Beverly Potts

Little Girl Disappears a Few Feet From Home

From "Missing... Please Find Us"; Facebook Page:

Blond, blue-eyed Potts was described as a shy, quiet and responsible child, fascinated by the performing arts, who was due to enter the fifth grade in fall 1951. At the time she was living on Linnet Avenue with her parents Robert and Elizabeth Potts and her 22-year-old sister Anita.

On August 24, she and her friend and neighbor Patsy Swing were given permission to see the Showagon, an annual summer children's performance event being held that evening in Halloran Park, less than a quarter of a mile from the girls' homes. This was a special treat, as the park was generally considered unsafe after dark, when large trees dimmed the surrounding streetlights. It was also frequented by the local vagrant population.

The two girls initially went to the park on their bicycles around 7 pm. At 8 pm, deciding it would be easier to maneuver on foot through the large crowds in attendance, they returned home to drop off their bikes, arriving back at the show sometime before 8:30 pm. At about 8:45 pm, Swing, who had promised to be home before dark, suggested they leave for home. Potts said that she had been given permission to stay for the entire show, which was not due to end until after 9 pm, so Swing went back to her own house alone. Swing last saw Potts in the crowd, still watching the performances onstage.

At about 9:30 pm, when the show had ended and the park was emptying, a 13-year-old boy who knew Potts saw her heading diagonally across the park in a northeasterly direction, about 150 yards from the corner of Linnet Avenue and West 117th Street. This would have been the quickest route to Potts' home, which would then only be a few minutes' walk away. The boy recognized Potts by her distinctive "duck-like" gait, walking with toes pointed outward. Several other witnesses said they had seen a girl resembling Potts near a battered black 1937 Dodge coupe idling on West 117th Street, apparently speaking to two young men inside. The various witnesses placed this encounter anywhere between 8:30 and 9:30 pm, but none of them had seen the girl entering the car.

When Potts did not return home by 10 pm, her family began searching the area. About an hour later, having found no sign of her, they called the police.

Several suspects emerged over the years, but none can be definitively linked to the case.

In 1955 Harvey Lee Rush, a drifter and Cleveland native, told police in California that he had killed Potts after luring her to a nearby bridge with candy; however he placed the murder in 1952, a year after Potts' actual disappearance. Rush recanted his entire story shortly after being extradited to Cleveland, saying that he had confessed merely as a way to get back to his hometown.

In 1980, two retired Cleveland police detectives, James Fuerst and Robert Shankland, revealed that in 1974 they had received a tip from a local attorney with a client whose brother had supposedly confessed to abducting Potts. The detectives subsequently found and questioned the brother, who, they said, had readily admitted to having lived near Halloran Park in 1951 and making a habit of picking up and molesting young girls there. The man did not remember abducting Potts in particular, but said he had "flashes" of memory involving a girl named Beverly. Fuerst and Shankland were convinced the man was guilty, but the county prosecutors' office refused to pursue the case, citing a lack of evidence.

William Henry Redmond, an Ohio native and former carnival worker, was indicted in 1988 for the 1951 Pennsylvania murder of eight-year-old Jane Marie Althoff. While in prison, Redmond reportedly told a cell mate that he had killed three other young girls. When questioned about the Potts case in particular, Redmond refused to make a statement one way or the other. He was in the general area at the time of Potts' disappearance and had a record of child molestation convictions dating back to 1935; however Potts would have been considerably older than his previous victims.

In 1994, a letter was discovered under a carpet in a Cleveland house, written by a woman who claimed to have caught her husband disposing of Potts' body in their furnace. Upon being traced and questioned by police, the woman said that the allegation was false; she had written the letter solely as a revenge fantasy against her abusive husband.

More letters were sent to reporter Brent Larkin of the Cleveland Plain Dealer beginning in 2000, purporting to be from an elderly and infirm man who claimed that he wanted to confess to molesting and murdering Potts before his imminent death. The anonymous author pledged to turn himself in on August 24, 2001, the fiftieth anniversary of Potts' disappearance, but shortly beforehand wrote again to say he had had to enter a nursing home and would be unable to honor his promise or otherwise reveal himself. An extensive investigation failed to turn up any clues to the author's identity; Larkin now believes the letters to have been a hoax.

