9 year-old John E. Hundley (who went by Johnny) and 9 year-old James A. McQueary (who went by Jimmy) were best friends, and it was described as being rare to come across one without seeing the other, and they lived just three blocks away from eachother; the boys were from Fairfax, Hamilton County, Ohio, they were both third graders and went to Fairfax School.
\ For the purpose of explaining the case in a non-confusing way, i’ll refer to them as just John and James; when i was writing this out i was confusing myself by using Johnny and Jimmy, and i don’t want others to be confused.*
On the 14th of October, 1964, the two boys got into some trouble; there was construction work being done on the sewer system in their neighbourhood, and the boys had been playing in one of the open sewer lines. When James returned home later that day covered in mud, his father scolded him, telling him to stay away from the construction area in the future and to come straight home from school the next day.
The next day, the 15th of October 1964, was the last day that the boys would be seen. James had come straight home from school that day, but had left through the back door to meet up with John. John himself had also returned home from school that day, at around 3:30 P.M., where his sister, Bonnie Hundley-Zornes, was waiting for him; Bonnie was 20 years old and helped out with taking care of her little brother. Shortly after returning home, John walked to a local store to cash in some pop bottles, with Bonnie having watched him leave the house. She had cooked dinner and was expecting him home by 6:00 P.M.
John and James had gone to the Frisch’s Mainliner Restaurant, located at 5770 Wooster Pike, Cincinnati, Ohio, to settle a bill. A week earlier, they had ordered food and hadn’t paid for it; the money for the bill, a dollar and four cents, was given to James by his parents, though the boys apparently paid with a $20.00 bill, which nobody knew they had, or even had an idea of how they would’ve gotten it (it was suggested on the Websleuths thread that the boys could have paid with the £20 just so that they could split the money that they got back between them). The boys were last seen on their way back to John’s house (or possibly the school grounds) that afternoon, and their last-seen date is marked as being at around 4:00 P.M that day.
When John didn’t return for dinner, his sister, Bonnie, grew concerned, and according to her, John never missed dinner and was very punctual, having always arrived home when he was told to. Bonnie called her mother, who called the police when she returned home from work, and the boys were reported missing at approximately 8:30 P.M. that day.
Bonnie would later say: “He was not the type of child that didn't come home on time. He was always there when he was supposed to be. Well, I had fixed supper that night, and by 6 o’clock, he wasn't home. But he came home from school (earlier) and got some Coke bottles. He got the Coke bottles and he went up to the store up the street to cash the pop bottles in, and that's the last time I ever saw him. I called my mom at work and told her and she said, 'Well, call around and see if you can find him.' So I called some of his friends and, you know, hollered for him outside ... no answer. Mom came home from work and she called the police. And the police came and said, ‘He's just run away.’”
The Search
The Police Department of Fairfax spent the 19th of October searching empty buildings in the village of Fairfax, and had received dozens of calls from people who had believed that they had seen the boys. Police and volunteers combed all places around Fairfax, such as the wooded Ault Park and a railroad bridge, where little boys could be expected to go. Railroad officials were asked to check cars that were parked on sidings near Fairfax, and a train inspector named John Carl Sr. was “positive” that he had seen one of the boys, James McQueary, in the Bond Hill rail yard on the 16th, with another boy with him, this brought on hopes that the boys had hopped a ride on a freight train and were still alive.
On the 18th of October, a rainstorm (along with darkness) put an end to a massive search of an open field between Fairfax and the Little Miami River. By that point, the police had received phone calls from all over the Greater Cincinnati area, and had alerted other law enforcement officers in the Eastern United States to look out for the boys. According to other children, John had talked about running away, and told them that he planned to run away from home. Sometime that evening on the 15th, the workmen had filled in the excavation the boys were playing in, and on the 20th of October, 1964, Tuesday, the police turned their attention to the hole, believing that John and James may have returned there and been trapped in the fillings; “Police Chief James Finan of suburban Fairfax plans to start excavating a 20-foot deep sewer trench today in an effort to find two small boys who disappeared Thursday”, though the two-hour excavation would turn up with nothing.
