Courtesy of Tim Beckley
Courtesy of listal.com
Glenn Miller
Glenn
Miller, the American national darling of the Glen Miller Orchestra which
created 70 top ten records in four years, disappeared over the English Channel
on December 15, 1944. His orchestra, which was stationed in England during
World War II, was heading to Paris on December 16 with his manager, Don Haynes,
to put on a show for the troops. However, a Lt. Norman B. Baessell was leaving
the day before, so they hitched a ride with him. Things were strange from the
beginning of the trip. There was no room for Haynes on the plane, so he was
left behind, and the plane only had one engine and no parachutes, which
frightened Miller. However, the determined musician wasn’t frightened enough to
abandon their plans. As they boarded the plane, Haynes was the last person to see them alive.
That certainly
incites suspicion, doesn’t it? The last person to see the orchestra alive would
incite suspicion, but I find what Baessell said prior to their boarding to be
even more suspicious. “What’s the matter
with you, Miller? Do you want to live forever?” was the peculiar, ominous
question he asked him. Maybe he did kill
him, maybe he didn’t. There’s not enough proof to entertain that scenario.
Numerous
theories have surfaced regarding his disappearance. One of the most credible
theories is that that Baessell’s plane, a Norseman, crashed into the English
Channel because of iced-wings or engine failure. A bazaar, unlikely claim was
made by a German journalist. According to that journalist, Miller arrived in
Paris safely, but died in the company of French prostitutes. However, that
theory has holes because he claims that the U.S military planted a plane and
bodies in the English Channel as a cover up and neither a plane nor bodies were found. Then there are the two version of
him dying from drugs. Many musicians die from some sort of drug overdose, but
that’s a faint possibility because there’s no proof. A letter to the famed
Glenn Miller conspiracy theorist, Dr. Chris Valenti, alleges that Miller died
from gunshot wounds in Ohio in 1945. There's no proof for that theory either. Miller’s younger brother, Herb, after years of silence, claimed that Miller
died of cancer. He was able to produce a letter written by his brother in which
he complained about feeling ill around the time that he disappeared. However,
Little Herb couldn’t produce any information about his resting place. Perhaps
he wanted to profit from a book deal or wanted Miller’s death to appear less
scandalous. Or maybe he just liked spreading rumors because...
The most
likely version of events is that he died while his plane was caught in
friendly fire. Navigator Fred Shaw saw a Norseman plane downed when he was in the air on December 15. Because the airplane had already been reported, he was not
debriefed, and he didn’t try to find out what happened to the casualties. He
didn’t even make the connection between Glenn Miller’s disappearance and what
he witnessed until he saw the movie “The Glenn Miller Story” in 1956. And he
didn’t check his old logbook to compare the downing of the Norseman with what
had been reported about Glenn Miller's disappearance for 30 years. Interested much, Shaw? When
the British Defense Ministry investigated his version of events, they found
that it had merit. Even if Glenn Millers
remains still haven’t been recovered.
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