Illinois v. Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb 1924 - ... "trial of the century." A trial that involved the kidnapping and murder of a 14-year old boy from one of Chicago's prominent families, a bizarre relationship between 2 scholars-turned-murderers.

The kidnapping of Charles A. Lindbergh Jr.-- Baby Charlie had a cold in February, 1932. On March 1, his parents, Charles and Anne spent the evening at home in Hopewell, New Jersey. Betty Gow, Charlie's nurse, rubbed medication on the baby's chest to relieve congestion. At about 7:30 PM, Betty and Anne put Charlie Jr. to bed. At 10 p.m., Betty discovered Charlie was gone.

The Case That Never Dies: The Lindbergh Kidnapping -- by Lloyd C. Gardner -- Charles Lindbergh's baby was taken from his home near Hopewell, New Jersey, in 1932, during the Great Depression when kidnapping neared epidemic proportions. Despite the publicity many controversies surround the "Crime of the Century." A comprehensive study of the investigation, and trial, in the context of the Depression, when many feared the country was on the edge of anarchy, historian Lloyd C. Gardner delves into Lindbergh's dealings with crime baron Owney Madden, Al Capone's New York counterpart, through gangland intermediaries, and the exploits of John Condon, a retired schoolteacher who became the prosecution's chief witness. The investigation was hampered by Colonel Lindbergh, who insisted police not attempt to find the perpetrator because he feared it would endanger his son. He relented when the child was found dead. After two years, a German immigrant, Bruno Richard Hauptmann, was arrested, tried, and sentenced to death. Gardner pays attention to the evidence and how it was misused in the trial. Gardner concludes that there was insufficient evidence to convict. Never-before-used FBI records reveal animosity between J. Edgar Hoover and Norman Schwarzkopf, commander of the New Jersey State Police.

1954 -- Captive for 64 Hours, Wealthy Realtor Saved. Realtor Leonard Moskowitz kidnapped; journalists are in on the story but keep it out of the press to lessen the danger to his life. Newsreel story.

American Justice - Witness Protection In July 1984, Kari Swenson, a 23-year-old world class athlete, was training in Montana when two mountain men took her captive. In April 1992, New Jersey executive Sidney Russo was grabbed by a couple demanding 18 million dollars. More than half a century after the tragic case of the Lindbergh baby, the kidnapping business is still thriving. This hard-hitting examination profiles the cases of Swenson and Russo to see how this crime is handled today. Learn about the latest investigating and negotiating tactics, and see why even the most successful and skilled investigators flirt with failure on almost every case. Interviews with kidnapping victims and investigators offer unique insights into this troubling crime, and a detailed analysis of the Swenson and Russo investigations reveals how thin the line between success and failure is.

American Justice: Sinatra Kidnapping Recalls the spectacular 1963 kidnapping of Frank Sinatra, Jr. The kidnappers received $240,000 in ransom money from Frank Sr., but they all eventually landed in jail.

Ransom: The Untold Story of International Kidnapping
by Ann Hagedorn Ransom opens with the story of five men taken hostage in 1995 in Kashmir, the hotly disputed paradise that lies between India and Pakistan. The men--two Britons, an American, a German, and a Norwegian--were tourists hiking their way through the Himalayan mountains that crosses through Kashmir, when men with weapons appeared and snatched the five hostages. Interweaving the story of the Kashmir abduction with accounts of other kidnappings and interviews with antikidnapping "risk" experts, a mesmerizing kidnapping on a massive scale: as many as 20,000 to 30,000 incidents occur annually, up from about 6,000 per year during the 1980s. Auerbach ascribes some of the blame to the end of the cold war, which brought uneducated but highly trained soldiers into the mercenary pool. Ransom details countermeasures to combat the kidnapping problem, from the FBI's internal revolution on the issue to the rise of high-tech "risk consultants," danger assessments for corporations and individuals and who will fly to the scene to negotiate with kidnappers. As for the five in Kashmir, one is dead: the Norwegian, his body found dismembered a month after the group was taken hostage. Of the remaining four, no word of their situation has come since December 1995, when allowed to record a message for their families.

Copyright Kari Sable 1994-2006

City Confidential: Austin - Empty Graves -- Austin, Texas is the capital of the Lone Star State. A high-tech, metropolis that's part Silicon Valley, part political hot spot, and part old-fashioned, hard-partying college town. But while Austin may be progressive compared to the rest of the state, not everyone in town is liberal. The capital's location puts it squarely in the Bible Belt, and the tension between the left and right is clear and constant. 1995, folks on both sides of the ideological divide were left speechless when the city's most audacious left-wing agitator vanished. Her disappearance eventually broadened into an international investigation. An incredible story of tax evasion, kidnapping and murder.