I lived in SF for 7 years in the 70's and a couple of times had to stay in hotels as I was coming and going from the city. From what I remember the National hotel is in an area that is not particularly dangerous as far as down on your luck hotels in SF go. It is not real close to the gay area of town. My gut feeling would be that the first UID is the most likely to be Farren. The fact that he never claimed the last dollars in his bank account tells me he may have committed suicide when his family refused to send him money. I can picture him taking a bus all the way down Market Street and then drowning himself in the Bay. I think someone should explore this candidate more.
CA CA - Farren Stanberry, 18, San Francisco, 24 Apr 1980
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Odyssey
Verfied Insider Diane Genice Dye
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I mentioned that (unclaimed property) in my email, as the reason I thought the PM was likely...
And yes, good idea about any UID rule-outs!
I also plan to ask about the hotel arrangements, and see if that can be clarified a bit. Farren told his family he was staying with a group of young men. The hotel told them that he had left abruptly without paying his bill, leaving his ID and belongings behind. Then, the hotel said Farren had been visiting a gay man at the hotel. I'm curious - when Farren left, did only he leave, or did the whole group? Or was there a group? If Farren had a hotel bill, it doesn't sound like he was just visiting someone there (not to mention the unclaimed property lists the hotel as his address).
I'm confused now. Did the hotel say he was visiting a gay man or did Farren tell his family he was visiting a gay man? I can't imagine a hotel knowing he was visiting a gay man and telling his family that. The facts are that he had rented a room at that hotel and was behind on the rent. I don't know of any "communal" hotels in San Francisco and it is extremely unlikely that this was one. At that time, 1980, SF was the gay mecca of the US. There were probably a number of gay men staying at that hotel.
Many men come to SF to escape their family background and "come out." This hotel is fairly close to the Castro District, which is a well known gay area of town. There are not any hotels that I know of in the Castro District. Rents were so high in SF that many people lived in a roommate situation, but not in a hotel.
Odyssey
Verfied Insider Diane Genice Dye
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It's great to have someone who's familiar with San Francisco in this thread!
The big problem with the first UID is that he may not have been missing yet. I'm hoping to narrow down when he went missing, because there's currently a 2-3 month window.
I hope the window is because there are 2 dates - the date his family last heard from him, and the date they learned he had left the hotel. But it could be that they simply aren't sure of when they last heard from him.
Odyssey
Verfied Insider Diane Genice Dye
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From what I understand:
Farren told his family he was staying with a group of young men at the hotel.
When Farren hadn't called home for a few weeks, his grandmother called the hotel and learned that Farren had left abruptly, not paying his bill or taking his belongings.
Later (not sure exactly when), Farren's aunt married DC (who posted the 6th post down at this link): <modsnip: broken link>
In the Oregonian article, it says that DC never met Farren because he came along after Farren's disappearance - but he has been doing a lot of searching. The article says that when DC contacted the hotel, he learned that Farren was visiting a gay man at the hotel, who later died of AIDS.
Hope that somewhat makes sense...
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alllads
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From what I've read, the National Hotel is an SRO (Single room occupancy) hotel, as opposed to one regularly stayed in by tourists and the like, especially when Farren was there. Maybe he ended up staying there after visiting the gay man that may exist? But yeah would be great to know what was actually said by the hotel and when. And also, did they actually speak to the International Hotel, or the National Hotel?
I've reread the description of the first UID and I agree with Odyssey that it's pretty iffy. I looked at the dental records and the first UID and he's had a lot of dental work, including numerous crowns, which seems a bit much for an 18 year old like Farren. Also, first UIDs hair is described as "All of the head is shaved except for one patch of hair in the occipital region and the upper part of the nape of the neck" which would seem like a pretty memorable thing about a person, I guess?
I've reread the description of the first UID and I agree with Odyssey that it's pretty iffy. I looked at the dental records and the first UID and he's had a lot of dental work, including numerous crowns, which seems a bit much for an 18 year old like Farren. Also, first UIDs hair is described as "All of the head is shaved except for one patch of hair in the occipital region and the upper part of the nape of the neck" which would seem like a pretty memorable thing about a person, I guess?
Are we on the same page? Looking at the entry in Namus, I don't see where he had lots of dental work. I don't really know how to read dental charts, but I would guess it says he had 2 cavities??? The best way I can picture the hair is he had his head shaved with a pony tail on the back of his head. Pretty weird, but not for San Francisco. The translation of the info about the gay friend I would guess to be that he actually had a gay lover who died of AIDS.
alllads
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Hi Redbird, with the dental chart I think you're looking at the bit that says Comments and says "22. Facial caries; pronounced wear facet
23: Facial caries"
If you look at the bit above that, there's a table with numbers and letters. The number indicated the tooth, the letter indicates the condition of the tooth. Here's a screenshot:
<modsnip: broken image link>
So: teeth 1, 16, 17, and 30 have been removed.
Fillings in teeth 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 11, 12, 13, 15, 18, 20, 21, 27, 28, 29, 31, 32
Cavities/caries in 22, 23.
Crowns on teeth 14 and 19.
Normal teeth with no work: 6, 24, 25, 26
And teeth 8, 9, 10 postmortem missing/not recovered.
And here's teeth numbering on a set of false teeth that makes it a bit clearer: <modsnip: broken image link>
And I just think that that's a very large amount of dental work for an 18 year old to have.
