Forensic Analysis, Amelia Earhart & Irene Craigmile Bolam

"The admiral wanted me to say to you he thinks you should continue your investigation, and I want to add to that, don't you ever give up. You're onto something that will stagger your imagination."

Spoken by U. S. Naval Commander John Pillsbury in 1962. He was intimating his opinion and that of U. S. Navy Admiral Chester Nimitz to Fred Goerner, concerning Goerner's Amelia Earhart disappearance investigation.

From: The Search for Amelia Earhart by Fred Goerner, Doubleday Books, 1966.

Admiral Chester Nimitz' quote to CBS Radio's Fred Goerner, 1965:

"I want to tell you Earhart and her navigator did go down in the Marshalls and were picked up by the Japanese."

In a 1966 letter to Amelia's survived sister Muriel Morrissey, Fred Goerner also mentioned how Admiral Nimitz disclosed to him how it was long "known and documented in Washington" her sister Amelia, for a non-specified amount of time had continued to exist under the auspice of Japan after she was reported 'missing' in 1937. Later information revealed, how little did Goerner know, important constituents appeared aware of said reality, and more.

It can also be considered, had Nimitz been aware of Amelia Earhart's survival as a different person in the U. S., he would not have offered the kind of assistance he did to Fred Goerner. Here, consider the following additional Admiral Nimitz quote: "I don't understand why they still won't let people know what happened." ["they" being the U. S. Government.] Admiral Chester Nimitz to CBS Radio Journalist Fred Goerner, from a tape recorded (1965) conversation about the Earhart controversy.

Two Photo Blend...

Of the 1945-1982 Identified Gervais-Irene and Amelia Earhart.

The Gervais-Irene in 1965...

...blended with a 1933 Amelia Earhart photo.

"All day I've been thinking about Amelia Earhart." "I do like her and I'll miss seeing her..." "Life might not have held such a happy future for her." Curious words from First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, a friend and confidante of Amelia's, found in a letter she wrote to her daughter the day Amelia was reported missing.

Of the year-long period before Amelia vanished Jackie Cochran recalled, "I was closer to Amelia than anyone else, even her husband, George Putnam."

From Jackie Cochran's 1987 autobiography by Maryann Bucknum Brinley. In her earlier 1954 book Cochran downplayed her visit to the Dai Ichi building in Japan right after VJ Day, and the odd finding of "several files on Amelia Earhart" there. Ms. Cochran was also involved in the implication for the arrest of Iva Toguri while in Japan, (Toguri was incorrectly identified as Tokyo Rose) who was finally pardoned by President Ford in 1975. Recall in 1949 Amelia's mother, Amy Otis Earhart attended Iva Toguri's trial, and soon afterward she told the New York Times she knew Amelia had ended up in Japan's care, contradicting the previous reports of her daughter having simply 'disappeared.'

NOTE: Jackie Cochran, who was the first woman pilot to break the sound barrier was also the first American woman to enter Japan after VJ Day. She was green-lighted over there by way of Guam and the Philippines to be given red carpet treatment, be received by top military brass and military Vicar General Archbishop Francis Spellman, (who was later Cardinalized by the Catholic Church) and years later she claimed to have retrieved "several files on Amelia Earhart" from the Dai-Ichi building while she was in Tokyo. She also met with Pope Pius XII in Rome on her way home, and was credited eight years later for helping to get her friend, General Dwight David Eisenhower elected as President. Eisenhower would later have his own guest quarters at the Floyd Odlum, Jackie Cochran ranch near Palm Springs, California where he enjoyed playing golf during his reitrement. No coincidence, in 1991 Monsignor James Francis Kelley who had known Pius XII, Francis Cardinal Spellman, and the Gervais-Irene quite well, admitted he had been part of the alliance with Jackie Cochran that ultimately secured Amelia's post war era identity switch to 'Irene Craigmile.' Cochran, when later pressed about the 'Amelia files' she claimed to have found in Tokyo at the end of the war, tried to dismiss them as 'just some old newspaper clippings.' But in the context of her 1954 book The Stars at Noon said 'Earhart files' were mentioned separately by her. The reference appeared in her book this way:

"I did, however, find numerous clippings and photographs about Amelia Earhart and Jimmy Doolittle and other American pilots, including myself. There were several files on Amelia Earhart."

