A Fortean who seems to have stepped out of the pages of James Ellroy’s Underworld USA Trilogy—and the anachronism of it is just part of the Fortean mystery.
Well, that is, if he’s a Fortean at all. Gawd only knows. There are a surprising number of gaps in his biography: he’s qualifications as a Fortean isn’t the biggest—no, those big ones could be explained by the FBI, if they ever answered their mail—but it is the most relevant. Already I’ve spent way more time researching him than would seem necessary for someone who appears to be such a minor Fortean.
Frank Chester—or Clyner—Pease was most likely born in September 1881, although it could have been 1879 or 1883, too. Perhaps he was born in Boston; perhaps in New York; perhaps somewhere else altogether. His parents may have been from Boston or New York, too, or possibly England. Maybe Pease didn’t know where he was born, or when, at all. September 1881 seems the most likely because it’s the date he gave when he first enlisted in the military and, if that’s true—if he was born just on this side of 1880—the difficulty finding him in the census is not too surprising. The 1890 census was destroyed by fire and, by 1900, he would have been old enough to leave home, making it hard to track him, and harder still to know who his parents were.
Nonetheless, some of this mystery seems . . . self-created. There’s the various dates and birthplaces he gave to himself and his parents over the years. And there’s the lack of birth records. At one point, Pease claimed to have been born to a prominent Boston family; to be related to the Reverend Louis Pease, who in the 1850s helped to clean up New York’s notorious “Five Points.” Boston (as well as New York) have well-documented online birth records for the end of the nineteenth century, however, and I find no reference to a Frank Pease that could be him, which seems odd, particularly if his was a prominent family. The difficulty of tracking his actual birth is complicated because Pease was a surprisingly common surname in that era, and there were, indeed, a number of both Frank and Frank C. Pease’s wandering about America. (In fact, Boston in 1881 witnessed a Frank C. Pease murder his wife and unsuccessfully attempt suicide.)
Well, that is, if he’s a Fortean at all. Gawd only knows. There are a surprising number of gaps in his biography: he’s qualifications as a Fortean isn’t the biggest—no, those big ones could be explained by the FBI, if they ever answered their mail—but it is the most relevant. Already I’ve spent way more time researching him than would seem necessary for someone who appears to be such a minor Fortean.
Frank Chester—or Clyner—Pease was most likely born in September 1881, although it could have been 1879 or 1883, too. Perhaps he was born in Boston; perhaps in New York; perhaps somewhere else altogether. His parents may have been from Boston or New York, too, or possibly England. Maybe Pease didn’t know where he was born, or when, at all. September 1881 seems the most likely because it’s the date he gave when he first enlisted in the military and, if that’s true—if he was born just on this side of 1880—the difficulty finding him in the census is not too surprising. The 1890 census was destroyed by fire and, by 1900, he would have been old enough to leave home, making it hard to track him, and harder still to know who his parents were.
Nonetheless, some of this mystery seems . . . self-created. There’s the various dates and birthplaces he gave to himself and his parents over the years. And there’s the lack of birth records. At one point, Pease claimed to have been born to a prominent Boston family; to be related to the Reverend Louis Pease, who in the 1850s helped to clean up New York’s notorious “Five Points.” Boston (as well as New York) have well-documented online birth records for the end of the nineteenth century, however, and I find no reference to a Frank Pease that could be him, which seems odd, particularly if his was a prominent family. The difficulty of tracking his actual birth is complicated because Pease was a surprisingly common surname in that era, and there were, indeed, a number of both Frank and Frank C. Pease’s wandering about America. (In fact, Boston in 1881 witnessed a Frank C. Pease murder his wife and unsuccessfully attempt suicide.)