What would you do with all the money in the world? End hunger? Buy a maybach? Or simply…
disappear? I’m Bob from world5list, step into the vault as I show you 8 millionaires
who simply disappeared.
8. Steve Fossett
A Californian native, Steve Fossett was an accomplished, businessman, record-breaking
aviator, sailor, and adventurer who’d taken to the skies since he was in college. His
adventurous edge drove him to accomplish many feats.
Fossett had broken many records in his life including becoming the first person to fly
across the pacific in a hot air baloon in 1995, getting his hot air balloon to reach
a record-breaking speed of 200.24 miles an hour in 2002, making his Zeppelin reach a
record-breaking speed of 71.5 miles an hour in 2004, traveling a record-breaking 3,186
miles by hot air balloon in a single day, and reaching a record-breaking altitude of
50,727 feet with his glider in 2006, and none of it was enough… because Fossett is also
on record as becoming the first person to fly around the entire world via hot air balloon
as well.
Unfortunately for the accomplished aviator, however, things took a turn for the worst.
On September 3, 2007, Fossett took off in his single engine Super Decathlon in SMith
Valley, Nevada, and never came back. When he failed to return, search parties were sent
out six hours later in the hopes of finding him. None did.And, on September 19, authorities
stopped looking for Fossett altogether.
But then, a year later, on September 29, 2008, investigators finally made some headway on
the case when a group of hikers stumbled across a couple of identification cards belonging
to Fossett in the Sierra Nevada mountain range--about 65 miles south from where Fossett took off
A few days later, on October 1, search parties finally found the place where Fossett had
crashed, and with it identified bone fragments belonging to Fossett too, finally putting
this mystery to rest.
7. Cam Lyman
Cam Lyman, born Camilla Lowell Lyman in Westwood, Massachusetts, was a multimillionaire breeder
of champion clumber spaniels, and a known recluse. He was also transgender, and it was
after he began to identify as a man that he ran into some trouble, because it was then
that he eventually befriended a man by the name of George O'Neil, a man who would eventually
become the caretaker of Lyman’s estate and Lyman’s prize winning dog by 1985.
Then, in 1987, when Cam’s family failed to receive their yearly Christmas card from
him, they became concerned, and it was then that they learned that no one had heard from
Cam in months
When the police went to question George, he claimed that the two of them had gotten into
a fight over the phone. The next day, George says, he went to Cam’s house to see that
Cam had ripped the phone out of the wall. George also believed that Cam had gone to
Europe to finish his sex reassignment surgery. But, when questioned further, George failed
to provide any evidence that Cam had actually went to Europe, and didn’t have any answers
when asked why he didn’t tell anyone about why he hadn’t seen Cam in over six months.
In 1997, the mystery appeared to be solved when a couple discovered Lyman’s body inside
a septic tank in Rhode Island. However, no one was every charged in Cam’s murder. And,
although O’Neil went to prison in 2003, it’s not for the murder of Cam Lyman. No,
he’ serving his time for the embezzling $15,000 from Lyman’s estate.
6. Ambrose Small
Born in 1863, Ambrose Joseph Small was a successful Canadian theater magnate who owned several
properties including three opera houses in Ontario, and was the controller of 62 other
buildings. His success brought in millions, but on December 1, 1919, Small apparently
decided he had enough and sold his properties for what amounted to $1.7 million.The next
day, Small left his office in the Toronto Grand Opera House with his attorney F. W.
M. Flock and never returned. When police tried to find out what happened to him, no one seemed
to know when exactly Small left his office.
At first, no one took notice of Small’s disappearance due to his habit being a womanizer
who frequently disappeared to go on his sexual exploits. But, in January 1920, Flock and
and Small’s wife Teresa became alarmed when Ambrose failed to return and contacted the
police. Small also didn’t seem to have a motive for disappearing on his own either,
The money he he earned from selling his properties was right where he left it.
The police searched extensively for any clue to what might have happened to Ambrose small,
but all of their attempts failed. At one point, they even brought in Arthur Conan Doyle, hoping
he’d be able to solve the case,,,but Doyle eventually dropped out in favor of more fruitful
pursuits.
With no leads in sight, the case of Ambrose Small’s disappearance was closed in 1960
and, to this day, no one knows what happened to the Canadian millionaire.
5. Guma Aguiar
Guma Agular was a wealthy brazilian industrialist and philanthropist, spending much of his time
in the United States and Israel, nad donating to millions to charitable causes like Nefesh
B'Nefesh and the March of the Living.
Life seemed to be pretty good for Guma, who married his high school sweetheart Jamie Elizabeth
Black in 2005, and was the CEO of Leor Energy and, aside from having a domestic abuse protective
order filed against him and being charged with the possession of marijuana in 2009,
Guma’s record seemed pretty clean.
Then in june of 2012, he would board a 31 ft boat by the name of the TT Zion… never
to be seen again. The boat landed at fort lauderdale beach, fully functional and running
but Guma was nowhere to be found. No signs of foul play could be detected, and all of
Gumas belongings like his wallet and phone were found on board. After searching his home,
authorities found his watch and wedding band left behind, which would have been strange
for the man to do.
