The Crime Book Big Ideas Simply Explained

ORGANIZED CRIME 149

and ousted the warlords in an his influence was significantly Poor Chinese families, who know
attempt to reunite China. However, reduced. When the Communists that they can earn up to 10 times
the two former allies then turned on seized power in 1949, Du fled again, as much money in the US, make a
each other and fought for political leaving his gang to their fate. down payment to “Snake Heads” –
control of the country. traffickers of illegal aliens – to
Modern activities smuggle young males into the US.
The Green Gang entered the Because the Triads had supported These men are then forced to work
battle in 1927, when it was recruited the Kuomintang when the off the rest of the fee – typically up
by Kuomintang leader Chiang-kai- Communists seized power in 1949, to $40,000 – by labouring in
shek to fight the Communists. In a Chairman Mao Zedong began to kitchens or in sweatshops for next
bid to protect their opium monopoly, implement measures that drove the to nothing. Failure to do so
the Green Gang sided with the Triads to the US, Taiwan, Canada, inevitably results in bloodshed. ■
democratic Kuomintang. On and British-controlled Hong Kong.
12 April 1927, they conspired with Macau’s casinos became the
the Kuomintang to perpetrate the Hong Kong in particular became epicentre of the 14K Triad’s criminal
White Terror Massacre, in which a hotbed for Triad activity, with activity in the late 1990s following
they stormed Shanghai’s Chinese around 50 gangs operating on the the police crackdown on the 14K’s
section and butchered 5,000 island. But in the 1970s, the British activities in Hong Kong in 1997.
Communists. To reward the Green government clamped down on the
Gang for securing the city, Chiang- Triads, and by 1997, the year in
kai-shek made Du a general. Du which the island was transferred
later became an influential member back to Chinese rule, the number
of the chamber of commerce, and of reported crimes perpetrated by
ironically, head of the opium Triads in Hong Kong had been
suppression committee. Naturally, reduced to 5–10 per cent of the
Du used his position to maintain total. Many gangsters subsequently
the Green Gang’s fortune by moved their operations to Macau
reselling the opium confiscated by and to southern China.
the committee.
In the 1950s, the Triads
Du and the Green Gang suffered practically created the global market
a major blow in 1937 when the for heroin, selling it to US soldiers
Japanese invaded Shanghai. Du serving in Vietnam. However, in
fled, but returned when Shanghai more recent decades, they have
was liberated in 1945. However, concentrated on human trafficking.

Wan “Broken Tooth” Wan Kuok-koi was born in 1955 in Yam. Wan Kuok-koi was arrested
Kuok-koi a Macau slum. As a teenager he on 1 May 1998 as he watched
formed a street gang. He earned an advance screening of the
his nickname “Broken tooth” for film. He was charged with the
an injury sustained crashing a attempted murder of Macau’s
stolen car. He was initiated into Chief of police, Antonio Marque
the notorious 14K Triad and rose Baptista, as well as with loan
through the gang’s ranks until he sharking, money laundering, and
controlled the city’s underworld. operating a gang. Sentenced to
He gained a reputation for his use 15 years in prison, Wan Kuok-koi
of extreme violence. By the 1990s, continued to run his operations
10,000 men were at his command. from behind bars. He was
released in 2012 having served
Obsessed with his image, the his time, and in 2015, he joined
snappy dresser spent $1.7 million an important political advisory
(£1.3 million) to produce Casino, committee along with other
a film about his life as a gangster, powerful Macau businessmen.
starring Hong Kong actor Simon

150

RENVUOEFMRFIOOARRNEGLYVAINBLIALZNAEDIDNWOUASS,

THE WILD BUNCH, 1889–1908

IN CONTEXT A lthough Butch Cassidy’s Saturday and made off with $24,000
“Wild Bunch” was (£515,000 today) from the town’s
LOCATION not as anarchic as its San Miguel Valley Bank on Monday.
Wyoming, Colorado, nickname suggests, the collective Robber’s Roost was their hideout,
Utah, US had none of the order of Cosa a crag in the rugged “Canyon
Nostra or the Triads. Country” of southeastern Utah.
THEME
Outlaw gangs In 1866, Butch was born Robert Train robbers
Leroy Parker to a Utah Mormon Cassidy and his comrades lay low
BEFORE family. He adopted “Cassidy” from around the canyons for weeks or
1855 Thieves replace gold an older cowboy he worked for as a months at a time, in crude cabins
worth £12,000 (about teenager, and picked up “Butch” and on ranches, before venturing
£1 million today) on the during a brief stint at a butcher’s. out to rob trains across the Western
London–Folkestone train with states. The Wild Bunch were no
lead shot in “The Great Gold Cassidy committed his first idealists, but there was a utopian
Robbery”. The substitution is robbery with a small group of aura to their life of crime. Butch
discovered when the crates friends in 1889. They went down to
arrive in Paris. the bars of Telluride, Colorado, one

1877 Sam Bass and his men The women of the Wild Bunch
seize $60,000 (£1.1 million
today) in gold pieces from The Wild Bunch took care to One of the woman in the Wild
a train travelling from San maintain good relations with the Bunch’s circle would become
Francisco in the Union Pacific ranchers who owned the lands a member in her own right:
Big Springs Robbery. on which they lived. They were Laura Bullion. She was a bank-
also notably welcoming of and train-robber who counted
AFTER women. Josie and “Queen” the Sundance Kid and Ben
1976 The Irish Republican Ann Bassett were sisters who Kilpatrick – known in the gang
Socialist Party steals worked on the family ranch as “The Tall Texan” – among
£200,000 (£1.3 million) from a close to Robbers’ Roost. They her numerous lovers.
mail train in Sallins, Ireland. became romantically and
amicably involved with various Historians have been
members of the Wild Bunch, intrigued by the involvement
who protected the Bassett ranch of women with outlaws,
when it came under attack from particularly by the apparent
cowboys who wanted their land. absence of ill-feeling as romantic
attachments came and went.

ORGANIZED CRIME 151

See also: The James-Younger Gang 24–25 ■ The Great Train Robbery 30–35

claimed that he never killed a man, The train was held up by two of the Members of the Wild Bunch,
but an attack by gang members on Wild Bunch standing on the tracks. including Longabaugh (the Sundance
the Overland Flyer, a Union Pacific The outlaws detached the main Kid) on the far left and Cassidy on
train outside Wilcox, Wyoming, in part of the train and forced the the far right, pose in a Texas
1899, certainly led to one death. engineer to steam across a bridge photographer’s studio in 1901.
with the lead cars that held
Sheriffs and deputies valuables. After dynamiting the authorities and private detectives
he regards with pity bridge to block the line, the outlaws wanted them dead or alive. Stray
and contempt. He is a took $30,000 (£585,000 today) in gang members were caught in
power unto himself. cash and jewellery and rode away. shootouts and pursuits over a
San Francisco Call series of jobs, and the Wild Bunch’s
A posse led by Sheriff Josiah numbers steadily dwindled.
Hazen traced them 120 km
(75 miles) to the Castle Creek In 1901, Cassidy fled to South
ravine. In a shootout, the sheriff America along with Harry
was killed by outlaw Harvey Logan. Longabaugh – famously known
The rest of the gang escaped. as “the Sundance Kid” – and
Longabaugh’s wife. Their last years
Wanted dead or alive are shrouded in romantic mystery,
Working in groups of three or four, with reports of numerous heists
the Wild Bunch kept robbing and and a final, fatal shootout in
their notoriety skyrocketed. State Bolivia on 4 November 1908. ■

152

PBMRUAOTDHETIRBNOIOTUTIBOHLNINEHGAS

THE BEER WARS, 1923–29

IN CONTEXT O n a rainy Friday night in The late night shakedown, which
Chicago, Illinois, six took place on 7 September 1923,
LOCATION armed gangsters burst was the beginning of Chicago’s
Chicago, Illinois, US through the front doors of a saloon so-called “Beer War” – a gang war
and attacked the bar owner, that left a trail of violence and
THEME beating him senseless with the death in its wake.
Gang warfare butts of their guns. A few days
earlier, Jacob Geis had refused to Territorial monopolies
BEFORE purchase beer from the South Side This spate of gang violence had its
1910 Chicago police arrest O’Donnell gang, choosing instead roots in Prohibition. In 1920, federal
more than 200 gangsters from to remain a loyal customer of the Prohibition policies outlawed the
a crime family known as Black Saltis-McErlane gang. sale of alcohol across the US. Soon
Hand in a raid in Little Italy. after, bootleggers emerged to fulfil
In front of the saloon’s patrons, the demand for illicit booze,
16 January 1917 The Illinois O’Donnell gangsters threatened smuggling alcohol from other
State Attorney indicts eight Geis, demanding that he purchase countries and bottling their own
corrupt politicians and police alcohol from them and them alone. concoctions. The Mafia was heavily
officers, including the Chief of The bar owner was left in a bloody involved in the bootlegging trade
Police, for bribery and collusion heap with multiple skull fractures. and rose to dominance as a result
with Chicago gangsters. of its success in supplying alcohol
When I sell liquor, it’s called during Prohibition.
AFTER bootlegging. When my patrons
29 July 1932 John, Arthur, serve it on Lake Shore Drive, The most notorious criminal
and James Volpe – Pittsburgh to profit from bootlegging was
bootleggers – are shot in a it’s called hospitality. Chicago mobster Al Capone.
coffee shop on the orders of Al Capone Capone allegedly earned $60
local mob boss John Bazzano. million (£643 million today) each
year from the industry. His success
26 September 1933 George was thanks to the monopoly that
Barnes Jr, alias “Machine Gun his operation – the Chicago Outfit
Kelly”, is arrested in Memphis, – held over the city’s South Side.
Tennessee, for bootlegging Capone worked under Johnny
and armed robbery. Torrio, who had divided the South
Side of the city into territories.
Each territory was controlled by

ORGANIZED CRIME 153

See also: The Hawkhurst Gang 136–37 ■ The Sicilian Mafia 138–45

A police investigator stands amid
containers of moonshine after a South
Side raid in 1922. Gangsters often paid
the police to raid rival breweries or to
warn them of raids on their own.

a smaller gang, which supplied the wrong end of the “Chicago member was murdered by a Saltis-
speakeasies – and a lucrative Typewriter”, the Thompson McErlane mobster. Sheldons killed
network of brothels and casinos machine gun, introduced to two Saltis gunmen in retaliation,
– via Torrio’s breweries. The North the city by Frank McErlane. escalating the gangs’ rivalry.
Side of Chicago was controlled
by the Irish-American North Side The Beer War raged between The North Side truce also fell
Mob, with whom Torrio had the O’Donnells and the Saltis- apart in the 1920s. North Side boss
agreed a truce. McErlanes, who also went to war Dean O’Banion was killed in 1924,
with Capone allies, the Sheldon and Torrio retired after surviving an
The Outfit controlled all of Gang. In late 1925, a Sheldon assassination attempt. He handed
Chicago’s South Side except for one everything over to Capone, who
area under the jurisdiction of the inherited a bloody war for control of
Saltis-McErlane Gang. There was Chicago that culminated in the
one other gang vying for a piece of Saint Valentine’s Day Massacre of
the South Side – the O’Donnells, 1929, in which seven North Side
who controlled no territory but gangsters were killed.
owned breweries. They were eager
to fight existing gangs for a piece of Many of these bootleg gangs
the action. were folded into larger syndicates
when Prohibition finally ended in
City at war 1933. Capone’s organization, on
The gangs of Chicago fought over the other hand, diversified into
customers, undercutting each other rackets, such as gambling,
other, threatening bar owners, and prostitution, and narcotics
stealing from distributors. Their trafficking, and would dominate
jostling over territorial boundaries Chicago for years to come. ■
often spilled blood. Gangsters
met violent deaths – usually on Prohibition, crime, and the economy

From 1920 to 1933, the ban on Prohibition also had an effect
the production, transportation, on the US economy. During the
and sale of alcohol had the 1920s, the cost of running the
unintended effect of creating Bureau of Prohibition increased
a rise in mass disobedience. from $4.4 million (£41 million
today) to $13.4 million (£125
Despite the Prohibition million today). Closing
movement’s expectation that manufacturing plants and
outlawing alcohol would reduce taverns also caused an economic
crime, it actually led to a higher downturn. Most large-scale
crime rate due to bootlegging. alcohol producers were shut
During Prohibition, crime rates down, leading to a reversal in
in the United States increased the technological advancements
by 24 per cent, as criminal that had been made in the
organizations supplied the alcoholic beverage industry.
black market in alcohol sales.

