Youth Claims He Was Kidnapped, Sept. 23, 1924

Welfare Officer Has a Strange Youth on Hands

Miss Elizabeth Simpson, welfare officer, and county officials are unable so far to find out anything about Mack Briggs, the youth who was picked upon on the highway in an exhausted condition a few days ago by Miss Simpson. The boy claimed that he was kidnapped from the home of his parents, Mr. and Mrs. William Briggs, in Greenville, S.C., two years ago. The lad is in the charge of the county welfare officer for the time while efforts are being made to reach his parents who are understood to have left Greenville for Florida several months ago. The boy was picked up on the road and showed signs of exhaustion. He said that a carnival company, the name of which has been communicated to the authorities, took him away and that he ran away from the organization, which has recently been in Richmond. He said he was trying to make his way back to his home. Greenville, S.C., and Florida town citizens were queried, but they answered that no such person as described had ever lived there. –The Review

From the front page of the Tri-City Daily Gazette, Leaksville, N.C., Tuesday, September 23, 1924

newspapers.digitalnc.org/lccn/sn91068453/1924-09-23/ed-1/seq-1/