Georgia Jean Weckler
Updated 06/04/2006 19:25
The following are Newspaper articles and pictures about the kidnapping of Georgia Jean Weckler on May 1st, 1947, she was never found. The spelling is as it was written at the time and tried to keep sequence of the articles where possible. Included pictures of the family and letters, one about the history of the farm.
Daily Jefferson County Union
Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin
Friday, May 2, 1947
Have you seen hers This picture of missing Georgia Jean Weckler was taken Mar. 27 when she appeared in a style show in Fort Atkinson, Wis. Since then her permanent wave has straightened. Here is the description of her when she disappeared: Age, 8; height, 4 feet 3 inches; weight, 70 pounds; hair, blond, eyes, brown; clothing, pink button sweater over a blue "T" shirt, blue jeans, blue flowered skirt, rubbers and a brown flowered scarf. ---LeRoy Gore
Posse Seeks Missing Girl Here
Eight-Year-Old Weckler Girl Missing From Route 1 Home
Fort Atkinson and surrounding area residents were alerted this afternoon to aid in the search of blond, brown-eyed, 8-year-old Georgia Jean Weckler, who has been missing since 3:20 pm Thursday. Little Georgia Jean, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. George C. Weckler, Route 1, was last seen at the intersection of Highway 12 and the half-a-mile-long Weckler farm drive by Mrs. Carl Floerke, a neighbor, and her young daughter, Mary. Mrs. Floerke dropped off Georgia Jean, a third-grade pupil at the Oakland Center school, there after school yesterday. No clues to her activity or whereabouts after that have as yet been found.
A five hour long search by a 200 member volunteer posse last night, and another search this morning failed to uncover any trace of the girl. An intensified search, aided by Erling Mickalson and Warren Shaw in an airplane, got underway early this afternoon.
Jefferson County Sheriff George Perry and his deputies, who are directing the search, are investigating the possibility of foul play. An 18-year-old Whitewater youth whose car was seen in the vicinity of the Weckler farm home yesterday, was questioned extensively last night and then released.
Other clues were being tracked down this afternoon. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) had not been called into the case by this noon. Center of the search last night and this morning was a 20-acre wooded tract which adjoins the Weckler driveway. A third-grade classmate, Beverly Ebersohl, reported that Georgia had mentioned that she intended to pick flowers in the woods for use in May baskets.
Young Georgia, a first-year 4H club member, reportedly "knew" the wood area and the possibility of her getting lost is, believed to be slim. However, the posse composed of Fort Atkinson and Cambridge Legionnaires, volunteer firemen from Cambridge, neighbors and friends of the well known Weckler family, and deputies was instructed to search the area thoroughly in the possibility that she had suffered some injury.
The girl is described as being about 51 inches tall, about 70 pounds in weight, brown eyed, and having shoulder length straight blond hair. When last seen she was wearing a pink, button sweater over a blue "T" shirt, a blue and red flowered skirt over blue jeans, rubbers, and a brown flowered head scarf.
Usually Georgia Jean, her sister, Joan, 10, and her brother, LaVerne, 12 ride bicycles from their farm home situated about six miles west of Fort Atkinson to the Oakland Center school, about 1 ½ miles away. Because of yesterday morning's rain, however, the three were driven to the school by Mrs. Weckler. Georgia Jean was released from school at 3 pm a half hour earlier than Joan and LaVerne completed their work and was driven as far as the Weckler drive by Mrs. Floerke, who had called for her daughter. According to Mrs. Floerke, Georgia Jean left the car and went directly to pick up the mail in the rural box at the entrance to the drive. She was last seen, with the bundle of mail tucked under her arm, walking down the curved gravel drive toward her home. Mrs. Floerke told sheriff's officials that she saw no car or person in the immediate area when she left Georgia Jean off.
Mrs. Weckler says she did not become alarmed when Georgia did not return home immediately after school. She reported that Mr. Weckler had taken the car to Jefferson and she had assumed that he had picked her up. When Weckler returned at 6 p. m. without Georgia, the search began.
Today, the sheriff's office is attempting to track down any "suspicious"' events that might have been connected with the girl's disappearance.
Ernie Simdon, Fort Atkinson, informed officers that he drove to Oakland about 3:45 yesterday afternoon and that an "old" car, believed to be a Ford, pulled out in front of him from the vicinity of the Weckler drive and that it stayed ahead of him until he stopped in Oakland Center.
He reported that he had not noticed the car before the Weckler drive area and believed that it might have started out from there. Deep tire tracks, possibly made by a car starting out fast, were observed in the entrance to the drive this morning.
Mrs. Twist, teacher at the near by Ives school, told police that she observed an "old" car come slowly by the school at about 3:50 p. m. yesterday and then pull up and stop in front of her car. The driver sat there looking back ford about 5 minutes, Mrs. Twist said, and then pulled out fast when she walked from the school toward her car. Sheriff officials are considering that the car seen by Simdon and that by Mrs. Twist was the same vehicle.
In the search for clues this afternoon, approximately 300 persons many of whom were rounded up in Fort through the aid of John Briggs' loud-speaking midget car continued to tramp through the rain swept woods and fields.
To help during the search emergency, several telephone operators from out-of-town have been called in to aid the local exchange.
Missing!
in Fort Atkinson history today is
8-year-old Georgia Jean Weckler,
above, who has been missing since
3:30 pm. yesterday
The Fort Daily News
Fort Atkinson, Wis.
May 2, 1947
8 -Yr. Old Georgia Jean Weckler Missing Since Thursday Night
Georgia Jean disappeared after being left at the family driveway entrance on highway 12, about one-half mile from the house and within full view of the buildings. Ordinarily, the Weckler children, Laverne, 12, Joan, 10, and Georgia went to the Oakland Center school on their bicycles, but Mrs. Weckler took them in the family automobile Thursday because of the rain.
Mrs. Carl Floerke, a neighbor, picked up Georgia, and her own child, at school and left Georgia off the driveway. Georgia was seen to pick the mail out of the mail box. The mail is also missing, according to report. The other Weckler children are in more advanced classes and go home later. An older sister, Katherine, 16, is a sophomore at Fort Atkinson high school.
A factor that brings the searching parties to check the wooded area thoroughly is that Georgia told a classmate, Beverly Ebersohl, that she planned to go into the woods after school to pick flowers for her May basket, Thursday being May day. There is no body of water of great size within the immediate surroundings of the Weckler farm with the exception of a small creek about one-half mile toward the east. Lake Ripley and Red Cedar Lake are about three and four miles away.
Georgia Jean, who weights 65 and 75 pounds, and is about 52 inches tall, was dressed in blue jeans, blue skirt with a moon pattern in it a light blue "T" shirt, and was wearing a brown scarf tied on her head.
It is one of those incidents in which no one can do anything. The little child is gone, leaving, no traces of her whereabouts. If she is kidnapped, word must be awaited from the abductors during which time the parents can do nothing but wait and pray. The law is helpless except to continue the search.
