Joseph F. Crater
Encyclopedia
Joseph Force Crater was a judge
in New York City
who disappeared on the night of August 6, 1930. He was last seen leaving a restaurant on 45th Street. He had stated earlier that he was planning to attend a Broadway
show. His disappearance became one of the most famous in American history and pop culture, and earned him the title of "The Missingest Man in New York".
, the eldest of four children born to Frank Ellsworth Crater and the former Leila Virginia Montague. He was educated
at Lafayette College
(Class of 1910) and Columbia University
.
He was an Associate Justice
of the New York Supreme Court
for New York County. He had been appointed to the state bench by then-Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt
just four months before disappearing on August 6, 1930.
. In late July, he received a telephone call. He offered no information to his wife about the content of the call, other than to say that he had to return to the city "to straighten those fellows out".
The next day, he arrived at his 40 Fifth Avenue apartment but instead of dealing with business, he made a trip to Atlantic City with his mistress, a showgirl
named Sally Lou Ritz. He returned to Maine on August 1, and traveled back to New York on August 3. Before making this final trip, he promised his wife he would return by her birthday, on August 9. Crater's wife stated that he was in good spirits and behaving normally when he departed for New York City
. On the morning of August 6, Crater spent two hours going through his files in his courthouse chambers. He then had his assistant, Joseph Mara, cash two checks for him that amounted to U.S.
$5,150 (equivalent to about $ in today's funds). At noon, he and Mara carried two locked briefcases to his apartment and he let Mara take the rest of the day off.
. He then went to Billy Haas’s Chophouse at 332 West 45th Street for dinner. There, he ate dinner with Sally Lou Ritz and a friend of his who was a lawyer. The lawyer later told investigators that Crater was in a good mood that evening and gave no indication that anything was bothering him. The dinner ended a little after 9 pm, a short time after the curtain rose on the show for which Crater bought a ticket, and the small group went outside.
had been emptied and the two briefcases that Crater and his assistant had taken to his apartment were missing. These promising leads were also quickly bogged down by the thousands of false reports coming from people claiming to have seen the missing man. Crater's wife later found the missing money in a dresser drawer in her home, along with a note from the judge.
In October, a grand jury
began examining the case, calling 95 witnesses and amassing 975 pages of testimony. Interestingly, Mrs. Crater refused to appear before the grand jury. The conclusion was that "The evidence is insufficient to warrant any expression of opinion as to whether Crater is alive or dead, or as to whether he has absented himself voluntarily, or is the sufferer from disease in the nature of amnesia, or is the victim of crime."
None of the investigations succeeded in discovering the judge's fate or possible whereabouts.
His case—Missing Persons File No. 13595—was officially closed in 1979.
It is sometimes claimed that Sally Lou Ritz disappeared in August or September 1930, but this is not the case. Ritz was interviewed in late September 1930 in Youngstown, Ohio, where she had gone "to be with her sick father." As late as July 1937, Ritz was interviewed by police in Beverly Hills.
It would seem that before the Judge was declared legally dead, Mrs. Crater remarried in Elkton, Maryland, on April 23, 1938 to Carl Kunz, electrical engineer, of New York. Kunz' first wife had hanged herself only eight days before the wedding. The Judge was declared legally dead in absentia in 1939 and Mrs. Crater then received $20,561 in life insurance (worth approximately $ in today's funds). Mrs. Crater separated from Kunz in 1950, and died in 1969 aged 70. Her own account of the Crater case, in which she expressed her belief that Crater had been murdered, was written with Oscar Fraley, newspaperman and freelancer and published by Doubleday in 1961.
, Brooklyn, at the current site of the New York Aquarium
, where the woman claimed the judge was buried under the boardwalk. Moreover, the notes identified Crater's killers as NYPD
officers Robert Good (her husband) and Charles Burns, also bodyguard of Abe Reles
of Murder, Inc.
and Burns's brother Frank, a cab driver.
Police reported that no records had been found to indicate that skeletal
remains
were discovered at that site when it was excavated in the 1950s. Richard J. Tofel, the author of Vanishing Point: The Disappearance of Judge Crater and the New York He Left Behind, expressed skepticism of Ferrucci-Good's account.
For many years following Crater's disappearance, "Judge Crater, call your office" was a standard gag of nightclub comedians and was often heard on public address systems.
