Episode Transcript- The "Missingest Missing Man in America" NYS Supreme Court Justice Joseph Force Crater

[Amanda] Hey everybody, I'm Amanda and welcome to another episode of New York's Dark Side!

[Intro Music]

[Amanda] If you've been following along with the show, you may have noticed that I have taken a little detour, and this is not an episode about Central Park. I am still planning on covering Central Park, it's just taking me a bit longer than I anticipated to put that episode together and I still wanted to put out an episode this week even if I am late in doing so. I apologize, my schedule has gotten quite a bit busier than it had been previously with the start of lacrosse season for my son and some other things that I've had personally going on. I'm hoping that things are going to balance out for me soon, but I do want to announce that I am going to be going to a biweekly episode release schedule for at least the next couple of weeks. I'm truly hoping that won't be for too long and we can get back to a weekly cadence of episodes. That being said, I am still working on some things, and I do have some exciting things in the works related to the podcast that I am hoping to announce soon. One more quick order of business before we start the episode, I do want to give a shout out to Diana O'Hara who reached out a little while ago with an idea for an upcoming episode. Thank you so much Diana, you rock and I hope that I hear from more of you about what you'd like to see covered in upcoming episodes. Also, I just want to say thank you so much to everybody who has tuned in to the first couple of episodes. I really enjoyed putting these together for you and I'm looking forward to putting out more content. I have just been blown away by the support that the show has gotten so far it's been a lot of fun, I've learned a ton of things and I'm hoping to just continue to grow as a podcaster and make this show better.

[Amanda] For today's episode, we are heading back to New York City and going back in time to talk about the 1930 disappearance of a New York Supreme Court Justice dubbed by many as the missingest missing man in America. This story has it all- love, money, sex, mobsters, scandal, mystery and theories galore. Even now, 93 years later, we still don't know the truth of what happened and this man has never been confirmed to be found. Buckle up and hold on to your hats while I bring you the story of Joseph Force Crater. Joseph Force Crater was born on January 5th, 1889. He was the first of four children. His parents had immigrated to America and had settled in Easton, Pennsylvania, where they lived at the time of Joseph's birth. His father Franklin E Crater owned an orchard and was operating a produce market. As a child, the young Joseph Crater enjoyed music and was encouraged to play piano by his mother Leila Virginia Montague. He would also work long hours for his father in the orchards. He was described as brilliant and personable, and that he could talk to you about anything. After high school, Crater stayed in Easton and attended Lafayette College where he graduated in 1911 with honors. He continued his educational journey and enrolled in Columbia University, where he studied law. Crator’s mother was reportedly very upset that he had chosen to go to Columbia University rather than Harvard feeling that New York City was not a great place for him to go, however, he enjoyed Columbia and was said to be very popular. While at Columbia University, he met a young married woman named Stella Wheeler. He would graduate from Columbia University in 1916 and helped Stella Wheeler obtain a divorce from her husband. Stella and Joseph Crater would marry in the spring of 1917. Crater would begin his career in law working as a clerk in New York City, which was not a high paying gig. Not afraid to work hard, he would also teach legal classes at the City College of New York, Fordham University, and New York University. After doing this for a while he also started to get involved in politics and would become secretary to New York Supreme Court Justice Robert F. Wagner Senior in 1920. After working for Wagner for several years, Crater decided to open his own law practice in 1927 and enjoyed a very successful career earning himself a lot of money. Multiple rumors state this success came from representing gangsters. Crater and his wife were able to enjoy a much more lavish lifestyle moving to a new luxury apartment on 5th Avenue and hiring a maid, a cook, and a chauffeur. They threw lavish parties; they purchased a summer home in Belgrade lakes in the state of Maine. Things are going great things, are going so great in fact, that it said that Crater was unaffected by the Wall Street financial collapse in 1929. Another thing about Joseph Crater was that he had a liking for showgirls and was said to have a couple of mistresses. He earned himself the nickname “Good Time Joe” due to his love for parties, showgirls, and dancing.

