Amelia Earhart, The Real Story, And The True 'Irene Craigmile Bolam' Connection

About Beyond 37', Amelia Earhart, & Irene-Amelia.com

Home
Some Common Misperceptions of Amelia Earhart's 1937 Disappearance
Introduction
Important Forensic Comparison Samples: The Amelia To Irene Congruence
Will The Real Irene Craigmile Bolam Please Stand Up?
A Closer Comparison Of Eyes & Faces; Amelia To Irene, Separating The Irenes
Was Amelia Earhart's Disappearance Physically True?
Did You Know?
The Second Front Page
An Amelia Earhart To Irene Craigmile Bolam Forensic Reality: 1982 Published Mug-Shot Forgeries
About Retired USAF Major Joseph A. Gervais
Amelia Earhart's Long Hidden Daughter Made It Three Irene Craigmiles...?
About Beyond 37', Amelia Earhart, & Irene-Amelia.Com
Press Notices & Quotes About Beyond 37's Amelia Earhart Research
Amelia Earhart Miscellaneous: Monsignor Kelley's Words, NASA Astronaut Schirra's Words, Etc.
The History of Amelia Earhart Mystery 'Investigative Research'
Controversial Amelia Earhart Forensic Argument Information
The 1982 New Jersey Tribune's Irene-Amelia Photo Page 10/29/82
Wikipedia: The Irene Craigmile Bolam Manipulated "Public Info Provided" On-Line Encyclopedia
Amelia Earhart Press Notice Samples
A Few Odd Rumors About Amelia Earhart
The National Geographic Channel 'Misfires' While Aiming At 'The Real Amelia Earhart'
The Amelia Earhart Truth Mistake We Make...
What Reality Now Tells Us, And Why People Fight It
Conclusion
The Tillman, Earhart Parallel
About The 2009 Movie 'Amelia' Starring Hilary Swank...
Opposing Views: Alex Mandel, Carol Linn Dow, TIGHAR & The AES Distort The Truth

About Beyond 37'
 
In 2007 The Wall Street Journal reported how "over thirty different theories" had attempted to explain what really happened to Amelia Earhart. A year earlier, in 2006 the University of Texas at Dallas conveyed how the 'Earhart reidentified survival theory' originally offered by USAF Major, Joseph A. Gervais (1924-2005) who had researched and accumulated data on the Earhart case from the 1960s to the 1990s, was among the most plausible. [Scroll down about two-thirds for brief bios on the main founders of Beyond 37': Earhart Case Investigator--USAF Major Joe Gervais (Ret.); Earhart Case Investigator--USAF Col. Rollin Reineck (Ret.); and Forensic Analyst/Filmmaker--Tod Swindell.]

Amelia Earhart, age 26, before she became famous.
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"Lifting the veil off the historical record of Amelia Earhart."

1945-1982 ID'd Gervais-Irene...
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...overlayed with Amelia = Irene-Amelia.

Blend: Gervais-Irene & Amelia
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Irene-1978 / Amelia-1923
Blend: Gervais-Irene & Amelia
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Irene-1965 / Amelia-1933
Blend: Gervais-Irene & Amelia
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Irene-1963 / Amelia-1928
Blend: Gervais-Irene & Amelia
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Irene-1976 / Amelia-1932
Blend: Gervais-Irene & Amelia
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Irene-1978 / Amelia-1929

