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

[Himako14]

i don’t think the autopsy report would be available to the public since LA doesn’t consider them public records. LE or maybe a lab would have to request it and only if they believe it to be related to a criminal offense, per LA R.S 44:19. The death certificate should be available 50 years after the year of the death, so either late this year or next year. I can keep an eye on the records for it.

 

[cenazoic]

I’ve wondered if we’re able to request them as we’re not ‘entitled’, as defined here:

https://ldh.la.gov/page/how-to-order-death-records

That said, certificates older than 50 years are supposed to go to the state archives, where the public can request a copy for (currently) $10.

Here’s the list of people at the archives when searching for ‘unidentified’; the oldest date currently is 1972:

Louisiana Death Records

So that’s probably the most likely source we can eventually get it from.

I’m also tempted to get some of the others - likely more unlisted mysteries there. As a side note, I suspect most of the unidentifieds from 1957 are Hurricane Audrey victims.

 

[snarast]

It’s quite a narrow age range. That’s a bit risky.

 

[Diavola]

"When you stop growing you are dead"
This quote seemed so familiar when I read the suicide note, like I have heard something like it before, maybe in a book or something. But I cannot remember where. Googling it I get William S. Burroughs "When you stop growing you start dying".

 

[Himako14]

The book it comes from is an interesting read. It’s a line from Burroughs book Junky, published in 53/54, can’t remember right off hand. It’s about a drug addict who is also a homosexual in the 1950s and travels from NYC to New Orleans and then other places, Texas and Mexico City.

 

[snarast]

The book it comes from is an interesting read. It’s a line from Burroughs book Junky, published in 53/54, can’t remember right off hand. It’s about a drug addict who is also a homosexual in the 1950s and travels from NYC to New Orleans and then other places, Texas and Mexico City.

Bit of a classic.

 

[Diavola]

The book it comes from is an interesting read. It’s a line from Burroughs book Junky, published in 53/54, can’t remember right off hand. It’s about a drug addict who is also a homosexual in the 1950s and travels from NYC to New Orleans and then other places, Texas and Mexico City.

I didn't look too far into the origin of the quote - I got distraced by the author's life, as he murdered his wife.

Bit of a classic.

Would it be something a teenager would read though?
Maybe he identified with the subject matter or maybe he was a reader and just identified with that particular quote.

 

[cherrymeg]

Honestly, at this point, your long shot is as good a guess as any.

This could be a situation reminiscent of the unsolved murder of Blair Adams. After several attempts to cross the Canada/US border, he managed to enter from Vancouver to Seattle where he purchased a round-trip ticket to Frankfurt, Germany. He then decided to change this ticket for a one-way trip to Washington DC, drove to Knox County, Tennessee, where he knew no one, and was subsequently murdered there by person(s) unknown.

Or like Gordon Lopez, who disappeared from Portland, Oregon and seems to have died in Chicago, Illinois near a theater named after his favorite author.

Similarly, Michael could've felt an affinity for New Orleans, Louisiana for some reason and decided to end his life there.

Would an accent draw attention in Belle Chase? If someone was new in town especially if they were from an other country would that be something people would notice? If you were going to commit suicide it seems like something you do while depressed but not something you travel that far to do. Not with suicide in mind. I’m not thinking of assisted suicide so people can die with dignity. This is a teenager so was it planned. It seems like if he was local someone would have recognized him or noticed a missing student or neighbor.

 

[cenazoic]

Interesting quote from Burroughs. (Einstein has been attributed even earlier with the similarish “Once you stop learning, you start dying.”)

Googling it I get William S. Burroughs "When you stop growing you start dying".

The next line is: “An addict never stops growing.”

 

[LucyOso]

Would an accent draw attention in Belle Chase? If someone was new in town especially if they were from an other country would that be something people would notice? If you were going to commit suicide it seems like something you do while depressed but not something you travel that far to do. Not with suicide in mind. I’m not thinking of assisted suicide so people can die with dignity. This is a teenager so was it planned. It seems like if he was local someone would have recognized him or noticed a missing student or neighbor.

I agree and disagree. An accent is an accent. In areas with tourists, accents aren't uncommon. People move all the time and recreate themselves. People ride the same train, bus, or subway to work for decades with the same people and never know their names or anything about them. I have lived places for years and never spoke to some neighbors. They wouldn't know if I had an accent or not.

What frustrated me most in the last year was that I had built no ties to family or friends.

