[4][a] After high school, Cox volunteered for the United States Army, completed initial processing at Camp Atterbury, Indiana, and underwent basic training at Fort Knox, Kentucky.

[7] He was then assigned to the United States Constabulary, which carried out police occupation and security duties in Allied-occupied Germany, and attained the rank of sergeant.

[12] Later in 1947, Cox received an appointment to West Point; he arrived at the United States Military Academy Preparatory School (then located at Stewart Field) in January 1948.

[19] Later that evening, Cox altered the military time he had written in the Departure Book, changing "1923" to "1823" to make it look as if he had attended the 6:30 pm cadet supper formation.

[22] This detail was not discovered until two years later, when an agent of the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command (CID) had the Departure Book examined in a laboratory.

[19][24] Cox also said the man liked to brag about killing Germans during World War II and had boasted about cutting off their private parts afterward.

[25] Cox mentioned his visitor once to his roommates, remarking that he "hoped he wouldn't have to see the fellow again," which gave them the impression he viewed the man with distaste.

[29] On Sunday morning, Cox's roommates reported all they knew of the matter to their superior; the New York State Police and the CID were informed.

[30] A search of Army records for a soldier who had served with Cox and matched the description of "George", led almost without exception to individuals who could not have been at West Point at the time of the disappearance.

[30] Though he had occasionally written disparagingly of West Point life in letters to his mother and girlfriend, the theory that he had deliberately deserted was discounted, as he had left behind in his room $87 (about $1102 in 2023) and two suits of civilian clothes.

[30] Based on a West Point psychologist's speculation (without evidence) that two single men meeting several times were probably "homosexualist," the FBI looked into the possibility that Cox was gay or bisexual.

[38] According to McKee, Unterwagner did not widely share her experience out of concern that she might be jeopardizing Cox's life or career if he had gone to work for an intelligence agency.

[38][39] In 1954, Ernest Shotwell, who had joined the United States Coast Guard after leaving the West Point prep school, reported to the FBI that he had had a conversation with Cox at the Washington, D.C. Greyhound Lines bus station in March 1952, two years after his disappearance.

[45] The informant went on to claim that "Mansfield" stated that Fidel Castro's time as Cuba's leader would be "limited," giving rise to the possibility that he was involved in clandestine work for an American intelligence agency.

"[45] Harry J. Maihafer's book Oblivion (1996) documents the investigation by retired high school history teacher Marshall Jacobs into Cox's disappearance.

[48] He researched West Point's archives and the files from the FBI, CIA and CID investigations of Cox's disappearance, to which he gained access under the Freedom of Information Act.

[15] Jacobs came to believe that the presence of $87 in Cox's shared room did not rule out the possibility that his visitor had helped him start a new career with a new identity.

[15] The old leads Jacobs revisited included ones from Mansfield News Journal reporter Jim Underwood, who had written a twelve-installment series on the case published in 1982.

[49] Underwood had interviewed a high school acquaintance of Cox named Ralph E. Johns, an Army veteran and prosecutor who later served as a judge in Mansfield.

[50] Johns told Underwood that while he had not been involved in the original investigation, he and county prosecutor William McKee had frequent contacts with local FBI officials.

[53] The resulting work, Oblivion, contains a photo section including the snapshot that Cox's roommates took of him on January 7, 1950, as he slept off the effects of the alcohol he had consumed in his visitor's parked car a short time earlier.

The fact that Cox left money, civilian clothes and a prized gold watch in his room indicated he did not plan to leave permanently.

A letter to Betty that he never finished included a hand drawn face spitting on the words "United States Military Academy.

Several of Cox's friends and acquaintances said he told them that while in Germany, he had testified at a court-martial or had provided civilian court testimony against an individual charged with murder.

[55] The identity of this individual could not be confirmed, but it raised the possibility that Cox could have become involved in espionage or black market activities while serving in Germany.

[58] In addition, "Mansfield's" anti-Castro remarks less than a year before the Bay of Pigs Invasion again raised the possibility that Cox was involved in clandestine intelligence work.

[58] Frisbee was arrested for the 1985 murder of socialite Muriel Barnett aboard a cruise ship and imprisoned in Canada, but disclaimed any knowledge of or involvement with Cox.

"[58][e] Westervelt fit the physical description provided by Cox's classmates and had a dubious career that caused police to interview him several times about his disappearance.

[58] According to an account provided to Jacobs in the mid-1990s by a retired CIA official he did not name, Cox became part of a "stay-behind" team in Europe and spent his career smuggling nuclear scientists and other high-priority individuals out of the Soviet Union and other Eastern Bloc countries.