PA PA - Bedford, 'Mr. Bones' WhtMale 30-35, 585UMPA, 30-06 rifle, gold dental wk, camping equip, Oct'58

[Richard]

Is it possible he was AWAL? Could have decided to hide out in the woods for a while. The gun could have been for protection from animals and for hunting. Or maybe he wasn't going to be captured and was going to fight back. Just some thoughts.

All are possibilities at this point.

If he was hunting, he probably didn't know much about it, based on his clothing, lack of proper hunting supplies, and carrying of equipment not needed for a hunt. However, many hunting accidents involve people who don't know what they are doing, so the possibility is there. One of the most common "accidents" is hunters mistaking other hunters for game. Another common accident is a hunter carrying or handling his rifle or shotgun in an unsafe manner. Also, hunters often fall out of tree stands, or drop their rifles from them, causing fatal accidents.

More likely that he was only camping and intending to do some target shooting as well. There are bears in Pennsylvania, and maybe wild dogs, so maybe he was carrying the rifle for protection.

The case summary does not mention how much ammo he had, or whether any fired casings had been found nearby. One news article mentions that "three boxes of shells" were found with his things. The proper term would be "cartridges" rather than "shells" if this was unfired .30-06 ammunition. "Shells" could mean shell casings of fired cartridges. It is not clear.

A fully loaded 1903 Springfield rifle holds five shells in its magazine. This rifle had one fired shell casing in the chamber, and two cartridges in the magazine. Rather unusual, as it would indicate that perhaps two other rounds had already been fired. If he was intending to commit suicide, why would he need two extra rounds in the magazine? Did he expect a follow-up shot in case he missed?

It is a good possibility that this man was a military veteran of WW II and/or the Korean War - based on his age, physique, and assumed or aparent familiarity with camping and shooting. Whether or not he was Absent without Leave from his duty station, there is no way of knowing at this point. He could have been on the run and hiding out from a number of different situations besides the military.

The military does keep score on all deserters and still has them on the books with active arrest warrants going back to the late 1940's. There was recently in the news a story about an Army Sergeant who deserted in 1964 in Korea, and who returned to US control last year. He was processed back into the Army, given an Administrative Discharge Hearing in lieu of a Court Martial, and formally processed out of the Army with an Undesirable Discharge. So, if there is any possibility that this guy was an active duty military man who went AWOL, or simply missing, it can be checked into rather quickly. If, however, he was already a discharged Veteran, there would be no records maintained by the military regarding his disappearance.

 

[shadowangel]

All are possibilities at this point.

A fully loaded 1903 Springfield rifle holds five shells in its magazine. This rifle had one fired shell casing in the chamber, and two cartridges in the magazine. Rather unusual, as it would indicate that perhaps two other rounds had already been fired. If he was intending to commit suicide, why would he need two extra rounds in the magazine? Did he expect a follow-up shot in case he missed?

That's funny.

Upallnite brought up a couple of good points, especially about the footwear-they could definitely indicate if he was operating a motorcycle regularly due to the wear patterns.
Without the aid of a boresighter mechanism or other device, the far most common method of sighting in a weapon is to fire three shots and adjust from the triangulation of those three shots. Maybe he was sighting the rifle in, had fired the first two shots, and something bad happened on the third shot? Without reading all the material, is it stated whether the chamber was open or closed (the bolt forward or back)? I'm wondering if he may have been using cheap ammo and "cooked off" a round. I am not all that familiar with bolt-action rifles. Is it possible for the bolt to be forced back by an exploding round, driving the bolt into the shooter's face? The results on a weather-beaten skull might be similar to a GSW, but the powder burning and "tatooing" would be missing.

 

[Richard]

That's funny.

Upallnite brought up a couple of good points, especially about the footwear-they could definitely indicate if he was operating a motorcycle regularly due to the wear patterns.
Without the aid of a boresighter mechanism or other device, the far most common method of sighting in a weapon is to fire three shots and adjust from the triangulation of those three shots. Maybe he was sighting the rifle in, had fired the first two shots, and something bad happened on the third shot? Without reading all the material, is it stated whether the chamber was open or closed (the bolt forward or back)? I'm wondering if he may have been using cheap ammo and "cooked off" a round. I am not all that familiar with bolt-action rifles. Is it possible for the bolt to be forced back by an exploding round, driving the bolt into the shooter's face? The results on a weather-beaten skull might be similar to a GSW, but the powder burning and "tatooing" would be missing.

Wear Patterns on the shoes or boots would indicate a lot. Motorcycles in the 1950's were all of the "kick start" type. There would definitely be a wear pattern just forward of the heel from frequent kick starts. There would also be wear marks on the top toe of the boots from shifting gears on a motorcycle, and skid wear marks on the bottom from putting the feet down while moving slowly forward.

If he did a lot of car driving, the back of the right heel would have been rounded and worn. An over all wear pattern could also speak to a lot of walking, and might indicate his gait.

