Do Go On - 231 - The Disappearance of Bobby Dunbar

Episode Date: March 25, 2020

On the 23rd of August 1912, four year old Bobby Dunbar went missing while at Swayze Lake, Louisiana. Eight months later he was found. This week's episode follows these amazing events and the fallout that is still being felt over a century later.Buy tickets to our four live steamed podcasts (12pm Melbourne time April 11, 18, 25 and May 2). Or buy a discounted season pass:https://sospresents.com/collections/upcoming-live-streamsOur website: dogoonpod.comSupport the show and get rewards like bonus episodes: patreon.com/DoGoOnPod Submit a topic idea directly to the hat: dogoonpod.com/Submit-a-Topic Twitter: @DoGoOnPodInstagram: @DoGoOnPodFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/DoGoOnPod/Email us: [e-mail] out our other podcasts:Book Cheat: https://play.acast.com/s/book-cheatPrime Mates: https://play.acast.com/s/prime-mates/Listen Now: https://play.acast.com/s/listen-now/Our awesome theme song by Evan Munro-Smith and logo by Peader ThomasREFERENCES AND FURTHER READING:https://www.thisamericanlife.org/352/the-ghost-of-bobby-dunbarhttps://www.thisamericanlife.org/352/transcripthttps://www.historicmysteries.com/bobby-dunbar/https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2004/may/5/20040505-111755-3134r/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disappearance_of_Bobby_Dunbarhttps://allthatsinteresting.com/bobby-dunbarhttps://www.mentalfloss.com/article/516444/bizarre-kidnapping-mystery-stunned-1910s-south Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Melbourne and Canada, we got exciting news for you. And we should also say this is 2026. Jess, what year is it? 2026. Thank God you're here. Right now, I'm in Melbourne doing my show with Serenji Amarna, 630 each night at the Cooper's Inn Hotel, having so much fun. We'd love to see you there.

Canada, we are visiting you in September this year. If you've somehow missed the news, we are heading up Vancouver, Calgary, Montreal, and Toronto for shows. That's going to be so much fun. Tickets for all this stuff, I believe, are online. And I'm here too. Before we get started on the episode this week, I just wanted to drop in to tell you about some upcoming live shows we're doing. Obviously not in person. COVID-19 has put a stop to that.

This was going to be a huge year of live shows for us, starting with the Melbourne Comedy Festival. Then we're going to get all around Australia and even a couple of international tours that were so close to being booked in and locked away. But unfortunately, that's all in the bin for now. Instead, we're going to be doing some live streaming episodes, and you can find out more details about these at SOSPresents.com. We're teaming up with the good people at Stubedal Studios. We're going to do four live episodes, live streaming on the web, and you can get tickets to those either individually, or you can buy a season past, much like at the Melbourne Comedy Festival, where you get four shows for the price of three, I do believe. Look out for the website. I think

it will be going live today as this episode comes out, maybe this afternoon. And you can also check out our social medias at Do Go On Pod on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. And I'm sure we'll be posting all about it there. But yeah, it should be a really fun time. SOSPresents.com or do go on pod on all the social medias. Anyway, on with the bloody show. This podcast is part of the Planet Broadcasting Network. Visit planetbroadcasting.com for more podcasts from our great mates.

And welcome to another episode of Do Go On. My name is Dave Warnikey and as always I'm sitting here with Matt Stewart and Jess Perkins. Hello. Hey Dave. Hey, Jess. Hey, guys. That's a new, that's a new catchphrase I've come up with. Hey, guys.

What do you reckon? I love it. I love it. Inspired by anything? Nope. Just said it accidentally then and thought, hey, leave. I've been in. I was that one of yours.

Yeah, have you heard that around? All the cool kids are doing it. That's me. Yeah, I've accidentally quoted you. I've said, hey guys a couple of times out of coincidence. Well, you owe me quite a lot of money now. Oh, no. You copyrighted and hey guys.

Yeah, I'm not an idiot. I'm a business savvy lady. We knew it, Dave. We knew it when we got into business with her. This day would come. That's right. Very litigious. Yeah, prepare to get sued.

That was the first thing she ever said to me, actually. Yeah. We've been preparing ever since. Many years later, our time has come. I like to keep you on edge. I like you to never know when I'm going to sue you. But it's coming. Okay, looking forward to it.

So help me glad, it's coming. Hey, well, that's fun. There's a bit of court action in today's report, actually. Ah, perfect. So, Dave or Jess, you want to explain what the show is again? Just for me, and maybe the listeners, if they get something out of it too, that's good. You want me to do it. I've forgotten as well.

I'd like Jess to do it. You want me to do it. I'm the, oh, yep, no, I'm the best at it. Okay, here we go. So this show is about all kinds of things. Fuck! And there's three of us. I'm Jess.

He's Matt and he's Dave. And we take turns, researching topics, and then we write up a report about it, like a little story, and then we tell the others and you, because you're listening in. And the other two who don't know anything about the topic are usually kind of dickheads and derail it a lot and the person trying to do the report's like, yes, very funny, but shut up. You know? So that's our show.

And then eventually when it gets uploaded on YouTube, people find that very annoying. Yet they listen long enough to comment that. It blows my mind. I love that about them. If you are listening and you're currently writing a comment about how much you hate it, just fuck off and do something else. I reckon.

That's my advice. Fuck off. Do something else. Yeah. Get alive. I had to get sued. The number of comments we've got that say, oh, that's an hour and 50 minutes I'll never get back. Why did you listen to an hour of 50?

I've listened to 30 seconds of things and gone, I hate this, and I've turned it off. And I've gone on with my life. So maybe just, you know, learn from my example, I guess. Very true. Thank you. Well, Matt. Yes. It is your turn this week to tell us the little story.

I love the phrase that you use there, Jess. Little story. And we usually start with a question, a question to get us on the topic, please, Matthew? Yes. Well, today I'm going to ask a question that is sort of very tangential to the topic, really, because I don't think you will know this particular topic. I didn't. But the question is, you won't know this either, but you'll at least be able to have a guess.

What animals infest Swayze Lake? Oh, otters, please be, otters. Infest, you don't get an infestation of otters. You haven't seen my lower back. Wait, what? What's the collective term for otters? Collective noun. Anyone know?

A fuck ton of otters. Have you got a fuck ton of otters on your lower back, Dave? And you've not told us? Yeah, please call an ambulance. What would they do? Flick them off. Get out of here. Yeah.

Paramedics have all been trained to deal with otters, mate. They're trained for a lot of things. It's not otters. Jess, I reckon you, I'll give you one crack and then I'll tell you the answer, but I reckon you'll get this. I only get one go, but you think I'll get it. Yeah. Is that a clue?

What infests? What might infest a lake? Mould. That's pretty good. It's algae. Yeah, that's right. Yeah. It's close.

It's alligators. Aligators. Aligators. Aligators. Ah. Okay. So this topic is called the disappearance of Bobby Dunbar. And it's been, have you heard of this?

No, it just sounds exciting. It does sound exciting. It's been suggested by multiple people. including Ava Lelaney from Wisconsin, Adam Darby Shear from Florida, Liam Tasker from Ireland, Lynn Thomas from Washington State, James McCracken from Whitehaven in the UK, and Ethan Lee from Brideon. Oh my God, James McRacken. Fantastic name. Great work, James.

Are you kidding me? Jimmy McSee, because his mates probably call him. Jimmy McCracken. So before we start, fair warning, because I know it's always heartbreaking at the end, if you don't realize it's coming, but this is a mystery episode. Oh, no.

I mean, oh, yes, I love it. No, I love them. I love it because it means we get to speculate. And was it mole people or was it mold people this week? We'll soon find out. That's right. When old people goes back to one of our earlier mysteries, maybe the Diet Love Pass?

Yeah, maybe, yeah. It's mole people of the golden woman. Anyway. The golden woman. I love that very much. Actually, you know, with world events at the moment and everyone having a bunker down because of the COVID-19 outbreak, I put up the Spanish flu as a suggestion. A few people had asked for it on Twitter and in the hat. I'm like, oh, that might be good.

I kind of, I reckon there's two kinds of people in a scenario like this, the people who want to just forget about it and want to listen to a podcast like this to escape. And other people who just want to dive in and learn as much as they can and see if history. teaches us anything. Yeah. And it turns out our listeners, or at least our patrons, are more of the escapism types because they chose this over that. It was pretty close. There was quite a few who were keen on the Spanish flu.

And I reckon it'll be an interesting one to do a little bit later on, maybe when we all know that we're going to survive this one. Yeah, but this is going to be pretty embarrassing when we have an alligator apocalypse, isn't it? Yes. We're going to have to go back and delete this episode. Out of respect. Fingers crossed.

All right, so here we go. On the 23rd of August 1912, the Dunbar family went on a camping trip to Swayze Lake, Louisiana. It's one of those stories, you know, because it's over 100 years old, every article about it tells this part of the story a little bit differently. Some say it's a day trip, some say a camping trip. Some say it's just a family. Some say it's with a bunch of other families.

family friends as well. Right. I don't think that necessarily matters to the story overall. I want to know exactly who was on this family trip. Name and shame. Yeah. The Dunbar, well, the Dunbar family was made up of parents Lessee and Percy. Not enough Percy's in my life anymore.

