Amelia Earhart: What The General Public Never Knew

About The Irene-Amelia Forensic Analysis Results

U.S.  Navy Rear Admiral, Ernest Eugene (Gene) Tissot Jr.

"I have carefully studied the presentation. Its conclusion that there was more than one Irene O'Crowley Craigmile has completely convinced me that this is indeed the case. The study results also convinced me that one of them used to be Amelia Earhart. Incredible. It is quite an impressive package. Keep charging - Gene." A note forwarded to the forensic analysis and comparison study orchestrator, Tod Swindell, from retired U.S. Navy Rear Admiral, Ernest Eugene (Gene) Tissot. Rear Admiral Tissot was a prominent member of the Amelia Earhart Society of Researchers from 1989 to 2014. Tissot's father, Ernie Tissot, served as Amelia Earhart's head plane mechanic during her 1935 Hawaii to Oakland flight.

USAF Colonel, Rollin C. Reineck in 1944

"Your work relating to Amelia Earhart and Irene O'Crowley Craigmile is absolutely outstanding. There is no other way to describe it." Author-historian, Colonel Rollin C. Reineck, USAF (Ret.) commenting on Tod Swindell's Amelia Earhart forensic research and comparison analysis.

Tod Swindell   "By the end of the Twentieth Century, the general public didn't know what to think about Amelia Earhart anymore. This is because ever since she went missing in 1937, people were subjected to consider a variety of different ideas when it came to what actually happened to her. It wasn't until 1996, the year I met Randall Brink, [author of Lost Star, 1994] and one of his main collaborators, renowned Amelia Earhart historian, Joseph A. Gervais, [of the Amelia Earhart Lives book-infamy from 1970] that I determined it was time to measure the 'Amelia lived to become known as Irene' assertion by way of conducting a forensic analysis. I decided to do so because I was amazed to learn the still unresolved controversy over who Irene O'Crowley Craigmile really was, or used to be, had never been approached this way before. So I consulted with forensic experts, studied the process, and was soon on my way." TS   A Word About The Irene-Amelia Forensic Analysis Results   By Tod Swindell © 2020     People who believe Amelia Earhart died, on or around July 2, 1937--the date she was reported 'missing' amid odd circumstances--tend not to be familiar with the enormous amount of investigative research done over the years that determined what actually happened to the famous pilot, or the more recent forensic analysis results that evidenced what became of her.   Amelia Earhart did not die 'on or around' July 2, 1937. She lived for many years beyond that time and early on while doing so, she became known by a different name.   Anyone who thinks this isn't true is mistaken. It is difficult to recognize this truth, though, because historians, to include those at the Smithsonian Institution, developed the habit of only questioning--as opposed to looking into--any idea that differed from the default explanation for Amelia Earhart's disappearance.   The default explanation for Amelia's disappearance suggested--with no evidence to support it and plenty to oppose it--that Amelia and her navigator, Fred Noonan, perished by way of crashing into the Pacific Ocean at unknown coordinates.   This 'they were lost at sea' idea eventually became the viewpoint maintained by Amelia Earhart's survived family members as well. However, during the World War Two years and beyond, Amelia's mother did not hesitate to share her own certainty that her daughter ended up existing under Japan's stewardship after failing to complete her world flight. In fact, throughout World War Two she believed that Amelia was still alive in Japan. It wasn't until a few years after the war ended, while still insisting Japan had picked her up in 1937, that when asked if she believed her daughter was still alive she conceded to a reporter that she had, "given up years ago" there. Of course, by then Amelia was already back in the U.S. living as Irene O'Crowley Craigmile, something her mother was reasonably made privy to and understood why it was never to be publicly disclosed.   The news article below appeared in May of 1948, eleven years after Amelia Earhart went missing. Note the last paragraph: Throughout the decade of the 1940s, beyond Amelia's mother's insistence, many other accounts affirmed that Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan ended up in Japan's care after they were declared missing. Even so, the default 'Earhart and Noonan must have crashed and sank' idea that grew from the official silence exhibited toward Earhart's flight ending by the U.S. federal government, remained the favored official viewpoint.   All along there had been suspicion in Washington, though, when it came to Japan's refusal to allow the U.S. to search its Mandated Islands for Amelia, and its reluctance to share any results from its own search efforts. This foremost included its Marshall Islands territory situated to the north of Amelia's intended flight path. There, Japan had surreptitiously been building military bases as World War Two heated up and had restricted it to outside visitors.   The day after Earhart and Noonan went missing, the U.S. Ambassador to Japan, Joseph Grew, was asked by President Roosevelt's administration to stress to Japan's Ambassador to the United States, Hiroshi Saito, its belief that Earhart and Noonan may well have ended up the Marshall's--and it wanted Japan's permission to search for them there. Ambassador Saito forwarded the request to his government. In its reply to the U.S., Japan refused to allow it to conduct any searches in the Marshall's. Instead, it volunteered to search there itself for the missing fliers as noted: After Japan's response was received, none of its search details were reported back to the U.S., at least not until mid-July, and they did not come directly from Japan. Rather, a news story relayed from Tokyo (spelled 'Tokio') surfaced in the U.S. by way of London, England. The story told of Amelia having been 'picked up' by a Japanese fishing boat. Japan's Foreign Minister, Koki Hirota, was surprised to learn of the report and personally intervened. From then on no other information was forthcoming as Earhart and Noonan remained 'missing persons,' beyond a brief response to another request sent by Ambassador Grew--who had followed up on the 'fishing boat' story. Since the story was originally issued (and was perhaps accidentally leaked) by Japan's own newswire service, the U.S. wanted to know everything it could about it.   