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Tonight, a missing person's case that nearly derailed a presidential campaign.

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Imagine the repercussions it might bring down the Democrats and FDR with them.

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It dominates mainstream media for over five decades.

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The keys to the lab are pulling a judge crater on us.

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Probably the equivalent of a Jimmy Hoffa or even Amelia Earhart.

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Now we examine the top theories behind the so-called missingist man in America.

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Crater knows where all the bodies are buried. Sometimes you just know too much.

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He's never tried to shake down a heartless thug like Legs Diamond. He's in over his head.

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And Tammany Hall Big Wigs silenced him so he cannot testify.

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Will a deathbed confession finally solve the mystery?

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When I opened the box, it was in a sealed envelope and said it in reference to Judge Crater's disappearance.

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What really happened to New York City's notorious Judge Joseph Crater?

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He's been dining with a couple of friends and says that he's running late to a Broadway show.

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So he leaves the restaurant, hops into a cab, heads west.

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From that moment, he's never seen or heard from again.

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Now, people go missing all the time, but when it's Judge Crater, it's a big deal.

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Because at this point, Joe Crater has just hit the political prime time as it were.

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He's a big up and comer who was recently appointed to the New York State Supreme Court

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by then Governor of New York State, Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

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That appointment is only for the rest of a vacated term, and by the time of his disappearance,

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Crater is actually gearing up for an election of his own.

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If he wins reelection in November, the sky's the limit.

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It's an election that's crucial for Judge Crater and for FDR.

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And this is great because the opportunity to ride the coattails of FDR meant that you would have unlimited potential.

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A lot of people believe that once FDR's president, Crater will be a nominee to the United States Supreme Court.

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He's kind of a man about town in New York. He knows all the cops, he knows all the politicians,

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he knows the Broadway producers, the dancers.

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He is a widely known celebrity in the city, and at the time, if you're a New York celebrity, you're a nationwide celebrity.

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The disappearance of Crater is huge. It's probably the equivalent of a Jimmy Hoffa or even Amelia Earhart.

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Now, Crater's wife, Stella, is going through his Rolodex and calling up every political bigwig that she can get her hands on

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to find out if any of them know what happened to him.

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It's even possible that FDR might have gotten a call.

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But Stella's pleas aren't taken seriously at first.

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Crater is kind of a ladies' man, and it's not uncommon for him to sometimes be gone for several days at a time with other women.

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He's nicknamed Good Time Joe. He's gone off on vendors and disappeared for a while in the past where they've had to cover for him before.

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It was an open secret that he had a few women on the side.

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So one of the first things that people think seems to be the most obvious one.

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Maybe he just took off with one of his mistresses.

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Leading up to the disappearance, on August 2nd, Crater and his wife, Stella, go to their vacation home in Maine to stay there until the 25th until court comes back in session.

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But a day later, on August 3rd, Crater receives a phone call and then tells his wife, Stella, that he has to head back to, quote, straighten some fellows out.

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Now, she assumes it's just some business or a legal issue, but he promises to be backed by her birthday on August 9th.

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Stella's birthday comes and goes on the 9th and Crater's a no-show. He's nowhere to be found, and she's a little worried because she's not used to her husband breaking personal promises to her.

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And Stella's calling around to all these powerful men to try to figure out what happened to her husband, and powerful men will do what powerful men normally do.

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They're going to cover up for their friends.

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Now, his friends tell her, don't worry about him.

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I'm sure he's fine. He's probably just super busy with work or some other commitments.

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They honestly don't really know where he is, but they're just assuming that he's off with one of his girlfriends.

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And they would gladly cover for him because they would assume that he would do the same for them when they're cheating on their wives.

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The upcoming election is also a factor.

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Now, Crater's friends are all involved in politics in one way or another, so they're either working on their own campaigns or they're hoping that Crater wins his election in three months' time so that they can just ride his coattails.

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Crater's a key part of the ticket that the Democrats hope will get FDR reelected as governor, as long as there are no scandals.

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And it's apparent if he wins there, he will be a shoe in for the nomination for the presidency of the United States.

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In 1932, any Democrats could have beat Herbert Hoover, but this Crater business could sink the whole thing.

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So better to keep it quiet. They hope Joe will turn up soon enough.

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But Stella's not convinced and starts investigating on her own.

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Mrs. Crater sends her chauffeur, Fred Kaler, back to New York to look for the judge.

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What he finds is an open mail and he can't get into the apartment.

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Furthermore, he tries to talk to a bunch of Crater's colleagues, but they discourage him from looking too hard.

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And this information drives Stella crazy. Why does no one want to find where her husband is? What is going on?

