Identified! AL - Bibb Co, WhtMal UP13483, 14-17, MVA/hitchhiker, tattoo: RY + LOVE Mar'61 - Daniel Armantrout

[Alleykins]

Thank you for posting that article.

 

[amputate]

So glad to hear he's been exhumed and DNA is on the way. I hope somebody out there is looking for the missing piece of their family tree.


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[bflocket]

I also want to know how full the pack of Pall Malls was. Why would he be carrying cigarettes without a lighter? Did he intend to borrow other people's lighters?

I'm a heavy smoker and your question(s) got me to thinking... What kind of lighters did people use back then?
I know cigarette smoking was much more common and widespread (many people smoked whether rich/poor, black/white, man/woman, etc) back then. I've seen cigarette ads from around a decade before this fellow's death touting the "health benefits" of cigarettes. Most restaurants and bars had matchbooks with their logo/name on them, along with having ashtrays in most public places.

And back in the mid-1980's, a friend and I (both first-graders) would walk down to the drugstore to pick up cartons of Marlboro's for her mom.
Oh, how the times have changed!...

I bet he probably just used matches. Disposable lighters were just starting to be sold in the early-1960's. I take that, before then, lighters would cost a little more since they would be refilled and reused for a while (like a Zippo). Now, when you Bic runs out of juice, you just toss it and get another one for $1 or so.

A Brief History of Matches and Lighters
Vintage Cigarette Lighters by Frank Dutton

1947:
The first gas fueled lighter, the Gentry - a table lighter, is introduced by the Quercia family owned Flaminaire Company and is shortly followed by a pocket model called the Crillion. An identical lighter was marketed under license in the USA by the Parker Pen Company - the Parker Flaminaire in the 1950s. The early butane lighters all used proprietary single use gas tanks. When the tank was empty, you bought another one - a good revenue stream for the manufacturers. Later this evolved to a system of refillable tanks that used proprietary cylinders to fill them - you had to buy the right gas cylinder for your lighter. A little further on butane gas could be bought from third party manufacturers - who often included adapters so you could refill any of several brands of lighters. Eventually almost all butane lighters used standardized filler mechanisms. In some cases, it is possible to still get the old lighters and work on the tanks to make them refillable and end up with a working lighter.

1961:
The French Samec Company introduces the first disposable butane lighter - the Cricket. The disposable lighter was to have almost as much a transforming effect on the lighter industry as the flint because it ushered in a new age of very cheap, disposable lighters and effectively put most of the makers of durable lighters out of business over a period of time. Cricket was acquired by Gillette (safety razors / blades) in 1970 and introduced in the USA in 1972.

1962:
The first patent application for a piezoelectric lighter is submitted by Sapphire-Molectric - a subsidiary of Colibri - and designed by Hans Lowenthal and Martin Paul Levy. The second patent was submitted in Japan in 1964 by Mansei Koyo. The first piezoelectric to hit the market was the Maruman Business Table Lighter in 1966. The Colibri Moletric 80 was the earliest pocket size piezoelectric lighter - the Molectric 88, which came out 2 years later, is also pictured. This ushers in the piezoelectric ignition that replaces flint and a host of piezoelectric lighters in the mid-1960s through the 1970s. Still very much in use, they are no longer as common as they once were. The name 'piezo' derives from the Greek 'piezen' meaning 'to press'. A piezoelectric device consists of a small, spring-loaded hammer which, when a button is pressed, hits a crystal of PZT or quartz crystal. Quartz is piezoelectric, which means that it creates a voltage when deformed. This sudden forceful deformation produces a high voltage and subsequent electrical discharge, which ignites the gas. The discovery of and earliest research on the phenomenon of piezoelectricity was in the mid-1800s. Many synthetic materials have also been produced to generate the piezoelectric effect.

 

[Alleykins]

So glad to hear he's been exhumed and DNA is on the way. I hope somebody out there is looking for the missing piece of their family tree.


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Sadly, if it were Robert Rasmussen, there would be nothing to compare it to at this time. He doesn't appear to be in any databases.
That's why I'm hoping Gerald's family can maybe get in touch with his family to report him missing (as in put into NamUs, etc) post a picture and give a DNA sample.

 

[rats]

http://wiat.com/2016/06/09/crews-exhuming-body-of-unidentified-boy-who-died-in-1961/ the video has really nice views of the street/ bridge and river, and his coffin being dug up.

I hope his family finds answers soon though. 55 years is a long time to wait.

 

[MelmothTheLost]

I bet he probably just used matches. Disposable lighters were just starting to be sold in the early-1960's. I take that, before then, lighters would cost a little more since they would be refilled and reused for a while (like a Zippo). Now, when you Bic runs out of juice, you just toss it and get another one for $1 or so.

From memory, lighters used to be the sort of commemorative things that a man received as a gift to mark a significant birthday, other event or relationship, like being given a good watch or gold cufflinks. The "best" were gold, but silver and stainless steel ones were also given as gifts.

