The Mystery of Judge Crater

by: BonnieBlueFlag


Before Jimmy Hoffa disappeared on July 30, 1975, and his whereabouts became popular myth and mystery, there was Judge Crater.

Who is Judge Crater you are probably asking? That is what I asked, the first, second, and third time, that I heard his name mentioned.

I remember specifically that his name was a punch line, in an old black and white "Dick Van Dyke" TV show episode.

Every now and then, something that you have never heard of before, will suddenly pop up several times in a brief period of time, and you will be left scratching your head.

This was well before the Internet age, so I looked in several reference books that I had on hand, and could find nothing. I had been left with the impression, that he was someone who had been well known "before my time" as they say. I began asking all the older people in my life, "Who is Judge Crater?" No one seemed to recognize the name.

Many months later, someone that I had questioned earlier, surprised me with an out of print copy of a book all about Judge Crater! I couldn't wait to read it.

The book itself was thin with big print, it was a compilation of facts and information that had probably appeared in the newspapers of his day. And while I now knew who Judge Crater was, and I would understand Dick Van Dyke's jokes, the book left me with a great many more questions.

In all the years since reading that book, Judge Crater's name only came to my attention another 3 or 4 times. He seemed to have been forgotten, unless he was remembered in New York where his story had taken place.

And then I spotted his name again the other day, on the New York Daily News website. August 6, 2005, was the 75th anniversary of the disappearance of Judge Joseph Force Crater.

It seems that a fairly recent novel entitled "Vanishing Point," written by Richard Tofel, had brought the mysterious disappearance of Judge Crater back into public conscience. And now here he was back in the news 75 years later.

August 7, 2005

Disappearance of Tammany Hall fixture has never been solved

By OWEN MORITZ
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

He was last seen 75 years ago yesterday, leaving a W. 46th St. watering hole after dining with two companions and jumping into a taxi, disappearing into history.

Judge Joseph Force Crater - Tammany Hall stalwart, justice of the New York State Supreme Court and dapper man about town - remains the city's most famous missing person.

His baffling disappearance spawned thousands of jokes and from time to time rumors circulated of Crater being spotted on a South Sea isle or in some other remote locale.

Fresh theories abound over the disappearance of a man who had everything, including friendship with top elected Democrats and a fondness for chorus girls, and was, at age 41, in the very prime of his life.

Born in Pennsylvania in 1889 and a graduate of Columbia Law School, Crater had decided early on to throw his lot in with the dominant if corrupt Tammany machine. He counted prominent figures among his friends - his mentor was future U.S. Sen. Robert Wagner Sr. - and Crater headed Manhattan's powerful Cayuga Democratic Club.

After paying the going rate of $20,000, he became a judge. He did his job well enough for Gov. Franklin Roosevelt to consider him for promotion. But Crater was also a person of interest to investigators probing the scandal-ridden administration of Mayor Jimmy Walker.

In late July 1930, Crater was on a Maine vacation with his wife when he got a mysterious phone call. He told his wife, Stella, he was going back to New York "to straighten those fellows out."

On the morning of Aug. 6, he spent two hours going through his files in his chambers on Centre St. An aide cashed two checks for him totaling $5,150. He bought a ticket for a Broadway play, "Dancing Partners."

At Billy Haas' chophouse that night, he ran into a lawyer and his date and joined them for dinner. It ran to 9p.m., well past the play's starting time.

Shortly after 9 p.m., Crater bid farewell to his two companions, then hailed a taxi. He was never seen or heard from again.

Inexplicably, the judge's disappearance went unnoticed for weeks. Court was in recess until Aug. 25, so his absence wasn't noted. Stella Crater told investigators she thought her husband was busy in New York.

On Sept. 3, 1930, police finally entered the investigation - and Crater's vanishing act became headline news.

Detectives discovered his safe-deposit box empty.

After a barrage of publicity, the case died, except for one strange development. On Jan. 21, 1931, his wife found three envelopes with $6,690 in cash, along with a $30,000 insurance policy and the judge's will in a drawer in the couple's apartment at 40 Fifth Ave.

Detectives, having thoroughly searched the apartment, were dubious.

Was Crater the man who knew too much and therefore had to be eliminated? Was he near a breakdown? Did some of the judge's questionable deals prompt a hit on his life? Or maybe he was caught up in a midlife crisis, ready to start a new life. If so, where did he go?

Among the theories is one from his widow, Stella Crater. After moving to Florida, she concluded her husband had been murdered. "It was all due to politics," she said.

But in "Vanishing Point," a compelling book published last year, journalist Richard Tofel suggests that after the Aug. 6 dinner Crater went to the salon of notorious madam Polly Adler and suffered a heart attack during sex with one of Adler's girls.

While Adler's best seller, "A House is Not a Home," makes no mention of the incident, Tofel pieces together other evidence to suggest Adler called on one of her gangster buddies to dispose of the body.
Judge Crater

I am reminded of the Bill Clinton White House years, especially the death of Vince Foster. Just another political mystery for which we may never know the truth.