Identified! PA - Philadelphia, 'Boy in the Box', WhtMale 4-6, 4UMPA, Feb'57

[Cracka*Jaxx]

I still feel there is a small chance my folks knew who this poor boy belonged to. They rented out our small row-home to some out-of-towners who took off right at the same time the boy was found.

Did your parents own the home that was rented out? Who owns it now? I wonder if LE can do a Luminol test after all these years.

 

[Rutt]

Yes, my parents DID own it back then. I was born there two years later (1959). We owned it up until 1969, then we moved out. The neighborhood has changed quite since then. Many different owners likely since then. I have no idea who owns it now. If it would ever pan out and he was part of that family, your suggestion is possible I suppose. I wish the chances of success were higher, but there still is a chance as I mentioned, that there was a connection. It's up to the PPD to figure if the percentage is high enough that there is a connection for them to make a move. Sometimes I feel this will all still be in the same situation as it is now in a half dozen years or so.

 

[AGettler]

The guy who eventually reported the body to the police has a story that is interesting regarding his story of how he found the body. I am curious if anyone can buy what he is selling.

In brief, and as memory serves after reading the book The Boy in the Box some months ago, this guy hated animal traps. He made it a point to go around his area where he knew traps to be and would spring the traps from time to time. On a particular day, he stopped his car to spring some traps that he knew of or figured were at a particular location. At this location, he pulled over to spring some traps when he noticed a box and decided to investigate.

Does this make sense? I guess springing the traps would be less of an offense (if it was one) than stealing them so that is why he did not steal them instead? Do you think a person would do this, drive around, during the day, and run off into some bushes to spring animal traps at some locations were traps were known or expected? Granted, the road appears desolate in 1957, which may give him some assurance he could conduct his activities without being observed, but it just sounds kind of crazy to me.

 

[Ms Suzanne]

The guy who eventually reported the body to the police has a story that is interesting regarding his story of how he found the body. I am curious if anyone can buy what he is selling.

In brief, and as memory serves after reading the book The Boy in the Box some months ago, this guy hated animal traps. He made it a point to go around his area where he knew traps to be and would spring the traps from time to time. On a particular day, he stopped his car to spring some traps that he knew of or figured were at a particular location. At this location, he pulled over to spring some traps when he noticed a box and decided to investigate.

Does this make sense? I guess springing the traps would be less of an offense (if it was one) than stealing them so that is why he did not steal them instead? Do you think a person would do this, drive around, during the day, and run off into some bushes to spring animal traps at some locations were traps were known or expected? Granted, the road appears desolate in 1957, which may give him some assurance he could conduct his activities without being observed, but it just sounds kind of crazy to me.

I personally think he was sneeking to see someone he knew at the home for wayward girls (and he had a few times) that he wanted to keep a secret.

 

[Cracka*Jaxx]

Does this make sense? I guess springing the traps would be less of an offense (if it was one) than stealing them so that is why he did not steal them instead? Do you think a person would do this, drive around, during the day, and run off into some bushes to spring animal traps at some locations were traps were known or expected?

As an animal lover and advocate, I would definitely make a point of springing the traps. It's also a dangerous situation for anyone walking through there, including children who might be playing in the area. But I don't think there are a lot of people who would spend time springing traps.

I tend to believe this story simply because it is so odd. If he was up to no good and trying to hide something, it would have been smarter for him to come up with a more believable story, like he was changing a flat tire when he noticed the box.

 

[AGettler]

I personally think he was sneeking to see someone he knew at the home for wayward girls (and he had a few times) that he wanted to keep a secret.

Wasn't that school on the opposite side of the road from where the box was found? As I recall, there was a good distance from the road to the school. If he was going to peep, he would have needed a good pair of binoculars I suspect.

 

[alliemay]

Not sure where I read it but I did think he confessed to trying to look at the girls. I'll try to find something I recall reading that.


http://americasunknownchild.net/Archives11.html
The shooting for the episode was done on location in the Mechanicsville section of the Far Northeast, underneath the Ben Franklin Bridge and at an old home in Wyndmoor, Montgomery County. The first re-creation shown was the discovery of the dead boy by a Peeping Tom in a wooded area behind the former Good Shepherd Home for wayward girls and his subsequent confession to a priest.

