|
It Was True All Along: After World War Two, Amelia Earhart Was Known As,
'Irene O'Crowley Craigmile' ~~~
Above is the post-World
War Two Irene O'Crowley Craigmile in 1977. This photo portrait was taken in July of that year in honor of Amelia Earhart's eightieth birthday, the famous person she used to be. It first appeared publicly in the Los Angeles Times in 2003, after
a new book about her unsettled life-long identity came out. Note the pilot wings below her left shoulder. In 1970, when it controversially surfaced that the person above used to be known
as Amelia Earhart, a cover-up commenced to prevent the general public from recognizing it that is still in effect today. In recent years, however, a forensic comparison
analysis blew the lid off of the half-century old, well obfuscated reality of Amelia Earhart's post-disappearance
life. (See analysis samples further down.) To begin with, there was an original Irene O'Crowley Craigmile, as shown
below, and the person above was not she.
|
The original Irene O'Crowley Craigmile, shown next to her plane in 1933. She was commonly referred to as, 'Irene Craigmile' as listed below:
|
Amelia Earhart in 1921. In 1928, when she was thirty
years old she
suddenly became famous. Soon after that she met Irene O'Crowley Craigmile. In 1937, Amelia
was declared a missing person. In 1939, to release her estate to her next of kin,
she was legally
declared, 'dead in absentia' since no evidence of her person or physical remains could
be produced.
|
Below is a 1930 newsprint photo of Irene O'Crowley Craigmile, shown between her husband, Charles
James Craigmile (left), and her father, Richard Joseph O'Crowley. This was the original Irene O'Crowley Craigmile, who was acquainted with Amelia Earhart in the 1930s. To its right is a cleaned
up, contrast enhanced version.
As for the poor quality of the photo, clear images of the original Irene O'Crowley Craigmile were purposefully
removed from circulation long ago. This was done with an objective in mind and a reason that dates back to Charles Craigmile's
sudden death occurring in 1931. For after he died it left his widow, Irene, to shift her attention to becoming a pilot.
The above mentions came from Charles
James Craigmile's 1931 obituary.
According to history, after Charles
Craigmile died in 1931, the original Irene O'Crowley Craigmile did become a pilot. Below is a 1932 newspaper photo (again
of low quality) showing Irene with
a number of other lady pilots--including
Amelia Earhart. Irene is outlined in black, Amelia is outlined in white. (Pilot Viola Gentry is seated on Irene's right.)
History also says Irene remarried twice--the
last time in 1958--to Guy Bolam of England. Except the original Irene O'Crowley Craigmile never married Guy Bolam in 1958. The post-World War
Two Irene O'Crowley Craigmile was the one who married Guy Bolam, and that is why she is seen listed as "Mrs. Guy
Bolam" in the 1974 news article below:
|
This article lead-in appeared in a 1974 newspaper that was tracking
the New York defamation lawsuit case of Bolam VS McGraw-Hill, Gervais, and Klaas. In 1970, McGraw-Hill published a
book that claimed Mrs. Guy Bolam, full name, "Irene O'Crowley Craigmile-Bolam", was the former Amelia Earhart
who had assumed the left-over identity of the original Irene O'Crowley Craigmile during the World
War Two era. Although McGraw-Hill was fined for poor fact checking when it came to some of the information contained in its
book, the 'past identity of Mrs. Guy Bolam claim' was left unresolved.
|
Again, the post-World War Two Irene O'Crowley Craigmile-Bolam
in 1977. She was identified nowhere as 'Irene' prior to the end of World War Two. In a recent comparison study, the first
one ever done, (see some samples
below) head-to-toe and character trait
wise she proved to be a perfect match to Amelia Earhart.
|
Before her lawsuit began, in a 1970 newspaper article the post-war
Irene acknowledged the previous surnames attributed to her person:
~~~ Most everyone recalls the legendary pilot, Amelia Earhart, the
first woman to solo a plane across the Atlantic Ocean--who later went missing amid inordinate circumstances.
What people never came to terms with until recent years, because it was never properly
displayed before, was how after World War Two, Irene O'Crowley Craigmile suddenly looked just like her 1937 gone-missing friend,
Amelia Earhart.
|
Post-War Irene and Amelia digitally combined
|
The post-war Irene O'Crowley Craigmile; features darkened for the digital combination enhancement.
|
Where synapses are firing correctly, it is soon noticeable that the original Irene
O'Crowley Craigmile did not look like Amelia Earhart before the war. As well, the post-war
Irene's likeness to Amelia was acute. According to the results of a Digital Face Recognition analysis conducted in 2017, Amelia
and the post-war Irene were recognized as one in the same person, as displayed in the following two examples.
|
Amelia
|
Post-War Irene & Amelia digitally combined
|
Accredited Digital Face
Recognition programs arrived in the Twenty First Century
|
|
Amelia Earhart, 1937
|
Post-War Irene & Amelia digitally combined
|
Digital Face Recognition grid common to the post-war Irene O'Crowley Craigmile and Amelia Earhart
|
Above and below, notice from the shoulders up, necks and postures were also the same. As it turned out, head-to-toe, Amelia Earhart and the post-war Irene were identical because they were in fact, one in the same human being, albeit with different identities applied.
The post-war
Irene O'Crowley Craigmile-Bolam in 1965.
Below, digitally combined are Amelia and Amelia as
'Irene' in 1970
Accounting for other similarities beyond what the
physical and character trait comparisons displayed, in 1982, when a reporter from the Philadelphia Inquirer learned that the
past identity controversy over Irene O'Crowley Craigmile-Bolam still remained unsettled, he gleaned some for an article that
ran in October of that year:
The similarities above are real as far as the post-war Irene and
Amelia were concerned, however the article blurred the line between the original Irene and the post-war
Irene, by failing to at all reference the original Irene O'Crowley Craigmile. Before World War Two, the original Irene was never a world traveler who knew prominent
people. (She did travel to Europe once as a young adult.) She was not known for writing poetry, nor was she known to have
had an interest in photography. She was also never a Zonta member, nor was she a member of any flying organizations. Famously,
Amelia Earhart was all of the above in the 1920s and 1930s, and those same similarities only applied to the post-war
Irene, who Amelia became. It was as if she basically remained the same person she was before, with the exception of having
changed her name. After World
War Two, it is evident the post-war Irene did join the Long Island Zonta organization at some point, (as Amelia she had belonged
to the Boston and New York City Zonta chapters respectively) and for awhile she served as Zonta's International Relations
Chairman with her ability to speak several foreign languages--a multilingual talent her former Amelia-self had been known
for. And while she no longer flew planes, the post-war Irene did become a member of the prestigious New York Wings Club, (an
organization of highly respected pilots) and she also belonged to the Early Birds of Aviation, a club of mostly retired pilots
that featured one of her better pilot-friends from her flying days, Viola Gentry. The original Irene O'Crowley Craigmile was befriended by Viola Gentry through Amelia,
but she never flew enough to merit any lofty pilot credentials
for a sound reason: After the original Irene gave
birth to a son in 1934, it basically put an end to her brief piloting days, to a point where she did not keep her license
updated beyond 1937. As a
postscript, by the time World War Two began the original Irene was no longer evident--and her son was being raised by a surrogate
mother. ~~~
Below are the same two versions of the July 1977 photo portrait images--that display the post-World War Two,
Irene O'Crowley Craigmile-Bolam. (She preferred the tidy, sepia-tone version.) Whether people choose to believe it or not, the post-war
Irene actually was, previously known as, Amelia Earhart. There is no questioning this matter, and there were important
individuals who were aware of this truth when it surfaced years ago, and there are important individuals who are aware of
it today. At the same time, notwithstanding the obvious natural reality it is, the truth about Amelia Earhart's post-war
existence as 'Irene' has never been officially endorsed to the general public for a variety of politically
correct reasons. It is worth recalling here, it wasn't until thirty-years after Charles Lindbergh died, that it was
confirmed he sometimes led a double life known as 'Careu Kent' the last two decades of his life.
Following the 1970 Awkward Reveal After the truth
about Amelia Earhart's post-loss existence as 'Irene' surfaced
back in 1970, it was dismissed by the
former Amelia Earhart herself and by a disbelieving public. Until a researcher by the name of Tod Swindell came along in the
1990s, most people had forgotten the unresolved identity issue that concerned Irene O'Crowley Craigmile-Bolam.
|
Tod Swindell and Joseph A. Gervais in
2002
|
The post-war Irene
O'Crowley Craigmile-Bolam in 1965 [Gervais photo]
|
In the late 1990s, Tod Swindell came to know a retired military
figure--and past whistleblower--by the name of Joseph A. Gervais. To Amelia Earhart aficionados, Joseph A. Gervais was a well known figure. The reason:
After he met Irene O'Crowley Craigmile-Bolam in 1965, and then researched her background for the next five years, he publicly
asserted--and would defiantly maintain for the rest of his life--that she was not the original Irene O'Crowley Craigmile. Yes,
Joseph A. Gervais took a stand in 1970, when he proclaimed in a new book that year, how he had discovered that the Irene who
he had met five years earlier at a gathering of senior pilots, was actually the former Amelia Earhart. He contended
that Amelia Earhart, who had gone 'missing' amid inordinate circumstances in 1937, had quietly lived-on and in time replaced
the original Irene O'Crowley Craigmile by way of assuming her left-over identity--and that no one from the
general public ever knew about it.
|
1970, the former Amelia Earhart, AKA, the
post-war Irene O'Crowley Craigmile (Bolam), faces the press
to defend her honor and dignity, and her right to keep on living the private life she preferred and had grown accustomed to.
|
In the decades that followed 1970, Joseph
A. Gervais continued to be interviewed on television, all the while insisting no matter what anyone else believed, the
Irene 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 he was proved to have been
correct.
|
|
|
"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." Amelia Earhart author-historian, Doris Rich
|
The former Amelia Earhart was angry in 1970, and rightfully so, when she
was called out for who she used to be. Her former-self had been legally declared 'dead in absentia' thirty-one
years earlier (in 1939) yet suddenly, against her will, she was all-but being asked to go back to being the famous Amelia
Earhart again. For a variety of good reasons, she and others who were aware of who she used to be knew it was impossible for
her to do such a thing. One difficult question after another would have been asked of her for the remainder of her days had
she acknowledged her true past. "Where did you go after you disappeared?" "Who were you with?" "Were
you on a government mission when you went missing, like your mother said?" "What were you doing during the war years?"
"What happened to the original Irene?" "How were you able to assume her identity?" [Get the picture?]
Instead, she retained two powerful lawyers to help her maintain her ongoing private existence, only as, 'Irene', and for the
most part they succeeded.
|
|
"Barely a soul had heard of Irene O'Crowley Craigmile
before 1970, the year the polemic claim about her past identity surfaced in the news. Today, few are aware of the convoluted
mess the issue became in the years that followed, or how the 'claim' was technically left unresolved. Presently,
even though it has become obvious in recent years that the post-war Irene indeed was previously known as Amelia Earhart;
the Smithsonian Institution, the National Geographic Society, Amelia Earhart's family, the original Irene's next of kin, and
a curious assortment of opposing Earhart disappearance theorists--some whom offer misleading, if not absurd ideas
to account for what really happened to Amelia Earhart--continue to work hard at persuading the public through news media outlets
and wikipedia... not to believe it." Tod Swindell, 2020
|
|
The 1970 Emergence:
|
|
|
In 1970, Irene O'Crowley Craigmile (left) used the news media to denounce a new, controversial book titled, Amelia Earhart Lives. She handled the press like a pro and called the book, "a poorly fabricated hoax."
