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Gabriel Anthony Caporino, age 41, was last known to be in New Orleans, Louisiana on March 7, 1974.
Gabriel was a resident of Yorktown Heights, New York and worked as an executive in the coffee division of General Foods. He was on a week long business trip in New Orleans when he mysteriously vanished.
He called home and spoke with his wife and two teenaged children. He told them he was leaving the Intercontinental Hotel to drive to the French Quarter to enjoy some jazz music. He confirmed that he would be flying back to New York the following day. He never arrived and has not been heard from since.
Gabriel’s unused plane ticket, luggage and gifts he’d purchased for his family were found in his hotel room.
Four days after his disappearance, two men and one woman, all in their 20’s and described by a cashier as “hippie types” entered a Sears store and presented Gabriel’s credit card to purchase a camera and clothing. The cashier told police that when she asked for ID, one of them showed her Gabriel’s Allstate insurance card. They were able to complete the purchase and forged his signature.
The 1974 Mercury Montego that Gabriel had rented from Hertz was later found abandoned in front of a school at Spain and Ramparts Streets. The car had been wiped clean of fingerprints and the key was in the door lock.
I haven’t seen any information on where the Sears store was located; I am guessing it was in New Orleans.
Although Gabriel was living in New York at the time, he had lived in New Jersey for most of his life, and most of his family and friends still lived in Hoboken and Jersey City.
Gabriel was described as a loving husband and father with no known problems in his life and his family believes he met with foul play.
Gabriel’s family had great difficulty in getting anyone to investigate his disappearance. This article explains it in a lot of detail, though I got a little confused about who said what. It appears that between investigators at General Foods and the FBI, numerous false statements were made that stalled the investigation. These statements included allegations that Gabriel was suspected of international espionage, that he was having affairs and that he had been given a $19,000 pay advance just prior to his disappearance. It was later admitted that none of the claims were true. (After reading the article again, it looks like the person at General Foods that was supplying the false information to the FBI happened to be a former FBI agent – that’s why I was getting confused.)
It’s not known what the motivation was for General Foods, where Gabriel had worked for 17 years, to make these kinds of statements, unless they were trying to protect someone else associated with the company. That almost seems plausible.
Initially, of course, I was thinking the three people who used his credit card were responsible for his disappearance, but it’s possible that they just found the car abandoned with the key in the door and decided to take it for a drive, and found his wallet in the car. Because, what reason would three hippie types have to harm Gabriel? I wouldn’t think it was a robbery, since they waited four days to use the credit card and only used it once. The car was found abandoned a few days later. Gabriel didn’t live in Louisiana and wouldn’t have known anyone there, unless they were his colleagues from General Foods.
General Foods no longer exists; it was acquired by Phillip Morris in 1985.
Andy Thibault, a wonderfully persistent reporter, published a series of articles detailing his interactions with the New Orleans Police Department when covering Gabriel’s case. They can be found here and here.
This blog suggests that General Foods had close ties to a company called The Mullen Company in Washington State, which was actually a front for the CIA. Gabriel’s disappearance occurred at the height of Watergate and there is some suspicion that Gabriel stumbled onto information that could have dragged General Foods into the controversy. It also refers to a large number of empty coffee cans that were missing from General Foods, and were later found to have been used to transport heroin. There’s no indication that Gabriel was involved in any illegal activity; it’s theorized that he was silenced after becoming aware of it.
Sources:
The Charley Project
Daily News
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