NOTE: The "Irene-Amelia" website is the property of Beyond 37', est. 2001. The site was created and authored by Earhart case Forensic Analyst/Filmmaker Tod Swindell in collaboration with two of the past foremost Amelia Earhart investigative researchers; USAF Major Joe Gervais (1924-2005), and USAF Colonel Rollin Reineck (1920-2007). Working as an independent Amelia Earhart researcher for the past two decades, in 1996 after representing a film treatment on Earhart's story in Los Angeles, Swindell initially formed an alliance with Gervais and Earhart investigative author, Randall Brink. He was never a member of research groups or clubs to include the Amelia Earhart Society, TIGHAR, or Nauticos, although he has conferred and debated with individuals aligned with those organizations. In 2003 Mr. Swindell copyrighted a fifty page essay based on his preliminary forensic research entitled Three Irene's and the Missing Person Case of Amelia Earhart. This was followed by his 2004 ms Protecting Earhart and screen story Amelia's Blessings. Both are WGAw registered, and in tandem with the original Gervais claim Swindell professes with certainty, albeit against the grain of  historical convention, how the combined efforts mark the closest thing to the "historical forensoic argument, and physical truths" concerning Amelia Earhart's 1937 disappearance, and her non-publicly recognized survival as a person who used a different name the rest of her life for the sake of further desired anonymity, after her politically controversial 1937 disappearance. The above combined works also served as the primary foundation for Irene-Amelia.com. The site protoype for Irene-Amelia.com first premiered in November of 2007. Mr. Swindell's Beyond 37' seven-year Forensic Analysis, his screen story "Amelia's Blessings," and his ms "Protecting Earhart" are made available for intellectual property rights consideration by special request. Since Joe Gervais' passing in 2005, Tod Swindell has continued to support Gervais' unparalleled Amelia Earhart investigative research legacy. He also serves as the chief proprietor of Beyond 37' and the Writer/Editor of Irene-Amelia.com. To contact him through Beyond 37' see the e-mail link at the bottom of the page.

The Gervais-Irene

1945-1982 ID'd 'Gervais-Irene' shown in 1965.
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AKA "Irene Craigmile" AKA "Irene Bolam" after her 1958 marriage.

The Gervais-Irene

'Gervais-Irene' (Craigmile Bolam) 1963.
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News photo, taken in Japan. The Irenes to the right were different women...

The Non Gervais-Irene

Different Irene (Craigmile Bolam) c. 1947
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Young 'Non Gervais-Irene' identified by the original Irene Craigmile's son in 2006.

The Non Gervais-Irene

1982 New Jersey News Tribune photo.
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Older version of the 'Non Gervais-Irene' also ID'd as 'Irene Craigmile Bolam.'

The Original Irene

The orginal Irene Craigmile, 1930...
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...no longer seen after the 1930s, she and Amelia were past friends.
1985, Amelia's sister Muriel & Grace McGuire.
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Grace is advanced as intricately linked to Amelia's hidden true story.

Why Beyond 37’ Was Formed
 
Beyond 37’ was formed for two reasons: (1.) To group the major Amelia Earhart disappearance theories into a single fold, and (2.) To determine the forensically plausible ones among them. [For review see the 'Investigative Books' list found in The History of Amelia Earhart Mystery Research link.]
 
The name “Beyond 37’” itself signifies U.S. history’s awareness, of how although Amelia Earhart was said to have ‘vanished’ in 1937 many credible accounts of her non-publicly realized 'continued survival' did later surface.
 
As well, from ambiguous sources, accounts ranging from alien abduction stories to Amelia becoming a prostitute in Japan have also surfaced over the years. Such ideas are not given any attention here. But the most regarded explanations, backed by accounts emanating from the region of Earhart's disappearance, profiles of her life and psyche as she readied for her final 'world flight,' her friend & family attitudes and beliefs, and a few opinions of various personnel involved with Earhart's last flight were closely re-evaluated by Beyond 37'.

It is necessary to realize how most all 'Earhart mystery' theories managed to employ the same factual elements to yield their different story versions. [Refer to International News Journalist Rosalea Barker's 2002 Stateside New Zealand article in the 'Press Notices-Testimonials' link,"I felt like I was trying to separate black sheep from white in a computer game that randomly kept changing the colour of sheep. Just when I thought all the facts had been marshalled in support of one theory, those same facts would be marshalled in support of another completely opposite one." ] Here, Beyond 37' displays the most viable reality concerning Amelia Earhart’s 1937 misadventure.
 
Indeed only one truth ever did exist, and this website responsibly and without fanfare offers the most realistic portrayal of what became of Amelia Earhart after she was said to have ‘vanished’ in 1937. However many people, (to include most mainstream academic scholars) being as misinformed as they have been over the years courtesy of the controlled and 'dumbed down' plane-hunting media, will still have a hard time seeing the forest for the trees in the realities portrayed here. Then again it helps to always bear in mind, no matter what Amelia Earhart disappearance theories the national media promoted over the years, none of them authoritatively represented an officially stated historical viewpoint. So much is important to understand.
 