All sorts of speculation is in the air, rumors also are flying fast but the public is warned to refrain from repeating stories which are not substantiated by facts. Officers are doing all that can be done. They are as helpless as the rest of us until some clues are found on which they can work.
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200 MEN IN SEARCH OF WOODS TODAY
Between 200 and 300 men gathered in front of the Municipal building at 12:45 today noon in answer to the call of the American Legion for
men to aid in a search for the missing girl. The search was under the direction of Loren Briese, state traffic officer. The FBI has not been notified.
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H. H. Lower, manager of the local telephone company, reported this afternoon that the company has added more operators from neighboring
exchanges to help with emergency calls during the Weckler emergency.
______________________________________________________________________________________________
The Wisconsin State Journal
Madison , Friday May 2, 1947
200 Search for Missing Fort Girl, 8
FT. ATKINSON - More than 200 men were combing a 20-acre woods near Ft. Atkinson today after a fruitless all night search for Georgia Weckler, 8, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. George Weckler. Route 1, who has been missing since 3 p. m. Thursday.
Georgia was last seen by a neighbor, Mrs. Carl Floerke, who left the youngster at the Weckler mail box, 1/2 mile from the house, after driving her home from school. The Weckler farm is off Route 12, 6 miles west of Ft. Atkinson. The missing girl is described as 51 or 52 inches tall, with blonde shoulder-length hair parted in the middle, and brown eyes. She was wearing a pink button sweater over a blue cotton T shirt. She had on blue jeans with a light blue skirt over them. The skirt had one-quarter and one-half moon figures in red colors on it.
Georgia, and her three sisters, Katherine May 18, Joan, 10, and La Verne, 12 usually ride their bicycles to school, but Mrs. Weckler drove them to school Thursday morning because it was raining. After school Mrs. Floerke picked up her own daughter and Georgia at 3 p.m. to bring them home. The other Weckler children get out of school at 3:30 p. m. Mrs. Floerke let Georgia of the car at the Weckler mailbox in full view of the house. As she drove away, her daughter said. "Georgia is going to get their mail." The mail box is across the highway.
Georgia had told classmates that she was going to go through the woods to pick May flowers for May baskets. Part of a 20-acre woods, is on the farm property. More than 200 men from the Cambridge fire department, the American Legion and neighbors searched the woods all Thursday night. The men combed the entire area in a line 4 feet apart.
THE MILWAUKEE JOURNAL
SATURDAY, MAY 3, 1947
Kidnaping Fear Grows as Search
Fails to Find Clue to Missing Girl
Principal places in the suspected kidnaping of Georgia Jean Weckler (shown)
8 year old Fort Atkinson (Wis.) farm girl, are on this map. She has been missing
Thursday.
Seek Stranger in Black Auto Versions Sifted
Authorities Investigate Story That Girl "Was Seen in Car as Hunt Continues"
Journal Staff Correspondence Fort Atkinson, Wis.
A kidnaper was sought Friday in the disappearance of 8 year old Georgia Jean Weckler. The little girl has been missing since Thursday afternoon, when, after being given a "lift" home from school, she turned into the familar lane leading to the home of her parents, Mr. and Mrs. George C. Weckler, well to do farmers living off Highway 12 six miles west of here. Since that time, search parties numbering as high as 300 have hunted through the rolling farm country for the child. The search widened Saturday to the district east of Fort Atkinson. No clue to her disappearance has been found.
Black Car Sought
Two incidents, related to authorities, have started a hunt for a man in his late twenties, driving a black, four door 1936 Ford sedan, equipped with a spotlight and a spare tire carried on the rear. The black car, it was related, had been seen twice near the Weckler farm about the time the girl disappeared. The two stories told to the men of Sheriff George Perry of Jefferson county contained some contradictions between them, especially in time, which was not closely noted: They were:
1. About 3:40 p.m. Thursday, some 10 minutes after Georgia Jean was seen last, Ernie Simdon, Fort Atkinson, was driving east on Highway 12. A black Ford sedan turned out of a byway ahead of him and he followed it to the city. He believes that the side road was the lane leading to the Weckler farm.
2. About 3:50 p.m. the teacher of the Ives school, about two and onehalf miles southwest of the Weckler home, noticed a car. School had been dismissed and she remained alone, putting the Friday lessons on the blackboard. The car, on the side road running past the school, moved slowly and hesitantly. The teacher went to the door and looked out. The car speeded up and went away. It resembled the one seen by Simdon.
Third Story Checked
A third story is being checked by Fort Atkinson police. Some time between 3:30 and p.m., Sam Klement of Fort Atkinson stopped his car at an arterial sign near the Fort Atkinson telephone exchange. "An "old" car parked, and a man and woman got out, he told Police Chief Harry O. Mueller. As they were half way across the street, a little girl in the back seat of the automobile cried, "Let me out. I want to go home." The man, he related, turned back, reached into the car and appeared to strike the girl or pull something over her head. Klement said the incident also was seen by two men standing on a corner and possibly by pickets marching in front of the telephone building. The account of the missing girl's actions Thursday afternoon follows a comfortable, familiar pattern until the point where she entered the familiar lane leading to her home. Then it ends abruptly.
Intended to Pick Flowers until 3 p.m. Georgia Jean was at the Oakland Center school, a short distance west of her home. She is a third grade pupil. She had been driven to school by her mother her way home she was given a ride by Mrs. Carl Floerke, a neighbor. In the car Georgia Jean mentioned that she thought she would pick flowers for a May basket. Mrs. Floerke let the girl out at the entrance to the lane leading to the Weckler 200 acre farm. As she drove away, her daughter, Mary, 6, looked out the back window. "She's reaching into the mailbox, mama," she said. That was the last anyone was known to have seen Georgia Jean. The box was believed to have contained a great deal of mail. Georgia Jean's father, treasurer of the town of Oakland, receives a great deal of mail, especially at the first of the month. No trace of any mail the girl may have been carrying has been found. Mrs. Weckler was not alarmed at first by Georgia Jean's failure to arrive home. Weckler had driven to Fort Atkinson and she believed that he had picked up Georgia Jean and taken her along.
Searched Through Night
But when Weckler returned without the girl at 6 p.m., a search was organized. It continued, by a small group, throughout the night. Friday morning, a big search started. The Oakland Center school was dismissed by the teacher, Mrs. Don Miller. The Fort Atkinson high school dismissed any boy pupils who wanted to join the hunt. Fort Atkinson factories extended the same privilege to male workers. A sound truck, driven by John Briggs, went through Fort Atkinson streets, telling of the lost girl and asking for volunteers. A total of 116 cars appeared within half an hour. Upward of 300 searchers were in the hunt at one time Friday afternoon. Two airplanes droned overhead. The country around the Weckler home is farm land wide tracts of field and pasture, smaller groves of trees, the largest of them not much more than 40 acres. There are two lakes near by, Lake Ripley, where there is a cottage colony, and Red Cedar Lake, surrounded by marshy shores. The woodlands are fairly open, without much cluttering of underbrush. Hunters Scour Countryside There is nothing in the neighborhood not to be known fully by an 8 year old girl. Through this placid countryside the searchers walked, looking in ditches, peering under the over turned rowboats on the Lake Ripley beaches. Deserted buildings and farm sheds were searched. The lane to the Weckler home was scoured over and over again.
