# 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:** 3
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2005, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-some-famous-people-who-disappeared/301718/41 "2005-04-29T20:30:51Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#): > > Grand Duchess Anastasia of Russia supposedly survived the massacre of her family, and although Anna Anderson, the most famous of claimants was proven to be a fraud, to this day, experts still cannot figure out what happened to her body when her family’s grave was found. [She was found in the grave in 1991](http://www.sptimes.ru/special/tsar/russia.htm), but the commission’s findings are not universally accepted. > [@](#): > > King Edward V and his brother Richard, the Duke of York were last seen under guard in the Tower of London, and then they vanished. Two skeletons were found in the Tower 1674 and identified as theirs. ---
**Author:** ![Chance\_the\_Gardener](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eada6e/32.png) [@Chance\_the\_Gardener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chance_the_Gardener)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2005, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-some-famous-people-who-disappeared/301718/42 "2005-04-29T21:19:35Z")
> [@Governor Quinn](#): > > [His Wikipedia bio (and the links in it) say nothing of this sort](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herge) Huh… I’ve looked around, and I haven’t found anything about it. I don’t know how I got that idea, but it’s apparently not true. Thanks for setting me straight, **Governor**. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2005, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-some-famous-people-who-disappeared/301718/43 "2005-04-29T21:42:15Z")
> [@ElvisL1ves](#): > > [She was found in the grave in 1991](http://www.sptimes.ru/special/tsar/russia.htm), but the commission’s findings are not universally accepted. I’m aware of that-that’s why I pointed out that they aren’t sure who all is there. There are TWO bodies missing-one was Anastasia’s little brother, Alexei. The other missing body is either that of Anastasia herself, or her sister, Grand Duchess Maria. ---
**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, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-some-famous-people-who-disappeared/301718/44 "2005-04-29T21:46:12Z")
> [@Duckster](#): > > [Found](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0075860/). Close Encounters aside, 5 of the same model plane (avenger bombers) have been found in roughly the correct area of where flight 19 could have been. It turns out that the found planes were not Flt. 19, based on tail fin ID number, just another flight that had crashed. Doesn’t speak well to the quality of the plane. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2005, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-some-famous-people-who-disappeared/301718/45 "2005-04-29T21:50:23Z")
> [@wolf\_meister](#): > > Maybe the people weren’t famous but a famous disappearance is that of the **Mary Celeste** - a ship found totally abandoned in 1872. > > What contributed to the mystery was Arthur Conan Doyle’s writing a short story in 1884 about the incident. [Here](http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mmaryceleste.html)’s a staff report on that one. ---
**Author:** ![ltfire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ea924/32.png) [@ltfire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ltfire)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2005, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-some-famous-people-who-disappeared/301718/46 "2005-04-29T23:28:04Z")
Big Pussy Bonpensiero :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Ol\_Gaffer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Ol\_Gaffer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ol_Gaffer)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2005, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-some-famous-people-who-disappeared/301718/47 "2005-04-29T23:51:21Z")
[Eddie Aikau](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eddie_Aikau). He was part of a traditional canoe trip trying to paddle from Hawaii to Tahiti. The canoe capsized and Eddie attempted to paddle to Lanai on his surfboard to get help. The rest of the crew was eventually rescued but Eddie was never seen again. He is legendary in Hawaii, especially on the North Shore, and is the inspiration for the saying “Eddie would go” used when facing a particularly difficult decision. ---
**Author:** ![Cardinal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cardinal/32/4000_2.png) [@Cardinal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cardinal)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2005, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-some-famous-people-who-disappeared/301718/48 "2005-04-30T03:36:33Z")
> [@Chance the Gardener](#): > > Another one: didn’t the airplane carrying the **St. Louis Browns** baseball team vanish in the Bermuda Triangle back in the 1950s? I’ll do a bit of web-looking, but I’m pretty darn sure that didn’t happen. I read almost no end of baseball books as a kid, and I’ve never even heard of a story about that. It would rank as one of the weirdest and creepiest baseball stories ever, and would have been in bunches of the books I checked out of libraries. ---
**Author:** ![Cardinal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cardinal/32/4000_2.png) [@Cardinal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cardinal)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2005, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-some-famous-people-who-disappeared/301718/49 "2005-04-30T03:44:46Z")
Even googling st. louis browns bermuda triangle doesn’t seem to turn up any pages telling that story. Is is possible a minor league club had a crash, and you’re remembering it wrong? I haven’t heard that story either, though… ---
**Author:** ![pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a9a28c/32.png) [@pseudotriton\_ruber\_ruber](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pseudotriton_ruber_ruber)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2005, 7:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-some-famous-people-who-disappeared/301718/50 "2005-04-30T07:57:04Z")
Since this is GQ, **Cardinal** , I feel obliged to point out you have been whooshed. (With that name, shouldn’t you be knowledgable about St. Louis baseball teams?) The Browns moved to Baltimore and became the Orioles in 1954, which is what **Chance the Gardener** ’s post was joking about. ---
**Author:** ![Schnitte](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/schnitte/32/9033_2.png) [@Schnitte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Schnitte)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2005, 8:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-some-famous-people-who-disappeared/301718/51 "2005-04-30T08:53:36Z")
Che Guevara didn’t actually disappear; it was pretty clear he had been killed by the Bolivian army in 1967. It was his body that wasn’t found until 1997. ---
