CA CA - Malibu John Doe, 20-30, UP15043, found with swiss francs in his pockets, Jan'86

[branmuffin]

EL could be Europa League (soccer championship), Heineken is a sponsor. I am not sure if they were in 1986.

I do not find it strange that he had money with him, paying with cards was not so usual back in those days. Would be interesting how much they mean by "large quantity".

I agree with you that traveling with huge sums of money wasn't unusual back then. A lot of North Americans used to use travelers cheques when traveling in North America but they weren't that popular in Europe. I traveled to Europe several times in the late 80s and only used cash since many vendors either a) didn't know what they were or b) just weren't interested in cashing them. So it's possible a European traveler chose to use cash while over here.

It's possible the UID fell off a boat either by accident or as the result of an altercation. It would be interesting to know what the tides were on January 1st as well as the actual location the UID was discovered.

Is it just me or does he have no eyelashes at all? He hadn't been in the water long enough to have advanced decomp. Could he have had some kind of medical issue that made him lose his eyelashes? He is extremely hirsute otherwise, as illustrated in the PM pics.

I was reading about Swiss francs. In 1984 the Swiss National Bank (SNB) printed a 7th series of bank notes but kept them in reserve if counterfeiting of the current series occurred. It would be interesting to find out whether LE checked to find out what series of bank notes they were.

Only two countries use Swiss francs, Switzerland of course and Liechtenstein but I don't think we can rely on that fact to determine his nationality. Swiss francs are considered the most stable currency in the world. I wonder whether the little pouch described as velvety is actual made from moleskin? It's a densely woven fabric with a slight nap on one side that can be fairly waterproof. And speaking of that little pouch, it really is quite small so just how much money did he really have on him? It must have been in fairly large denominations to fit into that little pouch. Based on the colour of the notes they look like they are 100 and 500 denominations. Here's some images of the notes that were circulated during that time.


It makes me wonder whether he was someone who worked on a merchant vessel in the elements and chose to keep his money on his person rather than in his cabin where it may have been stolen.

If he did work on a vessel and was on shore leave what would be the protocol if a crew member didn't return to the ship?

ETA: just looking again at the PM pics. There is a discoloration of the skin around the eyes which could be vitiligo. Vitiligo and alopecia (hair loss) can share the same pathogens and genetic risk factors.

 

[jellabiafro]

I have some general questions/observations to make.

Assuming that having the Swiss francs means that he came from Switzerland, what route would have have taken in late 1985? Was there a direct flight from Switzerland to LAX? Or is it more likely that he had a layover somewhere on the East Coast? Even today, it appears that Swissair is the only airline offering direct routes (there are maybe 1-2 other carriers flying 3 routes).

[The above paragraph presumes that he went directly from Switzerland to LAX. If he was sightseeing in other areas, the information is far less useful.]

Was this person possibly at a New Year's Eve party of some kind? It was speculated above. But why doesn't he have any kind of ID? Depending on the type of event, he would have needed an ID to buy alcohol or get into a club. Nowadays, I know that if you're paying cash for a car or a hotel room, ID is necessary (in this case, an ID could still be in his hotel room or wherever he was staying). When i worked at a grocery store, one time I recall a visitor using her Turkish passport to show proof of being 21+.

At first the description of both currencies mixed together sounded wrong (most people will keep them separate, nothing worse than digging through a wallet while trying to pay), but the picture shows them neatly clipped and held together in the pouch.

Hey, here are my toughts :

About flights, I know there was a Geneva-NYC back in the 90's that was probably already working in the 80's. There is a Zurich-LAX line but Idk when it started flying. I will try to ask a friend who works for them. But he could totally have landed in NYC and then took a domestic flight to LAX, or took a train from somewhere in Switzerland to Zurich Airport and then directly to LAX, possibly.

About NYE, I'm almost sure he attended a party or some kind of event in the area. JMO : is that he had a bag with his ID and some "non hidden" cash with him and that it either got stolen, either got lost into the ocean. I have never been able to go to a bar in the US without showing my ID, either at the door, either while ordering. But it could've been a private party.

About the mixed currencies, I think this pouch was meant to be "hidden" somehow. And that's not what he would use to pay for things. I'm sure he had dollars either in another pocket, either in a fannypack or bag or so. I think he only carried the pouch to keep it safe and changed the cash step by step. I do that too when I travel.

