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 How and why did Amelia Earhart investigative research begin,
and where is it currently going? Irene-Amelia.com does its best to answer these questions. Take a look at the following select
list of more than a dozen 'Earhart investigative books' published since 1960, along with well known British film Director,
Ken Annakin's 2001 screenplay 'Red Wing' based on the Joe Gervais 'Irene-Amelia' story. Meanwhile it helps one to realize
how Amelia Earhart research experienced a 'lull' in the 1980s, and it progressed at a lesser pace until 1997, the year the
modern forensic analysis began. Until then the controversy had evolved away from the provocative Earhart investigation discoveries
made in the 1960s and 70s, after news reporters were encouraged to favor the safer
ideas of Elgen Long and his Nauticos group, of Richard Gillespie's TIGHAR organization,
and of the Amelia Earhart Society's Bill Prymak. Recall though, there never was an officially endorsed investigation that looked into the Amelia Earhart disappearance case,
and so much does help to explain why the Smithsonian only offers a limited viewpoint on the matter. With the new amount of
authenticated information learned in the past decade, the United States Government's 'famous American biographies' and 'aviation
history' divisions at the Smithsonian (a ward of the U. S. Government) could
probably straighten it all out by now if it chose to do so. Below the next photo panel, the following
list will perhaps help to inspire conscientious American citizens to overcome the official silence Amelia Earhart's truth has always been greeted by. Also included
are Beyond 37's book and film projects listed further down:
| CBS Radio Journalist, Fred Goerner's book... |
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| A New York Times 'Best Seller,' 1966 |
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| The 1970 Klaas, Gervais 'Best Seller'... |
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| ...determined Amelia became 'Irene' and was still living. |
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| By Robert Myers & Barbara Wiley, 1985 |
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| A first hand account; claimed the Gervais-Irene was formerly known as Amelia Earhart. |
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| Randall Brink's 1994 'Best Seller'... |
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| ...combined the previous books, left the Irene-Amelia case open ended. |
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| By Colonel Rollin Reineck, 2004 |
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| Displayed preliminary Swindell-Beyond 37' study results, called the Gervais-Irene 'the former AE.' |
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| By David Bowman, 2005 |
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| Beyond 37' overlay on the cover, left Irene-Amelia case open-ended. |
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Recommended Past Reading:
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Slant Presented By Author
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Daughter of the Sky by Paul Briand, 1960, Duell, Sloan, & Pearce
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Authored by a World
War Two hero turned college professor, Paul Briand's Daughter of the Sky marked
the first well researched Earhart disappearance investigative book. Paul Briand analyzed many local islander accounts, relays
from some of Japan's own military force, and the recollections of other individuals whom had lived among Japan's Imperial
Mandate Islands during the time Earhart and Noonan turned up missing. Daughter of
the Sky first offered the logical deduction of Amelia Earhart's post-loss 'non-publicized survival' among Japan's Imperial
Mandate Islands and its Naval Authority. Where it appeared the two fliers ended up on Saipan for awhile according to various
eyewitness accounts, Briand first considered they might have actually gone down there. He soon changed his belief to concur
with the Marshall Islands as the place the two fliers initially ended up before they were transferred to Saipan, after he
reviewed the 1960s separate investigations of Joe Gervais and Fred Goerner, who his efforts had inspired.
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The Search for Amelia Earhart by Fred Goerner, 1966, Doubleday
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Fred Goerner's 1966 classic was a New York Times best seller. The 1965 Admiral Chester Nimitz quote first appeared
in it; "Earhart and her navigator did go down in the Marshall Islands and
were picked up by the Japanese." U. S. Naval Commander John Pillsbury's 1962 quote also appears, where he intimated
his opinion to Goerner about the Earhart case; "You're on to something that
will stagger your imagination." A CBS Radio Journalist, Fred Goerner expounded on this curious information in
his letters to Amelia's survived Sister, Muriel. He added Nimitz' further accounts to include how the Admiral mentioned it
was "Known and documented in Washington," Amelia indeed had survived
after July 2, 1937... courtesy of Japan's Naval Authority stationed among its Imperial Mandate Islands. [Add this to statements made by Amelia's and Muriel's Mother, Amy Otis Earhart to the
New York Times in 1949, when she mentioned she was always aware her daughter Amelia had survived under the auspice of Japan,
and claimed she 'knew' Amelia was permitted to communicate with Washington for a time.] Goerner's investigation determined Earhart and Noonan went down at Mili atoll of the lower Marshalls.
It is a great, informative
read, but in its flawed conclusion Goerner miscalculated that Japan left Amelia to die of dysentery while she was sequestered
on Saipan, something it (Japan) never would have allowed.
