TIGHAR – The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery – has long asserted that Amelia Earhart landed on a deserted Pacific island and survived for a time, instead of ditching at sea, after she and navigator Fred Noonan vanished in 1937. That assertion gained strength when documentation was found about a partial skeleton discovered on the island, Nikumaroro, in 1940.
TIGHAR Executive Director Ric Gillespie has a history of vigorously defending the Nikumaroro hypothesis. His defense reached a new level of fervor, though, when he dissected the UK’s involvement with the Earhart search and aftermath in an “academic paper” called Bones and Bias released a few weeks ago.
Among the first things Gillespie highlights is that a British graduate student and an Australian anthropologist (Cross and Wright) disagreed with TIGHAR’s hypothesis in their own 2015 paper. Why he chose to highlight their nationality is a mystery. Gillespie also stated that the original skeleton investigation in 1940 was “intentionally hobbled.” He goes on to question the competence of the British doctor who examined the skeleton, then goes after Sir Harry Luke, High Commissioner of the Western Pacific.
The British doctor is David W. Hoodless, LMSSA, who was no less than the Principal of the Central Medical School in Suva, Fiji, at the time. Gillespie maintains that Hoodless, beloved by the Fijians for establishing the native practitioner healthcare program, appeared to be a good administrator who was out of his depth – “there is nothing in his known background to indicate he had any specific training or experience in assessing the sex, age, body type, and ancestry of a human skeleton.” Cross and Wright, on the other hand, stated that Hoodless was perfectly competent to evaluate the bits of skeleton he was presented with.
In the part of his screed titled An Investigation Fated to Fail, Gillespie says Sir Harry Luke “deliberately thwarted” the skeleton inquiry and “clamped a lid of secrecy on the entire affair,” which caused the British to miss numerous opportunities (Gillespie maintains) to show the bones were Earhart’s. Posts on TIGHAR’s discussion forums hint at some kind of dark conspiracy.
Gillespie has previously called the Cross/Wright paper a direct “attack” on TIGHAR’s Nikumaroro hypothesis, and ramped up the rhetoric by labeling the paper “the infamous Cross/Wright critique” in a Feb. 9, 2018, TIGHAR forum post. “Infamous” is defined as “having an extremely bad reputation; deserving of or causing an evil reputation; detestable” – not words a dispassionate historian would use.
His 77-years-after-the-fact criticism sums up with, “The Cross/Wright paper is inaccurate and biased. Its defense of Hoodless mischaracterizes the findings of a talented administrator and teacher tasked with a job beyond his training and experience. Sir Harry Luke’s refusal to inform the Americans of Gallagher’s discovery or assign a qualified person to examine the bones deprived the investigation of critical information that could have resulted in a very different verdict.”
Gillespie’s complete commentary is here: http://tighar.org/Projects/Earhart/Archives/Documents/BonesForensicAnalysis/04BonesandBias.pdf
By: MFowler - 23rd May 2018 at 18:07
Mark_pilkington said:
1. @50 Million new pockets to target in the UK for Earhart project and Tighar admin funding.
2. A soapbox to launch the “Glenn Miller” search of the English Channel and hence access @50 Million nee pockets to target in the UK for Glenn Miller project and Tigher admin funding.
3. To promote to anyone who will listen and to target their pockets for Tighar admin funding and The Gillespie Benevolent Fund.
Regards
Mark Pilkington
(“I can see rivet lines…..”)
Admin funding, or operating funds, do seem to be Gillespie’s sole focus – he recently stated that writing for his second Earhart book was stalled because “I can’t spend time writing if I’m constantly chasing donations to meet basic operating expenses.” Although I remain at a loss for why the operating expenses are so high to begin with; statements by Gillespie in 2017 indicated that, at least at that point, it cost $460 per day to run TIGHAR. An astonishing amount for a mom-and-pop, single-issue non-profit.
