{"id":102734,"date":"2025-05-06T10:46:35","date_gmt":"2025-05-06T14:46:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.genealogybank.com\/?p=102734"},"modified":"2025-05-07T10:09:05","modified_gmt":"2025-05-07T14:09:05","slug":"l-a-mystery-a-kidnapping-in-hollywood-part-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/l-a-mystery-a-kidnapping-in-hollywood-part-1.html","title":{"rendered":"L.A. Mystery: A Kidnapping in Hollywood (part 1)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Introduction:<\/em><\/strong> In this article, James Pylant describes the puzzling kidnapping of a young mother in Hollywood in 1921 that confounded the police. James is an editor at GenealogyMagazine.com and author for JacobusBooks.com, is an award-winning historical true-crime writer, and authorized celebrity biographer.<\/em><\/p>\n

In mid-December 1920, a trio of masked burglars \u2013 two men and a \u201cmasculine type\u201d woman \u2013 boldly invaded neighborhoods in Los Angeles County, California. They attacked<\/a> a woman in her home, swiped an expensive violin from a Santa Monica Boulevard residence, and broke into A. J. and Mary Witherell\u2019s Hollywood house. The intruders<\/a> fled through a back door when the Witherells returned home, leaving behind jewelry and silverware in a large sack.<\/p>\n

Intrusions like the attempted robbery of the Witherell\u2019s home were unsettling events which continued weeks into the new year. Whipping into what the Los Angeles Herald<\/em> called a \u201cfrenzy of fear<\/a>,\u201d the melodrama dominated newspapers in the Golden State with screaming headlines.<\/p>\n

On 25 January 1921, things got worse for the Witherell family when their son\u2019s wife, Gladys Witherell, was kidnapped from the Hollywood home she shared with her husband, Otto S. Witherell, and their young son Jackie.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/a>
Los Angeles Examiner (Los Angeles, California), 26 January 1921, page 1<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This photo caption reads:<\/p>\n

Mrs. Gladys W. Witherell and her baby son, Jack. Mrs. Witherell\u2019s husband believes she was kidnaped.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The article reports:<\/p>\n

Mystery Man Lures Woman to Quit Home<\/p>\n

False Report of Accident When Stranger in Auto Calls at O. S. Witherell\u2019s House<\/p>\n

City-wide Search Starts<\/p>\n

Neighbor Called When Mother Leaves Her Baby and Hurries Out of the Family Doorway<\/p>\n

Lured, as her husband believes, by a false story of an accident told her by a man who called at the house a little after 6 o\u2019clock last evening, Mrs. Gladys W. Witherell, wife of O. S. Witherell, loan and investment broker with offices in the Hibernian Building, was sought throughout the city and environs last night by police and detectives.<\/p>\n

\u2026From an account given by Mrs. Elizabeth Warner, who lives in a house adjoining that of the Witherells at 1843 Whitley Avenue, a man whom she had never seen before rang her doorbell a few minutes after 6 and told her a bad accident had happened and Mrs. Witherell had been sent for.<\/p>\n

Mrs. Warner was asked to go to the Witherell house and take care of the child, Jack, eighteen months old, until Mrs. Witherell returned.<\/p>\n

\u2026Witherell declared last night he had no idea who could be responsible for the supposed kidnaping. Neither he nor his wife had an enemy, to his knowledge. That their home life had been ideally happy was declared by the husband and confirmed by neighbors.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Here are further details of this strange case.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor a long time, there have been strange noises on our telephone wire,\u201d said A. J. Witherell, who later concluded that someone had tapped his phone line. On Monday, 24 January 1921, someone made a series of calls to the Witherell home. \u201cI was several times called to the telephone, but when I took the receiver from the hook, no one answered.\u201d<\/p>\n

It continued the next day. Tuesday evening, Mary Witherell planned to have dinner at the home of their son and daughter-in-law, Otto and Gladys Witherell.<\/p>\n

Shortly after 6 p.m., a rawboned, gray-haired man rang the doorbell of the younger Witherell couple\u2019s neighbor, Elizabeth Warner. He announced that a woman injured in an accident on nearby Hollywood Boulevard was asking for Gladys. The stranger, a suave, \u201cunusually polite\u201d man, asked Mrs. Warner to come to Otto and Gladys\u2019s house and take care of their baby so that Gladys could see if the injured woman was her mother-in-law.<\/p>\n

As Elizabeth Warner arrived at the Witherell home, Gladys hurriedly grabbed a hat and coat and left. The neighbor was still there when Otto returned home later that evening from work. He had heard nothing about his mother\u2019s accident until then, and he immediately called the hospital. But no such mishap had been reported.<\/p>\n

