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3. Several of Cox's friends and acquaintances said he told them he had testified at a court-martial while on duty in Germany or had provided testimony against an individual charged with murder. Though neither the FBI nor Jacobs had uncovered any evidence of such a proceeding, the fact that Cox told so many people about it raised the possibility that "George" might have been someone seeking revenge against Cox.{{sfn|Hamel|page=17}} 3. Several of Cox's friends and acquaintances said he told them he had testified at a court-martial while on duty in Germany or had provided testimony against an individual charged with murder. Though neither the FBI nor Jacobs had uncovered any evidence of such a proceeding, the fact that Cox told so many people about it raised the possibility that "George" might have been someone seeking revenge against Cox.{{sfn|Hamel|page=17}}


4. Soon after Cox disappeared, a letter he sent to Rosemary Vogel, a woman he had met in Germany, which included inquiries about Russian activities in Germany, was returned as undeliverable.{{sfn|Hamel|page=17}} 4. Soon after Cox disappeared, a letter he sent to Rosemarie Vogel, a woman he had met in Germany, which included inquiries about Russian activities in Germany, was returned as undeliverable.{{sfn|Hamel|page=17}}


5. John H. Noble, an American living in Germany, was seized by the Russians in 1945 and imprisoned until 1955. Noble reported that the Soviet Union was holding a prisoner named “Cox” at camp in Vorkuta, Siberia. The identity of this individual could not be confirmed, but it raised the possibility that Cox could have become involved in espionage or black market activities while serving in Germany.{{sfn|Hamel|page=17}} 5. John H. Noble, an American living in Germany, was seized by the Russians in 1945 and imprisoned until 1955. Noble reported that the Soviet Union was holding a prisoner named “Cox” at camp in Vorkuta, Siberia. The identity of this individual could not be confirmed, but it raised the possibility that Cox could have become involved in espionage or black market activities while serving in Germany.{{sfn|Hamel|page=17}}

Revision as of 14:08, 11 January 2023

Richard Colvin Cox
Yearbook photo of Richard C. Cox that was used for his official missing person flyer in the public domainCox in his West Point "India Whites" uniform, c. 1948–1949
Born(1928-07-25)25 July 1928
Mansfield, Ohio
DisappearedJanuary 14, 1950 (aged 21)
West Point, New York
StatusDeclared dead, 1957
Alma materUnited States Military Academy
Military career
Allegiance United States
Service / branch United States Army
Years of service1946–1950
RankThird-class cadet
Unit (1948–1950)

Richard Colvin Cox (born 25 July 1928, last seen 14 January 1950) was an American second-year cadet who disappeared from the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York. In January 1950, he was visited by a young man whose first name may have been George, three times over the course of a week. On the third occasion, Cox and "George" left the grounds of the academy and were never seen again. According to an eyewitness account from another cadet, the two men seemed to have known each other somewhere other than West Point. Cox is the only West Point cadet to have disappeared without a trace.

Early life

Cox was born in Mansfield, Ohio. Author Harry Maihafer, who wrote a book about Cox's disappearance, wrote the following about his parents and family:

Richard Colvin Cox, son of Rupert F. and Minnie Colvin Cox, was the youngest of six children. His father died when Richard was ten. (There had been rumors of suicide, but actually his death resulted from an aggravated diabetic condition. He'd been a practicing Christian Scientist; some said he would have lived much longer had he received proper medical attention.) Richard's mother, Mrs. Minnie Cox, was currently owner and operator of the family business, the Rupert F. Cox Insurance Agency.

Cox attended the public schools of Mansfield and graduated from Mansfield Senior High School in 1946, During his high school years, Cox told a friend he did not have time to participate on athletic teams because he always had an after-school job. During summer vacations in his teen years, he worked full-time. While working on a road crew in Mansfield, he "fell and cut his arm badly on a scythe," wrote Maihafer citing a witness who was interviewed by researcher Marshall Jacobs more than thirty years later. Cox immediately went home for help from his mother, who was a "Christian Science lay reader". She refused to call a doctor. "The cut became infected," wrote Maihafer, "and later a woman who lived next door brought him to a doctor. As a result of the accident, ended up with a prominent scar."

Military career

After high school, Cox volunteered for the United States Army. He joined the United States Constabulary, which carried out police occupation and security duties in Allied-occupied Germany. In May 1947, he began an assignment with the 6th Constabulary Regiment, based in Coburg in the American occupation zone of Germany and was in the S-2 (intelligence) section of the regiment's Headquarters Company. Later in 1947, Cox applied for and received appointment to West Point, and arrived at the United States Military Academy Preparatory School (then located at Stewart Field) in January 1948. His prep school classmates included Ernest Shotwell, who later became an important source on Cox's disappearance when he provided an eyewitness account that indicated Cox had disappeared voluntarily and was deliberately avoiding contact with his family.

