In 1953 after a brutal war Korea lay divided between the Capitalist South backed by the Western powers and the Communist North under Kim Il-Sung allied to the Soviet Union and China. The two sides were left facing each other across the most heavily armed border in the world. Locked in a tense military stand-off, they began to compete by other means. Storyville: North Korean Kidnap: The Lovers and the Despot, caption, BBC 2017
I was kidnapped sometime in July … July 19 … My memory is very hazy. ibid. Choi
Washington DC 15th May 1986: ‘We made great movies together … and received VIP treatment.’ ibid. actress of director lover, Choi & Shin
Thanks for coming … I am Kim Jong-Il. ibid.
It was a political kidnap, says ex-husband. ibid. newspaper article
He had a projection room in every house so he could watch movies any time. ibid. Choi
For about six months … I was at a detention centre. I thought I was going to be killed. ibid. Shin’s kidnap
I escaped … I ran away … I got caught. ibid. Shin
All I could say was, What happened to you? ibid. Choi to Shin
We longed to escape to the free world. So we decided to do it together. ibid. Choi
America is gripped by the Great Depression ... In the child’s room he [Lindbergh] finds [Little It] missing ... The biggest man-hunt in history was soon underway. President Hoover promised, ‘We will move Heaven and Earth to find out who is this criminal.’ Even public enemy number one, Al Capone, inconveniently in jail at the time, offered ... a reward. Great Crimes & Trials: The Lindbergh Baby Kidnap
When the gang produced the sleeping suit that Little It had been wearing when he was kidnapped, Lindley prepared to hand over the ransom demand. ibid.
Six weeks later, a baby’s body was spotted by two truck drivers ... only two and a half miles from the Lindbergh house ... Decomposed, lay face downward and half-covered with leaves ... The anguished father cut a curl of hair still clinging to his skull. ibid.
The Defense emphasised that one man could not carry out the kidnap alone ... Hauptmann was found guilty and sentenced to die in the electric chair ... Hauptmann continued to protest his innocence. ibid.
Banknotes from the robbery are still entering the circulation. ibid.
The Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal. ibid.
She had been born into luxury, the daughter of Randolph Hearst, owner of the newspaper empire which included the San Francisco Examiner ... She was abducted on 4th February 1974. Great Crimes and Trials: The Kidnap of Patty Hearst
On 3rd April ... she called her parents racists and proclaimed she had joined the SLA. ibid.
To test her the gang took Patty on their next exploit: the raid on the Hibernia Bank. She later claimed that she was covered by guns the whole time. ibid.
When arrested Patty gave a clenched fist salute and gave her occupation as Urban Guerrilla. ibid.
1969 ... On December 29th between Christmas and New Year’s Eve a lady vanishes. Her name is Muriel McKay, and she is the wife of Alick McKay, the deputy chairman of Rupert Murdoch’s new acquisition The News of the World Group. Great Crimes & Trials: The McKay Kidnapping
The kidnap plot was hatched in October when they [Hosein brothers] saw Rupert Murdoch being interviewed on television. ibid.
The Murdochs were away and the McKays were using the Rolls ... They hadn’t kidnapped Rupert Murdoch’s wife after all. ibid.
Alick McKay and his two children had lost a woman everyone had loved. Who had been kidnapped and murdered by mistake. ibid.
Aged 11 Jaycee Lee Dugard was snatched outside her family home. Imprisoned for eighteen years she gave birth to two daughters, fathered by her kidnapper. Cutting Edge: Captive for 18 Years: The Jaycee Lee Story, Channel 4 2011
Why did the police never suspect her kidnapper, a paedophile who secretly filmed children in the local park? ibid.
This is Phillip Garrido, so dangerous he’d already been sentenced to fifty years for rape. But he’d served just ten years. ibid.
On the back seat Jaycee was being pinned down by a woman. ibid.
Antioch: where the untouchables live. Sex offenders, ordered out of nearby towns in California headed for Antioch’s anonymous commuter belt. ibid.