The search spread to a radius of four miles from the Weckler home. One small party, acting on a tip, made a search near Watertown. Men walked four feet apart through the small woods in which a child might go to pick May flowers. Sheriff deputies led the larger parties. The smaller adult groups worked by themselves, assigned to a geographical area by Sheriff Perry.
The skies were gray and rain fell intermittently on the searching parties. Friday night, the search took a fantastic turn. Acting on a report that a Fond du Lac fortune teller had predicted that the girl would be found alive, Elmer Weckler, an uncle of Georgia Jean, drove to that city: He received this advice
'Go west from the farm to a gravel road leading southwest. There, in deserted house, Georgia Jean will be found in good shape with a man' To follow down every possible angle, two county squad cars and a state traffic police car followed the instructions. They went down a road answering the description and probed into empty buildings. One farm was aroused from sleep, but there were no discoveries.
Footprint Is Found
Only once did a searching party uncover anything. Georgia Jean's brother, La Verne, 12, was one of the discoverers. With Richard Northey, 18, and Boddy Frey, 19, he was hunting through a woods near the Ives school, when they found the footprint of a small girl. One of Georgia Jean's shoes fitted the print. But Saturday Eileen Armstrong, a neighbor girl, said that the footprint was hers. She said she had made it when picking May flowers.
The big, comfortable Weckler house was turned into tumult by the incidents of the search. Normally, those living there are Georgia Jean, her father, who is 54; her mother, Eleanor, 42; two sisters, Katharine May, 16, and Joan, 10, and her brother, La Verne. Friday it was filled with neighbor women, in to help. They brought with them heaping mounds of food and cake, from which they proferred lunches to the men who were searching. In the afternoon the Red Cross set up a stand there.
Georgia Jean's father, weary eyed, repressing fear beneath an exterior calmness, ate Friday afternoon for the first time since the search began. Her mother, near a breakdown, was kept for a time under sedatives. Many of the searchers surged through the house, using respites to gulp a lunch. Others refused. "They got troubles enough," they said, indicating the big farmhouse. And they went back to the search.
Girl's Description
Journal Staff Correspondence, Fort Atkinson, Wis.
Here is a description of Georgia Jean Weckler, the missing girl, age 8;
height 4feet 3 inches; weight, 70 pounds; hair, blond; eyes, brown;
Clothing, pink button sweater over a blue "T" shirt, blue jeans,
blue flowered skirt, rubbers and a brown flowered scarf.
Seek Missing Fort Atkinson Farm Girl 8
Some of the hundreds of searchers gather to clear information in the search for missing Georgia Jean Weckler, 8, near Fort Atkinson, Wis. The little girl disappeared Thursday afternoon as she started down the road, leading to her farm home (arrow). She had been driven from Oakland Center school, where she is in third grade, by a neighbor and wag left on Highway 12. She was last seen when she looked in the family mailbox, near where this picture was made. -Journal Staff
'The missing girl's mother, Eleanor, is with Katharine May, 16. The youngster's father, George, posed as he snatched a quick lunch after leading the search. With him is Joan, 10. Georgia Jean also has a brother, La Verne, 12.
The little girl was driven from school br Mrs. Carl Floerke. Mary Floerke, 6, was with them and, looking from the rear window of the Floerke car, she watched Georgia Jean reach into the Weckler mailbox.
Here is the Oakland Center school, which Georgia Jean attends: It is on United States Highway 12, about a mile and a half west of the side road, leading to the Weckler home. The school closed Friday so the pupils could aid in the search.
The Wisconsin State Journal
Madison, Saturday, May 3 1947
Missing Girl, 8, Believed Kidnaped;
Fort Police Spur Search for Dark Car
Missing Girl
GEORGIA JEAN WECKLER
Youngster Reported Seen in Vehicle,
Head Was Covered
FBI in Contact with Authorities; Clue of Footprint in Woods Fades
BULLETIN
FT. ATKINSON - Convinced that his 8-year-old daughter, Georgia Jean Weckler, has been kidnaped, George Weckler this afternoon offered $1,000 cash reward for the arrest of the kidnaper or any information regarding the whereabouts of his missing daughter.
FT. ATKINSON-The report of a girl struggling to get out of dark car parked on a Ft. Atkinson street Thursday, shortly after Georgia Jean Weckler, 8, had been last seen, today brought the fear of kidnaping into the case. After a report that a man who' got out of the car returned ands, either hit the girl or covered her head with a blanket, Ft. Atkinson police were asking witnesses of the incident to check with the police station or sheriff's office. FBI in Close Contact While members of the girl's family said the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) had been called into the case, H. K. Johnson, agent in charge of the Milwaukee district, said
"We have been in close contact with local authorities and there is no indication of federal violations within the investigation jurisdiction of the FBI at the present time. Sara Klemens FT. Atkinson, reported the incident which again involved a dark car which had been reported several times in the area in which the girl had disappeared to Police Chief Harry Mueller. Stopping for a traffic light between 3:30 and 4 p.m. Thursday at S. Main st. and Milwaukee ave. in Ft. Atkinson. he had noted a 'car parked across the street, ', Klement said. As he waited, a youngster in the car of approximately the age of the missing girl began sobbing, he said, and called out.
"Let me out! I want to go home!"
A man and woman had just left the car, Klement said, and were in the middle of the street. He believed that another person was in the car, possibly holding the girl. The man returned from the middle of the street to the car where he either hit the girl or put something over her head.
Others Saw Incident
Klement moved to get out of the car, but noted two men who had also witnessed the incident coming toward the car from the street corner where they had been standing. Cars behind him began honking as the street light changed, and he started his car, believing that the two men on the corner could handle the situation. The incident was between a half hour and an hour after Mrs. Carl Floerke had taken the missing girl home and dropped her at the entrance to the half-mile long farm lane leading to the home of her parents, Mr. and Mrs. George C. Weckler, 6 miles west of Ft. Atkinson.
A dark car had been seen in the area twice before. Ernie Simdon, Ft. Atkinson, told officers that he drove to Oakland about 3:45 Thursday and that a dark car had pulled out ahead of him in the vicinity of the Weckler drive and stayed ahead of him until he reached Oakland Center. Deep tire tracks, possibly made by a car starting out fast, were found Friday at the entrance to the drive.
Noticed Similar Car
A Mrs. Twist, teacher at the nearby Ives school, told police that she had noted a similar car drive ' slowly by the school at about 3:50 Thursday and then pull up and stop ahead of her car. The driver sat there, looking back, for about 5 minutes and then pulled out fast when she walked from the school toward her car.
