a facial reconstruction of Little Mr. No Name, made by Bailey Williamson at the NCMEC
Discovered July 19th, 1973

SOLVED

Little Mr. No Name, also sometimes known as The Boy in The Blanket, is the nickname given to a formerly unidentified boy.

On July 19th, 1973, a woman, Nora Pye, and her two daughters were walking along the beach in Cape Elizabeth, Maine, when they spotted the body of a boy. He was African American and wrapped in a white blanket, that had a few spots of blood on it. The boy had a large gash in his forehead, so his cause of death was determined to be trauma to the head. His face had been extensively cut up, in efforts to avoid recognition, and his hands were missing. His hair had been recently cut.

He was brought to Cape Elizabeth police, who were unable to identify the boy. They posted facial reconstructions of the boy, but nothing came to light. The main detective on this case, Detective George Fordson, nicknamed him Little Mr. No Name. Another detective, Edward Pepper, called him the boy in the blanket, as he noticed similarities between this case and the case of the Boy In The Box, now known to be Joseph Augustus Zarelli. Ultimately, though, it was the nickname given by Detective Fordson that stuck, as he was buried in Crescent Beach Cemetery on October 25th, 1973, his headstone reading;

LITTLE MR. NO NAME
DISCOVERED JULY 19, 1973
"blessed are they that they mourn, for they shall be comforted"
Matthew 5:4

One mother, Joanne Courtier, believed him to be her missing son, Nicholas Courtier, who had disappeared from the area two years earlier. Again, through DNA tests in the 90s, that was disproven. There were several theories surrounding the boy's identity, as well as his killer. Two months earlier, three girls, Julie Potter, Evelyn Reeves, and Audrey Scottish, had been murdered in Cape Elizabeth. Their bodies were found in the same location as Little Mr. No Name's and some believed that whoever killed them had killed him. To this day, the girls killer(s) have never been caught. Many believed that they were killed by the same person.

On September 26th, 2022, forty-nine years, two months, and seven days after the discovery of his body, Little Mr. No Name was officially identified as Francis Nathaniel Wilkens. Upon his identification, Detective Fordson, who is well into his seventies, said, quote;

"Little Mr. No Name from will now be given his name back, the name that was so brutally stolen from him."

Francis was born on January 27th, 1962 in Woodstock, Vermont, the son of a fourteen year old girl, Carolyn Wilkens, who came from a Catholic family. After giving birth, she gave her son up for adoption, and he was adopted by the Millard family before they gave him back up for adoption when he was six and he then spent several years in foster care, lastly ending up in Augusta, Maine, where he was in the O'Leary family. The father, William O'Leary, was known to be a very aggressive man in the community, having hospitalized his wife and other children a multitude of times. In December of 2022, he was officially named as Francis' killer.

Agnes O'Leary, William's daughter, said that; "My father was a highly racist man. He punished Francis more severely than he ever punished me or my siblings. We always thought he'd just been put back into the system and that was that."

His headstone was updated to read;

LITTLE MR. FRANCIS NATHANIEL WILKENS
JANUARY 28, 1962
JULY 1973
"blessed are they that they mourn, for they shall be comforted"
Matthew 5:4

Carolyn Wilkens, now Carolyn Harris, also attended the funeral, along with her children.

May Francis Nathaniel Wilkens rest in peace.

a photo of Francis, taken during his time with the O'Learys