LA LA - Belle Chasse, WhtMale 16-17, UP88342, hanged, suicide note, Feb'75 #2

[carbuff]

I don't think he was homeless. He was well-educated, obviously his family had money to send him to a psychologist or psychiatrist which seems evident to me in his missive. He may have been colour blind, hence mismatched socks. He may also have just grabbed whatever was in a drawer; I think it's an insignificant clue. I don't even think he was a runaway. I think his life could have been not meeting expectations of his parents (in the vein of the movie Ordinary People). I think he was local and it's possible his family knew of his death and chose not to come forward. IMO

BBM--I definitely agree that this is a possibility.

 

[Ciriii57]

On mobile so can’t check easily atm, but does anyone remember how FFA Charlie Wallace was discovered? Are we sure he’s the son of the Mrs Wallace who came to see BCJD?

I'm not sure but I assume it was mentioned in a news article? I guess he was tracked down as a missing person with the right name and location?

Location- everyone makes an excellent point that if he was local someone would have recognised him. That makes sense. Nobody did recognise him....except the neighbours of CWs parents....which is quite telling as well.
If he wasn't local I'd like to know what drew him to this location, I mean it can't have been random, I don't think buses passed through? Was there a nearby train line? That's what makes me think it was someone with knowledge of the area.

 

[Beekarina]

My feeling is he was not "deeply local", but had been there awhile. In the early/mid 70s it was totally normal for young teens to work, so he could have runaway and headed for the city and gotten a job nearby and not really connected with anyone. He could have had a fake ID and a backstory. Remember--he didn't make jokes, he "was the joke." This could explain no one recognizing him. Sounds awful but if he was say, the awkward part-time dishwasher or the guy who cleaned the bathrooms in the hotel maybe no one did care if he existed and no one noticed when he stopped showing up?

BCJD refers to his parents as having a "missing son", which leads me to believe he had been gone awhile. Again, my opinion/interpretation but he mentions a year of considering suicide, a year without forming bonds with family and friends, and then the whole thing about suicide being an act of homicide directed towards oneself. I'm thinking a lot about what BCJD wrote. He never felt normal, he never fit in, and things really became worse in the past year. I think maybe he left home in/around Feb 1974, roughly. Holidays and anniversaries are often meaningful to people who take their lives.

 

[Ciriii57]

So he was found just 3 days after Mardi Gras and on Valentines Day. That does seem like it might be significant. Someone who was at Mardi Gras and just kind of wandered down to Belle Chasse? That way no one would recognise him and if he had taken a bedsheet etc from a hotel in New Orleans they might not even notice it; I imagine the hotels were all fully booked.

Does anyone have the exact location in Belle Chasse were his body was found please? I think it might be on the thread earlier but I would like to see the exact place. There is a 1972 aerial map of the area available which should be pretty close and I'd like to see what it was like.

Is it possible he was 18 and a Freshman at the University of New Orleans? Do they have available yearbooks?

 

[Ciriii57]

I still couldn't get the exact location but I narrowed it down to Naomi, near Alliance. Very rural, flat and nothing much around. There is a railroad running right by the side of Highway 23 and the reports state he was found on a farm road between Highway 23 and the Mississippi. So I am figuring somewhere here:


Which at the time he was found was essentially Nothing!:

 

[amytothekate]

Look in the first thread - Post No 625 and 626 . There’s a newspaper article that has a lot of detail about CW’s mother viewing the body of BCJD. The photo of the mother is in 625 and she talks about the feet in 626. I’m not sure how to bring it forward to this thread.

You are a lifesaver @BayouBelle_LA - thank you so much!

On mobile so can’t check easily atm, but does anyone remember how FFA Charlie Wallace was discovered? Are we sure he’s the son of the Mrs Wallace who came to see BCJD?

@berin found the photo of Charles Wallace in the 1973 Lexington High School yearbook in the group picture for FFA officers, where he was listed as the President (thread 1, post 833). You can just barely make out his name and "President" on his FFA jacket in the photo. The supporting evidence this Charles Wallace is the son mentioned in the articles:

• Mrs. Charles Wallace is cited in many articles as being from Lexington, TN
• There is an obit for "Charlie T. Wallace", preceded in death by his son, Charles Howard Wallace
• Charlie T. Wallace's obit indicates he was an Air Force veteran, which is also mentioned in news articles
• One news article mentions "During his first two years in high school, Charlie Wallace was a straight-A student and the president of the Lexington chapter of Future Farmers of America. He wanted to become an engineer, he told his parents."
• The 1973 Lexington High School yearbook has an index of seniors and their respective clubs at the back, and he is listed as "Charles Howard Wallace FFA - 1,2,3,4; 4 - President"

Hope that helps!