I want to point at one detail that could mean a lot : He had a broken chain around his neck. The ocean was totally calm, he didn't even lose a shoe in the water when they found him. The chain was still on him. I think it's possible he was attacked or mugged and got pushed into water, for instance.

 

[jellabiafro]

It could just be that his wallet fell out of his pocket and is now somewhere in the ocean.

Exactly, this or a small bag, purse, fannypack...

For example: he books a hotel/motel room in the area. He pays cash, shows ID, leaves for the party. They check the room after a few days, his id's gone, no cash or values, maybe a few clothes. They don't call the cops because they just think he left and didn't care. I dont know, it doesnt seem that odd. If he had left his ID at the hotel/motel, then they would've called the authorities.

 

[branmuffin]

Hey, here are my toughts :

About flights, I know there was a Geneva-NYC back in the 90's that was probably already working in the 80's. There is a Zurich-LAX line but Idk when it started flying. I will try to ask a friend who works for them. But he could totally have landed in NYC and then took a domestic flight to LAX, or took a train from somewhere in Switzerland to Zurich Airport and then directly to LAX, possibly.

About NYE, I'm almost sure he attended a party or some kind of event in the area. JMO : is that he had a bag with his ID and some "non hidden" cash with him and that it either got stolen, either got lost into the ocean. I have never been able to go to a bar in the US without showing my ID, either at the door, either while ordering. But it could've been a private party.

About the mixed currencies, I think this pouch was meant to be "hidden" somehow. And that's not what he would use to pay for things. I'm sure he had dollars either in another pocket, either in a fannypack or bag or so. I think he only carried the pouch to keep it safe and changed the cash step by step. I do that too when I travel.

I want to point at one detail that could mean a lot : He had a broken chain around his neck. The ocean was totally calm, he didn't even lose a shoe in the water when they found him. The chain was still on him. I think it's possible he was attacked or mugged and got pushed into water, for instance.

I don't think it was mentioned that the chain was around his neck. LE presumed it was from a watch.

He was wearing lace up running shoes. I doubt he would lose a shoe. Here in Canada we've had numerous feet found in running shoes in the water. People thought it suggested foul play but forensic scientists said it was fairly common for decomposing bodies to disarticulate at the ankle when in water for a long time.

 

[jellabiafro]

I don't think it was mentioned that the chain was around his neck. LE presumed it was from a watch.

He was wearing lace up running shoes. I doubt he would lose a shoe. Here in Canada we've had numerous feet found in running shoes in the water. People thought it suggested foul play but forensic scientists said it was fairly common for decomposing bodies to disarticulate at the ankle when in water for a long time.

Yeah they don't detail the chain thing enough but as it wasn't in his pockets (as it was precised for the pouch), I doubt some chain would've remained still on his wrist so I thought they mentionned a possible pocket watch; I'm pretty sure it was around his neck but again I can't confirm that.

 

[canteloupe]

Okay, I've gone down some unexpected rabbit holes over the last few days that I'll share here. I'll break into two posts to not overwhelm or derail the good conversations that have been going on in this thread.

Before I start, a comment on the postmortem photos: I think the 3/4 profile image is a much more faithful representation of the UID, particularly with regard to his eyebrows. The front profile image's shadows and artifacting makes it seem erroneously like the UID has Eugene Levi-esque brows.

Moving on to one of many avenues of exploration:

I rummaged through some of the newspaper databases to see what else was going on at the time, paying attention to anything that mentioned Swiss francs, California, and the Dutch language (Heineken)...and any combination therein. I think what I'm about to tell you has a low probability of relating to the Malibu UID, but might be valuable for other UIDs.

There's some unresolved absolute insanity in from 1982-1985 that deals unauthorized uranium sales, secret employment of US engineers and physicists at a South African nuclear energy facility, off-the-books consulting of a SoCal energy firm, and a fugitive (alleged) embezzling employee of the South African Energy Supply Commission who showed up in RSA with a case full of $135,000 Swiss francs before fleeing to Australia by way of California.