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When Judge Crater doesn't show up for work on August 25th, an astonishing 19 days after he was last seen in public, it's clear something is wrong.

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At this point, even Joe's buddies have to accept that he's missing. It's been 19 days. Crater was obsessed with the law. He loved it.

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So if he didn't show up on August the 25th, there's got to be a very good reason.

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Now a real investigation begins. But because we're dealing with a lot of high profile politicians, the NYPD wants to keep this investigation a bit more on the hush-hush side.

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So they quietly start interviewing witnesses.

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The police speak to William Klein, who dined with Crater the night he went missing.

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William Klein is an attorney for the Schubert family, the most powerful theater empire in the entire country at the time.

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And Klein connects important people like Crater to Schubert's slate of showgirls in exchange for professional favors.

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They actually ask Klein if he thinks that Crater may have disappeared with one of his girlfriends. And Klein says, actually, yeah.

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According to Klein, Crater is taken with one dancer in particular, Elaine Dawn.

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He'd been out with Elaine as many times as he could in those few weeks before his disappearance.

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She's described as an attractive blonde with a southern accent, and he bought her lots of gifts and jewelry.

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William Klein has watched Joe Crater go out with several showgirls, but Elaine is clearly special to him.

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She's got a power over him, and it may be that she may have seduced him into leaving his entire life behind for her.

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Detectives try to track down Elaine Dawn, but when they arrive at her apartment, she's nowhere to be found.

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So now Crater's gone and his main squeeze is gone. Something is really wrong here.

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In the meantime, the Crater family hires a private investigator, and he speaks to Crater's assistant, Joseph Mara.

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Mara was at work with Crater the day before he disappeared, and Mara stated that it was a very strange and unusual day.

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Crater is in his chamber all morning, rifling through files, putting documents in boxes, and even destroying some documents.

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He has Mara cash two personal checks for him, totaling over $5,000, which is about $90,000 in today's money, which Crater just casually puts in his coat pocket.

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Then he and Mara haul about eight boxes and briefcases and put them into a taxi cab to take them to Crater's New York City apartment.

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According to Mara, it's really clear that his boss is preparing something big. So Mara's looking at Crater like, what's going on with this guy? Something is clearly wrong here.

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Within a few days, an anonymous source leaks Crater's story to the press, and the philandering judge becomes front page news nationwide.

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You know how a scandalous story like the OJ Simpson trial or Jeffrey Epstein gets so big that it touches almost every aspect of pop culture?

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This is the same thing that happens with Judge Crater.

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Even in 1930, the top comedians at the time are dropping jokes about Crater in their acts. Radio hosts are making fun of him. Groucho Marx famously quipped, Judge Crater, call your office.

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Oh, hi, Mel.

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Tell me.

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Wow, Judge Crater returns.

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The phrase pulling at Crater became synonymous with anyone who runs off and disappears.

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This is a nightmare for anyone that's in Crater's orbit, but the media is loving this, okay? You've got a sex-obsessed judge. You've got the city's top showgirls. You've got some of the top politicians all entangled in this.

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Imagine the repercussions if this thing scandalizes FDR. So it's up to the police to kind of quell this media firestorm.

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On September 4th, Police Commissioner Edward Mulroney holds a press conference.

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Commissioner Mulroney comes out and says, look, clearly the guy planned this, okay? Look, he's taken files, right? He's cashed checks. He decided to voluntarily leave on his own, okay?

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This is not a police matter because there's no crime here other than dereliction of duty. It's clear that he just ran off with a showgirl.

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There's nothing to be terribly seriously investigated. Everyone can move along. Nothing to see here.

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But before long, Mulroney's theory falls apart.

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It turns out Judge Crater doesn't run off with Elaine Don at all. She's actually found at a local hospital.

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She has an illness described as rheumatism brought on by an acute case of gonorrhea.

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Now, she does confirm that she and Crater had seen each other, but she insists that it was only casual, and the last time she had seen him was on August 4th, two days before his disappearance at a place called Club Abbey.

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So now investigators are almost back at square one in their hunt to determine where Judge Crater is and who he might have run off with.

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But I say almost because they're not quite done with Elaine Don just yet.

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Broadway dancer Elaine Don.

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Good time Joe has run off with women before, but that's not the case this time.

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Now Elaine is still in New York, hospitalized with an illness, but police suspect that she still might know more than she's actually letting on.

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At the time Crater disappears, some of the showgirls in New York and Elaine may be one are at the whim of the men in their lives.

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They're passed around among the city's political and business elite.

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Apart from Judge Crater, Elaine Don has what she describes as a boyfriend, some would say pimp.

