Identified! NV - Nye Co, Beatty, WhtMale 40-55, UP14934, gold chain w/ '$1.98' pendant, Florsheim shoes, Oct'80 - Albert Matas

[froggierintexas]

Also, I just thought about it. For quite a few years in South Texas many medallions were made from real Gold at Flea Markets. It was like part of a uniform worn in certain cultures. They would get a fat chain and go and get a medallion made. Unless someone owned it prior to him, which is possible, and sees the info or is questioned, we probably will never know.
People may still do that, I just don't see it everyday like I used to anymore.

 

[docwho3]

All I found was the info below.
1.98 royalty
http://www.well.com/user/sjroby/jrstory_fn.html
The song that was made for the show that never was
http://www.echonyc.com/~jhhl/Mp3/dollar98.mp3
http://www.echonyc.com/~jhhl/mp3.html
The plane
http://www.timelessvoices.org/news/voiceoftheweek/040213_henry_johnson.asp

Now, as for my idea about the necklace. I don't think it is a stretch for the necklace to have once belonged to Deacon John or his son (RIP). I was a bondsman (horribly sexist word) for quite a few years and it was in the south. It was a daily thing to see someone called Pastor or Deacon in jail for drugs, pimping, beating their woman, etc. And the chains I saw. I once took one for collateral that weighed more than my briefcase. I thought it was fake, but it was a repeat customer and what the heck. Turned out it was worth 40, 000 back then. And this was from a 'Deacon', with no congregation, no job, so you have to wonder. Anyway, it is quite possible the chain was Deacon John's and he sold it or pawned it years ago and never gave it another thought. We had a safe full of chains and medallions and a bunch of cars left for collateral that simply became ours by default. But that is JMO.

First, Thankyou for your valuable insight. I found your words quite helpful.

If it did once belong to deacon john or a band member or promoter for the singer or the band then it would likely have been pawned in their home area. But even though that is not a given I think the singer and band and the south is a good place to start looking. First L.E. need to estbalish the medallion ever was connected to deacon john or band or promoter and then they can try to discover if it was pawned or not and try to follow the chain of ownership if that is possible. But the whole things starts with that first connection being established, the first step.

Edited to add: I wonder if any pics of concerts were ever taken that would show jewelry being worn by deacon john or band members. If so maybe blowing up parts of the shot would at least show some similar shaped medallion.

 

[FLMom]

It is interesting, but the height and weight are way off. Wow...5'8" and 115 lbs. He was so SKINNY! He could have turned sideways and they wouldn't have seen him besides the diamond filled suitcase he was toting around!

Where did he get the diamonds, I wonder?!

I agree that the weight is off by a lot. However, my thinking was that a lot of these are off. What if someone was giving the information of the deceased over the phone and 150 got slurred into 115. Happened at the drive thru I used to work all the time. . . thirty into thirteen, etc. The height is only off by a couple of inches. **shruggs**

Yeah, I'd love to know the story behind the diamonds. Bet it'd be interesting.

 

[SeriouslySearching]

Edited to add: I wonder if any pics of concerts were ever taken that would show jewelry being worn by deacon john or band members. If so maybe blowing up parts of the shot would at least show some similar shaped medallion.

I had already thought of this and found that Deacon John always had on a suit as did his bandmates. He was a very sharp dresser and didn't go in for the gawdy jewelry.

I just found an email address for him. I will send him the photo of the necklace and see if anyone remembers it.

 

[froggierintexas]

Wouldn't it be better to let law enforcement contact him. In the event he is in any way involed? Just asking.

 

[SeriouslySearching]

Hmmm...I did think about that for all of three seconds while I was writing that letter. Perhaps you are right. Maybe I will just delete that letter.

 

[dark_shadows]

All of you are doing a great job here. Thank-you for all of your hard work.

Respectfully,
dark_shadows

 

[SeriouslySearching]

Who wants to turn the Deacon John connection into LE and beg them to check into it? LOL

 

[RubyRed]

On October 22, 1980, the decomposed remains of a white male adult homicide victim were discovered in an area approximately one hour north of Las Vegas, 9/10 of a mile east of Highway 95 on a dirt road 60 mile south of Tonopah, near Beatty.
As part of the original investigation, the necklace and medallion were taken to numerous jewelers without success in identifying the person who made the medallion.
In 1981, Chuck Barris Productions, who produced the $1.98 Beauty Contest was contacted. The necklace was not recognized and investigators were referred to Milt Suchin who was the agent for Rip Taylor. Rip Taylor hosted the $1.98 Beauty Contest show. Milt Suchin stated that there was no promotional materials given away as part of the show which would resemble the medallion. Suchin referred investigatos to Taylor.
Investigators met with Rip Taylor who was performing at the Las Vegas Flamingo Hilton. Taylor stated he had not seen the medallion prior to this night. No promotional materials were given away resembling this medallion.

http://www.accessclarkcounty.com/depts/coroner/unidentified/pages/unid_indv_nye_county_photo.aspx

 

[Donjeta]

http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/561umnv.html

He's not in Namus.

