Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1906-06-19
rEr KIDNAPPED BOY.

of note IN the principal stating that
tho hov,s 10 ,ther was i'll, has been found.
The noIe was delivered by district
messenger boy, who had been directed
TO take it to school by seedy-iook'ng
man and who turned the child over TO
The stranger at the street corner near
the school. The messenger boy 50" Tue
man take Freddie by the hand ana Walk
away with him.
The abductor was identified as John
joseph Kean, a former stock broker,
who afterward engaged in the real es'
late business, aud rs collector ior
real estate man is said TO have empezz''
ed $400.
In a letter sent to the parents The
kdnapper threatened to kill the boy
and himself if the ransom was not iorlh'
coming, but an offer to pay the amount
elected new demand.
Kean is under indictment in New
York on the charge of stealing go, oOU
FROM the Harlem River Bank while It's
book keeper.
Freddie, with his book still under his
arm, was welcomed home by more than
a thousands persons. The whole CITY
had been on the anxious bench, as II
were, for week, awaiting tidings OF the
child, and when the news came that he
had been found il was dashed TO all
paris of the city.
The crowd cheered as the little fellow
was hurried Into the house and into his
mothers waiting arms The scene with
In the home was most affecting, aud
while the mother WAS listening to the
chiId's story the house was closed to sll
callers.
Later reporters were permitted to qnes-
ton the boy, but he seemed too much
dszed to give a connected story OF his
adventures. He was still much fright
ened. In answer to questions, the child
said
"The man took me on one car and
then on another, and pat me 10 house
where there were no chairs. lie locked
the door. was afraid and cried. He
told me to stop crying as ! would Soon
see my mamma.
81 cried all the time, and went to
sleep. The man folded a coat aud put
it under me. The next day in the day
time he brought bread and milk aud some
oysters. cried again, and the man
sd | would zee mamma soon. That
day he went out to get something and
locked the doors.
81 went to a window and saw some
boys and ladies looking up at me. |
tried to lift the window to talk to them,
but the man came back. He closed the
shutters and told me 20 stay away from
the windows. asked him why he was
hiding, and he said the police were alter
me. | got awful frightened.
"Two or three times we heard noises
down stairs, aud the man took me on
the roof and we went into the next
house. The man said they we're police
men. The man gave me pennies aud
told me not to make noise. We were
going some place when lot of men aud
policemen caught the man.
Despite the elaborate precautions of
the police, Kean attempted suicide in
his cell at the city hall in Philadelphia
last night by as unique methods as he
has employed since he stole the jewel
er's child. Guards watched his bril-
liantly lighted cell until midnight, when
the re srve forces are changed at the hal.
Kean made hole in his trousers pock-
ct and through it tore length after
length from his shirt aud undershirt.
These he twisted into ropelike cord
when the guards were changed at mid
night. Kean lay upon his cot. He tied
the rope about his neck snd twisted it
tightly. Only one thing prevented him
from carrying out his purpose. This
WAS that he could not control his breslh-
ing during the semi-nnconscionsDess
that followed.
When the new guards returned, short
ly before ] O'Clock, they thought that
Kean was sleeping until they heard his
peculiar breathing. When they rushed
into bis cell Kesn was nearly dead, but
the efforts OF the police surgeons saved
him. "Why didn't you let me die? >
said Kean, then conscious. "Snrely that
would have satisfied the law"
Kean told The police 10 his statement
that he abducted the boy primarily Ia
secure the $500 he had embezzled from
Charles J. Cooke. 10 addition, he said,
he is in debt, with no means of provid-
ing for his family. lie said he never in-
tended to harm the boy, and declared
the statements he made in his letters to
Mr.. Muth that the child was being dosed
with whisky we're untrue. He kept
Freddie quiet by giving him candy and
pennies, he sail
Philadelphia. June 49, By this even
ing, John Joseph Kean may be 10 the
Eastern Penitentiary. With the child
stealer at last in its grasp, the ma
chinery of the law was creased over
night for a record-breaking trip from
magistrate to prison cell, where the man
will probably spend the better part of
the remainder of his life, for abducting
Freddie Muth. At ten o'clock he faced
the magistrate. In less than an hour
the testimony against him had been
heard though; five minutes later the
grand jury was hearing the testimony of
the kidnapped boy, and the moment the
latter had finished, telling his story of
the abduction. the grand jury by un-
animous vote had found true bill of
indictment. The finding was at once
reported to Judge Mayer Sulzberger, sit
ting in the Quarter Session court, No.
1853. and the kidnapper was Immediately
taken there and placed in the dock and