I think Percy's a great name. It's been with me since childhood. There was Percy the train in Thomas the Tank Engine. And I could struggle to name another Percy, I reckon. Percy Dunbar, obviously. I know a cat called Percy. Oh, it's a good pet name. Yeah, it's a good cat.

Well, what about Percy Jones, the footballer? His nickname was Wow, Wow Jones. And the rumor is that's because he's got a W tattooed on each butt cheek. So when he does a brown eye or moons people that spells wow. I don't know if that's true. He owns a pub in Fitzroy now. Anyway, so Leslie and Percy, the parents, then there's their two kids, four-year-old Bobby and two-year-old Alonzo. Another fantastic name.

Alonzo. All those names are great. You start with Bobby and then you name your second kid a way cooler name, Alonzo. I like Bobby as well, but Alonzo, it's hard to be. Bobby's fine. But Alonzo, good God. Hi, I'm Bobby, and this is my brother. Alonzo.

So cool. It is so cool. I've decided I'd just change this before because I had, I was quoting one article about how it all happened, but I've changed my mind. I'm going to go with the mental floss version of events, and I'm just going to read it out as written on their site. Love it. Described in newspapers as stout, but not fat, rosy-cheeked and sporting a straw hat,

the four-year-old son of Percy and Lessey Dunbar had accompanied need his parents and their friends to a weekend camping retreat at Swayze Lake near Opelousis in Louisiana. That's their hometown, Opelousis, and I'm going to have to say it a lot. It's spelled O-P-E-L-O-U-S-A-S-S. Love it. Get ready for me to pronounce it differently every time. Percy, who ran a successful real estate and insurance company, quickly left to attend to business. Lessie stayed behind to care for Bobby and his two-year-old brother, Alonzo. This is still from mental floss.

The morning they arrived, Bobby left his mother to go watch his father's friend, Paul Mitzie, shoot fish in the murky water. Shoot. Merkie water? Is it murky water because of mold, perhaps? Oh. Aluminati confirmed. I just want to say, if you're shooting fish in murky water, are you just having a crack

and shooting the water and hoping for best? I think you're shooting water, actually. It's like, you know, the phrase like shooting fish in a barrens. I mean something's real easy. I think the opposite of that is like shooting fish in a murky lake. That means something's quite hard. And stupid. And stupid, yes.

Paul Mitzi. Hard and stupid. Hey kids, come watch me shoot this lake. I missed. I can't believe I missed. He had a big group of kids watching him shoot at a lake. Oh man, that's funny stuff. I don't think I even realize how funny that is until you can point.

of that out there. So the Mental Floss article goes on to describe it as a muddy splash of swamp surrounded by trees. As lunchtime neared, Lesi began calling everyone to help set up for the meal. According to a contemporary newspaper report, and it was very widely reported at the time, as Mitzi and Bobby walked to the dining area, the young man told the little boy to get out of his way. Bobby laughed and said something sassy, then, quote.

disappeared like magic. The way they describe it as like he's thrown down like a smoke bomb. But I don't think that's what happened. I think, I'm thinking they turned around and then he walked away or something happened or,

yeah. But yeah, in one of the other articles, I think they haven't quoted what the sassy comment was. It said something like, you're no bigger than me, Mitzie.

That's, he's a four-year-old. Four-year-old boy talking to an adult man. That is a stout boy Mitzi, more like shitsy, am I right? Smoke bomb, bang. And I'm gone.

Apparently, his nickname amongst friends and family, Bobby, a four-year-old, was heavy. Heavy. Wow. Heavy D and the boys, classic band. I was playing on for you. Remember I was playing for you when we're on tour in the UK? Heavy D and the boys.

Still one of my favorite ever band names. I just couldn't believe that there was a band called Heavy Day. I can't believe. I can't believe it. That's so good. Anyway, mental floss goes on. When Bobby failed to reappear, you know, the magic trick went awry, I guess. His mother grew frantic.

It's easy to imagine her worst fears about the alligator infested waters nearby. By the time Percy returned to the lake around noon, he found friends searching for his son, and more than 100 locals quickly joined the search party. Okay, so that's the end of the mental force section there. So already, no one knows what's happened here. Can I ask a question? Sure.

So Paul Mitzie? Yep. He's walking back to the dining area at a campground, dining area, very kind. And it's just him and Bobby, or there's other kids around as well? Just him and Bobby? Oh, well, I think there's other kids as well. I think there was, depending on who you read, I see those two, I think there were lots of other kids

and he was the only one that sort of wandered off or something. It just sounds like he killed the kid. Well, Jess has gone early, turned on Shitsy. I'm usually right about these things, so it's a mystery no more. Solved. Well, I needn't go on. I've got another 18 pages to read, but... No.

Oh, well, just for everyone else, Jess, you've locked in your answer early, but for Dave, you can hear the rest of the question. All right. Okay. Classic sale of the century rules. Yeah, Jess has buzzed in, possibly got it wrong, and here I am. I'm just going to wait until I am mole people. Yes. So though it's called a lake, Swayze was more like a swamp.

of alligators. It seemed like the first instinct of the police. So they ended up, the search party went on, couldn't turn him up. So then the cops came in, local cops at first and state cops. But when the cops came in, it seemed like the instinct of a lot of the people there was that the boy has either probably drowned or been taken by one of the many gaiters. To test this theory, they caught and dissected many alligators, but could not find him. So they cutting gaiters stomachs open to see what they can find. They'll heal right though. Yeah, yeah.

They, yeah, just a, it's day surgery. I think it's just a local anesthetic. Stitch him up, send them back out. Maybe they let them stay in overnight, but yeah, they've got to be out the next day because there's a limited amount of beds in the alligator hospital. This bit blew my mind. According to all that's interesting, they also, quote, threw dynamite into the hoping it would eject the body from the water.

No. No. They thought they throw in dynamite and a body would just go, blop, out it is. There it is. I think so, yeah. That's so dumb. Well, it didn't work.

Ah, you don't say. So the search broadened. It went out across the area and then eventually the state and bordering states as well. And then eight long months went by without any result. But then one day, word came. through that a kid matching Bobby's description had been found in Mississippi, which I believe is a bordering state of Louisiana, or at least it's not too far away. Are we to believe, that is very close by, but are we led to believe that the dynamite was

so powerful that it blew him from the lake into another state? They weren't paying enough attention. He went shooting through the score. Luckily, he landed on a bale of hay. That could have been nasty. Yeah. The boy was found accompanying a traveling piano repairman named William Cantwell Walters. Tell us what you picture in there, Jess.

I don't know. I don't know why I found that so funny. I mean, sure, somebody has to repair pianos. Why is it so scarce a resource that he has to travel all over the place? Just to look up to pianos. I think, well, I think the terminology at the time was he was a travelling tinkerer or travelling tinker. Stop us. But I try to put it in a modern parlance because it sounds like the main part of his job was

repairing pianos and organs, tuning him and repairing. Yeah, right. He was a piano doctor in a lot of ways. Yeah, that's right. He went around with a stethoscope, putting it on the belly of the piano. Doesn't look good. Good thing you called me. Dr. Pianist, not to be confused with Dr. Pianist, not to be confused with Dr. Pieness, of course.

People have made that mistake many times. I will look at your penis, but I'm not an expert. So he'd travel from town to town tuning people's pianos and also doing other odd jobs to eke out of living. When the cops caught up with Walters, he told authorities the boy wasn't Bobby Dunbar, but Charles Bruce Anderson, or Bruce for short, the son of Julia Anderson. One story, one article I read, talked about how they heard about this, and the Dunbar sent a relative of theirs who was nearby, one of Percy's brothers, I think. And he said, no, that's not the boy.

It was someone in that same area anyway, but it's not confirmed. if this is the same go or not. Anyway, this second time, they were more interested. But Walters told them that Julia Anderson, who he said was the mother of the boy, asked him to look after Bruce for a while when she went out looking for work. In the end, this story wasn't believed,

and Walters was arrested, and Bobby was reunited with the Dunbar family. The Dunbar has traveled over to Mississippi to IDM and stuff. How the reunion between Bob and his parents went down was reported in contradictory ways at the time. Like wildly contradictory ways. Here's a few. Here's two examples.

One article had the headline, Mother feints side of kidnapped child saying, quote, The boy recognizes his mother instantly. Mother, he cried as he reached up and stretched out his arms to her. The mother convulsely embraced the boy and then fainted, end quote.

Okay, so that's one. way that the meeting was reported on at the time. Another article had the headline, Mrs. Dunbar, not positive lad, is her missing boy going on to say. Mrs. Dunbar looked in the dim light of a smoky oil lamp and then fell back with a gasp.

I do not know. I'm not quite sure, faltered Mrs. Dunbar. So one story, they both definitely recognize each other embrace in love and the other one. I don't know. Is it him? I'm not sure. Wow. I mean, that's two very different reactions. The second one, even if it is dark, it is hard to think.

