Charley Ross

Charley Ross
1874 likeness published on his missing person poster.
Born	Charles Brewster Ross (1870-05-04)May 4, 1870 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Disappeared	July 1, 1874 (aged 4) Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Status	Deceased

Charles Brewster "Charley" Ross (May 4, 1870 – disappeared July 1, 1874) was the primary victim of the first kidnapping for ransom in United States history to receive widespread attention from the media.

On July 1, 1874, four-year-old Ross and his five-year-old brother Walter Lewis were playing in the front yard of their family's home in Germantown, a well-to-do section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. A horse-drawn carriage pulled up and they were approached by two men who offered the boys candy and fireworks if they would take a ride with them. The boys agreed and they all proceeded through Philadelphia to a store where Walter was directed to buy fireworks inside with 25 cents given to him. Walter did so, but the carriage left without him. Charley Ross was never seen again.

Christian K. Ross, the boys' father, began receiving ransom demands from the apparent kidnappers. They arrived in the form of notes mailed from post offices in Philadelphia and elsewhere, all written in an odd hand and in a coarse, semi-literate style with many simple words misspelled. The communications generally requested a ransom of $20,000, an enormous sum at the time. The notes cautioned against police intervention and threatened Ross's life if Christian did not cooperate. Christian Ross owned a large house and was thought to be wealthy but was actually heavily in debt, due to the stock market crash of 1873 and could not afford such an amount. Seeing no other choice, Christian Ross went to the police. The kidnapping soon became national news.

In addition to the heavy press coverage, some prominent Philadelphians enlisted the help of the famous Pinkerton detective agency, who had millions of flyers and posters printed with Ross' likeness. A popular song based on the crime was even composed by Dexter Smith and W. H. Brockway, entitled "Bring Back Our Darling". Several attempts were made to provide the kidnappers with ransom money as dictated in the notes, but in each case the kidnappers failed to appear. Eventually, communication stopped.

On the night of December 13, five months after the kidnapping, the Bay Ridge, Brooklyn house belonging to Judge Charles Van Brunt was burglarized. Holmes Van Brunt, Charles' brother, lived next door, and gathered the members of his household, armed with shotguns, to stop the intruders in the act. As they entered Van Brunt's house, they saw two lanterns go out, and the resulting torrent of gunfire from Holmes and his men brought down both burglars where they stood. They were Bill Mosher and Joe Douglas, career criminals who had recently been released from jail. Mosher was killed instantly while Douglas was mortally wounded, but managed to live about two more hours and was able to communicate with Holmes. Everyone present was shaken by the experience, and there is no clear consensus regarding exactly what Douglas said. Most agree that Douglas said that there was no point in lying (as he knew he was mortally wounded) so he admitted that he and Mosher abducted Ross. His further statements, if any, are more controversial. He either said that Ross was killed, or that Mosher knew where Ross was, possibly adding that he would be returned unharmed to the Rosses within a few days. In any case, he did not give any clues to Ross' location or other particulars of the crime, and died soon afterwards. Walter Ross was taken to New York City to look at the bodies of Mosher and Douglas so as to determine if they were the men from the carriage ride. Walter confirmed that they were the same men who took the boys from in front of their home the previous summer. Mosher in particular was very identifiable as he had a distinctively malformed nose, which Walter had described to police as a "monkey nose". (The cartilage of Mosher's nose had been destroyed by syphilis or cancer).