Imagine walking down the street, minding your own business, when an unmarked van pulls up, the doors open, and masked men leap out and grab you. You’re hauled inside, blindfolded, tied up, and told that if you keep quiet, you’ll be all right…maybe.
You have just been kidnapped. Your fate is now in the hands of a bunch of thugs who plan to use you to demand money or leverage in some kind of deal. Will you make it out of this in time? Who knows? It’s out of your control.
There have been many famous kidnappings over the decades. The disappearance of the Lindbergh baby in 1932 ended with the child dead.
John Paul Getty III, part of the ultra-rich Getty clan, was taken in Rome by an Italian organized crime group in 1973. When the family was slow to pay the ransom, they cut off his ear and sent it to them.
Patty Hearst, the newspaper heiress, was kidnapped by the radical Symbionese Liberation Army in 1974. She was later caught on security camera with her captors robbing a bank.
Then there are the horrific stories of abduction and confinement. Natasha Kampusch was snatched when she was ten and held in a secret cellar under the home of Wolfgang Priklopil for eight years.
Jaycee Dugard was taken at age 11 in California and kept locked up by a husband-and-wife couple for 18 years before she was found.
And back in 1966, 17-year-old Peggy Bradnick was grabbed in Pennsylvania by a “mountain man” named William Holloenbaugh. It took a massive manhunt—the largest in the history of the United States at the time—to find her.
Musicians are not immune to such horrors. In fact, you may be surprised at how many have been kidnapped—and by whom.
This is episode 60 of “Uncharted: Crime and Mayhem in the Music Industry.” And we’re going to simply call this one Kidnapped! 🎙️
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