How long has it been since she hasn't seen her son? Eight months. I mean, four-year-olds obviously do grow, but that much? Yeah, that's what I'm wondering as well, like eight months, four. So that's a big chunk of a life. It's eight months out of four years, you know, it's something like 20% of its life or something. But, and you're grieving through that time? I don't know.

But it feels like, yeah, it feels like maybe you think you would recognize your kid and your kid would recognize you. But it's just so weird that it's been reported on in such different way. It's not like a small detail is different. It's like, in one case, they were both very excited and happy. And in the other, it's like, we're still not sure. Yeah, very strange. You wonder what the motives of the two right as well.

I guess maybe it was like now, more sensational headlines get bigger readerships or whatever. I don't know. So according to episode 352 of This American Life, which focuses on this story, and I would highly recommend people who haven't to listen to this episode as well, it's great and it's got interviews with people involved, or at least descendants of people involved in the story. And I'll put a link to that in the show notes as well. But here's a part of the episode, I'm quoting from here.

It says, Percy and Lessee both told the papers that the boy didn't look like their son. His eyes were too small. But then the next day, they came back and Lessie gave the boy a bath and identified the moles and scars on his skin and declared he was hers. Oh. And according to some newspapers, Bobby didn't recognize his father or mother either or his brother Alonzo. until he bathed them and recognised their moles. Isn't that interesting? It's like, don't recognise his face, but that mole, I'd know it anywhere.

Yeah, I've got facial blindness, but I'm a mole expert. Yeah. So he apparently had quite a distinctive scar on one of his feet, and that lined up. And I guess, you know, the odds of that. Even though, yeah, it is interesting, I think his eyes. are different. Can eyes change in eight months? Probably, I guess. I don't know. Probably not, actually. I'm not sure. Not that much, I don't reckon. No. Not that much that people are like, what have you? Not like, have you done something to your face? But I don't know if you're you.

You guys got any moles that I could use to identify you? Any scars? Any markings? I got a pink scar on my elbow from falling off a skateboard, I think, when I was a kid. Okay, all right. And it's never fully healed. So just check my right elbow. Okay. Dave, anything for you? Check my left elbow.

Oh, okay. And that's genuine. I fell over at a birthday party in year seven. And I, we were in the spa and then we went inside and I tripped and I, on the tiles and I hit my arm on a wall. And it cut it open. It didn't really heal that well because it's on the bit that people jokingly call, I don't know, it was joke. Your weenis, you know that bit. That's what it's called.

Yeah. Yeah. But I know when people love that joke when they find out it's called that. And yeah, because it's on that bit that's bumpy. It never fully healed properly. So check my left elbow. All right. Yeah, well, that must be the same as me.

Jess, do you have a funny weanus? I don't have a funny weanness, but you can check my left hip because I got a big freckle there. And my dad has like a matching one on his right hip. Just a little fun fact there. But yeah, I've got a big freckle on my hip. And we've all got tattoos, you dickheads. Oh, yeah. My tattoo says, I'm Matt Stewart.

Yes, that is handy. Don't look at my wieness. All right, sorry. I just wanted to derail. I just need to make a note of that in case I'm ever given the responsibility of identifying your dead bodies. Okay. Is this your son?

No. But it is Matt Stewart. That's not the question. One paper said, Bobby at first meeting turns upon Alonzo with a scowl of anger. There appeared no recognition of his little brother. But contradicting that, another paper said, the instant they met, Robert said, there's my Bubba Alonzo and reached over and kissed him.

Okay. Another, like exact opposite. Quite different. Yeah. I don't know if that's the exact opposite. Is the opposite of a scow or kiss? Yes. Absolutely.

Okay, great. And calling someone my Bubba. So depending on the paper you read, you'd be either sure it was Bobby. Dunbar or very confused about it all indeed. Either way, after Lessey positively identified moles and scars on his body, the authorities allowed Bobby to return to the Dunbar home. There was a lot of fanfare for Bobby when he returned to Opelousas, Louisiana, where the

Dunbar's lived. Crowd surrounded the Dunbar house. We talk about this sometimes. Olden day things, people just love to gather around a house when something's happened. Yeah, there's not boat with the mole. It's the mole boy. He's a mole boy. Well, that's a big clue.

Not a mold boy. According to Dunbar's granddaughter Margaret, quote, there was a tremendous parade with a fire truck and the whole town came out. And there was a band and everyone celebrated and he was found. So he rode into town on a fire truck. Oh my God. Well, they sure the fire truck wasn't there like blasting people with a

water cannon saying go home. Go home. You've got better things to do. It wasn't quite as simple as that though. As Julia Anderson arrived in town keen to prove Walter's story that the boy was in fact her son, Charles Bruce Anderson. Oh yeah. I totally forgot they've taken this kid. Oh my God. Okay. Yep. If she was able to prove this that it was her son, who she called Bruce, as well as potentially helping her reunite with the boy, she would also get her. help, she would also help get Walters off his kidnapping charges. So Walters is, so now that they're like, well, this is the Dunbar boy, that means Walter's kidnapped the kid.

So he's been arrested. And yeah, so she's got different motivations to come to town and go, this is actually my boy. Firstly, believing her story, it's to get her son back. And secondly, to get Walters off his kidnapping charges. So Walters worked, the Walter's family employed Julia. She sort of was like a field hand, I think she's described as. So yeah, her and Walters were close, but she'd been away trying to get work.

And Walters had been traveling around tuning pianos with her boy. That's the story. And now she's in town to try and prove that to be true. Far out. Prior to arriving in Opelousis, Anderson was published in a paper telling her side of the story saying, quote, William C. Walters left Barnesville, North Carolina with my son, Charles Bruce, in February of 1912, saying that he only wanted to take the child with him for a few days on a visit to the home of his sister. I have not seen the child from that day to this, which was over a year later.

Oh my God. So he's definitely kidnapped a boy no matter what the name boy. name of the boy? Basically, yes. I did not give him the child. I merely consented for him to take my son for a few days. That's weird. That is weird. Yeah, that is wild, right? She goes on to say, Walters had been at the home of his father, Mr. J.P. Walters near Barnesville since November of 1911. And while he was there, he and the child were together a great deal and seemed very fond of each other. The boy would go anywhere with Walters. I would know. my son if I were to see him and I'm sure he would know me. I have no picture of the child,

but I have a lock of his hair. Okay. Isn't that it's a wild thing that back in those days photos for people who didn't have a lot of money were harder to get. So she just, she had a four-year-old kid and she didn't have a photo of him. I know. And it took me a second to get that. And I was like, why doesn't she have a photo of it? Oh, okay. Yep. All right. I understand. It's also, it's thing that, so I don't think she ever reported him as missing. So she was sort of accepted that Walters had taken her. She knew Walters. She was off looking for work and the way Walters tells him, the way she tells it is a little bit different as well. He says that she knew he was with him and she says, yeah, for a couple of days. Then a year went by. So that's pretty full on.

So I was over here. I think maybe 15 months since she's seen her son, child. Bruce Anderson. According to this American life, quote, a new Orleans paper paid for her trip to Opelousis to see if she could really identify the boy as hers. The story as it was played out in the front pages was this. Julia arrived, weary from an overnight train ride and was taken to an Opelousis home. Five boys around Bruce's age, including the child the Dunbar's had claimed as Bobby, were brought in at different times and Julia had to choose. When Bobby came in, He was in tears and so was Julia. He showed no signs of recognition,

even when she offered him an orange. But Julia asked the lawyers in the room if this was the child who was recovered and they refused to answer, which makes sense. I think if they answered, it would kind of defeat the purpose. But nice try, Ms. Anderson, you know what I mean?

She's trying to offer every child an orange? Is it my son doesn't even know what an orange is, so he wouldn't say yes to an orange. Yeah. So now we've got two mothers who supposedly reunited with their son and did not recognize them enough to claim them as their own straight away. In the end, she had to say she was unsure. But it did seem like that one was the one she was most interested in. You know, that was the one she was closer to but couldn't be sure about it. The story was already gaining huge traction in the press and news that Anderson was unable to identify the boy was reported widely also.

The reporting on Anderson was often cruel, in part I think because she was an unmarried mother, which was frowned upon back then. Here's an article reporting on her inability to positively identify her child in a New Orleans paper back in the day, titled Julia Has Forgotten by Jerome G. Beatty Quote. Her long journey had been in vain. She had not seen her son since February 1912, and she had forgotten about him.

Animals don't forget, but this big, coarse countrywoman, several times a mother, she forgot. She cared little for her young. Children were only regrettable incidents in her life. She hopes her son isn't dead, just as she hopes that the cotton crop will be good this year. Of true mother love, she has none. Oh. Is that a wild thing to write?

That is scathing. And like, what's he basing that on Jerome Beattie? Yeah, far out. I don't know if he was from the paper that paid for her to come over and he spent some time with her or what, but it's just like, that doesn't, that's, yeah, quite a brutal description of her. Yeah. I was going to say earlier that she doesn't sound like the greatest mother.

