# Who are some famous people who 'disappeared'? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 29, 2005, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-some-famous-people-who-disappeared/301718 "2005-04-29T15:27:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2005, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-some-famous-people-who-disappeared/301718/1 "2005-04-29T15:27:23Z")
Who are some famous people whose fates are uncertain? (It’s fine if there’s a pretty good idea what happened to them [airplane crash, died in Mexican civil war, etc.] as long as there was never a body or definite final account.) A few off the top of my head: Amelia Earhart Ambrose Bierce Che Guevara Butch Cassidy/Sundance Kid Flight 19 (the five TBM Avengers lost in the Bermuda Triangle) Any additions much appreciated. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2005, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-some-famous-people-who-disappeared/301718/2 "2005-04-29T15:28:45Z")
And of course, probably the single most famous member of the category: Jimmy Hoffa ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2005, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-some-famous-people-who-disappeared/301718/3 "2005-04-29T15:31:20Z")
Judge Cooper Dan Cooper ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2005, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-some-famous-people-who-disappeared/301718/4 "2005-04-29T15:32:01Z")
Osama bin Laden. ---
**Author:** ![F.U.Shakespeare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aca169/32.png) [@F.U.Shakespeare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/F.U.Shakespeare)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2005, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-some-famous-people-who-disappeared/301718/5 "2005-04-29T15:35:47Z")
**Annie** , I believe you’re thinking of Judge Joseph _Crater_. ---
**Author:** ![F.U.Shakespeare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aca169/32.png) [@F.U.Shakespeare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/F.U.Shakespeare)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2005, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-some-famous-people-who-disappeared/301718/6 "2005-04-29T15:39:26Z")
Michael Rockefeller ---
**Author:** ![plnnr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7ea924/32.png) [@plnnr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/plnnr)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2005, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-some-famous-people-who-disappeared/301718/7 "2005-04-29T15:39:37Z")
Agatha Christie disappeared for a bit, and Cecil covered the whole affair in a column. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2005, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-some-famous-people-who-disappeared/301718/8 "2005-04-29T15:44:29Z")
Martin Bormann was never found as memory serves, though most experts think he died in Berlin during the final days of the war (though Ladislas Farago swears to have seen him in South America). Mengele seems to be pretty well accounted for. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2005, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-some-famous-people-who-disappeared/301718/9 "2005-04-29T16:03:05Z")
Jimmy Hoffa Madelyn Murray O’Hare and her son ---
**Author:** ![mittu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecd19e/32.png) [@mittu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mittu)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2005, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-some-famous-people-who-disappeared/301718/10 "2005-04-29T16:03:35Z")
Ritchey James from the Manic Street Preachers (band) Lord Lucan ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2005, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-some-famous-people-who-disappeared/301718/11 "2005-04-29T16:10:09Z")
Was it Benny Goodman, or one of the other swing band leaders? ---
**Author:** ![KarlGauss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/karlgauss/32/3713_2.png) [@KarlGauss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGauss)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2005, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-some-famous-people-who-disappeared/301718/12 "2005-04-29T16:16:22Z")
> [@Yllaria](#): > > Was it Benny Goodman, or one of the other swing band leaders? I think you mean **Glenn Miller** (whose plane went done in WWII, possibly on a ‘secret’ mission) ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2005, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-some-famous-people-who-disappeared/301718/13 "2005-04-29T16:16:28Z")
Raoul Wallenberg, although I assume he’s famous mostly because he disappeared; I assume there’s lots of people who endangered themselves trying to help people in the war who aren’t famous because we know what happened to them. Did somebody already mention D.B. Cooper, also famous pretty much because he disappeared? ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2005, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-some-famous-people-who-disappeared/301718/14 "2005-04-29T16:17:01Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > Madelyn Murray O’Hare and her son Weren’t their remains found? At the least somebody has been convicted in their muder. ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2005, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-some-famous-people-who-disappeared/301718/15 "2005-04-29T16:17:43Z")
Glenn Miller. For years the official story was that his plane was lost in the fog over the English Channel; the [Straight Dope](http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mglennmiller.html) ran a column about claims that he died in a French brothel and the potential scandal was hushed up; current belief is that he was a victim of friendly fire, his plane being accidentally downed by an RAF bomber. ---
**Author:** ![KarlGauss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/karlgauss/32/3713_2.png) [@KarlGauss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGauss)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2005, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-some-famous-people-who-disappeared/301718/16 "2005-04-29T16:19:17Z")
Does anyone here know (or care about) [Bill Barilko](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Barilko)? ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2005, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-some-famous-people-who-disappeared/301718/17 "2005-04-29T16:29:08Z")
Does the Lost Colony of Roanoke count? ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2005, 4:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-some-famous-people-who-disappeared/301718/18 "2005-04-29T16:33:09Z")
Mozart was buried in an unmarked grave, somewhere in Vienna’s St. Mark’s Cemetery. Did they ever find the remains or plane of Raold Amundsen, after his fatal 1928 crash? ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2005, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-some-famous-people-who-disappeared/301718/19 "2005-04-29T16:35:57Z")
How about that guy . . . what’s his name . . . oh yeah, Jesus of Nazareth. ---
**Author:** ![Giles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giles/32/60_2.png) [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2005, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-some-famous-people-who-disappeared/301718/20 "2005-04-29T16:38:43Z")
Does being Prime Minister count as being famous? The then PM of Australia, Harold Holt, disappeared while swimming at a beach in 1967. He is presumed to have drowned, though he was a good swimmer, and his body has never been found. (Theories that he was taken away by a Chinese submarine have never been confirmed). [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-some-famous-people-who-disappeared/301718.md?page=2)