Word: ransoming
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...first, the family of Samuel Bronfman II figured on a guilty verdict for the two men accused of kidnaping the young Seagram liquor heir. Anything less would be a slap at Sam and them-a judgment that the "victim" had really masterminded the crime for the $2.3 million ransom. Late last week, as 120 people crowded the White Plains, N.Y., courtroom, the jury filed back after 19 hours and 30 minutes of deliberation and delivered a stunning decision: not guilty of kidnaping...
Ironically, the wave of arrests may help bring East Germany a bonanza in precious Western currency with which to buy the foreign-made goods that are in such short supply. Last week the Bonn government was continuing to ransom political prisoners from the East for as much as $15,000 a head. Since 1970, when this unsavory commerce in human beings began, Bonn has purchased 7,200 prisoners. The cost: $108 million. The West German government dislikes this grisly trade but justifies it as a humanitarian necessity. West Germans live too close to incidents such as last week...
Goodbye Embrace. Seven days after the kidnaping came women's lib: Graziella turned up unharmed, even though a $1.5 million ransom demand had not been met. That night, acting on a telephone tip, police found the body of a tortured hoodlum, his face burned and battered beyond recognition, his death caused by strangulation. The next day a Monreale jeweler was murdered in his shop-only five minutes after Giuseppe Quartuccio had been seen giving him the Mafia's classic goodbye kiss on each cheek. Asked about the ominous embrace, Quartuccio said sadly, "My friend? He had the courage...
...foot soldiers met a French force of some 25,000 on Oct. 25, 1415. In Shakespeare's Henry V the English king naturally dominates the stage. Keegan is more interested in the ragtag soldiers and what sustained them: prayer, a hope of booty from French casualties, ransom for prisoners and plenty of strong drink. Against all odds, the English won. Keegan dwells on the small, sometimes accidental events that determined that outcome. The British archers (the lowest caste of warriors in the late medieval hierarchy) planted long pointed stakes in their midst. When the French cavalry attacked, their horses...
...virtue of being straightforward: the Seagram heir testified that a man he did not know grabbed him on a humid August night last year as he was parking his car at his mother's estate in Purchase, N.Y. Later, his captors sent his father first a ransom letter then tape recordings made by Bronfman relaying impassioned pleas for payment. Eventually, the elder Bronfman took two plastic bags containing $2.3 million in cash to a deserted street in New York City's borough of Queens. A day later, police found Sam in a Brooklyn apartment, bound and gagged...