- 11 months ago
- #unsolved
- #boyinthebox
- #pennsylvania
In 1957, a little boy was discovered in a wooded area in Fox Chase. Unable to find any records on this child, the hunt for his identity and the killer has been going on for over 65 years. His case remains unsolved.
#unsolved #Boyinthebox #Pennsylvania
#unsolved #Boyinthebox #Pennsylvania
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LearningTranscript
00:00Hello and welcome to the Dark Mystery Lounge.
00:03Today we are going to take a look at America's Unknown Child, aka The Boy in the Box.
00:08This case has been unsolved to this day and is in fact a true mystery.
00:12It's like out of thin air this little boy appeared out of nowhere.
00:16I know there are thousands of missing persons cases and lots and lots of cold cases,
00:21but this one sticks out to me more and more
00:23because just when you think you're getting close to cracking the case,
00:27you're right back where you started.
00:28Let's go ahead and get right into this one.
00:37On February 1959, a muskrat hunter was checking his traps on Susquehanna Road in Fox Chase.
00:44It's a neighborhood just northeast of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
00:47This hunter stumbled upon a rather large box with one end open.
00:52Out of curiosity, he took a peek inside.
00:54At first he thought it was a doll, but it looked too lifelike to be a doll.
00:59His first thought was to call police, but thought twice because if they knew
01:03what he was really doing in that area, they would take his traps because it was illegal.
01:08See, this spot on Susquehanna Road was an illegal dumping ground for garbage,
01:13so seeing discarded trash was nothing new or out of place.
01:16So that hunter left saying nothing.
01:18Eventually, he came forward as a witness later on, and they did confiscate his traps.
01:24On February 23, 1957, a young college student named Frederick Benoise spotted a rabbit running
01:31into that same spot.
01:32Fearing that the rabbit was going to get stuck in one of the traps,
01:36he started following the rabbit until he stumbled upon the same boy in the box.
01:40He too was scared to contact police because he had a little skeleton in his own closet.
01:45He was a voyeur, and was in fact hiking over to the Good Shepherd Home,
01:50a Catholic school for troubled girls.
01:52So the hike wasn't entirely innocent.
01:55After seeing the body of the boy, he took off, saying nothing.
01:58But his conscience got the better of him.
02:01Plus, after hearing the disappearance of Mary Jane Barker,
02:04a little girl that went missing in New Jersey,
02:07he knew he had to say something.
02:08The next day, he confessed to a priest as to what he saw.
02:12The priest implored him to do the right thing and report this to the police.
02:17So the next day, that's what he did,
02:19but was a little reluctant to tell them the real reason why he was in the woods in the first place.
02:24On February 25, the police went to the spot that Fred had told them about,
02:29and sure enough, there he was,
02:31in a large box, naked, skinny, and wrapped in a cheap flannel blanket.
02:36Who could have done this to him, and why?
02:38Dr. Joseph Spellman performed an autopsy on the boy.
02:50He estimated him to be between four and six years old.
02:54He measured three foot four inches and weighed 30 pounds,
02:57and was malnourished.
02:58He had blonde or light brown hair and blue eyes,
03:01and whoever cut his hair did it in haste,
03:05because it was matted and there were clumps of hair stuck all over his body.
03:09But he was clean for the most part, even his nails were trimmed.
03:13He had a full set of baby teeth and was also slightly buck-toothed.
03:16There were several old surgical scars,
03:19one near his groin, which was possibly a hernia operation.
03:22There was another on the left side of his chest,
03:25and an L-shaped scar on his chin,
03:28and a scar on his ankle.
03:30The cut-down scar on his chest may have been to gain access for a blood transfusion,
03:35likely due to an RH factor incompatibility.
03:38That's where a baby is born and has RH positive blood,
03:43and the mother has RH negative blood.
03:45This causes a condition called erythroblastosis,
03:49which is a type of hemolytic anemia.
03:51Up until around 1962,
03:54babies with this condition either died
03:56or were given transfusions of RH plus blood.
04:00Nowadays, the mother gets a shot of Rho gam while pregnant,
04:03and then the baby gets a shot of the same medicine at birth to treat this.
04:07Spellman also noted that the boy had eye treatment in his left eye
04:11because there was dye left over from the procedure.
04:14He noticed that there was fresh bruising on the head,
04:17legs, and left-hand side of his face and body.
04:20This little boy had been viciously beaten.
