. Richard Kimble modeled on Dr. Sam Sheppard, who had been falsely convicted of murdering his wife. Barry Morse played Lt. Gerrard who was an Inspector Javert to Dr. Richard "Jean Valjean" Kimble. In the Victor Hugo Story Les Miserables, Javert relentlessly pursues Valjean over a stolen loaf of bread to feed Valjean's starving family. In one of the saddest chapters in the history of American Jurisprudence, Reese's efforts to clear his Dad's name came to an end when Cleveland Ohio prosecutors successfully blocked Dr. Sam Sheppard's exoneration. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/sheppard/chronology.html
July 16, 1964 Dr. Sheppard released from prison, after federal district court judge Carl Weinman rules that Sheppard was denied a fair trial.
June 6, 1966 U.S. Supreme Court agrees with federal district court judge Weinman, ruling in Sheppard v Maxwell that the trial of Dr. Sam Sheppard was a "carnival" and that Dr. Sheppard was denied a fair trial because the judge failed to take steps to control the courtroom atmosphere and prevent jury bias resulting from excessive press coverage.
October 24, 1966 Dr. Sheppard's second, and fair, trial begins.
November 16, 1966 Jury finds Dr. Sheppard not guilty.
August 27, 1967 "The Fugitive" runs its final episode. Ratings have declined since Dr. Sheppard was found not guilty. Daily reruns of the 120 episodes begin shortly after.
April 6, 1970 Dr. Sam Sheppard dies at age 46; Dr. Paul Kirk dies within a few months.
January 3, 1984 Elderly Widow Ethel May Durkin dies, six weeks after being hospitalized for a fall at her home.
July 1989 Richard Eberling, an interior decorator and the former window washer at the Sheppard home, is convicted of aggravated murder in the death of Ethel May Durkin.
October 1989 Sam Reese Sheppard, only child of Dr. and Mrs. Sheppard, first speaks out publicly about the injustice he has suffered and begins an effort to solve his mother's murder.
March 1990 Sam Reese Sheppard meets with Richard Eberling at the Lebanon Correctional Institution in Ohio.
August 1993 The movie The Fugitive, starring Harrison Ford and based on the old television series about Dr. Richard Kimble, an innocent man wrongly convicted of the murder of his wife, is released.
November 1993 AMSEC a Detective Agency joins in helping Sam Reese Sheppard reinvestigate the murder.
October 13, 1995 Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Stephanie Tubbs Jones announces an investigation into the murder of Marilyn Sheppard.
February 22, 1996 The first court hearing in over 30 years on the Sheppard case takes place before Judge Ronald Suster in Ohio.
September 17, 1997 Dr. Sam Sheppard's body exhumed for DNA testing.
March 4, 1998 Terry Gilbert, lawyer for the Sheppard family, contends that results of DNA tests conducted by Dr. Mohammed Tahir of the Indianapolis-Marion County Forensic Services Agency exclude Dr. Sam Sheppard as a donor of the blood found at the murder scene and point to Richard Eberling.
July 25, 1998 Richard Eberling dies in prison.
August 19, 1998 Eberling's fellow inmate, Robert Lee Parks, announces that shortly before his death, Eberling confessed to Marilyn Sheppard's murder.
December 1998 Ohio Supreme Court rules against a request by the Cuyahoga County prosecutor to stop suit by Sam Reese Sheppard against the State of Ohio for wrongfully imprisoning his father, clearing way for a new trial.
August 1999 Lawyers defending the State of Ohio against Sheppard's wrongful-imprisonment lawsuit say they will exhume the body of Marilyn Sheppard to perform genetic and other tests. They also file a motion to delay the trial, which is now set to begin in January 2000.
October 5, 1999 The body of Marilyn Sheppard, including the fetus she was carrying when she died, is exhumed at a suburban Cleveland cemetery.
Cleveland Ohio Prosecutors win in Ohio Appellate Court, Dr. Sam Sheppard might have been innocent and Prosecutors, DA's and Judges might have shown bad faith
in railroading him, but Reese Sheppard will never get justice in Ohio. https://www.cleveland19.com/story/894876/court-ends-last-appeal-in-sam-sheppard-case/
A Boy Scout campout ends in disaster: The Disappearance of 12-year-old Garrett Bardsley
12-year-old Garrett Bardsley went camping with his Dad and Boy Scout Troop on Cuberant Lake in the Uinta Mountains 50 miles east of Salt Lake City at an altitude between 9,000 and 10,000 feet from Thursday August 19, 2004 through Saturday August 21, 2004. While horsing around as he fished, Garrett fell into the lake getting soaked while wearing sweat pants, underpants, a T-shirt, a black hooded sweat shirt, Nike socks and Nike tennis shoes at around 8 AM Friday morning. The weather was quite cool for the date so he told his dad that he was going to change. Since his tent was less than a 1/4 of a mile from and within sight of the lake, it should have only taken him less than 5 minutes. He never made it. Garrett Bardsley disappeared.
Eighteen Scouts and seven adults had gone camping on Thursday and had planned to return sometime Saturday. When Garrett disappeared, the Scouts immediately began searching for him, they called out to him until after dark, with no luck or reply. After notifying the sheriff, a search team of more than 200 volunteers, expert search and rescue team members, including search dogs, searched into Sunday night for Garrett. Their search turned up one of Garrett's Nike socks in a boulder field about 1/2 mile away from their campsite and a 1/4 of a mile from the lake. It seems odd that Garrett would have been here voluntarily, since he would have known this was NOT the way to his campsite.
