Word: ransoming
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Dates: during 1930-1939
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...story was soon confirmed by Col. H. Norman Schwarzkopf of the New Jersey State Police on Col. Lindbergh's behalf: "A ransom of $50,000 was paid to the kidnappers, properly identified as such, upon their agreement to notify Col. Lindbergh as to the exact whereabouts of the baby. The baby was not found at the point designated. Several days were permitted to elapse to give the kidnappers every opportunity to keep their agreement...
Public opinion is changing. Even if the Lindberghs believe in the power of the so-called underworld, the majority of people do not. The law should see to it that the instigators of this crime are harshly and promptly dealt with and that no ransom is paid. The law should not be dictated to by a half-crazed father who is guilty of ''petty treason...
...Petty Treason" Why petty? Such conspicuous payment of ransom would cause hundreds of additional kidnappings, and always a large percentage of loss of life for those kidnapped. Such encouragement of crime is in itself a gross, not a petty, affair. "Egregious crime" would seem more completely descriptive than "petty treason...
Only in China is kidnapping so common as in the U. S., but in China the prizes are seldom so rich, particularly since U. S. missionary societies have moved to discourage kidnapping by refusing to pay any ransoms whatever.* A rich prize is Capt. Charles Baker of Pasadena, who used to pilot a river boat from Shanghai up through the Yangtze rapids. In January he ran aground in Hupeh Province, somewhere near Kienli District which has a "Communist" bandit government. The Kienli bandits ferried Capt. Baker ashore, a most-valuable bit of salvage, and held him for ransom. Capt. Baker...
...discussion of the ethics of ransom-paying...