Page 29 - ARUBA TODAY

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PEOPLE & ARTS Friday 7 July 2017
Finder of potential game-changing Earhart pix tells story

By RANDY HERSCHAFT and at it and I went, ‘I can’t be- he is convinced it shows Ear-
MARK KENNEDY lieve this!’ hart and Noonan, based
Associated Press ” He asked his wife to come on other evidence includ-
NEW YORK (AP) — The re- over and pointed to the ing physical landmarks and
tired federal agent who dis- seated person, asking if it islanders’ recollections.
covered what he believes seemed to her to be a man Kinney said the presence
is the first photographic or a woman. of two Caucasians on
evidence of Amelia Ear- “She said, ‘It’s a woman!’” Jaluit Atoll prior to World
hart alive and well after His search led him to iden- War II was very unusual.
crash-landing in the Pacific tify the ship seen at the The man’s distinctive wid-
Ocean during her attempt- right apparently pulling ow’s peak seems to match
ed round-the-world flight Earhart’s plane wreckage Noonan’s. As for the figure
says he didn’t initially cap- on a barge. with her back to the cam-
ture the significance of the The image is at the heart of era: “You have one that
image until years later. the two-hour “Amelia Ear- has a striking resemblance
The black-and-white pho- hart: The Lost Evidence,” to Amelia Earhart from the
to is of a group of people which argues that Earhart, back, including the short
standing on a dock on along with her navigator hair.”
Jaluit Atoll in the Marshall Fred Noonan, crash-land- In this file photo taken on or about July 2, 1937, American Kinney suspects the pair
aviator Amelia Earhart, left, and her navigator, Fred Noonan,
Islands, including one who ed in the Japanese-held right, pose beside their plane with gold miner F.C. Jacobs at Lae, may have been picked
seems to be a slim woman Marshall Islands, where New Guinea just before Earhart and Noonan took off in a flight up by a fishing boat and
with her back to the cam- they were picked up by the to Howland Island on July 2, during which they disappeared handed over to Japanese
era. A new documentary Japanese military and held somewhere in the Pacific. authorities, who initially
airing Sunday on the History prisoner. Associated Press may have had no inten-
channel claims the figure is In the documentary, that hart and Noonan on July 2, proposed that wreckage tion of keeping them. That
the famed aviator who dis- photo is subjected to fa- 1937, in the Western Pacific spotted by members of his may explain why there are
appeared 80 years ago this cial-recognition and other Ocean has been the sub- country’s military years ago no handcuffs or restraints in
month. forensic testing, such as ject of continuing searches, on a Papua New Guinea is- the photo.
Retired U.S. Treasury Agent torso measurements. Ex- research and debate. land could be hers. “At the moment in time
Les Kinney said in an inter- perts on the show claim the The longstanding official Kinney, who started his ca- that you’re looking at the
view Wednesday with The subjects are likely that of theory is that the famed reer as a naval intelligence photograph, everything is
Associated Press that he Earhart and Noonan. pilot ran out of gas and agent, said the photograph very good there.
was looking for clues sur- Others aren’t convinced, crashed into deep ocean he found was in a batch of I don’t think that Noonan or
rounding Earhart’s disap- including Dorothy Co- waters northwest of How- documents collected by Earhart had any indication
pearance in the National chrane, a curator at the land Island, a tiny speck in U.S. sources in anticipation whatsoever that they were
Archives in College Park, National Air and Space the South Pacific that she of the 1944 invasion of the not going to be shortly re-
Maryland, when he found Museum and an expert and Noonan missed. Marshall Islands. “This was leased,” he said.
the photograph in 2012 in on women in aviation. She Other theories have a mistake. This was never Though Cochrane isn’t
a box filled mostly with text said Thursday the blurry claimed Earhart made an meant to be there,” he convinced, she respects
documents from the Of- image isn’t conclusive. “I emergency landing on a said. The National Archives Earhart as a heroine who
fice of Naval Intelligence cannot say definitively that flat stretch of coral reef off verified Thursday that the took chances and was a
but “didn’t really look at it this is Amelia Earhart. That what was then known as image is from its holdings role model for women. “It
carefully” because he was doesn’t mean that it might Gardner Island, southwest and was in a file “unrelated would be great to solve it
looking over thousands of not be, somehow. But you of Howland, although bone to Earhart.” and I’m happy that people
documents and images. can’t say that just through fragments found on the is- While the photo is undated, are still interested in her, so
In 2015, he took another the image the way it is.” land were inconclusive. An Kinney strongly believes it we’ll just see where it goes,”
pass at the photo. “I looked The disappearance of Ear- Australian researcher once was taken in July 1937, and she said.q

Andrew Garfield says

he’s gay ‘without the

physical act’

LONDON (AP) — Andrew He says he prepared for the
Garfield is getting criticized role by watching episodes
for saying he’s gay, but of “RuPaul’s Drag Race”
without the “physical act.” and added that he’s “a
Garfield is starring onstage gay man right now just
as a gay man with AIDS in a without the physical act.”
London production of “An- The comment has sparked
gels in America.” criticism from some on Twit-
Britain’s Gay Times maga- ter who say the remark is in-
zine reports Garfield told sensitive to the struggles of
the audience at a panel gay people.
discussion that he’s not Garfield’s representatives
currently gay, but left open didn’t immediately return
the door for an “awaken- a request for comment In this Feb. 26, 2017, file photo, Andrew Garfield arrives at the Oscars at the Dolby Theatre in Los
ing” later in his life. Thursday.q Angeles.