A Case for Solomon: Bobby Dunbar and the Kidnapping That Haunted a Nation

by Tal McThenia, Margaret Dunbar Cutright

The spellbinding story of one of the most celebrated kidnapping cases in American history—the kidnapping of Bobby Dunbar—and a haunting family mystery that took almost a century to solve.THE MOST NOTORIOUS KIDNAPPING CASE IN AMERICAN HISTORY In 1912, four-year-old Bobby Dunbar went missing in the Louisiana swamps. After an eight-month search that electrified the country and destroyed Bobby’s parents, the boy was found, filthy and hardly recogniz­able. A wandering piano tuner was arrested and charged with kidnapping— a crime then punishable by death. But when a destitute single mother came forward from North Carolina to claim the boy as her son, not the lost Bobby Dunbar, the case became a high-pitched battle over custody—and identity—that divided the South. A gripping historical mystery, A Case for Solomon chronicles the epic century-long effort to unravel the startling truth.

Genres: Nonfiction, True Crime, History, Crime, Biography, Mystery, American History

466 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 10, 2012

Reviews

[Suzette · Rating 5 out of 5]

this one is near & dear to my heart... Julia Anderson was my great-grandmother, Bruce Anderson my great-uncle, and Bernice my beloved Grandma <3 thanks, Tal & Margaret, for telling this story!

[Janice · Rating 2 out of 5]

An interesting story.
A sad story.
I commend the authors for their extensive research, unfortunately, the tedious, tiresome, insignificant trivia tangled and confused the details. By mid-book, I was exhausted; worn to a raveling. Surely, the behemoth of biographic references could have been edited and presented in a sensible manner.
Two lost little boys.
My heart ached for Bruce... the horrific ordeal he had to indure to become the manifestation of Bobby. My heart broke for (the real) Bobby, the child for whom no one grieved. Yet, it was (the real) Bobby who in death rests in peace; where Bruce, in life, could never find peace. Such a paradox.
And Mr. & Mrs. Dunbar? Are they to be forgiven? Or can only God have mercy on their souls?

[Melinda · Rating 5 out of 5]

What happens when you make a mistake? What happens when you recognize that you've made a mistake? Do you own up to it? Or do you forge ahead and "will" yourself to believe that you didn't make a mistake? What happens to those around you as a result? What happens to your soul and heart? Do they expand in health and love? Or do they shrivel and shrink?

When Bobby Dunbar's son, Bobby Jr. confronted his father one day, he asked him, "Who are you? Do do you THINK you are?". Bobby Sr. answered "I know who I am, and I know who you are, and that's all that matters. It's how we live our life." Those words were said by a grown man who had struggled his entire life to know who he really was. He was raise believing he was Bobby Dunbar, oldest son of Lessie and Percy Dunbar. But in reality, his parents had made a mistake. He was really Bruce Anderson, son of Julia Anderson. And Bobby's words "it's how we live our life" are an appropriate lens through which to view those lives around his.

I don't know if you grew up hearing stories about family all the time, by in our family they are part of every get-together and every visit. Adults sitting around the table in the evening talking of family while the children are tired and ready for bed. Hearing snippets of family stories while playing on the porch or climbing trees. This story has a familiar feel to it, even though I had never heard of Bobby Dunbar until I read this book. The author, Bobby Dunbar's granddaughter Margaret Dunbar Cutright, tells the story well and with honesty. It no doubt was a hard story to tell.

In 1912, four year old Bobby Dunbar disappeared in the swamps just north of Opelousas, Louisiana. Search parties were sent out, circulars were printed with his picture and a description of him. Months were spent following up leads and searching everywhere for Bobby. Lessie Dunbar, Bobby's mother, was almost insane with grief and "not knowing". As a result of her preoccupation with the missing Bobby, her youngest son Alonzo "forgot her" when she was gone from home for over a month and then finally went back home to him. Her husband, Percy, was quoted as saying that he needed to find the boy to restore his wife's sanity and to make it possible for him to live with her again. After 8 months of searching, a young boy matching the description of Bobby was found with a traveling tinker, William Cantwell Walters. Walters said that the boy was Bruce Anderson, son of Julia Anderson.

