Amelia Earhart: What The General Public Never Knew

Amelia Earhart

Digital Composite

- The post-1940 only Irene. [There was more than one Irene O'Crowley Craigmile.]

In 1965, it was first suspected that the distinguished looking person who was known as Irene O'Crowley Craigmile from the 1940s on, had previously gone by the name of Amelia Earhart.   In 1970, she was publicly accused of being the former Amelia Earhart, yet she denied it within the context of a national news story and people were quick to believe her.    At the time, few bothered to evaluate the full basis of the accusation, nor did it register to anyone that the question that asked if the post-1940 only Irene was or wasn't the once world famous pilot going by a different name, somehow missed being forensically addressed.   Keep going to learn more about the relentless foundation of this story, that was endlessly scorned by pseudo historians, whom in turn influenced American pop-culture to not take the Amelia became known as Irene truth seriously for half a century.

1966 by Fred Goerner	1970, The Joe Klaas book about the Gervais, Dinger, and Briand ten year investigation known as: 'Operation Earhart'	1994, by Randall Brink, updated the previous work of Fred Goerner and Operation Earhart
1985	2004	2016

Regarding the six books displayed above: Hello. My name is Tod Swindell. I'm a less than well-known artist, writer, and filmmaker who in the 1990s, began looking into Amelia Earhart's all but forgotten, missing person case.   It is now 2021, and for the past several years the results of a research and comparison study that I orchestrated to test a decades-old, never disproved assertion about Amelia Earhart, managed to consume my interest.   The reason I called for the study was simple: No one had done such a thing before, and I wanted to forensically ascertain if it was actually true that Amelia Earhart survived her 1937 disappearance and lived to become known as Irene. This was largely because of the six books displayed above. Four of them concluded that Amelia lived to become known as Irene, while the other two that were published in 1966 and 1994, concluded that Amelia did live well past the date of her storied disappearance, except they did not mention the name of 'Irene.'   The final two books, Rollin Reineck's and W.C. Jameson's, referenced my in-progress forensic study and agreed that its preliminary findings were correct where they evidenced that Amelia did become known as Irene.   Colonel Rollin Reineck, was a person I befriended along the way. He had studied Amelia Earhart's disappearance for many years and already attested that she survived and went on to become known as Irene. In 2003, Rollin was impressed by some of the initial study results I had achieved with help and guidance from Dr. Walter S. Birkby, a noted forensic anthropologist. So much so, it inspired him to write his book, Amelia Earhart Survived. Rollin credited my study in his book for, "making it plane for the world to see" that Amelia did become known as Irene. Myself and Dr. Birkby tried to talk Rollin out of going forward with his book, though, because the study had a ways to go before it would be finalized for public review. No matter, Rollin was a World War Two flying hero who was getting old, and he wanted to make sure that he left behind his version of Amelia Earhart's disappearance and her later incognito return to the United States. (Colonel Reineck died in 2007.) W. C. Jameson, on the other hand, derided my efforts. Although he agreed that Amelia became known as Irene, he wrote of my study, that I had just submitted for copyright when his book came out in 2016, that it did nothing to influence his opinion. I believe that wasn't true. The Associated Press had written about my work, some of it was displayed on the National Geographic Channel in 2006, and elements of it had been viewable over the internet for several years before his book came out. I'll add that until I embarked on the study, the old Amelia became known as Irene assertion had been dormant for decades.    I never met author Robert Meyers, who came to know the former Amelia Earhart and averred that she confided in him about her true past.    Through author Randall Brink, I did meet and become good friends with another World War Two flying hero, one Joseph A. Gervais, during the last decade of his life. Joe's ten year investigation in the 1960s known as "Operation Earhart" had inspired the 1970 book, Amelia Earhart Lives by Joe Klaas. Joe Gervais was the original person to meet and (somewhat candidly) photograph the former Amelia Earhart, at a 1965 gathering of retired pilots in New York. It was there, to his own astonishment, that he instantly recognized who she used to be through her post-1940 Irene veil. She rebuffed him, though, after she cited factual errata in the book, Amelia Earhart Lives, that had attempted to out her. Joseph A. Gervais became a subject of ridicule after that, but he never stopped insisting that she was the former Amelia Earhart, all the way to his dying day in 2005. Now, thanks to a lot of hard work done by myself and others, a lot more about the Amelia-to-Irene truth is known.   By the way, all of those other stories you've heard about Amelia; that her bones were found on a desert island; that she was captured by Japan and executed for spying on its military installations; or that with hours of fuel remaining she aimlessly flew on until her tanks ran dry -- thus causing her to spiral down into the sea; they were all false claims issued by people who saw a way to financially capitalize on the so-called "mystery" of Amelia's disappearance.   The wikipedia page that states the Amelia became known as Irene assertion was debunked in 2006, is also false there, not to mention misleading in other ways.    The path of truth you're on here, however, continues below.