IF THE BOSS

IS WHITE,SAYS A PASSINGCROW

YOU MUST AGREE

THE YAKUZA, 1946–



156 THE YAKUZA

IN CONTEXT The Sumiyoshi-kai is an exception Armed police stand guard after a
as it is made up of a confederation 2016 raid at the Kobe Yamaguchi-gumi
LOCATION of gangs. Yakuza headquarters. Investigators
Japan and US seized boxes containing evidence of
Traces of the Yakuza date back drug trafficking activities.
THEME to the 17th century and two groups
Japanese criminal gangs at the bottom rung of Japanese Structure and ritual
society. The first group, tekiya, Although Yakuza groups have been
BEFORE were market traders who peddled involved in illicit activities from
16th century Kabukimono, their goods at festival events. Some their inception, it has never been
or “weirdo”, gangs of roaming tekiya hired themselves out as illegal to join a Yakuza group, and
aristocratic samurai emerge bodyguards to other tekiya, which they are still not regarded as
during peacetime in feudal led to the establishment of underground organizations.
Japan. Sporting flamboyant protection rackets.
fashions, they brawl and cause In the mafia, blood relationships
havoc in towns and cities. The second group – gamblers are pivotal, but for the Yakuza, the
known as bakuto – set up illegal Japanese senpai-kohai, or senior-
AFTER casinos in temples on the edges of junior, mentor system is crucial.
1950s Across Japan, groups towns and villages, and ran loan The system involves a foster parent
of teenagers form motorcycle shark operations. figure, the oyabun, who has
gangs, which fight each other authority over his foster children,
and race illegally. Police Yakuza is a gambling term that called kobun. Historically, this
identify them as bosozoku, owes much to the group’s bakuto structure has provided the basis for
an “out-of-control tribe”. roots: in the Japanese card game the relationship between teacher
oichokabu – in which the aim is to and apprentice, and between
1972 In suburban Tokyo, “K-Ko reach a score of 19 with three cards Yakuza boss and follower. In
the Razor” leads a female gang – ya means 8, ku means 9 and za the Yakuza, this system has
of 50 sukeban – girls who wear represents 3. Together, they add up established unity, strength, and
modified school uniforms and to 20 and form the worst possible devotion to the boss.
carry chains and razors with losing hand. The word “Yakuza”
which they attack rival gangs. became synonymous with As in Japanese society as a
something useless, which was later whole, ritual holds Yakuza culture
T he Japanese mafia, known extended to refer to the gamblers together. This is evident in the
collectively as the Yakuza, themselves, denoting that they traditional sakazuki (sake saucer)
comprises more than were useless members of society.
100,000 members split into a small
number of independent syndicates.
Four syndicates – the Yamaguchi-
gumi, the Sumiyoshi-kai, the
Inagawa-kai, and the Aizukotetsu-
kai – account for the vast majority
of Yakuza members. The structure
of these syndicates is complex and
varied, but most are organized in a
pyramid structure with a oyabun
(boss) at the top, who is assisted by
a number of senior advisers, each
of whom control affiliated gangs.

ORGANIZED CRIME 157

See also: The Sicilian Mafia 138–45 ■ The Triads 146–49 ■ Hells Angels 160–63

Major Yakuza syndicates in Japan

Once you make a pledge Inagawa-kai, with Sumiyoshi-kai is the
to the gang, the only 15,000 members, is second-largest syndicate.
way out is to cut based in the greater Founded in Tokyo, there
off your fingers. Tokyo area. It was one are around 20,000
Yakuza member of the first Yakuza members. The leadership
organizations is divided between
to operate abroad. several people.

ceremony, during which an oyabun Yamaguchi-gumi has Aizukotetsu-kai
drinks sake from the same cup as approximately 55,000 members, comes from “Aizu,”
the kobun, to mark the kobun’s which makes it the largest a region of Japan;
entry into the Yakuza group. Yakuza syndicate. It is based “kotetsu”, a type of
in Kobe and accounts for Japanese sword;
Yakuza syndicates developed 50 per cent of Yakuza members. and “kai”, meaning
stringent rules to preserve their “society”. This group
secrecy, ensure adherence to the has 7,000 members.
senpai-kohai system and establish
a ranking structure to determine symbols of strength, endurance, and entire finger is cut off a member’s
each individual’s status within the status. A less artistic custom, called hand as a result of repeat offences, it
group. Beneath the oyabun is the yubitosome, is the mutilation of becomes known as a “dead finger.”
wakigashira (underboss or first one’s own finger with a knife as
lieutenant) and the shateigashira penance to the oyabun for debt or The modern Yakuza
(second lieutenant). The lieutenants disobedience. For a first offence, the At the beginning of the 20th
command the senior-ranking left little finger is removed up to century, Japan underwent
kyodai (big brothers) and the lesser- the knuckle and presented to the extensive economic modernization.
ranking shatei (little brothers). The oyabun. A portion of the ring finger The Yakuza expanded their
oyabun is also aided by the saiko is excised for a second offence, activities accordingly, organizing
komon (senior adviser) who leads followed by the middle finger, and, labour forces of casual workers at
a team of administrators, law finally, the index finger. For the next dockyards and on construction
advisers, and accountants. transgression, the culprit moves to sites. Yakuza bosses invested in
the next joint of the little finger. If an legitimate businesses which ❯❯
Symbolic practices
Tattoos became a hallmark of
Yakuza groups during Japan's feudal
period (1185–1603). Originally,
criminals were branded with black
ring tattoos, but the Yakuza
transformed the practice into
complex, decorative badges of
honour, which functioned as

158 THE YAKUZA

acted as shop fronts to conceal Mobs are legal entities here. rivals into submission. A peace was
their racketeering. They also began Their fan magazines and moderated by the respected oyabun
to bribe police so that they would comic books are sold in of the Inagawa-kai syndicate and
turn a blind eye to their crimes. convenience stores, and the remaining Ichiwa-kai were
allowed to rejoin the Yamaguchi-
In 1915, the Yamaguchi-gumi bosses socialize with prime gumi. However, the war left the
Yakuza syndicate emerged from a ministers and politicians. victors devastated. Many prominent
dockworkers’ union in Kobe on Yamaguchi-gumi members were
Honshu island. It rose to power in Jake Adelstein imprisoned and 36 Yakuza members
the post-war period, and profited had died in the conflict. The
from a growing black market. The Hiroshi Yamamato split from the Japanese media provided extensive
Yamaguchi-gumi eventually Yamaguchi-gumi to form the coverage of the conflict and kept a
became the largest and most Ichiwa-kai syndicate, taking 3,000 running tally of the body count.
influential Yakuza syndicate, members with him. In January 1985,
involved in prostitution rackets, Yamamato sent a team of assassins Rival gang
narcotics trafficking, gambling, to the home of Takenaka’s girlfriend The second-largest Yakuza
arms dealing, and bribery. and gunned down both Takenaka syndicate is the Sumiyoshi-kai,
and his underboss. This was the which was founded in 1958.
The rise of the Yamaguchi-gumi beginning of what later became Unusually for the Yakuza, this
is largely attributed to the leadership known as the Yama-Ichi War. confederation of smaller groups,
of the third oyabun, Kazuo Taoka, Swearing vengeance, the is less hierarchical than the
who between 1946 and 1981 Yamaguchi-gumi sought to wipe out Yamaguchi-gumi syndicate and has
transformed it into the world’s the Ichiwa-kai. After four years and a less centralized leadership. The
largest criminal gang. more than 200 gunfights, the syndicate does have a nominal
Yamaguchi-gumi finally beat their head, however, called Isao Seki. He
When Taoka died in 1981 and was arrested in 2015 and received
underboss Kenichi Yamamoto also a suspended one-year jail sentence
died before he could take over, the for election-law violations.
syndicate underwent a bloody
succession crisis. Hiroshi The Sumiyoshi-kai set up front
Yamamoto followed Taoka as companies – including real estate
temporary oyabun and Masahisa businesses – in Tokyo, which
Takenaka became his underboss. operated legitimately before
However, when Takenaka was turning to extortion and
elected oyabun by a council of
senior Yamaguchi-gumi members,

Kenichi Shinoda On 29 July 2005, the oyabun demeanour – he famously took
of the Yamaguchi-gumi, Kenichi the train to his induction
Shinoda assumed leadership ceremony rather than arriving
of the syndicate after Yoshinori by chaffeur-driven limousine –
Watanabe, the fifth oyabun, conceals his capacity for
unexpectedly retired. Shinoda violence; in the 1970s, he was
is most notable for expanding sentenced to 13 years in jail for
the organization’s influence murdering a rival oyabun with
into Tokyo. a samurai sword.

He began his criminal career Shinoda was jailed for
in 1962 in a gang affiliated to the firearms offences in 2005 and
Yamaguchi-gumi. When the gang released in 2011. In September
was dismantled in 1984, Shinoda 2015, in a bid to consolidate his
worked with friend and Yakuza leadership, he expelled
associate Kiyoshi Takayama, to thousands of Yamaguchi-gumi
establish a successor organization for showing him disloyalty; they
called Kodo-kai. Shinoda’s modest promptly formed a new gang.

threatening their clients. Bitter shortly after the triple-meltdown ORGANIZED CRIME 159
rivals of the Yamaguchi-gumi, the in March 2011 – claimed that the
two syndicates share a history of Yakuza were heavily involved in Yakuza tattoos
fierce conflict. In February 2007, this the Tokyo Electric Power Company
conflict nearly became an all-out (Tepco), which operated the The unique Japanese form of
turf war following the assassination nuclear plant. Suzuki asserted tattooing known as irezumi
of Ryoichi Sugiura, a senior member that Tepco went to elaborate began as early as the
of a Sumiyoshi-kai affiliate. lengths to mask safety violations Paleolithic period. Over time,
at the Fukishima plant, doctoring tattoos became associated
Business involvement film footage of broken pipes and with criminality. Starting in
The corrosive influence of the other neglect to avoid having to the Kofun period (250–538 ce),
Yakuza has demonstrably affected spend money on maintenance. convicts were marked with
both the entertainment business tattoos to indicate both the
and the sporting arena – including Shrinking membership nature and number of their
sumo wrestling and the Pride Internecine violence and serious crimes. From 1789 to 1948,
Fighting Championships, a martial crackdowns on the Yakuza saw tattoos were outlawed in
arts organization that held popular membership decline by 14 per cent Japan, but the Yakuza showed
televised competitions from 1997 to between 1991 and 2002. Even as their contempt for the law by
2007. In 2003, Australian martial its membership continued to having their entire bodies
arts manager Miro Mijatovic was shrink, the Yakuza strove to assert tattooed. In keeping with
abducted by an affiliate of the their presence: in 2010, lawyer traditional irezumi, the Yakuza
Yamaguchi-gumi syndicate. He was Toshiro Igari, a fierce anti-Yakuza have their tattoos completed
threatened with execution unless he crusader, was found dead in his tebori (by hand), via a steel
signed a contract transferring the Manila vacation home with his spike attached to a rod. The
management of his world-class wrists slashed. Many believed that process is slow and painful
fighters to the Yakuza group. his death was a Yakuza hit staged – the colour red is created from
Mijatovic complied but later turned to look like a suicide. toxic iron sulphate which
informant and told the police how causes illness – and a full body
the Yakuza had paid his fighters to In September 2016, Japanese tattoo takes years to complete.
fix fights by injuring themselves. police arrested nearly 1,000 Yakuza The ability to endure this
members, greatly depleting their suffering is proof of toughness,
The Yakuza have been involved manpower and funds. Crucially, this while the financial cost
in the entertainment industry since action also halted an imminent war demonstrates wealth. Since
the end of World War II, running between rival syndicates, which tattoos are connected so
talent agencies in order to extort authorities feared would outdo the strongly with organized crime
money from celebrities. In 2011, bloody carnage unleashed by the in modern Japan, people with
the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Yama-Ichi War. ■ them are frequently forbidden
Department revealed that a popular from using fitness centres and
TV presenter, Shinsuke Shimada, To get your whole bath houses. The mayor of
had close connections to the body tattooed, you Osaka even pioneered a 2012
Yakuza. Shimada was forced to need endurance. campaign to have companies
resign, and the case led to a series dismiss tattooed employees.
of anti-Yakuza laws, such as the Horizen
revised Organized Crime Group
Countermeasures Law. This made it
legal to arrest anyone believed to be
involved in gang activities if he or
she made unreasonable or illegal
demands towards ordinary citizens.

