[Indexed as (Weeks case) “Outrageous Case of Kidnapping,” State Gazette (Trenton, N. J.), Jul. 1, 1852] {Stranger Child Kidnapping}
The Boston Bee publishes the particulars of a most bold and outrageous case of kidnapping in Steep Falls, Standish, Me. Last Friday noon, as the son of Dr. J. P. Weeks, a bright, handsome little boy, four years old, was going to school, a horse and chaise passed through the village, and just as it reached the place where were several children, two women got out and seized Dr. Weeks’ boy, and taking him into the chaise, drove off – Dr. W. did not hear of the circumstances till near dark when he went in pursuit of the kidnappers.
It appeared that the woman drove to Gorham, 15 miles, where they took a steamboat to St. Lawrence, and arrived in Boston Saturday morning, and took the afternoon train for Springfield. From thence they proceeded to Dalton, in Berkshire Co. From this they traveled six miles on foot, and in the night, the boy in the mean time suffering extreme physical agony. Dr. weeks traced them in company with an officer, and found the kidnappers with the kidnapped boy, in a house two miles from any neighbors, in a wild and mountainous region, over the New York line.
The women refused to surrender the boy, and resisted the officer most pertinaciously. In fact they fought like desperadoes, and in the encounter the officer was much injured, and the clothes of the women were nearly torn from their bodies in the melee. They were finally taken into custody, and conveyed to the county jail, where they will remain till a requisition is forwarded from the Governor of Maine to the Governor of New York. The kidnappers carried their charge over six hundred miles. One of the women is about 50 years old, and the other is about 25. The six miles they travelled on foot was over a range of Green Mountains. Their names are suppressed at the request of Dr. Weeks. The mother of the child was nearly insane from the loss which ere this has been changed to joy. – This is one of the most novel cases of kidnapping that has occurred of late years.