AMELIA EARHART AND VIOLA GENTRY, 1932

Amelia Earhart in 1937... -
begins to...	digitally transition into...	...the post-1940 Irene in 1965

The comprehensive Amelia Earhart and Irene O'Crowley Craigmile forensic research study and comparison analysis not only surfaced the reality of more than one Twentieth Century person having been attributed to the same, Irene O'Crowley Craigmile identity; it also left no doubt that the post-1940 only Irene O'Crowley Craigmile was previously known as, Amelia Earhart. Keep going to learn more about this recently affirmed, and now wholesomely presented finality.

JOSEPH A. GERVAIS PHOTO, 1965

The original Irene O'Crowley Craigmile, who Amelia Earhart knew and had flown with in the early 1930s, looked nothing like Amelia: This 1930 dated newspaper photo features the original Irene O'Crowley Craigmile, shown between her husband, Charles James Craigmile (left) and her father, Richard Joseph O'Crowley. Tragedy struck the original Irene O'Crowley Craigmile's life in 1931, when her husband of three years, Charles James Craigmile, suddenly died: 1931 After her husband died, the original Irene O'Crowley Craigmile decided to become a pilot. With Amelia's and Viola Gentry's encouragement, she purchased a plane in 1932, and she earned her wings in 1933. In fact, she was a pretty good pilot for awhile, and through Amelia and Viola she befriended the small, elite group of lady fliers that flew out of Long Island, New York's Roosevelt and Floyd Bennett Airfields. She also moved to Brooklyn from New Jersey.    An old newspaper photo of the original Irene O'Crowley Craigmile, shown next to her plane in 1933.   MAY 1933 It was no small feat for any pilot in 1933, to fly a single engine, two-seater plane to Chicago from Long Island, New York.   In 1967, an elderly, retired pilot by the name of Elmo Pickerill, recalled the original Irene O'Crowley Craigmile from the early 1930s, in the following manner: Strangely, approximate to when Amelia Earhart went 'missing' in the late 1930s, the original Irene O'Crowley Craigmile as well, was no longer evident. In time, clear photo evidence of the original Irene had also been removed from circulation.   Whatever became of the original Irene is not publicly known, but it is certain anymore that Amelia Earhart had continued to live-on after she was declared missing during the pre-dawn era of World War Two, and in due-time she was able to assume the original Irene's leftover identity for herself to use... for the remainder of her days.   Any further, this reality of what became of Amelia Earhart after she went missing in 1937, exists as an obvious truth to behold. The accumulated over time forensic research evidence that supports it is non-contestable.

"The forensic studies are very convincing. She was not an ordinary housewife as she claimed. She was influential, knew many well placed people and was well traveled." From an Associated Press article by Ron Staton, John Bolam refers to early results from the 21st Century Amelia-to-Irene forensic comparison analysis orchestrated by Tod Swindell. John Bolam was the generation younger brother of the post-1940 only Irene's British husband, Guy Bolam. He died in 2008, not long after making the above statement.

"All one has to do is realize that the original Irene O'Crowley Craigmile was a real person who knew Amelia Earhart in the 1930s -- but that she did not look like Amelia -- while understanding at the same time how the post-1940 only Irene O'Crowley Craigmile, proved to be congruent to Amelia Earhart in a head-to-toe manner, and the truth suddenly reveals itself." Tod Swindell

- The 1970 book, Amelia Earhart Lives, by Joe Klaas, focused on the results of 'Operation Earhart', a ten-year investigation of Amelia's 1937 disappearance -- that concluded by boldly asserting the post-1940 only Irene O'Crowley Craigmile (later, 'Bolam'), shown above next to the book, had previously been known as, Amelia Earhart. The post-1940 only Irene was blindsided by Amelia Earhart Lives, and she was quick to denounced it. People ended up making fun of Operation Earhart's assertion about her as well, after she deliberately convinced the curious it was outlandish to even suggest that her long ago friend, Amelia Earhart, somehow survived her 1937 disappearance and went on to be known by another name.   I have studied this issue for a long time and I am here to inform all that anymore, mocking the simple notion of Amelia Earhart continuing to live-on after she was declared missing, and later opting to change her name, is no longer judicious. To be sure, it never was judicious. The idea of Amelia Earhart changing her name, especially after experiencing whatever she endured during her war-time period of absence, was never as far-fetched as some individuals made it out to be, nor was it an outlandish suggestion, especially given all that was left unknown about her world flight outcome.   Hindsight now shows that Amelia's survival and name change to Irene was not only true, but it was the product of a well thought out endeavor, the end result of which, that of Amelia Earhart veritably replacing the original Irene O'Crowley Craigmile, was a reality that was never supposed to be known by the general public, and nobody knew that better than the former Amelia Earhart herself.   In 1970, the book Amelia Earhart Lives apparently did catch the living, former Amelia Earhart off guard. When it did, she saw no other choice but to deny her true past in order to preserve her privacy, and no doubt as well, to avoid causing much confusion and conflict, that admitting who she used to be surely would have done. Anymore it is completely evident, though, that beyond a variety of reckless suppositions the book, Amelia Earhart Lives presented, that enabled the former Amelia to pick it apart, it was still correct where it asserted that Amelia Earhart survived her disappearance, and lived to become known as, 'Irene.' Tod Swindell