As it turned
out, the book, that had evaluated ten years of investigative research, was not a hoax when it presented an astounding conclusion based on logic and deductive reasoning; one that said this particular Irene O'Crowley Craigmile had previously been
known as Amelia Earhart. Said 'Irene' was caught off guard. She didn't like it and she sued for defamation. Her case dragged on for five years, yet the controversial question that asked if she was the former Amelia Earhart
was never resolved. Many years later, it was conclusively
determined that the woman shown holding the 1970 press conference was not the original Irene O'Crowley
Craigmile. She was only known as 'Irene' after World War Two, and in 1958, she married a successful international businessman from England by the name
of Guy Bolam. Again, that is why she was listed as 'Mrs. Guy Bolam' in the follow-up article four years later--that mentioned
the courts, "still had yet to decide the matter
once and for all" ...when it came to the question of her true life-long identity.
|
Note: 1974, the "two Air Force officers" mentioned
in the article were Joseph A. Gervais and the author of Amelia Earhart Lives, Joe Klaas.
|
After looking into it himself, Tod Swindell was
surprised to learn that a number of people not only respected the opinion Joseph A. Gervais always maintained about the Irene
he met, and that even though it wasn't publicized, many of them believed he was correct. He could also see Joseph A. Gervais
was a gentleman of good character. Joe was a family man and a pilot himself who had flown missions in World War Two, Korea,
and Vietnam--before retiring from the Air Force as a Major in 1963. So Tod, a filmmaker by trade, set out to do his own forensic research study in order
to determine if what Joseph A. Gervais was still claiming to be true about Amelia Earhart--actually was true. He
became more curious after learning that Irene O'Crowley Craigmile and Amelia Earhart were never closely compared to each other,
so he ended up embarking on an in-depth comparison study as well--that caused consternation and took years to complete--but
the conclusions it achieved were astounding. Among them; there had been no less than three Twentieth Century women
attributed to the very same Irene O'Crowley Craigmile identity, and the one Joseph A. Gervais met in 1965--just as
he had professed--was identifiable nowhere as 'Irene' prior to the end of World War Two. Here they are:
|
| CHARLES AND IRENE O'CROWLEY CRAIGMILE |
|
|
| 1930 NEWSPRINT PHOTO |
Charles James Craigmile and his wife,
the original Irene O'Crowley Craigmile in 1930. After Charles
died in 1931, Irene remarried and gave birth to a son in 1934. To date, no one knows what became of the original Irene O'Crowley
Craigmile. Her son ended up being raised by a surrogate mother (right).
|
This was the surrogate mother of
the original Irene O'Crowley Craigmile's 1934 born son, She
also went by the name of Irene O'Crowley Craigmile. This is the
way she looked in the early 1940s, according to the original Irene's son, who identified her within the 'Amelia to Irene'
comparison analysis.
|
This is the post-World
War Two only, Irene O'Crowley Craigmile in 1965, who proved to be a complete match to Amelia Earhart
both physically and character trait wise. She may not look much like Amelia here, yet
once again, check the panel below.
|
|
Amelia Earhart, 1937
|
Post-War Irene & Amelia
|
|
Below:
Close-up, Amelia's eyes:
Below: Close-up, the post-war Irene's
eyes:
Below: Amelia's & the post-war
Irene's eyes digitally combined displayed
a perfect match pupil to pupil; tear-duct to tear-duct.
|
To reiterate, according to Digital
Face Recognition, Amelia Earhart and the post-war Irene O'Crowley Craigmile should have been one in the same
person. Decades before the facial comparison took place,
though, in fact without any comparisons
having been done, Joseph A. Gervais deduced they were one in the same person because: 1.) The day Joseph A.
Gervais met Irene at a large gathering of senior pilots, he noticed her air of importance, felt he recognized her as an older
version of Amelia Earhart, and he saw how she was aligned with some of Amelia's past inner circle of friends, to include her well known 1930s pilot friend, Viola Gentry, and Amelia's sister, Muriel Earhart Morrissey. 2.) After deeply researching her past, he discovered for himself that the Irene O'Crowley Craigmile he met in 1965, was identifiable nowhere as 'Irene' prior to the end of World War Two.
3.) Of immeasurable significance, when he was stationed in the Pacific
from 1959 to 1962, Joseph A. Gervais recorded better than seventy sworn affidavits from people local to the
region where Amelia Earhart went missing in 1937, with all commonly stating that Amelia did not simply 'disappear' as was
widely reported in the United States. Rather, they averred that Amelia and her navigator, Fred Noonan, ended up ditching in
forbidden Japanese territory where they were picked up by Japan's Imperial Navy and privately sequestered. This has always
been commonly accepted in the Pacific region where Amelia went missing. (See below display.) Add to this conveyance, of how
even to the novice researcher it does not take long to notice that no true evidence of Amelia Earhart's death
taking place in any way at all--has ever existed.
|
|
Below, a 50th anniversary commemorative stamp series issued in 1987
by the Republic of the Marshall Islands shows Amelia's 1937 takeoff from Lae, New Guinea; her failure to spot Howland Island;
her ditching in the lower Marshall Islands; and Amelia, her plane, and her navigator, Fred Noonan, being retreived by Japan's
Imperial Navy. (Final stamp plate enlarged as well.) Also featured are a lead in from a 2002 Associate Press article that
quotes the Marshall Islands Ambassador to the United Nations, Alfred Capelle, followed
by an earlier, equally revealing 1982 quote from two noted aviation historians.
|
|
"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 Fred Noonan, quoted from their book, The Chosen Instrument.
|
| |
|
Next: The Viewpoint Offered By Amelia's Next Of Kin
|
|
| Muriel Earhart Morrissey (1899-1998) |
Amelia's sister, Grace 'Muriel'
Earhart Morrissey, shown above in the 1990s, was reticent whenever she was asked about the identity controversy
over
her later-life Zonta friend, Irene O'Crowley Craigmile-Bolam.
Question: How did Amelia's only sibling,
Muriel Earhart Morrissey, react to the never-disproved suggestion that said her later life friend, Irene, was actually her
still-living sister with a different name applied to her person? This way:
|
|
"Of course I knew Irene. She was a sister
Zonta." "It's just foolish. There is practically no physical resemblance." The final words about the
Amelia to Irene controversy spoken by Muriel Earhart Morrissey, Amelia Earhart's only sibling. From 1970 on this was her basic
reply to the never disproved assertion that stated her later life Zonta organization friend, the post-war Irene O'Crowley
Craigmile (Bolam), was actually her survived sister sporting a different identity. The assertion had stated
that unknown to the public, Muriel's sister, Amelia, had quietly survived after she went missing in 1937, and she went on
to assume another identity in order to lead a private life after World War Two. Obviously, the later conducted
comparison analysis displayed a hauntingly accurate Amelia-to-Irene resemblance, contrary
to what Muriel tried to promote when she proclaimed there was, "practically no physical resemblance" exhibited by
the two:
|
Below: If this isn't a strong physical resemblance, what is?
|
Muriel Earhart Morrissey played a key part in the protection effort
that allowed her sister to keep on living a private life after she was nearly outed in 1970. When Muriel died in 1998, her
daughter, Amy Kleppner, chose to honor her mother's wishes by continuing on with the same 'protective' tradition of never
endorsing the verisimilitude of her aunt Amelia's post-loss existence as Irene, along with the Smithsonian
Institution and the National Geographic Society. It appears clear enough no other choice was seen but to keep on toeing-the-line
with the U.S. federal government, that during the pre-World War Two era, its executive branch, while occupied
by President Franklin Roosevelt's administration, created what inevitably became an enduring
cover-up that pertained to withholding certain facts about Amelia Earhart's so-called,
disappearance.
|
|
|
Amelia Earhart's famous career as a pilot spanned a period of nine
years. It lasted from the time of her Friendship flight in 1928, when she was thirty-years old, until she went missing just
shy of her fortieth birthday in 1937. The amount of different looks thousands of cameras captured of her during that time
period were pretty amazing. In the below photos that show her in 1937 and 1932, it is difficult to recognize the same person:
|
Amelia in 1937, just before she went missing--a
few weeks shy of her fortieth birthday.
|
Amelia in France in 1932, after being awarded the French
Knight Cross.
|
|
Question Can an individual change over time physically,
emotionally, spiritually, and egotistically to a point where they become difficult to recognize after a long period of absence?
Consider the following quote from Twentieth-Century philosopher, Uell Stanley Anderson:
"If we think of ourselves as bodies, our changing self
becomes apparent. 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." Uell Stanley
Andersen (1917-1986) Here
as well, consider the 1987 words of Monsignor James Francis Kelley, a former President of Seton Hall College who many considered
to have been the post-war Irene
O'Crowley Craigmile's closest later-life confidante. To several people, Father Kelley, who held PhDs
in Philosophy and Psychology, reckoned his friend, Irene, as the former Amelia Earhart, and more than once he confided
to individuals, "After all she'd been through she didn't want to be the famous Amelia Earhart anymore." The
point being made here: The general public did not know 'all Amelia had been through' and
how it changed her psyche to a place where she no longer wished to be the famous celebrity she once was.
The post-World
War Two, Mrs. Irene O'Crowley Craigmile-Bolam, FKA Amelia Earhart, dining
out with Msgr. James Francis Kelley, 1978.
|
The above Irene photo and caption appeared
in a November 2003 article in the Los Angeles Times, that acknowledged her ongoing identity question.
Note: The caption
under the above photo is not fully accurate. The post-war Irene won her defamation lawsuit against McGraw-Hill
and was awarded $60k. She cited its book, Amelia Earhart Lives, falsely indicated she was a 'bigamist' and a 'traitor
to her country.' On the other hand, she settled with Gervais and
Klaas by way of exchanging ten dollars of consideration with
them--after refusing to submit positive
proof (such as her fingerprints) of her life long identity.
~~~ By now, given all that has been learned and
revealed about the post-war only Irene O'Crowley Craigmile, people who continue to advance the person above to have been the original Irene
O'Crowley Craigmile--are either being deceitful--or they are demonstrating a limited scope of knowledge when it comes to the
subject matter of her full life story. For she absolutely was not the original Irene O'Crowley Craigmile. Rather, she
absolutely had been... previously known as... Amelia Earhart.
An Important Note From Tod Swindell
This
website was launched in 2007 and has remained on-line since then. It elaborates on the factual realities of Amelia Earhart's 1937 world flight ending--and a truth learned decades ago that has never been over-challenged...
because it's true. Oddly enough, a variety of important sounding individuals, some whom
offer far-out theories--such as Amelia dying on a desert island and being eaten by crabs, or being blindfolded and placed
in front of a firing squad--have strongly lobbied against promoting the learned truth about Amelia Earhart's
post-war existence as 'Irene', dating back to the time it was first made public. There has also been a
concerted effort to convince the curious--that much of the truthful information displayed here is not real. Take heart in
knowing it is real and it will always remain real. The incredulous obfuscation applied to what actually happened
to Amelia Earhart--the roots of which date back to a late 1930s' White House agenda promoted within President Franklin Roosevelt's
administration to, "never make it public" [a quote from a 1938 White House transcript pertaining to
information it withheld about the failed outcome of Amelia's 1937 world flight] evolved to remain intent after World
War Two, into keeping the reality of Amelia Earhart's post-loss existence as the 'new' Irene O'Crowley Craigmile
from ever being recognized in a public way. This was typical of the common let's move on
vantage point not only maintained by our federal government, but foreign powers as well, when it came to a variety of war
time issues it preferred not to revisit. In essence, it favored to forever maintain the following attitude: Amelia Earhart
went missing toward the end of her 1937 world flight and was presumed lost at sea. This same viewpoint is
maintained today in our nation's highest halls and within its most formidable institutions. If one takes the time to notice,
our federal government has never conducted an official investigation of Amelia Earhart's disappearance, nor has it ever investigated
the full life story of Irene O'Crowley Craigmile. It is also worth noting while there has
never been a conspiracy--in the traditional sense of that word--to circumvent the truth about Amelia Earhart's ongoing
life as a renamed person, after Amelia was outed decades ago living as 'Irene', it is clear an understanding to keep the reality
of it subdued came to exist.
Part of the ongoing cover-up alliance, below are three examples of current anti-truth
lobbyists when it comes to what became of Amelia Earhart after she was declared 'missing' in 1937:
|
Dr. Alex Mandel of Ukraine
|
Mike Campbell of Amelia Earhart: The Truth At Last
|
Richard
Gillespie of
Tighar.
|
|
Warning: A wikipedia page launched and strictly monitored by a Dr. Alex Mandel of Ukraine, labeled, "Irene Craigmile Bolam", that features wikisource editing support provided by his fellow anti-Earhart-truth lobbyist, Mike Campbell, falsely states that in 2006, it was proved by a forensic
detective hired by the National Geographic Society that Amelia did not live to become known as Irene O'Crowley Craigmile after
the war. Do not believe it. National Geographic
itself assures this never happened. Dr. Mandel and Mike Campbell, who both promote that Amelia ended up in Japan's custody and either died of illness or in front of a firing squad, are part of an ongoing protective alliance that detours people away from realizing Amelia Earhart survived
her 1937 disappearance--and in time changed her name in order to further live a non-public life. It is also worth noting, how according to the United States Federal
Government, Amelia Earhart was legally declared "dead in absentia" in 1939, and while it has never offered an out
loud opinion about it, the federal government's preference has always been for it to remain that way. Just the same, no matter what anyone says, be it known that the person proudly
posing with her wings in the 1977 formal photograph sitting below--most definitely was the former Amelia Earhart.
Those who continue to comb the information presented here will more
pragmatically come to terms with this now 'easy to recognize' reality.
|
Yes, above is the former Amelia Earhart in 1977.
It's even obvious anymore that's who she was prior to the war years. After World War Two she became the new, Irene
O'Crowley Craigmile, veritably replacing her 1930s acquaintance shown in the preceding photos with her husband and father.
Since 1970, when the reality of Amelia Earhart's post-World War Two existence as 'Irene' first surfaced, the general public
has been persuaded not to believe it... even though it was true. People who find this hard to accept have either been misled
or misinformed, and most certainly are not aware of the recent years, 'forensic research and comparison study' that
confirmed the veracity of it. It is also worth noting as a qualifier, Amelia Earhart was legally declared "dead in absentia"
in 1939, and it is clear the strong preference of the United States Federal Government was for it to always remain that way.
This directly correlates to why organizations strongly linked to the federal government, such as the Smithsonian Institution
and the National Geographic Society, have never conducted their own investigations that examined the, 'Amelia
lived on and became known as Irene' claim. Contrarily, their standard practice since 1970, has always been to talk
it down to anyone who approached them about it.
Within the forensic study, to recap, years of investigative research were evaluated and combined with head-to-toe physical
body and character trait comparisons of Amelia Earhart and Irene O'Crowley Craigmile. This had never been done before. The
overall forensic analysis was finalized and copyrighted in 2017, after a Digital Face Recognition test yielded 'same person'
results.
"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed.
Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident." Arthur
Schopenhauer
Above, the post-war Irene O'Crowley Craigmile
(FKA Amelia Earhart) is shown in the same photographs from above the way she looked in 1965 (left), and twelve years later,
in 1977 (right). Before the study took place and prior to Digital Face Recognition displaying the congruence it did to her
former 'Amelia' self, it was difficult
to recognize the post-war Irene for person she used to be. After all, in 1970, when the identity controversy first surfaced
it had been three decades since anyone had seen Amelia Earhart. Especially in the 1965 photo, she just didn't look the way
people imagined she would have looked then--had she not gone missing in 1937. Along with its supportive forensic research, many head-to-toe
physical being and character trait comparisons are featured in the overall study.
Above, a 1965 photo of Guy Bolam of England,
next to his wife
by their 1958 marriage, the post-war Irene O'Crowley Craigmile-Bolam, who used to be known as, Amelia Earhart.
Yes, after World War Two, Amelia Earhart, who quietly survived her
storied 1937 disappearance, went by the name of Irene O'Crowley Craigmile, a name that had previously belonged
to a 1930s acquaintance of hers. Then in 1958, she married a British gentleman by the name of Guy Bolam, leaving her more
commonly known as, Irene Bolam. In 1970, when her identity controversy first surfaced, the assertion about her
true past caught the former Amelia Earhart off guard--and even though most people dismissed it out of hand after she fought
to disallow public verification of her past--the issue remained unresolved well into the Twenty First Century. The truth began revealing itself decades later, when it was forensically realized that
the Irene above, who was identified nowhere as 'Irene'
prior to the end of World War Two, was not
the original Irene O'Crowley Craigmile. It was as if after the war, she had appeared from out of nowhere working as a senior
loan officer at a New York bank. She ascended to become vice president of the National Bank of Great Neck on Long Island,
before leaving her post when she married Guy Bolam. From then on she worked with Guy's international business company, Guy
Bolam Associates, and she took over as president of Guy Bolam Associates after Guy's death in 1970. Their company was closely
associated with its main client, Radio Luxembourg.
It was also verified that when the post-war Irene O'Crowley Craigmile
used to be Amelia Earhart, she had known the original Irene O'Crowley Craigmile.
More comparisons of the post-war Irene O'Crowley Craigmile and her former self, Amelia Earhart:
|
Senator Hiram Bingham & Amelia Earhart
|
|
Digitally Combined
|
|
|
|
| POST WAR IRENE O'CROWLEY CRAIGMILE, 1970 |
|
|
|
| ABOVE LEFT, AMELIA; ABOVE RIGHT, DIGITALLY COMBINED |
|
| POST-WAR IRENE O'CROWLEY CRAIGMILE & AMELIA |
|
|
| YUGOSLAVIA, 1976 |
Where the true identity of Irene O'Crowley Craigmile-Bolam existed
as a controversial subject matter from the 1970s on, again, oddly enough, the first forensic study to compare
her to Amelia Earhart, orchestrated by Tod Swindell, did not commence until the Twenty-First Century. After it did, it became easier to observe that the post-war Irene O'Crowley Craigmile (Bolam) and
Amelia Earhart had been one in the same human being, especially
after a Digital Face Recognition analysis became
part of it. As well once again, the study discovered
that there were no less than three Twentieth Century women attributed to the same 'Irene O'Crowley Craigmile' identity, with
the former Amelia Earhart definitely having been one of them. This is why, after Tod Swindell's newer investigative research and first-ever comparison
study started receiving attention from the Associated Press in 2002, and served as the chief inspiration for Colonel
Rollin C. Reineck's book, Amelia Earhart Survived, Amelia Earhart truth opponents rose up against it. In the meantime,
the Smithsonian Institution maintained its long-held tradition of distancing itself from the Amelia became Irene assertion.
|
Lonnie G. Bunch III Head of the Smithsonian
|
|
The Opinion of the Smithsonian For years now, the Smithsonian Institution, a ward of the United States federal government, has deftly sidestepped
the learned forensic realities that concerned Amelia Earhart and Irene O'Crowley Craigmile--and it continues to do so today.
While it has never conducted its own 'did Amelia become Irene?' investigation, it has always been sure to downplay
the controversy to the news media. As recently as 2018, a Smithsonian constituent, Dorothy Cochrane, described the Smithsonian's
preference was to simply view it as a 'false' claim. At the same time, the Smithsonian Institution does acknowledge its awareness
that the Amelia-Irene controversy was never resolved.
The Smithsonian Institution is aware of
the long-term forensic research and human comparison study--that displays the reality of Amelia Earhart's post-war existence
as Irene--but it remains reluctant to
acknowledge it.
|
Akin to the viewpoint
long maintained by the Smithsonian Institution toward the 'Amelia became Irene' assertion, Lord Admiral Nelson turns his blind eye toward a reality he'd rather not have to contend with.
|
Given all of the information that
has been learned about it over the years, the Smithsonian Institution should at this point, without further delay, consider
the idea of being more responsible to it by endorsing what has grown to become the obvious truth of Amelia Earhart's
post-World War Two existence with a different name applied to her person. The head
of the Smithsonian, Lonnie Bunch, can now confidently step
up to the plate and hit a historical Amelia Earhart home run--by simply acknowledging the validity of the study results. In
turn he will accomplish something else long overdue: The drumming out of false Amelia
Earhart history promoters, some whom have made a lot money in recent decades--by peddling a variety of non-truthful
stories to account for what happened to Amelia Earhart.
Dear
Smithsonian Institution, please acknowledge the truth and send all false Earhart history promoters,
foremost including the ones shown below, down the road!
|
Richard Gillespie of
Tighar, said Amelia flew far south of the equator to a desert
island where she died and her body was eaten by crabs.
|
Elgen Long of Nauticos said Amelia flew aimlessly until she exhausted her fuel supply, then crashed
down into the ocean and sank.
|
Mike Campbell's The Truth
At Last book said Amelia ditched her plane in
hostile territory where she was picked up by Japan and mistreated, and she later died in its custody.
|
Richard Martini of 'Earhart's Electra' said Amelia was excuted by angry Japanese soldiers.
|
~~~ Next, an intro to how
the Amelia Earhart truth delivery began: In the 1960s, two lengthy, separately conducted investigations--one sponsored by CBS
Radio and the other known as, Operation Earhart--concluded with certainty that Amelia
Earhart did not crash and sink into the ocean in 1937, as was widely promoted. Both investigations resulted in best selling
books; The Search For Amelia Earhart by Fred Goerner (1966), and Amelia Earhart lives by
Joe Klaas (1970).
|
1966 book by Fred Goerner that profiled CBS radio's five year investigation
|
1970, The Joe Klaas book about
the ten year 'Operation Earhart' investigation
|
The two investigations
determined Amelia survived well beyond the date of her so-called disappearance. The CBS radio investigation concluded
Amelia died of medical neglect after being sequestered by Japan as a spy suspect, and that Japan had secretly interned her
remains. The other investigation, Operation Earhart, concluded Amelia quietly survived the World War Two years under the stewardship
of Japan, and seeking privacy after the war she assumed a different identity. After much investigative research, in 1970,
Amelia's 'still living' body evidence was produced by Operation Earhart in the form of a well respected woman known as, Irene
O'Crowley Craigmile-Bolam, noting she had wed a British gentleman named Guy Bolam in 1958. Operation Earhart claimed she was
the former Amelia Earhart based on her strong resemblance to Amelia and a variety of other unique similarities
she shared with the famous pilot, noting as well she was not identifiable as 'Irene' prior to the end of World War Two. (This
was later proved to be true.) Operation Earhart further claimed she had replaced the original Irene O'Crowley Craigmile,
and by producing Amelia Earhart's 'body evidence' it suggested it had veritably solved her dated 'missing person' case.
When the assertion about her was made,
though, the former Amelia Earhart, Amelia's family, and the Smithsonian Institution strongly rejected Operation Earhart's
claim that she was the still living Amelia Earhart going by a different name. It was a big news story at the time.
Below, another
look at the post-war Irene, FKA Amelia, facing the press in 1970:
|
|
| THE POST-WAR IRENE O'CROWLEY CRAIGMILE |
|
|
|
|
| POST WAR IRENE O'CROWLEY CRAIGMILE, 1970 |
|
|
|
| POST WAR IRENE O'CROWLEY CRAIGMILE, 1977 |
|
Caught off guard in 1970, the post-war
Irene O'Crowley Craigmile, AKA 'Mrs. Guy Bolam', FKA Amelia, quieted the press when she held a major news conference and sternly quipped, "I am not a mystery woman and I am not Amelia Earhart!" As mentioned, she had her own good reasons
for denying who she used to be. The biggest one being, she wasn't about to go back to being Amelia Earhart again. That would
have caused so many problems not only for herself, but for others as well. An article that ran the day after she made the
statement included the following:
The fact that Irene O'Crowley Craigmile-Bolam was not compared to Amelia Earhart back then tells us something, because
our legal system easily could have done that--and it also could have far more thoroughly studied her life history if it chose
to do so. The U.S. legal system, no doubt in this particular case influenced by its federal government, didn't do that
because it did not want to surface the history of the other, original Irene O'Crowley Craigmile--who Amelia Earhart
had known in the 1930s.
Again, nary a soul would have known about Amelia living on and changing her name had it not been for Joseph
A. Gervais, (above) the retired military whistleblower whose ten-year investigation known as, Operation Earhart ended
up presenting the 'body evidence' of Amelia Earhart in 1970, reidentified as Irene O'Crowley Craigmile (Bolam), thus
bringing an end to Amelia's 'missing person' case. Even though his claim was rejected back then, that's what he truthfully
did.
"History
is the unfolding of miscalculations." Barbara Tuchman ~~~
|
How
The Final Unveiling Came About According to The Person Who Caused It
While doing research for an Amelia Earhart film project
in the 1990s, I learned about the quirky, all but dismissed and forgotten, 'Amelia versus Irene' story. I also came
to know the two World War Two veterans responsible for surfacing it, Joe Gervais and Joe Klaas, and was surprised to find
out it was never resolved. I was amazed as well to learn that Irene O'Crowley Craigmile and Amelia Earhart were never forensically
compared to each other--so after consulting with forensic experts who guided me on how to conduct one, I set out to orchestrate
the first-ever Amelia Earhart to Irene O'Crowley Craigmile comparison analysis. Above are a few samples from well
over a hundred full body comparisons the study produced. After I commenced with the study, however, it is worth noting how
resistance from Irene's survived family members, from Amelia's survived family members, and a barrage of deflections from
the now late Bill Prymak, (d. 2014) the former omnipresent leader of the Amelia Earhart
Society--that when combined with sarcasm toward the effort issued by the Smithsonian Institution, my progress was hindered.
In short, it took a long time to finalize the darn thing. The
Twenty-First Century advent of Digital Face Recognition proved to be a key addition, though, during the process of it. In the meantime it remained a high-level truth to be realized, how
after fifty-years the debate over who the woman called out in 1970 really was, or used to be, was still ongoing according
to history itself. It should be noted as well, that there have been some rather obvious attempts made to imply the debate
was eventually settled, most notably through false statements issued by Mssrs Alex Mandel, Mike Campbell, Bill Prymak and several others in a lengthy wikisource diatribe launched
in 2005. Within their 'private citizens' protest, their
writ feverishly tried to impress upon people that Irene O'Crowley Craigmile was always the same person, that my forensic bona fides that were produced under the guise of experts were 'amateurish' and... that Irene never
resembled Amelia much. Their article falsely counterpointed almost everything that supported the Amelia became Irene reality,
and absurdly tried to assert that the claim of the post-war Irene's former identity being Amelia was proved false in 2006
by a forensic detective hired by the National Geographic Society, even though Nat Geo itself admits such a thing never actually
happened.
This
website was launched a dozen years ago--not only to admonish Alex Mandel's falsely contrived wikisource syllogism--but to
track the ongoing accumulation of the study results. While doing so, it also journaled research avenues of Amelia Earhart's
'disappearance' and 'missing person case' few had considered before. [The Study, Journal, and Irene-Amelia.com
website were copyrighted in 2017.] You may notice a cynical tone applied here at first, but it was only used to parallel so much
unjustified cynicism the 'Amelia to Irene' conveyance was met with from the time it surfaced those years ago, in lieu of the
more enlightening information discovered about Irene as time progressed. For instance, to date no less than four nationally
published books, the latest one arriving in 2016, concluded Amelia quietly lived-on to become known as 'Irene' in pursuit
of a private existence for herself during the post-war years; a conclusion that while perpetually shouted-down, has never
been 'legally' over-challenged. (Anyone can check this.) As well, if you would like to peruse the absolutely incredible wikisource collection
of BS garbage that swung wildly at trying to debunk the concrete 'Amelia became Irene' reality, spearheaded by Alex Mandel,
Ph.D., a Ukrainian nuclear physicist and self described 'Earhart image protecting fanatic', below is the link. But don't trust
what is there as the vast majority of it consists of twisted facts. There is also something spooky, or twisted about the group
of people who collaborated with Mandel on it as well. [Why was it so important to them, where they felt a need to spend so much time gathering and presenting false information
in their concerted debunking effort? Akin to the line spoken by the character Richard Dryfus played in, 'Close Encounters
of the Third Kind', "Who are you people?!"]
