Little Charley Ross: The Shocking Story of America's First Kidnapping for Ransom
by Norman Zierold
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Description
The "fascinating, hair-raising, suspenseful" account of a little boy abducted in broad daylight and the desperate manhunt to find him (New York Times Book Review).On July 1, 1874, four-year-old Charley Ross and his older brother, Walter, were playing in front of their stately Philadelphia home when a horse-drawn carriage pulled up with two men who offered candy and fireworks if the boys would ride with them. Hours later, Walter came back, stating that they had ridden through the city until show more the men abandoned him in the street but kept Charley. Soon after, their father, Christian K. Ross, received a demand for $20,000 in return for his son. Ross went to the police for help-and before long, the case became a national phenomenon. A popular song pleaded for the boy's safe return. The Philadelphia police searched every home in the city, and thousands of people falsely reported that they had seen Charley or knew his whereabouts. Meanwhile, the kidnappers' ransom letters were becoming more threatening and bizarre. The press, eager to fan the flames of hysteria, printed wholly fabricated stories and even accused Christian Ross of orchestrating the whole thing in order to hide the fact that Charley was illegitimate. And then the men who took Charley went silent ...This is the chilling true story of a crime that transfixed a still-growing America, the unlikely series of events that produced the case's most tantalizing clues, and the tragic twist of fate that plunged the Ross family back into darkness and haunted them for decades to come. Originally published as Little Charley Ross. show lessTags
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Member Reviews
I ran into this book entirely by chance in the musty stacks of used bookstore and naturally became very excited, as my missing persons website is named after Charley. As far as I know it's the only book-length account of Charley's abduction, excepting Christian Ross's memoirs. [Update: not anymore.]
While the historian in me would have liked Zierold to footnote his sources, Little Charley Ross seems to be an accurate and unbiased book, with many details I had not previously known and a centerfold of pictures. My only wish is that Zierold could have included his own theory as to Charley's fate in the afterword. However, this is a minor quibble and the book is well worth reading without it.
While the historian in me would have liked Zierold to footnote his sources, Little Charley Ross seems to be an accurate and unbiased book, with many details I had not previously known and a centerfold of pictures. My only wish is that Zierold could have included his own theory as to Charley's fate in the afterword. However, this is a minor quibble and the book is well worth reading without it.
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Any connoisseur of mysteries knows that the unsolved ones are best. They command the imagination far more powerfully than the most neatly solved crimes. "What ever happened to Judge Crater?" provoked a number of literary discussions without drawing the judge into the open. In this well-documented addition to the annals of crime, a New York freelance writer now asks, "What ever happened to show more Charley Ross?" show less
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Author Information
9 Works 140 Members
Classifications
- Genres
- Nonfiction, Biography & Memoir, History, Politics and Government
- DDC/MDS
- 364.15 — Society, government, & culture Social problems and social services Crime Criminal offenses Offenses against the person
- LCC
- HV6603 .R6 .Z5 — Social sciences Social pathology. Social and public welfare. Criminology Social pathology. Social and public welfare. Criminology Crimes and offenses
- BISAC
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- 18
- Popularity
- 1,392,998
- Reviews
- 1
- Rating
- (4.00)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper, Audiobook, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 6
- ASINs
- 3
