Some Common Misperceptions of Amelia Earhart's 1937 Disappearance

Q: Did Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan crash and sink in the Pacific Ocean somewhere near Howland Island?

A: Political history viewed this as the 'most favored' explanation for what happened to Earhart and Noonan. Historians had a hard time accepting it however, as it meant having to ignore a tonage of contradicting information. This includes the following 'known but less publicized facts' of Earhart's flight ending, revealing of how ditching on the ocean was an option the flying duo never would have needed to exercise, nor would have wanted to:

1.) Earhart and Noonan never indicated they were in any mechanical trouble flight-wise. Nor did they ever bring up the idea of ditching in the ocean.

2.) When they were last officially heard from their plane was continuing to fly well, and it was certainly known to have ample fuel remaining, enough at least, to afford the duo roughly a thousand more miles of flight distance, from the time their final radio message was 'officially' recorded.

[Note: Their destination of Howland Island was 2,550 miles away from New Guinea where the duo last took off from, and the fuel capacity of Earhart's Electra afforded it a minimum range of 3,700 miles in the most non-favorable conditions. This range was verified by Robert B. Gross, the President of Lockheed Aircaft who had been keenly involved with the final design of Earhart's unique Lockheed Electra 10E Airplane. Mr. Gross had assured all, in writing, the plane had a flight range of 4,000 miles based on the initial planned fuel capacity of 1,050 gallons. The plane's final fuel capacity was actually 1,150 gallons, allowing for close to a 4,400 mile range.) So much easily afforded Earhart and Noonan a thousand more miles of flying distance from the time their last 'officially recorded' radio transmission was received, at 8:44 A.M. on July 2, 1937.]

3.) An O-2 Intelligence 'internal follow-up memo' from 1938 (discovered decades later) described how Earhart and Noonan radioed their final decision to "turn north" after not locating Howland Island, with their continued radio calls growing weaker until they faded completely.

[Note: This differed greatly from the report finally released by the White House a full year after the Earhart incident occurred. The internal follow-up memo included the sentence: "She [Earhart] stated she was turning north and they continued to hear her at intervals, her signals becoming fainter each time received." Col. H. H. C. Richards, Air liaison Australia, U. S. O-2 Intelligence memo excerpt dated 11/1/38.

4.) This concurred with Bureau of Air Commerce Chief, Gene Vidal's statement of Earhart describing to him how in the event of missing Howland Island she would abandon the effort when down to "four hours of fuel," allowing for at least six to seven hundred more miles of in-flight distance in an alternate choice effort to "head back" (or 'north, northwest' as Earhart had described it to him) to the Gilbert-Marshalls archipelago.

[Note: So much basically cleared up the misconstruation of 'fuel running low' where said description specified the depleted allotment dedicated to locating Howland Island, leaving Earhart and Noonan 'four to six hours' of reserve fuel in the event of exercising such a described 'alternate land choice' option. CBS's Fred Goerner concurred, as it was conveyed to him; to any pilot flying over a vast ocean, three to five hours of petrol was easily considered 'running low' on fuel. Not to mention the two highly experienced fliers would not have futilly continued to look for Howland while other sure-strike land masses remained in their reach.]

5.) In May of 1938, Presidential Cabinet member Henry P. Morgenthau Jr. described (in an authentic White House transcripted reply to Eleanor Roosevelt) how "Amelia Earhart absolutely disregarded all orders" and if the White House were to ever "release" the final report on her disappearance it would mean "goodbye Amelia Earhart's reputation."

[Note: In this very revealing transcript one can actually read Mr. Morgenthau conveying to the First Lady, "I hope I've just got to never make it public" in referring to what actually became of Amelia Earhart. Oddly enough, two months later Mr. Morgenthau wrote to Eleanor Roosevelt saying he "found it possible" to release the report after all, but there was nothing damaging to Earhart's reputation to be found in it, and certainly nothing revealing as to what actually transpired. There is no doubt the White House managed to surreptitiously adjust the report in an effort to make it more palatable for public review. Most significantly, the words "and south" appeared as part of Amelia's final 'officially recognized' radio transmission, leaving all to perceive Amelia was alternately flying 'north and south' on her given line of position when she was last heard from, ostensibly as she continued to look for Howland Island. This beautiful piece of strategy left the general public never knowing the final direction Amelia chose to fly in, and to this day "we are now running north and south" (instead of her later relayed decision to remain on a 'northern' heading) are officially regarded as Amelia's final spoken words. Of course, such an edit left nothing more than an incomplete, falsely supplied statement. Amazingly most people bought it though, accepting how Earhart and Noonan were last known to be 'flying north and south' somewhere in the area of Howland when their radio inexplicably fell silent. Again, the post-tense realization conveyed with certainty how the two were still safely airborn at the time of their last 'officially recognized' message, with sufficient fuel left for them to make it to an alternate land mass.]

Q: Was Amelia Earhart captured and imprisoned, and/or executed by Japan?

A: According to Admiral Chester Nimitz in 1965, dating back to the pre-World War Two era it was quietly 'known and documented in Washington' as non-public information, how Amelia and her navigator, Fred Noonan ended up in the Marshall Islands that were part of Japan's Imperial Mandates the U. S. did not search.