By: J Boyle - 18th May 2018 at 23:18
I’m sure the group doesn’t know exactly where it is…after all it can’t be too easy…then there would be no multi-year search program, repeated visits to the UK and (most importantly) no multi-year begging and donations.
No money in that. 🙂 🙂 😉
By: ZRX61 - 18th May 2018 at 17:24
Unfoundium, a rare isotope of Unobtainium 🙂
Jeeze, what have I started? LOL!!
By: Creaking Door - 18th May 2018 at 16:59
Is the suggestion then, in Air & Space magazine, that Glen Miller’s aircraft was dredged-up in fishing-nets by a knowledgeable fisherman who somehow managed to identify the aircraft type after his nets were hauled-in, and who noted the GPS coordinates where it was snagged in the net (not where the nets were hauled-in) but who then decided that the wreckage (engine?) was not significant, not worth keeping, not worth anything in scrap-value and not worth retaining on-board so the same wreckage didn’t damage his, or anybody else’s, nets in future…
…so the fisherman turfed the wreckage overboard…..again noting the exact GPS coordinates, obviously!
Yep, that sounds plausible…..now where’s my cheque-book! :eagerness:
By: Wellington285 - 18th May 2018 at 15:41
Bovine Excretium a new element on the periodic table originally known as Bull S##t Easy to flush. recently discovered around funding time
Ian
By: J Boyle - 18th May 2018 at 14:01
There was a piece about the new Miller search in the latest Air &Space magazine.
It made it sound like RG knows where to go and all he has to do is drop a net. Also, it mentioned the fisherman who allegedly hauled the wreck up had RC airplane experience, therefore knew aircraft.
Oddly, coming from a author and magazine that know aviation, the fact that is likely nothing left of the tube, fabric and wood aircraft wasn’t mentioned. Neither was the lack of proof on anything AE-related.
By: Creaking Door - 18th May 2018 at 12:26
Millerium – A missing element.
Millerium is just as rare as Amelium but is far less likely to be searched for due to its natural occurrence only in the cold English Channel (rather than Amelium which is found, or rather, not found, only on tropical islands in the Pacific Ocean).
By: Beermat - 18th May 2018 at 11:31
Amelium
– Something that cannot be found but at the same time is exactly where everyone thinks it is (e.g. Pacific Ocean, Dartmoor). Often used in aviation.
Fool’s Amelium – a common name for Gillespium. Gillespium may be distinguished from Amelium by being a) found and b) misidentified.
By: J Boyle - 17th May 2018 at 04:56
‘re: your paragraph 3 about UK documentary film makers….
We can only hope…
By: Creaking Door - 17th May 2018 at 01:45
I can’t get past Gillespie honing in on a British documentary about Earhart…..why, for any reason at all, would anyone in England care one way or the other??? Last I checked, Earhart was American…
That’s not very complimentary towards English documentary audiences; we have much broader interests than many Americans would believe (even the Scottish, Welsh and Irish audiences may be interested)!
However, I doubt very much if that general interest in a good mystery, and we’re suckers for a good mystery over here, would translate into many cash donations to TIGHAR, generous or otherwise!
Also, Gillespie would be wise to tread very carefully around British documentary makers; a documentary ostensibly about the disappearance of a noted aviator may turn out to be far more interesting if it concentrates on the ‘disappearance’ of large sums of donated money in the vicinity of a ‘colourful’ American wreck-hunter!
By: ZRX61 - 16th May 2018 at 23:38
I just invented a new chemical element on FaceBook after someone posted a pic of something & asked for ideas regarding it’s identification:
Gillespium.
1, Something that isn’t what it’s claimed to be.
2, Something that no one can positively identify.
I’m rather proud of that 🙂
Edit: & now someone else has come up with Amelium LOL!
By: mark_pilkington - 22nd April 2018 at 23:40
1. @50 Million new pockets to target in the UK for Earhart project and Tighar admin funding.
2. A soapbox to launch the “Glenn Miller” search of the English Channel and hence access @50 Million nee pockets to target in the UK for Glenn Miller project and Tigher admin funding.