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Amelia Earhart Lives by Joe Klaas, 1970, McGraw-Hill
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The Klaas book was also a New York Times best seller. Based on the investigative account of Joe Gervais, it introduced
many theoretical questions about the Earhart saga that had never been raised before. Irene Craigmile Bolam (the 'Gervais-Irene'
whose picture appeared in the book) successfully sued to get it removed from the stores seven weeks after it was published.
Although the book stated 'Hull Island' as the duo's likely ditching spot, Joe Gervais (like Fred Goerner) later concluded
Earhart and Noonan went down at Mili atoll of the lower Marshall Islands. The book also strongly implicated Amelia Earhart
to have somehow survived among the Japanese, and she eventually changed her name to 'Irene Craigmile'
and later to 'Irene Bolam' after she married Guy Bolam in 1958. (Guy Bolam was English, and a family-described MI6 operative.)
Joe Gervais determined Amelia Earhart had served an unknown purpose, then optioned to further lead a non public-eye life
in the United States following the World War Two era. No doubt accounting for her eight years of absence from 1937 to 1945
would have caused complications not only for for herself later, but for the U. S. and Japan as well.
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The Chosen Instrument by Selig Altschull and
Marilyn Bender, Simon & Schuster, 1982
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A comprehensive history of Juan Trippe and Pan Am Airways, this book expounds
on the government contracts consistently awarded to Pan Am in the 1930s and 1940s. Yet it also includes the telling quote,
"Numerous investigations foundered on official silence in Tokyo and Washington,
leaving the fate of Earhart an everlasting mystery." Before Amelia hired him away from Pan Am in 1936 to participate
in her last flight, Fred Noonan was considered to be Pan Am's top air over ocean navigator. Note: The original Irene Craigmile's Son, Larry Heller also went on to become a Pan Am pilot.
Add to this another tantalizing
quote found in Emile Gauvreau's great 1944 book, The Wild Blue Yonder ...spoken by 1938 U. S. Secretary
of the Navy, Claude Swanson while referring to Amelia Earhart's 1937 disappearance; "This
is a powder keg. Any public discussion of it will furnish the torch for the explosion."
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Below: Beyond 37's Tod Swindell offers his first-hand
descriptions of other Amelia Earhart investigative books from the past:
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Lost Star: The Search For Amelia Earhart by Randall
Brink W.W. Norton, 1994
Author
Randall Brink collaborated with Joe Gervais for better than ten years. I was fortunate to meet with Mr. Brink in Seattle not
long after his book's issue. I found him to be an intelligent and intense 'Amelia Earhart knowledgeable' individual. I was
also curious as to why he was listed among the personal invitees to Irene Bolam's 1982 Memorial Dinner event. His book is
a superbly written quick-read, one pointing to what Brink and Gervais rationalized as an 'executive order seal'
placed over the Earhart loss episode, dating back to the time the event occurred. Initially published in England, it became
an international best seller. Connie Chung profiled
it in a CBS special report. On the cover of a reprinted American edition
a review quote reads; "Brink writes of a
vast cover-up that got as far as the White House.... Terrific reading."
--Larry King, USA Today. [No Earhart mystery books are perfect of course, but Brink's account offers the best introduction
to the works of Briand, Gervais & Klaas, Fred Goerner, Buddy Brennan, and Vincent Loomis.]
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Beyond 37's Material:
Protecting Earhart [The Beautiful Alter Ego and Silent Legacy of Amelia Earhart] by
Tod Swindell (WGA stowed & registered, registration #1033972) To be issued during the premier of Beyond 37's documentary,
'Three Irenes and the Missing Person Case of Amelia
Earhart.' Both also compliment two WGA registered screenplays (or
parts I & II) "The Lost Electra" & "Amelia's Blessings." All are the products of a fifteen year research study concerning Amelia Earhart's
full adult life story, her 1937 disappearance, and her non-public return episode.
The book alone runs two-hundred and eighty-six pages, although it also includes the ninety-two leafs of the forensic
study visuals and analysis. Protecting Earhart is revised from other previous
titles of 1998's "American Anastasia," then 1999's revised "A Simple Misunderstanding: Redefining Earhart for the New Century," 2001's
"<Earhart, 1937, and Beyond> The History of the Mystery,"
2002's "The People Versus The Executive Branch; The Missing
Person Case of Amelia Earhart Putnam," and ultimately of course, "Protecting
Earhart." For information about available film and/or book option rights, interested venture capitalists should
e-mail EarhartTruth@Irene-Amelia.com. (Serious inquiries only.) Thank you.
