Newspaper Clipping of the Day

via Newspapers.com

From my "mini mysteries" file, here is a peculiar disappearance recorded in the (Munster, Indiana) "Times," April 14, 1960:

Jacksonville, Ill.--A year ago today a 57-year-old New England stock broker, wearing green pajamas, mysteriously vanished from a Jacksonville motel.

That's the last ever heard of him.

Bruce Campbell and his wife had driven from Northampton, Mass., to visit their son, Bruce Jr., assistant professor of chemistry at MacMurray College, and his family in Jacksonville. Campbell, tired from the drive, was treated for two days before his disappearance by a physician in the couple's motel room.

His son remembers his father was "rational but disoriented" the last evening he saw him.

Mrs. Campbell said her husband asked her during the night whether their station wagon was locked and she assured him that it was. She said she awoke again at 2:15 a.m. and he was gone.

His disappearance touched off a search by police, MacMurray students and Boy Scouts that lasted for weeks. Theories of murder, suicide and amnesia led the searchers to Mauvaisterre Creek, farm buildings and wells. No clue was found.

Mrs. Campbell and her son still cherish hopes that Campbell will be found alive. Campbell was described as 6-3, 160 pounds, bald and walked with a slight limp. When he vanished he was wearing bright green pajamas, a wrist watch and a ring with a Delta Upsilon fraternity crest. None of his other belongings were taken from the motel room.

This brief article contains virtually all that is known for certain about Campbell's disappearance. As far as I can tell, no trace of him, alive or dead, has ever been found.