Rome May 9th 1978: in the city centre police discover a Renault 4. Inside is the body of Aldo Moro the president of Italy’s Christian Democrat Party. An infamous crime had been committed against a high profile politician. A man who wanted to overcome a barrier in Italian society and share power with the Communist Party. The murder of Aldo Moro bore the signature of the extreme Left, the Red Brigades. But many wondered if the extreme right had not guided the murder weapon so as to block a political initiative which had begun inauspiciously six weeks earlier. Political Assassinations: Death in Rome: The Case of Aldo Moro
The head of the Lodge [P2] Licio Gelli was a militant anti-communist with long-standing links to the CIA. He was also one of Aldo Moro’s bitterest enemies. Moro wanted to fight this terror campaign by means of a broad alliance which would also bring the communists into the fold ... The shots were fired ... Gelli, head of the P2 lodge and working for the secret service, is reported to have said just afterwards, The hardest part has been done. ibid.
The next morning at 8:30 a radio station broadcast the news that Aldo Moro had been kidnapped half an hour before it actually happened. And the secret services also knew something. ibid.
Moro knew there would be strong opposition to his policy. But he could see no alternative to closer relations with the communists. The Communist Party had become the second most powerful political force in the country. It was demanding indispensable social reforms, and to do so was looking for closer links with the Christian Democrats under Aldo Moro. But those opposed to this strategy did not remain inactive. ibid.
They didn’t even respect the murdered man’s last wishes. In a pompous state ceremony they displayed their grief for the man they did not wish to save. ibid.
On March 16th 1978 the Italian left-wing terrorists kidnapped the former Italian prime minister Mr Aldo Moro. On that day the Italian parliament was about to debate the inclusion of the Italian Communist Party in a government of national unity for the first time since 1948. Aldo Moro had long believed that this was the only solution for political stability in Italy. Timewatch: Operation Gladio: Foot Soldiers, BBC 1992
He [L Ron Hubbard] responded by kidnapping their baby and taking it to Cuba. Scientology: Going Clear: The Prison of Belief ***** testimony of Sara, HBO 2015
‘Running ain’t nothing new to me.’ Natural Born Outlaws s1e2: Machine-Gun Kelly, 2015
‘If Hoover can solve a big brand-named kidnapping [$200,000] like this, it will be a huge boost for the FBI.’ ibid. commentator
‘Kelly was our first big scalp.’ ibid. investigator
January 17th 1934 Just hours after the abduction of Edward Bremer junior, St Paul police find his abandoned car. Natural Born Outlaws s1e7: Barker-Karpis Gang
Kyrgyzstan: bride capture – it’s an old tradition that has made a comeback; ever since Kyrgyzstan won its independence from the Soviet Union in 1991 young boys have struggled to claim their manhood in one definitive and sometimes violent act: abducting a girl honours the nomadic traditions of Kyrgyzstan’s ancient past. Strange Rituals s1e10: Till Death Us Do Part, H2 2016
February 2008: a telephone call that triggers one of the biggest police man-hunts of modern times. Tears of a Crime: Shannon Matthews, ID 2017
People began to notice Sharon Matthews’ unusual behaviour. ibid.
Shannon Matthews had been found alive and well. ibid.
Matthews had known all along where Shannon was. ibid.
On May 3th 2007 3-year-old Madeleine McCann went missing. 168 days later that is the only indisputable fact about this extraordinary case. Dispatches: Searching for Madeleine, Channel 4 2007
The McCanns say they put their children to bed at 7 p.m. … At 8.30 p.m. Kate McCann and her husband Gerry joined their friends for dinner at the Ocean Club Tapas bar. ibid.
‘You can be in and out in less than a minute provided you had done the necessary amount of planning.’ ibid. reviewing detective
The steps leading to the patio doors are in darkness. ibid.
Yet more hiding places … There are hundreds of wells … They spot large industrial bins all over the resort … They were still emptied on the night Madeleine disappeared. ibid.