In his reply, Ambassador Saito mentioned he checked with his government but learned of no information to account for the Tokyo newswire story. Above, a July 13, 1937 International News Service headline. It was later learned that Japan's Imperial Navy had converted a few large fishing trawlers into survey ships it used to comb the Marshall Islands for Earhart. No explanation detailing how the 'Amelia picked up by a Jap fishing boat' story originated was given at the time, although after World War Two ended, liberated Marshall Islands eyewitnesses and post-war officials verified it was true. As well, ever since then the Republic of the Marshall Islands has claimed Earhart and Noonan's 1937 rescue there as part of its history.   Above, a 1987 '50th anniversary commemorative stamp' issued by the Republic of the Marshall Islands depicts Japan's rescue of Earhart and Noonan in the Marshall Islands and the hoisting of Amelia's Lockheed Electra plane onto one of its survey ships. Next to it, although barely noticed at the time the article ran in 2002, the Associated Press quotes the United Nations Ambassador to the Marshall Islands, Alfred Capelle, who after 65 years was still firmly ascertaining his own country's historical recall--where it came to the two American fliers ending up in the Marshall Islands while it was under Japan's authoritative rule.   It is essential to recall that the Marco Polo Bridge incident occurred just a few days after Earhart and Noonan were reported missing, leaving Japan to declare war against China. The U.S. strongly opposed this war and it damaged its diplomatic relations with Japan, (a damage that would keep escalating until Japan's surprise attack on Pearl Harbor took place, at which time any remaining diplomacy between the two countries ceased completely until the end of World War Two.)  It left it where from the time Earhart and Noonan went missing, through the noticeable din of silence exhibited toward the subject matter by the governing authorities of Japan and the United States, less than two years would pass before both fliers were legally declared 'dead in absentia.' The World War Two era commenced within a year of Earhart and Noonan being declared "dead in absentia" leaving the general public no other choice but to assume the duo ended up 'lost at sea' ...even though such a thing never happened to them. Of note, forty-years later, in 1982, the official silence long exhibited by Japan and the United States toward the duo's world flight ending continued to be acknowledged by aviation historians: "Numerous investigations foundered on official silence in Tokyo and Washington leaving the true fate of Amelia Earhart an everlasting mystery." 1982, aviation historians, Marylin Bender and Selig Altschul discuss the 1937 disappearance and subsequent missing person case of Amelia Earhart in their book, The Chosen Instrument.   The 'they were lost at sea' promotion made it hard for people to maintain an objective viewpoint toward Amelia Earhart's disappearance. Or in a more modern sense, to appreciate the unique way the new millennium forensic analysis approached it, the passion demonstrated for it by the individuals involved with it, and the undeniable results the analysis produced. Or put it this way: In recent times, 'contrarians' have voiced their skepticism toward the forensic analysis results, with at least one loud voice decrying the analysis itself as, 'idiotic'. One could counter, though, by offering this: Either the four nationally published books that concluded Amelia Earhart lived to old-age after changing her name to "Irene O'Crowley Craigmile" [issued from 1970 to 2016] were also idiotic... or the forensic analysis results that lifted the reality of their common conclusion to an easy to observe level, marked a merit-worthy achievement. Enough at least, to where academia should feel compelled to assess the accountability of the analysis. Especially where its results appear to have settled a significant part of the Amelia Earhart disappearance controversy the World War Two era left behind; that of what ultimately became of Amelia.   Trust knowing, none of the four books displayed below was ever overchallenged for the conclusion they commonly drew, that stated Amelia Earhart survived the World War Two era and at some point took the name of Irene O'Crowley Craigmile; a name that had previously belonged to a little-known 1930s' pilot acquaintance of hers.     The 1970 Joe Klaas book inspired by the investigative research of Joseph A. Gervais, was the first to identify Amelia Earhart living as "Irene O'Crowley Craigmile" after World War Two. During the last decade of his life, (1996 to 2005) Joseph A. Gervais, who always stood by his discovery of Amelia further existing as 'Irene O'Crowley Craigmile', was my key collaborator. He also provided important elements for the forensic analysis that went on to verify the truth he long-claimed to know.  This 1985 book by Robert Myers and Barbara Wiley, drawn from Robert Myers' first hand experiences with the post-war only 'Irene O'Crowley Craigmile', also averred that Amelia Earhart survived and became known by that name. Myers believed that Amelia Earhart ended up being subjected to the FBI's Federal Witness Protection Program coming out of the World War Two era.  This 2004 book by USAF Colonel Rollin C. Reineck (Ret.), was the first to credit the forensic proof my comprehensive analysis generated that displayed more than one, Irene O'Crowley Craigmile. It also concluded--and agreed that the analysis edified one of them to have been the 'former' Amelia Earhart after World War Two. I authorized Rollin, who died in 2007, to display some of my (then in progress) Study elements in his book, Amelia Earhart Survived. He also added a final chapter to it in 2006 that credited and drew elements from my ninety-page screen story, "Amelia's Blessings." He and his wife, Esther, grew to be dear friends of mine.  Though somewhat caustic toward it, W.C. Jameson's above 2016 book acknowledged my long-term forensic analysis as 'pending.' Technically that was true, as the Study was not completed and copyrighted until 2017, the year after his book came out. Many of its comparisons had been observable on my Irene-Amelia.com website for several years though, and no doubt influenced his conclusion that stated Amelia Earhart lived to become known as Irene. Recognized more as a sensationalistic author, (of "more than ninety books") Jameson was still able to discern how my analysis and Col. Reineck's 2004 book rejuvenated the never-disproved claim Joseph A. Gervais made in 1970.    