The night of October 14, 1965, after she left her job at C&S Bank, Mary Little shopped for groceries, and had dinner at at the S&S Cafeteria with a friend. The women spent more than an hour together.  As she walked to her car with the groceries her last words were, "I'll see you tomorrow."  That was the last contact anyone in Atlanta had with Little.

Her car was found in the parking lot with blood smeared in it. A pair of hose with blood, and a cut was folded and put beside the seat. The police noted that there was little blood but it had been spread around to make it appear more.

In 1965 gasoline companies mailed copies of charge tickets with the end of the month bill. When the charge tickets were mailed to her husband at her residence there were two out of state purchases.     Gas station attendants pumped gas in 1965.     When interviewed they said she was in the car covered with blood, and there were two rough looking men with her. The two gas stations were about three hours apart but the purchases were separate by as much as 14 hours.

Why, long after they left Atlanta, was Little seated in the car to be seen covered with blood?  They couldn't stop and clean her up, change the bloody clothes?  It was part of the ruse to make police believe she was traveling away from her actual destination.   They used her gas charge card to be sure she would be identified. The blood covering her guaranteed she would be noticed and remembered.

Why the long time separation between purchases when the two stations were only three hours apart?    Little's Subliminal Distraction episode may have caused a manic episode to delay her being able to act out her part in the plan. 

So what happened?  

Subliminal Distraction arises from the long term suppression of the vision startle reflex in a location with detectable movement in peripheral vision so the subject's brain continues to attempt but fails to execute, cannot complete, the consciously blocked, suppressed, startle reflex.  Visit the site entrance, Home page, for the physiology involved.   The explanation of Subliminal Distraction begins with this second site page.

Discovered in 1964 the solution was not complete until the cubicle was introduced in 1968.  No one in Atlanta would have information about Subliminal Distraction in 1965.

The subliminal appreciation of threat from those failed attempts to startle will eventually color thought and reason with fear, panic, paranoia, and depression. That means the nature of the hallucinated beliefs will involve potential guilt for hallucinated wrong doing.

When this happened to my wife she had depressive crying episodes about guilt for impossible criminal situations she hallucinated.  That is what happened to both women in Atlanta. They acted out the hallucinated situation.  Connie Tucker's hospital record page includes Connie's hallucinations of guilt.

No one ever found a problem at C&S Bank.   What ever Little believed came from her hallucinations. Her new husband was a bank examiner which meant she would not take him into her confidence.

The fact that two women vanished after using the same desk says the problem was the incorrect design and placement of the desk at C&S Bank. Both women began to behave strangely and tell wild stories before they each vanished. Police investigated the stories both women told and found nothing. None of it happened.

Dianne Shields was found murdered, stuffed in the trunk of her car. But Little has never been found.

When I discovered the story in 2009, and explained what happened, the mystery was 44 years old. If she were still alive then, Little would have been 65.  In 2014 Little would be 70.

The box of police evidence vanished.  There is nothing left  to use to reinvestigate the incident.

Subliminal Distraction manic or depressive episodes spontaneously remit when exposure stops. If she did not create another source of exposure she would have recovered, and lived out her life with the remembered hallucinations as if they had been reality.

Those she convincingly told the story, such as her mother, would have no reason to doubt her. They would have cooperated in keeping silent about her location, and new life.