Vanishing point : the disappearance of Judge Crater, and the New York he left behind / Richard J. Tofel.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Tofel, Richard J., 1957-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Crater, Joseph Force, 1889-.

Crater, Joseph Force.

Judges--New York (State)--New York--Biography.

Judges.

Missing persons--New York (State)--New York--Case studies.

Missing persons.

New York (N.Y.)--Politics and government--1898-1951.

New York (N.Y.).

National Book Committee.

Politics and government.

New York (State)--New York.

Genre:

Case studies.

Biographies.

Physical Description:

216 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Chicago : Ivan R. Dee, 2004.

Summary:

Among the most confounding missing persons cases of the twentieth century was the sudden disappearance in New York City in 1930 of Judge Joseph Crater. It has never been resolved.

A justice of New York's State Supreme Court, Crater vanished amid political scandal. Within days, questions arose about the judge's finances and his liaisons with numerous women. As his wife secluded herself in Maine, the search for Crater absorbed the attention of New Yorkers in a way nearly impossible to comprehend today. The New York City Police Department spent nearly fifty years, off and on, trying to find Crater before it gave up. The public frenzy about what happened to the judge provided impetus for scrutiny of New York's Tammany Hall political machine -- and ultimately for the vanishing of Tammany as well. Richard Tofel's scrupulous research does not offer a definitive solution to the Crater mystery, but Mr. Tofel builds an intriguing argument while his engaging narrative recreates a New York at the end of the Jazz Age, particularly its hurly-burly politics. Vanishing Point is the first careful examination of the Crater phenomenon and includes a formidable cast of characters. Here is one of the most engrossing mystery stories in the annals of urban America.

Contents:

1. The World He Left Behind 15

2. The World of Tammany Hall 33

3. The La Guardia Phenomenon 62

4. Franklin Roosevelt Names a Judge 77

5. Crater at the Vanishing Point 93

6. Never to Be Seen Again 125

7. Tammany at the Vanishing Point 157.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 193-210) and index.

ISBN:

1566636051

OCLC:

55625432