The Smithsonian Institution and the Library of Congress, the main entities people turn to when it comes to 'official U.S. history' answers and record keeping, are both wards of the U.S. federal government. This being so, they have never been given a choice beyond recognizing their employer's 'official silence' regard toward the subject of Amelia Earhart's world flight ending and aftermath. Instead, both have always adhered to the same policy; to deftly steer clear of having to seriously address or at all acknowledge the later learned facts pertaining to what actually happened to Earhart and Noonan on July 2, 1937, and what became of them after they were declared 'missing.'   Official U.S. historians have long been aware of the hundreds of testimonials from the region Earhart and Noonan went missing, that conveyed how the two did manage to ditch their plane on a lower Marshall Islands cay where they were located and rescued by Japan's Imperial Navy just as the Sino-Japanese War commenced; a war that again, the U.S. strongly opposed.   It is easy enough to understand, therefore--during such a tenuous time--why Japan would have found it suspect for Amelia Earhart to have suddenly ended up in its 'forbidden to the U.S.' territory sufficiently astray from her announced flight path.   Except this didn't matter in the long run. As mentioned, throughout the remainder of the Twentieth Century and even today, Marshall Islands' government officials and its body public have never hesitated to express its country's historical account of Earhart and Noonan having been rescued their in 1937. To further elaborate on the post-loss fates of Earhart and Noonan is difficult to do, although the forensic analysis did leave it crystal-clear that at least Amelia Earhart not only survived, but as well, it verified how she also managed to live to old age well beyond World War Two, with her person further being known as 'Irene Craigmile.'   This may be hard to believe, until one realizes that Amelia accepted her name change not only for the sake of her own future privacy, but in order to let 'bygones be bygones' as the post-war era 'friendly relationship' between Japan and the United States commenced in the hands of U.S. Army General Douglas MacArthur and Japan's Emperor Hirohito.   Considering other options is unrealistic anymore. Originally, though, to counter the different 'Amelia lived-on' assertions, where conceding the possibility of her ongoing existence in Japan's care definitely did come into play in the historical arena of her disappearance, a variety of rumors surfaced citing different ways she 'died' while in Japan's custody:   One claimed she was executed by a rogue Japanese military firing squad--after she was blindfolded and driven to a pre-dug hole in a motorcycle sidecar that she fell into upon being shot. [T.C. 'Buddy' Brennan.]   Another said she died of dysentery after she was sequestered in an old Japanese, 'military run' hotel on Saipan. [Goerner and Loomis.]   Another story, grotesquely described in a macabre way, had Amelia being 'drawn and quartered' on the island of Taroa in the Marshall's, with her remaining torso being tied to the propeller of a Japanese Zero fighter plane. [Peard.]   Another told of Amelia rotting away in a dank prison cell after Fred Noonan was beheaded for throwing a bowl of soup at a Japanese guard in protest of the way Amelia (and he) were being treated. [Cited by Goerner & Loomis.]   Another one, to appease the palates of those who believed Amelia survived after being sequestered for the duration of the war, a rumor born from the U.S. military Office of Strategic Services, described how her post-VJ Day liberation plane transport ended up crashing and leaving no survivors. [OSS Operative, James 'Jess' Hannon.] [Note: This was quite similar to the Subhas Chandra Bose story, where an official investigation panel in India later determined Bose's immediate post-World War Two liberation plane crash that supposedly took his life never actually happened. To this very day, many people in India believe Chandra Bose actually survived the duration of World War Two in Japan's custody and assumed a different post-war identity for 'political reasons' after the war.]   The last 'how Amelia may have died' rumor became the most widely reported one in recent decades. It placed her far away from the Marshall's and Japan's military. [OKA, 'The scene of the crime.'] This one suggested that after missing Howland Island, Amelia flew several hundred miles south into a vast ocean wasteland--until she stumbled upon (the once inhabited but later deserted) Gardner Island (now known as 'Nikumaroro') where she and Noonan died leaving their bodies to be torn apart by giant, flesh-eating crabs. It is a crying shame where the individuals that have long promoted this entirely fabricated story managed to make a lot of money for themselves over the years by charming less Earhart aware venture capitalists into taking them seriously.   Yet, what of it?   If any of the alternate, malarkey-based suggestions sound negatively based, they should. U.S. (& its military) intelligence was easily aware of the potential for people to identify the reality of Amelia Earhart's post-loss survival under Japan's stewardship. Therefore, to derail the curious in a 'don't go any further with this' kind of way, the imagination cannon of what happened to Amelia after she was picked up needed to be tamped-down with some serious 'ultimate bad ending' fodder.   The preference therefore was, hopefully for all eternity--especially as far as those originally responsible for concealing the truth were concerned--to only offer that neither Amelia Earhart nor Fred Noonan in any way could have survived their 1937 flight ending misadventure. ~~~   When she returned to the United States and began living as Irene O'Crowley Craigmile, the former Amelia Earhart was given a position as a bank executive on Long Island near her old airfield stomping grounds she had frequented during the height of her New York fame years as 'Amelia.'   The former Amelia maintained her banking career there for a dozen years, until she married Guy Bolam of England on July 25, 1958, the day after her true 61st birthday.   [Note: Again, Amelia had known the original Irene O'Crowley Craigmile in the 1930s, whose obscured demise rendered her left-over identity available for Amelia's post-war use.]   