Judge Joseph Force Crater — Supreme Court Justice Steps Into Taxi and Vanishes From New York

On the evening of August 6, 1930, New York State Supreme Court Justice Joseph Force Crater dined with friends at a Manhattan restaurant, stepped into a taxi on West 45th Street, waved goodbye to his companions, and was never seen again. He was 41 years old. The disappearance of a sitting Supreme Court judge in the largest city in America became a national sensation. Crater had recently been appointed to the New York Supreme Court by Governor Franklin Roosevelt and was under investigation in connection with Tammany Hall corruption. Before vanishing, he had drawn substantial cash from bank accounts, packed two suitcases from his apartment, and burned numerous personal papers. He told no one of his plans. The search for Crater lasted years. His wife and colleagues were investigated extensively. Tips poured in from across the country. The NYPD investigation — complicated by his connections to Tammany politicians who had no interest in disclosure — was widely criticized as inadequate. In 2005, an 81-year-old Queens woman died and left a note indicating her late husband had confessed to her that Crater had been murdered and buried under the boardwalk at Coney Island in connection with a corruption dispute. Excavations at the specified location found human remains, but they were identified as belonging to someone else. Judge Crater was declared legally dead in 1939. His fate has never been resolved and he remains one of the most famous disappearances in American legal history.