Paul Whipkey Pt. Two

and then added desert. But in retrospect, it seemed apparent that he got bad radiation poisoning as he started suffering medical issues like all of his teeth falling out, getting skin blotches, and his attitude seemed to change and he started to display more erratic behavior. And then one day in July of nineteen fifty eight, Whicky left the base in order to say that he was going to get a drink in a nearby bar, but he never returned and was declared a wall, and they eventually found his

abandoned car in Death Valley. The army pretty much decided that he had gone a wall, he was a deserter and wandered off into the desert and died of exposure, but they never found his body, and Whipkey's family noticed a lot of suspicious discrepancies to make them think that something was going on because they declared him a wall, and they removed all of his personal belongings from his barracks only two days after he originally went missing and

pretty much completely closed the case. And some other people on base said that prior to disappearance, Whipkey had been speaking with a man dressed in civilian clothing who had gone on to the base, which made him suspect that he was being cruited for a top secret mission from the CIA, and they found out that before Whipkey's car was abandoned, he had checked into a motel that was

one hundred miles away. So there's been speculation that he was sent off on a mission and his car was abandoned in the desert to stage's disappearance, and that he made have been killed in the line of duty, but the Army refused to reveal it because of natural security reasons.

Decades later, Whiky's family succeeded at getting his classification change from deserter too killed in the line of duty, but unfortunately they did not offer any specific details why they did this or why they now suddenly believed that Whipkey died in the line of duty because they pretty much kipt all this information classified. And after all these years, it's still his family is still looking for answers about what actually happened to him and are hoping to recover

his remains. So, like I mentioned in the intro and apart One, UNSAW Mysteries featured their fair share of segments about mysteries which took place in the military. They often had a major conspiracy theory by them, and I believe that almost none of the featured cases wound up being solved.

I'm not saying that the military doesn't cover stuff up, but I do believe in many of these cases the allegations put forward by the victim's family were overblown, and the real explanation for what happened to them was probably far less clandestine than they made it out to be. I think The closest comparison you could make to the Paul Whipkey case was the unsaw Mystery segment about the

disappearance of Army Private Justin Bergwinkle. Whipk and Bergwinkle had both been stationed at Fort Ord, and while there's no connection between the two cases since they took place thirty five years apart, there are some interesting parallels. Burgwinkle was transferred from ford Or to Fort Lewis and Washington State, but he wound up going a wall and vanishing without

a trace in June and nineteen ninety three. Much like the Whipkey case, Bergwinkle's abandoned car would be this time at a motel near Fort Ord, and his keys and many of his personal possessions, including his military dog tags, were found inside. Burgwinkell's girlfriend would later recounted incident where he told her that dog tags were used to identify dead soldiers, so if she ever found his dog tags

lying around somewhere, that meant he was dead. In the months prior to his disappearance, Burgwinkle had been exhibiting strange behavior and implying to his friends and family that he was recruited for some sort of secret mission. So when Bergwinkell went missing, this prompted his loved ones to push forward the theory that he was killed on this alleged mission and the military covered up his death and a

band in his car. If you want to learn more about Bergwinkle's case, I covered it on episode number two eighty nine of The Trail Went Cold. But the alternate explanation is that he was suffering from delusions of brandeur. So all of Bergwinkle's talk about a quote unquote secret mission was nothing more than a fantasy, and his disappearance was actually the result of a mental breakdown.

Paul Whipkey case. The Justin Bergwinkle case is totally different, and I do have a feeling that he had some sort of mental breakdown because I don't think there was any evidence to suggest that he was recruited for a secret mission, because he kind of had an unremarkable service record while with Paul Whipkey, that's definitely a possibility because there's no other logical explanation for why these two men in civilian clothing would be visiting him on the army

base so many times in order to speak to him. And one of the things we talked about with him is that he did have an exemplary military career. So would he be someone that they'd seek out for a special mission. Yes, But on the other hand, he's also physically deteriorating to where you can notice it. His teeth are falling out, he's lost weight, there's other signs where maybe that leadership quality that he once had isn't as strong.

