Something doesn’t add up. Joe Don Dickey was a high school senior in 1941 yet he was supposedly born in 1926. Could he have graduated HS at the age of 15??? He also may have been going to college for a year or two in Phoenix, AZ in 1946 and then possible the Army in 1948.

Here are some things Galaxie500 has posted worth mentioning:
1946 article from the Arizona Republic:

Radio Amateur Call Book Magazine. 1947

Radio Amateur Call Book Magazine. 1948

Marfa, TX is a little bit southeast of El Paso. I don’t know if this is even our guy, but I’d imagine so. If it is, then he was in college in Phoenix for a short time and then must have went into the Army in 1948?

EDIT: By 1948 it looks as though that Army base had become an airport. And Marshall working for Boeing Airplane Co. in Seattle in 1954, I’d say there is a good chance he was working at the airport in Marfa, TX in 1948.

The military records that we have on page 2 of this thread say that Joe Don Dickey entered the service June 8 1944. He would have been 18 years old. D-Day, the beginning of the end of the war, was June 6, 1944. The war officially ended September 2, 1945.

The education information on those military records say that Joe Don Dickey had two years of high school. It’s possible that he had skipped a grade or two and had actually graduated. It’s hard to say without looking at a high school year book and there are not any that old from Hamlin High School posted at Classmates.

It does seem like something doesn’t add up but without confirmation of his high school years it’s hard to say if that is because he was trying to be sneaky about something or had something to hide. He easily could have had a flair for the dramatic and the mysterious. Look at Arthur Leigh Allen who seemed to go out of his way to make himself look guilty. ALA apparently enjoyed the attention even though it was negative attention.

Thanks, Deb. I didn’t see where it said he only had a couple years of HS. So he must have graduated in 1941 and then went into the service a few years later. He may have went to college in Phoenix after the military and then went to work at that airport in Marfa, TX shortly after. It would be nice to put together a timeline, but it’s pretty difficult with this guy.

Has anyone come across any birth records for the real Richard Reed Marshall? The reason I’m asking is because I’m starting to think there was no hitchhiker with that name and that Dickey changed his name because, well, Joe Don Dickey is not a good name for a gay guy in San Francisco and not a good name for the entertainment industry. I have looked like crazy and found no actual birth record for a Richard Reed Marshall. Perhaps Dickey just made up a tale of a hitchhiker that he had killed and taken his identity. A story like that would probably gain him some respect with the crowd he ran with in the bay area. But it would be nice if we could confirm if there was a Richard Reed Marshall or not.

Galaxy500 found a matching address in San Jose (1309 Oakland Rd) for both Richard R. Marshall and Joe D. Dickey, so there is no doubt that he was both of these people.