When Lessie Dunbar initially saw the young boy, there was no recognition between them. Lessie thought that the boys eyes were not quite as her Bobby's had been. But eventually the need to have a boy home again seemed to overshadow life without Bobby, so Lessie and Percy declared this boy their son. From that point the boy was put in the Dunbar's care, and was never removed, even though concerns about the true identity of the boy were raised immediately.

Julia Anderson had a very hard life. Married young, she was forced to flee an abusive marriage and then endure the death of her first baby. Eventually she had two other children by two other men as she worked in town and then with various families. Bruce was born the son of a traveling shoe salesman whom she never saw after the birth of her son. Bernice was born the daughter of Bunt Walters, son of the Walters family whom Julia worked for. When William Cantwell Walters, Bunt's brother, offered to take 3 year old Bruce to visit some of his sisters, Julia allowed him to take the boy on a trip. It is likely that Walters believed that Bruce was his nephew, fathered by his brother Bunt just like Bernice. Julia knew Bruce's real father, but did not contradict Walters thoughts about who his father really was. So when Walters took Bruce, it was likely that he was trying to find a better living situation for his nephew. Bad winter weather and Julia moving to work at different farms meant that Walters kept the boy for over a year. When Walters was arrested for kidnapping Bobby Dunbar, Julia wrote to tell the authorities that the boy with Walters was her son Bruce Anderson.

But by then the Dunbar's had returned to Opelousas with Bobby, and the community in Opelousas rallied around them and supported them in keeping Bobby. When Julia Anderson initially saw the boy, almost a year and a half after Walters had taken him, there also was no recognition between them. But unlike the Dunbar's, she was not allowed weeks with the boy to re-establish a relationship. The Dunbar's had been teaching Bobby little "tricks" he used to do, and mannerisms that he had had before he left. They had even been telling him what had happened to him.

During the year long trial of William Cantwell Walters for kidnapping, many Mississippi citizens came to Louisiana to testify on behalf of Walters and also for Julia Anderson. But the trial was held in Opelousas, the home-town of the Dunbar's. Lawyers came to the case not looking for justice, but for a way to prove others were lying when they said the boy was Bruce Anderson. Julia Anderson and the Mississippi witnesses didn't have a fair chance. Eventually Walters was convicted of kidnapping, not on strong evidence, but because if the boy WAS Bobby Dunbar (and he had to be) then Walters could only have gotten him by kidnapping him. The identity of the boy was never properly investigated. Walters escaped hanging only because the governor of Louisiana overturned his conviction on a technicality. It seems that Walters was never formally charged of kidnapping, and so he was released a free man. But Bobby remained with the Dunbar's.

So what was the result for the two families? For the Dunbar's, Percy seemed never to be able to return to live with Lessie in peace. He began an affair with Altrice A. McCoullough of Florida in 1920. Lessie sued for divorce when she discovered evidence of his infidelity. The ugly battle between the two alienated Bobby and Alonzo from both of their parents, as Lessie grew more and more bitter and as Percy withdrew into anger. They formally divorced in 1927 and Lessie moved to Virginia, tired of living under the scrutiny of the Opelousas community who had helped her claim and keep Bobby. Evidently voices within the community that disagreed that Bobby was really Bobby Dunbar made life unbearable for her. Lessie lived in Virginia, away from Bobby and Alonzo. After the boys married and had their own families, they tried to integrate Lessie into their families. But neither family could bear Lessie living with them. In fact Bobby's wife Marjorie said "her or me" when Lessie stayed with Bobby's family for several weeks. Lessie's grandchildren did not ever really know her, and have no memories of love or kindness from her.

For Julia Anderson, she placed her daughter Bernice for adoption. She later married Ollie Rawls and had seven children with him. After her public humiliation about her earlier relationships and accusations of her poor motherhood, Julia swore to care for and nurture her children. She succeeded, and eventually became a pillar in the community, helping those who were ill or old. Her children and grandchildren remember her with love for the kindness and stability she provided for them. But they always knew they had an older brother, Bruce, who had been taken away from their mother when he was only 4 years old. Julia knew that Bruce was really her son, but it is possible that she decided not to continue to fight for him in the face of a unified community and in the face of the Dunbar family. She wanted Bruce to have an intact personality, and she knew that continued fighting would make him only more splintered in himself. So she backed away, for Bruce's sake.

