MAN IN PAJAMAS DISAPPEARS
On April 15, 1959, at a motel in Illinois, Mrs. Bruce Campbell woke up to discover her husband and his pajamas missing; their money, their car, and his clothes remained. Journeying across country to visit their son, they had stopped for the night in Jacksonville. Neither Bruce nor any explanation for his disappearance was ever found.
In 1763, in Shepton Mallet, England, paraplegic Owen Parfitt rested in his chair at dusk, in full view of the farmhands working in a field across from him. Storm clouds were advancing, so his sister and a friend went to bring Owen inside. But Owen had vanished, leaving behind only his coat, neatly folded on the seat. Investigations at the time and again in 1814 and 1933 discovered no explanation for his disappearance.
In 1900, in Sherman Church, Michigan, a worker at the Augusta Mills jumped up from his chair in the office, rushed into the mill, and was never seen again. The mill was practically torn apart, and the countryside scoured, with no result.
In 1949, in Vermont, ex-soldier James Tetford was traveling back to the Bennington Soldier's Home by bus when he, but not his luggage, vanished from the moving vehicle. Fourteen other passengers and the driver noticed him asleep in his seat, and then he was gone. The Bennington area is known for unexplained disappearances.
In 1971, in Stonehenge, England, a camp of hippies were singing and smoking cannabis around their campfire when an electric storm erupted around them. A blinding blue light flashed, screams were heard, and the hippies vanished without a trace.
In 1975, in New York City, Martha and Jackson Wright pulled their car over while driving through the Lincoln Tunnel. They got out to wipe the vehicle windows—Jack the front and Martha the back. When Jack turned around, Martha had vanished.
Text from: Almanac of the Infamous, the Incredible, and the Ignored by Juanita Rose Violins, published by Weiser Books, 2009