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ABSTRACT
Around 200,000 American soldiers were disabled as a result of the Great War, of which roughly 70,000 were classified as neuro-psychiatric. An even smaller number of veterans came home with amnesia. Newspaper reports from across the United States commented on mysterious stories of select soldiers who had turned up at US Army hospitals, or who had disappeared from those same places. Such stories mirrored the case of Anthelme Mangin in France that historian Jean-Yves Le Naour deftly explores in his book The Living Unknown Soldier. This article examines postwar discussions about America’s living unknown soldiers, by analysing Americans’ reception of Jerry Tarbot and Arthur Lopez-Frazier, who were well-documented amnesic veteran imposters. Subsequent analysis places the two men within broader anxieties about the visibility of war wounds as well as the particularities of American social welfare. Ultimately, the article demonstrates how grief suspended social marginalization and scepticism about nonvisible war wounds and malingering.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1. “‘Sliding Ghost’ Most Baffling Mystery of War,” 2.
2. Jerry Tarbot, The Living Unknown Soldier.
3. Linker, War’s Waste, 3–4.
4. Linker, War’s Waste; and Adler, Burdens of War.
5. Kinder, Paying with Their Bodies, 10.
6. Reid, “War Psychiatry and Shell Shock.”
7. Adler, Burdens of War, 43; and Stagner, “Defining the Soldier’s Wounds,” 3.
8. “Historical Sketch of the Curative Workshop from July First to September First 1918,” RG 112, Box 276, Folder 413.7–2: GH 30 (K), US National Archives.
9. Reid, “War Psychiatry and Shell Shock”; and Frost, “Treatment in Relation to the Mechanism of Shell-Shock,” 353.
10. Le Naour, The Living Unknown Soldier, 50.
11. Ibid.
12. Ibid., 3.
13. For a discussion on shell shock and marginalization, see Barham, Forgotten Lunatics of the Great War; Crouthamel and Leese, eds., Psychological Trauma; Dodman, “Belated Impress”; Lerner, Hysterical Men; Reid, Broken Men; Stagner, “Defining the Soldier’s Wounds”; Sullivan, “The Unseen Army”; and Thomas, Treating the Trauma of the Great War.
14. Thanks to the reviewers for helping me clarify my argument more clearly.
15. Budreau, Bodies of War, 4.
16. Winter, Remembering War, 6.
17. Dalisson and Julien, “Bereavement and Mourning.”
18. Trout, “Commemoration and Remembrance (USA).”
19. Stephens, “The Ghosts of Menin Gate,” 17.
20. “Missing Men,” (21 May 1920), 16–17.
21. “Missing Men,” (28 May 1920), 16–17.
22. Ibid.
23. “Amnesia Veteran Again is Missing,” 9.
24. “Man of Lost Identity Mystifies U.S. Army Doctors at Dansville,” 15; and Sullivan, “Neuro-Psychiatry and Patient Protest.”
25. “Remarkable Case of Amnesia at Camp,” 10.
26. Vaughn, “Bedside Occupational Therapy,” 13.
27. “Red Cross Hunts for Missing Men,” 6.
28. Hart, Brown, & Graafland, “Trauma-Induced Dissociative Amnesia,” 38.
29. Thom & Fenton, “Amnesias in War Cases,” 442–443.
30. “Man Who is Victim of Amnesia Claimed by Woman as Husband,” 1.
31. “Ex-Soldier, Amnesia Victims, Forgets He’s Wed,” 13.
32. see note 1 above.
33. See Linker, War’s Waste.
34. “Shell Shock Serious,” 5.
35. “‘Man Without Name’ Longs for Mother on Thanksgiving Day,” 1.
36. “Who Is Tarbot?,” 1.
37. “Still Is Unidentified,” 3.
38. “Jerry Tarbot Fails to Identify Himself in Trip to Ohio,” 29; and “Tarbot Spends Life,” 14.
39. “Jerry Tarbot Tells Identity Under Spell,” 17.
40. “‘Jerry Tarbot’ Coming Here Hoping to Learn Identity,” 1.
41. “Tarbot Spends Life,” 14; and “Ray Hall Knocks Out Terzo,” 8.
42. “Who is Sliding Ghost?,” 12.
43. Ibid.
44. See note 36 above 36.
45. “Parents Believe ‘Man Without Name’ May be Son Missing Twelve Years,” 1; and “Tarbot Not Their Son, Parents Find,” 4.
46. “Rights of ‘Tarbot’ Upheld by Rankin,” 4.
47. “Jerry Tarbot Hears Self Described,” 1.
48. “Tarbot Prepares to Continue Fight,” 1.
49. “Charges Declared Outrage,” 4; and “Jerry Tarbot is Once More Active,” 24.
50. “Jerry Tarbot’s Lost Identity Claim Declared Disproven,” 1.
51. See note 14 above.
52. Bartlesville Examiner-Enterprise, 5 June 1925, 4.
53. Cotton and Reynolds, ‘Was Indian Imposter?’ 23.
54. Ibid.
55. Ibid..
56. Ibid..
57. Burns, “A True Mystery Story,” 133–137.
58. see note 53 above.
59. Ibid.
60. See Baynton, Defectives in the Land; Lawrie, Forging a Labouring Race; and Schweik, The Ugly Laws.
61. See Lawrie, Forging the Labouring Race.
62. Brune and Wilson, eds., Disability and Passing, 2; and Rembis, “Athlete First,” 128.
63. Sullivan, “Neuro-Psychiatry and Patient Protest”; and Sullivan, “The Unseen Army.”
64. Skocpol, Protecting Soldiers and Mothers.
65. Ortiz, Beyond the Bonus March and GI Bill, 6.
66. See, Halttunen, Confidence Men and Painted Women. Thank you to John Kinder for his insightful comments.
67. “War On Panhandlers.”
68. “Despicable Vagrants,” 4.
69. “Warning Against Men Posing as War Veterans,” 11; “War Vet Here to Protect Against Imposters,” 3; El Paso Evening Post, 20 February 1929, 11; and “War on Panhandlers,” 4.
70. “Poses as Alabamian,” 4.
71. See Rose, No Right to Be Idle; Linker, War’s Waste.
72. Lawrie, “Salvaging the Negro,” 332.
73. Lawrie, ‘“Salvaging the Negro,”’ 323; and see also Barclay, The Mark of Slavery.
74. Linker, War’s Waste, 135.
75. Dodman, “Belated Impress,” 151.
76. Piep, “Modernity, World War I,” 348. For a discussion on Native Americans and World War I see Krouse, North American Indians in the Great War; Britten, American Indians in World War 1; and Grillot, First Americans.
77. Piep, “Modernity, World War I,” 351.
78. Ibid..
79. See, for example, José A. Ramírez, To the Line of Fire!
80. Burns, “A True Mystery Story,” 134.
81. Cotton and Reynolds, “Was Indian Imposter?”s 23.
82. see note 74 above.
83. “Jerry Tarbot is Slacker,” 1.
84. Horne, “Demobilizing the Mind,” 105.
85. Adler, Burdens of War, 44 and 255.