By Tim Binnall
A Minnesota man managed to solve a longstanding family mystery and, in turn, stands to gain a small fortune by way of a flight helmet that was handed down to him by his late mother, who claimed that it had belonged to famed aviator Amelia Earhart. Anthony Twiggs reportedly received the remarkable piece of history approximately two decades ago when his mother, Ellie Brookhart, passed away. During her life, she recalled getting the leather cap in 1929 when she attended the finish of an air derby in which Earhart was a participant. As the story went, during a scrum surrounding the enormously popular aviator, a boy somehow got hold of the helmet and, in turn, gifted it to Twiggs' mother, who cherished it ever since.
Following her passing around twenty years ago, her son took possession of the piece and eventually decided to sell the historic helmet rather than simply keep it for himself. However, he was soon faced with a rather odd challenge as the cap's origin story was apocryphal at best and multiple experts dismissed the claim as simply a tall tale that his mother had concocted. After repeatedly being rebuffed, Twiggs began to doubt the account himself until he learned of a newly developed process wherein auction houses forensically match historic objects using photographs. Setting about seeing if he could connect the cap in a similar fashion and was amazed by what he discovered.
Twigg was able to procure pre-1929 pictures of Earhart in which the pioneering aviator is wearing a cap that shares a striking number details which can also be found on the helmet his mother had handed down to him. Taking his findings to an auction house, he finally received some interest and a professional forensic photo expert was enlisted to look into the case concluded that the piece is "an extraordinary find" and that it did, indeed, once belong to Earhart. The helmet is now set to go up for auction later this month with an estimated sale price of at least $80,000 if not somewhere in the six figures. While Twiggs is understandable excited about the potential windfall, an even better reward may be that his mother's story had finally been confirmed after all these years.