04:23The contents of his stomach had a brown substance,
04:26which indicates he had vomited at some point before death.
04:29Also, the skin on his hands and feet were wrinkled,
04:32which is a sign that he was given a bath either before or after death.
04:36But the manner of death was ultimately ruled as blunt force trauma to the head.
04:41The time of death was hard to pinpoint due to the frigid winter weather,
04:45but it was estimated to be anywhere between two to three days or two to three weeks.
04:55The investigation started with taking fingerprints and footprints,
04:59hoping they could identify him through hospital records and the national database,
05:04but nothing matched up.
05:05So they took several pictures, some with the eyes and head touched up,
05:09some of him wearing clothes, and in a seated position.
05:13Others were just of the boy as is.
05:15The police released photos to the press.
05:18This sparked massive media attention in Philadelphia and the Delaware Valley.
05:22Over 400,000 flyers were sent out all over Philadelphia and neighboring towns.
05:28Flyers were posted in police stations, post offices, gas stations,
05:32and even flyers inserted in envelopes of gas bills.
05:36Posters were everywhere, all in an effort to not only find the killer,
05:41but to give this poor child a name.
05:42But no one came forward with any information whatsoever.
05:46Because if a child's missing,
05:47the parents would try to make contact with police to find their child.
05:52The crime scene was combed over by the police several times,
05:55and they found some items.
05:57The items were a blue corduroy Darby hat,
06:00men's size 7 and 1 eighths,
06:02with a leather strap on the back of it,
06:05a tan child scarf,
06:06a white handkerchief with the letter G on it,
06:09a yellow flannel shirt,
06:11child's size 4,
06:12and a shoe,
06:14size 1,
06:15which would have been too big for this child.
06:17The blanket that the boy was wrapped in
06:19was made of a cheap cotton flannel material.
06:22It had a plaid design with diamonds and blocks in green,
06:26rust, brown, and white.
06:28It had been cut into two separate parts.
06:31One part measured 33 by 76 inches,
06:34and the other one 31 by 51 inches.
06:37There was also a section missing.
06:39Police discovered that the blanket was made in Granby, Quebec,
06:43and also in North Carolina.
06:45But they were mass produced,
06:47so the odds of finding out where it was purchased would be impossible to narrow down.
06:52The box the boy was found in measured 15 inches by 19 inches by 35 inches,
06:58and was labeled fragile on top.
07:01It came from JCPenney's store in Upper Darby, Pennsylvania,
07:04and it once contained a white bassinet.
07:07They cost $7.50,
07:09and were sold from December 3rd, 1956,
07:13until the last dozen had been sold February 16th, 1957.
07:18They had a cash-only policy,
07:21and records were not kept as to who purchased them.
07:24The police were able to track down 11 out of 12 bassinets,
07:27plus the boxes.
07:28There were no useful prints on the box the boy was found in.
07:32The blue cap that was found at the crime scene had a label inside that read,
07:37Robbins, Bald Eagle, Hat, and Cap Company.
07:40Police paid a visit to Hannah Robbins, the owner of the store.
07:43She told them that it was one of 12 caps,
07:47but that particular cap was different because the man had purchased it,
07:51came back later,
07:52and requested that a leather strap be sewn in.
07:54She described him as a blonde-haired man in his late 20s.
08:01After five months of sending out flyers and posters everywhere,
08:05and no real leads in the case,
08:07the child was finally laid to rest in a potter's field on Dunks Ferry and Mechanicsville Road.
08:13The boy in the box was the only one with a headstone amongst the graveyard of the unknown.
08:18The small headstone with the inscription that read,
08:21Heavenly Father, bless this unknown boy.
08:24Thanks to being featured on America's Most Wanted TV show,
08:31led to a surge of interest in the case.
08:33The boy in the box would finally be exhumed from the potter's field on November 4th, 1998,
08:40in hopes they could extract DNA so they could find a match.
08:43It was unsuccessful.
08:44Another attempt was made in 2000, but that failed as well.
08:49But in April of 2001,
08:51investigators were finally able to extract some usable DNA from the child's teeth.
08:56He was laid to rest in Ivy Hill Cemetery, Cedarbrook, Philadelphia.
09:01The burial plot was donated by the cemetery.
09:03The coffin, headstone, and funeral service were paid for
09:07by the son of the man who had buried the boy in 1957.
09:12The people who attended this funeral were the V-Duck Society members,
09:16Philadelphia police officers, and the members of the media were covering this funeral.