60 Minutes had a segment on Grizzly Bears on TV a few months ago. I remember reading when I was 10-years-old in 1967, Jack Olsen's horrific story in Sports Illustrated about two grizzly bear attacks in Glacier National Park on August 13, 1967. These attacks resulted in the deaths of two different women by two different grizzly bears. There had been no bear attacks in Glacier National Park going back to 1912. Journalist Jack Olsen explained why he believed the bears attacked the campers.
Both Bears had been eating out of a Park Service Camp Lodge garbage dump located a few yards downhill from the lodge's beautiful overlook location. Both bears were in pain, they had serious, infected injuries. Being this close to the lodge had made them less scared of humans than they should have been. Normally bears attack only when they are starving or when there is a threat to one of their cubs. One bear had glass in her jaw from eating garbage at the lodge garbage dump. Since it was August, the bears were eating ravenously so they would build a layer of fat and be prepared for hibernation. Only problem, 1967 was a year plagued by drought, food, berries specifically, was scarce and most bears in the park were hungry. Normally they would occasionally drop by the lodge garbage dump, but this year several bears remained in the area almost continuously.
One set of campers were on the lake near a bunch of wild berries. Berries are a bears favorite food. The other campers were within yards of the dump and the camping lodge. I learned not to hate them, I learned to respect and understand them. An investigation by the Park Service concluded that the grizzly bear attacks were caused by humans dumping garbage next to park chalets. The US Park Service instituted a policy of burning all the refuse from the lodge from this point forward.
Occasionally someone disappears in Texas, Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina and Virginia it can be traced to an alligator or crocodile attack, but are limited to warm climates and water. Utah does not qualify. Animal attacks by other species, like bears and mountain lions, are normally obvious and leave obvious clues. No evidence of any animal attack was found anywhere near the Boy Scout Camp to account for Garrett Bardsley's disappearance.
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/deadly-grizzly-bear-attacks-changed-national-park-service-forever-180964462/
The boulder field where Garrett's sock was found. The path to the campsite was over flat ground, this could NOT possibly be confused with that.
That is not what happened to Garrett, so we must look elsewhere for an answer.
Uinta National Park was created by President Grover Cleveland (D-NY) in 1897 and includes 1,376.1 square miles. A photo of the boulder field where Garrett's Nike sock found. While we may never know what happened to Garrett, a recent case of two teenage girls, provokes another theory. Could Garett have been kidnapped? That is a definite possibility, if the boy was removed from the scene by someone familiar with the area, finding him would be next to impossible, even for experienced search parties. If Garrett had been taken by someone familiar with the area, going to a specific place or cabin in the mountains far from the campsite, police and searchers, may not have found him. At least as long as they believed Garrett was on his own and had simply gotten lost or became the victim of an accident. A stranger abduction makes it a much different situation.
Whatever happened to Garrett is illogical as to any theory of an accident. The lake, the field of boulders and the mountains were a landmark/point of reference from both his camp and from the lake for Garrett, his father, Scout Staff and the other Scouts. Garrett could NOT possibly have gotten lost on his way back to camp. It was less than a 5 minute walk along a clearly marked path. His sock was found in a boulder field which would have never been confused with the path to his campsite. Most Logical Explanation: Someone, not a camper or adult scout leader, whose locations were accounted for at the time of the disappearance, saw Garrett and kidnapped him. Since this wouldn't even occur to the people searching for the boy in such an isolated area, it guaranteed the perpetrator's escape. Two obvious theories, someone familiar with the Boy Scout Camp or someone who lived in a cabin near enough to the campsite in the remote area or who had access to an off-road vehicle kidnapped him.
Kidnapping, Rape and Murder on a railroad trestle in Delphi Indiana
Two girls, Abigail Williams and Liberty German, were hiking along a remote railroad track in rural Indiana, Monon High Bridge Trail, which is part of the Delphi Historic Trails in Delphi, Indiana. This picture was retrieved from one of the girl's phones, Liberty German's phone/camera. Another photo captured an unknown man on the bridge in this remote area walking across the same railroad trestle that they had just crossed, who has become the #1 person of interest in the girls' disappearance and murder. This last photo was discovered when the girl's phone and bodies were found. Any law enforcement officer will tell you the hardest crimes to solve are stranger on stranger crime. But the fact that the girls' bodies were found next to the bottom of the railroad trestle yards away from Deer Creek, the same trestle that the girls and the man are seen to have walked across, in approximately the same period of time is irrefutable prima facia evidence. And then a/the male's voice was recorded commanding the girls to go "GUYS, DOWN THE HILL," which is where their bodies were found.
DOWN THE HILL!
The spot where the girls' bodies were found.
When the police released the sketch from the girl's phone, which was then shown on the TV news, several reports were made to the police that the sketch resembled Richard Allen who had been interviewed the day of the kids bodies recovery. Hikers had seen him on the day of the girl's disappearance.
Sometimes things are not how they appear, if you are paying attention, you'll know
I mentioned a poisonous Mickey Finn as a possible cause of Jeremy Bright's death at a young adult party. One story told to police, other kids at a party laced a beer with a dangerous drug and miscalculated the dose, killing the 14-year-old. Though the term predates the turn of the 19th Century, its most famous case dates back to 1933 when an Irish fireman, who lost his job during the Great Depression, named Mike Malloy was drugged with a spiked drink. Mike had became an alcoholic and homeless because of his job loss. In the course of his struggle to survive, he made the acquaintance of Tony Marino, Joseph "Red" Murphy, Francis Pasqua, Hershey Green, and Daniel Kriesberg, who later earned the nickname of "the Murder Trust" by the headlines. Tony Marino owned a speakeasy bar on Third Avenue in New York City.
