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Show it?o ((f)) gfk if))'0 "WHO STOLE CHARLEY ROSS?" rpiIE most famous kidnaping mys-tery mys-tery in America and one which created cre-ated more interest the world over than any other crime of the kind ever committed com-mitted with the possible exception of the loss of some of the children of royalty was the disappearance of Charley Epss, young son of a Philadelphia Phila-delphia family. For nenrly half a century cen-tury the case has bafiled the greatest detectives of the world and, In spite of every effort that has been made, in spite of the expenditure of huge sums of money, the mystery Is as deep today to-day as It was on July 1, 1S74, when the boy was first missed. Christian K. Boss lived in German-town, German-town, an outlying section of Philadelphia, Philadel-phia, and Charles was the youngest of his five children. At the time of his kidnaping, the child was only four years old. and was playing with his brother, Walter, on the sidewalk in front of the house. Some days previous to the kidnaping, kidnap-ing, according to the story which Walter Rcjss told the police, three men had spoken to the boys and had given them some candy. On July 1, these same men drove up in a wagon and invited the Ross boys to take a ride to the nearest fireworks store. The brothers got in and were driven some distance to a section of the city known as Kensington, where Walter Ross was given a quarter and told to get out and go into the nearest store to make his purchase. When he came out of the store the wagon had disappeared. After searching in vain for his hroth-er hroth-er for several minutes, Walter Ross became alarmed and commenced to cry. His grief attracted a crowd of men and he was taken home, but no clue could be discovered as to the whereabouts of his brother. The Philadelphia police searched every part or tne city tor three days and advertisements were placed in the papers pa-pers without success until, on the morning of July 4 came a poorly written writ-ten and ill-spelled letter stating that "Charley is all rite, but you will have to pay us before yu get htm from us and pay us big, too." This letter concluded con-cluded with the threat that the boy would be instantly killed If any attempt at-tempt were made to put the police on Ms trail. On July 6 another letter arrived demanding $20,000, which Mr. Ross, in spite of the protests of the police and private detectives, agreed to pay. Owing Ow-ing to the watchfulness of the police, however, the kidnapers were frightened fright-ened and failed to keep the appointments appoint-ments which they made with the boy's father. Not only all America but Europe as well, was now concerned with the Ross kidnaping case and the brightest bright-est minds In the detective forces of two continents joined In the search, lured by the size of the reward and the fame which would accompany an actual solution of the mystery. Reports Re-ports of the missing boy came from all sections of the country and Mr. -Ross made more than 200 trips in running down clues which proved to be false, in addition to spending at least ?G0,000 In his fruitless search. Almost up to the present time, men who have claimed to be Charley Ross have put in their appearance, only to have their stories shattered by some details which fail to match in with the facts. The nearest approach to a solution f the mystery was the deathbed confession con-fession of two burglars named Mosher and Douglas, but the truth of their statements could never be verified because be-cause they died before giving an accurate ac-curate description of what they had done with the boy's body. Mr. Ross continued the search until als death In 1S07, and the boy's mother, moth-er, who died only a few years ago, always al-ways maintained that her boy was not dead, but that he would come back to her some day. Her belief was never sustained, however, and the mystery of Charley Ross remains one of the unsolved riddles of the police department, depart-ment, the classic case of successful kidnaping to which all others are cora-'lared. ami lied to Rome, where lie succeeded in marrying a strikingly beautiful woman and cliar,- (1 liik; uai.ie to "Count Cairiiostro." His first venture on a luru-e scale was the Invention of an "elixir of life." of which he sold many thousand bottles at fabulous prices and, In order to prove the value of his own medicine, medi-cine, claimed to be more than 2,00 years old and to have beet) present at the time of the crucifixion, which lie described with a wealth of detail omitted omit-ted from the Scriptures. At that time there was much talk of the "Wandering Jew" and many persons believed that Cagliostro was none other than this personage a belief which the Sicilian took care to foster whenever possible. When the success of the "elixir of life" appeared to he imperiled by the death of a number of persons who had taken It, Cagliostro hit upon the scheme of organizing Masonic lodges for women, claiming that he was of divine origin and had received a special spe-cial mission to perform this work upon earth a statement which naturally endeared him to a number of women of sufficient wealth to assist him In the accomplishment of Ills other schemes, which Included the making of diamonds and precious stones and the transmutation of base metals into gold. By virtue of his various impositions, Cagliostro was able to accumulate a large amount of money and, when he decided to move the headquarters of his influence to France, it was a matter mat-ter of only a few days before he became be-came the most talked of man in Paris. It was he who used the Cardinal de Rohan, Grand Almoner of France and one of the shrewdest statesmen in Europe, in the tragic affair of the diamond dia-mond necklace, which brought disgrace dis-grace or imprisonment upon everyone implicated, Including the Italian him- ...I, .-.-.r. L.-in-.in,! tn the Ras- SeiL, no "an iiiiMoi'iivu ... tile in 17SG, but was finally acquitted and ordered to leave France. After drifting about Europe for a number of years, the prince of impostors impos-tors finally returned to Rome and was condemned by the pope to life Imprisonment Im-prisonment as a dangerous foe to religion, re-ligion, dying in a papal dungeon on August 20, 1703, after having duped all Europe, prince and priest and peasant alike. But, apart from Cag-liostro's Cag-liostro's strange and almost hypnotic-influence hypnotic-influence over practically everyone with whom he came in contact, there are a number of mysteries concerning the man which have never been explained ex-plained Including his origin and his exceptional ability for handling nil kinds of strange chemicals. In addition, addi-tion, there is the greatest mystery of all : Ills power of prophecy manifested manifest-ed upon numerous occasions, hut particularly par-ticularly when lie announced that Maria Theresa, empress of Austria, was dying, and word reached Purls five days later that the empress had succumbed at the very hour foretold by the ItalLan count. Again, during his Incarceration In the Bastile, Cagliostro Cag-liostro wrote upon the walls of his cell: j'WIlhin three years the l'.astlle shall be destroyed and the people shall dance upon its site" another prophecy proph-ecy which was carried out to the letter. |