[Note: where Nimitz mentioned Japan 'picked them up' in the Marshalls, he never said they were 'captured' and there is no proof the duo was ever imprisoned beyond mystery-intrigue hearsay. It is also highly doubtful Japan would have done such a thing to 'pacifist' Earhart in 1937, to include the absurd suggestion of executing her. It is also recalled, how as recently as 2002 and 2006 the United Nations Ambassador to the Marshall Islands, Alfred Capelle re-conveyed to the Associated Press how it was always 'common knowledge' in his country that Earhart ended up there, adding how Japan's Naval authority 'helped' she and Noonan, and his perception of how Amelia "came to the Marshall Islands for a specific purpose." Ambassador Capelle felt the U. S. Government not wishing to disclose such a reality to the American public about the duo's final disposition, led to its necessary silence on the matter, and the default follow-up 'media invention' of the 'Earhart mystery.' Additional Note: Four weeks after Earhart and Noonan were last heard from (again, according to record) Earhart's business manager-husband, George Putnam sent a thank you note to the White House for its help and condolences. Within it though, he included this somewhat revealing query on his absence of inner knowledge: "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." Excerpt from a 7/31/37 George Palmer Putnam note to White House Attorney, Marvin Mcintyre.]

Q: Was Amelia Earhart spying on Japan when she vanished?

A: No information exists that indicates Amelia Earhart was physically engaged in espionage at any time at all during her last flight. Research authors such as Fred Goerner, Joe Klaas, and Randall Brink located curious documentation linking separate U. S. intelligence activity to the timing and objective of Earhart's 1937 flight, and they further fueled such a 'spy' notion by connecting some suggestive dots, to include Amelia's flight leg in the equatorial Pacific region where Japan was known to be fortifying certain areas among its mandate islands. However, newsreel footage of 'pacifist' Amelia throughout her final flight reveals a casual looking person always, and Amelia adored Japan and its culture where she was a loved American hero in the 1930s, just as Babe Ruth was.

Q: Did Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan use more than one plane during their globe circling flight?

A: This rumor was based on speculative hearsay. Newsreel footage of Earhart and Noonan flying around the world right up until their last takeoff from Lae, New Guinea reveals the exact same plane always. Not to mention such a scenario would have potentialed obvious logistical difficulties.

Q: Did Amelia Earhart end up on a desert island in the Pacific?

A: According to TIGHAR (a self-described 'historical aircraft recovery' club) it would have people believe such a thing. Reality however, shows how since the 1980s TIGHAR has claimed the desert island of Nikumororo (FKA 'Gardner Island') as the place where Earhart and Noonan ended up and died, while more serious investigators point out how it has never offered 'proof' such a thing happened that stood up to expert scrutiny. They did find junk-like remnants left behind by previous ship landings and at least one attempt at habitation of the island, but that's about it. (See the 1992 newspaper cartoon below, last image down.) The club is viewed by true Earhart research experts as a cottage industry that relies on the 'official silence' regard towards the Earhart saga, while preying on less informed romantics who would like to consider a 'Gilligan's Island' styled ending for Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan in lieu of what deeper investigative research has always conveyed. Two 1990s novels; I Was Amelia Earhart by Jane Mendelsohn and Hidden Latitudes by Alison Anderson also described desert island endings for Earhart and Noonan.

Q: Did Amelia Earhart take up with Japan after her disappearance?

A: There are certain indications of 'pacifist' Amelia having become part of Japan's private plane building industry by 1938, when the Pearl Harbor attack was still years away. Information leaked from the State Department in 1972 described Earhart as having worked in development there, to include having 'test flown' planes and participating in 'wind tunnel' evaluations. It also described how Amelia had filed for naturalization to the Imperial Mandate Islands in August of 1939, just months before Hitler invaded Poland. Although the office of Secretary of State James Baker in 1990 confirmed the existence of the 1972 'leaked' file with the heading "Earhart, Amelia: Special War Problems" after being pressed by Senator Daniel Inouye of Hawaii to do so, it refused to explain or elaborate on the file's contents, or why it even existed for a person who was described to have 'disappeared without a trace' in 1937, four years before the U. S. entered the war.

Q: Were Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan both inadequate radio operators?

A: This long misconveyed rumor was just that; a misconveyed rumor. Both Earhart and Noonan were fully capable of operating their radio equipment. They had done so without trouble three quarters of the way around the globe before their disappearance. However, the oddity of two way radio contact never being made with Earhart during her described approach to Howland Island remains a curious anecdote.

Q: What became of Fred Noonan?

A: Compared to Amelia, the trail of what actually became of Fred Noonan is much colder. Some felt he segued immediately into military intelligence and was highly instrumental during World War Two. He was considered among the best 'air over ocean' navigators in the world after all, having served as chief navigator on the first Pan Am Clipper flights, and he was a capable seaman who had honed his navigating talent as a merchant marine. The story of his 'excessive drinking' towards the end of the Earhart flight was a later described 'ruse' to try and place the blame for Earhart's loss squarely on his shoulders. Those who knew Noonan best described him as 'too professional' for such a suggestion. He recognized his importance in the flight just as he knew the world was watching Amelia and himself. As well, it was later learned Howland Island might not have been plotted accurately by U. S. Navy cartographers. Note: Before Earhart's planned arrival, no plane had ever landed on Howland Island where a new airstrip awaited her, and it really was a 'speck' on the ocean that needed to have been plotted exactly where it was in order for any navigator to locate it. The other more tantalizing description, as pointed to above by Marshall Islands Ambassador Capelle, exists where the fliers never intended to land on Howland at all. This has always appeared as an outlandish suggestion to most people, although some felt the reality (again) of two way radio contact never being established with Earhart during her last 'official' hours of flight time may have been by design. One Earhart research author, Paul Rafford who was a Pan Am radio operator during the period, even stressed such a scenario as a 'probability.'

