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Joseph Newton Chandler III


audiobituary

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Joseph Newton Chandler III is the alias of an unidentified man who committed suicide in Eastlake, Ohio in July 2002. After his death, investigators were unable to locate his family and discovered that he had stolen the identity of Joseph Newton Chandler III, an eight-year-old boy who was killed in a car crash in Texas in 1945.

The lengths to which Chandler went to hide his identity have led to speculation that he was a fugitive.

The real Joseph Chandler was born in Buffalo, NY. He was an eight (or nine) year-old boy killed in traffic accident along with his parents in Texas on December, 21 1945. Reports differ on whether the accident took place in Sherman or Weatherford.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Newton_Chandler_III

 

I hope one day that someone will come forward and identify this man so proper research can be done on his background. A guy who takes over the identity of a dead child and relocates to the middle of nowhere, well, there's a good chance he is hiding from something. Was he in the mob? Perhaps an informant for the FBI who ratted out the wrong people? Was he hiding from past criminal activities that he had committed? Maybe he was just bored of his old life and wanted a fresh start.

1992 photo:

http://unidentified.wikia.com/wiki/Joseph_Newton_Chandler_III

 

Edited by Still Waters
Trimmed for length. The rest can be viewed in the source links
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I have been working on an idea, but it has not really panned out. I was researching some Merchant Marines (trying to figure out who Robert Tarbox's Zodiac Killer suspect could have possibly been), and I came across the name of Richard Calvin Zaleski. A relative of his had posted online that his family was trying to find information on his disappearance of 1963. They are hopeful he is still alive... He was born Nov. 22, 1925 (in Allegheny, Pennsylvania) and disappeared Feb. 24, 1963 after signing off of the SS Gaines Mill at Martinez, CA. The REAL Joseph Newton Chandler, the young boy who died in 1945, was killer in a car crash near Dallas, TX. Richard Zaleski had relatives in Dallas and sometimes visited them. He also lived in Texas himself in the mid 50's, but I am not sure where exactly or for how long. He would have been a little older that the estimated age of the "John Doe," but it was stated that some people thought he was older than the age he claimed to have been.

 

On February 4, 1989, the man who called himself Joseph Newton Chandler arrived at a local hospital with severe lacerations to his penis. The story he told the two doctors there was that he cut himself while attempting to 'bate with a vacuum cleaner. A doctor's note says that he appeared older than his stated age. My thoughts on this..... if I cut my penis up from banging a vacuum cleaner, I think I would probably make up a less embarrassing story. So I think something much worse probably happened and the penis in the vacuum story was his less embarrassing lie of what really happened. Just an opinion.

Anyways... the coroner who examined John Doe's body after the suicide made a note that Chandler had male pattern baldness and authorities now believe the hair seen in the photographs was a wig. His fingerprints are not on file, but his DNA is on file.

There are several theories and/or ideas on who this man could have really been, but nobody has presented a very compelling case. That includes myself. My idea is just something I have been working on, but is very far from being presented as a "theory."

 

Edited by audiobituary
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44 minutes ago, Likely Guy said:

A reference of sorts, would be nice.

Sorry, I was editing as you posted that.

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My impression is that the man was a nut-job, that that's the only explanation of why he'd assumed another identity and then lived and died the way he did.

Edited by regi
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He could have just been a nut job, but most likely he was hiding from something serious.

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I've been wondering how many people could have assumed identities where they're never found out....

Here's a case in which a man died and soon after, it was learned he'd assumed the identity of a child killed in a car accident almost 30 years before. The man had been reported missing about 10 years prior to his death and his actual identity was eventually determined but so far, the reason he did what he did is still unknown.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/police-discover-ontario-man-used-identity-of-b-c-boy-who-died-in-1970s-1.3083234

https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2015/06/14/the-truth-about-mike.html

Edited by regi
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Back in those days it was easy to assume another identity or make yourself disappear. Back in the 60's a group called the Minutemen even taught their members how to do such things. It's a much more challenging task nowadays. Thanks for the links, I always like to read about things like this.

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