What happened to Gladys? Was her abduction connected to the earlier burglary at his parents\u2019 home?<\/p>\n

\u201cWhoever did that job may have been struck by my father\u2019s fine home, its furnishings and all,\u201d said Otto. \u201cHe may have figured our family was a promising prospect from which to extort a ransom.\u201d<\/p>\n

Otto\u2019s father held interests in several banks and was the president of a soldering company. Gladys, too, came from an affluent family. Otto, a 24-year-old investment broker, and Gladys, 27, had been married in 1917. (1) Their son, John Allen<\/a> (\u201cJackie\u201d), was born in 1919.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter the baby came Gladys has stayed closer to home than ever before,\u201d Otto explained. A little more than a year before the baby\u2019s birth, a traumatic event profoundly affected Gladys.<\/p>\n

Her mother, Pheoba Kratz, accidentally fell from the balcony of her second-story home and crashed through the glass of the conservatory roof, leaving her severely cut. She also suffered broken bones as well as internal injuries. (2) Mrs. Kratz died in the ambulance en route to the hospital. \u201cBut it was Gladys who held the mutilated body of her mother in her arms until the end,\u201d said her stepmother. Gladys, never having recovered from the tragedy, feared her mother-in-law was suffering when told about the supposed \u201caccident.\u201d And that made Gladys less cautious when the mysterious gray-haired man approached her.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/a>
Los Angeles Evening Express (Los Angeles, California), 26 January 1921, page 1<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The gray-haired man reappeared on January 27, two days after the kidnapping. This time, he came to Otto\u2019s office.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have important information,\u201d he whispered to Fred Erwing, Otto\u2019s new business partner. The stranger explained that he saw a woman\u2019s hand protruding from a bundle in a dilapidated vehicle. Erwing turned to reach for a phone, causing the grey-haired man to flee.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/a>
Los Angeles Examiner (Los Angeles, California), 28 January 1921, page 1<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Earlier that day, someone slipped a torn, typewritten note under the Witherells\u2019 front door.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/a>
Los Angeles Examiner (Los Angeles, California), 28 January 1921, page 1<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This note reads:<\/p>\n

Mr\/Witherell<\/p>\n

Your wife is safe, Don\u2019t Worry, until you hear further from me. Have $50,000 cash ready, as you will hear from me again soon. Don\u2019t notify police or detectives or all is lost.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Meanwhile, rewards totaling $2,000 were offered for the arrest of Gladys\u2019s abductor.<\/p>\n

Famed private detective Nick Harris took an active role in the investigation. He grew suspicious of Charles Beverly, who had been Otto\u2019s business partner until a disagreement led them to end their alliance. Beverly told friends he would soon leave Los Angeles but continue in the brokerage business elsewhere. Still, the 30-year-old continually visited the office as he was romantically involved with Otto\u2019s 18-year-old stenographer, Leda Tenney.<\/p>\n

Charles Beverly was spotted taking a bundle of women\u2019s clothes to a hotel, including a hat similar to one worn by Gladys when she disappeared. Nick Harris ordered his agency\u2019s detectives to monitor Charles and Leda constantly. In the early hours of January 29, as detectives tailed the couple\u2019s drive from a country club, Charles\u2019s car crashed into a streetcar. He and Leda were killed instantly, and two other passengers were seriously injured.<\/p>\n

\"An<\/a>
Los Angeles Evening Express (Los Angeles, California), 29 January 1921, page 1<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

While Leda\u2019s father empathically denied she had any involvement with the kidnapping, Gladys\u2019s family feared the suspects\u2019 sudden deaths had sealed her fate.<\/p>\n

\u201cHope has left me,\u201d said John C. Kratz of his missing daughter. \u201cI never expect to see Gladys alive again!\u201d<\/p>\n

Stay tuned for the conclusion of this story in tomorrow\u2019s article.<\/p>\n

Explore over 330 years of newspapers and historical records in GenealogyBank. Discover your family story! Start a 7-Day Free Trial<\/a><\/p>\n

Note on the header image: Sherlock Holmes investigates a mystery.
\nIllustration credit: https:\/\/depositphotos.com\/home.html<\/a><\/p>\n

_______________<\/p>\n

(1) \u201cWitherell-Kratz Nuptials,\u201d Los Angeles Evening Citizen, 18 May 1917, p. 5
\n(2) \u201cWoman Dies After Balcony Collapses,\u201d Los Angeles Times, 19 July 1918, p. 1<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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