But I don't think, well, I mean, yeah, that's a very scathing review of a person. Yeah, to put in a paper. And I don't think he's not disputing that she's lost her son, whether it's this guy or another kid. He's like, she doesn't care anyway. She's lost him. She doesn't give a shit. Well, why is she travelled over to identify him? stuff, you know? Yeah. Yeah, just very cruel.

Anyway, she returned the following day begging for a second chance to identify the boy. And according to this... Did she bring another orange? She brought another, she brought a bag of him this time. But in a clever twist, she also brought a bunch of bananas. Very well played. According to this American life, she was allowed to see the boy again and undress him. This time, she felt more certain that it was her son. What is it about this boy that he's More recognizable with his clothes off than on. His face is so plain, but then you look at his body and so specific. But it's strange.

Two different mothers go, I'm not sure based on his face. Oh, yeah. That belly button. But does I mean there's four decoy boys that she's having to undress that don't have anything to do with her? No, I think it was she just asked that she's like, this boy, I want to see that. But even that in itself is pretty wild, isn't it? That it's like, I think that's my son. Let me see him naked.

Yeah, so weird. But because she was uncertain the day before, the test had already been declared a failure. According to historic mysteries, a judge found that the child was Bobby Dunbar and gave custody to Percy and Lessie. Oh. So that's it all wrapped up.

The boy is Bobby Dunbar. Anderson didn't have money for a court battle anyway, and so she returned home, leaving the boy with the Dunbar's. This is from all that's interesting. Bobby had returned home and acclimatized well, was playing with his brother, and showed signs of remembering things at the house. Anderson, being unable to prove the boy was hers, meant Walters was in trouble for kidnapping. He went to trial, and in a long and expensive court case was convicted and was sentenced to life

in prison. Whoa. He spent two years behind bars before his attorney appealed the case. successfully, I think it was on a technicality and a retrial was ordered. But due to the expense of the first trial, the town declined retrialing Walters and he was set free. Oh. And weird sort of way that he was set free, but still sort of, you know, not exonerated, really, just like we can't afford to try him again. But he went from life in prison to two years in prison and then free. Yeah. That's weird. He'd only served two years of his life.

Yeah, yeah. In prison. And then, yeah, it's something a bit odd about that, right? Yeah, really weird. Yeah. Which is obviously so expensive or, yeah, I don't know. It's just another quirk in the story. There's so many of them where you're like,

wow, that doesn't really seem to make full sense to me. Yeah, I don't get that. When Bobby was 12, his dad Percy was charged. So he ends up living his life with the Dunbar's. when he was 12, his dad Percy was charged with beating and stabbing a man while on a trip to Florida. That same year Percy and Lessey separated. This followed Percy being charged with adultery and cohabitation, which seemed to corroborate Lessie's claims in the divorce papers that Percy cheated on her repeatedly.

So he ended up, he had a pretty rough childhood by the sounds of it. So I think he, yeah, his parents split when he was still quite, quite young. And yeah, his dad sounded like it could be quite a violent man. Historic mystery states that it wasn't until Bobby became a grown man that he spoke to the media about his exceptional childhood. He would state at long last that he recalled his kidnapping by Walters and his time away from his family.

Oh. In 1932, sorry, Dave. So as a child, when he's four, most children at four are pretty lingual. there was no way that he could say my name is and then his name or anything like that? No, not. It didn't happen in any way that he was able to prove it particularly, despite him being quite lingual. Because, I mean, he was being sassy just before he went missing.

Sorry, I forgot. Your bloody shits all, whatever his name is. He's sassed all over that guy. So he's gone from being sassy to now not really being able to identify himself or tell the story of what had happened or whatever. I guess, you know, if you've been kidnapped for eight months, that's pretty traumatic. And you think about things like, what's it called when you're kidnapped and you start feeling for the kidnapper? Stockholm syndrome.

I was going to call it Oslo syndrome. Yeah, Stockholm syndrome. So who knows, right, with all these different things. Maybe people are able to explain it away. Like, you know, it's very traumatic experience for a four-year-old. who knows how that's going to affect their mental state. But yeah, when he grew up, he did recall the kidnapping. In 1932, when he was about 24, around the same time as the Lindbergh baby was taken.

Yeah. This led to reporters having interest in his story again. You know, let's talk to the other famously kidnapped child from a couple of decades ago. And this is what he said in the interview. A lot of people still. believe I was eaten by an alligator, but I can assure you I was not. I don't believe him. That's a good assurance because I was worried.

Yeah. According to this American life, in one of these interviews, quote, he went on to recount a memory of being with William Walters on the wagon on the road before the arrest, before he was recovered by the Dunbar's. In the memory, there was another boy with him who fell off the wagon and died and was buried. Okay. So he's basically, he's remembering Charles Bruce Anderson dying and being buried, which, you know, explains why there were two boys lost, only one was found.

Yeah. But this story was very similar to a theory put forward by the prosecution at Walter's trial. Yeah. Basically, he'd been traveling with both Bobby Dunbar and Bruce Anderson. And that was how they explained that he could have been with two boys and only one. still remain. But it's also quite possible that Bobby had heard this theory after the trial and then slowly turned it into a memory. Yep. But it's hard to know for sure. That's what I was thinking before, because he was so little and people, like his whole life people would be talking about this with him

and around him and you would sort of, I don't remember what it's called that it's a psychological term, but yeah, when you sort of form memories from stories. Yes. Yeah, I think, and then sometimes you insert yourself into him, even though you're hearing a story from somewhere. There was that famously a well-trusted American journalist who was over in a war zone. See, now I'm telling this memory poorly from my memory, but he was basically, the actual thing that happened was

he was in a helicopter behind another helicopter and there were shots fired at it in a war zone. And eventually he told him, the story over time publicly and without meaning to lie, the story eventually changed so he was in the helicopter that was being shot out and got shot maybe. Something like this, but basically the story slowly morphed from him being near the story to right at the center of the story. And he's saying this on the record in recording, so people can see it happening.

Yeah, wow. And he obviously still fully believed it, but as a trusted news reporter, that was not good for his reputation. Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure. Yep. By the end of the story, he's like, and then I was the president and I got abducted. And then I turned into the Hulk.

Yeah, sorry, Mr. President. Yeah, wow, that's pretty wild. Yes. So that's kind of what I think might have happened, but it's just hard to know. Nothing's for certain in this story, really. Yeah. Despite what must have been a terribly tough upbringing for Bobby,

he grew up to be a loving family man, marrying and having four children of his own, including a son named Bobby Dunbar, Jr. But all good things must come to an end, and Bobby died in 1966 when he was only 58 years old. 1996, of course, been the year the Saints won the apprenticeship in the BFL. Did you do this whole report to see you could say that? Yes.

The AFL's been postponed. people might not know this. Listeners might not know. After one round, so the Saints have had one loss, and that could be the full season potentially. Heartbreaking. We're up by five goals early in the third quarter, and we lost by two points.

It was a hard game to watch. It would have been pretty good if you could go through undefeated, hey? Yeah, it would have been sick. Anyway, let's not dwell on that. We've got happier things to talk about, this missing boy. Hey, sort of butt in here quickly.

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slash do go on. Now, back to the show. So his son Bob Dunbar, Jr., he also had kids. One of those, a daughter named Margaret Dunbar Cutright, became very interested in the story of the disappearance of her grandfather, Bobby Dunbar. I'm going to just call her Margaret. Yep.

Because Dunbar Cut Right's going to trip me up, almost guaranteed. In 1999, Bobby Jr. gave Margaret a scrapbook that was put together by her great-grandmother Lessie. It included photos, newspaper articles, and letters relating to the disappearance of Bobby. If she was already fascinated about the story, this scrapbook made her obsessed. She was the one in the family who, like everyone talked about it in the family, it was a big story in the family. They'd tell each other all the time. So everyone in the family was very familiar with it, but she was more into it than anyone else. And then she got this scrapbook and became like a full-time obsession. Yeah, wow.

She just lost her brother in an accident and her husband traveled a lot for work. So she had a lot of time and she was grieving. So she really dived into this. So a lot of the stuff I've talked about already has come out from Margaret's research as well, her uncovering some of these old articles and that sort of stuff as well. Like those inconsistencies were things she found. But the scrapbook wasn't the end of her research. More the start.

From there, she started trying. traveling to libraries and courthouses in small towns all around the area to try and hunt down any extra information she could. The more she read about Julia Anderson, the more she felt for her. And though she didn't doubt that her grandfather Bobby was a Dunbar, she did believe Anderson's story saying, quote, this woman was telling the truth. She did have a son, and my heart hurts for Julia at this point, believing that this boy is her son. You know, it's really awkward because Lessey and Julia are both in the same position. They're both missing children. She hated the way the media portrayed Anderson at the time, calling it unnecessarily

judgmental. That was sort of based on that one article from before especially. Then one day, Margaret was shocked with what she read on a genealogy website. On its listing for Anderson, it said, quote, Julia had a son from her first marriage named Bruce, who was kidnapped from North Carolina when he was six years old and taken to Louisiana. She tried to get him back, but the people that kidnapped him won him in court and changed his name to Bobby Dunbar. Oh. That's what it said on the genealogy website.

