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Who was Bruce Peck? Identity of man in 1971 death in Springfield’s Hotel Charles remains a mystery
Just before Christmas in 1971, a man signed into the Hotel Charles under a false name, and then killed himself. Authorities have never learned his real name.
SPRINGFIELD — A week before Christmas in 1971, a young man with reddish-brown hair booked a room in the Hotel Charles in downtown Springfield. He signed the register as Bruce Peck, of 21 Orange St., Storrs, Connecticut.
Two days later, on Dec. 19, hotel staff found him dead in his room on the eighth floor.
Police quickly determined he died by suicide — the door was locked from the inside, there was a nearly-empty bottle of barbiturates on the bed with him and his head was wrapped in a towel — but detectives soon learned they had a bigger issue.
Bruce Peck was a made-up name, and 21 Orange St., Storrs, Connecticut, is a made-up address.
There was nothing in the room that could identify him. No driver’s license, no luggage, no personal papers, no anything that would direct police to his family.
In the days, weeks and months that followed, multiple articles appeared in the press, both in Springfield and Connecticut, about Bruce Peck. Police were hoping someone would come forward to reveal his real identity.
No one ever did.