What People Fail To Recall About Amelia Earhart's 1937 Disappearance
 
It is evident the general public does not recall how the governments of the United States, Japan, and England never 'officially commented' on Amelia Earhart's loss, beyond the July of 1937 U. S. Government's conveyed approximation of she and her navigator Fred Noonan 'likely' having perished. People also fail to recall how there has never been an 'official investigation' launched into their disappearance. As well, people forget how (according to the long questioned 'official' record) all communication with Amelia Earhart's plane ceased while she and Noonan were still safely airborne.
 
Also de-emphasized later and all but forgotten, were the 1960s statements made by Admiral Chester Nimitz about Earhart and Noonan surviving a ground-fall in the Marshall Islands, how the same Marshall Islands were never permitted to be combed by the massive U. S. military search effort for Earhart and Noonan, and how the communication lines and the general relationship between Japan and the United States suddenly grew more tenuous a mere five days after the duo turned up missing; a result of the July 7, 1937 start of the Sino-Japanese war.    
 
So how and why did the public end up so misled? Some investigators still believe today, the public had been orchestrated to be misled through the media dating back to the time the event occurred. [Recall U. S. Secretary of the Treasury Henry P. Morgenthau Jr.'s May 13, 1938 reply words to First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt's query about Amelia Earhart's loss, "I hope I've just got to never make it public."]  
 
So it made sense, after some of the true controversial story elements began to surface in the 1960s and 1970s, new disappearance theories were injected into and promoted equally, if not more by the national news media. So much steered the growing-curious public away from what had been the rising fire of truth. And within a short time, certain 'promoted' individuals and their theorized answers evolved into convenient and safe 'media reliables,' even though they lacked presenting anything close to the forensic reality. 
 
Those 'Safely' Promoted By National Media Outlets
 
In the late 1970s one Elgen Long, a private citizen who would ever support his own crashed-and-sank claim, began receiving the most national media attention afforded to the Amelia Earhart disappearance case. From then on, consistent media adulation's were steered his way well into the 2000s. As they were, Elgen Long continuously described to the American public how he believed he had self calculated the area where Earhart's plane crashed and sank in deep Pacific Ocean waters. Many private citizen dollars were invested in his various expeditions to locate it. National news sources were always anxious for his results. Except Mr. Long never found Earhart's plane. It simply did not exist where he said it did, if it even existed anymore at all. Still, for years Mr. Long's non-controversial claim was favored as the one U. S. national media reps could always safely rely on.

Since the late 1980s Richard Gillespie and TIGHAR have received a near-equal to Elgen Long measure of national media attention, Earhart plane-search wise. Mr. Gillespie's claim offered how Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan safely ditched on the island of Nikumororo hundreds of miles south of their destination, and they died there as castaways. Mr. Gillespie is also a private citizen, who self-formed and promoted his TIGHAR club [AKA 'The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery'] to the American public. TIGHAR also received investments over the years, supporting what eventually became viewed as another errant claim. In time though, the shepherded by the national media public had learned to accept and support Mr. Gillespie's efforts alongside Elgen Long's, well and above any controversial investigative research offerings. In said way, by mainly covering the Long and Gillespie offers, the national media fairly conditioned the American public to prefer the simple solution [Long's 'crashed and sank' version] or the romantic solution [Gillespie's 'desert island castaways' version] over something that appeared complicated and/or factually buried, such as the well protected Irene-Amelia reality.
 
[Another more recently promoted enthusiast, described how Earhart's Lockheed Electra airplane was lying somewhere in a mountain jungle on the Island of New Britain, northeast a ways from where she and Noonan last took off from Lae, New Guinea. Though it was once rumored she might have flown directly there, any New Britain airplane 'evidence' was never substantiated.]
 
So what enabled Elgen Long and Richard Gillespie to receive such consistent national media attention they did year in and year out? The answer was simple: Again, they offered well presented harmless solutions, to a serious historical quandary the American public remained transfixed on.
 
To hesitate before questioning the above summation, and as referenced earlier, recall in 1965 how Admiral Chester Nimitz had described to CBS Radio Journalist, Fred Goerner that it was "known and documented in Washington" how "Earhart and her navigator went down in the Marshall Islands and were picked up by the Japanese." [1966 Goerner book, In Search of Amelia Earhart research, and later Fred Goerner/Muriel Earhart Morrissey letter exchanges.] 

