The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1932-03-04
WORST OF ALL CRIMES'
Child Stealing Appalling in Brutality
BY BRUCE CATION
NEA Service Writer

TINE kidnapping Of small children
Il has made some of the most
tragic stories American newspapers
ever have printed.
From the days of the sensational
Charlie Ross case down to the dis
appearance of the Lindbergh baby
the nations criminal history is
studded with records of kidnapping
In some caSes-relatively few-the
missing youngsters later. have
turned up alive, unframed, and re-
stored to their parents.
In more, only corpse has been
found.
In few, the mystery never has
been dispelled. A child -yanishes,
an energetic search is conducted, a
myriad clews are run down in vain
and there the matter has ended,
with nothing definite ever learned
about the child's fate.
Undoubtedly the most widely
known kidnapping of former years
was that of Charlie Ross. This case
illustrates, also, how futile some
times are the most painstaking eff
forts to clear up such a mystery.
CHARLIE ROSS was 4 years old,
~ the son of a well-to-do Phila-
delphian. On'a July day in 1874 he
was playing on the lawn of his
fathers estate when two men drove
up in a spring wagon and enticed
MIN away. His older brother Wal
ter went with him on a promise
Of candy.
Alta drug store few blocks away
the wagon halted and Walter was
given Is cents and sent to get the
candy.
He went into the store, the wagon
drove off-and to this day no one
knows certainly what happened to
Charlie Ross after that.
For years the search went on.
Intending rumors have been circu-
lated about the little boys fate.
Even within the last decade re-
ports have appeared purporting to
clear up the mystery. Various claim
ants to his name have appeared
and each claim has been disproved.
somewhat similar was the equally
mysterious disappearance of little
Freddie Leib in Quincy. ILL.,. in 1871.
Freddie, 5 years old, simply tod
died out to play one afternoon near
his home and never came back.
A search that extended from one
coast to the other was begun, dozens
of messages" were received, scores
OF rumors were Investigated, but
nothing was learned.
The only tangible clew was that
furnished by woman living on the
edge OF town, who reported that on
the day the boy vanished she had
seen a man go past her home in a
buggy, accompanied by a weeping
boy.
The man explained, she said. that
he was taking the boy to an or
phanage. Efforts to find him we're
futile, however.
MORE recently there was the
AVA tragic case of Melvin Horst of
Orrville, o.
Melvin, a lad of 5, was last seen
by his mother playing in the back
yard OF his home a few days after
Christmas in 1928. Night came and
the boy did not come in for sup
per.
A search began that has been
carried on to this day-but no trace
ever has been found of the boy nor
word as to his fate.
After year of investigation, two
neighbors we're arrested on charge
of kidnapping the boy, and were
tried, convicted, and sentenced to
prison. The state supreme court
granted them a new trial, however,
and they we're acquitted.
Still later, one of Melvin's play
mates told a story accusing two
other men of stealing the child.
The two were arrested, and each
told rambling and unconvincing
story accusing the other of killing
the boy.
Neither story carried much con-
viction, and since no trace of Mel
vim could be found the case was
written down as another unsolved
mystery.
Il Il
COMEWHAT like the kidnapping
~ of Baby Lindbergh, in its be-
ginning, at any rate, was the kid
mapping of 12-month-old Blakely
Coughlin, stolen from his crib in his
fathers summer home near Nor
ristown, Pa, in the summer of
1920.
The kidnapers got into the nur-
sery through a window in the mid
die of the night and carried the
boy away. For five years so-called
clews in this case kept turning up,