Mysteries of Lake Tahoe

[Jerekson]

Maybe the Mythbusters would be in the mood for a road trip if the Deep Sea guys are busy?

Actually, that's not a bad idea. The Mythbusters are easily contacted, and they are stationed in San Fransisco so it would be right nearby for them.

Considering that they just recently did a football stadium search for Hoffa's body, I would imagine they would be interested.

If you guys think we oughta, I'll seriously email the team right now about it.

 

[jayem]

Actually, that's not a bad idea. The Mythbusters are easily contacted, and they are stationed in San Fransisco so it would be right nearby for them.

Considering that they just recently did a football stadium search for Hoffa's body, I would imagine they would be interested.

If you guys think we oughta, I'll seriously email the team right now about it.

I second that! They would, not only rack in a lot of dough and ratings, but, have a heck of a fun time doing it.

This reminds me of the story my dad used to tell me about the Chicago River. Whenever we would be in the 'city' part of the city, he'd tell me about how back in the late 19th century and early 20th, butchers would just throw the cow, pig, chicken, whatever carcasses in the lake. That just might be the reason it smells so foul on summer days Another thing about the river, is if you ever sifted the river bed, you would probably find a million weapons that have undoubtedly been used in a crime. The Chicago River is like THE hot spot for discarding a weapon.

Lesson of the day: Don't ever swim in the Chicago River.

 

[Mojito]

Another thing about the river, is if you ever sifted the river bed, you would probably find a million weapons that have undoubtedly been used in a crime. The Chicago River is like THE hot spot for discarding a weapon.

I've heard of divers who have turned up a number of guns while diving under bridges - it sounds urban mythish, but at least one of the accounts was from a dedicated bottle hunter who said it really does happen. They turn the weapons into the police, who can sometimes link them with specific crimes.

I'm still a bit skeptical about soft tissue lasting for any period of time, even in fresh cold water. Ice is different - by definition it is colder (after all, it is frozen H2O!). Bodies that go through saponification can last at least a few years in a comparatively intact state - as I mentioned before I can think of lake bodies two or three years old. But decades...? In one of the instances referred to above, Donald Campbell was killed in his speedboat, Bluebird, attempting a 300 mph speed record on Coniston Water in January 1967. His body was recovered in 2001. It was revealed at the inquest that the remains were "almost entirely skeletal". I'm open - and would be very interested in - specific documented examples where bodies with significant soft tissue have survived in water for decades (I work in the field of maritime history, so it would be of some professional interest!).

Some organic materials do survive at depth in cold water, even without being covered by silt/sand etc - leather, for example (due to the tanning process - there are leather shoes on the Titanic in salt water, but no human remains - not even any bones have been positively sighted). Wood seems to survive at depth - decking, for example. Teak lasts long even in salt water, but I've seen photos of Great Lakes wrecks that I doubt had teak decking that were still intact. One even had an upright wooden barrel on deck. I can recall shreds of bone and material recovered from a 1920s car accident - the vehicle swerved off the road and rolled down into deep, cold lake water, the fate of the occupants a mystery until just a few years ago.

 

[Bugguy]

Your dad was right! Being a life-long Chicago boy and former member of a fire department underwater search and rescue team back in the 60's, I can vouch for the guns. Every year the dive clubs would show up at the downtown lake front for the annual trash dive. This was always good for 2 or 3 guns. I dove in the river and the harbor by the locks - hated it. You couldn't see anything and had to feel the bottom through your gloves. Never found a carcass, but a dead carp is pretty bad.

As for gangsters - Lemont Quarry, SW of Chicago was reputed to be the burial site of preference in the 20's. Lots of cars on the bottom, but I think law enforcement got them pretty quick. It was a very strange locale...

 

[Blackjack]

Schiller Park woods is where they dumped a lot of them too. My old man was a Police captain in Des Plaines and they were always finding them in the woods there...and the Des Plaines river.

 

[Bugguy]

...and for the southsiders, there was Beaubien Woods and the Calumet River. Now there's one river I wouldn't want to go near. The fumes could make you sterile.


Thanks, jayem. You got me distracted. Tahoe is pretty and the cold water angle could have merit, but for pure body count, nothing beats Chicago (except maybe the East River).

My personal Hoffa theory has him buried under a defunct, and historically shady, restaurant in Michigan's U.P. Too bad there's no permafrost, we might be able to wake him up.

 

[LoveMyHats2]

The way nature works in lakes and oceans, with the dead remains of a human body, well, so far anyone that knows about fish, knows they eat things....all lakes have had some potential for "body and evidence dumps" Tahoe would not be excluded in this. What many people should recall is that in the late 1920's and early 1930's many lakes and resort areas were set up with covered band stands (Gazebo style) and had entertainment, and many of the Mobs would go to places like Tahoe, and many of the lakes all over different States for a "cooling off" period. I had older friends of the family no longer alive that had ties to the famous "purple gang". They would hang out in areas in Michigan, and Chicago at some of the lakes, and not always at any of the great lakes, either.

In my own past history here in Michigan, I knew an older Mobster from the "Tocco" family. In a few conversations with him, it was well known that some of the older model T and model A cars that got fished of of some of the lakes, like Walled Lake, were aftermaths of Mob dealings.

Many may know a bridge here in Michigan, called the Zilwaukee that is in Saginaw, that bridge was just having it's first round of foundational cement work done when Hoffa was missing.....

 

[Blackjack]

I thought Hoffa was under I90 somewhere LOL

 

[Mr. Hallack]

About 2 months ago they recovered the body of a diver who went missing 17 years ago.

Edit: Recovered from Lake Tahoe

 

[LoveMyHats2]

About 2 months ago they recovered the body of a diver who went missing 17 years ago.

That gives a new meaning for the statement, "late for dinner"....

 

[LoveMyHats2]

I thought Hoffa was under I90 somewhere LOL

He could be...I do not think they will ever "uncover" the truth, (no pun intended)..NOT!