[Amanda] In April of 1930, Crater would be appointed to the New York Supreme Court by Governor Franklin D. Roosevelt due to the retirement of Justice Joseph M. Proskauer. Now apparently, this is where some of the scandal or potential scandal comes into play. There had been an official candidate that had been put forth by Tammany Hall that was passed over when Crater took the position. Tammany Hall was a political society founded in the late 1700s. One of the founding members a wealthy merchant and philanthropist John Pintard would create the societies constitution and declare the organization to be “a political institution founded on a strong republican basis whose democratic principle will serve in some measure to correct the aristocracy of our city”. Now I'm just gonna stop right here and take you down a little rabbit hole with me friends. If you have little kiddos in the area and celebrate Christmas this is your time to skip ahead about a minute. Go ahead, I'll give you a quick second to do so. John Pintard is one of the main reasons for Santa Claus in the Christmas celebrations in America. That's right everybody Santa Claus his roots in American Christmas holiday culture were sown right here in New York State. I know all of your minds are blown and you're going to think about this now with every Christmas movie you watch, so you're welcome. Apparently John Pintard was extremely into the whole vibe of Saint Nicholas and began promoting him as the Patron Saint for the New York Historical Society in New York City in the early 1800s. The legend of Saint Nicholas portrays him as the patron saint of children and was one of the most revered patron Saints in the Middle Ages. In the folklore St. Nicholas would give small gifts to children who are on their best behavior on the eve of his feast day on December 6th in the 10th century. He was depicted as an elderly white bearded man dressed in red Bishop's robes carrying a staff and a miter and would deliver presents to children throughout Austria, the Netherlands, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and parts of Germany. John Pintard was so enamored with all of this that he started staging visits between Saint Nicholas and his family and this was the start of the series of events that brought Santa Claus to America in the 19th century. There would be some others that took this idea and helped evolve St. Nicholas into the Santa Claus we know today but basically John Pintard, his friends, and the happy people of New York in the 1800s are the reason for all the stress you're feeling and the money that you're spending during the holiday season. You're welcome!

[Amanda] Okay, now coming out of the rabbit hole. A little more history on the Tammany society. it was created as a club for what the founders deemed as pure Americans. The society’s activities would become more political in the late 1790s. Aaron Burr even utilized the political power of Tammany Hall to counter the famous [singing] Alexander Hamilton. Sorry, that was terrible, but you're welcome. You may not know this about me, I love the musical Hamilton. There are a couple Hamilton Funko pops currently decorating my pod studio and I'm probably gonna listen to the soundtrack later while I clean my house. Anyway, I'm not going to go into all the potential corruption of Tammany Hall right now. There's definitely enough there for a completely separate episode. What is relevant to this case is that shortly after Crater’s appointment to the state Supreme Court there started to be some inquiries into those rumors of corruption. Rumors were swirling of bribery, improper property transactions which would allow politically connected owners to earn high profits at the expense of taxpayers, and the selling of high place municipal jobs. New York's Governor Roosevelt began the process of looking into these rumors in the New York State legislature headed by state senator Samuel Hofstadter and they formed a joint legislative committee called the Hofstadter Committee which appointed Chief Justice Samuel Seabury who was an anti-Tammany Democrat to lead the investigations. You have no idea how many times I had to repeat that to try to get it right, it was like a tongue twister. Seabury began first looking at the Magistrate Court system the task force suspected that the justice system and the rest of the city's administration thrived on bribes and power shares that were handed out by Tammany Hall Democrats, and which benefited party members. Crater himself however was under investigation by the committee because of a prior incident that occurred in early 1929 when he was appointed receiver of the foreclosed Liberty Hotel in the Lower East Side. Crater’s duties were to handle the sale of Liberty Hotel and manage all the money received. He sold the Liberty Hotel to the American Mortgage loan company for $75,000 and then six months later the American Mortgage loan company sold it back to the city for $2.85 million. There was even speculation that Crater paid off the political bosses in Tammany Hall for his appointment to the New York Supreme Court, which didn't make a lot of sense to me, because from what I could see he was appointed to the position by Governor Roosevelt and according to multiple sources Roosevelt is the one who started looking into the rumors. But you know how rumors go, I feel like some of the sources I found were like a game of telephone and probably some of the information was changed a bit. Anyway, throughout the investigation Crater maintained his innocence saying that he had never done anything illegal and Chief Counsel of the investigation committee Samuel Seabury never found any evidence to prove him guilty.

