The Perplexing Disappearance of Judge Joseph F. Crater
[Music] this week on buzzfeed unsolved we're hearing the case of the most missingest man in america new york state supreme court judge joseph f crater it's not a contest though right you know anyone who's missing is missing well this is something that the newspapers dubbed him as the most missingest man in america you'll see that sensationalism well you'll see that people had some fun with this one well i'm fascinated to know what makes someone more missing than someone else i'm excited to find out let's get into it joseph force crater was born on january 5th 1889 in pennsylvania less than 100 miles from new york city crater was a dapper dresser and a hard worker attending lafayette college for his undergraduate education and eventually columbia law where he met his future wife stella wheeler stella was married when she met crater but the young lawyer helped her with her divorce and the two married in 1917. to have research officially show that he's a dapper man yeah not a bad situation do you think this guy was a one of those [ __ ] bow tie dudes who were like doctor who is cool bow ties are cool okay i find that quite rich when you yourself are wearing i've never worn a bow tie you're wearing a pin striped shirt with a little i dressed like an ice cream man that's a clothing rose so i just think it's rich that you're saying something what is your [ __ ] bow tie dude now watch and listen to my quartet i will i will never wear a bow tie that is a shame a day guarantee crater worked as a law clerk and taught at various colleges around new york eventually landing a job as a secretary for new york supreme court justice robert wagner crater began practicing law at his firm when wagner was elected to the u.s senate becoming somewhat of a protege under the politician i mean you get working for a rich white man you're probably fine that you become a rich white man yeah yeah it works you know they'll be pulling their strings doing their [ __ ] if you choose to spend your career next to a non-rich white guy oh what does that mean boy did you blow it i did blow it i hitched my uh my line to the wrong ship here yeah you sure did he's gonna he's gonna pull me right into an iceberg crater went on to become rather wealthy as a lawyer in 1927 he bought an apartment on fifth avenue as a gift for stella and the couple also enjoyed a summer home in belgrade lakes maine crater's ambitions however weren't strictly financial and the young attorney made quite a name for himself in politics in april 1930 franklin delano roosevelt then the governor of new york appointed crater to the new york supreme court while the great depression was strangling much of the nation crater was earning 25 000 a year more than three hundred and seventy five thousand dollars in twenty twenty one dollars worth mentioning too by the way the apartment he bought on fifth avenue is prime time yeah uh he bought that as a gift for his i guess wife at that point i'm excited for this guy to go missing i don't like him on august 2nd 1930 only a few months after his appointment to the state supreme court crater and his wife arrived at their main vacation home there crater took several phone calls that stella said angered him crater had to return to new york city for business the next day but he told his wife he'd be back in maine by august 9th her birthday crater spent the night of august 4th at the 5th avenue apartment and informed the maid he'd be heading back to maine on the 7th crater went to his office on august 5th and again on august 6th at one point on the 6th he sent his secretary to the bank to withdraw five thousand one hundred and fifty dollars the equivalent of more than eighty thousand dollars today eighty thousand dollars any day of the week that's a lot of money to watch it's hard to say because like rich scumbags operate differently maybe he's going to go buy a yacht and cash yeah or 50 000 hot dogs yeah those come up right about 1.50 i don't know i don't know hot dog math you could have told me thank you i think no it's suspicious nonetheless he's obviously up to maybe something not great the judge later returned to his apartment and dismissed the maid telling her he was going swimming stella would later find this detail odd as crater reportedly did not enjoy swimming what do you think of that by the way i always think this is funny when these cases happen there's usually something where there's a detail and people will be like hey that person never liked uh i love lucy it's weird that they are watching i love lucy yeah you don't know everything about your partner's life i mean but admittedly it is weird to be like go away i want to swim you do that all the time i don't do that you do you love pools i love first but i want people to be there with me if i was this guy i'd be like beverly i'm thinking of taking a dip how about you hop in with me jesus christ that evening crater visited his friend and ticket broker joseph ganski who arranged for crater to attend the broadway show dancing partner despite the fact that the show had only opened the previous night some reports claim the judge had actually already seen it in either