 

[Himako14]

So he was found just 3 days after Mardi Gras and on Valentines Day. That does seem like it might be significant. Someone who was at Mardi Gras and just kind of wandered down to Belle Chasse? That way no one would recognise him and if he had taken a bedsheet etc from a hotel in New Orleans they might not even notice it; I imagine the hotels were all fully booked.

Does anyone have the exact location in Belle Chasse were his body was found please? I think it might be on the thread earlier but I would like to see the exact place. There is a 1972 aerial map of the area available which should be pretty close and I'd like to see what it was like.

Is it possible he was 18 and a Freshman at the University of New Orleans? Do they have available yearbooks?

I’m on my phone at the moment, but I did a quick search and did see a 1979 UNO yearbook that has been digitalized. I also found one from Tulane in 1975. I’ve downloaded that one and will be looking through it tonight.

 

[summergirl1]

It's interesting he didn't want to be identified, yet he made the effort of writing a note to his parents that he knew they may never read.

Belle Chasse sure has been built up in that area since those days. I wonder how he got out there back then?

 

[Ciriii57]

Belle Chasse sure has been built up in that area since those days. I wonder how he got out there back then?

It sure has, it seems today its basically a suburb of New Orleans but back then there was an awful lot of nothing in between. And where he was found isn't even Belle Chasse (I guess that's the biggest town) it's a teeny tiny place with like 10 houses called Naomi, close to a slightly bigger tiny town called Alliance which seems to be just a chemical works or something. According to Namus he was found in Naomi, near Alliance on a farm track between hwy 23 and the mississippi. That does narrow it down somewhat to that small strip.

But as to how he got there, I cant imagine why anyone was wandering around here. Im wondering about the train tracks and once I get to work I'm gonna check where they went and headed to. The tracks run right by the hwy so it's not inconceivable he just maybe got off the train here thinking it looked a good spot?

 

[Himako14]

It sure has, it seems today its basically a suburb of New Orleans but back then there was an awful lot of nothing in between. And where he was found isn't even Belle Chasse (I guess that's the biggest town) it's a teeny tiny place with like 10 houses called Naomi, close to a slightly bigger tiny town called Alliance which seems to be just a chemical works or something. According to Namus he was found in Naomi, near Alliance on a farm track between hwy 23 and the mississippi. That does narrow it down somewhat to that small strip.

But as to how he got there, I cant imagine why anyone was wandering around here. Im wondering about the train tracks and once I get to work I'm gonna check where they went and headed to. The tracks run right by the hwy so it's not inconceivable he just maybe got off the train here thinking it looked a good spot?

Belle Chasse is the biggest city in the parish, and unfortunately a lot gets lumped into it. The parish is a marshland, and the tracks are mainly used for shipping. That being said, I remember my grandfather (local to MS but worked in NOLA in the 1960’s) mentioning that Southern Railways had a train in NOLA. Southern merged with Norfolk in the 80’s. Not much of a start but hopefully it will be some help.

 

[Ciriii57]

Belle Chasse is the biggest city in the parish, and unfortunately a lot gets lumped into it. The parish is a marshland, and the tracks are mainly used for shipping. That being said, I remember my grandfather (local to MS but worked in NOLA in the 1960’s) mentioning that Southern Railways had a train in NOLA. Southern merged with Norfolk in the 80’s. Not much of a start but hopefully it will be some help.

Thank you very much for the info! I think the railroad idea is a dead loss unfortunately, unless someone out there is a bit of a railway buff and can do better.
That branch of Southern Railways ran from New Orleans to Braithwaite which would have ended up on the wrong side of the river to Naomi.
The railroad running through Naomi/Alliance it seems was (is?) for the coal trucks taking coal from Ironton (next town down from Alliance) and terminated at Gretna where I guess the coal was unloaded onto barges?

I don't see that this was ever a passenger line and therefore it is unlikely he used the railroad as a way to get here. (I'd love to be proved wrong though!)

What I did learn is that these little townships were mostly farm workers, coal miners and dockworkers. I just don't imagine this kid was the child of a blue collar worker like these (again I might be way off), unless he was and that was why he felt so much like he didn't belong. So all in all I am leaning to believe he was not a local.