After she married Guy Bolam, referring to the former Amelia Earhart as an 'international jet-setter' from that point on would not have been an off-the-mark description of her person.   In other words, she hadn't changed much.   This is the reality of what became of Amelia Earhart after she was declared 'missing' on July 2nd, 1937, the day she was last officially heard from.   Recall here, when Amelia was last heard from (according to the official record) she was zooming through the sky in her plane and had given no indication of it having any mechanical trouble. The experts who built her plane at the Lockheed plant in Burbank, California, confirmed it had as much as a thousand miles of flying distance left based on their estimate of what ought to have been its remaining fuel supply, when Amelia's final words were purportedly transmitted. [Howland Island was 2,550 miles away from Amelia's disembarking point of Lae, New Guinea; with the fuel her plane carried it was capable of a flying distance of over 4,000 miles.]   Before she left on her world flight, Amelia had mentioned to her good friend, Gene Vidal, that she would save enough fuel to make it back to the Gilbert Islands just south of the Marshall's if she and Noonan could not locate tiny Howland Island, their intended destination. Why assume she did not attempt to do such a thing before steering her plane more northward--in an effort to avoid the storm squalls to the 'distant upper west' of Howland reported by the Coast Guard? Why call this 'make believe'?   Where a few of Amelia Earhart's post-loss decision making factors proved hard for people to identify with, this is mostly because no one knew of any decision making choices she was or wasn't subjected to. As well, the 'differing' explanations that attempted to describe her true fate, some that were newly introduced decades after the event of her loss occurred, only further muddied the Earhart truth waters. This number included a few artfully crafted explanations by important sounding individuals bent on adulatory pursuits and pecuniary interests, such as the famous 'Tighar' club's founder, Richard Gillespie.   Contrarily, I can offer how neither myself nor my esteemed colleagues 'made up' or 'crafted' anything one observes or reads in the forensic analysis results. Absolutely, its conclusion was not falsely concocted, nor was it the result of 'hokum' as some individuals have tried to influence others to believe.   If anything, the results mark a perfect example of what basic academia is capable of, because really, there was no trick to the methodology used to achieve them or the research that supports what they convey. The results are what they are. They exhibit the truth when it comes to what became of Amelia Earhart after July 2, 1937; a truth that is what it is.   The idea that no one had endeavored to conduct a thorough forensic analysis before reveals how hard the public was steered away from recognizing the dated Amelia became Irene assertion as an enduring controversy from the time it first surfaced in 1970.    Of course, where Amelia Earhart's 1937 disappearance remained a concern, whenever strongly educated opinions from within the private sector looked to over-challenge the reflections of college history professors--or the common, stodgy viewpoint expressed by myriad historians, not to omit the elevated blood pressures of media-hyped theorists whom endeavored to peddle their projected non-truths about what happened to Amelia to the public--receiving an iota of academia's interest marked a tough-fetch. This is also because, by the end of the Twentieth Century people in general were viewing 'the mystery of Amelia Earhart's disappearance' as a played-out topic that appeared to be unsolvable. Indeed by then, official U.S. historians had sufficiently distanced themselves from it.    I'll counter again here, however, speaking for myself and my colleagues, (and no, we're not idiots) that we fully stand by the truths our combined investigative research learned about Amelia Earhart over the years in a 100% way. (Or stood by, as some of the elder participants are no longer here.)   As well, no matter how some individuals might kick, scream, and holler in opposition to the real truths we delivered, real truths cannot justifiably be turned into false truths.   It can also be said, where Amelia Earhart's so-called 'disappearance' and subsequent 'missing person case' were the subjects of our concern, the combined forensic study results resolidified other discovered realities about Amelia Earhart's last flight outcome that deliberate obfuscation and decades of time-passage had practically washed away. For instance, even though dating back to the World War Two era, the governing authority of the Marshall Islands never stopped asserting that Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan ended up there when it was under Japan's control, the citizenry's of both Japan and the United States were systematically conditioned by history itself to believe such a thing never happened, even though the Marshallese government's own reality and many upstanding investigative researchers averred it did happen.   This translates into another hard truth to acknowledge: Today's general populations of Japan and the United States were quietly encouraged by their own governing authorities to accept a biased viewpoint about Earhart's flight ending, one that says: "Do not believe what scores of people in the Marshall Islands, other land masses near it, and many World War Two veterans who served both nations in the Pacific theater conveyed about Earhart and Noonan's world flight ending. Instead, believe your own governing authorities' long maintained, commonly expressed viewpoint that states no one ever knew what happened to Earhart and Noonan, and therefore, they likely perished as sea."     Here, above all else and contrary to anything offered prior to it, I'll end with this statement:   Should a person objectively examine and digest just a portion of the multitude of documents and comparison studies this most recent, cumulative 'forensic analysis' evaluation of Amelia Earhart's disappearance and missing person case generated, he or she will realize the accomplishment by far marks the most truthful research investigation ever to examine both topics, and therefore, the most important one as well.   That's not an idle boast. It's the truth.   Thank you,    Tod Swindell     Amelia and Amelia as 'Irene' in 1970

