| Title | : | Missing 411: Eastern United States |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 1468012622 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9781468012620 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 342 |
| Publication | : | First published March 6, 2012 |
The eastern version contains chapters identifying clusters of missing people from the eastern section of the United States but also includes one chapter on Ontario (Canada) hunters who have disappeared. The book also contains chapters on berry pickers, sheepherders and farmers that have vanished from throughout North America under unusual circumstances.
Both versions of Missing 411 identify portions of 28 clusters of missing people that have been documented throughout the U.S. and Canada. Sometimes these clusters are purely geographical while others identify a linkage based on age and sex of the victims, a very troubling and surprising find by researchers.
Missing 411: Eastern United States Reviews
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This is the first book that I've read in less than a day in quite some time. Compelling doesn't begin to describe it. The author makes an intriguing, but unspoken, case for a solution to the disappearances. Some readers may be disappointed because the book raises more questions than it answers. It's fascinating reading for supernatural/paranormal armchair researchers like me who hunger for fresh info and perspectives on anomalous topics. Can't wait to begin the western edition!
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This is the 2nd book in the series (and it's the 2nd book by virtue of being the 2nd half of the 1st book) and it answers some questions that have been bugging me after reading Missing 411: The Devil's in the Detail.
1. The 411 is the 411 people whose cases are presented in the 1st 2 books.
2. Paulides' hidden agenda, being not so hidden at the start, is Bigfoot. He started out in the fringe world of cryptozoology & ufology & their ilk as a Bigfoot researcher, so this isn't a SURPRISE, but it's nice to have it confirmed. He's pretending, even at the beginning, not to have a theory, but the inclusion of Roy Bilgrien, who was NEVER missing, but who WAS almost abducted by something his mother described alternately as a bear and a wolf, shows Paulides' hand very clearly.
So this review is mostly about the problems I have with Paulides, because otherwise it's just "here are a bunch of unexplained disappearances about which I have a theory I will not tell you but in true Socratic fashion will hit you over the head with ("Think about the reasons why this may be occurring" (122)) until you tell it to me." My chief problem is actually not Bigfoot; it's the shoddy sloppiness of Paulides' research. I will give one example, although there are plenty of others. In discussing the SAR (Search and Rescue) efforts after the disappearance of
Dennis Martin in
Great Smoky Mountains National Park (from a place I've definitely been near, if not actually to), Paulides says: "In one of the more surprising twists to the SAR, it was discovered that the park service closed Cades Cove Loop Road for three days, without explanation. . . . There is nothing in the documentation I received [after filing a FOIA] explaining why the cove was closed" (M411 150).
So, pursuing a different aspect of Dennis Martin's disappearance that Paulides deals with badly (more about that in a minute), I Googled the FBI agent assigned to observe, Jim Rike. That Google search brought up a document called the
Dennis Martin Search Chronological Narrative, which is the National Park Service's report on the SAR effort. This document was requested & received by the
Knoxville News-Sentinel in 1969, no FOIA needed, and on p. 11 it says: "The Cades Cove road was closed to keep the many curiosity seekers away from the Cades Cove heliport" (DMSCN 11). Now, if you are a conspiracy-minded person, you may choose not to believe this explanation, but it is patently untrue that no explanation was given.
This is unforgivably sloppy research. It's part and parcel of Paulides' fundamental problem, which is that he's not a researcher. He has no formal training and it's clear that he's not doing a good job of training himself. He makes errors like this one. He misses obvious cross-references, like "in the early 1930s there is another major increase of men and women missing, with the escalation staying elevated until today" (307), where GOSH I WONDER IF MAYBE THERE WAS SOME MAJOR SOCIAL DISASTER THAT BEFELL AMERICA IN 1929 THAT MIGHT EXPLAIN THIS INCREASE. He doesn't contextualize his cases at all, except in terms of each other. He tells us, with a kind of ghoulish satisfaction, that Jim Rike (the FBI agent I mentioned above) committed suicide, but offers no proof that his suicide was because of his work on cases involving missing children. There are other reasons a guy might be suicidal. (An article about Dennis Martin on
Tales of the Weird says that Rike's reasons are unknown, and I feel like a ghoul myself so I'm not digging further.)
