April Fabb, Genette Tate, Martin Allen, Ben Needham, Madeleine McCann and others THE CRIME: It is every parent’s worse nightmare but each year children go missing. Thankfully, they are usually found safe and sound but for some parents the nightmare never ends. At Easter 1969 April Fabb, 13 years old, set off on her bicycle… Read More »
“The party has just begun” THE CRIME: The term “Stockholm Syndrome- is derived from the taking of four hostages during a robbery at the Sveriges Kreditbank, Stockholm in 1973. Criminologist and psychologist Nils Bejerot coined the term, which refers to the behaviour of kidnap victims who become sympathetic to their captor. Not long after the… Read More »
“Bobby was struggling and kicking so I fired at close range” THE CRIME: Bobby Greenlease was the six-year-old son of Kansas City millionaire Robert Cosgrove Greenlease, 71, who had made his money importing General Motors vehicles to the Great Plains. At 10.55am on an autumn day in 1953 Bobby was kidnapped from his exclusive prep… Read More »
Dad, I’m sorry THE CRIME: Franklin Wayne Emmanuel Sinatra was the only son of the legendary crooner Frank Sinatra, born to his first wife Nancy in 1944. He attempted to follow in the old man’s footsteps and become a singer. In late 1963 Frank, Jr was booked to sing at Harrah’s Lodge overlooking Lake Tahoe.… Read More »
“You have a million by Wednesday night or we will kill her” THE CRIME: At about 6pm on 29 December 1969 Trinidad-born Muslims Arthur Hosein, aged 34, and his younger brother Nizamodeen, aged 22, abducted Muriel McKay, 55, mistakenly believing she was Mrs Rupert Murdoch, the wife of the newspaper tycoon, in the first kidnap… Read More »
“This is Paul’s ear. If we don’t get some money within ten days, then the other ear will arrive” THE CRIME: The grandson of oil billionaire J. Paul Getty was something of a loose cannon in the family. J. Paul Getty III lived life in the fast lane, forever getting into scrapes. After a night… Read More »
“Not bloody likely” THE CRIME: On 20 March 1974 Princess Anne and husband Captain Mark Phillips were returning to Buckingham Palace after watching a charity film presentation when a car overtook their Rolls-Royce. It pulled in front forcing the royal vehicle to stop. The princess’s bodyguard, Inspector James Beaton, pulled his Walther PPK automatic but… Read More »
“Peter Lorenz, prisoner of the 2 June Movement” THE CRIME: Peter Lorenz was born on 22 December 1922. In 1969 he became the chairman of Berlin’s Christian Democratic Union and, in 1975, his party’s candidate for mayor of West Berlin. As he was leaving his home in the Zehlendorf district of the city three days… Read More »
“I loved Kirk so much I would have skied down Mount Everest in the nude with a carnation up my nose” THE CRIME: On 15 September 1977 Scotland Yard announced that Mormon missionary, Kirk Anderson, had disappeared in “most unusual circumstances”. The day before, 21-year-old Anderson had received a telephone call from a man calling… Read More »
“I did mourn him” THE CRIME: In 1998 Wolfgang Priklopil (born 14 May 1962), a former engineer with Siemens, abducted 10-year-old Natascha Kampusch as she was on her way to school. He placed the girl in a 5 sq m (54 sq ft) nuclear bunker under his garage. The bunker was hidden behind a cupboard… Read More »