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All I can say about this case is "Wow".  I've never seen so many red herrings and so much public interest in a case over such a lengthy period.  I am amazed.  I have attempted this case several times in the past but could not get a clear chart or be sure of the times and places given.  In this attempt, I have decided to go with the account given above.

BEVERLY POTTS 9 PM

I started with a chart for the time when several witnesses claimed to have seen her speaking to men in a car.  After this, there are no more credible sightings and she seems to have disappeared.  This but a few feet from her home.  The chart above shows the car, the two men (Moon in Gemini in the third house) and since the Moon is disposed of by the seventh house ruler,Mercury, I am inclined to believe she was taken by these two men.  Mercury is in Virgo in the sixth house with both Venus and the Sun.  This tells me two things.  One: that these men will never be found and two: they were working that night in the performance that Beverly attended.

In this chart,the first house ruler is Neptune, which is in Libra in the seventh house.  Neptune is disposed of by Venus in the sixth, conjoined the seventh house ruler.  She was enchanted by these men because they worked in the arts and she was smitten with arts and music.    They had shared interests and they had no problem seducing her with their talk.  Neptune in Libra can be fooled by romance and mystery and especially where it concerns the opposite sex.  

The Moon in Gemini square to the node in the twelfth tells me these two men came up with their scheme on the spot, only after they met the girl.  Beverly was young but she wasn't too young for many men, especially those who prefer young girls.  

There is also one more thought that crosses my mind.  Jupiter in the first shows the joy that Beverly was feeling that night and with it trining Mars in the fifth, she was very excited by the performance.  She was excited by these men.  She may well have run off with to "join the circus" so to speak.  To be a part of the arts.

BEVERLY POTTS 10 PM

This chart is even more interesting to me.  The first house ruler, Mars, is in the fifth in Leo and disposed of by the Sun, also in the fifth.  It would seem that perhaps she went along out of fun and excitement over the music and art.  With the Moon in the second, they may have promised to make her a "star",to earn money as a performer or other contributor.  The seventh house ruler is Venus and is disposed of by Mercury in Virgo.  The tenth house ruler is also in the sixth, disposed of by Venus.  I think the idea that she ran off willingly (at least to begin with) is viable with these placements.

Because none of the charts I saw presented a death pattern, I have no reason to believe she is not alive.  She may have died in the meantime, by almost any means, but she was not killed that night. 

BEVERLY POTTS MIDNIGHT

I know that in other charts I often use the fifth house to show romance, sex,rape and attraction.  In most cases involving victim and abductor that makes sense but in this case with the girl just leaving a performance and loving the arts so much, it seems more likely this chart is reflecting that.  As a matter of fact,this chart for midnight has the Moon in Gemini in the first house, disposed of by Mercury, still in the fifth house.  She is still giddy with it all,focused on a chance to be around or even be involved in something of the arts.  This is no different than the women who fall for photographers who promise to make them famous models.  The tenth house ruler in the second again tells me she is hoping to make a career of this and is expecting to make money.  Whether she ended up in sex slavery or some other service against her will is not indicated in the charts.  It is not to be ruled out, as there are many days ahead here, but it is just not shown in the charts.  In fact, these men do not look like criminals.  They have markers for people who work.

Another pointer is the seventh house ruler in the eleventh and opposing Neptune in Libra in the sixth.  This is another marker that seems to indicate that these men work in the arts in some capacity and are not in the sex industry or or a criminal character. I have no idea what they want with a 12 year old girl but it does not always have to be sexual.

May I suggest the searchers start with the Showagon, where it went next and who was working on it.  Following this unit may render leads as to where this girl went.  And I cannot swear to her safety in the days and weeks that followed this event nor can I say that these men did not have untoward ideas.  Just that the charts reflect the fact that they worked at the Showwagon performance and this connection was enough to fascinate the innocent little girl who may well have become a victim, especially since I do not consider fourth grade children to have the wherewithal to make these sorts of choices for themselves and any adult who takes such a child under these circumstances is, at the very least, irresponsible.