The extradition back to RSA of this employee set some significant legal precedents...but I'm having a tough time finding out what happened to his case after conviction. I actually can't even find the original judgment for the case (Rademeyer v. ESCOM - Sep. 1985, Justice G. Coetzee), but I'm limited in my legal database access. Finding anything about South Africa in the mid-to-late 1980s is just very hard in general, as many of the apartheid era institutions were dismantled or reorganized; similarly, naming conventions between court tiers and jurisdictional zones aren't consistent and legal documents relating to this case seem to flip unpredictably between English and Afrikaans. There's also obvious national security implications for this case, as the energy facility in question was previously bombed by anti-apartheid militants and the US government was running heavy press interference about the contracting of scientists/engineers (some from Los Alamos, some from the TVA, others from SoCal Edison) to South Africa, at a time where South Africa was trying to keep quiet its 1979 joint nuclear test with Israel (actually, all involved parties still deny the test).

Given my limitations in resources and language, I can only find this guy up to the guilty verdict of his trial, at which point his legal team asserts he'll be remanded the following week for psychiatric evaluation. I don't see record of an appeal, nor do I see anything about his family (wife, son in late teens, daughter in early 20s), who were implicated in the news as knowledgeable beneficiaries of his fraud. Though everyone involved here has multiple first and middle names (think John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt) they are very common names for RSA. There's a guy who actually works in the legal side of the energy field and is associated with ESKOM (the post-apartheid configuration of the original ESCOM) who has the same name, but age is wrong for both father and son.

So, mystery #1 is what happened with this guy, his family, and the case full of crisp new Swiss francs. One article says the francs were deposited in his wife's RSA bank account, but it's not clear that the deposit was for the full amount he purported had in the briefcase. The embezzled funds--which he was supposed to use to purchase enriched uranium--were never accounted for in full and prosecutors argued he hid them in a variety of banks and real estate purchases.

Mystery #2 is what the heck happened with the 30-odd US energy experts working in South Africa. It seems that it wasn't rare for foreign contractors in RSA during the 1980s to negotiate salaries in Swiss francs, considering the fluctuation of many currencies in the wake of the 1982 global debt crisis.

Mystery #3, potentially the greatest mystery of all, is how little information there is on missing persons in South Africa before and during the end of apartheid. There was certainly an exodus of white South Africans (i.e., Elon Musk) in the 1980s, the pace of which skyrocketed after 1994. If a missing person and/or that individual's family emigrated, might a report have fallen through organizational cracks or have been submitted to the wrong institution? The same hypothetical roadblocks can be found in cases dealing with individuals whose disappearances predate or coincide with the Balkan conflict.

 

[canteloupe]

For a less conspiratorial possibility, I think Samuel Todd might be a decent, though not perfect, fit for this UID.

Samuel Todd
Charley Project profile
NamUs profile
Websleuths thread
DOB: 06/12/1959 (24 at time of disappearance)
Height: 5'11"
Weight: 135 lbs.
Last seen: 01-January-1984
Location: New York, New York

Samuel Todd disappeared in the wee hours of New Year's Day of 1984 in after a NYE party in Manhattan. He was reported missing almost immediately by his younger brother, who was in attendance of the party and was concerned about Samuel's demeanor (I think in terms of both emotional state and intoxication). Samuel was a recent Vassar grad and current grad student at Yale Divinity, where his father had received a degree in the 40s. His father's ministry activities took them all over the world, but he spent a good deal of his formative years in Switzerland (where it looks like he completed high school?).

For a much better written long-form account of Todd's life and disappearance, I recommend this article by fellow YDS alum and Connecticut journalist Paul Keane. According to Keane, Todd had unresolved issues with his romantic life, was worried about financing his education, and may have had misgivings about his professional/spiritual trajectory. His friends and family think he may have made good on his recent interest in ministering to the poor; while I am suspicious about romantic narratives such as this one, there are mentions in articles of a "credible" report by a former classmate of Todd at a Manhattan men's shelter in 1985.

The two men are consistent in terms of height, weight, and hair color. However, if you look at the photos included in Todd's missing person's profiles and reprinted in articles (like the one referenced above), you might reject any possibility of Todd as the UID. But Todd looks strikingly different in every photo (I find the colorized one with vibrant blue eyes very odd) and, as I mentioned in my previous post, I think the UID's postmortem photos have visual artifacts that are misleading. I actually think a better representation of Todd might be to extrapolate on the full-page picture of his brother in the scan of Keane's article (all scanned images are at bottom of linked page; the brother is in the Yale sweatshirt).

