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Overlooking the Paine Field Community Park in Everett, Washington. The 1930s had a number of famous kidnappings, perhaps the most well known is that of the Lindbergh family. This is the approximate area where 10 year old Charles Mattson was found brutally murdered on January 10, 1937 about 200 feet off of the main highway after being a victim of a kidnapping. At the time this area was quite rural & wooded, far different than the present time. Charles Mattson was kidnapped from his home in Tacoma at gunpoint on December 27, 1936 in front of his older siblings at about 8:45pm while their parents were out at a party. A ransom note was then made for the boy's safe return. It read the following:
“The price is 28,000 10000 in fives and 10s 18000 50 & 100s. Old bills pleasd no new ones. Put ad in Seattle Times personal colum read Mable — What’s your new address Tim. Put this ad Times no other paper. If no answer from you within week price gos up double and doubl that each week after. Dont fail & I wont’t. The boy is safe. Tim”
Sadly though it was 19 year old Gordon Morrow who was rabbit hunting when he found the boy's remains. The case was national news at the time, so much so even President Franklin Roosevelt made the following statements:
"The murder of the little Mattson boy has shocked the Nation. Every means at our command must be enlisted to capture and punish the perpetrator of this ghastly crime.
Attorney General Cummings informs me that he has offered a reward for information leading to the arrest of the criminal; and that the special agents of the Federal bureau of investigation of the Department of Justice are engaged in a search which will be pursued relentlessly and will not be terminated until the murderer is caught.
I bespeak for the agents of the Department of Justice the continued and wholehearted cooperation of the local police and all other law enforcement agents in this necessary work.
A crime of this kind is renewed evidence of the need of sustained effort in dealing with the criminal menace."
The case even went to J. Edgar Hoover who worked on finding the kidnapper, but ultimately to no avail. Nearly 85 years later, the case has slipped into history w/ the murderer never caught.
Source: https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/statement-the-kidnapping-charles-mattson
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Rx3UiGc1pg
https://vancouversun.com/news/local-news/this-week-in-history-1937-a-kidnapping-in-tacoma-ends-in-tragedy
https://historylink.org/File/8028
https://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=d&d=HT19370111.2.15&e=-------en--20--1--txt-txIN--------1
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The United States is one of the most diverse countries on earth, jam packed full of amazing sights from St. Patrick's cathedral in New York to Mount Hollywood California.The Northeast region is where it all started. Thirteen British colonies fought the American Revolution from here and won their independence in the first successful colonial rebellion in history. Take a look at these rolling hills carpeted with foliage along the Hudson river here, north of New York City.The American south is known for its polite people and slow pace of life. Probably they move slowly because it's so hot. Southerners tend not to trust people from "up north" because they talk too fast. Here's a cemetery in Georgia where you can find graves of soldiers from the Civil War.The West Coast is sort of like another country that exists to make the east coast jealous. California is full of nothing but grizzly old miners digging for gold, a few gangster rappers, and then actors. That is to say, the West Coast functions as the imagination of the US, like a weird little brother who teases everybody then gets famous for making freaky art.The central part of the country is flat farmland all the way over to the Rocky Mountains. Up in the northwest corner you can find creative people in places like Portland and Seattle, along with awesome snowboarding and good beer. Text by Steve Smith.