So on one hand, if you look at his history, yes, he'd be somebody that maybe an organization like the CIA would be looking too higher. But when you look at who he is presently when they come, he'd be struggling with the effects of what we think is that radiation poisoning, And so at the time when they would come and he's physically deteriorated and mentally failing, would he still be someone that they'd want to recruit. That's what makes that

kind of a bizarre angle. Historically, Yes, presently, probably not.

suffering from, and so they approached him for that reason, his past exemplary record and the fact that maybe they didn't put as much of a premium on his life given the state of his health at that time.

Months before he went missing, Whipkey told his brother that he was going on an assignment where he would quote make a name for himself, and he was frequently seen having conversations with two men who may have been working for the CIA, So Whipkey's loved ones theorized that he was recruited for some sort of secret mission and might have been killed in the line of duty, prompting the military to abandon his car in the desert and fabricate a cover story that he simply wandered off and died

after some sort of mental breakdown. Like Bergwinkle, Whitky had been exhibiting strange behavior prior to his disappearance, though there's actually an explanation for this, since Whitkey seemed to be suffering the events of being exposed to radioactive fallout during atomic testing at Camp Desert Rock, But this begs a question. If Whike was deteriorating both physically and mentally, then, as Ashley just asked, why would the CIA have considered him

to be an ideal candidate for an important mission? This suggests a potential alternate explanation where Bifky's disappearance could have been orchestrated to cover up what happened to him during his work on Operation Plumbob. Well, there's no hard evidence that the military ever did anything shady in the Bergwinkle disappearance. I do think there are enough suspicious details in Whitfkey's

disappearance to suggest that something was covered up. In burg Winkle's case, we really only have his word that he was being recruited for a mission. But here we have multiple witnesses, including Whipkey's commanding officer, Lieutenant Colonel Charles Lewis, who saw Whitfkey chatting with two men in civilian clothing

on several occasions. Whitke apparently seemed nervous after he spoke to them and never disclosed in nature of their conversation, and it sounds like their presence at Camp Desert Rock was a bit out of the ordinary. Lewis was also claimed that whenever he tried to make inquiries into Whifkey's disappearance, he was told to quote let it go because the

case was closed. One of the reasons is difficult to swallow the idea that berg Winkle was recruited for a secret mission is because well, he just didn't seem like a particularly remarkable candidate for something like that. At the time you went missing. Bergwinkle had served in the army for three years and never rose above the rank of private,

and he'd just been assigned a kitchen duty. Whipkey, on the other hand, was a skilled pilot with an ex excellent service record who'd recently been promoted to company commander. So I could possibly see the CIA being interested in someone like that. But like we mentioned earlier, due to the effects of the radioactive follow Wikey was starting to undergo personality changes and suffering from numerous health problems, which

included the removal of all of his teeth. So you'd think that this might have given the government second thoughts about using Whisky on a secret mission. That's why it's possible that Whipkey's conversations with the two men may have actually been related to his involvement with the atomic testing, as they might have been monitoring Whipkey to see how his exposure to radiation was affecting him absolutely.

could have also affected his personality. But I think it's very interesting that you do have that dichotomy of would they look at his legacy and who he was and be okay with the state of his mental and physical health. Also, he told his brother he was going to make a name for himself, and if he was going out on the secret mission and was going to abandon his post, you're not making a name for yourself. You're actually disgracing

your name because you're listed as a wall. And then it's that you wandered off into the desert due to a mental health breakdown. So it's interesting that he tells his brother, this could be my moment, I could be really making a name for myself, when in fact, for years his name was drug through the mud.

explore the circumstances of how he went missing. We know that Whipkey was last seen leaving ford Ord on July tenth and told his friends that he was planning to drive to Moderey to get a drink, but for whatever reason, he drove over three hundred miles to Mojave. And this part can be verified since his name was found in the guest registry of a local hotel and there was a receipt which showed that he had filled up his

car with gas and mojave the following morning. When Whipkey failed to report back to ford Ord, he was declared a wall that same day. Now here's the main reason I believe that the Army was covering something up in this case. On the surface, the cover story they pushed

forward does not seem that implausible. They believed that Whipkey was feeling overburned from the stress of being promoted to company commander, suffered some sort of mental breakdown, prompting him to drive to a remote spot and death Valley, where