[Amanda] Summer of 1930 came, and the Crater’s were planning to go up to their summer home in Maine as they did for the past several years. Stella Crater made the journey up around Memorial Day. Judge Crater, due to his responsibilities at work, would not join her until the end of June and Stella would later report that when he arrived, he seemed worn out and he wouldn't talk to her about what was going on with the Seabury investigations. She reported that she was kind of used to him not talking much about work to her, so this wasn't really surprising. The Crater’s would take a road trip a few days after he arrived through Canada and on their way back to Maine with stop in Quebec, where Judge Crater stopped at a bank stating he wanted to exchange some money. Stella would later wonder if he actually opened a bank account here. Toward the end of July 1930, Crater would make a trip from Maine to Atlantic City stating to Stella that it was for a political meeting. On the return trip to Maine, he would stop and see Senator Robert Wagner. This is the same Robert Wagner that he had previously worked for. Wagner would later report that this was a social call as he was going to be leaving for a month-long trip to Europe and no politics were discussed during this visit. Crater returned to the Belgrade Lake home on August 2nd. After spending the day with his wife and friends, Crater would get a phone call and he would tell Stella that he was returning to New York the next day via the Bar Harbor Express stating that he needed to return to New York to clear up a few things. He promised her that he would be back in time for her birthday, which is on August 9th. We never really find out what those things are that he so desperately needed to leave to take care of. What we do know is this. On August 6th, it's reported that Crater was in his office at the court going through his files and taking some documents from the files, placing them in portfolios and boxes, with help from his court attendant and secretary. He also asked his court attendant to go to the bank and cash two checks valuing a total of a little over $5000 and bring that money back to him in cash. The documents that were packed up were taken by Crater, his attendant, and his secretary to Crater’s apartment on 5th Ave. We don't really know the contents of those documents, that's never been released, and I'm not sure that investigators ever found out what those were, but after this Crater parted ways with his secretary and attendant. That evening Crater had plans to try to see a show called Dancing Partners, a comedy that had recently opened up at the Belasco Theater. It's unclear from my sources whether he was able to actually get a ticket. One source said that when he stopped by the box office, he was told there was not a ticket available for him, but if one came up it would be held. This source said that a ticket did become available and was picked up by someone, but it's unclear if this someone was Crater. This evening Crater was reportedly wearing a dark brown pinstripe suit with a high collar shirt and a straw Panama hat. He then went to Billy Haas Chophouse where he met with a friend William Klein, who was a lawyer, and a showgirl named Sally Lou Ritz and he joined them for dinner. I'm not sure if he had planned to meet them there for dinner, it sounds like they might have just called him over to join their table like they were already there but a little after 9 all of them left the chophouse together and I've seen two different versions of what happened next. Version one is that Ritz and Klein saw Crater get into a cab that headed West towards 9th Ave. Version 2 is that Ritz and Klein got into cab and that Crater walked off down the street because the show he was going to was only a couple minute walk from the restaurant. Regardless of which one of these versions is true, this is the last confirmed sighting of Crater.

[Amanda] When Justice Crater didn't return to Maine for her birthday, Stella assumed that he had just gotten caught up with work. Which is sad, because this tells me that this wouldn't have been the first time that he made promises to her that weren't kept. On August 29th, Stella received a call from a political associate of Crater’s, that wasn't named, inquiring about his whereabouts because court had started back up and this is when she started to worry. I mean, like, he didn't even call her…? Like I don't know, I just don't know. Okay, I get him getting caught up with work, but it's been 23 days and he hasn't even called you to let you know what's going on? You didn't even get a call on your birthday? I don't know something just seems a little a little fishy here, but anyway. She still reportedly returned to New York City and started calling some of his colleagues and he would formally be reported missing on September 3rd, 30 days after he actually vanished almost, and this made headlines around New York City on September 4th. When police would search the 5th Avenue apartment of the Crater’s, those documents that he had been working so hard to remove from his office were gone. In a September 1930 issue of the Buffalo News, the article talked about Sally Lou Ritz, the girl that he had dined with at the chop house. Now, this article said that Ritz was dining with her husband and her 16- or 17-year-old daughter and Crater joined them and when he departed from that dinner Ritz said that the Justice told her that he was going to Westchester to swim. And she also reported that she overheard someone say that Crater was carrying too much money. Interestingly, Ritz would also go missing shortly after this report sparking speculation that they had run off together, but she was found later in September in Ohio at the home of her parents and said that she had returned home after getting news that her father was ill.

