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America’s First Known Kidnapping for Ransom
Charley and Walter Ross were lured with candy and firecrackers.
About a hundred and fifty years ago, on July 1, 1874, a kidnapping that was the first of its kind would shake up America.
Two little kids by the name of Charley and Walter Ross, who were 4 and 6 years old respectively, were kidnapped from the front porch of the house.
The men who committed the crime had laid out the groundwork in the days leading up to the incident.
The two men had given candies to the boys before and had in a way built some sort of familiarity. All that little kids need is a bit of a treat or a toy to be bribed into trusting a stranger. Kids are innocent and oblivious to the ulterior motives people may harbor.
However, this oblivion would turn out to be extremely harmful in this particular case.
On July 1, the two men showed up at the front porch of the Ross mansion n finding the brothers playing around, they offered them to buy firecrackers if they climbed into their buggy.
The innocent kids got excited at the prospect of firecrackers and obliged.
As the buggy had gone down some distance, the kids began to get restless, when…