El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1917-08-21

OF a store where fireworks and TOYS
were for sale. The men gave Walter
twenty-five cents and sent him into
the store TO get what he wanted. and
when he returned the wagon. the men
and Charley had disappeared
Held for Ransom.
For three days the police and the
boys frantic parents made q thor
ougn search OF the city and suburbs
On the morning of the Fourth OF July
AR. Ross received the following anon
ymOus letter
Mr.. Ross, be not uneasy YOU son
Charles be all rite we got him and
no powers on earth can deliver him
out OF our hand You VIII have to
pay US before you get him from us
and pay Us big too. II YOU put the
cops hunting for him YOU is only
defeating W own end We got him
so no living power can get him from
US alive II any approach IS made
TO his hiddin place that is the signal
for his instant anihilatiOn."
Following this came a letter de-
handing 100000 ransom for Charley's
return The police told the father
not TO pay the ransom. as no other
child IN America would be safe il the
money was forthcoming. Yet when
all police aid failed the heartbroken
father decided TO pay He inserted
newspaper advertisements 10 that er-
feet Through the same medium the
kidnappers replied and arranged
meeting place But again the kid
nappers became the prey OF police ac-
tivity and did not appear at the ap-
pointed location
Scores OF Detectives Hunt.
BY this time rewards offered for
the boy had attracted every proml-
uent detective in the country and
scores OF amateurs who were anxious
TO win lame and fortune By llndinS
the boy
Fully a hundred Charlie Roses"
were discovered by different enter
prising sleuths, but none OF them
proved 10 be the missing boy MF-
Ross travelled from one end OF the
country 70 the other in an effort TO
locate some clue and many news
hundreds or dollars in trying 10 dis
cover the whereabouts Of the young
ster or his captors.
In December. 1874. two burglars
Douglas and Moshsr by name. were
shot and killed while trying 10 ROD
house at Fort Hamilton. J. J.
Douglas, when dying. gasped out
'MOsher and I stole Charley Ross
MosheT knows all about the boy-ash
him. Then he died
Mr. Ross. up to the time OF his own
death in 1897, refused to give NJ nope
Of finding the boy, but clue after clue
was followed up and with the ex-
Ienses OF the search the Ross fortune
was reduced TO almost nothing Ross
was haunted by the thought that his
son might have been brought up .
criminal and might be i'm jail suLleI-
ing the penalties Of his CaptOr's train
ing.
Boy Believed Dead.
The general opinion. however. was .
that Charley had died Of homesiCkuess .
while negotiations for his return We're
in progress and that this accounted
for his abductOrs not demanding
further ransom
in the summer Of 1879 Gilbert
Mosher, the brother Of one Of the bur
glars who claimed TO have kidnapped
the boy. called upon the New York
police and is said 70 have proved that
the dying burglars confession was
correct
According 10 his story. a gang OF
which the Moshers and DOUGLAS had
been the leading spirits had kept the
boy in deserted house in Brooklyn, /
y. Y Whether the boy died or was
murdered. has never become known. I
but 10 seems an established fact that
the gang walled NJ his body in an old
closet a skeleton was discovered
later which Albert Mosher claimed
was that Of the boy.
Police Ia many cities who followed
the crime year by year are still Of the
opinion that Charley Ross IS alive and
brand as false the story told By the
dying burglar and later substautiated
in measure by his brother
II rs possible the boy has grown TO
manhood ignorant of his former lie