 

[Ambercat]

Do they know if he was killed at the location or he was dumped there? I think that it is interesting that Rip Taylor was performing in Las Vegas at the time and John Doe wore a necklace that was tied to his show. I am sure that LE probably checked this, but I wonder if John Doe went to Rip Taylor's show prior to being killed or even stayed at the Flamingo Hilton prior to his death?

 

[carbuff]

The Doenet information says they've checked out the Rip Taylor connection and it went nowhere.

I thought we had a longer thread for this guy. *goes off to poke around*

 

[Ambercat]

Probably this is too little too late after the fact, but I wonder if around the time of this man's death if LE checked people who either failed to check of their hotel or people who abandoned their luggage in their hotel room? With regard to this case, as well as several others, I wonder what the protocol is regarding people who leave their luggage and other possessions in their Las Vegas hotel room?

 

[Ambercat]

I'm not familiar with the $1.98 Beauty Contest show, but according to the Wikipedia article about the show, the show featured

on at least one occasion a male dressed in drag

I wonder if the unidentified man went in drag on occasion and that is why he wore the medallion?

 

[Ambercat]

:bump: I was searching for something else and noticed this UID. He is one of the first unidentified people I noticed and would like to see him identified. Anything new?

 

[masnitram]

I very well may have missed the link for this UID, but I only see the quoted info from the doenetwork: http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/561umnv.html

The Clark County link goes directly to the homepage and not this case.

The UID is not in Namus so there is no listing of any rule-outs etc.

 

[Ambercat]

I very well may have missed the link for this UID, but I only see the quoted info from the doenetwork: http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/561umnv.html

The Clark County link goes directly to the homepage and not this case.

The UID is not in Namus so there is no listing of any rule-outs etc.

He was found in Nye County not Clark. I wonder if they contract with Clark for coroner service? I was really tired when I saw this earlier and didn't notice the typo.

This is what the pendant looked like --

I don't know if there is a photo/reconstruction of the victim available.

 

[rainwater]

Bumping. There are brothels in Nye County,the most famous of which is the Chicken Ranch. It is not unheard of for tourists to Las Vegas to make a side trip to Nye County. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicken_Ranch_(Nevada).

A photo of the shirt would be helpful. Let me do some digging.

 

[WesternArtist]

I'm curious if this potential match would be worth submitting -Robert Afarian https://www.findthemissing.org/en/cases/17389/1
Missing from Edgewater, NJ since 1977. Based on his name and a relative's obituary I found I believe he is Armenian. He's a little taller 5'6"-5'7" than the hight listed 5'4" but that was measured on mummified remains. I couldn't find anything saying he was involved in organized crime but the area he went missing from certainly has a history of it (he has addresses in Fort Lee, NJ too). His car was found at Kennedy Airport after he disappeared. Now, my knowledge of Armenian culture is limited only to what I can see in pop culture (there really isn't an Armenian community in Idaho although we do have many Bosnian and Romanian people here). At any rate, my very uninformed perception is that large gold chains were popular amongst Armenian men in Jersey in the late 70's-early 80's ... Still not sure if there's enough here to really make it a strong match but there seem to be a few things that could work.

In researching the Florsheim shoes found on the UID I think there is a strong likelihood he was not from Nevada. Of course, the retailers have probably changed vastly since 1980 I found their store locator helpful http://www.florsheim.com/shop/storeLocator.html. Note, there are no retailers who at least currently sell them in Nye County, Nevada OR Las Vegas but there are many around the NYC metro area where Robert Afarian went missing.

 

[carbuff]

He's in Namus now: Unidentified Person Case

Two ruleouts: Donald Warren from Nye NV and Kenneth Welch from Maricopa AZ.

The Doenetwork page has more information about the Rip Taylor connection and the organized crime possibility 561UMNV

As part of the original investigation, the necklace and medallion were taken to numerous jewelers without success in identifying the designer. In 1981, Chuck Barris Productions, who produced the $1.98 Beauty Contest was contacted. The necklace was not recognized and investigators were referred to Milt Suchin who was the agent for Rip Taylor. Rip Taylor hosted the $1.98 Beauty Contest show. Milt Suchin stated that there were no promotional materials given away as part of the show which would resemble the medallion. Suchin referred investigators to Taylor.

Investigators met with Rip Taylor who was performing at the Las Vegas Flamingo Hilton. Taylor stated he had not seen the medallion prior to this night. Taylor does not recall anyone else giving away promotional materials such as the medallion, e.g., Chuck Barris Productions, Milt Suchin. Taylor stated that he does not know of anyone who would have been into making jewelry, such as the medallion, to say that someone associated with the show may have been an amateur jeweler.

The Jeweler's Security Alliance is a nonprofit organization working in crime prevention with jewelers throughout the nation. They agreed to publish a photograph of the necklace in their monthly newsletter and to attempt to get national trade magazines such as Modern Jeweler and National Jeweler to also publish the case. No leads were generated as a result of these efforts.

The case was submitted to the FBI Intel Unit based in Las Vegas to determine if there might have been ties to organized crime. The inquiry met with negative results.