Grandpa Brown Charged with Abduction

Grandpa Brown In the News

88 Years Ago Today
By Don Taylor

Grandpa Brown found himself again. He had abducted mom and was being held for the Chicago Police.

From the Brainerd Daily Dispatch, April 6, 1935, Page 1.

Brainerd Man Held Here for Chicago
Officers Charged With Abduction

Clifford Brown, Brainerd, held in the city jail here for Chicago authorities who hold a warrant charging him with abduction of a 3-year-old girl today intimated to police that he would fight extradition.

Brown was taken into custody Thursday upon telegraphic orders from state attorney Thomas Courtney’s office in Chicago.

Brown appeared here about three weeks ago with Sylvia and immediately reported to police that he “expected trouble” out of Chicago. He told authorities he was the girl’s father, and relate that relate under what circumstances he had taken her from her mother. Mrs. Donna Clark, Chicago, nightclub entertainer.

Thursday when Brown was arrested, he again said he was Sylvia’s father, authorities said, but admitted that he was not married to Mrs. Clark.

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Chicago—State’s Attorney Thomas J. Courtney said today that extradition papers are being prepared to return Clifford Brown, held in jail at Brainerd, Minn, on charges of abducting a three year old girl.

Brown was arrested on complaint of the child’s mother, Mrs. Donna Clark of Chicago.

She charged that Brown, a former friend, came to her home March 10th and asked to take the child, Sylvia, for a walk. They failed to return and the following day she received a postcard from Brown explaining that they were aboard a bus for Brainerd, she said.

Mrs. Clark said the abduction was “spite work” and that Brown took the child to the home of his mother Mrs. Mary Brown in Brainerd. Mrs. Clark has another child older than Sylvia.

The mother, an entertainer, said she won a bathing beauty contest at Madison Square Garden in New York in 1916. She identified Brown as a former entertainer in nightclubs, now jobless.

Police said the problem of getting the baby back to her mother has remained unsettled when welfare agencies of both Chicago and Minnesota disclaimed the financial responsibility.

Brown, charged by the child mother, Mrs. Donna Clark, a night club entertainer, with taking the child because she refused to marry him, will not ??acy transportation back to Chicago, officials said. Extradition proceedings to return him have been started.

Authorities here said they knew nothing about providing railroad fare back to Chicago for the child.

“The state’s attorney’s office is concerned only with bringing Brown back.” James V. Cunningham, assistant state’s attorney said, “Payment of the girl’s fare is up to the welfare bureau here or to Minnesota authorities—I don’t know which.”

Mrs. Clark said Brown, whom she said had been attempting to persuade her to marry him for several months, disappeared with Sylvia March 10.