Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1909-03-26
FATHER Gets
WILLIE WHITLA
Boy Returned 10 Him Upln Pay
ment Of $4,000
PROPOSITION OF KIDNkPPERS


Ransom-Child Disguised and Put
Aboard Street Car, Which Quickly
Brought Him to Parent In Hotel
Cleveland, March 23.-Wilie Whit
la, who has caused the police of the
entire country endless worry since he
was kidnapped from school in Sharon.
Pa, last Thursday. was returned to
his father at the Hollenden hotel here
last night at $50 o'clock.
In compliance with an agreement
entered into between the kidnapped
boys father and an agent of the kid
nappers here, the boy was placed on
street car on the outskirts of the
city and started to the hotel shortly
after o'clock.
Two boys, G.. w. Ramsey and Ed
ward Mahoney, recognized the lad
on the car, and, taking him in
charge, conducted him to his father,
who was in waiting, according to
prearranged plan which he had fol-
lowed at the dictation of the kidnap-
pers.
The boy wandered about the hotel
lobby unannounced for several min
utes, asking bellboys for his father,
before the latter knew his son was in
the big foyer.
The moment Whitla heard that a
strange boy was in the hotel saunter
ing about in aimless fashion, he
rushed across the lobby, grasped him
in his arms and smothered his face
with kisses.
An attempt had been made to dis
guise the lad He wore a pair Of
smoked glasses and a large tan cap,
which was pulled down over his ears,
and the father said it would have been
difficult to have recognized the boy in
such a garb had he passed him on tho
street
Willie is in good health. Hee says
that he has been well treated. and
ever since his capture has been con-
stantly indoors He believes he was
taken from Sharon to Warren, and
thence to Newcastle, Pa. 1t is his
opinion, expressed in happy school
boy way. that he was in Ashtabula
on Saturday night at the time his
father was to leave his SO, 900 in
Flatiron park.
Mr.. Whitla said that he received
a letter Monday from the kidnappers
at his home in Sharon. saying that if
he called at a confectionery store in
the east end of Cleveland he would
be told how to secure his boy un-
harmed and well fed"
Shortly after noon he left Sharon
for Cleveland. He was unaccom-
panied His immediate family and
the private detectives he had in his
employ had been appraised by him of
the proposed meeting but he insisted
that he must make the trip alone, I'M
heralded, and that no attempt at the
/ capture of the kidnappers must then
| be made.
Mr. Whitla was certain that if he
spoiled the plans of his sons captors
last night he would never see the lad
again. His experience at Ashtabula
/ served as warning.
About 2 o'clock Monday afternoon
he went to candy store in the west
end. With him he carried the $40, =
600, expecting that it would be de-
manded of him there. He was met by
a woman. who detailed to him the
terms of the hdnappers. With dis
tracted eagerness Whitla agreed to
them Immediately. Half an hour later
he returned to the Hollenden hotel
and awaited developments.
In the meantime Willie, feeling
comparatively safe in the hands of his
kidnappers, for he was being treated
kindly and even now does not realize
the danger he was in, was being pre-
pared for his return to his father
The woman at the candy store had
done her duty. She communicated
with the captors of the boy and told
them that the father had made no at
tempt to trap them. The kidnappers
were satisfied.
But Whitla declines to name the
woman in charge of the confectionery
store and almost dares the police to
find her. So the boy was brought
from the hiding place-where it was
no one knows-to a car line in the
east end of the city which brought him
into town quickly.
Before retiring for the night Whitla
admitted that he had paid $40 600 to
the woman in the candy store. 1t was
in currency and bills. The woman
did not count the money. Whitla
believes the woman was an Italian
but he refuses to dislose her identity
kidnappers Caught
Cleveland, March TN the ar
rest here of man and woman hav-
ing 1890 In their possession, the po-
lice believe they have captured the
kidnaplers of Willie Whitla. In fact
the woman in the case. who was
somewhat befuddled. admitted that
she had been responsible for thu kid