Below, the curious 'Earhart obsessed'
Alex Mandel. The link to his anti, 'Amelia became Irene' Myth or Reality? wikisource tirade is under the photo. Nicely assembled, it
presents nothing more than non-truthful propaganda in its attempt to convince people not to believe that Amelia Earhart had survived the World War Two years--and
that she had changed her name to 'Irene'.
Otherwise, as you continue to examine the tonnage of information presented here, keep an open mind,
and please do not hesitate to embrace your own curiosity. Thank you, Tod Swindell, 2020 Questions?
e-mail evandell58@gmail.com
|
Below find more details pertaining to the shoddy, non-truthful material
Dr. Alex Mandel sewed together to base his 'Irene Craigmile Bolam' Wikipedia page on in an effort to detour attention away
from the discoveries the 'Swindell comparison study' made. Notice as well in his page, the comparison study is never referred
to. In fact, whenever people have tried in the past to edit something in about the study, or about the Irene-Amelia.com website,
Dr. Mandel was sure to edit it out. So much is revealing of how the campaign is still ongoing--to keep
the truth about Amelia Earhart's post loss survival as 'Irene' from being recognized by the general public.
|
On Dr. Alex Mandel's False Wikipedia Statements After Irene's death was recorded in 1982, Dr. Alex Mandel's
wikipedia page states that: "Gervais sought permission to photograph and fingerprint the body, but permission was denied."
Note: Despite what Dick Strippel and his 1995 book stated, (as cited by Mandel) it was
not Joseph A. Gervais who did that. After Strippel's
Book came out Gervais refuted he did such a thing. In fact, it was actually the original Irene's 1934 born son who was denied access
to his (so-called) mother's remains at the Rutgers college of medicine she had pre-donated her body to. Mandel's wikipedia page further states, "In 2006, a criminal forensic expert was hired by National Geographic to study photographs" (of Amelia and Irene) "and cited many measurable facial
differences between them, concluding that the two people were not the same." Note:
Here's the story clarifying the above statement: In 2006, detective Kevin Richlin appeared on a National Geographic Channel
special about Amelia Earhart. Tod Swindell's then in-progress comparison study had recently been touted in a new published
book and was being written about in news briefs as well. The National Geographic Channel's producers gave Mr. Richlin a limited
sampling of photos for him to examine in a rigged effort, (although it had asked to and did examine the full extent
of Tod Swindell's in progress study, Nat Geo declined to film it or at all elaborate on it in its final program version) to which Detective Richlin, who was clearly unfamiliar with the 'Amelia to Irene' equation, made light of
the suggestion, saying, "if this is all you have..." contending that what the producers supplied him with wasn't
enough to conduct a serious analysis. The point is, detective Richlin never forensically concluded anything. Dr.
Alex Mandel recklessly (and intentionally) distorts the truth in this way and in other ways in his "Irene Craigmile Bolam"
wikipedia page.
The "Irene Craigmile Bolam" wikipedia
page 'support material' listed by Dr. Alex Mandel and other anti-Earhart truth lobbyists is shown below. Note how succinctly
Richard Gillespie of TIGHAR, describes Rollin Reineck's book as, "folklore" and "almost entirely fictitious." (Reineck's book had highly praised and was
inspired by Tod Swindell's then in-progress study.) Since the 1980s, Mr. Gillespie has been claiming that Amelia made it to a deserted island far south
of the equator and died there--leaving her body to be eaten by crabs. Although Mr. Gillespie has forever tried to impress
upon the media that his malarkey is actually true, no authentic evidence has ever supported his claim and
it never will, because it isn't true. In any case, the supportive material for Dr. Mandel's falsely contrived 'Irene Craigmile
Bolam' Wikipedia page referenced the following: - Gillespie, Richard
(2003). 'Is This Amelia Earhart?' book review of Amelia Earhart
Survived by Rollin Reineck. Tighar ...folklore that presents an incriminating, but almost entirely fictitious, case against
the late Irene Bolam.
- Mandel, Alex; Bright, Ronald; Gaston, Patrick; Prymak, Bill (2005). Campbell, Mike
(ed.). 'Amelia Earhart's Survival and Repatriation:
Myth or Reality?' Wikisource.
- Roach, John (Dec 15, 2003). 'Where is Amelia Earhart?--Three Theories' National Geographic News.
|
During the onset of the forensic comparison study, it was noticed
right off that clear photos of Amelia Earhart's 1930s pilot friend, Irene O'Crowley Craigmile, that showed her image before
the 1940s, were no longer in circulation. So below are two more examples showing how close the resemblance was between Amelia
Earhart and the post-World War Two only Irene O'Crowley Craigmile. The word 'doppelganger' might come into play for some.
It refers to non-related people who look like twins.
~~~ It's Easy To Be Cynical And Pretend It Isn't True That Amelia Survived And Changed Her Name. All One Has To Do Is
Support False Truths Instead. Below is A Story Showing How It's Done:
AMELIA DID NOT LIVE! Can you believe it? Some people
were so fooled they actually wondered if Irene O'Crowley Craigmile might have been the survived Amelia
Earhart going by a different name(!) It was a ridiculous speculation of course, for everyone knew Amelia was declared 'missing'
in 1937, and according to history she was never seen again. And history is never wrong!
In fact, to bring an end to her missing person case, in 1939, Amelia
Earhart was legally declared, 'dead in absentia'. ~~~
No one ever knew what became of Amelia Earhart. Her disappearance was a mystery. Today, however, many people consider
that at least one of the modern theorists below likely solved the mystery:
|
Richard Gillespie of
Tighar, said Amelia flew far south of the equator to a desert
island where she died and her body was eaten by crabs.
|
Elgen Long of Nauticos said Amelia flew aimlessly until she exhausted her fuel supply, then crashed
down into the ocean and sank.
|
Mike Campbell's The Truth
At Last book said Amelia ditched on a reef in
hostile territory, that she was picked up by Japan and mistreated, and she died in its custody.
|
Richard Martini of 'Earhart's Electra' said Amelia was excuted by angry Japanese soldiers.
|
Yes, one of the modern theorists above must be correct. After all,
their claims have been the only 'Earhart mystery' updates reported on by news media outlets since the 1980s. Thank goodness
people stopped paying attention to that crazy, 'Amelia lived on and became known as Irene'
hogwash. Luckily, personnel from the Smithsonian's Air and Space Museum were always sure to tell anyone who asked about the
old 'Amelia/Irene' idea that they should not take it seriously! (Non-cynical; in a 2015 edition of its own magazine,
the Smithsonian admitted the 'Amelia became Irene claim' lived on, acknowledging its awareness that the controversy remained
unsettled.) (Back
to being cynical...)
Besides... Just
because Irene and Amelia ended up demonstrating a head-to-toe physical congruence; and just because their character traits matched and they hung out with a lot
of the same people; and just because
Irene knew Amelia's sister, Muriel, in her later life years; and just because J. Edgar Hoover's long withheld, 'WWII Amelia Earhart FBI file' featured reports that indicated
Amelia Earhart was still alive after she went missing in 1937; and just because the Irene who looked like Amelia was seen nowhere identified as 'Irene' before the end of
World War Two... none of this meant anything because Irene and Amelia were simply non-related twins, or doppelgangers.
It is easy for anyone to understand that! Not to leave out, Wikipedia's 'Irene O'Crowley Craigmile' page [the page is listed as 'Irene Craigmile Bolam'] describes
how the National Geographic Society hired a detective in 2006 who concluded they were not the same person--and even though
National Geographic and the detective deny that happened it still must be true because it's in Wikipedia--and everyone knows
Wikipedia never gets anything wrong! And just because clear photos of Irene O'Crowley Craigmile showing her before the 1940s don't exist anymore,
it doesn't mean anything because it is likely some careless person must have lost them. ~~~ Okay, enough of being cynical. Let's take a closer look at the original
Irene's past: A simple
background check reveals she was an only child born in 1904 into a fairly prominent New Jersey family, the O'Crowley's
of Newark--and when Irene was a young adult her well known attorney-aunt, who had raised her from age twelve on, helped her
to become an active member of the League of Women Voters. Then in 1928, at the age of twenty-four, Irene married Charles James
Craigmile, age thirty-nine, of Rantoul, Illinois. Charles was a well respected Civil Engineer in Pompton Plaines, New Jersey
and Irene's future with him looked bright. Sadly, however, as noted earlier, Charles Craigmile suddenly died in 1931, leaving Irene a widow at age twenty-seven.
After a year of grieving the loss of her husband, Irene decided she
wanted to become a pilot and with a little guidance from her friends, Amelia Earhart and Viola Gentry, she began taking flying
lessons in 1932. Below once again, the same September 1, 1932 news photo from above was actually taken a month before Irene
took her first flying lesson on her 28th birthday, October 1, 1932. The famous pilot, Viola Gentry, who personally
took Irene under her wing--and then decades later would largely figure in to why her post-war Irene friend was left with no
choice but to face the press in 1970, is shown next to the original Irene on her right:
In short order, Irene O'Crowley Craigmile did learn to fly and she
even moved into the same apartment building where Viola Gentry lived in the heart of Brooklyn, New York, that provided a straight
shot down the road to Floyd Bennett Field.
|
Spring of 1933; note Irene's listed address.
|
Summer of 1935; note Viola's listed address.
|
It was through Irene's and Viola's common friend, Amelia, that they
first came to know each other, and the two became better friends by virtue of the dedication Irene devoted to becoming a licensed
pilot--and her appreciation for the way Viola kept her under her wing during the process of it. Plus they had something in
common: Viola Gentry lost her love interest, Jack Ashcraft, in a 1929 plane crash, and of course, Irene's husband, Charles,
had died in 1931, leaving a mutual bond the two shared. Displaying more of their newfound camaraderie, below are a couple
of press notices showing how Viola was sure to include her protoge', Irene, in some of her 1933 flying adventures:
|
A 1933 press notice citing Viola Gentry
as the governor of Connecticut's invited guest of honor with Irene Craigmile joining her. Jack Warner is also mentioned, who
Viola secretly wed--and then kept it a secret as long as she could.
|
Another 1933 press notice telling of Viola Gentry entertaining Lady Drummond Hay of England, along
with Irene Craigmile.
|
Except...
...in an unexpected twist of fate, Irene
O'Crowley Craigmile realized she was pregnant out of wedlock in mid-1933 and ended up eloping to marry her child's father
to be, Al Heller. Irene didn't fly much more after that--and let her pilot's license expire within a few years. According
to an old newspaper article, the photo below features Irene holding her 1934 born son, Clarence Alvin 'Larry' Heller:
Yet Irene had been duped. After she and Al
Heller eloped, she learned that Al was still legally married to another woman he had children with, so she had their marriage
annulled. As well, she and Viola's common pilot friend, Amelia, ended up moving back to the west coast in late 1934, so they
all rarely saw each other after that. Yet, how did Irene and Amelia ever come to know each other in the first place? Irene O'Crowley Craigmile originally came to know Amelia Earhart
through Irene's aforementioned aunt, a well known lawyer by the name of Irene Rutherford O'Crowley
(see 1928 news article below) who Amelia had come to know through the Zonta organization they both belonged to. Accordingly,
before she became a pilot, Irene Craigmile, who was not a Zonta member, was a guest of her Aunt's at a Zonta meeting when
she met Amelia for the first time and enjoyed some conversation with her.
Irene O'Crowley Craigmile's aunt, Attorney Irene Rutherford
O'Crowley, practiced law in New York and New Jersey. Twelve years older than Amelia, attorney Irene was a charter member of
Zonta; a professional business women's organization established in 1919. Amelia looked up to her after she joined the Zonta's
herself in 1928, and by the 1930s, attorney Irene, Amelia, and Nina Broderick Price, of English diplomat parents, were three
of the Zonta's most recognized members. Amelia of course, ended up being the most famous Zonta member of all
time--even though her busy schedule prevented her from being as active with it as her friends, Nina Price
and attorney Irene R. O'Crowley were. Since 1939, to honor her legacy, Zonta scholarships in Amelia Earhart's
name have annually been awarded to aspiring young women. [In
the 1930s, attorney Irene's niece, Irene O'Crowley Craigmile, was not a career woman and so not a Zonta member, nor was Viola
Gentry a Zonta member.]
