He never used that escape. His colon cancer diagnosis was terminal, and the calendar marks in his apartment suggest he chose his own endpoint rather than waiting for either the disease or “them” — whoever they were — to make that choice for him.
The $82,000 left in his bank account went unclaimed initially, because there was no one to claim it. He had not left the account to Phil or to his other sons. If he knew his family — knew where they were, whether they had survived, what their lives had become — he gave no sign of it in his arrangements for death.
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## Phil Nichols and the Family Left Behind
The three sons Robert Nichols left behind in 1964 — Phil and his two brothers — grew up without a father who ever explained himself. The last communication any of them received from him was Phil’s letter from Napa, California, in 1965, with the single penny inside. Whatever the penny was meant to communicate — luck, farewell, a private symbol — it was not an explanation.
Phil Nichols was located in Cincinnati by investigators in early 2018, more than five decades after his father’s disappearance. He agreed to provide DNA. When the match was confirmed and the Marshals’ announcement was made, Phil spoke to reporters.
His comments were remarkable in their restraint. He acknowledged that his father had “left the family in a lurch” — a phrase that carries the weight of decades of absence without the weight of explicit accusation. He said he held no animosity and no anger. He said he was at peace.