These "friends" plotted to buy several life insurance policies on a man "Nicholas Mallory" with themselves as beneficiaries, then kill him by getting him to drink himself to death so that they could collect, possibly with the aid of a corrupt insurance agent. They bought several insurance policies on Malloy's life under the name Nicholas Mallory and stood to gain over US $3,500 (equivalent to $69,000 in 2019) if Malloy died an accidental death, they would identify their "friend," Mike Malloy/Nicholas Mallory as the victim. Originally, Mike was given unlimited credit to drink as much as he wanted, Mike obliged. Eventually Marino realized he was going to lose money on the deal, Mike Malloy's ability to drink alcohol was insatiable while not life threatening. So the plotters started adding Anti-Freeze to his Mickey Finns, later turpentine and finally rat poison. None of which worked. Finally they got Mike Malloy so drunk that he passed out, they took him out on a sub zero night and dumped him in the road and poured several gallons of water on him, thinking Mike would freeze to death. Mike showed up the next night ready to drink some more. The conspirators then decided to run him down in a car, an ambulance came and carted him away, after three weeks in the hospital, Mike returned to the bar.
Finally, Mike's "friends," got him falling down drunk, found a gas line, improvised a rubber tube and forced it down his throat killing this strongest of men. But Michael Malloy's long, well known streak of bad luck, gave rise to police suspicions. An investigation by police quickly uncovered the scheme. All were arrested and executed at Sing Sing Prison "up the river" in Ossining New York.
Murder is Cheaper than Divorce
Durham, North Carolina author, Michael Peterson murders his 2nd wife the same way he killed close family friend Elizabeth Ratliff with whom he was rumored to be having an affair while serving in the Army in Germany.
In 1966 during the Vietnam War, after having graduated from Duke Law School, Michael Peterson married Patricia, who taught at an elementary school on the Rhein-Main Air Base in Gräfenhausen, West Germany. He served in Vietnam and received a Silver and Bronze Star for Bravery. They had two children, Clayton and Todd. In 1968, Peterson enlisted in the United States Marine Corps and served in the Vietnam War. In 1971, he received an honorable discharge with the rank of captain after a car accident left him with a permanent disability. Very close family friends George and Elizabeth Ratliff. George died, then Elizabeth died falling down stairs in her German Apartment in 1985. It was Michael who discovered her body. While the Petersons were in Germany, the Peterson's took their two children in as their own. Michael divorced Patricia in 1987. By 1989, he was living with successful Nortel Executive Kathleen Atwater and in 1997 they got married and her daughter joined them in a huge house in a prestigious section of Durham. His wife was earning over $100,000 a year in her job and it enabled the family to buy a beautiful home.
Kathleen Peterson with her daughter and two step daughters early in the marriage.
After his career in the military, Michael told people he had won a Silver Star and two Purple Hearts, years later it was discovered that was a lie, he never had won Purple Hearts for being wounded though he did win a Silver Star and Bronze Star, both awarded for bravery under fire. During the 1980's and 1990's Michael Peterson wrote a series of books which all became bestsellers about his time in Vietnam. The Immortal Dragon, A Time of War, and A Bitter Peace. He co-wrote the biographical Charlie Two Shoes and the Marines of Love Company with journalist David Perlmutt, and co-wrote Operation Broken Reed with Lt. Col. Arthur L. Boyd.
In 2000, the Tech Bubble burst sending the US into a recession and sending Tech Company stocks down sharply. Kathleen's Nortel investments and stock portfolio crashed in value. This had been a major source of income for the family, losing these earnings was a disaster, but it soon got worse. Nortel was hit hard and 45,000 employees were laid-off in 2001. Kathleen told her sister that she feared she might be let go by years end.
The couple was $142,000 in debt and they could not survive on Michael's earnings from his column in the newspaper. Investigators discovered that the home was 100% in Kathleen's name. But they did have a $1,400,000 Nortel Life Insurance Policy on Kathleen, which they intended to keep as long as they could afford it.
On December 9th 2001, Michael Peterson called police and said he found Kathleen at the bottom of the main stairway, She was dead, paramedics arrived and determined that she had been dead for a substantial amount of time. Michael said he had been outside in 50 degree weather in light clothes for over an hour, when he came in and discovered her body.
Then an amazing turn of events, someone remembered that family friend Elizabeth Ratliff had died exactly the same way. Rumors had swirled that Michael and Elizabeth were having an affair when this accident happened.
While both incidents were viewed as accidents at first, Kathleen had suffered a massive blow to the back of the head, which was inconsistent with falling down a stair. Michael was convicted of both murders, at 77-years-old he was released a few months ago after nearly 20 years in prison. Kathleen's daughter and ex-husband received Kathleen's $1,400,000 life insurance.
If Michael had won at trial he had a book deal lined up for several $100,000, his conviction nixed that deal.
Lynn Turner worked in the Cobb County Georgia Police Department as a dispatcher. She had originally tried to be a police officer, but failed the psychological testing. In 1991 she met a Cobb County police officer, Glenn Turner, and they began dating. They were married in August 1992. Shortly after they married, Glenn discovered that Lynn was spending far more money than he made. Glenn began to work a 2nd job at a gas station. Soon they were sleeping in different bedrooms and friends report he began seriously considering divorce. During this period, Lynn began an affair with a fireman from neighboring Forsythe county, Randy Thompson.
Cobb County Police Officer Glenn Turner
On March 2, 1995, Glenn fell ill with a really bad case of the "flu" and went to the hospital. Within a couple of hours he felt better and was allowed to go home. On March 3, 1995, Lynn returned home after shopping and found Glenn dead. Almost immediately, she contacted Glenn's Life Insurance Company about collecting on the policy. Fellow officers saw her on the phone during the funeral, it would later turn out she was calling the insurance company. Lynn immediately collected over $100,000 in life insurance and filed to collect Glenn's pension.