Japanese author Tomohiko
Suzuki, who worked undercover at
the Fukishima nuclear power plant

160 IN CONTEXT

NNWWOOHHBBEEOONNDDWWYY FREEOEDDMROOGEWREMTIBRGSEOHRNTS,G., LOCATION
International
HELLS ANGELS, 1948–
THEME
Motorcycle gang and
crime syndicate

BEFORE
1935 The Outlaws Motorcycle
Club is founded in Illinois;
while not considered a crime
syndicate, members become
involved in money laundering,
fraud, drug distribution, and
even murder.

AFTER
1966 Archrivals of the Hells
Angels, the Bandidos MC,
evolves from a biker gang into
a fearsome criminal group
involved in drug trafficking,
extortion, and prostitution.

1969 The Mongols MC – an
alleged crime syndicate with
links to the methamphetamine
trade – forms in California.

R alph “Sonny” Barger was
an ex-military man who,
having forged his birth
certificate to join the army at 16,
had been discharged when his
deception was discovered. In 1957,
when Barger was 19, he began
riding his motorcycle with a gang
of bikers who bore a striking logo:
a “Death Head” skull flanked by
wings. The logo was brought from
Sacramento by biker Don Reeves.

Inspired by their insignia,
Barger’s group referred to itself as
the Hells Angels, unaware that
there was already a group of loosely
affiliated clubs in California with
the same name. When they
discovered these other clubs,

ORGANIZED CRIME 161

See also: The Triads 146–49 ■ The Yakuza 154–59 ■ The Medellín Cartel 166–67

The association of motorcycles
with LSD is no accident of
publicity. They are both a

means to an end, to the place
of definitions.

Hunter S. Thompson

Club members rise from “associate” and identity. The establishment fondness for it – but in the late
to “prospect” to “full-patch” members. of internal order, however, did not 1960s, their business interests
Only “full-patch” members may wear lead to greater harmony with the began to lean towards trafficking.
the Death Head logo and top “rocker” outside world. Better organized
bearing the Hells Angels name. under Sonny’s leadership, the During the 1967 Summer of
Angels became increasingly Love, the Angels became major
Barger’s group joined forces with involved in criminal activity. pushers of LSD among the flower
them, and shared their Death Head children of San Francisco, but the
logo. In 1963, after a meeting in Drug connections drug was too cheap to be profitable.
Porterville, California, Barger’s At first, the Angels were chiefly Meanwhile, Angel Dust gained a
Oakland chapter assumed a consumers of narcotics – the horse reputation for “bad trips” and
position of authority within the tranquillizer PCP was referred to as psychotic violence. However,
wider Hells Angels – with Barger “Angel Dust” due to the bikers’ methamphetamine(speed) seemed
as the club’s president. to offer no such drawbacks and ❯❯
Operation Black Biscuit
Barger consolidated his power He presented the Hells Angels
by establishing a new code of In 2002, undercover agent Jay with a bloody jacket from the
rules to replace the anarchy that Dobyns and two associates rival club, winning their trust,
previously prevailed. He drew up achieved a feat deemed and over the 21-month mission,
a charter for establishing a Hells impossible – they infiltrated rose to become a “prospect” in
Angels chapter: each new chapter a Hells Angels chapter. The the Angels organization.
had to be sponsored by an existing agents worked for the Bureau
club, and required at least six of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, The Hells Angels eventually
“full-patch” members – the club’s and Explosives (ATF). During disclosed drug- and gun-running
highest rank of membership. Operation Black Biscuit, the techniques to the undercover
Within 50 years the Death Head covert operatives posed as agents. More than 800 hours of
adorned clubhouses all over the members of a Phoenix chapter bugged conversations and 8,500
world, as new chapters sprang up. of the Solo Angeles – a club seized documents were
As with fraternities, each had its allied with the Hells Angels. gathered to prove that the Hells
own territory and leadership, but Dobyns then faked the murder Angels operated as a criminal
was part of the larger organization, of a member of the Mongols MC. organization. As a result, in
ascribing to Hells Angels ideology 2004, 16 Hells Angels were
charged and brought to trial.

162 HELLS ANGELS

essentially sold itself. Smoked, California’s attorney general had The Hells Angels used extreme
snorted, or injected, this synthetic singled out the Hells Angels for the violence at Altamont on 6 December
“upper” became the Hells Angels’ gang rape of a girl in Monterey by 1969. One Angel even knocked out
best-selling product. Its abuse club members. The report pushed Marty Balin, a member of the band
would reach near-epidemic the club into the national spotlight, Jefferson Airplane, during their set.
proportions across North America. as stories of their violent acts
circulated around the world. Their violence was not limited to
In spite of this, it was not drugs the US. Barger incorporated the
but violence that caught the One such notorious event took Popeyes motorcycle gang near
attention of the law. A report by place in 1969, when club members Montreal, Quebec, in 1977, starting
were hired by the Rolling Stones as a new chapter. One of the founding
In the ’60s we got a lot of security at the Altamont Speedway members was 30-year-old serial
publicity. It was all fun and Free Festival. The crowd was killer Yves “Apache” Trudeau, who,
games. In the ’70s we all rowdy, and 18-year-old concertgoer two years later, founded the Laval
Meredith Hunter drew a firearm “North” chapter in Quebec.
became gangsters. and twice attempted to climb on
Sonny Barger stage. Hunter was fatally stabbed Rivals and conflicts
by Hells Angel Alan Passaro. The Laval chapter gained a bad
reputation for unparalleled use
Years later, Rolling Stones tour of violence. Its members were
manager Sam Cutler insisted that accused of taking the drugs they
the fans were so out of control that were supposed to be selling, and
without the Hells Angels, the were also accused of cheating a
band would have been trampled. Nova Scotia chapter out of money.
Nevertheless, Altamont painted Other chapters saw them as too
a different picture of the Angels:
these men were dangerous outlaws.

ORGANIZED CRIME 163

Worldwide reach of the Hells Angels

Joining the club
Each “branch” of the
Hells Angels is called a
“chapter”, distributed
across 53 countries over
six continents.

20+ chapters
10–20 chapters
1–9 chapters

wild, and wanted them gone. In Massacre”. The massacre further with a coalition of rival gangs for
March 1985, five Laval Angels cemented the Angels’ reputation as control of narcotics distribution.
were invited to a clubhouse in violent – even by outlaw standards. A similar conflict was fought in
Lennoxville, Quebec, by the Still, this reputation did nothing to Scandinavia, where the Great
Sherbrooke chapter. When they slow the expansion of the club, or Nordic Biker War saw the Hells
arrived, they were shot in the back to prevent future violence. Angels face off against the
of the head and dumped in the Bandidos MC and their allies in
St Lawrence River. It became By 1994, under the leadership a struggle for hegemony over the
known as the “Lennoxville of “Mom” Boucher, the Angels of northern European drug trade.
Montreal were fighting a bitter war
“Mom” Boucher As a major crime syndicate, the
a gang – The Rock Machine – Hells Angels have amassed their
Maurice“Mom” Boucher was rather than join the Angels. fair share of enemies. They have
born into poverty on 21 June When Cazzetta was arrested in notable rivalries with the three
1953, in Quebec, Canada. He 1994 for attempting to import other “big four” outlaw motorcycle
dropped out of high school to 11,000 kg (11 tons) of cocaine, clubs: the Pagans, the Outlaws,
join a white-supremacist Boucher decided to monopolize and the Bandidos MC. All four
motorcycle gang, the SS, and narcotics in Montreal. clubs are on government watchlists
eventually became its leader. across the world. The Hells Angels,
Boucher joined the Hells Angels The resulting Guerre des however, are arguably the most
of Montreal in 1987 after serving motards (biker war) between notorious, and the most often
40 months in prison for sexually the Hells Angels and the Rock associated with criminal
assaulting a 16-year-old girl. Machine claimed the lives of behaviour. Since its founding,
150 people. The conflict finally club members have been charged
Disgusted by the Hells ended in 2002, after Boucher with a broad spectrum of crimes
Angels’ Lennoxville massacre, was convicted of ordering the – from drug trafficking, extortion,
Boucher’s former SS friend, murders of two corrections and money laundering, to assault,
Salvatore Cazzetta, formed officers in a failed attempt to murder, and prostitution. ■
intimidate prosecutors.

164

BOTHEUSERYTLWYIVEEEARSRESTOHFE

THE KRAYS AND THE RICHARDSONS, 1960s

IN CONTEXT I n 1960s’ London, the notorious and films. Their criminal empire
Brixton-based Richardson was founded in the East End of
LOCATION Gang and the Kray Firm led by London in 1954 when they took
London, UK East End twins Ronnie and Reggie, ownership of a billiard hall in
vied to dominate London’s lucrative Bethnal Green. When Maltese
THEME entertainment centre, the West thugs attempted to collect
Protection rackets End. Both mobs came from “protection” money, Ronnie
impoverished backgrounds with mangled them with a cutlass.
BEFORE absentee fathers, and rose quickly
1930s-50s Notorious criminal before destroying themselves Partners in crime Reggie (left) and
Billy Hill commits smash-and- through mindless violence. Ronnie (right) relax after questioning
grab raids of London jewellery by the police about the murder of
stores, including the high- Reggie and Ronnie Kray were George Cornell. They appeared in an
profile Eastcastle Street amateur boxers who idolized police lineup but witnesses could not,
Robbery of 1952. London mobster Billy Hill and were or would not, identify them.
transfixed by gangster magazines
AFTER
1980s–2000s The Noonan
crime firm, led by brothers
Dominic and Desmond
Noonan, controls organized
crime in Manchester, UK,
and allegedly commits up
to 25 murders.

1980s The Clerkenwell
Crime Syndicate, which
specializes in drug trafficking,
extortion, and murder in
London neighbourhoods,
is established.

ORGANIZED CRIME 165

See also: The Sicilian Mafia 138–45 ■ The Yakuza 154–59 ■ Jack the Ripper 266–73

The twins started a protection Frankie Fraser severely beat Kenny Charlie [Richardson] is evil…
racket of their own. They allegedly Hampton, a young man employed in the nicest possible way. Evil
had a personal bet to see who could by Freddie Foreman. Swearing
make more money in a day, and vengeance, Foreman walked into people sometimes are.
earned a reputation for violence. the club and reportedly jammed a John McVicar
.38 pistol into Eddie’s nostril.
Reggie and Ronnie quickly party on 7 December, Reggie Kray
established “The Firm” with Tensions between the gangs repeatedly knifed drug dealer Jack
Freddie Foreman, a powerful East boiled over in March 1966 with McVitie in a dispute over money.
End gangster, as their sometime “The Battle of Mr Smith’s” when
enforcer. In 1957, they became members of the Richardson Gang On 8 May 1968, the Krays
owners of the Double R nightclub, and Kray associates shot, knifed, were arrested by Detective Chief
then extended west, acquiring and beat each other in a club in Inspector “Nipper” Read’s Flying
Esmeralda’s Barn, a gambling club southeast London. Both Fraser and Squad, along with 15 other
in Knightsbridge. Eddie Richardson were shot along members of The Firm. The twins
with five others, while Kray cousin were sentenced to life without the
Bitter rivalry Dickie Hart was murdered with his possibility of parole for 30 years.
Although the Krays’ reputation has own .45 gun. Fraser and Eddie Ronnie died from a heart attack in
overshadowed the Richardsons’, Richardson were sentenced to five 1995; in 2000, Reggie’s terminal
Charlie and Eddie were far more years in prison for affray. Charlie cancer led to his compassionate
cruel and calculating. Charlie, Richardson was arrested while release from prison. ■
labelled “vicious, sadistic, and a watching the 1966 World Cup Final
disgrace to civilization” by a judge, on 30 July, and later sentenced to Their sexuality has been the
was the brains of the operation. His 25 years in prison. subject of intense speculation.
younger brother Eddie was the Ronnie identified as bisexual in
brawn. The gang tortured victims Several days after “The Battle of his 1993 book My Story, but the
by nailing them to the floor, pulling Mr Smith’s,” Ronnie Kray entered Kray family have denied claims
out teeth with pliers, and chopping Whitechapel’s busy Blind Beggar by biographer John Pearson that
off toes with bolt-cutters. pub and was insulted by drunk Reggie also liked men. Pearson
Richardson gang member George even claimed in a book written
The Richardsons’ most feared Cornell. He fatally shot Cornell in after the twins’ deaths that they
enforcer was Frankie Fraser, who the head. At an early Christmas had engaged in incest.
had earned the moniker “mad” after
slashing the face of crime boss Jack The Kray twins The twins were only separated
Comer. “Mad” Frankie offered shortly after their convictions,
protection to pubs and clubs if they The Kray twins grew up in the when Ronnie was transferred
allowed the Richardsons’ fruit working-class community of to Broadmoor – a high-security
machines into their establishments. Hoxton in East London. It was psychiatric hospital – after
Those who refused became the considered a “zone of transition” being diagnosed as a paranoid
victims of vandalism or worse. where criminal activity schizophrenic.
The Richardsons also committed flourished. Both grandfathers
outright extortion as well as dealing – Jimmy “Cannonball” Lee and
in pornography and narcotics. They “Mad” Jimmy Kray – were
laundered their proceeds through renowned boxers in their day,
their Brixton scrapyard and fruit as was the twins’ aunt Rose.
machine business.
The twins formed a unique
The first clash between the bond, learning how to fight
Krays and Richardsons occurred together, protecting each other
one night in a West End nightclub from harm, and going into
when Eddie Richardson and criminal business together.

