Los Angeles herald., 1909-12-15
STYLISH WOMEN
TRY KIDNAPPING
SUCCESS PREVENTED BY ACT
OF PRINCIPAL
MYSTERY SURROUNDS LIFE OF
SCHOOLGIRL VICTIM
German Fortune, Chicago Broker and
Pretty Woman Said 70 Be Con-
nected with unsolved
Story
,Contlnned frnm pnr. one,

her foster parents not to converse or go
anywhere with strangers, and remem-
bering their bidding, she backed shyly
away from the strange woman and at
tempted to walk away. At this the
woman seized the child by the wrist,
and with an oath jerked her from her
1eet ana dragged ner along the sioe-
walk.
LitIle Helen screamed as loudly as
she coulu ana aLLraCoe oeu the attention OIL
d CroWu OF ner sCnUoIinates, VINO were
passing On lne opposite side of the
street. 1ne cnIIdren promptly respond
ca 10 their trlenu y call IUf nelp, and
attacked the woman Win their Tiny
nsts, beating the Woulu-De ktdnapef
from Her pIey and screaming at the
lOp OI tneIr lungs. Inc woman gave
up the Struggle ana flea nom the noise.
Inc me u1 TINS 6-yeai -oIu cnild OF
WuunI strangers are seehlns 10 gam
possession reaus line Il sto4y Iron II
stOry-DuOK. According to Jacob Woll-
scneIu, sne was Laken INTO MS nome
when she was II hours olu. al tne re-
quest Oh ner mother, VINO had been de-
serted M u chicago hospital
Mother Was Beautiful
ne Nlllu , lliOlllGl Was a very DCelu-
tifuI girl,. saId Wolscheiu yesterday.
"her Idtner Is either Wliuam neri on,
"A chicago real estate broker, to wnom
the mother is now married, or young
German VINO was reputeu to nave been
tne scion and the black sheep Of no
bic German family.
"At that time / kept a small shoe
shop at 249 Lincoln avenue, Chicago.
the child lived with me and my wife
near by. The babys mother had made
an arrangement to pay US So d week
for its keeping, ana for year these
payments were regularly ana promptly
made, although the mother complained
at times that the price for the baby's
boarG was too high for her.
1--WE sort of sympathized with the
young mother and reduced the charge
to SO week instead. II was about
this time-a year after the baby's birth
that William Heron began to accom-
pany the mother on her visits to the
baby. He was with her on several
visits. Then the payments ceased sud
denly, and we never heard of the two
again until three years ago, when ac-
tion was brought in the Chicago courts
by the mother for the child's recovery.
Baby Legally Adopted
"In the meantime, in 1906, we had le-
gally adopted Helen, and the case of
the mother, Gertrude Holbrooke, was
dismissed Then came attempts to get
me to drink and ruin my business.
Everywhere 1 would move rival shops
would spring up right beside mine,
where shoes would be repaired at a
price cheaper than / could afford to do
the work.
And ys-al%ays-these compet-
itors were of German origin. l think
they were trying to ruin rue to show
that l was not competent to care for
the child.
"Then we decided to leave Chicago,
and | and my wife and Helen came to
Los Angeles. And / will keep the little
girl"
Here, last month, the old ghost ap-
peared again. Little Helen knows her
mother from having seen her In the
Chicago court room, and says that the
woman who tried to kidnap her on the
street was not her parent.
Wollscheid says that he caught a
good view of the occupants of the au-
tomobile that was waiting at the Twen-
tieth street school Monday afternoon,
ar that Helen's mother was not one
of the occupants.
Principal Yoder has furnished one
faint clew to the police that may lead
to the Identification of the mysterious
callers. He saws that one of the women
called the little girl with them Austin,
said that she was the child's mother
and that the child was pupil at the
Grand avenue school.