Which RE: questions to ask police reminds me, one good question would be what if any memorable dental work did Farren have? Doenetwork says Dentals are not available for him, but does anyone know if he had ANY dental work done at all, or at least if he had any wisdom teeth taken out, things like that?
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Thanks for the chart. Very helpful. That's a lot of dental work for anyone to have. Also the crowns may mean this person had some money at some time during his life to afford crowns. Wonder if he was a speed freak to have so much decay? So you are right. If this dental chart is accurate, surely this person was much older than Ferren.
Greetings Redbird!
Thanks for your help and interest in Farren's case! Was wondering why you think UID 1 could more likely be Farren than UID 3? What would be really interesting, is to get DNA for all three of the samples for comparison. Would also like to know more about the deceased man that Farren visited. Sad that he died of AIDS.
It sounds like Farren had a passionate empathetic drive to help people and was very caring and concerned, but at the same time, with that unclaimed money maybe felt he could no longer make it on his own and needed help. I definitely would want to know more about that last phone call that Farren made to his family. It sounds like he was really hurting inside.
Satch
Odyssey
Verfied Insider Diane Genice Dye
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I think if we learn that Farren was missing by May 30, UID #1 will be a much more promising PM - although I am considering that UID #1 may have been an accident.
Redbird, do you think it would be normal for someone to be wearing a down jacket in May? I know there are people (like me) who are always cold and wear jackets year round, but in general, I think that would be unusual. It seems like it would be normal, though, if he were going out on a boat, or fishing, or something - which led me to think maybe this was an accidental drowning.
At the same time, he did have what appeared to be track marks, which kind of suggests a lifestyle prone to suicide/homicide... it's really hard to say... interesting though, that he was able to pay for all that dental work.
Redbird, do you think it would be normal for someone to be wearing a down jacket in May? I know there are people (like me) who are always cold and wear jackets year round, but in general, I think that would be unusual. It seems like it would be normal, though, if he were going out on a boat, or fishing, or something - which led me to think maybe this was an accidental drowning.
At the same time, he did have what appeared to be track marks, which kind of suggests a lifestyle prone to suicide/homicide... it's really hard to say... interesting though, that he was able to pay for all that dental work.
The first time I went to SF it was in August and I was wearing shorts and a halter top, having just driven through the desert. When I got out of my car, what a shock. It was freezing. SF may be affected now by global warming, but when I was there (1967-1980) the temperature stayed about 55 degrees year round and 3/4 of that time it was cloudy and foggy. You never wore summer clothes there. So it would be the norm to have a down jacket on.
wintermute
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Good find. I think that UID #3 is the only possible match of the three choices. The remains were mummified, so maybe he was there since 1980. The dental chart says that all of the wisdom teeth were present; I wonder if they could tell if the teeth had fully erupted yet?
wintermute
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It's still cold almost year round in SF. I wear a coat through most of the summer. Our warm season is usually September and October.
I tried to find 1144 Market St. and cannot find it. Have concluded it must be torn down. My thoughts about #3 are that he must have been a homeless person that died in that building. And we know FS had a room at the hotel, so that's why I don't think it was him. You never know what you are going to find in some of those old buildings. They must have found nothing but a skeleton since there were no details. Once I was redoing an apt, ripped up some linoleum and found a newspaper from the 30's that had an obituary for Pretty Boy Floyd. I am not sure why you would think FS was compassionate and caring. I would translate the story to his family that he was visiting a gay man to really mean that he had a gay lover in the hotel. Could he have killed himself because he had no money and was exposed to aides? I have a feeling this was a suicide. The area around this hotel is the worst part of town but not particularly dangerous as are some other hotels in the area. Just my scattered thoughts...
Odyssey
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When I googled 1144 Market San Francisco (with 1144 market in quotes) I got hits for a Cobb's Dore Gallery, and something called Wheeling, a J. G Huck's (no idea what that is)... they have suite numbers, which is why I figured it was a commercial building.
Although I believe the building WAS torn down because the UID was found by a building wrecking crew. I think those businesses I mentioned above were more recent, since they came up in a google search.
It appears that 1144 Market was once a residence or hotel, because city directories from 1908-ish are coming up with people's names at that address, and possibly an Enterprise Hotel in 1921.
So there's really no telling what was there in 1980. I'd like to find out.
It just now dawned on me that AIDS/HIV was not known in the US or anywhere in 1980.
HIV/AIDS - Wikipedia
According to this entry, the first case in the US was in 1981 and it was first recognized by the CDC at that time. So my theory that SF might have been afraid of contracting HIV is way off base. I wonder when the uncle found out SF's friend had died of AIDS. It must have been much later. Now I really feel like an idiot!
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Odyssey
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No reason to feel like an idiot, it is confusing.
I am wondering when DC found out too, and if the friend had already died by the time DC first learned that he existed. It wasn't really clear in the article, but I'm assuming if DC had been able to talk to the friend, that would have been mentioned - so my guess is that the friend was already deceased by the time DC got involved...
MOO
I will contact the Oregonian tomorrow via email and see if they will give me permission to copy that article without having to jump through hoops - never tried that before, but since it's for a good cause, and nobody will be profiting financially from it, maybe they will just say "Go ahead." It might help to put things in context a bit. I have paraphrased everything I thought was useful from it, but it's kind of scattered....