[Indexed as: “Child Stealers, - The Zingari – A Visit to Their Camp in the Lehigh Valley.” Daily Critic (Washington, D.C.), Jun. 26, 1873]

Some people would be greatly astonished if told that in the present year of grace, and within half a day’s journey from New York, the kidnapping of children has been frequently practiced by a band of Gypsies, who, with their headquarters in Lehigh Valley [50 miles from Philadelphia], have been scouring its surrounding country, picking up stray children or stray horses as the opportunity offered. Such, however, is the fact, only within the past month a case having occurred near Easton [60 miles from Philadelphia]. The child stolen was of very tender years, and, in company of its nurse, had been out among the hills with which Easton is surrounded. While here a swarthy Gypsy woman approached the nurse and asked permission to tell the latter her fortune. The Gypsy poured out a string of meaningless nonsense, mingled with the usual allusions to dark men and light men, marriage and death. The servant girl listened entranced while the woman was speaking, and when she had concluded, turning round to look for the child, she was horrified to find it gone. She had seen no one approach while the Gypsy was taking round to look for the child, she was horrified to find it gone. She had seen no one approach while the Gypsy was talking, but as the road suddenly turned near where her fortune was told, it would have been easy for one to have crept cautiously along without having been perceived. She returned to Easton, and her tale plunged the household into deepest distress. Rewards were offered, the police act to work, the Gypsy camps searched, but for some days without avail. The child was eventually recovered, but not until a large sum of money had been expended and hope almost lost.

Your correspondent, hearing of the circumstances, on last Thursday determined to visit the Gypsy camp.

I inquired of various people whom I met about the Gypsies, but could obtain no authentic information about them further than that they were quartered in some woods about fifteen miles from Allentown, in a southeasterly direction. After some trouble a Pennsylvania Dutchman was induced to accompany me, and about eight o’clock we started for the camp. The morning was beautiful after the storm of the preceding night, the grass smelt sweetly, the birds were gaily singing, and I had opportunity to study the camp and the persons it contained. There were thirteen in all – six men, four woman and three children. Two of the women were old, toothless and repulsive-looking; the other two were young and quite good-looking. The men were swarthy and powerful fellows, with bronzed countenances and bright cunning eyes. I learned from a man who seemed to be a leader among them a great many particulars of their mode of life. The band had Wintered in Philadelphia, and at first opening of Summer had started out on their annual tour. They remain away until the severity of the weather drives them to take refuge in the cities again, and so their lives are spent from year to year.

They are very fond of trading in horses, and when they cannot procure animals in any other way, they have no hesitation in stealing them. Sometimes the farmers retaliate, and if a Gypsy’s horse strays away from the enclosure, it is very rarely allowed to return again. The band were greatly excited over the loss of a pony which had broke loose a night or two before, and of which no trace could be found. While I was in the woods the chief of police in Allentown, in company of a gentleman from Baltimore, came to the camp. The latter had previously sent on the following telegram:

“Are any of the Gypsies in camp in your vicinity? If so, would you see if they have a boy – blue eyes, light, curly hair, about five feet four? If he is there detain him. His name is Frank Brooks.

“Wm. D. Brooks.”

The Gypsies disclaimed all knowledge of the boy, but from their manner I was convinced that they knew more than they cared to tell. Mr. Brooks, who resides on Lombard street, Baltimore, says, that his son left home some weeks ago, and has not since been heard of. From his habits, Mrs. Brroks supposed that he had gone with a band of Gypsies, as he had a predilection for their wandering mode of life. From information received the afflicted father believed that the young fellow was with the identical band of Gypsies who treated your correspondent so hospitably; but he was disappointed in the hope of finding him, and left very disconsolate. Two of the children who were with the Gypsies looked very unlike the persons who claimed to be their parents, and, in all probability, they have been stolen.

NOTE

Paula Fass makes an effort in her book to promote the false idea that Gypsy kidnapping of children is merely a “myth.” The actual myth is this: the politically correct doctrine that gypsies gained a reputation as child kidnappers for any reason other than the fact that over a long period of time, in many geographical regions, gypsy bands kidnapped children were frequently recovered from the gypsies who had kidnapped them.

“Indeed, the theft of children by those assumed to be less than fully human [no evidence is offered that Gypsies were considered by anyone to be so”], even without the supposed torture or sacrifice of blood [referring to beliefs in Satanic sacrifice cults, but not referring to historically factual animist child sacrifice customs] remained an important residue in beliefs about gypsies. All over modern Europe )(and to a lesser degree in the United States), the belief that gypsies stole children as they passed through towns and villages on their endless wandering was part of this process of ejection since gypsies were defined [by the Gypsies themselves, the author fails to mention] as utterly apart from and outside of the community.”[p. 13-14, Fass, Paula, Kidnapped: Child Abduction in America, 1997, Oxford University Press]

“Knowing only that Charley had been taken but not why, the police acted on customary assumptions and tried to find Charley and his abductors by making inquiries at such places as ferry stops, taverns, livery stables. As word of mouth spread, the news about Charley began to generate an assortment of rumors. In one of the first of these, a child had been spotted in a gypsy wagon ‘crying bitterly’ who it was ‘suspected did not belong to them.’ In all, the police in Philadelphia and elsewhere reportedly searched 200 gypsy caravans within a year and one-half after Charley disappeared.” [p. 27, Fass, Paula, Kidnapped: Child Abduction in America, 1997, Oxford University Press]

“Among the thousands of letters the Patzes [Etan Patz, 7-years-old: kidnapped May 25, 1979, New York, N.Y.] received, one urged them to “look for gypsies (gitanos), a reminder that, more than one hundred years after the first widely publicized abduction [referring to Ross 1874. The author is incorrect. The first widely publicized abduction was the Pool case, 1819], some myths still persisted.” [p. 215, Fass, Paula, Kidnapped: Child Abduction in America, 1997, Oxford University Press]

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The Lehigh Valley, also known as the Allentown-Bethlehem-Easton, PA-NJ metropolitan area and referred to locally as The Valley, is an official metropolitan region consisting of Lehigh, Northampton and Carbon counties in eastern Pennsylvania and Warren county on the western edge of New Jersey. [Wikipedia]