Disappearance of Beverly Potts

Potts, c. 1946

Beverly Potts was the younger of two daughters born to Robert and Elizabeth (née Treuer) Potts. The family resided in a middle-class neighborhood in Cleveland, Ohio. Her father worked as a stagehand at the Allen Theater, whereas her mother was a homemaker. Her older sister, 22-year-old Anita, worked as a clerk. Potts' father was of English, Irish, and Scottish ancestry, whereas her mother was of Hungarian ancestry.[5]

Potts was a quiet, responsible and obedient child who was close to her parents and only sister and who enjoyed music and dancing. She was tall for her age, and affectionately nicknamed "Rosebud" by her mother. According to some accounts, by 1951, she appeared one or two years older than her ten years. She attended Louis Agassiz Elementary School, where she was regarded as an attentive and popular student who typically achieved B grades.[6]

Although generally shy, but friendly, Potts' best friend, 11-year-old Patricia "Patsy" Swing, would remark the child was loathe to be the recipient of prolonged or cruel jokes and could lose her temper on occasion. Nonetheless, she was described by many who knew her as markedly timid and taciturn when in the company of individuals she did not know—particularly adolescent or adult males outside of her immediate family. This wariness extended to male family members of her close friends, including Swing's own father.[7]

Shortly after her tenth birthday, Potts began asking her mother to allow her to change her hairstyle from the distinctive blonde pigtails she had typically worn since her childhood to a fashionable banged and bobbed hairstyle popular with girls at the time. Although her mother initially refused, she relented in June 1951 and allowed her daughter to have her hair cut short. Elizabeth retained her daughter's pigtails and ribbons in crepe paper.[8]

Potts' parents always insisted their younger daughter always observed a strict curfew, with the child being grounded if she did not return home by the time agreed with her parents. On one day in mid-August, Potts and a cousin, Amber Lathan, arrived home slightly later than agreed. In response, Potts' mother forbade her daughter from attending an upcoming annual performing show to be held at nearby Halloran Park on August 24. However, as one of her daughter's greatest interests was the performing arts and Potts had been thrilled at the prospect of viewing the performance, her mother agreed to let her attend this performance event on the afternoon in question in return for a promise she would immediately return home.[9]

On the afternoon of August 24, Potts ate supper with her family, then assisted her mother with cleaning the dishes, for which the child was paid a nickel. By agreement, she and her best friend and neighbor, Patricia Swing[10] then rode to West Cleveland's Halloran Park to attended the annual summer city-sponsored children's performance event, scheduled to commence at eight o'clock.[11] This location was less than a quarter of a mile from the Potts' Linnet Avenue household and an estimated three-minute walk from her home.[2] The two rode to the park together on their bicycles, leaving the Potts household at around 6:55 p.m. Potts was dressed in a reddish-pink turtleneck shirt, blue denim jeans, and a blue jacket.[12]

Potts, photographed in Hudson, Ohio, on August 19, 1951, five days prior to her disappearance

By 9:30 p.m., the performance event had ended and the estimated 1,500 at the park had begun returning home. At this time, a 13-year-old boy named Fred Krause saw a girl he believed to be Potts walking diagonally across the park in a northeasterly direction, about 150 yards from the corner of Linnet Avenue and West 117th Street.[16] (This would have been the quickest route for Potts' to take to her home, which would then only be two or three minutes' walk away from the park.) The girl was walking on the grass just to the right of the walkway as Krause cycled past on his bicycle. Krause lived on the same street as Potts and knew the girl reasonably well via delivering the Cleveland Press to her home on his paper route. Although his visibility was limited due to the onset of darkness and the fact Linnett Avenue had only four streetlights—each partly obscured by maple and chestnut trees which lined the street in spring and summer.[17] Krause recognized Potts by the distinctive way she walked with her toes pointed at outward angles; a characteristic he and other neighborhood children had termed duck-like. Krause simply sounded his horn as he sped past the girl.[18][n 3]

