Mother and Father Had Separated and Courts Had Awarded HimCustody of Gertrude, 7 Years Old--Humane Officer Suspected.
When little Gertrude Robinson, 7 years old, was kidnaped from the basement of the Chace school by her mother on June 1 last year many persons, especially Mr. and Mrs. F. C. Weaver, 1404 Troost avenue, who were keeping the child, believed that Colonel J. C. Greenman, Humane agent, had aided Mrs. Robinson. A woman, well known as a local temperance worker, appeared at Colonel Greenman's office yesterday afternoon, however, and admitted that she and a lawyer had planned the whole thing. Mrs. Robinson, she said, came on here from Chicago and stopped at her home. The lawyer was called in and the three planned the kidnaping, which was successful.
Just after little Gertrude entered the basement steps at the school the morning of Friday, June 1, 1906, a woman was standing in the shadow. "Hello, Gertrude," she said. "Why, hello, mamma," replied the child. The mother threw a black cloak over her child and ran to where a carriage was standing on the Paseo. With mother and child the carriage was driven rapidly south to Fifteenth street and west. Then it was seen no more.
It was believed that Mrs. Robinson had stolen her own child, but this could not be proved. Woman-like, however, she had to tell it. Two days later a Frisco conductor came in from his run and reported that a woman with a little girl, described as the missing one, had boarded his train in Rosedale. He paid no attention to her, but she had told the train butcher her story. She said that after getting possession of Gertrude the hack had driven to the Southwest Boulevard and Wyandotte street. All that had been planned out beforehand. There she left the vehicle and boarded a Rosedale car, getting out there just in time to meet the ongoing Frisco passenger for Springfield, Mo. She left Springfield for St. Louis and went from there to Chicago, getting home the next day.
The child was not missed by the Weavers until noon. Then they instituted a search on their own accord, and the kidnaping was not reported to the police until 2 p.m., five hours after it occurred. All of the outgoing trains were watched by detectives, but the shrewd little mother with her babe was many, many miles from Kansas City railway stations. She knew they would be watched, that is, she, her woman friend and the lawyer.
Little Gertrude was the daughter of Harry G. Robinson. He secured a divorce from his wife by default, the notice of the suit having been printed in an Independence paper, which the wife never saw in her Chicago home. When she heard of it she came here and tried to get the decree set aside, but failed. The court had given the custody of the child to Robinson. Colonel Greenman had advised the woman in both suits and that was how he came to be suspected of advising the kidnaping.
The mother came here once," said the colonel yesterday, "and visited with her child at the Weaver's for a week. I suspected something wrong at the time and went so far as to make Mrs. Robinson leave her return ticket and all her money, but a small amount, with me, and saw her to the train when she left. She had visited at my house then and I knew if she got away with her baby I would have to bear the blame. When she did come here and succeed in kidnaping it I had no idea she was out of Chicago -- but I got the blame nevertheless of advising her to take it in the manner in which she did. I wouldn't use my office for breaking the law and am glad that Mrs. Blank has set me right."
The woman who helped to plan the kidnaping said she was going to tell the Weavers how it was all done -- some day, when she got a chance.
