Mysteries of the missingSmith, Edward H. (Edward Henry)
History
Mysteries of the missing
Smith, Edward H. (Edward Henry)
Biography; Kidnapping; Missing persons
Raffaelo was brought to trial in August and quickly convicted of
murder in the first degree. He was committed to the death house at
Sing Sing and there waited to be joined by his fellows. When the hour
for his execution had almost come upon him, Raffaelo was seized with
remorse and declared that he was willing to tell all he knew. He was
reprieved and appeared at the trials of the others, where he told
his story substantially as recited above. Largely as a result of his
testimony, Cusamano, Marino and Ruggieri were convicted and sentenced
to electrocution while Melchione went mad in the Tombs and was sent to
Matteawan to end his life among the criminal insane. Governor Smith
finally granted commutations to life imprisonment in each of these
cases, because it was fairly well established that all the convicted
men had been in the Tombs at the time Joe Varotta was drowned and had
probably nothing to do with his actual murder. They are still in prison
and will very likely stay there a great many years before there can be
any question of pardon.
In spite of every effort on the part of the police and every inducement
held out to the convicted men, no information could ever be got as
to the identity of the man or men who threw the little boy into
the river. The arrested and convicted men, except for Raffaelo, who
evidently did not know any more than he told, absolutely refused to
talk, saying it would be certain death if they did so. They tried all
along to create the impression that they were only the minor tools of
some great and mysterious organization, but this claim may be dismissed
as fiction and romance.
XIV
THE LOST MILLIONAIRE
Some time before three o’clock on the afternoon of December 2, 1919,
Ambrose Joseph Small deposited in the Dominion Bank, of Toronto, a
check for one million dollars. At seven fifteen o’clock that evening
the lean, swart, saturnine master of Canadian playhouses bought his
habitual newspapers from the familiar boy under the lamps of Adelaide
Street, before his own Grand Theater, turned on his heel, and strode
off into the night, to return no more.
In the intervening years men have ferreted in all corners of the world
for the missing rich man; rewards up to fifty thousand dollars have
been offered for his return, or the discovery of his body; reports
of his presence have chased detectives into distant latitudes, and
the alarm for him has been spread to all the trails and tides without
result. By official action of the Canadian courts, Amby Small, as he
was known, is dead, and his fortune has been distributed to his heirs.
To the romantic speculation he must still exist, however. And whatever
the fact, his case presents one of the strangest stories of mysterious
absenteeism to be found upon the books.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account