And what of Bobby himself? It seems he struggled with his own memories. He had been told Walters beat him cruelly, but his memories were only of an old man who treated him with affection. How to reconcile what he knew with what he had been told? Bobby eventually seemed to understand that his parents had made a mistake and that he really was Bruce Anderson. After Percy's death he traveled to Mississippi and even met with two of Julia's children, his half-brother and half-sister. They did not realize the importance of his visit at the time, but in retrospect they realized he had "come back" to see the family that he had been taken away from. Bobby married and had a family that he devoted himself to. He provided them with the love and stability that he had not had growing up. Decades after Bobby died, his son Bobby Jr. agreed to have a DNA test alongside his cousin, David Dunbar. The DNA test revealed that the two men, who had grown up as cousins, were not related. Bobby Dunbar was really Bruce Anderson.

[Diane · Rating 5 out of 5]

In 1912, Bobby Dunbar, aged four, went camping and fishing with his parents, Percy and Lessie Dunbar, and his younger brother, Alonzo. They are a part of a group of people enjoying the fishing at Lake Swayze in Louisiana. Despite the large number of people present, Bobby vanishes without a trace. After an exhaustive eight month search, a boy answering to Bobby's description is found in the company of an old man named William Walters. Walters insists that the child is actually Bruce Anderson, illegitimate son of Julia Anderson and a traveling salesman. The ensuing quest over the child's true identity lasts almost a century before it was finally solved with a DNA test.

Tal McThenia co-wrote this book with Margaret Dunbar Cutright, who is the granddaughter of Bruce Anderson/Bobby Dunbar. Meticulously researched and detailed, but never dull, it paints a fascinating picture of its times. I was surprised by the negative reviews complaining about it being too long. I thought its length was just right. I appreciate the fact that the authors portrayed the people involved as that, people and not caricatures. I felt sorry for both families, especially the mothers, Lessie and Julia. I can't imagine what they went through. I am also glad that Bobby had a happy life after all, far away from the spotlight. After all he had been through, he certainly deserved it.

This is one book that I will keep and reread. Highly recommended.

[Alesha Cary · Rating 5 out of 5]

There are few stories the degree of compelling emotion than this one... two mothers, two little boys, both missing, only one is found. But who can claim the the prize?

Told with a reporter's eye for detail, this doesn't read like a novel - rather a Dateline episode, perhaps. Its portrayal of the characters reveals them to be not characters at all, but people. This is a painful story. As a mother, my heart broke for both women, having lost their sons. I was angry at the injustice, and I was torn by that anger, because there really were no villains. Only victims. Well-intentioned, but flawed.

Adding to my interest was a personal connection. My step-father is the grandson of Julia Anderson. If one can judge people by the lives they live, I would say that he and his great-uncle Bobby, having never met, still retain quite a lot in common.

[Evelyn Switzer · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have no idea how I never heard this story before. This book reads like a dateline mystery and I am so glad for DNA testing that we finally find out after 100 years who this child is. This book is so worth a read.

[MomofTeen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the most well-researched and well-told non-fiction books I’ve ever read, centered on topics about which I’m passionate: journalism, the law, identity, history, and children.

As with all in this world, wealth buys justice and prestige trumps truth. The courtroom transcripts had me playing defense counsel, arguing points left on the table. But no matter. The jurors didn’t listen.

But good times come to those who wait. And without spoilers, I was glad to see this come true.

I’ve read many Lindbergh kidnapping books, lots of tomes on the Mitford Sisters, and lots of WWI and WWII era histories. I cannot call to mind anything with this level of detail. Maybe a bit too much? I liked it, but it may be too much for others.

[Youshau · Rating 3 out of 5]

Amidst the sound of island life I had forgotten, which now involved the occasional boom of dynamite I read through this book absorbing every detail and trying to wrap my head around how something of this calibre could have happened, even in the early 1900s.

I've noticed that a lot of people tend to complain about how the book is written more of in the form of a report than a story and thus becomes dull and certain bits of it, redundant. Although the plot of Bobby Dunbar's case can be scribbled on a single page, writing the book in a report-esque format with all the details, does the case justice that it deserves.

