MI MI - Detroit, WhtMale 35-45, UP11950, Rt thumb/Lft big toe amputated, poss smoker, Zippo, Nov'67

[SurrealisticSlumbers]

Unidentified WhtMale
#UP11950

GRAPHIC IMAGE WARNING: The below link leads to morgue photographs of the decedent.
NamUs - #UP11950, postmortem photos
​

Date Found: November 22, 1967
Location Found: Detroit, Wayne County, Michigan
Cause of Death: Unknown
Estimated PMI: Hours
State of Remains: All parts recovered - recognizable face
​

Vital Statistics:

• Sex: Male
• Race: White
• Estimated Age: 35-45 years old
• Height: 5'11" (measured)
• Weight: 145 lbs. (measured)
• Hair: Brown (though graying), cut short
• Eyes: Gray
• Distinctive Features: Clean-shaven, possible smoker. His right thumb and left big toe were probably amputated since they extended to just the metatarsal bones.

Clothing & Accessories:

He wore a light green striped pullover sweater, green corduroy pants, blue socks, and black waffle-soled shoes. He also had on a watch described as "yellow" and "missing its crystal." Near the body, 51 cents in change and a Zippo brand lighter were found.

Identifiers:

• Dentals: N/A
• Fingerprints: Available
• DNA: N/A

Circumstances of Discovery:

Two women came across a man's body in an alley behind 925 W. Elizabeth St., Detroit, MI. The women had been in the area only a half an hour earlier, but reported that they hadn't noticed the body or anyone else in the alleyway at that time. Though his manner of death is undetermined, he had sustained trauma to the face.

Investigating Agency(s):

Wayne County Medical Examiner's Office
Chief Medical Examiner Carl Schmidt, MD, M.P.H.
313-833-2504

Detroit Police Dept.
313-596-2200

• Agency Case Number: #67-8758
• NamUs Case Number: #UP11950

Source(s):

Doe Network
NamUs

 

[SurrealisticSlumbers]

IMO: This guy was clearly roughed up. I looked through Detroit unidentified cases on here, and surprised to see this case hadn't been posted; seems the man's information only got put on Doe Network about three years ago. Case was entered into NamUs in 2014.

Makes me wonder how many of these other old cases are backlogged somewhere, the original reports filed away and collecting dust in some back room.

 

[SurrealisticSlumbers]

James Homer Hannah of Auburn, WA, was last seen on May 6, 1962. He was in a local bar drinking with a man described as "hot-tempered" who was seen carrying a gun. Mr. Hannah's vehicle was later located in the parking lot of a local tavern - unknown if this was the same place he was last seen drinking.

The thing that jumped out to me about Mr. Hannah was what he'd supposedly been wearing when last seen: green corduroy trousers. Just like this unidentified man. Now, Mr. Hannah is said to have had "black" hair, but to me his hair looks more like a chestnut brown. Though his eyes are green and not gray like the dead man's, eye color can change somewhat with age - and his eyes in the photograph look like they could be called gray or even pale blue, it's hard to tell. At least, they are light in color like this UID.

Update: In looking at the picture of James Hannah, it looks to have pre-dated the '60s. I recognize this style of photography from looking at old photos of my grandparents from the '50s. Based on this, I think that this photo was actually taken during military service sometime in the '50s, maybe during the Korean War. He would have been old enough to enlist at that time. Maybe someone who is familiar with US military uniforms through the decades can confirm what branch he was in based on the uniform he's wearing in the picture, and approximately when this photo may have been taken.

Hannah also had three tattoos, unlike the unidentified man. However, what if he did have tattoos but they just weren't listed? And I suppose that there were ways to remove a tattoo back then, but it would've been rather undesirable and more painful, since laser removal didn't exist back then. I think they used other methods that would have left some scarring. Hannah also seems to have weighed more, at least in the early '60s, than this dead man. Still, weight loss can happen over time. Lastly, this man is said to have a big toe and finger amputated. If this was Hannah, then sometime after leaving Washington, he would have had to be involved in some accident for this to happen.

Basically, it is looking less and less likely that Hannah is this deceased man.

 

[victoriarobinson642]

IMO: This guy was clearly roughed up. I looked through Detroit unidentified cases on here, and surprised to see this case hadn't been posted; seems the man's information only got put on Doe Network about three years ago. Case was entered into NamUs in 2014.

Makes me wonder how many of these other old cases are backlogged somewhere, the original reports filed away and collecting dust in some back room.

I know that a lot of major cities have major backlogs. I live in Chicago, and even the cases that do make it into NAMUS are incredibly sparse.