One point of interest might be Todd's reported scars on his left cheek close to the eye; the UID seems to have at least one raised scar in this same area.

Todd also had European produced clothing at the time of his disappearance and it's not clear from the articles if the NYPD knows if he had been able to return to his residence in New Haven to collect additional clothing. The family theorized he may have obtained a duplicate passport and returned to Switzerland, a suggestion that made me think of the money pouch. Might he have had bills left over from his time there? Could that have been his life savings that he carried on him rather than in his wallet, which was left at the party, or deposited into a bank account?

Also of interest in Todd's case is that his profile appears in the California AG's list of missing persons. A 1984 New York Times article suggests this is because a woman reportedly saw him in a San Francisco church; the family took this sighting seriously because Todd had spent time during previous summers at Berkeley. Malibu is quite a distance from Berkeley, but there's considerable overlap between Pepperdine and Yale Divinity; a good number of Todd's YDS classmates were Pepperdine grads and many YDS profs had done stints/residencies at Pepperdine.

Could he have made it to California and somehow, by overdose or misadventure, died two years to the day of his disappearance from New York? I can find no record of Todd's suggested comparison to the UID and no rule-out is listed on either man's NamUs profile.

 

[jellabiafro]

For a less conspiratorial possibility, I think Samuel Todd might be a decent, though not perfect, fit for this UID.

Samuel Todd
Charley Project profile
NamUs profile
Websleuths thread
DOB: 06/12/1959 (24 at time of disappearance)
Height: 5'11"
Weight: 135 lbs.
Last seen: 01-January-1984
Location: New York, New York

Samuel Todd disappeared in the wee hours of New Year's Day of 1984 in after a NYE party in Manhattan. He was reported missing almost immedia

For a less conspiratorial possibility, I think Samuel Todd might be a decent, though not perfect, fit for this UID.

Samuel Todd
Charley Project profile
NamUs profile
Websleuths thread
DOB: 06/12/1959 (24 at time of disappearance)
Height: 5'11"
Weight: 135 lbs.
Last seen: 01-January-1984
Location: New York, New York

Samuel Todd disappeared in the wee hours of New Year's Day of 1984 in after a NYE party in Manhattan. He was reported missing almost immediately by his younger brother, who was in attendance of the party and was concerned about Samuel's demeanor (I think in terms of both emotional state and intoxication). Samuel was a recent Vassar grad and current grad student at Yale Divinity, where his father had received a degree in the 40s. His father's ministry activities took them all over the world, but he spent a good deal of his formative years in Switzerland (where it looks like he completed high school?).

For a much better written long-form account of Todd's life and disappearance, I recommend this article by fellow YDS alum and Connecticut journalist Paul Keane. According to Keane, Todd had unresolved issues with his romantic life, was worried about financing his education, and may have had misgivings about his professional/spiritual trajectory. His friends and family think he may have made good on his recent interest in ministering to the poor; while I am suspicious about romantic narratives such as this one, there are mentions in articles of a "credible" report by a former classmate of Todd at a Manhattan men's shelter in 1985.

The two men are consistent in terms of height, weight, and hair color. However, if you look at the photos included in Todd's missing person's profiles and reprinted in articles (like the one referenced above), you might reject any possibility of Todd as the UID. But Todd looks strikingly different in every photo (I find the colorized one with vibrant blue eyes very odd) and, as I mentioned in my previous post, I think the UID's postmortem photos have visual artifacts that are misleading. I actually think a better representation of Todd might be to extrapolate on the full-page picture of his brother in the scan of Keane's article (all scanned images are at bottom of linked page; the brother is in the Yale sweatshirt).

One point of interest might be Todd's reported scars on his left cheek close to the eye; the UID seems to have at least one raised scar in this same area.

Todd also had European produced clothing at the time of his disappearance and it's not clear from the articles if the NYPD knows if he had been able to return to his residence in New Haven to collect additional clothing. The family theorized he may have obtained a duplicate passport and returned to Switzerland, a suggestion that made me think of the money pouch. Might he have had bills left over from his time there? Could that have been his life savings that he carried on him rather than in his wallet, which was left at the party, or deposited into a bank account?