The 1903 Springfield has a number of built-in safety design features in regard to malfunctioning ammo. A hole in the forward side of the reciever jets gasses away from the shooter's face in the event of a punctured primer. Also, the cocking piece at the rear of the bolt was designed to further deflect escaping gasses from the face. About the worst that could happen from a punctured primer is that the cocking piece will come back quickly to the full *advertiser censored* position, and in so doing might strike your thumb hard.

The bolt has double locking lugs forward, and a secondary safety lug between the bolt handle and the forward locking lugs. The rifle will not fire unless the bolt is in the forward, fully locked position. I do not know how this rifle was positioned or how the bolt was when found, but if there was a shell casing still in the chamber, it was most probable that the bolt was fully closed on it.

If there was a complete blockage of the barrel, or if the wrong caliber ammunition is put in the rifle, it is possible that over pressure from a fired round could cause the barrel to bulge or split, or breach to explode. Again, I do not know what condition the rifle was in when found, but such a disastrous explosion would have been very evident, and probably stated in the police summary.

A wound inflicted on the head from a breach explosion would have been very different from one inflicted by a bullet at close range. With an accidental breach explosion, more damage and injury would likely have occured to the shooter's hands than his head. The fact that they were able to obtain the rifle's serial number, which is on the forward part of the receiver is an indication that no breach explosion occurred.

 

[Marilynilpa]

I found a brief mention of "Mr. Bones", as he is referred to by the police, on the Pennsylvania Missing Persons website. It contains a phone number to the police department, as well as an e-mail address for anyone with any theories or ideas. The link is http://www.pennsylvaniamissing.com/pages/20/index.htm.

It looks as though the police are still very interested in solving this case, because they want to give "Mr. Bones" a proper burial.

 

[Richard]

I found a brief mention of "Mr. Bones", as he is referred to by the police, on the Pennsylvania Missing Persons website. It contains a phone number to the police department, as well as an e-mail address for anyone with any theories or ideas. The link is http://www.pennsylvaniamissing.com/pages/20/index.htm.

It looks as though the police are still very interested in solving this case, because they want to give "Mr. Bones" a proper burial.

Thanks for the link. It is a website run by the Pennsylvania coordinator of the Doenetwork. Their listing and information is the same as the one in my origional post, which came from the Doenetwork. They include some interesting photos of the Turnpike Plaza not far from where this man was discovered.

I sent them an e-mail with a link to this website and thread.

 

[shadowangel]

One of the newspaper articles mentioned that the man was "packing contact lenses". This would indicate he was not wearing them (at best, they would have been found somewhere in the vicinity of the skeleton, and would most likely have been overlooked except in the case of a very careful scrutiny of the surrounding area). Which begs the question, would he have been hunting without them? I'm sure he would much prefer to see what he was shooting at.Does anyone know of a relatively painless way to find out if there had been a "195 Ave A" in the Chicago area of the mid to late '50s? The contact lenses were from there, and prescribed in IL...Also the rifle was sold in IN, strongly indicating a tie to the area. I have located an "A Active" Key and Lock Service in Chicago (following up on a suggestion of Richard's) and also an "A Active" Pawn and Jewelers in Chicago. Street names may have changed in the intervening years...
I've checked all the articles I can find, was the reconstruction ever published to anyone's knowledge?

 

[upallnite]

I thought Richard had posted the url for the reconstruction, but maybe I'm wrong , I don't have time to look right now, but it was the same thing I seen on Doe Network, they're calling him Mr Bones, to do a search.

 

[shadowangel]

Okay...I don't visit Doe much anymore. The links I followed all went to stories about the reconstruction, but no picture of the reconstruction. Thanks.

 

[Marilynilpa]

There is a 195 Avenue A in Youngwood, PA. It is currently the site of a commercial park (one tenant is Firestone Building Products Co.) I don't know whether this place was in existence in the '50's.

Youngwood, PA is 76.38 miles from Bedford, PA, and taking the Pennsylvania Turnpike would be the most direct route.

I wonder if this address was ever checked out by LE?

 

[rachrach99]

I am not sure if anybody has posted it, but there is an "Avenue A" in Chicago. There is not a 195, but I haven't had time to check into locating a map from the 1950's. I will try and do that. The current listings are mainly residential.

 

[Marilynilpa]

There is also a 195 Avenue A in Manhattan. It is the address for Frado Realty (among other tenants). I checked the Chicago phone book, and there are several "Frado" listings. This is a weak link, at best, but I figured I'd mention it.

 

[Marilynilpa]

I am not sure if anybody has posted it, but there is an "Avenue A" in Chicago. There is not a 195, but I haven't had time to check into locating a map from the 1950's. I will try and do that. The current listings are mainly residential.

There is an Avenue A, it appears to be the border between Illinois and Indiana on the far east side of Chicago. I've looked at several maps, and cannot find a "195". I thought perhaps it could be at the intersection of 195th and Avenue A, but no such intersection exists.

If it turns out there IS a 195 Avenue A, the east side of Chicago in the 1950's was a pretty rough neighborhood and it doesn't seem likely that a man of apparent means such as "Mr. Bones" would have lived there. But stranger things have been known to happen!

