10 Bizarre Cases of Kidnapping for Ransom

[@JohnDrummondPhoto]

Frank Sinatra Jr. was kidnapped in 1963. His father offered the kidnappers $1 million, but they turned it down and asked for just $240K, which Sinatra Sr. paid. The kidnappers were soon caught and later convicted. I just read that all the negotiations were done by pay phone. Sinatra Sr. was afraid of running out of change, so he kept ten dimes in his pocket at all times. After his son's release, Sinatra developed a superstition and had ten dimes in his pocket at all times for the rest of his life. He was even buried with ten dimes in his suit pocket, by his wishes.

[@christineparis5607]

Didn't they also cut off his ear?

[@davidmeeks2405]

Growing up our Mother always told my brother and me that she didn't worry about us being kidnapped. Besides the fact that she didn't have any money, she stated on numerous occasions that if we were kidnapped it wouldn't be very long before they brought us back. LOL

[@mikemaricle9941]

The Ransom Of Red Chief

[@cynthiasimpson931]

While my parents never said as much, they probably thought the same thing about us.

[@malcire]

Same.

[@viking_nor]

Your kidnapper would sue your parents for emotional damage and win? That bad?😀

[@comettamer]

Same here

[@michaelpalmieri7335]

I find it outrageous that J. Paul Getty was so cheap, that he refused to pay a ransom for his own GRANDSON! Why? Because he was afraid that his other grandchildren would be kidnapped too? ("I have fourteen grandchildren. If I paid a penny for one grandchild, then I'd have to pay fourteen ransoms." J. Paul Getty) Well, I don't buy it. I think he was just using that as an excuse for his stinginess. Getty made Charles Dickens' Ebenezer Scrooge character sound generous!

[@JuMiKu]

Exactly. And he even took interest on the loan from his kid; the child's parents! The child, who was only in this situation because of him! This is a monster!

[@eli-bt4he]

I'm sure he was loved and adored by all his grandchildren, and they couldn't wait to spend time with him.

[@legoqueen2445]

He also installed a payphone in his home's lobby and wouldn't let anyone use his landline (no mobile phones back then).

[@michaelpalmieri7335]

@@legoqueen2445 A payphone in his own house's lobby? 😱 WTF?🤯 Obviously, he wasn't just stingy. He was GREEDY!!! Like I said before, Scrooge had NOTHING on this tightwad!

[@legoqueen2445]

@@michaelpalmieri7335 sorry I should have clarified, the lobby of his MANSION.

[@RJLbwb]

The thing I remember about the School Bus kidnapping was when the California Highway Patrol transferred the kidnappers to a state prison they had to keep it secret because the locals were trying to lynch those jerks.

[@ryproar11]

I literally just watched the previous video and POP Simon releases another... I swear he knows... He senses weakness and strikes. 😂

[@Textile_Courtesan]

Same. I just finished a Casual Criminalist vid and was looking for another short Simon Fact Boi background noise.

[@MareCat31]

I learned about Bentham's Head thanks to Ask a Mortician. Now all I can hear in my head is "Bentham's Head"

[@twocvbloke]

I guess the Aldi guy kidnappers were hoping for a bargain... :P

[@Trendkilla]

Norway do have some notoriously high prices on alcohol.

[@ronsimpsonll9739]

Damn! People are strange...

[@b1646717]

My family would send you my clothes and toothbrush right before they moved and changed their phone number.

[@lauriejones4507]

Might be that profile pic 😳🤭

[@ronsimpsonll9739]

Hey Simon!!!

[@pamelamays4186]

The Getty kidnapping would be an interesting Into The Shadows episode. Or CasCrim

[@AeroGuy07]

I'd forgotten about the Bobby Brown kidnapping. I bet that came up in every fight they had after that!

[@cameronmccreary4758]

What about the kidnapping of Julius Caesar? What's the Chinese man's name spelled, "Ca-ching."

[@noob2gosu]

The Norwegian hijacker didn't demand beer he had a political agenda, he did drink all the beer onboard the plane tho. He also traded his air pistol for more beer at which point the police stormed the plane. He also had falsely claimed to have placed explosives onboard

[@skleedleplotchnu3713]

so 8 kidnappings and 2 thefts...could have been more accurate as a "Side Project" until you could find 10 actual kidnappings bizarre enough for the title

[@jorgecalero6325]

🎶 Bentham's head 🎶🎶🎵 @askamortician

[@mathieuleader8601]

I would have put the noid ramsom incident on here

[@FMoash]

Who wrote this? More importantly, whoever decided to release it today, after the Mona Lisa was actually stolen, is doing their job right.

[@eph2vv89only1way]

The theft has neither been confirmed nor denied

[@AltonV]

It seems to be a TikTok prank

[@BonShula]

Asias richest man is Ka-shing? Some jokes just write themselves

[@paulsarnik8506]

Ka Shing or Cha-CHING🤑🤓😎✌🏻

[@claywest9528]

I wonder if the California school bus kidnappers were inspired by the movie "Dirty Harry "?

