IL IL - Gary Martin Cantlon, 26, Riverdale, 1 Mar 1969

[Gardener1850]

Cook County, Illinois
26 year old white male

Height (inches)

Weight (pounds)

[TD="class: view_field"]72.0 to 74.0[/TD]

[TD="class: view_field"]150.0 to 175.0[/TD]

Hair: Brown, full
Body hair: Minimal
Eyes: brown

AB Neg blood type tattooed in upper arm

Wrist was fractured when he was a young child, trying to determine which wrist.

Transportation: left on unknown bus lines for Florida


Circumstances: Freely left home with the intention of going to Miami Florida by bus but was never heard from again


https://www.findthemissing.org/en/cases/24219/

 

[StarrChance]

Found a 1963 newspaper article with the same name, if it’s him it shows ties to Florida and also Indiana
Would something like this relate to changing identities 6 years later?

 

[Gardener1850]

Found a 1963 newspaper article with the same name, if it’s him it shows ties to Florida and also Indiana
Would something like this relate to changing identities 6 years later?

View attachment 168342

Great find. The OP says he was boarding a bus to Florida so that seems like it is him. Perhaps he was still dodging the draft when he disappeared again in 1969?

 

[Gardener1850]

Updated NAMUS link without redirect: Missing Person Case

 

[StarrChance]

Great find. The OP says he was boarding a bus to Florida so that seems like it is him. Perhaps he was still dodging the draft when he disappeared again in 1969?

Thanks, it’s quite possible. Why would he have a tattoo of his blood type?

 

[StarrChance]

Found this on a Ancestry message board, snipped:

My father Martin Daniel Cantlon married my mother Mary Wickwire and had three children, myself,1960, my brother, Douglas, 1949, and my brother Gary, 1942. Gary dissappeared in 1969 but had a son Cory, who lives in Florida.

 

[Gardener1850]

Seems from Ancestry that he went to high school in both Jupiter, Florida and Hammond, Indiana. Here is his Jupiter High School photo from his Junior year (grade 11):



It can be viewed here for anything with an Ancestry account: Ancestry - Sign In

 

[Mercedes]

How do you know he changed identities?

 

[Gardener1850]

Here he is at about age 14 in the Morton High School yearbook from Hammond, Indiana in 1957:

Link: Ancestry - Sign In

 

[Gardener1850]

Thanks, it’s quite possible. Why would he have a tattoo of his blood type?

Apparently it was a NW Indiana thing in schools during the 1950's:

WHITING -- If Bill Mercer ever forgets that he lives in the toxic shadow of a massive refinery, steel mills and chemical factories, he need only look at his torso under his left arm.

Stretched blurry since he received it in third grade, a small "O+" tattoo reminds him of his blood type -- and that Northwest Indiana's industrial assets make it a tempting target.

"They had a needle like a gun, and they had us put up our arms, and they zapped you with it," said Mercer, 59.

"They had to have had an idea then what it was for -- maybe it was like fingerprinting for protection or identification."

He still wants to know why schools in some parts of Lake County decided to issue dog tags and tattoo blood types on children during the Korean War in the early 1950s.

Read more: 1950s blood-type tattoos reflect region's history

 

[StarrChance]

How do you know he changed identities?

There could be many reasons for his disappearance, only throwing out the idea of *possible* reason for avoiding the draft, suicide or murder, however no body. In such a old case I think it’s worth looking at every avenue that’s available IMO

 

[StarrChance]

Apparently it was a NW Indiana thing in schools during the 1950's:

WHITING -- If Bill Mercer ever forgets that he lives in the toxic shadow of a massive refinery, steel mills and chemical factories, he need only look at his torso under his left arm.

Stretched blurry since he received it in third grade, a small "O+" tattoo reminds him of his blood type -- and that Northwest Indiana's industrial assets make it a tempting target.

"They had a needle like a gun, and they had us put up our arms, and they zapped you with it," said Mercer, 59.

"They had to have had an idea then what it was for -- maybe it was like fingerprinting for protection or identification."

He still wants to know why schools in some parts of Lake County decided to issue dog tags and tattoo blood types on children during the Korean War in the early 1950s.

Read more: 1950s blood-type tattoos reflect region's history

Found another one, learn something new every day


https://www.washingtonpost.com/loca...ory.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.ee0db8354a39

 

[Gardener1850]

Seems like the blood type tattoos were tiny and they blurred with time. Gary's tattoo might not have even been noticed if he was found as an UID. Or he might have easily had it covered with another tattoo.

 

[Gardener1850]

Another thing about the tattoo-- all the articles I'm seeing say it was given on the upper torso under the left arm in Indiana. Gary's description say it is on the upper arm. I wonder if they were remembering wrong on the location or if some Indiana schools did use the arm instead of the torso?

 

[StarrChance]

Digging a bit, I am pretty sure I have found his son, dob, (prior to 1963) and a different surname for him (possibly took on a new surname when his mother married later)
Atm it doesn’t seem to help in any way to helping find Gary Cantlon unfortunately.

 

[StarrChance]

Bump for Gary, his parents obits stage him as deceased rather than missing, sad.

 

[Cimatico]

Enhanced image from source https://www.namus.gov/api/CaseSets/NamUs/MissingPersons/Cases/24219/Images/5381/Original

 

[madamx]

Bumping

 

[John/Jane Doe]

5605DMIL - Gary Martin Cantlon

 

[madamx]

Another thing about the tattoo-- all the articles I'm seeing say it was given on the upper torso under the left arm in Indiana. Gary's description say it is on the upper arm. I wonder if they were remembering wrong on the location or if some Indiana schools did use the arm instead of the torso?

That is am interesting thought. I guessing the tattoo location was recorded from the memory of someone.