Magpie
In reading newspaper coverage of the closing arguments in the 1921 murder trial of William Hightower, I came across the precise wording of the originally withheld sentence from the Heslin ransom note (panel A, below.) The defense counsel brought it up to make the point that the kidnapper’s proclaimed personal gripe against the Catholic Church could not be squared with Hightower’s personal history. It’s certainly bizarre. Also quirky, George Hodel’s ca. 1921 high school year book story, “A Sad, Sad Tale,” in which a Pasadena housewife loses out on a lucrative double indemnity life insurance payout on her husband in a tragic twist of fate (B.) And, the line in the taunting 1974 Palo Alto letter sent to Patty Hearst’s family after her kidnapping which references Spanish-American War widow’s pension rates established in 1926 during the Aimee McPherson kidnap imbroglio (C.) Strange stuff!
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