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Note: For a brief biography of the original Irene Craigmile, scroll down to the heading:
"About The Original Irene Craigmile
(Bolam)"
| Irene Craigmile, 1945 |
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| Gervais-Irene (became 'Irene Craigmile Bolam' after her 1958 marriage to Guy Bolam of England.) |
The Gervais-Irene, who appeard nowhere as 'Irene' prior to the
1940s, did share physical and character trait congruences with Amelia Earhart. She was identified as Irene Craigmile Bolam
from 1945 to 1982.
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| Irene Craigmile, 1930 |
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| The 'Original' Irene Craigmile, Amelia's friend, seen no more after the 1930s. |
Note: All three of the women shown here were different human
beings, although at various times they were identified as one in the same 'Irene (nee O'Crowley) Craigmile Bolam.' This new
reality was recently gained through the investigative research efforts of Beyond 37'.
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| Irene Craigmile, 1947 |
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| The Non Gervais-Irene, by 1945 she'd left, leaving the 'Gervais-Irene' the Irene Craigmile ID. |
The Non Gervais-Irene, AKA 'Irene Jr.' was described as 'born
in 1924' and raised from age four on by the the original Irene's family in Newark, New Jersey. She was identified as 'Irene
Craigmile' from the late 1930s to the mid-1940s before leaving Newark. In 1982 her older-version photo appeared in a newspaper
again identifying her as 'the late Irene Craigmile Bolam.'
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Above:
Reprinted from the Beyond 37' study, only the Irene Craigmile displayed in the middle was the original 'Irene Craigmile.'
(See full-framed picture farther down.) Yet the study revealed how by the 1940s the other two women had the same 'Irene Craigmile'
identity attributed to them, and the original Irene no longer appeared. It seemed curious but did make hard sense in 2006,
when the 1934 born 'Son' of the original Irene Craigmile, one Larry Heller admitted he grew up believing his mother always
existed as one person. (After the final elements of Irene's photo history were obtained, the study's eye comparisons forensically
eliminated the possibility of only one individual having used the 'Irene Craigmile Bolam' identity.) The
study's extensive forensic research also discovered how the three different women shown above all knew each other, although
the Non Gervais-Irene was much younger, separated a generation age wise from the other two. As well, the original Irene's
Son offered how he held no photos of his 'mother' pre-dating the year of 1947. Otherwise he claimed to recognize both the Gervais-Irene and Non Gervais-Irene
as childhood 'mother' figures,
although from 1945 on only the Gervais-Irene filled the role. The scenario became fairly understandable, having resided at
a boarding school in his early youth while otherwise reared by the two surrogates, the original Irene's Son grew up never
really knowing his biological mother. True to this day, no one is certain about what became of the original Irene Craigmile.
Such a realization looms anymore as a skeleton in the closet of the overall 'mystery' of Amelia Earhart. Below: It's fairly easy to find Amelia again by using the 1945 Zonta photo from almost a decade after she
was said to have 'disappeared.' The photo marks the first known to have publicly identified her as (a new) 'Irene Craigmile.'
True, the Zonta organization for professional career women has always refused to comment about the 1945-1970s Zonta membership
of Irene Craigmile (Bolam.) Recall too, by the 1930s Amelia Earhart had grown to become the most famous Zonta member. Even
today the Zontas award its most prestigious annual scholarship in Amelia's name. There is virtually no doubt, high level Zonta
officers from the 1940s were in confidence with the non-public reidentification process of changing 'Amelia' to 'Irene.'