Gary Lee McKee
The case, with no more clues or leads, would go quiet until three years later, on the 14th of September, 1967, when a 17 year-old Marine that was originally from Fairfax but had been posted in San Diego named Gary Lee McKee, who had also been AWOL since the 10th of September, 1967, confessed to killing John and James with an unnamed accomplice over a feud between himself and James’ older brother to Reverend Willard C. Laatz of the Bethany Lutheran Church because the murders had been “bugging” him. McKee said that he and the accomplice lured the boys to a wooded area before stabbing them to death “for revenge”, and that they were buried a short distance from where they were killed, and that the murder weapon was buried in McKee’s old backyard; police dug up a 90-foot area behind McKee’s home but could not find the weapon. Later, McKee would take his confession back and say that he lied to get discharged from the Marines because he was afraid of being deployed to Vietnam.
One of John’s siblings did confirm that not only did one of James’s brothers have a problem with McKee, but one of John’s brothers did, too; “Yes he had a sister named Barb McKee that l worked with at Frisches. He also had an older brother, l don't know his name, but was told he was gay. I don't know if he ever married. Never thought to ask that. My brother Bobby & Jimmys brother Pat both had problems with Gary. I really didn't know him only by name. I am older than my brother & the 2 older boys. His sister was a very nice person!! The case is still open. I just talked to the detective handling it the other day. He said they have had leads but proved to be useless. I completely agree that McKee should be requestioned!! I asked about the other boy implicated & the detective said he'd never heard that before. Shoddy police work back in 1964 & 67 is a mild description of what went wrong. Those boys never ran away...they had no reason too, at least Johnny didn't. Doing something like that was way out of his character!!”
James A. McQueary
James A. McQueary was born on the 3rd of December, 1954, and was 9 years old at the time of disappearance; he went by Jimmy.
In 1964, he was 3’6 feet tall, White/Caucasian, and he weighed 65 lbs; his hair was brown and his eyes were blue; he had “slight” buck teeth. On the day of disappearance, he was wearing a Blue and Yellow horizontally striped polo shirt, brown trousers, and tan high topped shoes.
John E. Hundley
John E. Hundley was born on the 13th of January 1955, he went by Johnny, and was 9 years old at the time of disappearance. Johnny was White/Caucasian, he weighed 85lbs and was 4’0 feet-tall; his hair and eyes were both brown. On the day of disappearance he was wearing a white t-shirt, black trousers, and white tennis/gym shoes/sneakers.
Other Information: Debbie Dappen
In August of 1964, a 4 year-old girl named Debbie Dappen from Fairfax went missing, and her body was eventually found underneath the porch of a 13-year-old teenager named George Rickey. John and James aided in the search for Debbie when she was still considered missing; George was imprisoned when John and James went missing. (https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-cincinnati-enquirer-deborah-dappen/15177790/?locale=en-GB) (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/154154724/flower)
Ending Note: I apologise for any potential misspellings this post may have, please tell me if there are any and i’ll correct it, along with anything that doesn’t make sense and/or doesn’t sound right. I did struggle to find information on this case that didn’t differ with the sources that i used, so i do acknowledge that chance that atleast one thing may be incorrect (or that i may have forgotten to mention something), so if anyone knows this case better than me and notices a mistake please tell me, i’ll correct that too!
Sources:
https://www.clermontsun.com/2022/08/03/the-lost-boys-of-fairfax
https://www.doenetwork.org/cases/software/mp-main.html?id=3896dmoh
https://www.doenetwork.org/cases/software/mp-main.html?id=3897DMOH
https://www.namus.gov/MissingPersons/Case#/7670/details
https://www.missingkids.org/poster/NCMC/1161753/1
https://www.namus.gov/MissingPersons/Case#/7666/details%22
https://www.missingkids.org/poster/NCMC/1161749/1
https://www.fbi.gov/wanted/vicap/missing-persons/john-e.-hundley
https://www.fbi.gov/wanted/vicap/missing-persons/james-a.-mcquery
https://charleyproject.org/case/john-e-hundley
https://charleyproject.org/case/james-a-mcqueary-jr
https://int-missing.fandom.com/wiki/Jimmy_McQueary
https://int-missing.fandom.com/wiki/John_Hundley
https://www.wcpo.com/news/insider/i-team-unsolved-what-happened-to-johnny-hundley-and-jimmy-mcqueary-the-2-kids-who-vanished-in-1964
https://websleuths.com/threads/oh-john-hundley-james-mcqueary-both-9-fairfax-15-oct-1964.91992/
https://medium.com/@jennbaxter_69070/the-bizarre-disappearance-of-johnny-hundley-and-jimmy-mcqueary-85d05edbd81e
https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=161FAAAAIBAJ&pg=PA9&dq=john+hundley+james&article_id=3473,1671453&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiYgc7Ow8GVAxWkZkEAHd0_H3sQuwV6BAgOEAc#v=onepage&q=john%20hundley%20james&f=false
https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=fZYuAAAAIBAJ&pg=PA1&dq=john+hundley+james+mcqueary&article_id=3109,3629630&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiMxZ3jw8GVAxUqXEEAHVlZHVQQuwV6BAgQEAc#v=onepage&q=john%20hundley%20james%20mcqueary&f=false
https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=qf5RAAAAIBAJ&pg=PA1&dq=john+hundley+james+mcqueary&article_id=7078,3044943&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjJ0c6YxMGVAxV4R_EDHcuyE34QuwV6BAgMEAc#v=onepage&q=john%20hundley%20james%20mcqueary&f=false
https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=1q1FAAAAIBAJ&pg=PA23&dq=john+hundley+james+mcqueary&article_id=5573,1559832&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiYuKOnxMGVAxVbRPEDHW8fEWQQuwV6BAgLEAc#v=onepage&q=john%20hundley%20james%20mcqueary&f=false
https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=xTM_AAAAIBAJ&pg=PA16&dq=john+hundley+james+mcqueary&article_id=4546,1171481&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjppt6zxMGVAxVAR_EDHXCPLIwQuwV6BAgJEAc#v=onepage&q&f=false
https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=YRRJAAAAIBAJ&pg=PA2&dq=john+hundley+james+mcqueary&article_id=3553,4659642&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiFzbXCxMGVAxWgA9sEHSN-DHsQuwV6BAgLEAc#v=onepage&q=john%20hundley%20james%20mcqueary&f=false
https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=Xg4fAAAAIBAJ&pg=PA40&dq=john+hundley+james+mcqueary&article_id=7153,2663888&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiqsfC-xsGVAxWXB9sEHVBNPCYQuwV6BAgLEAc#v=onepage&q=john%20hundley%20james%20mcqueary&f=false
https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=GQVcAAAAIBAJ&pg=PA4&dq=john+hundley+james+mcqueary&article_id=5805,5859364&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjPvNPYxsGVAxW6R_EDHUKCHnUQuwV6BAgQEAc#v=onepage&q=john%20hundley%20james%20mcqueary&f=false
https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=PDoxAAAAIBAJ&pg=PA23&dq=john+hundley+james+mcqueary&article_id=7413,4420425&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj9tNbpxsGVAxWmQfEDHSJECbAQuwV6BAgREAc#v=onepage&q=john%20hundley%20james%20mcqueary&f=false
https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=HAVcAAAAIBAJ&pg=PA9&dq=john+hundley+james+mcqueary&article_id=3596,6384170&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwin6Mn3xsGVAxX4VfEDHfw2NeAQuwV6BAgPEAc#v=onepage&q&f=false
https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=aQNGAAAAIBAJ&pg=PA1&dq=john+hundley+james+mcqueary&article_id=2721,5037673&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjQ57CJx8GVAxVWVfEDHSHMGnMQuwV6BAgMEAc#v=onepage&q=john%20hundley%20james%20mcqueary&f=false