For several decades, the disappearance of a prominent New York judge remained one of the more celebrated disappearances in history.
The case may have been solved in more recent times, however - but now we may never know for sure.
Judge Force Crater was an associate judge of the New York supreme court. On August 6, 1930, Crater was in New York, ostensibly on
business, while his wife vacationed without him in Maine (he had been with her but had left on an unnamed business errand). While the
cat was away, Crater was able to spend some time with his younger mistress, a showgirl named Sally Lou Ritz. Crater had dinner with Ms. Ritz
and a friend, then the three went to see a comedic play. When the show was over, Crater hailed a cab, said goodbye to his friends, got
into the vehicle... and disappeared from the face of the Earth.
After several days, it was obvious to his wife and colleagues that something was amiss, especially when court reconvened on the 25th
and Crater still hadn't shown up or communicated. Police were called and an investigation was launched, to no avail, and the story
hit the newspapers. A nationwide manhunt began but no clue, and certainly no remains, could be located.
Naturally, everyone suspected foul play: as a judge and a man of means, Crater would be a target for certain persons seeking revenge or
jealous of his success (or even, perhaps, one of Sally Lou's other boyfriends). It became known that, the morning of his disappearance,
Crater's assistant had helped the judge in cashing two checks, for a total over $5,000, which were put into two locked briefcases and
taken to the judge's private apartments. The speculation, of course, ran along the lines of the judge giving a payoff to someone who
was blackmailing him. Still, however, despite a well-publicized grand jury trial yielding nearly a thousand pages of testimony, all
the authorities could do was give up - after all, there was no body to be found. (Sally Lou escaped much of the publicity - though none
of the gossip - when she skipped town, disappearing nearly as neatly as the good judge himself.)
Over time the Judge Crater story gained widespread fame. It appeared in every possible book dealing with unexplained or mysterious
happenings. It was also a bit of a laugh for many - for several decades the term 'pulliing a Judge Crater' was slang for leaving
the premises discreetly. The judge, a prominent man in life, gained a dubious backhanded fame due to the nature of his death.
In 2005, local authorities let slip the information that they had received a letter from a woman written in the 1950's; in it, she
indicated that Judge Crater had been murdered, and that his body could be found at a certain location under the boardwalk in Coney
Island. In fact, remains had been discovered at the location and exhumed - but there the trail again goes cold. Lacking any technology
at the time to positively identify the body, it was reinterred in a mass grave on Hart Island, the usual spot where unclaimed deceased
persons within the burough were laid to rest in unmarked plots. So, we have no way of knowing at this late date whether the body was indeed that of the philandering judge.
Other tantalizing questions remain: Why did the police take five decades to announce their discovery to the public? Did Sally Lou Ritz
have anything to do with the man's murder (- let's face it, she didn't like the guy for his looks)? Was Crater being blackmailed, by mobsters or perhaps even corrupt cops? We'll probably never
find out the answers, but like many people have done since 1930, we can have a little bit of vicarious fun just speculating.
Judge Force Crater was an associate judge of the New York supreme court. On August 6, 1930, Crater was in New York, ostensibly on
business, while his wife vacationed without him in Maine (he had been with her but had left on an unnamed business errand). While the
cat was away, Crater was able to spend some time with his younger mistress, a showgirl named Sally Lou Ritz. Crater had dinner with Ms. Ritz
and a friend, then the three went to see a comedic play. When the show was over, Crater hailed a cab, said goodbye to his friends, got
into the vehicle... and disappeared from the face of the Earth.