On the other hand, even though since the 1960s the most research, forensic logic, and solid reasoning has supported the information presented by Beyond 37'; over time Elgen Long, Richard Gillespie, and Bill Prymak (another private citizen) of the Amelia Earhart Society always derided Beyond 37's consistent backing of the Irene-Amelia conveyance, to their media contacts and to their sedulous devotees. It seemed they wished for the never disproved Joe Gervais Irene-Amelia claim to simply go away, as it questioned all plane hunting cottage industry heads, who would otherwise proceed unencumbered by true history opposition.
 
As well, such 'plane searching cottage industry heads' may have been observant enough to realize how when it came to Amelia Earhart, the national media itself was long ago steered away from and disabled of its ability to dig for the true controversial answers, concerning her real disappearance story.
 
A Change That Occurred In The 1990s
 
In the mid-1990s a change in the Earhart investigation matter began to occur. It happened after filmmaker and investigative researcher Tod Swindell met and formed research alliances with two of the most lauded 'truthful' Amelia Earhart research scholars; one in best selling Author Randall Brink, and the other in the aforementioned famous Earhart disappearance investigator, Joe Gervais.
 
It was then clarification on how the wool had been pulled over the eyes of the public for many years about Amelia Earhart's disappearance story, finally began to emerge. Before, it had been recognized by the most informed how the history of Amelia Earhart’s disappearance had been plagued by euphemisms and obfuscations. Or, how the media touted 'theorists' who claimed Earhart, after her odd non-receiving radio stopped transmitting as well while she and Noonan were still safely airborne..., simply crashed and sank (Long's), or how she ditched on a desert island and died after the tide pulled her plane out to sea where it sank in deep water (Gillespie's), or... how on Saipan or on another of Japan's mandated islands, Earhart either died by execution or sickness after being detained, as in 'held captive' or 'jailed.' It grew to be, where these three different theorized solutions comprised the main ideas used to slant public opinion away from the historical reality of it all; that being of course, Amelia Earhart's name-changed survival.

In time, it became hard for the truly inquisitive not to notice how after first gaining steam in the 1960s and 70s, the Earhart 'continued survival' research had been detoured away from by historical dictum guiding forces, where by the mid-1980s the other 'theories' had all but taken over, all of them, incidentally, ending with Earhart and Noonan's sure deaths. (Minus any 'body' or 'plane' evidence, of course.) This also left Elgen Long's and Richard Gillespie's offers to end up in the safely far-ahead media supported lead.

Of course it had been observed for decades by Joe Gervais alone, how private citizenry 'support' of the 'sure-death' angles marked the preference of any and all historical dictum guiding influences of the United States, whom had otherwise remained quiet about the subject of Amelia Earhart's 1937 disappearance, not to mention the subject of her subsequent underground return to the United States as a re-identified person. So ultimately, and wary of it or not, the promoters of the 'Earhart definitely died somehow' theories became the misguiding influences who prevented the media's realization of Earhart's true fate. Meanwhile, United States history influences such as the Smithsonian Institute and the National Geographic Society would acknowledge the existence of the promoted 'Earhart demise' theories to news sources, while always back-door endorsing only one of them; how it appeared Amelia Earhart likely made her way to her final resting place... somewhere on the bottom of the Pacific Ocean.
 
No matter. The true scholarly recognized truth became, Amelia Earhart did not meet her demise akin to any of the above descriptions at all; she did not crash at sea, she did not die on Nikumororo, and Japan's Naval Authority did not execute her or let her died of dysentery. Rather, anymore the best available information described how she was somehow laid low after she was reported missing, she subsequently changed her name and altered her familiar appearance, and she emerged from the WWII era to later resurface in the United States. There she lived out the rest of her life in basic anonymity, all be her a still highly respected person by various people who already knew, and then came to know her after she'd done so, until her death in July of 1982. It was later realized, while the world was still at peace she had even 'trial-flown' a few new aircraft prototypes for Japan's naval authority. Amazing.

