Victor Harold Travis

• Missing Since 11/01/1952
• Missing From Plainfield, Wisconsin
• Classification Endangered Missing
• Sex Male
• Race White
• Age 42 years old
• Height and Weight 5'9, 144 - 180 pounds
• Associated Vehicle(s) 1950 Oldsmobile
• Distinguishing Characteristics Caucasian male. Brown hair, brown eyes. Travis is a polio survivor and walks with a limp as a result. His nickname is Bunk.

Details of Disappearance

Travis was last seen on November 1, 1952. On October 25, a week earlier, he had met a stranger who called himself "Ray Burgess" at a tavern in Big Flats, Wisconsin and they had become acquainted.

Burgess's identity is unknown, but he made vague references to living in either Milwaukee, Wisconsin or Madison, Wisconsin and said he was an executive at a chain store. He is described as about 5'6 and 250 pounds, with a "fat baby face" and one or more gold teeth.

When Travis first met him, Burgess had a large roll of cash in his shirt pocket and was spending freely, buying drinks for everyone in the tavern and paying with $50 and $100 bills. Travis wanted to bring Burgess to his mother's home, but his mother refused to allow it and warned Travis to stay away from strangers with too much money.

On November 1, Travis and Burgess went to the Big Flats tavern again and told others there that they were going squirrel hunting on a farm in Plainfield, Wisconsin which belonged to Lars Thomsen. When it was time to leave, Travis left his car at the tavern and went with Burgess in Burgess's vehicle, a 1950 Oldsmobile. At 4:00 p.m. that same day, the men appeared at a bar in Plainfield, stayed about three hours, then left, saying they were going back to Thomsen's.

Neither of them were ever seen again, but Travis's hunting rifle, clothing and hunting dog were later found on Thomsen's farm.

Thomsen's wife had written down the license plate number of Burgess's Oldsmobile; a check showed the license plate had been issued in the name of a Milwaukee man who died in 1948. The car itself was traced to a dealer in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin and to a farmer in Stanley, Wisconsin; neither of those men were named Ray Burgess or looked like him.

In 1957, five years after the two hunters disappeared, police went to question Edward Theodore Gein about the disappearance of a local barmaid and found human remains all over his house. He had killed two women and had dug up other women's bodies in the cemetery and mutilated them. Gein was declared insane and died in a mental institution in 1984.

His property was adjacent to Thomsen's farm, leading to speculation that Gein was involved in the hunters' disappearances. Authorities could find no evidence to support this theory, however, and believe Gein only attacked female victims. Gein denied involvement in the missing men's cases and also denied involvement in the 1957 abducton of Evelyn Hartley from La Crosse, Wisconsin, and the 1957 abduction of Georgia Weckler from Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin, both of which are still unsolved.

Travis disappeared just a few months after his wedding. His wife said her husband was well-liked, had no enemies, and was capable of defending himself if attacked. The circumstances of his and Burgess's disappearance are unclear.