Q: Was Amelia Earhart's disappearance covered up by means of a conspiracy?

A: 'Conspiracy' is a very dark word lined with negative connotations. Perhaps it is improper to use it when discussing Amelia Earhart's disappearance case, which appears complex beyond what such a word might stereotypically imply. There is no doubt Amelia had help with her private survival, but it appears the choices she made were mostly hers, and she merely appealed to close family and friends to enable her see them through. Not to mention the advent of World War Two surely threw a wrench into the works of her original intentions.

Q: Did Amelia Earhart die on July 2, 1937?

A: According to 'official' history, Amelia was last heard from while she was still safely airborn on July 2, 1937. Newspapers reported she was presumed 'lost at sea' shortly thereafter. Stories of her aircraft having bouyance were stretched to accommodate the hopeful, or of she and Fred Noonan managing to float in their emergency life raft for days at sea (before exposure or even sharks did them in.) So much dovetailed the final obit of her person to read, "died on or about July 2, 1937." However the physical evidence is clear anymore, where Amelia no doubt managed a safe ditching and continued to live on, before eventually changing her name to Irene Craigmile, making her one of three different women known to have used that same identity. She married Guy Bolam of England in 1958, a distinguished fellow described as 'past linked' to the Council on Foreign Relations, or even England's MI6 program. He died in 1970 and the former Amelia Earhart, known as Irene Craigmile Bolam died at Roosevelt Hospital in Edison, New Jersey on July 7, 1982. To this day people have a hard time accepting such a reality, although in recent years the newly uncovered 'indisputable' information supporting such a truth has afforded it to represent a no-longer deniable equation.

Q: Why has this story remained out of the public eye for so long?

A: There are a variety of reasons. Among them:

1.) To date the families of both Amelia Earhart and Irene Craigmile have never willingly cooperated when it came to resolving the Amelia/Irene debate, from the time Amelia's sister, Muriel Earhart Morrissey, who admitted she was 'friends' with the Gervais-Irene was first approached about it in 1967, and especially since the Amelia/Irene story first broke to make national news in 1970. The family traditions have always been to automatically dismiss the mere suggestion of Earhart's survival in any way, shape, or form. Not to mention the Gervais-Irene never came forward herself. Rather, she was recognized and brought into the public spotlight.

2.) There's the aforementioned long standing official silence on the matter exhibited by the U. S. Executive Branch. As highlighted above, the White House proved itself instrumental by ignoring and refusing to make public information it was aware of about Earhart's loss from the time the incident occurred. It eventually became clear how the 'by default' invention of the 'Earhart mystery' began in 1937, and there is no doubt FDR's White House constituency was at least partially responsible for it.

3.) The advent of World War Two in the years directly following Amelia's disappearance caused people to pretty much forget about her loss and concentrate on the war effort. Four decades later, as former Seton Hall University President Monsignor James Francis Kelley explained about his close friend Irene, after all she experienced following her described disappearance she "didn't want to be Amelia Earhart anymore."

4.) It was almost 1960 by the time serious researchers finally got around to deeply investigating and finding out what they did about Earhart's loss. Paul Briand, Joe Gervais, and Bob Dinger; all military men who served in World War Two were the first to realize the true controversy of it all. Their efforts caused CBS to pay attention and 'take over' the reporting (so to speak) of the new attention being paid to the old Earhart-loss story. They did so by endorsing and co-sponsoring an investigative book effort by CBS Radio Journalist Fred Goerner of San Francisco, who had gained the trust and cooperation of Admiral Chester Nimitz. Through Goerner, CBS chose to exploit the Earhart story in the direction of her 'temporary' survival as a supposed 'spy.' As mentioned above, Admiral Nimitz avowed how Earhart and Noonan ended up in the Marshall Islands and were 'picked up' there by Japan, and CBS's Goerner described how he believed he 'discovered' Earhart was held captive by Japan at the Koboyashi Royokan temporary housing facility on Saipan, (actually a former hotel) a place where Japan's Naval Authority had supposedly detained important prisoners. CBS (evidently) supported Goerner's conclusion of how Earhart died of dysentery while sequestered there. The CBS/Goerner book also passed along some macabre possible stories about Noonan's final fate, such as his beheading by Japanese guards after he threw a bowl of soup at them during his jailed captivity. Of course Japan dismissed such allegations and there is no doubt they were being truthful. Notably, the earlier exploits of Gervais and Dinger were referenced in the CBS endorsed 1966 Doubleday published book, The Search For Amelia Earhart by Fred Goerner in said manner: On page sixty-nine in the book, one reads how on July 7, 1960 USAF Captains Joe Gervais and Bob Dinger (who on their own time had been investigating Earhart's disappearance in the Pacific region where the incident occurred) were summoned to the Fuchu Air Base in Japan to appear before a panel of U.S. 5th Air Force senior officers to present their information regarding Amelia Earhart. (This was later verified by Gervais and Dinger.) Gervais and Dinger held signed statements of seventy-two people (confiscated from Gervais & Dinger by the panel) who had information pertaining to Earhart's post-loss survival among Japan's pre-war mandate islands, to include some who considered her possible execution by Japan. (Something else Japan denied.) The Air Force refused to divulge what Gervais and Dinger revealed to them about the post-loss Earhart situation, and one officer casually dismissed it as 'a bunch of garbage.' Still, this telling sentence released from the 'public' report of their interrogation appeared on the same page: "Nevertheless most the interview with the two captains was kept secret, and the Air Force clamped a security classification on the claims of Gervais and Dinger." Reality though, according to Gervais in later years, displayed how the senior officers more accurately clamped a security classification on information Gervais and Dinger 'learned' during their investigation, as opposed to what they 'claimed.'

