I Know People On Tumblr Looove Stories Of Underwater Cave Diving, But I Haven't Seen Anyone Talk About

The Disappearance of Mary Agnes Moroney

February 15, 2023

Mary Agnes Moroney was born on May 9, 1928 in Chicago, Illinois to parents Catherine and Michael Moroney. Catherine had married Michael when she was only 13 years old, and they had two daughters together, Mary and Anastasia. 

The Moroney’s lived at 5200 Wentworth Avenue and were extremely poor. Due to this, one of Catherines relatives had wrote to what was known as a needy-family service which was printed publicly. Usually this service did not print out the addresses of the families, however through this a woman had found the Moroney’s address. 

On May 14, 1930, Catherine was scrubbing the floor of the house when she heard a knock at the door. A woman stated that her name was Julia Otis and she had been sent by a social worker to deal with the Moroney’s case from the needy family service. The woman was described as being well-dressed, around 22 years old, with protruding teeth and a “cultured voice.” 

After listening to the Moroney’s problems, Julia asked Catherine if she could take then 2 year old Mary Agnes to California with her, adding that she would be “fat as a butterball.” Catherine said no, and the woman promised she would return and gave Catherine $2 before leaving. 

On May 15, 1930, Julia came back with baby clothes, as Catherine was actually pregnant with her third child at this time. Julia also claimed to have arranged for Michael to have a better job and offered to take Mary to the store to buy her new clothes and shoes. Catherine was reluctant to allow this but eventually gave her permission. 

Catherine later said that Mary Agnes was extremely upset to go off with the woman, and refused to do so through tears. The woman known as Julia took Mary with her and the two were never seen again. 

On May 16, 1930, Julia wrote a letter to the Moroney’s which read: 

“Please don’t be alarmed, I have taken your little girl to California with me. I have hired a special nurse to care for her. We’ll be back in two months. By that time you will be on your feet again and will be able to care for her. She didn’t even cry a bit. She is outfitted like a princess. In the meantime, I’ll help all I can to get you on your feet. Don’t worry about her or anything else. When you get this letter we’ll be on our way already. As ever, Julia Otis.”

This was the last time the Moroney’s ever heard from the woman claiming to be Julia Otis again. 

Two weeks after Mary’s kidnapping, a woman claiming to be called Alice Henderson, sent the Moroney’s a letter saying that Julia was her cousin and was “love hungry” as her own husband and baby had died the year before in 1929. 

However, Alice Henderson was never heard from again after this note and police determined that the letter written by Julia and the letter written by Alice were from the same person as the handwriting was the same. 

Over a year later, in July 1931, an elder Native woman named Martha Thompson was pushing a cart to join a circus. In the cart was a blonde, blue eyed 3 year old girl that looked similar to Mary Agnes Moroney. Martha claimed that the little girl had been abandoned by her mother, a woman named Florence Fuller and begged to be able to keep the girl. The Moroney’s did not identify the girl as being Mary Agnes. 

In 1952, 22 years after Mary was last seen, a 24 year old woman named Mary McClelland saw some photos of Mary Agnes’ siblings (Catherine and Michael had 6 more children after Mary disappeared) and believed she was Mary Agnes herself. 

Mary McClelland claimed she had been adopted within a year of Mary Agnes’ disappearance by a man and woman named Charles and Nora Beck. Her dental casts were compared and through that, plus her skull and blood showed she was a Moroney. 

However, a physician named Dr. E.W. Merrithew stated that he had delivered Mary McClelland to an unknown mother on November 17, 1927, and the mother had provided a baby picture of her from 1928. This proved that she had been adopted 2 years before Mary Agnes had been abducted. 

More evidence was discovered when McClelland did not have the same scar Mary Agnes had from a previous surgery. Further DNA testing proved she was not Mary Agnes. Mary McClelland died in 2005 and the abduction of Mary Agnes Moroney remains unsolved. 

