02.) A Sea Monster Tale

The Phantom Marine vanishes and reappears. Then the trail goes cold forever. A young bride is forced into an impossible situation. A sea monster and America's most beautiful murder defendant enter the picture. And we talk to Duane Langston, the son of the Phantom Marine.

Episode Transcript

(00:04):
The people of Newport sought a ghosttonight. They believed that somewhere in the
Arkansas countryside is drifting a crippled youngmarine who returned from the officially proclaimed dead
to find his wife happily married.This is the story of William Willard Langston,
the Phantom Marine, officially dead butvery much alive, according to numerous

(00:25):
witnesses. It dominated news coverage acrossthe country, from the Honolulu Advertiser to
the New York Daily News, fromthe Chicago Tribune to the Danville, Virginia
b It visited yet another tragedy onLinda Langston's widow or possibly his wife,
who had remarried just two weeks earlier. It brought joy to Naomi Hendricks,

(00:50):
Langston's mother, who removed the goldstar from the flag in front of her
home. It was a matter oftime until she saw her son again,
she was sure. The alleged reappearanceof William Langston triggered a manhunt by the
law enforcement of four states and afrantic search by his family members in and

(01:10):
around Newport, Arkansas. This isthe second episode of The Phantom Marine.
I'm Chris de rose Let's review.Where We're at A man on crutches and
missing his left foot, appeared inNewport, Arkansas, on January nineteenth,
nineteen forty six, claiming to beWilliam Willard Langston. He'd been declared dead

(01:30):
on Iwajima on March seventh, nineteenforty five, a little over ten months
earlier. He'd spent the night atthe home of George crown Over, and
they went into town together on Sunday. Sometime later that day, January twentieth,
the man with the limp left town. Where he was headed depended on
who you asked. Some had theimpression he was going to Jonesboro to see

(01:53):
his mother Naomi, or Newark tosee his father Bill, while others thought
he was headed Bebe or oil Troughto see other relatives. People seemed to
agree that he planned on returning toNewport on Wednesday, January twenty third.
It seemed his longer term plans includedvisiting a veteran's hospital in Oklahoma for treatment.

(02:15):
His mother, father, and asister, Florence, came to Newport
as soon as they heard the news. After talking with a number of witnesses,
they were certain it was him.The man with the limp recognized a
number of people by face, callingthem by nicknames and brought up old memories.
Lacy Fields had asked whether he'd everbeen to his house. Yes,

(02:36):
said the man you came with,Dutch Vaughan. Who else could possibly know
this? The man with the limpappeared to convince everyone that he was the
man they'd grown up with. Areporter showed photographs of lengst into some of
them, and they confirmed that itappeared to be the same man. Langston's
father held an all night vigil atthe Missouri Pacific station on Wednesday the twenty

(02:59):
third, Though train after train arrivedwith people coming and going, none of
them were the man claiming to behis son. On Thursday, January twenty
fourth, Naomi Hendricks received a letterpostmarked Conway, Arkansas, and mailed the
day before. Conway was nearly onehundred miles to the south and west of

(03:19):
Newport on the way to Oklahoma.Linda, her new husband, her brother,
and Dwayne, her eight year oldson, drove from Michigan to Arkansas
to investigate. She returned after twodays, telling reporters that the man claiming
to be her husband was an impostor. The truth was a little more complicated.
Meanwhile, Langston's death certificate in theDepartment of the Navy turned out not

(03:43):
to include his fingerprints, and hisgrave, hon Iwashima, was missing its
dog tags. There were reports thatthe man had been seen getting out of
a car at the gates of CampChaffee, Arkansas, right near the Oklahoma
border. Those articles list no sourcefor the fighting, But I think I've
got it figured out. The newspapercoverage in and around Newport ended the same

(04:06):
way as the national stories, abruptlywith stories about the disappearance of William's brother,
Marion Langston. Marian had suffered aworkplace injury and walked with a limp.
He had last been seen in Seattleweeks earlier. Could this mystery really
have such a simple answer. Iattempted to track down Marian, but found

