S1 Ep9: Charley Ross: America's First Kidnapping for Ransom

Crimes of the Centuries

Amber Hunt and Audioboom

History, Documentary, Society & Culture, True Crime

4.7 • 4K Ratings

🗓️ 21 December 2020

⏱️ 42 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

After 4-year-old Charley Ross vanished in a carriage with two men who'd offered him candy and fireworks, police at first told his father to wait it out. Surely the men had no bad intentions. Then came the first ransom letter. And another. And another. In 1874, the Charley Ross case marked the first time in American history that a child had been stolen for money. The case terrified parents, made kidnapping a crime and served as macabre inspiration for future criminals.

"Crimes of the Centuries" is a podcast from Grab Bag Collab exploring forgotten crimes from times past that made a mark and helped change history.

Follow us on Instagram and Twitter: @centuriespod

Transcript

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0:00.0	Today on Good Different News, Paul finds Brit's dislike talking about weather.
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0:20.2	Search Suzuki Cars, Suzuki Good Different.
0:23.4	Offer replies to UK Private Retail Merch, this from participating Suzuki dealer terms and exclusions apply C-Cars.Susuki.co.uk.
0:36.6	Some crimes are so heartbreaking or shocking that they earn the label crime of the century.
0:44.7	But the stories that made headlines and decades passed aren't necessarily remembered today.
0:52.6	I'm Amber Hunt, a journalist and author.
0:56.4	And in each episode of this show, I'll examine a case that's maybe lesser known today, but was huge when it happened.
1:05.3	This is crimes of the centuries.
1:08.5	Little Walter Ross looked ashen, scared.
1:24.2	He'd run inside a store to buy some fireworks.
1:27.0	He'd been given a quarter to spend and still had four cents left.
1:30.8	But when he ran back outside to climb into the carriage he'd arrived in.
1:34.6	It was gone.
1:35.8	Walter was only six, so this was terrifying.
1:39.6	He started a cry which drew the attention of passers-by who ended up helping reunite Walter
1:45.2	with his dad at a police precinct a bit closer to home.
1:49.2	His dad, Christian, he'd a sigh of relief, but then asked a question, where's your brother?
	...

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