Turncoat or tragedy? Flight or foul play? The inexplicable disappearance
of Richard Cox remains a compelling mystery.
Richard Colvin Cox was born in Mansfield, Ohio, in 1928, and after graduating high school,
Cox volunteered for the United States Constabulary. That was a force organized
in the wake of World War II, tasked with providing security and policing services in
a shattered Germany. He was assigned to a unit in Coburg, Germany, and the military life obviously
appealed to him — LIFE reports he applied to and entered West Point as a student in 1948.
All the evidence points to Cox being well-suited for military life. His
service in Germany was quite admirable, and when he applied to West Point,
his application was supported by his superiors and went through without a problem.
Once in West Point, he continued to thrive in the military lifestyle. By all reports,
he did well at the Academy — he ranked in the upper third of his class, and had no
blemishes on his record. Richard Cox seemed on his way to having a solid, if not exemplary,
military career, and more importantly, he seemed well suited for such a life.
When someone vanishes without a trace, it's easy to imagine they must have been terribly unhappy,
or in some kind of trouble. Why else would you walk out of your life and
never look back, leaving friends, family, and lovers with no closure?
But according to The Washington Post, in the days and weeks before Richard Colvin Cox vanished,
there were exactly zero clues that he was contemplating such a dramatic decision.
Right up until the day before his disappearance, he remained in contact with his fiance, Betty,
and his mother, Minnie — who stated that there had been no indication he
was contemplating leaving West Point, and that she had no reason to suspect any sort of crime.
Cox had, in fact, just returned from Christmas vacation at home with his family,
and according to LIFE, was — at most — sometimes depressed. However,
that's hardly unusual for young people in high-pressure environments like West Point.
Cox spent a day taking in a basketball game with his roommate Deane E. Welch — not exactly
the actions of a worried man — and then, on January 14, 1950, he vanished without a trace.
Here's where things start to get dark. According to LIFE,
one week before Cox disappeared, a man telephoned his barracks, asking
for "Dick Cox," and left his name as George. He stated that they knew each other from Germany.
The Washington Post reports that Cox met with George, but offered a negative impression of
the man to his roommates. He made a few shocking comments about George, saying that he boasted
about how many men he'd killed, and that he'd murdered a girlfriend when she'd become pregnant.
"Wow, Sounds like a cool guy!”
"Sound like a jerk!"
A week later, Cox once again met a civilian friend and signed himself out for dinner.
Although it seems very likely it was the same man, there were differences in how
the civilian was described by a different set of witnesses. When Cox returned to his room, however,
he had indicated it was George, and that they had again made plans to have dinner together.
Unfortunately, George was never identified,
despite an intense search for him after Cox's disappearance.
The Washington Post makes it clear that there's a
strong possibility of foul play when it comes to the matter of
Cox's disappearance — especially considering that his behavior wasn't entirely innocent.
According to Hudson Valley Magazine, when Cox left the barracks with his mysterious friend
George a week before his disappearance, the two men simply sat in George's car
drinking whiskey. Cox returned to his room intoxicated, and quickly passed out at his
desk. His roommates, amused, even took a photo of him as he slept as a prank.
Author Harry J. Maihafer describes some of Cox's more suspicious behavior in his book
Oblivion: The Mystery of West Point Cadet Richard Cox. Noting that at some point,
Cox crept from his room and altered the entry in the barracks logbook to make it seem as if
he'd returned an hour earlier than he actually had. This was a violation of the Cadet Honor
Code at West Point and it may have resulted in his expulsion if discovered — so it wasn't
something a cadet would do lightly. What was so important about that hour?
When Cox arrived at West Point, he was engaged to a woman named Betty Timmons back in Ohio.
However, things took an interesting turn as Cox slept off his first meeting with George.
Front Page Detectives reports that at some point, Cox woke up from his drunken slumber,
ran out into the hall, and shouted the name "Alice." His roommate asked him who Alice was,
but Cox ignored them, returned to his room, and fell asleep again.
Since Cox's fiance was named Betty, this could be a clue as to his eventual fate,
or his relationship to the mysterious man named George. But no Alice has ever been
identified in connection with Cox. It's been speculated that Alice might have
been a girlfriend of Cox's in Germany, but no such woman has ever been found.
When Richard Colvin Cox initially disappeared, the focus of most theories was foul play — had Cox
been kidnapped? Murdered? Suffered a breakdown? West Point continued to list Cox as Away Without
Official Leave or AWOL instead of charging him with the more serious crime of desertion.
But there was no evidence to support any of these theories, really, which
has led some to posit the other possibility: That despite the appearance of happiness,
Cox voluntarily vanished and left his life behind — and never looked back.
Assembly notes that a review of Cox's writings reveals some dissatisfaction
with his West Point experience and some doubts about marrying Betty.
Front Page Detectives reports that January 15, 1950 — the day after his disappearance — was
circled on his calendar with no indication as to why. And for years after Cox's disappearance,
people reported seeing him. The tantalizing possibility remains that Cox left his life behind,
assumed a new identity, and spent the rest of his days hiding from his family and old friends.