5.) It was not until 1965 after he'd been investigating Amelia Earhart's disappearance for over five years already, that newly retired Air Force Major Joe Gervais was introduced to Irene Craigmile Bolam by Viola Gentry, one of Amelia's better friends from the past and a well known pilot herself. Viola had expressed a great deal of interest in Gervais' Earhart investigative research, to the point of arranging to pay Gervais' way to fly he and his family across the country, so he could lecture to a group of well known retired pilots about what he had learned on the subject of Earhart's loss. Gervais felt 'flush' when he first saw Mrs. Irene Bolam arrive at the event where he was to speak, and he noticed how she and her British husband were regarded with high esteem. He also reckoned how Viola was surprised Mrs. Bolam had decided to attend the Gervais lecture, and Gervais boldy asked Viola to introduce him to Mr. and Mrs. Bolam. Gervais found Irene Bolam suspect right away, believed he instantly recognized her for who she once had been, and he spent the next five years trying to get her to come to the table with her promise of 'telling him' about her 'gone friend Amelia' who she claimed to have known 'rather well.' But after that day she proved evasive to him, breaking one date after another, and Viola became evasive as well and provided him no further help. Gervais also researched the past of 'Irene Craigmile' who Mrs. Bolam told him she was before she married Guy Bolam, and learned Irene Craigmile had been a veritable nobody aviation wise, recalled by hardly a soul, and he could not figure out why such a person and her British husband were regarded so importantly.

6.) A writer named Joe Klaas met Joe Gervais shortly thereafter. He listened to Gervais' account and offered to write a book about the probability of Earhart's name changed survival in accordance to Gervais' investigative research. Klaas claimed he pitched one publisher, McGraw-Hill and they signed he and Gervais to a contract. Incredibly McGraw-Hill, one of the most reputable publishers in the world, to include of school textbooks with subdivisions such as Harcourt-Brace-Jovanovich and headquarters in Washington DC and New York City, published the book titled Amelia Earhart Lives by Klaas in 1970 that all-but exploited Mrs. Bolam as the 'living' Amelia Earhart, without consulting her or formally seeking her permission to do so. It also implicated Howard Hughes as involved with such an Earhart cover-up, and Klaas outlandishly implied how Hughes had traded his H-1 plane plans to Japan, who in turn used them to build its Zero fighter plane in exchange for Earhart's safety. (Hughes, still living and quite lucid at the time, with equal incredibility was never consulted either, and a quick glance at aviation history showed the Zero well in development before Earhart's 1937 incident.) Mrs. Bolam sued for defamation, and the book Amelia Earhart Lives, after seven weeks as a best seller, was withdrawn from the stores. Oddly enough, Mrs. Bolam never denied she was the living 'former' Amelia Earhart in her lawsuit, (she also refused to be fingerprinted to prove her true identity, leaving the five-year summary judgment to be settled with a ten dollar consideration paid by herself to Gervais and Klaas, and by Gervais and Klaas to her; and a separate five figure settlement was paid to her by McGraw-Hill for libel and defamation citing factual errata, such as the book referring to Guy Bolam as her "alleged" husband where in fact they were legally married) and when she passed away in 1982 the rumor still persisted that she indeed had formerly been known as Amelia Earhart. Especially after others looked into the issue and realized the non-solid trail of her past and the same controversies about her that Joe Gervais did. Years later, citing the 'hoax' Clifford Irving biography about Howard Hughes, that was also amazingly published by McGraw-Hill and immediately withdrawn just a year after Amelia Earhart Lives was, with McGraw-Hill all too incredibly again never formally interfacing with Hughes; Joe Gervais reluctantly determined the possibility, at least, of McGraw-Hill's potential silent-partner involvement with the reclusive billionaire, who all along (Gervais felt) may have pulling strings to first witness the publishing of, and then the quick discrediting of both books.

[Note: It was at least known how famous pilot Jackie Cochran, Cochran's multi-millionaire husband Floyd Odlum, Howard Hughes, and Amelia Earhart were all well acquainted with each other prior to Amelia's 'disappearance.' (Amelia spent more time with Jackie Cochran than just about anyone else during the year preceding her world flight, although one does not read about it in any of Amelia's published biographies.) Both Hughes and Earhart were known to have been frequent visitors at the Odlum-Cochran desert Ranch near Indio, California. Floyd Odlum, who had much business involvment with Hughes had also helped Earhart significantly, to the point where Amelia dedicated her final book, Last Flight to him. Odlum, a huge FDR campaign contributor had also purchased RKO Studios from Howard Hughes, and soon after he was highly involved with producing the 1943 Earhart spinoff movie, 'Flight For Freedom' starring Rosalind Russell and Fred MacMurray in the name-changed Earhart and Noonan roles. George Putnam helped with the screenplay, and the movie depicted Earhart as the first casualty of World War Two; one who had bravely committed suicide by crashing her plane into the ocean in an effort to evade being caught by Japan, who would have discovered she had been on a secret mission for Uncle Sam as opposed to just 'flying around the world' on her own.] To this day the public is not fully aware of the Cochran-Earhart connection as it was never covered in any conventional Earhart books. No matter, of the year-long period before Amelia vanished Jackie Cochran, the first woman to break the sound barrier and one who played a significant role in the Eisenhower presidential campaign wrote, "I was closer to Amelia than anyone else, even her husband, George Putnam." (Quote taken from Jackie Cochran's 1987 autobiography co-authored by Maryann Bucknum Brinley.)

7.) Dominating opposing 'false' mitigators have existed since the 'Amelia became Irene' story first broke in 1970, to include Elgen Long who stepped into the limelight during the ill fated Amelia Earhart Lives book aftermath, to insist Amelia simply crashed and sank in 1937 and so much marked the end to her story. No surprise, Mr. Long was friends with and had the full support of Muriel Earhart Morrissey, Amelia's lone sibling and survived younger sister who also knew and was a Zonta sister and friend of Irene Craigmile Bolam. Another contrarian, such as the masonic Bill Pymak (the 1989 'independently wealthy' founder of the Amelia Earhart Society) actually befriended Joe Gervais and even honored him, all the while telling people behind Gervais' back how he was wrong about the Mrs. Bolam he met in 1965. In turn Prymak suggested people consider the ideas of one Jerome Steigmann, who offered his oddly spun yarn of describing Mrs. Bolam as a former Russian spy. (Some people actually took such malarkey seriously.) In the 1990s Mr. Prymak befriended and even invited Mr. Steigmann to speak at his Earhart research symposiums, where Steigmann would insist up and down how he had inside information from the CIA that 'proved' Amelia did not survive to change her name to Irene Craigmile. With his deep pockets and his smooth and superior (albeit biased) intellect, Mr. Prymak managed to all-but charm the pants off media representatives and other non-Earhart educated individuals, who crossed his path to ask him about the Gervais claim concerning Irene Craigmile Bolam, to which Bill Prymak always responded to the negative. Indeed, for the last two decades Prymak, to later be joined by his cohort, a Ukrainian Physicist by the name of Alex Mandel who appeared as an over-zealous Earhart image protector, have gone to great lengths and expense to steer the public through the media into not paying serious attention to the Gervais-Irene realities, especially since the late 1990s when the modern day forensic comparisons were initiated. (Bill Prymak's strong-arm influence over the National Geographic Channel's 2006 profile on the 'Earhart Mystery' still in reruns today, with his name even appearing in the credits, was also clearly evident.) It appeared as a serious objective of theirs, for some odd reason, to make sure people never believed in the true Irene-Amelia story. This includes after Joe Gervais died in 2005, who went to his grave insisting the wool had been pulled over the public's eyes about the Irene Craigmile, Amelia Earhart truths. The recent submission of Prymak's and Mandel's 2007 falsely adjusted biography of Irene Craigmile Bolam to Wikipedia that is still viewable today, is a testament of the duo's ongoing deceptive campaign. Such a Wikipedia diatribe of theirs includes 'Dr.' Mandel's false description of how a forensic detective named Kevin Richlin 'concluded' the Gervais-Irene and Amelia Earhart could not have been the same person; something detective Richlin himself offers he did not do.

8.) There is also the aforementioned TIGHAR group headed by Richard Gillespie, who since the 1980s has insisted Amelia Earhart made it to and died on the Island of Nikumororo. Basically all three of these individuals; Long, Prymak, and Gillespie have been dominating media coverage about the Earhart mystery for the last three decades, insisting at the same time, without proving it, how in no way did Amelia live to return to the U. S. after changing her name to 'Irene.' In other words, through the highly differing opinions and conclusions they exhibited, they all commonly agreed with the determination, and even stressed how Amelia most assuredly 'died over there long, long ago.'

Epilogue:

In 2006 The Paragon Agency published an additional chapter for retired USAF Colonel Rollin Reineck's 2004 book, Amelia Earhart Survived. My friend Rollin cited my manuscripts and research in the foreword as the chief reference material he used for writing it. Beginning with my 2000-2004 compiled ms Protecting Earhart, and further added to by my 2003 screen story Amelia's Blessings, (Rollin heavily relied on 'Blessings' for his last chapter) I presented the results of objectively conducted research that delved into the lives and family histories of both Amelia Earhart and the original Irene O'Crowley Craigmile in a way never approached before, or by any means 'published.' The advent of the internet in the 1990s, to include such research tools as Ancestry.com and other genealogical data bases helped create new avenues available where the matter of Earhart's full life story was relevant to it, and perhaps I was, as I've been so advised, the first to try and take advantage of it in further examining the Amelia/Irene connection. In my extended research I learned, hands down, how the years of 1924 and 1934 in Amelia's life were recorded in the most throw-away manner by about every author who ever tackled her life story. As well, from the time of her childhood until she found herself living with her family in Los Angeles (where she first took up flying in 1921) at the age of twenty-six in 1923, she had already lived an incredible nomadic-like existence; one that included different elementary and home schooling stints, different high schools, and three college experiences (to include as a twenty-two year old freshman in pre-med at Columbia University in New York where she maintained a high 'B' average) although she never lasted more than a year at any college. Such a background of Amelia's, no doubt, left her with an accute inability to conventionally exist as a so-called 'normal' person. She knew the east coast, she knew the west coast. As a young adult she already recognized the differing advantages of what New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Boston had to offer. She knew the midwest. She knew Canada. Plus she had originally hailed from the affluence of her mother, Amy Otis Earhart. For instance Amelia's maternal grandfather, Alfred Otis was a Kansas judge who had once been the law partner of George Washington Glick, (Otis & Glick) Kansas' ninth Governor. Two of Amelia's ancestors were well known during the revolution in the late 1700s; Freemason James Otis had coined the famous phrase "Taxation without representation is tyranny," and James' nephew Harrison Otis was a Senator whose home remains as a Boston landmark today. Plus Amelia's mother Amy was somewhat of a determined adventurer herself who had been the first woman to scale Pikes Peak in Colorado. Indeed, independent thinking Amy's primary influence over her two children, daughters both in Amelia and Muriel was life long recognized.

On the other hand Amelia's father, Edwin Earhart aspired to become a railroad attorney. Except he had hailed from a much humbler family heritage. Edwin's career kept his family on the road, and puportedly his inability to 'measure up' to the expectations of his wife and in-laws eventually drove him to alcoholism. Oddly enough though, back to Amelia, after making somewhat of a name for herself as a pilot in L. A. by 1923, while dating two men at the same time; trying her hand at a major business venture in a gypsum mine through one and going into business driving a truck with another, and becoming a good photographer but failing to make it pay; in January of 1924 she abruptly exited her family fold and moved by herself to the opposite side of L. A., a good distance from where her family had been living. To read all accounts of 1924 in Amelia's life today there is no doubt something stressful caused her decision. Her mother soon joined Amelia, and encouraged her sister Muriel to do the same, and before long all three women were leaving Edwin behind and heading to Boston. The first half of 1924 became a story of both hardship and described adventure for Amelia via her sinus troubles and much car travel for she and Amy. (Muriel went to Boston ahead of them.) The last half was again about sinus trouble after Amelia and Amy arrived in Boston, where Amelia was described as admitted to Boston General right after she arrived there to take care of it, followed by recovery and depression even... and moving in with family friends, the Stablers of Great Neck, Long Island New York. There Amelia remained until the spring of 1925. In all biographies of Amelia's life, photos identifying her from that period do not appear, to include of her described 'seven-thousand mile road trip' with her mother. One subdued rumor was Amelia left to conceal herself as a prospective unwed mother. As Amelia's friend Marian Stabler who she lived with during the period recalled, "Amelia's habit of concealment extended even to her closest friends." Of course the 'pre-fame unwed pregnancy idea' has forever been scoffed at by conventional historians, who would rather deny even the mere notion of tarnishing Amelia's heroic image in said manner. Still, things of said nature do happen to people. And in any case, ten years later in early 1934 Amelia's friend, the 'newly widowed' original Irene Craigmile, after becoming pregnant out of wedlock herself and eloping with the man who fathered the child to cover it, (Amelia was well acquainted with the original Irene and had helped her to become a pilot in 1932 & 1933, although no mention of their past friendship appears in any of Amelia's biographies) the original Irene gave birth to a child, a son she named 'Clarence,' and at that point in Amelia's own life story one notices a distinct shift, if only subtle at first.

* * *

The original Irene (nee O'Crowley) Craigmile's family history displayed some historical prominence as well, and its own share of oddities. The original Irene's paternal grandmother, Sarah Rutherford O'Crowley was of the same Rutherford clan from Ireland whom New Jersey's Rutherford Township was named for, and she lived near to it her entire life. (East Rutherford is home of the New York Giants and Jets of the National Football League.) Oddly enough, by the time the Irene-Amelia connection was first recognized by Joe Gervais in 1965, nary a clear-recognizable family photograph of the original Irene existed anymore, and no clearly definable family pics existed of Irene Craigmile's personal history from prior to 1940 either. Plus her past school and work records only appeared in the merest of sketchy forms, to include her described senior year at Barringer High in New Jersey, where the only record of her graduation appeared as hand entered in red-ink after the fact with no photo to refer to. Why(?) became the question.