Also of interest in Todd's case is that his profile appears in the California AG's list of missing persons. A 1984 New York Times article suggests this is because a woman reportedly saw him in a San Francisco church; the family took this sighting seriously because Todd had spent time during previous summers at Berkeley. Malibu is quite a distance from Berkeley, but there's considerable overlap between Pepperdine and Yale Divinity; a good number of Todd's YDS classmates were Pepperdine grads and many YDS profs had done stints/residencies at Pepperdine.

Could he have made it to California and somehow, by overdose or misadventure, died two years to the day of his disappearance from New York? I can find no record of Todd's suggested comparison to the UID and no rule-out is listed on either man's NamUs profile.

tely by his younger brother, who was in attendance of the party and was concerned about Samuel's demeanor (I think in terms of both emotional state and intoxication). Samuel was a recent Vassar grad and current grad student at Yale Divinity, where his father had received a degree in the 40s. His father's ministry activities took them all over the world, but he spent a good deal of his formative years in Switzerland (where it looks like he completed high school?).

For a much better written long-form account of Todd's life and disappearance, I recommend this article by fellow YDS alum and Connecticut journalist Paul Keane. According to Keane, Todd had unresolved issues with his romantic life, was worried about financing his education, and may have had misgivings about his professional/spiritual trajectory. His friends and family think he may have made good on his recent interest in ministering to the poor; while I am suspicious about romantic narratives such as this one, there are mentions in articles of a "credible" report by a former classmate of Todd at a Manhattan men's shelter in 1985.

The two men are consistent in terms of height, weight, and hair color. However, if you look at the photos included in Todd's missing person's profiles and reprinted in articles (like the one referenced above), you might reject any possibility of Todd as the UID. But Todd looks strikingly different in every photo (I find the colorized one with vibrant blue eyes very odd) and, as I mentioned in my previous post, I think the UID's postmortem photos have visual artifacts that are misleading. I actually think a better representation of Todd might be to extrapolate on the full-page picture of his brother in the scan of Keane's article (all scanned images are at bottom of linked page; the brother is in the Yale sweatshirt).

One point of interest might be Todd's reported scars on his left cheek close to the eye; the UID seems to have at least one raised scar in this same area.

Todd also had European produced clothing at the time of his disappearance and it's not clear from the articles if the NYPD knows if he had been able to return to his residence in New Haven to collect additional clothing. The family theorized he may have obtained a duplicate passport and returned to Switzerland, a suggestion that made me think of the money pouch. Might he have had bills left over from his time there? Could that have been his life savings that he carried on him rather than in his wallet, which was left at the party, or deposited into a bank account?

Also of interest in Todd's case is that his profile appears in the California AG's list of missing persons. A 1984 New York Times article suggests this is because a woman reportedly saw him in a San Francisco church; the family took this sighting seriously because Todd had spent time during previous summers at Berkeley. Malibu is quite a distance from Berkeley, but there's considerable overlap between Pepperdine and Yale Divinity; a good number of Todd's YDS classmates were Pepperdine grads and many YDS profs had done stints/residencies at Pepperdine.

Could he have made it to California and somehow, by overdose or misadventure, died two years to the day of his disappearance from New York? I can find no record of Todd's suggested comparison to the UID and no rule-out is listed on either man's NamUs profile.

Hey. Thank you for both of these threads. About Samuel Todd, a lot of dots could connect. But they look so much different (hair color, chin, nose, especially his eyebrows, etc) , which makes me believe it's not the same person. It doesn't hurt to dig though. I will check these points today. Thanx !

 

[BigKeyManatee]

Yeah they don't detail the chain thing enough but as it wasn't in his pockets (as it was precised for the pouch), I doubt some chain would've remained still on his wrist so I thought they mentionned a possible pocket watch; I'm pretty sure it was around his neck but again I can't confirm that.

Throwing this in here:
Can’t speak for Europe but in the U.S. during the 1970’s and 1980’s it was fashionable to repurpose antique gold watch chains as necklaces. On the heavy side, these chains had interesting link and bar patterns that made them pleasing enough to wear alone or with a pendant. Source: my mother and I own several and I remember my brother wearing a single chain necklace around this time.

 

[jellabiafro]

Throwing this in here:
Can’t speak for Europe but in the U.S. during the 1970’s and 1980’s it was fashionable to repurpose antique gold watch chains as necklaces. On the heavy side, these chains had interesting link and bar patterns that made them pleasing enough to wear alone or with a pendant. Source: my mother and I own several and I remember my brother wearing a single chain necklace around this time.