166

BCALLRLOEOAETDMEPADINRODEFSFIARREE

THE MEDELLÍN CARTEL, 1972–93

IN CONTEXT T he story of the Medellín it was then redistributed onto
Cartel’s Colombian cocaine Lehder’s personal fleet of small
LOCATION trafficking business is aircraft. These planes would then
Colombia, Bolivia, Peru, much more than just one of money- fly to the southeastern US to offload
Honduras, and the US driven organized crime – it is part the narcotics, netting Lehder
of a violent struggle for the billions of dollars in profit.
THEME governance of the country.
Drug cartels Political influence
The Medellín Cartel was For the first 10 years, the cartel
BEFORE established in the early 1970s as a operated more or less with
1969 drug trafficking alliance between impunity, uninhibited by the
The Comando Vermelho (Red “The King of Cocaine” Pablo Colombian authorities. Then, in
Command) is formed in Brazil Escobar, “El Mexicano” José 1984, it ran up against Justice
by a group of convicts and Gonzalo Rodríguez Gacha, Carlos Minister Rodrigo Lara Bonilla.
political prisoners. Lehder, and the Ochoa family. At Lara – who suspected that Pablo
the height of the cartel’s power, it Escobar’s 1982 election to the
AFTER earned at least $420 million (£333 Chamber of Representatives was
1977–98 The Cali Cartel million) a week through cocaine the first move in a campaign to
separates from the Medellín smuggling, at one point supplying transform Colombia into a “narco-
Cartel and becomes one of the up to 90 per cent of the drug in the
world’s most powerful crime US and 80 per cent worldwide. Sometimes I am God, if I
syndicates, controlling more say a man dies, he dies
than 90 per cent of the global Acting as a financier for the
cocaine trade. cartel, Jorge Luis Ochoa and his that same day.
childhood friend Gilberto Rodriguez Pablo Escobar
Mid-1980s Joaquín “El of the southern Colombian
Chapo” Guzmán leads the Cali Cartel acquired the First
Sinaloa Cartel in northwest InterAmericas Bank in Panama,
Mexico, trafficking narcotics which both cartels used to launder
into the US; the organization drug money. For his part, Carlos
is the most powerful drug Lehder purchased property on
trafficking cartel in the world. Norman’s Cay, an island in the
Bahamas which served as a major
hub for drug trafficking from 1978–
82. The cocaine was transported
there from Colombia by jet, where

ORGANIZED CRIME 167

See also: The Triads 146–49 ■ Hells Angels 160–63 ■ “Freeway” Rick Ross 168–71

Fabio Ochoa, a key figure in the Police breakthrough property and froze his bank
Medellín Cartel, is escorted by two The dismantling of the Medellín accounts, causing Lehder to flee
police officers at Bogotá’s airport on Cartel came by way of intense through the jungle. Escobar later
13 October 1999. He was extradited collaborative efforts by the brought Lehder back to Medellín
to the US in 2001. Colombian and American by helicopter. Shortly after, he was
governments. The first kingpin to captured at his farm by Colombian
state” – worked with the American fall was Carlos Lehder, who was police, reportedly acting on a tip by
Drug Enforcement Agency to oust forced to abandon his base in one of Lehder’s employees.
Escobar from politics and proceed Norman’s Cay in 1983, when the
with criminal prosecutions against Bahamian government seized his Lehder was extradited to the
the cartel. Lara, however, was US in 1987 where he was sentenced
assassinated in 1984 on Escobar’s War on drugs to life without parole plus 135 years,
orders. This was not the first or the a term that sent a strong message
last time that Escobar ordered In 1971, President Richard Nixon to the other cartel members. He
the murder of a political opponent. declared drug abuse “Public then turned snitch in 1992 and
Enemy Number 1”, and that to agreed to testify against General
A particularly sensitive issue, fight and defeat this enemy, an Manuel Noriega of Panama, who
which motivated Escobar and all-out offensive was required. had helped harbour cartel
Lehder’s decision to enter politics, This speech marked the start of members. Lehder received a
was the government’s support of the so-called “War on Drugs”. reduced sentence of 55 years.
extradition. Both men shrewdly By the 1980s, the American
employed anticolonialist rhetoric to demand for cocaine was so high Jose Gonzalo Rodríguez Gacha
oppose extradition legislation. that an estimated 68,000 kg and Pablo Escobar refused to go
Lehder founded the Movimiento (75 tons) was being smuggled peacefully. Gacha, his son Fredy, a
Latino Nacional, which stirred up into the country every month. In bodyguard, and high-ranking cartel
popular support by condemning the years since, breakthroughs member Gilberto Rendón were
US involvement in Latin America. have been made, from the killed in a firefight with Colombian
He even claimed that cocaine was destruction of the Medellín military helicopters in 1989. Three
a means of liberation. years later, on 2 December 1993,
Escobar was famously killed in a
shootout with police in the
backstreets of Medellín. ■

Cartel to statistics indicating a
46 per cent decrease in cocaine
use by young adults from
2006–11. However, leaders from
Colombia, Mexico, and
Guatemala have expressed their
desire for a new antidrug
strategy, noting the toll military
intervention has taken on their
countries. In recent years, the
Portuguese model of drug
control, which decriminalizes
the possession of moderate
amounts of narcotics and
focuses on treatment rather than
incarceration, has arisen as a
viable alternative.

168 IN CONTEXT

INGATEBAWVNOEGUARSTSABABULOSWUINATYESSS, LOCATION
Los Angeles, California, US
“FREEWAY” RICK ROSS, 1980–95
THEME
Drug trafficking

BEFORE
1923 Miyagawa Yashukichi, a
Japanese drug trafficker living
in the UK, runs one of the
largest drug rings of the 1920s.
He sends huge amounts of
heroin to Japan via London.

1960s–70s Frank Lucas, a
heroin dealer in Harlem, cuts
out the middle man by buying
heroin directly from the Golden
Triangle in Asia.

AFTER
2003 Thomas “Tacker”
Comerford establishes an
international drug trafficking
network in England. He is
caught and arrested, but dies
of liver cancer before he can be
brought to trial.

A t the peak of his criminal
career, “Freeway” Rick
Ross – not to be confused
with the rapper Rick Ross – earned
up to $3 million (£2 million) per day.
He sold crack cocaine in a trading
empire that spread from South
Central Los Angeles to more than
40 cities across the US, and evaded
prison for nearly a decade.

Ross grew up in a Los Angeles
ghetto at the end of a street that
dead-ended against the Harbor
Freeway – hence his nickname.
Ross was a high-school tennis star,
and some have suggested that he
started his life of crime after he
failed to get a tennis scholarship to
college because he was illiterate.

ORGANIZED CRIME 169

See also: Hells Angels 160–63 ■ The Krays and the Richardsons 164–65 ■ The Medellín Cartel 166–67

At the age of 17, Ross dropped out At the age of 28, Rick Ross learned with the US Drug Enforcement
of high school. Unable to read well to read and write in prison. In 2014, Agency (DEA), Los Angeles Police
enough to fill out job applications, Ross toured the US to promote his Department (LAPD), and the
he could not find work. Instead, autobiography and to preach the Sheriff’s Department. As its focus
he hit the streets, stealing and importance of literacy. centred on catching the elusive
dismantling cars and then selling Ross, the group became known as
on the parts with a group of friends Blandón and Norwin Meneses, the Freeway Rick Ross Task Force.
who dubbed themselves the who smuggled cocaine into the
“Junkyard Freeway Boys”. US from their native Nicaragua. Expansion and detention
Between 1986 and 1990, Ross and
Crack empire Ross saturated the inner city his crew expanded into other cities,
Within a year of leaving school, with the drug. Devastatingly including St Louis, Missouri, and
Ross had tapped into the crack addictive, crack cocaine wreaked Cincinnati, Ohio. Authorities in
cocaine boom. Previously, cocaine havoc on poor urban communities, these cities were also drawn in to
had been considered an elitist turning whole families into investigating his activities, with
drug used by the rich. Now, in crackheads. Ross was initially little success. In October 1986, Ross
its inexpensive “crack” form, it unaware of the drug’s serious side was arrested on federal charges for
became the inner city drug of effects, which include respiratory conspiracy to distribute cocaine in
choice. Crack differs from cocaine problems, cardiac arrest, and St Louis, but the case was
because it is made by mixing the psychosis. Instead, he approached dismissed for lack of evidence.
drug with water and baking soda, the trade like an entrepreneur
drying it, then cracking it into rocks building a business. Because Ross However, Ross was indicted
to be smoked. purchased and produced large again on cocaine trafficking
amounts of crack so cheaply, he charges in Ohio and Texas, after
The use of crack cocaine soared was able to sell it for a low price drugs bound for Cincinnati were
as Ross sold a seemingly endless while still making a huge profit. picked out by a sniffer dog at a bus
supply at bargain prices. His Sales went through the roof. station and traced to Ross. This
primary sources were Oscar Danilo time, the charges stuck and in 1990
Ross used a network of runners he was sentenced. On completion
and dealers to distribute the crack of his federal sentence in Ohio,
cocaine, and even employed people Ross immediately began serving ❯❯
who did nothing but count the
money he earned. According to the [Ricky Ross] was a
US Department of Justice, Ross disillusioned 19-year-old…
became one of the biggest dealers who, at the dawn of the 1980s,
in South Central Los Angeles. found himself adrift on the

Narcotics detectives with the streets of South-Central
Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Los Angeles.
Department investigated his Gary Webb
operation for eight years but Ross
avoided capture by continually
changing locations and cars.
However, as he amassed more
money, houses, vehicles, and a
large crew, he came to the attention
of federal investigators.

Law enforcement agencies
formed a special task force to target
Ross and other major drug dealers.
It comprised officers and agents

170 FREEWAY RICK ROSS

Packed into sports bags, drugs
were transported around Ross’s empire,
moving between those Ross paid to
“cook” powder cocaine into crack,
Ross’s own crew, and local dealers.

nine months in a Texas state prison him a reduced sentence, a green If there was one outlaw
for drug offences. He was paroled in card on his release from prison, and capitalist most responsible
September 1994. even a $42,000 (£33,000) salary.
Blandón served a year of jail time for flooding Los Angeles
The sting before he was released and began streets with mass-marketed
In the meantime, in 1992, Oscar his work with the DEA.
Danilo Blandón, Ross’s Nicaraguan cocaine, his name was
source, was caught on wiretaps His first assignment was to Freeway Rick.
bragging about his cocaine make one last drug deal with Ross Jesse Katz
dealings, including his trades with under the eyes of DEA agents and
Ross. As a result, Blandón was San Diego police, who assisted in previous drug convictions, Ross
arrested in San Diego, California, the sting operation. As the DEA was sentenced to life in prison
where he faced federal charges and listened in, Blandón contacted Ross without the possibility of parole.
a lengthy prison sentence. to offer him 100 kg (220 lbs) of crack
cocaine. Unaware of the setup, Scandal and conspiracy
Realizing they could use Ross arranged to meet Blandón in Ross believed that Blandón had
Blandón to catch Ross and other San Diego on 2 March 1995. The been arrested at the same time.
drug barons, the DEA presented deal was made in a shopping- However, just before his trial,
Blandón with a deal. In exchange centre carpark in the suburb of investigative journalist Gary
for working as an undercover Chula Vista, south of San Diego. Webb visited Ross and told him of
informant for the DEA, they offered Once the cash and drugs had been Blandón’s betrayal. In 1996, after
exchanged, officers closed in on several interviews with Ross, Webb
Ross and arrested him. also wrote a series of articles,
named the “Dark Alliance”, in the
The following year, Ross was
tried in a federal court in San
Diego, for conspiracy to distribute
illegal drugs bought from a police
informant. On consideration of his

Life and crime in the ghetto

Suspected gang members are A crack cocaine epidemic rocked 1980s one hit of crack cost about
stopped by the LAPD during a the US from the mid-1980s to the $2.50 (£2) in many cities, so even
crackdown on drug-related crime early 1990s. At its height, crack those in poor communities
in Los Angeles in June 1988. use was a serious problem in most could afford it.
major US cities: in particular,
South Central Los Angeles. Crack addiction drove users
to violence and crime as they
Crack is approximately twice looked for money to feed their
as pure as cocaine powder. This habits. Drive-by shootings,
means that the high from smoking murders, muggings, and
crack is strong and instant. The robberies skyrocketed in poor
high causes feelings of euphoria, neighbourhoods. By the late
alertness, and invincibility. 1980s, the US government
During the epidemic, crack was forced to intervene and
cocaine was incredibly cheap. launched a new “war on
According to the DEA, in the early drugs” to fight the epidemic.

