Judge Crater

Judge Crater (full name Joseph Force Crater) was a justice on the New York State Supreme Court. His place in history came not from decisions on the bench, but from his unsolved disappearance in 1930. 
Crater, after dining at a New York City restaurant on August 6, 1930, was never seen or accounted for again. Crater had known affairs with showgirls and acquaintanceships with underworld figures, and his disappearance happened before the commencement of the fall court sessions and the start of a series of investigations (at request of then governor Franklin Delano Roosevelt) into corruption in NYC. All of these factors have fueled theories as to what became of the judge, and Crater was named "the missingest man in New York" by newspapers. Crater was declared dead in absentia in 1939 and the case was finally officially closed by the NYPD missing person's department in 1979.
A topical joke throughout the thirties and forties, Judge Crater became synonymous with sudden disappearance in popular culture, with references popping up from Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In and M*A*S*H to The Sopranos and Archer. The CTW series Square One TV, in its recurring "Math Court" segments, had Judge Sandra Day O'Crater (Cynthia Darlow) presiding.
==References==
*According to the first issue of Muppet Magazine, Judge Crater, is alive, well, and writing about TV for Variety. A mockup paper in the Susan Lucci article has the headline "Miss Piggy: Is Sow Sour on Soap Star" bylined to his honor.
*J. Crater is listed as part of the yearbook staff of The Amphibian with fellow vanishing acts including A. Earhart and Claude Raines (sic).
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Category:Historical References