This story I am about to tell is completely true. It is
documented throughout history and I will give you a web
address where you can find the actual events on the
web. I am from Philadelphia and this happen about 4 blocks
from my house.
In February 1957, a man walking through an abandoned lot in
Philadelphia stumbled upon the naked body of a boy wedged
inside a corrugated J.C. Penney's carton marked "Fragile,
Handle with Care." The bruised and battered child, covered
with a cheap flannel blanket, soon became known as "The Boy
in the Box."
The coroner determined that the child, about 4 years old,
had been beaten to death and died from massive head wounds,
but could not answer the question that swept the city. Why
was he killed? And who had dumped him in the lot? Hoping
to identify the boy as a missing child, officials kept his
body in the morgue as visitors from more than 10 states
filed through, scanning his small, bruised body for
familiar markings.
The carton the boy was found in once
held a baby's bassinet and was one of only 12 units shipped
to a store in Upper Darby, PA. A blue corduroy "Ivy League"
cap found in the debris-strewn field near the boy was
traced to a store in South Philadelphia. Scars on the boy's
body suggested he had been hospitalized before his death,
so investigators canvassed local hospitals to see if any
had treated the boy in recent months. They even singled out
his freshly cut hair, theorizing that he may have met his
end at a barber shop. Five months after he was found, the
Boy in the Box was buried in a potter's field. His
tombstone read "Heavenly Father, Bless This Unknown Boy.
There has been many leads and the detective's reopened the
case in 1998. But then they got a phone call from a
psychiatrist in Cincinnati. The night before, one of her
patients had phoned the doctor at 2 a.m. demanding she
contact Philadelphia homicide. She wanted to talk about the
Boy in the Box. So Augustine, accompanied by two retired
investigators close to the case, Joseph McGillen and
William Kelly, flew to Cincinnati to track down the lead of
a lifetime.
The men met the woman, whom Augustine would only identify
as "Martha," at the psychiatrist's office, a converted
house. Over three hours, the woman opened up gradually,
painting a grim portrait of the little boy's life.
In 1955, when Martha was 11, she told the investigators,
her librarian mother drove her to a home, where she picked
the boy up in exchange for an envelope which she assumed
contained money. The child, called Jonathan, then came to
live with them in their Philadelphia home. There, he was
raised in squalor in the basement, with a drain for a
bathroom and a makeshift bed amid coal bins and discarded
cardboard cartons. Martha claimed that her mother regularly
sexually abused her and had purchased the child to do the
same to him.
The boy's death, Martha claimed, eventually came when her
mother, in a fit of rage, slammed him down on the floor
after he vomited in the tub. That day, her mother drove her
into Philadelphia to dump the child.
At issue is whether Martha, who has a history of mental
problems, could have fabricated the story. Her psychiatrist
claimed to have first heard the tale in 1989, but protected
her client's privacy until she chose to come forward. No
notes of that original discussion exist, says
Augustine. "If we had notes, that would be a different
story," he said. "If we could just prove one thing about
it, we'd have it solved. And if we could just disprove one
thing, we'd throw her tip in the garbage."
To corroborate her story, Augustine is arranging to search
the Philadelphia house where she used to live. Was the
drain in the basement where she said it was, for example,
and did houses in that area have coal bins as she
described? But these minor details will not seal a case
that, for Augustine, has become a life's work. "I want to
get this case to be sown up as if the mother was still
alive and we got an arrest warrant and a conviction in
court," he said. And he plans to continue speaking with
Martha, hoping she'll provide more details that can be
corroborated.
Until then, the real story will remain buried with the boy,
they moved his grave under a new headstone
inscribed "America's Unknown Child" in Philadelphia's Ivy
Hill cemetery.
Now here is where I am involved. The place where the boy
was found is now a huge beautiful place with a playground
and woods for long walks called Susquehanna. They say if
you go there at night you will see the spirit of the boy
because his murder has not be solved. My younger brother
and his friends are obsessed with this place and go there
on a regular basis.
One night they decided to camp out
there (even though you aren't allowed). Well in the middle of
the night him and all of his friends got what they
deserved. They said they were just getting into their
tents when they heard moaning noises. My brother being the
brave one got out of the tent and he said he saw a figure
from a distance. He thought it was an animal but as it
came closer he recognized who it was. He tried to talk to
the boy but he vanished and all they heard were noises like
someone watching them. Eventually it got to be too much so
they chickened out.
It is known in the town I live in that he haunts the woods but no one is really scared because of
the way the boy died. I still pray that they will someday
find out who the boy in the box is and give him a proper
burial.
If you would like to look up the website on the
boy go to courttv.com and go to the hidden traces section
on the site map.
I hope you enjoyed my true story and please say a prayer
that someday this boy will be laid to rest.
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