(04:30):
only a death notice from two thousandand three, no paid obituary, no
apparent partner or children. There's alot we don't know about what happened when
the man with a limp left Newport. Once again, we'll need to find
answers in the local coverage. Let'sstart in Conway. That community is served
by a newspaper known as The LogCabin Democrat. The newspaper doesn't have access

(04:54):
to its own archives, and theydirected me to the University of Central Arkansas.
Heather Reinold, an archivist at UCA, agreed to search for the Conway
coverage. In the meantime, shesent me some images of the Weekly Arkansas
Gazette. It had covered the Langstoncase and included some information I hadn't seen
elsewhere. There was an interview withNaomi Hendrix. I guess I'm just about

(05:17):
the happiest woman in the world,she said. I hope my son comes
home soon so I can tell himhow glad I am that he is alive.
It mentioned that Langston was working ina Michigan defense plant when he volunteered
for the Marines in July nineteen fortythree. He was deployed overseas in November
nineteen forty four. I learned moreabout George Crownover, who hosted the man

(05:40):
at his home on January twentieth.Crownover had been a neighbor of the Langstons
in Newark, one of the townswhere William had grown up. The man
with a limp had told Crownover abouthis relatives living in and around Newark,
and that he seemed to be wellinformed about them. The man showed Crownover
a photograph of his wife, Linda. As part of the investigation, Crownover

(06:02):
was shown a photograph of Linda LangstonOsigniac. He was certain that they were
the same woman. So the manwith a limp is not only having intimate
conversations about his own family, addressingpeople by name and nickname, and relating
old stories to people attempting to confirmhis identity. The man somehow knew that

(06:23):
Linda had remarried, despite it happeningin private, and he's carrying around a
photograph of Langston's widow or wife.Langston had met his wife in Michigan.
She appears to have traveled with himto Arkansas to visit his family only once,
but there was no reason an impostorwould need to use her real photograph

(06:46):
and no obvious explanation for why theywould have one. The Gazette included more
on the Langston family search for William. His father Bill, as we already
learned, had posted up at theNewport train station. Naomi went to Oiltrough
as well as other communities around Newport, and spent the night of the twenty
third in sulfur Rock, one ofthe towns where William was raised. The

(07:10):
Langston family enlisted friends to keep aneye on cafes and bus stations in Newport,
Newark and sulfur Rock. Bill Langstonsaid that he had talked to more
than fifteen witnesses who interacted with theman and came away convinced that it was
his son. The man with thelimp went to the home of Joe Powell
outside of Newport, who said theex Marines recollection of persons and events was

(07:34):
so accurate that no one but PrivateLenggston could have known them. He has
some plates in his head, saidBill, and his hands are crippled from
the tortures. But everyone with whomI have talked says he is all right
and knows everyone. One of thewitnesses quoted the man saying, I'm working
this thing out in my own way, and we'll get in touch with my

(07:55):
father and mother when the time isripe. According to this article, police
were combing the towns of bb Serc, Judsonia and others. Linda told the
Gazette that if her husband was alive, he would have come straight to her.
Yet that's exactly what the man saidhe did, only to find that
she had remarried, at which pointhe said he headed for Arkansas. A

(08:16):
few days later, Heather at Ucacame back with old issues of the Conway
Log Cabin Democrat. Langston is firstmentioned on January twenty fifth. They interviewed
George Ethridge, a local livestock dealer, who said that a man matching the
description aided him and moving a calffrom the Brown and Lewis auction house to

(08:37):
his barn on Tuesday the twenty second. He said the man told him his
name was Langston and that he wasgoing to a veterans hospital at Muskogee.
Etheridge paid the man a dollar forhis assistance. The letters sent to Naomi
Langston's mother was postmarked at eight pmon Wednesday, so we don't know where
the man spent Sunday night or Mondaynight. Tuesday and Wednesday evening. He

(09:01):
was in Conway Faulkner County. That'sthe county that includes Conway. Sheriff Clarence
Woodruff received a phone call from anunidentified man claiming to have picked up a
hitchhiker matching Langston's description outside of town. On Thursday. This caller claimed to
have dropped off his passenger at thegates of Camp Chaffee near the Oklahoma border

