On 1 July 1874, four-year old Charley Ross was playing outside his home in the fashionable German town section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, when two strange men lifted him into a wagon and carried him away.
Three days later, on 4 July, Christian K. Ross received this letter.
July 3 - "Mr. Ros-be not uneasy you son charly bruster be al writ we is got him and no powers on earth can deliver out of our hand-You wil hav two pay us befor you git him from us-an pay us a big cent to."
So began a crime which shocked a nation and became a legend. To this point in America's history, the kidnapping of a child for ransom was unheard of and it wasn't until the 1920s that such a crime was committed again.
Contains 8 pages of b/w illustrations.
