A Brief History
On January 23, 2002, Wall Street Journal reporter, Daniel Pearl, was kidnapped in downtown Karachi, Pakistan by Islamist militants. Pearl was investigating a link between al Qaeda and Pakistan at the time. When the US failed to meet the kidnappers’ demands, Pearl was beheaded.
Digging Deeper
Some other high-profile kidnappings include:
Julius Caesar, in 75 BC at the age of about 25, was captured by pirates and held for ransom, returning after his release to kill all his kidnappers!
Holocaust mastermind Adolf Eichmann was hiding in Argentina in 1960 when the Israeli Mossad kidnapped him and took him to Israel to be convicted and hanged, justifiably so to many who would not characterize him as a “victim.”
Nineteen-year-old Frank Sinatra, Jr. was kidnapped in 1963, but after collecting the ransom, the kidnappers were caught and sent to prison, although the ringleader was later found to be insane.
Finally, heiress Patty Hearst was kidnapped in 1974 at the age of 19 by the Symbionese Liberation Army and appeared to have been brainwashed into joining them.
Question for students (and subscribers): Who is the most famous kidnap victim? Please let us know in the comments section below this article.
If you liked this article and would like to receive notification of new articles, please feel welcome to subscribe to History and Headlines by liking us on Facebook and becoming one of our patrons!
Your readership is much appreciated!
Historical Evidence
For more information, please see…
Pearl, Marianne. A Mighty Heart – The Daniel Pearl Story. Virago; Film Tie-in Ed edition, 2007.
Proyer, Ronald. Stories of famous kidnappings. Barker, 1972.
The featured image in this article, a photograph by James D. Werner a plaque at National War Correspondents Memorial, Gathland State Park, is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.
You can also watch video versions of this article on YouTube.
