What Really Happened

On March 27, 1901, ten-year-old Willie McCormick gave his mother a quick hug, put on his favorite wool cap, and waved goodbye as he dashed from his Bronx home to join up with two of his older sisters.

The girls had left moments earlier to start a five-block walk to Sacred Heart Church on Marcher Avenue. It was the Wednesday evening before Palm Sunday and Willie had planned to attend a 7 o'clock benediction. The girls returned home at 8 o'clock and when questioned as to Willie's whereabouts, they told their parents that he never arrived at the church service. Upon hearing the news, Willie's mother became hysterical and fainted.

Mr. McCormick and several neighbors immediately began searching for the boy. Gertrude, Willie's 12-year-old sister, ran to a nearby police station and told the desk sergeant that her brother was missing. The sergeant alerted his men to be on the lookout for the young lad.

By morning, the news of Willie's disappearance appeared in all the local newspapers. By late afternoon, conflicting stories about Willie's fate were being printed. The New York Times fallaciously reported that the boy was being held for ransom. The New York World claimed to possess reliable information indicating that Willie had run away from home. And, The New York Sun ran a column stating that the boy was seen in the company of three gypsies on a train heading to Virginia. These unconfirmed and outright bogus stories sold plenty of newspapers, but they also caused the police to waste valuable time chasing false leads.

The mysterious disappearance of Little Willie McCormick soon became the most ardent and most publicized search for a missing child in American History.

No case of a missing child in the USA would evoke the interest of the public and provoke Newspapers across the USA and the World to comment and dissect every clue in the disappearance of a child until the abduction of the Lindbergh baby on June 1, 1932.

On March 27, 1901, ten-year-old Willie McCormick gave his mother a quick hug, put on his favorite wool cap, and waved goodbye as he dashed from his Bronx home to join up with two of his older sisters.

The girls had left moments earlier to start a five-block walk to Sacred Heart Church on Marcher Avenue. It was the Wednesday evening before Palm Sunday and Willie had planned to attend a 7 o'clock benediction. The girls returned home at 8 o'clock and when questioned as to Willie's whereabouts, they told their parents that he never arrived at the church service. Upon hearing the news, Willie's mother became hysterical and fainted.

The disappearance of Little Willie McCormick soon became the most ardent and most publicized search for a missing child in American History.

No case of a missing child in the USA would evoke the interest of the public and provoke Newspapers across the USA and the World to comment and dissect every clue in the disappearance of a child until the abduction of the Lindbergh baby on June 1, 1932.