In order to promote the 1933 film Bureau of Missing Persons
, Warner Bros.
advertised they would pay $10,000 (equivalent to about $ in today's funds) to Crater if he claimed it in person at the box office. In the third season episode of The Dick Van Dyke Show
, "Very Old Shoes, Very Old Rice", the character of Rob Petrie mistakes a judge named Judge Krata for the missing judge. A 2010 novel, The Man Who Never Returned by Peter Quinn, investigates the Crater case through the lens of a 1955 fictional detective.
Judge Crater's will, marked confidential and addressed to his wife, possibly written on the day of his disappearance, was sold at auction in 1981 for $700.
Judge
A judge is a person who presides over court proceedings, either alone or as part of a panel of judges. The powers, functions, method of appointment, discipline, and training of judges vary widely across different jurisdictions. The judge is supposed to conduct the trial impartially and in an open...
in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
who disappeared on the night of August 6, 1930. He was last seen leaving a restaurant on 45th Street. He had stated earlier that he was planning to attend a Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
show. His disappearance became one of the most famous in American history and pop culture, and earned him the title of "The Missingest Man in New York".
Early life and legal career
Crater was born on January 5, 1889, in Easton, PennsylvaniaEaston, Pennsylvania
Easton is a city in Northampton County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 26,800 as of the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Northampton County....
, the eldest of four children born to Frank Ellsworth Crater and the former Leila Virginia Montague. He was educated
Higher education
Higher, post-secondary, tertiary, or third level education refers to the stage of learning that occurs at universities, academies, colleges, seminaries, and institutes of technology...
at Lafayette College
Lafayette College
Lafayette College is a private coeducational liberal arts and engineering college located in Easton, Pennsylvania, USA. The school, founded in 1826 by James Madison Porter,son of General Andrew Porter of Norristown and citizens of Easton, first began holding classes in 1832...
(Class of 1910) and Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
.
He was an Associate Justice
Associate Justice
Associate Justice or Associate Judge is the title for a member of a judicial panel who is not the Chief Justice in some jurisdictions. The title "Associate Justice" is used for members of the United States Supreme Court and some state supreme courts, and for some other courts in Commonwealth...
of the New York Supreme Court
New York Supreme Court
The Supreme Court of the State of New York is the trial-level court of general jurisdiction in thestate court system of New York, United States. There is a supreme court in each of New York State's 62 counties, although some smaller counties share judges with neighboring counties...
for New York County. He had been appointed to the state bench by then-Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Franklin Delano Roosevelt , also known by his initials, FDR, was the 32nd President of the United States and a central figure in world events during the mid-20th century, leading the United States during a time of worldwide economic crisis and world war...
just four months before disappearing on August 6, 1930.
Receiving a phone call while on vacation
In the summer of 1930, Judge Crater and his wife, Stella Mance Wheeler, were vacationing at their summer cabin at Belgrade, MaineBelgrade, Maine
Belgrade is a town in Kennebec County, Maine, United States. The population was 2,978 at the 2000 census. Belgrade's population, however, approximately doubles during the summer months as part-year residents return to seasonal camps located on the shores of Great Pond, Long Pond and Messalonskee...
. In late July, he received a telephone call. He offered no information to his wife about the content of the call, other than to say that he had to return to the city "to straighten those fellows out".
The next day, he arrived at his 40 Fifth Avenue apartment but instead of dealing with business, he made a trip to Atlantic City with his mistress, a showgirl
Showgirl
A showgirl is a dancer or performer in a stage entertainment show. Showgirl is also often used as a term for a promotional model in trade fairs and car shows, etc...
named Sally Lou Ritz. He returned to Maine on August 1, and traveled back to New York on August 3. Before making this final trip, he promised his wife he would return by her birthday, on August 9. Crater's wife stated that he was in good spirits and behaving normally when he departed for New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. On the morning of August 6, Crater spent two hours going through his files in his courthouse chambers. He then had his assistant, Joseph Mara, cash two checks for him that amounted to U.S.
United States dollar
The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....
$5,150 (equivalent to about $ in today's funds). At noon, he and Mara carried two locked briefcases to his apartment and he let Mara take the rest of the day off.