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'Red Wing' by Ken Annakin WGAw Registered Screenplay c. 1997-2001 Ken Annakin was a famous British film Director whose credits dated back to 1946. He passed
away last year at the age of ninety-five. Sporting two past Oscar nominations for 'Those Maginificent Men in their Flying Machines'
and 'The Longest Day,' he also Directed such memorable films as Walt Disney's 'The Swiss Family Robinson' and 'The New Adventures of Pippi Longstocking.' Annakin's last film was 2009's 'Gengis
Khan; The Story of a Lifetime.' Since the World War Two era Mr. Annakin had
been fascinated by the controversy surrounding the Amelia Earhart disappearance story. After the book Amelia Earhart Lives was published
in 1970, he took great interest in the substantial research that supported Amelia Earhart having survived as 'a new' Irene
Craigmile without the world public knowing about it. Finally, by the mid-1990s he had met Joe Gervais along with a former
WWII OSS Lieutenant by the name of James 'Jess' Hannon, and after doing so he was thoroughly convinced the Irene Craigmile
Bolam who Joe Gervais met and photographed in 1965 had been none other than the former Amelia Earhart, who had lived her own
preferred life after the WWII era away from the public eye by intentional design.
With great reverence, Mr. Annakin then wrote his screenplay 'Red Wing,' initially commencing to do so in 1996 and continuing
to revise it until 2001. I spoke and corresponded with Mr. Annakin in 1998 after meeting with his production partners, Jack
Senter and Jack Green. 'Red Wing' incorporated Annakin's belief in Lieutenant Hannon's claim, that he had actually 'seen'
the survived Amelia Earhart at the end of the war just before her non-public liberation back to the United States was to take
place. Hannon claimed Earhart was 'very sick' at the time and was being privately cared for while sequestered in separate
quarters at a civilian internment camp in northern China. He also observed
how 'great care' was taken during her liberation transporting process. Curiously
though, Hannon also mentioned how until he became aware of the Joe Gervais account in 1970, he had believed in an OSS intelligence
offering that cited how the plane liberating the sickly survived Amelia from the internment camp to Japan after VJ Day had
crashed, killing all on board. After he examined the Gervais-Irene information, Hannon came to accept the conveyance of Amelia
Earhart's 'post VJ Day plane crash' as a ruse, meant to make people who existed as far up as the level of Admiral Chester
Nimitz, to believe that although they had been aware of the 'classified truth' of Amelia Earhart's continued war-time existence
under Japan's auspice, she had finally met her certain demise via her tragic liberation plane crash; one that never really happened. Note: The 'Earhart
held in China at a Japanese-run civilian internment camp at the end of the war'
account was widely challenged, although information was found by one 'Patricia Morton' at the State Department in 1987 in
a declassified file labeled "Special War Problems:
Earhart, Amelia." Said file did include a post VJ Day telegram to George
Putnam, supposedly sent by one Ahmad Kamal (it was unsigned) from the 'Weihsien' internment camp in northern China after Mr.
Kamal was liberated. George Putnam's written attempt to follow up on it was also filed. Washington never replied back, and
Putnam never discussed such a final 'dead-end' exchange in any of his published memoirs.
More
Book And Investigation Reviews After The Following Paragraph... It really is amazing how since 1970 a variety of research investigators kept trying to push the
Irene-Amelia story forward, only to be met by 'official silence' and/or the obfuscated responses of safe history influences. What people fail to realize, evidently,
is the 'Amelia became Irene' verdict continued to exist because it was never proven false, while at the same time 'official
history' remained silent instead of calling it 'true.' However over the course of the last ten years, by virtue of the new
forensic realities, there is no doubt anymore Joe Gervais was right about the Irene who he met, photographed, and researched the background
of beginning in 1965. Yet it is equally true how according to 'official history' the general public was never supposed to
know about Amelia's name-changed survival. Thus it remains today... where Beyond 37's credo states: "The mystery exists
because it's supposed to exist; although it never
existed among those who knew the Irene-Amelia truth." Realize as well,
such a truth was not born from a conspiracy. It was a private arrangement made in Amelia's best interest by select close family
and friends, as desired by herself. She was not executed as a spy; she did not die of starvation on Nikumororo; she did not
crash and sink. Thank goodness these ideas have finally segued into the realm of past influenced folklore, previously used to appease
a curious, albeit misguided public when it came to the subject of what really happened to Amelia Earhart. Anymore one can believe in Earhart's
ultimate reality, by believing in what is real. It doesn't matter what other people say about it. The truth is the truth.
