Robert Ransom Speed One of the few known photographs of Robert Ransom Speed Jr., known as "Ponytail" during his days in the Boothbay region, was taken at his father's funeral. He was 29 when this photo was taken.

The mystery of Robert R. "Ponytail" Speed Jr.

Southport resident Jack Bauman gave a presentation April 27 for the Land Trust at the YMCA on the non-fictional character who roamed the alley ways and by-ways of the Boothbay peninsula in the mid- 1950s and early 1960s.

A retired history professor, Bauman was inspired to research the life of the Robert Louis Stevenson look-alike, Robert Ransom Speed, while vacationing at a Southport cottage in the '60s. There, Jack and his brother found a packet of Speed family letters tied with a red ribbon in a mysterious trunk. After years of interviews and research, Bauman recently met Speed's niece Beverly. Through this encounter he has been enlightened on many aspects of the reclusive life of Robert Ransom Speed Jr., known to most in this area as "Ponytail."

According to Bauman, Bob Speed came from a broken home. His mother, Elizabeth Brier Speed, an immigrant from the Austrian-Hungarian Empire who was born in Hungary, immigrated with her family to the United States in the late 1880s for a better life. Here she was married twice, having a daughter from first marriage to psychiatrist Dr. Krasney and then a second child, Robert Speed Jr., named after his World War I Captain father. Elizabeth worked very hard in this country to secure her family's future, becoming a merchant of fine imported crafted fabrics, pillows, clothing and lace, among other items.

Her second marriage being an unhappy one, she took her family away from the couple's Hamden, Conn. home and moved to Beacon Hill in Boston. Here she owned and operated a fashionable store called Czechoslovak Art Studio, located at the chic address of 29 Newbury Street.

Having recently met a Speed family member, Bauman was able to return home to Southport with photographs of the Speed family and photos of intricate creations made and sold by Bob Speed Jr.'s mother, who ultimately owned three successful boutiques, one each in Boston, New York and Chicago. The single parent Speed household seemed to have been one of status and wealth through the valiant efforts of Elizabeth Speed.

During World War II, Bob Jr. was drafted to Ft. Devens, Mass. After training as a surgical technician at Camp Attaberry, Indiana, "Sonny," as he was called, was transferred to an Army Air Force base in Sheppard, Texas, then onto a B-29 U.S. Army Air Force base in Amarillo, Texas. There he performed duties as a medical specialist at the base hospital's psychotherapy ward, "giving penicillin shots," as he stated in one of his letters home. Sonny, however, did not see any combat action during his two-year service term.

The only known photograph of him was taken at his father's funeral at age 29; there he was clean and well dressed. In the photo, his hair is pulled back and his long, narrow fingers on his right hand don a gold ring and his trademark pipe.

Speed seemed to have changed after his tour of duty, according to his niece, Beverly. She told of his visit to her office in Boston City Hall after his honorable discharge on Dec.13, 1946, of his being disheveled and wearing military garb and long, untidy hair.

According to Bauman, Bob's mother raised him to see himself as privileged and in control; time, however, would reveal that this wasn't the case. After 1947, the young Bob Speed drifted around the country for five years, eventually being committed to Willard State Hospital in upstate New York due to a midnight wandering in New York City, having a large knife concealed in his back pack. Willard was a hospital that was known for its electroshock therapy, hydrotherapy (ice baths) and lobotomies.

Speed was released from Willard State Hospital a few months after he'd entered. Three and a half years later, he came to Southport Island where he purchased Lower Mark Island, located a short distance from Molly's Point on the west side of Southport. In his letters sent to various relatives, Bauman discovered that Speed considered Mark Island to be his Shangri-La.

Speed considered himself a writer, an artist and craftsperson. Having very little personal effects to corroborate that idea, Speed was taken care of by his mother who, from her Massachusetts home, arranged for an account for her son's food at Gus Pratt's store. Pratt, before his passing, showed Bauman a poem that Bob had written to Gus for his kind gesture of lending him a flashlight one evening when he was returning to his island home by skiff. Speed drowned on June 26, 1964 off of Molly's Point, apparently after falling out of his skiff.

Bauman plans to write a book about what he knows about Bob "Ponytail" Speed, including the rare photos that he has found.

Anyone with a photo or a "Pony-tale" is asked to contact Bauman at 633-3964.