A ticket to see Dancing Partner
Later that evening, Crater went to a Broadway ticket agency and bought one seat for a comedy called Dancing Partner that was playing that night at the Belasco TheatreBelasco Theatre
The Belasco Theatre is a legitimate Broadway theatre located at 111 West 44th Street in midtown-Manhattan.-History:Designed by architect George Keister for impresario David Belasco, the interior featured Tiffany lighting and ceiling panels, rich woodwork and expansive murals by American artist...
. He then went to Billy Haas’s Chophouse at 332 West 45th Street for dinner. There, he ate dinner with Sally Lou Ritz and a friend of his who was a lawyer. The lawyer later told investigators that Crater was in a good mood that evening and gave no indication that anything was bothering him. The dinner ended a little after 9 pm, a short time after the curtain rose on the show for which Crater bought a ticket, and the small group went outside.
Last known sighting
Crater's two dinner companions entered a taxi outside the restaurant. Both later testified before a grand jury that they last saw Crater walking down the street (this differs from the popular story that Crater entered a taxi and waved to his companions before speeding away). What happened to him after that remains a mystery. Theories about his disappearance have suggested that he was murdered, that he ran off with another woman, or that he had been involved in corrupt practices which were about to be revealed.Delayed responses to disappearance
There was no immediate reaction to Judge Crater's disappearance. When he did not return to Maine for 10 days, his wife began making calls to their friends in New York, asking if anyone had seen him. Only when he failed to appear for the opening of the courts on August 25 did his fellow justices become alarmed. They started a private search but failed to find any trace. The police were finally notified on September 3 and after that, the missing judge was front-page news.Nationwide investigation
The story captivated the nation and a massive investigation was launched. The official investigations started vigorously, but quickly slowed. Detectives discovered that the judge's safe deposit boxSafe deposit box
A safe deposit box or wrongly referred to as a safety deposit box is an individually-secured container, usually held within a larger safe or bank vault. Safe deposit boxes are generally located in banks, post offices or other institutions...
had been emptied and the two briefcases that Crater and his assistant had taken to his apartment were missing. These promising leads were also quickly bogged down by the thousands of false reports coming from people claiming to have seen the missing man. Crater's wife later found the missing money in a dresser drawer in her home, along with a note from the judge.
In October, a grand jury
Grand jury
A grand jury is a type of jury that determines whether a criminal indictment will issue. Currently, only the United States retains grand juries, although some other common law jurisdictions formerly employed them, and most other jurisdictions employ some other type of preliminary hearing...
began examining the case, calling 95 witnesses and amassing 975 pages of testimony. Interestingly, Mrs. Crater refused to appear before the grand jury. The conclusion was that "The evidence is insufficient to warrant any expression of opinion as to whether Crater is alive or dead, or as to whether he has absented himself voluntarily, or is the sufferer from disease in the nature of amnesia, or is the victim of crime."
None of the investigations succeeded in discovering the judge's fate or possible whereabouts.
His case—Missing Persons File No. 13595—was officially closed in 1979.
It is sometimes claimed that Sally Lou Ritz disappeared in August or September 1930, but this is not the case. Ritz was interviewed in late September 1930 in Youngstown, Ohio, where she had gone "to be with her sick father." As late as July 1937, Ritz was interviewed by police in Beverly Hills.
Mrs. Crater
Judge Crater married Stella Mance Wheeler in 1917. Crater was her lawyer in her divorce action against her first husband; they married seven days after the divorce was finalized. During the initial phase of the private search and even after police were notified and began their nationwide search, Mrs. Crater remained at their vacation home in Belgrade Lakes, Maine, until January 20, 1931. It was then that she allegedly discovered checks, stocks and bonds and a note written by the Judge in a drawer that had been empty when police checked earlier. Without Crater's income, Mrs. Crater was unable to maintain residence at their fashionable Fifth Avenue apartment and was evicted. By July 1937 when she petitioned to have the Judge declared officially dead, the judge's apparent widow was impoverished and reportedly living on $12 per week (equivalent to approximately $ in today's funds) she earned as a telephone operator in Belgrade Lakes, Maine.It would seem that before the Judge was declared legally dead, Mrs. Crater remarried in Elkton, Maryland, on April 23, 1938 to Carl Kunz, electrical engineer, of New York. Kunz' first wife had hanged herself only eight days before the wedding. The Judge was declared legally dead in absentia in 1939 and Mrs. Crater then received $20,561 in life insurance (worth approximately $ in today's funds). Mrs. Crater separated from Kunz in 1950, and died in 1969 aged 70. Her own account of the Crater case, in which she expressed her belief that Crater had been murdered, was written with Oscar Fraley, newspaperman and freelancer and published by Doubleday in 1961.
