We Is Got Him

by Carrie Hagen

p. 97 Chief Jones contacted Captain Heins: Ross, 174.

  p. 97 “We hope that you at least …” and following conversation: Walling, 200.

  p. 97 Gil told the officers that: Zierold, 143.

  p. 97 “some ten years before”: Ibid.

  p. 97 “dirty”: Ibid.

  p. 97 the letter Y: Ibid.

  p. 97 “He writes very rapidly and is careless”: Walling, 202.

  p. 98 He didn’t, however, share this news with: Ross, 179.

  we have heard nothing from yu

  p. 99 “$5,000 will be paid”: EB, August 3, 1874.

  p. 99 amateur detectives across the western hemisphere: Ross, 73, 147; PI, July 18, 1874; PI, August 25, 1874; PL, August 10, 1874.

  p. 99 expanded the echelon of business: Hessinger, 5; Beckert, 219.

  p. 99 their convictions resulted in relief efforts: Tholfson, 93, 97.

  p. 99 they also believed that the laboring class: Tholfson, 102; Harring, 225; Beckert, 211.

  p. 100 More people moved into: Ryan, 9.

  p. 100 “In the good old times”: PI, August 28, 1874.

  p. 100 pushed northern Republicans: Beckert, 225.

  p. 101 they facilitated the arrival of: Beckert, 146; Harris, 14, 17; Harring, 51.

  p. 101 they emphasized Christian education: Tholfson, 99, 108–109; Foner, 482; Miller, 219; Hilkey, 10; PL, August 15, 1874.

  p. 101 Officers in Denver, Colorado,: PL, September 21, 1874.

  p. 101 A police chief in St. Paul, Minnesota: EB, September 4, 1874.

  p. 101 “bright, intelligent face”: Ibid.

  p. 101 “rough-looking” man: Ibid.

  p. 101 Officers in North Philadelphia: PI, August 11, 1874.

  p. 101 “Charley Loss”: Ibid.

  p. 101 A man named Murkins in Odell, Illinois: NYT, August 20, 1874.

  p. 102 the New York–based Children’s Aid Society: EB, August 11, 1874.

  p. 102 it did not keep consistent, acceptable records: NYT: May 25, 1883.

  p. 102 In New York City, eight-year-old: EB, August 4, 1874.

  p. 102 “Wait! Wait!”: Ibid.

  p. 102 Reporters in Albany, New York: PI, August 4, 1874.

  p. 102 Seven-year-old Joe Harlen: EB, August 11, 1874.

  p. 102 In Newport, Rhode Island: EB, August 25, 1874.

  p. 103 “No,”: Ibid.

  p. 103 “But there has been much that would”: EB, August 11, 1874.

  p. 103 “A search like this can of course”: PL, August 10, 1874.

  p. 104 “The stealing of little Charley Ross”: Ibid.

  p. 104 prior to this article, they hadn’t known: Ibid.

  p. 104 In early August, Chief Jones: EB, August 7, 1874; Ross, 47.

  p. 104 “Citizens should be careful as”: Ibid.

  p. 104 “Nobody, except a policeman”: INA, August 8, 1874.

  p. 104 neighbors more thoroughly explored old coal mines: PL, August 13, 1874; EB, August 7 and 9, 1874.

  p. 104 did uncover contraband and numerous thieves: EB, August 7, 1874.

  ask him no questions

  p. 105 Christian Ross disagreed with police: Ross, 112.

  p. 105 Christian did join investigators: PI, August 10, 14 and 25, 1874; Ross, 152, 202.

  p. 105 by formulating a list of questions: Ross, 161; PL, July 31, 1874.

  p. 105 Crowds of hopeful helpers greeted: Ross, 162.

  p. 105 MR. C. K. ROSS—Dear Sir: Ross, 148.

  p. 106 until the middle of the nineteenth century: Henkin, 44.

  p. 106 People avoided high postage costs: Henkin, 43.

  p. 106 “transient newspaper”: Henkin, 47.

  p. 106 in 1845, the postal service lowered: Henkin, 46.

  p. 106 the postal service changed dramatically: Henkin, 88.

  p. 106 In 1864, sixty-six American cities: Henkin, 90.

  if death it must be

  p. 109 On Saturday, August 10: Ross, 178.

  p. 109 Walling greeted Christian: Ibid.

  p. 109 That night, tragedy struck: EB, August 10, 1874.

  p. 110 he tightened the flow of information: Ross 179.

  p. 110 “No, sir, never,”: Ross, 178.

  p. 110 “I did not think he was one of”: Ross, 178.

  p. 110 Walling also identified the man: Ibid.

  now we demand yu anser

  p. 111 Mosher had grown up on a: PI, December 16, 1874.

  p. 111 His father had been a somewhat: Zierold, 140.

  p. 111 older brother Gil taught him: Ibid.