09:22Even the original officers that were on the scene back in 1957 attended.
09:26People from all over the country visit this little boy's grave to this day,
09:30leaving flowers, teddy bears, and toys.
09:40Now, there are a lot of theories floating around.
09:43Some are far-fetched, while others are more plausible.
09:46We'll take a look at each of them.
09:48Carnival Theory
09:49In 1961, a pair of carnies, Kenneth and Irene Dudley,
09:54were arrested for the death of their daughter, 7-year-old Carol Ann,
09:57who was found in the woods wrapped in a blanket.
10:00She died from abuse, neglect, malnutrition, and exposure.
10:04They had 10 children, and several of them were missing.
10:07It was found later that those children that were missing
10:10died in the same manner as the little girl.
10:13However, after questioning the Dudleys and investigating their movements in 1957,
10:19police in Philadelphia determined the couple,
10:22while negligent parents, had no connection with the boy in the box.
10:25Also, carnivals and circuses are not traveling during winter months,
10:29lest I'm sure people that worked in these carnivals and circuses
10:33would have noticed the child being abused and go missing.
10:37Frank Theory
10:37Frank Benosis, who was creeping on the girls at the school,
10:42could he have had something to do with this child's murder?
10:45No.
10:46Even though he was a suspect at first,
10:48he was quickly ruled out as a suspect
10:50and was cleared via polygraph or lie detector test.
10:54Foster Home Theory
10:55An investigator in the medical examiner's office,
10:58Remington Bristow, would not give up on the case.
11:02He was determined to get to the bottom of this case
11:04and never stopped working on it until his death in 1993.
11:08So he contacted a psychic in New Jersey
11:11who claimed she could summon the energy of spirits through any metal object.
11:15So the investigator handed her some staples from the box that the little boy was found in.
11:20She described this house in great detail.
11:23So he took her out to the crime scene
11:25and from there, this woman led Remington to a house
11:29only located 1.5 miles away from where the boy was discovered.
11:34Keep in mind, this psychic has never visited Pennsylvania.
11:38It was an old mansion that was turned into a foster home
11:41run by Arthur and Catherine Nicoletti.
11:44The couple had up to 20 foster children living with them
11:47as well as Catherine's 20-year-old daughter from a previous marriage, Anna Marie.
11:53Anna Marie was said to be mentally challenged
11:55and had four children out of wedlock.
11:57Three were stillborn
11:58and the fourth was electrocuted on an amusement ride in 1957.
12:03Soon after questioning the Nicoletti family,
12:05he found out that they shut down the foster home and moved away.
12:09In 1961,
12:10Remington attended the estate sale at the old mansion
12:14and found a white bassinet similar to the one that was sold at JCPenney's
12:19and even found blankets that were similar to the one the boy in the box was wrapped in.
12:25Remington believed the boy may have been the secret son of the couple's young daughter
12:30and died in some sort of accident.
12:32They dumped his body because they didn't want to be suspected of murder
12:36or have anyone find out about the existence of their illegitimate grandchild.
12:41Remington was adamant that the Nicolettis had something to do with this murder.
12:45So he tracked down Arthur in 1984
12:48and found out that his wife Catherine died.
12:51He married his stepdaughter, Anna Marie.
12:54I know, I know, it's gross,
12:56but they're not blood related.
12:57It still seems wrong to me, but anyways.
13:00But again, they found that there were no connections.
13:03Arthur was asked to take a polygraph test, but he refused.
13:06Less investigators checked the morgue records
13:08proved that the boy in the box couldn't have been their child.
13:13Immigrant theory
13:14Years after police found the child's body,
13:18fingerprint expert Bill Kelly theorized that the boy in the box
13:21may have been one of the many Hungarian refugees who came to America in the 1950s.
13:27Kelly developed this theory after he saw a newspaper article published in 1956,
13:33the year before the discovery,
13:35about people who had recently relocated to the United States from Hungary.
13:39A picture of the refugee in this article,
13:43one of the immigrants in the photo,
13:44looked very similar to the boy in the box.
13:47It was possible that the police weren't able to identify him
13:50due to the fact that he was a recent immigrant.
13:53But after checking over 11,000 passport photos,
13:56Kelly was able to track down the boy from the article
13:59and learned the child was alive and well,
14:02living in North Carolina with his family.
