In the 1970’s, crime was at its highest- especially in New York City. There was no form of communication with people throughout their day as today we have our family and friends locations. It was most common for people to use hitchhiking as a form of transportation.
Bonnie Bitckwit and her boyfriend Mitchel Weiser both grew up in Brooklyn and attended John Dewey High School. Bonnie lived in Borough Park while Mitchel lived in a Flatbush residence. Both had met at Camp Wel-Met, a Jewish retreat. Mitchel was only 16, while Bonnie was 15 years old when they both decided to go upstate to Watkins Glen for a Allman Brothers and Grateful Dead concert. Both teens had decided on going hitchhiking in Sullivan County where that would be the last time they would be seen.
Cops in Sullivan County had assumed the teens had just run away to be together or joined a cult. Bonnie and Mitchel’s parents thought it would be very unlike their children to just run away. Mitchel was known to be very responsible but at times quite adventurous, as both were socially aware of their surroundings.
“Times have drastically changed since the 1970’s. People are much more cautious than they were before, now the majority of people have eachothers locations and are constantly in touch. It was more common to hitchhike in the 70’s since there wasn’t any uber service so most commonly people would stand on the side of the road looking for a ride. I feel people were more carefree about their safety during this time period even when crime was at its peak because they didn’t expect anything bad or unexpected to them. I think this case would have ended up differently if social media was more present during the 70’s since the media would be able to cover the news much better on different platforms because they would be able to spread the news around to people, which can increase the chance to find the two of them,” a Law Academy/ mock trial senior at John Dewey High school, Amir Ahmetjanov shared.
Alexa Garcia, who is a senior in John Dewey High School was able to express her thoughts on the missing couple, saying “I believe that the best way to find those teens was if media was a thing during that time and that the police would try even harder to find them like looking for any clues that could lead to them being missing. Hitchhiking was more common back then because it was a free ride when going to places and people probably felt like they could trust random strangers. I think that now people are way more careful when going out because of the crimes that they see from the news, social media, or even in person. In 1973, there probably wasn’t any way of getting information or teens didn’t really care since they thought nothing would happen despite crimes going around.”
It has been over 50 years since Bonnie Bickwit and Mitchel Weiser had gone missing and most likely passed away. Although the young couple was no longer found, many of their friends and peers had gathered at John Dewey High School to plant an 8 foot red maple tree as a dedication in the missing couple’s names.