Within a few days she moved in with firefighter Randy Thompson. Lynn and Randy bought a house together and had a son and daughter but never married, so she could continue to receive Glenn's pension. By 2000 Randy and Lynn were having problems in their relationship, eventually causing Randy to move out. On January 22, 2001, Randy Thompson, age 32, was found dead in his apartment. Thompson had reported feeling ill with flu symptoms and had gone to the emergency room complaining of a stomach ache and constant vomiting. He was treated and released on January 21. Lynn made him some Jell-O and by the next day, he was dead. She only collected $36,000 in Randy's death due to his $200,000 insurance policy lapsing. Thompson's reported cause of death was an irregular heartbeat, the same cause of death as Lynn's previous husband. Wikipedia
As soon as Glenn Turner's friends, fellow officers and family heard about Randy's death, they began to suspect Lynn murdered both men. Glenn's Mom sent a condolence card to Randy's mom in which she noted the odd circumstances that two healthy young men, in good health, died. Cobb Count police officers on their own did a preliminary investigation, turning up an odd fact. Lynn had gone to a animal shelter and asked questions about how they euthanized animals.
Coroners and Medical Examiners conduct autopsies according to generic rules, they look for obvious causes of death, injuries, for example, or suspicious circumstances. If they don't find those, they routinely credit weight, fatty deposits in the arteries of the heart, cirrhosis of the liver, as a possible cause of death. Questions raised by family and friends prompted a thorough autopsy of Randy Thompson, which turned up ethylene glycol crystals in Randy's organs. Glenn's body was exhumed and the Medical Examiner found them in Glenn's body as well. Ethylene Glycol is the active ingredient in Anti-Freeze, a deadly poison. Lynn was tried for Glenn's murder and convicted in 2004, then for Randy's murder in 2007, for both crimes she received life without parole, on August 30, 2010 she committed suicide.
The Disappearance of BRILLIANT 14-year-old Andrew Gosden of Doncaster, Yorkshire UK.
Andrew Gosden's Mom and Dad left for work from their home in Balby North Yorkshire UK, They had seen him leave for school wearing his school uniform. Though his parents and family were members of the Church of England, Andrew Gosden was a gifted student with a 100% attendance record at The McAuley Catholic High School. He was on the Young Gifted and Talented Programme, which was designed to enhance the educational development of the top five percent of school pupils, and he had been expected to score straight A's in his GCSE examinations. Gosden was described as a prize-winning mathematician who seemed destined for Cambridge. He was described while not exceedingly popular, he was perceived by his classmates as being generally happy and well liked, in line with most kids. He did offer the opinion to his parents that he hoped that the upcoming school term would provide more of a challenge after having 'cruised' through his education thus far. Gosden tended to reveal little about his school life to his parents. During the 2006 summer holidays Gosden attended a two week residential school at Lancaster University as part of the Young Gifted and Talented Programme. The summer school was for children from all over the UK aged 11-16 who were in the top 5% academically. Gosden's parents recalled that he returned from the summer school being uncharacteristically enthused about what he had been doing there. Wikipedia
Andrew had friends, most as gifted as he was, but found enjoyment in doing things by himself as well, like listening to music or reading a book. He wasn't moody, generally calm and even tempered, one teacher described Andrew as an old soul. His family bought him a cell phone when he was 12, but he lost it a few months later. When asked if he wanted them to replace it, he said he would rather have an Microsoft Xbox instead. He wore thick glasses, was small for his age and was partially deaf in one ear.
On the morning of his disappearance, he left for school dressed in his school uniform, but was seen later sitting on a park bench a few minutes later. At some point he came back home, after his parents had left for work. Undressing, he removed his school uniform, which he put in the washing machine, placing his school jacket on his desk chair, then he dressed in jeans and his favorite rock band Slipknot t-shirt. He left home carrying his battered satchel, labeled with rock band stickers.
During the 2007 school summer holidays (typically July to September), Gosden's parents had suggested that he travel alone to London to stay with his grandmother but he did not wish to go. At the time of his disappearance, Gosden was eight days into the new school year after returning from the summer holidays. In the days leading up to his disappearance, Gosden twice chose to break his normal routine; his parents reported that he told them he walked home from school rather than taking the school bus. Walking the 4-mile (6.4 km) route from school to his home would have taken around 1 hour 20 minutes. Perhaps he needed time to think.
The evening before the day of the disappearance was described by Gosden's father as uneventful. The family ate together as usual, and they all washed the dishes afterwards. Gosden spent an hour making a jigsaw with his father. He then watched some comedy programmes on television—Mock the Week and That Mitchell and Webb Look—with his mother.
On the morning of his disappearance, Gosden had difficulty waking up and seemed particularly irritable. His mother stated that this was unusual as he was normally woke up on on his own and on time.
A neighbors security camera captured Andrew Gosden after he left home after changing his clothes. But he wasn't wearing a coat or sweater, which was normal for that time of year, shortly after his sister quit attending Sunday Anglican Church Services, Andrew quit going to church as well. Andrew also chose to quit the Boy Scouts in the months before his disappearance.