Footprint Found
Other developments in the three-day-old case included the finding of a footprint in a wooded area 2 miles south of the farm on which the little girl lived; search for a hired man from a farm about 5 miles away who had been fired the morning the girl disappeared, and the ending of the organized search which had included up to 500 men scouring the countryside.
The footprint was found by three youths, one of them a brother of the missing girl, in a woods on the Borchart farm between Rockdale and Highway 106. A shoe of the girl matched the footprint exactly, Rudy Reichert, Jefferson county traffic officer, reported. Officers later said that the print was that of a little neighbor girl, Eileen Armstrong, who said that she was picking flowers in the woods in the vicinity where the print was found.
Search was continuing today for the hired man who had left his job Thursday morning. He had walked to Highway 18 and hitch hiked to Jefferson where he intended to get a bus for Milwaukee, police officials learned.
Had Record
His employer said that the youth had a reform school record, but that he could not drive a car. It was not know whether he knew the missing girl. His picture was taken to Jefferson County Sheriff George. Perry. After. two days of searching, organized search was abandoned this morning. Planes piloted by Erling Mickelson and Wilson Beebe had reported that flying at low level over leafless trees gave an excellent view of the ground and that they were able to see 10 to 12 feet down in nearby lakes.
Police also were checking a report involving two youths seen walking down the road near the entrance to the Weckler farm Thursday afternoon. They were seen by Mr. and Mrs. "Stub" Swenson and Iver Nelson employed at the Ube Bros. electrical plant in Ft. Atkinson, as they were driving down the road. One wore a white sailor's cap and the other a black and white checked shirt, they told Neal Smithback, Dane county night jailer who lives in Cambridge.
Fortune Teller Tip on Kidnap; Proves False
Dane county was left virtually without patrol squad car protection late Friday night and early this morning when officers sped towards Cambridge to investigate a kidnaping "hot tip" which orginated it was ultimately was learned with a fortune teller
At 11:30 Friday night, a Jefferson squad car radioed to Madison and Dane county officers, asking for all available cars to come to the stop light on Highway 12 at the edge of Cambridge. "We've got a hot tip." they said Asked what it was, they said it was too hot to put on the air.
With county lines meaning nothing, some 35 cars congregated at the traffic light, where they were told that it had been learned that Georgia Jean Weckler, 8, missing since Thursday from near her home near Ft. Atkinson, would be found in a vacant house west of her home. If she were found within 24 hours, she would be alive. And if not she would be dead. All of the Dane county sheriff's office and traffic department's cars were there but one. Plus cars from Madison, the town of Madison, Maple Bluff, the town of Blooming Grove, and state patrol cars in the area were there. They searched for hours. They found nothing. And it finally developed that an uncle of the missing girl had gone to a fortune teller to get the "hot tip."
Misc Articles - Saturday May 3rd, 1947
Police Admit Lack of Clues; Appeal for Aid Farmer
Friends Start Reward Fund; Search of Countryside Being Continued
Journal Staff Correspondence
Fort Atkinson, Wis. While the search for little 8 year old Georgia Jean Weckler or her kidnaper spread throughout the midwest Saturday, her grief stricken father offered a $1,000 reward "for any clue" and farmer friends rallied to raise the reward to $2,000. Convinced that the blond haired, brown-eyed girl had been abducted, George C. Weckler, well to do farmer, said he would make the reward for any information "leading to the arrest of the person who has kidnaped my daughter." He made the offer to Sheriff George Perry as members of searching parties rested on the lawn of his home, which has become headquarters for the hunt for Georgia Jean, missing since 3:30 p.m. Thursday.
"Money doesn't mean a thing if I can get my child back," Weckler said. "I'm convinced it's a kidnaping. I thought so from the start. The kidnaper is probably out of the area by this time." His voice broke, and, sobbing, he left the group and went into his home where his wife has been prostrated.
Neighbors Sign Up,
Attempting to raise another $1,000 reward, Weckler's neighbors subscribed sums from $5 to $25 at the home and at the by road leading from Highway 12, where the little girl was last seen. The subscription ran up to $200 in the first five minutes.
Search parties continued to work Saturday night, and one group drove almost to Stoughton to check on a car reported to have been abandoned two days ago. An estimated 600 persons, double earlier searching groups, scoured the country Saturday in an area of 50 miles of the Weckler home, six Anises west of here. Special attention was paid to deserted buildings, and Sheriff Perry and Dist. Atty. Francis Garity, in a statewide call for help, asked everyone, but especially rural persons, to cooperate in the search.
"Look in all vacant buildings and cottages, culverts, and in school houses empty over the weekend; look for children's clothing, any mail with the name Weckler and any newspapers from this area," they asked.
Dozens of Leads. Tracked
Authorities said dozens of leads had been tracked down, but not a single clue had been turned up. "We aren't any farther ahead now than we were yesterday at the same time," Garity said Saturday night. "Nothing has turned up." "We've tracked down dozens and dozens of leads but they have amounted to nothing," State Traffic Officer Loren Briese said. Garity said that, although he believed the girl had been kidnaped, every part of the immediate vicinity would be searched. He said he , expected the "break" in the case to come from' some place farther away, probably a large city. One party Saturday hunted yard by yard over a small wood near the Weckler farm where a light had been seen Friday night. They found nothing.
Check Lake Geneva Angle Another angle led the investigation to Lake Geneva where a man was reported to have tried to entice a girl into his car Thursday night. Rowe Hopkins, chief of police at Lake Geneva, said that a man, believed driving a Ford car, had offered an 8 year old girl $1 to enter his car. He said descriptions of the car varied, and that because of darkness the girl and her companions could not give a description of Man. The incident happened across the street from the chief's home he said believed only a attempted search would be unsuccessful.
The Weckler mail was searched for ransom note, but none appeared. The little girl was believed to have taken a large amount of mail from the box just before she disappeared, Thursday. A strong lead in the case seemed to be a Ford car
Seeks Car in Lane
About the time Georgia Jean disappeared, Marvin Thom, 41, hand on a neighbors farm, was driving a tractor on Highway 12 past the byroad leading to the Weckler farm. He said he saw a black car backing down the Weckler lane. The car, he said, backed 200 feet to the highway, then headed west. He described it as a black 1936 Ford two door sedan, with a spotlight painted gray. It contained one visible passenger, he said, a man about 25 with medium brown hair, appearing medium height. The driver, Thom said, was unshaved and "rough looking." A black car also was seen acting suspiciously to the east of Fort Atkinson.
Girl's Description Journal Staff Correspondence
Fort Atkinson, Wis. Here is a description of Georgia Jean Weckler, the missing girl: Age, 8; height, 4 feet 3 inches; weight, 70 pounds; hair, blond; eyes, brown; clothing, pink button sweater over a blue "T" shirt, blue jeans, blue flowered skirt, rubbers and a brown flowered scarf.