And it becomes important to remember that Paulides is skewing his data. He's only interested in MP cases that fit his (weird-ass) criteria. As an experiment, I checked West Virginia's MP in NamUs. Paulides has 5; NamUs lists 72. The kicker? Only one of Paulides' cases is in NamUs (
Victor Shoemaker). One of the others is on
Porchlight. The other three were found (2 alive, 1 dead)--but their disappearances fit Paulides' schema, so in they go. This is a pretty wild distortion in describing national trends of disappearances and means that you need to keep the salt shaker handy.
So why do I keep reading him? He does have an impressive collection of raw data and bizarre stories, and something in my back-brain just chews on this stuff like homemade caramels. -
If you love trying to solve mysteries, these cases will boggle your mind. People have been mysteriously disappearing from the forests of North America starting in the 1800s and they continue to go missing today. The cases compiled in this book are not your usual missing persons cases. They are people missing under unusual circumstances.
At the end of the book, the author lists and groups the data according to age, gender, location, date, season, whether FBI were involved, similarities between cases, etc. and you are encouraged to contact the author if you have any leads or useful information. -
Unbelievable!! Makes you wary to go in the woods. Given the authors experience, it is informative to read the analysis of each of these cases.
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Never mind the content, for the moment, let's first talk about the presentation.
Mr. Paulides, get thee to an editor!
I looked for an editor credit and it was also "Missing," and there was much that made me want to volunteer my own humble services, though I am myself not an editor.
So there were challenges for me that should not have been there, IMO, and there was much that could have been improved, like footnotes, and cross-referencing. But all grammatical challenges should have been removed especially when one is presenting unusual, fringe, or controversial ideas.
As for the content itself, I had so many questions, ... so many questions, ...
We are given little mysteries, and there is never enough data for reasonable explanations, ... and yet our human minds are always seeking closure, answers, someplace to rest.
I saw my own mind frequently leap towards "paranormal" explanations.
But I only ever had the information that Mr. Paulides has given us, and yes it is the nature of a mystery that data is missing, but we can only guess at whatever information filtering processes were at work. But he is an experienced investigator, so we have to trust him, ...
So, the premise is there are quite a large number of people who are disappearing mostly from rural areas in or very near national parks in North America and Canada. The missing that fit Paulides criteria are either never seen again, or are found dead under mysterious circumstances, or they are found and are unable to explain what happened to them.
Looking at thousands of cases, David Paulides started to see many recurring themes and patterns to these stories.
And despite large numbers of folks going missing in parks, the National Park Service claims to have no records of this phenomenon.
But to his credit, and our frustration, Mr. Paulides does not offer any explanations. Instead, he peppers his "just-the-facts"style of writing with tantalizing comments, as readers grope for answers.
I was left wanting more, ...
which could have been the intention.
... -
David Paulides continues to present strange and concerning true stories of missing people in the U.S. and Canada. Like the first book, I was hooked on this book and quickly read through it (looking forward to reading the next section with a sense of fascination and dread at the same time). One critique that I do have is that I am glad that I read the first (Western) book first as the author goes into some common trends and possible explanations regarding some of the case studies that he does not elaborate on in this book. This would only be a potential issue if the first book was not read prior to this one.
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Just like the West Coast version, these books by Paulides are thoroughly engaging and seriously, I read both in a little more than 12 hours each (the other is the West Coast). These are the tales that we don't hear much about and seem to quickly be removed from the media. The tales of accurate records and failure of the FOIA inquiries makes the reader wonder just what the National Parks Service and others are really hiding.
Makes you think twice about skirting out on your own, or even with a buddy or small group, in our wilderness. Some of just down right chilling. -
This is some next level X-Files sh...stuff right here. But this isn't fiction- this is real. People going missing in the wilderness under bizarre circumstances and if they are found, those circumstances are equally puzzling. My library only has this one book of the series in its system so I have begged them to get all the other installments because: "The truth is out there." "Trust no one."