Amelia
Earhart: The Final Story
by Vincent Loomis and Jeffrey Ethell Random House 1985
In 1985 Random House published
a book by Vincent Loomis with Jeffrey Ethell
called Amelia Earhart: The Final
Story. Vincent Loomis also determined Mili atoll as the place Amelia went down. He
concluded she eventually perished in the hands of the Japanese. It was after reading this book I became more curious
about the Irene-Amelia claim. In its text, a sentence appeared regarding the Joe Gervais and Joe Klass investigative book, Amelia Earhart
Lives. It referenced the book's previous implication of Amelia Earhart having
changed her name to 'Irene Craigmile Bolam.' It was a short sentence following a 'dissing' of the Irene-Amelia conveyance. It
read simply: "Yet to this day, the authors (Joe Gervais & Joe Klaas) affirm
that they are correct." I found it hard to comprehend how fifteen years after their book was all but called
a 'hoax' by the press, the two war heroes who compiled it still stuck to their guns about Amelia surviving and changing her
name to Irene Craigmile Bolam. [As endorsed to meet him by Randall Brink, in 1996 I found myself with Joe Gervais in his famed
'Earhart Den' at his Las Vegas home. His savant-like Earhart knowledge quickly won me over and we soon became friends. We
would meet several more times after that, and we corresponded on a fairly regular basis until his passing in 2005. I also
realized Joe Gervais to have been a truly kind family man of upstanding character, as well as the most thoroughly devoted
Amelia Earhart investigative researcher I ever knew or heard of.]
Stand By To Die; The Disappearance, Rescue, and Return of Amelia Earhart by Robert Myers & Barbara Wiley, The Lighthouse Writers Guild-1985
Robert Myers' book, Stand By To Die; The Disappearance, Rescue, and Return of Amelia Earhart was published in 1985 by The Lighthouse
Writers Guild. Myers wrote about his friend Amelia who he knew during his mid-1930s adolescent years, and how she became Irene
Craigmile Bolam after she disappeared in 1937. He actually came to know her as 'Irene' in the 1970s and he recorded phone
conversations they had, some of which still exist today, while others he said were 'taken' from him. He included transcripts
of their conversations in his book. Myers was interviewed for comment in the 1982 Woodbridge Tribune series after the Gervais-Irene
died, and was generally portrayed by its reporters as a curiosity piece. Still, those who knew him believed he was sincere
and did not make up any of what he claimed. Working against him however, was the generally held literary opinion of his book
as a non-linear read, and one where Myers' personal emotions dominated when it came to the Irene-Amelia conveyance. I have
corresponded some with Barabara Wiley, who affirmed Mal Paso (Clint Eastwood's company) had expressed interest in and even
courted Myers' participation to develop a film project based on his story, although the project never materialized.
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The Earhart Disappearance: The British Connection
by James A. Donahue, Aviation Heritage Library Series-1987 The Earhart Disappearance; The British Connection
by James A. Donahue was published in 1987 by the Aviation Heritage Library Series. A pretty fascinating study to be sure,
Author James Donahue thoroughly researched what he asserted to have been a United Kingdom care angle. His book also introduced
the theory of an additional plane, another Electra or a British Envoy (similar looking at a distance to an Electra) flown
by another man and woman flying team in the same Pacific region at the same time Earhart and Noonan were flying there. Did
the recently trained original Irene Craigmile serve as the female pilot on such a
British sponsored team? Is that how the original Irene Craigmile really disappeared?
Some who support the British-Connection theory believe this suggestion possibly provides the answer to how the 'original'
Irene Craigmile met her final fate. Author James Donahue also suggested the famous British pilot Beryl Markham (Markham's
person was loosely portrayed in the film 'Out Of Africa') who was staying with Jackie Cochran at the time Amelia was reported
missing, as potentially involved on the British end. As well it's interesting to note how the Gervais-Irene married the British
Guy Bolam in 1958, whose own family later described him to have been a past MI6 operative for England. Eyewitness:
The Amelia Earhart Incident by Thomas E. Devine, Renaissance House-1987
In
1987 Renaissance House published Eyewitness: The Amelia Earhart Incident by
Thomas E. Devine. Devine had known and worked with Fred Goerner in the early 1960s. While a U. S. soldier as part of the 1944
U. S. occupation of Saipan, he claimed Amelia Earhart's Lockheed Electra had been impounded there by Japan, and described
how he actually "witnessed" the U. S. Navy 'burn' it, ostensibly destroying it as evidence. [Combine this with the
entirely separate claim of U. S. soldier, Robert Wallack (see the 'Additional Forensic Argument Info' link) who described
how he and a few other soldiers blew open a Japanese military safe on Saipan after the 1944 U. S. occupation, and within it
they discovered Amelia Earhart's 1937 flight satchel.] Naturally, getting the U. S. Navy to admit it ever did such a thing
as burn Earhart's plane would have proved impossible for anyone to do. Still, Devine also boldly implicated 1944 U. S. Secretary
of the Navy, James Forrestall as all but directly involved with the incident. James Forrestall became U. S. Secretary of Defense
in 1947, and Devine later claimed Forrestall's previous relationship with the 'Earhart cover-up' caused him great mental duress,
and so much directly led to Forrestall's curious death circumstances in 1949, a death that was labeled a suicide.