Cox entered West Point in May 1948 and performed well; academically, he was ranked about 100th of 550. Cox was engaged to be married; he and his fiancée, Betty Timmons, planned to marry after his graduation from West Point.

Disappearance

At 4:45 pm on Saturday, 7 January 1950, a man telephoned Cox's West Point classmate, Peter Hains, who was acting as Charge of Quarters in Cadet Company B-2 (part of the North Barracks) and answered incoming calls for company members. He later said the caller's "tone was rough and patronizing, almost insulting." After Hains told the man that Cox was not in his room, the man replied, "Well, look, when he comes in, tell him to come on down here to the hotel. ... Just tell him George called – he'll know who I am. We knew each other in Germany. I'm just up here for a little while, and tell him I'd like to get him a bite to eat." Hains later stated he could not be completely certain the name given was "George", as he had answered many phone calls while on duty and that one had not seemed noteworthy at the time; Cox never referred to the man by name.

At 5:30 pm, a man entered Grant Hall - an area where cadets could meet guests—and asked to see Cox. The cadet on duty telephoned Cox to tell him he had a visitor. The cadet later described the visitor as slightly under six feet (1.83 m) tall and weighing around 185 pounds (84 kg). He was fair-haired, had a fair complexion and wore a belted trenchcoat, but no hat. When Cox entered the Hall, he shook hands with the man; the cadet on duty later recalled he seemed glad to see him. Cox signed out in the Company B-2 Departure Book, indicating he would have dinner off-campus. Cox later admitted to his roommates that they did not dine, but drank from a bottle of whiskey while sitting inside the man's parked car.

Cox returned to Cadet Company B-2, signed the Departure Book, took a shower, and slept off the effects of the alcohol. As a prank, his roommates photographed him, slumped over his desk, asleep. Later that evening, Cox altered the military time he had written in the Departure Book, changing "1923" to "1823" to make it look as if he had attended the 6:30 pm cadet supper formation. In fact, he had skipped the formation. This detail was not discovered until two years later, when an agent of the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command had the Departure Book examined in a laboratory. If the alteration had been discovered when it was fresh in January 1950, Cox could have been charged with violating the Cadet Honor Code.

The next morning, before attending the Sunday chapel service, Cox mentioned his visitor to his roommates. The man, Cox said, was a former US Army Ranger who had served in the same unit as he had in Germany. Cox said the man liked to brag about killing Germans during the war and had boasted about cutting off their private parts afterward. Another story he told Cox was about having gotten a German girl pregnant, and then murdering her to prevent her from having the baby. That afternoon, Cox signed out a second time to meet the man, returning at about 4:30 pm. The following six days were without incident. Cox mentioned his visitor once to his roommates, remarking that he "hoped he wouldn't have to see the fellow again," which gave them the impression he viewed the man with distaste.

On Saturday, 14 January, Cox watched a basketball game between the Army and Rutgers University. Afterwards, he was seen talking to a man thought to be "George," although the cadet who saw the two talking gave a description that differed greatly from the description given by the cadet who had seen the stranger in Grant Hall on 7 January. According to the eyewitness description from 14 January, George was "dark-haired and rough looking." Cox returned to his room and mentioned to a roommate he was signing out to dine with his visitor again, although he appeared "not apprehensive, just sort of disgusted." The two men left the grounds of the academy and vanished without a trace.

Official investigation

Cox was supposed to return by 11 pm, but when he did not appear, no alarm was raised because cadets occasionally returned late. His continued absence was reported to a superior officer at 2:30 am, but again no action was taken as cadets had been known to stay out all night despite the punishment this would incur. On Sunday morning, his roommates reported all they knew of the matter to their superior; the New York State Police and the CID were informed. The FBI also became involved in the investigation.

Three days after Cox's disappearance, a public appeal for information was broadcast on nearby radio stations. The grounds of West Point were intensively searched by helicopter and by troops on the ground. The Lusk Reservoir was dragged, the banks of the Hudson River were searched and a nearby pond was drained. The manhunt lasted two months but produced no significant leads. A search of Army records for a soldier who had served with Cox and matched the description of "George", led almost without exception to individuals who could not have been at West Point at the time of the disappearance. Cox's service in Germany was investigated and revealed nothing out of the ordinary. The theory that he had deliberately deserted from West Point was discounted, as he had left behind in his room $87 (about $980 in 2021) and two suits of civilian clothes. On 15 March 1950, Cox was listed as absent without leave.

Based on a West Point psychologist's assessment that two single men meeting several times were probably homosexual, the FBI looked into the possibility that Cox was gay or bisexual. This inquiry included visiting gay bars in New York City with Cox's roommates to see if they could identify anyone as "George"or if any patrons recognized Cox. The roommates never saw anyone who fit the description, no one provided reliable information about having seen Cox, and Cox's friends and family discounted the questions about his sexual orientation.

