Amelia Earhart

Beyond the Grave

W.C. Jameson

TAYLOR TRADE PUBLISHING

Lanham • Boulder • New York • London

Published by Taylor Trade Publishing

An imprint of The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc.

4501 Forbes Boulevard, Suite 200, Lanham, Maryland 20706

www.rowman.com

Unit A, Whitacre Mews, 26-34 Stannary Street, London SE11 4AB, United Kingdom

Distributed by NATIONAL BOOK NETWORK

Copyright © 2016 by W.C. Jameson

All rights reserved
. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote passages in a review.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Jameson, W.C., 1942– author.

Title: Amelia Earhart : beyond the grave / W.C. Jameson.

Description: Lanham : Taylor Trade Publishing, [2016] | Series: Beyond the grave | Includes bibliographical references.

Identifiers: LCCN 2015037089 | ISBN 9781589799905 (hardback) | ISBN 9781589799912 (electronic)

Subjects: LCSH: Earhart, Amelia, 1897–1937. | Women air pilots—United States—Biography. | Air pilots—United States—Biography. | BISAC: BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Adventurers & Explorers. | BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Historical. | BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Women.

Classification: LCC TL540.E3 J36 2016 | DDC 629.13092—dc23

LC record available at
http://lccn.loc.gov/2015037089

The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.

Printed in the United States of America

Foreword
by Gregory A. Feith

1     Woman of Mystery, Woman of Contradictions

2     Origins

3     Enter George Palmer Putnam

4     Celebrity

5     Marriage

6     Hawaii to California

7     Flight around the World: Preparation

8     Trouble with Japan

9     Enter Robert Myers

10     Oakland to Honolulu

11     The Crash

12     A Visit from Washington

13     Repairs

14     Fred Noonan

15     Reenter Putnam

16     Flight around the World: Second Attempt

17     Final Preparations

18     From New Guinea to the Rising Sun

19     Flight Questions

20     The Mystery of Howland Island

21     The Flight Path

22     What Happened to Amelia Earhart?

23     Downed at Mili Atoll

24     The Search

25     The Mystery of the
Itasca
Logs

26     On to Saipan

27     The Mystery Letter

28     Death or Transfer?

29     The Mystery of Wilbur Rothar

30     Tokyo Rose

31     The Mystery of the Morgenthau Memo

32     The Mystery at Aslito Airfield

33     The Mystery of James V. Forrestal

34     The Electra Mystery

35     Imprisonment

36     Repatriation

37     Enter Irene Craigmile Bolam

38     Enter William Van Dusen

39     Reenter Irene Craigmile Bolam

40     Postrepatriation

41     Reenter William Van Dusen

42     The Evidence

43     Analysis

Selected Bibliography

About the Author

T
o this day, the mysterious disappearance of Amelia M. Earhart during her around-the-world flight in 1937 evokes debate whether her flight was a tragic accident or the result of a covert mission disguised as a goodwill publicity flight that ended unexpectedly without a contingency plan. W.C. Jameson has captured the essence of the latter perspective through the abundance of credible evidence that strongly suggests Amelia Earhart survived a presumed emergency or crash landing in the South Pacific and was taken prisoner. The controversy that arises from this evidence is the fact that, although presumed dead, Amelia was actually repatriated to the United States under a different identity and lived a solitary life while maintaining one of the greatest secrets in aviation history.

In aircraft accident investigation, the investigator must rely on the facts, conditions, and circumstances that are developed from various sources, including the aircraft wreckage, witness information, documents, testimonials, and other credible information to determine the causes and contributing factors of the accident.
Amelia Earhart: Beyond the Grave
is a compelling discussion of fact-based evidence that presents the reader with a logical explanation for why there has never been any wreckage found from Amelia's “specially equipped” Lockheed L-10E Electra or why the U.S. government still classifies numerous documents related to the publicity flight as “top secret.”

As an aircraft accident investigator, I have found it easy to dismiss opinions, “pet theories,” and good story lines that are not supported by credible evidence. However, W.C. Jameson's presentation of factual information, corroborating evidence from others investigating this flight, and the comparisons and parallels he draws from other historical people and events captured my attention throughout the book. This is a must-read book for those who want to learn about the more intriguing aspects of aviation's greatest mystery flight!