I especially think teenagers and young adults often think moving, trying new hairstyles, revamping a wardrobe believe these changes will make a permanent difference. See the outside influences as creating misery or holding them back. As we get older we understand, wherever you go, there you are.

 

[JSolt1210]

Would an accent draw attention in Belle Chase? If someone was new in town especially if they were from an other country would that be something people would notice?... It seems like if he was local someone would have recognized him or noticed a missing student or neighbor.

I agree and disagree. An accent is an accent. In areas with tourists, accents aren't uncommon.

I would also add that he was found only three days after Mardi Gras. New Orleans is just 10 miles away, and I'm sure even back in 1975 people from all over the world would go there to celebrate. Therefore I don't think someone with an accent would stand out at this time of the year.

I still lean towards him being local, or at the very least from the US. But after 50 years of zero answers, maybe we do need to start looking outside of the country.

I note, however, that he called himself "self-centered," using the American spelling. People from the UK, Canada, or Australia would write "self-centred," though I don't know how strictly they would adhere to that spelling, especially 50 years ago.

 

[Himako14]

I both agree and disagree with the accent. In a larger city like NOLA, accents are probably not going to be remembered. However if he spoke to anyone in a smaller community, someone may have mentioned it. I grew up in a small community about 90 minutes away, and we always remembered unusual accents. Of course this was 20 years ago vs 50 for our doe.

I asked one of my aunts about New Orleans Mardi Gras in 1975. She was still young, but she remembered that it was bigger than she had seen at that time. Paul McCartney was apparently in New Orleans for Mardi Gras and a few days later. May be a useless facts, but thought I would share.

 

[summergirl1]

Would an accent draw attention in Belle Chase? If someone was new in town especially if they were from an other country would that be something people would notice? If you were going to commit suicide it seems like something you do while depressed but not something you travel that far to do. Not with suicide in mind. I’m not thinking of assisted suicide so people can die with dignity. This is a teenager so was it planned. It seems like if he was local someone would have recognized him or noticed a missing student or neighbor.

There are solved Doe cases where the person traveled to commit suicide or committed suicide while traveling-in hotels, for example, or wherever they may have just stopped their car. There's also other Doe cases like the well known "Mary Anderson" (1996 suicide by cyanide in a hotel) and more obscure ones like one mentioned on here "Bruce Peck" ( a young man who died by overdose in a Massachusetts hotel in 1971) where the person hasn't been identified yet, so it's unclear how far they may have traveled.. MA - "Bruce Peck" White Male, Hotel Charles, Springfield, Mass, 19th December 1971

 

[Fake Protagonist]

If you were going to commit suicide it seems like something you do while depressed but not something you travel that far to do. Not with suicide in mind.

i think lots of people might sorta just wander aimlessly into new and unfamiliar places when they’re that depressed. i know i did, but since i was a teenager and still in college at the time, i never went too far away from home. i always made sure i wasn’t more than a few bus or train rides away from where i started. that was my safety net.

for some, it’s soul-searching of sorts, like looking for a reason not to go through with their suicide. for others, it’s like a ‘i want to see as much of the world as possible before i leave it’ kinda thing. others just want to get as far away from home as possible, which happens for a multitude of reasons, and this is fairly common in people who wish for their body to remain unidentified once they’re gone. i know of several cases of people travelling hundreds of miles across states to find somewhere off the beaten path to kill themselves (this is definitely more of a thing with adults, though; not typical with teenagers like the Belle Chasse boy).

 

[DoeResearcherSM]

A 17-year-old police informant??
Sounds like they know which group of his friends committed the foul play, so I wonder why they couldn't recover him? Off to read more about RHM's case.

ETA: RHM's case is an odd one. It sounds like he was probably a victim of foul play, not suicide, though. JMO.

I agree - that sounds like rumors made up by kids to either cover for him running away or to create a little drama to explain the unknown. I actually think Ralph might be "Swimsuit Boy."

 

[Professor Bell]

The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs)

By bringing people, information, forensic science and technology together, NamUs helps resolve cases.

www.namus.gov

Date of Discovery: February 14, 1975
Location of Discovery: Belle Chasse, Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana
Estimated Date of Death: Recent
State of Remains: Recognizable face
Cause of Death: Suicide by hanging

Physical Description

Estimated Age: 16-18 years old
Race: White
Sex: Male
Height: 5'10"-6'0" estimated
Weight: 150-160 lbs estimated
Hair: Brown, short
Eye Color: Brown
Distinguishing Marks/Features: Slightly protruding front teeth

Identifiers - Unavailable

Clothing and Personal Items

Clothing: Maroon & yellow long-sleeved Puritan knit shirt, blue Arrow pants with a brown belt, one grey & one dark blue socks, no shoes
Jewelry: Unknown
Additional Personal Items: Unknown

Circumstances of Discovery: A couple driving through the woods on a farm road (between Highway 23 and the Mississippi River) found the body of the decedent hanging from a limb of a persimmon tree, a bedsheet tied around his neck.