When Amelia and her pilot friend, Viola Gentry first met the original Irene Craigmile in 1928 following Amelia's 'Friendship' flight that brought her instant fame, it was at a Zonta dinner gathering held in Amelia's honor. Irene Mary Rutherford O'Crowley, the original Irene Craigmile's paternal aunt was a rare woman attorney and Zonta member who emceed the event, and she had invited her newlywed niece, Irene Craigmile along to introduce her to Amelia. Attorney Irene, the first woman to pass the bar exam in New Jersey was a charter Zonta member with her good friend, Nina Price; the Zontas, being an organization for career women still in existence today. Attorney Irene and Amelia hit it off and became fast friends, and before long Amelia was a Zonta member as well. Attorney Irene also had a brother who was a well known Urologist, Dr. Clarence Rutherford O'Crowley who lived with his wife, Violet next to Attorney Irene and their mother, Sarah. There was also Edna Madaline O'Crowley, their sister who married Frederic Horsford and moved to a different part of New Jersey. (The two never had children.) Then there was their oldest sibling, Richard Joseph O'Crowley (Joe) who was the original Irene's father. He was a plumber and not so well liked by the rest. But perhaps there was a reason for it. His only child, the original Irene grew up without her mother since her pre-teens. Her mother, Bridgett Doyle O'Crowley died when the original Irene was twelve, leading her father into despair, who reluctantly left his daughter to be further raised by his mother Sarah and his sister in Attorney Irene.

As the story went, the original Irene's birth certificate was never located, and although it was strongly professed she was born 'Irene Madaline O'Crowley' on October 1, 1904... for some reason 'head of household' Sarah listed her granddaughter's age as 'fourteen years' in the 1920 census. In any case mother Sarah, her single thirty-five year old daughter Attorney Irene, and her only grandchild in the original Irene all lived together with a live-in maid on Lombardy Street in Newark, New Jersey in 1920, according to the U. S. Census Bureau.

About the biggest thing to happen to the original Irene in the early 1920s was a trip she took to Europe. After she arrived back she dated some and was said to be engaged to a physician once, but it fell through. Then she met Charles Craigmile, (who she would soon marry) a Civil Engineer fifteen years older than she from Rantoul, Illinois. But evidently there was a problem with their courtship, where the original Irene was pregnant with another man's child at the time. Charles apparently accepted such a reality, and the original Irene carried the child to term and had it, a son, with the understanding he would be legally adopted by her Physician-Uncle Clarence and his wife Violet who were childless, with full access always available to her. Dr. Clarence, nearing fifty years old at the time with his wife Violet, named their new 1927 born son "Clarence Rutherford O'Crowley Jr." His true origin evidently ended up as a family secret, where by 2003 when I interviewed New Jersey Star Ledger writer Peggy O'Crowley, Clarence Jr.'s daughter, even she remarked how her father's birthright as an O'Crowley still remained a family "bone of contention."

Then came the story of 'Irene Jr.' Evidently such a 1924 born curiosity was taken in to be further raised by the O'Crowleys as well when she was quite young. Where did she come from? Nobody in the public realm to this day 'officially' knows, but there appears to be a decent chance, at least, she was Amelia's own 1924 'born out of wedlock' and 'concealed daughter' the public was never made aware of. (Recall Amelia turned twenty-seven in 1924 and fame would not seek and find her until after she turned thirty.) "Irene Jr." as she was called by the O'Crowleys, lived with Attorney Irene and Sarah O'Crowley at first. Attorney Irene and her friend, the flamboyant publicist Nina Price who were Amelia's friends also became close to Amelia business wise, where Nina eventually served as the publicist for Amelia's 1932-33 launched luggage and clothing lines with Attorney Irene advising on contractual matters. (In the meantime Charles Craigmile, the original Irene's husband suddenly died of appenditcitis in 1931. Two years later the original Irene met her next husband to be, Alvin Victor Heller who was one of her flight instructors for piloting aircraft, something earlier arranged by Amelia and Viola Gentry.)

No doubt Irene Jr. and Clarence Jr. grew up next door to each other, and, close to the same age, knew each well. Later descriptions of Irene Jr. recalled her as "16-17 years old in 1940" and an 'errand runner' and even a 'cook' for both Attorney Irene and Dr. Clarence in the late 1930s. It appears as evident Irene Jr. was also relied on when it came to sitting and caring for the original Irene's 1934 born son, Clarence who the family called 'Larry.' (Notice how the family confusingly featured three individuals named Clarence and three named Irene all in proximity to each other.) As mentioned, after 1934 the trail of the original Irene Craigmile falls off, and Irene Jr. and the Gervais-Irene were tabbed in future years with her left over identity. In the end no one was certain what became of the original Irene Craigmile, or where Irene Jr. originally came from, or most significantly, how in the 1940s someone who matched Amelia Earhart from head to toe could suddenly appear from out of the blue to also start using the same name of Irene Craigmile. Yet the general ideas for all of their individual existences appears to be plain enough. Plus it was described how by 1945 Irene Jr. was no longer part of the family fold, while clearly any further the Gervais-Irene existed as the 'new' Irene Craigmile.

