The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1901-02-20
looking, and the burglarizing of unoc-

that, ordinarily, was far beyond them.
And these detectives also turned up
many friends and relatives of Mosher
aud some acquaintance of Douglas.
And they also traced the kidnappers
themselves from the moment they
first spoke to the child while playing
on his fathers lawn until they reached
New York City.
But these friends and relatives knew
nothing that was of value.
They were, those people of the low
east side class, as anxious to deliver
the criminals into the hands of the
law as were the pinkertons themselves
the rewards offered them to do so
were not to be resisted. And in the
hope of gaining them they told many
stories of the men-none of which
guesses happened to be right.
The Pinkertons, in the meantime,
had 600, 900 copies of u circular, describ-
ing the boy, giving his picture and
offering the tremendous rewards,
strck off and distributed. These were
printed on very thin paper in order
that they might be more easily mailed
to foreign countries.
The belief, however, all along prev
allied that Mosher and Douglas were
| in the vicinity of new York with
Charley Ross. They had been fol-
lowed there, and then the great metro
polls had been microscopically watched
and their escape therefrom was a
matter of impossibi!ity. AT the same
time the most marvellously perfect
search of the city and all its environs
| q, Id To rax,aol nf thnno ar W
body who had seen them.
When Mosher and Doughlas saw
what Iurore they had thrown the
world into by their crime, they were
paralyzed with fear, and straightway
went into hiding, taking their victim
with them through sheer fear of leav-
ing clue. .
And they hid well. They crowded
into a cabin-yawl or cat boat, and lived
aboard in out-of-the way corners OF
New York harbor. In it, hid am ong
little craft in obscure corners of the
harbor, the kidnappers had found a
safe place-the only possible one.
Day after day those two men
lay in its tiny cabin, no human
beings seeing their faces. Had
they been in the grave itself their bur-
ial would not have been more complete.
Neither ever showed his head above
deck save when one of the other vent
| ured forth at midnight 10 steal food.
The search for Mosher and Dough
las was the closest ever made says
the ex-Pinkerton. "Cluee were pick
ed up in the most incredible piace-a
word overhead on. a street car, all
expression by some corner loafer, a
laughing allusion in some bar--and
followed back by our sleuths with the
most incredible ingenuity. And they
always brought up in what might be
called the vicinity for the men-aL some
of their friends or relatives. But they
never went futher. And they didn't
for the simple reason that not even
those friends and relatives knew the
hiding places of the kidDappers.
"There was an old woman who lived
over in Green Point, back to whom a
word, dropped by chance, was traced.
And in her we uuearthed most
remarkable old character.
"She told us all about Mosher and
Douglas, from the time they return
ed to New York up to the moment of
our conversation with her. We
proceeded to investigate the story
forthwith. And we couldn't verify a
single point in it.
when we told her this, she insisted
that what she said was true. And
she again went over the narrative
with the most perfect circumstant ial
detail. And again we set out to verify
it. And again we didn't verify it.
"This thing happened many times
And finally we cut loose from hera a
vain hope.
ave had many experiences of this
sort, but for long time we could not,
despite our best efforts to get futher
than the point at which the kidnap-
pers and the boy vanished.
The police finally got hold ofa man
named Gill Mosher-brother of the
kidnapper.
Gill agreed to deliver the two men
into, police hands, provided his brother
was allowed to turn states evidence,
and Douglas made the scapegoat.
This, Walling, then superintendent
of the metropolitan force, agreed to.
And Gill went off and arranged with
the criminals for them to be at the
even now very tough corner at Grand
and Allen atreets, New York, at one
o'clock that night.
Walling told off two detectives to
seize them. And these wowonderful
sleuths took their station and wasted
half and hour. Then they left. And
fifteen minutes later the kidnappers
made their appearance and went into
a bar on the corner.
The proprietor of the saloon did not
know Mosher and Douglas, but he
was well enough acquainted with the
criminal cla.s to surmise that they
we're lawbreakers of one sort or anoth-
er. And so, by way of doing his
friends good turn, he said:
"There were two fly cops on the
corner watching for somebody awhile
ago."
Whereupon Mosher and Douglas
hurriedly departed-never more to be
seen in life-save for one tragic instant.
In the meantime the crime had so
preyed upon one woman's mind that
it made her a monomaniac, and she
reported, in her mania, that she had
seen a man named Westervelt, q
brother-in-law of Mosher, but avery
respectable man, on street car in
Brooklyn with Charlie Ross.
Westervelt was arrested upon her
testimony; and sent to the penitentiary
for five years-perfectly innocent.
After the police detectives made
their dismal failure of catching the
kidpappers in New York City, Gill
Mosher was laid hold of by the Pink
erton's, and an agreement reached
with him by them whereby he was to
toll his brother and Douhlas into a
trap. But the kidnappers. were too
| frightened to keen any rendeZyOus-