The Murder of Thora Chamberlain: A Shocking True Crime Story
- Rod Kackley
- Nov 2
- 2 min read
Today marks eighty years since the disappearance — and likely murder — of Thora Chamberlain.
This Shocking True Crime Story remains one of the strangest, most haunting cases I’ve ever written about.
It was on November 2, 1945, that a fourteen-year-old girl vanished after leaving for a high school football game with friends.
When Thora Chamberlain drove off with a man who said he needed a babysitter, she was never seen again.
The FBI unleashed its top kidnapping investigator — a man who once helped bring down John Dillinger. What followed was one of the most astonishing manhunts in Bureau history.
Agents shadowed suspect Thomas McMonigle from Los Angeles to his family’s home in Alton, Illinois, and back again, hoping he’d lead them to Thora. At one point, undercover agents even gave him a ride while he was hitchhiking.
But McMonigle knew a cop when he saw one — and escaped.
Eventually, agents found him on a bus heading back to Los Angeles, where he was arrested.McMonigle confessed to abducting and killing Thora, claiming he threw her body into the Pacific Ocean. But no trace of her was ever found.
A convicted pedophile obsessed with teenage girls, McMonigle was sentenced to die in the gas chamber.Yet there was still no sign of Thora — dead or alive.
Soon, the body of a woman was discovered at the bottom of Devil’s Slide. Then, unbelievably, another was found. Neither was Thora. But McMonigle claimed he had killed one of them.
And then came one final, almost unbelievable twist — when a scientist who claimed to have brought dogs and cats back from the dead announced he wanted to try the same with Thomas McMonigle.
The Murder of Thora Chamberlain is a gripping, real-life thriller of obsession, pursuit, and the search for truth in postwar America.
Kindle Unlimited readers have devoured this story — with over 1.2 million pages read and thousands of readers worldwide drawn to Thora’s mysterious case.
Enjoy the day...and as always.....
Stay curious. Stay cautious.— Rod
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