False Rumors About Irene-Amelia

The 'New Jersey Housewife' Rumor

The Gervais-Irene started this rumor herself, and it threw a curve. To the press in 1970 she said, "I'm just a New Jersey housewife." Yet, was she really 'just a New Jersey Housewife?' To the extent she was married to British MI6 operative Guy Bolam from 1958 until he died in 1970, and together they owned three homes in the United States, including a house in New Jersey she considered her main residence, in a way she was. Yet the Gervais-Irene (AKA the 1945-1982 identified Irene Craigmile Bolam) in reality was a very important and 'enigmatic' person who very few came to know all that well. Among her attributes she was a distinguished Wings Club member, a Bank Vice President, she knew NASA astronauts, she was an International Relations Chairman for the Long Island Zonta chapter, (She spoke AE's same variety of foreign languages) she also traveled the world throughout the 1960s and 1970s, (to include trips to Japan where she maintained several friendships) and she was listed as the Corporate President of Radio Luxembourg in Europe in the 1970s too. So New Jersey housewife or not, she was inordinately wealthy and worldly, and yes... a veritable enigma. Or as her survived brother in law, John Bolam told the Associated Press in 2002, "She was not an ordinary housewife as she claimed. She was influential, knew many well placed people and was well traveled."

Recall 1970 was five years after Joe Gervais believed he recognized her. So she also offered a present-tense denial of "I am not Amelia Earhart" to the press then, in response to the just released McGraw-Hill book, Amelia Earhart Lives. After she threw in, "I'm just a New Jersey housewife," ever since then, with some help from the news media it became a standing joke, 'Amelia Earhart survived and became a New Jersey housewife.'

Oddly enough, she wouldn't have really 'lied' to the public in her present tense denial of herself as Amelia Earhart. After all, in theory she had changed her name to 'Irene Craigmile' after as Amelia Earhart, she had turned up missing in 1937. So for her to say "I am not Amelia Earhart" in 1970 would have actually been true. Or in 1979, as Monsignor Kelley mentioned about his long time friend Irene, by the 1960s she "barely recognized herself as Amelia anymore," and after World War Two she "didn't want to be Amelia anymore." The main point being; in 1965 it was Joe Gervais who met her and recognized her for who she used to be. She never came forward to volunteer such information, nor would she ever have. And after Joe Gervais tried to contact her again she was always sure to avoid him, with the exception of a letter response to him displaying handwriting exactly like Amelia's. In such a letter she referred Gervais to two friends of hers, (who she had also known when she was Amelia) Viola Gentry and Elmo Pickerill. About Viola and Elmo she included the following cryptic passage, "They each knew us both well as Amelia Earhart and Irene Craigmile." And once again, correct in the present tense she also wrote,"I am not she."

The 'SPY' Rumor

This long perpetuated rumor was never fully substantiated. Authors Fred Goerner, Joe Klaas, Randall Brink and a few others found some compelling documentation in Washington DC during the research phases of their Earhart book efforts, but nothing ever indicated Amelia Earhart's actual practice of, or engagement in espionage ever took place.

She was also rumored to have served as a kind of 'double agent,' supposedly with an obscure link to communist Russia. This notion appeared to have no real foundation, other than as a baseless falsehood invented by one Jerome Steigmann, who had so strongly derided the Joe Gervais 'Irene' discovery. (Mr. Steigmann also tried to suggest how former Seton Hall University President, Monsignor James Francis Kelley's friendship with the Gervais-Irene was based on the two having had a secret "forty-year love affair." Of course those who actually knew both Monsignor Kelley and the Gervais-Irene saw it as a ridiculous, irresponsible suggestion. The Gervais-Irene would have no doubt sued Mr. Steigmann as well.)

The 'She Was A Tokyo Rose' Rumor

First introduced by a variety of World War Two soldiers who were stationed in the Pacific, it does appear propaganda was steered their way to make them believe the American woman's voice they were hearing give broadcasts over Japan's NHK radio airwaves was the survived Amelia Earhart's voice. Curious, a Japanese-American UCLA student named Iva Toguri (D'Aquino) found herself stuck in Japan during a visit while Pearl Harbor occurred, and she had no choice but to spend the duration of the war there. She admitted to doing broadcasts as 'Orphan Annie' during the war, though in court she testified she was offered $2,000 to say she was 'the one and only Tokyo Rose' to the press after VJ Day, and she accepted such an offer not knowing how she was incriminating herself by doing so. Amelia's last "closest friend," Jackie Cochran was later featured in a newspaper photo taken in Japan during Iva Toguri's arrest. Curious as well, during Iva Toguri's trial in San Francisco in 1949, Amelia Earhart's Mother, Amy Otis Earhart attended the proceedings on a daily basis. Iva was convicted then, but as his last official act President Gerald Ford finally pardoned Iva Toguri D'Aquino.