[Amanda] Also in September of 1930, news ran of a possible link between Crater’s disappearance and the case of George F. Ewald. Ewald was a former city magistrate who was accused, along with his wife Bertha, of paying $10,000 for the office of the New York City’s magistrate. He reportedly gave this money to Martin J Healy. Healy and Crater were connected through the Cayuga Democratic Club which Crater was president of at the time of his disappearance. Reportedly Crater had been invited to the office of the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York Charles H. Tuttle for questioning in the case looking into the potential purchase of the position according to a September 20th report from the Associated Press. Investigators were also searching the summer home of Mr. and Mrs. Crater in Belgrade Lakes Maine. Stella Crater was wanted as a witness before a New York State Grand Jury investigating the disappearance of her husband and she had been in seclusion since his disappearance and another article, this one in the Daily News, on September 26 by Stuart Rogers- detectives would return from Maine stating that Stella refused to comply with the district attorneys request to open the Crater’s vault. That's why I don't understand, why she's not really complying with some of these things? Like they're trying to find your husband… I'm just curious to know why she wasn't letting them into the vaults and if she ever did.

[Amanda] Another article on September 26th stated that Stella had been making phone calls to Martin J. Healy which were being investigated and I guess this one got cleared up and it was determined that Stella had made these calls to see if Healy knew anything about her husband's disappearance or whereabouts. Which Healy allegedly denied any knowledge of either. A reward was offered of $5000 for information on the location of Justice Crater which would lead to a flood of leads from anywhere like the Adirondack Mountains, West Africa, and Nova Scotia. The lead regarding Nova Scotia seemed viable though, for a couple of reasons. I guess a special assignment clerk in the New York Supreme Court had come forward stating that Crater had told him that he bought a home in an isolated section of Nova Scotia “far away from Telegraph and telephone” and a barber in Halifax would also come forward stating that he had seen and actually shaved Crater. And two other people at the shop at the time confirmed the man did resemble Crater. This led to investigators going to Nova Scotia and unfortunately this lead turned out to be a dead end. So, in October of 1930 the grand jury was convened to investigate the Justice’s disappearance. 95 witnesses would be called and they would end up with almost 1000 pages of testimony transcribed. This grand jury, unfortunately, did not find much other details other than the series of affairs that Crater had with showgirls and actresses. Curiously though it's reported that Stella Crater refused to testify at the grand jury investigating her husband's disappearance. Again… why? Why aren't you participating? I mean we've had strange phone calls, we've had refusal to testify in the investigation, we've had the delay in reporting anything… like I just… I just think it's a little weird that you weren't upset that you didn't even get a phone call on your birthday. I don't know... something's just fishy and not letting them in the vaults! We've got not letting them in the vaults too! So I… I don't know. I'm not saying that Stella is involved in any of this I just think it's weird, like, I'd at least want a phone call on my birthday at the very least. Jared, I'm talking to you. Anyway, even though they didn't find any definitive evidence into what happened to Crater with this Grand Jury thing, there were an abundance of theories into what happened to him so we're going to talk about some of the theories.

