The Tragic Case Of Charley Ross One reason the parental advice “never accept candy from strangers”

One reason the parental advice “never accept candy from strangers” became a very familiar phrase was the sensational July 1874 kidnapping of Charley Ross, the four-year-old son of a wealthy businessman in Germantown, Pennsylvania.

Charley and his six-year-old brother, Walter, were accustomed to playing near the road in front of their home. During the last week of June, two strangers in a carriage stopped each day to talk to them and offer candy. Then, on July 1, they offered to take the boys into Philadelphia to buy fireworks for Independence Day. In the city they sent Walter into a store with 25 cents, a princely sum for a six-year-old in those days. When Walter came out of the store, the carriage, the two men, and Charlie were gone.

Two days later the boys’ father, Christian K. Ross, received an illiterate, barely legible note warning him: “. . .dont deceiv yuself an think the detectives can git him from us for that is one impossible—you here from us in few day” Soon there came a demand for a $20,000 ransom, but an attempt at a rendezvous for the delivery of the money fell through.

The New York City police identified the handwriting of the notes as that of William Mosher, a dock thief, but before they could track him down Mosher and his accomplice, Joseph Douglass, were shot during a burglary in Bay Ridge, New York. Mosher died at once; Douglass survived long enough to confess but claimed that only Mosher had known Charley’s whereabouts. Little Walter Ross identified the two dead as the kidnappers of his brother.

1924 Newspaper article about the kidnapping of Charley Ross 50 years earlier; credit New York Times.

Later, a book about Charley Ross was published in 1967, written by Norman Zierold.

Today, Charley Ross bottles from the mid to late 1870's are very difficult to find. But once in a while “diggers” will discover them in their searches as they go through old trash dumps and privy pits.

A fascinating bottle of historical importance that marks a sad event in American history. The admonition "don't take candy from strangers" is said to have originated from Charley Ross' kidnapping.

wwww.perfumepassage.org

The mother's brother-in-law, a former policeman named William Westervelt, was tried for his alleged part in the crime. Sentenced to seven years of solitary confinement, he never admitted guilt on his release in 1882 he dropped out of sight.

Source: Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper, August 15, 1874; June 18, 1875; Harper's Weekly,August8,1874,p.652

#kidnapp #kidnapping #ransom #charleyross #charlieross #appearances #disappearences #appearancesanddisappearences

Sacred Saturday: Walking around to the other side of the horses --- Benjamin Bathurst's Story

Age of Wisdom Alphonse Mucha 1936 - 1938

In 1809 England sought to persuade Austria to join the confederation opposing Napoleon. Benjamin Bathurst, a 25-year-old diplomat who had already distinguished himself in foreign service, went to Vienna to promise an attack on the French who were occupying Spain in return for Austria’s alignment with England. It proved a bad bargain: Napoleon was victorious at Wagram on the Danube River, and Austria was forced to cede territory to him.

That fall, Bathurst began to make his way back home through Germany. On November 25, traveling under the name of Koch and posing as a wealthy merchant, he and his secretary and valet stopped at an inn in Perleberg. A witness at the inn reported that he seemed very nervous. He asked the commander of the local garrison to provide armed guards against mysterious pursuers - perhaps agents of Napoleon.

Benjamin Bathurst, a British envoy sent on a secret mission to Austria in 1809, was on his way back to England when he vanished forever in a small German town. The distinguished young diplomat, who was traveling incognito, may have been trailed and assassinated by French soldiers. In the middle of the evening, as his coach was preparing to leave, Bathurst went out into the otherwise deserted street, walked around his horses...

And was gone.

His valet, who had been at the rear of the coach with the baggage, cast a look down each side of the coach and saw only the hostler who had harnessed the horses. His secretary, standing in the doorway of the inn to pay the bill, had not seen him return. The soldiers stationed at each end of the street had seen no one pass.

The authorities searched first the inn and then all of Perleberg. Inquiries from the British Foreign Office brought a denial from Napoleon that his agents had been involved. Stories circulated that Bathurst had been robbed and murdered, that he had secretly gone on to a port and been lost at sea, and so on — but all that is known about Benjamin Bathurst’s disappearance from a quiet street in a small German town is summed up in the words of Charles Fort, that tireless collector of events that have no rhyme or reason:“Under observation, he walked around to the other side of the horses.”

SOURCE: (Dictionary of National Biography, Vol. 1, p.1327;Charles Fort, The Complete Books of Charles Fort, p.681; Colin Wilson, Enigmas and Mysteries, p.37)

#disappearance #mysteries #enigmas #benjaminbathurst