Doncaster Rail Station, from which he bought a one way ticket to London
At 8:05 AM Gosden left his house and was witnessed walking across the local park (Westfield) to his usual bus stop by family friend Rev. Alan Murray who was sitting on a bench in the park. Instead of taking the school bus, Gosden diverted from his usual route and walked to a cash machine at a local garage. Here he withdrew £200 from his bank account which was almost all of his money - he had £214 in the account, but the ATM would only allow withdrawals of £20 notes Gosden was then captured on a neighbour's CCTV system returning home. At home, he placed his uniform in the washing machine and his blazer on the back of his chair. He then changed into casual clothes, consisting of a black Slipknot T-shirt and black jeans, and took a bag embellished with various patches of rock and metal bands. He also took his wallet, keys, and a PlayStation Portable console. No other possessions were identified as missing. It was quickly established that he had not taken his passport with him. Gosden's father stated that his son did not appear to have taken a sweatshirt or coat with him, and had also not taken the charger for his PSP. Gosden also left around £100 in cash that he had saved up from birthdays.
At 8:30 AM, Gosden departed from the house and was seen heading down Littlemoor Lane, towards Westfield Park on a neighbour's CCTV. He then walked to Doncaster railway station and purchased a one-way ticket to London which cost £31.40. The ticket seller later recalled that she had told Gosden that a return ticket cost just 50p more but he insisted on purchasing a single ticket.
At 9:35 AM Gosden was witnessed boarding the train to King's Cross station alone. One woman reported sitting next to Gosden, whom she described as being quiet and engrossed in playing his video game console. When Gosden failed to attend morning lessons at his school his teachers tried to contact his parents. The school believed that they had called Gosden’s parents and left a message informing them that he had not attended school.
At 11:20 AM Gosden arrived at King’s Cross station and was captured on CCTV leaving the main entrance of the station at 11:25 AM. This was the last confirmed sighting of him. Wikipedia
The school noted Andrew's absence by about 10 AM, but apparently called another child's contact number by mistake, apparently the child above him on the school student roll, leaving a voicemail message at that number. A year after Gosden's disappearance, the head teacher at McAuley Catholic High School, Mary Lawrence, travelled to London with staff and pupils and distributed 15,000 leaflets. Gosden's family have kept his room as he left it and have not changed the locks on the house as Gosden was known to have taken his key. Gosden's bank account has not been used since he made the withdrawal on the morning of 14 September 2007. An article in The Times written on the first anniversary of Gosden's disappearance reported that, at that time, 122 possible sightings had been reported from all over Britain – with 45 from London and 11 from Brighton. Gosden's father has stated that there were two or three sightings within the first week of the disappearance that seemed credible, in part because of the way the witnesses claimed that Gosden had spoken to them. Gosden's family believe the most plausible sighting to be one which placed Gosden at the Pizza Hut on Oxford Street (2.6 miles, 1 hour's walk from Kings Cross and a short distance from London's Hyde Park) on the day he went missing.
Old King's Cross Station, which was opened in 1852, I think I recall recognizing from one of Margaret Rutherford's Miss Marple Movies. The "refurbished" station opened in 2012.
King's Cross Station Atrium after the "refurbishment" completed in 2014.
King's Cross Station London
Pizza Hut 523 Oxford Street London
There were additional unconfirmed sightings in Covent Garden later on the day he arrived in London, Oxford Street on Monday 17 September, and sleeping in a park in Southwark on Tuesday 18 September. There were reports of someone matching Gosden's description getting off a local train from Waterloo at Mortlake station on 19 September 2007 (five days after he disappeared) then walking up Sheen Lane and along Upper Richmond Road. On 19 September, it was reported that he appeared to have obtained warmer clothes.
Other possible sightings reported later included a park in Streatham, then further afield in South Wales, Birkenhead and Plymouth. In 2009, two possible sightings were reported, one outside the Natural History Museum, the other in a pub in Southend.
None of these sightings could be verified. However, according to Gosden's father, none of the sightings were followed up by the police, and the woman who reported the Covent Garden sighting was not spoken to until six weeks after Andrew's disappearance.
In November 2008, a man visited Leominster police station in Herefordshire, West Midlands and used the intercom system to talk to a police officer, stating that he had information about Andrew. As it was an evening, the intercom system was in use rather than a staffed reception. By the time an officer arrived to take the details, the man had left. Police later appealed for him to get back in touch. The police station is located in a business park and is in a location that would have required a special effort to visit. Subsequently, an individual claiming to be the man at the police station wrote anonymously to the BBC after it featured the case on The One Show. He gave details of a possible sighting of Andrew Gosden in Shrewsbury in November 2008. Neither the Shrewsbury sighting, nor whether it was the same man on both occasions (and if so why he did not wait at the police station), have ever been confirmed. Many people, especially Andrew's family, feel the police did very little in the days immediately after Andrew's disappearance when it would have made a difference.
Suicide, Enticed Kidnapping or Running Away?
My theory is that Andrew met someone at the Lancaster University program for gifted kids in 2006 and they connected. Was it another kid, a staff member or faculty/teacher. to whom he formed a special friendship? Andrew seldom spoke enthusiastically about anything, other than video games, than he did about his experience there. Since police never looked into this case with as much effort as it required, we may never know. But it has always struck me that the answer lies in Lancaster. I will add, normally, in our age of computers, everyone's first suspicion was Andrew might have met someone online. But, apparently, police did have MI6 experts look at all the computers he had access to, even friends, and could find no evidence of socializing or inappropriate contact by Andrew. I trust this analysis, because these are professionals with the latest software. Given that there would be no way to track a phone call, from a payphone, to someone he met at the Lancaster symposium and kept in contact with since 2006, when he disappeared in September 2007. Andrew was smart, if he had formed a friendship at Lancaster that he wanted no one to know about, he would not use computers or his own cell phone, which could be traced.
Andrew's family and others noted the following anomalies
#1 Andrew took his Sony PSP handheld game system, but forgot/chose not to take the system's power supply. He was never known to have done this before.
