All language subtitles for Historys.Greatest.Mysteries.S04E07.The.Missingest.Man.in.America.1080p.HULU.WEB-DL.AAC2.0.H264-WhiteHat_track3_[eng].1

[dramatic music]

Tonight, a missing person's case

that nearly derailed
a presidential campaign.

Imagine the repercussions.

It might bring down
the Democrats

and FDR with them.

It dominates
mainstream media

for over five decades.

The keys to the lab are pulling

a Judge Crater on us.

Probably the equivalent
of a Jimmy Hoffa

or even Amelia Earhart.

Now we examine
the top theories

behind the so-called

Missingest Man in America.

Crater knows
where all the bodies are buried,

and sometimes
you just know too much.

He's never tried
to shake down a heartless thug

like Legs Diamond.
He's in over his head.

And Tammany Hall bigwigs
silence him

so he cannot testify.

Will a deathbed confession

finally solve the mystery?

When I opened the box,
it was in a sealed envelope,

it said "In Reference to
Judge Crater's disappearance."

What really happened
to New York City's notorious

Judge Joseph Crater?

[theme music]

At 9:15 p.m.,

41-year-old
State Supreme Court Justice

Joseph Force Crater

steps out of a chophouse
on West 45th Street.

He's been dining
with a couple of friends

and says that he's running late
to a Broadway show.

So, he leaves the restaurant,

hops into a cab, heads west.

From that moment,
he's never seen

or heard from again.

Now, people go missing
all the time,

but when it's Judge Crater,

it's a big deal.

Because, at this point,
Joe Crater has just hit

the political primetime,
as it were.

He's a big up-and-comer
who was recently

appointed to the New York
State Supreme Court

by then-Governor
of New York State,

Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

That appointment is
only for the rest

of a vacated term,
and by the time

of his disappearance,
Crater is actually

gearing up
for an election of his own.

If he wins re-election
in November,

the sky's the limit.

It's an election
that's crucial for Judge Crater

and for FDR.

And this is great,
because the opportunity

to ride the coattails of FDR

meant that you would have
unlimited potential.

A lot of people believe that,
once FDR is president,

Crater will be a nominee

to the United States
Supreme Court.

And he's kind of
a man-about-town in New York.

He knows all the cops,
he knows all the politicians.

He knows the Broadway producers,
the dancers.

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.

The disappearance
of Crater is huge.

It's probably the equivalent
of a Jimmy Hoffa

or even Amelia Earhart.

Now, Crater's wife Stella is
going through his rolodex

and calling up
every political bigwig

that she can get her hands on

to find out if any of them know

what happened to him.
It's even possible

that FDR might've
gotten a call.

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

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.

He's nicknamed
"Good Time Joe."

He's gone off on benders
and disappeared for a while

in the past, where they've had
to cover for him before.

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

so one of the first things
that people think...

seems to be
the most obvious one.

Maybe...

he just took off
with one of his mistresses.

[soft music]

Leading up
to the disappearance,

on August 2nd,

Crater and his wife Stella

go to their vacation home
in Maine

to stay there till the 25th

until court comes back
in session.

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.

Now, she assumes
it's just some business

or a legal issue,
but he promises

to be back by her birthday
on August 9th.

Stella's birthday comes
and goes on the 9th,

and Crater is 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.

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.

They're gonna cover up
for their friend.

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

I'm sure he's fine,
he's probably just super-busy

with work
or some other commitments.

They honestly don't
really know where he is,

but they're just assuming
that he's off

with one of his girlfriends,
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.

The upcoming election

is also a factor.

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.

Crater's a key part
of the ticket

that the Democrats hope
will get FDR re-elected

as governor, as long
as there are no scandals.

And it's apparent
if he wins there,

he will be a shoo-in
for the nomination

for the presidency
of the United States.

In 1932, any Democrat's going
to beat Herbert Hoover.

But this Crater business could
sink the whole thing.

So, better to keep it quiet.

They hope Joe will
turn up soon enough.

But Stella's not convinced

and starts investigating
on her own.

