Ransom Notes
Unclaimed Demands & Unresolved Correspondence
The desk holds what could not be printed in full at the time. Notes delivered by hand, left beneath doors, pinned to posts, pressed into tin. Each represents a demand that was met, ignored, or answered in ways that left no satisfactory record. Filed here as received. Most remain open.
Merritt Hale's Prized Bull
A Shorthorn bull valued beyond any reasonable sum disappeared from Broken Spur Ranch the winter of 1887. The note left behind named a landmark that did not exist within twenty miles of Springfield.
The Ross Correspondence
Twenty-three letters arrived at a Germantown merchant's home over the course of five months. His son Charles was four years old when he was taken. He was never returned. The case was the first of its kind in the nation.
The Cañon City Payroll Note
A tin left at the mouth of a silver working above Grape Creek contained a demand for four thousand two hundred dollars in coin. The money was left at the appointed place. It was collected before morning. No man was ever identified.
The Schoolteacher of Del Norte
Miss Adeline Fry was found absent from her boarding house on a Tuesday morning in October. A note pinned to the schoolhouse door asked for eight hundred dollars and offered no proof of her condition. She returned on Friday. She never explained what happened.
The Trinchera Letter
The letter arrived before the horses went missing. When they did, a second note followed. No ransom was demanded. No money changed hands. The land was sold that summer. The sender was never named.