That's right; and it is indeed possible that he was wearing some kind of pendant, a watch or just the chain itself.

 

[jellabiafro]

Just out of the blue,
Would a list of ppl entering and exiting the US per country exist and if so, was it already on in the 80's ?

 

[BigKeyManatee]

Just out of the blue,
Would a list of ppl entering and exiting the US per country exist and if so, was it already on in the 80's ?

No doubt the data base exists but the question is who can reasonably access it. Federal law enforcement undoubtedly but I couldn’t speculate how easy it would be for state level LE.
An individual may obtain a record of his or her own international travels through a Freedom of Information Act request. To obtain someone else’s travel records can only be done with their signed consent.
Request Records Through the Freedom of Information Act

 

[jellabiafro]

No doubt the data base exists but the question is who can reasonably access it. Federal law enforcement undoubtedly but I couldn’t speculate how easy it would be for state level LE.
An individual may obtain a record of his or her own international travels through a Freedom of Information Act request. To obtain someone else’s travel records can only be done with their signed consent.
Request Records Through the Freedom of Information Act

Oh, right. That's not gonna help us for now, lol

 

[jellabiafro]

I wrote to the DNA Doe Project and another fellow sleuth wrote to the cold case department to see if they would disclose a couple more infos. I also contacted some Swiss journalists that might be interested in working on the case from here. Let's see what happens !

 

[jellabiafro]

I agree with you that traveling with huge sums of money wasn't unusual back then. A lot of North Americans used to use travelers cheques when traveling in North America but they weren't that popular in Europe. I traveled to Europe several times in the late 80s and only used cash since many vendors either a) didn't know what they were or b) just weren't interested in cashing them. So it's possible a European traveler chose to use cash while over here.

It's possible the UID fell off a boat either by accident or as the result of an altercation. It would be interesting to know what the tides were on January 1st as well as the actual location the UID was discovered.

Is it just me or does he have no eyelashes at all? He hadn't been in the water long enough to have advanced decomp. Could he have had some kind of medical issue that made him lose his eyelashes? He is extremely hirsute otherwise, as illustrated in the PM pics.

I was reading about Swiss francs. In 1984 the Swiss National Bank (SNB) printed a 7th series of bank notes but kept them in reserve if counterfeiting of the current series occurred. It would be interesting to find out whether LE checked to find out what series of bank notes they were.

Only two countries use Swiss francs, Switzerland of course and Liechtenstein but I don't think we can rely on that fact to determine his nationality. Swiss francs are considered the most stable currency in the world. I wonder whether the little pouch described as velvety is actual made from moleskin? It's a densely woven fabric with a slight nap on one side that can be fairly waterproof. And speaking of that little pouch, it really is quite small so just how much money did he really have on him? It must have been in fairly large denominations to fit into that little pouch. Based on the colour of the notes they look like they are 100 and 500 denominations. Here's some images of the notes that were circulated during that time.


It makes me wonder whether he was someone who worked on a merchant vessel in the elements and chose to keep his money on his person rather than in his cabin where it may have been stolen.

If he did work on a vessel and was on shore leave what would be the protocol if a crew member didn't return to the ship?

ETA: just looking again at the PM pics. There is a discoloration of the skin around the eyes which could be vitiligo. Vitiligo and alopecia (hair loss) can share the same pathogens and genetic risk factors.

About the Vitiligo theory, I'm not sure wether the spots on his skin were due to post-mortem discoloration or even a liquid the forensic doctor could've used, otherwise it would probably be mentionned in the file. But I could be wrong. About his hair, here is what's written under one of the pictures "Hair line may appear more receding than it actually was due to postmortem artifact" ; so I don't think he was balding.

 

[jellabiafro]

About the Vitiligo theory, I'm not sure wether the spots on his skin were due to post-mortem discoloration or even a liquid the forensic doctor could've used, otherwise it would probably be mentionned in the file. But I could be wrong. About his hair, here is what's written under one of the pictures : "Hair line may appear more receding than it actually was due to postmortem artifact" ; so I don't think he was balding.

