New-York tribune., 1875-09-18
CRARLEY ROSS AND THE POLICE.

CRARLEY ROSS AND THE POLICE.
The disclosures of the Westervet trial are
of very different sort from those anticipated,
and concern the public in quito another way
| than through it's interest in the Ross family.
| At last the mystery of this miserable business
| seems about to be unfOldcd, and il it is not
made known what was the precise fate OF the
poor little victim we are enabled to place the
blame of bis final loss where it rightly belongs
For nearly year the whole nation, it is
safe to say, was interested in the hopeless
search for this child and the cause of the in
tense and universal excitement was not merely
sympathy with the parents of the boy, but the
threatened danger to every other child. Every
body felt that the kidnapping of Charley Ross
was the Inauguration of a new and terrible
crime among us, which, if successful, might
strike at the happiness or life of any house
hold tomorrow. 1t was apparently Incredible
that child could be abducted and hid for
months i'm city like NcwYOrk and Philadcl-
phia, in defiance of the combined efforts
of public and private police forces i'm
PEELED to their work not Orly by duty
bnt enormous rewards; in defance, too, OF
eager scrutiny and search by every honest
citizen; so Incredible, in shot. that the public,
srppoSing that the police wcle OF coiirsc using
ttcir utmost sagaciiy and resources, attributed
,xccptiural cunning to thr kd.appers, who
were popularity supposed 10 =" y baud OF eA-
pert I.nglislI thieves with cOHiedcIatcS III Can
adj, or London.
They we're in reality two ordinary New
York ru.lians How did t;ie police con,iuct
the search? Let them speak for themselves.
Capt. Helms, Chief OF Ike Phiindclpl.ia detect
i've force, tcStiles that the ease was put into
his hands the day after The abduction; that,
instead O. at once communicating with the
Superintendent of the Ncw-York Police, he
first learned that he knew Of it AZ all
month after it occurred Prccely enc
month after Charley Ross was stolen,
Capt. Helms and our own police mad
reason to believe that MOsher and Douglass
were the abdnctors These men were known
to dozen officers on the New-Iork force
their haunts, companions, habits We're known
they were continually passing and repassinS
from New-YOrk to Philadelphia, mailing let
tiers at Elizabeth, Trenton, and Newark TO Mr..
Ross demanding ransom, and threatening that
the "cbild should be utterly annihilatcd' if were
not paid. There was not day, probably,
when Capt Helms could not have arrested
these men. He was in daily communication
with the heart broken father; knew that the
family of the child were sp;4iding their money
like water i'm efforts which he knew tO be- NJ
terly futile that they were GONG from one cnd
of the country to the Other, to Maine, to CALI
fOrnia, To ENGLAND again ard again, 10 look at
children, when Charley Ross WAS in Mo,hcr's
keeping. On Sept. IL, he says, (two months
after thc childs loss) he received il letter from
Superintendent Walling stating the facts con-
cerning .MOslier. These were not to be made
known to Mr.. Ross nor TO the committee of
citizens in philadelphia, who had offered r2O, 900
reward. lest the information should he given
TO "a certain private detective company. The
facts of the case he put into the hands of two
friends of ht own, who did net know Moshcr,
to "run the thing out" They were carefully
kept secret from other members OF the police.
Helms, with his two favOrites, according to his
own evidence, "run the thing out aud, not
being able to find the child, still kept
the facts secret, in the hope of securing
the reward, although the whole country
was in fcrmcnt. although the father
of the child was accused of bigamy, adu-
terry, and tie murder of the boy, until mind
as well as body gave way under the load OF
grief and anxiety, and he became insane. All
this Capt Helms saw and knew, and, accord
ing to his own statement he nterfered to
keep the letters of the kidnappers and every
other clew from the public. Nor did he ever
hint to ar. Ross that Mosher and Douglass
were concerned in the abduction until they
were shot in December.
Here is plain statement from the mouth OF
the chief Philadelphia detective Perhaps that
officer can set himself right: if so, it is advis-
able he should do so. If not, the fact remains
that the chiefs of the police force OF two cities,
out of greedy desire for reward, and
jealousy of other officials, hid their knowledge
and dallied with incompetent agents in the
search until it was too ate, and both child
and robbers slipped through their fingers.
The story is worse than t,at of the abduc-
ton. Moser and Douglass who took the child
for SIC, 200 were but two ruiiians, and are
gone to their account but the police who for
500, ,OOO suffered him to remain in their clutches
are still our paid and only protection against
crime.