But I just come back to the situation. How the hell did this kid; with no transport, no shoes and walking around with a sheet and a glass jar full of letters, end up in this remote spot and decide it was the perfect place to end his life without having some knowledge of the area? It's not really the kind of place where I think his family vacationed!

I wish a remark had been made about the souls of his feet. Because if he had been walking around barefoot they would be dirty and possibly calloused. If his feet were clean...well then that suggests a whole nother scenario to me.

 

[Himako14]

Belle Chasse is the biggest city in the parish, and unfortunately a lot gets lumped into it. The parish is a marshland, and the tracks are mainly used for shipping. That being said, I remember my grandfather (local to MS but worked in NOLA in the 1960’s) mentioning that Southern Railways had a train in NOLA. Southern merged with Norfolk in the 80’s. Not much of a start but hopefully it will be some help.

Thank you very much for the info! I think the railroad idea is a dead loss unfortunately, unless someone out there is a bit of a railway buff and can do better.
That branch of Southern Railways ran from New Orleans to Braithwaite which would have ended up on the wrong side of the river to Naomi.
The railroad running through Naomi/Alliance it seems was (is?) for the coal trucks taking coal from Ironton (next town down from Alliance) and terminated at Gretna where I guess the coal was unloaded onto barges?

I don't see that this was ever a passenger line and therefore it is unlikely he used the railroad as a way to get here. (I'd love to be proved wrong though!)

What I did learn is that these little townships were mostly farm workers, coal miners and dockworkers. I just don't imagine this kid was the child of a blue collar worker like these (again I might be way off), unless he was and that was why he felt so much like he didn't belong. So all in all I am leaning to believe he was not a local.

But I just come back to the situation. How the hell did this kid; with no transport, no shoes and walking around with a sheet and a glass jar full of letters, end up in this remote spot and decide it was the perfect place to end his life without having some knowledge of the area? It's not really the kind of place where I think his family vacationed!

I wish a remark had been made about the souls of his feet. Because if he had been walking around barefoot they would be dirty and possibly calloused. If his feet were clean...well then that suggests a whole nother scenario to me.

Sorry the train idea didn’t pan out, but it was a good thought.

I don’t think he was the son of blue-collar workers, mainly due to the language of the letter he left. It seems very formal-ish. I have this style of writing sometimes, especially if I am writing to professionals. I personally learned it from a tutor as a child, but my friends have never written like that. I wonder if he may have been exposed to it as a child and picked it up, maybe a doctor or lawyer for a parent?

As for transportation out there, he either hitchhiked out to maybe Alliance or Naomi and walked to it, took a taxi out there, or walked. Without knowing what condition his feet were in, we may never know. It’s about a 14 mile trip from Belle Chasse proper to Alliance. Maybe someone saw him walking south and offered him a ride, and it looks like maybe a 15/20 minute trip today so taxi is another idea.

Maybe he had a bag with him to carry everything. If he set it down somewhere, like a tree, the swamp could have claimed it. I know I’ve lost things in that kind of land. The shoes could be the same thing, took them off to possibly climb the tree or lost them during/after.

I’ve been reading the letter again and the fact he repeated year so often seems important. What is he wasn’t American? His prints were sent all over the US, but what about overseas? I know some British kids take gap years and travel. Could this be what happened in this case? Kid was traveling overseas, didn’t want to shame his family and did it here, thinking it wouldn’t make it overseas. There were a few universities in New Orleans, so maybe an international student if you push the age up or foreign exchange student?

 

[Ciriii57]

I’ve been reading the letter again and the fact he repeated year so often seems important. What is he wasn’t American? His prints were sent all over the US, but what about overseas? I know some British kids take gap years and travel. Could this be what happened in this case? Kid was traveling overseas, didn’t want to shame his family and did it here, thinking it wouldn’t make it overseas. There were a few universities in New Orleans, so maybe an international student if you push the age up or foreign exchange student?

Are you thinking the past year had been some kind of turning point in his life? I know a few other posters had theorised that he may have been "missing" for a year previous.

This person could well be an international student, but I am dubious about British. I am British and the language he uses doesn't sound right for 70s educated British-English. The big give away is the use of the word "Mom" which is not used much in Britain and certainly not in 1975; in such a formal letter I think a Brit would most likely say Mother and Father or Mum and Dad back then. Also the references to a psychiatrist and as law enforcement being "bound to preserve domestic peace and order" sounds much more American to me.

Though perhaps Canada could be an option? It just seems such a long way to travel to end your life from Canada. I can't help thinking this kid was a native Louisianian or New Orleaner?

