Show WHO STOLE CHARLEY ROSS T plin 1111 most famous idys lory lery in fit america and one which Iii cli created more interest the world over than any other crime of the kind ever committed bitted with the po possible sible exception of 0 I 1 the file loss 1099 of some sode of tile the children of royalty was the disappearance of 0 charley ross koss oung boung son of a philadelphia family for nearly halt half a century the case has baffled the greatest detectives of the world and in spite of every effort that has been made in spite of the expenditure of huge sums ot of money the mystery Is as deep today as it mas on july 1 1871 1874 when ft the je boy was first missed christian IC ross lived in germ germin an town lown an outlying section of philadelphia and charles was the youngest of his me he children at the time of its his the child was only four years old and was playing with his brot brother ber walter on tile sidewalk in front of the house some days previous to the according to the story which walter told the police three men hall had spoken broken to the boys find 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 mile to the nearest fireworks store tilt th brothers got in fit 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 ills his purchase when he came out of the store the wagon had disappeared after searching in vain for ills his brother for several minutes walter ross became alarmed and commenced to cry ills ilia grief attracted a crowd of men find lie was taken home but no clue could bo be discovered its as to the whereabouts of ills his brother the philadelphia police searched every part of the city for three days and advertisements were placed in the papers without success until on the morning of july 4 came a poorly written and ill III spelled letter stating that charley Is all rite but you will have to pay us before yu get him from us and pay us big too this letter concluded with the threat that eliat the boy would be instantly killed if any attempt were made to put the police on his trall trail on july 0 another letter arrived demanding which sir ross in spite of the protests of the police and private detectives agreed to pay owing to the watchfulness of the police however the kidnapers were frightened ene an and d failed to keep the appointments which it they made with the boys father not only nil all america Arn erlen but europe as well was now concerned with the ross case and the bright est minds in the detective forces of to mo continents joined in the search tired lured by tile size of the reward and the fame which would woula accompany an actual solution of tile the mystery reports of the missing boy came from all sections of the country and sir ross made more than trips in running down clues which proved to be false in addition to spending at least in his fruitless search almost up to the present time men who hae claimed to be charley ross have put lit in their appearance only to have bare their stories shattered by some details which tall fall to match in with the facts the nearest approach to a solution if t the mystery was the deathbed confession of two burglars named mosher and douglas but the truth of their statements could never be verified because they died before giving an accurate description of what they had bad done dune with tile boys body hr fr ross continued the search until als death in 1897 and the boys mother who died only a 1 few years ago always maintained that her ter 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 tho the police department the classic case of successful to which all others are com coin oared |