Victor Harold “Bunk” Travis was a 42-year-old White/Caucasian man from Adams County, Wisconsin, when he vanished on November 1, 1952. Although some later cold-case databases use that day as his date of death, Wisconsin’s official missing-person records continue to classify Travis as missing, and no remains have ever been conclusively identified as his.
His disappearance began as a hunting trip but developed into a mystery involving a stranger using a questionable identity, possible organized-crime connections, and later speculation surrounding notorious Plainfield killer Ed Gein.
About a week before he disappeared, Travis reportedly met a stranger calling himself Ray Burgess at a tavern in Big Flats. Burgess was described as a short, heavyset man with one or more gold teeth who claimed connections to Milwaukee or Madison and said he worked as an executive for a chain store. Witness accounts described him carrying an unusually large roll of money and freely buying drinks with large-denomination bills. Travis became acquainted with the stranger and eventually agreed to go hunting with him. According to later accounts, Travis’s mother was uneasy about the new acquaintance and warned her son about associating with a stranger carrying so much cash.
On November 1, Travis and Burgess were seen together at a Big Flats tavern before heading toward property associated with Lars Thomsen in the Plainfield-Hancock area, where they intended to hunt squirrels or other small game. Travis left his own automobile behind and rode with Burgess in a 1950 Oldsmobile. Later that afternoon the men appeared at a Plainfield tavern, where they remained for several hours. At approximately 7:00 p.m., they left together in Burgess’s vehicle, reportedly indicating that they were returning to the hunting property. It was the last confirmed sighting of either man.
The circumstances found afterward made the possibility that Travis had simply become lost increasingly difficult to reconcile with what was known. His hunting dog, rifle and articles of clothing were eventually located on the property where the men had been hunting, yet Travis himself was nowhere to be found. Neither man ever contacted relatives or acquaintances again. Searches failed to locate Travis, and his experience in the outdoors was another reason friends and family questioned whether an ordinary hunting accident could explain his disappearance.
Investigators also discovered troubling questions about the man who called himself Ray Burgess. The license information connected with his Oldsmobile reportedly led back to a Milwaukee man who had already been dead for several years. The automobile itself was traced through previous owners, but those inquiries did not establish that the mysterious hunter was actually Raymond Burgess. This raised the possibility that the name was an alias. Historical reports later described a witness as tentatively identifying the stranger as someone associated with the Chicago criminal underworld, leading investigators to examine whether Travis might have been deliberately lured into the countryside rather than simply accompanying a new friend on a hunting trip.
One theory that emerged years later involved organized-crime figure James DeGeorge. Historical accounts reported that Travis had been friendly with DeGeorge’s son Dominic, who died in a September 1952 vehicle accident near Big Flats only weeks before Travis disappeared. Later reporting claimed that James DeGeorge blamed Travis for his son’s death and that there had previously been tension over Travis’s association with Dominic. Investigators subsequently considered whether “Ray Burgess” could have been an intermediary or hired killer brought in as part of a revenge plot. That possibility, however, was never proved, Burgess’s true identity was never conclusively established, and no evidence sufficient for a criminal prosecution emerged.
Another name eventually became attached to the mystery: Ed Gein. After Gein’s crimes were uncovered in Plainfield in 1957, authorities and the public revisited several unexplained disappearances from the surrounding area, including that of Travis and his hunting companion. The hunting property was described in Wisconsin missing-person information as being near or adjacent to Gein’s property, which inevitably drew attention to him. Human remains discovered during the investigation of Gein also generated speculation about the missing hunters. Despite that suspicion, investigators never established that Gein killed Travis or Burgess. Gein denied involvement, and no remains or other physical evidence found in connection with him were conclusively tied to Travis.
The competing theories have never produced a definitive answer. Travis may have been the victim of foul play connected to the mysterious “Ray Burgess,” and later investigators examined the possibility of a revenge killing with organized-crime connections. Gein was also considered because of geography and the horrifying discoveries later made on his property, but the evidence never established his involvement. No one has been arrested or charged with causing Travis’s disappearance or presumed death, and there has consequently been no trial or conviction. More than seven decades later, the Adams County Sheriff’s Office remains the investigating agency, and Victor Travis is still officially listed as a missing person whose ultimate fate remains unresolved.