Recent information
On August 19, 2005, authorities revealed that they had received notes left by Stella Ferrucci-Good after her death at age 91. The writings identified a location near West Eighth Street in Coney IslandConey Island
Coney Island is a peninsula and beach on the Atlantic Ocean in southern Brooklyn, New York, United States. The site was formerly an outer barrier island, but became partially connected to the mainland by landfill....
, Brooklyn, at the current site of the New York Aquarium
New York Aquarium
The New York Aquarium is the oldest continually operating aquarium in the United States, having opened in Castle Garden in Battery Park, Manhattan in 1896. Since 1957, it has been located on the boardwalk in Coney Island, Brooklyn. The aquarium is managed by the Wildlife Conservation Society as...
, where the woman claimed the judge was buried under the boardwalk. Moreover, the notes identified Crater's killers as NYPD
New York City Police Department
The New York City Police Department , established in 1845, is currently the largest municipal police force in the United States, with primary responsibilities in law enforcement and investigation within the five boroughs of New York City...
officers Robert Good (her husband) and Charles Burns, also bodyguard of Abe Reles
Abe Reles
Abe "Kid Twist" Reles was a New York mobster who was widely considered the most feared hit man for Murder, Inc., the enforcement contractor for the National Crime Syndicate. Reles later turned government witness and sent several members of Murder, Inc...
of Murder, Inc.
Murder, Inc.
Murder, Inc. was the name given by the press to organized crime groups in the 1920s through the 1940s that resulted in hundreds of murders on behalf of the American Mafia and Jewish Mafia groups who together formed the early organized crime groups in New York and...
and Burns's brother Frank, a cab driver.
Police reported that no records had been found to indicate that skeletal
Human skeleton
The human skeleton consists of both fused and individual bones supported and supplemented by ligaments, tendons, muscles and cartilage. It serves as a scaffold which supports organs, anchors muscles, and protects organs such as the brain, lungs and heart....
remains
Human Remains
Human Remains is a British black comedy television series written by and starring Rob Brydon and Julia Davis. It consisted of six episodes that aired in 2000. Each episode documented the relationship of a different couple, all of whom were played by Brydon and Davis and all but two of whom were...
were discovered at that site when it was excavated in the 1950s. Richard J. Tofel, the author of Vanishing Point: The Disappearance of Judge Crater and the New York He Left Behind, expressed skepticism of Ferrucci-Good's account.
Legacy
Though no longer in wide use, the phrase "to pull a Crater" means to disappear.For many years following Crater's disappearance, "Judge Crater, call your office" was a standard gag of nightclub comedians and was often heard on public address systems.
In order to promote the 1933 film Bureau of Missing Persons
Bureau of Missing Persons
Bureau of Missing Persons is a 1933 American drama film with comic overtones directed by Roy Del Ruth. The screenplay by Robert Presnell is based on a story by Carol Bird adapted from the book Missing Men by former New York City police captain John H...
, Warner Bros.
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...
advertised they would pay $10,000 (equivalent to about $ in today's funds) to Crater if he claimed it in person at the box office. In the third season episode of The Dick Van Dyke Show
The Dick Van Dyke Show
The Dick Van Dyke Show is an American television sitcom that initially aired on the Columbia Broadcasting System from October 3, 1961, until June 1, 1966. The show was created by Carl Reiner and starred Dick Van Dyke and Mary Tyler Moore. It was produced by Reiner with Bill Persky and Sam Denoff....
, "Very Old Shoes, Very Old Rice", the character of Rob Petrie mistakes a judge named Judge Krata for the missing judge. A 2010 novel, The Man Who Never Returned by Peter Quinn, investigates the Crater case through the lens of a 1955 fictional detective.
Judge Crater's will, marked confidential and addressed to his wife, possibly written on the day of his disappearance, was sold at auction in 1981 for $700.
See also
- Missing personMissing personA missing person is a person who has disappeared for usually unknown reasons.Missing persons' photographs may be posted on bulletin boards, milk cartons, postcards, and websites, along with a phone number to be contacted if a sighting has been made....
- Cold case
- List of people who have mysteriously disappeared