Twilight Of Innocence

by Badal, James Jessen

• ISBN13: 9780873388368
• ISBN10: 0873388364
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2005-05-30
• Publisher: Kent State Univ Pr

Summary

Ten year old Beverly Potts was last seen at 9:00 P.M. the evening of August 24,1951, at Halloran Park on Cleveland's West Side. She and her neighbor and friend Patricia Swing had gone to see the Showagon--"a troupe of singers, dancers, magicians, and other performers that traveled around Cleveland's neighborhood parks during the summer, giving free performances. Patricia had to be home before dark, but Beverly's parents told her she could stay until the shows was over. When she was still not home by 9:30 her father, Robert, went our looking for her. He returned home at 10:30 without his daughter and called the Cleveland police. Beverly Potts had disappered without a trace or any evidence of her fate. James Jessen Badal reexamines the events leading up to Beverly Pott's disappearance and the subsequent police investigation and over-the top, sensational publicity in the Cleveladn press. His interviews with detectives assigned to this still-open case and his examination of police records provide a chronology of the false leads and hoaxes that culminated in this distrubing case of dead end after dead end. Badal draws comparisons between investigative techniques of the time and more modern ones and examines the social and historical context in his analysis of the more than half-century of public fascination with this case. Those who remember the kidnapping and still wonder what happened to Beverly Potts will look for clues in this book. True crime aficionados everywhere will find "Twilight of Innocence to be an important study in the tragey of unsolved disappearances.

Author Biography

James Jessen Badal is assistant professor of English and journalism at Cuyahoga Community College in Cleveland.

Table of Contents

Preface and Acknowledgments	ix
Introduction	1	(24)
PART ONE: DUSK AND SHADOW
Friday, August 24, 1951: A Very Ordinary Day	25	(16)
Saturday, August 25: Tangled Threads	41	(16)
Sunday, August 26-Monday, August 27: The Politics of Abduction	57	(13)
Tuesday, August 28-Wednesday, August 29: A Trickle of Suspects	70	(8)
Thursday, August 30-Friday, August 31: Seltzer Turns Up the Hysteria	78	(13)
PART TWO: RIPPLES IN THE POND: BECOMING A LEGEND
September 1951: False Leads and Weary Frustration	91	(14)
October 1951: Clues from the Lake	105	(3)
November 1951: The Crimes of Frank Dale Davis	108	(9)
December 1951: Come Dressed as Beverly	117	(2)
September 1952: Visions from the Spirit Realm	119	(3)
August 1953: "My name is Friday. I'm a cop!"	122	(1)
December 1955: The Ballad of Harvey Lee Rush	123	(6)
1952-1973: From the Burlesque Stage to the Grease Pit	129	(6)
August 1951 July 2002: Notes from Hell	135	(6)
PART THREE: THE PERSISTENCE OF MEMORY
1974: The Maple Heights Molester	141	(3)
1988: The Pennsylvania Child Killer	144	(5)
February-March 1994: The Tale of the Murderous Milkman	149	(3)
June 1996: Bones in the Basement	152	(2)
Anniversaries	154	(3)
2000-2001: Robert Wolf's Quest	157	(14)
Through a Glass Darkly: Shadows from the Past	171	(18)
Bibliographical Note	189	(2)
Index	191