Real Crime Stories/Paranormal Hauntings

The Perdicaris Incident

The Perdicaris affair (a.k.a. Perdicaris incident) is the kidnapping of Greek-American playboy Ion "Jon" Hanford Perdicaris (1840–1925) and his step-son, Cromwell, by Mulai Ahmed er Raisuli's bandits on 18 May 1904. Raisuli demanded a ransom of $70,000, safe conduct, and control of two of Morocco's wealthiest districts from Sultan Abdelaziz of Morocco. Though Perdicaris was not an American citizen, then President of the United States Theodore Roosevelt felt obliged to react, dispatching seven warships and several Marine companies. Roosevelt's Secretary of State, John Hay, issued a statement to the Republican National Convention that "This government wants Perdicaris alive or Raisuli dead." His response to the issue is credited with helping Roosevelt win the election of 1904.

Background

Ion Perdicaris' father, Gregory Perdicaris, was a Greek who was sent to study in the United States by the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions in 1826. Gregory became a naturalized citizen, and married into a wealthy family in South Carolina. In 1837 he went back to Greece, serving as the American ambassador.

In 1840, Ion Perdicaris was born in Athens, Greece, while his father was serving as ambassador. The family moved back to the United States in 1846, and his father was at one point a professor of Greek at Harvard University. The family settled in Trenton, New Jersey, where Gregory Perdicaris became wealthy as one of the organizers of the Trenton Gas Company. His son Ion lived the life of a dilettante for many years. He entered the Harvard University class of 1860. He left at the end of his sophomore year and studied in Europe for a time. In 1862, due to the American Civil War, the family's property in South Carolina was in danger of confiscation by the government of the Confederate States of America. Perdicaris traveled to Greece, intending to renounce his United States citizenship and acquire Greek nationality to avoid confiscation or being drafted into the Confederate States Army. The move did not protect his property, and he left Athens. He then lived in Trenton with his father after the end of the Civil War, contributing some articles to The Galaxy in 1868, before moving to England and studying electricity. In 1871, Perdicaris met Ellen Varley, wife of the eminent telegraph engineer C.F. Varley in Malvern, England. Varley was away on a cable-laying expedition and Ellen abandoned him for Perdicaris. The Varleys divorced in 1873 and Ellen settled in Tangier with Perdicaris and her two sons and two daughters.

Perdicaris later moved to Tangier, where he built a house known as the Place of Nightingales in 1877, and filled it with exotic animals. In 1876, he presented a painting at the Centennial Exposition, and in 1879, Perdicardis produced an unsuccessful play at the Fifth Avenue Theatre. He lived permanently in Tangier after 1884. Fascinated by Moroccan culture, Perdicaris wrote several books (few of them published to a wide audience) on Morocco, and became the unofficial head of Tangier's foreign community. He was the president of the Hygienic Commission in Tangier, and helped build a modern sanitation system for the city. He maintained business interests in England and the United States and frequently visited New York.

In 1886, Perdicaris filed a complaint of misconduct over the American Consul General in Morocco at the time, Felix Mathews. Mathews had refused to prosecute a Moroccan under American protogé status for rape. Perdicaris also wrote and distributed a pamphlet entitled "American Claims and the Protection of Native Subjects in Morocco" in London in response to the issue. Perdicaris was, in turn, arrested and fined for shielding a Moor from arrest (which he later sought and received redress for). Through Perdicaris' crusading, the scandal made national headlines in the United States, and Mathews was removed from his position in March 1887.

Mulai Ahmed er Raisuli was a leader of several tribes near Tangier. In 1903, after five of his men were captured, he held Walter Harris, a Morocco correspondent of The Times hostage in exchange for the release of the prisoners. After the success of that kidnapping, he next targeted Ion Perdicaris.