WA WA - James Homer Hannah, 31, Auburn, 6 May 1962

[Gardener1850]

James Homer Hannah is a U.S. Army Veteran who was last seen in Auburn, Washington on May 6, 1962 drinking with what someone had described as a hot tempered man. This man whom he was drinking with was carrying a gun with him. James Hannah’s car, a 1959 Chevrolet Biscayne Sedan, was found in the parking lot of a local tavern. James Homer Hannah is 31 years old as of the date he went missing in May, 1962. James Hannah is described as a white male standing 5 feet 10 inches to 5 feet 11 inches tall and weighing approximately 175 to 180 pounds. James Hannah has black wavy hair and green eyes. He was last seen wearing green corduroy trousers and a rust colored shirt and sweater. James Hannah has a two inch scar on chin, three inch scar on upper left arm, scar from left of hip to right side of groin (bayoneted while stationed in Korea), and a deep scar on right knee cap from broken knee received in auto accident. James Hannah has a green number 13 tattooed in his left wrist, a heart on the upper left upper arm with an eagle above it, and a black panthers head on his right shoulder. A DNA sample has been submitted to NAMUS. If you have any information about the whereabouts of James Homer Hannah, contact Detective Rob Jones of the Auburn Police Department at 253-931-3093 reference case #16-01888. (NamUs MP # 30450)

Read more: http://www.missingveterans.com/1962/james-homer-hannah/

https://www.findthemissing.org/en/cases/30450/

 

[glamourkitty1922]

Here is a picture of him from images

 

[sasha17]

James Hannah was last seen drinking with a hot-tempered man who was carrying a gun. James's car, a 1959 Chevrolet Biscayne Sedan, was found in the parking lot of a local tavern.

James is 5'10" to 5'11" and between 175 and 180 pounds. He has black wavy hair and green eyes. He was last seen wearing green corduroy trousers and a rust colored shirt and sweater. James has a two inch scar on chin, three inch scar on upper left arm, scar from left of hip to right side of groin, and a deep scar on right knee cap from broken knee received in auto accident. James has a green number 13 tattooed in his left wrist, a heart on the upper left upper arm with an eagle above it, and a black panthers head on his right shoulder.

NamUs #MP30450 - The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs)

James Homer Hannah

 

[glamourkitty1922]

This is the type of car he had . He has been entered into the missing veteran database.

 

[Savemecastiel]

Bump

 

[SurrealisticSlumbers]

I'd like to know the date that photograph was taken. It would not surprise me if he was a lot younger than 31 there. Did he serve in the Korean War? He would've been 19-22 then, old enough to enlist, and that's about how old he looks in the photograph. (Of course, I know you can serve during peacetime as well. I was just speculating that the photo looks older than 1962.)

I started a thread for an unidentified man - 2881UMMI - found in Detroit in '67 who looks a lot like an older Hannah, but who didn't have any tattoos listed. From his morgue photo, there are a few notable similarities to Hannah. The facial features and ears are about right. Weight is a little off.

 

[StarrChance]

From Ancestry
James was born 1931 in Texas. Married in Washington 1959 and had a child in 1961.

Name: J H Hannah
Estimated Age: 16
Birth Year: abt 1930
Yearbook Date: 1946
School: Denison High School
School Location: Denison, Texas, USA

 

[StarrChance]

I'd like to know the date that photograph was taken. It would not surprise me if he was a lot younger than 31 there. Did he serve in the Korean War? He would've been 19-22 then, old enough to enlist, and that's about how old he looks in the photograph. (Of course, I know you can serve during peacetime as well. I was just speculating that the photo looks older than 1962.)

I started a thread for an unidentified man - 2881UMMI - found in Detroit in '67 who looks a lot like an older Hannah, but who didn't have any tattoos listed. From his morgue photo, there are a few notable similarities to Hannah. The facial features and ears are about right. Weight is a little off.

Ears are similar otherwise very hard to tell. I think the thumb and toe deformities would be a rule out though?

 

[SurrealisticSlumbers]

Ears are similar otherwise very hard to tell. I think the thumb and toe deformities would be a rule out though?

It is indeed hard to tell... The thing about his thumb and big toe is that they may have actually been amputated. At least that's what the man's NamUs page suggests. I also notice in the other photo of James Hannah you posted that his hair could be straighter in texture as well. I have hair like that; when I blow dry and comb it a bit, it looks a lot straighter than if I let it air dry and don't comb out the natural curl pattern that I have. I wonder if Mr. Hannah was of Irish or Scottish ancestry with that kind of hair.

And if he was born and raised in Texas, served in the Army, then relocated to Washington State, would it have been outside the bounds of reason that he was the restless type who didn't like to stay in one place for any long period of time? Was he estranged from his wife and very young child at the time he went missing? Did he have drinking problems? He was last seen drinking with the man described as "hot-tempered," but that doesn't mean he'd just run off without a word to anyone, or that he was an alcoholic. Was he the rash and impulsive sort?

You'd think a man from that generation wouldn't just cast off his family obligations on a whim and desert his own wife and child. He had tattoos, which back then had a definite stigma associated with them - it was the mark of a very unsavory, usually criminal, kind of person, from everything I've heard from my grandparents and others who were around in those days. You generally avoided people like that if you were an upstanding, respectable member of society.

 

[alb1on]

There is a very detailed entry for him in a family tree on Ancestry, with multiple pictures and information. Perhaps the most startling claim is that he enlisted in the Army whilst under age at 15 in 1946 (his DoB is Feb 1931) and served in Germany and Korea. The missing veterans site linked in #1 above states that the hip/groin scar was a result of being bayoneted in Korea, which confirms his service. The tree has pictures of him in Germany which confirms that service. At the very least this suggests a personality which could be consistent with both trouble and simply deciding to leave.

His wife, Wilma, was born Wilma Mae Dill (Birdsall was her first married name) and only died in 2019.

 

[heartanium]

May 14, 1962, The Tacoma News Tribune, pg 11