 Further more, Mary Agnes underwent an operation for a ruptured navel, but McClelland did not have the scar Mary Agnes had at the time of her disappearance.[5] Further DNA testing proved she was not Mary Agnes. She died in 2005.[1] The Moroney kidnapping remains unsolved after almost 93 years. 

Judy Garland rose to an unimaginable fame at just 17-years-old when she starred as Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz. However, from the age of 13, Garland had starred in other MGM productions beforehand. Garland developed an eating disorder and a drug addiction courtesy of MGM who had branded her a “fat little pig with pigtails.” 

MGM put her on a strict diet and would even go as far as to physically remove food from her possession so that she could not consume it. She was only a young teenager when she developed an eating disorder, living on a diet of chicken soup, coffee, and cigarettes.

Garland had a gruelling schedule, sometimes even working up to 18 hours a day. To combat fatigue and hunger pangs, she would be piled with amphetamines and barbiturates. To help her sleep, she would be given sleeping tablets. It’s not much of a shock that Judy Garland became addicted to drugs and ultimately, they would cause her untimely demise at the age of 47.

are chimps as unpredictable and dangerous as people say? I remember there being a famous mauling story from a woman who had one as a pet, but he was drugged with xanax or something similar and was having withdrawals, something like that. Definitely not a normal set of chimp circumstances, so I was wondering if they are usually randomly violent and difficult for humans to predicts

Lets talk about Travis, the tragic chimp that famously mauled Charla Nash.

(source)

Travis was a chimpanzee that was raised in a human household and acted in several commercials in his youth. He was taken from his mother and sold to his owners at 3 days old and lived with them until his death at 13 years of age. What makes us think of Travis as dangerous and unpredictable is that when he was young he was known for being docile, intelligent, obedient, and kind to the humans around him. He even play wrestled with people and was known to stop if his wrestling buddy became overwhelmed or he was told to stop. Travis did not lead a normal or natural life for a chimpanzee by any means; not only was he socialized as human and was raised to do chores and take part in human enrichment (he even knew how to drive a car, which is absolutely not good), but as you can see he was very overweight as a result of eating ice cream, tea, and other human foods instead of the balanced and diverse diets chimpanzees need.

Circumstances escalated with Travis when one of his owners and their only son died, and his remaining owner Sandra Herold became increasingly attached to Travis. The two would sleep in the same bed and bathe together. This was all at a time when Travis was entering adolescence and the divergence between his chimpanzee instincts and human socialization was widening. While human teenagers are able to journal, have conversations, and express themselves in order to process the challenges of puberty, Travis had no outlets for the natural frustration, aggression, and challenges he was facing. This led to the 2003 incident where Travis was on the loose for several hours after a pedestrian threw an empty soda bottle at the car that he was in, which went through a partially open window and struck him while stopped at a traffic light. Travis unbuckled his seat belt, opened the car door and chased his assailant. He also escaped from a police car when apprehended and chased the police officers around the car. Basically, there were warning signs that Travis was becoming too much to handle 6 years before the incident where he mauled, but because he had been a member of the family and community for so long he was allowed to continue to live with Sandra Herold.

The main thing I take away from Travis’ story here, even before the mauling incident, is that Travis’ behavior makes perfect sense for a chimpanzee. Because he was anthropomorphized to the point where his owner essentially thought of him as her son, the media sensationalized the story as a beloved animal “turning” on his loved ones. The thing is though, he didn’t really act unpredictably at all, the signs were there from the beginning and his behavior escalated gradually before it came to a head in 2009, the people around him just ignored the warnings. Even taking xanax out of the question which can have some pretty adverse effects on humans let alone chimps, the 2009 incident began with Travis leaving the house with his owners car keys (his property, as far as he is concerned), and his owners friend Charla Nash trying to lure him back to the house with his favourite toy. Essentially, Travis was leaving his territory when he saw someone who he may not have recognized as a member of his troupe in his territory, with his treasured item. When he tried to defend his territory by attacking her, Herold began to attack him which escalated the conflict. Additionally, chimpanzees are 5-6 times stronger than humans and as he grew up play fighting with humans he was not really capable of conceptualizing how disproportionate his strength was.

