UNDATED -- Beth Brickell, author, filmmaker and former actress from Los Angeles, will give four talks and do book signings for her book, "The Disappearance of Maud Crawford," September 26-30 in Camden, Hot Springs, Little Rock and Blytheville.
Maud Crawford's disappearance in Camden on March 2, 1957, is the most widely-publicized mystery in Arkansas history. Crawford was an attorney and prominent civic leader in Camden who had been an associate of U.S. Senator John McClellen before he was elected to the senate. She disappeared from her home on a cold, rainy, foggy Saturday night for no apparent reason. No body, clue, trace or motive was found by the original police investigation.
At the time of Crawford's disappearance, Senator McClellan was the number one news story in newspapers and television screens throughout the world as chairman of a senate committee investigating alleged mob ties to organized labor. He and his general counsel, Robert Kennedy, were grilling labor leaders daily, such as Jimmy Hoffa and Dave Beck, when the senator's former associate disappeared. The initial theory was that the Mafia had kidnapped her in order to intimidate Senator McClellan into backing off his investigation. When no ransom note appeared in the following days, however, and Senator McClellan assured law enforcement that the Mafia wouldn't dare do anything to try and intimidate him, the theory was dropped. Multiple theories about her disappearance were then developed, but none were ever proved, and the police investigation was declared at a "dead end" after two weeks.
In 1985, Beth Brickell returned to her former hometown of Camden with the intention of writing a screenplay for a movie about the mystery. She learned within a week that the case had not been properly investigated in 1957, and townspeople encouraged her to use her former journalism skills as a reporter from an earlier time and investigate the case. She discovered that people were still frightened to talk about the case 29 years later. All of the original police investigators were still alive and willing to give information to Brickell, including information they had been unwilling to divulge publically in 1957.
Following a 16-month investigation, Brickell wrote 19 articles that the Arkansas Gazette ran on the front page of the newspaper in 1986 over a five-month period with the title, "Mystery at Camden."
"The Disappearance of Maud Crawford" is Brickell's book, which consists of an introduction and re-print of her Gazette investigative series.
Her speaking schedule about the Maud Crawford mystery and book is as follows:
- Friday, Sept. 26, 6 p.m., Allen's Restaurant, 107 E. Washington St., Camden
- Saturday, Sept. 27, Tate Barn Sale, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Camden
- Sunday, Sept. 28, 2 p.m., Garland County Library, 1427 Malvern Ave., Hot Springs
- Monday, Sept. 29, 5 p.m., WordsWorth Books, 5920 R. Street, Little Rock
- Tuesday, Sept. 30, 3 p.m., That Bookstore, 316 W. Main St., Blytheville
Many will remember that Brickell, a former actress, starred in the popular CBS family series, "Gentle Ben," in the late 1960s. As a filmmaker she has filmed two television movies in Arkansas, "Summer's End" in Clarendon and Camden, and "Mr. Christmas" in Eureka Springs. Both films were broadcast on PBS, and "Summer's End" was also broadcast on Showtime, A&E and Nickelodeon. The two films won a total of 18 film festival and television awards.