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| Again, the 1945-1982 identified Irene Craigmile... |
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| ...slight weight gain, AKA "The Gervais-Irene" via the Swindell / Beyond 37' Forensic Study |
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| Prior to deviated septum rhinoplasty... |
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| ...before dental work and cosmetic adjustments, one can easily recognize a familiar image |
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Below: A
rare, albeit poor quality photo of the 'original' Irene Craigmile (Bolam) shows her standing between her first husband, Charles
and her father, Joe O'Crowley.
| The original Irene Craigmile (Bolam), circa 1930 |
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| Husband Charles Craigmile (left), and her father Joe O'Crowley (Right). |
About The Original Irene Craigmile (Bolam) As learned by and first publicly revealed through the Swindell/Beyond 37' Forensic
Analysis, there were no less than three different women who at times employed the same Irene Craigmile (Bolam) identity. Directly
above is perhaps the best example of a legitimate (albeit poor quality) photo of the 'original' Irene Craigmile (Bolam). She
was born "Irene Madaline O'Crowley" on 10/1/04 in Newark, New Jersey according
to record. She was an only child. Her mother, Bridgett Doyle O'Crowley died when the original Irene
was twelve, leaving her to be taken in and further raised by her paternal grandmother, Sarah Rutherford O'Crowley and aunt
I. M. O'Crowley in Newark. The original Irene's father, Richard Joseph O'Crowley (Joe) who appears on the right in the above
photo, purportedly became an alcoholic after losing his wife and was not so well liked by the family. Curiously, the 1920
census listed the original Irene as "fourteen years old" while she lived with her grandmother Sarah and attorney-aunt
I. M. O'Crowley, differing from her described 1904 birth year. Notably, her birth certificate was never located. The original
Irene's first husband, Charles James Craigmile who was fifteen years older than she (featured above left) was a Newark Civil
Engineer from a prominent Rantoul, Illinois family. The original Irene and Charles Craigmile were wed in 1927. (Info to later
surface from her second husband, Al Heller described how he understood the original Irene was 'pregnant with another man's
child' when she married Charles Craigmile. It appears the child, a boy was born to the original Irene and reared by her extended
O'Crowley family.) The original Irene's first husband, Charles Craigmile was stable and well liked. The 1930 census showed
the couple living in Pequannock, New Jersey, yet during a road trip in 1931 Charles took ill of appendicitis and suddenly
died, leaving the original Irene a widow. A year later, in late 1932 Viola Gentry and Amelia Earhart arranged for some flying
lessons for their bereaved friend, the original Irene. (The two well-know women pilots had met the original Irene in 1928
through her attorney aunt, I. M. O'Crowley, a good friend and Zonta sister of Amelia's.) The original Irene's flying
lessons took place on Long Island, New York. In 1933 the original Irene met and dated Alvin Victor Heller, one of her flight
instructors. Just after earning her pilot's license in late May of that year, the original Irene realized herself to be pregnant
with Al's child. (According to record the original Irene never flew again. after accumulating a total of about twenty-five
solo flying hours.) In August of 1933 Al Heller and the original Irene Craigmile eloped to be married, and in early March
of 1934 came the birth of their child in Newark, a Son they named Clarence Alvin Heller, (later to be informally known as
"Larry Heller.") Sometime afterward the original Irene Craigmile Heller disappeared from view. Post childbirth complications
were the estimated cause as her demise (death) was never conveyed or legally reported. By the late 1930s the paper trail began
showing how a legal annulment process had commenced, where by 1940 the marriage of Al and Irene Heller was determined null
and void, leaving the name of Irene Heller to revert back to Irene Craigmile. Thus her full name historically was "Irene
Madaline O'Crowley Craigmile Heller Bolam," although "Heller" had been legally removed. By the mid 1940s a
different Irene Craigmile (the 1945-1982 identified 'Gervais-Irene') was appearing in the original Irene's place. She bore
a striking resemblance to Amelia Earhart; the world famous pilot-hero who had 'vanished without a trace' in 1937 while she
was still safely airborne, was suggested to have been 'lost at sea,' and was assumed to have perished as a result. [Note: Read how and why the National Geographic
Channel failed with its own limited analysis at the bottom of this page.] It's true, since the 1940s two individuals who were not the original Irene (to include
the 1945-1982 ID'd 'Gervais-Irene') were identified as "Irene Craigmile (Bolam)." Hence, what became of the original
Irene Craigmile is another mystery unto itself.
| Irene Craigmile, 1940s |
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| As identified by the original Irene's Son in 2006 |
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| Irene Craigmile, 1982 |
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| Same person as shown to the left, the original Irene's Son supplied this 1982 news series photo. |
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| 1945-1982 ID'd Irene [1945 'Zonta' labeled photo] |
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| Earliest known photo of this particular Irene Craigmile (later "Bolam") |
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| 1945-1982 identified Irene Craigmile Bolam |
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| Same person as shown to the left, photo taken in 1965 by USAF Major Joe Gervais, (Ret.) |
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The images above represent those of two different
individual human beings. However, neither individual marked the original Irene Craigmile.