Witness to the Execution by T.C. Buddy Brennan, Renaissance House-1988
Renaissance
House also published the T.C. Buddy Brennan Earhart book, Witness to the Execution in 1988. (I met and came to
know Mike Harris a bit, who went on the 1983 Brennan expedition to Saipan with filmmaker Nick Petrik.) Brennan's book included
several 'witness' accounts, to include an extraordinary one from a Japanese fighter pilot by the name of Fuji Formosa. Mr.
Formosa claimed he had been ordered to fire on a plane similar looking to Earhart's as it approached the Marshall Islands
in 1937. Formosa mentioned he did not know if he hit it, but said he watched it go down near an 'atoll' before he returned
to his carrier, the Akagi. He mentioned how later, other Japanese soldiers conveyed to him it was Amelia Earhart's plane he
had fired on. Another eyewitness in the Brennan book claimed she saw Japanese soldiers execute Amelia Earhart on Saipan
after driving her bound and blindfolded in a motorcycle side-car to a pre-dug grave. The problem is she was the
only eyewitness to such a horrid occurrence. Still, Brennan did a nice job
with Nick Petrik's filmed interviews of 'Earhart was here' people among the
Islands. Side-note: Opposers of Formosa's account argued the Akagi was 'dry-docked' at the time of Earhart's disappearance.
And again, it became impossible to accept the person the elderly woman claimed she had witnessed the execution of, as a side-car
transported, bound and blindfolded Amelia Earhart. As Joe Gervais aptly pointed out; "Japan (namely Hirohito and/or Yamamoto)
never would have handled the Earhart situation that way. If anything they would have coveted her existence in their company.
Like Babe Ruth was in Japan in the 1930s, so too was Amelia Earhart adored and lionized there."
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Flying
Blind by Max Allan Collins, Dutton Books-1998 Well known
Author, Max Allan Collins (The Road to Perdition, Dark Angel) wrote this superb historical novel account of the 1937 Earhart disappearance case. He
researched the real story to the hilt, then used his serial detective, Nathan Heller (no visible connection to Larry Heller,
the original Irene Craigmile's Son) as the vehicle to tell the story in real time. It is ironic of course, how after Amelia
returned as 'the new Irene' she ended up having co-raised the original Irene Craigmile's Son Larry Heller..., and in the Collins
book after Earhart disappears Nathan Heller hears of the possibility Amelia might have been carrying his child at the time.
So much could exist as a mere coincidence in the book, though it's one hard to overlook. In its epilogue, in the 1970s the
elderly Nathan Heller actually meets the suspected Irene Craigmile Bolam and some of her friends for a drink at the same country
club she (Irene-Amelia) belonged to then near Princeton, New Jersey. Nathan Heller remarked of a peculiar familiarity he sensed
about her, but he had a hard time recognizing the same Amelia he recalled. Still, he had a good time with Irene and her convivial
friends that day, but he added where Irene was Amelia with a changed name, he'd prefer not to even know it. (Sound familiar?
In 1966 when Joe Gervais mentioned the matter of Irene as the probable former Amelia Earhart to Muriel Earhart Morrissey,
Amelia's survived Sister, Muriel replied to him, "Where such a thing might be true Major Gervais, wouldn't it be best
just to leave it alone?") I reviewed Collins' entertaining and Earhart historically informative read, Flying Blind for the Fort Worth Star
Telegram in January of 1999. Amelia Earhart: Lost Legend by Donald Moyer Wilson, Enigma Press-1999
Donald Moyer Wilson's book, Amelia Earhart: Lost Legend was first published
by Enigma Press in 1999. (Revised and re-issued since.) Wilson became a scholar on the subject of everyday life
among the Nipponese Imperial Islands during World War Two while researching Earhart's 'survival.' His book presents a
vast collection of local accounts describing the general historical awareness of Earhart's post-loss existence among said
islands. The accounts ranged from island government officials, to Japanese military men, to local businessmen,
to common folk, to indigenous natives. And there were many, including several eyewitness ones. Indeed, too many to ignore.
Wilson's research also concluded Earhart and Noonan went down at Mili atoll.
