Inspiration for the Lost Boys in Peter Pan?

[The Backlash Cometh]

anyone want to speculate?

Two 75 year old fetuses found in California

The trunk was inscribed with the initials JMB and also contained a certificate giving "Miss Jean Barrie" membership to the Peter Pan Woodland Club mountain resort, which burned down in 1948, a typing manual bearing the signature "Jean M. Barrie," ticket stubs from the 1932 Los Angeles Olympic Games, wedding photos and other items.

The women called 911 after discovering the first mummy-wrapped skeleton. Coroner's officials began investigating, leaving residents to speculate about the trunk's owner, the possibility of secret abortions in an era before the procedure was legal and an odd fact: Peter Pan was created by Scottish author James M. Barrie, who died in 1937.

"This building is a historic building. It has a lot of stories there and now it's getting more interesting," said Xing, 35, a six-year resident and genetics researcher.

Faced with a mystery three-quarters of a century old, however, no one could immediately say whether there was a connection between the unknown Jean M. Barrie and the fetuses, whether someone else might have hidden them in the trunk, and whether the Peter Pan connection was anything more than a coincidence.


http://enews.earthlink.net/article/us?guid=20100819/465984bf-cd37-4b37-b681-a289bb03af64

[Warpy]

1. They could also have been premature stillbirths

and an emotionally shattered mother might have wrapped them and kept them (phew) because she was emotionally incapable of letting go of them. There are a lot of things they might have been.

Most illegal abortions were performed very early the way legal ones are now. Having fully formed fetal skeletons seems a bit strange unless a woman miscarried, although doctors then did do saline abortions.

[The Backlash Cometh]

2. I've had time to do a little research.

The Peter Pan story we're familiar with was presented in 1904. At least twenty-five years before the fetuses are dated.

[Rowdyboy]

3. Well, your post inspired me to do a search and I rediscovered the story

of Barrie's friendship with the Davies family and their 5 boys as inspiration for the "lost boys". I vaguely remember a college professor discussing it 35 years ago but had long forgotten the details. Quite a sad story.

[Warpy]

4. I'm sure they were dated by the newspapers they were wrapped in

but they might have dated from the period the book was written, rewrapped and put into the bags in the trunk at some point. We just don't know.

Whatever the origin, you can bet there's a very sad story behind them.