Below, a strip of four 'non-original
Irene Craigmile' photos:
| 1.) Irene Craigmile, 1940s |
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| Long Island 'Zonta' photo, 1945-1982 ID'd 'Gervais-Irene' |
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| 2.) Irene Craigmile, 1940s |
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| 'Irene Jr.', AKA the 'Non Gervais-Irene' |
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| 3.) Irene Craigmile, 1923 |
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| Forgery |
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| 4.) Irene Craigmile, 1976 |
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| The Gervais-Irene at a Detroit Zonta function |
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Numbered 1, 2, 3, & 4 above, see the following descriptions of each: The #1 'Irene' displayed
in the far left photo was met and candidly photographed by Joe Gervais in 1965. Their meeting took place at a gathering of
well known retired pilots in the Long Island, New York Hamptons. The photo, dated 1945 is the first time this 'Irene' appears
in the photo history of Irene Craigmile. The #2 photo to the right of her was identified by the original Irene's Son in 2006. In reality she
was/is likely the 1924 born "Irene Jr.", who some suspect to have been the illegitimate child of Lloyd Royer and
Amelia Earhart, born out of wedlock four years before Amelia became famous at the age of thirty, and kept as a family secret
always. The 'familial similarity' appears as real, and it could be her existance marked one of the the non-recognized reasons
for the so called 'mystery' of Amelia Earhart people have been stumbling over in wrong directions ever since Amelia Earhart
was said to have 'vanished without a trace.' To this day 'Irene Jr.' has never been identified for who she truly was. She
was not the original Irene Craigmile, nor was she ever Amelia Earhart. The question therefore became, and still remains; who
was she? Although the original Irene's Son avowed he grew up never knowing more than one woman was attributed to his mother's
identity, in the "Closer Look at Eyes and Faces" link the separation of individuals is clearly distinguishable.
The next #3 shoddy looking profile photo
supposedly identified Irene Craigmile as she looked in 1923 when her surname was still "O'Crowley." It was determined
to have been a forgery. The
final #4 photo on the far right shows the 1945-1982 identified Irene as she looked in 1976. Taken at a Detroit Zonta function,
her profile matches Amelia's. Notice her nose difference though. No doubt some work was done there; via the described 'deviated
septum rhinoplasty' procedure. It hardly matches the nose on the forgery either, one that displays a slight convex curvature.
(Such a convex curvature is slightly detectable in the original Irene's photo.)
Below, the different 'post 1930s' identified
Irene Craigmile referred to as "Irene Jr."
| 1940s 'different' Irene Craigmile (Bolam) |
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| ID'd by the original Irene's Son in 2006, National Geographic refused to display her image on TV. |
Is the 'identified by Son' Irene still living as
described in recent years? And where so, what was/is her true identity(?) and where is she? According to a family-friend provided
account she was actually born in 1924, and by 1945 she was no longer being billeted by the original Irene Craigmile's family
in New Jersey. Additional info suggested she may have relocated overseas to Scotland by that time. Was she actually the pre-fame
'hushed' born out of wedlock daughter of Amelia Earhart and Lloyd Royer? Some believe in such a possibility where she still
has yet to be truly identified, coupled with the questionable 'year of 1924' personal history of Amelia Earhart. And if so, did she have any children of her own? This also appears to be a possibility anymore, if not
a probabiIity. (See the Woodbridge Tribune link.) It also became clear, the original Irene's 1934 born Son grew up void of
any awareness of his Mother's life-long plural identity value, and it appears he never knew his true birth mother. When the
Gervais-Irene passed away in 1982, according to the Rutgers College of Medicine where she had donated her remains, "she
was cremated and buried in a common, unmarked grave." As well, her Son also verified (where the controversy about his
'Mother' had grown even after her death) he had formally requested her fingerprints from Rutgers, but his request was denied.