Above: Amelia's 1930s acquaintance, the original Irene Craigmile, shown between her husband and father

Senator Hiram Bingham & Amelia Earhart

Amelia Earhart's image combined with the post-World War Two only Irene Craigmile

Irene Craigmile, 1932. Purportedly, this was the original Irene Craigmile who Amelia had known in the 1930s.

This Irene Craigmile, as she looked in the 1940s, served as the surrogate mother to the original Irene Craigmile's 1934 born son.

This Irene Craigmile was the former Amelia Earhart as she looked in 1946. It is one of the earliest known-of photos of her after she assumed her new identity.

Amelia combined with a 1946 photo of her later-life self, the post-World War Two only, Irene Craigmile

Amelia Earhart

"Truth is not a mystery -- its greatest secrets are yours to know through simple honesty and surrender to what that honesty reveals." John de Ruiter 

~~~

First, some background info... Above left photo: Irene and Guy in 1963 Above right photo: Guy and Irene in 1965, from the 1970 book, Amelia Earhart Lives. The above-left newspaper photo featured Englishman, Guy Bolam, and his American wife, Irene. The photo was taken in 1963 while they were traveling abroad, something the two often did together. After they were married in 1958, Guy's executive position with Radio Luxembourg--that sported one of the most powerful broadcast towers in Europe and helped introduce the Beatles to listeners beyond the Iron Curtain--kept them on the go. When Guy died in 1970, Irene took over as president of the Radio Luxembourg division he had been in charge of.   Above-right is another photo of Guy and Irene taken in 1965 by retired USAF Major Joseph A. Gervais. This photo was featured in the 1970 book, Amelia Earhart Lives. [Note: Prior to her 1958 marriage to Guy Bolam, Irene's surname had been, 'Craigmile.']   The Swindell Study identified the 1965 photo to be the key exhibit featured in the book Amelia Earhart Lives--and it extensively analyzed the images and life histories of the individuals it featured. This had never been done in a sufficient way before, especially where the person of 'Irene' was concerned.   As it turned out--Digital Face Recognition determined there had been more than one person attributed to the same 'Irene Craigmile (Bolam)' identity. This truth was backed by additional 'physical evidence' the Study uncovered, to include its realization that the Irene shown above next to her English husband, Guy Bolam, appeared nowhere identified as 'Irene' prior to the end of World War Two. As well, the Study revealed how she not only demonstrated an exact facial congruence when compared to Amelia Earhart--but their full head-to-toe physical and character traits were in alignment as well. The comparative analysis section of The Swindell Study displays these realities in no uncertain terms.   Amelia Earhart, age 30  Above and Below: Two Swindell Study samples of the post-World War Two Irene Craigmile (Bolam) revealing her former self, Amelia Earhart.     Amelia Earhart, age 39 in 1937 Amelia & post-WWII Irene THE POST-WAR ONLY, IRENE CRAIGMILE Post-WWII Irene, 1965 Photo taken by Joseph A. Gervais

"Joseph A. Gervais initially surfaced this truth some fifty-years ago, except the public found it hard to comprehend then--and therefore was easily conditioned not to believe it going forward." Tod Swindell     "Official silence and obfuscation had always maligned the debate over whether or not Amelia Earhart continued to exist after she was reported 'missing' in 1937, so the Forensic Study addressed her old 'missing person' case from both an updated perspective, and by applying new technology to it. When it was finished it exhibited the obvious reality of the world famous pilot living her later-life years in relative obscurity, similar to Greta Garbo. Except in Amelia's case she took on a different identity, leaving only a select few aware of her continued existence after her storied disappearance. This was how the title of the 1970 book, Amelia Earhart Lives (shown above) came to be. The book was inspired by and drew from ten-years of investigative research conducted by retired USAF Major Joseph A. Gervais. When it was released, though, the surprised former Amelia Earhart, whose photographed image appeared in it, had been living privately as 'Irene' for a quarter-century and she wasn't about to return to being the world famous Amelia Earhart again. This preference of hers--that was no doubt abetted by many other logistical consequences that would have arisen if her ongoing survival was made public, left her necessarily refusing to acknowledge the person she used to be. The legitimate 1960s investigative work of Joseph A. Gervais, that included his blatant discovery of the living former Amelia Earhart reidentified as 'Irene Craigmile' was summarily dismissed as a result, causing people to chalk it up as a hoax, something it never was." Tod Swindell

A New Beginning   She appeared from out of nowhere in 1946, as a new employee in a good position at the People's National Bank of Mineola, New York. The bank was located near her former Long Island stomping grounds where she had formed the 99's and spent much time at the famous Floyd Bennett and Roosevelt Air Fields. It was then and there that the former Amelia Earhart embarked on her new existence as "Irene (O'Crowley) Craigmile." It had been nine years since she was declared 'missing' and the controversy over her disappearance, amid much hearsay that she had continued to live-on, had been obscured by a tumultuous world war.   While living on Weybridge Road in Mineola--with her changed look and new career--no one recognized her for the famous person she used to be--until many years later--when The Swindell Study's comparison analysis took place.     The changed times and her different look made it hard to recognize the person she used to be, as was the intention.   By the time she married Guy Bolam of England in 1958, the former Amelia Earhart had ascended to become a Vice President of the National Bank of Great Neck on Long Island. After she married, she left the banking industry and began working with the enterprise her new husband held an executive position with, Radio Luxembourg. As a couple in America, she and Guy first resided in Bedford, New York before relocating to upper New Jersey. They frequently traveled the world together until Guy died in 1970, after which time the former Amelia Earhart continued to travel and work for Radio Luxembourg--and she eventually settled in the posh golfing community of Rossmoor, New Jersey. (She and Guy had also maintained a home in North Carolina.)   The strange, compelling story of Amelia's 1930s acquaintance, the original Irene Craigmile, is again briefly revisited here:   A 1982 newspaper article identified the person above to have been Amelia's 1930s pilot friend, the original Irene Craigmile, as she looked in 1932. Accordingly, the photo would have been taken a year after her husband, Charles James Craigmile, died from an appendicitis attack that was late being medically attended to. The photo quality is poor and its origin is questionable.   A slew of published photos identifying the original Irene Craigmile were located and are exhibited in The Swindell Study; all of them are of limited quality, their origins are again questionable, and importantly, none of them bared a resemblance to Amelia Earhart. Hampering the collection was open cooperation from the original Irene Craigmile's family. No clear school photos, no clear family pictures, now wedding pictures, (she had two husbands in the 1930s) and most importantly, none of the photos depicting Irene Craigmil prior to the end of World War Two displayed any resemblance she had to her 1930s acquaintance, Amelia Earhart.   History also reveals how the original Irene Craigmile barely ever used her pilot's license at all because she became pregnant out of wedlock right after she earned it in 1933.   As a grown man, the original Irene Craigmile's 1934 born son identified an entirely different person to have been his 'mother' than the former Amelia Earhart who shared his mother's name or the original Irene Craigmile as depicted in photographs.   Within the arrangement to make his mother's identity available for Amelia's post-war use, to this day the public remains unaware of what became of the original Irene Craigmile.   As course had it, and as mentioned, the original Irene Craigmile's 1934 born son ended up being raised by a surrogate mother figure--and in boarding schools. His "surrogate mother" is shown below in a photo the original Irene's son estimated to have been taken, "around 1940." (It was more than likely taken in the mid-1940s.) No one is sure who this person actually was, but it is certain she was not the original Irene Craigmile, nor did she resemble Amelia Earhart all that much:    Above, the person the original Irene Craigmile's son identified as, "my mother, around 1940."   Below, until The Swindell Study made it obvious, no one had realized there were a total of three different Twentieth Century women attributed to the same Irene Craigmile (Bolam) identity:   Irene Craigmile, 1932 Irene Craigmile, 1940s Irene Craigmile, FKA "Earhart" in 1946,

Above: Amelia Earhart in her thirties combined with the post-WWII only Irene photograph taken the 1970s.

Above: A 1938 'official White House transcript' quote from Henry P. Morgenthau Jr., one of President Franklin Roosevelt's right-hand men. During a recorded meeting Morgenthau was holding, he refers here to withheld information at the White House concerning something that happened during "the last few minutes" of Amelia Earhart's flight after she failed to locate Howland Island. According to later discovered 0S-2 intelligence reports, the White House knew Amelia continued to fly in a northern direction after she gave up on trying to spot Howland--and that she continued to send radio messages at intervals while doing so. The White House never disclosed what happened during the "last few minutes" of Amelia Earhart's flight that Morgenthau spoke of--although his recorded comments and other telling discoveries enabled The Swindell Study to over-challenge the default Null Hypothesis (or false conveyance, really) that began with a premise, 'no one knew what happened to Amelia Earhart after she missed spotting Howland Island.' Here, it is clear the White House was aware of information pertaining to Amelia Earhart's flight ending on the day she was declared missing--that it chose not to make public. Further down in Part II, see what the investigative research of Joseph A. Gervais learned about this.

Part I   Digital Face Recognition   Note: Digital Face Recognition has been available for some time now. Before The Swindell Study it had never been applied to the decades-old, never resolved, Irene Craigmile (Bolam) as compared to Amelia Earhart controversy.   Senator Hiram Bingham and Amelia Earhart Amelia and the post-WWII only Irene Craigmile (Bolam) combined.   The below photo portrait of Mrs. Irene Craigmile (Bolam), who surfaced in the United States from out of nowhere after the end of World War Two, was taken in 1977. Constituents of the Smithsonian Institution's Air and Space Museum along with Amelia's survived family have long persuaded the public not to accept her as the former Amelia Earhart--even though that actually was who she used to be. (From their perspectives it would be far more historically convenient to leave the truth of Amelia's post-loss existence as 'Irene' alone.) Today, anyone who cares to deeply study the life history of the original Irene Craigmile, a once fledgling pilot Amelia knew in the 1930s--and later assumed the identity of--will solidly conclude the reality of Amelia's post-loss existence as 'Irene' on his or her own. It can be said that a person's eyes have been 'vision-washed' by misleading pages of history and other reality-dodging influences, if they look at the above photograph and do not reckon the former Amelia Earhart.   