Theory #2: Family Abduction by George Waters with George Brody and/or Associates

[mjak]

I work at a library and yesterday at work pulled out a boxing history book we have.
The book was so old that I nearly passed out from the stench and dust when I opened it.
I found nothing on a boxer named George Brody. Tomorrow I will look up wolgast and see what I find. The book is loaded with black and white photos.

mjak

 

[Dr. Doogie]

I work at a library and yesterday at work pulled out a boxing history book we have.
The book was so old that I nearly passed out from the stench and dust when I opened it.
mjak

Must have been an article about Don King! (an inside joke for boxing fans only...)

 

[Dr. Doogie]

Ok, how do you explain the Doctor of Music?

Doctor of Music... The Great Entertainer... Hmmm, maybe I am Brody. Considering that makes me 99 years old now, I feel pretty good...

 

[HeartofTexas]

I heard back from PhillyBoxing re Bobby, and this is what they said:

Bobby Wolgast was born Anthony Giordano and boxed out of South Philadelphia from 1920 to 1927. He was an all out action fighter in the flyweight/bantamweight divisions. Bobby Wolgast pulled off a remarkable feat by winning "newspaper" decisions over reigning champions : Frankie Genaro, Pancho Villa and Joe Lynch during the 1923 "outdoor season" in Philadelphia. He was featured in our book "PHILADELPHIA's BOXING HERITAGE-1876 to 1976" showing a photo of him squaring off with Pancho Villa before their match at the Baker Bowl on May 11, 1923.

Regards
Chuck Hasson
assistant editor
PHILLYBOXINGHISTORY.COM

It doesn't say when he was born, or when he died, but I checked on Ancestry.com and there are at least 8 Anthony Giordano's that could be him that were from Pennsylvania, and some from Philly, that are showing up on the SSDI. Anthony Giordano is an Italian name that is apparently a name similar to Joe Smith in America... it is VERY common. I don't know how in the world we would determine which one is him or even if it isn't him. Many were born in 1902, 1904, 1906, etc.

I did write PhillyBoxing back to ask if they knew either a DOB or date of death for him, and will let you know if I hear back from them.

 

[laini]

There is a book called "Philadelphia's Boxing Heritage 1876-1976" by Tracy Callis. My library doesn't have the book. I was hoping to look at the pics there.

For whatever it's worth, does anybody have access to this book? It's not in any libraries around me, I checked.

 

[Dr. Doogie]

A quick note: the fight at the Armory was Midget, not Bobby. Bobby is who we think was Brody and Midget was someone else. See the above links for a comparison of there two careers.

AACCKKK! My error, it was Bobby who's last listed fight was at the Armory! Sorry, MB! Too many Wolgasts!!!!!!!

 

[laini]

Laini, we got off on the boxing tangent and didn't respond to your post. Though as far as I know, the crematorium in Oakland disposed of the ashes, we should add this find to our list of possible Brodys. Thanks for your work.

Thank you for the reply, Annasmom. I really want to help. I didn't think anybody saw my posts.

 

[HeartofTexas]

Laini, that's the book that was written by the man who emailed me in the post above your's. It's available on Amazon.com, but I don't think I'll be buying it until we can get an idea if Anthony can be proven dead or alive.

 

[HeartofTexas]

Again, please remember there there are scads of Anthony Giordano's, but this would certainly be a good reason to become paranoid (which Brody definitely was) and to change your name and move to the West Coast... if your family was the mob.

Anthony William Giordano, aka, Tony W., is the grandson of the late St. Louis Mafia boss Anthony "Tony G." Giordano. The elder Giordano died of cancer in 1980. Giordano's son took over the family banana distribution business on North Broadway following his father's d eath.

http://www.mediamayhem_archive.html+%22anthony+giordano%22+boxer&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=3

 

[Dr. Doogie]

Thank you for the reply, Annasmom. I really want to help. I didn't think anybody saw my posts.

Laini:

Sorry if I didn't seem to be paying attention to the post. Sometimes I hold off on responding to new ideas to give others a chance to respond without my posts influencing their opinions. My opinion usually holds no more value than others, but sometimes it is assigned a higher value due to the length of time I have spent on Anna's case.

Concerning the death certificates, I dug them out of the BFH this morning. I will post the relevant information here later today once I have a chance to review them.

 

[MagicRose99]

Here's a Giordano family genelogy forum... lists some family names from the philly area:

http://genforum.genealogy.com/giordano/

 

[mbroemsen]

Wow, looks like our boy had three names. good grief charlie brown!

Doogie where is the info again on the Bobby Wolgast that fought in San Fran? I see where Midget did, but not him. That must be why I am confused.. lol

 

[Dr. Doogie]

Wow, looks like our boy had three names. good grief charlie brown!