#2 Andrew bought a one-way ticket to London, which cost him 31 pounds 40 pence. He took 200 pounds out of his ATM Bank Account. Andrew did not immediately return home. Andrew had a large sum of money on him when he left, a larger amount than a couple of days in London would require.
#3 The photo of Andrew at King's Cross Station apparently shows that he was neither worried or scared. Nor does Andrew seem to be searching for anyone. He appears simply to be getting his bearings. Andrew seems to know where he was and where he was going, navigating to a specific destination, known only to him. My first impression, he knew what he was doing, was comfortable with this step in his journey and any possible next step, which followed. If he did go to Pizza Hut on Oxford Street near Hyde Park, that would be a logical next step if he was hungry. It may indicate he may have been headed west from King's Cross Station for a roundez-vous with someone or he was headed to some place in particular. Going to the Natural History Museum accords with his character. This may indicate he was under no pressure and felt his time was his own. In almost every sighting he was alone, displaying a nonchalance, which betrayed no worries or danger.
#4 Andrew had perfect attendance record in school, never missing a day, never subject of any disciplinary action. His teachers liked him and students did as well. Andrew apparently had no really close friends, but he had no enemies either. He simply blended into the woodwork, only getting noticed when his intelligence came into play. No one ever looked at Andrew and said you make me happy and I want you to be a part of my life. 13/14-year-old boys are beginning to have sexual feelings, we don't know if he met someone at the Lancaster University Program in 2006, who might have given Andrew the one thing, which was missing from his life. If he did find someone, then that was his business. It means something was missing from his life and he must have been to a degree unhappy. The idea that someone stepped into his life and brought light into to it, good for him. Just because a kid doesn't complain doesn't mean that he doesn't have a right or reason to complain. Maybe he just wasn't a complainer and no one noticed so he took things into his own hands.
#5 Andrew's decision to walk home a few times in the days prior to his disappearance, after the beginning of the new school year, raises interesting questions. Changing his normal routine, for whatever reason, is the best point to start any investigation. Something changed and must mean something, understanding Andrew is the key to this mystery. If Police ever took the case seriously before it was too late, then they should have started with this behavior. Two possibilities suggest themselves, Andrew needed time to think by himself, not overwhelmed and interrupted by the cacophony of kids on a school bus or his loving, concerned family. The other possibility, something happened on the bus which bothered him, like bullying. If police had taken Andrew disappearance seriously from the beginning, they might have found this fact interesting and relevant and checked into it.
#6 Police did not take the Andrew's disappearance seriously. They failed to interview witnesses and talk to schoolmates until weeks later. Some were never interviewed. This is the most distressing fact in the entire investigation.
#6 Andrew attended a two week summer program at Lancaster University for academically gifted children/teens/geniuses and came back telling his parents how much he enjoyed it. He was enthusiastic, effervescent and obviously had enjoyed the summer school program, while his normal behavior was quiet and reserved always hiding his cards so no one would know what he was thinking. This anomaly is a key to his future behavior. Did he make a friend at the summer school program who made him happy and become his first real friend.
Andrew's parents describe Andrew's life before his disappearance as populated with at school friends, none of whom ever dropped by unannounced or otherwise. This was weeks before his disappearance. And before he changed any of his other behaviors. Question, did he make any friendships at the genius summer school program, among either the students and/or faculty? Whatever happened to him there, was a good experience for Andrew. He came back very enthusiastic, it made him happy to hang around kids like himself, in the top 5% academically. From what we know, police never looked into this part of Andrew's life.
#8 Andrew's school friends were school friends, Andrew seldom sought out or dealt with kids from school outside of the classroom, in fact, he seldom had contact with kids in the neighborhood beyond incidental contact. He and the kids he knew seldom did things together. Andrew was self-sufficient, but he must have been lonely to some degree and looking for someone to be a real friend with whom he could share himself and his life. It is possible this was something he found at Lancaster University and the two week camp for smart kids that he attended. Could he have made phone calls to someone, on a payphone, to keep in touch with them. That would be a very sophisticated and smart thing to do, since there was no way to track them.
#9Andrew is not reported to have contacted anyone in his family or circle of friends from Yorkshire, but staying London would mean staying at a hotel, all of which were contacted, much, much later by police and had no record of Andrew or anyone who remembered him. It is logical to think a smaller than average 14-year-old boy would stand out and be remembered. Again, considering the lack of police interest in the initial days of Andrew's disappearance, made the trail cold. I wonder how many people at the Lancaster Program were investigated, not that they are more likely to hide Andrew than anyone else, but they were the most recent contacts outside of his normal circle of family and friends. And they were close within a little more than a year of the time of his disappearance.
#10 Andrew talked about going to Cambridge University, a world-wide recognized mathematics institution. People who plan suicide usually have no future plans or verbally convey impossible goals. Andrew has a brilliant mind, going to Cambridge would only be logical.
#11 Andrew's mom and dad were very religious members of the Church of England, 18 months before his disappearance, Andrew made the decision to discontinue attendance at church services. His older sister made the same decision some time earlier.
#12 Brilliant British Mathematician Alan Turing, a part of the Nazi MI5 Ultra Enigma Decoding team at Bletchley Park went to Cambridge. Winston Churchill credited Turing and the Bletchley Park team of mathematicians with winning WWII. They let Churchill and FDR know Hitler and Nazi Plans before attacks. For those who remember, Churchill and British Intelligence allowed the Nazis to bomb Coventry because opposing it would let the Nazis know they had broken the Enigma Machine. Turing like Andrew was recognized early for his intelligence, Turing attended Sherborne School which focused on Mathematics, eventually going to Cambridge and Princeton in the US.
