The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1901-02-10
THE FATE OF CHARLEY ROSS.
A Most Interesting Statement by
ex-Mnyor Briest. of Trenton, n. j.
(From the New York sun.)

Trenton Feb. 2.-Ex- Mayor John
Briest of Trenton has made a statement
of what he knows about the kidnapping OF
Charley Ross. He was brought into the
case because 1t was believed at first that
the boy was hidden in or about Trenton
and the police wanted Mr. Briest's help in
searching for him. Most Of his knowledge
of the case came from the Philadelphia
detectives. Mr.. Briest says:
THE secret as to who the kidnapers
were was confined to the heads of the
Philadelphia and New York police depart
ments, and both supposed that they were
on a boat plying either on the Delaware
and Raritan or the Pennsylvania Canal,
the letters being posted from Trenton.
Bristol, New Brunswick, and Newark
tending to confirm that theory.
The detectives felt so certain that they
would have the kidnapers within a few
days and receive the credit and reward
that their identity was kept close secret
among themselves. Had the matter been
made as public as was the Cudahy affair
at Omaha the criminal abductors would
have been arrested within few days by
the police officers Of Newark. Jersey City,
or Bayonne. Their theory that the kid
papers were on boat was correct, but
it was not the kind of a boat they were
looking for. as 1t afterward turned out.
William Mosher and Joseph Douglas
were the abductors. They had been ped
dlers ant engaged in an oil and lamp store
In Philadelphia. with a branch store in
this city in charge of other parties. The
wagon was one that had been used in the
business. They brought Charley from Ger
mantown to this city over the lower Del
aware bridge, and through Bridge Street
to Hamilton Avenue. and across the State
to a yacht they had prepared for the
purpose on Raritan Bay. The detectives
had the right parties. but they were on
the wrong scent for the boat, and the
kIdnapers kept them so by depositing
their letters In the Trenton postoffice and
other cities near it.
''Mosher and Douglas no doubt kept
Charles Ross on that boat while they sail
ed around Newark, Raritan, and New
York bays and adjacent waters and up the
Hudson River and maraudlng expeditions
to maintain themselves. There he was Sc
cure from prying eyes and gossipy neigh
bors
Charley Ross died not more than three
months after his capture from neglest.
Inconsistencies. and disease. and his little
body was buried in the waters of Newark
Bay The body of boy about his size and
age, dressed in clothes too large for him.
as If they had been purchased at random.
was found floating on the bay, and turned
over to the authorities of Jersey City. Mr..
Ross was called over to see 1t. but he fail
ed to identify IL as that of his lost child.
Whether it was the body of the boy
whose fate had touched the hearts of mil
lions of mothers and fathers throughout
the land | am not prepared to say. But
| feel Just as certain that that was the
end of the unfortunate boy as l am that
he was kidnapped. They did not mean to
harm him, but only to hold him, as Pat
hn Cnda hty obi fAatr
could get the ransom money in their
hands. and then he would have been sent
home or placed where he could have
rachel there.
William Mosher was a man of ability.
He had children of his own whom he loved,
and for whom he had striven hard to earn
honest dollars. but poverty had been the
lot of him and his, and his wife said that
they had always been poor, and he took
that means to secure money to obtain
some OF the luxuries of life that others
were enjoying. and which he coveted. He
had no idea of doing harm to the boy. but
thou ght that he would be ransomed within
very short time.
douglas was only a weak man in Mo-
sher's hands, and was under his subjec-
ton. The mistake of the detectives was
in the kind of boat the kidnapers were on,
and in keeping within themselves the
names and descriptions of the abductors.
Full and general publicity at the start
would have resulted in their capture, and
the restoration of the boy to his loving
and almost broken-h hearted parents.
ION the night of December Il, 1875, Mo
sher and Douglas broke into the house of
Judge Van Brunt. at Bay Ridge, L. l., and
were discovered. Mosher was shot and
killed. As Douglas lay en- the grass plat
where he had been carried. wounded unto
death, he said: we stole Charley Ross
He was urged to say more, being assured
that Mosher was dead, but he would not
believe it, and died before he could again
open his lips"