How likely is it that he travelled to the area by boat down the Mississippi?

 

[Ciriii57]

I wish a remark had been made about the souls of his feet. Because if he had been walking around barefoot they would be dirty and possibly calloused. If his feet were clean...well then that suggests a whole nother scenario to me.

Ignore this stupid idea LOL I completely forgot he was wearing odd socks!

Though I wonder how dirty they were too?

Would the swamp really have swallowed his shoes that quickly? Would it be very swampy around the Persimmon tree where he was found hanged? Do they grow in the literal swamp?

 

[Himako14]

Are you thinking the past year had been some kind of turning point in his life? I know a few other posters had theorised that he may have been "missing" for a year previous.

This person could well be an international student, but I am dubious about British. I am British and the language he uses doesn't sound right for 70s educated British-English. The big give away is the use of the word "Mom" which is not used much in Britain and certainly not in 1975; in such a formal letter I think a Brit would most likely say Mother and Father or Mum and Dad back then. Also the references to a psychiatrist and as law enforcement being "bound to preserve domestic peace and order" sounds much more American to me.

Though perhaps Canada could be an option? It just seems such a long way to travel to end your life from Canada. I can't help thinking this kid was a native Louisianian or New Orleaner?

How likely is it that he travelled to the area by boat down the Mississippi?

Honestly maybe? He gets upsetting news or has some self realization, wants to get away and think for a while, come to terms with it. I did it when I was 20: cut contact with my family, deleted social media, changed my number, dropped out of college.

Maybe French instead of British, or French Canadian? I’ve heard it was relatively easy to cross the border back then, so it’s possible. Could have also been a student, either in NOLA or Baton Rouge. Also the domestic peace part nags me. Most people just say keeping the peace and don’t add the domestic part. It’s probably nothing but my imagination, but still kinda strange imo.

I’m not really familiar with river trips, but possibly quite easy depending on where the trip started. I know one boat that was running in 1975 was the Natchez, but I’m not sure what stops it made.

 

[Himako14]

Ignore this stupid idea LOL I completely forgot he was wearing odd socks!

Though I wonder how dirty they were too?

Would the swamp really have swallowed his shoes that quickly? Would it be very swampy around the Persimmon tree where he was found hanged? Do they grow in the literal swamp?

See that’s the confusing part about persimmons. They grow on riverbanks, so it’s probably muddy and swampy, but I’ve also seen them growing on firm land. If he found a tree in a muddy area, yes he could lose them fast. I thought I had read somewhere that he was found in the evening. If he had been there for a few hours, the shoes could have sank, animals could have taken them, or they could have just been overlooked by the investigators.

 

[Valiant]

Bus service was much more prevalent then. Greyhound stopped in all sorts of places they no longer do. It’s possible that was his means of travel to the general area.

 

[Ciriii57]

They grow on riverbanks, so it’s probably muddy and swampy, but I’ve also seen them growing on firm land.

It's interesting you should mention the riverbank because I was trying to work out where he was found. It is reported that he was found by "A couple driving through the woods on a farm road between Highway 23 and the Mississippi River, they saw something white glinting from a tree..."
I couldn't really see any "woods" as such on this stretch of road between the Hwy and river. There were 3 areas of what look like rows of trees (I think Persimmon planations) and then of course the area by the riverbank seem to be thickly wooded as well. The below topographical map is from 1976, the Alliance refinery can be seen at the bottom:



If the people who found him were travelling along Parish Road 11, which seems to be more of a dirt track, then they would have been right by the riverbank which is thickly wooded, but I have no idea if these are Persimmon trees:


There are plenty of Persimmon trees in the area, but they are not big enough to hold a body. Is it possible that Katrina destroyes all of the old growth trees and that is why they all look so young?

Also the domestic peace part nags me.

Is it possible this is a clue to where he came from? Maybe the motto of the local police force? You are right though...it does sound a bit weird rather than just say "keep the peace"

 

[Ciriii57]

Bus service was much more prevalent then. Greyhound stopped in all sorts of places they no longer do. It’s possible that was his means of travel to the general area.

Good idea, hadn't thought of that! I guess the Greyhound (or any bus service) would mean your starting point could be literally anywhere and you just transfer onto a different route.

 

[Ciriii57]

Can we establish anything from the clothes he was wearing. Were these more expensive brands or maybe less so? It might give a clue as to his background?
Clothing: Maroon & yellow long-sleeved Puritan knit shirt; blue Arrow pants

I don't know these brands at all But dare I hope that they were only available in certain areas of the US?