Mrs. Crater sends
her chauffeur,

Fred Kahler,
back to New York

to look for the judge.

What he finds is
unopened mail,

and he can't get
into the apartment.

Furthermore, he tries
to talk to a bunch

of Crater's colleagues,
but they discourage him

from looking too hard,

and this information
drives Stella crazy.

Why does no one want to find
where her husband is?

What is going on?

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.

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,
so if he didn't show up

on August the 25th,
there's got to be

a very good reason.

So 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.
So they quietly

start interviewing witnesses.

The police speak
to William Klein,

who dined with Crater
the night he went missing.

William Klein is an attorney

for the Shubert family,

the most powerful
theater empire

in the entire country
at the time,

and Klein connects
important people, like Crater,

to Shubert's slate
of showgirls

in exchange
for professional favors.

They actually ask Klein
if he thinks that

Crater may have disappeared with
one of his girlfriends.

And Klein says,
"Actually, yeah."

According to Klein,
Crater is taken

with one dancer in particular...

He'd been out with Elaine
as many times as he could

in those few weeks
before his disappearance.

She's described
as an attractive blonde

with a Southern accent,
and he bought her

lots of gifts and jewelry.

William Klein has watched
Joe Crater go out

with several showgirls,
but Elaine is

clearly special to him.

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.

Detectives try
to track down Elaine Dawn.

But when they arrive
at her apartment,

she's nowhere to be found.

So, now Crater's gone,
and his main squeeze is gone.

Something is really wrong here.

In the meantime,
the Crater family hires

a private investigator,
and he speaks

to Crater's assistant,
Joseph Mara.

Mara was at work with Crater
the day before he disappeared.

And Mara stated that it was
a very strange and unusual day.

Crater is in his chamber
all morning,

rifling through files,
putting documents in boxes,

and even destroying
some documents.

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.

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.

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.

Within a few days,
an anonymous source leaks

Crater's story to the press,

and the philandering
judge becomes

front page news nationwide.

You know how
a scandalous story,

like the O.J. Simpson trial
or Jeffrey Epstein

gets so big
that it touches

almost every aspect
of pop culture?

This is the same thing
that happens with Judge Crater.

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."

- Oh, hi, Mel.
- Sally.

Well, Judge Crater returns.

[audience laughter]

The phrase "pulling a Crater"
became synonymous

with anyone who runs off
and disappears.

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.

Imagine the repercussions

if this thing
scandalizes FDR.

So it's up to the police

to kind of quell
this media firestorm.

On September 4th,

Police Commissioner
Edward Mulrooney

holds a press conference.

Commissioner Mulrooney
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?

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.

There's nothing to be
terribly seriously investigated.

Everyone can move along.
Nothing to see here.

But before long,
Mulrooney's theory falls apart.

It turns out
Judge Crater doesn't run off

with Elaine Dawn at all,
she's actually found

at a local hospital.
She has an illness

described as
rheumatism brought on

by an acute case
of gonorrhea.

Now, she does confirm
that she and Crater

had seen each other,

but she insists
that it was only casual.

The last time she had seen him
was on August 4th,

two days before
his disappearance,

at a place called Club Abbey.

So, now investigators are
almost back at square one

in their hunt to determine
where Judge Crater is

and who he might've
run off with,

but I say "almost" because

they're not quite done
with Elaine Dawn just yet.

In August, 1930,

famed politician Joseph Crater

enters a New York City taxi cab

and vanishes into thin air.

Police initially suspect
he's run away

with his new mistress,

Broadway dancer Elaine Dawn.

"Good Time Joe" has run off
with women before,

but that's
not the case this time.

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.

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.
They're passed around

among the city's political
and business elite.

Apart from Judge Crater,
Elaine Dawn has

what she describes
as a boyfriend--

some would say pimp.

While Elaine's in the hospital,

this guy's threatening
producers of the show,

claiming lack of income
while she's sick.

The police entertain the idea

that he and Elaine

are extortionists.

Detectives dig deeper
into Elaine and her boyfriend.

They ask around
to the nightclubs they frequent.

They ask around
to the Broadway circle

that Elaine is a part of.