ORGANIZED CRIME 171

San Jose Mercury News. His bemoaned the actions of the CIA. A heavily armed DEA agent takes
articles revealed that Blandón The government had exploited part in an early morning drug raid on a
had long been working for the him, he claimed – just as he had suspected kingpin in Los Angeles. The
government as an informant. exploited his own community. war on drugs became increasingly
Webb’s “Dark Alliance” narrative Overturned conviction militarized in the 1980s.
unlocked a whole new dimension to Ross was determined not to live out
the case – the claim that the drug his life in jail. While serving time in books in the prison library. He used
empire was connected to the CIA a federal prison, he taught himself these books to fight his sentence,
and the Contra army, who were to read and write, and studied law which was based on the “three
fighting against the revolutionary strikes” law that calls for a life term
government in Nicaragua. Good people do bad things on conviction of a third felony. Ross
when there are no options. argued that his convictions in
According to Webb, the money “Freeway” Rick Ross Texas and Ohio related to the same
Ross paid his Nicaraguan contacts federal offence and therefore
was being used to fund and arm counted as one crime, making
the Contras. The CIA, meanwhile, a total of two convictions.
turned a blind eye as to the source
of the funds. Although his own lawyer
dismissed the claim, in 1998 the
Although major media outlets Ninth Circuit Court of Appeal
discredited Webb’s findings, the agreed with his reasoning. As
CIA later acknowledged that it a result, Ross’s sentence was
had worked with suspected drug reduced to 16½ years from 20. He
runners and used funds from Ross’s was released in 2009 after serving
empire to arm the Contras. In a 14 years behind bars. ■
phone call from jail, Ross himself

EKXIDTNOARPTPI

IONNG AND

174 INTRODUCTION US aviator Charles
Lindbergh’s baby son
In Jamestown,
Virginia, Captain is kidnapped from
their house in
Samuel Argall New Jersey.
kidnaps Pocahontas,
1932
the daughter of a
paramount chief.

1613

1897

In a case known as the
Tichborne Claimant,
Arthur Orton claims to
be the lost son and heir of

Lady Tichborne.

K idnapping is the illegal In the US, the botched kidnapping anxiety attacks, phobias, or post-
transportation of a non- of the Lindbergh baby led to new traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
consenting person through laws to combat abduction. Later The symptoms this trauma can be
the use of force or fraud. In the US the same year, the US Congress physical, mental, or both.
and UK, the majority of kidnap passed the Federal Kidnapping Act
victims are taken by a loved one, 18 U.S.C. § 1201, known as the Being held over long periods
such as a parent or spouse. Motives Lindbergh Law. This allowed federal of time can change the victim’s
for kidnapping include securing officers to pursue kidnappers who character to the extent that they
custody of a child, monetary crossed state lines with their victim become unrecognizable to friends
ransom, sexual abuse, and slavery. or victims. The FBI could bring its and family. This may occur as a
experience, training, and overriding result of Stockholm syndrome –
None of the cases described authority to bear on such cases, a psychological phenomenon in
in this book were designed to end although parental kidnapping was which captives begin to identify
with murder: the intent was either excluded from the act. Until the with the motives of their captors.
to extract a ransom payment or to revision of the law in the 1970s, This famously happened in the 1974
keep the victim alive in sexual convicted kidnappers could face the case of American heiress Patty
slavery. In cases where kidnap led death penalty in some states if the Hearst, who joined the cause of her
to the death of the victim, such victim had been harmed. kidnappers, the revolutionary
as the 1932 abduction of toddler Symbionese Liberation Army.
Charles Augustus Lindbergh Jr, Stockholm syndrome Within 10 weeks of her kidnap, most
the son of the American aviator, Even victims who are kept for of which Hearst spent in a closet,
evidence indicated that death a relatively short time may suffer she helped her captors rob a bank.
resulted from the kidnapper(s)’ psychological trauma, such as A now-iconic photograph of Hearst
incompetence rather than design. appeared several months after she

Patty Hearst, daughter of KIDNAPPING AND EXTORTION 175
US media tycoon William
In Austria, Natascha
Randolph Hearst, is Kampusch is imprisoned
kidnapped by the Symbionese
in the home of her
Liberation Army. abductor for eight years.

1974 1998–2006
1973 1976

Kidnappers seize John Twenty-six children
Paul Getty III, the are kidnapped and

16-year-old grandson of buried alive in a truck in
billionaire Jean Paul Chowchilla, California.
Getty, from Piazza
Farnese in Rome.

was captured by the kidnappers. a physical description of their commit kidnappings successfully.
She was pictured holding an attacker after their release. CCTV cameras play an important
automatic weapon in front of the Sometimes, kidnappers slip up role in detection, while tracking
Symbionese Liberation Army’s logo, and inadvertently provide clues software in cell phones can locate
and only repudiated her allegiance that reveal the whereabouts of the victims and their abductors.
to the group once she had been victim’s location. Removing or neutralizing tracking
separated from them for some time. devices is of paramount importance
The advent of forensic document to a kidnapper; otherwise, it is just
Of course, not all kidnap victims identification, allowed in evidence a matter of time before police
escape their kidnappers. Some are in the US since the Supreme officers arrive at the abductor’s door.
forced to adjust to their lives with Court’s landmark Bell v. Brewster
their captors – as was the case ruling of 1887, which recognized Such developments have led to
for Pocahontas, the daughter of the importance of handwriting as a market for wearable GPS child-
a 17th-century American Indian a means of identification, enabled tracking devices. Most look similar
chief, who was kidnapped by police to employ trained experts to to a wristwatch, and allow the child
English colonists in 1613 and never compare the writing on ransom to contact a parent at the push of a
returned to her old life. notes with that of suspects. button. However, many are clunky
Marking the banknotes used to pay and easy for an abductor to spot.
Technological advances a ransom, or recording their serial In theory, as man and machine
Uncovering the identities of numbers, are other ways in which become ever more interconnected,
anonymous abductors can be abductors may be traced. tracking technology could one day
extremely difficult for police. be incorporated into the human
Success often hinges on the ability In recent years, advances in body – which raises important
of witnesses or the victim to give digital technology have made it questions regarding civil liberties. ■
significantly more difficult to

176

HLSEEWSVOSARLTDUHSEADNHOELRD

THE ABDUCTION OF POCAHONTAS, 1613

IN CONTEXT T he short life of Pocahontas, chief. Planning to use the princess
the young American Indian to force the release of English
LOCATION princess who was a pivotal prisoners and stolen tools and
Virginia, US contact between the first English weapons, Argall abducted her.
settlers in the US and American A ransom note was sent to Chief
THEME Indian tribes, has long been Powhatan, and his daughter was
Political abduction romanticized in popular culture. held captive at Jamestown. The
chief refused to meet all of the
BEFORE Born around 1596, Pocahontas demands, and Pocahontas
1303 The ambitious Pope was a daughter of Powhatan, remained with the English. In
Boniface VIII is kidnapped by paramount chief of some 30 Native 1614, she became a Christian and
an army of noble families. He American tribes in Virginia’s married settler John Rolfe. She died
refuses to abdicate and is sent Chesapeake Bay. As a young girl, in England in 1617, where royalty
back to Rome but dies soon she allegedly prevented her father’s had welcomed her as a model for
after his release. men from killing John Smith, the colonial relationships. ■
leader of Jamestown, an English
AFTER colony founded in 1607 on land Pocahontas arrives at Jamestown as
1936 Chiang Kai-shek, leader within Powhatan territory. a captive of the English – her abduction
of the Republic of China, is was an early example of the use of a
held hostage for two weeks by Jamestown’s inhabitants prisoner as political leverage.
dissident officers who believe coexisted fairly peacefully with the
he is not using the full force American Indian tribes until 1609,
of the army against Japan; when Chief Powhatan brought all
Chiang complies but later has trade to an end in a campaign to
the rogue officers executed. starve the colonists out of Virginia.
War soon broke out.
10 February 1962 US pilot
Francis Gary Powers is In spring 1613, mariner Sir
released in a prisoner exchange Samuel Argall sailed up the
with the Soviets in Berlin, two Potomac River in search of new
years after he ejected from a trading links with the Patawomeck
damaged spyplane in Soviet tribe. He learned that Pocahontas
airspace and was captured. was staying with Japazeus, their

See also: The Kidnapping of Patty Hearst 188–89 ■ The Abduction of Aldo Moro
322–23 ■ The Kidnapping of Ingrid Betancourt 324–25

KIDNAPPING AND EXTORTION 177

RRMOEAAMRLVA-ENLLCIFLEEOUS

THE TICHBORNE CLAIMANT, 1897

IN CONTEXT R oger Tichborne, heir to the The real Roger Tichborne (left),
Tichborne baronetcy, was and Arthur Orton (right) looked very
LOCATION lost in the Atlantic in 1854, different, yet dozens of people swore
Hampshire, UK when the ship in which he was that they were the same person.
travelling sank off Rio de Janeiro,
THEME Brazil. His mother, Lady Henriette unrefined in his speech. After
Imposture Tichborne, was devastated. After Lady Tichborne’s death, the
hearing a report that survivors from family challenged his claim to
BEFORE the ship had been rescued and the estate and title. The lengthy
1487 Low-born Lambert taken to Australia, she held out civil and criminal trials that
Simnel, a pretender to the hope that he was alive and placed followed caused a public sensation.
English throne, threatens advertisements around the world, At their end, Arthur Orton, a
King Henry VII’s reign. He is asking for news of his whereabouts. Londoner who had left England,
defeated and later pardoned by jumped ship in Chile, and ended
the king, who believes Simnel In 1866, a lawyer in Australia up in Australia, was sentenced to
was manipulated by nobles. wrote to Lady Tichborne. A butcher 14 years for perjury. Orton tried
in New South Wales calling himself to live off his celebrity without
1560 In France, Arnaud Tom Castro had contacted him, much success. He died in poverty,
du Tilh is executed after his claiming to be Roger. Overjoyed, still claiming to be Tichborne. ■
three-year impersonation of Lady Tichborne sent for Castro, and
Martin Guerre is revealed when she met him later that year,
when the real Guerre returns. claimed to recognize him.

AFTER An improbable prodigal
1921 A man claiming to be To the rest of the family, however,
Prince Ramendra Narayan Roy, this “Roger” was obviously an
one of the three co-sharers of impostor. A man who all recalled as
the extensive Bhawal estate being slight in stature, delicate in
in India’s eastern Bengal, manner, his voice inflected by a
reappears 12 years after his boyhood in France, was now big
supposed death and cremation. and coarse in appearance and
His claim is disputed but two
trials rule in his favour. See also: The Affair of the Diamond Necklace 64–65 ■ Harry Domela 70–73
■ Frank Abagnale 86–87

BABY!SANTNOEL,ETNHEOYU’VRE

THE LINDBERGH BABY KIDNAPPING,
1 MARCH 1932



180 THE LINDBERGH BABY KIDNAPPING

IN CONTEXT

LOCATION
Hopewell, New Jersey, US

THEME
Child abduction

BEFORE
July 1874 Four-year-old
Charles Ross becomes the first
known American child to be
kidnapped for ransom.

AFTER
July 1960 Eight-year-old
Graham Thorne is abducted
for ransom after his parents
win Australia’s Opera House
Lottery. His body is discovered
two months later.

May 1982 Nina Gallwitz,
eight, is freed by her captors
after 149 days, when her
parents pay the ransom of
1,500,000 Deutschmarks
(about £960,000 today).

