The Kidnaping of Billy Whitla by Hamilton Pearce (1909), revised and expanded edition by the Sharon Historical Society (226 pages, paperback, 5.5 x 8”)

“Dead boys are not desirable.”

Those chilling words in a handwritten ransom note sent terror through a prominent family and triggered a nationwide manhunt to find their precious 8-year-old Billy and those who whisked him away from his schoolhouse in Sharon, Pennsylvania, on a spring morning in 1909.

“The Kidnaping of Billy Whitla” — written mere weeks after the story filled newspaper front pages across the country — chronicles the frantic search, attempts to deliver the $10,000 ransom, Billy’s safe return, and the prosecution of the kidnapers.

It includes bonus chapters on two other turn-of-the-century kidnapings, including a first-hand account by Pat Crowe, the reformed outlaw and kidnaper.

This new edition of the book features a 20-page epilogue full of text and photographs chronicling the aftermath and what the fates held for the lives of Billy and his family — and for the perpetrators. The epilogue even includes the piano sheet music for the 1909 song, "Billy-Boy, the Kidnapped Child." Color and black-and-white historical and modern images are throughout the book.