Aloha Wanderwell Life Story

Along the way Aloha fell in love with Captain Wanderwell – who was not yet divorced from his first wife, Nell; in fact, upon their arrival in the United States, Walter himself was brought in for questioning on charges of “white slavery,” which turned out to be a ploy by Nell to force a more favorable divorce settlement.

Eventually, Aloha and Walter married in California during the American leg of their expedition. They had two children, Nile and Valri.

By 1929, when they had concluded their initial trek across the globe and released their documentary WITH CAR AND CAMERA AROUND THE WORLD, the Wanderwells had become internationally acclaimed explorers.

Their initial expedition was followed by an even more extraordinary adventure deep in the Mata Grosso region of the Amazon basin, when their plane went down in the uncharted jungle and Aloha had to remain behind with an indigenous tribe while Walter slowly made his way back to civilization to secure replacement parts, a trek that took several months.

The ever-resourceful Aloha charmed the natives, continued filming, and carefully documented their lives. Her film, FLIGHT TO THE STONE AGE BOROROS, was the earliest filmed record of the Bororo tribe and stands today as an important anthropological resource within the Smithsonian Institute’s Human Studies Archive.

After returning to the United States in 1931, the Wanderwells made plans for future expeditions, future films… but their ambitions were cut short by tragedy and scandal.

In December, 1932, the Captain was shot and killed by an unknown assailant on the couple’s 110’ yacht, “The Carma,” in Long Beach, California. Under intense media scrutiny a suspect was tried and acquitted… and Wanderwell’s murder remains one of the most famous unsolved crimes on the West Coast.