# Miss Stone Affair

> Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Miss_Stone_Affair
> Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Miss_Stone_Affair.md
> Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miss_Stone_Affair
> Source revision: 1346242268
> License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/)

International kidnapping incident

v t e Early IMRO / SMAC activity 1895 expedition Miss Stone Affair Gorna Dzhumaya Uprising Thessaloniki bombings of 1903 Ilinden–Preobrazhenie Uprising Battle of Mečkin Kamen Battle of Sliva Battle of Smilevo Kokošinje murders

A postcard with the kidnapped Ellen Stone and [Katerina Cilka](/source/Katerina_Cilka)

The participants in the Miss Stone Affair - [Sava Mihaylov](https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sava_Mihaylov&action=edit&redlink=1), [Yane Sandanski](/source/Yane_Sandanski), [Krastyo Asenov](/source/Krastyo_Asenov) and [Hristo Chernopeev](/source/Hristo_Chernopeev).

[Ellen Maria Stone](/source/Ellen_Maria_Stone)

The **Miss Stone Affair** ([Bulgarian](/source/Bulgarian_language): Афера „Мис Стоун“, [Macedonian](/source/Macedonian_language): „Афера Мис Стон“) was the kidnapping of [American](/source/United_States) [Protestant](/source/Protestantism) [missionary](/source/Missionary) [Ellen Maria Stone](/source/Ellen_M._Stone) and her pregnant Bulgarian fellow missionary and friend [Katerina Cilka](/source/Katerina_Cilka)[1][2] by the [pro-Bulgarian](/source/Pro-Bulgarian) [Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization](/source/Internal_Macedonian_Revolutionary_Organization).[3][4][5]

## History

### Background

In 1901, one of the main problems facing the [Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization](/source/Internal_Macedonian_Revolutionary_Organization) was its lack of resources for armaments. This financial crisis was discussed at the meeting of the leadership of IMRO in [Kyustendil](/source/Kyustendil), [Bulgaria](/source/Bulgaria), that summer. At the meeting, [Gotse Delchev](/source/Gotse_Delchev) argued that small robberies only tarnished the reputation of the organization and were not helpful to solving the financial problem.

Delchev then authorized [Mihail Gerdzhikov](/source/Mihail_Gerdzhikov) to carry out the kidnapping of a wealthy person or persons in Macedonia to obtain funds, but he failed. Delchev made two other unsuccessful attempts with wealthy Turks and Greeks. He later developed a plan to kidnap the son of [Ivan Evstratiev Geshov](/source/Ivan_Evstratiev_Geshov), which also failed. [Yane Sandanski](/source/Yane_Sandanski) then offered to kidnap [Ferdinand of Bulgaria](/source/Ferdinand_of_Bulgaria) during his visit to the [Rila Monastery](/source/Rila_Monastery), but the radical plan was opposed by Delchev, who believed that the abduction had to be done on [Ottoman](/source/Ottoman_Empire) territory. Chernopeev and Sandanski discussed the kidnapping of a wealthy Turk near [Simitli](/source/Simitli), but that plan was not realized. Sandanski, [Hristo Chernopeev](/source/Hristo_Chernopeev) and [Sava Mihaylov](https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sava_Mihaylov&action=edit&redlink=1) [[bg](https://bg.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%A1%D0%B0%D0%B2%D0%B0_%D0%9C%D0%B8%D1%85%D0%B0%D0%B9%D0%BB%D0%BE%D0%B2)] prepared a plan for the kidnapping of Süleyman Bey, but his illness caused that action to fail as well.

