Disappearance of Richard Colvin Cox

Template:Short description Template:Use American English Template:Use dmy dates Template:Main otherTemplate:Wikidata image Richard Colvin Cox (born 25 July 1928Template:Mdashdisappeared 14 January 1950) was an American second-year cadet who disappeared from the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, on 14 January 1950. On three occasions in the week leading up to his disappearance, Cox was visited by a man whose first name may have been George. According to an eyewitness account from another cadet, the two men seemed to know each other. On the third visit, Cox and "George" left the grounds of the academy and were never seen again. Cox is the only West Point cadet to have disappeared without a trace.

Early life

Richard Cox was born in Mansfield, Ohio, on July 25, 1928, the youngest of six children born to Rupert and Minnie Cox. Cox's father died when he was ten years old as the result of a diabetic condition that had gone untreated because the Cox family were practicing Christian Scientists.Template:Sfn His mother owned and operated the family business, the Rupert F. Cox Insurance Agency.Template:Sfn

Cox graduated from Mansfield Senior High School in 1946. During his high school years, he told a friend he did not have time to participate on athletic teams because he always had an after-school job.Template:Sfn In fact, he was sophomore class president, a member of the National Honor Society, an intramural athlete, a member of Hi-Y (High School YMCA) and the sports editor for the school's yearbook.Template:Sfn

During summer vacations in his teen years, Cox worked full-time.Template:Sfn While working on a road crew in Mansfield, he fell and cut his arm on a scythe.Template:Sfn He immediately went home for help from his mother, who refused to obtain medical aid owing to her Christian Scientist beliefs.Template:Sfn The injury became infected and a neighbor brought Cox to a doctor.Template:Sfn Cox's cut healed, but he sustained a prominent scar.Template:SfnTemplate:Efn

Military career

After high school, Cox volunteered for the United States Army, completed initial processing at Camp Atterbury, Indiana, and underwent basic training at Fort Knox, Kentucky.Template:Sfn He was then assigned to the United States Constabulary, which carried out police occupation and security duties in Allied-occupied Germany, and attained the rank of sergeant.Template:Sfn In May 1947 he began an assignment with Troop C, 6th Constabulary Squadron, based in Coburg.Template:Sfn He was later assigned to the 6th Squadron's Headquarters Company, where he worked in the S-2 (intelligence) section.Template:Sfn When the 6th Squadron was disbanded, Cox was assigned to Troop D, 27th Constabulary Squadron, in Schweinfurt.Template:Sfn Cox was a basketball fan, and while in Germany played guard on his units' intramural teams.Template:Sfn

Later in 1947, Cox received an appointment to West Point; he arrived at the United States Military Academy Preparatory School (then located at Stewart Field) in January 1948.Template:SfnTemplate:Efn His prep school classmates included Ernest Shotwell,Template:Sfn 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.Template:Sfn

Cox entered West Point in May 1948 and performed well; academically, he was ranked about 100th of 550.Template:Sfn He also took part in extracurricular activities, including West Point's cross-country running team.Template:Sfn During his yearling (sophomore) year, Cox was voted his cadet company's (Company B-2) top cadet. Cox was engaged to be married; he and his fiancée, Betty Timmons, planned to wed after his graduation.

Disappearance

At 4:45 pm on Saturday, January 7 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.Template:Sfn Hains later said the caller's "tone was rough and patronizing, almost insulting."Template:Sfn After he 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."Template:SfnTemplate:Efn 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.Template:Sfn

At 5:30 pm, a man entered Grant Hall—an area where cadets could meet guests—and asked to see Cox.Template:Sfn The cadet on duty telephoned Cox to tell him he had a visitor. The cadet later described the visitor as slightly under Template:Convert tall and weighing around Template:Convert.Template:Sfn He was fair-haired, had a fair complexion and wore a belted trenchcoat, but no hat.Template:Sfn When Cox entered the Hall, he shook hands with the man; the cadet on duty later recalled he seemed glad to see him.Template:Sfn Cox signed out in the Company B-2 Departure Book, indicating he would have dinner with his visitor at the Thayer Hotel.Template:Sfn 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.Template:Sfn

Cox returned to Cadet Company B-2, signed in in the Departure Book, took a shower and slept off the effects of the alcohol.Template:Sfn As a joke, his roommates photographed him as he slept while slumped over his desk.Template:Sfn 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.Template:Sfn In fact, he had skipped the formation.Template:Sfn This detail was not discovered until two years later, when an agent of the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command (CID) had the Departure Book examined in a laboratory.Template:Sfn If the alteration had been discovered when it was fresh in January 1950, Cox could have been charged with violating the Cadet Honor Code.Template:Sfn When tattoo sounded at 10:30 p.m. to indicate that lights should be turned off, Cox woke up, ran to the hallway outside his room and shouted something that his roommates thought sounded like, "Alice!"Template:Sfn They asked Cox who Alice was, but he said nothing, lay down on his bed and again fell asleep.Template:Sfn

