Marshall County Republican. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1856-1878, 1875-01-07
The Ross Case.

The details of the abduction of
Charlie Ross, and of the subsequent
discovery of his kidnappers, excel in
romantic interest any story of crime
yet conceived by romancer or play
wright. The disappearance of the child,
the alterations of hope and despair in
the hearts of the afflicted parents, as
news came from time to time that their
boy had been discovered, the various
threads of rumor which the officers un-
raveled only to find that they led to
nothing, the pursuit of the real kidnap-
pers for months by the detectives act
ing under the orders of Inspector
Walling, of New York, and the manner
in which they avoided them and finally
put them off the scent altogether, and
the tragical denouement few days ago,
which discovered them, and at the same
time brought swift and terrible
revenge upon them, form series of
chapters in one of the most thrilling
episodes of crime ever known in this
country. The result of the denoue-
ment, however, is like the result of
every other step in the strange story.
No sooner had the sky hghtened up
than it clouded over again. A ray of
sunlight entered the afflicted home as
the news came of the discovery of the
kidnappers, but it is only temporary.
The kidnappers have been found at
last, but the boy is still missing.
It will be remembered that, when
Charlie Ross was abducted, the crime
was witnessed by several persons, who
furnished the police with pretty ac-
curate descriptions. These descriptions
were sent all over the country, and then
followed all kinds of haphazard work.
Charlie Roses were found every
where, in the remotest parts of
the East and West, in Southern
plantations, out in the Rocky Noun
tains, among the mines, and numerous
arrests we're made. including crimi-
nails and respectable people, fortune
tellers, peddlers, tramps, and gypsies.
Meantime, one detective, Inspector Wal
ling, was on the right track. From the
descriptions, and from the information
he had received, he was convinced that
thetwo kidnappers were two professional
criminals--William Mosher. a low
browed, brutal villain, the hero of all
Minus VI uPoh W1OAn LILO
own vices had set an indelible stamp by
which he was recognized after death,
and Joseph Douglas, a man equally
desperate in his acts of criminalify,
and who lad been Mosher's partner IN
crime for years, but man Of Sole
intellectual ability and of respectable
connections. It was not long befo re
the officers were upon their track, and
found tina; in February last the two men
had been travelling through New Jersey
and Eastern Pennsylvania, selling an
insect powder, using for their trans
portation the very wagon they had
when the Ross boy was carried of.
They were tracked as far as Trenton,
N. J., and here the officers lost sight
of them. Meanwhile they did not relax
their vigilance. Mrs. Mosher was kept
under surveillance, and every move
ment she made was noted. More than
once the detectives were almost on the
heels of the two kidnappers in for
tune .tellers' rooms, saloons, and low
boarding houses, and one day they
came so close that the two villains be-
came alarmed and dropped out of sight.
The chase was temporarily over, and
might have remained 80 for long time