[@claywest9528]

@@franksmith7247 You may be thinking of the Zodiac Murders and the villain being called Scorpio. The Chowchilla kidnapping was 5 years after the movie. The Zodiac started in the mid 60s.

[@jamesdough6406]

A for-real case of "hold my beer". I guess somebody had to try it.

[@cosumel]

My family won’t pay for me. Don’t get any ideas.

[@marcbeebee6969]

I know they told me.... your aunt even learnt german. She was like nein nein nein Marc, nein!

[@kenmcfann8128]

Hey Simon

[@mocat1]

A former classmate of my Mum’s was kidnapped when they were in their early 20s. The classmate’s father was the owner of a well known Canadian publishing company. It didn’t take long to figure out who was behind it. Her ex boyfriend who called a back phone line that only family and close friends knew. He and his cohorts did not get any of the ransom money.

[@chiphausl]

1/137

[@waynehersel3965]

My friends and I were going to kidnap our Mayor to ransom for a Taco Bell combo platter, and a 6 pack of Mountain Dew. But, then we found out that Taco Bell food is made from horse meat, so we scratched that plan.

[@Zatiels]

Extremely dissapointed this one isn't here: In 75 BCE a band of Cilician pirates in the Aegean Sea captured a 25-year-old Roman nobleman named Julius Caesar, who had been on his way to study oratory in Rhodes. As the story is related in Plutarch’s Parallel Lives, the capture was a minor inconvenience for Caesar but very bad luck for the pirates.

[@heathergarnham9555]

Me too

[@acid3129]

A friend of mine got kidnapped when I lived in Mexico. He had a sister that was being abused by a local gang his dad had moved her to America to be with him for her safety . They wanted his family to bring his sister back so she could be a sex slave for them and if they said no they will kill my friend . He was found 4 days later alive but he had a hand missing and he had been shot in the shoulder he thinks they aimed for his neck and thought he would bleed out but it got stuck in his collar bone

[@stephaniev4006]

The video says the Chowchilla kidnappers got life in prison, which is technically true. Except they are already out of jail. They all got paroled. It's awful

[@cynthiasimpson931]

I lived in the area

[@cynthiasimpson931]

at the time, but was out of state when it all happened. According to my friends, the whole state of California was in an uproar, and once the kids and the driver escaped he was being touted as a hero.

[@Bubbaist]

Two of the three. The ringleader is still in prison as of a year or so ago.

[@stephaniev4006]

@Robert Wilson "The kidnappers were all eventually sentenced to life with the possibility of parole. Thirty-six years after the kidnapping, Richard Schoenfeld was granted parole in June 2012. Three years later, his brother James was paroled. Fred Woods, the last kidnapper in prison, was granted parole on August 17, 2022 after 17 previous denials" source, CBS News

[@quinnishrellik9378]

Life in prison doesn’t necessarily mean the rest of a persons natural life… life sentences usually correlate to 25years. This is very broad however

[@kimhohlmayer7018]

I’m old enough that I remember the school bus being hijacked. It was the craziest thing reported up until that point. I especially remember thinking how terrified I would have been to be locked into such a confined, buried space as I am seriously claustrophobic.

[@charlotteowens4644]

Did Simon report in this incident that the kids were in a buried delivery van? Still have bad dreams about this.

[@IamShawnMichaelAllen]

Hey Chowchilla! Simon talked about my hometown! Haha

[@Kenkire]

Bentham's heeead

[@katekat1138]

I knew there had to be a deathling here!

[@patpierce4854]

Bentham’s Head!!! (All hail fellow deathlings from Ask A Mortician!)

[@oneminuteofmyday]

I had to scroll down way too far to find a fellow deathling. 💀

[@TerenceClark]

I loved the Li Ka-shing episode of Casual Criminalist (I think that's where I saw it). Also, one of the richest men in Hong Kong named "Ka-shing"?

[@joanhoffman3702]

Read the short story by O. Henry called “The Ransom of Red Chief”. Two men decide to make money by kidnapping the son of a businessman. It does not end the way they wanted.

[@cathipalmer8217]

I love that story.

[@jmanj3917]

Of course Aldi is doing alright. They're pure geniuses at claiming tax deductions...

[@Hillbilly001]

Bring it on Factboi!

[@reggiep75]

Has anyone threatened to kidnap your beard, Simon? Your beard is like Samson's hair.. If it's kidnapped or shaved... the empire dies!

[@ankaplanka]

A billionaire called Ka-Shing? That's priceless, pun intended!

[@ahuddleston6512]

Exactly what I was thinking!

[@scottieman2]

How bad do you feel if they don't pay for the ransom?

[@IlIlIlllIIlIllI]

First

[@jamm8284]

Damn it! 😞🤣

[@ryproar11]

No you weren't... Look at the time stamps. 😂