And everybody says
that Elaine and her boyfriend

are completely harmless.

She may have dated Crater
a few times,

but it's highly unlikely
that she's involved

in any sort
of rackets or schemes.

But the work by police
isn't entirely wasted.

While they're digging around
in these nightclubs,

they actually hear about
another person of interest.

The barflies tell police
that there's another dancer

in Crater's life.
And around that same time,

they receive
an anonymous letter

directing them
to the home of June Brice.

The letter states that Brice is

an intimate friend
of Judge Crater's.

She may also have been
one of the last people

to see him alive.

Several folks claim
that June has plans with Crater

after his dinner
at the chophouse.

According to them,
despite making up a story

about heading
to a Broadway show,

Crater is actually heading
to June's midtown apartment

the night he disappears.

Based on information
from Crater's assistant,

detectives think this visit may
be more than personal.

Remember, Joseph Mara says
that Crater was cashing checks

that's equivalent
to about $90,000

on the day
of his disappearance.

Mara also tells detectives that,

when he and Crater
finish packing up the boxes,

he has Mara take the boxes
down to a taxi,

while Crater is waiting
at the top of a stairwell,

hiding behind some columns.
When Mara signals

that the taxi is ready,
Crater runs down the stairs,

glances around fearfully to see
if anybody is watching him,

and then immediately jumps
into the cab.

Crater is known
as kind of a happy guy.

He's charming,
he's witty, he's upbeat.

But on this day,
he's very sullen,

he's very quiet,
he's very pensive.

This is not really
the behavior of a man

who's ready to escape
into his dream life.

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?

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.

Police suspect that
June Brice may be involved

in an extortion plot
against Judge Crater.

But they're unable
to locate her.

Brice 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.

The roommate says that
June's been carrying

a dreadful secret
about Crater, and her life's

actually been
threatened over it.

According to the roommate,
like many of these

showgirls, Brice has
a boyfriend who is

kind of a scary guy,

and he also visits
the apartment

the night that
Crater is there.

She states that June's boyfriend
threatened Crater

with exposure
of their relationship

unless he paid them $5,000.

On August 6th,
Crater arrived with the money,

but the boyfriend ups it
to $50,000.

Crater balks;
and the boyfriend

works him over,
before ultimately killing him.

Now here's the thing,
the roommate didn't

actually see this happen.

She heard some of it
before leaving

the apartment that night
and was later told by June

the rest of the story.
So, it's hearsay for now.

Brice's mother also provides
some secondhand details.

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.

June also told her mother
that a man she was,

quote, "supposed to marry"

was killed
in an accident.

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

Thanks to this fresh evidence,

June Brice is called by
the Manhattan District Attorney

to testify
at a grand jury hearing

in late 1930.

From the fall of 1930,
the D.A. keeps

an open grand jury
on the Crater disappearance.

Any and all witnesses are
subpoenaed to testify

as they attempt to build a case
for what happened.

Various people
associated with Crater

have already appeared,
but at the time

authorities still have
no idea what happened.

So June Brice is
their first chance

to potentially crack the case.

They feel strongly about
this robbery-homicide angle

and are eager to prove it.

But... June's gone.

She has fled her apartment
with an unknown man.

June bounces from hotel
to hotel for weeks,

constantly changing her name.

By the end of September,
she's admitted

to a neurological hospital
with a nervous breakdown.

But to be clear,
nobody knows this at the time.

So, to the authorities,
she's just missing.

It takes the Crater family's
private investigator

several years to finally
find her in the mental hospital.

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

The P.I. states
that she's barely coherent

and really can't
provide any details.

When asked about Crater,
she responds,

"We must not remember
the things that make us mad."

The problem is
that June herself lacks

the mental capacity to verify
any of this information

or fill in the blanks.
Investigators have hearsay,

they have speculation,
but that's it.

Based on her mental illness,

police decline to investigate
June Brice any further.

June Brice's testimony
probably never

would have held up in court.

But the extortion theory is

the one that seems to be
the most accepted today.

It certainly fits
with his demeanor

and his actions on August 6th.