‘It makes you local in some ways … and known in the area.’ ibid. Professor Cantor
The kidnap of more than 200 Nigerian schoolgirls by hardline Islamists shocked the world and focused new attention on the terrorist group Boko Haram. Dispatches: Nigeria’s Secret War: The Hunt for Boko Haram, Channel 4 2014
21st November 2013: Three women who claim they have been held as slaves in a home in London for at least thirty years have been rescued by the police. The Cult Next Door, news, BBC 2017
Madeleine McCann is the most famous missing person on Earth … one of the stories of the century. Madeleine McCann: A Global Obsession, Channel 5 2014
The media and the public would come to be divided on a global scale. ibid.
Each year 5-600 children are reported missing in Britain. ibid.
Robert Murat and his family were chased by the British media for months. Kate and Gerry McCann would be next. ibid.
It’s the case that gripped and then horrified Britain. A little girl abducted on her way home from school. A huge search and then the truth – her mum was behind the whole thing. Sharon Matthews: What Happened Next, Channel 5 2017
For 24 days they had searched for 9-year-old Shannon Matthews … They made appeal after appeal for help in finding Shannon. ibid.
Who had been holding her? Just a mile away from Shannon’s home she was found hidden in the base of a bed. 39-year-old Michael Donovan, the uncle of Karen Matthew’s boyfriend, was arrested at the scene … But there was a shocking twist: Donovan hadn’t carried out the crime on his own. ibid.
The judge sentenced them to eight years each adding he was doubtful they acted alone. ibid.
You nicked me catalogue money and spent it on bloody weed. The Moorside I & II, Julie, opening scene, BBC 2017
I want to report my daughter as missing, please. ibid. Sharon
Those parents of Madeleine McCann – they’re always on tele. ibid. all assembled in living room
Shannon wouldn’t have run away; someone must have took her. ibid. Sharon
All right I’ve got seven [children]. What does it matter? ibid.
It makes me think now that I can’t trust the people close to me any more. ibid. Sharon at press conference
Karen’s not clever enough to have made all this up. ibid. Julie
He’s saying the two of you planned it. ibid. rozzer
I get bullied and pushed around and I’m sick of it. ibid. Sharon
I’ve hated him [Craig] for ages. ibid.
I knew where she was all along … Everyone’s gonna hate me now. ibid.
In which the former judiciary police inspector defends the thesis of the involvement of Kate and Gerry McCann in their daughter’s disappearance. Madeleine McCann: The Truth of the Lie, Youtube 2012
I will prove that the child was not abducted and that she died in the holiday apartment in Praia de Luz. ibid.
There is a kind of need to stifle the case, to silence the case. ibid.
In later questionings the testimonies diverge. Gerald McCann says that David Payne stayed at the McCanns’ apartment for thirty minutes; his wife Kate guarantees it was only thirty seconds. At that time Kate was bathing the twins and Madeleine. ibid.
It was shortly after 8.40 p.m. that the English friends went for dinner at the Tapas bar. The restaurant is approximately fifty metres away as the crow flies from the apartments where eight children remained alone. ibid.
At around 10 p.m. Kate McCann, Maddie’s mother, raised the alarm. Maddie was not in the room. ibid.
No search in Portugal had ever included such means and so many people. ibid.
The families take turns in checking the children. ibid.
At around 9.10 p.m. Jane Tanner goes to check her children and to check the other apartments. On her way to 5D she passes Gerald and Jeremiah. Jane will later tell the authorities that she saw a stranger carrying a child in his arms. ibid.
There are many contradictions: the most evident one was that someone was inside that room when Gerald went in. ibid.
The detailed identification that she gives of a possible abductor is impossible .. How was it possible to see so much at such a distance and under such light? How was it possible for Gerald and Jeremiah not to see Jane or the abductor? ibid.
We have two possible sightings of potential abductors. The problem is that the Smiths’ sighting doesn’t confirm Jane Tanner’s vision, in its time and its direction. ibid.