A round 10pm on a rainy discovered an open window and a The kidnap of the celebrity pilot’s
evening on 1 March 1932, ransom note up by the windowsill. baby sparked international outrage.
nanny Betty Gow peeked In broken English, written in blue Sensational headlines and magazine
into Charlie Lindbergh’s nursery, ink, the note demanded $50,000 covers about the story were published
where he had been sleeping since (£730,000 today) in exchange for all over the world.
dinner. She had dressed him in a the baby’s safe return.
flannel sleeveless nightshirt and a checkpoints across the area. Police
pink sleeping suit and laid him Panic overtook the Lindbergh also notified local hospitals that a
down in his crib. Two hours earlier, home. Family members and staff toddler was missing.
she had checked on the boy and frantically searched the grounds of
found him asleep. Now, however, the the Hopewell, New Jersey, mansion Kidnapping confirmed
20-month-old was gone. for the toddler, unwittingly Police called to the scene soon
trampling over evidence in the determined that the kidnapper
Gow rushed downstairs to process. They found no sign of little had used a homemade, three-piece
inform his parents – pioneering Charlie. A groundskeeper phoned extension ladder – broken and left
aviator Charles Lindbergh and his the Hopewell police who, within 30 lying 23 metres (75 ft) away from
wife, Anne. They ran upstairs and minutes, had put up roadblocks and

KIDNAPPING AND EXTORTION 181

See also: The Kidnapping of John Paul Getty III 186–89 ■ The Chowchilla Kidnapping 190–95
■ The Kidnapping of Ingrid Betancourt 324–25

Anne Morrow Lindbergh holds police. In a third note, the kidnapper Under cover of night, Dr Condon
Charlie shortly after his birth in June gave the Lindberghs instructions made the drop of $50,000 (£730,000),
1930. Six months earlier, the pregnant for dropping off the money. which Condon had negotiated down
Anne became the first woman to earn from the second request. Lindbergh
a first-class glider’s licence. Negotiations begin waited in the car. The cemetery
Dr John Condon, a 72-year-old was dark and they could barely see
the house – to climb up and in retired educator, read about the the kidnapper, but his German-
through the second-floor window. kidnapping in a local paper. He accented voice came across loud
Some rungs had snapped, which wrote a letter to the editor, offering and clear. The man identified
suggested that the ladder might to act as an intermediary between himself only as “John”, and left
have broken when the kidnapper the kidnapper and the Lindbergh with the Lindberghs’ money.
descended with the baby. family. Upon seeing the letter, the However, he did not hold up his
kidnapper wrote to Condon and end of the bargain: after an
The police also found tyre tracks agreed. They met in a cemetery exhaustive search, during which
and a chisel, and traces of mud on and the kidnapper returned the Lindbergh repeatedly flew over the
the nursery floor. Most importantly, pink sleeping suit as proof the boy sea, the boat and child were
they found two sets of footprints on was safe. nowhere to be found.
the wet ground beneath the nursery
window, which led away from the The Lindberghs were then told, Investigators continued to look
house in a southeasterly direction through Condon, when and where for the boy, but had no luck. When
towards the tyre tracks of the to leave the money. After the Charlie was finally found, on
getaway car. kidnapper received the money, he 12 May 1932, it was by chance –
would leave their baby on a boat a truck driver stopping for a break
However, they did not take named The Nelly, anchored near found a small body covered in
plaster casts of the footprints, nor Martha’s Vineyard off the coast leaves in a wooded area near the
did they measure the sets of of Massachusetts – between hamlet of Mount Rose, about 3 km
footprints – which would have Horseneck beach and Gay Head (2 miles) from the Lindberghs’
given them the opportunity to near Elizabeth Island. The Hopewell estate.
compare the prints with those of Lindberghs agreed to pay the
possible suspects. Newspapers ransom in order to get their son Buried in a shallow grave,
reported that officers ignored back safe and sound. the body had already begun to
protocol in their haste to find the decompose. Charlie Lindbergh, it
baby and catch his abductor. seemed, had been dead since the
very night he was taken. ❯❯
No usable fingerprints were
found on the ransom notes, the crib, We warn you not to make
or the ladder, causing investigators anything public or
to believe the crime scene had been notify the police.
wiped clean.
The child is in good care.
By 10:30 that night, radio news First ransom note
bulletins about the kidnapping hit
the airwaves and the world learned
about the abduction. Over the next
three days, a law-enforcement team
of FBI agents and police officers from
New Jersey and New York found no
new clues.

On 5 March, a second letter
arrived demanding $70,000 (£1
million today). The note also told
the Lindberghs not to involve the

182 THE LINDBERGH BABY KIDNAPPING

How the events unfolded

Charles Augustus The family finds Police question The kidnapper sends
Lindbergh Jr a ransom note household and a second, third, and
disappears. demanding $50,000. estate employees. fourth ransom note
demanding $70,000.

A truck driver finds an infant’s The $50,000 ransom is Go-between
remains buried near the Lindbergh handed over. There is Dr Condon meets
estate and summons the police. no sign of the baby. with the kidnapper.

Medical examiners determined a federal crime punishable by The Lindbergh’s dog is pictured here
that the child had been killed with death. It intended to allow federal in a stroller with Charlie. One especially
a blow to the head. Decomposition, authorities to step in and pursue curious feature of the case was that the
however, made it impossible to kidnappers as soon as they crossed dog, who usually barked at strangers,
officially determine even the body’s state lines with their victims. did not bark during the kidnapping.
gender. Staff at a nearby orphanage
said the body was not one of their In September 1934, money from paper currency issued by the US
children. A discrepancy in the the ransom turned up at a gas Treasury that had been withdrawn
height of the remains raised further station on Lexington Avenue in from circulation in 1933, when
questions about the dead child’s upper Manhattan. The attendant President Franklin D. Roosevelt
identity – Charlie Lindbergh was became suspicious when the driver removed the gold standard due to
74 cm (29 inches) long, but the body of a dark blue Dodge sedan pulled hoarding during the Depression.
found was 84 cm (33 inches). His out a $10 gold certificate – a form of
father and nursemaid, however, Thinking that the gold
positively identified the body based certificate might be counterfeit,
on his hand-sewn flannel nightshirt the gas station attendant jotted
and a deformed overlapping toe. down the Dodge sedan’s New York
licence plate number on the margin
The Lindbergh Law of the certificate.
In the midst of the investigation,
public outrage prompted Congress When it reached the bank, a
to swiftly enact the so-called teller checked the note’s serial
Lindbergh Law in 1932: the Federal number and discovered that it was
Kidnapping Act made kidnapping part of the $50,000 (£730,000)
ransom paid out to the kidnapper
of toddler Charles Lindbergh Jr.

KIDNAPPING AND EXTORTION 183

The bank notified the FBI, which Recreating the crime, officers stand Charles Lindbergh III
traced the licence plate back to a outside the Hopewell mansion in an
German immigrant named Bruno attempt to find clues. A long ladder, like Lindbergh was born in Detroit,
Hauptmann. He was a carpenter the broken one found near the house, Michigan, in 1902, but grew
living in a quiet neighbourhood in leads up to the open nursery window. up in Minnesota. His father,
the Bronx, New York. Charles August Lindbergh,
Hauptmann only learned that it was a member of Congress for
Hauptmann arrested contained money when he had a Minnesota from 1907 to 1917.
Police arrested Hauptmann on leaky roof and emptied the Lindbergh studied mechanical
19 September 1934, as he left his dampened box. Hauptmann said engineering in college for two
home. Inside his wallet was a $20 that he had kept the money, years, but dropped out to
gold certificate, also from the hoarding the gold certificates due begin flight training.
Lindbergh ransom. to his fears about inflation.
On 20 May 1927, he made
A search of Hauptmann’s home According to news reports, the history by flying solo from
turned up nearly $14,000 (£180,000) police did not believe him, referring New York to Paris on his
of the ransom money in an oil can, to Hauptmann’s claims as “the monoplane The Spirit of
inside a package stuffed behind Fischy story.” Fisch, who died of St Louis. After 34 hours of
boards in his garage. Hauptmann, tuberculosis in Germany in 1934, nonstop flying, he landed at
however, insisted that he was never returned to America. Le Bourget Aerodrome, Paris,
innocent. He was holding the to win the $25,000 Orteig
money, he claimed, for Isidor Fisch, In Hauptmann’s attic, Prize. At only 25, the
a friend who had since died. Fisch, investigators discovered a piece of transatlantic feat changed his
also from Germany, had applied for yellow pinewood that matched the life completely, bringing with
a passport on 12 May 1932, the ladder used in the kidnapping. it fame and fortune.
same day that Charlie Lindbergh’s Handwriting experts were called
body was found. By December the in, and declared Hauptmann’s On a goodwill flight to
same year, Fisch had sailed for script a match for the writing in Mexico City, Lindbergh met
Leipzig, Germany, to visit family. the ransom notes. Anne Morrow, whose father
was ambassador to Mexico.
His friend, Hauptmann told The court proceedings attracted The couple soon married and,
police, had left a shoebox with thousands of spectators and in 1930, had their first of six
some of his belongings inside. writers, who crammed into the tiny children, Charles Jr.
town of Flemington, New Jersey. ❯❯
After the Pearl Harbor
attack in 1941, Lindbergh
applied to join the Air Force,
but was refused by President
Roosevelt after a long-running
spat between the two men.
Lindbergh later helped the
war effort by training pilots.

184 THE LINDBERGH BABY KIDNAPPING

Some of the best-known journalists The trial of the century was Hauptmann, handcuffed between
of the day – Walter Winchell, probably the greatest fraud in two guards, stood motionless as
Damon Runyon, and Fanny Hurst the foreman read the verdict.
– covered the trial. the history of this country. Perhaps under public pressure, the
Robert R. Bryan jury found Bruno Hauptmann guilty
Hauptmann, represented by of first-degree murder. The judge
flamboyant attorney Edward “Big degree murder with the death sentenced him to death. Lindbergh,
Ed” Reilly, took the stand in his penalty imposed. The jury retired who attended every session of the
own defence and denied any from the courtroom and deliberated 32-day trial, was not present for the
involvement in the kidnapping. He in the jury room for more than 11 verdict and sentencing.
told the jury that he had been hours. At 10:45pm on 18 February
beaten by police and forced to alter 1935, the jury of eight men and four Bungled investigation
his handwriting to match the women returned a verdict. When The Lindbergh case had been an
ransom notes. Meanwhile, Reilly a bell tolled to announce that a embarrassment to both the police
attempted to arouse suspicion verdict had been reached, the force and FBI. It had also captured
around Condon and his cheers of the crowd outside could hearts across America.
communication with the kidnapper. be heard inside the courtroom.
Under New Jersey’s capital
Charles Lindbergh testified for murder statute, the prosecution did
the prosecution. He told the jurors not need to prove Hauptmann
that he recognized Hauptmann’s intended to kill the baby – only that
voice as that of the man Condon the toddler died as a result of the
had delivered the ransom money break-in. It was never determined
to years before. whether the boy was hit over the
head or died in a fall from the ladder
Testimony ended in February as he was carried out of the house.
1935. Prosecutor David Wilentz, in After the verdict and sentence were
his summation, asked the jury to read, Hauptmann declined to
find Hauptmann guilty of first- address the court.

Harold G. Hoffman, governor
of the state of New Jersey, voiced
doubts about the verdict and
granted Hauptmann a 30-day
reprieve, ordering New Jersey State
Police to reopen their case. The
Hauptmann investigation, he said,
was one of the most bungled in
police history.

The New Jersey State Police
failed to find any new evidence, so
Hoffman hired private investigators.
They too came up empty-handed,
and when the investigation was
over, Hoffman’s political career was
so tarnished that he lost his bid for
re-election as governor.

Newspapers announced the
kidnapping to the world, making
Charlie one of the most famous babies
in America. This cover shows Charlie
at his most defenceless, two weeks old.

KIDNAPPING AND EXTORTION 185

They think that when I die,
the case will die.