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While Elaine's in the hospital, this guy's threatening producers of the show claiming lack of income while she's sick.

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The police entertain the idea that he and Elaine are extortionists.

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Detectives dig deeper into Elaine and her boyfriend.

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They ask around on the nightclubs they frequent.

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They ask around to the Broadway circle that Elaine is a part of and everybody says that Elaine and her boyfriend are completely harmless.

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She may have dated Crater a few times, but it's highly unlikely that she's involved in any sort of rackets or schemes.

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But the work by police isn't entirely wasted.

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While they're digging around in these nightclubs, they actually hear about another person of interest.

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The barflies tell police that there's another dancer in Crater's life.

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And around the same time, they receive an anonymous letter directing them to the home of June Bryce.

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The letter states that Bryce is an intimate friend of Judge Crater's.

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She may also have been one of the last people to see him alive.

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Several folks claim that June has plans with Crater after his dinner at the chop house.

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According to them, despite making up a story about heading to a Broadway show, Crater's actually heading to June's midtown apartment the night he disappears.

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Based on information from Crater's assistant, detectives think this visit may be more than personal.

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Remember, Joseph Mora says that Crater was cashing checks that's equivalent to about $90,000 on the day of his disappearance.

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Mora also tells detectives that when he and Crater finish packing up the boxes, he has Mora take the boxes down to a taxi while Crater is waiting at the top of a stairwell hiding behind some columns.

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When Mora signals that the taxi is ready, Crater runs down the stairs, glances around fearfully to see if anybody's watching him, and then immediately jumps into the cab.

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Crater's known as kind of a happy guy. He's charming, he's witty, he's upbeat. But on this date, he's very sullen, he's very quiet, he's very pensive.

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This is not really the behavior of a man who's ready to escape into his dream life.

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Detectives know that Crater is preparing for something on the day that he disappears, but if the money isn't for him and for his lover to enjoy on vacation, what is it for?

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Maybe Crater isn't running away with a woman, but from one. He definitely has a lot to lose, and he definitely has his fair share of scandals that somebody could blackmail him about.

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Police suspect that June Bryce may be involved in an extortion plot against Judge Crater, but they're unable to locate her.

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Bryce is nowhere to be found, which is suspicious in and of itself, but an investigator does find a woman who was June's roommate in August of 1930 and corroborates the story that Crater did indeed go to June's apartment that night.

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The roommate says that June's been carrying a dreadful secret about Crater and her life's actually been threatened over him.

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According to the roommate, like many of these showgirls, Bryce has a boyfriend who's kind of a scary guy, and he also visits the apartment the night that Crater is there.

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She states that June's boyfriend threatened Crater with exposure of their relationship unless he paid them $5,000.

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On August 6, Crater arrived with the money, but the boyfriend upped it to $50,000.

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Crater bulks, and the boyfriend works him over before ultimately killing him.

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Now here's the thing, the roommate didn't actually see this happen.

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She heard some of it before leaving the apartment that night and was later told by June the rest of the story.

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So it's hearsay for now.

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Bryce's mother also provides some second-hand details.

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In a newspaper article, June's mother stated that Crater and June were acquainted, and that Crater assisted June in getting parts in Broadway plays.

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June also told her mother that a man she was, quote, supposed to marry was killed in an accident.

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Could this have been Crater? And if so, where's the body?

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Thanks to this fresh evidence, June Bryce is called by the Manhattan District Attorney to testify at a grand jury hearing in late 1930.

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From the fall of 1930, the DA keeps an open grand jury on the Crater disappearance.

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Any and all witnesses are subpoenaed to testify as they attempt to build a case for what happened.

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Various people associated with Crater have already appeared, but at the time authorities still have no idea what happened.

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So June Bryce is their first chance to potentially crack the case.

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They feel strongly about this robbery homicide angle and are eager to prove it.

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But June's gone. She has fled her apartment with an unknown man.

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June bounces from hotel to hotel for weeks, constantly changing her name.

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By the end of September, she's admitted to a neurological hospital with a nervous breakdown.

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But to be clear, nobody knows this at the time, so to the authorities, she's just missing.

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It takes the Crater family's private investigator several years to finally find her in the mental hospital.

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By this time, Bryce is in no condition to testify.

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The PI states that she's barely coherent and really can't provide any details.

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When asked about Crater, she responds, we must not remember the things that make us mad.

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The problem is that June herself lacks the mental capacity to verify any of this information or fill in the blanks.

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Investigators have hearsay, they have speculation, but that's it.

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Based on her mental illness, police declined to investigate June Bryce any further.

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June Bryce's testimony probably never would have held up in court.

