Identified! PA - Philadelphia, 'Boy in the Box', WhtMale 4-6, 4UMPA, Feb'57

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This poor little boy, I wish we knew his name.
 
I've always wondered if the "mother" of this child wasn't mentally handicapped/mentally ill and that her illness resulted in the abuse and subsequent death of the Boy. My son is mentally handicapped and therefore attends a special ed class and it truly astounds me when I see some of his classmates that have mentally handicapped parents and how they "care" for their children. Some of the parents do try but many do not and often they just don't "get it"--they don't understand at all about raising children and the kids end up abused/neglected and often taken away by DSS.

The bruises seem consistant with being restrained and assaulted (duh!). I can see a mentally challenged/ill "mother" restraining the Boy for whatever reasons provoked her and then assaulting him when he cried or wet himself, etc...

The haircut and clipping of fingernails on the Boy suggests to me a "motherly" touch, placing him in a box WITH A BLANKET (whether the box was already at the dump or not) also seems "motherly". Lack of clothing doesn't seem motherly but then we don't know that he actually had clothes. Hard as it is to say, he might not have had clothes to wear.

As sad as this all is, I believe the Boy is in heaven with the angels and that is in many ways so much better than living a lifetime of remembering pain and torture. I'm thankful that his miserable days didn't last longer than they did. God bless him.
 
s_finch said:
As sad as this all is, I believe the Boy is in heaven with the angels and that is in many ways so much better than living a lifetime of remembering pain and torture. I'm thankful that his miserable days didn't last longer than they did. God bless him.
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Beautifully said, sfinch and I couldn't agree more. Those are comforting words for people like myself who this case has haunted for so long now.
 
s_finch said:
I've always wondered if the "mother" of this child wasn't mentally handicapped/mentally ill and that her illness resulted in the abuse and subsequent death of the Boy.
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It's possible. But it would seem to me rather difficult for someone this disabled to hide their identity so well and for so long.
 
Bless your heart, Suzanne! Thank you so much! I was just on my way here to post this.

:blowkiss:
 
I will never understand people who can keep secrets. Someone knows something. I imagine it would eat someone up not to tell someone, anyone. On the other hand, I guess I can't imagine anyone killing a child, either.
 
I have followed this story.....its so heartbreaking that this poor child is still only known as The Boy in the Box and we dont know his true name. I hope whoever put him in that box has had a miserable life since.
 
I reserved my first post on WS for the boy in the box. I was originally drawn to this story because when I saw his picture, he reminded me of my brother, and what my brother looked like as a young child. I'm only 33 though, my brother 23. After looking and reading the description of him, something always drew me to him. Mainly because my gram lost a baby boy at birth, back in the late 40's. I'm not sure of the exact yr. She went on to have 3 girls. My aunts and mom have tried to locate his grave and have had no such luck. My gram passed in 87 and my pop passed 3 yrs ago now. He didn't know 'where" he was at in the cemetary. So my first thought when I saw the boy was, did they steal babies back then? I actually questioned my aunt on if she was sure that gram's baby died, or maybe she thought he died and someone took him. I know it was a far fetched thought, but there is something so familiar about him. We are in NJ and my grams family had come from the philly area (from what I know). Looking more into the case, the yrs wouldn't match up though for that. But that is what originally drew me to this case yrs ago.

I would like to go visit his grave, maybe one day I will. I know that they had said he wasn't from the one orphanage as his haircut didn't match. Now I thought the haircut did match and IMO that was the most likely scenario. If not, wouldn't a mother, father or grandparents have missed this beautiful boy? That has never made sense to me, unless of course they did kill him themselves. I've only ever seen the photos on that one website, and I visited the youtube video as well. Were there other photos released of him?
I know they did a clay recreation of what his father possibly looked like, did they ever do one of the mother? Also, the person who had supposedly seen someone in that area, a woman and boy or man..can't remember.. i guess they never gave a description?

How sad that such a beautiful boy was left out and thrown away like trash. Breaks my heart. I think I'll always follow this case, until it is solved or I'm gone. Also, some hospital must have records of surgeries back then too, I don't understand why nothing was ever found in regards to that.
 
Motomom, I was drawn to him the first time I saw him on the Doe Network because he strongly resembles my first born son.

I still to this day have a hard time looking at him. It breaks my heart.

Have you checked out www.americasunknownchild.net? There are other photos of him, but they are the coroner's photos and even though they're in black and white, they're still difficult to look at, at least for me.

They suspect the boy was somewhere between the ages of 4 and 6, so that would have put his year of birth between 1951 and 1953.
 
vadersbabe said:
Motomom, I was drawn to him the first time I saw him on the Doe Network because he strongly resembles my first born son.

I still to this day have a hard time looking at him. It breaks my heart.

Have you checked out www.americasunknownchild.net? There are other photos of him, but they are the coroner's photos and even though they're in black and white, they're still difficult to look at, at least for me.

They suspect the boy was somewhere between the ages of 4 and 6, so that would have put his year of birth between 1951 and 1953.
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Yes, I was at that site. Has anyone read the book about this case? I was thinking of getting it for vacation.
 
Motomom,

I am currently reading The Boy in the Box, America's Unknown Child by Jim Hoffman. The book was published in 2007 and I bought it I believe in November of 2007. (it takes me forever to finish a book).

Is there another book out there now?
 
vadersbabe said:
Motomom,

I am currently reading The Boy in the Box, America's Unknown Child by Jim Hoffman. The book was published in 2007 and I bought it I believe in November of 2007. (it takes me forever to finish a book).

Is there another book out there now?[/quote]

Anthrobones posted above in post #132 that there will be a new book about the Boy in the Box released in September. I am looking forward to the new book..but don't know if there will be any new info.
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Hi
May I please ask does anyone know any more about this book coming out?

suzanne
 
Oh wow! I didn't realize there was another one coming out. I actually finished the book this afternoon. The story of "M" really intrigues me. Apparently, Joe McGillen, William Kelly and Tom Augustine really believed her story but the book indicates that their superiors didn't buy it b/c she had mental issues and b/c of the passage of time between her "confession" and the crime.

I would hope that the new book has more info. I thought I knew all there was to know! lol
 
I just watched the story on AMW. I have been following the story on WS for years though. I am so happy that this case got some media attention, but it bothers me that there are so many old cases that get no attention because there is not a book coming out.
 
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