Judge CraterIt was exactly 80 years ago today that Judge Joseph Crater was last seen walking down W. 45th Street in NYC at around 9 PM and was never seen again. His disappearance earned him the title of “The Missingest Man in New York”.

Judge Crater had been away in Maine with his wife when he took a phone call and told his wife that he had to return to NY “to straighten those fellows out”. For the next several days he went back and forth between NYC and Maine while also spending some time with his mistress in Atlantic City. On the day he disappeared he cashed two checks totaling more than $5,000 (almost $70,000 today) and apparently emptied his safe deposit box (it was found empty after he vanished). That night he had dinner with his lawyer and mistress who described him as being in a good mood. At about 9 PM, the three stepped outside the restaurant and the Judge walked down the street while his friends stepped into a cab. The Judge was never seen again.

His wife started calling her friends on August 10th but no one was alarmed until the 25th when he was supposed to sit for the opening of courts. Even then, no report was made to the police until September 3rd, almost a month after his disappearance. The Judge quickly became front page news across the country. A massive national investigation found nothing but died quickly when it was found that so much money was missing with the judge and that the judge’s mistress, Sally Lou Ritz, disappeared within a month of the judge. The investigators assumed that the judge had taken the money and run off to avoid charges of corruption. Although Judge Crater was suspected of judicial corruption (NYC government was particularly corrupt during the depression) no evidence was ever produced to show that he was actually corrupt.

Judge Crater was declared dead in 1939 and his missing persons file was officially closed in 1979. In 2005, Stella Ferrucci-Good left notes that were found after her death claiming her husband, a NYC police officer, killed Judge Crater and buried him under the boardwalk in Coney Island. However no remains were ever found there.

For years after his disappearance, “to pull a Crater” meant to disappear and comedians routinely used the joke, “Judge Crater call your office.” Eighty years after his disappearance, whether he was murdered (and is perhaps buried with Jimmy Hoffa) or ran off to Mexico with his mistress, it is no doubt safe to say that Judge Crater is no longer with us.