Personally, I don't believe its right for me (or anyone) to judge either the Dunbar's or Julia Anderson. Yes, one party failed to recognize their own child and the other was reckless, maybe even neglectful. However, we can never truly know how far, how desperate a parent maybe to get their child back. Whether the Dunbar's made a honest mistake or purposefully identified Bruce Anderson as their child and told a lie to the point where it became a 'reality' is something that can never be answered. Whether Julia Anderson's actions regarding her son, given her situation can be justified is something that can be heavily debated on. In the end it's unfair to judge either the Dubar's or Julia Anderson

It should be noted that there's no winner in the case of Bobby Dunbar's disappearance. A mother lost her child, an innocent man was convicted wrongly and a boy grew up under the public eye and doubted his own identity. A century later, we're left with an answered question but an unsolved mystery.

[Molly · Rating 2 out of 5]

I won this book in a good reads giveaway.

I normally like books about true stories, but I like to enjoy books when I read them. This book seemed like I was reading a textbook and found myself re-reading paragraphs and pages to understand who people were and how they related to the story. It was obvious that the author did her research and that's why I gave this book 2 stars. I felt sorry for the little boy Bobby/Bruce on how he was displayed by his parents without thought to his traumatization. I felt myself asking "Why would you allow this?" alot. I liked the included pictures.

[Lynette · Rating 5 out of 5]

Spoilers.



Incredibly thorough, well-written, and cited! As someone who has spent hundreds of hours poring over newspapers and documents to uncover every tiny piece of my own family history, I enjoyed the read, though the actual events - like the "trials" - were infuriating. For as screwed up as our courts are today, they used to be even worse. Knowing ahead of time that Bobby was in fact Bruce made me all the more incensed over the sloppy work they did back in 1913 - making up quotes, tricking poor Julia, etc.

I feel for Percy and Lessie and I don't think they were necessarily bad people, just consumed by grief and unable to make good judgements, but it does seem like they finally got what was coming to them.

As for the actual Bobby Dunbar, I think the most likely explanation for his disappearance was that he was eaten by an alligator.

[Sonja · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sometime in my 2021 reading, I came upon a reference of this book and it sounded interesting so I ordered a copy. While I did find it interesting, the farther I got into it, I felt like it was way too wordy. My thought was, "this book needs a good editor." The story in the book is 386 pages long and it kind of bounces back and forth with questions - is he or is he not the right child. One's mind flips back/forth - yes, it could be him, no it can't be him. It is so detailed with names, places, dates, and also there are several places where information is inserted that has absolutely nothing to do with the story at all. The book is larger than a regular paperback, the print is tiny, and it took me a long time to get to the end, which I thought should be at least around page 300 but no longer. Many of the details were redundant. I wanted to give up but couldn't until I got to the truth. The last 30 pages of the book were the best.

I know it took the author a long time to write this book and it was a worthwhile endeavor. She was able to meet many relatives of all the principal characters and form attachments to them also. It felt like a very healing adventure for everyone involved. I admire her determination and effort to "get to the bottom" of it all and share her family history. However, sometimes less is more and too much is overkill.

One thing I thought she did very well was explain how things were in the early 1900s, regarding how ordinary people were so involved in local happenings. Since there was no TV, radio, cellphones to keep people entertained, they really went all out when interesting things happened in their neighborhoods, i.e. people going to the train stations to listen to political candidates, etc. The scene in the book of 1,000 people filling a room meant for 300 during one of the trials was amazing. And to see how justice worked back then (and, sorrowfully today, in a lot of instances, it hasn't gotten any better), is something I don't know will ever get any better (like the Republicans of today who think the insurrection of Jan 6th, 2021, was just "like a bunch of tourists going to the Capitol." How blind can they be.

The reason I gave the book a 3 is because of the length. If shorter, a 4.

[Laura Zimmerman · Rating 4 out of 5]

First, I should note that I received this book for free from First Reads through Good Reads. In the spirit of First Reads I'll do my best to capture my thoughts about the book.

I commend the authors for the exhaustive research they did for this book. Prior to entering the drawing for the book I had never heard of this particular kidnapping and was interested to see how well such an event could be presented so long after the fact. The authors clearly spent a great deal of time doing research and interviewing people. They took advantage (in a good way) of their family connections and their possible family connections (read the book, you'll understand) and assembled a thorough, complex, and comprehensive account of the Bobby Dunbar kidnapping. I was impressed by the depth of their knowledge of the people and the events that took place and by their ability to present the information in a neutral way. They provided background information for the main players and some of the more minor players, piecing together a tapestry of lives that collided and, in some cases, stayed together despite the contentiousness of the events.

