The Grenada sentinel. [volume] (Grenada, Miss.) 1868-1955, 1913-05-16
THE KIDNAPPING
OF CHARLIE ROSS
Recent Dubar Case Recalls Story Of
Crime That Stirred Two Hemls.
phereS and Bdffled the Most
Expert CrimnOIOqiSts.

|, From a recent issue of the New Or.
leans Item the following interesting
story of Charlie Ross is taken:
From the time of the kidnapping of
Joseph by his brethren, who ''sold him
into Egypt" to the present, there has
been evidence by the people of all coun-
tries that same keen interest IN a case
of man-stealing which attended the
first alarm upon the disappearance of
little Robert Dunbar and followed the
case through each succeeding stage of
the pursuit and recovery.
Notable parallels for the Dunbar kid
mapping are the Cudahy and Charlie !,
Ross cases, the last named being
classed by eminent criminologists as
among the most celebrated crimes since
the Middle Ages. This distinction given
the Charlie Ross case was obviously
because of the extraordinary publicity
it received in two hemispheres.
The younger generation has never
heard the details of the Charlie Ross
affair. The story has grown vague and
indistinct in the minds of even the old
er people to whom this narrative will
ring familiar.
The man who supplied the details
herein set down, Captain" John
Bailey, a retired officer of the United
States Secret Service, was for twelve
! years a Pinkerton detective. And
{ when the kidnapping ccurred he was
, connected with the New York bureau
I Of the Pinkerton Detective Agency,
I and as an expert operative, fol-
) lowed the case. He tells the story
thus:
A great expanse of greensward upon
s which stands a stately and elegant
) mansion of red brick, is in the little
: suburb of Germantown, hard by the
5 City of Brotherly Love.
; In days agone this was the home of
one Christian X. Ross, wealthy, aristo-
cratic, beloved by his fellow-townsmen
, and unknown to fame.
9 With his wife and two little Sons re
lived there for a time in quiet hap
3 piness, enjoying the ease and comforts
which the possession of money makes
possible. He saw fewer clouds in the
3 sky of life than the average of man.
kind.
3 Then he fell upon evil days. His
3 riches took wings and all he possessed
2 flew away save the greensward and
g the red brick house, the wife and the
two boys.
Z Then more ill-luck befell. The boys
z were playing upon the sward one sunny
3 morning. Suddenly one of them van.
9 ished.
& He was a five-year old youngster
3 and he was exceedingly winsome. He
2 had the face and figure of an aristocra
& and he wore the dainty garments of
8 lady's son. His eyes were blue anC
2 dancing; his hair was golden and curly
2 his complexion was milk and roses. Hi
3 name was Charlie.
3 The brother, six years old, returne
2 to the house and told a prattiIng tale o
K how two rough looking men had &C
2 how they had taken Charlie away wit
2 them to buy him some candy lust be
9 cause he was such a pretty boy"
2 That occurred on the End of July
z 1874. And the alarmed parents, VIII
B waited hoping that each succeeding
2 minute would bring to their ears tn
g sound of his pattering feet upon tn
I prayeled walk, saw him never more.
2 Two days after the child disappeare
z the father received an anonymous CON
8 munication advising him that the la
70 had been kidnapped and was held TO
3 ransom.
& The letter was an illiterate scrawl
2 It told him rudely and tersely that bi
z money was wanted. Nothing more.
8 1t set the parents frantic. The ia
2 Their appealed wildly to his friends fo
z the loan of money to buy back his boy
& knowing not even to whom, where G
9 how he could pay the ransom. The lei
ter told him only that the boy was nc
3 lost, but stolen. ,
z police will catch them. To pay tn
3 ransom would be to invite furtht
Q crimes of THE sort.
z He saw reason in their argument ar
3 waited.
3 The police were sent out on a hui
g for Charlie Ross. The story of tn
kidnapping was given out to the pres
II was a new crime for thosa day
- the kidnapping of a child. And it
appealed, in all its many phases, to Il
hearts Of men that a search such
u was never seen before was institute
m Day after day the writers OF Il
press furnished fresh inspiration out
-, their knowledge and out of their II
animation, to their searchers. Th'
,ts nrinted wood pictures of the little IL
In, low tortured by the rough usage
cruel captors and sobbing for his mot
&C. err. They described the silent angui
of the father, the wondering grief
= the little brother, the heart breaki
/, tears of the mother. And week II
]. lowed week without developing a ira
of the golden-haired one.
'eps The police of a hundred cities we
seeking the missing boy within wee
Christian Ross friends came to h
zen and rendered the money he had aske
hts Get the boy with this" they sa
IRE, Individuals rose up in all parts OF I
country, angry and sympathetic, to
leei fer rewards for the capture OF the K
tie' hampers, or for the return of the chi
TIP, In Philadelphia, a party of rich m
i 81 Cbilds. Drexel and others, met toge
er and resolved to employ the best
ISIS. tective talent in the world at their
pense. They engaged an army. OF
. tectives and they offered first a 30.
- bonus. A week later they doubled
-. Ia,s vv,nro Qnd thaV a