The Tacoma times. [volume] (Tacoma, Wash.) 1903-1949, 1909-03-25
HTTE GIRL AND JAP LOVER EN- ROUTE TO TACOMA TO WEI
Most Famous kidnapping Cases;
Cruel Crimes During half Century


cal crime in the calendar"
So Judge Gregory of Albany
characterized it when he was SEN
fencing three men to 15 years
each in the penitentiary for the
kidnapping of little Johnny Con-
way in 1897.
Certainly in the abject paralyz-
ing fear it strikes in the heart of
the parents, there Is no crime
more terrible. The sickening
suspense and the hopes rising only
to fall again, make it the more
agonizing.
Pat Crowe's Case.
Only one kidnaper ever aroused
any public admiration, and then
only after he had given up his
victim. This was Pat Grove, who
for pluck, temerity and cool-head-
ed picturesque deviltry, stands at
the head of the profession" in
America. He thought, like Robin
Hood, that 1t was all right to prey
on the rich.
After kidnapping the son of
Cudahy, in 1900, the millionaire
beef operator, getting $4,000
ransom and making a clean get
away to South Africa, Grove re-
turned voluntarily to stand trial
in Omaha, and was acquitted amid
the cheers of the court room.
Grove left notes in the Cudahy
lawn, giving directions about leav-
ing the $25, 200 in a certain lone
ly place in Omaha. The father
followed instructions and got his
boy back in the morning.
Charley Ross Mystery.
The missing Charley Ross is the
most famous of all kidnapped boys.
He was playing with his brother
in front of their house in German
town, Pa, in 1874, when boy of
four and a half, when two men In
a buggy offered him a ride. Char
ley never came back from that
ride.
Christian X. Ross, the boys
father, spent all his fortune, and
never gave up the hope entirely
until he died, a broken and pen
niless old man in 1897.
Communication was slow In
1878, when Charley Ross was stol-
en-, and the police, handicapped
by ahalf days delay, set into ac-
tion slowly.
Demand Reward.
They were stirred two days
later when a Litter came to the
Ross household, in rude writing,
saying the boy would be returned
IL a reward was offered. The let
ter was mailed in Philadelphia,
and the father was to reply
through the Philadelphia Ledger.
Ross, ST., offered 5000. Two
days later he got a second letter
demanding $4,000. The father,
desperate by this time, agreed.
Then the negotiations, well under
way, stopped. The kidnapers did
not get their money, nor the agon-
ized father his boy.
BY this time police detectives
and amateur sleuths were busy
everywhere watching for the miss
ing boy.
The father, half crazed by the
loss of his boy, set under way a
most ruthless pursuit of the kid
napers. Big rewards were Offer
ed. Finally the two men were
run to earth in New York, where
they, penniless, were trying to
burglarize q house.
Died With Secret.
One Of the men, Mosher, was
killed instantly, his partner,
Douglass, lived long enough to
confess his part in the crime.
douglass said, however, that he
did not know where Mosher had
hiden the boy. Mosher's BROTH
er-in-law was proved an accom-
plice and served seven years in the
penitentiary.
1t is matter of history that
the missing Charley Ross was
never found. The broken-hearted
father exhausted his entire for
tune. and many of his relatives
0sed up large sums In the fruit
less endeavor, but the secret of
HE whereabouts died with Doug
lass and Mosier.
livery little while q new clew
would come In, and the father and
HIS detectives would follow 1t up,
bat each new clew brought fresh
disappointment.
Hts So years now, and the mys-