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This is the second book I have read and the cases just get stranger. There may be some cases that could be down to people losing their way, or getting lost while out hunting, hiking etc but more than a few of these cases just do not make sense to me. I think the author has done an awful lot of research and is trying to get a database set up where missing people in National Parks will have their details stored. I find it quite surprising that this is not done (unless the local police perhaps keep a record). Anyway, the author is trying to raise the profile of these cases and I cannot fault him for that. It is so sad for those left behind, who are left with more questions than answers as to what happened to their loved ones and the children's cases are really frightening. Not a book for people who are off a sensitive disposition. I have actually chosen a completely different type of book for my next read, just to get my mind off this subject for a while. It was just really sad reading many of the cases. I do hope the author continues his work. Someone needs to remember the missing and it should not just be the family or friends. It is a terrible thing when no one cares.
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just as engrossing and haunting as the previous Western Edition, impossible to stop reading cant wait to get the third in the series!! Thank you for writing these David Pauldies!!
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No doubt, disappearances happen, but not at the alarming rate and strange patterns you will read about once you go through this book. Read it!
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I met author David Paulides a few months ago at a speaking event. We spoke about the documentary he’s making based on this series of books, and he kindly signed a copy of his book for me, signing it “Hike with a new awareness.” He came off as a very confident and headstrong person, but also kind. But let’s get to the review.
Missing 411 is a series of books about the phenomena of strange and unexplained missing person’s reports throughout North America. The subject this book delves into is fascinating. It goes into the mystery of how all of these people went missing, and especially unexplainable is the circumstances and details surrounding a lot of these cases.
The author does a decent job at just displaying the facts and allowing the reader to come to their own conclusions, although sometimes some patterns are talked about that I just felt like were more correlation and less causation. This book definitely leaves you with more questions than answers, but you do learn a lot about the phenomenon.
The formatting of the book itself could’ve used some work: there are punctuation mistakes for example (periods are missing at the end of sentences at times etc.) Also, all the data can be jumbled around which makes it a little hard to follow sometimes. I think overall it could have been organized a little better. It was also tough to read this book at times, especially late at night. You remember that these were real people and if you try to put yourself in their shoes and think about what they experienced, it can be frightening and my heart goes out to the families of those people mentioned in the book.
Honestly though, I had to skip a decent portion of the end of the book. The subject can be depressing after a while. It reminded me of when I visited the Catacombs in Paris. It’s spooky, and your morbid curiosity takes you there, but you soon want to get back out. It becomes too depressing, too heavy. The cases also become extremely repetitive. I’m not belittling anyone’s missing persons story or experience, but he could’ve edited out a lot of them, keeping the most unusual cases in the book and had a much more easily read book.
Check it out if you’re into the phenomenon. -
Oh boy. So, not quite worthy of three stars, but deserving of more than two.
What can I say that other reviewers have not?
I agree that the research is sloppy. Paul definitely needs to invest in an editor or at least run a spell check. A little consistency in the writing and presentation of data would be nice as well.
There were several points he kept bringing up that made me cringe and not want to take him seriously. For example: he kept repeating that it was weird or inexplicable that the missing kept removing all of parts of their clothes, especially on cold nights. This is actually a common reaction from victims of hypothermia.
He also kept drawing similarities between disappearances of people that were decades apart... and coming up with patterns that I just wasn’t seeing/were not really patterns.
If you look past the conspiracy theory case summaries, this was a pretty interesting read. There were several cases that made me shiver a bit (like the girl who said she was perused for three weeks by a group of men or the official who said he knew of wild men living in the mountains/woods).
I don’t think it was anywhere near worth the price plus shipping from his shop, and certainly not worth the second hand scalper prices you see on eBay and Amazon. If I can find some of these at a library or for a reasonable second hand price, I’ll probably read more. -
This is one I'll read and read again! So much detail and hard work put into this book. If you're obsessed with unsolved mysteries, you need this in your library!
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So this is the 2nd book in the series. Basically the author felt the book was too large and broke it into two, western and eastern United States. While many of the cases are fascinating (and horrific), I don't understand exactly what Mr. Paulides is trying to insinuate. Perhaps nothing. I personally believe that he suspects "Bigfoot" is responsible for a lot of these disappearances. I don't believe there is a giant humanoid race of intelligent ape roaming the woods, swamps, and mountains of North America. Until some real evidence is found, Bigfoot remains a cryptid.
