By “history,” I mean in the past several hundred years of the Western world, when historiography was disciplined enough for us to have reliable information of people’s comings and goings.
And by “vanished,” I don’t mean people like Amelia Earhart; no one knows what happened to her, of course, but all but the last few hours of her life are accounted for and it’s a safe bet she just crashed her plane and sank into the depths of the Pacific.
And I’m not talking about legends, a la Anastasia. Romantic notions aside, she was probably machine-gunned along with the rest of the Romanovs.
I’m asking about people who just disappeared. No evidence of foul play, no obvious enemies, no known dangerous assignations, never a body found: one day they’re part of the world, the next day they’re not.
The only person I can think of offhand who fits these criteria is Ambrose Bierce.
The guy who founded the “Nation of Islam,” or whatever it was called back in the 1930s or so (whose name I do not recall). He passed the torch to Elijah Muhammad–then disappeared.
Well, there’s Judge Crater, but at least there are some indications that he planned to disappear.
I looked for another little gem I remembered, but you get some very freaky/paranoid hits when you search on “the man who walked around the horses”. That case is almost certainly pure legend, but it has a certain campfire-shiver appeal to it.
What is “the man who walked around horses”? A search on Google yields nothing and one on Fast Search gives some references to it but no substantial account.
There are groups of people who have disappeared too. The crew of the Mary Celeste is probably the prime example (the ship was found abandoned in the North Atlantic, no sign of struggle). In addition, the lost Roanoke colony disappered about 1587 (although there is evidence to suggest that they simply intermingled with the Indians who lived in the region).
As I said, it’s more of a campfire tale than anything that fits the OT. I couldn’t find any good versions online but the gist is along the lines of:
A nobleman (don’t remember rank or nationality) arrived at a kinsman’s estate in a coach. After greeting those waiting for him, he walked around the horses and out of sight behind the coach (for reasons unknown) and was never seen again. No one saw him leave, and he had with him only what he was wearing.
So it doesn’t fit the “historically verifiable” part of Fiver’s question–I just found some Google hits that I found amusing/disturbing and thought I’d mention it in passing.
A fairly well accepted explanation involves the Marie Celeste’s cargo. It was carrying denatured alcohol. The captain had no experience with that particular cargo, and was known to be nervous about carrying it. In the heat, one of the casks burst open, and when somebody opened the hatch to investigate the cargo, visible fumes started pouring out. Thinking that the ship was on fire or about to be blown to bits, the captain, his family and crew panicked and abandoned ship in the lifeboat. They were unable to get back to the ship when they realized there was no danger. He should have tied a line from the lifeboat to the ship in those circumstances, but it could have broken or he could have thought danger too emminent to take time to do it.
This is supported by the hatches having been discovered open, and one of the alcohol barrels damaged.
News flash - Amelia Earhart marries Jimmy Hoffa in ceremony performed by Judge Crater and witnessed by Ambrose Bierce and Madalyn Murray O’Hair.
Guess it’d have to be civil ceremony if Madalyn showed up. Not that she could have, though; she was likely chopped to bits and burried in a barrel on a south Texas ranch…
Short version:
In 1928 Glenn and Bessie Hyde, two people from Idaho, made honeymoon plans to boat down the Grand Canyon and then make money discussing their adventure on the lecture circuit. Their scow was found in the canyon floating upright and fully stocked, with no trace of either Glen or Bessie.
Two new books are being written about them: <<“Sunk Without a Sound: The Tragic Colorado River Honeymoon of Glen and Bessie Hyde” (Fretwater Press), by Flagstaff, Ariz., writer Brad Dimock, is one of two new books about the mystery; the second, “Grand Ambition” (W.W. Norton) is a fictionalized account by Healdsburg, Calif., author Lisa Michaels. … Both Dimock and Michaels used as their primary resource the Huntington Library collection of an obsessive river historian, the late Otis “Dock” Marston.>>
Elements of the mystery:
A month into their trip, the Hydes spent a few days restocking at Grand Canyon Village on the South Rim. They were last seen on 18 November and their scow was found near the lower end of the canyon three weeks later. In a 1971 commercial boat trip in the canyon, an elderly woman announced over the evening campfire that she was Bessie Hyde, had stabbed her husband Glen, hiked out of the canyon and found a new life in the Eastern USA. Another veteran river guide with a “secretive streak” died, and it was found out after her death that her real name was Bessie; in her belongings was the Hydes’ marriage certificate. Many river guides seem to think that Glen Hyde might have killed his wife in a fit of rage.
New York City Police Department Missing Person’s Page. Once case (still active!!) is a 4 year old boy who disappeared in 1936. Etan Patz (a famous missing persons case here in NYC) is on the page as well (even though he was finally declared dead last week).