Amelia Earhart

- Digital Composite

The former Amelia as 'Irene'

It's Over...-

The results of a long-term, comprehensive forensic research analysis that studied Amelia Earhart's life story and her 1937 disappearance and missing person case in a revolutionary kind of way are presented here, and they display the veritable truth pertaining to what became of Amelia after she went missing. Amelia Earhart aficionados were already familiar with the unresolved, Amelia/Irene controversy from the 1970s. The analysis results confirmed that the top of the page photo portrait shows the former Amelia Earhart in 1977, who lived the remainder of her days in the United States with the identity of Irene O'Crowley Craigmile applied to her person. It now exists as a forensic reality, that from the 1940s on, the former Amelia Earhart was known as, Irene O'Crowley Craigmile, until 1958, when she married Guy Bolam, of England, that updated her name to, Irene O'Crowley Craigmile Bolam. [From 1958 on she was more commonly known as, "Mrs. Irene Bolam" or "Mrs. Guy Bolam".] Amelia Earhart knew and had flown with the original Irene O'Crowley Craigmile in the early 1930s. After the original Irene endured a tough decade, though, by the late 1930s she no longer appeared. You will find out more about the original Irene O'Crowley Craigmile as you continue reviewing the analysis results displayed here. You will also further ascertain for yourself how from the 1940s on, even though the person featured in the top portrait photo was legally known as Irene O'Crowley Craigmile, (and later, 'Bolam') she definitely was not the original Irene O'Crowley Craigmile. Rather, she was the former Amelia Earhart, according to the forensic research discoveries and comparison results the analysis delivered.

If you cannot fathom the truth about what became of Amelia Earhart by way of the analysis results displayed here, it is most likely because your care worn Earhart soul won't permit you to. Your chance to recognize the truth about Amelia, though, is by being considerate to what my in-depth analysis discovered about her, as opposed to dismissing it all out of hand. The people who have been Earhart educated in misleading directions will likely influence you in a 'don't believe what you see here' kind of way, as will stodgy historians that will tell you to disregard the now plain to observe reality that shows what became of Amelia Earhart after she went missing.   Notwithstanding the number of false Earhart platitudes out there -- that conflicts a person's ability to maintain a sense of proportion about Amelia Earhart -- it is your right, if you wish to keep learning about the truth, to continue on here. Tod Swindell, 2021

