Thompson Van Wylde | Cubbi

Then came the Van Wylde part.

Cubbi — born Cordelia Beatrice Thompson in 1899 to a Pittsburgh steel fortune — earned her nickname as a toddler when she couldn’t say “Cuddly” and called herself “Cubbi” instead. The name stuck. By eighteen, she had rejected debutante balls, bought a Stutz Bearcat with her own inheritance, and announced she was moving to New York to “write novels and make enemies of boring people.” cubbi thompson van wylde

Since “Cubbi Thompson Van Wylde” doesn’t correspond to a widely known historical figure, I’ve written it as a fictional or mysterious “forgotten character” piece — fitting for a blog that explores oddities, unsolved mysteries, or obscure Americana. The Strange Disappearance of Cubbi Thompson Van Wylde: Heiress, Adventurer, or Ghost? Then came the Van Wylde part

In April 1928, Cubbi Thompson Van Wylde drove a rented Pierce-Arrow from Los Angeles to the Mojave, telling her housekeeper she was “going to see what Julian was so scared of.” She brought a .22 caliber revolver, three changes of clothes, and a leather-bound journal with a brass lock. By eighteen, she had rejected debutante balls, bought

Here’s a blog post written in the style of a true-crime / history blog, focusing on the lesser-known figure .

In 1924, she married , an eccentric amateur archaeologist fifteen years her senior, who claimed to have found evidence of a lost Viking settlement in the Mojave Desert. The wedding lasted six months. The divorce lasted three years.