It is safe to project that the original Irene Craigmile, who Amelia had known, would never have assumed such a formal portrait, 'she was once a famous pilot' looking stature had she lived beyond the World War Two years.   How Does Digital Face Recognition Work?   A Digital Face Recognition program grids-out specific details from a person's face template--such as distance between the eyes, shape of the chin, mouth placement and shape, nasal shape, etc. A face template in question is the 'origin face template' that is set to be compared to another face template. Basically, a Digital Face Recognition program is used to calculate the probability of a match between two separately provided face templates. It's akin to matching fingerprints--using faces instead.   Included in its long-term effort, The Swindell Study compared the face template grid of the post World War Two 'Irene Craigmile Bolam' to the face template grid of Amelia Earhart--and realized a match.   "Think different," indeed. The above right photo displays the post-war only Irene Craigmile Bolam combined with Amelia Earhart. The 'Irene' photo was taken in Dubrovnik, Yugoslavia in 1976. Partially in view seated to Irene's right is Gertrude Kelley Hession, the sister of Monsignor James Francis Kelley (1902-1996), a later life good friend of the post-war only Irene's, AKA the former Amelia Earhart.   During the last decade of his life, Monsignor Kelley, shown in the below-right photo dining with the post-war only Irene, admitted to a few close friends of his--as well as to news reporter, Merrill Dean Magley, and to Amelia Earhart historian, Colonel Rollin C. Reineck, that his later life friend, Irene, actually did used to be known as Amelia Earhart. He was scoffed at by those who felt it was impossible for Amelia Earhart to have survived after she went missing in 1937. A few individuals, including his own nephew, suggested 'old age senility' and a 'need for attention' caused him to outright fabricate what he claimed to know about Amelia's post-loss survival. Contrary to their rebuttals, Monsignor Kelley was well known among catholic-faith celebrities for his impeccable reputation. He had served as a president of Seton Hall College for many years before it became a University in the 1950s, and the close friends he confided in about his later life friend, 'Amelia' (that's how Kelley referred to her among them) stood by his virtuous nature. He was described as, 'quite lucid' when he told them about his "assignment" to receive Amelia back in the United States, and his having been, "instrumental in the process" of her name change to Irene.   The Swindell Study, that was the first to deeply compare Amelia to Irene, did not commence until 1997, a year after Monisgnor Kelley died, and its results made it easy to realize the Monsignor did not fabricate what he professed to know about Amelia's later life existence as, 'Irene.'   Below left once again, from the 1982 newspaper article that featured a reporter's question about his friend's long-rumored 'dual identity,'  Monsignor Kelley responded accordingly--knowing the truth about her was never to be broadly publicized:   Above, the post-World War Two only Irene Craigmile Bolam and Monsignor James Francis Kelley at dinner in 1978.   Above: The full-photo version of Monsignor Kelley's sister, Gertrude (left) and the post-World War Two Irene Craigmile Bolam (right) in 1976. Notice the same pendant Irene wears here and in the black and white formal portrait sitting. Of course it's hard to recognize Irene's former-Amelia self without the composite photo, as her true age was 79 in 1976. Just the same, as shown below while acknowledging the age difference, the Digital Face Recognition elements aligned perfectly. It's haunting, disturbing, and even sad in a way--to know Amelia's own sister, Muriel, knew Amelia as 'Irene' in her later life years, the very same Irene featured in all of the above comparisons. In line with her sister's wishes, Muriel agreed to never disclose such a thing even if she was directly confronted about it. Just the same it is the truth--and far be it from anyone not connected to how and why this reality came to be, to easily explain it to others.  ~~~   The Combined Study Results     The resulting data from the Digital Face Recognition grid comparisons and other physical and character trait comparisons--when combined with additional discovered, recognized, and processed evidence during the course of The 1997-2017 Swindell Study, delivered a plain to observe, truthful reality stating Amelia Earhart:     1.) Did not crash and sink into the ocean.   2.) Did not die approximate to the day she went missing.   3.) Was not executed as a spy or spy suspect.   4.) Did not die as a castaway on a desert island where her flesh was torn apart by giant crabs. (C'mon guys...)