event crater then made his way on foot to billy haas chop house in the theater district on west 45th street there crater dined with attorney william klein and showgirl sally lou ritz around 9 15 pm the trio left the restaurant crater reportedly got in a taxi presumably to get to dancing partner and was never seen again so he's gone he's gone he's missing out of here he's gone i could take solace in the fact that maybe he didn't get to the show maybe but my guy did have a delicious steak that's true at billions i don't know this place billy haase's chop house that sounds like a good place to have a fat ass exactly i'm telling you that i would enjoy it right now without even seeing the menu i'm going in there i'm ordering the ribeye i'm telling them give me the biggest slab of meat that you can possibly fit on a plate oh [ __ ] i meant immediately even if he didn't make it to the show going and getting a big ass steak okay right then after dinner you have like a cocktail or two holy [ __ ] is there anything better in the world having a few cocktails then having a dinner then maybe a nice cup of coffee afterwards to settle the stomach which i don't think it does because i don't think it does yeah i was about to say you're nice and full you're a little loopy yeah that's the time to disappear yourself that's true take me out full and tipsy that's how i want to go out yeah though judge crater was last seen on august 6th it wasn't until weeks later that people began to worry about the missing man when her husband didn't show up in maine on august 7th stella sent the chauffeur to new york to look for him in the city the maid told the chauffeur that the judge was bound to show up sooner or later and that he'd make his way to maine when he did meanwhile the days ticked away stella assumed crater was working while his colleagues assumed he was in maine with stella this would be a very boring episode of the last 48 which you know is when someone goes missing that chronicles the 48 hours after they're pronounced missing his would just be stella smoking a cigarette in the house drinking a martini in maine his business partner is going hey two days off yeah dilly dilly meanwhile he's just floating face down in a pool at the same time however should be noted that it's pretty hard to jump to the conclusion that a person you know and love has vanished especially when this guy seems to be a force of nature if you haven't heard from someone in a couple days you're not like oh they must be gone forever they must have been wiped off the face of the earth that's true fair eventually someone realized crater was missing missing on september 3rd almost a month after he was last seen crater's disappearance was announced to the public the next day a missing person's report was filed with the nypd and his vanishing became a nationwide story when someone didn't show up for something people would say they quote pull the crater end quote now here we're getting into the point where obviously people are having a little bit of fun with this well that's all you could do someone goes missing you have a little fun with it yeah what would be uh the equivalent of pulling a shane you know maybe like taking a nap in the shower that or being a d-bag you've gone for a more cutting route having trouble fitting through doors what would uh be sort of uh [ __ ] your pants in thailand it was singapore oh sorry uh and uh maybe yeah yeah okay dead bodies found in hotel rooms were checked by police for resemblance to crater nearly 100 witnesses were called in a grand jury inquiry regarding his disappearance in january 1931 the grand jury reached the only conclusion they could they had no idea what happened to the judge never occurred to me how many bodies they find in hotel rooms i'm sure a lot i always thought it'd be fun to work at a hotel and i do stand by that but i think it would be sort of a bummer to you know yeah be in my dead bodies all the time be a maid walk into a room to clean it expecting maybe oh maybe this person left me a tip yeah ah well that's a dead guy hey what stinks oh another one yeah is it the famed vanished millionaire no with joseph crater missing in a grand jury unable to come up with any conclusions it's time for us to judge some theories our first theory is that crater ran away from his life to start a new one crater was well connected in the world of new york democratic politics during a time when such ties could have been a liability in particular investigations into political corruption in the city were heating up especially surrounding tammany hall the notorious political organization that first became synonymous with corruption in the 19th century due to its use of boss rule some think crater may have fled to avoid testifying against those who helped him throughout his career some also suggest crater may have been buying and selling judgeships perhaps even his own on the new york supreme court this claim was even made publicly by a republican candidate for governor if such accusations were true and the judge feared investigations surrounding tammany hall would expose him then perhaps crater decided to run instead of defend himself crater may have also