Gregory A. Feith

Former “Go-Team” Captain and Senior Air Safety Investigator

U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB)

T
he Amelia Earhart of popular perception—“The First Lady of the Sky” and “America's Darling”—was quite unlike the private Amelia Earhart. The public Earhart was, in fact, a product of marketing and media, all brilliantly designed, constructed, and masterfully steered by her husband, the publishing and publicity magnate George Palmer Putnam.

The truth is, at the time, Earhart was only one of a number of female aviatrices who gained notice during the early 1900s. Though she was often billed as one of the world's greatest pilots, this was far from true. Earhart possessed a set of skills and accomplishments related to flying and was fearless, to be sure, but not necessarily any more so than a number of other female pilots of the time. She was no better or worse than the rest, but as a result of fearlessness and a desire to break down certain social barriers along with a clever publicity and marketing campaign, she managed better breaks than her contemporaries. She was, without doubt, the most famous.

The private Amelia Earhart was an altogether different person. She was a woman who had a passion for flying, who accomplished a number of impressive deeds, and who turned out to be very lucky.

Earhart was a woman around whom an international mystery eventually swirled, one that had its genesis in 1937 with her reported disappearance, one that continues to intrigue us to this day. It is a grand mystery that is accompanied by a number of correlative mysteries, all of which have generated considerable controversy over what actually happened to the aviatrix, as well as who was involved. The mysteries extended to manipulations orchestrated by the U.S. government and the extent to which international relationships and politics were inserted.

What may be an even greater mystery surrounds the notion that Earhart, following her disappearance, had been held captive by the Japanese for eight years, rescued at the end of the war, and, with governmental assistance, repatriated to the United States, where she lived out her life under an alias in what amounted to an early-day witness protection program.

More than three-quarters of a century following Earhart's “disappearance” during her much ballyhooed around-the-world flight, the questions related to what actually happened to her are still being asked, and the answers continue to be debated. Today, there is an overabundance of Amelia Earhart research and inquiry forums on the Internet that remains active and ongoing.

Any tempting research project demands an extensive literature search prior to undertaking a sophisticated investigation. In the case of Amelia Earhart, it was discovered that there exists an active cadre of Earhart aficionados, a large percentage of them aburst with enthusiasm, energy, and commitment but for the most part unskilled at both research and writing. Furthermore, there appears to be little agreement among them relative to what ultimately became of Earhart and her copilot Fred Noonan once they lost radio contact during her famous around-the-world flight. After reading and studying dozens of books and hundreds of articles and Internet sites, as well as interviewing a number of people intimate with flying and with Earhart, it is apparent that there exists a plethora of theories relative to what might have happened to her.

Because of the strong differences of opinion and obvious passion for the subject that can be found among many of the enthusiasts, a degree of hostility exists among some members of the cadre, with occasional sniping at one another throughout the pages of the published books and the Internet postings. It leaves the appearance of aggressive competition, insecure egos, and not much cooperation.

Research has been further hampered by the fact that far too many of the available books about Earhart are self-published and vanity press offerings, all of them suffering from the usual and expected lack of competent editing, design, fact checking, and other furbelows one expects with a serious and professional publication about an important topic. A number of these publications have incompletely prepared indexes or none at all, further frustrating interested readers and researchers.

In the end, it became clear that a great deal of work still needed to be undertaken relative to Amelia Earhart—who she was, what she did, her final mission, and what might have become of her.

In the following pages is presented an array of facts and theories relative to the so-called disappearance of Amelia Earhart, evidence related to what befell her, what might have become of her in the years immediately following what the U.S. government claimed was her crash into the ocean and subsequent sinking, and her eventual repatriation to her homeland, where she may have lived for another several decades under an assumed name.

Layered over the mystery of Amelia Earhart's disappearance are a number of others that involve prominent political and military figures who weave in and out of the events that began months prior to Earhart's famous around-the-world flight, mysteries that suggest military conspiracy, political manipulations, cover-up, and outright lying to the American public.

The fact is, the official government position on the fate of Amelia Earhart is a lie. It is hoped that the details relative to a quest for the truth that are presented in this book will contribute to a greater understanding of what happened to America's first lady of the air.

T
hroughout much of Amelia Earhart's life she pursued a number of career choices, seldom remaining long in any of them. The one thing upon which she maintained a deep and vibrant focus, however, was flying. Flying would eventually define her, it would bring her unheard-of fame, and in time it would lead to her famous disappearance, one of the greatest mysteries in the history of the United States.