[Amanda] Okay, so, one of those theories involved a showgirl named June Brice. June Brice had reportedly been seen speaking with Crater the day before he disappeared. And a lawyer acting on Stella's behalf believed that Brice had been at the center of the scheme to blackmail Crater and that's why he pulled a bunch of money from the bank and that a gangster boyfriend of Brice killed Crater. Brice apparently disappeared on the day that the grand jury was convened to further investigate Crater’s disappearance, but she was later found in 1948 as a patient in a mental hospital. So I don't… I don't know when she went there, I couldn't find details on that. Another theory was that Crater was killed by the mobster Frank Costello as a payoff to the Tammany Hall politicians who protected his rackets. Costello, interestingly, was also a prime suspect in the 1940s murder of a disgruntled mobster named Abe “Kid Twist” Reels who fell from the window of the room he was staying in on the 6th floor of the Half Moon Hotel in Brooklyn. It was suspected but not proven that Costello had paid a police officer to kill Reels $100,000. There were also rumors that Crater had been killed by a notorious gangster Legs Diamond and dumped under Peter Barman brewery, which was located on the corner of what is now Barman Avenue and South Clinton Avenue in Kingston, NY but this again was also never confirmed. This theory comes into play because Crater was also tied to Vivian Gordon a well-known prostitute in New York City who was murdered by mobsters. Crater was rumored to socialize with Diamond and had known his former boss Arnold Rothstein, a racketeer and crime boss who was murdered after being shot during a business meeting in Manhattan's Park Central Hotel. Crater was reportedly very upset after his murder but we're not sure why. Another theory was that Crater had fled the country to avoid prosecution in the Tammany Hall’s investigation because he was buying and selling judgeships, potentially even his own judgeship. There was also a theory that while he was obtaining services from a prostitute in a brothel, he suffered a heart attack and died of natural causes and his body was then disposed of by some gangsters connected to the brothel. This story also kind of ties to that Vivian Gordon lady. Another theory was that he was kidnapped and murdered because he planned to expose the corruption of Tammany Hall.

[Amanda] In 1936 a gold prospector named Lucky Blackette went to the Los Angeles Police Department reporting that he had met a man who admitted to him as to being the missing Judge Crater in the town of Julian California and had told him “in one more year I'll be legally dead and I hope I can stick it out that long”. This connected to a tip from five years previously and 60 miles away in California about another sighting. Police spoke with multiple people who recognized the man and stated that the man they knew seemed well educated but was not a good miner. They never found the man in question though, so I don't know I don't think that was our buddy Crater, I'm not convinced. As media coverage in the case began to fade, in 1931, it picked up again when it was reported that Stella Crater had found multiple envelopes in a secret drawer in her dresser that had been previously searched by police. Three envelopes contained between them $6690 in stock certificates and bonds and several life insurance policies with a combined face value of $30,000. The 4thenvelope contained a letter to Stella that ended with “Am very weary, love, Joe”. It was believed by police that sometime between September 4th and September 10th someone had entered the apartment, and this was potentially even Joe and placed the envelopes there, leaving without detection. There was so much media attention on Crater’s disappearance that people often use the phrase pulling a Crater when discussing people or items going missing. Comedians also use the line ‘Judge Crater, please call your office’ as a standard gag. Warner Brother Pictures even got involved in this, promoting a movie in 1933 called Bureau of Missing Persons by offering to pay Judge Crater $10,000 if he ever came forward and identified himself at the box office. Spoiler alert, he never did. 

[Amanda] Stella Crater would later remarry to Carl Kunz, an electrical contractor, on April 23rd 1938. Joseph Force Crater was declared legally dead in 1939, at the request of his wife. She received $20,561 in life insurance which equates to about $430,751.46 in 2022. The new marriage, however, wouldn't last and they would separate in 1950. In 1961, Stella would release a memoir called ‘The Empty Robe’, that sparked interest in the case again, but no new leads would come from this. She died in 1969 at the age of 70 and its reported that every year on April 6th, from his disappearance until her death Stella would go to a bar in Greenwich Village where she would order two drinks and toast to her long lost husband saying aloud “Good Luck Joe, wherever you are”, leaving the other drink untouched on the bar when she left. So while I do have some questions about why Stella wasn't the most cooperative, you know during the investigation into her husband's disappearance, and maybe… maybe… maybe this was just because she knew some shit that she didn't want to disclose to protect herself given all the rumors about his disappearance, like there was some crazy shit, like high profile mobsters and gangsters potentially connected to this and people were dying… this makes me think she truly loved him and was very sad that he was gone. I think it's just so romantic. So, anyway, the case into Joseph Force Crater’s disappearance was declared officially closed in 1979.