In John le Carre's novel Smiley's People, part of the story turns on the engraved lighter Smiley's wife Ann had given him many years before: when Smiley was interviewing the Russian master spy Carla in Delhi, Carla picks up and keeps the lighter, and he drops it at Smiley's feet at the end of the novel when he crosses into the West and defects.

 

[carbuff]

Also often given as a love token, usually from the woman to the man, it being one of the few jewelry-type items the average man would carry or wear. See also tie tacks, watches.

There were cheapish lighters, though. But most people just used matches. I think I might still have a collection of matchbooks from every restaurant I ate at back in the day. I never smoked but they were fun to collect.

 

[Beamie]

The following fields have been changed:
DNA : DNA Status changed from "submitted not complete" to "entered"

 

[Alleykins]

This is good news. We're getting there. Thanks for the update.

 

[Tulessa]

I wonder if they can trace his DNA like they did Lori Ruffs?

 

[Alleykins]

Great news. His DNA test is complete. His NamUs appears to have been updated as of 09/30/2016.

 

[Alleykins]

I wonder if they can trace his DNA like they did Lori Ruffs?

I sorta have mixed feelings about using ancestral DNA (is that what it's called?), but I would like to see it done in this case, because it is so old and time is running short to find closely related living relatives. If he had any siblings, they're on in years. As someone mentioned earlier, his parents are most likely deceased, but you never know. I was waiting to use the bathroom one time at the doctor's office, and this little old lady, who must have been 80 if she were a day, was waiting for someone to come out of it. I asked if she was waiting for her husband. She said no, I'm waiting for my father. I was like whaaaat, come again? How lucky she was to have her dad so late in life!

 

[Classito]

Possible that he ran away from Dozier Reform School in Marianna FL..Doubtful they would have reported it. There are records of boys at the facility but privacy laws prevent records from 1960 up from being shared

Classito

 

[Alleykins]

Did they say they were going to do any isotope testing in addition to DNA when they exhumed his remains? I can't recall.

 

[aThousandYearsWide]

From http://www.missingkids.com/poster/NCMU/1250767

Date Found: Mar 27, 1961
Location Found: Centreville, AL
Sex: Male
Race: White
Hair Color: Lt. Brown
Eye Color: Blue
Estimated Height: 5'6"
Estimated Weight: 120 lbs

On March 27, 1961 an unidentified boy was a victim of a vehicle accident along River Bend Road in Bibb County, Alabama. The boy was picked up hitchhiking along Alabama Highway 25 south of Wilton, AL by a man traveling through River Bend. The driver survived the accident but the child did not. The child supposedly told the driver that he ran away after his parents separated but the child wasn’t in the car long enough to tell any more of his story. The child is estimated to be 14-17 years old. He had light brown hair and blue eyes. He stood approximately 5’6” tall. He had a homemade tattoo on his left arm that read “R.Y. in love” or “R+Y in Love”. The clothing he was wearing is unknown but he was wearing a Timex wrist watch. He also carried with him a suitcase full of clothing, a brown wallet that did not contain identification, and a pack of Pall Mall cigarettes with a South Carolina tax stamp on it. The image above is a facial reconstruction created by a NCMEC forensic artist and depicts what the boy may have looked like in life.

 

[Alleykins]

I'm not sure why they use that picture, it looks nothing like the pm photo at all, and they have a pretty good one.

 

[Splenda]

Riverbend is a rural community in Bibb County, Alabama. It is situated between The Town of West Blocton and The City of Centreville. There would be numerous articles in the local paper - THE CENTREVILLE PRESS, with more recent ones due to the body being exhumed last year in attempt to gather evidence to be used in modern day lab testing. The community members paid for a funeral service, gravestone, etc. The body is buried in the old Centreville cemetery on Mill Street.

 

[folieadeuxnola]

Bump....


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[BJones68]

I wanted to give you all an update. I have recently joined the effort to try and identify this young man -- I am local -- and experienced in ancestral DNA research - so was interested to talk with the locals about the status of the DNA results. WELL - unfortunately, the point person and local official handling this case died unexpectedly only a few weeks ago. The Governor is in the process of appointing a someone to take his place - and I was told to contact them back in about a week - and hopefully there would be someone who discuss where they were in the process.

ALSO -- after reading all the previous posts in this thread -- I was successful in contacting a living relative of the young Mass. teen Robert Rasmussen who went missing before this time - and could fit the time frame. I sent her multiple pictures - both the post mortem and the composite - and she indicated they were NOT the same person -- BUT that was good thinking on y'all's part - and she appreciated us reaching out. ON A POSITIVE NOTE - I am working with her to get Robert entered into NaMUS and the Charley Project - and possibly getting some DNA on file.

 

[Migmuu]

I found some newspaper articles with quite a bit of information not in NamUs, including:

- A detailed description of the circumstances
- He had a small crescent-shaped scar on his upper right forehead and a second, 4-inch-long scar on his right calf
- Inside his wallet was a picture of him with a girl, with the inscription "Think of me always and remember how we used to go places together"
- The boy told the driver he was heading to San Diego from the Carolinas. It's worth noting the tax stamp on his pack of cigarettes was from South Carolina
- The inscription on his arm wasn't a tattoo, it was scarification (self-inflicted)

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