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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. 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 under the Randall Brink Lost Star synopsis.):
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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 veteran turned college professor,
Paul Briand's Daughter of the Sky was the first well researched Earhart-Noonan
disappearance investigative book. 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 at the time Earhart
and Noonan turned up missing. Daughter of the Sky 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 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."
US 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 stated it was "Known and documented in Washington" how 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 how she was aware her daughter Amelia had survived under the auspice of Japan, and
she 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. A great book, although in its flawed
conclusion Goerner miscalculated how Japan left Amelia to die of dysentery while she was sequestered on Saipan, something
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 (AKA Irene-Amelia, whose picture appeared in the book) successfully sued to
get it removed from the stores seven weeks after it was published. Though the book stated 'Hull Island' as the duo's
likely ditching spot, Gervais (like Goerner) later concluded how Earhart and Noonan went down at Mili atoll of the lower Marshalls.
The book also strongly implicated 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. It expounds on the government contracts consistently awarded to Pan Am in the 1930s and 1940s, and 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 a more obscure quote found in Emile Gauvreau's 1944 book, The
Wild Blue Yonder ...spoken by 1938 U.S. Secretary of the Navy, Claude Swanson in referring to 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 find filmmaker/investigative researcher Tod Swindell's first hand descriptions
of the following Earhart investigative book efforts from the more recent past: 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
Randall Brink in Seattle not long after his book's issue. I found him to be an extremely intelligent and intense Earhart
knowledgeable individual. I was also highly interested in the fact that he was listed among the personal invitees to Irene
Bolam's 1982 Memorial Dinner event. His book is a superbly written, quick-read that points 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 on a CBS special. 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. [It isn't flawless, but Brink's account offers the best introduction
to the works of Briand, Gervais, Goerner, Brennan, and Loomis.] 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 published in tandem with the release of the documentary film, 'Three Irenes and the Missing Person Case of Amelia Earhart.' There is also the WGA Part
I & II registered screenplays, "The Lost Electra" & "Amelia's Blessings." All are the result
of a fifteen year research study concerning Amelia Earhart's life, her disappearance, and her quiet return episode. The
book runs two hundred eighty six pages, but also includes (separately) fifty four leafs of the never before published
1997-2004 forensic study and analysis. Protecting Earhart is revised from
previous titles; 1998's "American Anastasia," 1999's "A Simple Misunderstanding: Redefining Earhart
for the New Century," 2001's "The History of the Mystery of Amelia Earhart," 2002's "The People
vs. The Executive Branch; The Missing Person Case of Amelia Earhart Putnam," and finally, "Protecting Earhart."
To contact me with serious questions about my copyrighted intellectual properties, e-mail EarhartTruth@Irene-Amelia.com.
Any non-serious and/or condescending messages will not be responded to and further blocked. Thank you. Below are a few more
well-known Earhart investigation books: 'Red Wing' by Ken Annakin WGAw Registered Screenplay, c. 1997-2001 Ken Annakin,
the famous British film Director whose credits date back to 1946 is still working today at a spry ninety-five years old. 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 current film in post production is 'Gengis Khan; The Story of a Lifetime.' Since the World War Two era Mr. Annakin
has 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 'the 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 live her own preferred life after the WWII era away from the public eye
by intentional design. With great reverence, Mr. Annakin then wrote the 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 took place. Hannon claimed Earhart was 'very sick' at the time, and she was being privately
cared for while sequestered in separate quarters at a civilian internment camp in northern China, and great care was taken
during her liberation transporting process. Curiously, 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 discovery
of Irene-Amelia, 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 a '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. Likely another dead-end for him though, Putnam never discussed such an exchange in any
of his published memoirs.
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Amelia Earhart: The Final Story by Vincent Loomis and
Jeffrey Ethell, Random House 1985
In 1985 Random House published a very good book
by Vincent Loomis with Jeffrey Ethell called Amelia Earhart: The Final Story. 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 it, a sentence appeared
regarding the Gervais and Klass 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 that followed a quite heavy 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 very hard to comprehend
how fifteen years after their book was all but attributed 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. [Later 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 corresponded on a fairly regular basis. 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, 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 from 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. He also included transcripts of their conversations in his book. Myers was interviewed
for comment in the 1982 Woodbridge Tribune series after Irene-Amelia died, but he was generally portrayed by its reporters
as a less than sure-footed individual. Still, those who knew him felt he was sincere and did not make up what he claimed.
Working further against him however, was the generally held literary opinion that described his book as poorly assembled and
not well written. 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 to have been possible. In 1967 Joe Gervais did discover, how the last time the original Irene Craigmile's
license was renewed was May 31, 1937... the day before Amelia took off from Miami on her final flight. Of note as well, the
original Irene's license was never renewed again beyond that date. Author Donahue also suggested British pilot Beryl Markham,
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 Irene-Amelia married the British Guy Bolam in 1958, whose own family later described
him to have been a past MI6 operative. 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 photo link on home page) 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 proved impossible for Devine to do. He also 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 his 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. It included eyewitness
accounts, to include one from a Japanese fighter pilot by the name of Fuji Formosa, who claimed he had been ordered to fire
at a plane similar looking to Earhart's as it approached the Marshall Islands in 1937. He claimed he did not know if he
hit it, but said he watched it go down on an 'atoll' before he returned to his carrier, the Akagi. He said a bit later,
other Japanese soldiers conveyed to him how 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 blindfolded in a motorcycle side-car
to a pre-dug grave. A bit convoluted maybe, but Brennan did a nice job with Nick Petrik's filmed interviews of 'Earhart was here' people among the Islands. Opposers of Formosa's account
argued the Akagi was not likely at sea at the time of Earhart's disappearance. As well, it became impossible to accept
the person the elderly woman claimed she had witnessed the execution of, as a side-car transported and blindfolded Amelia
Earhart.
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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, Legerdemain serves as a comprehensive history of Earhart's disappearance and its years
of curious aftermath. Mr. Bowman is a member of the Amelia Earhart Society, a 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 refetrenced in the revised edition by adversaries.
Any support of the long held Joe Gervais 'Amelia changed her name to Irene'
claim was shunned by Amelia Earhart Society President Bill Prymak and others sedulously devoted to him. The harsh comments
newly appeared in a thirty page span between pages 363 and 393, with no counterpoint response sought or published. 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, 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. Inadvertently or otherwise, they keep the American public misinformed
when it comes to the most important facts... that have long characterized the still non-recognized Irene-Amelia truth. Some feel, because of their individual inside tracks along with their wealth and upper
echelon influence, they serve a deemed necessary functon 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.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ NOTE: 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' for additional information, and/or available remaining points. Or,
send an e-mail message to 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. Myriad 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 largely inspired by the Irene-Amelia forensic studies of Beyond 37's Tod Swindell. Several
portions of the analysis appeared in the Reineck book, and 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] Irene-Amelia.com
totals to date since being posted last year: 512,217 world-wide hits; 171,405 downloads. Canada, Germany, Great Britain, and
Japan lead for most foreign country views. The most viewed pages and/or links are: 'The History of Amelia Earhart Mystery
Research' page, the 'Odd Rumors' page, the 'Hilary Swank Amelia movie' page, the 'Amelia at the Microphone' photo link shown
on the home page, the 'Why The Fear' page, the various 'Physical Comparison' pages, and the 'Forensic Conclusion' page.
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