Against the tree was a jar full of note paper. Inside was a suicide note addressed to his parents:


"Mom and Dad,

You have provided be excellent advantages and privileges and experiences. I am extremely grateful for all of your sacrifices, time and support. I am now repaying you with an arrogant act. In this light, I do see it as criminal. I can only hope that you see that it was me who caused it.

I never did develop into a real person and I cannot tolerate the false and empty existence I have created.

It is best if I cease to live, quietly, than risk that later I will break and shatter by violence or linger years under care. I implore you to see a psychiatrist in order that you might understand my death and my life. Ask thoroughly about what I was and you will see that it is not tragic that I am gone but more natural than if I continued.
I was born with a definite pervasive melancholy. What frustrated me most in the last year was that I had built no ties to family or friends. There was nothing of lasting worth and value. I led a detached existence and I was a parody of a person-literally and figuratively. I didn't tell jokes-I was a joke.

I am a bomb of frustration and should never marry or have children. It is safest to defuse the bomb harmlessly now. I do not want to bother with being a "reformed and cured" person limping through life. I am this self-centered.

I am no longer interested in the world and know that it is not interested in me. When you stop growing you are dead. I stopped growing long ago."

The decedent cited the writing of Emile Durkheim, a philosopher and psychologist. He also added this aside to authorities:
You are bound to preserve domestic peace and order. If you pursue who I was (and spend hundreds of dollars) you will accomplish little. There are no legal consequences of my death or any kind of entanglements. All that can happen is that you will shatter the domestic peace and order of two innocent lives. Do not deprive them of the hope that their "missing" son will return. Let me be, let it be as if I wasn't ever here. Simply cremate me as John Doe."

There are no surviving reports/records from either the Plaquemines Parish Sheriff's Office or Coroner's Office. At the time of discovery, the decedent's fingerprints had been circulated to police across the country.

If you have any information about this John Doe, please contact the following agencies:

Agency Name: LSU FACES Laboratory
Agency Phone Number: 225-578-4761
Agency E-mail: [email protected]
Agency Case Number: LSU 22-05 / 117-15-979

Agency Name: Plaquemines Parish Sheriff's Office
Agency Phone Number: 504-564-2525

Links:

https://www.doenetwork.org/cases/software/main.html?id=3832UMLA

The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs)

By bringing people, information, forensic science and technology together, NamUs helps resolve cases.

www.namus.gov

Case #22-05 - LA Repository for Unidentified & Missing People

 

[PatLaurel]

Bumping and inviting @Professor Bell to the thread.

MOO JMO

 

[Professor Bell]

Thank you for the invite. I didn't see that there was already a thread. Apologies for my inattention.

 

[Professor Bell]

Did they have the EXACT same scar though, or a VERY similar one? What do we know collectively speaking about matching dentals? Have they ever been wrong in the past? (I feel like there was a more recent example, but I cannot for the life of me remember who it was. Anyone remember?)

The reason I put suggestions forth in support of Earl is because this has remained as it is for so long. The picture of Earl's mom is not meant as strong proof of anything, more "Hey, she has some resemblance as well", since we only have a sketch of the UID (vs photos) and only a few low quality pics of Earl.

Personally I feel we have to consider other young men as matches aside from Charles Wallace. Or someone does? As you guys have put this, how will it ever be solved if no one really seems to care about it, there is no DNA, no dental, no fingerprints, etc?

I agree there is a lot supporting Charles Wallace, however his mother said it was not him. Maybe it was him, and she had her reasons, but we should also consider maybe BCJD was NOT CW. Like so many missing, he could be someone never reported, or only reported locally and lost to time as well.

It is tragic the records have been lost.

I suspect that it was him, but without the conclusive evidence of DNA samples, I'm afraid we'll never know for sure.

 

[snarast]

I suspect that it was him, but without the conclusive evidence of DNA samples, I'm afraid we'll never know for sure.

His explicit guilt tripping for cremation - that must be the only time in history that sentence was composed - makes me think he had some very distinguishing physical characteristics. That he wanted to be gone.