Caleb Milne, the 1930s Actor Kidnapped in Broad Daylight
The three young men walking along Old York Road in late December 1935 were about to see a sight they would remember for the rest of their lives. There, lying in a ditch in Down the hill Outside of Doylestown, Pennsylvania, there was a man. His wrists, knees and ankles were tied. His mouth and eyes were taped shut. He lost his socks and only had one shoe on, and the other was lost when he fell down the hill from the road above.
The boys informed the car driver, who quickly freed the man from his restraints and placed him in his car. The stranger complained as he was being taken to the hospital. There, doctors discovered a series of puncture marks on his arm.
It wasn’t long until news arrived from authorities: The man was confirmed to be 24-year-old Caleb Milne IV, who had been missing for the better part of a week. The kidnappers had demanded $20,000 in exchange for his safe return. While this was a large sum during the Great Depression, Milne’s grandfather, Caleb Milne II, was an incredibly wealthy businessman – and from the looks of things, the elder Milne finally agreed to pay for his grandson’s life.
And soon-to-be FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover Announce Milne’s case was “definitely” a kidnapping. But Hoover’s agents would soon discover that there was much more to the crime than that. As Milne began to speak, he detailed another, more dramatic story than his kidnapping.
Special delivery
Milne family receipt In the United States from Scotland in 1837, when David Milne immigrated and established a textile company in Philadelphia. The work was passed down through the generations before coming into the hands of Caleb Milne II, who fathered Milne III, who raised Milne IV.
Despite his grandfather’s wealth, Milne IV (so far only Milne) was on his way in life. A graduate of Germantown Academy and the University of Pennsylvania, Milne was 5 feet 11 inches tall and photogenic. His interests turned toward the arts, and he settled in New York City to pursue a career in theater, taking on odd jobs while auditioning. He shared an apartment at 157 East 37th Street with his brother Frederick, at a cost of $15 a week.
On Saturday, December 14, 1935, Frederick woke up to a written note. Milne wrote that he was heading to Philadelphia with “Dr. Greene of Gracie Square.” Gracie Square was a psychiatric hospital in New York.
Frederick was not interested in the note and did not think much about it until the next morning, when he received a letter at six o’clock, which came via special delivery on Sunday. inside It was a formal letter made up of letters cut from magazines, a technique familiar to any mystery fiction writer.
The message read: “We have your brother in the country.” “Keep in touch with your grandfather in Philadelphia and we have a large amount of cash available. We will contact you again.”
Ominously, the ransom note was accompanied by Milne’s wristwatch.
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Frederick informed the police, who tried to track down Dr. Green in Gracie Square, but to no avail. Malik Milne I was informed They told them that Milne rushed out of the building after receiving a phone call, insisting that his grandfather had fallen ill and needed to be taken care of. But the older Milne was fine. They contacted Milne’s mother, Frederica, as well as his aunt Anita, who spoke to the press.
“I cannot provide any information except that Caleb was kidnapped in New York and that a ransom note was received,” she said. “Naturally, we are all very upset by this event.”
The East Coast newspapers quickly picked up the story, arousing much morbid curiosity. The victim was an attractive young man — “more than usually handsome,” Frederick said — and his grandfather was wealthy. It seems that his safe return depends on his grandfather surrendering to the criminals.
However, Milne II did not seem too bothered, nor did he seem to view the ransom note with much appeal. He said police in New York were not concerned and considered him a missing person, not a kidnapper. “I don’t think there’s anything to worry about,” he added. He said. “I think he stayed away and his brother got excited.”
As the week went on, more reports came in. The ransom amounted to $20,000, or perhaps $25,000. Milne II was said to have received a request for more money—$50,000– And that the kidnappers had Phone call him in his house. “Philadelphia is still the place,” a voice said. “I will…” Then the call cut off.
Soon federal agents were descending on Milne’s various residences. He was the postman He said To be detained after delivering a suspiciously large number of letters. A reporter noticed Milne’s aunt being quickly ushered into the car, leading to speculation that she might be on her way to greet Milne – or Milne’s body.
Finally, on Wednesday, December 18, Milne was discovered near Doylestown, bound and torn apart. While recovering, he explained to authorities that four men, one of whom claimed to be a doctor, forcibly took him out of his apartment and took him to a hideout in a cabin near Doylestown. There, he said, they kept him groggy due to intravenous drugs. After the ransom was paid and his usefulness disappeared, he was thrown down the hill from Moving vehicle.
Upon arriving at the hospital, Milne was thought to be in too severe distress to be questioned further by agents, but after several hours, he finally agreed to talk. He soon wishes he hadn’t done it.
Possible story
The federal agents who interrogated Milne were curious About 26 puncture marks on his arm. They felt that multiple injections would likely result in a lethal dose of the drug within a short period of time. There was another discrepancy: Milne told investigators that he was led through the Holland Tunnel and checked his watch, which read 11 a.m. But the ransom note sent to Frederick containing Milne’s wristwatch was postmarked before 11 a.m. How could he tell the time without his watch?
Law enforcement asked Milne to repeat his story over and over again. And each time, the details failed to add up. The way it was tied would have been a restraint, with a slip knot to make it easier to tie. Inside his hat, they found hair that belonged to a wig.
Finally, Milne confessed. He was not a kidnapping victim but instead played the victim. During his “disappearance”, he fled to a hotel in Trenton, New Jersey, where he dressed in disguise and sent the ransom demand to his grandfather. After waiting, he drove to Pennsylvania, tied himself up, and went down the hill to be found. Needle marks were made with a pin.
“I admit that my alleged kidnapping was committed by myself,” he wrote. “Because of my desperate financial situation and my inability to find a job, I felt… that if I could get some publicity, I could get a job.”
The authorities were also amused by the discovery that Milne was also an aspiring author and had written a short mystery story called “The Perfect Crime” two weeks before his self-imposed exile.
His grandfather, Milne II, was as terse after the confession as he was during the alleged kidnapping. “You know, my grandson cheated those guys pretty bad,” he said. He said.
The justice system was less amusing. Milne was charged with racketeering and held on $7,500 bond (more than $178,000 today), which was posted by his father. to publish. In February 1936, a grand jury to fail To formally charge him, allowing Milne to elude a maybe 20 years in prison and a $5,000 fine.
There are still consequences for organizing his kidnapping. On the death of his grandfather in 1941, Milne I learned He was deprived of any inheritance: his grandfather had written him out by canceling his will. (His father and uncles split an estate worth $431,000.)
Milne himself will only outlive his grandfather by two years. In 1943, while Volunteering As an ambulance driver in Tunisia, he was killed when enemy fire fired shells in his direction. At the time, Milne was trying to rescue two wounded men from the battlefield.
His obituaries praised his heroism, though they never failed to mention the scheme he executed years earlier that briefly fooled federal agents. But New York investigators clearly knew something they didn’t. In their files, Milne’s initial missing persons report was marked With one addition: “propaganda.”
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