The American Life magazine paid tribute to the memory of the missing. Yes, not simple, but outstanding. In every century there are such individuals who fed on glory, fed on envy, and then disappeared out of sight and from the face of the Earth, as if they did not exist - if you do not pay attention to all that the disappeared managed to create and teach. We will gladly retell to our dear readers what our American colleagues deigned to discover.
1. Caravaggio, who was found 400 years after his death
Italian officials recently reported that with almost one hundred percent certainty they were able to identify the remains of the great artist Caravaggio (1571 - 1610), shedding light on the floor of the thousand-year-old mystery of the disappearance of the master's body. Caravaggio was not only a talented painter, but also an alcoholic brawler. In 1610 in Rome, he killed a drinking companion in a drunken brawl and for this the artist was expelled from the city. The circumstances of his death four years later in the seaside town of Porto Ekole quickly became a mystery. It was said that Caravaggio killed syphilis, or malaria, or an avenger for a drunkard who had been killed in Rome. The painter's bones were found in an ancient crypt in Porto Ecola and identified by comparing DNA samples with the genetic material of the modern descendants of Caravaggio.
2. Roald Amundsen, kidnapped by the North
The legendary Norwegian polar explorer, the first to reach the South Pole, and four of his colleagues disappeared from history in 1928, when they went by plane to search for and rescue the crew of the disaster-damaged Italia airship. Amundsen's seaplane disappeared over the Barents Sea, and his float was soon found on the waves. The last attempt to locate Amundsen's body was made in 2009. It didn't work out as before. By the way, the famous explorer of ice used to say that he wants to die in polar beauty. And it came true.
Promotional video:
3. Sean Flynn, from the movie to the fire
Sean's father, Errol, in the 1930s was a classic Hollywood handsome man who embodied the images of Captain Blood and Robin Hood on the screens. Here is such a man flaunted:
The son of a successful film actor could not achieve success in cinema, played weak roles and became disillusioned with the Hollywood fairy tale. After serving his "conscription" in 10 films, Sean Flynn decided to become a freelance photographer and went to the war in Vietnam. His pictures were published in the reputable Time and Life publications. On April 6, 1970, Flynn and a colleague, Dana Stone, traveled on a motorcycle in Cambodia. At a roadblock, they were stopped by the Khmer Rouge and no one else heard of Flynn. Subsequently, he was allegedly seen in Mexico as a homeless person, but these are only rumors.
4. Ambrose Bierce, the devil's advocate
An eccentric and gloomy journalist and writer, the founder of the genre of "horror films" Ambrose Bierce wrote to his niece in 1913, either jokingly or seriously: “If they see me in Mexico standing with my back to a rock and other people's bullets tear me to shreds, I think it will be a wonderful way to get out of this life. " At that time, Bierce was 71 years old and in his old age, like Leo Tolstoy, he went on a journey - to the places of former military glory. Visited Louisiana and Texas, and went to Mexico. The author of the "Devil's Dictionary" was disappointed in the loss of creative powers and decided: come what may.
Another revolution was raging in Mexico. Ambrose Bierce shook up the old days and joined Pancho Villa's army as a columnist. The last letter from the "old gringo" was dated December 26, 1913, and there was no more news from Bierce or Bierce. There were rumors that he was allegedly shot by the Mexican government troops, and the writer of horror and devilry laughed in the eyes of the executioners.
5. Glenn Miller, the great discovery and the great loss of music
The king of the era of big bands, trombonist Glenn Miller and his orchestra enchanted the world of the 1930s and 40s with such great hits as "Sun Valley Serenade" and "Chattanooga Chu-Chu".
When the United States entered World War II, Miller volunteered for the military at age 38, donned epaulettes, and became a major in the music service. With his Air Force Orchestra, in December 1944, the great jazzman went by plane from England to entertain the Allied troops fighting for Paris. It is said that Miller, who is fluent in German, was captured and killed in a brothel, where he was secretly sent to persuade German officers to surrender. The generally accepted, less heroic version says that in the fog the plane was inadvertently shot down by its own - a British bomber, which was dropping an unexploited supply of bombs into the English Channel. The plane with the musicians also crashed there. Glenn Miller is still on the list of missing persons during the fighting. That is, formally, he is not among the dead. And he is still eternal.
