Where in the World is the Mad Hatter?

"New York Daily News," June 24, 1962, via Newspapers.com

Harriet Elizabeth Benton had what most people would consider to be a pretty sweet life.  At the age of only 22, the Ogsdenburg, New York, native had a plum job in a Boston advertising firm, where she was considered such a promising employee that she had already been given two raises.  The future looked exceptionally bright for the independent, free-spirited girl who liked to call herself “The Mad Hatter.”

However, Harriet was not quite ready to settle into a prosperous, if somewhat stuffy, career.  Like most people her age, she wanted one last adventure before settling down.  In short, she wanted to see the world while she was still free to do so on her own terms.  Against the wishes of her parents--who were understandably uneasy about their young daughter traveling abroad on her own--Harriet took a leave of absence from her agency.  On July 29, 1959, she and a German-born friend, Freda von Ostrow, sailed for England on the liner “New York.”  Harriet had sold her sports car to help finance the trip, but it’s uncertain how much money she had with her.  It could have been anywhere between $400-$1000.

In England, the two young women visited Harriet’s aunt, and then took a tour of Freda’s native land.  Every week or so, Harriet wrote home, assuring her parents that all was well.  Freda remained in Germany, while Harriet bought a motor scooter to take her through France, Italy, and Spain.  She was supposed to meet another friend, Pat Grant, in Gibraltar on September 24, but these plans had to be delayed.  The scooter turned out to be a lemon that was always breaking down.  Around this time, Harriet wrote to someone at her ad agency that she was contemplating shipping the scooter to India, a country she had always wanted to visit.  She felt the atmosphere there would foster her biggest ambition--to become a “great writer.”

On September 29, Pat Grant, who was then in Madrid, received a telegram from Harriet suggesting they meet in Gibraltar for a trip to Morocco.  Pat tried calling the hostel where Harriet was staying, but the place had no phone.  The following day, Harriet phoned her, telling Pat that she was changing her plans slightly.  She had made the acquaintance of two British women, as well as a young man named Colin John Gallon.  They were all going to sail to Casablanca in Gallon’s yacht, “Raider.”  Harriet said she would spend a couple of days in Morocco, then visit Pat in Madrid.

The next we know of Harriet’s movements was on October 6, when she wrote to Pat, “It’s foolish of me to want to go half-way around the world with a man I met yesterday--but we’re sailing tomorrow.  I’ve had a taste of Morocco.  It was thrilling. I’m going back, then on to the West Indies.”  Two days later, Harriet sent a postcard to her parents.  She told them she had her “sea legs” back, and was now first mate on the Raider.  She said she was going to Casablanca, then to the Canaries.  If Gallon agreed, she would sail with him to the West Indies and through the Panama Canal.  She added that they should write to her in care of the Yacht Club at Las Palmas, in the Canary Islands.  That same day, she wrote to a boyfriend, a GI named James Davis, “Will give you a new address as soon as I know of a port far enough ahead.  Have left my scooter to the apes in Gibraltar, and am off on a yacht tomorrow to Casablanca.  If my sea legs hold up, the captain may keep me on to the West Indies.  Then Tahiti, and at last the Orient.  Looks as if I got my wish.  Always, Hat.”  All these communications indicated that “Hat” was still having the time of her life.

This was the last her parents heard from Harriet.  When Thanksgiving passed with no further word from their daughter, the Bentons began to panic.  On December 9, Harriet’s father Edward contacted his congressman, Clarence E. Wilburn, for help in finding her.  Wilburn alerted the State Department and--since Harriet was last known to be on a ship--the U.S. Navy.

Authorities learned that the Raider left Gibraltar sometime between October 7-9.  Although a dark-haired girl had been seen on the yacht, the captain had “clearly discouraged” anyone else from coming aboard his ship, and insisted that he was sailing alone.  

Then, it looked like the mystery of Harriet’s disappearance might have been solved, and in the worst possible way.  The Navy learned that the body of a young American woman had been found dumped on a street in a suburb of Tangier.  She had been beaten and strangled to death.  Authorities suspected the victim was either Harriet or another young American tourist who had gone missing, 19 year old Barbara Helen Mueller of New York.  A young British man, William Edward Moore, was being held by police for questioning.  The State Department sent the victim’s dental information back to the U.S.  However, the dentists for the Mueller and Benton families were unable to make any certain identification.

As it turned out, the dental records were unnecessary.  Moore finally decided to talk.  He led police to where he had hidden the purse of the girl he had murdered.  Inside was the passport of Barbara Mueller.  Moore said that while Barbara was visiting Tangier, the two of them became romantically involved.  When she told him that she was leaving Morocco--and him--he became so angry that he killed her.  (Moore was eventually found guilty of unpremeditated murder and sentenced to life imprisonment.)

The riddle of one missing young woman had finally been solved.  But what about the other?

The little we know about Harriet’s time in Casablanca suggests that she and Colin Gallon had a falling-out.  Soon after their arrival, Colin told the skipper of another ship, Peter Tangvald, that he very much wanted to make the rest of his voyage alone.  Tangvald later told detectives that “The girl asked if she could switch to my boat when we reached Las Palmas.”  He apparently declined.

At this point, it was learned that James Davis had received an additional postcard from Harriet.  It had been sent from Casablanca on October 14.  It was ominously different in tone from her earlier, exuberant notes.  Harriet now sounded unhappy, perhaps even frightened.  She asked Davis to write to her “immediately” via the Yacht Club in Las Palmas, even though “It looks as if I might be there forever.”  Harriet wrote, “I have to leave the yacht there (Las Palmas) and God knows what I am going to do.  My money’s short.  I’ll probably just try and hitch another ride.”  She added a curiously contradictory postscript: “Sailing is wonderful and worth the hell of being shanhied [it is thought she misspelled “shanghaied.”]  The postcard also had what appeared to be the word “help” written on one side.  Davis, however, dismissed that, giving the odd explanation that Harriet often wrote to him using the word “yelp.”  (Unfortunately, Davis never clarified that remark.)

This disturbing postcard proved to be the last word anyone received from Harriet Benton.  It was established that the Raider arrived in Casablanca on October 10, and left five days later for the Canary Islands, but no one knew if Harriet left with it.  Colin Gallon and the Raider were also never seen again, leading to the theory that the Raider sank during the voyage, taking both Harriet and Colin down with it.  However, there is no record of the yacht sending a distress signal, and no wreckage from the Raider was ever found, which caused the Coast Guard to dismiss the idea.  

The last news item I could find about the mystery was a brief story from 1964.  It reported that Harriet's whereabouts remained unknown, but her parents were still wistfully hoping that she was alive somewhere and would eventually come home.  There is nothing to indicate that she ever did.

Considering that no one knows where or when Harriet disappeared, it is anyone’s guess what happened to her.  Did her relationship with the enigmatic Colin Gallon suddenly turn ugly--so ugly that he murdered her, threw the body overboard, and fled?   Or did she “hitch another ride” with the wrong people?  Or--as Peter Tangvald believed--did Harriet sail off on the Raider, only to find a watery grave when the yacht was swamped by huge waves somewhere on the 700-mile journey between Casablanca and Las Palmas?

All things considered, that last scenario is probably the least awful possibility.