Nina Price, who designed women's clothing, and attorney Irene O'Crowley as well demonstrated their own keen senses
of fashion, and in 1932 & 1933, they helped Amelia launch her self-designed women's clothing line--with Nina helping the start-up of it and the publicity end--and attorney Irene helping with
legal contractual matters. Nina, attorney Irene, and Amelia were described by another Zonta member as 'thick as theives'
during this time period, and it is evident they were. [Which is why it may appear odd to some that the two are never mentioned
in any of Amelia's biographies. Trust knowing the obscured past of attorney Irene's niece, Irene O'Crowley Craigmile, had
everything to do with that.] Nina and attorney Irene also helped to get Amelia's own branded luggage line going with Amelia's manager-husband,
George Putnam, using his own contacts to help promote it. Below are some news clippings from the past mentioning Zonta along with attorney Irene's, Nina's,
and Amelia's names, followed by images of the non-pilot marketing ventures Amelia endeavored to capitalize on with their help
and guidance:
|
A 1928 article commenting on attorney Irene
Rutherford O'Crowley's opinion about the importance clothing in the business world.
|
Two 1932 articles referring to Nina Broderick Price as the Zonta International Relations Chairman,
then serving as 'toast mistress' for a Zonta trophy banquet given in Amelia's honor.
|
A 1939 article referring to attorney Irene (Rutherford)
O'Crowley as the Zonta International Relations Chairman along with a mention about the recently approved Amelia Earhart scholarship
award.
|
|
Amelia adjusts one of her creations.
|
|
|
Above, after she soloed the Atlantic in mid-1932,
Amelia Earhart was arguably the most famous women in the world. She worked hard the following year at developing her own lines
of fine clothing, women's accessories, and durable luggage with logistical help and legal advice offered by both Nina Price
and Irene Rutherford O'Crowley. The exciting ventures were less profitable than Amelia had hoped for, however, and after a
difference of opinion between she and Nina ensued over it, Amelia decided to abandon her clothing line altogether. Her quality
luggage line, though, the corporate office of which was based in Newark, New Jersey--a convenience for attorney Irene who
resided there--managed to survive and "Amelia Earhart Luggage" continued to be sold for decades afterward. Below, excerpted from a 1984 letter written by one Lucy McDannel--a former
secretary and paralegal who had worked for attorney Irene Rutherford O'Crowley in the 1930s and 1940s--she refers to attorney
Irene as, "Irene Sr." and attorney Irene's niece, Irene O'Crowley Craigmile, as "Irene Jr." while explaining
the friendship that existed between Nina and attorney Irene. Note as well the mention of Nina helping to start an "international
friendship group" (AKA 'Zonta') and their connection to Amelia's luggage venture:
|
Above, a 1936 article about Nina Broderick Price's fashion advice
to women. Nina mentored Amelia Earhart on designing women's clothing. (They apparently had some kind of falling our during
the venture of it.) Depending on which article one might read, Nina was known to describe herself as either an actress, a
writer, or a fashion designer.
|
Above, a 1932 Western Union Telegram sent to Nina Broderick Price
to be redirected to Amelia's attention. When Amelia soloed the Atlantic that year she had pre-arranged for Nina to receive
congratulatory Zonta messages for her within the New York City Zonta they both belonged to.
|
~~~ Back to Viola Gentry
Above: Pilot-pals Amelia Earhart, Elinor
Smith, and Viola Gentry in 1932. Below, Viola Gentry
in 1965, with the post-war Irene O'Crowley Craigmile's
British husband, Guy Bolam. Viola, Guy, and Amelia's sister, Muriel, were key players in the cover-up of Amelia's later life as 'Irene'.
~~~ Next: The Great Hoax(?) Not Exactly, But
Let's Play It That Way First Or... back to being cynical.
1970
Believe it or not, in 1970, thirty-years
after Irene O'Crowley Craigmile's pilot's license expired, two nutcases scored a book deal with the famous McGraw-Hill Publishing
House in New York, because one of them claimed--and believed with certainty--that it was Irene O'Crowley Craigmile who actually
went missing sometime before World War Two began, and Amelia Earhart had quietly survived her storied disappearance--and later
acquired Irene's left-over identity so she could live privately after World War Two.
The one nutcase insisted Amelia and the post-war Irene were
one in the same. He said the original Irene did not look anything like Amelia! He said the new Irene
O'Crowley Craigmile only appeared identified as 'Irene' after World War Two! What nonsense. Everyone knew such a thing could not possibly have happened. Just the
same, amazingly, McGraw-Hill published the incredulous fabrication and titled it, Amelia Earhart Lives. The book
even included the below 1965 photo of Irene with her British husband. Can you believe it? How narrow minded can people be sometimes?
Above, these two nutcases talked McGraw-Hill into publishing their crazy story. Sure they were both war heroes, and yeah, one of
them had been investigating
Amelia Earhart's disappearance for ten years, but man, did these war vets get it wrong. Fortunately, key Smithsonian lobbies were able to persuade curious news reporters not to take their foolish claim about Amelia's fate seriously, in support of her long-ago
pilot friend, Irene, who strongly refuted it. It was good justice prevailed! ~~~
End Of Being Cynical "History
is the unfolding of miscalculations." Barbara Tuchman ~~~
Thus, the truthful reveal
of Amelia Earhart's double life experienced a rocky start when it was quickly shouted down. It happened when a retired Air
Force major, Joseph A. Gervais, the head of 'Operation Earhart' who had been deeply investigating Amelia's odd 1937 disappearance
and 'missing person case', surprisingly asserted he had located the famous pilot in New York in 1965, living under the assumed
identity of Irene O'Crowley Craigmile. As noted, his assertion was swiftly dismissed and subsequently laughed at by historians. Except for one thing: It was never proved false. Decades passed as suspicion persisted among those who knew it was never proved false,
until a latecomer Amelia Earhart researcher named Tod Swindell, realized no one had ever compared the two, and in time produced
his own forensic bona fides that showed how Major Gervais, who never stopped insisting he was correct about
it to his dying day in 2005, indeed had been right all along. Here's the story: After ten years of investigating Amelia's disappearance, Joseph A. Gervais claimed Amelia had quietly survived and changed her name--and
in 1958, she married a successful international businessman, Guy Bolam of England. So, Irene O'Crowley Craigmile-Bolam, that
he identified as the former Amelia Earhart, was caught off guard by the book that published his assertion about her--and
she refuted it right away--then sued for defamation while represented by two high-powered attorneys. One of them, a lawyer
named Benedict Ginsberg, had previously worked with Robert F. Kennedy during his Jimmy Hoffa trial. Below once again is how Mrs. Irene O'Crowley Craigmile-Bolam appeared at the press conference
she held to decry the just released book that attempted to out her for who she used to be; Amelia Earhart Lives:
As mentioned, four years later, in July of 1974, relatively unnoticed
amid the Watergate scandal, the follow up article about her still unsettled lawsuit appeared:
In the same photo from before,
retired Air Force
Major Joseph A. Gervais (left) and Amelia Earhart Lives author
Joe Klaas (right)
state their case to the press in 1970.
Even though they
were both war heroes and family men with upstanding reputations [Note: Gervais was a pilot who served in World War Two, Korea, and Vietnam; Joe Klaas had
been a POW in Germany for over two years] news outlets
were influenced
not to take them seriously by the federal government run Smithsonian Institution, along with the families of Amelia Earhart and the original Irene O'Crowley Craigmile, a practice that continues
today.
To shore-up her case, as noted, Mrs. Bolam and her attorney were
able to cite some factual errors in Amelia Earhart Lives they believed were harmful to her reputation--and they sued for $1.5 million in actual and punitive damages. It is imperative to recognize that
Mrs. Bolam's lawsuit did not directly challenge the claim that stated she was the former Amelia
Earhart. Rather, once again, as if she acknowledged herself to be the former Amelia Earhart, she complained that the book,
'accused her of being a spy, a traitor, a bigamist, and a Tokyo Rose.' The case dragged on until it was finally settled in January
of 1976. A summary judgment awarded Mrs. Bolam $60k to be paid by the book's publisher, McGraw-Hill,
basically for poor fact checking. Otherwise she settled out of court with Joseph A. Gervais and the book's author, Joe Klaas,
by way of exchanging $10 of consideration with them. She agreed to the settlement after refusing to submit her fingerprints--when Joseph A. Gervais had his attorney request them to prove her identity. Because she declined
to do so, the controversy over her true life-long identity remained unsettled. Years later, after her
death was recorded in 1982, more 'questioning' headlines and articles continued to surface about her:
|
"All
truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident." Arthur Schopenhauer
|
As time passed, many people, including some who knew her in her later
life years, remained convinced that Mrs. Irene O'Crowley Craigmile-Bolam had previously been known as Amelia
Earhart. In 1994, best-selling Amelia Earhart author, Randall Brink, cited the still ongoing controversy
in the following manner: "One
tantalizingly persistent account has Amelia supposedly returning to the U.S. and assuming
a new identity." Randall
Brink, from his 1994 book, Lost Star: The Search For Amelia Earhart.
Tod Swindell first came to know Randall Brink and Joseph A. Gervais
in the late 1990s. Upon doing so, noticing the veracity that characterized the ongoing controversy over who Irene really was,
or used to be, and as mentioned, after consulting with forensic experts--he orchestrated
a comparison analysis. It took
years just to gather the elements he needed to commence with the study--and then more years to build it and ultimately complete
it, until finally in 2017, satisfied enough, he copyrighted the study along with a forensic research manuscript he produced.
The study results were startling, to say
the least. Below is a brief introduction and more samples from among hundreds of full body
and character trait comparisons the study produced. 'Digital Face Recognition' played a key role:
As noted, prior to the long-term independently arranged study
[the primary subject of this website] a comprehensive 'physical' and 'character traits' Amelia to Irene comparison
analysis had never been done before. As it turned out a full head-to-toe and character traits
congruence was evidenced in the results.
|
|
| AMELIA, ELINOR SMITH, VIOLA GENTRY 1932 |
|
Above, a cryptic handwritten line from a 1967 note the post-war Irene sent to Joseph
A. Gervais. She actually wrote
about two people who, 'knew us both well as Amelia Earhart and Irene Craigmile'(?) Below is Amelia Earhart's own 'Amelia M Earhart' signature as it appeared on a form
she filled out when she was
a young adult. The likeness of both writing styles is no coincidence; the same hand produced them.
|
|
|
| AMELIA AND IRENE SPLIT 50/50 HEAD-TO-TOE |
|
|
In 1932, Amelia Earhart, (above) became the first
woman pilot to solo a plane across the vast expanse of the Atlantic Ocean, and only the second person to do it since Charles
Lindbergh. In subsequent
years, she found herself listed among the most famous women in the world, a status she maintained,
albeit somewhat reluctantly, until she was declared 'missing' in 1937.
|
Above, Digital Face Recognition showed Amelia Earhart
and the post-war only, Irene O'Crowley Craigmile-Bolam, to be in perfect alignment. It is
worth re-emphasizing here, the Irene that aligned with Amelia was identified nowhere as 'Irene' before the
end of World War Two.
|
|
|
|
| ABOVE LEFT, AMELIA; ABOVE RIGHT, DIGITALLY COMBINED |
|
|
Amelia Earhart, age 38 in 1935...
|
...transitions into...
|
...her future self in 1946, marking the return of, "the pilot in pearls."
|
~~~ "History is the expression of feelings peculiar to humanity." Alfred North Whitehead ~~~
Below, few people realize it because the news media never paid much
attention to them, but from 1970 to 2016, four nationally published books concluded that Amelia Earhart survived
her so-called 'disappearance' and lived-on to become known as 'Irene O'Crowley Craigmile', and later 'Bolam' in her post-World
War Two years. Although official U.S. historians greeted each book with silence after they were published, the common,
'Amelia lived-on and changed her name to Irene' conclusion they each presented was not over-challenged and never will be:
|
The 1970 Joe Klaas book inspired by the investigative research
of Joseph A. Gervais, cited Amelia Earhart survived and became known as, Irene O'Crowley Craigmile. During last decade of his life, (1996 to 2005) Joseph A. Gervais,
who always stood by his discovery of Amelia Earhart living as 'Irene O'Crowley Craigmile' after the war, collaborated with
Tod Swindell on his forensic research and comparison study.
|
This 1985 book by Robert Myers and Barbara Wiley, also cited that
Amelia Earhart survived and became known as 'Irene O'Crowley Craigmile' after the war, until she married Guy Bolam of England
in 1958, that left her more commonly known as, Irene Bolam. Note the photo of Irene on the cover.
|
This 2004 book by USAF Colonel Rollin C. Reineck (Ret.), was
first to credit Tod Swindell's forensic study verification of plural Irene O'Crowley
Craigmile's. He also cited that his study, that was still in-progress at the time, stood to convince
anyone how after World War Two, one of them was the former Amelia Earhart.
|
In tribute to the three previous book authors and after learning
of Tod Swindell's 'first ever' comparison analysis that he referenced in his book, W.C. Jameson's 2016 effort also averred
that Amelia Earhart lived to become known as 'Irene O'Crowley Craigmile.'
|
"In 2002, after I lectured about Amelia Earhart
to a crowd at the Oakland Air
and Space museum, the Associated
Press ran a story that was picked up by
newswire services nationwide, in which I was misquoted by its reporter, Ron Staton.
I never told him I believed
Amelia was 'captured by Japan' and
later became 'a New Jersey housewife.' What I
said was I believed Amelia somehow survived and
changed her name to Irene. I always accepted that Amelia ended up quietly existing under Japan's stewardship as World War Two heated up, yet after this was discovered by private sleuths in the 1960s, reporters failed to accurately report on the facts that surrounded her rescue by Japan, and the facts
surrounding the later learned,
'Amelia became known as Irene' reality. They consistently made light of it instead, all but joking that Amelia became a New Jersey housewife." Tod Swindell
"The
forensic studies are very convincing.
She was not an ordinary housewife. She was
influential, knew many well placed people and was well
traveled." From an Associated Press article, John Bolam, Irene Craigmile Bolam's
survived brother in law, refers to The Swindell Study's in-progress analysis of Amelia Earhart's disappearance and
'missing person' case.