Other witnesses informed investigators they had seen a girl resembling Potts walking near a stationary, "battered" and crudely painted black 1937 or '38 Dodge coupe with a "smoking, noisy muffler and recently repaired fenders" on West 117th Street, apparently speaking to two young men inside the vehicle.[n 4] These various eyewitnesses placed this encounter anywhere between 8:30 and 9:30 p.m., although none of these individuals had seen the girl entering the car.[13]

One of the final potential sightings of Potts occurred at approximately 9:45 p.m. close to the intersection of West 110th Street and Baltic Avenue. This sighting was reported by an unidentified woman who informed investigators she had observed a dark colored 1948 coupe, driven by a man she estimated to be in his forties, speeding north on Baltic Avenue with an obviously distressed child upon the back seat with her hands bound behind her back, thrashing and repeatedly shouting "I want to get out!"[20]

Disappearance

When Potts had not returned home by 10 p.m., her family phoned the Swing residence, only to be informed their daughter had returned home alone almost an hour previous and that Potts had remained alone at the park. Her father and sister immediately began to search the area; their search began by retracing the environs of the route Beverly had taken to Halloran Park, then a search of the park itself. The family search then expanded to encompass nearby streets and locations the child may have been[21] before the Potts' returned home. Her sister fruitlessly phoned the homes of her sister's friends before the family visited the nearby homes of other close friends who did not have a telephone. On each occasion, they learned their child was not at any of these residences.[2]

Approximately one hour later, at 10:57 p.m., having found no sign of their daughter and sister, the distraught family contacted the police to report Beverly missing. The first officers to arrive at the Potts household would do so shortly after midnight. A routine inspection of the property revealed the child was not hiding at the home, and that she had not taken any clothing beyond those she had worn when leaving her home. Furthermore, her piggy bank still contained all her savings, including the nickel she had earned the previous evening.[22]

Police artist sketch of Potts, depicting the clothing she wore at the time of her disappearance

Police immediately launched an intense effort to locate Potts; their efforts began by searching the local vicinity and questioning friends, acquaintances, and individuals known to have been at Halloran Park. By daylight on August 25, a large-scale, statewide manhunt to locate the child was implemented, and numerous suspects were detained and interrogated over the following weeks. The individuals to assume overall charge of the investigation were Detective Chief James McArthur—appointed to head the investigation on the morning of August 25—and officer David Kerr.[23] McArthur assigned 45 officers full-time to search for the child. Their physical searches were bolstered by numerous auxiliary police and civilian volunteers.[24]

Potts' family members were soon cleared as suspects as investigators rapidly determined that her home life had been stable and by all accounts happy, and there appeared to be no reason for her to have run away.[13] Furthermore, investigators learned from Potts' mother that on August 24, her daughter was eagerly anticipating a family trip to Euclid Beach Park, which the family had been scheduled to embark upon the morning after her disappearance.[21]

With assistance from over 1,000 volunteers, police implemented a large-scale search for the child. The search included door-to-door canvassing of nearby neighborhoods, tracing suspicious cars, searching nearby vacant lots, sewers, and wasteland, and the usage of two Civil Air Patrol planes to survey open railway cars and other potential areas of interest as far afield as Edgewater Park and reservations alongside the Rocky River.[25] Creeks and swimming pools were also dragged, divers also searched Lake Erie, and members of the public outside the designated search radius were encouraged to search vanant lots and empty buildings. All these avenues of investigation failed to yield results.[6]

An off duty Cleveland Police patrolman at Halloran Park, George Vorell, informed police he had observed two young men aged between seventeen and twenty openly leering at young girls watching the Showagon performances. These two individuals had walked behind the stage and out of Vorell's sight shortly before the conclusion of the performances. Another individual to report lewd behavior at the park was a classmate of Potts, Patricia Nagg, who informed police a young man had thrusted his hips back and forth in a manner simulating intercourse as he had stared at her. These three individuals were never traced.[26]

Media interest in the child's disappearance was intense. All three statewide television stations and all editorials devoted intense publicity to Potts' disappearance and the ongoing ordeal of her family, who granted several interviews in which they stated their belief their daughter had been abducted and was being held against her will, emphasizing in one interview: "She's being held by someone. Beverly is too shy to go along willingly; she was so shy nothing could have enticed her to go with anyone ... she'd been earnestly warned about talking with strange persons."[31]

