Things didn’t get better, though. One month after going into prison his father dies. The obituary mentions Charles as one of the children, but he is unable to attend. Sadly this is the last time an obituary mentions Charles.
To make matters worse, his release attracted the attention of the Attorney General who threatened to open an investigation. To be paroled Muller must have served at least 25% of his sentence, which he didn’t. During this time he continues to work for the prison, but as a paid employee. Little is said about him but by the 1930 census he is noted as a boarder in a hotel in Baton Rouge. This means that is in April of 1930 Charles was living apart from Mathilda.
The final clue comes in October in the form of another article. It announces Mathilda is filing for divorce from Charles due to a “failure to reform after being sentenced to the state penitentiary.” She refers to him as a “parole violator and a fugitive from Baton Rouge.” She alleges he also wrote bad checks.
The source of these articles was the local paper at the time. They published several articles on this story, even his pleas for a pardon and for restoring his citizenship. Since we found no mention of his capture we assumed he wasn’t caught.
But what about the name Clyde Morgan? Surely we could find something that helped explain the choice. We could read about nearly every corner of this man’s life. The best we can do is one small option. In Baton Rouge during the time Charles was free from prison, there lived a boy named Clyde S. Morgan. He was a local boy who performed in a group called the Istroumo Players. He even performed safety inspection plays for Standard Oil, possibly because his father might worked for them. But if you read the paper you might find references to him, something Charles might have seen.
Istroumo was also the name of the Hotel where Charles Muller made his final stay in Baton Rouge before fleeing. One of Clyde Morgan’s sisters lived in the area. Charles could have easily met Clyde Morgan while staying at the hotel. We’re not saying they did, but they had an opportunity.
But our perseverance pays off and we found him. In May of 1930 Clyde F. Morgan signs on to the S.S. Gatun in New Orleans and sails for the tropics. As if on cue, he appears to the world as a member of a crew sailing in and out of New Orleans to exotic places like Cuba, Jamaica, and Honduras. To make this clear, Clyde Morgan appears in the public record for the first time in May of 1930, one month after the Census for 1930 is taken. This Census is the one where Charles is alone in a hotel in Baton Rouge.
Clyde proceeds to sail in and out of New Orleans for a few months before switching to New York, bringing mostly bananas. The owner of the boat is called Standard Fruit and Shipping Company. The similarity of the name Standard Fruit and Standard Oil can’t be ignored. And the Clyde Morgan on the boat does spend time in the infirmary, giving weight to the idea he had a tropical disease like malaria. One of the records show he complained of stomach pains during November of 1930.
His last sailing record has Clyde disembarking in New York in April of 1931.
Now you’ll remember he claims to have attended Columbia for two years. If he did attend some school for two years it would put us late in 1933. He could have suffered from malaria and headed south to Duke Medical Center in Durham, NC. But no searches find Clyde or Charles during this time. Nothing more is heard from him until he walks into a Salvation Army in Durham, NC, meets Adele Cahal, and ends up getting married. We have a picture of Clyde and Adele on their wedding day in May of 1934, but none of him from before 1934.
Then there is the disowning. The story goes he was disowned for joining the Merchant Marines, something unlikely to earn such a punishment. Adele related a story that Clyde tried to write his family, or his Aunt, after they were married but his letters were returned. There’s no telling who the aunt really was, but there are no aunts named Frances or Annette.
One thing we noticed for certain in the record. George Muller died one month after his son went to prison. Charles is mentioned in the obituary as one of the sons. This is the last time he is mentioned by any member of his family in an obituary. Every obituary we’ve found after that one (up to five so far) mentions all the siblings except Annette (who died at 7 months) and Charles. Even his Mother left him out, though I suppose that’s because someone else wrote it.
It seems obvious he was written out of the record and out of their lives. They all held influential jobs in town; perhaps his banishment was necessary. Knowing he had nowhere else to go, perhaps he took on a new life. He wandered into that Salvation Army and decided he’d start fresh. He had a new name, one he’d spent three years perfecting. There’s a nice girl and a fresh start.
We propose he changed his name to Clyde Francis Morgan. As a wanted man Charles would do well to completely change his story, history and all. He makes a decision to jump on a ship heading out into the water. It gives him over 12 months on board the ship to practice answering to his new name and working on his story. He made it easy on himself by changing the names just enough to remember clearly. George Muller becomes George Morgan. Henry maybe from his maternal grandfather. His birthdate gets slightly moved around.
But not his mother’s name. He keeps hers the same on his new documents, as if daring someone to piece it together. Or perhaps he can’t bear to change his own mother’s name. I imagine in the middle of the night as he lay trembling under the stress, feeling alone and vulnerable, he thought about her. Did she miss him? Did the shadows and noises in the night that only a mother can banish become a constant roar in the background, haunting him as each year marched on?
No one knows.