Doogie where is the info again on the Bobby Wolgast that fought in San Fran? I see where Midget did, but not him. That must be why I am confused.. lol

Here is the SF Bobby Wolgast (who believe is the same guy as the Philly BW and is our Brody):
http://www.boxrec.com/boxer_display.php?boxer_id=312799

There are an awful lot of different boxers being mentioned here, so let me try and clear this up.

Bobby Wolgast in Philly and San Francisco is the one I believe is Brody.

Ad (Adolph), Midget and Johnny Wolgast are three different people and not our Brody.

 

[mfmangel1]

Here is the SF Bobby Wolgast (who believe is the same guy as the Philly BW and is our Brody):
http://www.boxrec.com/boxer_display.php?boxer_id=312799


Do we have a pic of the San Fran Bobby Wolgast to compare to the Philly BW & GB?

 

[Dr. Doogie]

Do we have a pic of the San Fran Bobby Wolgast to compare to the Philly BW & GB?

No, only one fight listed with no picture.

 

[Dr. Doogie]

Here are two staged "square-off" pictures of the Philly Bobby Wolgast. In both pictures, he is the boxer on the right.

http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/drdoogief/detail?.dir=aac9&.dnm=3e87re2.jpg&.src=ph
http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/drdoogief/detail?.dir=aac9&.dnm=d74cre2.jpg&.src=ph

The first picture was previously posted by another poster, only to have me dismiss it as the wrong Wolgast. I was wrong, it is of Bobby. Sorry!

I alerted Annasmom that I would be posting these for her to compare the profile views of BW to her memories of GB. Unfortunately, the only side view we have of Brody in a photograph was from 1974 were he was wearing a hat, so comparison is difficult. Here is that picture:

http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/drdoogief/detail?.dir=aac9&.dnm=b94f.jpg&.src=ph

I was discussing the recent discoveries of Bobby Wolgast with Annasmom today, and she made a very good observation: We are both of the opinion that the studio portrait of Brody where he is wearing the glasses was probably taken 15-20 years prior to when she first met Brody in 1967. That means that it was probably taken circa 1947-1952. The photographer was a San Francisco studio, so that places Brody in SF earlier than we have been able to establish before now (1962 was the earliest date that we could confirm). This raises the odds that the Bobby Wolgast who fought in SF during 1940 is the same person as George Brody. It also means that he most likely changed his name between 1940 and approximately 1947, right around the WWII era, perhaps backing up my draft dodging hypothesis.

I do not know if they have internet availability in the afterlife, but if they do:
Brody, all of your secrets that you spent your life hiding are being revealed. Each day we get closer to your real identity and to finding Anna. And we will find her - spend eternity choking on that one, ya' SOB!!!!

 

[Dr. Doogie]

Here is the information from the death certificates concerning final disposition of the remains of the following people:

George Brody
Died: 12/24/81
Cremated 12/30/81
Funeral Director: Memorial Cremation Society
Crematory: Evergreen Cemetary, Oakland, CA

George Waters
Died: 1/7/82 (Estimated)
Cremated 1/14/82
Funeral Director: California Funeral Service F-138
Crematory: Pleasant Hill Cemetary, Sebastopol, CA

Margaret Kukoda
Died: 8/3/67
Cremated 8/9/67
Funeral Director: La Esrellita Mortuary
Crematory: Sunset View, Berkeley, CA

We know for sure that Waters's ashes were picked up by his brother. Most likely, Brody's ashes were by Waters and Kukoda's were by Brody.

 

[HeartofTexas]

I heard back from the owner of the Philly Boxing website again but there was no mention of a date of birth, or date of death, for Anthony Giordano (Bobby Wolgast's real name). He did, however, send the url for two pix of Wolgast boxing, both of which we have (fighting with Villa and Genaro).

 

[natasha-cupcake]

Thank you for uploading the pic of Al Gordon, I was trying, but I'm a newbie http://www.websleuths.com/forums/images/smilies/waitasec.gif and these things take time.

Does anyone else see a resemblane to GB, especially the facial expression?

ttfn
tuitsweet

Tuitsweet, I'm impressed that you went through every one of these pics!

As far as Al Gordon is concerned, I see a definite resemblance in the lower face with an eerily similar expression around the mouth area. The ears don't seem to stick out as much, though, so I'm a little thrown off by that. The angle of the picture makes it hard for me to get a good look at the ears, but on first impression they don't seem the same. If Al Gordon's ears do not stick out, then I think he would be eliminated. But I admit, the whole lower face looks almost identical to the GB photo.

Annasmom, I know we've been going with Bobby Wolgast as being GB, but just to set my mind (and probably Tuitsweet's, also) to rest, take a quick look at this photo of Al Gordon. Do you think he could be another potential match for GB? If so, how would you rate him compared to Bobby Wolgast, in terms of a match?

http://www.phillyboxinghistory.com/comingsoon/comingsoon_gordon_al.htm

 

[natasha-cupcake]

Whoops, I posted the previous message and then googled Gordon and found out that he died in November 1983 in the Philly area. He is definitely not Brody. Oh well!