A Case For Solomon

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A Case For Solomon - 9/10/2012 7:21:19 AM

LadyHibiscus

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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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RE: A Case For Solomon - 9/10/2012 8:45:28 AM

kalikshama

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Fascinating...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bobby_Dunbar

Bobby Dunbar was a 4-year old child whose disappearance and apparent recovery was widely reported in newspapers across the United States in 1912 and 1913. After an eight-month nationwide search, investigators believed that they had found the child in the hands of William Cantwell Walters of Mississippi. Dunbar's parents claimed the boy as their missing son. However, both Walters and a woman named Julia Anderson steadfastly insisted that the boy with him was Anderson's son. The court system eventually sided with the Dunbars and they retained custody of the boy, who proceeded to live out the remainder of his life as Bobby Dunbar.

In 2004, DNA tests taken by Dunbar's son conclusively established that he was not a blood relative of the Dunbar family.

Read more: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bobby_Dunbar

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RE: A Case For Solomon - 9/10/2012 11:09:35 AM

LadyHibiscus

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The facts of the case are just amazing, and show that money really does talk...

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RE: A Case For Solomon - 9/10/2012 12:41:51 PM

popeye1250

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"Shoot the Tinker"

-Soloman-

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"But Your Honor, this is not a Jury of my Peers, these people are all decent, honest, law-abiding citizens!"

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