Yeah, that's right. Wow, the people that kidnapped him. Well, that's, I would say that's been, the Anderson side of the family would have filled out that entry, I'd say. But this is a real eye-opener to Margaret. She'd never really considered that there was another family out there. who remembered and told the story in the exact opposite way to her. Yeah.

It was like she opened up this alternative reality to herself. Wow. She'd only ever heard the one version of the story. And she's like, what? Wait, what? That's not right. He was, you kidnapped him. We got him back.

Not the other way around. So this led her to reach out to the Anderson family. And as it turns out, Anderson went on to have more children. And two of them were still alive in the year 2000 when she was. doing this research. They were named Hollis Rawls and Jules Tava. Hollis Rawls. So good. And you can hear they're interviewed on that episode of this American life and they got this great drawly accent. They're real fun to hear talk. Wow. Just super likable people. From Anderson's kids, Margaret learned more about the story.

After the heartbreak of losing her son, Julia moved to Poplarville, Mississippi, which is about 320 kilometers from Opelousas. Damn it. There she got married and had seven children, of which Jule and Hollis were the youngest. Any questions? She know what's coals in it? Grief for a lost son. Yeah. I think, and I haven't mentioned this before, but she also, um,

Bruce wasn't the only child. She lost that year. She lost three kids that year. What? One died young. One just went missing, Bruce. And I forget what happened to there. But yeah, and one she gave up for adoption.

I think maybe she gave the first kid up for adoption. Then she lost one. And then Bruce went missing. So a brutal year. Brutal, brutal year. So, Jewel and Hol. Hollis painted a very different picture of Julia than the media had. According to this American life, quote,

Hollis and Jewel revere their mother. Julia didn't just go to church, they say. She founded the church. She was a nurse and a midwife for the entire community. During the Depression, she sewed all her children's clothes out of fertilizer bags, and they were always well fed. There's like such a different picture of a mother from a not even up to the standard of an animal.

to she founded a church, was a nurse for a whole community, made sure her kids were fed, she made clothes because they didn't have enough money, she just sounds more like a saint all of a sudden. Far out, that's weird. This whole story is such a great example of how there's always two sides of the same story. Like, it's not normally this extreme, but yeah, amazing. Hollis said that she never forgot about Bruce saying, quote,

she never forgot it, never, never, ever forgot the boy. And if it had been possible for her to have got the child legally back or anything, she would have done it if possible. She would have. She loved the child. She loved Bruce. She sure did. He said to get a bit of an idea of the way Hollis talks.

I love that. She sure did. Four years after being given the scrapbook, Margaret had taken all the articles from, and all those that she had collected from libraries and courthouses and typed them up. More than 1,200 articles in total. Wow. Amazing.

This is in 2000. That's a lot of trips to a lot of libraries. This is in 2000. So she could have photocopied stuff. Well, I mean, she had photocopies of them, but she wanted, I guess, you type them up and make them searchable and stuff for words and all that sort of stuff. Right, gotcha. That year, she also turned her attention to looking for descendants of William Walters,

the travelling piano repairman. or Tinker who'd kidnapped her grandfather. Oh yeah, it's less funny now. During this time, she also tracked down a descendant of Walter's defense. She did find descendants of Walters, or at least descendants of his family. But during this time, she also found a descendant of Walter's defense lawyer who had kept the complete defense file from the kidnapping case in a cupboard or something like that. according to this American life, when Margaret heard that, she dropped everything, bought a portable scanner and showed up at the woman's doorstep.

She spent a week scanning the entire thing and then four months back at home typing and deciphering it. So this was, since the scrapbook, this was the next big chunk of info she had about the case. Wow. That really open it up even more. So is he just treating it like a full-time job, this sort of research for? It sounds like it. really i mean it it'd have to be uh this american life went on to say the defense file was a gold mine it had correspondence from the governors of mississippi and louisiana handwritten letters from julia

anderson and dozens of sworn affidavits from mississippi residents saying that the child was bruce anderson and that they'd seen him in the area with walters months before bobby dunbar went missing and then there was this letter written by william walters himself just days after he was arrested and thrown into Dale addressed directly to Percy Dunbar, who had just taken the boy home with him. So I'll read you this later in a second. But isn't that amazing? Like, something you're researching so much. And then all of a sudden, you're finding handwritten letters by these people who would

just be living so large in your mind, like Julia Anderson. Oh, that would give me chills seeing a handwritten letter from Julia Anderson now. Yeah. But imagining Margaret's seeing it, that would be wild, I reckon. It's insane. So here's the letter. This one gave me kind of chills. This is a letter from William Walters to Percy Dunbar just after he was thrown into jail. Quote, I see that you got Bruce, but you have heaped up trouble for yourselves. I had no chance to prove up. But I know by now you have decided you were wrong. It is very likely I will lose my life on account of that. And if I do, the great God will hold you accountable. That boy's mother is Julia Anderson.

You ask him and he will tell you. I did not teach him to beg or bum, but in as much as you have him, take good care of him. So you have lost a Robert and me are lost Bruce. May God bless my darling boy. Write me if I don't get lynched. I think you will be sad a long time,

but I hope not too bad. What a roller coaster. Also, so you mentioned before that Bruce was older than Bobby, wasn't he? No, they're about the same age. Oh, right. I thought you said before that he was six. Because at that age,

quite a difference in size and a lot of things. That's insane. Has it... Yeah, okay. I just think, like, why couldn't they just do DNA tests? You know? Yeah, it's a good question. Unfortunately, didn't exist yet.

I know, but like, go back in time. When do they get invented? DNA tests. It was like relatively recently, was it? Like the 60s or something like that? Yeah. And they only get more reliable as time went by as well, yeah. Right. In reading this and the rest of the 400 pages of evidence in the file, so it's a huge chunk of info. Margaret, for the first time, started doubting the version of the story her family had always told. So she's starting to think that maybe Bobby wasn't actually Bobby. Yeah.

But right up into this point, she's just like, I'm researching it to, you know, confirm the story that we all know is true. And now, after getting this defense file, it was the first time. She's like, hang on a second. The defense file also included a letter by someone who wasn't directly attached to the case, who wrote a six-page letter laying out point by point why it didn't make sense that the boy found with Walters was Bobby Dunbar. Points like, why haven't pictures of Bobby? before and after disappearance being printed side by side. Why is Julia Anderson judged harshly for being unsure if it was her son at first when Lessie Dunbar was not?

It was real strange, isn't it? It was like, as soon as Julia wasn't sure, it was like, well, it's definitely not her kid, but Lessie, the same thing happened to her. It almost makes it sound like the articles saying that she did know straight away were covering it up. Right. You know what I mean? Like it sounds like their whole town. The Dunbar's were big in Opelousas.

Like they were a big, wealthy kind of family in that town. You wonder, oh, is that like a friend who's written that article saying, yep, they definitely knew it was their kid. Yeah, right. Nothing to see you here. I mean, I'm just having, that's just a wild sort of theory. Who knows? Kind of make some sense to me.

So there's some of these big points she's making, this anonymous woman. But finally, she wrote. If this had been their own child and he had been gone for eight months, do you think his features would be so changed that they would not know him only by moles and scars? This is a farce. If the Dunbar's do not know their child, who has only been gone eight months by his features, why they don't know him at all? On reading this letter, Margaret said, quote,

It just simply dawned on me. Oh, my God, she's right. What a farce. What a farce this is. That was the letter the, sort of like the straw that broke the camel's back. Oh. Right.

But she didn't think that when she first heard that the mum was like, I don't recognize this kid, yeah. It's just an interesting. It's just like, I guess it's just the weight of information. And she's had this story locked in her head. So it took a while to probably undo it. But I, yeah. So it's hard to know.

Like she, Margaret at this point has, her kids are like adults. So she's, I don't know how old she was, but she was obviously, you know, you'd think 40 plus and had heard this story her whole life. So it just took a little while to undo it, I suppose. All this research that she was doing was leading to her becoming an outcast in her own family. Her relatives wanted nothing to do with uncovering the past.

As far as they were concerned, they were Dunbar's and wanted the past left in the past. They were like, it doesn't matter what you find, we're done bars, don't, why are you digging this old stuff up? Let's move on. That's weird. The idea of a DNA test. Yeah, it doesn't it just seems like, why, why wouldn't you want to know?

I'd be so curious. Yeah. Yeah, like it's this cool story to, you know, uncover the truth. But it sounds like that they're worried their identity is going to come into question. It doesn't change who you are. Yes, this long after, it doesn't change anything day to day. It just changed. It's like, wow, what a wild story.

Yeah. Yeah. But I guess if the Dunbar is, you know, an important family in that town. Maybe they, maybe that's a big part of their identity. But I think it doesn't take that anything away from it. Just basically, he was basically adopted under weird circumstances. Yeah. If that's the case.