He knows he's in trouble,
he's preparing for it,

but he's unable to escape it.

The problem with this theory is
that the famous Judge Crater

has a ton of people
in his orbit.

If he's gonna get killed,
is it really gonna be

the June Brice or Elaine Dawn
types that mastermind it?

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.

And one already has.

In early 1930,
Judge Joseph Crater is

well-respected nationwide
as a New Deal progressive

with strong ties
to Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

But after his disappearance
on August 6th,

a seedy dark side
of his life is revealed.

Crater cheats on his wife
with multiple showgirls,

and he has an active social life

in New York's
speakeasy nightclubs.

Keep in mind, this is during
the height of Prohibition.

But the city's elite
have no problem

finding alcohol to imbibe

in many of the city's
illegal bars.

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

Club Abbey is
a Jazz Age burlesque club

that's new
on the New York scene.

Abbey features
a drag-queen emcee

named Jean Malin,
comedians like Jimmy Durante,

and in between,
there's plenty of dancing

by Broadway showgirls.

It's a brand-new place
on 54th Street,

and it's where
everybody wants to be.

Club Abbey gets its alcohol
from one of New York's

most notorious
Prohibition-era gangsters,

Jack "Legs" Diamond.

Legs Diamond starts
his life as a gangster

when he becomes a bodyguard
for Arnold Rothstein.

Now in case you don't know,
Rothstein is most famous

for fixing
the 1919 World Series.

And when he is killed in 1928,
Legs Diamond takes over

most of his bootlegging
operations in Manhattan.

His nickname "Legs" has
two meanings.

One is that he's a good dancer.

It's also a play on words

on the amount of times
he's been able to outrun

the police or his enemies.

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.

Legs operates
out of a few speakeasies,

but by the summer of 1930,

he's spending almost
every night at Club Abbey.

And he's running a pretty nasty
scheme on the side there.

A scheme that may have ensnared

Judge Crater
and gotten him killed.

At Club Abbey,
Legs Diamond has

a cohort named Vivian Gordon.

And she used to be a showgirl,

and now she's turned
into a professional prostitute.

Vivian Gordon is a swindler,

who gets even more aggressive
after two years in prison.

She's known to be
hellbent on revenge

against cops and judges,
the men who she feels

took everything from her.

And at Club Abbey,
with the help of Legs Diamond,

she can get that revenge.

Vivian and Legs set up
a routine where she meets

clients at the Abbey
and then brings them back

to her house,
where Legs is waiting.

Together, they shake
their victims down for

everything they can get.
They run this scheme

all the time,
and Judge Joe Crater

is right
in their wheelhouse.

Crater's fellow
Supreme Court Justice,

Louis Valente,
looks further into this.

Judge Valente hires
investigators

to track Crater's movements
on August the 6th.

His investigators find
evidence that

Crater was
at Club Abbey that night.

Valente believes that
this is critical evidence,

and he takes it to the press
to run with it.

According to this theory,
Judge Crater

first meets Vivian Gordon
at the Abbey

on the night of August 4th.

They head back to her place
for a night of pleasure,

and afterwards,
Legs Diamond shows up

to squeeze Crater
for some extra cash.

But it's not just cash
that he's after.

Crater's famous,
and everybody knows

who he is,
including Legs Diamond.

There's a case coming up
on the docket

that Legs needs
to have dismissed

in order to protect
his business interests.

So he threatens Crater's career

if he doesn't cooperate.

Crater promises
to look into the case.

So the next day,
on August 5th,

Crater has lunch
with another judge

from the Supreme Court.

He's trying to feel out the odds

of getting rid of the case
without attracting attention,

but the odds are not good.

Crater realizes
that he can't deliver

what Diamond is asking for.

Now he has to figure out
how he's gonna break the news

to him, and it's not
a very easy task.

At this point,
Legs Diamond has killed

at least two people
that we know of.

According to Crater's assistant,

the judge collected
more than money on August 6th.

He also took several case files
home from his office.

These files may pertain
to Diamond's case.

And he knows he can't
get the case tossed

because of
all the poking around

being done
by investigators.

