Cleveland bank heist solved, 52 years later

You don't have to go as dramatic as D.B. Cooper. More than one '60s radical wanted for violent acts by the FBI disappeared quite effectively into normal American suburbia outside the Acela Corridor. One at least, Bernadine Dohrn I think, turned herself in a few decades later out of either guilt or complete boredom.

 

My niece and nephew were good friends with a brother and sister in a Toronto suburb starting in the 1980s. They are still friends as far as I know. The brother and sister's father was a librarian with the University of Toronto. And then around 2005, the cops came to the university: Former fugitive Douglas Gary Freeman back in Canada after years of legal turmoil

 

The way I remember it, Abbie Hoffman lived under an assumed name near Watertown, Ny for about five years. It wasn’t until he got involved in some efforts with the St Lawrence river preservation that his identity was revealed. Basically, some national reporters who came in recognized him.

 

A lady on the lam from the feds following a bank robbery with a fatality during the Weatherman days lived in our area for almost 20 years, worked with my wife at the local community college, and ran a local business. She finally turned herself in because she thought she'd get probation at most, since she wasn't actively involved in the shooting (she was the driver). But everyone else associated with the crime was either dead or had already served time so the family of a guard who was killed and the cops came down heavy on her and she got some serious jail time.

 

Does your town have any unsolved mysteries, murders or robberies of banks?

My little town has an unsolved bank robbery from about 100 years ago, and a murder and arson from about 40 years ago that I remember happening. We also had a massive fire at a church camp retreat that killed a handful of teens but it was deemed accidental.

The bank robbery was a typical stick 'em up and ride away scenario.

The arson was a massive, old three-story house and supposedly the murdered guy saw who did it. They beat him, doused him with gas or some kind of accelerant and lit him up in a parking lot. The person who found him thought it was a pile of clothes someone had thrown out and burned until getting closer. He lived long enough to reportedly tell police or someone some information.

I knew the police chief, who also was an investigator later on with the county, and he said they could never get enough evidence to convict. Strong evidence but not enough to put it over the top, they believed, before a jury.

Friend of mine's house blew up and burned. His father owed people money. Tabs were paid after they were left homeless. "unknown accidental explosion" was the reported cause.

Small town mysteries always are interesting.


Back to disappearing. Also in my town 40ish years ago, the wife of a prominent executive vanished. Poof. Two kids (who were nice) and a mystified husband. Rumors abounded, and that he killed her and dumped the body was the most prevalent. Multiple searches of the house and nearby lake, all records examined, the works. The kids were emotionally tortured. What do you say to a friend who's mother vanishes and his father is thought to be a murderer? Quite a challenging time.

She was found years later living in Ohio. New identity, I think remarried, and told the people who found her to fuck off and leave her alone. She got tired of the shit and wanted to disappear, and did.


I have no need or desire to disappear. But I believe I could.

 

Sarah Jane Olson / Kathleen Ann Soliah

 

I did a story this spring on cold cases in my county and it went over pretty well. It was a folo to the fifth anniversary of the most recent cold case, which is a complete puzzlement becase the perp was caught on multiple cameras.

 

Why someone so prominently in the news media at the time would get involved in a significant issue is strange. Disappearing means not getting involved in stuff, especially if your name was splashed all over, even back then. Dang.

Jane Smith could disappear and become Sue Gurglesnot, a librarian in Bumfuck, Kansas, and no one might know.

Abbie Hoffman? Seems he'd want to lay low.

 

All of these disappeared fugitives date from the 1970s and earlier. And yet they can sitll be caught. Witness Whitey Bulger.

Move to Belize or Russia or some other non-extradition country and you're golden. That's where Whitey fucked up. I think I parked in front of Whitey's flat in Santa Monica once with a rented bitch wagon.

 

Wasn't there some 1970s radical arrested in St. Paul several years ago, about 25 years after she'd disappeared and started a new life as a suburban housewife? Sorry if it's been mentioned earlier.

The FBI might dial down the heat, but it never completely stops looking.

 

Ask Elmo Blatch about golf pros.