#13 Alan Turing spoke often of the loneliness of being so far academically ahead of your peers. Alan Turing was arrested for being gay in the 1950's and ended his own life. Life for a straight or gay genius could be a very lonely life.
Life can be very difficult for a brilliant kid, many times they become victims of bullying and feel alone. Alan Turing and the Codebreakers of Bletchley Park are largely responsible for a huge advantage by the Allies in WWII against Nazi Germany.
Alan Turing at Sherborne Boarding School where he was a brilliant, but lonely student.
Britain finally recognized its debt to Dr. Turing by putting him on the UK 50 Pound Note, we need to appreciate the difficulties of genius and help them in their journey through life, so they will be there when we need them.
Lt. Columbo said that you always start an investigation by looking at the victim and any possible perpetrator's life, looking for any change in their normal behavior, tracing it back to any possible reason for this change. I would suggest that Andrew Gosden's disappearance and the subsequent investigation should have begun with his unqualified enthusiasm about his genius summer school program in Lancaster with fellow top 5% academic students and his sudden choice to walk home from school, instead of riding the school bus, Both broke his normal, quiet pattern of being a homebody who was rarely enthusiastic about anything. Always displaying a calm, reasoned persona, both of these events called for further, detailed investigation.
Andrew's Parents have left his room, exactly like it was the day he left.
Almost all information for this story comes from Wikipedia, passim.
The decisive factor in finding Andrew Gosden is realizing that the boy in the video at London's King's Cross Railway Station knew exactly what he was doing and knew, apparently, exactly where he was going. That said, I would go back to what happened IMMEDIATELY before Andrew disappeared. The summer camp at Lancaster University was a year earlier, in 2006, but it appears to have made a profound effect on him which Andrew made very clear he enjoyed. Usually, a really good experience does not proceed a suicide. Normally, it is exactly the opposite kind of experience. Then his decision to walk FOUR MILES home from school came out of the blue and seems inexplicable. That was a deliberate and purposeful act on Andrew's part. Something was praying on his mind and he needed time alone to chart a course of action. Obviously, he made a decision to change his life and kept that decision a secret. With all the false leads, a few stand out, this is among the most promising, a young man from Lincoln posted on an internet forum :
"Last year, around the time of the tenth anniversary of Andrew’s disappearance, we received a tip from someone who said he’d been talking to someone named 'Andyroo' online," says Kevin. "The person our contact was talking to said, 'My partner has just walked out and I need help.' Our contact offered to help, asked 'Andyroo' what he needed. 'Andyroo' told him he needed £200 to make rent. Our contact noticed 'Andyroo' was listed as living in Lincoln, some distance from him, and so offered to transfer some money to help him out. 'Andyroo' said he didn't have a bank account because he'd left home when he was 14. He said he'd 'just felt like it'. What's really interesting about this, is that our nickname for Andrew as a kid was 'Roo'…
"The police made enquiries with the web admins," continues Kevin. "They asked us to keep it quiet while they did so. Unfortunately, the website had recently changed its systems and lost a lot of data, so they couldn’t give us any user data. Since then, we’ve been driving around Lincoln looking for someone who looks like Andrew, but nothing has come of it…"
Kevin Gosden sighs the saddest sigh. "It's another dead end." https://www.vice.com/en/article/vbjwb3/the-mystery-behind-the-strange-disappearance-of-a-14-year-old-english-boy
Three boys living in Samuel Clemens/Mark Twain's hometown of Hannibal Missouri went spelunking like Tom Sawyer on May 10, 1967 and disappeared.
Any boy raised in Hannibal Missouri knew about the caves which surrounded the town. Mark Twain Cave was a tourist attraction for the town. Missouri native Jesse James, below, was reputed to have hidden from police in the McDowell Cave after a robbery. This was before it was renamed for Mark Twain who had explored it as a boy.
Joel Hoag, 13, his brother Billy, 11, and their friend Craig Dowell, 14, were out exploring Murphy's Cave located in their neighborhood, then ventured to a new cave which had been exposed by highway construction crews building Missouri State Highway 79, which connects Hannibal to the St. Louis. Warned by their parents to be careful around the construction site previous to their discovery of the huge cave opened by blasting with dynamite. The boys' parents forbid them exploring the new cave after its discovery. The construction supervisor at the site had already chased the boys away that week. The boys departed for on May 10th for goofing around after school, they apparently also deceived their parents and went straight back to the construction site and cave. Construction crews had already left for the day. Rescue crews spent weeks looking for the boys, without any luck. They were never heard from again.
Murphy's Cave where the search began, moving quickly to the construction site.
The boys lived in Hannibal, Missouri in the lower part of the photo. Highway 79 and its access road are at the top right. The boys were seen at 4 p.m. after school let out on May 10 just outside Murphy's Cave, and about 5 or 5:15 p.m. around the road-cut openings at the construction site, and they were never seen again.
Mark Twain coming back to Hannibal and his childhood home.
The home of the Twain's childhood friend and secret crush, Laura Hawkins, who served as Twain's model for Becky Thatcher. The two friends met much later when Twain visited Hannibal in his 70's.
Twain named Huck Finn's buddy for San Francisco firefighter Tom Sawyer. He had a reputation for bravery. While a youth, sailing to California, the ship's boiler exploded and Sawyer at the risk of his own life saved several lives. As a San Francisco Fireman his fearlessness became legendary. He and Twain became drinking buddies. Sawyer could tell tall tales as good as any Mark Twain told.
