The kidnapping that changed America happened in Germantown circa 1874

WHEN Christian Ross reported that his 4-year-old son, Charley, had been kidnapped, Philadelphia police officers told him that drunks had probably taken the boy and would return him once they sobered up.

It wasn't until three days later, when Ross received a letter asking for money in exchange for the boy's return, that police realized that they had a new kind of crime on their hands.

It was the summer of 1874, and the first recorded kidnapping for ransom in America had struck the Ross family of Germantown.

Fearful of copycats, police advised against paying the $20,000 ransom.

Charley was never found.

Almost two dozen ransom letters were sent to the Ross family, according to Carrie Hagen, whose We Is Got Him: The Kidnapping That Changed America analyzes the case and the subsequent hysteria that shaped the nation's attitude toward child safety as we know it today.

The phrase "Don't take candy from strangers," for example? It originated with this crime.

For the first time in 140 years, all the letters will be on public view at the Germantown Historical Society in an exhibit that opens at 6 tonight with a reception featuring Philly native Hagen. Also on display will be Ross family heirlooms and newspaper clippings. The exhibit continues through April 25.

Having spent five years researching the tragic mystery before publishing her book in 2011, Hagen was skeptical when a trusted art archivist told her that the letters had been discovered in a Mount Airy basement last spring.

"I've heard so many things since the book came out," Hagen said. "I get emails saying, 'Hey, my uncle's drunken frat brother said he knew Charley.' People just want to contribute to the story, so it seemed kind of unbelievable to find the letters.

"But Freeman's Auctioneers authenticated them, and when I finally saw them I was just overwhelmed with a whole other dimension of horror the family must have felt."

A parent herself, Hagen found the letters' "bizarre tangents and language" disturbing, like the verbiage of a "loose cannon," she said.

An example: "if any aproch is maid to his hidin place that is the signil for his instant anihilation."

Charley and his five-year-old brother, Walter, were abducted from their front lawn on July 1, 1874. Five days later, the kidnappers sent Walter into a corner store in Kensington to buy candy and fireworks, and he escaped. But Charley was still missing.

Rather than pay the ransom, the mayor's office offered a $20,000 reward for information on the kidnappers, which prompted numerous impostors to come forward claiming they knew Charley's whereabouts. As time went by, some reward-seekers even claimed to be the missing boy.

Police had been searching for the kidnappers for about five months when, during a bank robbery, several suspects were shot and killed. One of the men spent his last breath confessing the kidnapping, but he died before revealing the boy's whereabouts.

Hagen's father inspired the part-time English teacher at Council Rock High School North to pursue this forgotten local legend. She decided to use it for her master's thesis at Goucher College.

"My professor suggested I try writing a piece on Philly history, and, thanks to my father's stories about growing up in Germantown, I knew more about there than any other area," Hagen said. "Once I learned about Charley Ross, I spent a year figuring out what happened to him. Then I realized the story wasn't him never being found, it was about why he was never found."

Charley's grandnephew, nine-term Chester County state Rep. Chris Ross, plans on attending the exhibit. Maybe he'll learn something. When he was a child, "it was not a subject to bring up" with family members, he said.

"I used to visit my great aunts' [Charley's aunts] house in Chestnut Hill, and the shades would always be down because people would stare through," Ross said. "I assume Charley was killed pretty soon after he was kidnapped, but we'll never know. Carrie knows more about it than I do, but I'm looking forward to checking out the exhibit."