Show I ABDUCTION CHARLIE ROSS I The recent death of Christian K I Ross of Philadelphia father of Charlie I Ross has revived Interest in the famous abduction case The abduction of the boy who was a beautiful child I wrecied the life of Mr Ross From the time theboy was stolen 23 years i ago life seemed a burden to the once j bristling business man I Charlie Ross and his elder brother J Walter wore playing in front of their I home on EastWashington lane Germantown I Ger-mantown whfer two mon cams nlnne Iin I a buggy or light spring wagon These same men had massed by on I three or four preceding Jys and had I given Charlie candy On this fateful 1 day Charlie according to the story j subsequently told by Walter had I asked the men for a ride The men J told him they would give him a ride i from the top of a nearoy hill and 1 also promised to give him firecrackers The two boys walked to the top of the hill and they were taken into the I wacan Walter wanted the men to take them I to Main street for the fireworks but the adductors said they would take < them to Aunt Susie a fictitious person 1 per-son The men plied the boys with I candy while the team was driven rap I Idly toward Kensington Charlie cried I and begged to be taken home j At Palmer and Richmond streets I Walter was given a quarter and directed di-rected to get fireworks in a cigar store I 1 I The boy obeyed and returned to find the the wagon men and his curly I haired brother gone His tears brought I a crowd and in this crowd was H C I Peacock a friend of the family who took the boy to his parents I The elder brother told an accurate and coherent story of the abduction and gave a full description of the ab ductors His story was corroborated and a general alarm was sent out to the police A reward of 5300 was of fered for the return of the boy and advertisements were sent to all newspapers news-papers in this part of the country Mrs Ross was ill at Atlantic City and the news of her loss was kept from I her for some days I I The police were unable to discover a I trace of the child ehld and I was not until July 4 that anything in the nature unt clue came to the searchers This was I In the shape of a letter from the supposed sup-posed abductors I was grossly i I literate and evidently purposely so The letter informed Mr Ross that the abductors ab-ductors held the boy so securely that no earthly power could reach him and that he would not be delivered without with-out the payment of a big ransom The father was warned that any attempt to recover the boy by detectives would result in his instant death The writers promised to communicate with Mr Ross within a few days Two days later they wrote demanding demand-ing 20000 ransom for the return of the boy This sum was promptly raised by lends of Mr Ross but the police stepped in and asked to be given the conduct the case This was granted and Mayor Stokeley offered a reward of 20000 for the arrest of the kidnappers kid-nappers and the return of the boy This immense reward attracted the worldwide world-wide attention and set thousands of detective at work end millions of tongues wagging During several weary months Mr Ross received 16 letters from the abductors ab-ductors but they were so carefully disguised that no clue to the writers could be found The entire community had become intensely excited over the case and volunteers stood guard over almost every letter box in the city but with no result Public interest was at fever heat and meetings of citizens were held in every part of the city Staid men of business dropped their commercial pursuits and became amateur ama-teur detectives Others wrote books on the subject some of which were serious ser-ious and of value white others were the emanations of cranks Several pei f sons became absolute maniacs on the I subject of the abduction Two men who had devoted years of study to the subject took the lecture platform in addition to writing books and kept up the agitation until recenif years What became of the child was never positively settled I is generally believed be-lieved that he was drowned in the North river New York while his abductors ab-ductors were fleeing from detectives But I was pretty well established that William Moeher and Joseph Douglass notorious burglars took the boy from his home They were shot while trying try-ing to rob the residence of Judge Van Brunt at Bay Ridge N Y and in heir death throes confessed that they had taken Charley Ross Walter Ross fully Identified them William Westervelt a brotherinlaw of Mosher had acted as erobetween In the negotiations with Mr Ross and the abductors He was brought to Philadelphia delphia tried and convicted of complicity com-plicity in the conspiracy to abduct the boy and was sentenced to seven year in the Eastern penitentiary In the presence of Detective Miller the wife of the convicted man begged him to tell what he knew of the crime but he maintained a stolid silence and if he ever knew anything he never told it He served his sentence and is supposed sup-posed to have returned to New York |