Amelia Earhart
Survived by USAF Colonel Rollin C. Reineck, (Ret.) The Paragon Agency, December
2003
Colonel
Rollin Reineck's book, Amelia Earhart Survived was first published in late 2003 by the Paragon Agency. It marked
itself as the most recent commercially published book effort (the third since 1970) that tried to get people to take
the Irene-Amelia claim seriously, instead of leaving it mothballed courtesy of historical dictum obfuscations. It was also
the first to display photos of the 'different' Irene Craigimle Bolams and signature comparisons excerpted from my
2002 forensic study. For decades before he passed away in 2007, Reineck had been considered a top AE researcher
and was a long time Gervais collaborator. Since 1998 I was proud to know him and call him my friend. Joe Gervais had introduced
me to him. Reineck believed Earhart and Noonan went down at Mili atoll of the lower Marshalls Rattak chain, where after a
few days they found themselves in the hands of Japan's Naval Authority. He told me my forensic study and investigative research
analysis (that I included a duplicate sending of to him in late 2002,) caused him to finally accept and believe with certainty
how Earhart somehow made her way back to the U.S. newly re-identified as Irene Craigmile. His 1991 taped interviews with Monsignor
James Francis Kelley, Helen Barber, and Donald Dekoster are essential when it comes to understanding the Irene-Amelia
conveyance. For use in his book Colonel Reineck referenced my label of 'the Gervais-Irene' for Irene-Amelia, after I reminded him 'Brussels sprouts' were named for 'Brussels.'
He liked that, especially because it paid tribute to his good friend, Joe Gervais who first recognized her for who
she used to be in 1965. He errantly referenced myself as a member of the Amelia Earhart Society that I never was, although
Colonel Reineck himself had been a long time prominent AES member until the publication of his book caused him to fall out
of favor there. (Bill Prymak, the President of the Amelia Earhart Society since 1989 has forever refused to endorse any researchers
who support and/or try to advance the Irene-Amelia truth.) The Colonel initially asked me to co-author his book, except I
did not agree with his theorized logic that described how Amelia ended up missing. But he was greatly appreciated by myself
as a research collaborator, and he freely shared his research information with me just as Gervais always did. Colonel Reineck
was also a true WWII hero who flew the last missions over Tokyo just prior to VJ Day. Legerdemain by
Dave Bowman, Authorhouse-2005, revised 2007:
David Bowman's
2005 Authorhouse book called Legerdemain
serves as a comprehensive history of Amelia Earhart's disappearance and its years of curious aftermath. Mr. Bowman is a member
of the Amelia Earhart Society, the group known for being 'non committal' when it comes to expressing a certain viewpoint on
what really happened to Amelia. I had not met him when he contacted me in 2004 requesting permission to feature a sample from
my forensic study on his book's cover. He did so, duly crediting me on the jacket flap. Legerdemain draws no conclusions.
I was surprised later, and found it hard to agree with the way Joe Gervais, Rollin Reineck, and myself were referenced in
the revised edition by adversaries. Those who supported the long held Joe Gervais 'Amelia changed her name to Irene' claim were
shunned by Amelia Earhart Society President Bill Prymak and others who were sedulously devoted to him. The harsh criticism
newly appeared in a thirty page span between pages 363 and 393, with no counterpoint response published, let alone sought
at all by Mr. Bowman. The book also mis-identified credit on a portion of my transparent overlay samples. If anything though,
Legerdemain
marks the ongoing effort to leave the Earhart forensic truth as a topic of debate, as opposed to something that was basically
figured out by 2002, three decades after the Joe Gervais 'Irene-Amelia claim' first made national news. (After 1970 the Gervais
claim was buried and forgotten by U. S. historical dictum guiding forces.) Legerdemain also incorrectly labeled myself
as a past AES member. Once more, I was never a member of the Amelia Earhart Society. I was never interested in joining the
AES, and was always an independent researcher only. Bill Prymak, as the AES President does help to control the sway of the
media, and therefore the public attitude towards all Irene-Amelia efforts and support. No doubt because of my many years of
devotion to the now late Joe Gervais, and my long term support of his four-decades worth of Earhart investigative research,
my person is consitently singled out by both TIGHAR and AES constituents. However, such is life in the world of Amelia Earhart
research. Self-proclaimed 'important' Earhart research people exist out there, namely Elgen Long, Richard Gillespie, and Bill
Prymak. They appear to operate from a stance of keeping the American public guessing by misinformation distribution, when
it comes to the most important facts that have long characterized the Irene-Amelia truths. Some feel, because of their
individual inside tracks along with their wealth and upper echelon influence, they serve some 'deemed necessary' function
of steering the public away from the Irene-Amelia reality. Curious though, and noteworthy as well, since the 1970s not one of them has ever disproved the Irene-Amelia claim.
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Below find a few published books either authored by, or strongly influenced by high-profile individuals who historically opposed the Irene-Amelia truth becoming
publicly accepted information. Recall though, all of the authors below represent
mere private citizens who set out to capitalize egotistically and/or financially by way of exploiting Amelia Earhart's legendary
fame. Yet the Irene-Amelia truth still remained through any and all efforts made to dispute it, and it was never disavowed
(even while he was in the cross-hairs of his various combatants) by World War Two hero Joe Gervais, from the time he first
recognized the Irene he met in 1965 as having been the former Amelia Earhart... to when he passed away forty years later in
2005. In any case, the following well-to-do and influential 'private citizen' individuals separately arose into view by the
1980s and 1990s, with their lobbied for 'inside track' efforts affording them media attention. Be advised, none of them ever
came close to offering an 'officially accepted' conclusion regarding the fate of Amelia Earhart. They also offered completely
different from each other theories, while individually claiming to sport the best and most reliable information.