After reviewing some preliminary results, John Bolam further reckoned his past sister-in-law to have been the former Amelia
Earhart. He first met her in the 1960s, a few years after she married his English brother, Guy, in 1958. ~~~
~~~ Next: The Double Lives of Charles Lindbergh and Amelia Earhart
Charles Lindbergh and Amelia Earhart in 1933 In 2004, thirty-years
after he died, it was confirmed that Charles Lindbergh lived a double life from the 1950s-on using the alias
of, Careu Kent. Under that name he twice cohabited
with women in Europe and had children with them that his stateside wife, Anne Morrow Lindbergh, and their own progeny were
left unaware of. Just as Charles Lindbergh used his alias while on intelligence assignments in Europe the last decades of
his life, the former Amelia Earhart, while living as Irene, as well spent much time overseas during her
extensive world travels in the 1960s and 1970s. She also served as the president of an international media consulting and
market research firm--Guy Bolam Associates--whose main client was Radio Luxembourg. The
company was founded in the late 1940s by the former Amelia Earhart's later-life British husband,
Guy Bolam, (who she had wed in 1958) and upon his death in 1970, she took control of it. Guy Bolam Associates also
listed clients in Tokyo, Sydney, Paris, Bruxelles, and in London--where Guy, who served in both World Wars,
was born and raised. Guy and Irene, together and separately, sometimes office'd at CLR London, LTD, a radio advertising
company all but exclusive to Radio Luxembourg. (The couple's stateside offices were located in New York City and Princeton,
New Jersey.) When she was living as Amelia, and then later as Irene, she was known to speak several languages fluently and
it came in handy with her international doings. Radio Luxembourg was also known for having one of the most powerful broadcast
towers in Europe--that helped introduce the music of the Beatles to listeners beyond
the Iron Curtain.
Newspaper photo of Guy and Irene
in Japan in 1963. Below, from before Irene is digitally combined with her former 'Amelia' self:
1965 Joseph A. Gervais photo of Guy Bolam and his
wife, Irene. This photo appeared
in the 1970 book, Amelia Earhart Lives. Below, Irene is digitally combined with her former 'Amelia' self:
Above, Amelia Earhart at age 26, five years before she became famous. Below, she's digitally combined with her future self as Irene O'Crowley Craigmile-Bolam.
|
USAF Colonel, Rollin C. Reineck in 1944
|
"Your work relating to Amelia Earhart and Irene O'Crowley Craigmile is absolutely outstanding. There is no other
way to describe it." Author-Earhart historian,
Colonel Rollin C. Reineck, USAF (Ret.) in response to Tod Swindell's Amelia Earhart forensic research
and comparison analysis.
|
"The girl in brown who walks alone." One-line description of Amelia Earhart from her senior high school
yearbook. Below: Two 1976 photos of Irene O'Crowley Craimile-Bolam (AKA the former Amelia Earhart) signing autographs
after reading some of her poetry at a Zonta function held in Detroit, Michigan. When she was known as 'Amelia' she was much
appreciated for her poetry. Amelia was also the Zonta's most famous member in the 1930s. The original Irene O'Crowley Craigmile,
although once a member of the Women's League of Voters, never became a Zonta member, but her attorney aunt, Irene Rutherford
O'Crowley, who Amelia knew well, had been a charter Zonta member and one of its chapter presidents. No doubt attorney Irene
was keenly instrumental with Amelia's World War Two era conversion that left her further known as, 'Irene O'Crowley Craigmile.'
[Photos courtesy of pilot-author, Ann Holtgren Pellegreno, who attended the event that day.]
Above: The former Amelia Earhart, living as
'Irene O'Crowley Craigmile-Bolam'
in 1977, looking all of her true eighty years.
|
Above, once again it's
hard to recognize her old 'Amelia self' here without a composite photo. John Bolam took this picture of his sister in law,
the post-World War Two only Irene O'Crowley Craigmile-Bolam, near his home on Merritt Island, Florida. The day before, Irene
had visited the NASA facility at nearby Cape Canaveral, AKA 'Cape Kennedy.' Note the same pendant she wears that is seen in
other photos.
As far as the NASA mention goes, recall in a filmed interview with former Astronaut Wally Schirra, conducted by news reporter,
Merril Dean Magley, Schirra verified that he first met the former Amelia Earhart at Cape Canaveral in the 1960s,
and that he saw her there again in 1980, on a day when she was asked to recite a poem during a NASA presentation that featured
both he and Neil Armstrong in attendance. When Dean Magley asked Wally Schirra how he knew the women he met used to be Amelia
Earhart (?) Schirra replied, "people I considered reliable" had told him that's who she was. John Bolam
mentioned he once noticed an impressive Saturn Rocket Program 'medallion' Irene wore during one of her visits to Merritt Island,
adding that when he asked where she got it she replied, "some people at NASA" had given it to her. He did not press
her to explain when or why people at NASA had given her the unique adornment.
|
A Broader View
Incorrect Statement:
The assertion of Amelia Earhart quietly surviving her disappearance, changing her name, and living to old age was proved
false long ago. Correct Statement: The assertion, or 'claim' of Amelia Earhart's ongoing existence with a different
name first surfaced in 1970, and contrary to the way the woman in question negated it--and how members of Amelia's family and the original Irene
O'Crowley's family dismissed it out of hand--it never was proved false.
As well, new evidence produced in the Twenty-First Century, that included the results of a Digital Face Recognition analysis, only appeared
to enhance
the truthful nature of the claim.
|
|
Above:
The full newspaper photo showing the post-World War Two only, Irene O'Crowley Craigmile,
(surname 'Bolam' added in 1958) identifying her
as, 'Mrs. Guy Bolam' in 1970. She held a major press conference to refute the bold assertion that said she used to be known
as Amelia Earhart in
the new and controversial book, Amelia Earhart Lives by Joe Klaas, seen held in the foreground. She denied herself
to be Amelia Earhart and called the book's contents, "a poorly documented hoax" and "utter
nonsense."
|
2020 Amelia Earhart Vision
The
True Story of Amelia Earhart
~~~ "All truth
passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident." Arthur Schopenhauer ~~~
The True Story of Amelia
Earhart In Two Parts By
Tod Swindell
Part I Ever
since the question over Irene Craigmile Bolam's true identity first made national news in 1970, consider how easy it would
have been at any time for the U.S. justice department to have proved this story untrue, if in fact, it was untrue. To
look into the past of almost any person's full Twentieth Century existence in the United States in order to verify his or
her life-long identity is generally easy for a United States official to do. Yet when it came to the high-level
controversy over Mrs. Irene Craigmile Bolam's life-long identity, said verification never happened and anymore
it is clear so much was the intention. It speaks for itself that the debate
over Amelia Earhart resurfacing in the United States as 'Irene Craigmile' after World War Two lasted well into the new millennium
with no official resolve attained. One might have thought the Smithsonian Institution would have wanted
to put an end to it. Or Amelia's family. The reason they didn't was because they
couldn't, for what apparently were long-ago important reasons the public never knew. That
is until several years ago, when the profound truth of Amelia Earhart's post-loss continued existence began staring back at
the general public in no uncertain terms. What became of Amelia Earhart after
July 2, 1937 is now known thanks to an extensive evaluation that involved decades worth of forensic research done by individuals
dedicated to learning the truth; and to
the recent-years 'indisputable results' of a long-term human comparison analysis that displayed Amelia Earhart continuing
to live well beyond July 2, 1937. Anymore it is undeniable
that Amelia Earhart survived her well storied "disappearance." Except in the interest of avoiding post World War
Two discourse (and to Amelia, in the interest of her own future privacy) she ended up resurfacing in the United States after
the war years as a non-public figure with a different name applied to her person... and a new career. Hard
to believe, but true. It appears evident enough that Amelia Earhart's new post-war
life of anonymity was enabled by a uniquely orchestrated Witness Protection Program achieved under the guise of the
U.S. justice department in cooperation with Japan's new post-war democratic government--and winks-and-nods
from a post-war England as well. This may be hard for some people to
come to terms with, but it does best explain how after Amelia Earhart was declared "dead in absentia" in January
of 1939, years later, during the aftermath of VJ Day, the United States, Japan, and Amelia herself, for reasons only they
truly understood to the fullest, worked together to make sure her '1939 death declaration' would never change.
Here, to answer the question of why the general public was left in the dark about Amelia's post-loss
reality one might consider the following quote from the 1982 Pan Am Airways anthology, The Chosen Instrument by Marylin Bender and Selig Altschul: "Numerous investigations
foundered on official silence in Tokyo and Washington, leaving the true fate of Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan an everlasting
mystery." Expounding on this, it is clear the majority of people who deeply
studied the subject of the Earhart-Noonan missing persons case, recognized how amid reparation agreements
made between the United States and Japan during the post-VJ Day months, the still slightly open door was slammed tight on
what actually happened to the duo--and it was concretely to remain that way from that point on. It is a solid
projection as well; General Douglas MacArthur, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, and Japan's Emperor Hirohito were all instrumental
in the initial establishment of this accord, with assistance rendered by the Catholic Church. ~~~ How It First Became Known If you are not in-step with the incredible saga of Joseph A. Gervais (1924-2005) that concerned
his 1965 encounter with and subsequent pursuit of Mrs. Irene Craigmile Bolam, it is because it was never conveyed in an easy-to-understand
way. Really, I am the first person to do such a thing. I first met and came
to know Joseph A. Gervais and his wife, Thelma, in 1996 at their Las Vegas home, courtesy of a long-time Gervais' friend and
collaborator, 1994 Lost Star author, Randall Brink. Randall Brink, Joseph
A. Gervais, and myself all remained friends and collaborators from that point on, until Joe's passing took place in 2005.
Rest assured, the important truths about Amelia Earhart presented here have
remained unaddressed by the United States Department of Justice ever since the 'tip of the Earhart iceberg reality'
Joseph A. Gervais discovered and first publicly surfaced, took place in 1970. People have said,
people have written, and some people still do say and write that Joseph A. Gervais was crazy to always adhere to his most
important determination about Amelia Earhart's fate--that being--she survived and
changed her name. In the past twenty years I have also seen myself called 'crazy' in spoken and written ways for endorsing
his viewpoint. Except I exist today among the more sane Amelia Earhart historians on the planet, to go along with a few Amelia
Earhart historians who came before me. Randall Brink's knowledge of the subject matter is formidable, to be sure, and out
of respect for the amazing amount of investigative research our late friend, Joseph A. Gervais, did on the subject of who
Mrs. Bolam really was, or used to be, Randall always left the door open to it. The majority of others,
however, proved themselves deficient within the Earhart truth-seeking arena by automatically refuting Joseph A. Gervais'
Amelia became Irene postulation. In my case, after learning one had never been done before,
I chose to subject it to a forensic analysis and by doing so gained the self-assurance required to stand up and say
it was 'justifiable' for Joseph A. Gervais to claim he solved the missing person case of Amelia Earhart those years ago, by
way of displaying her physical body evidence in a nationally publicized way. Looking back at it,
the all-but instant dismissal of the 1970 Gervais' assertion about Amelia's post-loss existence
as Irene, caused the general public to miss how important his declaration was those decades ago, and its aftermath left people
missing how important it should have remained in the years that followed. Anymore it is certain,
though, the bell-of-truth that Joseph A. Gervais rang by way of the clear 35MM color photograph he took of the former Amelia
Earhart in 1965--that was widely published in 1970--proved itself impossible to un-ring. It
can therefore be said, how two years after Abraham Zapruder inadvertently filmed the killing of President John F. Kennedy,
Joseph A. Gervais inadvertendly photographed the rebirth of Amelia Earhart, all-be-her after she had been renamed "Irene
Craigmile" two decades earlier. Many individuals have tried to un-ring
this long subdued bell-of-truth over the years, but they couldn't do it. In today's world one cannot easily hide or disguise
a corpus delicti [i.e. 'body evidence'] nor is it easy for anyone to justifiably claim that a person's body, dead
or alive, isn't what it naturally evidences (or evidenced) itself to be. Still not convinced?
Then here's a challenge for you: At the top of this page, take a look at the same 35MM medium close-up color photograph Joseph
A. Gervais took of Mrs. Irene Craigmile Bolam in 1965, and then try to locate any clear photos of the same woman from prior
to the mid-1940s. You will not be able to do it because photos of her do not exist from prior to the mid-1940s, unless
of course, the same Mrs. Bolam displayed in it appears as her former self, 'Amelia Earhart' within them. It is also interesting to note how all the while, on record,
not one official United States historian ever expressed a certain opinion toward the belief Joseph A. Gervais
maintained the last forty years of his life. Basically, on any official level his 'Amelia became Irene' assertion
was perpetually met by official history deflections, or avoided entirely. And here it is. Brace
yourself, because you're about to learn the truth about what became of Amelia Earhart after July 2, 1937, and the way it happened.
