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Heirs of Walter Green

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Real Name: Unrevealed
Case: Lost Heirs
Location: Omaha, Nebraska
Date: April 24, 1978

Case[]

Details: Eighty-three-year-old Walter "Curly" Green lived alone in a small apartment on Cass Street in Omaha, Nebraska. He lived a simple, frugal life. He was cordial to his neighbors but kept mostly to himself. On April 24, 1978, he had a heart attack and died while working in his yard. Everyone who knew him was astounded to learn that he had accumulated over $200,000 during his lifetime. They could not imagine how he had amassed that amount.
Curly left no will, and his next of kin could not be located. Ten years after his death, his fortune remains the largest unclaimed estate in Nebraska history. But this is not just the story of missing heirs and unclaimed fortunes. It is also a sweet and haunting love story that began nearly seven decades earlier.
Not much is known about Curly's early life. In 1914, when he was nearly seventeen, he hopped a train bound for Omaha. He jumped off outside the city, near the small farming town of Schuyler, and immediately began looking for work. Local tavern keeper Al Rominger offered him a ride and a home-cooked meal with Al's family. Al and his wife, Ida, had a son, Donald, and four daughters, Edna, Jessamine, Catheryn, and Gertrude.
Catheryn (now Catheryn Saalfeld) was nine when she met Curly. She remembers he was a "nice-looking" man. She did not know why Al had brought him home. She was curious about him because she had never seen him before. At dinner, he was secretive about his family and his birthplace in Montana. He said he lived with his mother and stepfather in Denver, Colorado, and they were "about all the family" he had. He had not gotten along with his stepfather, so he left and traveled east.
Catheryn remembers Curly had a "nice way of evading," which they respected. When Ida asked if he had any cousins or other relatives, he said, "Well, I did once," and then changed the subject. When she asked if he had any brothers or sisters, he said, "Well, none as pretty as your daughters." From the moment he first saw Jessamine, he was smitten. He would never feel the same way about anyone else.
Al found Curly a job working at the local Kopac Garage. In 1914, cars were a new invention, but Curly had a knack for fixing them. He slept in the garage until he earned enough money to move into a boarding house. Catheryn remembers he was not a spendthrift. She liked it when he would get paychecks because he would give her the nickels and dimes. With his new salary, he began to court Jessamine. He only had one problem: getting rid of Catheryn.
One day, Curly met with Jessamine and Catheryn. Catheryn wanted to see a movie at the Colfax Theater, but Curly wanted to take Jessamine to the park. He gave Catheryn a dime and asked her to go alone, which she agreed to. He and Jessamine often went on walks in the park and spent time with friends. But Catheryn did not care where they went because she got the nickel and dime from him. She believes he loved Jessamine because he only dated her.
In 1917, Curly enlisted in the army, leaving behind his mechanic job and his beloved Jessamine. He served in France on the Western Front during World War I. He drove the dead and wounded to a makeshift army hospital and brought supplies to the front lines. The suffering he witnessed scarred him. But when the war ended, he returned home full of hope to Jessamine.
However, when Curly went to the Rominger home, Catheryn told him that Jessamine had left to study nursing in Omaha. According to Catheryn, Jessamine liked him, and he was always a gentleman to her. But she wanted other things out of life. He did not appear educated, and she believed his earning capacity was not great.
In 1923, Curly followed Jessamine to Omaha and got a job as a mechanic at a newspaper, the "Omaha Bee News." In 1931, he became a night watchman for the Union Pacific Railroad. His coworker, Joe Moravek, remembers him as a quiet, hard worker. He rarely talked about himself, although he mentioned having a sister.
Curly refused to give up on Jessamine. However, she was more focused on her nursing career. In 1938, she married another man, Arden Hardgrove. Curly never fell in love again. He never married or had a family. And he told no one who his real family was. In 1971, he retired from the railroad.
Curly maintained contact with Catheryn and the Rominger family, sending them Easter lilies, Christmas cards, and gifts. He talked with them about many subjects but refused to discuss his family. He also kept in contact with friends from across the United States, some of whom he served with in World War I. He and his attorney/friend, Frank Burbridge, sometimes discussed personal matters, but he never talked about his family.
Aside from Catheryn and Frank, one of Curly's best friends was his barber, Riley Marr, a fellow Masonic lodge member. Riley feels he never got that close to Curly. He thought they were good friends because Curly sometimes invited him to his apartment. They would sit around, have coffee, and talk.
During one visit, Riley noticed postcards and pictures neatly displayed in Curly's apartment. He wondered if they were from Curly's family. He picked one up and saw it had a Brooklyn, New York, postmark. He asked about it, but Curly said, "Never mind," and put it away. He felt he was invading Curly's privacy. He wonders if Curly had something he did not want revealed or if something tragic had happened in his past that he did not want to discuss.
Over the years, Curly amassed a considerable fortune. But he kept that a secret, too. Some people attributed his wealth to his valuable coin, stamp, and jewelry collections. But Catheryn thinks he just saved every penny he made. He told her he would put a can of food on the pilot light each morning. When he came home for lunch or dinner, the can would be "just right to eat." She said he was that frugal.
When he died in 1978, Curly had accumulated a fortune of more than $200,000 held primarily in real estate, stocks, bonds, and cash. Friends were surprised to learn that he had owned his apartment building. A local court initially named Frank as the administrator of Curly's estate. In 1981, when no heirs or will were found, a judge ordered Curly's possessions sold, and the $200,000 in proceeds were turned over to the Nebraska State Treasurer's office.
The treasurer's office began a search for Curly's heirs. They searched school, church, immigration, and census records. They interviewed friends and Montana residents. They contacted people who had sent him Christmas cards. However, they kept running into dead ends. Two separate fires destroyed records that might have led to his relatives. A genealogical specialist also had no luck. So far, no legitimate heirs have been found.
In 1986, investigator Josh Butler, who tracks down missing heirs professionally, began researching Curly's case. He and his team went to some "extremes" during their investigation. He learned that Curly had once mentioned having a brother who was killed in a shootout in Montana. He searched old newspapers and found that forty-one-year-old rancher Albert Green, originally from England, had been shot and killed on July 5, 1921, in Crooked Creek, Montana.
However, Butler found no clear connection between Albert and Curly. Furthermore, he believes Albert's father was Joseph Green, while Curly's father was Harry Albert Green. He theorizes that Albert and Curly were cousins rather than brothers. He speculates that Curly's actual brother was killed several years before Albert.
The search for Curly's heirs continues. Butler thinks it is strange that Curly would accumulate $200,000 in his lifetime and have no known relatives. He does not understand why Curly did not leave a written document concerning the disposition of his money. He believes someone has enough information in their own family that they will come forward and prove their entitlement to Curly's fortune.
There are a few clues to Curly's past. He said he was born in Kendall, Montana, and lived in Denver, Colorado. Documents place him in Denver as a teenager, where he worked for an auto agency. He had a collection of gold coins, some of which he might have obtained in Mexico. He received postcards from someone in Brooklyn, New York.
Curly is believed to have six siblings. He claimed he had a brother who was killed in a shootout and that his father died when he was young. He stated on a 1938 birth certificate that he was born on March 22, 1895, and that his parents were Harry Albert Green, born in England in 1855, and Ann Mauren Green, born in Latvia in 1865. None of these relatives have been traced.
At Curly's funeral, a mysterious wreath of flowers became the final clue to his past. A card came with the flowers, signed "Mrs. Joe Greener, Denver, Colorado." Perhaps she is the key to his puzzling life.
Extra Notes:

  • This case first aired on the November 2, 1988 episode. It was originally supposed to air on the October 5, 1988 episode but was delayed.
  • Some sources spell Jessamine's name as "Jessamyn" and Curly's name as "Curley." Some sources state that: his father's name was Albert Harry; his middle initial was "C" or he had no middle name; he arrived in Schuyler in 1913; and he had $150,000 or $164,906.66.
  • According to some sources, Kendall, Montana, was not established until 1898, suggesting Curly lied about it being his birthplace since he said he was born in 1895.

Results: Unsolved. After the broadcast, over 400 people claiming to be Curly's heirs contacted the telecenter and the Nebraska State Treasurer's office. Many claimed to have relatives named Walter Green who had disappeared decades earlier. However, none turned out to be his heirs.
In a 2002 article, Butler stated that Curly's stories about his past were probably exaggerations or lies. Based on his research, he believes that Curly was raised in a Wisconsin orphanage with seven siblings. However, a lack of records from the orphanage prevented him from tracking down any heirs.
On December 28, 1990, Catheryn passed away at eighty-seven. Jessamine passed away in 1979.
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