The original headline is at the top of the column, the lead story is by the Associated Press.

“Harry H. Blagden, 45, wealthy patron of sports, who owns a large camp for boys near Saranac Lake [Upper Saranac], vanished from the Lake Placid Club some time Thursday night and this morning Saranac Lake relatives said they had received a letter demanding $1,000 ransom. The letter, according to the relatives, asserted that Blagden had been forced to write it himself.

“They declined to say what particular relative had received the letter or from what point it had been mailed. It was turned over to District Attorney Harold W. Main.

“Thursday, Blagden, who formerly lived in Philadelphia, went to Lake Placid, registering at the Club. His purpose, he said, before leaving Saranac Lake, was to meet Edward R. Harriman of New York and some other friends to attend Olympic events.

This photo of Harry Blagden ran with the story of his supposed kidnapping in the Plattsburgh Daily Press, Feb. 16, 1932. (Provided photo)

“A maid at the Club was the last to see him. A cousin, Edward Cady, Jr., arriving at the Club yesterday morning found the door to his cottage unlocked, the bed undisturbed and his hat and coat handing up with an empty wallet lying on a table. This cousin reported his findings to state troopers. He said Blagden had about $1,000 in his wallet when he left Saranac Lake.

“Lieutenant Joseph B. Lynch of the state police took charge of the hunt for the missing man. He was assisted by the state conservation office staff here, under Inspector Raymond L. Burmaster.”

–

Story continues with Enterprise details

–

There is no doubt in my mind that some of the New York State Troopers shown here, in a photo I used almost 20 years ago, participated in the search for Mr. Blagden.

“Harry H. Blagden was occupying Mid-Knol cottage at the Lake Placid Club during the Olympic Winter games. Mr. and Mrs. E. Roland Harriman and their children, and two others, all of New York City were to have been his guests. They arrived at Lake Placid at 8 o’clock yesterday morning and found the cottage deserted.

“Blagden has four brothers, Thomas Jr., who was living with him at the camp on exclusive Upper Saranac Lake; A. S. Blagden, Philadelphia, Pa., President of Keesby-Matthewson Co., asbestos manufacturers, who arrived this morning from Buffalo; B.D.S. Blagden, President of the Blagden Construction Company, New York; and Donald P. Blagden, New York.

“Tonight a posse of more than 100 state troopers, [there was a large contingent of NYS Troopers in Lake Placid because of the Olympic Games in progress], conservation officials and forest rangers were combing this section of the Adirondacks, searching camps in remote mountain fastness on the chance of finding Blagden and his captors.

“Blagden was a noted Yale alumnus and head of the famous Camp LaJeunnesse on Upper Saranac Lake.”

–

Chapter II: Feb. 18 – Blagden Missing 5 Days

–

“Harry Blagden, who disappeared from Lake Placid on Thursday of last week, ‘found himself’ in Cleveland on Tuesday and told police of that city a sensational story of his kidnapping and escape from his kidnappers. According to the tale told by Blagden he was taken from his room at Lake Placid by three strangers, forced to enter an automobile, and was then drugged and taken to Utica. In that city his captors transferred him to a moving van. One of his abductors occupied the driver’s seat, while the other two were in the body of the van with him; they kept him drugged constantly, and on Tuesday morning they arrived in a large city, which later proved to be Cleveland, where the driver and one of the others left the van, as they said, to get breakfast.

“Blagden, who at that time was over the effects of the drug given him was lying on the floor of the van pretending to be still under the effects of the drug, and when an opportune moment arrived he sprang to his feet, knocked the captor down, took his revolver from him and escaped.

“After running for nearly a mile Blagden made himself known to a policeman, and told the story of his escape. The man whose disappearance at Lake Placid during the Winter Olympics had created a country-wide sensation, was taken to Cleveland police headquarters where he again told the story and a large detail of officers and plainclothes men were sent out in search of the kidnappers and the moving van which had been used for the transportation of their prisoner.”

–

Chapter III: Lake Placid News, Feb. 26, 1932

–

“Admitting that the kidnapping story was a hoax, Harry Blagden, Upper Saranac, wrote a letter to Captain Charles J. Broadfield, Commander of Troop B, New York State Police that the wide publicity given the case had led to the statement.

“Officers are reported as having found numerous loopholes in Blagden’s stories and were not surprised when the confession of the fabricated tale was received. Corporal Harry McCann of Troop B was in Cleveland last week where he made some investigations. Blagden at that time as at the home of a friend there after having told of being carried to the city in a truck and overpowering his captors. He told of having been kidnapped from a cottage at the Lake Placid Club.

“In his letter retracting the wild tale of his capture and escape he blamed worry as the cause of his going away suddenly.

“The letter to Captain Broadfield was written from the home of W. R. Hunter at Arden near New York City.

“Dear Captain; I have at last gotten myself straightened out. I wish to state that I was never kidnapped. I had been worrying about the times, my problems and the future. The load seemed so heavy that I could not bear it. There just seemed to be no way out until alone in the cottage at Lake Placid this kidnapping scheme suddenly came to me. I immediately acted upon it. The farther I got into it the more difficult it seemed to turn back.

“In Cleveland after discovering the publicity and its effect on others I finally grasped the whole situation and used the story of my escape as the best way out.

“It has taken me until now to make this statement, which I should have made in Cleveland.

“Captain Broadfield has reported the case as closed and has stated that Blagden cannot be charged with any offense.

“Mr. Blagden seemed to have recovered well from his self-imposed ordeal because this announcement was carried in the New York Times on October 6, 1935: ‘Mary Bradley’s Engagement to Henry H. Blagden Is Announced by Her Mother.'”

In the various accounts of this tale, Mr. Blagden is at times addressed as Henry and other times Harry.