  p. 111 a cask fell on Mosher’s left hand: EB, December 15, 1874.

  p. 111 the brothers weren’t speaking: Zierold, 146.

  p. 111 Their parents had died, as had: Ibid.

  p. 111 Gil’s crime of choice had: Zierold, 141.

  p. 111 They had disowned him years: Zierold, 146.

  p. 111 Bill Mosher joined a successful gang: Walling, 141; PI, December 16 and 17, 1874.

  p. 111 Between 1850 and 1852,: Walling, 143.

  p. 112 In 1853, a ship watchman: PI, December 16, 1874.

  p. 112 Unfortunately, someone had beaten the: PI, December 16, 1874.

  p. 112 took on woodworking jobs: PI, December 21, 1874.

  p. 112 failed business ventures: NYH, December 20, 1874.

  p. 112 Once, he secured a financier: PI, December 21, 1874.

  p. 112 Six months later, the business: Ibid.

  p. 112 opened a saloon, where he lived: Zierold, 146.

  p. 112 the little boy died: PI, December 24, 1874.

  p. 112 they buried his bones in the wall: Everly, 387.

  p. 112 Mosher also worked for “fencers”: Asbury, 214–215.

  p. 112 recruited a young teenage thief: PI, December 16, 1874.

  p. 112 Mosher introduced Douglas to a: Ibid.

  p. 112 a part-time piracy practice along: Ibid.

  p. 112 built a shack on Berrian’s Island: Ibid.

  p. 112 hid their bounty until: Ibid.

  p. 112 they set out on a trip by boat: Ibid.

  p. 113 after filling their boat with fancy clothes: Ibid.

  p. 113 The thieves were tied by their necks: Zierold, 147.

  p. 113 Cutting through a wall, Mosher: Ibid.

  p. 113 Douglas moved to Brooklyn: EB, December 15, 1874.

  p. 113 The police next heard about the two men: Ibid.

  p. 113 Gil’s wife, Liz, began visiting: TW, 43, 46.

  p. 113 Westervelt wrote to Bill Mosher: TW, 103.

  p. 113 Bill Mosher and his accomplice: TW, 30.

  p. 114 “What does he want?”: TW, 88.

  p. 114 Three blocks away from the store: Ibid.

  p. 114 “Is Gil Mosher here?”: Ibid.

  p. 114 Westervelt and Douglas walked to the corner: Ibid.

  p. 114 Her sons Ed and Ike: TW, 78.

  p. 114 Mosher stood up and then rushed: TW, 88.

  p. 114 Fifteen minutes later: TW, 88.

  p. 114 “Tell Gil I did not see”: TW, 28.

  p. 115 She asked again for Bill Mosher: TW, 89.

  p. 115 Westervelt read the letter out loud: Ibid.

  p. 115 far enough away that the bartender: TW, 52.

  p. 115 By now, Stromberg had noticed: Zierold, 201.

  p. 115 “If she is fine, and nobody is looking” and following quotes: TW, 89.

  p. 115 changed his shirt: TW, 81.

  p. 115 Her landlord didn’t appear: TW, 67.

  p. 115 a neighbor named Mrs. Mary O’Leary: Ibid.

  p. 115 He, his wife, and their two children: Ibid.

  p. 116 She saw her boys playing around the house: Ibid.

  p. 116 noticed that the boy Charley: Ibid.

  p. 116 Before taking the train back to New York: TW, 57.

  p. 116 Westervelt asked him if: Ibid.

  p. 116 “Yes,” McDowell said, and following conversation: Ibid.

  p. 116 Westervelt chose not to post: TW, 89.

  p. 116 Westervelt met a former police colleague: Ibid.

  p.
117 The Thirteenth Precinct: Ibid.

  p. 117 Captain Hedden met him and took: Ibid.

  p. 117 Most of the office spaces at headquarters: Walling, 181.

  p. 117 Two floors above them: TW, 89.

  p. 117 Both demanded that Westervelt undergo: Ibid.

  p. 117 he later took Westervelt to: Ibid.

  p. 117 stood watch at the superintendent’s front: Ibid.

  p. 118 He asked if Westervelt knew that his: TW, 42.

  p. 118 “Bill Mosher wouldn’t have taken a child”: Ibid.

  p. 118 Walling repeated that: TW, 90.

  p. 118 Westervelt contacted Walling with a: Zierold, 167.

  p. 118 Walling immediately contacted: Ibid.

  p. 118 Moran had grown up in Douglas’s neighborhood: Zierold, 167.

  p. 118 “felonious assault”: Ibid.

  p. 119 By the time he got the message and arrived: Ibid.

  ask Walter if

  p. 123 Walling interpreted the kidnappers’ repetitive: Walling, 203.

  p. 123 “I am more confident than ever”: Ibid.