In 1954, Shotwell, who had joined the U.S. Coast Guard after leaving the West Point prep school, reported to the FBI that he had had a conversation with Cox at the Washington, D.C. Greyhound Lines bus station in 1952, two years after Cox's disappearance. Shotwell knew that Cox had been absent from West Point, but when he saw Cox at the bus station, he assumed that Cox was no longer missing. During their encounter at the bus station, Shotwell said Cox seemed "uncomfortable," was vague about his plans for the immediate future, and left after only five minutes.

Though the FBI considered the investigation closed, with all leads exhausted and a solution unlikely, Cox's family had him declared legally dead in 1957. Despite the FBI's position that there were no further leads to pursue, it still followed up on occasional tips. One of these was a reported sighting of Cox in 1960, when an FBI informant claimed to have spent time at a bar in Melbourne, Florida with a man he later identified as Cox. The man called himself R. C. Mansfield and his acquaintances called him "Richard." The informant went on to claim that "Mansfield" stated that Fidel Castro's time as Cuba's leader would be "limited." Subsequent investigation failed to uncover further details on "Mansfield."

Jacobs investigation

Harry Maihafer's book Oblivion (1996) documents the investigation of retired high school history teacher Marshall Jacobs into Cox's disappearance. Jacobs began his research in 1985, and considered it inconceivable that after 35 years the mystery had not been solved. During the ten years between Jacobs beginning his investigation and Maihafer writing the book, A Current Affair broadcast a segment about the Cox mystery. The piece was anchored by Krista Bradford, who was seen interviewing Marshall Jacobs and Ernest Shotwell.

For ten years, Jacobs thoroughly investigated the case, traveling across the United States following up on new leads and revisiting old leads. He interviewed Cox's family, high school friends, military pals, and West Point classmates; CIA, FBI, and CID agents; and West Point and Army officials. He researched West Point's archives and the files from the FBI, CIA, and CID investigations of Cox's disappearance, to which he gained access under the Freedom of Information Act. Among Jacobs' findings was that authorities had been remiss when they had discounted the theory that Cox had disappeared deliberately. Jacobs came to believe that the presence of 87 dollars in Cox's shared room did not rule out the strong possibility that his visitor had helped him start a new career and life.

The old leads Jacobs revisited included ones from Mansfield News Journal reporter Jim Underwood who had written a 12-installment series on the Cox mystery that the News Journal had published in 1982. Underwood had interviewed a high school acquaintance of Cox named Ralph E. Johns, who later in life was elected as juvenile and domestic relations judge in Mansfield.

Johns told Underwood that he had not been involved in the original investigation in the 1950s, but during that era "he and another Mansfield man, William McKee, grew very interested in the Cox case and had frequent contacts with local FBI officials. ... Johns also told Underwood that on one occasion, when discussing the Cox case with former FBI agent Vince Napoli, Napoli told him and McKee that the FBI had been within twenty-four hours of grabbing Cox, and he couldn't understand why the FBI would not let them pick him up or why they pulled them off the case. According to Underwood, Johns had speculated, perhaps based on Napoli's story, that Cox might have gone into some secret government agency such as the CIA." In the late 1980s, Jacobs interviewed Johns, who confirmed that he had speculated about a secret government agency but it was only his speculation.

When he was ready to reveal his findings, Jacobs contacted Maihafer with hopes they could collaborate on a book. The resulting work, Oblivion, contains a photo section including the snapshot that Cox's roommates took of him on 7 January 1950 as he slept off the effects of the alcohol he had consumed in his visitor's parked car a short time earlier.

Questions and concerns

As detailed by Maihafer, Jacobs was left with several questions and unresolved issues, some of which were contradictory. Among these were:

1. The fact that Cox left money, civilian clothes, and a prized gold watch in his room indicated he did not plan to leave permanently.

2. A letter to Betty that he never finished included a hand drawn face spitting on the words "United States Military Academy." This draft letter also contained passages that suggested Cox was considering leaving West Point because he was unhappy with the regimen.

3. Several of Cox's friends and acquaintances said he told them he had testified at a court-martial while on duty in Germany or had provided testimony against an individual charged with murder. Though neither the FBI nor Jacobs had uncovered any evidence of such a proceeding, the fact that Cox told so many people about it raised the possibility that "George" might have been someone seeking revenge against Cox.

4. Soon after Cox disappeared, a letter he sent to Rosemarie Vogel, a woman he had met in Germany, which included inquiries about Russian activities in Germany, was returned as undeliverable.

5. John H. Noble, an American living in Germany, was seized by the Russians in 1945 and imprisoned until 1955. Noble reported that the Soviet Union was holding a prisoner named “Cox” at camp in Vorkuta, Siberia. The identity of this individual could not be confirmed, but it raised the possibility that Cox could have become involved in espionage or black market activities while serving in Germany.

