The Story
Bickwit and Weiser planned to hitchhike to attend a concert festival, Summer Jam featuring The Allman Brothers and the Grateful Dead in Watkins Glen, New York.
The concert is believed to have been the largest in history, with over 800,000 people showing up. Weiser met Bickwit at Camp Wel-Met and they set off for the concert, which was 156 miles from Narrowsburg.
Neither has been seen since. It is believed that Weiser and Bickwit had approximately $25 between them.
They carried backpacks, sleeping bags, and a cardboard sign that read “Watkins Glen.” They were last seen hitchhiking along State Route 97.
It is believed that Weiser and Bickwit had approximately $25 between them. They carried backpacks, sleeping bags, and a cardboard sign that read “Watkins Glen.” They were last seen hitchhiking along State Route 97.
Authorities initially believed that the couple simply ran off together. Bickwit and Weiser had secretly exchanged wedding rings earlier in the summer of 1973.
Both were intelligent teenagers who attended John Dewey High School, a Brooklyn alternative school for gifted, high-achieving students. Bickwit lived in Borough Park with her family when she was not working at Camp Wel-Met; Weiser lived in Midwood.
Both Bickwit and Weiser are from stable, middle-class Jewish families.