 

[Richard]

Either of the two links below will show the composite drawing of the Unknown Man of Bedford, PA, aka "Mr. Bones". These are the same links from posts number 1 and 7 of this thread.
http://doenetwork.us/cases/585umpa.html


http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/04038/270334.stm

 

[upallnite]

Ok, I'm going to post this, try not to be too hard on me guys. Found this missing guy from 1950, the age is so totally wrong, but he looks so darned much like Mr Bones, I had to post it. Not much info about this guy though.
Missing Person: John Kelly
http://www.netpci.com/~eldorado/missing-01.htm

click on missing persons.

 

[Richard]

Ok, I'm going to post this, try not to be too hard on me guys. Found this missing guy from 1950, the age is so totally wrong, but he looks so darned much like Mr Bones, I had to post it. Not much info about this guy though.
Missing Person: John Kelly
http://www.netpci.com/~eldorado/missing-01.htm

click on missing persons.

I agree that there is some resemblence, however very little information is provided to cross check. Most people would tend to rule him out based on the limited available information, but there have been some Doenetwork matches in which the age was about 20 years off between that of the missing person, and the police estimate of age of the unknown victim.

I contacted that webmaster and suggested that they post more information, and also list him on the Doenetwork.

 

[Richard]

Keys are very seldom marked with the address which they open. Usually a stamped key is only marked with a number, which relates to a code for which lock it opens.

I feel that the word "Active" probably relates to the name of the Key and Lock Company. I have seen this on a number of keys. Often a name beginning with "A" or a series of "A's" is chosen to give the company a top listing in the Phone directory yellow pages.

The number "195" is probably a code number which had to be cross-referenced with a log book at the key shop - OR possibly at the business, mailbox, apartment complex, etc for which the key was made. It is possible, but not likely that the number is an address. Most locksmiths would advise against that, for the simple reason that if the key were lost, anyone finding it could gain access.

"Ave. A" is most likely a partial address - maybe for the key/lock company, maybe for the post office, apartment, etc. Could it have been a key for one of those mail storage boxes used by postmen? Finding all of the cities and towns that had such a street would be helpful. I doubt that the police had anywhere near the present day searchable databases available during their initial investigations.

The answer might be found in an old 1950's Directory in a reference library. City directories were produced by various different firms somewhat in the manner of a phone directory. Instead of listing only by type of business (yellow pages) or alphabetically by name of individual or business, these old directories would actually be arranged by street address.

One could look up Ave. A, and then look down all existing addresses to see who resided there (business or individual). Often, they were listed by who OWNED the place, rather than who resided there in the case of residences. But because these directories relied upon subscription and advertising, they usually made an effort to list all places of business. If there was an Active Key company on an Ave. A, it would be a very valuable clue.

A key and lock business of today might have existed in the 1950's and it would be worth looking into. Even if only to establish a general area of possibility for this man's previous residence.

 

[shadowangel]

I feel that the word "Active" probably relates to the name of the Key and Lock Company. I have seen this on a number of keys. Often a name beginning with "A" or a series of "A's" is chosen to give the company a top listing in the Phone directory yellow pages.

One could look up Ave. A, and then look down all existing addresses to see who resided there (business or individual). Often, they were listed by who OWNED the place, rather than who resided there in the case of residences. But because these directories relied upon subscription and advertising, they usually made an effort to list all places of business. If there was an Active Key company on an Ave. A, it would be a very valuable clue.

A key and lock business of today might have existed in the 1950's and it would be worth looking into. Even if only to establish a general area of possibility for this man's previous residence.

So you think it might be, at the least, an interesting intellectual exercise to contact the "A Active Key and Lock Company" I found in Chicago? The name of the company, to me suggests it may have been around a few years, as most companies in this business now identifed themselves as locksmiths. Towns and cities do re-name streets on occasion.
Another question, as I have never actually seen one...Could this have been a police officer's callbox key?

 

[upallnite]

Ok, I'm going to post this, try not to be too hard on me guys. Found this missing guy from 1950, the age is so totally wrong, but he looks so darned much like Mr Bones, I had to post it. Not much info about this guy though.
Missing Person: John Kelly
http://www.netpci.com/~eldorado/missing-01.htm

click on missing persons.

Found this too...
http://infowanted.bc.edu/record/?recid=945

 

[Marilynilpa]

Found this too...
http://infowanted.bc.edu/record/?recid=945

I think this is a different John Kelly. From what I can tell, this John Kelly immigrated from Ireland to the U.S. On 8/2/1845, his mother posted this ad seeking the whereabouts of her son.

 

[annemc2]

So you think it might be, at the least, an interesting intellectual exercise to contact the "A Active Key and Lock Company" I found in Chicago? The name of the company, to me suggests it may have been around a few years, as most companies in this business now identifed themselves as locksmiths. Towns and cities do re-name streets on occasion.
Another question, as I have never actually seen one...Could this have been a police officer's callbox key?

An interesting intellectual exercise, indeed. We do know that "Mr Bones" had a Chicago connection (or thereabouts) related to the manufacture and fitting of his contact lenses.