Bruno Hauptmann

Verdict challenged New Jersey State Legislature to Police officers scour Hauptmann’s
Hauptmann’s lawyer appealed the officially declare Bruno Hauptmann garage for clues that might tell them
conviction all the way to the US innocent. No action was taken. what happened to Charlie Lindbergh
Supreme Court, but none of the as hundreds gather outside
appeals was successful. Still, Bruno The case has inspired more Hauptmann’s house during the search.
Hauptmann proclaimed his than a dozen books and two films.
innocence until his last moment. In 1982, the documentary, Who Century: The Lindbergh
He was executed in “Old Smokey”, Killed the Lindbergh Baby?, written Kidnapping Hoax, they suggest
the electric chair at New Jersey and narrated by British journalist that Charles Lindbergh accidentally
State Prison, on 13 April 1936. Ludovic Kennedy, argued that killed his son and staged the
Hauptmann was framed. In kidnapping as a cover-up. Other
The case did not end there, Gregory Ahlgren and Stephen authors have suggested there were
however. In 1981, Hauptmann’s Monier’s 1993 book Crime of the multiple culprits, pointing to the
83-year-old widow, Anna, sued the use of “we” in the ransom notes,
state of New Jersey for $100 million Those people and groups and the presence of two sets of
(£130 million), claiming that it had opposed to capital punishment footprints at the mansion.
wrongfully executed her husband. point out that while it aims to
She asked that his case be deter killers, it instead mirrors In 2012, author Robert Zorn
reopened, but the court denied the the very behaviour it seeks to posited that “Cemetery John”
request. Her lawyer also asked the prevent. They also argue that was German grocery store worker
the death penalty promotes the John Knoll, and that he and Bruno
Capital punishment idea that it is acceptable to kill Hauptmann performed the
as long as it is the government kidnapping together. While Zorn’s
The American Civil Liberties doing the killing. theory has gained traction,
Union contends that capital particularly given the physical
punishment is irrevocable, The overwhelming majority similarities between images of
arbitrary, and permanent. It of developed nations have John Knoll and the artist’s
forever deprives the individual abolished capital punishment impression of “Cemetery John”
of the opportunity to benefit either in law or in practice. The based on Dr Condon’s description,
from new evidence or new laws. US remains the only Western we are still no closer to finding out
The International Commission country that still carries out what happened that night. ■
Against the Death Penalty has capital punishment.
noted that, while public support
for the death penalty is linked to
the desire to free society from
crime, there are more effective
ways to prevent crime than
killing the perpetrators.

186

KFHSAIIADNLNNCLDEEASNPMPOIOENFNRTDSOATYHIEHAVE

THE KIDNAPPING OF JOHN PAUL GETTY III, 1973

IN CONTEXT J ohn Paul Getty III, known as This is Paul’s ear. If we don’t
“Paul”, was the rebellious get some money within 10
LOCATION grandson of J. Paul Getty, the days, then the other ear will
Rome and Calabria, Italy famously miserly oil billionaire. At arrive. In other words, he will
age 16, Paul was living a bohemian
THEME lifestyle in Rome, Italy – where he arrive in little bits.
Kidnapping grew up. On a drunken night out Ransom note
with friends on 10 July 1973, he was
BEFORE kidnapped from Rome’s Piazza money, or else they would send
1936 Ten-year-old Charles Farnese. Such was his wild-child another letter containing a lock of
Mattson is kidnapped from his reputation, however, that many Paul’s hair and one of his ears.
Washington home and held for assumed he had staged the
a $28,000 (£290,000 today) kidnapping to extort money from Paul’s mother Gail contacted
ransom. Negotiations break his grandfather. the kidnappers to tell them that she
down and the boy is murdered would find the money and meet
by an unknown culprit. In fact, Paul had been driven 400 them at a specific time and place.
km (250 miles) south into Calabria However, she never turned up.
1963 Nineteen-year-old Frank by his kidnappers. They kept him
Sinatra Jr, son of the famous on the move, changing location Horrific package
singer, is kidnapped from a regularly to throw off would-be Some weeks later, the kidnappers
hotel room by Lake Tahoe, pursuers. They forced him to write a honoured their gruesome threat.
Nevada, and freed three days letter to his mother telling her that On 10 November, the Italian
later after a ransom is paid. he was being held by kidnappers newspaper Il Messaggero received
Three men are later convicted. who would cut off one of his fingers a package containing a lock of
if they were not paid a ransom of Paul’s auburn hair and his right ear.
AFTER $18 million (£45 million today). The kidnappers threatened to
1983 In Amsterdam, Freddy
Heineken – CEO of the family Still unconvinced of the
brewing company – and his authenticity of the abduction,
driver are kidnapped. They are J. Paul Getty contracted ex-CIA
freed after $13 million (£21 agent Fletcher Chace to find his
million today) is paid. All four grandson. In the meantime, another
kidnappers are later arrested. letter arrived, again written by Paul
under duress. The kidnappers
included a threatening note giving
the family 15 days to hand over the

KIDNAPPING AND EXTORTION 187

See also: The Lindbergh Baby Kidnapping 178–85 ■ The Kidnapping of Patty Hearst 188–89

remove his other ear unless they Scarred for life I can afford to say
were paid $3.2 million (£7.9 million A year after his ordeal, Paul what I wish.
today) within 10 days. Meanwhile, married a German photographer.
another package arrived at the They moved to New York and had John Paul Getty
offices of newspaper Il Tempo. a son, Balthazar Getty, who became
Inside were photographs of Paul’s an actor. Paul never recovered from According to reports, John Paul
scarred face. the psychological trauma of the Getty III, seen here after his ordeal,
kidnapping and descended into tried to speak to his grandfather to
Reluctant acquiescence alcoholism and drug addiction. In thank him for obtaining his release, but
The photos prompted a response 1981, at age 24, he suffered a stroke the elder Getty refused to take the call.
from J. Paul Getty. He contributed
$2.2 million (£5.4 million today) brought on by a cocktail of drugs. It
– according to his accountant, this left him paralyzed, almost blind,
was the maximum amount that and practically speechless. His
was tax deductible – and loaned mother cared for him after his
his son the remaining money, stroke, but she was forced to sue
charging 4 per cent interest. Chace her ex-husband, Paul’s father, to pay
handed over three sacks of cash on for his treatment and care. Paul and
12 December. Two days later, Paul his wife divorced in 1993, and he
was released outside Lagonegro in died at his home in London in
southern Italy and picked up by the 2011, at age 54. ■
police. He was malnourished and
weak from the blood loss caused
when his ear was severed.

Police arrested nine men, with
links to the Calabrian Mafia. Seven
received sentences of between four
and ten years, while two were
released. Only $85,000 (£210,000
today) of the ransom was found.

Gershon Baskin, an expert on the Ransom rules families to negotiate on their
Israeli-Palestinian conflict, helped own. The French, Italian, and
mediate between Israel and Hamas Different countries have varying Spanish governments have a
in the 2011 deal to release Shalit. policies about the payment of long record of directly paying
ransoms. The UK will not pay ransoms, although the Italian
ransoms to terrorists because it government made a notable
believes it would encourage other exception by refusing to
abductions. The US has a long- negotiate in the kidnapping
standing policy against paying of former prime minister Aldo
ransoms for hostages on the Moro (see pp.322–23).
grounds that it puts its citizens at
greater risk and funds terrorism. Israel has a different stance.
The US government will prosecute It is prepared to negotiate for
a US public company or private the release of captured citizens.
organization that buys the For example, in 2011, more than
freedom of an employee in this 1,000 Palestinian prisoners were
way. However, it does permit exchanged for a single abducted
Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit.

188

IIT’MDOIDDANICE’OTWWAARNDT.

THE KIDNAPPING OF PATTY HEARST, 1974

IN CONTEXT O n the night of 4 February Why’d they snatch Hearst? To
1974, 19-year-old Patricia get the country’s attention,
LOCATION (Patty) Hearst, an heiress primarily. Hearst was from a
Berkeley, California, US of the William Randolph Hearst wealthy, powerful family.
media empire, was at her California The US Federal Bureau
THEME apartment with her fiancé, Steven of Investigation
Abduction and coercion Weed. At 9pm, there was a knock
on the door, and three armed men
BEFORE burst in. They beat up Weed, and
1874 Four-year-old Charley dragged a screaming Hearst from
Ross is lured into a horse- her apartment, threw her into the
drawn carriage outside his boot of a car, and drove off.
Pennsylvania home and The kidnapping made international
abducted. His father cannot headlines, and reporters camped
pay the ransom and the boy is out on the lawn of the Hearst
not seen again. family’s San Francisco mansion.

1968 US student Barbara Jane An urban guerrilla her parents that she was fine, and
Mackle is kidnapped from a Two days later, the Berkeley radio was not being starved or beaten.
hotel by Gary Krist and Ruth station KPFA received a letter from She also said that the police should
Eisemann-Schier. They receive a left-wing guerrilla group known as not attempt to find her. The SLA’s
a $500,000 (£2 million today) the Symbionese Liberation Army leader, Marshal Cinque, whose real
ransom from her wealthy (SLA). Purporting to be a warrant name was Donald DeFreeze,
father, and the girl is found for the arrest of Patricia Campbell extorted $2 million (£4.6 million)
alive, buried in a wooden box. Hearst, the missive included Patty from Hearst’s father in food aid for
Hearst’s credit card and a warning California’s poor. But when the
AFTER that anyone attempting to interfere group sought a further $4 million
1996 German businessman would be executed. It also ordered (£9.2 million) from him, Hearst said
Jakub Fiszman is seized from that all communications from the he was unable to meet that sum,
his Eschborn office. His SLA be published in full in all and negotiations broke down.
kidnappers take a ransom of $2 newspapers and on radio and TV.
million (£1.5 million), although On 12 February, the radio station In the two months following
they have already killed him. received a recording from the SLA, Hearst’s abduction, her captors
on which Hearst was heard telling seemingly transformed her into a
willing accomplice. In another

KIDNAPPING AND EXTORTION 189

See also: The Abduction of Pocahontas 176 ■ The Lindbergh Baby Kidnapping 178–85
■ The Kidnapping of John Paul Getty III 186–87

Patty Hearst poses with a gun in
front of the SLA’s flag in 1974. After 57
days of captivity, she joined the group,
but whether she remained a victim or
became a perpetrator remains unclear.

audiotape the heiress declared her
allegiance to the SLA, saying that
she had been given the option of
either being released, or joining the
SLA and fighting for the freedom
of all oppressed people. Hearst
claimed to have chosen to stay
and fight alongside her captors. In
mid-April 1974, under her nom de
guerre “Tania”, Hearst took part in
a bank robbery in San Francisco,
during which the surveillance
cameras captured a photo of her
holding a rifle.

Bloody gunfight by the SLA, although today her never have participated in the
A breakthrough in the case came case is regarded by many as a clear group’s criminal acts. She was
on 16 May 1974, when two SLA example of Stockholm syndrome. released in February 1979. Several
members attempted to steal an Hearst served just 21 months of her other SLA members were captured
ammunition belt from a Los term. President Jimmy Carter with Hearst, who pleaded guilty to
Angeles store. They fled in a commuted it to time served, on the kidnapping the heiress. In 2001, in
getaway van, which was later found grounds that had she not been one of his final acts of his tenure,
at the group’s safe house. The next subjected to degrading experiences President Bill Clinton granted
day, police surrounded the house. A as a victim of the SLA, she would Hearst a full pardon.■
massive shootout ensued and the
house erupted in flames. Six SLA Stockholm syndrome hostages and convicts hugged,
members were killed in the fire, kissed, and shook hands. The
including DeFreeze, but Hearst was In August 1973, four employees victims’ seemingly irrational
not among the dead. She and two of a bank in Stockholm, Sweden, attachment to their captors
other members had escaped and were held hostage in its vaults puzzled everyone, and soon
were watching the drama in a for six days. Their captors were after, a psychiatrist coined the
motel room via the first live TV escaped prisoner Jan-Erik Olsson term “Stockholm Syndrome”
broadcast of an unplanned event. and his fellow convict Clark to explain this psychological
Olofsson, whose release Olsson response. It is now believed that
In September 1975, 19 months had negotiated with the police. in a hostage or kidnap scenario,
after her ordeal began, the FBI Strangely, although the victims bonding to a captor is a survival
captured Patricia Hearst. In March feared for their lives during the mechanism subconsciously
1976, she was tried and convicted siege, they also formed a strong adopted under extreme stress.
of armed bank robbery and other sympathetic bond with their The FBI’s Hostage Barricade
crimes, and given a seven-year captors, even appearing to take Database System states that
prison sentence. The jury had not their side against the police. about 8 per cent of victims show
found plausible the defence’s theory When the standoff ended, the signs of the syndrome.
that Hearst had been brainwashed

I STILL SLEEP

IWAICTSHAANUN’IBTGHWTRLIIADGHYET.

