In July of 1937, while safely airborne, Amelia Earhart and her navigator, Fred Noonan, went missing in Amelia’s state of the art Lockheed Electra airplane. To this day no one knows the direction they flew in or where they ended up. Without evidence to support it, the public was persuaded to believe they likely crashed and sank into the Pacific Ocean adjacent to the South Sea Islands. Over the years, however, different theories surfaced that offered other opinions. One claimed that the duo flew into pre-war hostile territory controlled by Japan where they were captured and executed. Another claimed they ditched on a desert island and died as castaways. The only one that continues to hold weight today surfaced back in 1970, that being the still unsettled story of Mrs. Irene O’Crowley Craigmile Bolam. To this day, a variety of individuals contend that their was more than one person attributed to the same Irene identity, and that one of them, who only appeared as ‘Irene’ from the 1940s on, was the former Amelia Earhart living incognito. Take a look here and decide for yourself.
Amelia Earhart in 1928, age 31.
AMELIA & POST-1940 ONLY IRENE
Digital Composite:
Amelia Earhart
Post-1940 ‘Irene’ Digital Composite
In 1970, a team of investigators asserted that Amelia Earhart somehow managed to survive her 1937 disappearance. They contended that she lived on, and that after World War Two a person known as ‘Irene’ emerged in the United States who had previously been known as Amelia Earhart.
Their bold claim was scoffed at by the woman they pegged to have been the former Amelia Earhart, causing others to dismiss it out of hand, until decades later, when some follow up research noticed that their assertion was never disproved.
Though greeted with official silence, four nationally published books, the last one issued in 2016, concluded that it was correct that Amelia Eahart lived-on and in time became known as ‘Irene.’
Additional 21st Century forensic research verified that Amelia Earhart had a 1930s’ pilot friend by the name of Irene O’Crowley Craigmile, and a few proponents who clung to the theory stressed that the ‘original’ Irene’s 1930s demise was obfuscated in order to allow the former Amelia Earhart to assume her leftover identity.
It is important to comprehend, as displayed on this website, that the study determined there were actually three different 20th Century women who were attributed to the same Irene O’Crowley Craigmile identity, and only the post-World War Two Irene looked like Amelia Earhart.
Today, more people are starting to believe that the survived Amelia Earhart was able to assume the ‘original’ Irene O’Crowley Craigmile’s leftover identity for her later life use, a move that enabled her to further live privately, away from the public eye.
As far fetched as this may sound, here is a story you probably never knew, elaborated on for the first time after the results of a 21st Century human comparison analysis were closely reviewed. Its startling results showed that the original claim was never as outlandish as people made it out to be in 1970, the year that a ten-year investigative effort advanced the notion that Amelia Earhart somehow survived her ‘missing person’ case — and that in time she assumed the leftover identity of a former acquaintance of hers, a little known 1930s’ pilot by the name of Irene O’Crowley Craigmile. View the following four minute trailer for more info. Goes Here
Protecting Earhart Documentary Intro Reel
Post-1940 Only Irene O’Crowley Craigmile, 1977: Image A
This person, shown in 1977, was known as Irene O’Crowley Craigmile Bolam. According to record, she was born in 1904. New forensic research determined that she appeared nowhere identified as ‘Irene’ prior to the 1940s. By way of the different comparison Exhibits displayed here, to those not familiar with the controversial circumstances of Amelia Earhart’s 1937 disappearance and subsequent ‘missing person’ case, this fortified reality is important to comprehend.
AMELIA & POST-1940 ONLY IRENE
Digital Composite:
Digital Composite
AMELIA & POST-1940 ONLY IRENE
Digital Composite:
Amelia and Irene Digital Composites
AMELIA & POST-1940 ONLY IRENE
Digital Composite:
Low and high contrast Digital Composite
THE ORIGINAL IRENE O’CROWLEY CRAIGMILE
The original Irene O’Crowley Craigmile, who Amelia Earhart briefly knew and flew with in the early 1930s, looked nothing like Amelia.
To the right, Image 1 and the Image 1 Enhancement display the original Irene O’Crowley Craigmile in an old 1930 newspaper photo. She is shown between her husband, Charles James Craigmile, and her father, Richard Joseph O’Crowley. [Note: Charles James Craigmile died in 1931, leaving the original Irene a young widow.]