6. The FBI informant who claimed to have met "R .C. Mansfield" (Mansfield being Cox’s hometown) provided enough detail for this to have been a credible sighting. In addition, "Mansfield's" anti-Castro remarks less than a year before the Bay of Pigs invasion again raised the possibility that Cox was involved in clandestine intelligence work.

7. Robert W. Frisbee, who had been stationed at Fort Knox at the same time as Cox and who seemed to fit the description of "George," was known to have traded in false IDs in New York City the 1950s, something Cox might need if he had disappeared intentionally. Frisbee was arrested for the 1985 murder of socialite Muriel Barnett aboard a cruise ship and imprisoned in Canada, but disclaimed any knowledge of or involvement with Cox.

Possible conclusion

Although Jacobs did not definitively solve Cox's disappearance, he did develop what he considered to be a plausible explanation. Jacobs concluded that David M. Westervelt, a soldier with whom Cox served in Germany, and who was a resident of northern New Jersey, was "George." Westervelt fit the physical description and had a dubious career that caused police to interview him several times about Cox's disappearance. Jacobs suspected that Westervelt was a recruiter for the CIA, a possibility that Westervelt's family did not discount. Jacobs believed that Cox admitted unhappiness with West Point during "George's" (Westervelt's) first visit, and that during the subsequent visits Westervelt offered Cox a way out by helping him start a new life under a different name and a career with the CIA or another intelligence agency.

According to an account provided to Jacobs by a retired CIA official he did not name, Cox became part of a "stay-behind" team in Europe and spent his career smuggling Russian nuclear scientists and other high-priority individuals out of the Soviet Union and other Eastern Bloc countries. This official further stated that Cox had retired to northern Idaho, but that at the time of his interview with Jacobs in the mid-1990s, Cox was hospitalized with a fatal illness at the National Institutes of Health facility in Bethesda, Maryland.

Underwood series

See also

References

  1. Harry Maihafer (1996). Oblivion: The Mystery of West Point Cadet Richard Cox. Brassey’s. p. 37. ISBN 9781574880434.
  2. ^ Maihafer, p. 163.
  3. Maihafer, p. 42.
  4. Maihafer, pp. 106–108.
  5. ^ Maihafer, pp. 215–217.
  6. Brean, Herbert; Conant, Luther (14 April 1952). "The Mystery of the Missing Cadet". Life. Time Inc. (published 14 March 1952). p. 161. Retrieved 27 March 2017.
  7. ^ Brean and Conant, p. 152.
  8. ^ Maihafer, p. 23.
  9. ^ Maihafer, pp. 23–26.
  10. ^ Maihafer, pp. 90–91.
  11. Maihafer, p. 90.
  12. Maihafer, p. 26.
  13. ^ Brean and Conant, p. 154.
  14. Brean and Conant, pp. 154, 156.
  15. Sheehan, Jerry (3 January 1960). "Mystery Hides Man Who Went To Dinner". The Pittsburgh Press. Retrieved 17 January 2013.
  16. "West Point". America's Book of Secrets. 17 March 2012. H2 Network.
  17. ^ Brean and Conant, p. 156.
  18. ^ Brean and Conant, p. 158.
  19. Maihafer, p. 41.
  20. ^ Brean and Conant, pp. 156, 158.
  21. Brean and Conant, p. 161.
  22. Maihafer, pp. 63–64.
  23. Maihafer, pp. 80–81.
  24. Maihafer, pp. 63–64, 80–81.
  25. ^ Maihafer, p. 200.
  26. Maihafer, pp. 107–108.
  27. Maihafer, p. 106.
  28. Maihafer, p. 120.
  29. ^ Maihafer, pp. 144–146.
  30. Maihafer, pp. 128–132.
  31. Hiaasen, Carl (28 February 1988). "The Case of the Missing Cadet Tracking The Clues For 38 Years". The Philadelphia Inquirer. Retrieved 17 January 2013.
  32. Maihafer, p. 164.
  33. "Ralph Johns Obituary (1926 - 2012) News Journal". Legacy.com.
  34. Maihafer, p. 165.
  35. Maihafer, pp. 167–168.
  36. Maihafer, pp. ix–xi.
  37. Maihafer, p. 123.
  38. Hamel, Keith J. (Summer 2016). "Mysteriously Disappeared: The Case of Richard Colvin Cox ex-'52" (PDF). West Point. West Point, NY: West Point Association of Graduates. p. 17.
  39. ^ Hamel, p. 17.
  40. ^ Hamel, p. 18.
  41. Maihafer, p. 201.
  42. Maihafer, p. 212.
  43. Maihafer, p. 228.
  44. Maihafer, pp. 228–229.
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