The Kidnapping and Murder of Little Skeegie Cash

James Bailey "Skeegie" Cash

The Kidnapping and Murder of Little Skeegie Cash brings to light a long-forgotten story from the annals of FBI history.  The sensational 1938 murder of the five-year-old son of a merchant rocked America, reaching from the wetlands of southern Florida to the White House itself.  In a rare move, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover flew from Washington, D.C. to a rain-drenched hamlet on the edge of the Everglades.

What prompted Hoover to abandon the confines of power to actively investigate a missing child case?  Why did President Franklin D. Roosevelt allocate thousands of tax dollars to the FBI to investigate this specific case?  Why did Hoover whitewash the FBI files to eliminate all mention of the lawman who really solved the case?  Why did the case disappear from the public record almost immediately after it was solved?

In this explosive new book, Robert A. Waters and Zack C. Waters delved into thousands of pages of FBI files and court documents to unearth the true story.  The authors recount the abduction, the payment of a $10,000 ransom, the hunt for James Bailey “Skeegie” Cash and his kidnapper, the arrest and confession of Franklin Pierce McCall, and the killer’s trial and execution.  The poignant story of Skeegie’s heart-broken parents contrasts with the cut-throat intrigue of Hoover’s sometimes extra-legal methods to bring the killer to bay.

The Kidnapping and Murder of Little Skeegie Cash, set against the backdrop of a psychopathic killer matching wits with J. Edgar Hoover himself, will add a new chapter to the long and storied history of the FBI.