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But the extortion theory is the one that seems to be the most accepted today.

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It certainly fits with his demeanor and his actions on August 6th.

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He knows he's in trouble, he's preparing for it, but he's unable to escape it.

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The problem with this theory is that the famous Judge Crater has a ton of people in his orbit.

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If he's going to get killed, is it really going to be the June Bryce or Elaine Donne types that mastermind it?

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When you start to uncover the other folks he's hanging out with, you soon realize several of them are much more likely to commit a murder.

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And one already has.

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In early 1930, Judge Joseph Crater is well respected nationwide as a New Deal progressive with strong ties to Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

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But after his disappearance on August 6th, a seedy dark side of his life is revealed.

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Crater cheats on his wife with multiple showgirls and he has an active social life in New York's speakeasy nightclubs.

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Keep in mind this is during the height of prohibition, but the city's elite have no problem finding alcohol in vibe in many of the city's illegal bars.

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And Crater's favorite is a place called Club Abbey.

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Club Abbey is a Jazz Age or less club that's new on the New York scene.

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Abbey features a drag queen MC named Jean Mallon, comedians like Jimmy Duranty, and in between there's plenty of dancing by Broadway showgirls.

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It's a brand new place on 54th Street and it's where everybody wants to be.

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Club Abbey gets its alcohol from one of New York's most notorious prohibition era gangsters, Jack Leggs Diamond.

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Leggs Diamond starts his life as a gangster when he becomes a bodyguard for Arnold Rothstein.

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Now in case you don't know, Rothstein is most famous for fixing the 1919 World Series and when he's killed in 1928, Leggs Diamond takes over most of his bootlegging operations in Manhattan.

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His nickname Leggs has two meanings. One is that he's a good dancer. It's also a play on words and the amount of times he's been able to outrun the police or his enemies.

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He's already survived two attempts on his life and in 1929 he shoots and kills two men in his club but isn't charged.

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Leggs operates out of a few speakeasies but by the summer of 1930 he's spending almost every night at Club Abbey.

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And he's running a pretty nasty scheme on the side there. A scheme that may have ensnared Judge Crater and gotten him killed.

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At Club Abbey, Leggs Diamond has a cohort named Vivian Gordon and she used to be a showgirl and now she's turned into a professional prostitute.

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Vivian Gordon is a swindler who gets even more aggressive after two years in prison.

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She's known to be hell-bent on revenge against cops and judges. The men who she feels took everything from her and at Club Abbey with the help of Leggs Diamond she can get that revenge.

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Vivian and Leggs set up a routine where she meets clients at the Abbey and then brings them back to her house where Leggs is waiting.

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Together they shake their victims down for everything they can get. They run the scheme all the time and Judge Joe Crater is right in their wheelhouse.

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Crater's fellow Supreme Court Justice, Louis Valenti, looks further into this.

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Judge Valenti hires investigators to track Crater's movements on August the 6th. His investigators find evidence that Crater was at Club Abbey that night.

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Valenti believes that this is critical evidence and he takes it to the press to run with it.

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According to this theory, Judge Crater first meets Vivian Gordon at the Abbey on the night of August 4th.

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They head back to her place for a night of pleasure and afterwards Leggs Diamond shows up to squeeze Crater for some extra cash.

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But it's not just cash that he's after. Crater's famous and everybody knows who he is, including Leggs Diamond.

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There's a case coming up on the docket that Leggs needs to have dismissed in order to protect his business interests.

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So he threatens Crater's career if he doesn't cooperate.

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Crater promises to look into the case so the next day on August 5th Crater has lunch with another judge from the Supreme Court.

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He's trying to feel out the odds of getting rid of the case without attracting attention but the odds are not good.

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Crater realizes that he can't deliver what Diamond is asking for.

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Now he has to figure out how he's going to break the news to him and it's not a very easy task.

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At this point Leggs Diamond has killed at least two people that we know of.

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According to Crater's assistant, the judge collected more than money on August 6th.

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He also took several case files home from his office.

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These files may pertain to Diamond's case. He knows he can't get the case tossed because of all the poking around being done by investigators.

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So he brings these papers home as a sort of insurance policy. He knows he might need it.

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That night Crater returns to Club Abbey and he tells Leggs and Vivian that there's no way he can get this case dismissed.

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There's just too much of a spotlight on it. But as a consolation prize, here's $5,000 to smooth things over.

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Leggs won't take no for an answer, okay? He demands Crater to try again but Crater himself is a big shot with a big ego and he fights back.

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Crater tells Diamond he has all these files that ties Diamond to criminal behavior.