Another famous 1930s pilot who was a good friend of Amelia’s and the original Irene O’Crowley Craigmile, was Viola Gentry. (See photos.)
Image 1
Image 1
Enhancement
Amelia Earhart and
Viola Gentry
1932, the Original Irene O’Crowley
Craigmile: Image 2
Above, Amelia Earhart in 1931, next to a Pitcairn. Autogyro she flew sponsored by Beech Nut Gum
The above-middle photograph, dated 1932, listed Amelia climbing on the wing, Jack Warren in the pilot seat, and the original Irene O’Crowley Craigmile & Viola Gentry standing. The plane had recently been purchased by the original Irene. Jack Warren, Viola’s husband, was one of the original Irene’s early flying instructors.
With no explanation for it, by the 1940s, the original Irene’s physical presence was no longer evident. In time, clear photo evidence of her person was also missing. Viola Gentry, a famous pilot herself and a good friend of Amelia’s, later became a key figure in this story per her 1930s close friendship with the original Irene, and her later-life close friendship with the post-1940 only, Irene O’Crowley Craigmile.
“Nobody ever had such an all inspiring way and understanding of people as Amelia. She was like a dancing sunbeam.”
A quote from Amelia’s 1930s pilot friend, Viola Gentry, who in the 1930s lived in the same Brooklyn, New York apartment building that the original Irene O’Crowley Craigmile did.
AMELIA & POST-1940 ONLY IRENE
Digital Composite: Exhibit 5
In the video: Amelia Earhart in 1937 … begins to … digitally transition into … post-1940 only Irene in 1965
Amelia Earhart in 1937
Image C: Photo taken in 1965 by Joseph A. Gervais, USAF (Ret.) on the day that Viola Gentry introduced him to the post-1940 only Irene O’Crowley Craigmile
For people who have a hard time seeing the former Amelia Earhart
in the 1965 Joseph A. Gervais photo, consider the following:
“It is nearly impossible even for families to recognize a loved one after thirty years of absence, so greatly has the self altered. And a little reflection upon the changing quality of consciousness is sure to give us some insight into the numberless selves our surface minds and egos have become since first appearing in the world.”
– PHILOSOPHER UELL STANLEY ANDERSEN (1917-1986)
Irene O’Crowley Craigmile
In 1965, it was first suspected that the distinguished looking person in Image A who was known as Irene O’Crowley Craigmile from the 1940s on until 1958, when she married and became known as Mrs. Irene Bolam, had previously gone by the name of Amelia Earhart.
In 1970, it first was publicly asserted that she was the former Amelia Earhart. She strongly denied it, of course, within the context of a national news story, and for the most part people accepted her denial.
In Image D the post-1940 only Irene O’Crowley Craigmile (Bolam) is shown facing the press in 1970, when she denounced the contents of a new book titled, Amelia Earhart Lives, (shown held in the foreground). Amazingly, at the time no one thought to compare her to Amelia Earhart.
Decades later in the 2000s, Protecting Earhart’s study of Amelia’s life story became the first one to include an Amelia to Irene, forensic comparison analysis.
After the post-1940 only Irene denied that she was previously known as Amelia Earhart, few bothered to evaluate the foundation of the story, that led to her press conference where she boldly stood firm. It also did not register to anyone back then, that the assertion stating that she had previously been known as Amelia Earhart, somehow managed to avoid being forensically addressed.
Keep going to learn more about the resilient nature of these unrecognized realities, that were swiftly dismissed out of hand by Amelia’s family and pseudo historians, leaving pop-culture to not take the Amelia became known as Irene claim seriously for the next half a century. [1970-2020]
The Post-1940 Only Irene
Image A
Post-1940 Only Irene O’Crowley Craigmile
Image D
[Viola Gentry was the individual who introduced Joseph A. Gervais to the post-1940 only Irene in 1965.]
AMELIA & POST-1940 ONLY IRENE
Digital Composite:
Amelia Earhart
Digital Composite
The former Amelia as ‘Irene’
AMELIA & POST-1940 ONLY IRENE
Digital Composite:
Sometimes hidden realities surface and must be dealt with.
Protecting Earhart’s Twenty First Century forensic research and comparison analysis deeply examined the life stories of three 1930s’ flying pals; Amelia Earhart, Viola Gentry, and Irene O’Crowley Craigmile.
