In 1965, Major Joseph Gervais had a chance encounter with Bolam, believing she was Earhart. Using Gervais' research, author Joe Klaas documented this assertion in his book Amelia Earhart Lives (1970). Bolam denied being Earhart, filed a $1.5 million lawsuit and submitted a lengthy affidavit refuting the claim. The book's publisher McGraw-Hill pulled Klaas' book from the market shortly after it was released and court records indicate they made an out of court settlement with her.
Bolam's personal life history has since been thoroughly documented, eliminating any possibility she was Earhart. Evidence presented in the affidavit included her 1937 private pilot's license and marriage certificate. Her personal life was also a matter of public record. Born Irene Madalaine O'Crowley, she married Charles Craigmile and on his death, married Alvin Heller but was subsequently divorced from Heller c. 1939. She remarried to Guy Bolam in 1959. Although Irene Craigmile Bolam was a pilot, her main career revolved around banking and finance in New York. Many mutual friends such as air racer Elinor Smith also knew both Earhart and Bolam.
On Bolam's death, Gervais sought permission to photograph and fingerprint the body, but permission was denied. In 2006, criminal forensic expert Kevin Richlin was hired by National Geographic to study photographs of Earhart and Bolam and cited many measurable facial differences between them, concluding that the two people were not the same.
Read more about this topic: Irene Craigmile Bolam
Famous quotes containing the word earhart:
“Women must try to do things as men have tried. When they fail their failure must be but a challenge to others.”
—Amelia Earhart (1897–1937)