* * * Since 2002 it has become recognized information how from the mid-1940s until her death in 1982, only the 1945-1982
Irene who displayed a haunting congruence to Amelia Earhart appeared in public
while identified as "Irene Craigmile (Bolam.)" [Her last name became 'Bolam' in 1958 after her marriage to the British
(described MI6 operative) Guy Bolam.] Photo images of the 'identified by her son Irene' appear nowhere in the photo history
of Irene Craigmile Bolam's person from the mid-1940s until 1982. Finally in 1982, courtesy of the original Irene's Son, her
older image shown top-right in the four square above, re-appeared in an Irene Bolam life-story newspaper series and in an
obituary sense. In the complete forensic
analysis, the 1945-1982 identified Irene Craigmile Bolam is shown matching Earhart's height, arm lengths, hands, eyes, neck,
shoulders, feet, ankles, cranium, hairline, etc., ...basically everything, including handwriting characteristics and voice
trait patterns. Even though 'official history' and the families of both Amelia and Irene have long tried to steer people away
from accepting such a realistic equation, there is virtually no doubt anymore..., the woman who Joe Gervais met and photographed
in 1965, and then spent years investigating the background of, truly was the person formerly known as 'Amelia Earhart.' It
seems such a contrived dupe was purposefully accomplished, and then was always protected by both official and family silence,
as quietly ordained by post WWII 'official' United States history obfuscation. To recap; ultimately, as it is now recognizable how three different
human beings were attributed to the same 'Irene' identity, and only one of course, who Amelia had known in the 1930s was the
'original' Irene, and she (the original Irene) appeared nowhere in photographs after the 1930s. Hence, this recent realization
also begs the question; what became of the original Irene Craigmile?
In recent years
due to Beyond 37's 'Irene Craigmile shared identity discovery' and its 'head to toe congruence realization of the 1945-1982 Irene Craigmile compared to Amelia
Earhart', it has become easier for the public to recognize the forensic reality of Irene Craigmile Bolam. Simplified,
it goes like this: There
was more than one person attributed to the Irene Craigmile Bolam identity, and the one who appeared as Irene Craigmile (Bolam)
from 1945 to 1982 bore a haunting similarity to Amelia Earhart. Indeed, to many learned individuals it is now certain Amelia Earhart, no doubt for her
own good reasons optioned out of continuing her life as a world famous person some time after she was declared 'missing' in 1937. Otherwise since the 1970s, the public was led by media-dominating theorists over the cliff
of non-belief about it. The now easy-to-recognize forensic reality can only
(justifiably) prevail of course, amid historical dictum hand-washing. Of note as well, in 2006 Beyond 37' obliged considerable
financial consideration to the 1934 born Son of the original Irene Craigmile,
Mr. Larry Heller of New York, for the right to option Mr. Heller's version of his Mother's life story. Beyond 37's Tod Swindell
had been in touch with Mr. Heller during the previous years, and was surprised to learn some of the circumstances of his upbringing,
to include Mr. Heller having grown up as a young child not realizing how different women had served as his singular 'Mother'
figure. Hde also spent his pre-teen to teen formative years being educated at a boarding school. Equally amazing, although
he hailed from a prominent family background, Mr. Larry Heller also acknowledged how he held no photographs of his Mother
pre-dating the year of 1947, and how his Mother's Aunt, a well known New York Attorney by the name of Irene Rutherford O'Crowley
who was a past Zonta chapter President, had also been a good friend of Amelia's. Such a person as this, no doubt helped with
he familial and legal ease arrangements enabling former Amelia to acquiesce her new identity. * * * The following concerns the National Geographic
Channel's "The Real Amelia Earhart' special in re-runs since late 2006: On the National Geographic Channel, independent producer Noel Dockstader's documentary
on the Amelia Earhart mystery implied there was only one Irene Craigmile Bolam, even though Mr. Dockstader was aware of how