The description of Irene Jr. relocating to Scotland where she had a child herself was not founded without reason: The Gervais-Irene, who initially stayed in Rumson, New Jersey after World War Two loved traveling to Scotland in her later years, and in the mid-1960s one Grace McGuire, who looks just like a reincarnated version of Amelia relocated from Scotland to Rumson, New Jersey after she became an adult. Grace was born in Scotland, describes herself as 'adopted and raised' there, and to this day remains in contact with the original Irene's 1934 born son, Larry Heller. Grace also spent years as a close friend and traveling companion of Muriel Grace Earhart Morrissey, Amelia's sister who died in 1998 at the age of ninety-eight, who also knew the Gervais-Irene just as Grace did. In 1987 Grace was photographed on Howland Island waving two flags; one of Scotland where she was born, and one of Kansas where Amelia was born. In 2009 Grace appeared in a History's Detectives episode with her own Lockheed Electra model 10, the only one of left of that particular Electra issue. (In past years Grace McGuire even described 'friends of hers at the White House' who had helped her with storage plans for the rare iconic plane.) Three years earlier in 2006, the year I afforded ten thousand dollars consideration to Larry Heller for the option right to his version of his mother's life story (Larry had identified all three Irenes pictured below as his 'mother' prompting me to do so) Grace had scheduled an around the world flight adventure in such a plane of hers with Larry, the original Irene Craigmile's son, slated to serve as her navigator. The flight plans fell through due to logistical reasons, but the non-coincidence of the pairing remains: In the end the full extent of the familial relationships described Larry Heller and Clarence Jr. as half brothers of the same mother who was the original Irene Craigmile; Amelia's non-recognized daughter as Irene Jr. (AKA the Non Gervais-Irene, likely sired by Amelia's past beau and business partner, Lloyd Royer) who was taken in by the original Irene Craigmile's O'Crowley family as a young girl to be further raised out of the public eye; Irene Jr. as Grace's biological mother; and Grace as the biological granddaughter of Amelia Earhart and therefore too, the biological niece of Amelia's sister, Muriel. This appears anymore to exemplify and further enhance the basis for the enigma of Amelia Earhart, and was perhaps, at least part of the reasoning for the latent 'media invention' of the 'mystery of Amelia Earhart.'

As a footnote, Clarence Jr. and Irene Jr. as the biological parents of Grace McGuire, leaves Grace and Peggy O'Crowley half-sisters biologically, with it already being known Larry Heller is the godfather of Peggy O'Crowley. As the saying goes, evidently it was 'all in the family.'

[Note: Grace McGuire, a fairly public figure linked to both the original Irene's O'Crowley clan and the Earhart's for many years, has described how she feels she is not-related to Amelia Earhart. Still, people continue to question her true origin given she was adopted and she has never offered information she may or may not know about her true biological family lineage. When the original Irene's son, Larry Heller was asked in 2006 if his 'friend' Grace would consider a third party mitochondrial DNA test to compare hers to Amelia's living niece, Amy Kleppner (something that would clearly prove or disprove such a 'relative' suggestion) Mr. Heller replied "She'll never go for that." These elements also remain known: A rumor long existed where Amelia had a child out of wedlock years before she became famous at the age of thirty, and the 1924 born 'Non Gervais-Irene' neatly fit said profile; Monsignor Kelley of Rumson, New Jersey admitted in 1991 how his late dear friend, Irene (the Gervais-Irene) was formerly known as Amelia Earhart; Monsignor Kelley avowed how his late friend, Irene stayed with him in Rumson, New Jersey for awhile when she first returned to the United States and how she didn't want to be Amelia Earhart anymore; O'Crowley family friend Lucy McDannel conveyed how by 1945 Irene Jr. (the Non Gervais-Irene) was "no longer intimate" with the O'Crowley's as she had exited their family fold by then; In 1945 Grace McGuire was born in Scotland where she was adopted and raised; Scotland was one of the Gervais-Irene's favorite places to go and visit as she had several friends there; As a young adult of twenty-one Grace McGuire left Scotland for good and moved to Rumson, New Jersey close to both Monsignor Kelley and the Gervais-Irene, and there Grace lived for many following years; Grace looked just like Amelia Earhart to a truly haunting degree; Grace became a pilot and somehow acquired the last Lockheed Electra Model 10E airplane known to exist, a version of the same plane Amelia last flew, and Grace had much help with past associates of Amelia's to help get it restored, as well as 'friends of hers at the White House' who helped her to arrange to stowe the craft; Grace was known to be well acquainted with Muriel Grace Earhart Morrissey (Amelia's now late sister) and she is still friends with Larry Heller, the original Irene's survived son who had agreed to fly around the world with Grace in 2006 while serving as her navigator; Both Grace and Muriel Grace knew the Gervais-Irene but never discussed it much; Grace McGuire also exhibits characteristics similar to Amelia's old profile as one being very smart, but also somewhat aloof and hard to pin down; And again, in the 1980s Grace made the arduous trip to Howland Island, Amelia's last described destination where Grace was photographd waving two flags, one of Scotland where she was born, and one of the state of Kansas where Amelia was born.]

1985, Amelia's sister Muriel & Grace McGuire.

They knew the Gervais-Irene; Grace was to fly around the world with the original Irene's son in 2006

Irene Jr. & Clarence Rutherford O'Crowley Jr.

Shown together in 1958 at the wedding of Irene & Guy Bolam

The original Irene Craigmile, 1930.

A past friend of Amelia's shown with her husband and father, she was seen no more after the 1930s.

Irene Craigmile, 1940s.

AKA the 'Non Gervais-Irene,' AKA 'Irene Jr.'

Irene Craigmile, 1940s.

AKA the 'Gervais-Irene' ('Irene Craigmile Bolam' after her 1958 marriage to Guy Bolam of England.)

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