The 'She Lived In The Imperial Palace In Tokyo

With Emperor Hirohito During The War' Rumor

This one was introduced in the form of a supposition via the 1970 book Amelia Earhart Lives. The idea was implied where Amelia Earhart had taken up with Japan in order to receive favorable treatment and protection from Emperor Hirohito during World War Two. It was further suggested the arrangement of her name change to Irene Craigmile was achieved with the Emperor's omniscient regard and avowed secrecy. Where the latter may be true, it is highly doubtful Earhart ever lived in the Imperial Palace.

The 'She Taught Improved English

To Isoroku Yamamoto In Boston' Rumor

Joe Gervais researched this and claimed his information about it was inadvertently turned over by his lawyers to the New York State Supreme Court, while he and McGraw-Hill were being sued from 1970 to 1975. Joe Gervais professed to have learned, how the Harvard educated Isoroku Yamamoto, (who would go on to chiefly orchestrate the Pearl Harbor attack and become Japan's most famous World War Two Admiral) was in Boston in 1925 at the same time Amelia was. Not only that, he claimed Yamamoto was actually a student of Amelia Earhart's when she taught an 'Improved English' Harvard extension night course to foreign students. Later attempts to substantiate his claim failed, although it is true Earhart did teach such a course, and Yamamoto was a student at Harvard before relocating to Washington in 1926 where he served as a Japanese diplomat. It was and is certain, both Yamamoto and Hirohito were well aware of who Amelia Earhart was as she had become a loved hero in Japan in the 1930s just like Babe Ruth did. It's also certain, how in July of 1937 neither Hirohito nor Yamamoto would have let any harm come to Amelia Earhart; and if she would have requested private asylum as a world politics dissident, there's a fair chance they would have quietly allowed, arranged, and even welcomed such a thing for her, being who she was.

The 'Howard Hughes Traded His H-1 Racer Plans To Help Japan
Build Its Zero Fighter In Exchange For Her Safety' Rumor

This was also introduced as a question in the 1970 book Amelia Earhart Lives by Joe Klaas. There never appeared to be certain truth to it though. It was later revealed how in 1935-36 Japan was in stride with the same style of aircraft Hughes was developing anyway. Of course it is likely Japan did replicate aspects of the Hughes H-1 racer for its Zero as the planes were quite similar; but it was fairly ludicrous to suggest Hughes traded anything to Japan for Earhart's safe keeping. It is true though, friends Paul Mantz, Jackie Cochran, and Amelia Earhart all knew Howard Hughes. But then most anyone who was anybody in American aviation in the mid-1930s either knew, or wanted to know Howard Hughes. On the other hand and seemingly not including any Howard Hughes' involvement, two years after Amelia Earhart Lives had mentioned one of the Japanese Zero plane designers in one Jiro Hirakoshi, it was conveyed how Amelia had known Mr. Hirakoshi at a Garden City, Long Island avionics plant in 1935-36 where he had worked for awhile in the U. S. It was further mentioned how Mr. Hirakoshi had returned to Japan approximate to the time Amelia left on her world flight. This was in accordance to information found in a secured State Department file, confidently revealed ("leaked") to Joe Gervais in 1972 by State Department employee Arthur Dewayne Gibson of Verdunville, West Virginia. The '1946' dated file was labeled "Earhart, Amelia; Special War Problems," and it also described how Amelia met up with Mr. Hirakoshi again to help with "Zero wind tunnel tests" in Japan in 1938. Needless to say, 1938 would mark a year after Amelia disappeared without a trace. Of course no official comment was ever offered. A point to keep in mind, by 1972 first hand or government authentication on this was all but impossible to obtain. Yet after Gervais spoke to and corresponded with Arthur Dewayne Gibson he found him to be an upstanding family man living in his later years, who truly was still employed at the State Department on a semi-retired basis.

Later in 1990, three years after another State Department employee by the name of Patricia Morton (as reported on by NBC) discovered an additional declassified file labeled "Earhart, Amelia; Special War Problems" containing documentation dated as late as 1945, the office of Secretary of State James Baker did confirm in writing such a file had existed. (But only after Baker's office was pressed by an official request letter from Senator Daniel Inouye of Hawaii about it.) However, nothing was mentioned about the file's contents or why such a "Special War Problems file" on Amelia Earhart ever came to exist. It seemed a bit odd, since Earhart was a person who was described to have "disappeared" two years before the war began.

Among his earlier exchanges with Gervais, Arthur Gibson also specified how the file he found indicated Amelia's August 19, 1939 request for Nipponese naturalization in the Imperial Mandate Islands, (just prior to Germany invading Poland.) As well, according to Gibson the file contained a couple of photos of Amelia, to include at least one displaying her in front of a Japanese test plane. All of this may sound absurd on the surface, although do recall how Jackie Cochran, who was the first American woman to enter Japan after World War Two, (again, Jackie asserted herself to have been "closer to Amelia than anyone else" during the year long period before Amelia left on her world flight in 1937) yes, Cochran specified in her 1953 book The Stars At Noon how she "found several files on Amelia Earhart" in Tokyo's Dai Ichi building after being granted special access right after VJ Day. However said files or their contents never made it into the public realm.