The Wisconsin State Journal
Madison, Sunday, May 4. 1947
Clues Fail; Hope Wanes for Lost Girl
State Waits Anxiously for News as Ft. Atkinson Farm Child Vanishes
Officers, Left Without Leads, Wait 'Break'
Posses of 1,000 Men Call off Two Day Hunt Planes Search On
By JOHN NEWHOUSE (State Journal Staff Writer)
BULLETIN
Police in this area late Saturday night sought to turn back S. S. Feastes, Camp McCoy truck driver, who had given Ft. Atkinson police some information on a. car which might have been involved in the disappearance of Georgia Jean Weckler. Officials sought to have him return and point out the exact place where he had seen a car weave across the road near where a little girl was standing. He was forced to pass on the right side, then his view was hidden as he went over the hill, he said. His report corroborated one about such a car given earlier to authorities.
FT. ATKINSON - Hope of finding Georgia Jean Weckler, missing since Thursday, when a neighbor dropped her at a mailbox at the head of a road leading to her farm home, was waning rapidly Saturday; night. No real clues were found during the day, and rumors proved foundationless upon investigation.
Posses Give Up
Planes still flew over the area, checking woods and lakes, with the aerial search, extended into, parts of Dana County, but the posses which had number as high as 1,000 men called off its search A. thorough check of the area for miles around, with searchers peering into cisterns, wells, culverts, and buildings had revealed not the slightest trace of the girl, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. George Weckler, who live 6 miles north of Ft. Atkinson.
Wait for `Break'
As the case came to the grim job of waiting for a first "break," Dist. Atty. Francis Garity told the press that his men were at a standstill. "We haven't a clue to follow," he said. Reports of a girl struggling in a car on a Ft. Atkinson intersection were investigated, but nothing new developed. Sam Klement, Ft. Atkinson, said that he had been waiting for a stop light to change at the S. Main st. and Milwaukee ave. intersection Thursday when he had seen a little girl struggling to get out of a dark car. A man who had just left the car returned and either hit or covered the head of the child, with other men going to the car and cars behind him honking, Klement drove on.
No Witnesses Found
Though an appeal was sent out for the witnesses of the incident to contact police authorities, no response was made. The father of the girl, at a loss for an explanation, believed that she had started down the half-mile long road to the farm home and been picked up by someone driving into the lane who had then backed out.
The belief was bolstered by the story of Ernie Simdon, who had been driving north on Highway 12 and had found a dark cat ahead of him when he came over the brow of a hill before the farm lane. It had not been ahead of him before, he said.
Farmers Match Reward
A reward of $1.000 for the apprehension of whoever had kidnaped the girl or any clue leading to her rescue was being matched by tired farmers of the area who had been searching the woods and fields for two days and nights. At the suggestion of Erwin Pantel, who contributed an initial $25, Will Northey was mad treasurer of a fund to match the reward offer of the father of the missing girl. Farmers stepped up to Northey standing a few paces from the mailbox where the girl was last seen and dug into their pockets for cold cash. Within 5 minutes, they had contributed $250 and the fund raising was still going on into the night.
Erling Mickalson, operator of Mickalson's Flying Service, Charles Ward, and Dick Smith, each with observers in their planes, took to the air for their second day of searching the area. The J. C. Penney store in Ft. Atkinson paid for flying time the first day, and Mickalson said he was continuing the second day search because "somebody's got to do it."
Out of Grief, Nightmare Looms A Nameless'Him'
(By Staff Writer)
FT. ATKINSON -There was only the waiting Saturday on the George Weckler farm the hard, cruel, senseless waiting. The waiting and the person, formless and nameless like a man in a nightmare, that they thought of only as "him." Believe 'He' is Kidnaper "He" was the man, or woman, or man and woman, who they felt had kidnaped their daughter, Georgia Jean, only 8 years old. They tried not to refer to "him," but it slipped out. "I don't know why 'he' had to take such a little girl," said Mrs. Weckler, helpless, choking back the rebellion at her helplessness. That feeling had its beginning Thursday afternoon. The other two grade school children, La Verne, 12, and Joan, 10, had come home from school.
"Feels Bit of Anxiety"
Where's Georgia?" she had asked, and she had felt a twinge of anxiety when they said that she had come home with Mrs. Carl Floerke, a neighbor, earlier. After a while she went to Mrs. Floerke's home, and the feeling heightened when she learned that the little girl had got out at the mailbox, a half mile from their home. Perhaps her husband had picked up the little girl, but when he came home at 6, he was alone.
Hope Persists
They had called the sheriff and the posses had come in, and hope still persisted, but it was not easy. "We gave `him' too much time," said Mrs. Weckler, twisting a handkerchief in her hands as she sat in the living room of their home. "We just game `him' too much time."
The neighbor women bustled about, feeding the men who came and went, from stores of food that "just appeared." And those of them who had nothing to do went to scouring the ice box, and the wood work. ' They felt that they had to be doing something. "Poor George ," said Mrs. Weckler. "His father he's 85 is sick in the Fort hospital, and. he'll' wonder why George can't come in to see him. We haven't told him, and he'll wonder."
Never Any News
The long day dragged along. People no longer jumped when the telephone rang. There was never any news. "We thought we'd been through the worst when the children had polio last August," said Mrs. Weckler, her face twisting into a mirthless smile. "It would be better if she had been killed on the highway. Then, at least we'd know ... " The planes droned overhead, and a dank rain began to patter against the windows. "She always had a fear of kidnaping," said Mrs. Weckler. "You could tell it when there were stories in the paper. "Oh, why did 'he' have to take such a little girl?" The specter of "him" hung over the knots of people in the front yard, who stood and talked, went out to check rumors, went through the barns and poked into the wells and cesspool again.
'Nothing'
"There just isn't anything that I we know," said the father of the missing girl helplessly. 'East - west - north - south - we don't know where 'he' is. "There isn't a clue not a' ' piece of cloth, or a note nothing." The long day dragged to a close. 'As the light faded, Weckler told the men that they might as well go home to their chores. There was nothing more that could be done. ' There was just the waiting '' the waiting and the wondering what "he" was doing, or what "he" had done.
Girl, 17, Missing in Waukesha County
The Waukesha county sheriff Saturday night asked state authorities' aid in seeking information as to the where bouts of Shirley Mae Church, 17, reported missing from home since Friday at 6 p. m. She is 5 feet 8 inches tall, weighs 130 pounds, has light brown hair, blue eyes and a small scar on her left cheek and chin. When last seen she was wearing a grey pin stripe suit, a light tan trench coat, a yellow scarf with red flowers, and black and white oxford shoes.