14:04Stephen Damon theory
14:06Another theory is that the boy in the box could be Stephen Damon,
14:10a little boy who went missing in New Jersey on Halloween 1955.
14:15Marilyn Damon left her two children outside
14:17while she went into the grocery store,
14:20and when she returned, they were gone.
14:22The infant, Pamela, was found a block away still strapped in her pram,
14:27but Stephen was never found.
14:28He was around the same age and had blonde hair and blue eyes.
14:32He even had a scar on his chin similar to the boy in the box.
14:36However, Stephen broke his arm and the boy in the box had not.
14:39The DNA tests that were conducted in 1998 didn't match the Damon family,
14:45and little Stephen is still missing to this day.
14:48Orphanage slash state hospital theory
14:51Could the boy in the box have came from an orphanage or state hospital?
14:56That could be the case.
14:57Children were often mistreated in the children's homes.
15:00Food could have been scarce if the boy came up missing.
15:03No family, no friends, or even other children would think it was strange that he was gone.
15:09Perhaps due to all of this boy's medical ailments,
15:12they committed him to a state hospital,
15:15where he was given both transfusions and shock therapy,
15:18but ultimately died.
15:20Especially one of those large institutions
15:22where a child could easily get lost in the system.
15:25So if one of the orderlies or medical technicians,
15:29perhaps more than one,
15:30could have accidentally or deliberately killed the child,
15:33freaked out,
15:34fearing that someone would find out,
15:36took him miles away to a secluded patch of woods,
15:39intending to bury him,
15:41but the ground was too frozen.
15:42Found the bassinet box laying nearby,
15:45and just put him in there.
15:47Military Family Theory
15:48Is it possible that the child was part of a military family
15:52and lived on a military base?
15:54No.
15:54To make it short and sweet,
15:56military neighborhoods are no different than civilian neighborhoods.
16:00If a child went missing,
16:01you know dang well neighbors will notice.
16:03Plus, if he had to have any kind of transfusion or medical procedures,
16:08they would have kept detailed records.
16:11Raised as a Girl Theory
16:12Another popular theory is that the boy in the box was raised as a girl.
16:17This is possibly why no one recognized the child.
16:20Frank Bender,
16:21a forensic artist and co-founder of the V-Duck Society,
16:25a private group of skilled professionals
16:27who are dedicated to solving crimes.
16:29According to Bender,
16:31the reason someone cut the child's hair around the time of his death
16:35was to hide the fact that he was raised as a girl.
16:37Bender also said pictures taken of the boy in the box
16:41show evidence someone had plucked the child's eyebrows
16:44before or after his death.
16:46This indicates someone had altered the boy's appearance
16:50to make him appear more feminine.
16:52He drew a sketch of what he thought the boy in the box would look like
16:56with long hair and bangs
16:58in an effort to help identify the child
17:00if someone tried to misrepresent his gender.
17:04Memphis Man Theory
17:05In 2016, two writers,
17:08Jim Hoffman from L.A.
17:10and Louis Romano from New Jersey,
17:12believed that they had discovered a potential identity
17:15from Memphis, Tennessee,
17:17and requested that DNA be compared
17:19between the family members and the child.
17:22The lead was originally discovered by a Philadelphia man
17:25who introduced Romano and Hoffman to each other,
17:28and was developed and presented,
17:31with the help of Hoffman,
17:32to the Philadelphia Police Department
17:34and the V-Duck Society in 2013.
17:38In December 2013,
17:40Romano became aware of the lead
17:42and agreed to help the man from Philadelphia
17:44and Hoffman to obtain the DNA
17:47from this particular family member
17:49in January 2014,
17:52which was sent quickly
17:53to the Philadelphia Police Department.
17:55Local authorities confirmed
17:56that they would investigate the lead,
17:59but said they would need to do more research
18:01on the circumstances surrounding the link to Memphis
18:05before comparing DNA.
18:06In December of 2017,
18:09Homicide Sergeant Bob Holmere
18:11confirmed that DNA was taken
18:13from the Memphis man
18:15was compared to the boy in a box,
18:17and there was no connection.
18:19The M Theory
18:20February 2002,
18:22a woman identified only as Martha or M
18:26claimed that her abusive mother
18:28had purchased the unknown boy,
18:31whose name was Jonathan,
18:32from his birth parents
18:33in the summer of 1954.
18:35She saw her mother hand a man
18:38an envelope, possibly full of money,
18:40and brought out the boy shortly after.