It may be tempting to simply chalk up Cox's disappearance to a young man looking to flee
his obligations. However, there's evidence against the idea that he simply abandoned
his old life to start anew, as well. One reason many people don't believe Cox had
a plan to disappear deliberately is the fact that he left several
items behind in his room that would have been extremely useful to him if he had.
First, as reported in Oblivion. he left a large sum of money behind. A search of his
room after his disappearance found $60 in cash and a check for $25 made out to
him. In today's money, that would be worth more than $1,000. He also left
a gold watch that his roommates stated he seemed to value highly.
According to Front Page Detectives, Cox also left two suitcases of civilian clothing behind in his
room. They had just been returned from the cleaners — yet he left them there,
and wore his uniform and gray overcoat when he left,
making it very difficult for him to blend in once he left the West Point grounds.
LIFE reports that it took some time for the alarm to sound concerning
Cox's disappearance. He was officially due back in his room by 11 p.m. at night,
but cadets were routinely late and no one thought much about his failure to
turn up. It wasn't until the next morning that Cox was officially reported missing.
Richland Source reports that what ensued was one of the largest manhunts ever staged in U.S.
history. Helicopters were deployed to search the West Point grounds for a body, and soldiers were
brought in to form search parties. The pool was drained, and every nearby building was
searched. The massive manhunt went on for two long months and turned up exactly zero clues.
West Point continued to call Cox's name at roll call every morning for three months,
finally removing him from the rolls on March 15, 1950. The Washington Post says that in 1957,
the state of Ohio officially declared him dead. The investigation remained a cold case.
One of the most compelling pieces of evidence suggesting Cox may have vanished on purpose was
noted by The Washington Post. Purportedly, Cox was spotted some four years after his
disappearance at a Greyhound bus station in Washington D.C. He was seen there by a man named
Ernest J. Shotwell, Jr. Who had attended the U.S. Military Academy Preparatory
School with Cox a few years before his entry into West Point and subsequent disappearance.
According to Shotwell, he wasn't aware that Cox was missing when he saw him, and he reported that
Cox seemed ill-at-ease, and evaded questions about his future. Per Oblivion, Shotwell was asked if he
would be willing to take a lie detector test to support his claims, and he said that he would.
By 1950, the Cold War was in full swing,
and provided a backdrop for what was a very real concern. As historian Yohuru Williams explains:
"During the 1940s and 1950s, many Americans worried about
the prospects of Communism rearing its head within the United States."
So, when Cox vanished from West Point, it's no surprise that some investigators looked
at the case through the lens of espionage — and they didn't come up entirely empty.
According to Oblivion, notes Cox left behind indicated he was making an attempt to learn
how to speak Russian. The Washington Post reports this was confirmed in a letter Cox had written to
a woman in Germany just a few weeks before his disappearance, in which he also asked pointedly
"What is the Russian situation in Lichtenfels and vicinity? ... I'm
very interested in the Russian situation."
The rest of the contents of the letter were pretty generic, harmless stuff, with Cox simply
desiring correspondence and expressing uncertainty that the woman would even remember who he was.
Neither of these pieces of evidence proves anything,
of course. But considering how thoroughly he vanished, the possibility that he crossed
over to the Soviets at the height of the Cold War can't be completely discounted.
Hudson Valley Magazine reports that Cox served as an intelligence officer, and there are reasons to
think it possible that Cox's 1950 disappearance had everything to do with becoming a spy.
According to Richland Source, an old friend of Cox's, William F. McKee, eventually became
Richland County prosecutor. While in the Ohio FBI office one day, McKee asked to see the bureau's
file on Cox — and the agent became flustered, and gave excuses why the file couldn't be produced.
A few years later, he made another request to see the Cox file,
and once again the files never showed up. In 1982, a journalist was finally
able to get the Cox file and discovered it was heavily censored, and 165 pages were
simply missing. The whole experience implies that someone in a position to do so wanted to
prevent anyone from seeing the results of the investigation in Cox's disappearance.
It may be possible the FBI wanted to keep the details secret due to embarrassment
over the lack of progress. However, it's also consistent with the idea that Cox,
who had experience working in intelligence, was recruited by the CIA or some other agency.
In Oblivion, author Harry J. Maihafer reports on the likelihood that Cox
was recruited into the CIA. At the time of his disappearance,
the CIA was actively recruiting former soldiers with experience serving outside the U.S.
"We will now determine your G-Force threshold. Just relax, gentlemen."
"I guess we just sit here?"
Since Cox had some experience working in intelligence in Germany, he was ideally
qualified. Some investigators speculated that the mysterious man called "George"
who visited Cox shortly before he vanished was in fact a man named David Westervelt.
Westervelt had supervised Cox in Germany, and may have been a recruiter for the CIA.
According to Front Page Detectives, a former FBI agent stated that the bureau had been within 24
hours of catching Cox but were abruptly removed from the case. Leading them to suggest that a
higher authority was protecting him. In fact, a highly placed CIA officer confirmed that
Richard Colvin Cox was still alive but had no desire to come forward and speak to anyone.
The CIA contact also implied that Cox was ill with cancer and on his deathbed. The
possibility that this was a falsehood designed to discourage further inquiry is possible,
of course, and the disappearance of Richard Colvin Cox remains a mystery to this day.