A Note About A Person's Looks   Throughout her famous career, Amelia Earhart demonstrated a variety of looks. Below left is the same photo of her taken during her 1937 world flight, just before she went missing. Yet, when compared to the 1932 photograph in the center and the 1928 far right photos, it's not so easy to recognize that they all display the same person. [Food for thought when comparing individuals and their different looks.]
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1 1918 1930 2 1945 1980 3 1946 1965   Thanks to the analysis results, it is now fairly easy for one to recognize with a naked eye, that the above younger to older images are those of the three different people who were attributed to the same Twentieth Century identity of Irene O'Crowley Craigmile. Individually they were: 1.) The original Irene. 2.) The surrogate mother Irene, and 3.) The post-1940 only Irene.    - A Quick Look Back 'The History of the Mystery'    As we enter 2021 after a most trying year, anymore it seems that people are bored with the subject of Amelia Earhart's odd 1937 disappearance. In recent decades, to regenerate public curiosity, a variety of organizations and theorists, (a few shown below; the oldest being TIGHAR and the newest being the 2017 upstart, Chasing Earhart) took to promoting myriad theories to the news media, within their attempts to offer a solution to the 'mystery' cloud that continued to hover over the legendary pilot's fate. Of little surprise, it turned out that none of their varied conclusions were correct.   However, another accredited researcher, Tod Swindell, who deftly avoided media adulation, quietly approached Amelia Earhart's disappearance and missing person case forensically. The results of his work are detailed beneath the following once promoted but now discarded theories.   -  TIGHAR - NAUTICOS   -  CHASING EARHART   Richard Gillespie of Tighar, 'learned what happened'; said Amelia flew south of the Equator to a desert island, died a castaway, and was eaten by small land crabs. - Elgen Long, of Nauticos, said he 'solved the mystery': Claimed Amelia flew in an uncertain direction after missing Howland, and she went down in the ocean at unknown coordinates. - Mike Campbell said he found, 'the truth at last'; Claimed Amelia died in captivity within a ruthless Nippon military culture. - Richard Martini of "Earhart's Electra" felt he, 'knew the answer'; Amelia was executed on Saipan by a small Japanese firing squad.     Below: The New, 'Paradigm Shift' Alternative   - After decades of intense study, what does Tod Swindell profess to know about Amelia Earhart's old missing person case -- and a forgotten controversy in relationship to it?   A lot.    Enough to where the differing conclusions offered by past Amelia Earhart theorists were deemed anachronistic with one long ago, prematurely dismissed exception.   Here's why:    A forensic analysis he orchestrated with human identity experts, proved instrumental in discovering never before known realities about an infamous assertion from the 1970s, that stated Amelia Earhart privately lived on for years under an assumed identity after she was declared "missing" in 1937, and "dead in absentia" in 1939.   To begin with, until the analysis took place, it was not known that a formidable woman known as, Mrs. Irene Bolam, who in the 1970s had been called-out as the former Amelia Earhart, had a physicality about her that proved to be congruent to Amelia Earhart's physicality. It wasn't known because Mrs. Bolam was never actually compared to Amelia Earhart before the analysis took place. After the analysis did take place, when the results were combined with the additional corroborating information that had previously surfaced, (such as the accounts given by Monsignor Kelley, previewed directly below) it became forensically clear that Amelia did survive and in time became known as Irene.    - The post-1940 Irene  (FKA Earhart) dining with Monsignor Kelley   1978 -   "After all she'd been through she didn't want to be the famous Amelia Earhart anymore." Monsignor James Francis Kelley, 1987   Monsignor James Francis Kelley [1902-1996] held PhD's in philosophy and psychology. He admitted to having counseled Amelia in the 1940s, and helping with her identity change as well.     The post-1940 only Irene, (FKA Earhart) above on the right, did not like it when people candidly took her picture. Her expression here appeared to make that abundantly clear. The dark haired gal with the gray streak in the photo was Gertrude Kelley Hession, Monsignor James Francis Kelley's sister, who was a regular 1970s traveling companion of Irene's after Guy Bolam died. This photo was taken in Dubrovnik, Yugoslavia, in 1976. (Note the digital composites below.)   Ever evasive to the press, when asked about the identity controversy that concerned his friend, Irene, Monsignor Kelley was quoted in 1982 in the New  Jersey Tribune this way: - Anecdotal information about the post-1940 Irene and her 1970s' friendship with LPGA promoter, Peter Busatti:  Above: The post-1940 Irene and Peter Busatti, 1978   Above left is the post-1940 Irene O'Crowley Craigmile; above center is the post-1940 Irene and Amelia digitally combined; above right is a rare profile photo of Amelia Earhart, taken just before she went missing. "Peter Busatti said he accompanied Mrs. Bolam to the Wings Club in New York City on one occasion. He said a full length portrait of Amelia Earhart hangs in the room dedicated in her honor. ""It was a dead ringer for Irene,"" he said. ""Sometimes I thought she was [the former Amelia] and sometimes I thought she wasn't. Once when I asked her directly she replied, "When I die you'll find out,"" Busatti said. At a Wings Club event in Washington, Busatti mentioned how, ""All the admirals and generals seemed to know her."" Excerpted from a 1982 New Jersey Tribune article. When interviewed, Peter Busatti openly commented about his suspicion that his friend, the post-1940 Irene O'Crowley Craigmile-Bolam, used to be known as Amelia Earhart.   Balloon Rides Anyone? The above 'hot air balloon' newspaper photo taken in 1979, features Irene O'Crowley Craigmile-Bolam [FKA 'Amelia'] accompanied by famous golfer, Kathy Whitworth. Especially in the 1970s, after taking over to manage her company's accounts, to include for her main client, Radio Luxembourg, the former Amelia Earhart was simply known as 'Irene Bolam' to friends and associates of hers. In the meantime she had also grown to be respected and admired by important people not only in the United States--but internationally as well. Those who were aware of who she used to be, of course, never talked much about her, such as her friend, Senator Barry Goldwater, who in her later life years she shared her ongoing love of photography with. Senator Goldwater himself was a great pilot who distinguished himself that way in World War Two. - Anymore, reality states that the woman above was not the original Irene O'Crowley Craigmile. Rather, she was known as 'Amelia Earhart' for the first half of her life, and then as 'Irene' for the last half of her life. To not recognize this is to not recognize the truth when it comes to what became of Amelia Earhart after she went missing in 1937. - - - - -   More from the Orchestrator of the Forensic Analysis Tod Swindell and 'Gibson' in 2016   For clarification, I am not, nor have I ever claimed to be a certified forensic expert, but to learn and better understand forensic comparison applications, I educated myself by reading about them, meeting and consulting with forensic detectives, with forensic anthropologists, with physicians, with a voice comparison specialist, and with a document examiner. Ultimately, by the time I finished my forensic endeavoring, twenty-years of a learning process had transpired as I applied various comparison techniques I became familiarized with to the dated, yet never settled, did Amelia become known as Irene question.  