Above: Amelia's famous 1930s pilot friend, Viola Gentry, with Guy Bolam in 1965. The significance of this photo is explained in the following section.   ~~~ A Head-to-Toe Comparison Example   Below, Amelia Earhart is shown with her pilot friends, Elinor Smith (middle) and Viola Gentry (right) in 1932, just after Amelia returned to the U.S. following her solo Atlantic crossing. Viola Gentry knew both Amelia Earhart and the original Irene Craigmile in the 1930s. Viola also knew Amelia during her post-war years after she became known as 'Irene.' Amelia's only sibling, her sister, Muriel, also knew her sister as 'Irene' in in her later life years.    Amelia Earhart   Elinor Smith   Viola Gentry   Thirty-three years after Viola Gentry appeared with Amelia Earhart and Elinor Smith in the above photo, the photo of Viola Gentry seated next to Guy Bolam at the top of the page was taken in East Hampton of Long Island, New York, the day after Viola introduced Joseph A. Gervais to the post-war only Irene. The photo was provided by Irene's later-life friend, Diana Dawes, a former radio show host from Princeton, New Jersey. Before she died in 1998, Diana Dawes was well convinced that her friend, Irene, used to be known as 'Amelia Earhart,' and that the arrangement for her to replace the original Irene Craigmile had commenced toward the end of World War Two. In a head-to-toe comparison, below is a 1965 photo of the post-war only Irene Craigmile Bolam taken on a bridge in Paris, aligning with her former Amelia self in 1932. A full length version of the photo featuring Amelia with Elinor Smith and Viola Gentry was used in the comparison. Her slight weight gain was noticeable both here and in the Joseph A. Gervais taken photo of she and Guy from the same year. While weight gain sometimes happens during the aging process, it's interesting how by the 1970s, having been recognized by Joe Gervais, she had trimmed back down. Irene & Amelia, Elinor, and Viola

Above: In 1987, the aforementioned, Diana Dawes, a former Princeton, New Jersey radio show host and one of the post-war only Irene Craigmile Bolam's later-life friends, recalled some revealing anecdotes as newspapers around the country marked the 50th anniversary of Amelia Earhart's storied 'disappearance.' Ms. Dawes mentioned that 'on a high shelf in Irene Bolam's closet' she had noticed a uniform collection of "oversized leather-bound books with the letters 'AE' embossed on their spines." Notice in the above excerpt about the "christening dress," the former Amelia Earhart slips by referring to her long gone friend, the original Irene Craigmile, in a past-tense way.

Another excerpt from a 1987 newspaper article quoting Diana Dawes. No one seemed to pay much attention to the fact that almost twenty years after Joseph A. Gervais first shared his belief on a national news level--that stated the Mrs. Irene Craigmile Bolam who he met and photographed in 1965 was actually the former Amelia Earhart, the controversy over who she really was still existed then because his assertion was never disproved. Instead, by then United States 'official historians' had learned to embrace the practice of adroitly avoiding the controversy over who Irene Craigmile Bolam really was, or used to be.

Muriel's above quotes appeared in the 1982 New Jersey News Tribune a few months after Irene Craigmile Bolam's death was reported. In 1982, no one realized--and very few still do--that it was not the former Amelia Earhart, AKA the post-World War Two only 'Mrs. Irene Craigmile Bolam' whose death occurred then. [Note Irene Bolam's Memorial Dinner Program cover below the following paragraphs.] "Of course I knew Irene. She was a sister Zonta." "There is practically no physical resemblance." Amelia's sister, (above left) Grace Muriel Earhart Morrissey responds to the suggestion of her later life Zonta International friend, Irene Craigmile Bolam, having actually been her still-living sister, Amelia, going by a different name.   In response to several 1970s and 1980s inquiries about her Zonta friend, Irene, when Muriel offered there was "practically no physical resemblance" between the two, Digital Face Recognition did not yet exist. It wasn't until after Muriel died in 1998 that The Swindell Study began showing how the faces of Amelia Earhart and the post-World War Two only Irene Craigmile Bolam did match, to include by way of Digital Face Recognition testing--beyond the Study displaying their entire head-to-toe physical body and character traits in alignment as well. Not to leave out how the Study proved there was more than one Twentieth Century person attributed to the same 'Irene Craigmile Bolam' identity, and the former Amelia Earhart undeniably had been one of them.   In a roundabout way as well, it can be said The Swindell Study surfaced how Grace Muriel Earhart Morrissey served a key role in helping to protect her sister's later-life desire to continue leading a non-public figure life, even after Joseph A. Gervais recognized her for who she used to be.

Above, a "1970s" Irene Craigmile Bolam photo adorns the cover or her Memorial Dinner Program.

Above, Irene Craigmile Bolam in 1965, from the photo taken by Joseph A. Gervais.

Irene Craigmile in the "early 1940s"

The same two younger-older photos in perfect alignment

Irene Craigmile Bolam in the "1970s"

1965 Irene Craigmile Bolam Photo taken by Joseph A. Gervais

1965 Irene & 1933 Amelia

Amelia, 1933

Excerpt from an Associated Press article by Ron Staton:   "The forensic studies are very convincing. She was not an ordinary housewife as she claimed. She was influential, knew many well placed people and was well traveled." John Bolam refers to Tod Swindell's analysis of Amelia Earhart's disappearance and 'missing person' case in an Associated Press article by Ron Staton. After he came to know her in the 1960s, then following the 1970 release of the book, Amelia Earhart Lives that featured her photographed image (long before The 1997-2017 Swindell Study commenced) this same John Bolam, a brother of the post-World War Two Irene's English husband, Guy Bolam, never stopped suspecting that his sister-in-law actually did used to be known as, 'Amelia Earhart.'