Smoky Mountain News

Blue Ridge Books will host Margaret Dunbar Cutright, the co-author of A Case for Soloman: Bobby Dunbar and the Kidnapping that Haunted a Nation, at 3 p.m. Aug. 25, and a separate private reception will be held later that day.

In 1912, four year-old Bobby Dunbar, the son of an upper middle-class Louisiana family, went missing in the swamps. Eight months later, he was found in the company of a wandering piano-tuner, who was arrested and tried for kidnapping.

But, when a destitute single mother came forward to claim the boy as her son, not Bobby Dunbar, the case exploded. For two years, courts probed and newspapers sensationalized every aspect of the story. But it took nearly a full century for the real identity of the child to be known.

The Inn at Iris Meadows on Love Lane in Waynesville will host a reception at 6 p.m. Aug. 25. RSVP for the event at 828.456.3877 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .