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

[branmuffin]

Was the graveyard just left a mess after the hurricane? Did they try to find and rebury any bodies at all?

Also, I wonder if LE would be willing to release the suicide note in its entirety, I mean, what do they have to lose at this point?

Maybe what they have to lose is admitting that they've lost the notes.

After reading about so many UIDs here on WS one of the prevailing characteristics of many old cases is that the evidence is lost, displaced or destroyed. So it's hard for them to acknowledge they can't produce anything now that could help in identification when renewed interest occurs.

And for LE in places like New Orleans they've had to deal with the double whammy of unending series of devastating floods and hurricanes that have destroyed whole buildings and submerged cemeteries.

I was reading one case, I can't recall who now, but officers were told to destroy evidence of cases that were considered unsolvable. So a case edging up to fifty years old might be one of them.

I wouldn't be surprised whether some police forces hold their breath with the renewed interest in cold cases what with DNA submissions, having to admit the evidence is long gone.

 

[branmuffin]

I went back and read the thread again. I was trying to understand why LE sent his body to a funeral home in Gretna. There is the Mothe funeral home in Gretna that's been around for about 125 years so it may have been as simple as it was actually the closest one.

I was searching the web to get a feel for what life was like in New Orleans back in the mid 70s and found this fascinating article written in 1978 in the Atlantic. It runs the gamut regarding economy, race relations, the social structure of society, etc. It's a good read and a bit prescient, too.

New Orleans: I Have Seen the Future, and It's Houston

For some reason, I get the feeling this young man is fairly local. I feel he definitely graduated high school and may look younger than he really was. And like many of us believe not only educated but highly intelligent.

I also find it eerie that after reading about Vance Rodriguez, the UID named Mostly Harmless who was found dead in a tent in Florida in 2018 there seems (based on the letters BCJD wrote and the anecdotal stories told about Vance) that they may have been very similar in their behavior. MOO

 

[PropaneYeeter]

Just a few thoughts.

My first impression upon re-reading the notes after some time was that this may have been an individual struggling with their sexuality or gender identity. Doe's words just seem to reek of self-loathing. I found it interesting they referred to themselves solely as "a person" rather than using any gendered language. Maybe 'he' felt more like a 'she'? I really do wonder, especially since they said "ask thoroughly about what I was", rather than "who I was"; evidently, they saw themselves as something abnormal and unnatural. Gender dysphoria was treated back then primarily by trying to force the affected individual into identifying with their biological sex, and I don't think I need to explain how that could drive someone to suicide. If our Doe was transgender, transitioning probably wasn't an option. Perhaps they thought death was the only way they could truly be at peace. I've no doubt in my mind that they were suffering.

It sounds like Doe might've suffered from dissociation. Having a dissociative disorder myself, I too struggle with empathy, building interpersonal relationships, and feelings of pervasive emptiness, melancholia, and inadequacy. I've struggled with suicidal ideation on and off for the better part of the past decade. Having experienced depersonalisation on a daily basis at one point, I'd say the phrase "parody of a person" is an incredibly accurate descriptor of what it's like to depersonalise. You feel alien. You don't recognise your reflection. You can see your body moving, but you're not the one moving it — it's like someone else has hijacked your autonomy. You're so detached from your emotions and self that you become numb and apathetic towards everything. With derealisation, you feel like you're existing separately to everything else. Like no one else can perceive you. The world is blurry and distorted and utterly lustreless. Truly, you feel like a shell. You feel trapped within yourself. Like you're being forced to exist in a world that has no place for you.

Dissociation is a response to high psychological stress and/or trauma. Makes me wonder about what our Doe went through in life to end up in that tree.

I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss the age estimate as inaccurate based solely on how the note was written. I'm around the Doe's age myself, and I've had people tell me I write like someone at least a half-decade older. I've always been fascinated by words and language, and get the feeling our Doe felt similarly.

Also, regarding Bayard Cousins — I don't think it's him. Bayard had a cross-shaped scar on his finger, which should've been noticed at autopsy given the Doe's body was fresh (found no later than six hours after death). I'm also assuming Doe's age was determined by examining the bone structure, which differs wildly between a 22-year-old and a 16-year-old. But, again, just my two cents. I could be wrong.

 

[its.evey]

Just a few thoughts.

My first impression upon re-reading the notes after some time was that this may have been an individual struggling with their sexuality or gender identity. Doe's words just seem to reek of self-loathing. I found it interesting they referred to themselves solely as "a person" rather than using any gendered language. Maybe 'he' felt more like a 'she'? I really do wonder, especially since they said "ask thoroughly about what I was", rather than "who I was"; evidently, they saw themselves as something abnormal and unnatural. Gender dysphoria was treated back then primarily by trying to force the affected individual into identifying with their biological sex, and I don't think I need to explain how that could drive someone to suicide. If our Doe was transgender, transitioning probably wasn't an option. Perhaps they thought death was the only way they could truly be at peace. I've no doubt in my mind that they were suffering.

It sounds like Doe might've suffered from dissociation. Having a dissociative disorder myself, I too struggle with empathy, building interpersonal relationships, and feelings of pervasive emptiness, melancholia, and inadequacy. I've struggled with suicidal ideation on and off for the better part of the past decade. Having experienced depersonalisation on a daily basis at one point, I'd say the phrase "parody of a person" is an incredibly accurate descriptor of what it's like to depersonalise. You feel alien. You don't recognise your reflection. You can see your body moving, but you're not the one moving it — it's like someone else has hijacked your autonomy. You're so detached from your emotions and self that you become numb and apathetic towards everything. With derealisation, you feel like you're existing separately to everything else. Like no one else can perceive you. The world is blurry and distorted and utterly lustreless. Truly, you feel like a shell. You feel trapped within yourself. Like you're being forced to exist in a world that has no place for you.

Dissociation is a response to high psychological stress and/or trauma. Makes me wonder about what our Doe went through in life to end up in that tree.

I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss the age estimate as inaccurate based solely on how the note was written. I'm around the Doe's age myself, and I've had people tell me I write like someone at least a half-decade older. I've always been fascinated by words and language, and get the feeling our Doe felt similarly.

Also, regarding Bayard Cousins — I don't think it's him. Bayard had a cross-shaped scar on his finger, which should've been noticed at autopsy given the Doe's body was fresh (found no later than six hours after death). I'm also assuming Doe's age was determined by examining the bone structure, which differs wildly between a 22-year-old and a 16-year-old. But, again, just my two cents. I could be wrong.

I agree with the thought of depersonalization. Other mental illnesses such as anxiety and/or depression also include depersonalization.

 

[Tony1902]

Just to add, New Orleans' French Quarter, even in the 20s and when I was in grammar school in the 50s, with kids who's parents worked the streets, were transvestites, openly gay, strippers, barkers, living in the projects, different sexuality, while not overt, was not condemned.

The old chestnut was that a certain bar was burnt down because a certain closeted king of a Mardi Gras organization caught his DL lover with another man. Being gay in the 70s in NOLA was not a a great stigmatizing factor, as long as you hung out in the right places, like Lafitte's In Exile. My aunt used to send me in there for banana leaves when I was 10. The Quarter was made up of old Creole families, both Black and White, Asians, Italians, artists, singers, everyone and anyone.

A coffee house was renovated around 1960 and they found a saber, rifle, horse skeleton and a Civil War Union flag between the walls and in the attic. A very very odd place where people who didn't fit in anywhere could fit in there. Including me. And the West Bank was just a 10 cent ferry ride from Algiers to the Quarter.

 

[its.evey]

Just to add, New Orleans' French Quarter, even in the 20s and when I was in grammar school in the 50s, with kids who's parents worked the streets, were transvestites, openly gay, strippers, barkers, living in the projects, different sexuality, while not overt, was not condemned.

The old chestnut was that a certain bar was burnt down because a certain closeted king of a Mardi Gras organization caught his DL lover with another man. Being gay in the 70s in NOLA was not a a great stigmatizing factor, as long as you hung out in the right places, like Lafitte's In Exile. My aunt used to send me in there for banana leaves when I was 10. The Quarter was made up of old Creole families, both Black and White, Asians, Italians, artists, singers, everyone and anyone.

A coffee house was renovated around 1960 and they found a saber, rifle, horse skeleton and a Civil War Union flag between the walls and in the attic. A very very odd place where people who didn't fit in anywhere could fit in there. Including me. And the West Bank was just a 10 cent ferry ride from Algiers to the Quarter.

If the UID had trouble with his sexuality, maybe he grew up in a heavily religious family/area which criticized him for being "different"?

 

[Sweetluv]

PropaneYeeter...thank you for sharing your own personal experience. Glad your apart of our websleuths community!

 

[madamx]

Bump

 

[ninetimesfifteen]

If the UID had trouble with his sexuality, maybe he grew up in a heavily religious family/area which criticized him for being "different"?

I don't see any ill will towards his family in his letter. Quite the opposite.
I do think he wasn't from New Orleans, otherwise his parents would have certainly found out about his body being found, and it seems he didn't want that.

 

[its.evey]

I don't see any ill will towards his family in his letter. Quite the opposite.
I do think he wasn't from New Orleans, otherwise his parents would have certainly found out about his body being found, and it seems he didn't want that.

Agreed, my guess is that he was from the west coast/northern US or possibly Canada but in areas where its more conservative

 

[Baudelaire]

I didn't understand: do you think it could be him or not?

No, I excluded those because of date gone missing etc, nowhere close to February. I sent mail to those administrators of pages for missing persons to exclude those people from this Doe as they cannot be him.

There are 10 more at Namus for exclusion, if you go there you'll see the dates differ, so they can be excluded too. I have not had time to do that. Sorry.

 

[Baudelaire]

Well, I don't know for sure they mean the Puritan brand, so it could still be as you suggest. But I was thinking that a shirt from a regional New England brand might connect our guy to that part of the country. Not but what millions of people from all over the world haven't vacationed on Cape Cod, so it doesn't necessarily mean anything.

I also don't know when Walmart bought out Puritan. It was a national brand by then and he could have bought it anywhere. And it looks like there might be other clothing lines that have called themselves Puritan.

p.s.

This is what I posted earlier in the thread. I don't seem to have had the decency to include my research links.
LA - LA - Belle Chasse, WhtMale, 16-17, hanged, suicide note, Feb'75

Makes sense if he ran away that money would finish quickly and cheap clothes would suffice.

Most interesting the tag. Can it be traced if from a hospital? Also the sheet. Did hospitals not stamp their sheets as property of hospital?

 

[Baudelaire]

Maybe what they have to lose is admitting that they've lost the notes.

After reading about so many UIDs here on WS one of the prevailing characteristics of many old cases is that the evidence is lost, displaced or destroyed. So it's hard for them to acknowledge they can't produce anything now that could help in identification when renewed interest occurs.

And for LE in places like New Orleans they've had to deal with the double whammy of unending series of devastating floods and hurricanes that have destroyed whole buildings and submerged cemeteries.

I was reading one case, I can't recall who now, but officers were told to destroy evidence of cases that were considered unsolvable. So a case edging up to fifty years old might be one of them.

I wouldn't be surprised whether some police forces hold their breath with the renewed interest in cold cases what with DNA submissions, having to admit the evidence is long gone.

At the beggining of the thread someone mentioned a file that was sent between 2 LE Agencies. A file that was lost. If he was identified in that file and then nobody is looking for him, he was identified.

His case file may have been partially destroyed and when things got cleaned up the case was reopened as unsolved. Which means we're working at cross purposes here because the orginial file may hold the key.

The biggest problem is time because even if we could put him on headline news, 50 years have passed? Who is still alive to remember?

But then, who says we can't trace through a hospital? Or already have him as an inclusion?

 

[Baudelaire]

I agree with the thought of depersonalization. Other mental illnesses such as anxiety and/or depression also include depersonalization.

Schizophrenia also includes depersonalisation. However, Yeeter makes a point about the self loathing in the letter. Again true for trauma leading to a host of disorders.

I can ask a friend in the mental health profession how his patients with DID write about themselves. From reading books written by people with DID its been my experience that most refer to themselves in the plural, not as a single person.

But now that it has been mentioned I find myself comparing BCJD's letter to the book The Minds Of Billy Milligan. He too was exceptionally well spoken. (Although I think his book was written with the cooperation of somebody)

Which brings us back to a possible stay in a mental institution.

 

[Baudelaire]

Just to add, New Orleans' French Quarter, even in the 20s and when I was in grammar school in the 50s, with kids who's parents worked the streets, were transvestites, openly gay, strippers, barkers, living in the projects, different sexuality, while not overt, was not condemned.

The old chestnut was that a certain bar was burnt down because a certain closeted king of a Mardi Gras organization caught his DL lover with another man. Being gay in the 70s in NOLA was not a a great stigmatizing factor, as long as you hung out in the right places, like Lafitte's In Exile. My aunt used to send me in there for banana leaves when I was 10. The Quarter was made up of old Creole families, both Black and White, Asians, Italians, artists, singers, everyone and anyone.

A coffee house was renovated around 1960 and they found a saber, rifle, horse skeleton and a Civil War Union flag between the walls and in the attic. A very very odd place where people who didn't fit in anywhere could fit in there. Including me. And the West Bank was just a 10 cent ferry ride from Algiers to the Quarter.

And someone wrote a book which became a best seller about NO around that time. Believe it was posthumously published.

 

[BigKeyManatee]

And someone wrote a book which became a best seller about NO around that time. Believe it was posthumously published.

Is this the one?
A Confederacy of Dunces - Wikipedia
Looks like it wasn’t published until 1980. Highly memorable book. Interesting parallels with the Belle Chase Doe and the book’s author- both highly intelligent, both had conflicted relationships with their parents, both died by suicide, both having written complex suicide notes. MOO
John Kennedy Toole - Wikipedia

 

[PropaneYeeter]

Most interesting the tag. Can it be traced if from a hospital? Also the sheet. Did hospitals not stamp their sheets as property of hospital?

I personally discount the theory of Doe being a recently-escaped patient in a psychiatric facility due to them still being in possession of a belt. You'd think if the staff confiscated the shoes for fear their laces would be used as a ligature, they'd have done the same with a belt.

I can ask a friend in the mental health profession how his patients with DID write about themselves. From reading books written by people with DID its been my experience that most refer to themselves in the plural, not as a single person.

I'll try not to reveal too much personal information here, but I will say an individual referring to themselves as a singular entity rather than plural isn't nearly enough to dismiss the possibility of DID. I know first-hand that a lot of people with DID/OSDD refer to themselves as a singular person. It's incredibly covert, so much so that most of those with DID/OSDD won't even know they have it until they seek help for other psychological problems and it's eventually noticed by a mental health professional with ample experience in treating dissociative/trauma-born disorders. Even then, it can take years for one to receive an accurate diagnosis, as some clinicians think DID is entirely iatrogenic and anyone who claims to experience identity alteration is either malingering or deluded. Very little was known about DID in the 70s (according to my research/to my knowledge), so even if Doe did see a professional, it's likely they'd have been misdiagnosed.