(09:24):
around three forty five pm. Thelaw enforcement manhunt shifted its focus to northwest
Arkansas and Oklahoma. I don't thinkthe man with the limp was ever there.
I think the anonymous caller to SheriffWoodruff was none other than the man
himself. His presence in Newport andConway were corroborated by many witnesses, but

(09:48):
the only evidence we have of himin northwest Arkansas was that anonymous call Camp
Chaffee said that no one matching hisdescription came to the base. I contacted
the Fort Smith Library and they foundnothing in the local newspapers, not a
word. I think the man withthe limp the article refers to as a
vanishing wanderer made the phone call tothrow everyone off his scent. While the

(10:13):
police scoured northwest Arkansas and Oklahoma,the man with the limp headed east on
Saturday night, one week to theday the man appeared in Newport. An
ID card was found in Ripley,Tennessee. It read, my name is
William W. Langston City, Conway, State Arkansas in case of accident or

(10:37):
serious illness notified Miss Naomi Hendricks,Jonesboro, Arkansas. The newspaper referred to
it as a standard form card.You get the sense these nineteen forty six
ID cards weren't super official looking orformal, and probably weren't even issued by
the government. Buddy Sinclair, theowner of the pool hall, said he

(11:00):
had no idea how the ID cardcame to be on his screen door.
He said that nobody matching the man'sdescription was seen around his business. The
Lauderdale Enterprise, the local newspaper,yielded no further clues about his time in
Ripley. Could the card be aforgery a hoax? Absolutely? If not,

(11:20):
for what happened next. On Monday, January twenty eighth, a letter
was postmarked at Memphis's De Soto station. It was addressed to the Press Scimitar
newspaper. It read, just toget the record straight about myself, William
W. Langston, and not havesome people believe that it is just another
sea monster tale like popped up afew years ago at Newport, Ark.

(11:45):
I will give you the following factsabout myself. I was at Newport as
reported, but I left there andcame to Memphis and was at Central Station
when police arrested Johnny Brantley overseas Vettfor having a Jap souvenir knife, which
cost him twenty six dollars fine andanother twenty six dollars for being a suspicious

(12:05):
person. Fifty two dollars in all, just fifty two days in the bean
House. So I thought, ifthat was the way Memphis police welcomed over
ce Vets, I had better moveon. So I went to Ripley,
Tennessee, to try and see JuneQueen, but she had left, so
I just left my card and hitthe road again. Yours for the truth,

(12:30):
William W. Langston, Newport arc. The letter appeared on the front
page of the Press Scimitar with theheadline was the Ghost Marine of Newport Arkansas
in Memphis yesterday afternoon. The articlesays that the letter writer is referring to
the real life arrest of Seaman JohnnyBrantley, which happened last Thursday at Central

(12:52):
Station. To make sure I understoodthe logistics of train travel, I contacted
the owner of the website Streamliner Memories, a trove of information about the glory
days of train travel. A trainfrom Conway to Little Rock took about forty
minutes, and from Little Rock toMemphis just under four hours. So the

(13:13):
man could have left Wednesday night andarrived first thing Thursday, or left Thursday
morning and arrived by afternoon. Wedon't know exactly what time Johnny Brantley was
arrested. There's a lot to unpackin this letter. Let's start at the
beginning. The writer wants to makeclear that he's William Willard Langston and doesn't

(13:33):
want people to dismiss it like anothersea monster tale. The first time I
read that, it didn't mean anythingto me. I felt like ce monster
tale was an analogy for a madeup story. And then I showed it
to Robert Craig, who you'll rememberwas the local historian in Newport, Arkansas.
I'll let you hear straight from him, Robert. I showed you that

(13:54):
letter from the Memphis Press Scimitar thatwas written yes by the man had been
to Newport, the man who claimedto be William Langston, and in the
first part of the letter, hesays, I want you to know I'm
William Langston. This isn't just somesea monster story like a few years back,
and I read that meant nothing tome. I thought it was an

(14:16):
analogy for a tall tale or astory that was made up. But that
had a completely different significance to youwhen I showed you the letter, didn't
it, Yes, it did.So when you first showed me this article,
I was immediately alerted that there mightbe something to this letter, that
it really might be true. Andthat comes in the form of what virtually