He fooled the psychiatrists and had been let out after ten years. ibid.
Carl Probyn [father-in-law] would take the lie detector test four times and remain prime suspect for the eighteen years Jaycee was captive. ibid.
For the kidnap and rape of Katie Hall, Garrido was sentenced to fifty years. Police now admit that this was one of a series of attacks Garrido carried out in Antioch and South Lake Taho between 1972 and 1976. Yet they were never linked to Jaycee’s kidnapping in 1991. ibid.
He was exceptional at emotional manipulation. ibid.
Failure and incompetence meant no-one suspected the convicted sex offender Phillip Garrido; law enforcement officers would visit Garrido’s Antioch home seventy times, but would never find Jaycee who was in the backyard living in a tent. Close neighbours suspected nothing. ibid.
Having a child seems to have given Jaycee a positive focus. ibid.
Kidnapped and held captive from age 11 Jaycee Lee was routinely abused by her captor Phillip Garrido. ibid.
Nancy Garrido would help her husband scout the little children. ibid.
So why didn’t she run and take her children away? ibid.
She was using the internet while captive. ibid.
The judge told Garrido he had reinvented slavery. ibid.
It was the miracle of Dewsbury Moor. For 24 days a mother had lived with every parent’s nightmare. And suddenly her child was found alive. Cutting Edge: Shannon Matthews: The Family’s Story, Channel 4 2008
An entire community held its breath fearing the very worst. ibid.
‘I’m not high class like the McCann’s family.’ ibid. Karen
‘The friction among Karen’s Matthew’s family has revealed a troubling aspect to a complex case.’ ibid.
‘I did my check about ten o’clock and went in through the sliding patio doors.’ Cutting Edge: Madeleine Was Here, Kate, Channel 4 2009
Out of the hundreds of witnesses who came forwards only a handful are from the local Portuguese community. ibid.
‘How many people carry their children on a cold night not covered? … A good chance it could be Madeleine.’ ibid. Kate
Convinced that prior to Madeleine’s abduction the McCanns were being watched. ibid.
She [witness] saw the same man again – this time close to the McCann’s apartment on the day before Madeleine went missing. ibid.
‘He appeared to be focused on watching the apartment block.’ ibid. witness #3
You just do what you have to do to survive. Jaycee Lee Dugard, interview Dianne Sawyer, ABC 10th July 2011
A Stolen Life: a memoir. Jaycee Lee Dugard
Wait till you hear the story of what took place at this house, and you’re gonna be absolutely impressed. Phillip Garrido
Hiya, I want to report me daughter as missing please. Karen Matthews, recorded 999 call
If anybody’s got my daughter, my beautiful princess daughter, please bring her home safe. Karen Matthews
It makes me think now I can’t trust people who’s really close to me any more. I just can’t trust ’em. Karen Matthews
It was every mother’s nightmare when nine-year-old Shannon Matthews disappeared on her way home from school on the afternoon of February 19th 2008. Shannon Matthews, Crime Channel documentary
The police were struggling to determine how Shannon could have disappeared without a trace. ibid.
The nation was captivated as they followed her plight. ibid.
They ploughed their energy into the Shannon Matthews Appeal. ibid.
A wild street party in celebration of Shannon’s discovery. ibid.
The police were questioning 39-year-old Mick Donovan. ibid.
Could Shannon’s mother have played a part in the kidnap of her own child? ibid.
These [child pornography] images were found when a number of computers were checked as part of the inquiry. Craig was remanded in custody and later found guilty and sentenced to twenty weeks in prison. ibid.
Tests carried out on Shannon’s hair reveal that she was drugged using the anti-depressant Temazepam and the travel sickness tablet Traveleze. ibid.
Karen Matthews and her accomplice Mick Donovan maintained a colossal lie in a bid to claim the reward money offered by the press. ibid.
Karen Matthews and Mick Donovan were both sentenced to eight years in prison. ibid.