Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1909-04-02

kidnapping is the most nefarious. most
nendish. most diabOlical crime in the cal
endar'
SO Judge Gregory. of Albany. charac-
terfzed n when he was sentencing three
men TO Is years each in the penitentiary
for the kidnapping OF little Johnny Con
way in 1887.
Certainly in the abject paralyzing fear
II strikes in the heart OF the parents,
there is no crime more terrible The SICK
ening suspense and the hopes rising only
10 fall again. make IL the more agoniz-
ing.
only one lxidnaper 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
headed picturesque deviltry. stands at thu
head OF the profession I'm America He
thought. Ike Robin Hood. that it was all
right to prey on the rich.
After KIDNAPPING the son OF Cudahy. In
800. the millionaire beef operator, get
Ting Zoo ransom and making a clean
voluntarily 20 stand trial in Omaha and
was acquitted amid the cheers Of the
court room
Grove left notes on the Cudahy lawn.
giving directions about leaving the $4,000
IN certain lonely place in Omaha The
father followed instructions and got his
boy back in the morning.
The missing Charley Ross is the most
famous OF all kidnapped boys. He was
playing with his brother in front Of then
house in Germantown. Pa. in 1874. when
q boy four and a haf,when two meii
IN q buggy offered him a ride. Charley
never came hack from that ride.
Christian K Ross, the boys father,
spent all his fortune. and never gave up
ahe hope entirely until he died, broken
and penniless old man in 1897. The kidnap-
ers were killed while burglarizing house
IN New York. and the secret Of the boys
whereabouts died with them.
number Of cases Of kidnapping by
Indians were reported in colonial history.
but the first big kidnapping In times COM
paratively recent was that of Agar
old Mary Carney, in New York, in 1854.
Mary's father was a union soldier and
the little girl was her mothers great COM
fort One day she wandered out on the
street with her little pink sun bonnet and
Bingham dress-and never came back.
The case aroused the sympathy of the
nation, 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 kidnapings since
then is a trail Of broken hearts. insanity
and bitter desOlation. Perhaps 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 belongings
into money and started on a hunt that
carried them as far as Hungary and
Egypt Everywhere the girl had been
sent on 70 another tribe and they lost the
trail
Finally IN Massachusetts the couple
found their daughter in the camp Of Chief
John Stanley. Here came the strangesi
part OF the story The parents were pen
nfless and broken in spirit The gypsy
who had taken their daughter offered 70
take them into the tribe And the parents
accepted the offer.
Daring In its successful rescue attempt
was the story OF Johnny Conway. Of Al
bany. in 1857. A ransom Of $500 was de-
manded. Instead the father. p. F. Con-
way. a train dispatcher, collected a posse
and went to a place in the woods where
he thought the kidnapping party was in
hiding. His surmise was right, and a re-
volver battle was fought between the two