### Kidnapping

Sandanski was then drawn to the idea of kidnapping a Protestant missionary of [Bansko](/source/Bansko). A detachment led by the [voivoda](/source/Voivoda) Yane Sandanski and the sub-voivodas Hristo Chernopeev and [Krastyo Asenov](/source/Krastyo_Asenov) carried this out on August 21, 1901. Two women (Ellen Maria Stone and her fellow missionary Katerina Stefanova-Cilka) were kidnapped near [Gradevo](/source/Gradevo), between [Bansko](/source/Bansko) and [Gorna Dzhumaya](/source/Blagoevgrad), which were Ottoman towns. Miss Stone has been described as having experienced "[Stockholm syndrome](/source/Stockholm_syndrome)".[6] Per academic Dmitar Tasić and historian İpek Yosmaoğlu, it was apparently an early case of the alleged condition.[7][8]

The goal of the kidnapping was to receive a heavy ransom, which would aid the financially-struggling IMRO. The detachment was pursued by the Ottoman and the Bulgarian authorities and by a [cheta](/source/Cheta_(armed_group)) of a contending organization, the [Supreme Macedonian Committee](/source/Supreme_Macedonian_Committee). Ottoman authorities briefly arrested [Grigor Cilka](/source/Grigor_Cilka), Katerina's husband, on unfounded charges of being complicit in the kidnapping.[9][10][11] The affair ended after intensive negotiations in early 1902, half a year after the kidnapping. IMRO was paid a ransom of 14,000 [Ottoman gold liras](/source/Ottoman_lira) on January 18, 1902, in Bansko, and the hostages were released on February 2 near [Strumica](/source/Strumica).

Widely covered by the media at the time, the event has been often dubbed "America's first modern [hostage crisis](/source/Hostage_crisis)."[12]

## See also

- [List of kidnappings (1900–1939)](/source/List_of_kidnappings_(1900%E2%80%931939))

## References

1. **[^](#cite_ref-1)** In her memories about this event Cilka is described as a Bulgarian by birth. For more see: "Born among Brigands; Mrs Tsilka's story of her Baby", ["McClure's magazine", New York, vol. 4, August, 1902.](https://www.strumski.com/books/Tsilka_Born_Among_Brigands.pdf)

1. **[^](#cite_ref-2)** In the biographical book about her life Richard M. Cochran, Ph.D wrote: *Katarina Stephanova was born in Bansko, Macedonia, in 1870, of Bulgarian parents.* For more see: Richard Cochran, Katerina Tsilka, Institute for Albanian and Protestant studies, 2014, р. 16.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-3)** Marcel Cornis-Pope, John Neubauer eds., History of the Literary Cultures of East-Central Europe: Junctures and disjunctures in the 19th and 20th centuries, Volume 2, John Benjamins Publishing, 2006, [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [9027293406](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/9027293406), p. 361.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-4)** *Initially, the membership in the IMRO was allowed only to Bulgarians. Its first name was "Bulgarian Macedonian-Adrianople Revolutionary Committees", which was later changed several times. IMRO was active not only in Macedonia but also in Thrace (the Vilayet of Adrianople). Since its early name emphasized the Bulgarian nature of the organization by linking the inhabitants of Thrace and Macedonia to Bulgaria, these facts are still difficult to be explained from the Macedonian historiography. They suggest that IMRO revolutionaries in the Ottoman period did not differentiate between ‘Macedonians’ and ‘Bulgarians’. Moreover, as their own writings attest, they often saw themselves and their compatriots as ‘Bulgarians’.* All of them wrote in standard Bulgarian language. For more see: Brunnbauer, Ulf (2004) Historiography, Myths and the Nation in the Republic of Macedonia. In: Brunnbauer, Ulf, (ed.) (Re)Writing History. Historiography in Southeast Europe after Socialism. Studies on South East Europe, vol. 4. LIT, Münster, pp. 165-200 [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [382587365X](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/382587365X).