The 'Love to Mother' Telegram Rumor

Believe it or not, some still feel this may not resemble a rumor so much. As the story goes, in 1987 State Department employee, Patricia Morton found a declassified file docket labeled "Earhart, Amelia; Special War Problems" still archived at the State Department. In it Ms. Morton found a pair of August and September of 1945 speedletter telegrams, one sent to Earhart's former husband George Putnam, and the other was Putnam's reply from a few weeks later. The telegram to Putnam came from a Weihsien, China 'Japanese run' civilian internment camp just after VJ Day. It had been forwarded through Chungking, China, U. S. military headquarters there during WWII. It was suggested by Earhart's family as recently as 2004 how Jackie Cochran may have had something to do with making sure the telegram made it out; and Earhart Author, Randall Brink had found some information to side with such an opinion. Other enthusiasts offered how the message was written and sent by one Ahmad Kammal, a fellow Putnam had known who indeed had been interned at the Weihsien camp. This may have been so, but thus far no one has explained the label on the file: "Earhart, Amelia; Special War Problems" that again, in 1990 Secretary of State James Baker's office did confirm the reality of. The 'consternation causing' telegram to Putnam read: "Camp liberated, all well, volumes to tell, love to mother." As speedletter telegrams were limited to ten words the sender's name was often left out. Curious as well, a former OSS Lieutenant by the name of James "Jess" Hannon who participated in the post VJ Day liberation of the Weihsien camp, all but insisted he had seen and 'knew' a survived Amelia Earhart had been sequestered there separately in private quarters in a 'sickly way' during the war's end. Hannon even went on to write a manuscript about his experience concerning Weihsien and Earhart called 'Amelia Earhart Survived.' (Different from the Rollin Reineck book of the same name.) Status quo Earhart "crashed and sank" traditionalists have fought tooth and nail against the notion of the telegrams being at all relative to a survived Amelia Earhart. Official silence still prevailed over the matter however, and in 1991 former Seton Hall University President, Monsignor James Francis Kelley did admit during a taped interview that he had been part of the quietly survived Amelia's liberation process, and he was certain with his own words as well, in describing how the Irene Craigmile Bolam he was good friends with after the war had actually been the 'survived' former Ameia Earhart.

The 'She Was Abducted By Aliens' Rumor

Why not? The TV show Star Trek even put this idea into an episode it presented. Was she abducted and brought back though? Did her age not change like in Close Encounters Of The Third Kind? Say what one will, some people do take this explanation seriously. Beyond 37' however, stands by its simpler conclusion based on forensic comparisons and historical accounts .

The 'She Became a Prostitute in Japan' Rumor

This one also emanated from Word War Two soldiers, apparently. Some claimed to have heard that Amelia had been reduced to selling herself in order to survive in Japan during the war years.

The 'She Was A Lesbian' Rumor

Because of her tomboy looks and her 'equal playing field for women' credo, it's easy to see how this rumor came to exist. Still, where Amelia was linked romantically and intellectually to different men both before and after she became famous, (Lloyd Royer, Sam Chapman, Carl Harper, George Putnam, Gene Vidal, Paul Mantz, Geoffrey Bainbridge...) never did any real information surface that left her to be justifiably described as "a lesbian." Indeed, her person left it hard to really ascertain the truth about her sex life habit(s). She was so private there. And from silence comes enigma, and from enigma rumors start; 'maybe she was a lesbian,' or 'maybe she was a hermaphrodite.' Not so fast. Moreover, she was just a woman who liked the challenge of flying planes higher and farther than anyone else, and she managed to build a career around it.

The 'She Was Pregnant When She Left' Rumor

A rumor of Amelia Earhart being pregnant when she left on her world flight did later surface, but it appeared to have been based on hear-say from photographer Albert Bresnik. It is extremely unlikely Amelia Earhart was 'with child' before she left on her world flight. No matter, Author Max Allan Collins still incorporated the idea into his 1998 historical novel about Amelia, Flying Blind. It does appear to have been the case however, where Amelia had given birth to a child out of wedlock in 1924 and she somehow managed to conceal it with help from her Mother and Sister, to include throughout her fame years from 1928 to 1937. And the strong probability appears, where the other woman who had been identified as Irene Craigmile Bolam so prominently in 1982, with photo forgeries employed to do so by the 1982 New Jersey Tribune, may have in life been the non-recognized biological daughter of Amelia Earhart, most likely born in Canada. We know the Gervais-Irene knew her, and the 1934 born Son of the original Irene Craigmile also recognized her. This would mean, by the time the other 'younger looking' woman appeared identified as "The late Irene Bolam" on the cover of Irene's memorial dinner program (shown below) she was fifty-eight years old, or, about as old as the woman seen in the cover photo image looked to be. The currently being scrutinized by many, and already accepted by some theory became: The woman below was known as "Irene Jr." as she was being reared by the original Irene Craigmile's family O'Crowley, who Amelia had known. And when the original Irene no longer appeared, the woman below helped with the raising of the original Irene's Son while still in her teens, before turning such a duty over to Irene-Amelia by the mid-1940s. One might suggest, 'it was all in the family.'