SOLVED MA - Jane Britton, 22, Harvard student, Cambridge, 7 Jan 1969

[Ausgirl]

Has this case ever been presented to the Vidocq Society?

http://www.vidocq.org/

VIDOCQ can only take on a case if requested to by relevant LE.

Can't really see that happening here, unfortunately... but it might be worth writing them (LE I mean) with a suggestion anyway. At least we can say the effort has been made.

 

[DonMitchell]

Don,

It sounds like you shared a lot of information with Lt. Joyce. Unfortunately, he's not with us anymore and there doesn't seem to be any way to find out if he shared his information/files with people subsequently assigned to Jane's case. Have you ever tried to share your suspicions with those that are now responsible for her case or have you perhaps, refrained from doing so, given the lack of response/interest in her case?

No, because I don't know who's in charge of the investigation. And I lost interest after my suspect died.

I'd like to think that in a law enforcement organization, one investigator's records would survive him . . . it's hard for me to believe that investigators haven't gone over Lt. Joyce's materials.

 

[DonMitchell]

If your were aware of all this…Can you shed some light? Did you know this person? Did Jane? Was he there at Harvard in the time period that Jane was killed? Did he take part in any of the excavations that she had participated in? Anything at all that you can share?

I wasn't aware of any of the RMG talk until I read the article in Smithsonian Magazine, and a graduate student I'd been close to talked to me about what he'd heard about RMG. This was most likely in late 1978 -- I wrote to Lt. Joyce in February 1979.

I was told (December 1978), by someone looking into the matter (not LE) that RMG was not listed in the Harvard directory of Officers and Students for 1968-69. This implies that he was not enrolled. But of course it implies nothing about his whereabouts.

I realize these dates are a little confusing, and my folder of letters doesn't help. The person who wrote me in December 1978 may have learned about RMG from me (via my friend from grad school) or found out in another way. I had some phone calls with this person . . . the letter in question begins with information about RMG and obviously the letter writer didn't need to introduce the subject. But I can't say how it was that the two of us were discussing RMG, because I just cannot remember. My best guess is that I learned about RMG and the Laborador thing first (from my friend and from Smithsonian), told the letter writer about it on the phone, the letter writer did some investigation, and wrote about the results in the December 1978 letter.

I was also told that he received a Masters degree in 1970 and then a PhD in 1975. This is unusual. Harvard's Anthropology program was PhD only, and a Masters means that you washed out -- it was called the "terminal masters." And yet here's a person with both. There may well be a straightforward explanation, but I remember wondering how that degree combination came about.

I really have nothing to share beyond what I've written. I don't even remember hearing the name until late 1978.

As for his being on an excavation with Jane -- I have no knowledge of that.

 

[Pink Panther]

There is an article "The Peabody Man" in which RMG himself writes that his first year there was 1968-1969. So, it seems that yes, he was physically there.

 

[Pink Panther]

Sadly Anne's parents have both passed away but she has a sister who is still alive and who took a trip to Labrador in 2006 to say "good-bye" to her sibling.

 

[DonMitchell]

There is an article "The Peabody Man" in which RMG himself writes that his first year there was 1968-1969. So, it seems that yes, he was physically there.

That's an interesting volume. Here's the likely explanation for the MA (from "The Peabody Man") : "Resuming my graduate student life, which was interrupted by the demands of a draft board during the Viet Nam years, I rejoined the tea circle in the fall of 1971."

I can imagine the Department saying, "Leaving isn't your choice, so take this MA with you and we hope you come back to finish."

Even so -- although my source could have erred -- if he was a registered student in 1968-69, his name should have appeared in the directory. It should be easy for anybody in the Cambridge area to confirm. I'm sure there are copies of all the directories available in different libraries.

 

[Pink Panther]

There is a person in the article mentioned, that Jane knew. So, it's possible that Jane also knew RMG.

moo

 

[Scrutin-eyes]

Yes, something is odd there about that.

 

[Scrutin-eyes]

YES!!! Got it, thanks so much Pink Panther!!! P. 81
http://rla.unc.edu/archives/LMSfiles/LMS Peabody Man.pdf
So he was there in the department enrolled, at least according to his own words, and if you read his article he seems quite familiar with the place. That is the biggest question, in my mind, that needed to be answered.

 

[Pink Panther]

Scrutin-eyes - One of the women that RMG mentions in that article went on the Tepe dig so, Jane must have known her. This is why I think it's quite possible that RMG also knew Jane.

 

[December]

My cousin was murdered the same year as Jane. The police had preserved evidence that, when DNA testing did become available, turned out to contain DNA. Unfortunately, this has not yet solved the case, but still... there MIGHT be some DNA evidence among the things the Cambridge police collected from Jane's murder. They wouldn't have collected it for that purpose back then, but if the evidence was carefully stored... it might be there.

 

[Scrutin-eyes]

I re-read RMG's piece in the "Peabody Man", noting the following. He positions himself on the 5th floor of the Putnam archaeological lab across from Steve Williams office, Williams being the chair of the anthropology department. He notes the presence of Barbara Westman, close by on the same floor, an artist who did the plan and profile drawings for the Tepe Yaha project, within which Jane was an excavation supervisor. It is therefore not only plausible, but probable that RMG encountered her. It's likely that Jane would have had some interaction with the artist that did the plan and profile drawing of her excavated units, as well as the chair of the department, and RMG was right there!

