Many of you have probably heard of a website called "The Charley Project". It is named after a little 4-year-old boy named Charley Brewster Ross who was kidnapped in Philadelphia on 1 July 1874. A series of letters demanding ransom of $20,000 were sent by the kidnappers to Charley's father. It was the first known time in US history that a kidnapping of a child for ransom occurred.
The outcry from the public was tremendous. This became front page news in all of the cities in the US for several months. Police agencies searched high and low for any sign of the kidnappers and the boy.
Then on 14 December 1874, two men were shot while burglarizing a house in New York. One confessed before dying that they were the kidnappers of little Charley, but that only the other man knew his whereabouts. Unfortunately, the other burglar had already died. Later evidence identified both men positively as the abductors of Charley, but no one had a clue as to where Charley was.
Laws regarding kidnapping at the time were actually very limited and weak. Kidnapping was a misdemeanor punishable by fines only as high as a thousand dollars and confinement for a year or two. In an effort to make stronger sentences against kidnapping, the Pennsylvania legislature passed a bill in February of 1875 which made the crime a felony punishable by imprisonment of 25 years and fines up to ten thousand dollars. Included in the bill were provisions for prosecuting not only the actual kidnappers, but also anyone who aided and abetted the act.
Because little Charley had still not been returned to his family, the legislature, as an incentive to whomever held him, put a 30 day delay clause in the bill so that anyone holding the boy could turn him over to authorities within 30 days of passage and NOT face the full penalties of the new law. After that time, this law would become the most severe in the entire country for the crime of kidnapping.
The Pennsylvania Governor signed the bill into law on 24 February 1875 and the 30 day grace period ended on 25 March 1875.
Exactly 100 years later, to the day, the Lyon sisters disappeared.
Today the Lyon sisters , like little Charley Ross, are still missing.
The outcry from the public was tremendous. This became front page news in all of the cities in the US for several months. Police agencies searched high and low for any sign of the kidnappers and the boy.
Then on 14 December 1874, two men were shot while burglarizing a house in New York. One confessed before dying that they were the kidnappers of little Charley, but that only the other man knew his whereabouts. Unfortunately, the other burglar had already died. Later evidence identified both men positively as the abductors of Charley, but no one had a clue as to where Charley was.
Laws regarding kidnapping at the time were actually very limited and weak. Kidnapping was a misdemeanor punishable by fines only as high as a thousand dollars and confinement for a year or two. In an effort to make stronger sentences against kidnapping, the Pennsylvania legislature passed a bill in February of 1875 which made the crime a felony punishable by imprisonment of 25 years and fines up to ten thousand dollars. Included in the bill were provisions for prosecuting not only the actual kidnappers, but also anyone who aided and abetted the act.
Because little Charley had still not been returned to his family, the legislature, as an incentive to whomever held him, put a 30 day delay clause in the bill so that anyone holding the boy could turn him over to authorities within 30 days of passage and NOT face the full penalties of the new law. After that time, this law would become the most severe in the entire country for the crime of kidnapping.
The Pennsylvania Governor signed the bill into law on 24 February 1875 and the 30 day grace period ended on 25 March 1875.
Exactly 100 years later, to the day, the Lyon sisters disappeared.
Today the Lyon sisters , like little Charley Ross, are still missing.