The next morning, before attending the Sunday chapel service, Cox mentioned his visitor to his roommates.Template:Sfn Cox said the man was a former U.S. Army Ranger who had served in his unit in Germany.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Cox also said the man liked to brag about killing Germans during World War II and had boasted about cutting off their private parts afterward.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Another story he supposedly told Cox was about having gotten a German girl pregnant, and then murdering her to prevent her from having the baby.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn That afternoon, Cox signed out a second time to meet the man, returning at about 4:30 pm.Template:Sfn The following six days passed without incident.Template:Sfn 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.Template:Sfn

On Saturday, January 14, Cox attended a basketball game between Army and Rutgers University.Template:Sfn 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 from the description given by the cadet who had seen the stranger in Grant Hall on January 7.Template:Sfn According to the eyewitness description from January 14, George was "dark-haired and rough looking."Template:Sfn Cox returned to his room and mentioned to a roommate that he was signing out to dine with his visitor again, although he appeared "not apprehensive, just sort of disgusted."Template:Sfn The two men left the grounds of the academy and vanished.

Official investigation

Cox was supposed to return by 11:00 pm, but when he did not appear, no alarm was raised because cadets occasionally returned late.Template:Sfn 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.Template:Sfn On Sunday morning, Cox's roommates reported all they knew of the matter to their superior; the New York State Police and the CID were informed.Template:Sfn The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) also became involved in the investigation.Template:Sfn

Three days after Cox's disappearance, a public appeal for information was broadcast on nearby radio stations.Template:Sfn The grounds of West Point were intensively searched by helicopter and by troops on the ground.Template:Sfn The Lusk Reservoir was dragged, the banks of the Hudson River were searched and a nearby pond was drained.Template:Sfn The manhunt lasted two months but produced no significant leads.Template:Sfn

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.Template:Sfn Cox's service in Germany was investigated and revealed nothing out of the ordinary.Template:Sfn Though he had occasionally written disparagingly of West Point life in letters to his mother and girlfriend, the theory that he had deliberately deserted was discounted, as he had left behind in his room $87 (about $Template:Inflation in 2023) and two suits of civilian clothes.Template:SfnTemplate:Efn On 15 March 1950, Cox was listed as absent without leave.Template:Sfn

Based on a West Point psychologist's speculation (without evidence) that two single men meeting several times were probably "homosexualist," the FBI looked into the possibility that Cox was gay or bisexual.Template:Sfn 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 reported knowing Cox.Template:Sfn The roommates never saw anyone who fit the description of George, and no one provided reliable information about having seen Cox.Template:Sfn Despite these rumors, as well as the third-hand story of a Mansfield store employee who claimed to have caught Cox and another man having sex in the store's basement in 1946, Cox's friends and family discounted questions about his sexual orientation.Template:Sfn

Subsequent sightings

According to a 2021 blog post by Mansfield author Timothy Brian McKee, a friend of Cox saw him in Mansfield in 1950 but did not reveal the details until decades later. According to McKee, he had heard about town that Mansfield resident Ursula Margaret Unterwagner had seen Cox. In response to his query, Unterwagner, a high school classmate of Cox, confirmed in 2010 or 2011 that she had seen Cox within a week of his disappearance.

Unterwagner said she was walking on Fourth Street when she saw Cox walking along the nearby railroad tracks and immediately recognized him because of his distinctive gait. She assumed he had just disembarked from a train at the nearby Union Station and was walking home. They waved to each other, and Unterwagner intended to speak with him as soon as the passing train, which was between them, had traveled beyond where they stood. By the time the train had left, Cox was out of Unterwagner's sight and she never saw him again. According to McKee, Unterwagner did not widely share her experience out of concern that she might be jeopardizing Cox's life or career if he had gone to work for an intelligence agency. She asked McKee not to reveal the story until after her death, reasoning that if she was dead, Cox probably was too, and so no longer needed her protection. Unterwagner died in 2020, and McKee then revealed her 1950 sighting of Cox.