fled his old life to start a new one with a mistress the investigation into his disappearance turned up a rotation of beautiful girls he'd regularly socialize with and he was known to have a fondness for showgirls crater's appetite for dancing and reputation as an enthusiastic womanizer led to the nickname of good time joe now that's a good name i loved that he had an appetite for dancing i think he had an appetite for other things as well sex with strange women oh okay i was going to say state oh state sex with weird women yes yeah furthering this theory in the years after his disappearance there was no shortage of alleged sightings of the judge in 1936 a gold prospector named lucky blackied went to the lapd to report having met crater near the gold rush town of julian california according to lucky the man admitted to being the missing supreme court judge and said quote in one more year i will be legally dead i hope i can stick it out that long end quote lucky's tip was actually supported by another report received by the lapd's missing persons bureau five years prior of a sighting just 60 miles from julian local authorities along with new york detectives began a search in their investigation police spoke with multiple people who recognized crater's photo one storekeeper remembered the man buying five dollars worth of food while another person said the man in the picture seemed to be well educated but sucked at mining needless to say crater was not found our leading story tonight joseph f crater is still missing now for a lead in the case we go to julian california to talk to a prospector yeah i've seen them i've seen them out there in the hills i was out there panning in the creek and i've seen a millionaire perhaps the biggest piece of evidence supporting the idea that crater intentionally abandoned his old life was the large amount of money withdrawn from the bank on the day of his disappearance it was later reported however that stella found the money he'd withdrawn meaning if he'd actually started a new life he did so without the five thousand one hundred and fifty dollars i buy him giving it all up i don't i just don't maybe he was tired maybe he was like uh yeah we all know the best thing to do when you're tired is go why don't i spend 24 hours in a mine my back sure hurts maybe swinging this pickaxe will wait i mean i no no i'm not talking about tired physically i mean tired mentally tired glitz and glamour he's living this fly by the seat of his pants life with all these show gals and he's keeping up appearances with his wife who he clearly doesn't give a [ __ ] about could you imagine though like he doesn't actually change his like wardrobe he's just out there in a like a 3 000 soup kneeled down by a river panning just carrying top hat and tails just completely cracked just lost his mind in an opera cloak excuse me i'm here to pan for gold i hope we find a skeleton somewhere in a suit now where is the gold i have my pan i'm ready to scoop it up our next theory is one posited by author and journalist richard j tofu that crater's body was disposed of after he died of natural causes to begin toefl believes one part of the story everyone was told that crater got into a cab after dinner is incorrect tofu examined the testimony of crater's two companions that night and found that they both reported getting into a cab while crater set off down the street on foot bolstering this allegation is the fact that dancing partner the show he had a ticket for was only a 10 minute walk away from the restaurant toefl believes that after catching the second half of the show crater may have made his way to a nightclub and then eventually wound up at a brothel operated by famous madame polly adler toefl suggests that while soliciting service from the venue crater died of natural causes toefl claims an early draft of adler's memoir is said to specifically mention crater's death and the subsequent removal of his body by one of adler's mobster friends unfortunately no copies of this early draft have been found sure sounds like a real story by an author who was writing a book on the case yeah yeah there's this lady she had an early draft of a book that says what i'm saying is true don't know where the book is though i'm not going to knock the guy for taking a cab for instead of a 10-minute walk because i just stuffed yourself with a fat ass steak no yeah you got to walk that bad boy off otherwise that thing is just oh no i'm saying get in the cab i'm not walking anywhere wheel me to my next door oh no you got to walk that down at the show you can't have that slab of meat just sitting in your stomach wreaking havoc on your insides what i want you to walk it off no disagree we disagree on this you want to sit he's a millionaire you put him in a cab he wants to take a cab you think he wants to walk his ass down the street yeah millionaires poop do you think you want to sit through a two-hour play with a turd rocket working its way through your intestines i just think after a big dinner nice to go for a little car ride and i think it's nice to go for a little stroll well i guess this one will remain unsolved then our last theory is that judge crater was murdered