I recently became aware of this 2005 paper "
Amelia Earhart's Survival and Repatriation: Myth or Reality" debunking the Irene Bolam story. The author of the paper does a good job of shooting that fish-in-a-barrel and concludes that:
"Certainly it is incredible that such a huge, long-lived conspiracy, with seemingly countless people involved, could be kept secret for a week, much less many decades. It seems virtually impossible to assume that these hundreds or even thousands of people were all liars, who, by some secret agreement, kept the truth from the entire world for so long."
And yet, with no hint of irony, the author is supportive of the idea that Earhart and Noonan were captured by the Japanese and taken to Saipan.