Amelia Earhart:
The Mystery Solved by Elgen M. Long and Marie K. Long, Simon & Schuster-2001 Elgen Long has received the most consistent 'Earhart Mystery' media attention since the late 1970s.
He all but ignored all previous investigative research findings, while claiming to have calculated where Earhart's plane went
down and sank in the Pacific. However, his various trips to find it and bring it back came up empty. He was long time friends
with Amelia's Sister, Muriel Earhart Morrissey... Muriel, who was also Zonta sister friends with Irene-Amelia, AKA her former
'true sister' in the non-recognized historical sense. Hailing from the Reno, Nevada-Lake Tahoe area, it was later learned
Irene-Amelia had traveled there to 'meet with people' in the 1960s. (One photo of Irene-Amelia taken in Reno shows her standing
next to an unidentified catholic priest, another shows her standing on a downtown Reno street amid various casino signs.)
With Muriel's support and sometimes in his company, for years Mr. Long promoted what was also the between-the-lines U. S.
government preference for people to accept how Amelia Earhart 'simply crashed and sank and
that was it.' And so much is what Elgen and his wife, Marie's 2001 book conveyed. Nothing new, it marked the Earhart
family's and the original Irene Craigmile's family preferred viewpoint, as well as the 'traditionally safest' and most convenient
solution to an otherwise complicated historical issue. I met Elgen Long twice, in 2002 in Oakland and in 2004 at the annual
Amelia Earhart Festival held in Atchison, Kansas. I found him to be a very nice and charismatic fellow, even though I disagreed
with his ability to ignore and even obscure most all of the Briand, Gervais, and Goerner previously amassed investigative
research findings. Amelia Earhart's Shoes: Is The Mystery Solved?
by Thomas L. King, Randall S. Jacobsen, Karen Ramey Burns, and Kenton Spading, Altamira Press, 2004 This is one of two TIGHAR (The International Group of Historic Aircraft Recovery) supportive books.
TIGHAR has received the second highest amount of consistent 'Earhart mystery' media attention as compared to Elgen Long since
the 1980s. The book's title refers to a shoe heel found on Nikumororo Island of the Phoenix Islands group. The Authors claimed
it came from one of Amelia's shoes. (It was later proven to have not come from a shoe of Amelia's size.) As well, it was all
but generally ignored by the Authors, (evidently) how previous ship groundings and even an attempt at habitation on the island
had no doubt accounted for the various items they found there over time, and then tried to link to the Earhart flight; (a
piece of plexiglass, a scrap of aluminum, etc.) Plus the Navy had conducted a thorough fly-over search of the island just
days after Earhart was reported missing. TIGHAR initially cited anomalous post-loss radio signals heard to have supposedly
come from the Island, as what caused them to look there in the first place. They claimed Earhart and Noonan went down on the
Island of Nikumororo (previously known as 'Gardner Island') where they radioed for help for three days, before the tide came
in and took their plane out to sea where it sank in deep water, leaving them to die of starvation and thirst. As Irene-Amelia
herself once wrote to a friend, "If you believe this, you'll believe anything." Incidentally, and no surprise, the
people who wrote this book never spoke highly of Beyond 37's investigative research efforts. Finding Amelia:
The True Story of the Earhart Disappearance by Ric Gillespie, US Naval Institute Press-2006 Richard Gillespie self founded the TIGHAR organization back in the 1980s. In 1990 Life Magazine
reported his claim that he had 'solved the mystery.' Of course he had not, his misleading
claim notwithstanding. He's probably appeared on more TV shows than anyone else promoting his initially self-propelled Nikumororo
theory later advocated by the book 'Amelia Earhart's Shoes,' co-authored by
four sedulous devotees of his. He followed their effort with this one of his own the following year, 'Finding Amelia.' The fact that the U.S. Naval Institute Press at all published it might hint at one to understand
how far the U.S. Navy itself prefers to steer away from having to address the more substantial amount of authenticated
controversial Earhart investigative research. Note: Both Elgen Long's and Richard Gillespie's claims are considered 'safe history offers' through the eyes of the U.S. Government and national media
sources, when compared to the previous works of Briand, Gervais, and Goerner..., and of course the 1965 spoken words of Admiral
Chester Nimitz. (See the Home page 'Amelia at the microphone' photo link.) I have bantered a time or two with Ric Gillespie
over the years. He has described me to his TIGHAR club members as 'a lonely person from a dark, cold, and desolate planet
called Conspiritar.' Of course, I never use the word 'conspiracy' myself due to its negative overtones. Rather, I tend to
offer what became of Amelia Earhart as an agreed upon private family arrangement, further endorsed by a high order due to
the complicated and extrenuos circumstances involved.