So, he brings
these papers home

as a sort of
insurance policy.

He knows he might need it.

That night,
Crater returns to Club Abbey,

and he tells
Legs and Vivian that

there's no way he can get
this case dismissed.

There's just too much
of a spotlight on it.

But as a consolation prize,

here's $5,000
to smooth things over.

Legs won't take no
for an answer, okay?

He demands Crater
to try again,

but Crater himself is
a bigshot with a big ego,

and he fights back.

Crater tells Diamond
he has all these files

that ties Diamond
to criminal behavior.

He has these documents
at a secure location,

and if he doesn't
take this payoff,

he's going to make
these documents public.

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.

He's never tried
to shake down

a heartless thug
like Legs Diamond.

He's in over his head.

The New York press runs
with this theory,

suggesting that both Legs
and Vivian murder the judge

and make sure that
the body is never found.

Despite the tabloids'
enthusiasm, it's a good story,

but there's not
a lot of proof to it.

That is,
until February of 1931,

when Vivian Gordon is
found dead

in a Bronx park.

Vivian's murdered the day
after she offers to testify

against the corrupt officials
that have ruined her life.

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.

Her murder is the biggest story
since Crater disappeared.

Governor Roosevelt requests
the records himself

and demands a thorough
police investigation.

When police search
Gordon's apartment,

they find a treasure trove
of diaries and documents

connecting her to the city's
most powerful figures.

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.

The diaries don't say
anything about his death,

but the press doesn't care.

The press is
eager to make connections

between the two most famous
news stories of the time.

When Crater's name is found
in Vivian's diary,

the press explodes
with all kinds of speculation.

The press also loves
a good mafia story.

I mean, who doesn't, right?
And there are so many legends

surrounding Legs Diamond,

it's very hard
to tell fact from fiction.

But it turns out,
there was no evidence

that he is involved
in any cases

to be heard
by the Supreme Court.

In fact, when he disappears,

Crater only has
one trivial case

pending on his docket.

Crater's name is
in Vivian's diary.

She may very well have
blackmailed him.

She was extorting
a lot of people.

But just because
she's extorting somebody

doesn't mean
she murdered them.

When Judge Joseph Crater
disappears in August, 1930,

New York Governor
Franklin Delano Roosevelt is

in the thick of campaigning
for re-election.

As November approaches,
a rival politician

makes a shocking accusation.

If true, it sheds
a whole new light

on what happened
to the missing judge.

During Judge Crater's time
in New York politics,

the Democrats work closely
with an organization

that's known as Tammany Hall.

Tammany Hall dominates
both New York City

and state politics
for more than a century.

Its name becomes synonymous
with corruption

under infamous leaders
like Boss Tweed.

They do plenty of good things
for the people of New York,

but, ultimately, they are
a corrupt organization.

But if you're a Democrat,
working with Tammany

is how you win elections.

By the late 1920s,
Tammany has woven its way

into every level
of New York politics.

And in 1929,
Judge Crater becomes president

of a key Tammany branch,
the Cuyuga Club.

A lot of New York voters are
tired of the blatant corruption,

so the 1930 elections are
a pivotal point.

For once, the Republicans have
a good shot of winning

a number of top seats
from the Democrats,

especially
the one for governor.

FDR's main rival is

Republican prosecutor
Charles Tuttle.

Tuttle is on a crusade
to expose judicial corruption.

Prior to Crater's disappearance,

his whole office of attorneys

and investigators are
looking into evidence

of judicial corruption
rumored to be running rampant

among Tammany Hall's
main players.

And if Tuttle can make the case,

it might bring down
the Democrats

and FDR with them.

Judge Crater is
potentially a key witness.

When Tuttle looks
into the Cayuga Club,

he learns something interesting.

Tuttle finds evidence that

the Cayuga Club is actually

selling government jobs.

If you're connected
to Tammany Hall,

they can help you
get appointed

or elected
to a political position.

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

Tuttle has proof
of one of these payments:

a $10,000 bribe that was paid

to Tammany Hall boss
Martin Healy

by attorney George Ewald

for his position
as a city magistrate.

