A Case for Solomon
Bobby Dunbar and the Kidnapping That Haunted a Nation
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- $17.99
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- $17.99
Publisher Description
The spellbinding story of one of the most celebrated kidnapping cases in American history—the kidnapping of Bobby Dunbar—and a haunting family mystery that took almost a century to solve.
THE MOST NOTORIOUS KIDNAPPING CASE IN AMERICAN HISTORY
In 1912, four-year-old Bobby Dunbar went missing in the Louisiana swamps. After an eight-month search that electrified the country and destroyed Bobby’s parents, the boy was found, filthy and hardly recognizable. A wandering piano tuner was arrested and charged with kidnapping— a crime then punishable by death.
But when a destitute single mother came forward from North Carolina to claim the boy as her son, not the lost Bobby Dunbar, the case became a high-pitched battle over custody—and identity—that divided the South. A gripping historical mystery, A Case for Solomon chronicles the epic century-long effort to unravel the startling truth.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
First reported by McThenia on This American Life and expanded with Dunbar's granddaughter, this thorough examination of the fight over a boy claimed by two grieving mothers is a thoughtful look at the elusiveness of truth and the fluidity of identity. In 1912, four-year-old Bobby Dunbar disappeared from a Louisiana swamp, sparking a massive search. But the drama intensified when, eight months later, a boy matching Bobby's description was reported seen with an itinerant piano tuner. When tramp William Walters was found with a boy in neighboring Mississippi, Bobby's father, Percy, couldn't immediately identify the boy as Bobby. But soon the Dunbars' minds were made up and a media frenzy set in. Walters insisted he'd been traveling with the boy, Bruce Anderson, since before Bobby Dunbar vanished. But the Dunbars' high social status and media sway prevailed over the claims of Julia Anderson, a destitute woman and mother who claimed the boy with Walters was her own lost son, Bruce. Walters was eventually convicted of kidnapping. Decades later, Cutright arranged for a DNA test to determine Bobby Dunbar's true identity. It's difficult not to empathize with both sides of this case, as everyone loses something particularly the child caught in the middle.
