The Key West citizen. [volume] (Key West, Fla.) 1879-current, 1933-05-25
KIDNAPPING CASE
HAVING KEY WEST
ANGLE Is CITED
MISS CATHERINE coNNALLY
STILL SEARCHES FOR HER
MOTHER; FORMER KEY
WEBSTER RECALLS IN
cIDENT HERE

A kidnapping case with a Key
West angle has been brought to
light by a Washington, D. c.,
newspaper article, which appear
ed recently. The story as it
appeared, follows:
"With the aid of police here
and in other parts of the country,
Miss Catherine Connally, TIT
Seventeenth street, Washington,
D. c., is carrying on a search for
her mother, from whom she says
she was kidnapped by her father,
/ 80 years ago.
"The mother, Mrs. Alice Miles
Connally, was last heard of in
1907, when she was reported to
be in training to become a nurse
in Memphis, Tenn, hospital.
Although Miss Connally has new
/ err been able to discover a more
recent clue of her mothers where
abouts, she is still confident she
will find her somewhere, some
how"
Miss Connally tells the follow
ing story:
"She and her younger sister,
Ellen Cecilia, now married and
living in New York, were kidnap-
ed by their father, James Con-
nally, in Nashville, in 1901 or
1902. Miss Connally was 5 years
old and her sister 8 at the time.
"The girls father told them
/ their mother was dead, and nei-
Their of them had any recollection
of her. The father died in 1910
and it was not until long after
ward that the girls learned they
had been kidnapped after their
parents separated.
"Since then, Miss Connally has
been making every effort to To-
cate her mother. The latest clue
came last August from her god
mother, who lives in Nashville.
She told Miss Connally sister
had seen the missing woman in
a Memphis hospital.
| Miss Connally queried all the
hospitals in Memphis, and also
wrote to the Tennessee State reg
| istry department, but she found
/ no trace of her mother. Then she
appealed to. the police in Mem
phis and other cities, but with the
same results. She even had her
story broadcast from various ra-
dio stations, but this also proved
fruitless.
/ Mrs. Connally, if alive, would
be So"
As soon as Mrs. Angela Hay
man Ritter, former Key Wester,
now residing in Washington, read
the above story. she recalled a
! Mrs. Jessie Mcmillan who was a
boarder at Mrs. Ritter's mothers
home in this city in 1901, and
who was nursed through a spell
of illness by Mrs. Ritter's mother,
Mrs. Ella Hayman.
| While at the Hayman home.
| Mrs. Mcmillan frequently told of
the loss of her two little girls, but
never mentioned the name of
Connally. When Mrs. Ritter re-
called these events which occur
red during the years 1901 or
1902, she felt certain the woman
known to herself and her mother
was not Mrs. Jessie Mcmillan.
but Mrs. Alice Miles Connaiiy.
/ According to Mrs. Ritter. it was
! in 1902 that Mrs. Mcmillan left
/ Key West for Texas.
Il With these facts in mind Mrs.
Ritter telephoned the newspaper
office and Miss Connally was adj
yised to call Mrs. Ritter, which
she did. Mrs. Ritter also told
Miss ConnaIly that while in st.
Augustine in 1907 she met some
one who knew Mrs. Mcmillan a
nurse in a Memphis hospital.
Miss Connally stated that she
did not know her mother had
changed her name. bGt thought
she might have retained her
maiden name of Alice Miles. The
young woman told that she and
her sister were kidnapped BY their
father, who placed them in con-
vent, where they remained 4 mum.
Der of years
!. III anyone in this city knows
anything that might lead To the
recovery OF this parent. Il will b.
appreciated hy the two girls who
have never lest hope OF finding
their mother, il II stated.
)