THE STORY OF MITCHEL WEISER AND BONNIE BICKWIT, A COMPLETE FAILURE BY LAW ENFORCEMENT
Attitudes About Missing Persons Was Much Different In 1973.
Mitchel Weiser and Bonnie Bickwit were two love-struck teenagers who decided to hitchhike to 1973’s historic “Summer Jam” concert at Watkins Glen Raceway in New York State, 150 miles Northwest of their homes in Brooklyn. Fifty years on, their family and friends are still hoping to find out what happened to them.
Unfortunately, the mindset of law enforcement in the early 1970’s had pretty much embraced the idea that every missing teenager was a runaway. At least in New York they had. It’s quite possible that Woodstock, four years before, had changed the way New York law enforcement approached these types of cases due to the overwhelming number of them that had been filed.
I don’t know how I would have handled the situation back in that day. The minute-by-minute violence that we have become accustomed to in 2023 was not infecting society the way it does today. Still, as a parent knowing my child was not where he/she was supposed to be, would have driven me insane, as I’m sure their parents were experiencing.
This case is the oldest cold case involving missing teens in the country today. Bonnie and Mitchel’s families are hoping the 50th anniversary of the case will bring new clues and force law enforcement to reopen the case and do what should have been done five decades ago.
Allyn Smith.
As an investigator who has worked on only a few missing persons cases, my expertise is minimal. However, as someone who has interviewed hundred, if not thousands of witnesses, suspects, and others, I am inclined to believe the story of Allyn Smith.
In July 2000, MSNBC filmed a story about the missing teens. When is aired three months later in October, Allyn Smith, a Rhode Island resident caught the story and couldn’t believe his eyes. Smith began yelling at his wife to come see the tv. Apparently, he had been telling the story for years about these two teenagers that he met while hitchhiking home from the concert.
According to Smith, he met Mitchel and Bonnie when they were all three hitchhiking and were picked up by a man in an orange-colored VW bus with Pennsylvania license plates. Smith says the girl wore a scarf or bandana on her head, and he heard them talking about summer camp. (Bonnie’s sister says she often wore a scarf on her head., and Bonnie had quit her job at a summer camp when her boss wouldn’t let her off to go to the concert).
Smith says that during the ride, they stopped to cool off in the Susquehanna River. He said while Bonnie was swimming in the river, she started screaming and struggling in the water. He said the boy jumped in the water to help her and the last he saw they disappeared around the bend of the river.
Smith seems to be an honest man because he told police that he was high on weed and wasn’t about to jump in that river. According to the article by Eric J. Greenberg in Rolling Stone;
His first reaction was to do nothing. “I ain’t jumping into that, that’s for sure,” he thought. After the teens were out of sight, Smith and the driver decided there was nothing they could do. They were in a secluded area. There was nowhere to call for help, so they returned to the van and drove off. “[The driver] said, ‘I’m going to be turning off to head for Pennsylvania soon. I’ll call the police from a gas station,’” Smith said in 2000. “If he did [call], there might be a record.”
Believing the driver would call the police, Smith himself never reported the incident. He was also stoned on marijuana and didn’t want to deal with the cops…
This is the biggest flaw in Smith’s story that I can see. It’s hard to believe that, according to him, he and the driver just simply drove away after watching two people get swept away by a river. However, by his own admission he, and most likely the driver, were a.) stoned on marijuana, and b.) probably had more drugs in the van. Therefore, that could explain the failure to go find help.
However, The truth of Smith’s story is supported by several things;
He made numerous, expensive long-distance calls from Rhode Island to New York before he finally got in touch with the investigator at the state police.
He described Bonnie wearing a scarf.
He heard them talking about summer camp.
He did not want any publicity.
Smith went to New York at his own expense to help the investigation. “We spent all day looking at every possible bridge … because he had a vivid recollection of the bridge structures,” Streever tells Rolling Stone. “He showed obvious disappointment when we would get to one and looked at it and he would say, ‘It’s not that.’” *From the article by Eric J. Greenberg in Rolling Stone.
Smith’s friends were interviewed and confirmed that he had been talking about the drownings since he returned from the concert in 1973.
There are many more twists and turns to this case and Eric Greenberg details them all very well in his Rolling Stone article about the case. I definitely recommend the article if you are interested in this case.
I do concur with the missing persons experts and the teens’ families and friends. Many things can be done to verify or prove false Smith’s account. It’s simply a matter of the right people ordering an Investigation Task Force and making funds available for them to do their work.
First, and most importantly, a Task Force could search for unclaimed and unidentified bodies in all the counties along the Susquehanna River, which crosses three states. Any bodies located could be investigated and put an end to this nightmare for the families and friends relatively quickly.
Here’s hoping that person does the right thing.