Without ruining anything, I have to admit that it was difficult for me to believe that no one was ever able to definitively determine identity. Given the amount of identifying information that was available, the fact that such conflicting accounts were given is bizarre to me. At the time the kidnapping took place, people had to rely on only what they could see with their own eyes...and not everyone saw the same things in the same way, leading to much confusion and questioning.

This is an interesting read written in an engaging style. There were times that I felt bogged down in details but overall, I would say the authors did an excellent job in their recounting of the story.

[Nicholas · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is rare that I find a book just completely and totally riveting. This one I had difficulty putting down; I found myself reading "just one more" page as I was wearing my coat and just about to head out the door, almost late for an appointment. Granted, that only happened twice because I finished the whole thing in under two days. I had heard the "This American Life" story, "The Ghost of Bobby Dunbar," so I ALREADY KNEW what was going to happen. And yet I still felt a little breathless reading this story of one boy who disappears in a Louisiana swamp in 1913, the search for him throughout the South, and his supposed finding about eight months later. But is it him or is it another boy altogether? The itinerant tinker (piano/organ tuner and clock fixer) with whom he's found claims the boy is the son of a sharecropper and caregiver, Julia Anderson, who lives with his parents in North Carolina. The boy had gone with him when Julia couldn't afford to keep him any longer. But the missing boy's parents claim he is their long-lost son. Who to believe? What happens to the tinker accused of kidnapping him? If this isn't Bobby, where is he? And if it is, where is Bruce Anderson, the other boy? And with whom does the boy end up: the middle-class Louisiana couple or the single poverty-stricken woman who had him out of wedlock? (I'm revealing my hand a little here.)

Written by journalist McThenia and the missing boy's granddaughter, Cutright, I will grant that sometimes there is a lot of detail (these people were enthralled with their evidence, and sometimes that's a bad thing) and I occasionally got confused about who some of the people were but the story is just so tragic, and so unlikely, and so intrinsically fascinating that I didn't care. I was hooked from the first chapter.

[Linda · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a real life story with roots in Louisiana, Mississippi, and North Carolina. It is a story of love and need of two mothers who claim a child as theirs. Each mother had different backgrounds but each had love for the child, and each wanted and needed to be his mother. Life for the child, Bobby Dunbar, was a difficult journey in which he wondered who he was. The book follows Bobby from a child to a man with a family of his own. The choices he made and the man he became. There are three prmary families involved in this story and instead of anger they have imbraced each other with support and love. They are now an extended family of caring individuals who have found a answer to a long asked question - Am I Bobby Dunbar or Bruce Anderson? I can only imagine the confusion this child went through and yet overcame to become a great husband, father and grandfather.

I had the honor of meeting Tal McThenia and Margaret Dunbar Cutright at the local book store in Waynesville, NC and spend the evening with them as well. They are both wonderful people and will read any further books either may have. I enjoyed this book and recommend it to all who are looking for real life drama.

[Katy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fascinating topic; needed better execution. A story of a real-life kidnapping from 1912; a child disappears on a family camping trip in Louisiana and turns up 8 months later in the company of a traveling handyman, who swears that the boy is not the missing child, but was knowingly given to him by another woman, the boy's real mother. The boy was raised by the family who "lost" him, but for the rest of his life questions persist about his true identity.

A fascinating story about the nature of identity, and who decides who we are. I'm VERY glad I read it; it will stay with me for a while. But the book gets bogged down in the details of trials and body markings...would have benefited from more analysis of the role of the press in the story (wildly intrusive and not like ANYTHING that would be accepted as journalistically ethical today) and the role that class and perception played in how the story developed.

Fascinating. If you want a shorter version of the story, check out This American Life: http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio...

[Kathy · Rating 5 out of 5]

"A Case for Solomon: Bobby Dunbar and the Kidnapping That Haunted a Nation" is an excellent true story of a man who as a child was dragged through events mysterious, tramatic, and harrowing who became someone most of us can simily admire. Tal McThenia and Margaret Dunbar Cutright spent years researching this incrediable story of a child lost and a man selfmade. It is also book of a nation divided by a very personal story and the indictment the powerful use of the press to sway public opinion in an effort to sell their news. You will be stunned, confused, and drug through the mire that was the life of Bobby Dunbar and how it effected two mothers and other family members. Probably the best nonfiction book I have ever read.

