Affluent Texas Couple Who Disappeared 67 Years Ago Mysteriously Continued to Send Messages
The Mysterious Pattersons
A couple disappeared into thin air from Texas, in March 1957, and their disappearance became a mystery that continues to fascinate to this day. William Patterson and his wife, Margaret Patterson, had everything from a thriving business to a comfortable lifestyle in El Paso, Mental Floss reported. There was no reason for the couple's employees and relatives to suspect that nobody would lay eyes on them in El Paso. Even after decades, authorities have not managed to solve the mystery behind this sudden disappearance. Multiple speculations have been put forward from murder to espionage, but truth still evades the public.
The Pattersons Disappear
The Patterson couple lived in the 3000 block of Piedmont, El Paso Times reported. The couple owned Patterson Photo Supply near Downtown. The duo owned Tommy, a yellow and white house cat, who reportedly was the apple of their eyes. Rumors of infidelity from William Patterson's side surrounded the couple, but barring that nothing was out of the ordinary, as per their acquaintances, Mental Floss reported. On March 6, 1957, William Patterson made a call to his employee David Kirkland. "We are going away," William Patterson told him. "I’ll have to take Margaret away for a while." The information did not alarm Kirkland as the couple regularly took such trips. But Kirkland and the couple's acquaintances grew concerned when the couple did not return for months.
William Patterson's Messages Continue
Soon after leaving, the couple, particularly William Patterson, began to send telegrams to his acquaintances, Mental Floss reported. Nine days after the couple's departure, Herb Roth, the couple's business auditor, received a telegram that read, "Sorry had to leave so suddenly. Sell house trailers and use the money for the business. License both cars for business. Tell Art to cancel the DC reservation and take care of business like it was his as part will be someday. Put [Kirkland] in complete charge at the same salary Duffy pays him. Tell [Kirkland] to rent a house for nine months at least. Handle all this as quietly as possible. Important. Sure you will understand. Pat." A year later another telegram allegedly from William Patterson came to the couple's family attorney, David Smith, in which the husband asked for help in dividing the business amongst his employees. The telegram read, "Dear Dave: I want you to handle this matter for us. We will not be back to El Paso and by the time you get this we will be out of the country and nobody can find us."
Police Investigation Leads to Nothing
In August of 1957 an acquaintance of the couple, Cecil Ward, reported the matter to the El Paso Sheriff’s Office, Mental Floss reported. Officials looked into the house and found the couple's luggage and clothing intact. Their cat Tommy had also been left behind which friends found unusual. Investigators checked the duo's bank account and found no cash had been withdrawn. In 1959, Sheriff Bob Bailey received tips that the couple had been located in Mexico. Multiple people in Valle de Bravo, a resort community just outside of Mexico City gave testimonies that the couple stayed there in September 1958. Reynaldo Nangaray, an undocumented immigrant, who was an employee of the Pattersons’ came out thirty years later and stated that he had noted some blood on the couple's property. Officials looked into a possible murder from this angle but could not find anything.
Pattersons Were Spies?
Authorities over the years have speculated that the couple could have been spies, El Paso Times reported. "I think they were spies," El Paso County Sheriff Leo Samaniego said. "The way they got up and just walked away and left everything behind. The Russians, or whoever sent them, probably told them to drop everything and go back. Some people said they had seen Patterson take photographs of Fort Bliss and of military shipments on the trains that came here." In the 1940s and '50s, multiple Russian spies allegedly made their way into the country, Mental Floss reported. Considering the nature of their disappearance, investigators do not consider espionage outside the realm of possibility. Despite exploring several angles authorities are yet to solve this six-decade-old case.