Tuttle's evidence certainly
implicates Judge Crater, too.

As President
of the Cayuga Club,

Crater has to be aware
of what's going on.

I mean, he even serves as

master of ceremonies
at George Ewald's

celebration dinner
when he becomes magistrate.

The corruption might
go even further.

There is also
circumstantial evidence

that Judge Crater may have
purchased his own position.

When Crater is appointed
to the New York Supreme Court,

it is one of the highest-paid
positions in the state.

He is paid
a salary of $22,000.

It's the same as the governor's
and a lot less work.

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.

Tuttle wants to know
how he got this job.

One month after his appointment,

in May of 1930,

Crater withdraws $22,000

from various bank accounts.

Which is exactly
one year's salary.

Tuttle has no direct proof

that this money went
to pay Tammany Hall,

but while he's out
publicly campaigning

against the Democrats,

he strongly suggests
that it did.

And this scandal could have
even gotten Judge Crater killed.

Tuttle's belief is
that Crater is at the heart

of the Tammany Hall
kickback scheme.

And when Tuttle's investigation
closes in on Crater,

and they're going
to call Crater as a witness,

Tammany Hall bigwigs

silence him
so he cannot testify.

How high does this go?

Is FDR aware?
Is FDR involved?

Obviously, this could go
very bad for the Democrats

if some massive

"Trial of the Century"
is opened.

Although Crater's disappearance

is a thorny issue
for Tammany Hall,

it's far better
that he goes this way

than testifies against them.

Tuttle can't prove
this theory.

But Crater's own wife offers
some support.

There's a big mystery about
who calls Crater on August 3rd,

which causes him to travel
back to New York City.

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

But, in 1937,
Stella tells a magazine

his purpose of the visit was
to advise Tammany boss

Martin Healy
about the Tuttle investigation.

Stella is sure
that the Tammany case is

behind her husband's
disappearance.

She's not the only one.

In 1954, an acquaintance
of Crater's,

Henry Krauss,
makes an extraordinary claim.

Krauss calls
an old detective friend of his

and says that he has
something he wants

to get off his chest
before he dies.

He thinks he knows
what happened to Judge Crater.

Back in the '30s,
Krauss has a vacation home,

which he frequently let
Crater use for parties.

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

Krauss claimed that,
in early 1930,

the two men buried
$90,000 in the backyard.

But in mid-August,
after Crater's disappearance,

Krauss visits
his vacation home

to find the place
in shambles.

There are broken glasses
strewn about,

there are
liquor bottles everywhere,

and when he walks into
the kitchen, he says, quote,

"There's nothing there
but blood."

And the box in the backyard has
been dug up and taken.

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

Healy warns him that there
might be some trouble coming.

He tells Krauss that he needs
to deny knowing Crater,

and that he should deny that
they were ever at his house.

Krauss goes along
with his demands.

And when the detective starts
peppering him with questions,

Krauss just keeps repeating
that Crater is dead

and he thinks that
he is buried at the house.

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

Their investigation showed
that Crater had written

at least two checks to Krauss.

And Krauss did indeed have
a Westchester home.

Krauss's 1954 revelations

revive public interest
in the case.

Life Magazine funds
an excavation

of the home's backyard.

Unfortunately, they don't
find Crater's remains.

And that's about as far as
the authorities can take things.

Some evidence may
still bear out

that this theory is correct,

but until
that evidence surfaces,

it's impossible to prove.

When Stella Crater loses
her husband Judge Joseph Crater,

on August 6th, 1930,

she frantically calls
his colleagues looking for him.

But what she neglects to do

raises some eyebrows.

Stella Crater doesn't
officially report

her husband missing
to the police

for four weeks.

And you could
maybe chalk that up

to everyone hoping that

he's just out having an affair.

But four weeks is
a pretty long time.

And after she does
finally file the report

and police start investigating,

she doesn't seem
too keen in helping them.

And this, combined with
some other suspicious behavior,

has many theorists wondering,

what if Stella is involved

in her husband's disappearance?

This is basic police work 101.

When someone goes missing,
you look at the spouse.