1. **[^](#cite_ref-5)** *On 21 August 1901, Ellen Stone, an American Protestant missionary based in Salonika, and her Bulgarian colleague Katerina Stefanova, who was the wife of the Albanian pastor [Grigor Cilka](/source/Grigor_Cilka), were kidnapped by the cheta of Yane Sandanski between Bansko and Gorna Dzhumaya (now Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria).* For more see: Stone, Ellene (Kidnapping off); an article by [Raymond Detrez](/source/Raymond_Detrez) (2014) in Historical Dictionary of Bulgaria, Edition 3; Rowman & Littlefield, 2014 p. 469, [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [1442241802](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/1442241802).

1. **[^](#cite_ref-6)** ["Bulgaria and USA in the Miss Stone Affair: Terrorism As It Once Was - Novinite.com - Sofia News Agency"](https://www.novinite.com/articles/122679/Bulgaria+and+USA+in+the+Miss+Stone+Affair%3A+Terrorism+As+It+Once+Was). *www.novinite.com*. Retrieved 2026-03-15.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-7)** Dmitar Tasić (2020). *Paramilitarism in the Balkans: The Cases of Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, and Albania, 1917-1924*. Oxford University Press. p. 86. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [9780198858324](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/9780198858324).

1. **[^](#cite_ref-8)** İpek Yosmaoğlu (2014). *Blood Ties Religion, Violence and the Politics of Nationhood in Ottoman Macedonia, 1878–1908*. Cornell University Press. p. 31. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [978-0-8014-7924-3](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-0-8014-7924-3).

1. **[^](#cite_ref-Perry104_9-0)** Perry, Duncan M. (1988). [*The Politics of Terror: The Macedonian Liberation Movements, 1893-1903*](https://books.google.com/books?id=OTxtAAAAMAAJ&q=Grigor+Tsilka&dq=Grigor+Tsilka). Duke University Press. p. 104. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [9780822308133](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/9780822308133).

1. **[^](#cite_ref-Daniel135_10-0)** Daniel, Robert L. (1970). [*American philanthropy in the Near East, 1820-1960*](https://books.google.com/books?id=hXxtAAAAMAAJ&q=Gregory+Tsilka&dq=Gregory+Tsilka). Ohio University Press. p. 135. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [9780821400630](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/9780821400630).

1. **[^](#cite_ref-Sherman89_11-0)** Sherman, Laura Beth (1980). [*Fires on the Mountain: The Macedonian Revolutionary Movement and the Kidnapping of Ellen Stone*](https://books.google.com/books?id=9pdpAAAAMAAJ&dq=Katerina+Grigor+Tsilka+Eleni&q=Grigor+Tsilka). East European Monographs. p. 89. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [9780914710554](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/9780914710554).

1. **[^](#cite_ref-12)** [Carpenter, Teresa](/source/Teresa_Carpenter) (2003). [*The Miss Stone Affair: America's First Modern Hostage Crisis*](https://archive.org/details/missstoneaffaira0000carp_s7p1). New York: Simon and Schuster. Retrieved 24 March 2026 – via [Internet Archive](/source/Internet_Archive).

## Further reading

- Пандев, Константин (1983). *Аферата "Мис Стоун". Спомени, документи и материали* (in Bulgarian). Мая Вапцарова. София: Издателство на Отечествения фронт. [OCLC](/source/OCLC_(identifier)) [10725712](https://search.worldcat.org/oclc/10725712).

- [Carpenter, Teresa](/source/Teresa_Carpenter) (2003). [*The Miss Stone Affair: America's First Modern Hostage Crisis!*](https://archive.org/details/missstoneaffaira00carp). Simon & Schuster. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [978-0-7432-0055-4](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-0-7432-0055-4) – via [Internet Archive](/source/Internet_Archive).

- Cochran, Richard M. (2014). [*Katerina Stephanova Tsilka*](http://www.instituti.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/COCHRAN-Katerina-Tsilka-Biography1.pdf) (PDF). Institute for Albanian & Protestant Studies.

- [Some archive photos](http://www.promacedonia.org/bugarash/stone/gallery.html) concerning the case.

---
Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Miss Stone Affair](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miss_Stone_Affair) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miss_Stone_Affair?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.