Now, lets turn to talk about another chimp. Meet September: 

(source)

Like Travis, September started her life as a pet. She was raised as a human child would be, and when she reached adolescence her owners recognized that she was too large and strong to safely keep in the house, and began keeping her in a cage in their backyard. Luckily, her owners recognized that this was no life for a chimp and surrendered her and two other chimpanzees to Save the Chimps, a sanctuary in Florida in 2002 when September was 23. She is now 42 years old, and despite having tragically similar circumstances to Travis, is thriving. Due to her history as a pet, September found it very difficult to become accustomed to living with other chimps, even the two other chimpanzees that lived with her when she was a pet, but has become a member of a troupe and spends her days painting, braiding strips of fabric, and exploring her island home.

Basically, there are no bad chimps, only tragic circumstances. Even when chimps in the wild are violent there are rational explanations for their behavior such as territorial disputes and interpersonal conflicts. They are only difficult to predict if you expect them to act like humans, and not chimpanzees.

"Chimpanzees are wild animals. Animals that make good pets like dogs and cats, have been domesticated for thousands of years. There has been selection on them against aggression, which is why a dog, unlike a wolf, will not automatically tear you to pieces. Anyone who has a pet chimpanzee for long enough will eventually no longer be able to control them and will either get a body part bitten off or will have to use extreme force to control them. Chimps live to be 50 years old and grow almost as big as a human male. They have extremely powerful muscles and are 5-10 times stronger than a heavy weight boxer." - Sheril Kirshenbaum - Conservationist.

On the 16th of February, 2009, a 200-pound male chimpanzee by the name of Travis, escaped his owner's home in Stamford, Connecticut, and became very irate. The owner, Sandra Herold, called her friend over, 55-year-old Charla Nash, to help her control the 14-year-old primate. When Travis saw Nash holding a Tickle-Me-Elmo toy, one of his favourite toys, he flew into a rage. He lunged at Nash and began to tear apart her face and hands, severely mauling her and eating parts of her while she was screaming in agony. Herold attempted to stab her chimp with a butcher's knife, but this only made him even more angry. Herold immediately phoned 911 and begged for responders to come with a gun, stating "He is eating my friend!".

The police came and ended up shooting and killing Travis. Despite Nash's severe and horrendous wounds, she survived. Nash was rushed to hospital where she underwent a long, 7-hour surgery with 4 teams of surgeons working overtime to save her life. The state of Nash upon arrival was so disturbing, the hospital offered counseling to its staff. Charla has done interviews and made public appearances since the incident, and has stated "I never gave up hope to live."

The Cannibal House Part 2 (pt. 1) — This is part of Armin Meiwes’ kitchen, where he cooked the flesh of Bernd Brandes, his voluntary victim, over a period of 10 months. Upon Meiwes’ arrest, the police found 20 kgs (44 lbs) of human flesh stored in this deep freezer amongst boxes of pizza. If you look closely, you can see still the police label on the freezer from when it was taken into evidence (dated 12.12.02). 

Jane Bielawski and her doll “Missy”. Following the suspicious death of some of her playmates in New York tenement, police attempted to interview Jane. According to reports, the young girl went ‘crazy’ and accused her doll of the murders, before throwing the doll out of her apartment window while screaming “Bad dolly. Naughty dolly!” Jane was taken to Bloomingdale Asylum to be treated for ‘hysterica’. She was never to leave the institution, dying there an old woman in 1968.

(this is a bit graphic) In Westphalia there's a horse museum which sounds delightful but in fact it's just row after row of incredibly macabre taxidermies that look like you're trying to toughen up the next generation of equine vets. There's an ancient horse grave with a graphic illustration of bronze age people beating that exact horse to death, there's a not-quite-right-looking taxidermy of a dam and foal of some extinct wild horse breed, there's the sliced up taxidermied head, there's Polydor (who's just taxidermied Polydor, they left him intact thank god), there's a dimly lit little room with a taxidermied mining pony hanging from the ceiling in a harness. Frankly I think we could've done with less taxidermy.