The disappearance of Charlie Ross was the first case of kidnapping for ransom in the United States. Charlie, age 4, and his brother Walter, age 6, were kidnapped on July 1, 1874. Charlie never returned.
According to the Library of Congress, in the days before the kidnapping, two men in a horse-drawn carriage had visited the brothers’ Philadelphia neighborhood and offered them candy.
On July 1, 1894, the men offered to buy Charlie and Walter some candy and fireworks ahead of Independence Day on July 4. They successfully lured the boys into a carriage ride.
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Charlie Ross and his brother Walter were kidnapped in Philadelphia in 1874, but Walter was later brought home by a stranger. (Tim Nwachukwu/Getty Images)
Walter was sent to a store to buy fireworks, and while he was there, the men took Charlie and drove off in a car.
According to USHistory.org, Walter was later returned to his home by a stranger, but Charlie remained missing.
A few days after Charlie was kidnapped, his father, Christian Roth, received the first of 23 ransom letters from his son’s kidnappers, according to the Library of Congress.
“Mr. Ross, do not worry about my son, Charlie Broster. We have him. No power on earth can deliver him from our hands,” one of the letters read, according to the Pennsylvania Center for the Book.
Charlie’s father, Christian Ross, called Philadelphia police after his son was kidnapped and a ransom was demanded that he could not pay. (iStock)
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This first letter demanded $20,000 from the family in exchange for Charlie’s safe return.
According to the Crime Museum, he owned a large home in Germantown and gave off the appearance of being wealthy, but in reality he was deeply in debt after the stock market crash.
Ross’s father could not afford to pay the ransom, so he contacted the police instead. There were no breaks in the case until later in the year, when police were investigating another kidnapping case and were able to match the handwriting of a ransom note related to that case with the letter sent to Charlie’s family.
According to the Crime Museum, the handwriting was identified as that of escaped convict William Mosher.
Charlie Ross’ family spent years and $60,000 trying to find him. (iStock)
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According to the Library of Congress, Mosher was killed during a robbery in Brooklyn, but his accomplice, Joseph Douglas, who was shot during the robbery, confessed to kidnapping Charlie. Douglas said Mosher was the only one who knew where Charlie was being held captive. Douglas died just hours after providing this information.
Christian spent the rest of his life searching for his son, spending a total of $60,000 on the search.
In 1876, he wrote a book called “Narrative of the Father of Charley Ross, Kidnapped Boy,” and used the money to continue his search for his son, according to the Library of Congress.
Over the years, several impostors claimed to be Charlie, but the family was never reunited.
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Christian died in 1897 and his wife in 1912. Charlie’s brother Walter died in 1943.
To this day, it is unclear what actually happened to Charlie.