I began my 'forensic comparison journey' in 1997. I first registered portions of my research at the Writers Guild of America in 1998, then again under the MSS title of Protecting Earhart in 2004, 2008, 2012, & 2016, revising it along the way. I copyrighted my MSS in 2014, and then again in 2017, with the forensic visual elements added to it. I am now in the process of launching a new website platform while producing a trailer for my upcoming documentary, and am preparing my Protecting Earhart MSS for final publication. Hocus-pocus has never characterized my work, or "hokum", as it was once accused of being by one of Amelia's living relatives. I was never prone to trickery or fraud, or chicanery or frame. I just let the chips fall. In recent years I have been unfavorably written about in newer Amelia Earhart books. As well, various media outlets, starting with the National Geographic Channel in 2006, took to downplaying my forensic accomplishments. That never bothered me much, really, because it wasn't until 2020, the horrid year of the Covid 19 outbreak, that I finally started to feel I was ready to go public with my epic, Amelia-to-Irene forensic journey... and the full results it achieved. This included its discovery of the unrealized fact that three Twentieth Century women were attributed to the same 'Irene' identity, with the post-1940 only Irene being the one who matched Amelia. I suppose that amid the fog of 2020, I decided it might provide a good, and possibly enlightening public distraction to come forward with this new information. I attest that my efforts handily display a forensic reality about Amelia Earhart, pertaining to a truth about her that has been ignored ever since it first surfaced five decades ago. That's right. In 1970, our national news media alerted our country of this very same truth about Amelia's post-loss survival as Irene, only to see it be categorically shouted-down without being disproved. [Note: A self proclaimed Earhart fanatic, Dr. Alex Mandel of Ukraine, outright fabricated in his 2007 posted, "Irene Craigmile Bolam" wikipedia page, where he wrote that the Irene in question's 'life history' was, "thoroughly documented, eliminating any possibility she was Earhart," and that a Nat Geo forensic detective "concluded" that the 'Amelia became known as Irene' postulation was false. Trust knowing, Dr. Mandel marshaled some loose information that he twisted into lies there.]  If you cannot fathom the truth about what became of Amelia Earhart by way of my work, again it is most likely because your care worn Earhart soul disallows you to. Your best chance to recognize it, though, is by giving serious consideration to my analysis results instead of dismissing them all out of hand, as less Earhart-educated individuals will influence you to, or people who simply wish to leave the now observable reality about Amelia, alone. It's up to you. Otherwise, my own reward of truth came by way of the incredible journey I traveled to get to it.  For what it's worth, I am thankful for choosing the path less chosen when I came to my Amelia Earhart fork in the road, for it did make all the difference. Tod Swindell - 2021   "The journey is the reward." Tao   ~~~  - Review: Mrs. Bolam's Press Conference - Caught off guard, but wielding a strong and certain voice, Mrs. Bolam stood alone while reading a statement prepared by her attorney. She admonished the assertion that said she was really Amelia Earhart, then held her ground while briefly answering a few questions. She concluded by strongly denouncing the book, Amelia Earhart Lives, and left the room. Except, the story about her true past was far from over.   - Continuing on...   It turned out that the fairly enigmatic, Mrs. Irene O'Crowley Craigmile Bolam, was a jet-setting international businesswoman who in 1958, married Guy Bolam of England, the person who originally founded the business she ran.   Beyond facing the press to challenge the McGraw-Hill Company, Amelia Earhart Lives author, Joe Klaas, and Joseph A. Gervais, whose ten year investigation had inspired Klaas to write about it, Mrs. Bolam followed-up with a defamation lawsuit against them.     _ Below: The indomitable Mrs. Irene Bolam Irene O'Crowley Craigmile Bolam  Versus McGraw-Hill The Irene Bolam versus McGraw-Hill defamation case that lasted from 1971 to 1976, was more complex than people realized. Mrs. Bolam had claimed to be an ordinary New Jersey housewife, although in actuality, she was a world traveler who presided over 'Guy Bolam Associates' that sported major global clients, to include Radio Luxembourg.  Although Mrs. Bolam rejected the book's implication about her, the press conference she held and her subsequent lawsuit did not put an end to her 'real identity' controversy. True, in the years that followed, strangely enough even the New York State legal system (see below) was not able to determine if she was or wasn't the former Amelia Earhart. In fact, few people realized that the controversy over Mrs. Irene Bolam's life-long identity never came close to being settled in a forensic kind of way.      1974 1982 2009  "Lou Foudray calls the investigative research of Gervais and Swindell, ""Just the tip of the Iceberg."" "All the evidence all put together, I feel like she [Amelia] did survive. I think she survived and came back to the United States, but that she wanted her privacy." Lou Foudray, Amelia Earhart Historian and former proprietor of the Amelia Earhart Birthplace Museum in Atchison, Kansas, is quoted from interviews conducted by Lara Moritz of KMBC TV, Kansas City, and by The Topeka Kansas Capital-Journal's, Jan Biles. Mrs. Foudray believed that the combined research of Joseph A. Gervais and the in-progress forensic analysis orchestrated by Tod Swindell, had already provided enough proof to conclude that Amelia Earhart had survived after she went missing, and that in time she became known as, Irene O'Crowley Craigmile (and later, 'Bolam'.) She also correctly projected that there was much to the story that remained unknown, by way of her, "tip of the iceberg" anology.    