THE CHOWCHILLA KIDNAPPING,
15 JULY 1976



192 THE CHOWCHILLA KIDNAPPING

IN CONTEXT A buried removal van was used as It was a harrowing ride for the
a prison during the kidnapping. Here it children. With no water, no
LOCATION is shown being excavated by workmen bathroom breaks, and the windows
Chowchilla, California, US from the Livermore quarry, after the 26 blacked out so they could not see
children had escaped to safety. where they were going, the children
THEME endured an 11-hour drive.
Mass kidnapping the south side of town. When Ray
slowed down, looking to see if the Some of the younger children
BEFORE occupants were having trouble, vomited due to motion sickness.
6 October 1972 Two he saw three men with guns and The older ones sang popular songs
plasterers, Edwin John with women’s nylon stockings to cheer them up, including
Eastwood and Robert Clyde covering their heads leap from “Boogie Fever”, “Love Will Keep
Boland, abduct six students behind the van. The men ordered Us Together”, and, ironically, the
and a teacher from a school in him to stop and then old summer camp standard “If
the rural town of Faraday in commandeered his bus. You’re Happy and You Know It
Victoria, Australia, but the Clap Your Hands”.
victims escape. Terrifying journey
The group’s intention was not He was a courageous
AFTER simply to hijack the vehicle. This man. He kept 26 scared
14 April 2014 Militant was a kidnapping plot. With Ray
Islamist group Boko Haram and the children still on board, the children in line and
kidnaps 276 students at men drove to a nearby slough – an made us feel safe.
Chibok Government Girls intermittent stream obscured by Jodi Heffington-Medrano
Secondary School in Nigeria. bamboo and other vegetation –
One girl is rescued in May where they crammed Ray and the
2016, and on 13 October 2016, children, aged between five and 14,
21 more students are released into the back of two white vans.
by kidnappers. The kidnappers abandoned the bus
in the dry streambed, and drove
T he 15 July 976 was a typical away in the two vans, with their
summer day in California’s victims huddled in the back.
Central Valley – hot, dry,
and sunny, with the temperature
approaching triple digits. It was an
ideal time for children to play in
the water, which is exactly what
26 summer school students from
Chowchilla had been doing when
bus driver Ed Ray collected them
from the community pool just
before 4pm that afternoon.

Driving through fruit groves on
the way back to the school, Ray
came across a white van blocking
an isolated stretch of Avenue 21 on

KIDNAPPING AND EXTORTION 193

See also: The Lindbergh Baby Kidnapping 178–85 ■ The Kidnapping of Natascha Kampusch 196–97
■ The Zodiac Killer 288–89 ■ The Kidnapping of Ingrid Betancourt 324–25

Buried alive barely enough for one meal. Once It was like a grave, dark.
Finally, in the early hours of 16 July, all the captives were inside, the Everyone had messed their
the vans came to a halt at a rock kidnappers closed the opening in pants, sweaty little bodies
quarry in Livermore, about 160 km the van’s roof, plunging the interior
(100 miles) from Chowchilla. The into darkness. They shovelled dirt in 43°C (110°F).
abductors took the names of their over the roof, burying their Lynda Carrejo Labendeira
captives and an item of clothing hostages alive. The victims
from each, then made them climb huddled together in the darkness
into an old Allied Van Lines of their metal box, the California
removal van that was buried heat making the smell of vomit and
beneath the ground. filth unbearable.

Ventilated by two tubes, the When the bus failed to arrive
van was equipped with a few dirty back at Dairyland Elementary
mattresses and box springs. The School, parents began to call the
only food provided – cereal, peanut school. Assuming the bus had
butter, bread, and water – was broken down, school officials ❯❯

Chowchilla kidnapping mistakes

Mail slip Licence plates
In a letter sent from his The kidnappers failed
hideout in Canada, to conceal or switch
Woods revealed his alias the licence plates on
to a friend, who gave the the kidnap vehicles. The
letter to the police. bus driver remembered
them under hypnosis.

Vehicle registration
The Allied removal van
used to imprison the 27
victims was registered in
the name of kidnapper
Fred Woods.

Escape tools Burial site
The captives were able to stack the The removal van was
mattreses to reach the van’s roof buried at a stone quarry
opening and use a wooden beam to owned and operated by
lever the van’s metal lid open. Woods’s father.

194 THE CHOWCHILLA KIDNAPPING

drove its route, but found nothing. 27 people had simply vanished. The children are reunited with tearful
By 6pm, the Chowchilla police and Chowchilla went into crisis mode. parents in Chowchilla, as reporters and
the county sheriff’s office had been Reporters flooded into the town photographers crowd around them. All
notified that something was amiss. and theories began to circulate 27 victims arrived home on this
about what might have happened – Greyhound bus.
A deputy found the abandoned theories that included the Zodiac
bus around 8pm, but no sign of the Killer (see pp.288–89) and terrorism, The great escape
driver or children. Crime scene as well as a kidnap for ransom. Inside the van, 14-year-old Mike
investigators found tyre tracks Marshall, the son of a rodeo
leading away from the slough, but Meanwhile, the kidnappers had cowboy, decided that he was not
no other evidence to indicate how retreated to a hideout to get some going to die without trying to
sleep. When they awoke on the escape. With the help of Ray and
After all of us were out, we morning of 16 July, they planned to the other boys, Marshall stacked
started walking. A man drove call the authorities in Chowchilla the mattresses high enough to
with a ransom demand of $5 million reach the opening in the van’s roof.
up and said, ‘Oh my God. (about £9.5 million today) and give Blocking the way was a steel plate,
You’re those kids.’ them the names of the driver and two heavy tractor batteries, and a
children. If further proof was pile of dirt 1 metre (3 ft) deep. Using
Jodi Heffington-Medrano needed, they would deliver the wooden beams salvaged from the
clothing samples to a place where box springs for leverage, they were
authorities could easily find them. able to move the plate, drag down
There was just one flaw in their the batteries, and dig upwards
plan: law enforcement telephone through the dirt.
lines in Chowchilla were so
jammed with calls from tipsters, After 16 hours underground,
reporters, and parents that the the children of Chowchilla climbed
kidnappers could not get through. out. They had not walked far before

KIDNAPPING AND EXTORTION 195

they were discovered by a quarry Flawed plan Criminally induced
security guard, who recognized Wannabe movie moguls, the three post-traumatic stress
them immediately. Thirty-six men had wanted the ransom money
hours after the bus was hijacked, to recoup their losses from a real According to the US’s National
the children were reunited with estate project. Woods and his Center for Victims of Crime,
their families. accomplices – Richard and James soldiers are not the only
Schoenfeld, sons of a wealthy individuals who experience
At first, authorities assumed Menlo Park podiatrist – had PTSD. The syndrome is also
that the abduction was committed imagined the kidnapping as a seen in victims of civilian
by known criminals from the area. perfect crime, but now it was trauma and criminal violence.
They fruitlessly scoured their falling apart. Learning through
records for anyone who might fit the media that their captives had Symptoms of PTSD include
the profile. Ray, who had tried to escaped, the men decided to run. flashbacks and nightmares,
remember details of the abduction, lethargy, detachment, anxiety,
agreed to undergo hypnotism Woods flew to Vancouver and and anger. Appeals and parole
in order to aid the police effort. checked into a motel under a false hearings can trigger stress
Under hypnosis, he was able to name. Jim Schoenfeld planned to reactions in victims many
recall the entire licence plate from drive up and meet him, but his years after the crime.
one van and part of the second – suspicious behaviour prompted
enough to give authorities their first border guards to deny him entry In the case of the
big break. They soon discovered into Canada. Rick Schoenfeld, Chowchilla Kidnapping,
that the old Allied removals van meanwhile, returned home to parents of the kidnap victims
was registered to Fred Woods, the the Bay Area and turned himself were reluctant to admit
son of the quarry owner. The in. Learning that his brother concerns about their children’s
authorities could only guess at was in custody, Jim also returned mental health, so there was a
Woods’s motives and accomplices. home and was soon arrested. delay of five months before
they asked for help. A study
Kidnappers Jim Schoenfeld, Fred Woods, meanwhile, was conducted with 23 of the
Woods, and Richard Schoenfeld (left to arrested in Canada after penning victims a year after the
right) sit together in the courtroom. All a letter to a friend back home that kidnapping – and again four
three received life sentences without contained his alias. All three men years later – found that they
parole for 27 counts of kidnapping. pleaded guilty to the kidnappings all experienced PTSD. Five
and were handed life sentences. ■ children who narrowly avoided
being kidnapped – because
they had only just been
delivered home before the bus
was attacked – were also
traumatized. Now in their 50s,
many of the victims report
long-term anxiety, depression,
and substance abuse.

196

IHPOAELNOWRHAOCYUHSSICFEKEELTNLINIKAE A

THE KIDNAPPING OF NATASCHA KAMPUSCH,
1998–2006

IN CONTEXT O n the morning of 2 March told police he had been alone at
1998, 10-year-old Natascha home at the time of the abduction,
LOCATION Kampusch began the walk and that he was using his van to
Vienna, Austria to school from her home in a suburb remove rubble during construction
of Vienna. She never made it there. work on his house. He was not
THEME questioned further, and his home
Child abduction Unemployed telecoms engineer was not searched.
Wolfgang Priklopil snatched the
BEFORE child from the street and took her to A secret prisoner
1984 Eighteen-year-old his home in the suburb of Strasshof, For the next eight years, Priklopil
Austrian Elisabeth Fritzl is just a 30-minute drive away. After a held Natascha captive in a
imprisoned by her father, Josef, 12-year-old witness reported seeing 5-square-metre (54-sq.-ft)
in an underground dungeon at Natascha being dragged into a soundproof, windowless cellar
the family home. She remains white minibus by two men, police under his garage. The space was
there for 24 years, and gives launched a massive search of 776 well hidden, and so secure that
birth to seven children, all vehicles – including Priklopil’s. it took an hour to get inside it. Early
fathered by Josef. When interviewed, the 44-year-old

1990 In Japan, nine-year-old The effects of long-term captivity
schoolgirl Fusako Sano is
kidnapped by Nobuyuki After being released from her captors, and often surrender
Sato, a mentally disturbed long imprisonment, Natascha to powerlessness. Submission
unemployed man, and held Kampusch received intensive can be followed by depression,
for nine years. treatment from doctors and dissociative disorder, post-
psychologists to help her come traumatic stress disorder, and
AFTER to terms with her experience. anxiety. When victims are
2013 Three American women, released from their confinement,
Amanda Berry, Michelle Prolonged captivity can have psychologists say what they
Knight, and Georgina DeJesus, a profound psychological impact need most is time with their
escape from the home of Ariel on victims, particularly if their families or loved ones to recover,
Castro, who imprisoned, raped, abductor was also sexually and to assimilate well in their
and starved them for 10 years. abusive or violent. Experts say home environment. Having an
the will of anyone stripped of opportunity to talk about their
autonomy eventually breaks. As experience, if and when they
they experience trauma after choose, also aids recovery.
trauma, they stop fighting their

KIDNAPPING AND EXTORTION 197

See also: The Lindbergh Baby Kidnapping 178–85 ■ The Kidnapping of John Paul Getty III 186–87
■ The Kidnapping of Patty Hearst 188–89

You saw my dungeon… You
know how small it was. It was

a place to despair.
Natascha Kampusch

on, Priklopil warned Natascha that She then started sprinting down Natascha Kampusch later bought
he had a gun, and that he would the street, begging passers-by for the house where she was kept in a cell
use it to kill her if she tried to help. At first she was ignored, but (above), to prevent it from becoming a
escape. He told her that the doors finally she convinced someone to “theme park”.
and windows of the house were contact the police. On the day of
booby-trapped with explosives. Natascha’s escape, Priklopil went nine-month international probe,
to a close friend and confessed his which included experts from the
As the years passed and crime, saying: “I am a kidnapper FBI, looked closely at the case and
Natascha reached her early teens, and a rapist.” He then killed himself concluded that it was highly likely
she became less docile towards by jumping in front of a train. Priklopil had acted alone.
her captor. Priklopil responded by
stepping up his efforts to cement Once Natascha had emerged, Natascha Kampusch’s traumatic
his domination over her: he began Austria’s police were criticized for ordeal and her sensational escape
regularly beating and starving her, failing to investigate certain leads made global headlines. In 2011, she
and keeping her in darkness for in the wake of her disappearance. wrote an account of her captivity,
long periods. He also brought her In the years that followed, rumours 3,096 Days; in 2016, she published
upstairs to clean his house. On a persisted that Priklopil had had an another book, 10 Years Of Freedom,
few occasions, he took Natascha accomplice – fuelled by the young in which she reflected on her
with him on trips outside the witness’s insistence that two men difficult adjustment to her new life
house, during which the girl was had taken Natascha. In 2012, a amid constant public scrutiny. ■
too afraid to run away, or to reach
out to the people she encountered.

Breaking free
On 23 August 2006, when she was
18, Natascha finally found a chance
to escape. Priklopil had asked
her to vacuum the interior of his
car, which was parked in the yard.
He took a call on his cell phone, and
wandered off for a moment to get
away from the noise. Natascha left
the vacuum running to cover her
and simply walked out the gate.

MURDER