Some of the cases I think can be explained in other ways. For a lot of the people never found, I can't discount the fact that most of the time it is a relative or close family friend that has done something to the person. In urban areas it is almost always the spouse or parents that are questioned first. The sad truth is, most of the time they did do it. It's just harder to cover up a crime committed in a populated city. In the wilderness though, well that's a completely different story. Take one of the last cases in this book. A 53 year old woman, her husband, and a cousin go to a cabin to hunt. It's never stated whose cousin it is. Supposedly the husband doesn't feel good and stays at the cabin while his wife and the cousin go out hunting. Then she falls in a creek and they decide to go back so she can get dry clothing, but for some reason they split up on the way back. Then she disappears. The two men say they searched for her all night and then sook out the help of the police in the morning. First of all how does anyone know the husband and cousin are telling the truth? Perhaps they both know what happened to her and a simple cover story was thought up. Out in the woods, there isn't anyone around to see or hear anything strange. Maybe the husband really doesn't have any involvement and it was the cousin. Especially if it's not her cousin by blood. The book doesn't even say his age though. I find it odd that they didn't immediately think to have one of them head back and get the police. I sure as hell hope my husband would if we were in this situation. Then the poor lady is found drowned 7 months later. The condition of her body is not stated. She went missing when it was cold and was found in the Spring if I remember right. One of those men could have easily drowned her and her body remained hidden in the frozen waters until things thawed. Of course that is all speculation and I don't know these people at all. It just seems like Mr. Paulides overlooks the simple in exchange for a more extraordinary explanation. Occams razor almost always applies in real life.
I did learn that people were downright negligent when it came to looking after their very small children before the 21st century. As a child of the 1980's I can say that it is true. Parents allowed their toddlers to roam around with other kids and no adults. When I was 4 years old I lived on a street populated with kids around my age. There was a fast flowing creek behind our house and the way down to it was very steep. This is Colorado and we also lived in the mountains. So there are bear, mountain lions, coyotes... a lot of predators. Anyway, I clearly remember running around the neighborhood with a pack of other kids ranging in age from 3 to about 8. It was normal for the time. I have young children and I could not imagine letting them do this kind of thing now. Even worse are the parents that would put their 2 year old baby out in the open yard to play and then go back in the house. As if their kid is a dog. I think dogs nowadays are watched after better than many toddlers were in the early 20th century! I know Mr. Paulides makes a point of choosing cases that are in rural areas, close to national forests, but that doesn't mean your kid is safe from everything. It also doesn't mean something mysterious happened. Toddlers wander off and can get pretty far in 10 or 15 minutes.
Many, many, many times he mentions that young children do not have the endurance to go as far as they have in such a short time. Having had 4 kids myself I would have to disagree. I also disagree with the assessment that kids will always take the easy path when wandering or lost. Maybe they saw something interesting up the ridge and just wanted to take a quick look. I have very clear memories of being 4 years old. I can say that I probably would have walked up a hill to get a better look at what is below me. It does seem, based on the cases he studied, that the younger a child is the more likely they are to survive being lost in the woods. If an adult goes missing it's almost a certainty that they will be found dead or never found. That goes against what I would logically conclude to be true.
I think more males go missing than females just by nature. More men hunt and hike alone than women. Women have had centuries to hone survival skills just to stay safe when walking alone in a crowded city, let alone a forest. I always find myself hyper aware of my surroundings when I am out in public or the wilderness, by myself. Young boys are more likely to be daring and leave the safety of the group. Look at all the boys that went missing in these books because they split off from the group to take a short cut. Girls are more likely to stay with the group. It's just the way we're programmed. Of course this isn't a hard rule for both genders, but by majority it applies. Especially in the past. Girls were not encouraged to be adventurous, boys were.
Same goes for most of the missing being white, native/indigenous, hispanic in ethnicities. Culturally these were the races that went out into the wilderness for fun. Especially before the 21st century. I wonder if this only holds true for North America. I did find it odd that Mr. Paulides noted when a missing person was blonde. What does that matter? There didn't seem to be an overwhelming amount of blondes disappearing. He never explains why he noted this.
