It Happened Today in New York City

On August 6, 1930, Joseph Force Crater, an Associate Justice of the New York Supreme Court, ducked into a taxi cab on West 45^th Street after an elegant dinner with friends, rode west on 45^th Street, and disappeared without a trace. He was never seen again. Though rumors had spread that Tammany Hall bought his appointment to the bench, and he is known to have been with his mistress, rather than his wife, on that fateful night, neither of these has ever led to a definitive explanation for his disappearance. He was declared legally dead nine years later, and has gone down in history as “the Missingest Man in New York”.

• Posted in: Almanac