3. To promote to anyone who will listen and to target their pockets for Tighar admin funding and The Gillespie Benevolent Fund.
Regards
Mark Pilkington
(“I can see rivet lines…..”)
By: MFowler - 22nd April 2018 at 21:04
I can’t get past Gillespie honing in on a British documentary about Earhart … why, for any reason at all, would anyone in England care one way or the other??? Last I checked, Earhart was American and had no particular ties to the English other than a common language.
The ONLY reason that makes sense to me is that Gillespie has realized – with the latest PR flop of his bones reanalysis and its one-day wonder treatment by the media – that none of the US media will have anything more substantial to do with him. No media attention, no bucks, and no more horse farm payments.
By: Sabrejet - 22nd April 2018 at 19:26
Plus of course, any actor would do due diligence and a simple Google would reveal that being linked to TIGHAR would not be something they’d want on their CV…
By: MFowler - 22nd April 2018 at 17:21
This is a tad bizarre, even considering the source. On April 14, Gillespie posted on the TIGHAR forums, “We’re exploring the possibility of a British documentary about Earhart and we need to identify big-name British stars who might be interested in hosting such a show. Anybody know of any “A-list” British personalities who are especially interested in history, mysteries, aviation, Amelia, etc.?” Note the date – it’s not an April Fool’s joke.
This, after what he, personally, wrote in his recent paper regarding British colonial official’s actions regard Earhart and the search for her and Noonan (discussed above)?
I will be amazed if any British personality, A-list or otherwise, will have anything to do with Gillespie after what he wrote and published for a global audience. He well and truly burned that bridge.
By: MFowler - 4th March 2018 at 19:46
Creaking Door said, “Pretty ironic for Gillespie to be criticising the 1940 investigation into the skeletal remains… “
It is, on several fronts. The thing that bothers me the most is Gillepie’s constant and unbending “must be Earhart’s” bias towards anything that might possibly be used to support his theory. The initial TIGHAR “paper” about the bones documents discovered in the English archive was never vetted or peer-reviewed by outside, independent sources – it was basically a “table paper” made available at a conference; they put a stack on a table and passerby could pick one up if they wanted to. But Gillespie has generally treated it as much more than that.
When Cross and Wright came out with their peer-reviewed paper published in a recognized academic journal, Gillespie immediately went on the offensive, called it an attack on a cornerstone of the Nikumaroro hypothesis … and spent the next few years desperately trying to goad the chief US author of the original TIGHAR “paper,” Dr. Richard Jantz, to do a rebuttal with a “real” scientific paper in a “real” scientific journal.
Anything that remotely threatens his livelihood gets attacked through the information sources that he, alone, controls.
By: MFowler - 28th February 2018 at 16:07
Interesting read, that BBC story, which, again, points out very clearly TIGHAR’s “must be Earhart’s” worldview on ANYTHING it has found on Nikumaroro. It took me a long time, and many, many examples, to drive that lesson home. And longer still for me to realize that, scientifically, it was a crap view.
Malcolm, Gary LaPook actually FOIA’d some State Department e-mails that paint a very different picture than then one Gillespie paints. That whole episode degenerated into farce at the end. All the State Department photo guys were willing to admit was, “We think we can see how your expert arrived at his conclusion.” Without actually agreeing with it in the slightest.
By: Creaking Door - 27th February 2018 at 20:40
And all roads lead back to TIGHAR…
…via the ‘Did Amelia Earhart die as a prisoner of the Japanese?’ link in the BBC article!
By: Archer - 27th February 2018 at 20:07
They can stop the search for her car: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-43217133
😉
By: J Boyle - 26th February 2018 at 01:20
With that kind of thinking, if they find any remains remains in their search for Miller, they’ll probably want to dig up Jimmy Stewart to match them. 🙂
(For those of you too young to remember, Stewart played the bandleader in Miller’s film biography).
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February 23, 2018 at 12:13 pm