 

[Ms Suzanne]

Not sure where I read it but I did think he confessed to trying to look at the girls. I'll try to find something I recall reading that.


http://americasunknownchild.net/Archives11.html
The shooting for the episode was done on location in the Mechanicsville section of the Far Northeast, underneath the Ben Franklin Bridge and at an old home in Wyndmoor, Montgomery County. The first re-creation shown was the discovery of the dead boy by a Peeping Tom in a wooded area behind the former Good Shepherd Home for wayward girls and his subsequent confession to a priest.

I believe I read it somewhere too.

 

[Rutt]

If my memory is correct, the man's name was Fred Bionis (or something like that). He claimed while driving his car he saw a rabbit run across the road, and stopped his car to give chase and while in the small woods, or shrubs, where the trash was left, he saw the box. He was a LaSalle student. The suspicions was that he may have been in the habit of peeping in on the girls at the Good Shepard Home and came across the boy due to that.

 

[Ms Suzanne]

This article said it was published on February 19th 2015? It is an older newspaper article.

http://citypaper.net/article.php?Boy-Missing-21688


QUOTE
There will be speeches, tributes and prayers to those still here and those long gone. And perhaps the memorial service will be a way for someone to step out of the darkness, out of a maze of secrets and shadows and deliver what these determined investigators, these advocates for the little boy who has touched the hearts and minds of so many, crave the most:

His true name.

 

[Ms Suzanne]

I have a theory.That Fred Benonis knew someone at the Good shepherd Home or someone living by there and had met them a few times and the area around where our boy was found might have possibly been the meeting place they met each other.Neither one of them might not have known who the boy in the box was.But for some reason it's still a secret today who he was seeing.Why I don't know.

 

[Ms Suzanne]

Maybe he just admitted to spying on the girls at the Good Shepherd Home at a later time.I would love to hear personally his story now today.

 

[AGettler]

If my memory is correct, the man's name was Fred Bionis (or something like that). He claimed while driving his car he saw a rabbit run across the road, and stopped his car to give chase and while in the small woods, or shrubs, where the trash was left, he saw the box. He was a LaSalle student. The suspicions was that he may have been in the habit of peeping in on the girls at the Good Shepard Home and came across the boy due to that.

Can you imagine you are a cop questioning a guy who says he found a body because a rabbit ran across the road in front of his car and he got out to give chase (you know, like we all have done :laughing. I would arrest him on the spot.

 

[Ms Suzanne]

I'm wondering what any one can please tell me,pictures.ect (Anything more that what's on the internet also) of anything you know On St Vincen't s Orphanage in Tacony Philadelphia in the 1950's.Anyone that went there ect....

 

[foryourwine]

Both of my boyfriend's parents were at St Vincent's during the 50's (and early 60's I believe). His father was sexually abused there, we suspect. The topic of the orphanage somehow came up while my boyfriend was getting a haircut and the hairdresser told him her father was also abused there, before he mentioned his own father. His father does not like to discuss his time there, and I can see why. He's now a workaholic who drinks the memories away.

 

[foryourwine]

Also this is St. Vincent's FB page with photos from the past, maybe our boy is in one? Doubtful but possible..

https://www.facebook.com/stvincents.orphanage?fref=%2Freqs.php

 

[foryourwine]

The boy with the short hair on the left looking straight at the camera resembles him, to me. Probably just wishful thinking, and I have no idea when the picture was taken.

 

[ScarlettScarpetta]

View attachment 70892

The boy with the short hair on the left looking straight at the camera resembles him, to me. Probably just wishful thinking, and I have no idea when the picture was taken.

His face and head are different. BIB seems to have a straighter more narrow head.

 

[Ms Suzanne]

View attachment 70892

The boy with the short hair on the left looking straight at the camera resembles him, to me. Probably just wishful thinking, and I have no idea when the picture was taken.

Yes,the boy on the right looks like him to to me and also looks my youngest son Tommy.But I always thought the boy in the box really looked very much like son Bobby.

 

[Ms Suzanne]

Here's where I'm getting with this.The hair cuts appear to look similar to me and to the boy in the box and to the haircuts given to the boys at St John's Orphanage also.St Vincent's Orphanage Tacony was not far from where the boy in the box was found.