Identified! Oh - Eastlake, Whtmale 454umoh, 70, Alias 'jnchandler Iii', Jul'02 - Robert Ivan Nichols

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Gardener1850 said:
I agree Betty, and also even if you are familiar with the family you are researching it is extra easy to grab the wrong record on Ancestry and not notice. Ancestry gives "hints" to suggest records that are similar to the info you enter in your tree. If you tell it to accept that hint, it attaches the records and auto fills the form in for you. With a few quick clicks you may accidentally save the wrong info. And it also uses other's family trees to suggest things. So if one person gets the info wrong in their tree, the wrong info may be saved on multiple trees. The hint tools are helpful for quickly building a tree but there can be errors when people have not carefully researched the tree or taken their time looking at the info. JMO.
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Yes! I think it's referred to as "hit and run" geneaology.

Reading the references now to those speculating about Nichols being the Zodiac. I'm not up on that investigation, but is there some DNA evidence retrieved from those crimes? If so, it seems they should have some kind of answer soon.

Re the questions about why Nichols created a false identity for himself in the late 70's, could it just be that he realized computer automation in record keeping was advancing and he didn't want to be tapped to pay child support? He seemed very frugal and avoiding it may have been a priority in his mind.
 
This has been a week full of surprises. So glad he finally has his name back. Wonderful work done (again) by Doe DNA project.

OT also a little girl from France is identified after more then 30 years.
"– over thirty years after the find of a mistreated little girl death along the French motorway A10 southwest of Blois, parents are obsolete and detained"

Off course it's stays heartbreaking; all this lost souls.
 
creepedout said:
In the postcard letter above, look at how numerous "M"s actually look like a backwards "N". Then go look at his rental application. You see the same thing:

*WARNING - GRAPHIC IMAGES MAY APPEAR ON PAGE*
Joseph Newton Chandler III - Case part 2

Scroll down about five pages to find it.
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Good catch, CO. There's no doubt they were written by the same man. Those are very distinct M's. The writing in all capital letters is probably a habit he picked up from being in the military where you have to fill in official forms in all caps. My grandfather who was in WWII wrote in all caps like that too (without the distinctive M's).
 
TY CreepedOut for posting the full video ... WOW What a story .. do hope the why's are answered. It is very possible he suffered from PTSD, my father suffered from it as well he eventually committed suicide. Flashbacks, paranoia, guilt of surviving where so many others did not so so much trauma in war. He burned his uniform when he returned from war .. could he have felt as thou something related to the bombing was his fault. Maybe not keeping watch on duty, not reacting fast enough.. seeing his colleagues dead next to him .. so many possibilities. But going off of the comment you will know why soon when he left the family ... he may have thought of committing suicide sooner. IDK its a very bizarre case ..
 
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Gardener1850 said:
Pictures of some letters he sent:
DgPARbOVMAAKbyi.jpg
DgPARbOVQAAJDwW.jpg
DgPARbOVMAAKbyi.jpg

James Renner on Twitter
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Thank you for posting these letters, Gardener1850! I read them and I thought they were very nice. It is clear to me that he cared about his family prior to vanishing without a trace.
It's a sad case, really. My theory is that he was suffering from a severe case of PTSD, something triggered his PTSD at one point and he did something bad, something that made him go into hiding for the rest of his life. I'm glad his family has some answers now and that they no longer have to wonder what happened to their relative.
 
I wonder if Nichols could have been a bank robber or had some other double life that he was able to maintain up until 1965. Since he told his family they would soon know why he had left, maybe something happened in 1964 that made him think he would be connected to his past soon. Or maybe he committed a crime in 1964 that he thought he would be connected to, but he has never been on anyone's radar for? Like this 1964 bank robbery/double murder in Hamel, IL: Fifty years have passed, but Litton brothers' murder and robbery remain mystery | RiverBender.com

Hamel is less than 4 hour's drive from New Albany, IN: https://www.google.com/maps/dir/New...b2dddade88e!2m2!1d-89.845375!2d38.8889357!3e0

I think we should also look for unsolved crimes around New Albany, Indiana prior to 1965. Perhaps he is connected to a small town cold case somewhere and the evidence has not been uploaded into a federal database. JMO.
 
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StarrChance said:
Now they have his handwriting does anyone know how it compares to Zodiac letters?
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I'm in no way a professional, but I took a quick look and I don't think it's a match. Both Nichols and the Zodiac killer made some spelling mistakes, but it happens to many people. The handwriting doesn't look similar and Nichols appeared to be way more articulate than the Zodiac killer so I think they are not the same person, but like I said - I'm not a professional, so I might be wrong.
 
The "M" in COMPOSITE" also looks like the one from Mr Nichols'/Chandler's letters.
He might have used his left hand (if he was right-handed) writing that letter to the editor, to make sure the writing wouldn't resemble his usual handwriting. This is something I would do during Kris Kringle time. Mr Nichols covered his steps all the time, so he would definitely do something about his handwriting, too, don't ya think?
 
Sarah W said:
The "M" in COMPOSITE" also looks like the one from Mr Nichols'/Chandler's letters.
He might have used his left hand (if he was right-handed) writing that letter to the editor, to make sure the writing wouldn't resemble his usual handwriting. This is something I would do during Kris Kringle time. Mr Nichols covered his steps all the time, so he would definitely do something about his handwriting, too, don't ya think?
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OK, that is a weird one. I hadn't even noticed that. Good spot.
 
 
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creepedout said:
Comparison of DB Cooper handwriting on left with Nichols/Chandler on right
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I'm not seeing a match in that. DB Cooper had a tendency to not connect the lines and curves of his letters together. L was printed like |_ same with the letter E - vertical and horizontal lines in the right places, but not intersecting. Nichols connected his.
 
Something happened with Nichols in or around 1978 to compel him to steal an identity and completely disappear. I don't believe for a minute that Nichols was the Zodiac. But looking at him from that angle, he resided in Rapids City, South Dakota when he applied for the Social Security card under Chandler. Rapids City has an unsolved murder from 1977 of a teenaged boy who was gunned down. The murder weapon was a .22 caliber.
 
I could be wrong, but I don't think he will be linked to any big crime. He seems to me like a guy who just wanted to disappear and get away from his family. Maybe he knew that they were looking for him, and he wanted to make sure they wouldn't be able to find him. If he was wanted for a crime, we would have already heard about that. And if his name wasn't connected to a crime, there would have been no reason for him to change his identity.
 
Betty P said:
I think they said it was the address he used for his fake birth certificate application or DL, something similar. She was talking fast.
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It was an address that he put on the rental application for his Eastlake lease. He used a street number and name that he said was in Columbus for his alleged sister. Addresss didn't exist in Columbus. It existed in another State where his real sister lived.
 
Betty P said:
Thanks for following up on the rest of the PC. Our local station cut out early for another (unrelated) press conference. Lots of good follow up questions and answers.

If the feds have already put his military fingerprints into the national system, shouldn't they have matches by now, if there were any? I suppose it depends on how often local and state LE run new inquiries on unsolved cases in their files?

If every law enforcement agency kept their missing person files updated in NAMUS, tested all their backlog of rape kits and entered DNA info into the national databases for convicted criminals - it's amazing how many cases would be resolved and crimes prevented.
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I too am local and didn't see the whole thing. Can someone point me to where I may be able to watch it again and see the whole thing?
 
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