Upper Right
Upper Left
Bottom Left
Bottom Right
Focal point of interest of thousands of people in this area and state today is the Ft. Atkinson area farm home of Mr. and Mrs. George Weckler, whose 8-year-old daughter has been missing since Thursday and is feared, kidnaped. The corner where she was dropped by a neighbor bringing her home from school is shown in the foreground of the picture at the upper left, with the half mile road leading to the home in the background. The farm home is at the right above. Search included a checking of all vacant houses, culverts, cisterns, and wells. In the picture at the lower left, a group of the searchers is probing a well. At the lower right are the mother of the missing girl and one of the sisters, Katherine. Photos by John Newhouse and Arthur M.Vinie
Neighbors Match $1,000 Reward for Missing Girl
Weary with their hunt, farmers flocked to subscribe hard cash to match a reward of $1,000 offered by George Weckler, father of the missing girl. At the upper left, they're shown about a car, paying their cash near the mail box where 8-yearold Georgia Jean Weckler was last seen. At the upper right is the mail box on Highway 12 about 8 miles north of Ft. Atkinson, where the little girl picked up the mail and was starting for home when she vanished.
Left to right in the foreground are Clayton Monogue and Lyle Hartman. In the background, left to right, are Morville Chapman and William Northey. At the lower left are William Northey, treasurer of the reward fund started by the farmers, and at the lower right Jefferson County Sheriff is talking with Mrs. Carl Floerke, neighbor who dropped the little girl off at the mail box after school,'and Mary, her daughter. who was the last person to see Georgia Jean as they drove away.
MILWAUKEE SENTINEL
SUNDAY, MAY 4, 1947
$1,000 Offered for Missing State Girl
Family Frantic; Neighbors Chip in
Georgia Jean Weckler, R8; of Fort Atkinson, is still missing. As a public service, the Sentinel again publishes this picture in the hope it will help find her. She is blond and brown eyed, weighs 68 pounds and is 82 inches tall. When last seen she was wearing blue jeans, a blue skirt with a moon pattern, a blue T shirt and a brown kerchief around her head. If you know of this girl's whereabouts, notify the police at once. Then call the City Editor of the Milwaukee Sentinel, DAly 3900.
Child, 8, Long Had Fear of Being Kidnaped
FORT ATKINSON, Wis., May 3-(Special) - Distraught after two days and nights of fruitless searching for his missing 8 year old daughter, George C. Weckler late today offered a $1,000 reward for information leading to her recovery or arrest of her kidnaper. "I have been certain since it happened that she has been abducted," the father said. "Money means nothing now. We've got to do something. "I will' pay $1,000 for a definite tip or information leading to the recovery of my daughter or the arrest of' the abductor."
NEIGHBORS GIVE
"Georgia has been afraid of being kidnaped," Mrs. Weckler said. No sooner had Weckler announced his reward than neighbors who had been aiding in the hunt signed up and laid down their additions to the $1,000 reward. The first to sign was William Northey. He was followed by Erwin Pantel, Fred Bell, Walter Hupke, Merton Missfelt, Henry Ebbert, Mr. and Mrs. William Scherwitz, Harold Gross, George Draeger, Forrest Regelein, Erwin Ebbert, Vernon Bolger, Leslie Mundt and Wilbur Markey.
Sheriff Checks Leads to Mysterious Black Auto
Seen In Neighborhood
Check Many Leads
Others followed as the growing list passed from hand to hand. By 6:30 pm the additional amount was $325 and Northey said he had "sheets and sheets of folks pledging to add more." Sheriff George Perry of Jefferson County reported "dozens of leads about the black car seen in the neighborhood" had been followed but without, turning up a single clue. "I'm convinced the girl's alive and that she'll show up alive," Perry said. The posses moved toward Stoughton tonight, the third successive night of the search, as the sheriff said: "The investigation is continuing along several lines, in addition to running down leads volunteered. Jefferson and Dane County authorities and state traffic patrolmen are cooperating in the hunt for the black car."
HEARS GIRL'S CRY
The car has' been reported at several spots in the area, and one Fort Atkinson 'Man, Sam Klement, said he had seen such a vehicle in town. He said he heard a little girl cry, "Let me lout." Klement said the man in the car either "threw something over her head or hit her." Klement said he thought no more of the incident until he learned of the Weckler girl's disappearance. The fear and desperation of the father spread to the more than 200 possemen as they slogged through muddy fields, along creeks and into heavily wooded areas seeking a clue to the disappearance of blond haired, brown eyed Georgia Jean. The girl, in the third grade at Oakland Center School, vanished at 3:30 p. m. Thursday after a neighbor had dropped her at the roadway to her home en route from school.
PICKING FLOWERS
Her last word was, "I'm going into the woods to pick some flowers, for my May basket." Meanwhile, in the Weckler farm home the atmosphere was desperately hopeful. Mrs. Weckler, her son LaVerne, 12, and daughters Joan, 10, and Katherine, 16, went through their daily chores. But there seemed no connection between hand and mind. Their minds remembered all too clearly Georgia Jean's fear of kidnaping.
RECALLS DEGNAN CASE
"Whether it was kidnaping itself or a fear 'that she herself might sometime be kidnaped, I don't know," the anxious mother recalled. "But I remember Georgia mentioning it to me many times,' particularly after Suzanne Degnan was taken and " here she choked back tears killed in Chicago." Neighbors were stunned. Helping with the farm chores and in the kitchen, Mrs. Ivan Jones, Mrs. Edgar Armstrong, Mrs. Edgar Burrow, Mrs. Carl Floerke and Mrs. Donald Miller, the missing girl's teacher, shook their heads You read about these things happening in the city, but not here. "It's particularly tragic that it had to happen to some one as sweet as Georgia. "She's witty, bright, obedient and cheerful, and rather reserved a delightful youngster." The Weckler tragedy struck particularly hard because, as Mrs. Jones said, "You seldom see the mother and father go anywhere without their children. The parents were devoted to (Please Turn to Page 17, Col. 1) ......... missing page
Neighbors Add to $1,000 Reward
Offered for Missing Girl
Eyes riveted on the road from which their sister disappeared, Katherine, 16; Joan, 10,
and La Verne, 12, (left to right) sit on the farmhouse steps waiting and hoping.
Erwin Pantel, farmer neighbor of the Wecklers, adds his contribution to the $1,000
reward offered the father of the missing girl, Others in the searching party crowd
forward to make their contributions.
"Money means nothing, we've got to do something," says George Weckler
left) in offering the $1,000 reward yesterday for information leading to
the, return of his daughter and to her abductor. Sheriff George Perry is
at the right.
Misc Articles - Sunday 4th, 1947
Missing Girl Hunted (Story in adjoining column)
Georgia Jean Weckler, 8, who disappeared at Fort Atkinson, Wis.
[Associated Press wirephoto7)
POSSES SEARCHING FOR GIRL MISSING, FOR THIRD DAY
Fort Atkinson, Wis., may special- The hunt for Georgia Jean Weckler, 8, entered its third day today with posses searching the countryside near her farm home. Agents of the federal bureau of investigation reportedly had been called in to aid the search. The girl's father, George C. Weckler, announced his belief she had been kidnaped and offered a reward of $1,000 for information leading to the abductor's arrest and conviction. Neighboring farmers began adding to the reward offer.
Heard Girl in Car
The kidnaping theory apparently was bolstered by information given Fort Atkinson Police Chief Harry O. Mueller by Sam Klement, a retired farmer living here. Klement said he heard, but did not see, a girl in a black automobile parked. near a downtown intersection shortly after the hour of the kidnaping Thursday afternoon. " Let me out of here. I want to go home," Klement quoted the girl as crying. He said a man and a woman were walking away from, the car, and that the man returned and either threw a blanket over the girl or struck her. Klement did not connect the incident with the disappearance of Georgia Jean until today.
Posses Seach Area
Posses, which at times numbered 1,000 persons, were searching rural areas of western Jefferson and eastern Dane counties, investigating abandoned buildings, probing under culverts, and tracking thru wooded areas The last person who reported seeing the girl was Mrs. Car Floerke, a neighbor of the Wecklers, who drove Georgia Jean home from the Oakland Center school and let her out of the car at 3:3 p. m. Thursday, at the entrance to the Weckler farm on LT. S. highway 12, six miles west of here. Mrs. Floerke said the girl took the Wecklers mail from the mailbox by the roadside and started down the one-half mile gravel lane to her home. Three boys aiding the posses, including the missing girl's brother, La Vern, 12, found a footprint in the lane which fitted her shoes, according to Sheriff George Perry of Jefferson county.
Says Girl Feared Kidnaping
A neighbor, Mrs. Ivan L. Jones, recalled that Georgia Jean had said after hearing of the kidnaping and slaying of Suzanne Degnan in Chicago that she had "always feared kidnaping." What prompted her fear was not known. Sheriff Perry and the girl's father, who is the Oakland township treasurer, were still aiding in the hunt today although both were near exhaustion having gone without sleep since her disappearance. The Wecklers have three other children, Joan, 10, Catherine, 16, and La Vern. All four were stricken with poliomyelitis last September, Georgia Jean being most severely stricken, but all recovered.
Daily Jefferson County Union
Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin
Monday, May 5, 1947
Still Seek Missing Child
Search for Girl or Body Remains Fruitless;
Father and Friends Offer Liberal Rewards
Search Goes On
The mills of justice are grinding slowly, and producing little but chaff 96 hours after eight year-old Georgia Weckler disappeared from near her farm home Thursday afternoon. Enforcement officers admit they are a little closer to a solution to the case than when the frantic father telephoned local police and the sheriff's office Thursday night. The only alternative definitely eliminated seems to be the possibility that Georgia disappeared' voluntarily or met with an accident. The accident possibility has been thoroughly blasted by an intensive search which has covered practically every inch of adjacent area.
The hope that this may have been kidnaping for ransom fades with each passing hour. There have been ample opportunities for the delivery of a ransom note. None like to contemplate the other possibilities.
The most acceptable current theory seems to be that, a few seconds after the girl got out of, Mrs. Floerke's car, picked up the' mail from the mail box, and started down the driveway, a much discussed "black car" whisked in, the driver persuaded her to enter in the belief that she was headed for home, the car backed out onto the highway again and sped away. The "black car" theory figures in the stories of several volunteer witnesses.
Mrs Lawrence Twist, teacher at Ives school south of Oakland Center, reports a car loitering in the vicinity just after the close of school, Marvin Thom, 41 year-old farm hand riding a tractor in a near by field gave more detailed description of the car and the unshaven, rough, looking man driving it. Sam Klement had reported a car answering the general description in the streets of Fort Atkinson. Mr. Klement reported that a girl in the rear seat had pled to be taken home, but the man and woman who accompanied her quieted her with rough treatment. A local paper carrier boy reported a similar incident in east Fort Atkinson the same day. Mr. Klement's report of a young girl being roughly quieted in a parked car off Main street Thursday afternoon has been backed up by Mrs. Ralph Rumary, of 606 Whitewater Avenue, who has reported that she witnessed the incident while en route home between 3:30 and 3:45 p. m. Thursday. She said the child was mishandled by a "roughly dressed" couple who got in the car and drove down Milwaukee Ave. E. Most definite information about the "black car" has been furnished by S. L. Feaster, a septic tank cleaning operator from Wisconsin Rapids. Mr. Feaster was driving from Camp McCoy to Fort Sheridan right behind a black sedan. The sedan made a left hand turn directly into a farm driveway in front of Mr. Feaster, and the things he said to the driver were very vigorous indeed. Mr. Feaster is now convinced that the driveway into which the car turned was the Weckler driveway. He drove back to Fort from Sparta yesterday, and is standing by to furnish needed information.
The Weckler children had been carefully instructed not to enter cars driven by strangers, but the father points out that it is not unlikely that she might have got into a car within the driveway. The driveway is a dead end road leading to the Weckler home, and Georgia would naturally assume that a driver headed in that direction was en route to conduct business with her father, who is town treasurer. Numerous black cars, several of them without license plates, have been halted by police, but the drivers have been able to furnish reasonable alibis. The Daniels brothers of North Shore were questioned last night when their sedan, without license plates and loaded with a radio, stove pipe, mop and pail, clothing, picture frame and Sunday newspapers, was discovered in Fort. They were questioned briefly and released.
A search of vacant houses all over the area has not yielded anything which seems to apply to the Weckler case. officials have said repeatedly that the FBI is not in the case yet, since there is no conclusive evidence that federal laws have been invaded. The Ft. Atkinson Junior Chamber of Commerce today offered to aid city street department in the search of all manholes and catch basins in the city. The Fort Red Cross chapter, which aided in the distribution of food to searchers Friday, is still standing by for further aid.
In Chicago, a Fort Knox, Ky., sergeant has been released after deep questioning. The soldier was picked up after a parking lot attendant said his car had blood stains on the back seat.
Another development of the case is that a former military intelligence agent, Oscar Menzel, Milwaukee, has offered to act as a go-between for the return of the child. Menzel, a close friend of the family, says there have been so many police around the Weckler home that no kidnaper would risk attempting a contact.
District attorney Francis Garity has termed the girl's disappearance "definitely a kidnaping." No ransom note has been received and Garity believes that the 8-year-old's abductor may be a pervert.
Checking every possibility that the disappearance of Georgia Weckler might have been a strictly local crime,' officers this morning redoubled their search for the body. Two dozen farmers dug through a rubbish pile near the Weckler farm, but found no evidence.
$2,500 Reward
The reward fund for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the abductor, or the return of Georgia Weckler had reached $2,500 last night, and was growing rapidly. Neighbors quickly raised another $1,500. This morning the For Atkinson Chamber of Commerce launched a similar fund in the city, and donations are growing by the hour.
The Wecklers, from the father and mother to the children, faced the tragedy with amazing courage. George Weckler is obviously a shocked and dazed man, but clings to the hope that no news is good news. "We won't give up," he keeps saying.
