I finally caved and joined Twitter

As you all know, or should know, the Charley Project has its own Twitter account, run by a historian named Sean who lives in, I think, Oregon. It tweets about one or two random Charley cases every day or so.

Well, a few days ago I finally created my own personal Twitter account, with the username meggy_head. (That’s one of Michael’s myriad of nicknames for me. All the good ones were already taken.) I’m not tweeting much about missing persons on there; in fact, so far I haven’t mentioned the Charley Project at all. It’s just my own random thoughts and links I find interesting and stuff like that. So far I have a whopping 12 followers.

So check it out if you want, and follow me if you feel like reading my occasional reflections and opinions on topics such as language, history, and current events.

The latest in missing persons news

Back in 1972, a brand-new ship called the Katmai left the docks in Mobile, Alabama with four people aboard: Oskar Joos, his wife, his eight-year-old son, and a deckhand named Clint Hollevoet. They were bound for Alaska but never made it; the ship and its four occupants vanished without a trace. Well, the Katmai has turned up anyway, in 8,900 feet of water (that’s like a mile and a half down, people) in the Gulf of Mexico. The research vessel that discovered the wreck took pictures, but the photos didn’t reveal any clues as to what caused the sinking. The article notes that, oddly enough, another ship called the Katmai sank off the Aleutian Chain in Alaska in 2008, taking seven crew members with it.

Rex Nisbett, whose wife Vicki vanished from Cedar Park, Texas more than 20 years ago, has been charged with her murder. MyFox Austin has video clips; KVUE has additional photos of Vicki; the Austin-American Statesman has some background info on Rex and the Nisbett’s marriage. Rex apparently has a record for drug charges and assault, but no felony convictions. Given the blood evidence they had, I’m surprised the arrest took so long.

Layron Carey, a 67-year-old Houston, Texas man who disappeared in 2009, was not listed on Charley. His body was found in August 2012 and has just been identified. He disappeared right after he was released from jail and the remains were found only a short distance away. The cops have chalked Mr. Carey’s death up to natural causes.

The Washington Examiner has done an article on William Walter Brooks, a teenager who vanished in 1992. The article has some new info about his case. Foul play is suspected in William’s disappearance.

It’s not me, it’s you

Got an email from LE saying one of the photographs on Charley was not, in fact, of the missing boy in question and would I please take it off ASAP. I went and checked my sources and discovered that same photo on the California Department of Justice database. Why they screwed up is anyone’s guess. I wrote back saying I would of course remove the inaccurate image but the cops ought to notify CDOJ as well.

More ET

Another Executed Today entry by me: George Parrott, a bandit and cop killer who was lynched in Rawlins, Wyoming a few days before his scheduled execution date in 1881.

He wouldn’t have been of much interest to me were it not for what happened AFTER his death: one of the doctors who performed the autopsy removed a piece of Parrott’s skin and had a cobbler make it into shoes. That same doctor was later elected governor of Wyoming and wore the shoes to his inaugural ball. They are now on display in a museum, along with Parrott’s skull. (The skullcap, btw, was given to the doctor’s assistant and had a long career as a doorstop and ashtray.)