The kidnapping of Charlie Ross: the twisted and untwisted story of one disappearance (11 photos)

Unfortunately, the realities of life are such that people disappear all the time. But if in the case of adults there is a possibility that the person disappeared to escape from annoying relatives, life circumstances or debts, then with children everything is different.





American crime chronicles made the kidnapping of this child the most notorious kidnapping for ransom in history. This happened in July 1874, when 4-year-old Charlie Ross from Philadelphia became known throughout the country. Unfortunately, in a sad context.

Kidnapping of Charlie Ross



Charlie Ross

On July 1, 1874, Charlie and his five-year-old brother Walter were playing in the front yard of their father's home in Germantown, an upscale Philadelphia neighborhood. Two men stopped next to the boys and asked if they wanted to go buy fireworks for the Fourth of July holiday. Sources differ on whether the children knew these men or whether they were strangers. Be that as it may, Walter and Charlie climbed into a two-horse carriage, which sped through the streets into areas where the boys had never been before.

They finally stopped in front of a store. And the kidnappers gave Walter 25 cents to go to the nearest one and buy fireworks. Walter got out of the carriage and it sped away. And little brother Charlie Ross remained inside.





Ross family home

The boys' father, Christian, knew nothing about the abduction until a neighbor told him. The woman stated that she noticed both boys in a stroller with two guys she had never seen before. Christian panicked, but decided not to bother his wife. She lived temporarily in Atlantic City and dealt with the health of her eldest daughter. The woman remained unaware of the crime until she read an advertisement in the newspaper asking for information about the missing boys.

Return of Walter



An 1874 image of Ross published on his missing man poster

Everyone felt some hope when Walter returned to his home some time after his disappearance. How the boy survived and where he was during his absence is now impossible to find out. But the father's hope faded when the child told the story of the two men and told his parents he had no idea where Charlie was.



First letter

On the 3rd, Christian received a terribly illiterate ransom demand:

Mr. Ross, don't worry, your son Charlie, he is in our hands, and no force on earth can snatch him from our hands. You will have to pay us before you receive it from us. And pay us a big ransom. If you force the cops to hunt him, you will only lose. For your money, you can get him out alive, and no other force will be able to do this. Don't fool yourself into thinking that detectives can get it from us.



Despite the threat contained in the note, Christian contacted the police for help in getting his son back. A few days later, another letter arrived, written by a virtually illiterate writer, saying that they needed to pay $20,000 for the safe return of Charlie Ross.

Dead end



Despite the efforts of the police and the Ross family, the deal with the kidnappers never materialized, and all possible leads came to nothing.

As 1875 approached, police received another possible lead in the case on December 13th.



During a robbery at the home of a Brooklyn judge, residents were able to fight back against the criminals. Bill Mosher died on the spot, and Joe Douglas was fatally wounded and died a few hours later. But before he died, the survivor revealed that he and his now-deceased partner had stolen Charlie Ross. Although he had no idea where Charlie was now.



Mosher and Douglas

The police tried to use the robbers' connections to track down Charlie, but to no avail. Although a couple of years later, Christian even wrote the book “The Story of Father Charlie Ross, the Kidnapped Child” to raise money to continue the search for the boy. In the end, people lost interest in this matter.

Christian spent 23 years trying to return Charlie or his remains to their homeland. When he died in 1897, he was no closer to a solution than he was the day Charlie disappeared.



As time went on, boys and men of the right age claimed to be Charlie Ross, wanting to become part of a wealthy family. Christian and his wife interviewed a total of 570 boys, teenagers and men and spent about $60,000 on the search.

After the death of their parents, Walter and his sisters continued to receive letters from applicants for their brother's status.



The sad case also had its plus: the fates of Mosher and Douglas at least temporarily served as a deterrent for other potential criminals who wanted to make a killing by kidnapping a child.

It is generally accepted that the common admonishment "don't take candy from strangers" originated from Ross' kidnapping.

The first such large-scale case in the United States of kidnapping for ransom remains unsolved to this day.