STOLEN BABY

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 4046, 26 April 1932, Page 7

STOLEN BABY

NEVER RECOVERED STRANGE KIDNAPPING CASE AMERICAN CHILD’S FATE. The following account of the famous Charlie Ross kidnapping case in 1874, the first of its kind to stir the whole American nation profoundly, is of special interest in view of the wave of intense popular feeling created in the United States by the recent abduction of Colonel and Mrs Lindbergh’s nine-teen-months’-old son. On July 1, 1874, the two little sons of Air Christian K. Ross, a Philadelphia business man, were playing by the roadside in Germantown. The boys were Walter, who was nearly six, and Charlie, four years and two months. Charlie was a charming youngster, with merry brown eyes and curly golden hair, which fell in ringlets on his neck. Like most children, he and his brother were fond of sweets, and for several days two men, who drove in a kind of wagon, stopped to talk to them and gave them gifts of candy. The children got to know the men and came to expect their visit, and when, on July 1, they drove up with the usual offering, Charlie asked for a ride and for crackers to celebrate Independence Day on July 4. After having promised the crackers, the men drove on a certain distance, and returning, took the children on board. They drove on for some time, when Charlie began to be alarmed at the distance they were from home, and asked to be taken back. WAGON DISAPPEARS. To quieten him, Walter was given some money and told to buy some crackers from a shop which had a display in the window. When the boy emerged again he found the wagon and Ids small brother had gone. Crying loudly, he attracted a crowd and was taken home by a kindly person. On returning in the evening, Chan lie’s father was alarmed at the story of his son’s disappearance. Inquiries at police stations elicited no news. At taverns and livery stables no one knew of the two men, and all inquiries proved vain. The neighbourhood was combed and inquiries made by telegraph and advertisement. The presence of a band of gipsies in the district seemed to offer a clue, but nothing could be found to connect them with Charlie’s disappearance. There was a great wave of popular sympathy for the parents, and much speculation as to the motive of the crime. Kidnapping for ransom was an unknown thing in Penysylvania or in any other North American State at the time. RANSOM DEMANDED. On July o Air Ross heard from the kidnappers. They told him not to worry about Charlie, but that a heavy ransom would be required to secure his return. An intensive search of Philadelphia, where the men and the child were thought to be hidden, yielded no result, and the extension of operations up and down the Delaware River and into neighbouring States also proved fruitless. The local authorities spared no effort, and the feeling of the whole community was behind them. The day after ho received the letter, Mr Ross' advertised a reward of £6O for the return of the child. To this there came a dramatic response, dated from Philadelphia on July 6. A letter, misspelt and badly written, informed the anxious father that nothing less than £4,000 would restore his child to him. On July 7 Air Ross advertised that he would negotiate. A further demand on the day required him to advertise definitely whether or not he would come to terms. If he agreed to do so, the ransom of £4,000 was insisted upon. If not, the child’s blood was on his father’s head. In reply to this unequivocal demand, with its hint of a terrible alternative, Air Ross agreed to pay the ransom. But difficulties arose which proved insurmountable. There was disagreement about the kind of notes to be paid, but the greatest difficulty of all—as, it is likely to be the greatest in the case of Colonel Lindbergh’s baby—concerned the effective exchange of the boy for his ransom. NATION-WIDE SEARCH. The whole country had been roused, newspapers in every State, from New Orleans to the Canadian border, and from Now York to San Francisco, were featuring the story. It was apparent that the abductors were dazed by the nation-wide reaction their crime i ad excited, and that they were alarmed at the dangers which surrounded its proper conclusion. The usual number of despicable creatures took advantage of the situation and attempted to extract monev from the distracted parents, and _ added to their sorrow and bewilderment. Alediums also volunteered assistance, but no two of ibem gave identical directions for the child’s recovery. Air Ross did not relax his efforts to find the boy, and travelled about the northern States in tespouse to communications from ibe kidnappers. These eventually led him to New A ork, and the names of the child’s captors wore established as Aloslier and Douglas. But reports of them showed that the child was not with them. The, New York police intensified their efforts, but in that city the men seemed to ba\e discovered an impenetrable biding place. ’They were, however, at the end of their resources, and took to burglary. REN TO EARTH. They broke into the house of a Supreme Court judge on Long island, 4'l ic judge and Ids family were absent, hut the house was fitted with an elaborate burglar alarm which communicated with the judge’s brother’s house nearby. 4'he alarm violently awakened Air Van Brunt early in the morning on December 11. Ibe house was surrounded, and, in the murderous affray which followed an aliempt to capture tin- men one ol them was killed outright, mid ibe oilier fatally wounded. Douglii", I be wounded man. 'bed two liour- later. Before be expired he com |,'„-eil that lie and Aloslier had a bd He led ('liarlie Boss, but when asked lor iuformal ion about the boy, be referred bis questioners lo .Mosher. V ben lohl that Mosher was dead and pressed for

information ho insisted that he did not know where the child was hidden, that Mosher had the secret, hut that the hoy would bo returned home safe and sound in a few days. Walter Boss, Charlie’s brother identified the two men, and there remained no doubt that they were the child’s abductors. But where was the lost child ? Mosher's wife was found, hut protested her ignorance of his whereabouts. The child had not been left with her. and her husband had kept secret the names of his guardians. Iho only information she could git e was that: the child was being well ca-eel for. Faced with this terrible disappointment when the return oi the hoy might have been expected, the anguish of his parents can well lie imagined. Mrs Boss's limthcrs offered a turthei 5.000 dollars for the child’s return within ten days. But the only response was a renewal of idle dastardly attempts to exploit the case fraudulently. Later, William Westervelt. a brother of Mosher's wife and a notorious associate of criminals, was connected with the crime. In 1875 he was tried and sentenced to seven years imprisonment. During the trial not one single clue as to the child’s whereabouts was i Itched, ami the fate of the gokleii-haire.l Charlie Boss, who so innocently took that fatal ride under the lure of sweets and crackers on July 1. 1874, has -emaiiied an unsolved mystery ever since. 'ldle explanation of the sad affair seems almost certain to lie in the fear aroused by the nation-wide feeling of horror and revenge provoked by the crime. It is quite possible that Charlie Boss lives to-day, a man ol sixty-two, ignorant of flic erne! circumstances which surround his early years.