 
Hard to accept? Sure it is. Because the body public has been influenced by any and all 'official history' sources since the World War Two era, (foremost including the Smithsonian, a "ward" of the U. S. Government) to accept how such a thing as Amelia’s post-July 2, 1937  'survival' did not likely happen. By now though, the mountain of evidence gathered over the last forty year time span, and more controversially since the forensic studies commenced in 1997 does speak for itself. In other words, it did happen… believe it or not.
 
Plain Speaking By The Clergy And Others
 
Among her closest friends after Amelia became known as 'Irene' was Monsignor James Francis Kelley of Rumson, New Jersey. Monsignor Kelley (1902-1996) was a legendary historical figure at Seton Hall University where he had served as its President from the mid-1930s to the late 1940s. He spoke plainly enough in his 1991 recorded interview with Colonel Rollin C. Reineck, Ret., when he mentioned he was "instrumental" in helping to "free" Amelia, when he assisted in 'bringing her back from Japan.' Such a statement of his seemed to indicate the possibility of Amelia Earhart returning to the U. S. at the war's end, as logic dictated it would have been more difficult to 'free' Amelia before VJ Day. (To 'free' or to 'liberate' were interchangeable terms at the war's end, and all imprisoned Americans, to include General Jonathan Wainwright were liberated after VJ Day.) A few people considered how Amelia lived among the Imperial Islands, mostly at Maloelap and/or Kwajaeline of the Marshall Islands, before she ended up imprisoned in the Philippines in mid-1943. Others felt she ended up in a civilian internment camp in China by the end of the war, 'quite ill.' And others still, believed no harm ever came her way at all, as unfathomable as it might seem, that Amelia had been considering her public life exodus with Japan's pre-war understanding, perhaps not realizing in 1937 how World War Two would eventually cause her such problems. It may have also been the case, where the hidden demise and/or disappearance of the original Irene Craigmile ultimately turned into an 'out' for Amelia, thus enabling her to continue living her life non-recognized for who she once was by virtue of her assuming said identity.
 
Originally, in 1970 even Gervais and Klaas suggested the far-out possibility of Earhart having been smuggled out of Japan right after VJ Day by Archbishop Spellman and Jackie Cochran, while disguised as a catholic nun.  But one thing definitely remained clear: Without access to true records, it proved impossible to ascertain the full scope of where Earhart was and what she was doing Japan, U.S. intelligence, and Catholic Church wise between the years of 1937 and 1945. Indeed, the entire reasoning for it all may have been far more, or far less intricately founded than people have thus far conceptualized.
 
It was once surmised how an earlier return to the U. S. could have enabled the former Amelia Earhart the time needed to quietly adjust to her future life as Irene Craigmile. But no matter when she returned, pre-VJ day or post-VJ day, there is no doubt she did so with the aid of her dear Zonta Sister friend, Attorney Irene Mary Rutherford O'Crowley who was the original Irene Craigmile's Aunt; and as mentioned with the help of Monsignor James Francis Kelley. Both persons lived in proximity to each other in northern New Jersey. And it appeared in 1945-1946, when Zonta photographs first started displaying her as the new, healthy, and smiling 'Irene Craigmile' in public, (with her nose procedure done, and cosmetic and sartorial differences applied) she was already well accustomed to her new identity, one that belonged to a past acquaintance of hers who was the original, Irene Craigmile. [The no longer attentive Niece of Attorney Irene O'Crowley.]
 
In essence, the real person to have vanished forever long ago was the original Irene Craigmile, who it appeared had turned up missing around the mid-late 1930s. If one questions this, just realize the photographic historical record of Irene Craigmile’s person reveals such a reality in no uncertain terms. Note as well, if the original Irene ‘died’ back then there appears to be no record of it. So much and more amounted to Amelia being able to acquiesce her new identity. And it does appear that in closely guarded circles the United States, Japan, and England were quietly aware of the dupe having taken place years ago. Today however, it is certain very few public-office servers in any of these three mentioned countries... knows much, if anything about it.
 
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How Beyond 37' Came To Be...