he subsequently wandered out into the desert and perished. I know that Whiki's family and friends always maintained that he was an excellent soldier and never would have deserted his post, but the effects of the radioactive followed were clearly causing him to deteriorate. However, the major red flag is that Whiki's personal belongings were immediately cleared out of his barracks and boxed up on July the eleventh, the same day

he was declared a wall. The standard protocol in the military is that someone has to be a wall for at least thirty days before they are officially classified as a deserter, which is exactly what happened here. This is when you'd expect him to go through the procedure of boxing up the missing soldiers belongings and shipping them to

his family. There is no reason to do this when a soldier with an otherwise exemplary record is missing for only one day, particularly when army regulations state that the soldiers next of kin or legal representative needs to be notified before or they go through the process of clearing out their belongings, which did not happen here. So how could the army have been so certain that Whipkey wasn't coming back at this point. There's no way they should have known. He was one hundreds of miles away.

way to get away. Even then, a day doesn't give you enough time to know what happened. To him, But for whipkeys specifically, I would think there'd be that horror and worry way before you'd think.

Is it the same with the military, Because going all the way to the Mohave Desert and just wandering off seems like an odd choice to end your own life when you have access to firearms, I.

I wandered off into the desert. A lot of times people make sure that their body can be recovered so that their family has somebody to bury, and you don't have what this poor family is dealing with that missing person's category, and so that's odd.

from the nearest town. So maybe he was just hoping they'll just assume I was gone missing or something and never know what happened to me, and then they'll never find out that I die by suicide.

out into the desert. After all, Death Valley is one of the hottest places on Earth and such a desolate location that it wouldn't be hard to imagine being unable to find Whipkey's body there. One of the key points used to support this theory was the eyewitness sighting from a rancher who claimed he saw Whipkey's red and white Chevrolet being driven through Death Valley by a man in

a military uniform. This sighting took place four weeks after Whipkey originally went missing, so if he really did see Whifkey's car, this raises a lot of questions. I know the Whipki was wearing civilian clothes when he left Ford ORed. But even if by chance, Whikey was the driver seen wearing the military uniform, where was he during the previous

four weeks he was missing? Of course, I'm sure there was a lot of red and white Chevrolets being driven around back in nineteen fifty eight, So I guess the alternate explanation is that the rancher did not actually see Whipkey's car. But if the sighting is legitimate, I find the timing to be interesting. Since the Chevrolet was seen around the approximate time period, the thirty day window had passed, which allowed Whipkey's status to be reclassified from a wall

to deserter. The presence of cigarette butts outside the abandoned vehicle is also an intriguing clue. Unless whipk just suddenly decided to take up smoking prior to his disappearance, this suggests that someone else was with the Chevrolet when it was abandoned. This is quite reminiscent of another famous missing person's case, the disappearance of Ray Greekar, where cigarette ash was found inside his abandoned car, even though he attested smoking.

when he's in his military attire. But like you said, this is four weeks later, and so do we know if there was another military base nearby that would have you know, there'd obviously be multiple soldiers who could in fact be driving just a red and white Chevy, so it could be more coincident.

dressed in uniform at that time. So when Paul's case was finally heard by the Army Board of Correction to Military Records nearly twenty four years later, it was pretty much a good news bad news situation for his family. The good news was that he would no longer be class as a deserter. The bad news was that he was reclassified as having died the line of duty, but

there was no additional excitation. I can certainly understand if the Army had to keep certain details classified, But the last time Whipkey was seen alive he was leaving Fort orton civilian clothes in order to supposedly get a drink, So whatever happened, it's unclear how this would qualify as died in the line of duty, especially when you consider that his body was never found and there was no concrete evidence that he was actually dead. But this ruling

could be interpreted in a number of different ways. If Whipkey really did suffer some sort of mental breakdown, drove out into the desert, and wandered off, then this could have been the result of the after effects of radio Act followed. Since Whipkey was exposed to radiation because he was assigned to be an observation pilot an Operation Plump Bob, and this assignment involved him being placed in harm's way, then I guess this could technically be classified as died

in the line of duty. Here's some additional information about Operation Plumbob, which took place at Camp Desert Rock and is considered to be the most controversial nuclear testing series in the history of the United States. Twenty seven of the twenty nine explosions set off during this operation produced nuclear yield, and over sixteen thousand servicemen were involved in the exercises, as well as twelve hundred test pigs who

were subject to experimentation. Of course, at the time Whiki went missing, the details of Operation Plumbob were classified, and Whipkey's family only found out about his involvement when an

assignment sheet was mistakenly included with his personal bellowings. But as the years went on, the operation became the subject of much criticism since enormous amounts of radiation were released into the atmosphere during the testing, and its estimated that around three thousand servicemen were exposed to dangerously high levels. In fact, a survey was performed in nineteen eighty which showed that there were elevated rates of leukemia among the servicemen.