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He has these documents at a secure location and if he doesn't take this payoff, he's going to make these documents public.

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Judge Crater's worked in politics for many years at this point but he's only ever really worked with other politicians or small-time crooks.

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He's never tried to shake down a heartless thug like Leggs Diamond. He's in over his head.

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The New York press runs with this theory suggesting that both Leggs and Vivian murder the judge and make sure that the body is never found.

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Despite the tabloids' enthusiasm, it's a good story but there's not a lot of proof to it.

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That is until February of 1931 when Vivian Gordon is found dead in a Bronx Park.

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Vivian's murdered the day after she offers to testify against the corrupt officials that have ruined her life.

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She's willing to risk her life to bring them down. When she's found dead, an anti-corruption sentiment rises to a boiling point in New York City.

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Her murder is the biggest story since Crater disappeared.

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Governor Roosevelt requests the records himself and demands a thorough police investigation.

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When police search Gordon's apartment, they find a treasure trove of diaries and documents connecting her to the city's most powerful figures.

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Vivian kept lists of her blackmail schemes with Diamond and there on paper, clear as day, Judge Crater is written down as one of her clients.

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The diaries don't say anything about his death, but the press doesn't care.

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The press is eager to make connections between the two most famous news stories of the time.

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When Crater's name is found in Vivian's diary, the press explodes with all kinds of speculation.

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The press also loves a good mafia story. I mean, who doesn't, right?

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And there are so many legends surrounding Leg's Diamond, it's very hard to tell fact from fiction.

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But it turns out there was no evidence that he's involved in any cases to be heard by the Supreme Court.

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In fact, when he disappears, Crater only has one trivial case pending on his document.

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Crater's name is in Vivian's diary. She made very well a blackmail. She was extorting a lot of people.

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But just because she's extorting somebody doesn't mean she murdered.

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When Judge Joseph Crater disappears in August 1930, New York Governor Franklin Delano Roosevelt is in the thick of campaigning for reelection.

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As November approaches, a rival politician makes a shocking accusation.

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If true, it sheds a whole new light on what happened to the missing judge.

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During Judge Crater's time in New York politics, the Democrats work closely with an organization that's known as Tammany Hall.

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Tammany Hall dominates both New York City and state politics for more than a century.

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Its name becomes synonymous with corruption under infamous leaders like Boss Tweet.

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They do plenty of good things for the people of New York, but ultimately they're a corrupt organization.

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But if you're a Democrat, working with Tammany is how you win elections.

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By the late 1920s, Tammany has woven its way into every level of New York politics.

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And in 1929, Judge Crater becomes president of a key Tammany branch, the Cayuga Club.

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A lot of New York voters are tired of the blatant corruption, so the 1930 elections are a pivotal point.

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For once, the Republicans have a good shot of winning a number of top seats from the Democrats, especially the one for Governor.

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FDR's main rival is Republican prosecutor Charles Tuttle.

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Tuttle is on a crusade to expose judicial corruption.

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Prior to Crater's disappearance, his whole office of attorneys and investigators are looking into evidence of judicial corruption,

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rumored to be running rampant among Tammany Hall's main players.

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And if Tuttle can make the case, it might bring down the Democrats and FDR with them.

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Judge Crater is potentially a key witness.

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When Tuttle looks into the Cayuga Club, he learns something interesting.

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Tuttle finds evidence that the Cayuga Club is actually selling government jobs.

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If you're connected to Tammany Hall, they can help you get appointed or elected to a political position.

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In return, you pay them one year's salary.

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Tuttle has proof of one of these payments, a $10,000 bribe that was paid to Tammany Hall boss Martin Healy by Attorney George Yould for his position as his city magistrate.

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Tuttle's evidence certainly implicates Judge Crater too.

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As president of the Cayuga Club, Crater has to be aware of what's going on.

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I mean, he even serves as master of ceremonies at George Yould's celebration dinner when he becomes magistrate.

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The corruption might go even further.

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There is also circumstantial evidence that Judge Crater may have purchased his own position.

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When Crater is appointed to the New York Supreme Court, it is one of the highest paid positions in the state.

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He has paid a salary of $22,000. It's the same as the governor's and a lot less work.

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It's the most coveted seat in New York politics and it speaks to the ability of Joe Crater to manipulate and maneuver himself into that position.

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Tuttle wants to know how he got this job.

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One month after his appointment in May of 1930, Crater withdraws $22,000 from various bank accounts.

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Which is exactly one year's salary.

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Tuttle has no direct proof that this money went to pay Tammany Hall, but while he's out publicly campaigning against the Democrats,

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he strongly suggests that it did and this scandal could have even gotten Judge Crater killed.

