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LadyHibiscus -> A Case For Solomon (9/10/2012 7:21:19 AM)
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I was listening to NPR over the weekend, and This American Life reran this story that I'd never heard before:
http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/352/the-ghost-of-bobby-dunbar
It's about a hundred year old kidnapping case, mistaken identity, and why it's never a good thing to be poor... the people who told the story on TAL, one of them the granddaughter of Bobby Dunbar, the kidnapped boy, have written a book about their research.
I'm not sure if you can link up to this outside north america... so in short, in 1912, four year old Bobby Dunbar went missing on a camping trip in the Louisiana swamp country. Eight months later, a child was "found" in the custody of a tinker, and that child was "reclaimed" as the missing Bobby. However, the tinker insisted that the boy was Bruce Anderson, child of a neighbor back in North Carolina.
The kidnapping story became part of family lore for both families, who were each sure that they were right.
This isn't just a fascinating story for the kidnapping, but as a window into reporting, social history, and class differences. It's also a sad commentary on how a family can be disrupted when their notions of who they are come into question.
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