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Joseph Force Crater goes missing....
Joseph Force Crater goes missing....
Item # 564194
September 04, 1930
THE NEW YORK TIMES, from New York, dated September 4, 1930
* Joseph Force Crater officially missing
* New York City judge
* Never found
This 48 page newspaper has one column headlines on the front page that include: "Wide Hunt Is Begun For Justice Crater, Missing Four Weeks"; "Drew $5,100 From Banks When Last Seen, Two Days After Tuttle Made Ewald Charges"; "Secretly Sought Since" and more. Tells of the disappearance of New York City Judge Joseph Force Crater. This was when his disappearance was made public for the first time.
Other news of the day throughout including reporting on the 1st Atlantic Ocean flight from the West. (see headlines)
Light browning with minor spine wear, otherwise good.
wikipedia notes: Joseph Force Crater (January 5, 1889 – after August 6, 1930) was a judge in New York City who disappeared on the night of August 6, 1930. He was last seen leaving a restaurant on 45th Street. He had stated earlier that he was planning to attend a Broadway show. His disappearance became one of the most famous in American history and pop culture, and earned him the title of "The Missingest Man in New York".
In the summer of 1930, Judge Crater and his wife, Stella Mance Wheeler, were vacationing at their summer cabin at Belgrade Lakes, Maine. In late July, he received a telephone call. He offered no information to his wife about the content of the call, other than to say that he had to return to the city "to straighten those fellows out".
The next day, he arrived at his Fifth Avenue apartment but instead of dealing with business, he made a trip to Atlantic City with his mistress, a showgirl named Sally Lou Ritz. He returned to Maine on August 1, and traveled back to New York on August 3. Before making this final trip, he promised his wife he would return by her birthday, on August 9. Crater's wife stated that he was in good spirits and behaving normally when he departed for New York City. On the morning of August 6, Crater spent two hours going through his files in his courthouse chambers. He then had his assistant, Joseph Mara, cash two checks for him that amounted to U.S. $5,150 (equivalent to about $60,000 in 2006). At noon, he and Mara carried two locked briefcases to his apartment and he let Mara take the rest of the day off.
Category: The 20th Century
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