The idea of a DNA test to figure it out once and for all was floated. But most of the family hated the idea. And that's because they just didn't want to know, basically. Apart from Margaret's father, Bobby Jr. They didn't want to know, but they also were like, where Dunbar's, this story is all bullshit anyway. Let's stop wasting our time with it. But then Margaret's father, Bobby Jr., was open to the idea of a DNA test. Bobby Jr. was getting on in years and had just been a hospital with a heart issue.

He wrote a letter to his family saying, quote, Daddy did not have the science of DNA to confirm the decision of the court in his youth. I feel it is my responsibility to achieve that before I go, end quote. quote. Whoa. And that totally adds up to me what Bobby Jr. said. He's like, he's like, I want to know. Yeah, I'd want to know.

I'm sitting here and I want to know. Yeah. He 100% still believes that this is, this is just proving that he is a Dunbar. But he wants to do it just to, you know, stop the discussion about it, basically. Yeah. They needed someone from Alonzo's side of the family to test against, though, as a longbo. Alonzo's Dunbar lineage wasn't in question. Of course.

Alonzo's son, David, agreed. Oh. The other side of the family, I guess they're not as worried about it because it doesn't affect their identity. It's just are our cousins, our cousins by blood? Let's find out. The catch was that the results would be sealed until all of Bobby Jr.'s siblings agreed to open them, which in reality is never going to happen. They actually didn't even know that the test had been taken.

So I think the way that they convinced David, Alonzo's son David and Bobby Jr. They were both like, we don't want to make any trouble. So we'll do it. But only if all siblings agree will the results be opened. So that's potentially not going to solve anything. Yeah. But I guess it's something that Bobby Jr. is like, we can do it. And then maybe, you know, some way down the track at least they'll be open and someone will know.

Oh, my God. After a month, Margaret called the lab to make sure everything went okay. But the lab assistant just blurted out the results of the test. Oh my God. If they did that under any other circumstance. Like, oh, you got gonorrhea, you got gonorrhea. I'm so sorry, I just yelled that out. I'm so sorry.

I'm on, I've got you on speaker, and my whole office knows I have gonorrhea. I just wanted to know if I could come and pick up the papers. Yeah, you can for your gonorrhea that you've got. Yeah, no worries. No, I'm a really good scientist, but I'm not a good communicator. Honestly, this is the worst case of gonorrhea I've ever seen. You know, I don't exactly know what gonorrhea is, but just because it sounds, it's like an STD that sounds like diarrhea. I think that makes it the worst one.

All right, I like your logic there, yeah. I think it just said like, areia makes anything sound worse. Now, we are currently just brushing over the fact that the technician said the results? Yes. Yes. Do you want to know what the results were? Of course. So the test was to find out if the two sides of the Dunbar family matched. Right. The DNA did not match.

No. Bobby Dunbar was not Bobby Dunbar. Whoa. I am august. What? And did he have gonorrhea? Answer the question. And he also had gonorrhea. He wasn't Bobby Dunbar. No.

How wild. One of the weird quirks of this is that they they still haven't tested to see if he is in Anderson for some reason, or I can't find anywhere saying they have, but it's basically assumed. There's a chance that he is a third boy. Well, it's possible, I guess, yeah.

It's basically assumed he's not, but there's got to be some chance until it's proven for sure. Margaret drove 10 hours to tell her dad in person after she got the phone call. Bobby Jr. was gobsmacked, saying, quote, it took my breath away. You know, I hadn't considered that. My thought was to prove that Daddy was Bobby Dunbar. So it took me, well, I had a lot of time.

I was in the hospital at the time for a while. And I just pondered, you know, all right, if my past is wrong, Bobby Dunbar, all the legends, all the stories. and then all of a sudden you find out, well, that's not who your blood says you are. Where does that leave me? If my grandpa isn't my grandpa, who am I? So he's having an existential crisis all of a sudden. Wow. But he's also said that he's glad he found out, and if he had his time again, he would do the test again.

Yeah. You just want to know. Yeah, exactly. I mean, it's, yeah, it would be a wild thing to find out. So let's assume then that Bobby is Bruce. What happened to Bobby? Because before I was thinking like what happened to Bruce then, where's Bruce gone?

Yes. But yeah, the question more is, what happened to Bobby? And I guess that's part of the mystery. And I'll give you some of the theories on that at the end. Old people. But I think we already know what it is. Her extended family was furious. as Margaret's extended family.

As far as they were concerned, they were Dunbar's. Nothing she said could change that fact. They basically said, we don't believe it. Well, you are still Dunbars. You are. Yes, right? The people around you are still your family. It literally has nothing to do with you.

Yeah, that's right. You wouldn't exist if this didn't happen. Yeah. And it doesn't change, you don't have to now change your surname or abandon your family. Like, what are you talking about? It's a funny thing. Yeah, but I mean, obviously it's a thing I've never gone through.

I think I'd just be like, I'd almost be excited by it. It'd be like, wow, what a wild thing to have happened. But yeah, also having not gone through it, who knows how you'd actually react. But it does, it just would be like, I feel like the hairs on the back of my neck standing up with this story, let alone if I was right in the middle of it. But yeah, something they don't think about is if all of this didn't happen, they don't exist. None of these grandkids would exist from any of the families

because everyone's story would be totally different. You know, the butterfly effect thing would be huge. The other families involved took it as much happier news, though. Descendants of William Walters saw it as vindication for Walters. He never kidnapped Bobby Dunbar. It's not really talked about that he does sound like he kind of did kidnap Bruce Anderson, though. Yeah, and Bruce is nowhere to be seen. Wait, yes, he is.

But Bobby is it? Yeah. Okay, yeah. So they're sort of vindicated by that. And I think it feels like it's not as full on of a kidnapping because... It was a family friend. Because Julia gave him to him. He was possibly even the dad.

No one definitively claimed fatherhood. But I think William Walters was pretty sure it was his brother's kid. Oh, okay. Julia Anderson. But none of that was 100% solved either. The Anderson's was stoked as well So Dunbar's didn't take it well The Walters family was into it

The Andersons was stoked Bobby Jr and his wife Amelda went to Mississippi to deliver the news in person To Jule and Hollis Whoa So Yeah so I think Bobby Jr. took it all right Obviously he's delivering the news too He's like

We're actually blood family in his mind You know even though it wasn't fully confirmed He's like, well, I believe this to be definitely the case. Jules' daughter emotionally recalled the encounter saying, when Bobby Jr. and Miss Amelda came, and they told us about the DNA testing, that's the day Bobby came home. And he came in the form of his son. And we were proud for Julia.

And one thing she wanted most in her life was her child back. Bruce came home. Yeah. Well, she calls him. Bobby. Yeah. I'm quoting, that was a. direct quote from her.

Yeah, right. They, the fan, well, because, um, apparently Julia started calling him Bobby, even though,

you know, she's missing Bruce. Oh, that's really lovely. Yeah, so nice. Um, and then,

and they, I mean, this is why I reckon people should listen to the episode of this American life. Because a bunch of interviews with the families involved. And they, and Jules and Hollis, they talk about it like,

you know, we don't want anything from them, but friendship. And we're just so happy. And you can hear how emotional they are and how much it means to them. Wow. It's just really sweet. But they've never done a test, though. I don't believe so. Well, actually, Jule and Hollis are now dead.

But they, yeah, I don't think they ever did. Wow. Okay. They just accepted it and went, yep, this is what it is. We're family. Yeah, cool. Yeah, I guess in their minds it was one of two things. But yeah, it feels like to me, I'm like,

I would have really loved the full confirmation. And even me reading about it, I'm like, geez, I'd love for you to have gone that extra little step, which they still could do, right? You could do it generations down. They should still be able to figure it out. Yeah, I think so. Like based off Jules' daughter or something like that.

But I should say, I'm not a scientist, so I don't know that for sure. I'm not a trained scientist. I was basing it on, I'm sure I've seen that in 10. TV shows. So yeah, I think it can be done. Yeah, yeah. Totally. All right. Well, finally, what happened to the real Bobby Dunbar? According to all that's interesting, Margaret believes that the child fell into the lake and either drowned or was eaten by an alligator.

Some journalists theorized... So early on, he just never, he'd never made it out of the lake. That was it. He was gone from day one. Of course, I don't even consider that. I was like, of course, he got out of the lake somehow and must have gone somewhere. but yeah, that's probably the most likely thing. No amount of explosives made him come back up. Or they exploded him. That's the other.

Yeah, Jesus. So that's, yeah, Margaret's best guess. She even, like, she took this American life journalist to the lake and stood on the bridge that she reckons he fell from, probably. Other journalists theorised that Lessie and Percy Dunbar had done something to their son and used Bruce Anderson to cover their deeds. that one you don't see too much

but that's put forward by all that's interesting. Right, so they saw a boy and went, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's our son, yes, looking at each other like, just go with it, just go over it. Authorities claim that they found footprints leading away from the lake and that they heard claims from some locals that a suspicious looking man had been seen carrying him away, but these rumours were never confirmed either. So there's all these different theories, but it sounds like Margaret, who would probably be the biggest expert in this story

based on all her research. Her best guess is that he fell into the lake and it was either drowned or eaten by an alligator. So lots of theories, but no one knows for sure and his fate remains a mystery. That's why this was a mystery episode. I mean, we did solve it really earlier on when we said mole people, obviously.