**Author:** ![zagloba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/977dab/32.png) [@zagloba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zagloba)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2005, 9:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-some-famous-people-who-disappeared/301718/52 "2005-04-30T09:01:27Z")
> [@wolf\_meister](#): > > Maybe the people weren’t famous but a famous disappearance is that of the **Mary Celeste** - a ship found totally abandoned in 1872. > > What contributed to the mystery was Arthur Conan Doyle’s writing a short story in 1884 about the incident. Not to mention Al Stewart singing about it! ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2005, 10:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-some-famous-people-who-disappeared/301718/53 "2005-04-30T10:00:53Z")
Well, wikipedia has a section [pn disappeared people,](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Disappeared_people) to reference or add to. As a trivia note, there’s speculation that [Michael Rockefeller](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Rockefeller) might have been eaten by cannibals. (Probably just drowned, though. Spoilsport.) Oh, and they [found Bormann.](http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/87452.stm) DNA evidence and, as I remember, dental evidence proves it. ---
**Author:** ![calm\_kiwi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9fc348/32.png) [@calm\_kiwi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/calm_kiwi)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2005, 11:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-some-famous-people-who-disappeared/301718/54 "2005-04-30T11:03:57Z")
Lord Lucan [http://www.bbc.co.uk/insideout/southeast/series7/lucan.shtml](http://www.bbc.co.uk/insideout/southeast/series7/lucan.shtml) ---
**Author:** ![jimmmy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/73ab20/32.png) [@jimmmy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jimmmy)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2005, 11:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-some-famous-people-who-disappeared/301718/55 "2005-04-30T11:57:03Z")
Certainly 2nd tier world famous at the time. the highest ranking Nazi still at large today (whose subordinate Adolf Eichmann disappeared himself 1945-1960) Heinrich Mueller, the head of the Gestapo, has not been heard from since the day after Hitler’s suicide. ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2005, 12:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-some-famous-people-who-disappeared/301718/56 "2005-04-30T12:01:19Z")
The Twelfth Imam of the Shi‘ah, Muhammad al-Mahdi, was last seen in the year 872 as he walked down the stairs into a cellar in Samarra’, Iraq. He was 4 years old. His father had just been assassinated. His disappearance was called _al-ghaybah al-sughra_ (the lesser occultation). For the next 67 years, he communicated with his faithful followers through a series of spokesmen. But in 939, when the last spokesman died, he was not replaced. Thereupon the 12th Imam entered _al-ghaybah al-kubra_ (the greater occulation), during which he has neither been seen nor heard from until the present day. They’re still waiting for him to reappear. This is perhaps the most famous disappearance in world history, and probably the disappearance that has had the biggest political and theological repercussions down through the ages. ---
**Author:** ![Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/cc9497/32.png) [@Capt.Ridley\_s\_Shooting\_Party](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capt.Ridley_s_Shooting_Party)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2005, 12:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-some-famous-people-who-disappeared/301718/57 "2005-04-30T12:02:12Z")
> [@adam yax](#): > > Close Encounters aside, 5 of the same model plane (avenger bombers) have been found in roughly the correct area of where flight 19 could have been. It turns out that the found planes were not Flt. 19, based on tail fin ID number, just another flight that had crashed. Doesn’t speak well to the quality of the plane. The planes found weren’t from the same flight. There was a documentary on this subject on UK TV the other night. Amazingly, they’re five independent crashes over a period of a few years from '43 onwards. ---
**Author:** ![vl\_mungo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/bc8723/32.png) [@vl\_mungo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vl_mungo)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2005, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-some-famous-people-who-disappeared/301718/58 "2005-04-30T18:28:29Z")
> [@KarlGauss](#): > > Does anyone here know (or care about) [Bill Barilko](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Barilko)? [Found](http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=7014062&pt=William%20Barilko) … but something tells me you already knew that. ---
**Author:** ![VernWinterbottom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/c67d28/32.png) [@VernWinterbottom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VernWinterbottom)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2005, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-some-famous-people-who-disappeared/301718/59 "2005-04-30T19:12:51Z")
In a three yearv voyage, 1895 to 1898, Capt. Joshua Slocum became the first man to sail a solo circumnavigation in his sloop _Spray_. His story was serialized in _Century_ magazine and his book _Sailing Alone Around the World_ is still read by sailors today. In 1909, Slocum set sail in the _Spray_ and was never heard from again. ---
**Author:** ![Cardinal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cardinal/32/4000_2.png) [@Cardinal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cardinal)\ **Post date:** [April 30, 2005, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-some-famous-people-who-disappeared/301718/60 "2005-04-30T20:48:02Z")
> [@pseudotriton ruber ruber](#): > > Since this is GQ, **Cardinal** , I feel obliged to point out you have been whooshed. (With that name, shouldn’t you be knowledgable about St. Louis baseball teams?) The Browns moved to Baltimore and became the Orioles in 1954, which is what **Chance the Gardener** ’s post was joking about. The Browns are a waste of time (to me). I did of course know they moved, and maybe could have come up with the move to Baltimore, but their move was unlamented. They only managed a pennant during WWII when the rest of the league was shipping off players to the military. Eh. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-some-famous-people-who-disappeared/301718.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-some-famous-people-who-disappeared/301718.md?page=4)