 

[branmuffin]

No doubt the data base exists but the question is who can reasonably access it. Federal law enforcement undoubtedly but I couldn’t speculate how easy it would be for state level LE.
An individual may obtain a record of his or her own international travels through a Freedom of Information Act request. To obtain someone else’s travel records can only be done with their signed consent.
Request Records Through the Freedom of Information Act

In the 70s and early 80s a group of us girls would pile into a vehicle to go across the border at Niagara Falls. I don't ever recall being asked for ID. The border patrol guy would look in the car, ask everyone where they were born (chorus of "Toronto") and then wave us through.

The funny thing is almost none of us were born in Toronto, one was born in Peterborough, one from Hamilton and two from Whitby and myself who was born in England. We all said Toronto since we figured those smaller towns wouldn't have been easily recognized by the guards. So maybe the records are very sketchy. Same coming back into Canada, if you had Ontario plates you just got waved through.

 

[BigKeyManatee]

In the 70s and early 80s a group of us girls would pile into a vehicle to go across the border at Niagara Falls. I don't ever recall being asked for ID. The border patrol guy would look in the car, ask everyone where they were born (chorus of "Toronto") and then wave us through.

The funny thing is almost none of us were born in Toronto, one was born in Peterborough, one from Hamilton and two from Whitby and myself who was born in England. We all said Toronto since we figured those smaller towns wouldn't have been easily recognized by the guards. So maybe the records are very sketchy. Same coming back into Canada, if you had Ontario plates you just got waved through.

Good Times
I was thinking in terms of the Customs and Border Patrol Traveler Entry Form that every passenger must fill out upon arrival to U.S. airports. For what it worth, the CBP Timeline says that the Customs Computer Center went online in 1966, so there is a potential database for arrivals in that timeframe.
But yeah, I don’t doubt that the US northern and southern borders were extremely lax for vehicles back then. Lots of Swiss (and other Europeans) immigrated to Canada in the 70’s so maybe he did come to the U.S. from Canada. But without any clue as to the UID’s nationality I personally don’t see how this immigration information would be useful.
I DO wonder about the Swiss Francs found in his possession, and if they could contain any useful information. Dates? Serial Numbers? I have this fantasy that the Swiss are so careful about their currency that if someone were to exchange cash for significant amounts of CHF the serial numbers might be recorded?
Just spitballing, but those Francs appear to be the most solid clue about this guy.

 

[jellabiafro]

Good Times
I was thinking in terms of the Customs and Border Patrol Traveler Entry Form that every passenger must fill out upon arrival to U.S. airports. For what it worth, the CBP Timeline says that the Customs Computer Center went online in 1966, so there is a potential database for arrivals in that timeframe.
But yeah, I don’t doubt that the US northern and southern borders were extremely lax for vehicles back then. Lots of Swiss (and other Europeans) immigrated to Canada in the 70’s so maybe he did come to the U.S. from Canada. But without any clue as to the UID’s nationality I personally don’t see how this immigration information would be useful.
I DO wonder about the Swiss Francs found in his possession, and if they could contain any useful information. Dates? Serial Numbers? I have this fantasy that the Swiss are so careful about their currency that if someone were to exchange cash for significant amounts of CHF the serial numbers might be recorded?
Just spitballing, but those Francs appear to be the most solid clue about this guy.

Yes ! Turns out that if the serial numbers follow each other (or at least some of them), there might be a way to track down the bank the notes were issued from. And even if we can't track them, the fact that he'd have series that follow each other means he withdrawed them in one place.
If series are mixed up and quality of the notes vary, from almost brand new to very used one, this will tell us other things : either he saved a lot of money for his trip and did it on a long time-lapse by working small jobs or something ; either he was selling drugs, legal or not, or anything involving black market.

 

[jellabiafro]

In the 70s and early 80s a group of us girls would pile into a vehicle to go across the border at Niagara Falls. I don't ever recall being asked for ID. The border patrol guy would look in the car, ask everyone where they were born (chorus of "Toronto") and then wave us through.

The funny thing is almost none of us were born in Toronto, one was born in Peterborough, one from Hamilton and two from Whitby and myself who was born in England. We all said Toronto since we figured those smaller towns wouldn't have been easily recognized by the guards. So maybe the records are very sketchy. Same coming back into Canada, if you had Ontario plates you just got waved through.

True that, some friends also told me about how borders were much easier to cross in some places back in the days. And they weren't collecting/numerizing data the way it's done now. So yeah, that's probably a dead end for now.