The brainchild of long time Earhart researchers Joe Gervais, Rollin Reineck, and Tod Swindell… Beyond 37’ was initially named “The World War Two Veteran’s Coalition of Researchers, The Earhart-Craigmile Chapter.” Retired USAF Major Gervais and Retired USAF Colonel Reineck, both World War Two vets and Earhart researchers since the 1960s, were members of the 1989 founded Amelia Earhart Society. However, their changed identity claim about Irene Craigmile Bolam was never endorsed by the AES. Therefore Swindell, who had consorted with different AES constituents but was never himself a member, suggested they subdivide and form their own outside alliance of truth concerning the Irene-Amelia subject matter.
 
When Tod Swindell embarked on his documentary film project on the Irene-Amelia realities under the heading of "Beyond 37’," a new name for the coalition was invented at that time. Mr. Swindell filmed extensive interviews of both Gervais and Reineck, of 1970 Amelia Earhart Lives Author Joe Klaas, famed Amelia Earhart researcher Ronald Reuther, various 99s representatives and more. Joe Gervais passed away in 2005, Reineck and Reuther in 2007. Their departures left said filmed testimonials among their last, and Tod Swindell to carry on with their long time collective pursuit of truth recognition.
 
USAF Major Joseph A. Gervais (Ret.)  [1924-2005]
Amelia Earhart Investigative Researcher
 
Born in Tyningsboro, Massachusetts in 1924, Joseph A. Gervais was of French ancestry. After WWII broke out he enlisted in the United States Army Air Corp at the age of twenty. He became an excellent pilot during World War Two while participating in campaigns over Africa and Europe. In his distinguished military career he also served as a pilot during the Korean War and Vietnam campaign. He logged nearly 20,000 hours of flight time before retiring as an Air Force Major in 1963.
 
While a Captain in the Air Force, Joe Gervais began researching the Amelia Earhart disappearance story in 1960 after reading Paul Briand's book, Daughter of the Sky. He was stationed in the Pacific at the time. After gaining quite a name for himself as the purveyor of Operation Earhart with his then partner, USAF Captain Bob Dinger, in 1965 Gervais was invited to New York (all expenses paid for his family of four to fly from their home in Las Vegas) by the 1930s famous woman pilot and Amelia Earhart's old friend, Viola Gentry. Ms. Gentry had requested for Gervais to discuss his five years of investigating Amelia Earhart's disappearance at a summer gathering of the Early Birds of Aviation Club on Long Island. It was a great, well attended event featuring many famous pilots from the golden age of aviation. And it was there during her entrance to the event, upon his request Viola introduced Gervais to her friend, Irene Craigmile Bolam who was being escorted by her British husband, Guy Bolam. Mrs. Bolam seemed to be a person held in high esteem by Viola and other people attending that day. Word had it she was also a 'past friend' of Amelia Earhart's. Joe Gervais took note of all of this. Then, when he looked into her eyes and gazed at her visage as he was meeting her, he felt he recognized who she used to be right away. She was older, heavier, and her hair was gray and different, but he could still see beyond those things.
 
After arriving back at his Las Vegas home Joe Gervais set out to investigate the past of Irene Craigmile Bolam. (He would continue to do so for years.) He soon began to realize how the woman known as 'Irene Craigmile' had been a virtual nobody in the 1930s, and she had only flown planes for a very brief period of time. When he met her in 1965, after he asked her Mrs. Bolam affirmed to Joe Gervais how she "used to know" Amelia "rather well," and she had even "flown" with her. Ever curious, in 1967 Gervais wrote to Mrs. Bolam suggesting his belief of who she really was, or had previously been. In her reply she politely steered clear of his suspicion writing in the present tense, "I am not she." Yet her handwriting was eerily similar to Amelia Earhart's, and she also referenced two of her friends to him (Viola Gentry & Elmo Pickerill) while all but cryptically writing, "because they each knew us both well as Amelia Earhart and Irene Craigmile." Even to her it seemed Amelia was long gone, and only her renamed person of 'Irene' remained. (Or, as Monsignor Kelley later mentioned of his dear friend Irene, 'she didn't want to be Amelia Earhart anymore.') In the 1967 reply letter to Gervais from Elmo Pickerill (the Early Birds secretary) he confirmed how Irene Craigmile, Viola Gentry, and Amelia Earhart had all been 'Long Island flying pals' in the 1930s.
 
Mrs. Bolam somewhat curiously ended her own 1967 letter to Gervais this way: "It has always been my feeling the [sic] Amelia Earhart has not passed away completely, so long as there is one person left alive who still remembers her." 
 