 

[madamx]

So I looked for more photos of Bayard Cousins in their yearbooks and I'll try to post them along with the original. I think it's sad his name is misspelled multiple times in what was their senior yearbook.
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Wow that is great you found all those photos of Bayard. They should def be posted on his thread too!

I have not read this entire thread and I am sort of new in really looking into this case but I feel it’s Bayard also. It’s weird he wrote the letter not to worry to his parents and then wrote the suicide note and stuck it in the jar. I find it interesting in one of the photos he is sitting next to a jar. He was into ecology which could bring him to the use of preserving things in jars. Who thinks to put a suicide note in a jar?

Now another thing that makes me think it Baynard is the part in the letter he says he stopped growing a long time ago. Supposedly teenagers stop growing at 18 and he was 22 so he could of said that literally and figuratively. I also think the John Doe was prob older.

Iam wondering if he had issues with his sexuality ( parents used to send their kids to psychiatrists for that back then) and that is a big reason for the suicide.

I wonder if he came down for Mardi Gras . In 1975 it was held on Feb 11th. It was known to be big for gays to go to Mardi Gras. People wore costumes and hid behind masks and came from all over. Maybe something he had hoped for did not happen or maybe something did happen and he was afraid of completely coming out as it was not accepted then. Maybe afraid to shame his family or later on getting violently attacked and killed. He mentioned something about violence in his letter which is what made me think that.

I am wondering if he was with someone that dropped him off there
And if the sheet came from a motel that he stayed at and that is where the rest of his belongings remained.

I wonder if the checked or could check if the body had any drugs in his system.

I wonder if there is any way to compare the handwriting of Bayard and the John Doe?

Sorry if anything I have repeated anything that has been discussed already.

 

[ClaireNC]

I personally discount the theory of Doe being a recently-escaped patient in a psychiatric facility due to them still being in possession of a belt. You'd think if the staff confiscated the shoes for fear their laces would be used as a ligature, they'd have done the same with a belt.


I'll try not to reveal too much personal information here, but I will say an individual referring to themselves as a singular entity rather than plural isn't nearly enough to dismiss the possibility of DID. I know first-hand that a lot of people with DID/OSDD refer to themselves as a singular person. It's incredibly covert, so much so that most of those with DID/OSDD won't even know they have it until they seek help for other psychological problems and it's eventually noticed by a mental health professional with ample experience in treating dissociative/trauma-born disorders. Even then, it can take years for one to receive an accurate diagnosis, as some clinicians think DID is entirely iatrogenic and anyone who claims to experience identity alteration is either malingering or deluded. Very little was known about DID in the 70s (according to my research/to my knowledge), so even if Doe did see a professional, it's likely they'd have been misdiagnosed.

Love your posts. Thanks so much for sharing your experiences. I was a 16 year old teenager in 1975, when this boy committed suicide. Psychology was something new that fascinated some of us teenagers. At least amongst my group of friends. We read everything we could find on the subject. The book Sybil was published in 1973. It was written by Flora Rheta Schreiber about the treatment of “Sybil Dorsett” for DID (then referred to as multiple personality disorder). It was a popular book at the time, (even though later it was considered a fake.). Reading the suicide notes, I think it’s likely that the boy spent a lot of time reading about psychology/psychiatry.

 

[its.evey]

Love your posts. Thanks so much for sharing your experiences. I was a 16 year old teenager in 1975, when this boy committed suicide. Psychology was something new that fascinated some of us teenagers. At least amongst my group of friends. We read everything we could find on the subject. The book Sybil was published in 1973. It was written by Flora Rheta Schreiber about the treatment of “Sybil Dorsett” for DID (then referred to as multiple personality disorder). It was a popular book at the time, (even though later it was considered a fake.). Reading the suicide notes, I think it’s likely that the boy spent a lot of time reading about psychology/psychiatry.

Agreed and probably read a lot (poetry, novels, etc). I believe he probably did okay with school if his mental health did not get in the way off his performance.