TIGHAR

Amelia Earhart Search Forum => News, Views, Books, Archival Data & Interviews on AE => Topic started by: jack dunn on April 23, 2011, 01:01:03 AM

Title: 'Amelia who was buried in 1939'
Post by: jack dunn on April 23, 2011, 01:01:03 AM
I think this might of been too easily dismissed. The name (thats fairly straight forward, the time frame (looks about right), no surname (so not entirely sure who it is), 1939 - is anyone really going to worry about detail (when there really aren't any concrete details). Would the name Amelia appear in Fiji at that time?

This is surely worth futher investigation.   

http://tighar.org/Projects/Earhart/Archives/Research/Bulletins/42_FijiBoneSearch.html
Title: Re: 'Amelia who was buried in 1939'
Post by: Martin X. Moleski, SJ on April 23, 2011, 07:42:02 AM
I think this might of been too easily dismissed. The name (that's fairly straight forward, the time frame (looks about right), no surname (so not entirely sure who it is), 1939 - is anyone really going to worry about detail (when there really aren't any concrete details). Would the name Amelia appear in Fiji at that time?

This is surely worth further investigation.   

http://tighar.org/Projects/Earhart/Archives/Research/Bulletins/42_FijiBoneSearch.html

I'm the author of that report.

The time frame does not seem right to me:

"[Roger Kelley] did find an Amelia who was buried in 1939, but no matter how hard we tried to imagine a scenario, we could not bring ourselves to believe that the Bureau of Prisons would have entered a burial date more than a year before the bones were brought to Suva."

There are other elements in the record that rule out this Amelia from being our Amelia.

(http://tighar.org/aw/mediawiki/images/6/6d/Roger-046.jpg)

(http://tighar.org/aw/mediawiki/images/4/41/Roger_047.jpg)
Title: Re: 'Amelia who was buried in 1939'
Post by: Ric Gillespie on April 23, 2011, 08:23:45 AM
Such an entry would also pre-suppose that they knew who they were burying.  Inconceivable.
Title: Re: 'Amelia who was buried in 1939'
Post by: Martin X. Moleski, SJ on April 23, 2011, 09:41:32 AM
Such an entry would also pre-suppose that they knew who they were burying.  Inconceivable.

I agree completely.  They would have to have found Amelia's bones, identified them as hers, decided to bury them under just her first name, and not mention any of this to the U.S.

I mentioned Roger finding the entry on the 50-year-old Polynesian Amelia who was buried in 1939 as an indication of how thorough his search was.  This was as close as we came to finding a burial record for our Amelia--and it wasn't at all close.
Title: Re: 'Amelia who was buried in 1939'
Post by: jack dunn on April 23, 2011, 12:44:27 PM
Hi Ric

The bones that are being searched for are the ones form Gardner Island, they might want to bury the bones with a name, rather then no name. The name could have been anything e.g. 'Eve', but maybe Dr. Hoodless thought I'll send the coffin with a name 'Amelia' instead of no name.

Totally unrelated, but just as an example:- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam_%28unsolved_Thames_murder_case%29

Such an entry would also pre-suppose that they knew who they were burying.  Inconceivable.
Title: Re: 'Amelia who was buried in 1939'
Post by: jack dunn on April 23, 2011, 01:02:55 PM
Looking at the entries in the pages you've posted, the dates are in sequence so no possibilty to add the entry at a later date.
Apologies If my initial post sounded critical it wasn't meant to be. You can tell by the amount of information there is on this site
that an incredible amount of time and effort has gone into the research.

O.K. I've been thinking it so I say it, I know the skeleton was incomplete, but it was a teaching hospital, how about the bones
have been used as a 'teaching skeleton'? I'm aware that the crabs damaged the bones to some extent.   

Such an entry would also pre-suppose that they knew who they were burying.  Inconceivable.

I agree completely.  They would have to have found Amelia's bones, identified them as hers, decided to bury them under just her first name, and not mention any of this to the U.S.

I mentioned Roger finding the entry on the 50-year-old Polynesian Amelia who was buried in 1939 as an indication of how thorough his search was.  This was as close as we came to finding a burial record for our Amelia--and it wasn't at all close.
Title: Re: 'Amelia who was buried in 1939'
Post by: Ric Gillespie on April 23, 2011, 01:28:04 PM
I know the skeleton was incomplete, but it was a teaching hospital, how about the bones
have been used as a 'teaching skeleton'?

Okay. That certainly seems like a possibility. How would you test that hypothesis?
Title: Re: 'Amelia who was buried in 1939'
Post by: jack dunn on April 23, 2011, 01:52:41 PM
I don't think they would keep records of 'teaching skeletons'. I would suggest an inspection of each skeleton. We know that it had four original teeth, you could ask the hospital to have an initial inspection. 

I know the skeleton was incomplete, but it was a teaching hospital, how about the bones
have been used as a 'teaching skeleton'?

Okay. That certainly seems like a possibility. How would you test that hypothesis?
Title: Re: 'Amelia who was buried in 1939'
Post by: Martin X. Moleski, SJ on April 23, 2011, 02:16:33 PM
I don't think they would keep records of 'teaching skeletons'. I would suggest an inspection of each skeleton. We know that it had four original teeth, you could ask the hospital to have an initial inspection. 

The team that searched for the bones in 1991 (http://tighar.org/wiki/Bones_I) looked at the entire bone collection of the Fiji School of Medicine, (http://tighar.org/wiki/FSM) which is where Hoodless was Principal.  Roger and I looked at the same collection in 2003.  None of the skulls was down to four teeth.  Kar Burns measured the other bones, just in case.  No match.
Title: Re: 'Amelia who was buried in 1939'
Post by: jack dunn on April 24, 2011, 09:34:23 AM
Thanks Moleski.