[Amanda] Fast forward to 2005, when the new lead would emerge from another Stella. This Stella was 91-year-old Stella Ferrucci-Good. This lead would emerge with her death when her family would open the safe deposit box where they found an envelope containing a handwritten letter claiming that Stella's husband Robert Good, a former NYPD officer, knew what happened to Crater and had told her. The letter claims that while having drinks with Frank Burns, a taxi driver. Frank disclosed that he was driving the cab that Crater got into on the night of his disappearance. After driving Crater for a few blocks, two accomplices got into the cab as well and they drove to Coney Island boardwalk where Crater was murdered. Charles Burns, also an NYPD officer and brother of Frank Burns was involved in the disappearance and murder of Crater, according to the letter, and he was also supposedly the police officer suspected of killing Abe Reels in the 1940s because he was one of Reel's bodyguards. This is nuts! So, there wasn't a motive given in the letter but there was a specific location to where Crater’s body was supposedly left. Unfortunately, this is where the New York City Aquarium is now so they couldn't dig there and it's not really clear on whether when they were excavating for that space if they found any remains. This case is so intriguing and so frustrating and unfortunately it looks like we're never going to know the truth of what happened to Joseph Force Crater. I did see conflicting reports on whether remains were found during the excavation of the site where the current site of New York City Aquarium is. That was in 1957, but back then there wasn't the DNA technology that we have today and it's reported that across America after his disappearance remains found of men were compared to the description of Crater but again there's never been any confirmed finding and doing full DNA testing on all of these things would just be a super crazy and expensive endeavor. Craters mysterious disappearance though has been referenced in multiple TV shows some of which you may have seen. So in the MASH episode ‘Bless You Hawkeye’ Colonel Potter says the keys to the lab have been pulling a Judge Crater, and Mr. Haney, speaking to his bloodhound, says "Come on, Clarence. Let's see if we can pick up on Judge Crater's trail again." Eb responds, "Who's Judge, uh-" followed by Oliver's, "Never mind”.  Judge Crater is portrayed on the television series Night Gallery in the season 3 episode "Rare Objects", being among several other presumed dead people in a living zoo-like collection.

and the Dick Vandyke Show episode “very old shoes; very old rice” the judge performing Rob and Laura Petrie's wedding ceremony is named Judge Crada, Rob misunderstands him to say he was Judge Crater and questions the judge who makes a joke about the similarities of their names. In The Golden Girls episode ‘Job Hunting’ when Rose asked the girls to guess what she finds in the refrigerator, Dorothy answers Judge Crater. In the Designing Women episode ‘Getting Married and Eating Dirt’ Julia Sugarbaker jokes that Elvis Presley is probably on a houseboat in Brazil with Judge Crater and Laika the Russian space dog. In the Archer episode ‘Sky Titanic’ ISIS head Malory Archer complains about the missing bartender “guy sees an empty glass and all of a sudden he's judge crater”. In season five episode five of CSI NY ‘The cost of living’ a fictional archaeologist, the victim in the episode, is purported to be searching for judge craters remains near where President Roosevelt stayed when in New York City based on finding judge crater’s watch. In Season 1 Episode 6 of Star Trek Enterprise ‘Terra Nova’ Ensign Travis Mayweather compares Judge Crater with Amelia Earhart during the final scenes. Stephen King's story the reaper's image flames judge craters disappearance on a cursed mirror.

[Amanda] And with that, this is how we're going to end our coverage of the missingest missing man in America. This has been such a crazy case and honestly not one I had heard about. I just happened upon it randomly and I was so intrigued I couldn't stop looking into it. I'll be back in two weeks with another new episode. As a reminder, all the source material for this episode can be found in the blog post which is linked in the show notes. Don't forget to follow the show for updates on when new episodes drop. You can also follow my social media pages on Facebook- New York's Dark Side podcast Facebook page. On Twitter and Instagram @NYdarksidepod and you can also send me an e-mail at NYdarksidepodcast@gmail.com. I hope you keep listening and most of all I hope you stay curious.