(14:39):
anyone else like yourself reading that lettermight overlook is being really preposterous. And
that was the part about the seamonster. Well, just a few years
earlier, in nineteen thirty seven,some people living next to the White River,
just a few miles below the Newport, believe that they saw a river
monster rising and sinking in the swirlingwaters of an Eddie. Over the course

(15:01):
of a few weeks, many localpeople claimed to have seen it, and
some of them were reputable enough tocause people to wonder if maybe it might
actually be true. So this storyain't headlines and newspapers all over the country
and even Time magazine. So agovernment diver was hired to try and find
this monster. People came from allover the region in the country to catch

(15:22):
a glimpse of this purported monster.So the event turned into a carnival like
atmosphere. And as you can imaginethat the professional diver never was able to
prove that the monster existed, butthen again, he didn't disprove its existence
either, So even though it wasso popular nearly a decade earlier, it
is highly unlikely that anyone would rememberto add this story unless he lived in

(15:46):
the Newport area around nineteen thirty seven. I just don't think anybody else would
remember it, because it was bigat the time, but then it just
kind of frittered away and just wentin the past. So I thought that
perhaps Langston himself might have even waitedon the river bank with others to see
his first monster. So this manclaiming to be Langston reverenced a monster that

(16:08):
virtually the rest of the world hadalready forgotten them out, and about the
only people who would remember it tenyears later were the ones who cashed in
on its being tourism worthy or thosewho were around Newport during that time when
it was a topic of every sarcasticconversation. The next item referenced in the
letter is the mistreatment of a returningsailor at the Memphis Central Train Station.

(16:33):
This kind of story is at theheart of my new book, The Fighting
Bunch. Tennessee law enforcement at thistime was paid per rest. Many returning
servicemen found themselves picked up on boguscharges, a practice known as feed grabbing.
This happened constantly in Macmin County,on the opposite side of the state,
and led the gis there to forma nonpartisan all veteran political party.

(16:56):
When the sheriff and his deputies triedto deny these veterans affair election, they
found themselves in a six hour firefightwith a group of gis known as the
Fighting Bunch. So I wasn't surprisedto hear what happened to Johnny Brantley.
The third part of the letter reads, I went to Ripley, Tennessee to
see June Queen from Memphis. Theman could have taken another train or hitchhiked

(17:19):
to Ripley, about fifty miles away. But who was June Queen and why
would the man want to see her? I can at least answer the first
part otto Jaski was a fifty fiveyear old trucker from Cincinnati. He was
picking up a shipman of pianos anddropping them off in Tennessee. He'd hired

(17:40):
a young man, Don Brightener toassist him. They picked up a hitchhiker
in Lima, a tall, thin, dark haired, beautiful young woman only
twenty one years old whose name wasJune Queen. She was headed to Ripley.
The truck stopped in Sydney, Pequa, and Dayton. Jeshki would head

(18:03):
into the taverns and June Queen wouldstay in the truck with Brightener. According
to Brightener, in Dayton, JuneQueen drank heavily and spent the night in
Jeski's room. Over the state linein Kentucky, Jayeshki entered a tavern alone.
According to Brightener, June Queen proposedthe idea of killing him for his
money. It seems that Jayeshki gottoo familiar with June Queen. When he

(18:27):
got back in the truck, hestopped for gas twenty miles outside of Lexington,
June again brought up the idea ofkilling Jeshki. Brightener took a hammer
from the toolbox and moved it tothe cab of the truck. June Queen
hit Jeski repeatedly with the hammer untilBrightener could stand it no longer. He

(18:52):
stopped the truck at the top ofa mountain. They removed everything from Jeski's
pockets, took him out to theledge, and pushed him down the mountain.
Then the two drove to a touristcabin. June pulled out an army
discharge for a hue m queen toprove that they were married, and they
registered as mister and missus Queen.They divided forty four dollars from Jeski's pocket.

(19:18):
June gave Brightoner Otto's wristwatch and penknife. She suggested they go their
separate ways. Brightener returned to Findley, June went to Ripley on January fourteenth,
five days before the man with thelimp arrived in Newport. The body
of Otto Jeski was found near theScenic Mountain lookout of Hall's Gap, Kentucky.