We mentioned earlier that one of the tests Whikey was involved with as an observation pilot produced a forty four kiloton blast. By comparison, the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were only fifteen and twenty kilotons respectively. In nineteen ninety, Congress passed the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act, so a number of servicemen who suffered health consequences because of their work on Operation Plumbbob were compensated by the government.

We put him in a scenario where he is at this testing site, and we know that it was physically debilitating him, that he was truly physically breaking down, and that there's a record of him mentally also having issues at least his personality changing in those types of observations. So I would think that accountability of saying, whatever happened, we contributed to a behavior change could easily be why they said killed and the line of duty.

and explain himself, given his records. But it could be a thing where like maybe they were asking him to visit them at Edwards Air Force Base because they wanted to study him to look at like the after effects he was suffering from radiation, or or like Jules says, maybe they were sending him off on a secret mission where he would have to sacrifice his life and they

knew he wouldn't be coming back. But it does seem like the Army knew more a lot more than they were letting on, which is why they reclassified to died in the line of duty, but they just didn't want to give the specifics to his family.

huge issue. You see that in a lot of military police types of organizations. But yes, it'd be huge if you have someone who is told to keep their mouth shut and they wouldn't keep their mouth shut. That's a problem. You didn't listen to the command I gave you. Now, whether they're covering something up or not, I don't think that's what would make everybody frustrated. It's that you're not following rank, that you're not going through the proper chain

of command to get the issue discussed. You were told by your commanding officer to hush then be quiet.

involving the death of First Lieutenant Charles Guess. As you recall, Guest was one of Whipkey's closest friends at Fort Ord, and the plane Guests was flying went missing only twelve days after Wiki disappeared. Before the wreckage was discovered in Inno National Forest over one year later. There isn't much information out there about Guests and what we do know that he had been assigned to Camp Desert Rock alongside Whipkey. It's unclear if he was also suffering any after effects

of radioactive fallout. On the surface, it does seem like Guess's death was nothing more than a tragic accident, but it is eye opening that this occurred so soon after Whik went missing. The one detail which has made people believe that there might be something more to guess the story is that the serial number found on the wreckage was apparently different than the serial number for the plane

he took off in. That is certainly weird, but it is possible that the discrepancy in the serial numbers might simply be the result of a clerical error. I mean, it would be one thing if you think that someone sabotaged Guess's plane and caused it to crash, But how do you fabricate a crash with a completely different plane

with a different serial number. If the whole thing was stage, then what happened to the original plane guests had been flying well, I can believe if the Army might have fabricated Whitfkey's disappearance by leaving his car in the middle of the desert, doing so with a plane just seems to be way too convoluted. So it's possible that the whole side story with Guests is nothing more than a red herring, and it's just a tragic coincidence that his

death took place during the same month that Wiki disappeared. Overall, the idea that Wikey was recruited for a secret government mission is pure speculation, aside from the conversation he had with his brother Karl, where he said that he was going on in an assignment where he would quote make a name for himself. But this conversation took place in January

nineteen fifty eight, six months before he went missing. It is possible that Witke really was in Lyne to receive an assignment like that at some point, but because of his physical and mental deterioration from the radioactive follow he was ultimately pulled from this assignment and it had no bearing on his disappearance.

distress that he was feeling. If that is what actually happened.

