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Heard of the Lindbergh kidnapping? The 20-month old son of aviator Charles Lindbergh wasn't the only celebrity child whose abduction made national headlines in the 1930s. Another lived much closer to home.
So what was the Puget Sound area's most famous kidnapping?
This question has a history, and Leonard Garfield of Seattle's Museum of History and Industry has the answer in our 16th installment of Ask MOHAI:
(Got a question for next time? Send it here.)
Where's George?
One of the most notorious and high profile crimes committed in the Puget Sound occurred on May 24, 1935, when George Weyerhaeuser, the nine-year-old son of J.P. Weyerhaeuser and heir to the family's lumber fortune, disappeared on his way home from school in Tacoma. Eerily reminiscent of the kidnapping of Charles and Anne Morrow Lindbergh's son in 1932, two men snatched George, secreting him in a series of out-of-state hiding places, breaking the "Federal Kidnapping Act," also known as the Lindbergh Law.
A letter with a list of demands, including a ransom of $200,000, arrived at the Weyerhaeuser home. George's signature was on the envelope. The Federal Bureau of Investigation was called in to assist with the investigation. Ads were placed in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, indicating the Weyerhaeusers would cooperate with their demands. On May 30, a man telephoned, directing Weyerhaeuser to a dirt road between Seattle and Tacoma. After he walked away from his car, another man got in and drove it away with the ransom money. George was then released on June 1, 1935 in Issaquah.
Early in June, Harmon Metz Waley and his wife, Margaret, were arrested by FBI agents in Salt Lake City and convicted of the crime. In May of 1936, the second man, William Dainard, was located by the FBI in Butte, Mont. where he'd been hiding out, and convicted. Their combined prison terms were 135 years. The FBI recovered a total of $157,319.47. Harmon Waley was the last to be paroled in 1963, at the age of 52.
George became the Chairman of the Board for the Weyerhaeuser Company. While in prison, Harmon Waley wrote to him several times, apologizing for his actions. When he was released, Waley asked Weyerhaeuser for a job and received an offer at one of Weyerhaeuser's Oregon plants.
-- Leonard Garfield
Read more on the case from HistoryLink.org, the Tacoma News-Tribune and -- gasp! -- the FBI.
Learn more about Seattle's Museum of History and Industry at seattlehistory.org. If you're a history nut, check out its quiz nights Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays around Seattle. And don't forget, the first Thursday of every month is free.
More Ask MOHAI:
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WTO: What other civil unrest has marked Seattle's history?
What was the first legal drinking age in Washington?
What was the first book ever checked out of a Seattle public library?
Looking back: How Seattle handled another flu outbreak
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Who was Seattle's most popular mayor?
Why is a Seattle community garden called a 'P-Patch?'
Why are there so many motels on Aurora Avenue?
What's the weirdest thing that's happened to the Space Needle?
How long has Seattle supported gay rights?
Why are cars allowed to drive on Pike Place?
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