  p. 123 He agreed with all of the kidnappers’ answers: NYH, August 26, 1874.

  p. 123 They asked why the authorities: PI, July 17, 1874.

  p. 124 They also wondered why Mayor Stokley: Ibid.

  p. 124 “We refer to the absurd and reprehensible”: EB, August 11, 1874.

  p. 124 “County district attorneys cannot”: PI, August 28, 1874.

  p. 124 A private group of citizens: INA, July 18, 1874.

  p. 124 “The above reward will be paid”: EB, August 31, 1874.

  p. 125 “the wisest and most eminent of our citizens”: PI, September 17, 1874.

  p. 125 They also sent a private memo to the nation’s: HSP, Folder, Charles B. Ross, Pinkerton flyer.

  p. 125 “With whom is he?”, etc.: Ross, 420.

  p. 128 Christian had refused to release a photograph: INA, August 18, 1874.

  p. 128 “Those who desire to aid in these renewed”: PI, September 17, 1874.

  p. 128 ED. PHILADA. INQUIRER: PI, September 12, 1874.

  p. 128 The Public Ledger warned readers against: August 13, 1874.

  p. 127 “I, Kennard H. Jones,”: INA, August 8, 1874.

  p. 127 “The time has fully come for the mayor”: EB, August 11, 1874.

  p. 127 the Evening Bulletin suggested the mayor: August 5, 1874.

  p. 128 “running after any and every shadow that”: EB, August 12, 1874.

  p. 128 “Do you want to talk?” and following conversation: Ibid.

  p. 129 “I advertised more than one month ago”: EB, August 31, 1874.

  this thing is drawing to a final crises

  p. 133 Philadelphia entered the fifth week of: EB, September 10 and 12, 1874.

  p. 133 “The change from week to week at”: EB, August 12, 1874.

  p. 133 “Every portion of the work is pushed”: Ibid.

  p. 133 Crowds gathered behind a large fence: Ibid.

  p. 133 It would also be the first world’s fair to dedicate: Rydell, 21.

  p. 133 people watched engineers and masons: EB, August 12, 1874.

  p. 134 The artisans worked rapidly to build railroads: Ibid.

  p. 134 approved by Congress to cover 50 percent of: Brown, 23; Whiteman, 118.

  p. 134 The Centennial Commission had planned: PL, September 24, 1874.

  p. 134 City Council agreed to advance a loan: Brown, 21.

  p. 134 Philadelphia had already needed to assume: Ibid.

  p. 134 A three-month-old baby disappeared from: PI, September 11, 1874.

  p. 135 Police could also not find a three-year-old boy: EB, September 10, 1874.

  p. 135 Near Washington, D.C., neighbors observed: EB, September 8, 1874.

  p. 135 “And if the fact that the boy has brothers”: Ibid.

  p. 135 Townspeople in Orange County, New York: EB, September 7, 1874.

  p. 135 “Where did you go from when you went away?”: Ibid.

  p. 135 “Success in this inquiry may atone somewhat for”: PI, September 14, 1874.

  p. 136 Police also located Charlotte Wyeth: EB, September 18, 1874.

  p. 136 “Godspeed”: Ibid.

  p. 136 “The chief mystery in regard to the difficulty”: EB, September 9, 1874.

  p. 136 “If the New York detectives are so superior”: EB, August 5, 1874.

  p. 136 the NYPD released no statement: This comment is based on my study of Philadelphia and New York papers from July of 1874 through September 1875.

  p. 136 Walling bribed Westervelt’s cooperation: Walling, 204.

  p. 136 He also began regularly inviting: Walling, 203.

  p. 137 Walling’s men followed Westervelt to: TW, 96.

  p. 137 within forty-eight hours of an authorization from: Ross, 221.

  p. 137 “In view of the threats contained in the letters”: Ross, 220.

  p. 137 “We will have them both,”: Ibid.

  p. 137 He wrote Heins on September 11, finally: Ross, 193.

  p. 137 DEAR SIR. – Since writing you this A.M.,: Ross, 193.

  p. 138 Heins pursued the lead on the stable: Ross, 194.

  others will rely on our word

  p. 141 the newspapers indirectly attacked: PI, September 27, 1874; EB, August 7 and 28, 1874; PL, August 10, 1874.

  p. 141 the 620,000 deceased: Faust, xi.

  p. 141 one of his wife’s brothers showed Sarah a: Ross, 64.

  p. 142 he sought the advice of a German psychic: Ross, 206.

  p. 142 The eighteenth-century Swedish mystic: Cox, 12.

  p. 142 Spiritualists were fascinated with electricity: Sargent, iv.

  p. 142 To thousands of Americans,: Faust, 82.

  p. 142 “planchettes”: Faust, 182.

  p. 142 led to the popularity of daguerrotypes: Cox, 112.