After an exhaustive search and no leads, his body was never found, and he was declared
legally dead in 2015.
4. Arthur Kingsley Porter
Born in 1883, Arthur Kingsley Porter was many things including a millionaire, art historian,
and medievalist, although his most significant contribution to his field was in the study
of romanesque sculpture.
Arthur had a fairly propitious life. He was born into a wealthy family, and attended Yale
where he received a Bachelor of Fine Arts. Later, in the 1920’s he began to travel
about Europe, giving lectures at prestigious universities as he went, winning fame for
himself and presenting new theories for all those who would listen.
No one knows what happened to Arthur Kingsley Porter. All we know is that he disappeared
sometime in 1933. That said, while there are some theories floating around what what may
have happened to him, most people assume that he presumably drowned while taking a ride
on his boat.
3. Don Lewis
Jack Dom Lewis was a self-made millionaire, and a bit of a eccentric who often liked to
walk around clothes he picked up at yard sales, and liked to have plenty of cash in his pockets
to boot. He was the co-founder of the Wildlife on Easy Street, now known as Big Cat Rescue,and
made his fortune in the real estate business.
We don’t know a lot about the disappearance of Don Lewis, bit we do know that he disappeared
under mysterious circumstances on August 18, 1997. And, while no one was ever charged or
held suspect for Jack’s disappearance, even though the spouse is often the first person
the police look at. Witnesses say he often got into fights with his wife, Carole, now
the CEO of Wild Cat Rescue...which, sounds kind of suspicious, if you ask me.
2. Eddie Antar
Eddie Antar might have been a high school dropout, but he wasted no time accruing fame
and fortune.He quickly set to work, making his time in the electronics industry and becoming
the owner of Crazy Eddie, an electronics chain with 43 locations in the Northeastern United
States. Everything seemed to be going well for Eddie. He was so well known that, at one
point, his name was recognized by New Yorkers than the mayor of New York itself.
Then, in the 1970’s, Eddie’s electronics empire began to crumble, and his stores started
to fail one by one. Eddie started to get desperate, marking down all of his products and at one
point even offering to accept of shoes for stereos. But even then his empire continued
to fall. So, growing desperate, Eddie turned to stealing by withholding the sales tax on
his products.
Despite his ahdy practices, Eddie was seen as a hero to consumers. Even so, he soon caught
the eye of investigators who charged him with fraud. Thinking he could evade the police
if he dropped off the grid, Eddie fled to Israel, in 1990...only to be successfully
taken into custody two years later.
1. Kevin McGeever
An Irish millionaire, Kevin McGeever will forever be known as the man who tried to pull
off his own fake abduction, as well as several other foiled cons. Supposedly. McGeever claimed
to have been many things including a roofing contractor, a doctor, a psychologist, a bestselling
author, and president of the fictional World Trust Bank in Liechtenstein--al fake identities
belonging to this man known as Kevin McGeever. And, according to one report, McGeever tends
to have a pretty predictable pattern: pursuing one fake profession and abandoning it when
people begin to become suspicious. He also had a charismatic personality, and one journalist
claims that it was his charisma that made people fall for his ploys so easily.
So, what exactly did McGeever’s cons cons afford him?
Well, After a con where he invented a fake bank in Liechtenstein that brought in some
$8.8 million, $2 million of which McGeever made off with when investors began to grow
suspicious of McGeever’s scheme, McGeever managed to con his way into a fairly lavish
lifestyle. He bought himself a Lamborghini Murciélago, a Ferrari 360, a Porsche GT2
and at some point a Formula One car that he claimed once belonged to Eddie Jordan.
Then, in 2014, things began to get interesting when McGeever put his car in storage and hired
two men to drive him to his cottage in western Ireland.
After eight months though, McGeever apparently got bored of his ruse and had someone drop
him off along the road.McGeever must have been really dedicated to his alibi thought.
When he was found by a local motorist, McGeever was evidently starving. He’d grown out his
beard, and even his nails, And, to top it all off, he even got the absurd idea of writing
the word “thief” on his head in permanent marker.
Her rescuer, Catherine Valley, insisted on taking him to the cops but, McGeever refused.
Eventually though, he agreed, and when he got to the police station, he spun a fantastical
tale where he claimed he was kidnapped by a group of masked men and kept him hostage
for eight months until he was finally freed.
It did not not take long for McGeever’s lie tos to crumble though, especially since
Catherine Valley found it suspicious that McGeever refused to go to police. According
him, he didn't anticipate his story getting so much media attention either, which could
help explain he found it so hard to keep his lie going.
When he finally cracked, McGeever explained that he orchestrated his fake kidnapping because
of financial pressure. He also seemed to be under the impression that, by faking his kidnapping,
his investors would back away for fear of being implicated in his abduction--a notation
that evidently backfired.
In any case, McGeever only got a slap on the wrist for his actions, spending a day in jail
for wasting the police’s time before finally being released--but not before admitting to
a couple more of his lies.