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“Hello and welcome to another episode of Buzzfeed Unsolved. This week we’ll be looking the 1945 disappearance of millionaire Oliver Queen. Not to be mistaken for his descendant the still living billionaire Oliver Queen.
Due to a lack of evidence and Queen having no known family at the time the case quickly went cold and to this day it is unknown if he simply disappeared or was killed.”
-I can get not having family but did the guy not have any friends or like employees I guess wondering where he went? I mean if the dude signing my paychecks vanished I’d probably raise a fuss just to keep getting paid.-
“That’s the thing, most of his known friends also seemed to have vanished around the same time. But we’ll get into that later.”
-We’d better. You can’t just leave me with, oh seems all of this group of people disappeared. Huh that’s weird, oh well.-
“So, Oliver Queen back in the 1940s in Star City was weirdly similar to the current one in that was outspokenly progressive. Like this was the time of Jim Crow and the guy had an anti-discrimination policy at his company. He also spoke in support of the war but was openly against the internment camps and so on. Basically the guy was almost exactly the kind of person the current Queen is which is interesting. But it does mean he’d have some enemies. Probably anyway.”
-Probably, he says, as if there wouldn’t be people calling for his head today. Hell, there’s a subset of the internet that openly calls to kill the living Queen so there were probably similar people then. So, that’s done. Case solved, one of those kind people got to him.-
“I’m not done alright, listen. I’m just setting the stage so people know what kind of person we’re talking about. He didn’t seem like the kind of guy to just vanish quietly into the night, you know?
So come March 1945, Queen is seen meeting with a friend of his, an actor by the name of Greg Sanders. The two were said to have been talking and laughing about another friend of theirs called Ray. It should be noted that after going back through all their known contacts there was never anyone named Ray found.
But the two are clearly having a good time, talking about their friend and maybe getting some drinks, possibly meeting up on the set of Sanders new film. They walk off into the night, leaving Queen’s company, and neither are ever seen again.”
-That’s it? Two guys just walk off and vanish into the night? You’re kidding me right? There’s more to the story?-
“Nope, they walk off laughing and are never seen again. The next mention of Oliver Queen is the guy’s descendant appearing out of nowhere after being stranded on some remote island. But that’d be another episode wouldn’t it?”
-That in and of itself seems messed up. Random guy appears and is somehow able to prove he’s the only living relative of this person that went missing some multiple decades before? That’s definitely hiding something.-
“Right, with that covered and there being no physical evidence to the point where we aren’t even sure exactly when Queen disappeared it’s time to move on to the theories.”
-I swear if you say aliens one more time.-
“There was a full on alien invasion a few years ago ok! Aliens could be a possible culprit. In fact, you know what, theory one. Oliver Queen was abducted by aliens in March of 1945.”
-Ok, I’ll give you that aliens exist. Doesn’t mean they kidnapped a random rich dude. Next you’ll say time travel is a thing and both Oliver Queens are the same person.-
“That’d be ridiculous. The sheer amount of work it would take to make not only a new identity that can stand up to severe scrutiny and a paper trail to be your own descendant makes that super unlikely. Aliens at least we know are real.
Moving on to theory two. Now again there is no physical evidence of a crime so everything we have is only guesswork based on what was known at the time. Theory two is that both Queen and Sanders were killed by Bugsy Siegel’s men.”
-Excuse me? We go from aliens to the mob. Alright, makes sense. Please explain.-
“Well, Sanders was known to have issues with Siegel having run into the man during filming at one point and openly snubbing the man. It’s possible he had Sanders killed and Queen was just unlucky enough to be in the worst place and the worst time.”
-I’d buy. What’s theory number three then? I’m amazed they’re actually getting more reasonable as we go.-
“Theory three is the only one with any actual supporting evidence as people did come forward and claim credit for this. They did so on their death bed though so take that as you will. Theory three is that Queen was killed by the KKK as a way to send a message due to his high profile and progressive policies.”
-I’m sorry, what? We’ve gone from aliens, to the mob, to the KKK and somehow it’s the last one that has any evidence?-
“Seriously. It’s not much evidence but it’s better than the ‘well he knew someone that might also have been killed’ or sheer nothing that exists.
There was a former member that just before he died mentioned that his group had decided that Queen was a good target and that he, and I quote, ‘needed killing’ so there’s that. But that’s quite literally the only evidence exists after the two were seen last.
But for now, with the lack of evidence and the amount of time that has passed it seems the mysterious disappearance of the original Oliver Queen will remain…Unsolved.”