Some reporters kept tracking the curious, unresolved case of who Irene Bolam really was, or used to be. The reason the controversy over her identity was never fully settled was found in the forensic analysis that ended up displaying how more than one Twentieth Century woman had been attributed to the same, Irene O'Crowley Craigmile Bolam identity. It also revealed that the Irene who faced the press in 1970, appeared nowhere identified as 'Irene' prior to the 1940s. In short, she was not the original Irene, who is shown again here:    --  Above, the former Amelia Earhart, AKA, the post-1940 only Irene O'Crowley Craigmile-Bolam, faced the press in 1970 to defend her honor and dignity, and her right to keep on living the private life she had grown accustomed to. That's easy enough to understand and accept. The bottom line, however, is that she was not the original Irene O'Crowley Craigmile, and she was well aware of that.   -- -- In the decades that followed 1970, Joseph A. Gervais (above) continued to be interviewed on television, all the while insisting, no matter what anyone else said or believed, that the 'Irene Bolam' who he met and photographed in 1965, most definitely was the former Amelia Earhart. He died in 2005, having never disavowed his certainty about it, and in the end, Tod Swindell's forensic research and comparison analysis proved him correct. Tod Swindell and Joseph A. Gervais in 2002.      -   More About How The Original Irene O'Crowley Craigmile became a pilot with help from Amelia and Viola Gentry: -   Note: After Charles James Craigmile died of a sudden illness in 1931, as noted his widow, the original Irene O'Crowley Craigmile, who through her attorney aunt had met Amelia Earhart before, was swept under the wings of Amelia and Amelia's well-known pilot friend, Viola Gentry, in pursuit of her new dream of learning to fly airplanes:    Amelia Earhart in 1921. In 1928, when she was thirty years old she suddenly became famous. Soon after that she met the original Irene O'Crowley Craigmile through Irene's aunt, a noted attorney by the name of Irene Rutherford O'Crowley.    Above, Viola Gentry in 1927. She came to know the original Irene through Amelia Earhart. Viola Gentry was famous for her endurance flying and stunt flying.  - The original Irene O'Crowley Craigmile, shown next to her plane in 1932. The following Spring she earned her pilot's license, but her future as a pilot was interrupted right after she did that.   - As an unexpected twist of fate had it, just after the original Irene earned her pilot's license in mid-1933, she became pregnant out of wedlock, an issue that naturally interrupted her new life as a pilot. She went on to deliver a baby boy in early 1934, yet by the late 1930s, her son, (whose father was estranged) was being raised by a 'nanny' mother figure whom he grew up believing to be his biological mother. The original Irene O'Crowley Craigmile's pilot license was not renewed beyond 1937, and to this day her ultimate fate remains unclear. All that is known in a forensic way is that by the late 1930s, when her son was 3 to 5 years old, the original Irene was no longer evident. Her leftover identity, however, helped Amelia Earhart to become the non-public person that she had missed being during her fame years.   Before Amelia left on her 1937 world flight, she was sure to announce it would be her last flight of any significance, and she turned the attention of news reporters toward her pilot friend, Jackie Cochran, proclaiming that Jackie stood to be America's new female aviation heroine going forward. Attesting to this less-known fact, while Amelia prepped for her world flight in the Spring of 1937, she and Jackie Cochran flew together to Dayton, Ohio, where a slew of reporters and photographers anxiously awaited a glimpse of Amelia's new Lockheed Electra. When interviewed there, Amelia announced she was "retiring from stunt flying" and she proclaimed there was, "a new first lady of the air" as quoted directly here by Dale Francis of the Dayton Journal Herald:   Jackie Cochran went on to receive the Harmon Trophy as the top female aviator the following year, (1938) and she served gallantly as the head of World War Two's, Women's Air Service Pilots division. Not to omit, she would later become the first woman to break the sound barrier, and as a good friend of Chuck Yeager's, she once aspired to become the first female astronaut. Of Amelia, Jackie later wrote in her autobiography, "God, the world hounded that woman after she became famous," and before Amelia left on her world flight, Jackie wrote, "I was closer to Amelia than anybody."   Some considered it was no accident that Jackie Cochran became the first American woman to set foot in Japan after VJ Day. One of them was Amelia Earhart researcher and author, Rollin C. Reineck, who recorded an interview he conducted with Monsignor James Francis Kelley, in 1991, that included the following exchange:   REINECK: "We believe Jackie Cochran was sent to Japan to help bring Amelia home. Are you aware of that?"   KELLEY: "Yes, I was involved with that."   Jackie mentioned that she was ordered to head to war-torn Japan by military brass right after the second atom bomb was dropped on Nagasaki, to, "write a story for Liberty Magazine about the way Japanese women participated in the air war." That reason of course, would have had no practical sense of urgency at the time, but no one questioned it, and her real mission to bring home the survived Amelia Earhart would not be connected to her trip until the late 1960s.   In the early 1980s, to one Donald Dekoster, a trusted acquaintance of Monsignor Kelley's, Mr. Dekoster quoted the Monsignor having mentioned to him about Amelia, "After all she'd been through she didn't want to be the famous Amelia Earhart anymore." He also reaffirmed later that Monsignor Kelley had described to him how he had received Amelia after the war and counseled her, and that he helped with her identity change to 'Irene.'        Note: It seems clear enough that it did become known by U.S. military intelligence at some point during the war years, that Amelia was still alive overseas, although it seems equally clear that Amelia had grown tired of the attention she constantly received before she left on her world flight, and that she was intent on seeking peace for herself after she completed it, and apparently, she never let go of that vision. To gain some insight toward the way Amelia regarded the world fame that she achieved during her flying career, consider the following quote from one of her biographers, Doris Rich:    "Over the nine years spanning her first and last transoceanic flights, Amelia Earhart became one of the most famous women in the world. The private Amelia disliked that fame intensely." From author-historian, Doris Rich's 1989 biography of Amelia Earhart.     ~~~   About The "post 1940 only Irene" Moniker   The analysis discovered that the post-1940 only Irene O'Crowley Craigmile (Bolam) was not identifiable anywhere as 'Irene' prior to the 1940s. When combined with its other realizations, hindsight revealed that the post-1940 only Irene's past identity question emerged in 1970 as a valid controversy -- that became obfuscated by endless deliberating -- thus enabling the former Amelia Earhart to continue on living the post-World War Two era 'private life' she'd grown accustomed to, and so obviously preferred not to abandon.