Mark Twain/Samuel Clemens friend Tom Blankenship served as a model for Huck Finn. Tom's father was an alcoholic who constantly beat the hell out of his son in response to the frustrations in his life. Tom would run away from home as a result, hiding in the caves which populated the hills and valleys of Hannibal. Tom Blankenship, of English Ancestry, like Twain's character Huck, was the son of the town drunk. “Finn” came from another Hannibal resident, a much gentler Irish alcoholic, whose name Twain decided was more suitable for the character as both phonetically interesting and unique, Twain considered it appropriate, because it served common English prejudices and Irish stereotypes.
The appropriateness of the name "huckleberry" is underlined by a quality of the berry itself. Henry Thoreau said the huckleberry can not be cultivated easily and tastes best when picked wild. Twain's young Huck Finn had no desire to be domesticated. And who could blame him after what he went through?
Johnny Ringo: And you must be Doc Holliday.
Doc Holliday: That's the rumor.
Johnny Ringo: You retired too?
Doc Holliday: Not me. I'm in my prime.
Johnny Ringo: Yeah, you look it.
Doc Holliday: And you must be Ringo. Look, darling, Johnny Ringo. The deadliest pistoleer since Wild Bill, they say. What do you think, darling? Should I hate him?
Kate: You don't even know him.
Doc Holliday: Yes, but there's just something about him. Something around the eyes, I don't know, reminds me of... me. No. I'm sure of it, I hate him.
Wyatt Earp: [to Ringo] He's drunk.
Doc Holliday: In vino veritas. Meaning, "In wine is truth" meaning: "When I'm drinking, I speak my mind"
Johnny Ringo: Age quod agis. "Do what you do" meaning: "Do what you do best"
Doc Holliday: Credat Judaeus apella, non ego. "The Jew Apella may believe it, not I" meaning: "I don't believe drinking is what I do best."
Johnny Ringo: while he pats his gun, Eventus stultorum magister. "Events are the teachers of fools" meaning: "Fools have to learn by experience" or "My gun will be your teacher"
Doc Holliday: smiling, In pace requiescat. "Rest in peace" meaning: "It's your funeral!"
Tombstone Marshal Fred White: Come on boys. We don't want any trouble in here. Not in any language.
Doc Holliday: Evidently Mr. Ringo's an educated man. Now I really hate him.
An 1880's photo of a shabbily dressed boy from Liverpool England who showed bruises of beatings from his alcoholic mom and dad. A lot of parents took their frustrations of life out on their kids. Every kid growing up in the 1800's knew a Huck Finn from their neighborhood.
Young Tom Blankenship's home in Hannibal, the site of too many beatings to count.
There are no photos of Tom Blankenship, here on the right is Broadway actor and terrific Huck Finn, Junior Durkin in the 1931/1932 movie versions of Huck Finn and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. https://briankeithohara.blogspot.com/2009/08/trent-bernard-junior-durkin.html
Junior Durkin as Huck Finn surpassed child superstar Jackie Coogan, on left, in this film series. Mitzi Green played Becky Thatcher, the love interest of both boys.
The McDowell Cave, which Twain and Tom Blankenship explored repeatedly as boys in Hannibal Missouri. The cave was renamed the Mark Twain cave in 1890. Tom Blankenship hid their whenever his drunken father was looking for him.
Above the modern entrance to the Mark Twain Cave which Samuel Clemens and Laura explored together. The original entrance, below, which 12-year-old Samuel Clemens/Mark Twain, Tom Blankenship and Laura Hawkins used to enter, exploring the massive cave which covered 3 miles with 260 navigable passages with four entrances and having a year around temperature of 52 °F .
On July 26, 2019, Cindy Lovell, former director of both the Mark Twain Boyhood Home & Museum in Hannibal and the Mark Twain House in Hartford, Connecticut, discovered "Clemens" written on the cave wall during a special tour for Twain scholars. She and owner Linda Coleberd had been searching for the signature for decades. Twain scholars Alan Gribben and Kevin Mac Donnell authenticated the signature.
San Diego's young teenager Matthew Burdette, a Blessing to All Who Knew Him, was bullied and it cost him his life.
I read about this San Diego boy's suicide after being bullied. Matthew Burdette was born in Russia and adopted by an American Family. Matthew was a good kid and an all-American boy. That is until an upper classman at his high school put his camera phone over a boy's bathroom stall partition, then posted the video online as a joke. The school discovered the bullying and did nothing. They did not punish the boy who, it could be argued, produced a "kiddie porn" video. Matthew Burdette told a classmate that he became a joke to everyone and was the loneliest person on earth. Matthew took his own life. He was a good kid and didn't deserve what happened to him. No one deserves what happened to Matt.
I immediately thought about what would Robin Williams say.
Did you know that Robin put a clause in every movie, concert and appearance contract he signed that his employers would have to hire a certain number of homeless people to help with the event or movie. This is what I think Robin would say:
Too often we forget that the kindest and gentlest among us are that way because they feel our joy and pain. Quiet because they do not want to be a burden to us, but always the first to share our joy when good things happen to us and the last to complain when we share our burdens with them. Always willing to listen to us, when no one else will. But never sharing their own pain and loneliness. Greet every shy, withdrawn, gentle, quiet soul, especially a kid, with a smile. Say "Hello" and call them by their name, show them that they matter to us. They may not say anything, but you will make their day, just as they so often make ours.
The last photo taken of Matthew Burdette, alone and lonely, keeping his secret and pain to himself, not wanting to burden his parents, Matthew gave up hope. Never let this happen to any other kid, for Matthew's and your own kid's sake. If you see a kid who appears depressed or withdrawn, do simple things like say hi and smile. If you lack the skills to strike up a conversation, find someone who might be more likely to draw them out. Of such acts of kindness are heroes born, even if only one person notices. But whatever you do, never do nothing.
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