Amelia Earhart

Amelia Earhart was born July 24, 1897. She was a well known American aviatrix and author. Amelia went missing on July 2, 1937 and was officially declared dead on January 5, 1939. She was the first woman to ever be awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross. An honor rightly given for being the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean. Earhart set many flying records throughout her life, as well as authored several books about her experiences, and helped to form The Ninety-Nines, a group of all female pilots. On July 2, 1937, Amelia Earhart disappeared near Howland Island in the Pacific Ocean while trying to attempt a circumnavigational flight of the globe. She was never heard from again. People are still fascinated with her legacy to this day.

Amelia was born in Atchison, Kansas and was somewhat of a tomboy even as a child. During World War I, she became a nurse's aide with the American Red Cross. Her obsession with all things flying didn't surface until later when she went to an air show with a friend at the Canadian National Exposition in Toronto. She began saving for flying lessons. Her first airplane was a used, yellow biplane that she named "The Canary". Earhart eventually became known as one of the best female pilots in the United States. In fact, she became somewhat of a celebrity, taking on endorsements to help finance her flying endeavors. It is interesting to note that she even took on a position as an associate editor at Cosmopolitan magazine, using the platform to bring about more public awareness for women in aviation.

In 1935, Amelia became a visiting faculty member of Purdue University, where she was a technical advisor in the Aeronautics Department and counselled women on career choices. The following year, Purdue financed a Lockheed L-10E Electra for her to fly. She began planning her world flight immediately. She chose two navigators to go with her on this journey: Captain Harry Manning and Fred Noonan, himself a noted American aviator, navigator, and sea captain. Their plan was for Noonan to navigate from Hawaii to Howland Island, where Manning would take over from there to Australia, and then Earhart would navigate the rest of the way on her own. A fourth person was later added to the team. Amelia asked a Hollywood stunt pilot by the name of Paul Mantz to join them as her technical advisor.

The group's first attempt at the trip came on March 17, 1937. They flew from Oakland, California to Honolulu, Hawaii where they had to abort the mission due to problems with the Lockheed's propeller. It was serviced at the US Navy's Luke Field in Pearl Harbor. They tried again three days later, with Mantz staying behind. They tried to take off from Luke Field, however, Earhart ground-looped, possibly from a blown tire, faulty landing gear, or even pilot error. The cause was uncertain, but the flight was called off and the airplane was shipped by sea to Lockheed for repairs.

During the repair process, Amelia and her husband and publicist, George Putnam, began planning the second attempt at the world flight. This time, a different route was planned due to changes in wind and weather patterns since the first attempt. Also, Fred Noonan would be the only person accompanying Earhart for the second attempt. They flew from Oakland, California to Miami, Florida. Upon landing in Miami, they publicly announced their intentions for the second attempt at the world flight. On June 1, 1937, Earhart and Noonan departed Miami and landed in Lae, New Guinea on June 29 after making numerous stops in South America, Africa, India, and Southeast Asia. The remainder of their journey from New Guinea would all be over the Pacific Ocean.

On July 2, 1937, Earhart and Noonan set out at midnight from Lae toward Howland Island. Their last known confirmed position was near the Nukumanu Islands. The United States Coast Guard was stationed at Howland Island and was assigned with the task of communicating with Earhart's plane and guiding them to the island.

Due either to misunderstanding or error, the final approach to Howland Island was not a success. The Coast Guard reports hearing clear radio transmissions from Earhart, but she was apparently unable to hear any transmissions back from them. At 7:42 a.m. Earhart radioed "We must be on you, but cannot see you -- but gas is running low. Have been unable to reach you by radio. We are flying at 1,000 feet." A few moments later, another transmission was received by the Coast Guard in which Earhart said she could not hear them and asked them to transmit voice signals so that she could try to take a radio bearing. This transmission was the loudest yet, which suggested to the Coast Guard that Earhart and Noonan were in the immediate vicinity. However, they were unable to send any signals at the frequency that Earhart requested, so they sent them in Morse Code instead. Earhart radioed back that she received the Code but could not ascertain from where it came. Her last known transmission was received by the Coast Guard at 8:43 am: "We are on the line 157 337. We will repeat this message. We will repeat this on 6210 kilocycles. Wait....We are running on line north and south." This seemed to indicate that Earhart and Noonan believed that they were on course and near to Howland. The Coast Guard used oil burners to generate smoke signals but apparently neither Earhart nor Noonan saw them. After all contact was lost with Earhart's Electra, Pan American Airways reported receiving signals from several different locations, including Gardner Island that were thought could possibly have come from the downed plane. If this was the case, the pilots would have to have been on land with the plane since water would have shorted out the mechanism required to send the signals. These signals continued to be received for four or five days after known contact was lost with the Electra. Of course, search and rescue officials were trying to send signals to the plane, so those could have been confused with signals coming from the plane.

One hour after known contact with the Electra was lost, the Coast Guard and the US Navy undertook a search by air and sea with no success. One week after the disappearance, a naval plane flew over Gardner Island, which had been uninhabited for over forty years. The Navy's report of what they saw there included this: "Here signs of recent habitation were clearly visible but repeated circling and zooming failed to elicit any answering wave from possible inhabitants and it was finally taken for granted that none were there... At the western end of the island a tramp steamer (of about 4000 tons)... lay high and almost dry head onto the coral beach with her back broken in two places. The lagoon at Gardner looked sufficiently deep and certainly large enough so that a seaplane or even an airboat could have landed or takenoff [sic] in any direction with little if any difficulty. Given a chance, it is believed that Miss Earhart could have landed her aircraft in this lagoon and swum or waded ashore." The massive search came to an end on July 19, 1937. It had been the most expensive and extensive search ever conducted by the US military up to that point. However, at that time, their search methods were crude and may very well have been based on incorrect information. Despite their efforts, no physical evidence of Earhart, Noonan, or the Electra was found. Shortly after this, George Putnam, Earhart's husband, had a private search conducted. His efforts, too, were fruitless.