I received this book free from a Goodreads First Reads from Free Press and Simon & Schuster, Inc. Thanks!

[Heather · Rating 5 out of 5]

`This story was so intense that I couldn't wait to finish the book and had to look online who the boy belonged to. Even knowing the answer, I still read the book with the same intensity because I wanted to know where everyone ended up. The book does a great job presenting every side in this multi-faceted case, from the two mothers who came from two completely different backgrounds, to the alleged kidnapper who's life depended on the identity of the boy and the role of the newspapers and press who make TMZ look like the evening news. A great read.

[Martha · Rating 4 out of 5]

Story of what is known about the early 1900’s case of a young boy who goes missing - of a boy found - and how the justice system and press, instead of working to determine who the boy really was, worked very hard to ensure that the boy would go to the wealthier parents. As in the biblical case of Solomon, the true mother focused on what was best for her child. Almost a century later, DNA tests finally gives the family the proof they crave.

[Ellen Doskey · Rating 1 out of 5]

Still have not finished this one. It is very interesting story about solve a true crime/mystery before modern technology - not even good photographs of the missing boy. But the writing is very slow. It repeats all of the old newspaper articles without making it fun to read. I do want to know the ending... I guess I could just google it?

[Vennie · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'm having a hard time finishing this book, although I want to find out which parents the child really belongs to. I can't stand reading books that describe the details of every flower, every article of clothing that everyone wears, the color of carpet in each room of the house. This book could have been one-fourth the length and been just as effective. Way too many unnecessary details.

[Avid · Rating 2 out of 5]

The story here is very interesting; however, the level of detail the authors included in this book made it something I cannot recommend. This was a 15-minute tale that took 15 days to tell. Great story, told in an agonizing manner.

[Cindy]

This is a very interesting book, showing the influence of local and state politics and the media on a court case 100 years ago. This book shows that, in these areas, things were just as corrupt then as now.

[Nicole · Rating 1 out of 5]

I think it's a great story but I skimmed through a lot of the book because it was just so (too) detailed. Too much little stuff to maintain my overall interest.

[Linda · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this book to be too wordy and boring for my liking. Truthfully, I skipped over a great deal if it. My thought is that no matter whose son Bobby was, there was another son who is gone.

[Mary · Rating 2 out of 5]

Interesting story but at 400 pages, just dragged on with too many useless dialogue. Read the last 50 pages.

[Karen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Great potential POOR execution. Drawn out, overly long, not very well written. Great research.

[Katherine Addison · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an excellent book about the Bobby Dunbar kidnapping case. (One of the co-writers is Bobby Dunbar's granddaughter.) It's beautifully and carefully written, exhaustive in its research, and as empathetic as possible with all sides.

(Short version: Bobby Dunbar, age 4, disappeared in 1912. In 1913, his (middle to upper-middle class) parents claimed a child found with an itinerant tinker as Bobby, even though the child had a well-attested (rural poor) identity as Bruce Anderson. W. C. Walters, the tinker, was tried for kidnapping and found guilty, though later released on a technicality. The protests of Bruce's mother were swept under the rug. The child was brought up as Bobby Dunbar. In 2004, one of his sons and one of his brother's sons agreed to a paternity test, which proved that in fact "Bobby Dunbar" was not Bobby Dunbar. Proving he was actually Bruce Anderson would require exhuming his body for a mitochondrial DNA test, and neither the Dunbars nor the Andersons feel this to be either necessary or desirable.)

McThenia and Cutright trace the story from Bobby Dunbar's disappearance, and they go very carefully into the reasons Lessie and Percy Dunbar came to believe, whole-heartedly and vehemently, that this was their child, and the reasons that they carried a lot of people with them. It's hard to tell from this distance and with mostly newspaper reports to go on (and McThenia and Cutright do a GREAT job with the newspapers, recognizing that the reporters were players in the story rather than objective recorders of it), what Bobby/Bruce understood about what was going on and why he did---or didn't---do certain things, such as his failure/refusal to recognize his real mother (he'd been traveling with Walters long enough that it's possible he really didn't remember her, although no one in 1913 seems to have entertained that idea), his passing all the "tests" of his identity that were reported in the papers, his general willingness to BE Bobby Dunbar. (Also, Bobby and Bruce seem to have had remarkably similar dispositions, so it wasn't as if he had to do any acting.) McThenia and Cutright offer some very mild speculations, but the inner world of a 4 to 5 year old child in 1913 is really just not available to us.