Most news broadcasts and newspaper articles were accompanied by images of Potts, a description of the child and her clothing, the circumstances surrounding her disappearance, updates regarding the investigation and—by the Tuesday following her disappearance[31]—a police artist's sketch of the child wearing the clothing she wore on the evening of her disappearance. All media broadcasts and literature were accompanied by public appeals for information[24] and by the week following the abduction, the FBI had distributed 22,000 circulars nationwide.[32][n 6] A $1,500 reward (equivalent to $15,660 in 2021) was also offered by her father's labor union, AFL-Stagehands, for any information successfully leading to the whereabouts of his daughter and the identity of her kidnapper(s).[24][33][n 7]

Beverly Potts (center), pictured with her parents and sister at Christmas 1947

As a result of police and media appeals, investigators assigned to the case received several thousands of telephone tips—some obvious hoaxes; others considered worthy of investigation. All credible tips were pursued; however, all failed to bear fruition.[24][33]

One week after the disappearance of their daughter and sister, the Potts family issued a public appeal to her abductor(s), stating they accepted the likelihood Beverly was no longer alive and pleading for the return of her body in order that the child could receive a decent Christian burial, stating: "We have finally come to the realization we will never see our Beverly alive again. We urge whoever did this terrible thing to write or telephone to us, or the police, the location of Beverly's body so that we can reclaim [her] and give her a decent Christian burial." Her abductor(s) failed to respond to this appeal.[12]

The number of officers assigned full-time to the search for Potts began to gradually decrease in 1952. Nonetheless, the case remained active, with investigators remaining determined to locate the child or her body. By the following year, Inspector McArthur conceded there was virtually no hope of locating the child alive.[6]

In 1954, police arrested a middle-aged man, a 20-year-old woman, and a 24-year-old man on charges of peddling pornographic photographs. One individual depicted in the cache of seized images was a prepubescent girl bearing a resemblance to Potts. Although the individuals insisted the child was not Potts, her parents initially believed otherwise, before changing their minds.[6]

Another theory investigators pursued in the months and years following Potts' disappearance was that the child may have been killed by a neighbor and buried within or around one of the nearby houses on Linnet Avenue, and at least one search to that effect was conducted in 1973, in the basement of what by then was an auto body shop. However, no signs of Potts were found there or elsewhere, and no plausible local suspect has ever been uncovered.[15][6]

In 1980, two retired Cleveland police detectives, James Fuerst and Robert Shankland, revealed that in 1974 they had received a tip from a local attorney with a client whose brother had supposedly confessed to abducting Potts. The detectives subsequently found and questioned the brother, who, they said, had readily admitted to having lived near Halloran Park in 1951 and making a habit of picking up and molesting young girls there. The man did not remember abducting Potts in particular, but said he had "flashes" of memory involving a girl named Beverly. Fuerst and Shankland were convinced the man was guilty, but the county prosecutors' office refused to pursue the case, citing a lack of evidence.[35]

In 1994, a letter was discovered under a carpet in a Cleveland house, written by a woman who claimed to have caught her husband disposing of Potts' body in their furnace.[36] Upon her being traced and questioned by police, the woman said that the allegation was false; she had written the letter solely as a revenge fantasy against her abusive husband.[36]

More letters were sent to reporter Brent Larkin of the Cleveland Plain Dealer beginning in 2000, purporting to be from an elderly and infirm man who claimed that he wanted to confess to molesting and murdering Potts before his imminent death. The anonymous author pledged to turn himself in on August 24, 2001, the fiftieth anniversary of Potts' disappearance, but shortly beforehand wrote again to say he had to enter a nursing home and would be unable to honor his promise or otherwise reveal himself. An extensive investigation failed to turn up any clues to the author's identity; Larkin now believes the letters to have been a distasteful hoax.[37][38]

Several suspects have emerged over the years, although none can be definitively linked to Potts' abduction:

The enduring mystery of Potts' disappearance, the exhaustive—yet ultimately unsuccessful—nationwide investigation to locate the child and determine the actual motive behind her abduction has captured the imagination of the press and public alike in and around Cleveland for decades. According to some accounts, Potts' disappearance increased parents' wariness as to their own children's safety and many children raised in and around the city were heavily chaperoned for many years following the incident. The case remains one of Cleveland's most infamous missing persons cases,[15] with information still sought by investigators, and a Crime Stoppers reward of $15,000 remaining active.[41]

Potts' mother, Elizabeth, died of liver disease in March 1956 at age 56.[41] Shortly after her death, her husband, Robert, remarked his wife's health had been "going downhill ever since Beverly disappeared." Robert died of natural causes on February 11, 1970. Both are interred in West Park Cemetery in Cuyahoga County, Ohio.[42]

In 1991, Potts' sister, Anita, unveiled a memorial stone to her sister directly alongside the graves of her parents. At the unveiling, Anita declared that if her sister's remains were ever discovered and identified, she should be laid to rest beneath this memorial stone, alongside her parents. This marker is inscribed with the words: "In Memory of Beverly Rose Potts."[15][37]

Anita Potts Georges continued to search for her only sister until her own death in 2006.[43] She seldom discussed her sister's disappearance in much detail prior to her death. However, the effect of her sister's abduction greatly impacted her own parenting. According to her daughter, Megan Roberts (b. 1964), the event "absolutely affected her parenting. She was strict, and always wanted to know where we were, who we were with ... but she very seldom spoke of Beverly other than to tell us she had a sister that disappeared. She would say it was just too painful to talk about ... it was very emotional for her."[12]

• Badal, James Jessen (2005). Twilight of Innocence: The Disappearance of Beverly Potts. Kent, Ohio: Kent State University Press. ISBN 0-873-38836-4.
• Becker, Thea (2012). Legendary Locals of Cleveland. South Carolina: Gray & Company. ISBN 978-1-467-10029-8.
• Bellamy, John S. (1997). The Maniac in the Bushes: More True Tales of Cleveland Crime and Disaster. Cleveland, Ohio: Arcadia Publishing. ISBN 978-1-886-22819-1.
• Collins, James J. (1999). Law Enforcement Policies and Practices Regarding Missing Children and Homeless Youth. United States: Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. ISBN 978-0-788-18639-4.
• Cooper, Cynthia L.; Sheppard, Sam L. (1995). Mockery of Justice: The True Story of the Sheppard Murder Case. Lebanon, New Hampshire: University Press of New England. ISBN 978-1-555-53241-3.
• Greene, Dr. Karen Shalev; Alys, Llian (2016). Missing Persons: A Handbook of Research. London: Routledge. ISBN 978-1-409-46802-8.
• Katz, Hélèna (2010). Cold Cases: Famous Unsolved Mysteries, Crimes, and Disappearances in America. Santa Barbara: Greenwood Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0-313-37692-4.
• Metzenbaum, Howard (1983). Child Kidnapping: Hearing Before the Subcommittee on Juvenile Justice of the Committee on the Judiciary United States Senate. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office. ISBN 978-0-788-18639-4.
• Pettem, Silvia (2017). The Long Term Missing: Hope and Help for Families. Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 978-1-442-25680-4.
• Sprague, Donald F. (2013). Investigating Missing Children Cases: A Guide for First Responders and Investigators. New York: Taylor & LFrancis Group. ISBN 978-1-439-86063-2.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Beverly Potts.

• Contemporary news article pertaining to the disappearance of Beverly Potts
• 2014 News 5 Cleveland report pertaining to Potts' disappearance
• 2015 news article focusing upon the 64th anniversary of Potts' disappearance
• Remembering the Beverly Potts Case on the Anniversary of Her Disappearance: A collection of contemporary newspaper articles published by the Cleveland Plain Dealer
• Beverly Potts at charleyproject.org
• Beverly Potts (Cenotaph) at Find a Grave
• Beverly Potts at NamUs
• Beverly Potts at The Doe Network