PAUL REDFERN

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 9, 11 July 1938, Page 18

PAUL REDFERN

DEATH HELD PROVED

AFTER MANY EXPEDITIONS

Positive, proof; that, Paul Redfern, United States aviator lost ten years ago on a flight over South America, had crashed, and died is held by. Theodore J. Waldeck, New York sportsman, who led an expedition into the hinterland of' British Guiana in search of the-long-missing flyer, says a message from Georgetown, British Guiana, to the "New ?York Times."

Details of the evidence could not be given out immediately, Mr. Waldeck declared after he had rested from the strenuous trip back to civilisation. He and his wife returned to Georgetown on April 27.; "We are convinced Redfern is dead. We located the place where his plane crashed and have positive proof Redfern is dead*" the leader of the expedition said. Mr. Waldeck gave no further details of his disovery, saying that first he must forward a report to Dr. Frederick C. Redfern, of Columbia, S.C., father of the flyer. The f our 'members of the party suffered terribly on the daring venture into the jungle, and Dr. Frederick John Fox, of New York, died far from help, stranded at Devil's Hole Isle, on the Cuyuni River, after being unconscious for two days.

The expedition encountered its first difficulties at Devil's Hole Isle, and Mr. Waldeck, .his wife, Dr. Fox. and William A. Chanler, of New York, were marooned on the island when their native porters deserted, leaving only a few supplies.

"Fox complained of a chill on Friday afternoon, December 31. and took some medicine which he prescribed for himself," the party leader said. "He died on January 6. I conducted a funeral service and Indians dug a grave, lining it with thatch leaves. "Fox died like a brave soldier. At no time was he left alone. We took turns watching at his bedside. He was unconscious lor two days before he died, and< because he was always so genial and vthe iJife of the party bis death threw gloom over all of us. j MADE;.A DUGOUT. "We. were "thirty-three days ort the islands and two days before the relief boat arrived, we actually succeeded in making a dugout canoe out of a tree trunk which we tried and which floated well. It was to be our last effort in case the' food ran out." j • The three surviving members of the expedition were taken to a village near the Venezuelan border, but when Mr. \ Chanler becahie ill he was brought back to Georgetown late in March and returned to New York. I Dr. Frederick C. Redfern, of Columi bia, father of the long-missing aviator,! i Paul Redfern, has received from Theo- | dore J. Waldeck, explorer, a message to the effect that he has found the 1 place where Redfern's plane landed and definite proof that the airman is I dead, said a message from Cambridge, ' South Carolina. ! Dr. Redfern was awaiting detailed reports of the Waldeck expedition, which had been promised him probably by air mail. "I think he.has solved the riddle," Dr. Redfern said. "I had; an abiding faith that Paul had reached the continent and all the reports I had were to that effect. There is ascertain sad satisfaction in the message. The suspense is ended," he declared. The place where the plane of Paul Redfern crashed has been located, according to a.cablegram made public in New York and sent from Georgetown, British Guiana, by the Waldeck expedition that went into British Guiana to seek the flyer. Mrs. Gertrude E. Fox, New York agent of the expedition and the widow of Dr. Frederick John Fox, who died while on the expedition, received the cablegram from Mr. and Mrs. Theodore J. Waldeck. It read: "Are safe jin Georgetown. The place where [Paul's plane crashed has been estab- | lished." - * . FLIGHT RECALLED. The rest of the cablegram, Mrs. Fox said, was in code, including the words "specimen decayed." She thought that this meant that Redfern's death had been established and wreckage found, but could not be certain that he was dead, until she received the key to the code in an air-mail letter.

On August 25, 1927, Paul Redfern, then 27 years old,, in a single-seater monoplane, took off from the airport of Brunswick, Georgia, on a planned nonstop flight to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Although a ■steamer reported the plant? passed over the Caribbean, Redfern was never seen again. •

Since then many reports that Redfern was alive, living captive among savages, have come out.of the Amazon jungles. Thirteen expeditions have sought to find him. The last, the Waldeck expedition, started up. the Essequibo River from Bartica, British Guiana, on December 13.

The expedition comprised Mr. and Mrs. Waldeck, the late Dr. Fox. and William A. Chanler,- all of New York.