more than one woman had surreptitiously used the same 'Irene' identity. He also reduced the never disproved claim by eliciting
the Irene-Amelia forensic study as a 'slight of hand' endeavor. It wasn't. One of the Irene's did match Amelia Earhart very
well. [Note: The show was not internally produced by the National Geographic Society. Noel Dockstader, clearly a novice on
the Earhart subject matter hired a forensic specialist named Kevin Richlin who he only surface-informed about the decades
old 'Irene-Amelia' controversy, thus leaving his overall effort to express a highly limited opinion on the matter.] Mr. Dockstader
appeared to be mostly subjugated by the influential Bill Prymak of the Amelia Earhart Society, who had long been trying to
discredit the reality of the Irene-Amelia claim. Both Mr. Prymak and Mr. Dockstader were also aware of how the Son of the
orginal Irene Craigmile Bolam, the 1934 born Larry Heller had identified an entirely different person as the Mother he recalled
from his childhood, and how (as mentioned) in 2006 Mr. Heller had been paid $10,000 through his Manhattan Attorney's office
in exchange for the rights to his version of his Mother's life story by filmmaker and investigative researcher, Tod Swindell.
Basically Dockstader and Prymak, in league with TIGHAR's Richard Gillespie about the Irene matter, had combined to suggest
to the public the equation was a mere invention in their own somewhat ambiguous protective interests. National Geographic
Television is currently being challenged to cease and desist any further airing of Dockstader's effort, as there were various
medical explanantions, full head to toe body comparisons, handwriting comparisons, and even some voice comparisons Dockstader's
effort ignored, and much personal data Kevin Richlin was left unaware of as well, to include the recent years discovery of
how there had been more than one Irene. The Irene Craigmile Bolam who Noel Dockstader's film compared to Amelia Earhart in
the program was therefore 'academically biased.' In contrast, as conveyed by a memberof Irene's own survived family: "The
forensic studies are very convincing. She [the 1945-1982 identified Irene] was not an ordinary housewife as she claimed. She
was influential, knew many well placed people and was well traveled." (Irene's brother-in-law
John Bolam refers to the seven year Swindell/Beyond 37' forensic analysis in an article by Ron Staten of the Associated Press,
2002.)
[Note: In 2001 at the bequest and recommendation of Col. Rollin
Reineck, AES President Bill Prymak himself invested $2,500 in the Beyond 37' Irene-Amelia documentary and forensic analysis
endeavors, although ironically, after the study discovered and revealed the past shared-identity issue of Irene Craigmile
Bolam Mr. Prymak urged Beyond 37' 'not to go public' with such information. Soon afterward he demanded his investment back
and began openly deriding the efforts of Beyond 37' and the main Irene-Amelia constituency of Joe Gervais, Rollin Reineck,
and Tod Swindell.] * * *
"I find it curious how the national media circuit is still encouraged to stay neutral on the Earhart controversy,
and how both the Smithsonian Institute and the National Geographic Society admit they have never been permitted to launch
their own investigations or support any conclusions. In fact, to this day there has never been an official investigation.
Instead, in recent decades all were conditioned to consider innocent castaway stories, obscure jungle ditchings, or the simple
crashed and sank version of Earhart's loss. The truth is obviously quite different. People
forget, in 1965 Admiral Chester Nimitz admitted Japan's non-publicized rescue of Amelia Earhart in the Marshall Islands was
quietly documented in Washington." Tod Swindell, 2009 [2009: Check Out The Page Links On The Left, To Include Information About
The Hilary Swank, Fox-Searchlight 'Amelia Earhart' Feature Film. Also a recent video on YouTube: Type Search it on YouTube
at "KMBC's Earhart Birthplace." Be careful about Richard Gillespie's and Alex Mandel's false accounts of the Irene-Amelia
(Irene Craigmile Bolam) story. [For example, as seen in the falsified separate Amelia and Irene Wikipedia pages.]
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