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

For the early part
of the investigation,

Stella remains up in Maine.

But the D.A. vows
to bring her down to testify

in front of the grand jury.

Mrs. Crater refuses,

quite steadfastly, to cooperate

with the investigation at all.

The D.A. sends her
a list of questions instead.

The way she answers
the questions are vague,

ambiguous,
and maybe in some ways a lie.

For instance, she stated
that she didn't know her husband

was missing
until August 25th.

But there's evidence
showing that,

for weeks prior,
that she was calling

many people, wanting to learn
of his whereabouts.

At first,
Stella's not a suspect.

They just think she might
have more information.

But after she lies to the D.A.,
all bets are off.

That puts her right in
the investigators' crosshairs.

Police already have
one motive in mind,

and that's Crater's
many affairs.

Most people assume
that Stella must have

had some idea
that Crater wasn't faithful.

But neighbors report
a screaming match

between the couple a few days
before he disappears.

Maybe there was
finally some last straw

that Stella couldn't handle.

Suspicious, police continue

to track
Stella's whereabouts.

Stella stays in Maine
for months,

specifically to avoid
having to testify

in front of the grand jury.
After hearing

from nearly
a hundred witnesses,

the grand jury releases
a 1,000-page report

that essentially says
they have no idea what happened.

A week after
the grand jury is dismissed,

on January 18th, 1931,

Stella finally returns
to the city

and announces that she's made

an incredible discovery.

Stella states
that she opened a drawer

in her bedroom and found
four manila envelopes

left for her
by her husband.

There's $6,690 in cash.

There's Crater's will,
leaving everything to Stella,

and four life
insurance policies.

There's a handwritten list
of people who owe Crater money

and how to collect that money.

And one of the debts is

$2.3 million.

The envelopes also contain

a supposed letter
from Crater to his wife.

The handwriting is hasty,
it's messy, you know?

Like he's moving quickly
and he's under a lot of stress.

He writes a few times that
all of this is confidential,

and she's not to tell anyone
about these envelopes.

It's signed, "Love, Joe."

Then, right below that,
is a little note.

Now, the words aren't
completely clear,

they either say "am very weary"
or "am very sorry."

But either way,

it seems Crater is
saying goodbye

and is apologizing
for what he's about to do.

This all paints a very
convenient picture for Stella.

It looks like Crater is trying
to take care of his wife,

before either disappearing
or maybe committing suicide.

Stella's discovery is met
with skepticism.

There have 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.

There's no way the police
missed those envelopes.

But Stella wants them
to believe that they did.

She makes excuses why
the police may have missed it.

She stated that
the drawer was sticky,

or maybe the key was
stuck in the lock.

Meanwhile, a detective recites
from memory all the contents

that was in that dresser.

He gets every single item right,

except for those envelopes.

In 1931, police look
into the phone records

from Crater's
New York apartment.

And after his disappearance,
there shouldn't be any.

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

Wrong.
She made a one-day trip

on August 25th--
she didn't notify the police.

Could this have been
when she was

planting special evidence?

There are two very classic
motives for murder:

love... money.

And it seems
that Stella had both

going on for her
at the same time.

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.

Police have a lot of suspicion,
but their evidence

is circumstantial.
It's pretty tenuous.

For years,
Stella refuses to speak

to reporters or detectives.

She lays low until 1939,

when she sues
to have her husband

declared legally dead,

in order to collect
his life insurance.

Stella hires
a private investigator

to prove that Crater has
been murdered.

She tries to collect
on a double indemnity policy

that would be payable
if he'd been murdered.

She's half successful
and half not.

She is appointed executor,

he is declared dead...

the double indemnity claim
is denied.

She settles with the insurance
company, and she gets

about two-thirds
of the value of the policy.

She also finally consents
to an interview with the press.

She makes it clear
that she believes

Crater was murdered
by Tammany Hall

because of his involvement

in the George Ewald
kickback scheme.

I mean, what did you expect...
a confession?

In 1979,

after nearly five decades
of active pursuit,

the NYPD finally closes

the infamous
Judge Crater case.

