Who Was The Man Claiming To Be Joseph Newton Chandler III?

EASTLAKE, OH — On Thursday, the mystery was finally unraveled. The man that lived under the identity of Joseph Newton Chandler III for more than half a century was Robert Ivan Nichols.

Nichols took on the identity of a boy that died in 1945, the actual Joseph Chandler. In 1978, Nichols received a social security card bearing the name Joseph Newton Chandler III and then moved to Ohio. He stayed in the state until his death in 2002.

Law enforcement officials still don't know why Nichols took on a false identity. "There is a reason he went missing in 1965 and adopted the identity of a dead boy," U.S. Marshal Peter Elliott said at a news conference. That reason remains a mystery and the U.S. Marshals want the public's help piecing the puzzle together.

One of the popular theories is that Nichols may have been the infamous Zodiac killer. Elliott said California law enforcement agencies are working that angle, but Elliott said he cannot rule out the possibility that Nichols was the Zodiac killer, "I can't say that he is and I can't say that he isn't."

A Decades Long Mystery

The mystery of Joseph Newton Chandler III has fascinated Northeast Ohioans for 16 years.

The story starts in 1945. An 8-year-old boy was killed in a car crash in Texas shortly before Christmas. The boy's name? Joseph Newton Chandler III.

More than half a century later, in 2002, a 76-year-old man was found dead in his apartment in Eastlake. The man's name? Joseph Newton Chandler III.

It appears the 76-year-old mystery man stole the identity of the dead boy.

The fraudulent Joseph Chandler was actually Robert Nichols, a man born in 1926. He was a war hero who served in World War II. He had several children and was married. Then, in 1965, he went missing.

Then in 1978, Robert Nichols applied for a social security card while living in Rapid City, South Dakota. He also applied for a copy of a birth certificate from a Buffalo, New York hospital. The social security card and birth certificate were in the name of Joseph Newton Chandler III.

Nichols got both documents.

He would move to Ohio that same year and begin working for a Northeast Ohio company. He was 41 at the time, Elliott said during a press conference.

Nichols was described as a highly intelligent, but strange man, by neighbors and coworkers, law enforcement said. Elliott said he would occasionally go missing for weeks at a time, telling the few people close to him that "they were getting close."

In July 2002, Nichols locked all the doors and windows in his apartment, turned off the air conditioning, and then shot himself in the head, Elliott said. It took a week for Eastlake Police to discover his body. No fingerprints were obtainable.

"He didn't want to be identified, even in death," Elliott said.

The body was cremated. At the time, it appeared as a typical suicide. It was only when police reached out to "Chandler's" family that they learned the 76-year-old had lied about his identity. But the mystery was slow to unravel.

In 2014, the Eastlake Police Department asked the U.S. Marshals to take over the case.

Then, in early 2018, the Marshals and Eastlake Police discovered Nichols had visited a hospital and had a tissue sample taken. The tissue sample was still on-file, giving law enforcement a DNA sample to test.

The U.S. Marshals then partnered with a group called IdentiFinders. The two groups were able to test the DNA and connect it to the surname Nichols or Nicholas, said Dr. Colleen Fitzpatrick of IdentiFinders at a news conference.

The company investigated a series of family trees with matching DNA structures to the sample. One of Fitzpatrick's volunteers began working a possible match to Nichols' DNA and a potential third-cousin. Through that connection, the investigation narrowed in on a name.

In early 2018, Identifiers International and a team of investigators, were able to identify the man known as Joseph Newton Chandler III as Robert Ivan Nichols. Investigators found Nichols' son, Phil, who immediately confirmed his father's actual identity.

Phil said his father went missing in 1965. Dr. Maureen Press, of DNA Doe, said there was no information on Nichols' post-1965.

However, the Social Security Administration was able to confirm that Nichols worked under his real name until 1976. The agency could not say where he worked.

"Someone out there knew him. Someone out there worked with him," Elliott said.

It is still unclear why Nichols chose the name of Joseph Chandler and what might have prompted him to take on someone else's identity. That’s where Patch readers might help. If you know something about Chandler – or Nichols – the U.S. Marshals would like to hear from you. Call them at (216) 522-4482.

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