I firmly believe that there are "wild men" living in the Appalachians. There is plenty of proof of this even today. There is the story of the alleged "cult of incest" in Western Australia. An entire 40 person family living almost like animals. Propagating with each other for over 4 generations. Found in 2013. There are many stories similar to this that come out of the Appalachians. I would never hike that trail alone and unarmed.
All in all though, it's an illuminating read. My family and friends spend most of our free time in the summer months, out in the wilderness. I will be making sure to never take my eyes off of my children and to go over the rules of being in the woods. Even then, I think this book has ramped up my paranoia about being in the wilderness. -
Apparently the second of
David Paulides four "Missing 411" books, didn't realize I was reading out of order -- however, because I'd already listened to many of the author's interviews I didn't have any trouble understanding the ideas and details presented in this book.
Primarily a listing of information in specific missing persons cases, this sort of book could be very dry, but this one isn't. The strangeness of the disappearances Paulides highlights in his works are compelling, even as you see the same scenarios repeated -- part of the weirdness in these cases is how the same bizarre details show up over and over again.
The author -- a former police investigator -- presents the facts of each case, sometimes stopping to raise questions about the various details or in the handling of the search and rescue operation. He doesn't really speculate on exactly WHAT is going on in these disappearances. Obviously, I would love to have him state outright what he thinks is going on, but Paulides leaves room for the reader to draw his or her own conclusions.
When I bought these books, I wondered if the repetition of facts would prove a bit dull, but I'm excited to read the rest of the series -- even if it is all much the same as this book, I find it interesting enough to read more.
Just as a side note, a previous reviewer mentioned how expensive these books are -- not so. They are only expensive if purchased through a well known large online retailer. The author's own site sells them at a reasonable price. -
First off, I'm a very generous reviewer. Damn it, I LOVE books. But I haven't been this enraged at a book (for different reasons) since the Plague Dogs. Something about the Plague Dogs upset her......but what? She could've given this book a better review, but.....why NOT? I don't believe in coincidences...
I read a lot about disappearances, and I mostly enjoyed reading it (She said mostly....how come?)
I found these interesting, and very heartbreaking.
And this is on the author ONLY: Shoddy research. I am the stupidest person in the west. It took me 5 minutes to find Barofsky's first name, family, previous addresses, and if he had a family he obviously lived (BONUS, to the first person who answers Barofsky's information. Shame the devil! (she might be sarcastic......but why? I detected snark....but how come........Something pissed her off.....but what?) -
This is an AMAZING READ, Scary, but True stories of missing children and Adults. Very odd facts that are similar in most all of the cases of the missing. National Parks won't talk, nor give information to the investigators. It will make you think twice about going into the woods near National or close to National Parks. Can't wait to get the Missing 411 (Western Region) book. I pray for all the family's that have lost their loved ones.
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I really enjoyed this book. It is an encyclopedia of missing persons under bizarre circumstances. It sure gave me the chills. I will now read the book on western disappearances, which supposedly came first in the series. At times the details became repetitive, but I was hooked until the end. I went to the internet to research many of his cases, and they are how he presented them.
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This book purports to document hundreds of mysteriously missing people over the course of more than 100 years. The author finds patterns in missing very young children, people in rural often swampy areas with berry patches. He seems to be suggesting that there are groups of "wild men" who may be abducting these people The book is highly speculative and just plain weird.
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I have to get this back to the owning library, so I skimmed the middle and read the conclusions. Interesting. Not sure I'm buying what the author's selling for the most part, but there are some weird occurrences over the past 100 or so years with people disappearing either permanently or temporarily. Kind of makes you not want to go for a walk in the woods alone anytime soon.
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Wow...just Wow! This book puts together many cases of missing persons from all over the Eastern United States that seem to have many similarities. Very interesting read...it will definitely make you stop and think. I've read and re-read this book 3 times. I highly recommend!
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A must read!
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My interest in this book was sparked by the recent youtube video by Wendigoon. I've been interested in unsolved mysteries for a long while, but this is the first proper book I've read about this subject.