  p. 142 “Get out of this, go into the next room, I’ll soon” and details from the following scene: Ross, 208.

  p. 143 one of which offered a German witchcraft recipe: Ross, 209.

  p. 143 Christian had tried to shield five-year-old Walter: Ross, 172.

  p. 143 The New York Herald suggested Walter had been: reported in INA, August 8, 1874.

  p. 143 The paper wondered whether Christian kept the ransom: Ross, 171.

  p. 143 the net worth of Catherine Ross, Christian’s mother: Biographical Encyclopedia of Dauphin County, PA, 1870 Census of Middletown, PA.

  p. 143 “The parties who actually made away with the infant”: as reported in p. EB, August 7, 1874.

  p. 144 “We have not heard of anything being accomplished”: EB, August 5, 1874.

  p. 144 Libel laws did govern newspapers: EB, October 14, 1874; PI, October 15, 1874.

  p. 144 In 1874, new legislature redefined libel law: EB, October 14, 1874.

  p. 144 “matter proper for public information, provided that”: PI, October 15, 1874.

  p. 144 a man identifying himself as “G”: PI, September 23, 1874.

  p. 145 “The following is the theory of those who knew”: EB, September 23, 1874.

  p. 145 “of a character to injure me in my said business”: Ibid.

  p. 145 James V. Lambert, Christian’s colleague: PI, September 25, 1874.

  p. 145 “Were [the kidnapping] a humbug”: Ibid.

  p. 145 He encouraged Christian to bring libel charges: Ibid.

  p. 145 The writer “G” was really named Milford N. Ritter: Ibid.

  p. 146 “the common talk of Mr. Ross’ neighbors”: PI, September 25, 1874.

  p. 146 “in a store on Columbia Avenue, where women”: PI, October 14, 1874.

  p. 146 All parties involved testified at the fall: Ibid.

  p. 146 “He is in a very prostrate condition”: EB, September 29, 1874.

  p. 146 “I said I hardly knew what to say about it”: PI, September 30, 1874.

  p. 146 Milford N. Ritter admitted to authoring the: PI, October 15, 1874.

  p. 146 The publishers of the Reading Eagle said they: EB, October 14,
1874.

  p. 147 “malicious intent”: EB, October 14, 1874.

  p. 147 “Can an article containing the foulest aspersion”: Ibid.

  p. 147 After deliberating for only a few minutes: PI, October 15, 1874.

  p. 147 the publishers paid a $1,000 fine: PI, December 7, 1874.

  p. 147 The doctor told Sarah to keep him confined: EB, September 29, 1874.

  p. 147 he retreated to his mother’s house: Ross, 267.

  p. 147 Christian would remain bedridden in central Pennsylvania: Ross, 223.

  p. 147 She asked her brothers to pay the full: Ross, 241.

  keep faith with us

  p. 149 Heins’s working relationship with the superintendent: PI, December 10, 1874.

  p. 149 local merchants appeared uninterested: PL, September 10, 1874.

  p. 149 “profound and prevailing apathy has discouraged”: as reported in EB, November 17, 1874.

  p. 149 The western states had pledged quick support: EB, November 17, 1874.

  p. 150 “What is most desirable now is that Massachusetts”: Ibid.

  p. 150 “It is time now that the doubt will be settled”: Ibid.

  p. 150 the Centennial Commission targeted local business: EB, October 14, 1874.

  p. 150 Fifty years after two mechanics proposed the idea: EB, October 23, 1874.

  p. 150 twenty-six showcases: Ibid.

  p. 150 lasting six weeks from mid-October through mid-November: EB, October 17, 1874.

  p. 150 The exhibition earned the Franklin Institute: EB, October 6 and 17, 1874.

  p. 150 The press praised the police for maintaining: EB, October 14, 1874.

  p. 151 “The condition of the streets will be marked”: PL, November 19, 1874.

  p. 151 The city planners authorized funds for: PL, November 12, 1874; PI, November 18, 1874.

  p. 151 solicited bids for repairing roads: PI, November 18, 1874.

  p. 151 Police spread circulars with “No Refuse Allowed”:

  p. 151 A group of men in one corner bar beat: EB, September 18, 1874.

  p. 151 Street thugs fought one another with blackjacks: EB, October 26, 1874.

  p. 151 They beat a seventy-five-year-old man to death: EB, November 17, 1874.

  p. 151 “feminine-looking” man: EB, October 12, 1874.

  p. 151 attacked women: EB, October 14, 1874; PI, November 18, 1874.

  p. 151 shot one man in the eye: PI, November 4, 1874.

  p. 151 another in the throat: EB, October 12, 1874.

  p. 151 assaulted officers for arresting their friends for rape: EB, October 14, 1874.

  p. 151 Police locked up twelve-year-olds: EB, October 14, 1874.

  p. 151 a fireman who threw a cat: EB, October 6, 1874.