 

[SurrealisticSlumbers]

Came across this regarding tattoo removal in the '60s:

"The first laser tattoo removal session happened in 1967, when Dr. Leon Goldman used an ND: YAG laser and a 694 Ruby laser to get rid of a client’s body art. Other specialists, meanwhile, developed CO2 lasers, argon lasers, and continuous-wave lasers. However, these early laser treatments weren’t as safe and effective as technicians hoped, so additional research and development had to be done to improve the technology."

Source: THE HISTORY OF LASER TATTOO REMOVAL TECHNOLOGY: Jeffrey S. Gosin, MD, FACS: Board Certified Vascular Surgeon
​

Turns out more primitive laser treatments were available at the time. Thinking about a timeline of events here, would Mr. Hannah have:

- Decided to leave the State of Washington entirely for the bright lights of Detroit sometime in the early-to-mid '60s?

- Perhaps gone through a rough patch of homelessness and/or alcohol abuse, and lost something like 20-30 lbs. as a result, sometime between 1962 and the end of 1967?

- Possibly gone into the construction industry (or another manual trade) and lost a thumb, i.e. in a concrete mixer accident - OR succumbed to frostbite during a rough Detroit winter where he wasn't adequately clothed for whatever reason, and his thumb and a big toe couldn't be saved / required amputation?

- Decided to eventually remove his tattoos using one of the less sophisticated methods available at the time?

Those are a lot of assumptions on my end.

 

[SurrealisticSlumbers]

I live in Chicago, and even the cases that do make it into NAMUS are incredibly sparse.

Oh, I bet. Being dubbed "Chiraq" it's probably a losing battle for LE to efficiently track each case and upload onto the appropriate databases. Especially if the case is an oldie.

 

[Captain Beck]

The photo of James Hannah has him in Army uniform. The medal ribbons are (from left to right as viewed) :
- American Defense Service Medal, awarded to service members who served on active duty between September 8, 1939, and December 7, 1941.
- World War II Victory Medal, awarded for service in the armed forces between December 7, 1941 and December 31, 1946.
- Army of Occupation Medal, awarded for post-war service in occupied Japan/Germany.

These are World War 2 medals but there is no campaign medal so I can’t tell where he served. I can’t identify the lanyard on the shoulder. He apparently also served in Korea but I think the photo was taken before that.

But is the photo in Namus of him? He disappeared in 1962 when he was 31 years old which would mean he was born in 1931. That doesn’t make sense. He would have been 8 years old in 1939 and unlikely to have been awarded the medals in the photo.

 

[coffeeandacig]

Looks like this guy was dumped in an alley near Detroit's Skid Row (Michigan Ave.) of the 1950's and 60's. I'm going to venture to guess this guy was in a bar fight and ended up losing.

If he wasn't a local, he could've come up from the South. Lots of people made the trek up to Detroit because of the amount of jobs.

 

[SurrealisticSlumbers]

The photo of James Hannah has him in Army uniform. The medal ribbons are (from left to right as viewed) :
- American Defense Service Medal, awarded to service members who served on active duty between September 8, 1939, and December 7, 1941.
- World War II Victory Medal, awarded for service in the armed forces between December 7, 1941 and December 31, 1946.
- Army of Occupation Medal, awarded for post-war service in occupied Japan/Germany.

These are World War 2 medals but there is no campaign medal so I can’t tell where he served. I can’t identify the lanyard on the shoulder. He apparently also served in Korea but I think the photo was taken before that.

But is the photo in Namus of him? He disappeared in 1962 when he was 31 years old which would mean he was born in 1931. That doesn’t make sense. He would have been 8 years old in 1939 and unlikely to have been awarded the medals in the photo.

Thanks so much for these insights. Makes the whole thing even stranger, actually, if those medals were awarded in WW2. Something just doesn't make sense here. Either that ain't him in the photo, or he was actually older than 31 when he went missing, and NamUs got the birth year wrong.

 

[SurrealisticSlumbers]

Looks like this guy was dumped in an alley near Detroit's Skid Row (Michigan Ave.) of the 1950's and 60's. I'm going to venture to guess this guy was in a bar fight and ended up losing.

If he wasn't a local, he could've come up from the South. Lots of people made the trek up to Detroit because of the amount of jobs.

Yeah, I am beginning to also think the guy may have been some local who was just never reported missing. I like your theory about the bar fight. The morgue photo isn't that great because it's taken from the side, not face-on. It's a black and white photo as well. The guy just looks to be a bit on the older side of his estimated age range, perhaps early-to-mid 40s, and because he was in a physical altercation, it doesn't give you a great idea of how he'd look in a more, shall we say, groomed and put-together state. Since he was clean shaven and wore a nice outfit, he probably wasn't a vagrant. He just ran into trouble that day, and may have had an underlying heart condition that a fight would've triggered, and he suffered cardiac arrest as a result.