If God hadn't been idle in heaven, he would sometimes, just for fun, react to speeches like "Let me fail at this very place!" Although … sometimes he doesn't seem to be lazy.
We continue the story about great people who disappeared "neither in hearing nor in spirit."
6. Frank Morris, genius from Alcatraz
The American federal prison on Alcatraz Island was considered the most reliable until the early 1960s. And then they put Frank Morris, a criminal with an amazing will to escape. In continental prisons, Morris often managed to escape, for which he was transported to an inaccessible piece of land.
It is said that Morris had an IQ of over 130. Approximately 133. Using his great intelligence, Frank and three inmates dug out the concrete around the ventilation holes, replacing it with plaster to mask it. They also made doll heads out of plaster, which they put under the blankets on the night of the escape. On June 11, 1962, the fugitives slipped into a ventilation pipe and escaped from the island, using homemade inflatable lifejackets made by smart Morris from raincoats. Scraps of them were found in the cold San Francisco Bay, so many believed that the criminals had drowned. However, no bodies were found, no matter how many divers dived. So, Morris and his cellmate Mr. Anglins are probably the only people who managed to escape from Alcatraz.
7. Michael Rockefeller, the lost heir
With the grandfather of the oil baron and the dad of the governor of New York, Michael Rockefeller could do nothing and count on a completely comfortable future in luxury. But, as if unfortunately, the heir was born a hardworking boy with the character of a researcher.
After graduating from Harvard, Michael Rockefeller fled to faraway New Guinea to document the life of the wild Papuans and collect local art for his father's museum. On November 18, 1961, his river boat, overloaded with trophies and food supplies, capsized off the southern coast of Papua. Rockefeller and his colleague Rene Vassinck thrashed through the night, holding on to the hull of the boat, and in the morning Michael decided to swim to a rather distant shore for help. His last words to Vassinka were "I think it will work." Until now, we do not know what exactly he did, because despite a thorough search funded by the Rockefellers, no trace of Michael was found on the ground or under water. Maybe he turned into a Papuan, or was he swallowed whole by a monstrous fish?
8. Harold Holt, the dissolved prime minister
Not a single prime minister, even yours or ours, is immune to dissolution in space. Harold Edward Holt ruled Australia from 1966-67. He disappeared on December 17, 1967.
Holt loved the ocean more than power. The Prime Minister was excellent swimming, diving and harpooning fish. On the day of the disappearance, the official went for a swim at Cheviot Beach near Melbourne, swam for a few minutes and disappeared into the waves, triggering the largest search operation in Australian history. Not a single trace of the prime minister was found. There was a version that he was captured and killed by divers from the CIA, because Holt wanted to withdraw Australian troops from Vietnam. Two days later, the prime minister was pronounced dead.
9. Percy Fawcett swallowed by the jungle
In 1925, British explorer Colonel Percy Fawcett traveled to the Mato Grosso region of the Amazon jungle to find the hypothetical lost city of Zeta, which Fawcett had read about in the Brazilian historical archives.
A month after the start of the expedition, Percy, his son Jack and his son's friend were lost in the jungle, and no one else saw them. In many places the travelers left "evidence": somewhere a compass, somewhere a sign with names. One of the versions says that Fawcett and his colleagues were killed by savages natives - because white people came to them in the forest without a gift. Others fantasize that the traveler has become an Amazonian leader himself. Before leaving for the campaign, Fawcett left a will so that no one should look for him in case of loss. But the colonel did not obey and more than 50 travelers died in the Amazon, trying to find Fosset. And in 1996, the Indians took another expedition prisoner and released them only in exchange for all the equipment of the seekers.