The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery (TIGHAR) has put forth the belief that Earhart and Noonan may have flown on without any further radio transmissions for more than two hours, come upon Gardner Island, landed on a reef-flat, and eventually died. In fact, there is actually documented archaeological evidence to support this theory. In 1940, a British officer and pilot by the name of Gerald Gallagher, discovered a "skeleton...possibly that of a woman", along with an old sextant box, under a tree on the southeast corner of the island. The remains were sent to Fiji and in 1941 British authorities measured the bones in great detail and came to the conclusion that they came from a stocky male. The bones were unfortunately lost in Fiji. However, in 1998, forensic anthropologists analyzed the measurements taken, and they claimed that the bones belonged to a "tall white female of northern European ancestry." Amelia Earhart was 5'7. TIGHAR also found several artifacts upon searching Gardner Island. These items included: improvised tools, an aluminum aircraft body panel, an oddly cut piece of clear Plexiglas which was the exact thickness and curvature of an Electra window, and a size nine "Cat's Paw" brand shoe heel that dates from the 1930's. This is the type of footwear that Earhart wore in documented photos. Her shoe size has also been reported to have been 8 1/2 or 9. Some bronze ball bearings were also found along with a zipper pull which is believed to have come from a flight suit.

There are several other, unsupported theories as to what happened to Amelia Earhart. Here are some examples: she became a spy for President Roosevelt; the Electra crashed on Saipan Island and Earhart and Noonan were captured and executed; she became a Tokyo Rose; the Electra crashed near Rabaul and Earhart and Noonan perished in the crash; and, she assumed another identity.

Whatever the case, Amelia Earhart enjoyed a great deal of celebrity during her lifetime. That, combined with the mystery of her disappearance and apparent death at a young age has kept her in our minds ever since. She is regarded as a feminist icon and an inspirational tale for young girls. The home that Amelia Earhart was born in (her maternal grandfather's) is now maintained as the Amelia Earhart Birthplace Museum by the Ninety-Nines, the international, all female group of pilots that Earhart helped to found.

Judge Crater

Joseph Force Crater was born on January 5, 1889. His date of death is unknown but he vanished August 6, 1930. Joseph Crater was a fairly new judge who sat on a bench in New York City. The last time it is known that he was seen, Crater was entering a taxi upon leaving a restaurant. Judge Crater's disappearance became one of the most famous in America. Indeed, he was often referred to as "The Missingest Man in New York".

Crater was from Pennsylvania and graduated from Columbia University. For most of his career he served as an associate justice of the New York Supreme Court. He had only just been appointed to the state bench by Franklin Roosevelt (who was governor at the time) 4 months before he vanished.

During the summer of 1930, Judge Crater and his wife were vacationing at their summer home at Belgrade Lakes in Maine. While there, the Judge received a strange telephone call, after which he told his wife that he must return to the city at once, "to straighten those fellows out". However, when he returned to the city, he left again straightaway on a trip to Atlantic City with his mistress, a showgirl by the name of Sally Lou Ritz. Crater had promised his wife that he would return to Maine by her birthday on August 9th. On August 6th, Judge Crater reported to his offices at the courthouse for a few hours, during which time he asked his assistant, a man by the name of Joseph Mara, to cash 2 checks for him that totalled $5,150. (That would be about the equivalent of $60,000 today). Around lunchtime, the Judge had Mara help him carry 2 locked briefcases to his apartment before giving Mara the rest of the day off.

Later that same day, Crater purchased 1 ticket to Dancing Partner, a Broadway musical playing that night at a nearby theater. Before the show, Judge Crater went to dinner with Sally Lou Ritz and another friend. After dinner, the Judge hailed a cab, telling his companions that he was headed to the musical. What happened to him after that remains a mystery to this day. Some theories include: he was murdered; he ran off with another woman - possibly Sally Lou Ritz; and that he had been involved in corrupt activity and was about to be caught, so he went into hiding.

His disappearance went strangely unnoticed for 10 days, at which time his wife began making calls to New York in search of him. A private search was conducted but no evidence of Crater was ever found. On September 3, 1930, the New York Police Department was notified and an official investigation was launched. The detectives assigned to the case discovered that before he vanished, Judge Crater's safe deposit box had been emptied and the two locked briefcases that Joseph Mara had helped carry to the Judge's apartment were missing. However, none of the leads in the investigation were able to conclusively answer the question as to the missing man's whereabouts. Crater was declared "dead in absentia" on June 6, 1939. His case was officially closed in 1979. It is interesting to note that Sally Lou Ritz also disappeared a few months after the Judge, and was never seen again, either.

On August 19, 2005, authorities revealed that they had received a letter from a woman identifying herself as Stella Ferrucci-Good. In the letter, she named a location in Brooklyn where the Judge had been buried. It is the site of the present day New York Aquarium. She also identified Crater's killers as 3 men. Two of them were New York City police officers, Robert Good (her husband) and Charles Burns. The other man was said to be Burns' brother, Frank, who was a New York City taxi driver. Police were able to confirm that human remains had indeed been found at that site in the 1950s. However, that was before the letter was discovered, and DNA testing was not available at that time. So the bones were almost immediately reburied in a field on Hart Island in New York. There are thousands of other unidentified souls buried in that same field. To locate the ones found in Brooklyn all those years ago would be almost impossible.