The kidnapping of Charles Brewster "Charley" Ross
On July 1st 1874 Charles Brewster Ross nicknamed Charley or occasionally little William Penn (due to his serious manner) and his brother Walter Ross aged 5 or 8 (one place says 5 another says 8) were playing in the front yard of their family home in Germantown, Pennsylvania when a horse-drawn carriage pulled up and two men approached them offering candy for a ride they boys agreed and the men rode to a store where Walter was given money and told to go inside and bug some candy for himself and Charles but when Walter came out he found that the carriage had gone without him and Charles was never seen again. In 1874 there were little to no abductions or if so they went unacknowledged, kidnapping was so rare that it wasn't even a criminal offence in Pennsylvania at the time of Charles disappearance. The boys father Christian Ross reported to police that his son had disappeared and at first they were unconcerned saying that the men where probably drunk taken Charles for a laugh an...