"It is nearly impossible even for families to recognize a loved one after thirty years of absence, so greatly has the self altered. And a little reflection upon the changing quality of consciousness is sure to give us some insight into the numberless selves our surface minds and egos have become since first appearing in the world." Philosopher Uell Stanley Andersen (1917-1986)

JOSEPH A. GERVAIS PHOTO

POST-1940 ONLY IRENE O'CROWLEY CRAIGMILE BOLAM

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Note: The spirit of forensically recognizing and accepting the truth about what became of Amelia Earhart, was not born from an idea suggesting FDR's administration used bad judgment during the pre-dawn era of World War Two, when it optioned not to publicly disclose what it learned about the outcome of Amelia's failed world flight attempt.

Especially in recent decades, people have been cajoled (or misled) into looking for Amelia's plane above all else, even though the sad reality is, her plane will never be found by privately organized and funded expeditions.

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"Numerous investigations foundered on official silence in Washington and Tokyo, leaving the true fate of Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan an everlasting mystery." 1982, aviation historians, Marylin Bender and Selig Altschul on the 1937 disappearance and subsequent missing person cases of Amelia Earhart, and her navigator, Fred Noonan, quoted from their book, The Chosen Instrument.

- Above is Amelia Earhart in 1928, the year she instantly became famous. Nine years later, in 1937, she purportedly disappeared without a trace, and according to history she was never seen again.   Many documented World War Two 'Pacific Theater' servicemen from the U.S. and Japan, along with South Sea Islands' government officials and residents, disagreed with history there. They commonly stated, based on the eyewitness accounts of people who saw Amelia alive overseas after she was declared missing, and on other corroborating testimonials, that Amelia Earhart lived-on well after the date of her so called, disappearance.    From the 1960s' on, several investigations that were conducted also agreed with this conclusion. Throughout the war years, Amelia's mother, Amy Otis Earhart, also insisted that her daughter was still alive overseas based on information she'd privately been made aware of.   -

The original Irene O'Crowley Craigmile, again shown next to her plane in 1933.  She was commonly referred to as, 'Irene Craigmile' as listed below: MAY 1933	Again, Amelia Earhart, before she became famous. Eight years after she met the original Irene O'Crowley Craigmile,  Amelia Earhart was declared a missing person. Then in 1939, to release her estate to her next of kin, she was legally declared, 'dead in absentia' after no certain explanation to account for what became of her could be given.	- Above, Viola Gentry, "The Flying Cashier." She and the original Irene lived in the same Brooklyn apartment building for awhile. Viola often invited the original Irene to events she attended, like this one in 1933: -
Another 1933 press notice telling of Viola Gentry entertaining Lady Drummond Hay of England, along with the original Irene Craigmile and other pilots. Note: Pearl Pellaton lived in the same 316 Rutland Rd apartment building in Brooklyn that the original Irene and Viola did.

