Two children walking to school in a quiet upscale neighborhood evade a kidnap attempt...
How do you think that story would play in the local newspaper or on the 6 o'clock news today? Probably a bit differently than this story in the March 1935 issue of The Crier, a monthly newspaper for the Country Club District.
No newspaper today would print the kids' names, ages, and address. It's almost like telling the kidnapper: hey, I know the children got away the first time, but here's where you can find them if you want to try again.
I'm sure the reporter's assumption back then was that the bad guy wouldn't see the article because he obviously wouldn't live in the County Club neighborhood, the only place the newspaper was delivered. Today, on the other hand, no one is above suspicion.
School newsletters don't even publish the full names of children who appear in photographs to assure privacy.
People felt safer in the 1930s, before the famed kidnapping case of Jacob Wetterling and so many other child kidnappings that make national headlines. They were much freer with personal information; phone directories listed occupations, as well as children's names and ages.
Still, as this story shows, children faced dangers walking to school even 75 years ago. Even "the good old days" had bad people.
How do you think that story would play in the local newspaper or on the 6 o'clock news today? Probably a bit differently than this story in the March 1935 issue of The Crier, a monthly newspaper for the Country Club District.
No newspaper today would print the kids' names, ages, and address. It's almost like telling the kidnapper: hey, I know the children got away the first time, but here's where you can find them if you want to try again.
I'm sure the reporter's assumption back then was that the bad guy wouldn't see the article because he obviously wouldn't live in the County Club neighborhood, the only place the newspaper was delivered. Today, on the other hand, no one is above suspicion.
School newsletters don't even publish the full names of children who appear in photographs to assure privacy.
People felt safer in the 1930s, before the famed kidnapping case of Jacob Wetterling and so many other child kidnappings that make national headlines. They were much freer with personal information; phone directories listed occupations, as well as children's names and ages.
Still, as this story shows, children faced dangers walking to school even 75 years ago. Even "the good old days" had bad people.
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