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Tuttle's belief is that Crater is at the heart of the Tammany Hall kickback scheme.

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And when Tuttle's investigation closes in on Crater and they're going to call Crater as a witness,

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Tammany Hall bigwigs silence him so he cannot testify.

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How high does this go? Is FDR aware? Is FDR involved?

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Obviously this could go very bad for the Democrats if some massive trial of the century is opened.

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Although Crater's disappearance is a thorny issue for Tammany Hall, it's far better that he goes this way than testifies against them.

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Tuttle can't prove this theory, but Crater's own wife offers some support.

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There's a big mystery about who calls Crater on August 3rd, which causes him to travel back to New York City.

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At the time, his wife Stella does not reveal anything useful.

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But in 1937, Stella tells a magazine his purpose of the visit was to advise Tammany boss Martin Healy about the Tuttle investigation.

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Stella is sure that the Tammany case is behind her husband's disappearance.

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She's not the only one. In 1954, an acquaintance of Crater's, Henry Krause, makes an extraordinary claim.

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Krause calls an old detective friend of his and says that he has something he wants to get off his chest before he dies.

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He thinks he knows what happened to Judge Krause.

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Back in the 30s, Krause had a vacation home which he frequently let Krause use for parties.

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Many of those parties were co-hosted by Martin Healy.

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Krause claimed that in early 1930, the two men buried $90,000 in the backyard.

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But in mid-August, after Krause's disappearance, Krause visits his vacation home to find the place in shambles.

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There are broken glasses strewn about, there are liquor bottles everywhere, and when he walks into the kitchen, he says, quote,

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there's nothing there but blood. And the box in the backyard has been dug up and taken.

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A week later, Martin Healy sets up a meeting with Krause.

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Healy warns him that there might be some trouble coming.

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He tells Krause that he needs to deny knowing Krause and that he shouldn't deny that they were ever at his house.

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Krause goes along with his demands, and when the detective starts peppering him with questions, Krause just keeps repeating that Krause is dead

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and he thinks that he is buried at the house.

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The police were able to verify part of Krause's story.

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Their investigation showed that Krause had written at least two checks to Krause.

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And Krause did indeed have a Westchester home.

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Krause's 1954 revelations revived public interest in the case.

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Life magazine funds an excavation of the home's backyard.

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Unfortunately, they don't find Craitor's remains. And that's about as far as authorities can take things.

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Some evidence may still bear out that this theory is correct, but until that evidence surfaces, it's impossible to prove.

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When Stella Craitor loses her husband, Judge Joseph Craitor, on August 6th, 1930,

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she frantically calls his colleagues looking for him.

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But what she neglects to do raises some eyebrows.

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Stella Craitor doesn't officially report her husband missing to the police for four weeks.

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And you can maybe chalk that up to everyone hoping that he's just out having an affair.

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But four weeks is a pretty long time.

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And after she does finally file a report and police start investigating, she doesn't seem too keen in helping them.

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And this, combined with some other suspicious behavior, has many theorists wondering,

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what if Stella is involved in her husband's disappearance?

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This is basic police work 101. When someone goes missing, you look at the spouse.

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Stella is doing nothing to help avoid any kind of suspicion.

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The early part of the investigation, Stella remains up in Maine,

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but the DA vows to bring her down to testify in front of the grand jury.

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Mrs. Craitor refuses quite steadfastly to cooperate with the investigation at all.

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The DA sends her a list of questions instead.

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The way she answers the questions are vague, ambiguous, and maybe in some ways, a lie.

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For instance, she stated that she didn't know her husband was missing until August 25th.

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But there's evidence showing that, for weeks prior, that she was calling many people wanting to learn of his whereabouts.

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At first, Stella is not a suspect. They just think she might have more information.

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But after she lies to the DA, all bets are off. That puts her right in the investigators' crosshairs.

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Police already have one motive in mind, and that's Craitor's many affairs.

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Most people assume that Stella must have had some idea that Craitor wasn't faithful.

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But neighbors report a screaming match between the couple a few days before he disappears.

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Maybe there was finally some last straw that Stella couldn't handle.

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Suspicious, police continue to track Stella's whereabouts.

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Stella stays in Maine for months specifically to avoid having to testify in front of the grand jury.

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After hearing from nearly 100 witnesses, the grand jury releases a thousand-page report that essentially says they have no idea what happened.

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A week after the grand jury is dismissed, on January 18th, 1931, Stella finally returns to the city.

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And announces that she's made an incredible discovery.

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Stella states that she opened a drawer in her bedroom and found four Manila envelopes left for her by her husband.

