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

[PatLaurel]

What are your guys thoughts on this? Does he look similar enough?

I personally don’t see a resemblance between Simon and BCJD, but I love a good rabbit hole, so... A quick search on Ancestry for the name George Simon in Louisiana turned up only two people. One is Black and died in 2003, and the other, the only one with the nickname “Butch”, has documented ties to Indiana. According to his mother’s obituary from 2009, he was living in Florida at the time.

I also looked up the address Simon reportedly went missing from, and the records show that the mobile home was owned by the same person from 1900 to 1979. The last name isn’t even remotely similar to Simon, and I’m still trying to determine whether there’s any real connection between the two families. But, interesting tidbit, the family has ties to Texas.

It’s possible that Simon wasn’t actually from Belle Chasse and was only staying there for some reason, and that he could be the “Butch” from Indiana?!

MOO JMO

ETA: grammar

 

[DannonV]

I personally don’t see a resemblance between Simon and BCJD, but I love a good rabbit hole, so... A quick search on Ancestry for the name George Simon in Louisiana turned up only two people. One is Black and died in 2003, and the other, the only one with the nickname “Butch”, has documented ties to Indiana. According to his mother’s obituary from 2009, he was living in Florida at the time.

I also looked up the address Simon reportedly went missing from, and the records show that the mobile home was owned by the same person from 1900 to 1979. The last name isn’t even remotely similar to Simon, and I’m still trying to determine whether there’s any real connection between the two families. But, interesting tidbit, the family has ties to Texas.

It’s possible that Simon wasn’t actually from Belle Chasse and was only staying there for some reason, and that he could be the “Butch” from Indiana?!

MOO JMO

ETA: grammar

Where did you get the records for Simon? I’ve been trying to find even a modicum of them outside of the newspaper clippings and I haven’t seen anything!

Thank you for researching and figuring this out!

 

[PatLaurel]

Where did you get the records for Simon? I’ve been trying to find even a modicum of them outside of the newspaper clippings and I haven’t seen anything!

Thank you for researching and figuring this out!

Look up Bishara George Simon on Ancestry. He is the father of George "Butch" Simon. There's a tree for the family.
The address you can look it up here: Assessment Search - Plaquemines Parish Assessor's Office

I'm not sure this is the same person you found, but he's the only person with the exact same name and age.

 

[PatLaurel]

@DannonV I think the nickname “Butch” comes from Butch’s Tavern, which Bishara George Simon owned from 1970 to 1979. Before that, he owned Blackhawks Tavern, also in Indianapolis, from 1950 to 1970.

 

[DannonV]

@DannonV I think the nickname “Butch” comes from Butch’s Tavern, which Bishara George Simon owned from 1970 to 1979. Before that, he owned Blackhawks Tavern, also in Indianapolis, from 1950 to 1970.

Neat! Thank you for helping me with this lead!

 

[BayouBelle_LA]

Lots of good ideas.

I never got the sense that he was local. South Louisiana is made up of small, tight-knit communities where families have lived for generations, and I feel like someone would have recognized him if he were from the area. I believe the case was broadly publicized at the time.

Mardi Gras in 1975 was on February 11, just a few days before he was found. I think about this angle because people from all over the world are drawn to South LA for Mardi Gras. imo

 

[bethafunk]

This is my first post, so sorry if I’m not too eloquent! This case has just grabbed my heart and I always wanted to know who he really was. I live in northwest Louisiana so I feel some sort of pull towards this. I worked for a large funeral home for 7 years and they also owned several cemeteries. We had reports that had to be sent to the Louisiana cemetery board (lcb.la.gov) monthly. Also, just because he was buried in an unmarked grave doesn’t mean they don’t know where he is. Unmarked with no stone still has to be in cemetery records. They know who is in what plot. So the cemetery would know which plot. Unless it was unearthed by Katrina. Interesting fact, after Katrina caskets had a small compartment that the information of the deceased had to be put in, that way if in the future the casket was unearthed the deceased info was in the little tube. I hope and pray that his grave could be found and disinterred to try for a dna sample in maybe tooth pulp or maybe bone marrow. God bless this child and his family.

 

[DannonV]

I would seriously love to be a police officer in the Plaquemines Parish. If they listened to the people on Websleuths, they could excavate BCJD and get some DNA samples from him again.
How do we notify them where it is? As long as we confirm it, we should try to give the Plaquemines Parish police department the whereabouts to the site.

 

[DannonV]

Lots of good ideas.

I never got the sense that he was local. South Louisiana is made up of small, tight-knit communities where families have lived for generations, and I feel like someone would have recognized him if he were from the area. I believe the case was broadly publicized at the time.

Mardi Gras in 1975 was on February 11, just a few days before he was found. I think about this angle because people from all over the world are drawn to South LA for Mardi Gras. imo

This would also make a lot of sense. I have a few theories as to what went on, but in the end I think he was most likely from Louisiana and was of at least partial Louisiana Creole descent. Maybe not from south Louisiana, but generally somewhere in the state.

Him attending Mardi Gras and being from out of state would make so much sense, though. If he were to have attended, he may have been with his family, and if they noticed he was missing, they could have put in a police report.

He could have also been by himself, which means that no one would have put in a missing persons report. So many files about this case were blown away a few decades ago, which is what makes this so difficult!!!

 

[snooptroop88]

Returning to the idea of James Zapolski potentially being this Doe, I came across a post in a thread on here somewhere from a ways back for James that noted his eye color was unknown, and later I saw it updated to the blue/green. I'm reading about eye color extensively for a while now, and I'm seriously wondering, could James' eyes actually have been hazel with blue tones? If so, there might be a change to brown depending on a multitude of factors at some point later? The blue/green's a very unusual combination, from what I can see. And I also saw on this other thread that at one point before he disappeared, James was picking beans to earn extra money for purchase of the bicycle. If he was into some agricultural role like that, he would probably have had no problem finding similar work picking fruit, working with fruit in some capacity down in Louisiana.

 

[DD Byrd]

He referred to himself (in relation to his parents) as "missing" and not just missing. Also important what he doesn't say....such as, let them believe I am dead. That leads me to believe he was 1) either around long enough or otherwise savvy enough to know he had been officially declared missing AND strongly assumed he would be searched for...not something every runaway might think or state. Not an earth-shattering detail, but it makes me think he was far from where he went missing (or was originally) from.

Brian Page's listed height is far off, and it's far more likely he is in water...but I'm sampling this type of scenario where Belle Chasse was a long way from home. And along with the well-read aspect, he also may have been clever...getting himself as far as possible. Brian Page wouldn't be an obvious choice based on what it looks like happened.

 

[ChatteringBirds]

I think we should not consider eye color much, because it can be misreported or open to interpretation.