The book provokes a lot of unanswerable questions about the malleability of memory and identity, and the most unanswerable and bleakest of them all is, what happened to the real Bobby Dunbar? This is something McThenia and Cutright don't go into at all, and I wish they would have---not that there's very much there except the trail of his footprints that ended abruptly at the railroad tracks. To me, it looks like Bobby Dunbar really was kidnapped, but what happened to him after that is as much a mystery as what happened to Charley Ross. So it wouldn't have been more than a paragraph, but I would have liked just that acknowledgment that if "Bobby Dunbar" was really Bruce Anderson, there's still a child missing, a child whom the world stopped looking for in 1913.

[Sarah Beth · Rating 3 out of 5]

In 1912, a four year old little boy named Bobby Dunbar went missing in the Louisiana swamps. When his body wasn't found, authorities began to wonder if the boy had possibly been kidnapped. What followed was a national search that spanned eight months. Then a wandering piano tuner was arrested with a small boy in his possession who seemed to match the description of Bobby. The Dunbars rushed to meet the boy and after some initial hesitation claimed the boy was their son Bobby. But a single mother then came forward from North Carolina who claimed the boy was actually her son Bruce, launching a highly followed custody battle over the identity of the small boy, who seemed unable to truly say who he was or to identify his family.

This was a tragic story of two families mourning the loss of their son. The grief the Dunbars felt at the disappearance of Bobby was palpable, as was their clear intent to do anything to get him back. In same ways the court battle seemed to be a trial over which family was deemed the more capable family with the most resources to raise the child. But who I truly felt the most sorry for in this story was the young Bobby/Bruce, who was manipulated and displayed for the sake of the media and the court case in a way that would surely be considered traumatic for a young child today. For example, the boy was asked leading questions, constantly physically examined for proof of scars or physical markers that would point to his identity, and was made to do so under the gaze of hundreds of reporters and trial attendees. As young as the child was when he left home and as many stories as he was told about his true identity, it was little wonder that the boy wasn't fully sure who he really was.

At almost four hundred pages, this book was thorough in the extreme. Although I appreciated a detailed description of the Dunbar ordeal, it made the book drag significantly and diminished my enjoyment of the book. I did enjoy the sections that described what happened to all the individuals involved following the trial, although it was disappointing that little to no insight into Bobby's personal experience or feelings was available. Even though this is a work of non-fiction, I won't discuss the ending other than to say that it does reveal the true identity of the boy who was raised as Bobby Dunbar. What a tragedy that genetic testing wasn't available for decades after this trial.

[Lydia Cox · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very interesting story about a 1912 disappearance and the trial where the identity of the 'found' boy was questioned. Bobby Dunbar goes missing during a family picnic. Nine months later, a boy is found in the company of a drifter. The Dunbars are sure it is their lost son; the drifter and his parents' caregiver insist it is her son. Through the next year, the beliefs of both mothers are questioned, with plenty of witnesses on both sides to attest to the 'real' identity of the boy.
The story itself is a real-life mystery. Or it was until DNA was tested 90 years later, so yes, we do find out the truth. It is told with plenty of newspaper and actual witness quotes, so you have a real feel for the atmosphere at the time. Unfortunately, it tends to be a little long-winded, throwing so many characters and places at you that you tend to blur. Also, the timeline, although pretty consistent, tends to drift at times. And finally, it never answers the fact that there are two boys born, but only one still existing, and what happened to the other one?

[Della Tingle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wowie! Wow! Wow! This book, and the research that went into it, is truly astounding. Pages 393 to 414 are all notes. Pages 415 to 420 include the bibliography. Pages 421 to 436 contain the index. I am surprised only TWO authors wrote this book; it would have taken me an entire TEAM. The thoroughness, at times, was almost TOO thorough, but they truly left no stone unturned. I read a fiction book which led me to this nonfiction work. It is well worth reading about a boy lost/kidnapped and his return/kidnap???????? The title, A Case for Solomon, comes from the Bible story in which 2 mothers are arguing over one child. It is the perfect title for this book where two mothers are arguing over one child: Bobby, or is he Bruce?? At a time where DNA tests were years and years into the future, the brazenness of what some people will do is stunning!

“What matters is how we choose to live our life” (386).