In 1954, Ernest Shotwell, who had joined the United States 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 March 1952, two years after his disappearance.Template:Sfn 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.Template:Sfn During their encounter at the bus station, Shotwell said Cox claimed to have resigned from West Point and said he was moving to Germany.Template:Sfn According to Shotwell, Cox also appeared to be dressed lightly for the cool March weather, causing Shotwell to assume that he could not have walked far and must have been living nearby.Template:Sfn Shotwell also said Cox seemed uncomfortable to see him, was vague about his plans and left after only five minutes.Template:Sfn

By the late 1950s, the FBI considered the investigation closed, with all leads exhausted and a solution unlikely. Cox's family had him declared legally dead in 1957.Template:Sfn Despite the FBI's position that there were no further leads to pursue, it still followed up on occasional tips.Template:Sfn 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.Template:Sfn The man called himself R. C. Mansfield and his acquaintances called him "Richard."Template:Sfn After talking at the bar for an extended period, "Mansfield" supposedly shared with the informant personal details that matched Cox's and revealed that Cox was his real name.Template:Sfn The informant went on to claim that "Mansfield" stated that Fidel Castro's time as Cuba's leader would be "limited," giving rise to the possibility that he was involved in clandestine work for an American intelligence agency.Template:Sfn Subsequent investigation failed to uncover further details on "Mansfield."Template:Sfn

Jacobs investigation

Harry J. Maihafer's book Oblivion (1996) documents the investigation by retired high school history teacher Marshall Jacobs into Cox's disappearance.Template:Sfn Jacobs began his research in 1985, and considered it inconceivable that the mystery had not been solved after thirty-five years. During the ten years between Jacobs beginning his investigation and Maihafer writing the book, the syndicated news program A Current Affair broadcast a segment about the case which featured interviews with Jacobs and Shotwell.Template:Sfn

For ten years, Jacobs traveled across the U.S. following up on new leads and revisiting old ones.Template:Sfn He interviewed Cox's family, high school friends, military pals and West Point classmates; CIA, FBI and CID agents, including Watergate figure Frank Sturgis; and West Point and Army officials.Template:Sfn 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.Template:Sfn Among his findings was that authorities had been remiss when they discounted the theory that Cox had disappeared deliberately.Template:Sfn Jacobs came to believe that the presence of $87 in Cox's shared room did not rule out the possibility that his visitor had helped him start a new career with a new identity.Template:Sfn

The old leads Jacobs revisited included ones from Mansfield News Journal reporter Jim Underwood, who had written a twelve-installment series on the case in 1982.Template:Sfn Underwood had interviewed a high school acquaintance of Cox named Ralph E. Johns, an Army veteran and prosecutor who later served as a judge in Mansfield. Johns told Underwood that while he had not been involved in the original investigation, he and county prosecutor William McKee had frequent contacts with local FBI officials.Template:Sfn Johns also told Underwood that when he and former FBI agent Vince Napoli discussed Cox, Napoli said the bureau had once been within twenty-four hours of arresting Cox and he could not understand why his superiors would not let agents pick Cox up.Template:Sfn Johns speculated, perhaps based on Napoli's story, that Cox might have been recruited into secret intelligence work.Template:Sfn In the late 1980s, Jacobs interviewed Johns, who confirmed that he had raised with Underwood the possibility of secret government involvement, but said it was his own speculation.Template:Sfn

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

Questions and concerns

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

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

3. Several of Cox's friends and acquaintances said he told them that while in Germany, he had testified at a court-martial or had provided civilian court testimony against an individual charged with murder.Template:Sfn 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.Template:Sfn

4. Soon after Cox disappeared, a letter he sent to Rosemary Vogel, a woman he had met in Germany, which included inquiries about Soviet activities in Germany, was returned as undeliverable.Template:Sfn Vogel was later located in the United States, where she had moved after marrying an American.Template:Sfn She recalled Cox's friend Joseph "Bud" Groner, but did not remember meeting Cox until shown a photo of herself with Groner and Cox.Template:Sfn She indicated that she did not know why Cox would have written to her, but Cox's queries about Soviet activity raised the possibility that he was involved in intelligence gathering, or wanted to be.Template:Sfn

5. John H. Noble, an American living in Germany, was seized by the Soviets in 1945 and imprisoned until 1955.Template:Sfn Noble reported that the Soviet Union was holding a prisoner named "Cox" at a camp in Vorkuta, Siberia.Template:Sfn 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.Template:Sfn

6. The FBI informant who claimed to have met "R. C. Mansfield" provided enough detail for this encounter to have been a credible sighting.Template:Sfn 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.Template:Sfn

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 in the 1950s, something Cox might need if he had disappeared intentionally.Template:Sfn 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.Template:Sfn

Possible conclusion

Although Jacobs did not definitively solve Cox's disappearance, he did develop what he considered to be a plausible explanation.Template:Sfn He concluded that David M. Westervelt, a soldier with whom Cox served in Germany and a New Jersey resident, was "George."Template:SfnTemplate:Efn Westervelt fit the physical description provided by Cox's classmates and had a dubious career that caused police to interview him several times about his disappearance.Template:Sfn Jacobs suspected, as did Groner, that Westervelt was a recruiter for the CIA, a possibility that Westervelt's family did not discount.Template:Sfn Jacobs believed that Cox admitted unhappiness with West Point during "George's" (Westervelt's) first visit, and that during 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.Template:Sfn

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

See also

• List of people who disappeared