The book presents information about unsolved missing persons cases very well. The author provides as much detail as is necessary and you get a good grasp on the methodology used very quickly. The author does believe, and then includes into the analysis, some things that I find dubious and unproven at best, like psychic mediums, but the mentions of them vere scarce enough that it didn't take me out of the reading experience. The author's belief in the existence of Bigfoot, or similar creatures, is also very apparent even without googling his larger body of work, but it is more implied in this book than outright stated. I have no strong opinions about this supposed creature's existence, so it didn't bother me either. It was very easy to focus on the facts of the cases without needing to accept the more unsubstantiated claims.
One thing that did somewhat hinder my enjoyment was the author's insistence on connecting different cases together, because as he writes he 'does not believe in coincidences'. I, however, am more ready to assume that if you gather a large number of instances of a similar thing happening, you will inevitably find some similarities that don't necessarily mean the cases ARE connected. And even then, some of these connections made were barely there. In some of these cases it was also not that hard to see why they were unsolved. If a person, often a child, goes missing and then the area is immediately hit by harsh weather, it's easy to see that the weather could be the direct cause of the person not getting found. There was also a lot of emphasis on 'irrational behavior', and how 'people don't behave like that', but it's a very well known fact that panic and desperation lead people to make unwise choices, especially children.
Overall though, the cases presented in this book were interesting enough to hold my attention for its entirety, and some of them really left me scratching my head. I will probably check out the other books in this series.
6/10 -
This was an interesting read, and I give David Paulides credit for his tireless and independent work on missing people in North America. His books are self-published, which I also give him credit for, but this was full of glaring spelling and grammatical errors.
I first found out about the Missing 411 books years ago, when I discovered the case of Dennis Martin, who disappeared in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in the 1960s. That case, and the other cases in the GSMNP chapter, are why I read this book. I admittedly, did not finish the last third of this, as I felt the cases to be repetitive.
But that’s just it, and that’s the underlying horror that presents itself in these cases. Many people have gone missing over the years and many under very similar and peculiar circumstances. This book contains a small number of missing persons, especially since missing people were rarely recorded before 1900.
Many missing people were found, some alive, most dead. An alarming number disappeared without a trace, sometimes in daylight and within sight of relatives. Many were under the age of five. This book raises more questions than answers. What is the Department of the Interior hiding, if anything? Why won’t the cases that the FBI handled be turned over to the general public? Why are so many people found miles from where they disappeared, with little to no recollection of what happened? Why are people found in or near streams or creeks? All of these are troubling questions which we may never have the answer to.
Mr. Paulides was told by Dwight McCarter, a retired NPS Ranger in the GSMNP, that there are “wild men” who live in the Smokies who commit crimes. What does this even mean?
We like to think that we live in a civil, tame world that is understood or can be understood with logic and reason. My thoughts are this, logic and reason can only take us so far. There are strange things about the world and universe which we don’t understand, either because we haven’t discovered how or that we simply do not have the mental capacity to understand them.
Anyways, Happy Halloween and stay safe. -
David Pauides, former police officer, suspended for using official stationary to solicit autographs turns into author of a phenomenon he has dubbed 'Missing 411' I have only read this installment and found it to be kind of a incoherent mess that is extremely grey in areas of 'actual investigating' and spun into be some paranormal events reoccurring throughout the U.S. He covers various cases with a wide range of dates that span so erratically, Mr. Paulides would need to be a time traveler to do more investigating than the average internet user. Speaking of average internet user, a individual has debunked most of these cases to be either misleading, nonfactual, or missing key details, such as the cases been solved long ago
https://www.reddit.com/r/UnresolvedMy...
I think it is extra disrespectful that David Paulides has left one career and made another preying on the tales of real people who probably met terrible demises at the hands of the elements, misfortune, or animals. He has turned human's natural trepidation of the dense forests of the Eastern U.S. into a book selling and Youtube sensation. This book is just a cog in the money machine he has propped himself on to go on wild rants about vaccines, freedom, and the worst, criticism of his investigating. Look for yourself. I am a random fool on the internet, but I'm not buying these spooky tales past this one. If you go in the woods, tell someone, bring water, if possible get a GPS, have a expected time to come back, and if you do get lost, don't keep going. It exasperates the issue