18:42The boy was subjected
18:43to extreme physical and sexual abuse
18:46for two and a half years.
18:47M was also abused by her mother as well.
18:50One evening at dinner,
18:51the boy vomited up his meal of baked beans
18:54and was given a severe beating,
18:56with his head slammed against the floor
18:58until he was semi-unconscious.
19:00He was given a bath,
19:02during which he died.
19:03M's mother cut the boy's distinctive long hair
19:06in an effort to conceal his identity.
19:09M's mother forced her to assist her
19:11with dumping the boy's body in Fox Chase.
19:13M stated that,
19:15as they prepared to remove the boy's body
19:17from the trunk of a car,
19:19the passing male motorist pulled alongside
19:21to inquire whether they needed help.
19:23M was ordered to stand in front
19:25of the car's license plate
19:26to shield it from view,
19:28while the mother convinced the man
19:30that there was no problem.
19:31The man eventually drove off,
19:33and they put his body
19:34in an already discarded large box
19:37and drove away.
19:38The story seems to line up
19:40with a number of pieces of evidence
19:41that were not released to the public.
19:43Like the stomach contents being brown,
19:46could have came from eating baked beans,
19:48that he vomited shortly before death,
19:50his unprofessional haircut,
19:52and his water-wrinkled hands and feet.
19:54Also, the witness that came forward
19:56back in 1957 told police
19:58he noticed a woman
20:00and a young girl acting strangely.
20:02Thinking the woman was having car troubles,
20:05he stopped to ask if she needed help,
20:07only for her and the child
20:09to purposely shield their license plate
20:11with their bodies,
20:12and that the box was already discarded
20:14before the two ladies arrived.
20:16Police thought they might have
20:18finally cracked this case,
20:19but checking with neighbors
20:20who had access to M's house
20:23during the stated time period
20:25denied that there had been
20:27a young boy living there
20:28and dismissed M's claims as ridiculous.
20:31Also, that M suffers
20:33from serious mental issues
20:35that made her an unreliable witness.
20:37But honestly,
20:38I think this is the most logical theory to date.
20:41She had information
20:42that no one else had.
20:43Writing her off just because
20:45she suffered from a mental illness
20:47doesn't mean she was lying.
20:48And if you had to deal
20:49with a mother that abusive,
20:51yeah, I would suffer
20:52from mental issues too.
20:54Besides,
20:55what if he was hidden
20:56from neighbors while visiting
20:58and wasn't allowed to go outside?
21:00Hence why he was so pale.
21:01Now, I know I hit you
21:10with a number of possible clues
21:11and theories.
21:12That's because this case
21:13still is being investigated
21:14to this day.
21:15As of 2021,
21:17they exhumed this child's body again
21:19to get a fresh DNA sample
21:21and there is always
21:23at least one investigator
21:24assigned to this case.
21:25It might be a cold case,
21:27but it's not closed.
21:28In March of 2016,
21:29the National Center
21:31for Missing and Exploited Children
21:32released a forensic facial reconstruction
21:35of the child
21:36and added him
21:37to their database.
21:38He's listed as
21:39John Doe 1957.
21:41Police and investigators
21:42are determined
21:42to find out
21:43this child's identity
21:45and finally give him a name.
21:47This killer needs
21:47to be found out as well,
21:49either dead or alive.
21:50It's just puzzling to me
21:51this child came from nowhere,
21:53no family,
21:54no records,
21:55no nothing.
21:56Like I stated before,
21:57it's like he appeared
21:58out of thin air.
21:59Maybe once he finally
22:01has his name back,
22:02then maybe this poor child
22:04will truly be able
22:05to rest in peace.
22:06But as of now,
22:07we just know him
22:08as America's unknown child,
22:10aka the boy in the box.
22:12Gone but not forgotten.
22:14So what are your possible theories?
22:16Do you agree with any
22:17of the ones I went over?
22:18Let me know
22:19what you think of this case
22:21and if you have any suggestions
22:22on cases you want me to cover,
22:25just let me know
22:25in the comments down below.
22:27If you enjoyed this video,
22:29please like, comment,
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22:32so you don't miss
22:33the next episode.
22:34You never know
22:35who I will cover next.
22:36I post videos
22:37every Tuesday and Saturday.
22:39Thank you for hanging out
22:40with me in the Dark Mystery Lounge.
22:42This is Phoenix signing out.
22:44Have a good evening
22:45and stay safe.
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