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There's $6,690 in cash, there's Craitor's will leaving everything to Stella, and four life insurance policies.

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There's a handwritten list of people who owe Craitor money and how to collect that money.

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And one of the debts is $2.3 million.

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The envelopes also contain a supposed letter from Craitor to his wife.

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The handwriting is hasty, it's messy, you know, like he's moving quickly and he's under a lot of stress.

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He writes a few times that all of this is confidential and she's not to tell anyone about these envelopes.

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It's signed Love Joe.

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Then right below that is a little note.

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Now the words aren't completely clear, they either say, I'm very weary or I'm very sorry, but either way, it seems Craitor is saying goodbye and is apologizing for what he's about to do.

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This all paints a very convenient picture for Stella.

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It looks like Craitor is trying to take care of his wife before either disappearing or maybe committing suicide.

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Stella's discovery is met with skepticism.

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There had been at this point no fewer than four different searches of the apartment by police officers and no one had found any of these things.

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There's no way the police missed those envelopes, but Stella wants them to believe that they did.

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She makes excuses why the police may have missed it.

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She stated that the drawer was sticky or maybe the key was stuck in the lock.

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Meanwhile, a detective recites from memory all the contents that was in that dresser.

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He gets every single item right except for those envelopes.

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In 1931, police look into the phone records from Craitor's New York apartment and after his disappearance, there shouldn't be any.

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I mean, Stella's been up in Maine the whole time, right?

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Wrong.

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She made a one-day trip on August 25th.

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She didn't notify the police.

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Could this have been when she was planting special evidence?

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There are two very classic motives for murder.

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Love, money.

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And it seems that Stella had both going on for her at the same time.

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But if she killed her husband or more than likely had someone else do it for a share of the money, it seems that she got away with it.

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Police have a lot of suspicion, but their evidence is circumstantial. It's pretty tenuous.

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For years, Stella refuses to speak to reporters or detectives.

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She lays low until 1939 when she sues to have her husband declared legally dead in order to collect his life insurance.

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Stella hires a private investigator to prove that Craitor has been murdered.

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She tries to collect on a double indemnity policy that would be payable if he'd been murdered.

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She's half successful and half not.

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She is appointed, executor, he is declared dead.

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The double indemnity claim is denied.

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She settles with the insurance company and she gets about two thirds of the value of the policy.

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She also finally consents to an interview with the press.

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She makes it clear that she believes Craitor was murdered by Tamini Hall because of his involvement in the George Hewold Kickback Scheme.

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I mean, what'd you expect?

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A confession?

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In 1979, after nearly five decades of active pursuit, the NYPD finally closes the infamous Judge Craitor case.

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The case still warrants the occasional late night joke on television or a 60th or 70th anniversary retrospective in the papers.

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But largely, this most famous of missing persons cases falls out of the public eye.

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That is, until 2005, when it comes roaring back.

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In April 2005, a Queens New York woman named Barbara O'Brien discovers a letter among the possessions of her recently deceased grandmother.

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A letter which may close the case on a 75-year-old mystery.

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My grandmother unfortunately passed away and I was the executor of her will.

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And I went into her papers to get her will out and I came across a metal box and I opened the box.

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And that's when I found the letter in a sealed envelope and in the front of the envelope it said, in reference to Judge Craitor's disappearance.

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In the letter, she said that her husband, which was my grandfather Robert Goode, told her about the missing judge.

380
00:36:52,000 --> 00:36:57,000
According to the letter, Judge Craitor was murdered by a police officer.

381
00:36:57,000 --> 00:37:03,000
Robert had a lot of connections. He knew cops, he knew crooks, a lot of them hung out in his backyard and went drinking with him.

382
00:37:03,000 --> 00:37:08,000
He was neighbors with the Burns brothers. These guys all have kind of a little relationship.

383
00:37:08,000 --> 00:37:15,000
Growing up, I do remember the Burns living behind us. Frank was a taxi cab driver and his brother Charles Burns, who was police officer.

384
00:37:15,000 --> 00:37:22,000
And they used to come over a lot. One night, Frank comes over, he tells my grandfather what happened on August 6, 1930.

385
00:37:22,000 --> 00:37:28,000
He told my grandfather that he picks up the judge at the steakhouse and he drives him to Coney Island when we met up with his brother.

386
00:37:28,000 --> 00:37:35,000
The judge gets out of the car and they wound up killing him and burying him underneath the Bordelot pylons at West State Street.

387
00:37:35,000 --> 00:37:41,000
I mean, wow, right? It's been a lifetime of no answers in this case.