No, Amelia did not disappear. People don't do that. She also did not continue
to fly around aimlessly in radio-silence after missing Howland Island until her plane ran out of gas, thus causing it to crash
and sink into the ocean. She and Fred Noonan were a lot smarter than that. Rest assured as well, Japan's military never put
them in front of a firing squad, and their bodies were never eaten by giant crabs on the desert island of Nikumaroro. Forget about all the malarkey about her 1937 loss that has been thrown around over the years. It is time
to 'get real' about Amelia Earhart. ~~~ The Summer
of 65' In the summer of 1965, at a gathering of mostly retired, all
be them highly respected pilots in New York, a former air force captain who had flown planes in World War Two, Korea, and
Vietnam met and believed he recognized the woman who used to be known as Amelia Earhart. The man was Joseph A. Gervais, and
after deeply studying the woman's background for the next five years, he ascertained his belief about her was correct, and
surfaced his realization to a national news level in 1970. His
deduction was well founded, but Joe Gervais underestimated the power of the long-withheld truth he discovered. Back then,
one didn't just call out the still-living, 'identity cloaked' Amelia Earhart. As things went, desiring
to continue with the privacy she had sought and coveted for herself after the World War Two years, and for what she considered
to be historically prudent reasons as well, the former Amelia Earhart denied the assertion Joe Gervais made about her. Except
the controversy over who she really was, or used to be, never went away, even after she died in 1982, and then into the new
millennium. Consider this again as well; in 2015, fifty years after Joe Gervais met and photographed Mrs. Bolam, many people
were still wondering who she really was, or used to be, because no person or entity had ever 'officially' put an
end to the debate over her true identity. ~~~ After commencing with it in 1997, my
'Protecting Earhart' long-term forensic comparison analysis that was designed to determine if the decades-old Gervais' assertion
about the woman was or wasn't correct, proved that it was correct. World academia is just now starting to catch up to this
newfound historical reality. The stately looking, wings-adorned elder woman featured in the photograph above, shown in her
true eightieth year, definitely did used to be known as Amelia Earhart. It is hard to blame
doubters for there is so much to know about this story, foremost to include how over the years there have been well meaning
people 'in the know about it' who preferred the general public not pay attention to the truth about Amelia Earhart's world-flight
outcome, for what they as well believed to be prudent historical reasons. For years these people remained legion and to a certain extent their historical preference
about Amelia is still being honored today. It is plain enough a kind of high level, post-World War Two pact involving
the United States and Japan steered the veracity of what actually happened to Amelia Earhart in 1937 away from being publicly
recognized and accepted. The only hiccups along the way were the 1960s investigation efforts of Joe Gervais and Fred Goerner,
followed by Gervais' 1970 assertion about 'Mrs. Irene Bolam' that became a national news item. When the story of his incredible
proclamation broke, though, the mere notion of Amelia Earhart's ongoing name-changed existence seemed just too unbelievable
on the surface, abetting all naysayers. No matter; the realities
the forensic study revealed in the last twenty years left a caveat that exposed the underbelly truth of Amelia's post-loss
existence as 'Irene,' and the 'Protecting Earhart' website, Irene-Amelia.com features a good sampling of younger-to-older
superimposed photographs displaying Amelia Earhart prior to 1938 as compared to her later-life self. Love her unconditionally, because ready or not, the woman famously
known as Amelia Earhart in the United States more than eighty years ago... is finally coming home, as 'Irene.' End Part I
Part II begins after the following images and explanatory
comments:
Above: Two comparison samples showing the post-World
War Two only Irene Craigmile's
image equally combined with Amelia Earhart's image.
|
|
| THE POST-WAR ONLY, IRENE CRAIGMILE |
The post-World War Two only Irene Craigmile was
not the original Irene Craigmile. Since 1970, however, when she was correctly implicated to have been the former Amelia
Earhart, her own denials and other obfuscations about her past left people believing she wasn't the former Amelia Earhart.
Amelia's family and the original Irene Craigmile's family also denied it, and the Smithsonian Institution played it down enough to where people felt
further suspicion toward who she really was, or used to be, was unnecessary. In the meantime, the U.S. federal government offered no opinion about it.
Now,
a recently conducted Digital Face Recognition analysis affirmed the compared facial templates below were attributable
to the same human being:
Above on the far left, shown in a 1965
photo taken in Cocoa Beach, Florida, is the same Mrs. Irene Craigmile Bolam who was photographed that same year in New York
by Joseph A. Gervais. Setting the record straight: It wasn't until the new millennium arrived that the forensic analysis displayed
the face prints, head sizes, necks, shoulders, arm lengths, hands, heights, foot sizes, handwriting, and voice resonances
to all be congruent within the Amelia-to-Irene comparisons. Not to omit how friends, relatives, and locations frequented displayed
their own before and after alignments. As well, the Irene Bolam who Joseph A. Gervais met and photographed in 1965 appeared
nowhere as 'Irene' prior to the mid-1940s. Here, Tod Swindell's forensic analysis displayed the reality of there having been
three different Twentieth Century women attributed to the same "Irene Craigmile Bolam" identity, and how
one of them, the 1965 Joseph A. Gervais photographed Irene was previously known as Amelia Earhart.
Above are the three different Twentieth Century
women who were historically identified as one in the same, "Irene Madeline O'Crowley Craigmile Heller Bolam."
Traditionally,
Amelia Earhart's extended family and the Smithsonian Institution made a habit of encouraging the public to not take seriously
or dismiss out of hand what was first publicly asserted about Mrs. Irene Craigmile Bolam by Joseph A. Gervais in the
1960s. This could be due to the historical convenience of not wanting to alter pop culture's status-quo viewpoint about Amelia
Earhart it has long maintained toward her heroic legacy and the so-called "mystery" of her disappearance. Anymore
however, the observable forensic reality of Amelia Earhart living well beyond the World War Two era in the United
States after assuming another identity... has segued into existing today as an obvious, albeit 'subcultural' historical true-hood.
|
| The Gervais-Irene Bolam |
|
| Newspaper photo, as 'Mrs. Irene Bolam' in Japan, 1963 |
|
|
| Amelia photo added |
|
|
| Superimposed reveals her earlier and later self-images |
|
|
| Photo from after the Friendship flight |
|
Amelia, 1937
|
|
|
|
"Special recognition goes to Tod Swindell,
who undertook an extensive, in-depth forensic analysis of the Gervais-Irene Bolam and Amelia Earhart to show the world
they were one in the same person." USAF Colonel, Rollin C. Reineck, reprinted from the Preface of his 2004 book, Amelia
Earhart Survived. Note:
My late friend, USAF Colonel Rollin C. Reineck, included the above supportive words in his book after he evaluated my forensic
research that unravelled the 'Amelia became Irene' truth, the origin of which stemmed from Joe Gervais and author, Joe Klaas,
who originally introduced the postulation of Amelia's continued survival as 'Irene' in their 1970 book, Amelia Earhart
Lives. After I commenced with my study in 1997, Colonel Reineck recognized how important the realization was of a serious
forensic analysis never having been done before, that compared the highly enigmatic, Irene Bolam to Amelia Earhart. I was
inspired to do one after the odd controversy over Mrs. Bolam was somewhat rejuvenated in 1994 by way of Randall Brink's ground-shaking
expose', Lost Star: The Search For Amelia Earhart. Today, only Randall and I remain, and both of us are greatly indebted
to the magnanimous efforts of the researchers that sided with Joe Gervais, mostly World War Two heroes, whose efforts preceded
our own. Thanks to them, it is now easy to identify how three different women were attributed to the same 'Irene Craigmile
Bolam' identity in the Twentieth Century, with one of them having been previously known as 'Amelia Earhart.' Tod Swindell,
2018
~~~
Below: About The 1970 Book, Amelia Earhart Lives By Joe Klaas Directly below
is the book that started it all, Amelia Earhart Lives. Although it was chocked with some far-out suppositions in its
attempt to explain what happened to Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan in 1937, it did manage to feature the 1965 photograph of
the former Amelia Earhart when she was known as "Mrs. Irene Craigmile Bolam," taken by Joseph A. Gervais
when the two met each other. Following the book's release it ended up being ceaselessly
ridiculed after the former Amelia Earhart strongly negated it, no doubt for her own good reasons. Fortunately for her, many
people who looked at the 1965 Gervais taken photograph had a hard time seeing through to who she used to be. She did look
different, but she was still there, and she is still there and always will be there. The forensic tale-of-the-tape proved
it out. Once the bell-ring of the photo's inclusion in the book took place, nothing could un-ring it. World War Two hero,
Joseph A. Gervais always knew this, and he never stopped repeating it to others to his dying day in 2005.
| Based on the research findings of Joe Gervais... |
|
| 'Amelia Earhart Lives' by Joe klaas. Published by McGraw-Hill, November 1970 |
|
| The Gervais-Irene and Guy Bolam |
|
| From the 1970 book, 'Amelia Earhart Lives' by Joe Klaas |
|
|
| Amelia Earhart, 1937 |
|
| The Gervais-Irene Bolam |
|
| August 8, 1965 |
|
| ...superimposed shows the obvious congruence... |
|
Part II Amelia Earhart:
A True Story By Tod Swindell ©2018 When Joseph A. Gervais met Mrs. Bolam and her English husband,
Guy in 1965, he was introduced to them by Viola Gentry, a good pilot-friend of Amelia's in the 1930s. Viola had asked Joe
to come to New York and lecture to her club of pilot friends about the investigative research he had done on Amelia Earhart's
disappearance. Viola appeared surprised when Mrs. Bolam showed up at the luncheon
where Joe Gervais was to lecture. Somewhat flustered himself, Joe noticed an 'air of importance' about Mrs. Bolam, beyond
feeling that he recognized her for who she used to be. After asking Viola to introduce him to her, Joe cautiously asked Mrs.
Bolam if she ever knew Amelia Earhart? She replied to him that she had 'known Amelia Earhart well' and that she had 'often flown with her.'
He asked if she would be willing to meet him again and she said 'yes' and gave him her business card that listed her name
as 'Irene Craigmile' on it. That had been her name before she married Guy Bolam in 1958. It turned out, a woman by the name of 'Irene Craigmile' did know Amelia Earhart in the 1930s. Born
Irene O'Crowley to Richard Joseph O'Crowley and his wife, Bessie Doyle O'Crowley, she was mostly raised by her maternal and
paternal extended families. She became Irene Craigmile in 1927, when she married Charles Craigmile, a civil engineer from
Rantoul, Illinois.
Below: The original Irene Craigmile, 1930
Shown between her husband, Charles "James"
Craigmile, and her father, Richard Joseph "Joe" O'Crowley
Charles
Craigmile tragically died in 1931. The following year, just a few months after Amelia became the first woman to fly solo
across the Atlantic, the Akron Beacon Journal of Ohio published a photograph displaying both Amelia Earhart and the recently
widowed, Irene Craigmile within it. The two were shown among a group of women aviators visiting the hospitalized pilot, Louise
Thaden there:
|
| The Akron Beacon Journal, September 1, 1932 |
Above: Amelia Earhart outlined in white, Irene
Craigmile outlined in black.
|
Above: 'Irene Craigmile' is listed after Viola Gentry
|
Above: After Amelia married George Putnam in 1931, for a short while
she took his name, as shown here
|
More about the Original Irene Craigmile When the above newspaper
photograph was taken, the recently widowed, Irene Craigmile was not-yet a licensed pilot. She began taking flying lessons
in the fall of 1932, after Amelia and Viola Gentry helped sign her up at Floyd Bennet Field on Long Island. She learned
to fly there and at Roosevelt Field until she earned her pilot's license in late May of 1933. Except while she was earning
it, she realized she was pregnant with her last flight instructor, Alvin Heller's child. The two eloped to be married that
August, and later
their son, Clarence Alvin 'Larry' Heller was born in early March of 1934. Before she realized she was pregnant in 1933, the original
Irene Craigmile had barely logged any solo-piloting hours. She barely ever flew again following her last pregnancy, and failed
to renew her pilot's license after 1936.
From there the trail of the original Irene grows cold. Clear, legible photographs
of her no longer exist, and it is hard to know what ultimately became of her, beyond a later life friend of Mrs. Irene Bolam's,
Diana Dawes, in 1992 offering her awareness that the original Irene 'died' at some point and the announcement of it was withheld,
thus enabling Amelia to continue on with her still extant identity. Only sketchy records remain of the original Irene, including
how her marriage to Alvin Heller, who had relocated alone to Buffalo, New York in the mid-1930s, was legally annulled 'by
long distance' at the end of the 1930s. There was also a child custody battle Al Heller did not win that carried into the
early 1940s. Al
and the original Irene's son, Larry Heller, grew up to become a Pan Am pilot and resides in Florida today, but it is evident
he never really knew his biological mother, the original Irene Craigmile. Larry Heller did have a mother figure growing up
as a child, but who she actually was remains a subject of debate. She did not look that much like Amelia Earhart, to be
sure, and she appeared to be about a generation younger than she should have been. Take a look:
|
|
| "1940" |
|
Left and right: In 2006, and again in writing
in 2014, Clarence Heller, the son of the original Irene Craigmile, positively identified this woman to have been his late
mother in both younger and older forms. He provided the esitmated dates applied to each photo as well. She did not look like
Amelia Earhart, to be sure, she did not used to be known as Amelia Earhart.
|
|
| "1970s" |
|
~~~
|
| "1946" |
|
This woman shown in younger and older forms,
was identified as "Irene Craigmile" in 1946 on the left, of the People's National Bank of Long Island's Mineola
Branch. On the right she is seen again in 1965, in the picture Joe Gervais took of her after she became known as, "Mrs.
Irene Bolam" by virtue of her 1958 marriage to Guy Bolam of England. She was identified nowhere as 'Irene' prior to the
mid 1940s, even though she was legally attributed to the same identity of Clarence Heller's mother. For the sake of distinguishing
the different Irene's from each other, Protecting Earhart's study labeled this one, "the Gervais-Irene."
