Fort Mill times. [volume] (Fort Mill, S.C.) 1892-current, 1909-04-01
CRUEL CRIMES
Against American Parents Dur
ing The Last Half Centuary
MOST FAMOUS CASES

ing the Past Fifty Years Recalled
Short Sketches of Each That Will
BE Read With Interest by the
General Reader.
kidnapping is the most nefsrious
most fiendish, most diabolicaI crime
in the calendar"
So Judge Gregory, of Albany. char
acterized it when he was sentencing
three men to 10 years each in the
penitentiary for the kidnapping OF
little Johnny Conway in 1897.
Certainly in the abject paralyz-
ing fear 1T 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 1t the more agonizing.
only one kidnapper ever aroused
| any public admiration. and then only
a1ter ne had given up his victim.
This was Pat Crow. who for pluck.
| termerity and cool-headed pictures
que deviltry, stands at the head of
the profession in America. He
thought, like Robin Hood. that n
was all right to prey on the rich.
After kidnapping the son of Cuda-
hay, in 1900, the millionaire beef
operator, getting $3.50 ransom and
making clean get away to South
Africa. Crow returned voluntarily
to stand trial in Omaha, and was ac-
quilted amid the cheers of the court
room.
Crow left notes on the Cudahay
lawn, giving directions about leaving
the $4,000 in a certain lonely place
In Omaha. The father followed in
structions and got his boy back in
the morning.
The missing Charley Ross is the
most famous of all kidnapped bows
He was playing with his brother in
'front.' of their house in Germanton
Pa, in 1874, when a boy four and
half. when two men in buggy
offered him ride. Charley never
came back from that ride.
Christian X. Ross, the bows faith
or, spent all his fortune. and never
gave up the hope entirely until he
uied, broken and penniless old man
in 1897. The kidnappers were killed
while burglarizing a house in New
YORK. and the secret of the bows
whereabouts died with them.
number of cases of kidnapping
Dy indians were reported in colonial
history, but the first big kidnapping
In times comparatively recent was
hat of 4-year-old Mary Gaffney. in
New York, in 1864.
Mary's father was a union soldier
and the little girl was her mothers
great comfort. One day she wander
'd out on the street with her little
pink sun bonnet and gingham dress
and never came back.
The case aroused the -sympathy of
the nstion, but the child was never
heard of again. The father died in
battle, leaving her $4,000, which is
still held in trust for her.
In the half century of kidnappipgs
since then is a trail of broken hearts.
insanity and bitter desolation. Per-
haps one of the most strange was
that of 5-year-old Rosie Adams, of
Chicago, who was carried away by
| gypsies.
The parents turned all their he
longings into money and started or
I hunt that carried them as far AS
Hungary and Egypt. Everywhere
he girl had been sent on to another
tribe and they lost the trail. q.
Finally in Massachusetts the
couple found their daughter in the
camp of Chief John Stanley. Here
came the strangest part of the story.
The parents were penniIess and brok-
IN in spirit. The gypsy who had taken
heir daughter offered to take them
into the tribe. And the parents ac.
:apied the offer.
Daring in its successful rescue at.
tempt was the story OF Johnny Con.
way. OF Albany, in 1897 A ransom
Of $4,000 was demanded. Instead
the father, p. f. Conway, a trair
dispatcher, collected posse and wen
to place in the woods where ht
thought the kidnapping party wa.
in hiding. His surmise was right
and revolver battle was fought be
tween the two parties.
The boy was rescued, unhurt. ant
three of the kidnapeprs arrested
One. A. S. Warner, was an Alban,
lawyer. Each was sentenced to II
years in the penitentiary.
There is a CHASTITY touch in tn
abduction in 1898 of Gerlad Lapimer
two-year-old New York baby, VIII
, was heir to 100000.
r Baby Gerald simply disappeaerS
; There was no demand for ransom, n
2 word from the kdnappers. Polio
and detectives were unable to gai
! any clew. 1t was a nine-days' sensa
ton. this disappearance of the bah
( heir.
1t was several months before til
. mystery was solved, and then b
= chance. Gerald was discovered Ii,
9 ing on farm near Painesville, o
2 with an old couple of imbeciles nan
k ed John Collins and Anna Ingersol
q The baby was returned to his rel;
: tives, the couple sent to an asylum
o They seemed to have no motiy