“Crime of the century”, homicides, politicians and films for the regime. From the USA to South Korea, here are 10 kidnappings that made history.
The kidnapping of Nancy Guthriemother of American presenter Savannah Guthrie, on the first day of this month, revived a type of crime that, despite having never stopped happening, has become less frequent. It’s the latest media episode in a long history of high-profile kidnappings in the U.S. and beyond, some of which have helped change police practices, legislation and even social perceptions about security.
He recently made, based on this context, a portrait of 10 notable kidnappings in modern history, and some, possibly, I didn’t even know had happened.
The “crime of the century”
The kidnapping of Charles Lindbergh, Jr.baby son of famous aviator Charles Lindbergh, is presented as one of the most emblematic cases of the 20th century. The child was kidnapped on March 1, 1932 and would end up being murdered. At the time, Lindbergh was a worldwide celebrity, following his solo transatlantic flight between New York and Paris in 1927.
The search involved more than 100,000 people, but the baby’s body was found 72 days later, near the family’s home in Hopewell, New Jersey. A German immigrant, Bruno Richard Hauptmann, was tried, convicted and executed in the electric chair.
Heir, a kidnapping and murder on the bridge
In 1960, the disappearance of Adolph Coors IIIgrandson of the brewery’s founder, became a highly publicized story.
The abduction occurred on February 9, when Coors, then 44, disappeared and his car was found near Denver at the Turkey Creek Bridge.
The perpetrator was Joseph Corbett, a fugitive killer looking for quick money, but the plan went wrong and ended on the spot: Coors was shot and killed.
The next day, his wife, Mary, received a ransom demand of $500,000. FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover mobilized a large-scale operation.
The body was found on September 15, 1960. Corbett was sentenced to life in prison, although he was released conditionally in 1980.
A “star child” and the rescue
The kidnapping of Frank Sinatra, Jr.then 19 years old, occurred on December 8, 1963, at a hotel in Lake Tahoe, California.
Two men tied up the young man’s friend and took him to Canoga Park, demanding a ransom of $240,000 from his father. Payment was made in the early hours of December 11th. However, a third accomplice told his brother of the plan, who in turn alerted the police.
The three criminals were sentenced to life in prison, but none served more than five years, according to The Week. In court, one of the authors claimed that it was staged, a hypothesis that was later refuted.
Baby taken from hospital, identity changed
A kidnapping can be prolonged over time due to errors and gaps in evidence, and the story of Paul Fronczak It’s living proof.
On April 27, 1964, a woman disguised as a nurse took a one-day-old baby from Michael Reese Hospital in Chicago, triggering the city’s largest manhunt to date.
Two years later, the FBI found a child in New Jersey they believed to be Paul, returning him to his parents. But decades later, a DNA test in 2012 indicated that this young man was after all Jack Rosenthala child who disappeared in 1965 in Atlantic City, along with her twin sister, Jill, who remains missing.
In 2019, information emerged that the real Paul had been created under another name by a woman named Lorraine Fountain. The presumed abductor remains unknown; Rosenthal continued to use the name Paul and published a memoir in 2022.
The oil heir and a “negotiated” bailout
The kidnapping of John Paul Getty IIIgrandson of oil tycoon John Paul Getty, took place in Rome on July 10, 1973, when the young man was 16 years old.
The kidnappers demanded 17 million dollars, but the grandfather, suspecting his own grandson’s involvement and fearing encouraging new crimes, refused.
Grandfather’s impasse changed when received an ear from the teenager in the mail. He would end up paying 2.2 million dollars, described in the text as the maximum amount that could be considered tax deductible. Getty III faced severe addiction problems and suffered a stroke in 1981, leaving him disabled until his death in 2011.
Kidnapped (and condemned) heiress
Heiress to William Randolph Hearst’s media empire, Patricia Hearst It has become a political and cultural symbol in the USA.
On February 4, 1974, at the age of 19, she was taken from her apartment in Berkeley, California, by members of the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA), a radical far-left group.
Two months later, she participated in a bank robbery and was considered a fugitive until her arrest in September 1975. Hearst claimed coercion, but was sentenced to 35 years in prison.
He left in 1979, after commuting his sentence by President Jimmy Carter, and would go on to appear in films, including Cry-Baby (1990).
Cinema as an instrument of power
This is a case of state-motivated kidnapping: the South Korean actress Choi Eun-hee She was kidnapped in Hong Kong on January 11, 1978, by North Korean agents and taken to Pyongyang. Six months later, director and husband Shin Sang-ok was also kidnapped in Hong Kong.
The couple was kept for eight years, by order of Kim Jong Il, with the aim of produce films for the regime — seven, according to The Week — including Pulgasari, described as a “socialist Godzilla.”
They managed to escape in March 1986, during a trip to Vienna, Austria.
The kidnapping of a former prime minister
In 1978, Italy experienced one of the most publicized episodes of the post-war period: the kidnapping of the former prime minister Aldo Moroon March 16, during the “Years of Lead”.
The crime was committed by the Brigate Rosse, in a context of political violence, while Moro was trying to facilitate the inclusion of the Italian Communist Party (PCI) in a government coalition.
Aldo Moro was executed on May 9, and the body turned up in the trunk of a car in Rome.
Kidnapping on the day of going to the polls changed the first democratic presidential elections in Brazil
The case of Abilio Dinizco-founder of the Brazilian group Pão de Açúcar, took place on December 17, 1989, on the day the country held its first democratic presidential election after decades of authoritarian rule.
Diniz, then 52, was ripped from his Mercedes-Benz on his way to work and taken away in a van disguised as an ambulance.
He was kept in a house in São Paulo and released a week later in an operation by authorities. The crime was associated with a kidnapping network, with links to the Chilean group Movimento de Esquerda Revolucionária, which allegedly obtained around US$65 million.
18 years in captivity
Among the most striking cases, The Week remembers Jaycee Dugardkidnapped at age 11 while walking to a school bus stop in Lake Tahoe, California.
The child was kidnapped by Phillip and Nancy Garrido and kept for 18 years in a makeshift structure in the couple’s backyard. The girl was repeatedly raped and had two children by her attacker.
The case gained enormous attention in 2009 when, to everyone’s surprise, Jaycee was found and released; authorities discovered a hidden “complex” with tents, outbuildings and a small building.
Dugard founded a survivor support organization and kept her daughters’ identities private. The couple is still in prison today.
Kidnapping and rescue after nine months
Elizabeth Smart she was taken on June 5, 2002, at age 14: she was taken from her bedroom in the family home in Salt Lake City, Utah, by Brian David Mitchell and Wanda Barzee.
The suspected man had previously worked as a contractor on the roof of the teenager’s house and was allegedly suffering from religious delusions. Despite extensive national attention, Smart was in captivity for nine monthswith daily sexual assaults, until she was recognized in Sandy, Utah, on March 12, 2003, and rescued.
Smart would end up creating an organization against sexual exploitation and now has a family. Mitchell remains in prison; Barzee was paroled in 2018.