(19:41):
When Brightener returned to Findlay, hegot drunk in a bar and said
that he'd helped kill a man inKentucky. He promptly found himself arrested.
Brightoner implicated June Queen, and somehowpolice were able to find her. She
told the sheriff that she had struckOtto with the hammer as he was tearing
off her clothes. I lost controlof myself and hit she said. He

(20:04):
fell over and raised up and Ihit him again. I feel better now,
she said. June Queen waived extraditionback to Kentucky. Sheriff No.
Of Lincoln County came up with aplan to pick her up and bring her
back in total secrecy. According toBrightoner, June Queen had said that a

(20:25):
Chicago mobster by the name of twoGun Blackie and his gang would come to
her aid if necessary. On Tuesday, January twenty second, Sheriff No.
Successfully took custody of June Queen.No sign of two Gun Blackie or his
gang. It was reported in newspapersthat day the man with the limp was

(20:48):
five days late if he wanted tosee June Queen. June Queen, the
sweet looking young woman who had bludgeoneda man with a hammer, had captivated
the nation. Her story and photographwere in newspapers everywhere. The closest analogy
to this situation that I could thinkof is if a man who was declared
dead in the Persian Gulf War hadcome back and tried to visit O.

(21:11):
J. Simpson in jail. Ithink it's safe to say there's no connection
between the man and June Queen.Although she was a native of Michigan,
she lived a hundred miles from Williamand Linda. Also, the man makes
clear from the letter that it wasa snap decision made after witnessing the arrest
of Johnny Brantley at Central Station.I think, if nothing else, this

(21:34):
is a sign that the man wasmentally unwell, a fact attested to by
many of the people he encountered.He had also inadvertently launched an ongoing national
news story, and the police offour states were looking for him. The
mailing of this letter from memphiss DeSoto Station on January twenty eighth, nineteen

(21:56):
forty six, is the final tracethe phantom. Nine days after he shocked
the nation by his appearance on themain street of Newport, he was never
seen again. He was never heardfrom again, at least not publicly.

(22:18):
Next, I turned my attention tothe beginning of the story. From Linda's
vantage point. She found herself inan awful situation, one that few women
have ever experienced, that of anew bride who hears that her first husband
is still alive. Two weeks intotheir marriage, Joe was working eighty miles
to the east of Saint Joseph andspending weekends with Linda and Dwayne. At

(22:44):
four pm on Wednesday, January twentythird, Clifford Bray answered the phone at
the Union Steam Pump Company in BattleCreek, Michigan. Linda was calling for
her husband. The foundry workers hadgone home for the day. He said
it was urgent. Clifford walked tothe Wilkins apartments on Main Street and knocked
on Joe's door. Your wife wantsyou to call her back as soon as

(23:08):
possible, he said. Joe thankedhim. He wasn't at work the following
day and wouldn't return until the followingweek. Linda seems to have greeted the
first reports skeptically. That October,she had received William's personal effects from the
Navy, an id bracelet, notto be confused with his dog tags W.

(23:32):
W. Langston eight seven seven threeone three typo USMCR. The ring
was ONYX and diamond and bore hisinitials. She'd given it to him the
last time they saw one another.Both items were covered in the volcanic ash
of Iwashima. I know he wouldn'thave parted with it, Linda said,

(23:56):
referring to the ring. Linda hadanother good point. He has a sister,
Miss Clarence Smith, in Burying Center, which is near where Linda lived
in Michigan, and she hasn't heardfrom him either. If Langstone was indeed
in Saint Joseph and laughed because hefound out his wife had remarried, why

(24:17):
not go to his sisters. Iloved him, Linda told a reporter.
I never would have remarried if Ithought he was alive. He's the father
of my son. What if thereport's turned out to be true, naturally,
I'll go back to my first husband, she said. I hope he
walks in the door. I usedto dream of such a thing, and

(24:38):
now it has happened. If Billis alive, I want him back.
I don't care if he is crippled. It would be my duty to take
care of him. Linda said thatthe last time she had seen her husband
was July nineteen forty four, whenhe was allowed to come home on furlough
before heading overseas. Their last communicationwas November nineteen forty four, and she