The results the study achieved not only surfaced the reality of more than one Twentieth Century woman having been attributed to the same, Irene O’Crowley Craigmile identity; it also left no doubt that the post-1940 only Irene O’Crowley Craigmile was hauntingly congruent to Amelia Earhart, and that Viola Gentry knew the post-1940 only Irene in her later life years. Perhaps tellingly, Muriel Earhart Morrissey, Amelia’s sister and only sibling, was also a friend of the post-1940 only Irene in her later life years.
Keep going to learn more.
ABOUT PROTECTING EARHART’s COMMITMENT
The Protecting Earhart MSS and Forensic Analysis [Copyright registrations: TXu 1-915-926 & TXu 2-061-539] mark one Investigative Journalist’s comprehensive forensic research evaluation combined with a human comparison analysis.
After meeting some World War Two veterans who insisted that Amelia Earhart privately lived well beyond the war years, Writer-filmmaker, Tod Swindell, developed a consuming interest in the facts attributed to Amelia Earhart’s disappearance and missing person case. This led him to orchestrate a comprehensive forensic research study and an in-depth ‘Amelia to Irene’ comparison analysis, the first one ever done.
The complete Study was inspired by the original findings of Joseph A. Gervais [of the original ‘Operation Earhart’ investigation Gervais conducted from 1960 to 1970] and a long time collaborator of his, Author Randall Brink. The study features over ten-thousand pages of rare documents, analytical text, photographs, human physical and character trait comparisons, maps, charts, and past-obscured, but once again revisited investigative research findings.
The condensed Protecting Earhart MSS features 415 total pages; 110 of which exclusively exhibit logistical and visual elements drawn from the overall ‘Amelia to Irene’ Comparison Analysis. From a layman’s viewpoint, the Study results appear to exhibit Amelia Earhart’s ongoing existence after World War Two with the re-purposed name of, ‘Irene O’Crowley Craigmile’ applied to her person. (Surname of ‘Bolam’ added by marriage in 1958.) It also examined the post-World War Two, ‘let’s move on‘ logic that left the general public out of the loop of the complexities that surrounded Amelia’s 1937 disappearance. Simply put, a year and a half after she was declared ‘missing‘ in 1937, Amelia Earhart was declared ‘dead in absentia‘ in 1939, and this has never changed.
The intention to keep the name ‘Amelia Earhart’ exclusively associated with a dead person after 1937, evidently came into strong focus during the final days of World War Two. The controversy over the post-1940 only Irene was notably exposed by a close friend and confidant of the post-1940 Irene’s, former Seton Hall College President, Monsignor James Francis Kelley. In the 1980s and 1990s, Monsignor Kelley admitted to select individuals that his friend, Irene, actually did used to be known as Amelia Earhart, and that he had helped her to become Irene Craigmile during the final days of World War Two. Non-believers insisted that the well-known monsignor was ‘senile’ and his mental condition caused him to fabricate his statements about his friend, Irene. People who knew Monsignor Kelley well, however, remarked that the monsignor was ‘quite lucid’ when he described the things he did to them about Amelia Earhart quietly living on and becoming known as ‘Irene’.
When regarded seriously, what would have theoretically been Amelia Earhart’s post-loss FWPP (Federal Witness Protection Program) that allowed her to become the new Irene O’Crowley Craigmile from the 1940s on, would have been put in place under the omniscient guise of long time FBI Director, J. Edgar Hoover. The FBI’s ‘Amelia Earhart’ file contents from the World War Two years, that included Mr. Hoover’s signatures, indicated an awareness that he had gleaned pertaining soldiers accounts of Amelia Earhart’s ongoing existence during the war years under the auspice of Japan.
Mr. Hoover was still the Director of the FBI when the ‘did Amelia become known as Irene’ assertion first surfaced in 1970, and he was sure to remain silent about it, where otherwise he would have been expected to weigh-in with an FBI opinion. Hindsight also reveals that no one from the Federal Government of the United States offered an official opinion at all toward the Amelia-Irene matter after the controversy surfaced, and it has remained that way ever since.
Important to recall as well, is the 1970 claim stating that Amelia lived-on and became known as ‘Irene’ from the mid-1940s on, was never disproved.
The complete Study is available for review on a selective basis. The portions displayed here are revealing of the overall Amelia-Irene congruence controversy.
Questions? Comments? E-mail admin@protectingearhart.com