Only once or twice have the Wecklers broken down, and then only briefly. "I guess it's the kindness of folks from country and city that's kept us going," said Mr. Weckler.
Friday, for instance, loud speaker appeals were sent out 'for volunteer searching parties. More than 300 searchers from Fort responded in a half hour, joined by 700 more farmers and residents of Cambridge and Edgerton.
The long vigil began at dusk Thursday night when Georgia's absence first became a serious concern. The father notified local and county officers, and ran for the woods southeast of the Weckler home with a flashlight. "My first thought," he said, "was that Georgia might have been struck and injured by a falling tree limb, and lying helpless in the woods."
How the news spread so rapidly he doesn't know, but near the top of the hillside he saw flashlights approaching from the opposite side. Since then the Weckler's have been surrounded by friends, many of whom snatch only a few brief hours of sleep' each night.
Mr. Weckler reserved some of his choicest praise for the press. While newsmen have been barred from talking with Mrs. Weckler, whose strain was emphasized by constant questioning, Mr. Weckler himself has been ready and willing to answer all questions. lie turned thumbs down on a proposal to bar newsmen from the farm. "They're trying to help," he said. "I'm a firm believer in publicity in a case like this."
And the press to the mid-west has responded with the cream of their reporters. Two of the leading figures last night were soft spoken Lou Paris of the Chicago Times; credited with "'breaking" the Degnan case, and slender Adams of the United Press. The parade continued this morning as Fort becomes the mecca for the mighty newsmen and cameramen of the nation and the weary search goes on from one flimsy clue to another.
Thief Ransacks Home Here; Car Stolen, Found
Police today attempted to tie up the disappearance, Georgia Weckler with a break in this morning at the home of Mrs. E. R. Parker, route 2, and a trail of stolen cars starting at Melrose Park, Ill., leading into the Fort, and then to Geneva township.
The Parker home was entered this morning about 9:30 by a man described by Mrs. Warren Parker, who confronted him in the back yard of her home as about 20, large and blond, wearing bibless overalls and a tan sports shirt. The man fled when approached by Mrs. Parker and sped toward Whitewater on highway 12. The Parker home was ransacked, but it was not known what items were taken.
And the trail of stolen cars: E. W. Frohmader, 212 Roosevelt St., reported this morning that a blue car a 1941 Plymouth coach with no license plates had been abandoned in front of his home since sometime Saturday. The car is believed to be the property of Louis Goesswein, Melrose Park, Ill. Such a car has been reported missing by Sterling, Ill., police.
The automobile of Earl Dunlap, 718 Sherman Ave., W., was stolen (Saturday night or Sunday morning from in front of the Dunlap home. It has been recovered in Geneva, near Elkhorn in Walworth county. At Geneva, a black, 1936 Chevrolet was reported stolen early Sunday morning.
From Near This Spot, 8-Year-Old Georgia Jean Weckler Was Taken Taken
Scene of Georgia Weckler's disappearance is shown in this Daily Union photo. To the extreme left the mail box from which she removed what the mailman described as 'quite a bunch of mail. The two men just to the right are District Attorney Garity (black coat) and the father, George Weckler. At the moment the photo was snapped, Weckler was' preparing to announce the posting of a $1,000 reward. A few minutes later the group of men, part of whom are shown at the extreme right, had collected $250 more. Now the fund is believed to be approaching $4,000 and just this morning the Fort Chamber of Commerce launched a Main Street drive for reward funds. The arrow points to the buildings on the Weckler farm at the end of a deadend road about a half mile from the highway.
Start of One of the Many Searched for Kidnap Clues
Thirty minutes after John Briggs had made a street by street appeal for volunteers to tramp the woods south of the George Weckler farm in search of Georgia Weckler, more than 300 men had gathered at the Fort Municipal building Friday. A portion of the group, composed of business men, laborers and high school students, is shown here heading for the woods. Overhead at frequent intervals roared the plane of Erling Mickalson, Mid City Airport manager, who has devoted more than two days to the search. "Even at a time like this, it's nice to know how many kind and friendly people there are in the world," said the grief stricken father.
The Fort Daily News
Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin
Monday May 5, 1947
Anyone Seen This Bright Eyed Youngster?
This picture was taken of Georgia Jean Weckler
about a year ago at the age of 7 years. She is
blond with brown eyes. A nation-wide search is
being made for her since she disappeared last
Thursday afternoon.
For 8-Year Old Girl Continues Over Wide Area
The search for 8-year-old Georgia Jean Weckler continues over a wide area today. Press and radio have broadcast the news to the world. But over the weekend only hope, rumor, despair were brought to the family and friends. Reporters, photographers and radio men from Chicago, Milwaukee and Madison have been here giving the news to the world and working with the officers in trying to track down every clue as soon as it appears. But nothing of a definite, tangible nature has as yet been uncovered which will help solve the mystery no ransom notes, no word from anyone, have as yet been received by the grief stricken parents. All are waiting for some word from Georgia Jean Weckler, 8, who disappeared from the driveway leading to her farm home six miles west of' ort Atkinson Thursday afternoon. No definite news has brought the case any nearer solution by 2 p.m. today. A picture of what has happened in the area has been established, however.
The area, covering 16 miles square, has been searched and, probed carefully by hundreds of friends and neighbors. It has been surveyed closely from the air by Erling Mickalson, and other flyers from the Mid City airport. The immediate farm area and all buildings have been sifted over and over. Nothing tangible has been found. Nothing that has fitted into the picture to point a definite direction has been found, with the exception of incidents on highway; 12 in the vicinity of the driveway.
The complete facilities of the law enforcement officers of Jefferson and Dane counties are still pounding on in their investigation and checking and rechecking every bit of information that can be gleaned. George Weckler, the girl's father, has said that he has always, since the beginning, felt that his daughter was abducted. Jefferson County District Attcrney Francis Garity has said that he believes the child has been abducted. State Traffic Patrolman Toren Briese, working closely with Garity, and the sheriffs of Jefferson and Dane counties in the case, says he believes the child was abducted. Marvin Thom, who works with Edgar Burrow, Save the officer:, a story from which to work and that story stands and has gained in credence as the evidence piles' in. S. L. Feaster, Wisconsin Pavids, arrived here Sunday evening to back up Thorn's story.
The story involves a black. 1936 Ford tudor sedan, which was at the Weckler driveway at the time Georgia was at the mailbox after being let out of the car of Mrs. Carl Floerke, who drove her home from school.
Feaster's story starts the chain. Shortly after 3 o'clock Thursday afternoon, Feaster was driving his sewer cleaning truck from Cambridge toward Fort Atkinson on U. S. Highway 12. As he came within about a of the Weckler farm, he passed a black Ford car, parked) on the side of the road. As he passed it, the car was started up and came up behind him and passed him. It preceded him on the way toward Fort Atkinson, at one time swerving sharply across the h