Cudahy Sr. paid the ransom for the return of his son and made the kidnapper, Pat Crowe, a popular author, lecturer and actor for a brief period.

[2] The Cudahy case is said to have influenced many succeeding kidnappings, including those of the Lindbergh baby, Bobby Greenlease, and Marion Parker.

[3] On the evening of December 18, 1900, 15-year-old Edward Cudahy Jr. left his house to run an errand in his Old Gold Coast neighborhood.

His father, the millionaire owner of the Cudahy Packing Company at the Omaha Stockyards, returned from a dinner engagement at 10:30 p.m. to discover his son missing.

At 9:00 am, he received a phone call advising him to search his front yard, where his coachman found a ransom note: Mr. Cudahy: We have kidnapped your child and demand $25,000 for his safe return.

The Omaha Bee noted that Cudahy spoke in a "nonchalant tone" about paying the $25,000, as though he "had just dropped a nickel down a cellar grating."

Pat Crowe, a small butcher- shop operator in South Omaha, was identified as a suspect early in the investigation.

Police observed Callahan paying with the coins at taverns in Omaha, and on March 21, they arrested him for robbing Cudahy Sr. of $25,000.

On September 5, 1905, he was spotted at a tavern in Little Bohemia; the ensuing gun fight left one police officer wounded, and Crowe vanished again.

On November 28, 1905, Crowe pleaded not guilty to shooting the Omaha police officer in the September "Battle on Hickory Street".

Responding to the trial, The Washington Post wrote, "Omaha is evidently a happy hunting ground for savages and malefactors.

"[5] Crowe's criminal notoriety gained him fame as a lecturer, author, and actor across the United States, until he eventually died in poverty in Harlem in 1938.