-   There may have been more to the McGraw-Hill publishing controversies that took place in 1971, and their relationship to Amelia Earhart's old 'missing person' case than was realized at the time, and once again, where so, Viola Gentry may have figured in. That one of the most reputable publishing houses in the world would issue consecutive books that dialed in on the life of Howard Hughes, and then quickly withdraw them both, is somewhat odd in itself. The first book was Amelia Earhart Lives, that threaded a theorized level of involvement that Howard Hughes possibly had in covering for Amelia after she went missing. (Read about the 'Irene Bolam versus McGraw-Hill's Amelia Earhart Lives book lawsuit' further down.) Hughes, a great pilot himself, was a known 1930s acquaintance of Amelia's, but he was never consulted by Joe Klaas, the author of Amelia Earhart Lives, and the book was withdrawn by McGraw-Hill in early 1971, shortly after it was published. Next, throughout 1971, Clifford Irving wrote a supposedly authorized by Howard Hughes 'autobiography' that was set to be published by McGraw-Hill at the end of the year. Once again, however, Clifford Irving did not consult with Hughes, and he was charged with perpetrating a hoax after Hughes objected to his book and claimed he'd never met Irving. This led to pressed copies of the book being burned by McGraw-Hill before they made it into circulation, and to some jail time for Irving as well. Interestingly enough, Joe Klaas was never challenged by Howard Hughes at all, nor was he fined or convicted of any crime, and neither was Joseph A. Gervais, whose ten year investigation Amelia Earhart Lives was largely about.      Amelia Earhart Medal     Presented to Howard Hughes by Viola Gentry on Amelia's sixty-sixth birthday, 7/24/1963 The Amelia Earhart medal displayed above, was presented to Howard Hughes by Viola Gentry two years before the former Amelia Earhart was first publicly recognized for who she used to be. Perhaps not so ironically, it was Viola Gentry who introduced the post-1940 only Irene to the gentleman who recognized her as the former Amelia Earhart, (Joseph A. Gervais) the day before this photograph was taken: Above is Viola Gentry and Guy Bolam, on August 9, 1965, outside of the Sea Spray Inn of East Hampton, Long Island. The original Irene O'Crowley Craigmile was long gone by then. Viola had known her, just as she knew the new post-1940 only Irene O'Crowley Craigmile, who had married Guy Bolam in 1958, and who had previously been known as her famous flying friend, Amelia Earhart. (Above photo taken by the former Amelia Earhart, AKA, Mrs. Guy Bolam.)   Below is an excerpt from Jennifer Bean Bower's 2015 biography of Viola Gentry, The Flying Cashier, where a 1941 interview Viola gave to Maybelle Manning was recalled. While reading these words, know that Viola maintained that her missing friend, Amelia, was still alive throughout the war years, yet after the war ended she stopped talking about her: Knowing how close Viola Gentry had been to both Amelia Earhart and the original Irene O'Crowley Craigmile, it is incomprehensible to even entertain the idea that after 1940, Viola's friend, the original Irene, could have suddenly morphed into an older-version, carbon copy twin of Viola's famous friend, Amelia Earhart, who had gone missing years before, never to be seen again. It turned out the original Irene was gone by the end of the 1930s, and basically, Amelia, who had continued to live-on, took her name in the 1940s to further use for herself.    Once Again...     1 Above, Amelia Earhart, age 39...             2 ...digitally transitions into...         3 ...Mrs. Guy Bolam in 1965   Amelia Earhart, age 36...  ...digitally transitions into...    ...Mrs. Guy Bolam in 1977

- "It's sad, in a way, how the profound greatness of Amelia Earhart's person became lost in the so-called mystery of her disappearance. Here, for a brief moment let's again look back at the outcome of Amelia's loss through words generated by the White House nine months after she was declared missing:  As mentioned, the White House never did reveal what it knew about Amelia Earhart's world flight outcome, and by now it is certain that the general public was dissuaded from being able to realize what really happened to Amelia.   Today, people seem to have forgotten that Amelia's 1937 disappearance was an international controversy, because it ended up being systemically swept under the rug of official history by the U.S. federal government. This exercise was already in the works in September of 1939, when Germany invaded Poland.   The facts of Amelia Earhart's loss continued to be obfuscated throughout the war years as well, and then even more exponentially after the war was over. Indeed, the effort to muddle the truth about what became of Amelia Earhart, actually continued on into the 1950s, until finally, it was determined that people in general had been conditioned enough to accept that Amelia simply crashed and sank at unknown ocean coordinates prior to completing her world flight, even though that was a far cry from what had actually happened.   Heeding to the false dictates of Amelia's living family members, institutions overseen by the U.S. federal government, and its offshoot cottage industries that managed to keep the the curious stupefied, this is all the public continues to know at this present space in time. And that's a shame. Basically, for decades gone by the citizenry of the United States has been spoon fed non-truths about Amelia Earhart's world flight outcome, by individuals that felt they were doing it for the better good of the body public. Anymore, though, it is obvious that Amelia managed to live-on and become known as one of three Twentieth Century women attributed to the same Irene O'Crowley Craigmile identity." Tod Swindell      Above is Amelia Earhart and the post-1940 only Irene in a digital composite. Over the years people were conditioned to not pay attention to the never fully settled, Irene Bolam Versus McGraw-Hill lawsuit. Now, in 2021, the forensic analysis arranged by Tod Swindell, that concluded Amelia Earhart and the post-1940 only Irene were the same human being, has proved itself to be an incontestable equation. To better ascertain this for yourself, keep going to learn more about this new, fortified reality.

"Many theories have been given by many different people; some bordering on the absurd, some plausible. Gervais’ theory as to what happened to Amelia Earhart is one of the plausible ones. Gervais and his colleagues were seasoned Air Force pilots, and thus, understood the problems in flying long distances over water as well as the technical aspects of flying aircraft. Their experience and some of the documents and leads uncovered in their research led them to believe that Amelia Earhart did indeed survive." Paul A. Oelkrug, C. A., University of Texas at Dallas, 2006.

Amelia Earhart

- Digital Composite

The post-1940 Irene Bolam

JOSEPH A. GERVAIS PHOTO

IRENE O'CROWLEY CRAIGMILE BOLAM

Amelia Earhart... (continued below)	- A Digital Face Recognition grid common to the post-1940 Irene O'Crowley Craigmile Bolam and Amelia Earhart. Same posturing of head position and neck to the shoulders is clearly evident as well.	Light shading adjustments can help to exact a common face print within a digital composite.
...begins to...	...digitally transition into...	...the post-1940 Irene