Yeah, so you reckon the mole people at the lake took him and mole people lake dwelling animals? Can I just say what is an aquatic mole if not an otter, which is what I suggested at the start of the episode. That's true. The old aquatic mole. We've always said that. We have.

It's so obvious now that you've put it out there. Should we get Margaret on the line? Yeah, let her know. Now she only does stuff in person. She drives 50 states across to deliver information. Bring her in. Imagine driving 50 states across in America. have to get to Hawaii in Alaska.

Well, I'm committed to driving 50 states across. She flies to Hawaii, drives around, goes back on the plane, flies back. So that brings us to everyone's favorite part of the episode, unless you've got any other theories you want to put forward or any thoughts or anything. No, mole people. Pretty confident of the mole. I'm always confident in the moles. Yeah, there was no escape from the fortress of the malls, as the Simpsons taught us.

Yeah. Well, if that's the case, then let's do the fact, quote, or question section, which has a jingle that goes like this. Fact quote or question. I think you finally nailed that. So this is a section of the show where people who support us at patreon.com slash do go on pod. And we've got a whole bunch of new supporters, and we're so appreciative of that. really has been amazing to see so much support.

Warms the bloody cockles of my heart. But one of the rewards you get, if you're on a certain tier, which is the Sydney-Shineberg deluxe, rest in peace, memorial edition level, you get to give us a factor quote or a question, and you also get to give yourself a title, and we read two of these out each week. This week, the first one comes from Austin Horst, which is a great name.

And Austin Horst has given himself the title, Executive Vice President of Flight Schedules Responsible for Ensuring Flights Aren't Missed Due to Magnet Purchases. I reckon that one must have been written just after hearing one of our UK episodes where we talked about that. We missed our flight from Dublin to where we flying to? Glasgow. Glasgow.

But anyway, let's not worry about the... That's in the past. I don't want to do any DNA test about that. It wasn't just because we were buying a magnet. No, it was just because Jess was buying a magnet. Yeah. Also, the John was closed. I had to find a different one.

And I just saw, I was feeling very relaxed because I'm like, well, these two stress heads wouldn't be so chilled out if we were running late. That's true. Oh, no. Sorry, we let you down. Yeah. Where's the stress? Anyway, Austin,

horse, aka the executive vice president of flight schedules, et cetera, has given us a quote. And that quote is this, do something you really like. And hopefully it pays the rent. As far as I'm concerned, that's success. And that's a quote from none other than Tom Petty. Oh. Thanks, Tom Petty. And then Austin said, you guys seem like you really like what you're doing.

and I enjoy listening to You Do It. Cheers, Austin. Thanks, Austin. I can't speak for the others, but yes, I do love doing this. Oh, no. I'm in for the magnet stories, really. I love a magnet anecdote. I'm in it for the cold hard cash.

Oh, yeah. Podcasting's the go. Yeah, podcasting and comedy. The two big money makers in the entertainment world. The other fact, quote, or question that we've got this week is from Derek Brigham. And Derek has called himself Science Advisor to the podcast. Geez, we could have used you today. Can you get in contact with us about DNA?

When did they figure it out? And what does it mean? And he's given us a fact. And the fact is, oh, it's longish. I should say for first-time listeners, I don't read these out until I read them out. He is written. I have a fact, and I think it is really full. fun.

Oh, Jess will be the judge of that. Let's see. So he thinks it's fun. Derek as well. What a great name, Derek. You don't hear a lot of Derek's anymore. Derek and the Dominoes. Yeah.

Derek Wibbley from Sun 41. Okay. Derek. Derek from Grey's Anatomy. I mean, the list just goes on. Yeah. Okay, so this is the fun fact or allegedly fun fact. The first time I was thanked in the Patriarch.

on shout-out section was in the Star Wars episode with Mr. Sunday movies. Very appropriate since I discovered the pod through Mesa's plug on the weekly planet about his first guest appearance. I was moving away from Knoxville, Tennessee. Home of the Sunsphere, aka the Whigsphere, can I just say? Whoa. No wonder he loves science. He grew up near the Whigsphere.

When I listened to the Star Wars episode, I made sure to send Dave a pick of the Whigsphere before I moved away. It's very true. We did not read these before they come out, so that is very funny. I can't believe what a Knoxville, Tennessee does not mean Wigsphere to me. It should.

Every time I read it, I think of Johnny Knoxville. And that is one of my biggest shames and regrets. He goes on a right. Have we got to effect yet? My mum, Marie, and I had come. out from Oregon to help with the move and do the cross-country drive with me. Wait, I've read that wrong. My mum Marie had come out from Oregon to help me with the move and do the cross-country drive

with me. What a great mum. She was listening along to the pod and she got to hear me get the shout out. That was her very first episode and she was just excited as excited as I was. Now she's a big fan of yours. She listens every week. Oh, that's a great fact. Yes, how low.

I love a person. That's a fact. Oh, okay, sorry. That is a fun fact. Yeah. But don't ever step on my toes again, Matthew. Sorry, that was, I don't know what got into me. I just, I feel a new deep shame.

Firstly, about not knowing the wig sphere. Secondly, stepping on Jess's toes. Such little toes they are too. Hard to step on them. Yeah, I'm dating. I'm a dainty. My long freaky toes. Why did I say that out loud?

All right. Now we thank a few more of our patrons. And Jess, you normally give us a bit of a game here. What do you think we should do with this week's names? Oh, no. Look, I can't think of anything that isn't. I mean, it feels poor taste. What about if you're struggling?

I don't want to take your thunder again. No one's stepping on your toes here, Jess. Go on. But if you can't think of anything, what about, like, what their local lake is infested with? I was thinking of the same thing. Great. Yes. Very good.

It seems safe away from all the harsher things of this type. Yes. Yeah, great. Of course, yeah, as long as you forget that the real Bobby Dunbar was probably eaten by an alligator. Yeah, forget that. Put that to one side. Don't worry about that right now. So if I could kick this off, I'd love to thank from Tidworth in Great Britain.

I don't know why I love that so much, but Tidworth is awesome. Christian Lincoln. Thank you, Christian, you goddamn legend from Tidworth. Christian Lincoln. Thanks, Christian. And in Tidworth, their local lake, is infested with badges. Oh, yeah. Like pins?

Yes. I was thinking more the non-aquatic otter. That was also what I was thinking, but they're badgers wearing badges. How about that? Oh, wow. Through their skin. Ow. Yeah.

No, they're wearing little vests. Or they wearing little jackets. What of blood in the war. Wow, what an infestation. Jacket wearing badges wearing badges. I'd be okay with that. Christian Lincoln. Why?

Can you send us a photo of them? Love to see them. I bet no locals are trying to throw dynamite into that lake. And I'd all. also love to thank from location unknown. Oh boy. Hardy. Matusweswes.

Well done. Wow, that is an amazing name. Swesky. Matasweswesvsky? That is an incredible name. Any of you want to help me out there? No, I wouldn't have to. Hardy is great too.

Hardy is great. Hardy Maschewski. Without the country, you don't know how they're going to go. Is it Matashuski? I don't know. Oh, Matashuski. Love that. But there's just a sneaky Jay at the end.

It looks like what I got in Scrabble last night. Good, fun stuff there. All right. Hardy, all right, what's the local? We don't know where this lake is. So no clues there. But I actually think it is infested with bike riding dingoes. Whoa.

You mean cool dingoes? Yeah, cool dingoes. Great. And I guess the bikes are aquatic bikes. Oh, that's fun. Aquabikes. Aquabikes. Dingo's on aquabikes.

Aquabike dingo is a cool band name. All right. Well, let's start it. In that it's a terrible band name. Yeah. Can I think. Thanks, Hardy. Can I thanks to people too?

Yes, please. I would love so much to thank from Glasgow. Alec. Mungle. Oh yeah, another great name. Now that's a name. That's a good name. Now, Glasgow, that's a place I've actually been.

A funny story, actually, I was Mr. Plain on the way there once because my friend was buying a magnet. Can you believe that? My father's Mr. Plain. You can call me Gary. Good on you, Gary Plain. All right. So what's infesting the lake where Alec is from in Glasgow?

go. Infested with naked gnomes, naked gnomes. Naked gnaumes that have stripped off and gone for a skinny dip, but then the tide came in and washed their clothes away and now they're stuck there. I tell you what, seeing these gnomes naked, they are not in proportion. Have I told you about my family's Christmas gnome tradition? Noam. So in my extended family every year, we do like a KK for Christmas.

And my brother for at least 10 years, it probably took longer actually. It doesn't matter who he got, he would always buy the same garden gnome. And it was, it's like got its back to it and it's mooning you. And he would buy that every year until every single family had one. And this is on my mum's side where there's, my grandparents had nine kids. So. Oh, quick question. Could they know what is causing it? I don't want to think about that.