according to nypd historian john podraki this is the semi-official consensus some posit that far from being afraid to testify about tammany hall crater was prepared to expose the corruption and that the mob silenced him before he had the opportunity at the time of her husband's disappearance and reasserted in an interview 25 years later stella crater believed the judge had been kidnapped and murdered stella's quoted as saying quote joe crater would not run away from anything or anybody end quote disagree think if his life was on the line he'd probably run away or he wouldn't and then shoot him exactly that's actually like high praise coming from your wife too like i imagine that if you got killed i don't think a quote saying shane midday wouldn't run from anybody or anyone i'll run from anybody exactly that's the quote that would come out i'm a coward man you know people generally point out the fact that i'm not afraid of ghosts but that's because i don't believe in that that's true he does believe if i believed in ghosts i would run out of every building we've ever been in i'm a scaredy cat and i stay in them he does brave little boy i do i stay in that hot water yeah make it my personal hot tub anyway and i sit there and i relax like this you don't relax and i go [ __ ] breathe real fast and you look like you're gonna pass someone get me a brewski because i'm making this place my home never do that some claim that one of his mistresses could have had a boyfriend with ties to the mob or that crater was being blackmailed by a showgirl who had her boyfriend killed the judge the grand jury into his disappearance brought up some possible connections to nefarious dealings but as noted before none of these links were strong enough to conclude anything in 2005 75 years after crater went missing stella ferrucci good of bellrose queens no relation to stella crater died at the age of 91. in her safety deposit box her family found an envelope that read do not open until my death cool where do you think we're going with this i don't know and so i am thrilled i love this this thread comes up often in these cases there's usually an envelope that says do not open until my death i'm also going to do this myself and it is going to contain the dumbest things ever put on paper is it going to be that drawing of you with three butt cheeks inside were notes that claimed verrucci good's husband robert goode who had died in 1975 knew what had happened to judge crater the note said that over drinks with her husband one night taxi driver frank burns claimed to have been driving the cab crater got into after dinner burns reportedly drove a few blocks before two accomplices jumped into the car with him the taxi driver took the judge to coney island where crater was murdered and buried under the boardwalk while no motivation was given in the notes a specific location was by the time the letter was discovered however the new york aquarium had been constructed over that section of the boardwalk i'm not buying it that's cartoonish that's too cartoonish it's too fanciful buried underneath the aquarium at coney island get out of here i do love the idea of a treasure map that leads to an old man's bones yeah this is some goony ass [ __ ] i don't want this goony [ __ ] you thought you're gonna find treasure here's a skeleton yeah that's no fun i'm not buying it you know i got a sense for these things and this one ain't passing the sniff well you just farted that's all that happened oh beefy it's said that until her death every year on august 6th stella crater would visit a bar in greenwich village in new york city and order two drinks before downing one of the drinks stella would reportedly toast to her missing husband saying quote good luck joe wherever you are end quote then leave the other drink at the bar still can't forgive her for leaving a little smoke wagon there on the bar you know what that's a crime you know leaving that's an absolute crime a full glass of whiskey if i were sitting next to her and she was like this one's for my missing husband good luck wherever you are she collected her things teary-eyed and left i'd be like yeah exactly i'd wait for that bell on the door be like you had the second stick then you'd smash the glass on the ground like thor wealthy powerful and well-connected judge crater was poised to be an influential figure in new york for years despite his high profile and decades of sleuthing there's still almost nothing outside of pure speculation surrounding the fate of quote the most missingest man in america meaning whatever happened to judge joseph force crater that early august remains unsolved [Music] it could have been any one of these things because he himself put him in the situation where any number of these things seem possible as i've said before if you want to dance with the devil you got to live with it when he sets you on fire and that's just basics of deviling right there yeah i always thought that could have been delivered cleaner but i don't know how i think good time joe got murdered that's what i think well i guess we'll never know what happened to that funny funny judge yeah yeah dismissed [Music] you
2021-07-11 00:43