388
00:37:41,000 --> 00:37:46,000
And now, here's a direct confession to Craitor's murder. It even mentions the location of a body.

389
00:37:47,000 --> 00:37:56,000
Unfortunately, when the letter is revealed to detectives in 2005, the potential burial sits directly under the New York Aquarium.

390
00:37:56,000 --> 00:38:01,000
Apparently, when they build the aquarium in 1956, there are reports of some bodies being found during construction.

391
00:38:01,000 --> 00:38:10,000
It is New York, after all. But those bodies are reburied in unmarked graves. And we don't know where they are. Could Craitor be one of them?

392
00:38:10,000 --> 00:38:18,000
If we can't find the body, let's try to corroborate the story. Do the Burns Brothers really exist and are they connected to Craitor?

393
00:38:18,000 --> 00:38:27,000
It turns out that Charles Burns is a real New York City cop. And on August 6, 1930, he is assigned to the Coney Island precinct.

394
00:38:27,000 --> 00:38:32,000
There's also records of a 32-year-old Frank Burns who drives a cab at that time.

395
00:38:32,000 --> 00:38:37,000
At least the characters check out. But why would these two guys want to kill Craitor?

396
00:38:37,000 --> 00:38:41,000
Barbara O'Brien believes she knows the answer.

397
00:38:41,000 --> 00:38:51,000
I think that it was mob-related and went all the way back to Legs Diamond because she had mentioned in her letter, Legs Diamond put the hit out on Judge Craitor.

398
00:38:51,000 --> 00:38:58,000
She believes that Legs Diamond tried to bribe Craitor to have a case tossed, but Diamond was unsuccessful.

399
00:38:58,000 --> 00:39:06,000
After that, Legs knows that if Craitor lives, he may be sent to prison. So he hires Charles Burns to take care of Craitor.

400
00:39:06,000 --> 00:39:13,000
There's a lot of speculation that Charles Burns was on the mob's payroll. In addition to this case, he's conspicuously on the scene of another mob hit.

401
00:39:13,000 --> 00:39:22,000
On November 12, 1941, a mafia hitman turned informant named Abe Relis is under police protection at the Half Moon Hotel in Coney Island.

402
00:39:22,000 --> 00:39:26,000
That day, he's supposed to testify at a high-profile trial against the mob.

403
00:39:26,000 --> 00:39:34,000
He does not testify because even though he was in police protective custody, he flies out of a window and dies.

404
00:39:34,000 --> 00:39:41,000
According to reports that came out in 2005, one of Relis's police bodyguards is Charles Burns.

405
00:39:41,000 --> 00:39:51,000
Charles Burns was actually the one guarding his room the night that he supposedly jumped to his death, where other theories think that he was pushed to his death.

406
00:39:51,000 --> 00:39:58,000
Back then, there was a lot of corruption. Whether it was with the police, with the mob, there was just a lot of corruption going on back then.

407
00:39:58,000 --> 00:40:07,000
This might also explain the kind of lackluster investigation into Craitor's disappearance overall, because the police may have known that their own men were involved.

408
00:40:07,000 --> 00:40:15,000
There was a ton of collusion between cops and the mob in New York in 1930, so it's not outside the realm of possibility.

409
00:40:15,000 --> 00:40:23,000
One thing that one needs to remember in this entire investigation is that the police are more part of the problem than they are part of the solution.

410
00:40:23,000 --> 00:40:31,000
So taking the police investigation as having been conducted in good faith, I think misreads the historical record.

411
00:40:31,000 --> 00:40:36,000
Everyone thinks they have a theory on what happened. Everybody thinks they have the real story.

412
00:40:36,000 --> 00:40:43,000
With her grandmother's letter serving as new evidence, Barbara hopes to finally resolve the Craitor case.

413
00:40:43,000 --> 00:40:49,000
I'm hoping that they reopen this case. My grandmother passed away and she left that envelope.

414
00:40:49,000 --> 00:40:55,000
Of course, that was her way of telling me she wanted something done with it. She didn't want to take it to her grave with her.

415
00:40:55,000 --> 00:40:59,000
So I would just like to try and follow through with it, and that's what I've been doing.

416
00:40:59,000 --> 00:41:04,000
I'm hoping to continue doing it until at least we have a little bit more answers.

417
00:41:06,000 --> 00:41:11,000
Barbara O'Brien plans to keep digging into Judge Joseph Craitor's disappearance.

418
00:41:11,000 --> 00:41:17,000
But without a body or any other physical evidence of a crime, the case remains unsolved.

419
00:41:17,000 --> 00:41:23,000
I'm Lawrence Fishburne. Thank you for watching History's Greatest Mysteries.