According to writer Joe Klaas during a 2001 interview, after Gervais met Irene in 1965 he conveyed his story to Klaas. Fascinated by Gervais, Joe Klaas gestated a book idea designed to profile the long term Earhart investigative research of Gervais and Dinger and Operation Earhart. Klaas recalled how he heard Gervais relay his account to him about his meeting with Irene, and soon the two were collaborating on their book, Amelia Earhart Lives that would be published by McGraw-Hill in 1970. In it, a photo Gervais took of the Irene Craigmile Bolam he met in 1965 appeared.
 
After enlisting the services of a former Robert F. Kennedy attorney in one Benedict Ginsberg, Mrs. Bolam sued Gervais and Klaas and McGraw-Hill, and she was successful enough to have the book removed from the stores after only seven weeks of shelf life. No matter, the law suit dragged on for five years until it was settled by a ten dollar consideration paid by both sides, after Mrs. Bolam refused to comply with Joe Gervais' request for her fingerprints. This added to her evasiveness, Amelia's past relationship with the original Irene's family, decades of research and the later forensic study gestated by Tod Swindell, to ultimately discover how three different people used the same identity of Irene Craigmile Bolam, and how the one Gervais encountered not only aligned with Amelia but was seen nowhere identified as Irene prior to 1945; yes, so much enabled Joe Gervais to always maintain his belief in how the Irene Craigmile Bolam who he met and photographed in 1965... most assuredly had been the 'former' Amelia Earhart. In 2005 Joe Gervais passed away in his sleep, still believing it.
 
Tod Swindell
          Forensic Argument Analyst/Researcher/Writer & Film Producer              

Tod Swindell was born in Yonkers, New York in 1958. Raised in California and Pennsylvania, he resides in Los Angeles. A University of Arizona graduate in Cinema Arts and a member of the Screen Directors Guild in Hollywood, he's also a past head of Research and Development for Universal Pictures' 'Desperado Films.' He's been part of many film projects over the years serving on Producer levels for several. On a more recent assignment he was an Associate Producer on the James Redford movie 'Spin,' a period plane flying story starring Stanley Tucci and featuring vintage aircraft.
 
His interest in the Earhart story grew during the period of 1991 to 1993 while he was representing the FOIA researched screenplay, "Earhart: The Final Chapter" by WGA writer David O'Malley. Although the screenplay was covered well and received good reviews, Swindell was not successful in selling it. Later, during the Summer of 1996 he conferred with a former U. S. intelligence operative in Los Angeles. After observing how 'politically correct history' is often recorded with the help of the national news media, he began to more seriously consider the investigative research of Randall Brink and Joe Gervais. (In 1994 W.W. Norton had published Brink's best-selling Earhart investigative book, Lost Star. See "The History of Earhart Mystery Research" link for more information.) After aligning with Brink and Gervais, in 1997 Swindell gestated what would become a long term 'in-depth' forensic study and analysis of the Joe Gervais 'Amelia became Irene' claim. 
 
After accomplishing the difficult task of gathering the photographs needed to advance the study, Tod Swindell's effort was credited for the breakthrough of having discovered the past 'multiple identity' issue of ‘Irene Craigmile Bolam.’ (See the "Press Notices, Testimonials" link.) The Associated Press also reported how his forensic analysis revealed a haunting physical congruence displayed between the 1945-1982 identified Irene Craigmile and Amelia Earhart. Swindell simplified it this way; "We're talking about true body evidence the American public has been persuaded to believe was not true body evidence. Yet how does one solve the case of a missing person? Simple, find the person or find the body of the person. In 1965 Joe Gervais recognized Amelia's body. True, Amelia had changed her name to Irene, but said Irene's body used to belong to Amelia Earhart." The forensic analysis continued, thoroughly examining the history of the original Irene Craigmile's family, to include the prominent O'Crowley family and township named-for 'Rutherfords' of Newark, New Jersey. (See the original Irene Craigmile's condensed biography in the lower portion of the 1982 New Jersey Tribune link.) Ultimately the information gained by the study after being added to nearly four decades worth of accumulated research, revealed how Amelia Earhart surely had continued to exist following her disappearance in 1937, as one of the post-1930s identified Irene Craigmile’s  ...just as Joe Gervais long professed she had.
 