The case still warrants
the occasional

late-night joke on television

or a 60th
or 70th anniversary

retrospective in the papers.

But largely, this most famous

of missing persons cases
falls out of the public eye.

That is, until 2005...

when it comes roaring back.

In April, 2005,

a Queens, New York woman

named Barbara O'Brien
discovers a letter

among the possessions of her
recently deceased grandmother.

a letter which may
close the case

on a 75-year-old mystery.

My grandmother unfortunately
passed away,

and I was the executor
of her will.

And I went into her papers
to get her will out,

and I came across a metal box.

And I opened the box,
and that's when I found

a letter in a sealed envelope,

And on the front
of the envelope, it said,

"In reference of
Judge Crater's disappearance."

In the letter,
she said that her husband,

which was my grandfather,
Robert Good,

told her about
the missing judge.

According to the letter,
Judge Crater was

murdered by a police officer.

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.
He was neighbors

with the Burns Brothers.
These guys all have

kind of a little relationship.

Growing up, I do remember
the Burns living behind us.

Frank was a taxicab driver,

and his brother Charles Burns
was a police officer.

And they used
to come over a lot.

One night, Frank comes over,
he tells my grandfather

what happened
on August 6th, 1930.

He told my grandfather
that he picks up

the judge at the steakhouse,
and he drives him

to Coney Island,
when he met up with his brother.

The judge gets out of the car,

and they wound up killing him
and burying him

underneath the boardwalk pilings
at West 8th Street.

I mean, wow.

Right? It's been a lifetime

of no answers in this case.

And now, here's
a direct confession

to Crater's murder--
it even mentions

the location of a body.

Unfortunately,
when the letter is

revealed to detectives in 2005,

the potential burial sits

directly under
the New York Aquarium.

Apparently, when they build
the aquarium in 1956,

there are reports
of some bodies being found

during construction.
It is New York after all.

But those bodies are
reburied in unmarked graves,

and we don't know
where they are.

Could Crater be one of them?

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 Crater?

It turns out that Charles Burns
is a real New York City cop,

and on August 6th of 1930,

he is assigned
to the Coney Island precinct.

There is also a record
of a 32-year-old Frank Burns

who drives a cab
at that time.

At least the characters
check out.

But why would these two guys
want to kill Crater?

Barbara O'Brien believes
she knows the answer.

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 Crater.

She believes that Legs Diamond
tried to bribe Crater

to have a case tossed,
but Diamond was unsuccessful.

After that, Legs knows that,
if Crater lives,

he may be sent to prison,

so he hires Charles Burns
to take care of Crater.

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.

On November 12, 1941,

a mafia hitman
turned-informant

named Abe Reles is
under police protection

at the Half Moon Hotel
in Coney Island.

That day,
he's supposed to testify

at a high-profile trial
against the mob.

He does not testify because,

even though he was
in police protective custody,

he flies
out of a window and dies.

According to reports
that come out in 2005,

one of Reles's
police bodyguards

is Charles Burns.

Charles Burns was
actually the one

guarding his room
the night that

he supposedly jumped
to his death.

Well, other theories think
that he was pushed to his death.

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.

This might also explain the...

kind of lackluster
investigation

into Crater's
disappearance overall,

because the police
may have known

that their own men
were involved.

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.

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.

So, taking
the police investigation

as having been conducted
in good faith,

I think, misreads
the historical record.

Everyone thinks
they have a theory

on what happened to him,
everybody thinks

they have the real story.

With her grandmother's letter
serving as new evidence,

Barbara hopes to finally
resolve the Crater case.

I'm hoping that
they reopen this case.

My grandmother passed away,
and she left that envelope.

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.

So, I would just like
to try and...

follow through with it,
and that's what I've been doing.

And I'm hoping
to continue doing it

until, at least,

we have a little bit
more answers.

Barbara O'Brien plans
to keep digging

into Judge Joseph Crater's
disappearance.

But without a body or any other

physical evidence of a crime,

the case remains unsolved.

I'm Laurence Fishburne.

Thank you for watching

"History's Greatest Mysteries."