about talking about mental health struggles. So I guess it is possible that that just added to his stress and that by the time July came around, he had just suffered a complete breakdown, and that's why he decided to leave the base and possibly drive hundreds of miles away, even if he wasn't involved in some sort of mission. Do you know, for certain that Whipki still made a lengthy drive from ford Or to Mohave and checked into White's motel, So is it possible that he could have

been meeting someone there. While Whipkey was seen having numerous conversations with two men at Camp Desert Rock who appeared to be government agents, and while he never revealed what they talked about, he usually seemed nervous after they spoke. One theory which has been pushed forward is that Whikey may have witnessed something he should have while he was assigned to Camp Desert Rock, such as experiments involving radioactive

testing on humans. But it's also possible that he was being extensively questioned about the effects he was suffering, and perhaps this is the reason he went a wall and traveled to Mojave to meet someone. The fact that Whikey's belongs removed from his barracks the day after he left ford Ord indicates to me that someone in power knew he wasn't coming back there, at least not in the near future. Now, I'm not suggesting that Wikkey met up with someone who murdered him to cover up the fact

that he had been exposed to radioactive followed. I think an alternate explanation is that he was taken somewhere to

receive treatment but ultimately succumbed to his illness. The Army may have been worried about a potential backlash once it got out that a number of servicemen were put in harm's way during their work on Operation Plumbbob, so they got rid of Whipky's body, abandoned his car and death valley, and came up with a cover story which involved him being a deserter who had a mental breakdown and wandered

off to his death and the desert heat. Technically, the reclassification that Whiky died in the line of duty may have been correct, but they cannot reveal the exact circumstances of what happened during his Unsolved Mysteries interview. Carl Whipkey stated that if Paul had been killed in the line of duty on some sort of secret assignment while serving

his country, their family could accept that. But there's a big difference between dying for your country and dying because your country gave you an assignment where you were irresponsibly exposed to lethal levels of radiation. Now I'm not saying that. I'm entirely convinced that the Army stage Paul's disappearance to

cover up his involvement in Operation Plumbbob. We now know that thousands of other servicemen were exposed to radioactive follow during that operation and many other operations just like it during this time period. It's not like the government could cover up every single one of these incidents. So what exactly made Paul's case stand out? I really would be interested to know how many other servicemen were experiencing the

same symptoms as Whipkey during this time period. Did many of them get warts and black moles and need to have all their teeth removed? Or was his just a unique case.

secrets with another government agency. A lot of me, it feels like he would have stood by the military and said, listen, I signed up to serve my country, and whatever the effects are, the effects are, And I don't know that he would go and share information given how important the military was to him.

But also because of these meetings, and because of who these two men are, it raises a question who was he meeting, where was he going, What was the point of that trip, because he said one thing and clearly did something completely different.

I have no idea, but regardless, what if they were freaking out and they had these experimental types of treatment, and so these two guys who were posing his military intelligence but were thought to be CIA, were coming and trying to entice Paul to take part in these experimental procedures or treatments that they thought maybe could offset some of the effects. And like Robin said, perhaps he succumbed to his injuries from the fallout while he was trying

to get or receiving this treatment. And initially they had to come up with some kind of cover story, like when he went into the facility. So that's why they staged the whole Death Valley thing and the car, and it was part of the whole plan because that would explain why they would jump into actions so quickly with packing up his stuff and not abide by army or military regulations in waiting the amount of time that they're supposed to wait. They seem very sure that he wasn't coming back.

But yeah, if they were freaking out because these men were getting sick and suffering these after effects for radiation and they wanted to try some treatment, Paul would be a good candidate because he had an excellent record and he did not have a wife or children, so he would be someone who would not care about being away from his family for a long period of time to undergo this treatment. So they might have thought, hey, if we're going to try it out on someone, you're probably our best shot.

Unsolved Mysteries episode aired. If Wiki was still alive at the time, he would have been eligible for at least seventy five thousand dollars in compensation because of his participation in atmospheric nuclear weapons tests.

to his family. Whatever angle you lean towards, this is still a very bizarre story, and I believe it's one of the few Unsolved Mysteries military themed stories in which the armed forces likely did take steps to cover up someone's death, though their actual motive for doing so is

still unclear. After all this time, I don't think we'll ever know the full truth about what happened, But if, by chance, you happen to have any information about the Unsolved disappearance of Lieutenant Paul Whitkey, please contact the appropriate authorities. Jules Ashley any final thoughts on this case.

being recruited for something bigger? I think back in the fifties you would have had an even better chance at the time to have these darker, kind of crazier missions going on because you had less oversight and less technology and things to watch people. But it seems a little crazy, a little far fetched. But you did have an incredible serviceman who was telling his brother, I'm about to make

a name for myself. Something BIG's about to happen. And you did have very bizarre behavior by the military after his disappearance that literally they just pack this stuff up immediately and don't even try to see where he is or assume he might come back. This is one of your best servicemen, and you just assume he's a wall and call it quits. It's tragic that the family waited so long to get his name cleared. A wall's a horrific mark on your record. You're a deserter of the military.