Anyway, so now. Your dad would have had a real field day meeting your mum. Well, he was one of eight. He's one of eight as well. Oh, he would have had a real field day meeting himself. Well, you guys know what's causing this? Anyway, so everyone in my family has a little garden gnome that is showing you it's bum. Do you think that he bought him in bulk years ago

or did every Christmas he'd go down to Bunnings and they're like, welcome back Mick, good to see you, we've been expecting you. He'd go to the same nursery each time and it got to a point where he knew like the model number that he needed and be like, I need another one of these, please. He didn't buy him in bulk. Can I have a 612 showing his bumbleys?

So my parents have one as well, but they also have one that's flashing at the front and it has a little gnome penis. And quick question Is it in proportion? No Well, you know who can answer that And that is Alec Mungal

Whose local lake is infested with the bastards Nude Nome Thank you very much So is this like little plaster gnomes Or living gnomes Oh no, they're living noms But they're naked If you're wearing clothes

Liv and gnome Like that classic song by that old English guy So living gnome. Is that ringing any bells? What's his name? They sang it on the young ones. Are you thinking of Billy Joe Armstrong? From Green Day.

Oh, no, it's Jebediah. Sorry, I was trying to pun on leaving home because he sounded almost exactly like that. Living gnome. Damn. The guy I'm doing it. He doesn't sound like me singing. No.

He sounds like a singer. But I remember he, I can't remember his, I can't someone, Richards or something. But he's like a real kind of daggy pop singer. And one time he, I remember he claimed the Beatles are no good because a lot of their recordings are out of key. Wow. Huge call. Okay.

Huge call. Big call. Love it. Thank you very much to Alec. And I would also like to thank from, what's K. What's K.Y. Dave, in the US? It's a kind of lube. It's Kentucky Lube. Kentucky Lube is what that stands for.

I would love to thank from Kentucky Lube, Ray Jen Wilson. Rayan? Rayan Wilson. Rajon Wilson. Wow. That, what a week of names. Rajon. Rajon.

Cajun, Cajun. Love it. And in the... It's got to be bulls, right? Yes. But what are they wearing? Little hats. Little sailor hats. No one's ever had to think of that before.

Oh, bulls, sure. But what are they wearing? Can they be wearing little sailor hats? Yes, of course they are. That's cute. Nothing's been clear in my life. Sailor bull. They're big fans of Sailor Moon.

Of course. But only the hats fit. Sailor Moon's a show, I believe. That's a great current reference. Thank you, Ray. Well, it's more current than whatever that old singer's name. Well, this we can't remember. Sorry.

That's very funny. And Rajan, Rayan, we appreciate your support. You're raging to us. Can I bring us home with a couple of more beautiful people? Cliff Richard. Oh, Cliff Richard. Wow, okay. That would have been annoying, our older listeners, maybe.

And probably our younger listeners going, the fuck are you talking about. I would like to thank, finally, from Chicago, Illinois. Ah, the windy city. Chicago? Chicago. I was waiting for Jess. Sorry.

Joe Joe Grassy or Joe Grassy Oh Degrassi Thank you so much Junior High Junior High Shut up Jess

And in Chicago What's the biggest body awardee in Chicago What are they What are they famous for? They got all the Great Lakes up there Pretty arrogant really I think they're fine

And the Great Lakes are infested with Shetland Pony's. Whoa. Are they wearing snorkels? Yes. So they're like submarine ponies? Yeah.

Oh no. You'd love and hate them, wouldn't you? Yes, because I love Shetland Pony. So cute, but submarines are so dumb. This is something I, it's funny you mentioned ponies because this came up in one place, but no or else I didn't mention it, but apparently, The Dunmars, after being reunited with, or supposedly reunited with their son, Bobby Dunbar, they bought him a bike and a pony.

Okay. All right. Right. Okay. So you could either, there's two ways of interpreting that. It could be, well, they were trying to go, you know, bribe him into going along with the story. Hey, life's here is a lot better. You don't have to go around tinkering on pianos.

you can just stay here and ride a pony or it's them going we lost our son for eight months geez we want to make him feel as special as we can sort of thing I'm going to go with the first one if it is the first if it was the first option there's no wonder that he chose the horse and pony

because the other mum was just offering an orange I'd pick the pony as well yeah I think that's fair I'd abandon my mum for a pony still you'd let her go I'm like, well, mum, we had a good run. Bye-bye.

I've got a pony. And even if it means your dad goes to jail for kidnapping? Huh. Can I have two ponies? Yes. Bye-bye, dad. He'll be right. All right, thanks to Joe Grassie there from Chicago, Illinois.

And finally bringing us home, the final lovely Patreon supporter to thank today is James Brennan from the Pons in New South Wales. James. Oh, from the Pond's interest. I did not say Institute right then. Insistee. I've said a lot of, I don't know if you've noticed, but I've fumbled over a lot of words and I just forged it off. Like not quite nailing him as I was reading quotes and stuff.

I'm like, just keep going, man. Don't look back. I'm a classic Dunbar type. Never look back. Love that. All right. So James, what's infesting the lake in James's hood? It's got to be Pomeranians, surely.

Yeah, okay. Wait, can they be wearing little life jackets? Yes. That'd be so cute. Swimming around, yapping along with that little puffy tail above the water going wag, wag, wag. Hey, there's my exact double. That dog has a puffy tail. Here a puff, here a puff.

Well, thank you so much to James Brennan. Oh, that was about to say that brings. to the end, but we've just got to see if there's anyone to induct into the Triptitch Club. Dave, can you explain that quickly while I double check? Well, a lot of people have been supporting us on Patreon for a while now, which we appreciate it. And some

people have been supporting us for over three years straight. And if they've done that at a certain level, we've checked the records and every week to celebrate our third anniversary of you supporting our show, we induct you into the Triptage club. And it's quite an exclusive club. And

we're just checking now to see if if anyone needs to be knighted this week. Oh, there are. There's five names coming into the club this week. Oh, very nice. Very excited to bring them in. Jess, what are the hors d'oeuvres or cocktail this week? This week we've got something a little bit summary.

I'm talking passion fruit, cocktails. Ooh. Ooh. Sounds delicious. cocktail. I love that. All right. Well, make sure you grab one of those on your way in via Philadelphia, Andre Rarig, from Texas, Naomi Chapman, from Canberra, Laura Cottrell, from Socorro in NM. What's NM, Dave? In the U.S., Jonathan Dooley. And from Manly, James. No surname.

James Searle, I think. Good on you, James. And NM in New Mexico. How can we forget that? There's a New Mexico? Well, thank you so much to those people for supporting the show for three years straight. And if you want to support us now, of course you can do that at any time at patreon. At patreon.com slash do go on pod.

We put out all sorts of rewards. Two bonus episodes is usually the biggest hook that we put out every single month. often there's one report and one mixed bag where we do all sorts of different stuff and you can vote on topics do join the Facebook group which is very very active and also a very nice place. Don't you just love how nice people are in there? Oh, it's so lovely. It's a great place to hang out.

It's a lovely place. Yeah. Well, you two won't know this but anyone who's mean I take them out of the group. Do you mean you murder them or you just take them out of the group? I choose not to say. Probably smart. But I haven't had to do that yet because everyone's been so nice. There's been no need.

So really, you do nothing. Yeah, I've got this pair of leather gloves for nothing. I picture I'd put on if I was going to take someone out. That's great. Every now and then when I misread someone's tone, I get the gloves out, put them on, then re-read a go. Off there go. Yeah, somebody else has, like, comments on it, and then they clarify and go,

oh, sorry, tones are bit hard at here, isn't it? What I meant was when you're like, oh, God damn it, these gloves, it's too late to return them. I wish someone was a dick. But they were a waste of money because everyone's so lovely. Well, that brings to the end of the episode. Anything we need to plug in particular, we've got all our social media is do go on pod, and they're all linked in the show notes. The Patreon is patreon.com slash dogo on pod.

If you want to listen to the other shows we do, Dave and my shows are still running through this outbreak, including Dave's show Book Cheat. And this week's episode, Dave, is about Breakfast at Tiffany's with Jess Perkins and the very, very funny Jack Drews. And also my podcast this week is with the very, very funny Ben Russell. It's called Primates. And this week's episode is about very popularly requested movie Kubo and the Two Strings. So check them out. Bloody check them out. All right.

Well, that's all we've got time for in this very time-restricted format of podcasting. That's right. We've nearly blown the bandwidth. So until next week, as we always say here, suck a fuck. No, no. We don't say that at all. Anyway, thanks so much for listening. Later's.

Suck a fuck. Bye. This podcast is part of the Planet Broadcasting Network. Visit planetbroadcasting.com for more podcasts from our great mates. I mean, if you want, it's up to you. Don't forget to sign up to our tour mailing list so we know where in the world you are and we can come and tell you when we're coming there. Wherever we go, we always hear six months later, oh, you should come to Manchester.

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