 

[Scrutin-eyes]

Can anyone find the list of archaeologists who accompanied Anne Abraham on the August 1976 Smithsonian expedition to Labrador? There seems to be even less available information regarding her disappearance than that of Jane Britton's case. Looking for commonalities. Maybe someone at Harvard at the time also went, along with RMG, on this expedition.

 

[Donamena]

Can anyone find the list of archaeologists who accompanied Anne Abraham on the August 1976 Smithsonian expedition to Labrador? There seems to be even less available information regarding her disappearance than that of Jane Britton's case. Looking for commonalities. Maybe someone at Harvard at the time also went, along with RMG, on this expedition.

The Smithsonian should have it in their archives. I accessed them once for some research. Had to get a particular ethnographer's linguistic fieldwork from 1920-1940, and they were more than kind. If that fails, the Library of Congress will certainly have it. I've never tried to ask for things on-line then (1998) but I could barely use a laptop. I went to D.C. To the Library & NARA. All of the librarians I contacted were very kind & helpful.

 

[Pink Panther]

I have found this:

F, W W. 1976. Tribute to Explorer Lost in Labrador. Smithsonian Magazine, : 109-119.

Here:

http://anthropology.si.edu/staff/Fitzhugh/FitzhughPubsList.cfm

I have no idea how to access the article. Maybe someone else does?

ETA - I have found another reference to the above document and the title continues with "as told to Jane D S". I believe that Jane DS was the Associate Editor of the Smithsonian Magazine at the time. Not sure if this helps but I thought I'd mention it.

 

[DonMitchell]

I have found this:

F, W W. 1976. Tribute to Explorer Lost in Labrador. Smithsonian Magazine, : 109-119.

Here:

http://anthropology.si.edu/staff/Fitzhugh/FitzhughPubsList.cfm

I have no idea how to access the article. Maybe someone else does?

ETA - I have found another reference to the above document and the title continues with "as told to Jane D S". I believe that Jane DS was the Associate Editor of the Smithsonian Magazine at the time. Not sure if this helps but I thought I'd mention it.

The older Smithsonian magazines are not online, so somebody's going to have to go to a library and scan it, if possible.

I'm not sure that's really the article in question, though it could be. The reason I'm not sure is that it was published in 1976, a good 2+ years before I mentioned it to Lt. Joyce. My (fallible) memory has me having read it not long before I was writing him. Also, "tribute to explorer" doesn't sound quite like a title for the article I read -- the "explorer" thing seems odd. I absolutely could be wrong here.

I'm sure that among the people following this thread there must be somebody whose local library has subscribed to Smithsonian Magazine. I haven't checked my county library; maybe they do.

 

[Ausgirl]

Isn't it awesome that we've gone from zero viable suspects to TWO, just this year (Don's suspect, as yet unnamed, and RMG).

I'd like to see a timeline of RMG's movements a decade either side of Jane's murder. In case violent crime just happens to follow him around some more. Something to work on, anyway.

 

[Ausgirl]

Crazy stuff. RMG dobbed in antiquities hoarder who worked on the Trinity project, and kept a nuclear detonator in his basement.

http://www.vocativ.com/culture/art-culture/indianas-real-indiana-jones/#!bGut4q

 

[DonMitchell]

Isn't it awesome that we've gone from zero viable suspects to TWO, just this year (Don's suspect, as yet unnamed, and RMG).

I'd like to see a timeline of RMG's movements a decade either side of Jane's murder. In case violent crime just happens to follow him around some more. Something to work on, anyway.

Mine may be "viable" in the sense of possibly having been the killer, but he's not "viable" in the biological sense any longer. So far as I can tell, he died in 1999.

Just did a google search. The Smithsonian issue was December, 1976, and I was certainly wrong about both the date and the "explorer" in the title. Here's a listing on the contents, from a place selling Smithsonians (out of stock on this one):

Table of Contents - The view from the castle: Secretary Ripley's comments., Letters to the Editor., Around the Mall and beyond by Edwards Park., Phenomena, comment and notes by James K. Page jr., Picture Credits., The Army Corps of Engineers secures allies and acquires enemies - but dig they must (first of two parts)., Lighthearted view of serious air history by Robert Osborn, whose cartoons may have saved many a Navy pilot., The fuel crisis, largely forgotten, that chilled us in 1918., America's own version of Matisse and / or Picasso: Calder., Why not get a water buffalo instead of a tractor - it provides cheese, lots of love and meat for the family., King Kong Kudzu - once considered a savior - now a menace to the South., Artist Robert Sivard re-creates for us the buildings and personalities that once enriched Washington., Tribute to an explorer lost in Labrador - Anne Abraham., Authentic miniature sleighs - all but the jingle bells.

 

[Pink Panther]

I'm not sure what document or subject you're referring to Don but the quote you cited refers exactly to the young woman that disappeared on an archaeological dig in Labrador...
"Tribute to an explorer lost in Labrador - Anne Abraham". To be precise, her name was Anne Hilda Abraham b. 1956 and most probably d. 1976 in Labrador while on an archaeological dig that RMG was also a part of…RMG wrote an article (1978) on the Labrador expedition that also included an area/zone of exploration that he chose to name the "Hilda's Creek" area. So, if anyone can get their hands on the aforementioned "Tribute" - It might just help to shed some light on this woman's disappearance.

moo

ETA - Given that your suspect is no longer alive, could you possibly give a clue or two??? Is there a reason you feel uncomfortable doing so?