That's something that Whipki was so proud to do, is to serve his country. And so there's such beauty in him being changed from a deserter to killed in a line of action or dying in the line of duty. Dying and you know, as a result of his duty to the military, because he's not a deserter. So that's a blessing. But then, like you said, there's zero answers for his family. They're just left wondering what happened to our family member who we love, and we just don't

have any answers. And I think the lack of details that the military was willing to give them and the way that they kind of eluded the family adds to the grief and trauma of that death. Be straightforward with us, allow us to ask questions, answer those questions, and maybe there would be that less assumption that there's a conspiracy going on and more likelihood to say, Okay, we trust

what you're telling us. It's just an overall bizarre and really sad case because at the end of the day, Lieutenant Paul Whipkey served our country, which is an amazing, amazing position that he did for our country, and no one was able to lay him to rest with full honors. It's a very sad end of the story.

a price on your teeth? Basically, I don't know if they brought it or they disintegrated, what happened to the rest of the bones in his body, what would happen to his skin by then had he lived. It's just atrocious to think that that is the number that they

put on it. And I know that all types of cases like this, any type of personal injury cases they have to come up with a number, or anytime where a big corporation is poisoning the water supply, they need to have a number for what type of harm has been inflicted upon the individuals, And the number seventy five thousand,

it just doesn't seem to cover it for me. At least they got some kind of compensation those who lived to that point, But to think of how it impacted their lives and the lives of their loved ones, and it still the future from so many of them, Pail Whipkey included. I don't know what happened here, but I do believe that the government was involved in the cover up.

I think that a likely explanation could have been what we just talked about, with them having this experimental treatment that they wanted to try on Whipkey, and that could explain the cover up because the secret mission would make sense to me as well. But if his mental health was failing, would they really want to entrust an important secret mission to somebody who may not have been able to carry it out to the level that they needed.

So at the end of the day, this is a really mysterious case, but it's such a tragic one, and I feel so deeply for all of those who are involved in any type of atomic testing.

is one of the exceptions. I mean, I do believe he was suffering from mental health issues, but that was probably the fault of the Army for subjecting him to the radiation tests in Operation Plumbbob. And when you heard about his physical health challenges like having his teeth pulled out, then you can understand why his personality completely changed before he went missing. And I really don't know what happened

to him. I don't know why the Army would make him disappear, if he really went on a secret mission, or if this was all done to cover up Operation Plumbbob. Or maybe give him some experimental treatment. But I don't think this is just a simple story of him driving over one hundreds of miles away out into Death Valley and wandering out into the desert and dying. And even if that is what happened, I still don't think that the Army told the whole truth of what happened to

Whipky's family. And when they had that hearing in the nineteen eighties about how they were changing his classification from deserter to died in the line of duty, I'm sure it felt like a victory, but it also felt like a bittersweet one for the Whipki family because he was no longer classified as a deserter. But at the same time, they still didn't have any answers about what happened, and there were still a lot of pints that the Army

was covering up the truth about what happened. And I still remember Carl Whipkey's lines that if our if my brother died in service to his country doing something heroic, then we're okay with that. Just tell us the truth about what happened. And even if he did die as the result of negligence of being exposed radiation poisoning. At least be transparent about it and let us know so that we know that our brother didn't do a disservice by abandoning his post or anything like that, and that

his disappearance was not his fault. So yeah, it's been many, many years since Paul Whipke went missing. We're probably never going to learn the full truth about what happened, but it is still an interesting and tragic story.

ten dollars tier. One of the features we offer is a audio commentary track over classic episodes of Unsaved Mysteries, where you can download an audio file and then boot up the original Unsoalved Mysteries episode on Amazon Prime or YouTube and play it with my audio commentary playing in the background, where I just provide trivia and factoids about the cases featured in this episode. And incidentally, the very first episode that I did a commentary track over was

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