Mysteries of the missingSmith, Edward H. (Edward Henry)
History
Mysteries of the missing
Smith, Edward H. (Edward Henry)
Biography; Kidnapping; Missing persons
George Barrow and Bella Anderson were tried before Judge Fursman and
quickly convicted. Barrow was sentenced to fourteen years and ten
months, and the Anderson girl to four years, both judge and jury
accepting her statement that she had been no more than a pawn in the
hands of shrewder and older conspirators. Mrs. Barrow, sensing the
direction of the wind, took a plea of guilty before Judge Werner,
hoping for clemency. The court, however, said that her crime merited
the gravest reprehension and severest punishment. He fixed her term at
twelve years and ten months.
These trials were had, and the sentences imposed within six weeks of
the kidnapping, the courts having acted with despatch. While the cases
were pending, Barrow, Mrs. Barrow, and the Anderson girl had again and
again been asked to reveal the names of others who had induced them
to their crime or had financed them. All said there had been no other
conspirators, but the feeling persisted that Barrow had acted with the
support of professional criminals, or of some enemy of the Clarkes,
either of whom had supplied him with considerable sums of money.
This belief, which was specially strong with some of the newspapers,
was predicated upon two facts.
On the morning of Thursday, May 25, four days after the abduction
of Marion Clarke, there had appeared in the _New York Herald_ the
following advertisement:
“M. F. two thousand dollars reward will be O. K. in Baby Clarke case.
Write again and let me know when and where I can meet you Thursday
evening. Don’t fail--strictly confidential.”
Neither the Clarkes, the newspapers, nor any persons acting for
them knew anything about a two-thousand-dollar-reward offer or had
communicated with any one who had been promised such a sum. Hence
there were only two possible explanations of the advertisement. Either
it had been inserted by some unbalanced person who wanted to create
a stir--the kind of restless neurotic who projects his unwelcome
apparition into every sensation--or there was really some dark force
moving behind the kidnapping.
A second fact led many to persist in this latter notion. In spite of
the fact that George Barrow had been disowned at home and driven from
his town, and opposed to the circumstances that he had worked at common
and ill-paid jobs, had been unable to pay his rent for eleven months,
had been seen in the shabbiest clothes and was known to be in need--the
only force that might have prompted him to attempt a kidnapping--he was
found to have a considerable sum in his pockets when searched at the
jail; he informed his wife that he would get plenty of cash for their
defense, and he was shown to have expended a fairly large sum on the
planning of the crime, the traveling and other expenses, the rent of
the farmhouse, the needs of Bella Anderson, and for his own amusement.
Where had this come from?
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