USAF Colonel Rollin C. Reineck, (Ret.)  [1920-2007]
Investigative Researcher/Author
 
Rollin C. Reineck was born in 1920 and grew up in Van Nuys, California. He attended the University of California at Santa Barbara before joining the Army Air Corp at the age of twenty-one in early 1942. He aspired to become the Chief Navigator of the B29 fleet stationed on Saipan in 1944, was an adviser to the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and flew the last raids over Tokyo just prior to VJ Day. He was a career military man who retired as a USAF Colonel. He lived in Hawaii from that point on. He read about the research of Joe Gervais in the 1970s, mostly by way of the book Amelia Earhart lives. Knowing what he did about the military and its intelligence divisions during the war years, Reineck found the Gervais claim to strongly potential the truth even though others, to include the Gervais-Irene herself fought against its acceptance. From the 1970s until he died in 2007, Colonel Reineck was a long time supporter of the research of Joe Gervais.
 
By early 2004 Colonel Reineck's book, Amelia Earhart Survived was available in stores. Published through The Paragon Agency, it added much credence to the long held Irene-Amelia claim of Joe Gervais, while outright stating it as 'true.' It was also the first book to convey the past singular identity shared by different Irene Craigmile Bolam individuals, crediting and drawing elements from Tod Swindell's forensic analysis efforts while doing so.


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'There's An Elephant In The Living Room And Nobody's Saying Anything'
 
The Irene-Amelia conveyance has been described as "the elephant in the room" of Amelia Earhart investigative research. Both the Smithsonian Institute and the National Geographic Society try hard not to pay attention to it. If they do it is usually done through some need  to engage an opposing viewpoint that smites of credibility, to help keep the story of Amelia Earhart’s final decades as someone else ensconced as a questionable reality at least, instead of a substantiated one.
 
Therefore, one will not hear nor read either the Smithsonian Institute or the National Geographic Society claim it as ‘factual’ how Amelia’s later survival as Irene was ever something outright disproved. Rather, their efforts to combat the suggestion have always been embraced with an end goal in mind to refer to it as ‘doubtful’ with a question mark. Said efforts notwithstanding, Amelia Earhart’s survival as another identified person is now an obvious forensic reality no matter what. If tried in a court of law such a reality would be clearly determined based on the amount of available evidence both physical and circumstantial, beyond the logistical and medical realities afforded to the former Amelia Earhart to enable her life to continue as a non-famous and/or non-publicly recognized person in the United States after the WWII era. It is clear anymore, such had become her own preference, as well as the preference of those who helped to enable and support the endeavor. In the public sector, people need to move past the historical dictum roadblocks that have long impeded their ability to correctly educate themselves about it through national media influences, and responsibly accept such a credo of plain truth after doing so.
 

Amelia Earhart, 1923
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Shown at age twenty-six, almost five years before she became famous.

From the Beyond 37' forensic study...
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...true morph blend of the 1945-1982 Gervais-Irene shown in 1978, and Amelia Earhart.

The Goals Of Beyond 37'
  • To better inform the public about Amelia Earhart's story.
  • Give sound answers to the hardest questions about Amelia Earhart's 1937 disappearance.
  • To encourage the American public to stand up for its own United States historical truths.

Modern Amelia Earhart research began with the 1960 publication of Paul Briand's book Daughter of the Sky. The basic truth about Amelia Earhart was learned over the course of the following twenty years. It was subsequently cast aside and advanced as falsely conveyed, until the forensic argument finally displayed the reality of it all by the year 2004. Since that time Beyond 37' has been advancing the newly learned forensic realties about Irene-Amelia to the American public. 

Click here to e-mail Irene-Amelia.com and/or Beyond 37's Tod Swindell with questions or comments, or for additional information about Beyond 37's 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 Bolam, AKA the Gervais-Irene. 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 partly 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 and Filmmaker, Tod Swindell who also serves as Chief Editor of Irene-Amelia.com. The research opinions and forensic material of Beyond 37' & Irene-Amelia.com have been copyrighted and renewed yearly by Tod Swindell, C. 2001-2011]
 

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