Preface: About the Amelia Earhart
Society's'Bill Prymak, and his Irene-Amelia claim 'rebuttal': [Note: Although I thanked in the foreword portions, and credited the Amelia Earhart
Society's most recognized members in Joe Gervais and Rollin Reineck for the collaborative research assistance they afforded
to me since 1996, I am not affiliated with, nor have I ever been a member of the Amelia Earhart Society. (Like Randall Brink,
who had collaborated with Joe Gervais for many years but also never joined the AES.) Although it is true how I 'thanked' the
AES 1989 founding president, Bill Prymak in the forewords of my early ms editions, I soon stopped doing so. Yet since 2003,
after the multiple identities discovery was made in 2002, in no less than two published books Mr. Prymak has tried to claim
myself as a past member of his self-formed AES group, even though such a claim bore no resemblance to the truth. I first met
Bill Prymak in December of 1998. Joe Gervais had asked me to send him a copy of my initial forensic comparison studies featured
in my 1998 "American Anastasia" full color profile of the Gervais Irene-Amelia claim. Soon after he received it
Bill Prymak was inviting me to ski with him at his condo in Aspen, Colorado. He claimed he had "information to show you
(me) that will convince you (me) the Gervais claim about the Irene Gervais met in 1965 (AKA Irene-Amelia) was incorrect."
Of course, nothing he showed me then or later came close to convincing me of such a thing at all. He also spent a lot of time
persuading me to believe in the idea of the Irene who Joe Gervais met in 1965 having been "made up to look like Amelia
by the CIA," and having been "placed on the scene by the CIA" in order to confuse Gervais, and hopefully steer
him away from the fire of truth about Earhart he was getting close to. After our first meeting in Aspen, for the next four
years Bill Prymak kept trying to persuade me against promoting the Gervais claim about the Irene he met in 1965 to the public.
Finally, after Beyond 37's forensic study analysis discovered and revealed the past shared identity of Irene Craigmile Bolam
in late 2002, Bill Prymak did manage to privately compliment the discovery in writing, (see Press Notices, Testimonials link)
but he refused to publicly endorse it in any way. Subsequently as well, by 2003 he began to deride the Gervais-Reineck-Swindell
Beyond 37' research yields, and even went so far as to begin openly slandering my character to his few remaining AES cohorts,
as well as, apparently, to any of his various media contacts who asked him about the Gervais-Reineck-Swindell constituency.
So much included his strong arm influence over the 2006 National Geographic 'Unsolved History' episode that briefly revisited
the decades-old Irene-Amelia claim.]
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NOTE: The previously listed efforts do not include the multitude of conventional Earhart biographies published over the
years, nor do they include Amelia Earhart's own published works.
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Click here to e-mail Irene-Amelia.com and/or Beyond 37's Tod Swindell with with questions or comments, and for Executive Producer
share information on his Book, Documentary, & Feature projects. One can also e-mail EarhartTruth@Irene-Amelia.com
NOTE: To contact Beyond
37' e-mail EarhartTruth@Irene-Amelia.com. The Beyond 37' film, book, and website projects are dedicated to the late USAF Major Joseph A. Gervais (1924-2005)
and the late USAF Col. Rollin C. Reineck (1920-2007). Both were World War Two heroes who learned the basic Irene-Amelia truth
decades ago. Major Gervais, who was considered by many to have been the most devoted Amelia Earhart researcher ever having
pursued the mystery since 1960, discovered the Irene-Amelia reality in 1965. The controversial 1970 McGraw-Hill book
by Joe Klaas, Amelia Earhart Lives expounded on the enormous amount of Joe Gervais' investigative research, and
displayed the first nationally published photo of Irene-Amelia. Fallout the Amelia
Earhart Lives book caused notwithstanding, and still lacking official authoritative guidance, Colonel Reineck spent
the last several years of his life trying to advance the Gervais claim of Earhart's name-changed survival to authenticity.
Colonel Reineck's book Amelia Earhart Survived, published in late 2003, was inspired by the Irene-Amelia forensic
studies of Beyond 37's Tod Swindell. Several portions of the analysis appeared in the Reineck book, although more samples
are better displayed in this website. [Beyond 37' was formed in 2001 by the Tod Evan Company in Los Angeles. It is run
by Investigative Researcher/Filmmaker Tod Swindell, who also serves as Chief Editor of Irene-Amelia.Com]
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