Jesus Maria De Galindez Missing Person Case

Jan 27, 2026

Jan 27, 2026

Jesus

Maria De Galindez

110

40

6'1 inches

160 lbs

White

Male

On the evening of March 12, 1956, Jesus Maria De Galindez, a 40-year-old male professor of international law at Columbia University, vanished after teaching a class in New York City. A student dropped him off at the entrance to the subway at 57th Street and Eighth Avenue in Manhattan, and he was last seen walking towards the station. De Galindez, a Basque nationalist and writer who had fled Franco's Spain, was a vocal critic of another dictator, Rafael Trujillo of the Dominican Republic. He had lived in the Dominican Republic for a period before moving to New York in 1946. At the time of his disappearance, he had just completed his doctoral thesis, a comprehensive and critical exposé of the brutality of the Trujillo regime. Fearing for his life due to his outspoken opposition, De Galindez had previously written a letter to be opened in the event of his death or disappearance, naming Trujillo as the responsible party should any harm befall him. The investigation into De Galindez's disappearance quickly pointed towards the Dominican Republic. It was widely believed that he was abducted by agents of Trujillo's government, drugged, and secretly flown out of the United States. An investigation by Life magazine alleged that an American pilot named Gerald Murphy flew a small plane carrying a "patient" from Long Island to the Dominican Republic on the night De Galindez vanished. This "patient" is believed to have been De Galindez. Murphy, who later took a job with the Dominican national airline, also disappeared in the Dominican Republic in December 1956, just before he was planning to return to the U.S. His car was found abandoned near a cliff. The case grew even more complex when another pilot, a Dominican named Octavio de la Maza, was arrested for Murphy's murder. Shortly after, de la Maza was found hanged in his jail cell in what was reported as a suicide, leaving a confession note that was later deemed a forgery by the FBI. The disappearance of Jesus Maria De Galindez sparked an international incident and created significant negative publicity for the Trujillo regime. In an attempt to counteract this, Trujillo hired American lawyer Morris Ernst to conduct an independent investigation, which ultimately produced a report exonerating the Dominican government and suggesting De Galindez had absconded with funds. Despite these efforts, the case remained a stain on Trujillo's relationship with the United States. De Galindez's body was never found, and he is presumed to be deceased. The most credible accounts suggest he was taken to the Dominican Republic and killed shortly after his abduction, possibly in the presence of Trujillo himself. The case remains officially unsolved, a chilling example of transnational repression. The brother of Octavio de la Maza, convinced of the regime's guilt, later became one of the conspirators who assassinated Rafael Trujillo in 1961.

Mar 12, 1956

Manhattan

New York

Manhattan

New York Police Departmen

646-610-6914

09/15/2026