Overcoming decades of ridicule and cynicism, any further the truth stands to exist where there is no doubt this particular
Irene Bolam used to be known as Amelia Earhart.
|
|
| "1965" |
|
~~~
Neither one of the two different Irene Craigmiles
displayed above appeared to resemble the original Irene Craigmile in the grainy photo below. Born in 1904, no clear, distinguishable
photo images of the original Irene Craigmile have ever been located. Even her son, Larry Heller attested he didn't have any
photos of his mother pre-dating the 1940s. This includes family group photos, wedding pictures, school class pictures, or
any other photos.
|
| The original 'real' Irene, 1930 |
The above photo identifies Irene Craigmile (breifly known then as "Irene
Heller") with her son, Clarence, in 1937 while on a trip in Florida after separating from Al Heller. Al and Irene's marriage
was soon after annuled reverting Irene's surname back to "Criagmile." In her annulment file, Irene cited 'improvidence'
as one of her complaints about Al Heller. Even so, during the depression few could afford a nice car (the one in the photo
is a 1937 Luxury Plymouth) and a travel trailer, not to leave out toy cars for their children and Florida vacations. Of
note, Amelia Earhart began her world flight journey from Miami, Florida on June 1, 1937. Al Heller, who acknowledged having
'met' Amelia Earhart in the 1930s, would later become a senior vice president of the greater Miami Aviation Association.
His son, Clarence Heller grew up to become a 747 pilot for Pan Am, Amelia's world flight navigator, Fred Noonan's old company
that featured a major hub in Miami.
Once again, add all of the above knowledge to the
fact that the 'Irene Craigmile Bolam' who Joe Gervais met and photographed in 1965, appears nowhere identified as 'Irene'
prior to the mid-1940s. Let me repeat that: The 'Irene Craigmile Bolam' who Joe Gervais met and photographed in 1965, appears
nowhere identified as 'Irene' prior to the mid-1940s. This
leaves a deduction based on logical reasoning supported by forensic evidence: Where the Irene Craigmile Bolam who Joe Gervais photographed
in 1965 appears anywhere prior to the mid-1940s, she does so identified as 'Amelia Earhart.'
[Forensic Evidence: "That suitable for argumentation
in a court of law."]
About the Original Irene Craigmile's O'Crowley
Family
As the story goes, the original Irene Craigmile's mother, Bridget nee-Doyle O'Crowley,
died in 1917 when her only child, Irene, was twelve. Before Bridget died, census records revealed she had been raising her
daughter alone with her parents in New Jersey. After Bridget died, from that point on census records show Irene being further
raised by her father's family, most specifically by her father's sister, an attorney by the name of Irene Rutherford O'Crowley
who lived with her mother, Sarah, in Newark, New Jersey. It is evident when the original Irene was twenty-one she had a child out of
wedlock that was adopted and raised by her uncle and aunt, Dr. Clarence Rutherford O'Crowley and his wife, Violet. [Note:
Protecting Earhart's MSS includes a detail of the O'Crowley family lineage and life events. The O'Crowleys had been
a prominent New Jersey family.] How Amelia Earhart Was Able To Become Irene Craigmile
Amelia Earhart was a good friend of the original Irene Craigmile's
aunt, the attorney, Irene Rutherford O'Crowley who practiced law in New Jersey and New York. Amelia's former flying pal,
Viola Gentry, who introduced Joe Gervais to the former Amelia Earhart and her husband, Guy Bolam in 1965, later told him
this was how Amelia originally came to 'know' Irene Craigmile, through Irene's attorney-aunt who had been Amelia's friend
and a fellow ZONTA organization member with her as well. This information is documeted in Amelia Earhart Lives. ZONTA The ZONTA organization,
founded in Buffalo, New York in 1919, was and still is an international organization of professional women. Amelia joined
ZONTA after she became famous in 1928, and was soon befriended by two of its more prominent members, Nina Broderick Price
of England, and Attorney Irene Rutherford O'Crowley of Newark, New Jersey, the original Irene Craigmile's aunt. Nina Price and Attorney
Irene O'Crowley were very good friends and ZONTA chapter presidents who had helped launch the Amelia Earhart brand products
line in the early to mid-1930s. Nina was a flamboyant publicist and dress designer who helped Amelia in those areas, and Attorney
Irene worked on the legal contracts side that helped to establish the Amelia Earhart brand luggage-line based in Newark, something
she continued to be involved with into the 1960s. Today the ZONTA's still award Amelia Earhart Scholarships to aspiring young
women.
How And When The Amelia-To-Irene Change Took Place
It appears evident enough how at some point during the World
War Two years, Attorney Irene Rutherford O'Crowley cooperated with the U.S. justice department and one Monsignor James Francis
Kelley of Rumson, New Jersey, with an arrangement for Amelia to be able to assume the still-extant identity value of Attorney
Irene's niece, Irene Craigmile for Amelia to use after the war years. Monsignor Kelley was the president of Seton Hall College
at the time the war ended, and he helped Amelia become the new Irene Craigmile after her return to the United States,
and he served, as he later described it, as her "emotional healing therapist" while doing so. [Monsignor Kelley
held doctoral degrees in psychology and philosophy.] From the 1970s into the 1990s, Monsignor Kelley explained facets of this incredible
truth he knew to a variety of different people, and a few of them later went on record describing what he had told them.
In 1991, five years before he died, Monsignor Kelley himself confirmed his past long-time friend, the late Irene Bolam,
used to be known as Amelia Earhart in a recorded interview. This did not become public information until the new millennium
arrived, and people who had a hard time believing his conveyance claimed later-life 'senility' must have caused him to make
up the things he said about his late friend, Irene having been previously known as Amelia Earhart. Those who he spoke to
about it, though, insisted he was lucid while doing so, and the forensic analysis itself later revealed he had not made
it up at all. Amelia's Life As Irene
After she became Irene, Amelia was never known to pilot a plane again. She
was given various positions in the banking industry on Long Island after the war until she married Guy Bolam. She became
a ZONTA member again as 'Irene Craigmile' and served as president of the Long Island ZONTA chapter in the 1950s. After she
married Guy Bolam, the two traveled abroad frequently until Guy died in 1970. Through Guy's enterprise, Radio Luxembourg
in Europe, that she became president of herself after Guy died, it can be said the former Amelia Earhart was part of the
same radio station that helped introduce the Beatles to Soviet Russia in the 1960s. She also knew a few NASA astronauts
and "2001: A Space Odyssey" had been a favorite movie of hers. ~~~
When Joe Gervais pegged Mrs. Bolam for who she used to be
in 1965, then tried to introduce it by way of the book, Amelia Earhart Lives in 1970, the former Amelia Earhart sued
the publisher of the book, McGraw-Hill, the book's author, Joe Klaas, and she sued Joe Gervais as well, whose assertion
about Mrs. Bolam inspired Joe Klaas to write the book. It's worth recalling here how in 1965, even though Mrs. Bolam had agreed to
meet again with Joe Gervais, she subsequently proved herself evasive and never did. Her lawsuit reached the New York Supreme Court and lasted
five years. Mrs. Bolam's Attorney, Benedict Ginsberg, who had once worked for Robert F. Kennedy, sought 1.5 million dollars
in damages. Except Mrs. Bolam, who had not been involved in the book's writing process, did not sue the publisher and authors
for inferring she was the former Amelia Earhart. She sued them for libel. For instance, the book had referred to her late
husband, Guy, (who died the same year the book came out) as her "alleged husband," when in fact they had been legally
married. McGraw-Hill
ended up remitting a high five-figure settlement to the former Amelia Earhart, and it removed the remaining copies of Amelia
Earhart Lives from the stores. [Author, Joe Klaas, estimated about forty-thousand copies of the book made it into circulation
before it was withdrawn, and it has since been republished.] In an interesting twist as well, she settled her differences
with Joe Gervais and Joe Klaas by way of the opposing parties swapping ten dollars of consideration, after she refused to
submit her fingerprints as proof-positive of her identity. She wasn't in want of money, after all, and after five years
most people had chalked-up the Gervais' assertion about her past as a hoax. It wasn't a hoax, but Mrs. Bolam wasn't about
to wreck the remaining years of her life by way of admitting who she used to be. So much explaining would have been demanded
if she had admitted it, not only from herself, but from a slew of prominent, high-level individuals. Epilogue
The former
Amelia Earhart died seven years after her 'summary judgment' lawsuit ended. She had prearranged to donate her body to Rutgers
College of Medicine. According to the school when later contacted, she was cremated and interned in a common, unmarked grave.
At
the time of her death, many people, including some who had been close to her in her later years, continued to suspect Mrs.
Bolam used to be the famous pilot, Amelia Earhart. In a New Jersey newspaper article that appeared a few months after her
passing, even her son's wife, Joan Heller, was quoted to have said she and her husband were "no longer sure" about
the question of her past identity. As well, to myself in 2006, Clarence Heller admitted he held no photos of his mother dated
prior to the 1940s. And although Mr. Heller consistently denied over the years that his mother was Amelia Earhart, he was
merely telling the truth. Clarence Heller was legitimately born to Al and Irene Heller on March 5, 1934. The bottom line: Anymore
it is absolutely certain that the ongoing suspicion about the late Gervais-Irene Bolam's true past was justifiable, because
it was true that she used to be known as, 'Amelia Earhart.' There You Have It So this was and is the true
story of what became of Amelia Earhart after July 2, 1937. Be that as it may, it is still unclear when it comes to what really
happened after she and Fred Noonan were declared 'missing.' It is widely assumed that within days after the duo failed to locate
Howland Island, Japan rescued them in the lower Marshall Islands where they had endured an emergency ditching. The later added deducement that featured Amelia's continued survival, states that right when Japan was about
to declare war on China, she and Noonan strayed too far north during their Plan-B attempt to reach the Gilbert Islands, and
they ended up in Japan's off-limits Marshall Islands instead. There they were picked up and detained, and at least Amelia
ended up remaining in Japan's custody until the end of World War Two. While
various aspects of the above descriptions have been corroborated by different Amelia Earhart historians over the years, to
explain why Amelia's Marshall Islands ditching is still an assumption today is academic: The only official record
of Amelia's loss shows that she went missing on July 2, 1937, and after not being found she was legally declared 'dead' in
early January of 1939. Therefore, technically, where the July 2, 1937 Marshall Islands ditching assertion
still remains an assumption, within the constraints of it, to go along with Amelia's body evidence showing up as Irene Craigmile
eight years later in the United States, what really happened to her on that July 2, 1937 day, supplemented by where she ended
up later, how she was treated, and how she spent her days while she was gone... anymore exists as the 'real' mystery of Amelia
Earhart. Take heart in knowing, it is safe to believe the former Amelia Earhart took much of the answers
to those questions to her grave with her.
Today, all we really know for certain in a forensic reality way, is that
several years after Amelia Earhart went missing she managed to surface in the United States as Irene Craigmile, and she worked
in the banking industry known by that name until she married Guy Bolam of England in 1958, and the general public was never
supposed to know who she used to be, even after she died in 1982. Believe it or not, it's that simple. ~~~
|
Amelia
|
Irene & Amelia superimposed
|
Mrs. Irene Craigmile Bolam, 1965 (FKA 'Amelia')
Photo credit: Joseph A. Gervais
USAF (Ret.)
|
|
Above: Amelia on the right
Irene & Amelia superimposed
|
Irene & Amelia superimposed
|
Irene dominant
|
|
|
| ...superimposed shows the obvious congruence... |
|
|
| ...to the Gervais-Irene Bolam in 1965 |
|
Note: The above human congruence does not exhibit
a doppelganger-like coincidence. Head-to-toe and character trait wise, my forensic analysis that compared the Mrs. Irene Craigmile
Bolam who Joseph A. Gervais met and photographed in 1965 to Amelia Earhart, merely displays the same human being in younger
and older forms. Her birth name was "Amelia Mary Earhart." She was born in Atchison, Kansas on July 24, 1897, and
she died on July 7, 1982 in Edison, New Jersey, then known as "Irene Craigmile Bolam." Her father was "Samuel
Stanton 'Edwin' Earhart," who was born in Atchison, Kansas, in 1867, and who died in Los Angeles, California in 1930.
Her mother was "Amelia Otis Earhart" who was born in Atchison, Kansas in 1869, and who died in Medford, Massachusetts
in 1962. Her sister and only sibling was "Grace Muriel Earhart Morrissey" who was born in Kansas City, Kansas on
December 29, 1899, and who died in Medford, Massachusetts on March 2, 1998. Amelia's sister, Grace Muriel Earhart Morrissey, was also
a ZONTA member who did know her sister, Amelia in her later life years as 'Irene,' although she never openly acknowledged
her awareness of past as 'Amelia.' She was also known to admonish anyone who suggested her ZONTA friend, Mrs. Irene Craigmile
Bolam was actually her sister going by a different name, and it steadfastly remained that way until her passing in 1998. Her
daughter, Amy carries on the same tradition today. When Joseph A. Gervais and his wife, Thelma met with Muriel in 1967, and suggested
to her the idea that Amelia was still alive but going by a different name, Muriel replied to him, "Even if that were
true, Major Gervais, wouldn't it be best to leave it alone?" Food for thought. Tod Swindell
Once a world-famous pilot...
...the former Amelia Earhart
in 1965
|
