Word: ransomes
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...bank turned the bill over to the New York office of the Department of Justice as one of the 4,750 gold and silver certificates passed through an opening in the hedge of a Bronx cemetery on the night of April 2, 1932 by John F. ("Jafsie") Condon as ransom for Charles Augustus Lindbergh Jr. More than $5,000 of the ransom money had turned up in 716 transactions during the past two years. But no one who had received any of it had ever been alert enough to connect it with the case. License number 4U-13-41, penciled...
Image. Detectives working on the Lindbergh case had carefully constructed a working model of the appearance, habits and character of the criminal they sought. From the ransom letters to "Jafsie" Condon and the note left in the empty nursery on Sourland Mountain, psychiatrists had deduced that the man was German, or at least Teutonic. His English was largely phonetic and he used "gute" for "good." He also appeared to be some sort of mechanic; one ransom note had a careful working drawing of the sort of box in which he wanted the money delivered. The ladder by which he climbed...
Soon after the ransom money began to appear, New York newspapers agreed to lull the criminal's fears by withholding the news (see p. 46). With growing confidence, the criminal increased the rate of circulation. It was evident that he was active in the Bronx and Yorkville sections of New York. A police map showed each spot where ransom money turned up. The man was spending most of his money never in the same place twice, but always within a well-defined perimeter so that by taking cross-bearings, police had a reasonably good idea that he was living...
Then, while detectives watched the shadow of their criminal flit about their pin-pricked map without ever leaving a satisfactory clue, a huge piece of luck came from Washington. On April 5, 1933, Franklin Roosevelt recalled all gold bullion, coin and certificates. Since $40,000 of the $50,000 ransom money was in gold notes, police chances of catching the extortionist were increased a hundredfold. Not only the Lindbergh money but all gold bills automatically became "hot." The problem had been simplified, but by no means solved. In August $2,980 of the Lindbergh notes were converted into legitimate currency...
...herself fall in love with a young Frenchman. The parson's son took to Indian life like a duck to water. Others of the captives became acclimatized in their degrees. But the stout-hearted minority, too Protestant to succumb to death, Catholicism or Frenchified ways, got their ransom or their freedom one way or another, plodded home to make a new palisade for Redfield, build up again their charred and blood-soaked houses...