(25:03):
learned of his death on April thirtieth. Last episode, we wondered how long
it had been since Langston had beento Newport to see how important it was
that people didn't recognize him. Hehadn't been there for eleven years, Linda
said, except for one week innineteen thirty seven or thirty eight. In
other words, he'd have been twentyeight years old in January nineteen forty six,

(25:26):
and if you hadn't seen him onhis one trip back, then you
hadn't seen him since he was aroundtwenty at the most recent. For some
it was undoubtedly longer. Linda doubtedthe authenticity of the letter received by Naomi
Langston, she said always used hismiddle name, Willard and customarily signed his

(25:47):
letters Willie. The Battle Quick newspaperdescribed her as bewildered, saying I'm dazed.
I don't know what to think.I don't know. Her new husband
was, by herself eyed as sheconfronted this unusual situation. The article described
him as a big, handsome,ex Golden Gloves boxer who seemed as dazed
as his wife. Both agreed thatif Langston was still alive, Linda would

(26:14):
return to him if he is aliveand will only come home, she said,
we will take up life where weleft off. In another article,
she said, Bill, come home. I don't care how badly you were
hurting the war. Come back,Come back. Bill. Joe was a
marine too. I married him becauseI believed you were dead. I listened

(26:37):
to the pleadings of another good manwho was wounded on Tarawa. I married
him to have a home for ourDwayne. Joe said, I'd like to
meet you Bill, and then walkright out of your life. I'll step
out, and you step right backinto the picture where you belong. So
if you're staying away from Linda andyour fine son, don't worry. He

(27:02):
warned, however, that he wouldmake short work of the guilty person if
the reports turn out to be ahoax. I have no evidence that he
is alive, except all those storiesfrom Arkansas, said Linda. I've got
to go there. I've got toknow. I can't go on this way.
She sobbed. She traveled to Arkansaswith her brother, Joe and Dwayne,

(27:25):
and after two days concluded it wasa mistake, a tragic mistake.
I wondered why she was so certainwhen witnesses seemed uniform in their opinion that
the man they had met was herhusband. But that's where the coverage stopped.
There was really only one thing todo. If I wanted to find
out, I had to try andfind Dwayne Langston. He would be eighty

(27:47):
three years old. I found aphone number for him in Michigan. I
called, and he answered, Nowwhat, I've had to make some awkward
calls doing researching compared to this,I explained gingerly that I had been researching
a story from nineteen forty six wherehis name had come up. He knew

(28:10):
instantly what I was talking about,and he was incredibly gracious. As an
eight year old, he'd had tolive through the death of his father,
the remarriage of his mother, andthe possible re emergence of his father,
who, if alive, was consciouslyavoiding him. I asked Dwayne if the
man with the limp had ever madecontact with him or his family outside of

(28:32):
what was reported in the newspaper.No, he said. Dwayne remembered the
trip to Arkansas. He said thathis mother felt as though people were keeping
something from her. On their wayhome, his mother told him that it
didn't matter whether his father was alive, he hadn't tried to contact them,
and they had to proceed as thoughhe was dead. Dwayne had accepted this

(28:56):
as an eight year old, andas an eighty three year old, he
didn't have an opinion and whether theman with the limp was his father or
an impostor. Unless he was willingto return to them, Dwayne and his
mother had to move on with theirlives. Dwayne passed away shortly after our
conversation. Dwayne's equanimity about the situationraises an obvious question. If he could

(29:23):
accept not knowing whether his father hadsurvived Yugima, why couldn't I? And
after all, wasn't I at adead end? Then it occurred to me.
The man with the limp said thathe was self conscious about his injuries
and believed that he would be nouse to his wife and son, and
said that it was for the bestthat she had remarried. But what about

(29:48):
his biological family? Did the manreach out to the Langstons. I had
done some genealogical research on Williams siblings, who all appear to have passed,
But then I found a nephew whoseemed to be alive. He was even
named for his uncle. I calledhim and the next episode of The Phantom
Marine, we'll talk about that conversationand find out what happens when the FBI

(30:11):
shows up in Newport. In themeantime, please like our Facebook page and
let's get a discussion going. Andplease check out my new book, The
Fighting Bunch. I'm Christa Rose andas the man with the limp, signed
off yours for the Truth.