COMBINE the above information with the curious 1972 State Department slip-up involving information forwarded to famous Earhart investigator, Joe Gervais. It was not made public until 1997 by Brassey's of Washington DC and London, and then only in a downplayed manner with important facts misconstrued. Yet the unveiled 'leak' was that of a 1970s State Department employee, one Arthur Dewayne Gibson of Verdunville, West Virginia. Mr. Gibson had read the 1966 Goerner book and the 1970 Klaas book, both of which were inspired by the Amelia Earhart investigations of Paul Briand, Joe Gervais, and Bob Dinger. Arthur Gibson decided to reach out to Gervais after quietly doing 'some State Department digging' among WWII 'still classified' material. He and Joe Gervais soon began a phone and letter writing relationship, with Arthur Gibson sharing what he'd learned with Joe Gervais after he was assured confidentiality. Their communications would direct Joe Gervais to contact the Japanese immigration department in Tokyo. Reason being; Arthur Gibson indicated how an odd Nipponese naturalization request made by Earhart dated 8/19/39 was included in a file labeled this way: "Special War Problems; Earhart, Amelia."

The following is the exact worded query from the letter written by Joe Gervais on June 11, 1975 to the Nipponese Department of Immigration and Naturalization, Tokyo, Japan:

"Dear Sir,

Can you inform me who would be authorized to obtain information from the record of a naturalized citizen of Japan. All I wish to know is the precise date Mrs. G.P. Putnam became a citizen of Japan, probably sometime between July and September of 1939 after completing the required twenty-four months residence in the Nipponese Imperial Islands of the Pacific."

The following is the complete July 3, 1975 reply from Japan's Naturalized citizens division to Gervais. The sender was labeled Fifth Division Civil Affairs Bureau, Ministry of Justice, Tokyo Japan:

"Sir,

This is to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of inquiry dated June 11, asking us whether Irene Craigmile or Mrs. G. P. Putnam was naturalized to Japan. It is to our deep regret however, that we are not in a position to answer any inquiry as to whether a certain person was naturalized to Japan, as a general rule, the records of naturalized persons being closed to the public."

NOTE: Gervais did not include the name "Irene Craigmile" in his query, yet somehow it all but magically appeared in the reply sent to him from Tokyo.

Again, Gervais based his request on the State Department 'leak' previously afforded him by State Department employee Arthur DeWayne Gibson. As for the date of 8/19/39, Germany's invasion of Poland did not occur until a short time after that, and of course Pearl Harbor would not happen for another two years. (NOTE: BELOW THE FOLLOWING PHOTOGRAPHS SEE TRANSCRIBED EXCERPTS FROM ONE OF ARTHUR GIBSON'S LETTERS TO JOE GERVAIS.)

Another curious 'find' came from Machine Gunner Robert E. Wallack of 'D' Company, 29th Marines during his WWII experience. As Part of the U. S. occupation of Saipan in 1944, Wallack and his fellow Marines blew open a safe they had found in a bombed out Japanese building. He described what happened afterward in this manner: "After the smoke cleared I grabbed a brown leather attache' case with a large handle and a flip lock. The contents were official looking papers all concerning Amelia Earhart; maps, permits, and reports apparently pertaining to her around the world flight. I wanted to retain this as a souvenir, but my Marine buddies insisted that it may be important and should be turned in. I went down to the beach where I encountered a Naval officer and told of my discovery. He gave me a receipt for the material and said that it would be returned to me if it were not important. I have never seen the material since." From Randall Brink's book, Lost Star; The Search for Amelia Earhart, W.W. Norton, 1994.

"Is there any way of ascertaining what the Japanese are actually doing, especially as regards a real search of the eastern fringe of the Marshall Islands? That is one of the most fruitful possible locations for wreckage."

7/31/37 excerpt from George Putnam letter to the White House thanking FDR for search efforts. The thought would have never occurred to Putnam that his business partner/wife could have been trying to exit her public life... while Japan, whose culture Earhart adored and who the U. S. would still be at peace with for another four years, might have played a part in some arrangement to help her do such a thing(?) It's a stretch to some, but recall how Amelia Earhart, just like Babe Ruth was very much loved in Japan in the 1930s.