[Indexed as: “See in Kidnapping Plot To Beat Draft; Suspect Attorney – Lawyer Indicted by U. S. Paid $20 by Negress, Receipt Shows – Photos of Wives of Draftees Found in House Where Children Were Hidden,” The Philadelphia Inquirer (Pa.), Aug. 12, 1918]

A new method of assisting registrants to evade the draft is believed by detectives to be one of the solutions to the mystery surrounding the case of Mrs. Baile Worthington, a negress, 1145 South Fifteenth street, who is being held by the police in connection with the kidnapping of two white children recently and the finding of six others at her home Saturday.

A letter found there yesterday which acknowledged the receipt of $20 for the account of an attorney of the city who is under indictment of the Federal authorities for aiding  members of the military forces to desert, puts a Federal angle to the case. Assistant United States District Attorney T. Henry Walnut when told of the finding of the letter, said that a Federal investigation will be made as soon as the police have finished their examination of the case.

Information which detectives and police unearthed yesterday also led them to make the surmise that the Fifteenth street address has been used for some time past as a cleaning house for children stolen throughout this section of the country. Local authorities yesterday got in touch with the police of New York, Baltimore and Washington in an effort to have them instigate  a search for the “feelers” of this “syndicate,” which are thought to be located in these cities.

Find Women’s Pictures

A number of pictures of women, who, according to notations found on the backs, were married to men within the draft age, are alleged to have been found during an investigation of the Fifteenth street home. These were clipped from various Philadelphia and New York newspapers, in which, they had appeared announcing the marriage or engagement of the different women.

It is alleged that these pictures were used as a directory of persons whom the “syndicate” could approach with the idea either of renting or selling them some of the babies, so as to better the husband’s chance for exemption.

In addition to studying the photograph, detectives intend to investigate the thirty unlapsed policies which were found in a closet on the first floor. Detectives assert that the children were insured for about $225 each, in favor of Mrs. Worthington. Several of the children for whom policies were written cannot be located by the police.

Besides the children already named, the negress claims to be the mother of Cavalicre Worthington, 15 years old; Floyd Worthington, 17 years old, and Howard Worthington, 26 years old. The latter, she says, is now with the American army in France, but adds that she does not know where the others are.

The attorney newly involved in the case is under $1000 bail from a hearing before United States Commissioner Long, when he was charged with inducting soldiers to desert and advising insubordination.

Adoption an Old Trick

“We have heard of cases where children were adopted for the purpose of evading the draft,” said District Attorney Walnut yesterday, in discussing the new theory of the police, “but never has it seemed so apparent as now. As soon as the municipal authorities have finished their work in the case, we will begin an investigation into the draft irregularities.”

Besides Mrs. Worthing, who is also known as Mrs. Bessie Blackstone and “Grace,” detectives also arrested Mrs. Herman Schaeffer, formerly Helen Worthington, an alleged daughter: Cresswell Worthington, , 24 years old an alleged son; Mrs. Suzette Thompson, an alleged sister, and Mrs. Mary Sales, a boarder at the South Fifteenth street house.

The six children, who were found alone in the house, have been put in the custody of the Society to Protect Children from Cruelty. One of the children was an 18 months old baby, William, believed to be the son of a Mrs. Welsh Mills or Mills Welsh, who lives in the northwestern section of the city. Another was a 20 months old infant, Edward, said by the police to be the son of Mrs. Florence Moran, 537 North Creighton street. It is said Mrs. Morran was paying $3.50 a week for the care of the child because she had to work and was unable to look after it himself.

Claimed Five Children

While all the little tots were white, they addressed the negress as “Mother.” A sixteen-year-old white girl, known as Pauline, was found at the house later by the detectives. She also referred to Mrs. Worthington as her mother. Her skin was fair, and she had blue eyes with long fair hair. Yesterday in searching the house, detectives found a photograph of her which had been taken recently in this city, together with another of her when she was ten years old. The latter bore the stamp of a New York photographer.

This was one of the first things that made detectives think that this business of a “baby farm” had been going on for some time past. A profusion of pictures of babies and children were also found at the home, besides an old album bearing the stamps of many photographers from other cities.

It is not thought that all the children have been found, because detectives think many of them  have been “rented” to people for begging purposes. It is claimed that numerous reports were received by authorities during the past month of women selling papers and pencils on the crowded sections of Market and Chestnut streets, with tiny infants in their arms. Most of them were seen late at night, and it is thought this was found to be a lucrative means of arousing pity from the passersby.