This Day in Crime History: DECEMBER 14, 1874 : AN UNSATISFACTORY END TO A KIDNAPPING

A botched burglary attempt further clouds one of the earliest kidnap-for-ransom cases. As he was about to go to bed, wealthy New Yorker Holmes Van Brunt heard burglars breaking into his brother’s house next door. After rounding up three other men to help him surprise the intruders, Van Brunt engaged the thieves in a shotgun battle that left the robbers severely wounded. On his deathbed, one of the burglars confessed that he had been responsible for kidnapping Charley Ross. He then promised that the child would be returned alive.

The Charley Ross kidnapping was the year’s biggest story. Two men had snatched the four-year-old son of rich Philadelphia grocer Christian Ross from the front lawn of his house on July 1. On July 4, the kidnappers delivered the first of 23 poorly spelled ransom notes to Ross. Several days later, they asked for $20,000.

After some stalling, Ross agreed to pay the ransom, but no one ever came to pick up the money.

Generating mountains of publicity, the Ross kidnapping became the first widely followed kidnap-for-ransom incident. Over the next 50 years there was a spike in the number of such cases, culminating with the kidnapping of Charles Lindbergh’s son in 1932. Following that high-profile crime, the government’s power over criminal matters was greatly broadened, and the penalties for kidnapping were increased.

Despite the dying criminal’s confession, Charley Ross was never found.

Article Details:

December 14, 1874 : An unsatisfactory end to a kidnapping

• Author

  History.com Staff

• Website Name

  History.com

• Year Published

  2009

• Title

  December 14, 1874 : An unsatisfactory end to a kidnapping

• URL

  http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/an-unsatisfactory-end-to-a-kidnapping

• Access Date

  December 14, 2015

• Publisher

  A+E Networks

This Day in Crime History: DECEMBER 12, 1989 : THE QUEEN OF MEAN IS SENTENCED TO THE SLAMMER

Leona Helmsley, nicknamed the “Queen of Mean” by the press, receives a four-year prison sentence, 750 hours of community service, and a $7.1 million tax fraud fine in New York. For many, Helmsley became the object of loathing and disgust when she quipped that “only the little people pay taxes.”

Leona’s husband, Harry, was one of the world’s wealthiest real estate moguls, with an estimated $5 billion to $10 billion in property holdings. The couple lived in a dazzling penthouse overlooking Central Park and also maintained an impressive mansion in Greenwich, Connecticut. Leona, who operated the Helmsley Palace on Madison Avenue, was severely disliked by her employees.

Though they lavishly furnished their homes and hotel, the Helmsleys were curiously diligent about evading the required payments and taxes for their purchases. Much of their personal furniture was written off as a business expense, and there were claims that the Helmsleys extorted free furnishings from their suppliers. Contractors were hardly ever paid on time-if at all-and many filed lawsuits to recover even just a portion of what they were owed. Leona reportedly also purchased hundreds of thousands of dollars of jewelry in New York City but insisted that empty boxes be sent to Connecticut so that she could avoid the sales tax.

Given her offensive personality, many were quite pleased by Leona’s legal troubles. Even celebrity lawyer Alan Dershowitz could not win her immunity from the law. Following her conviction, Federal Judge John Walker publicly reprimanded her, saying, “Your conduct was the product of naked greed [and] the arrogant belief that you were above the law.” Leona Helmsley was sent to jail in 1992 and was released in 1994. In 2002, Helmsley, whose husband Harry died in 1997, again found herself in court after being sued by Charles Bell, a former employee who accused Leona of firing him soley because he was homosexual. A jury ordered Helmsley to pay him more than $11 million in damages.

Helmsley died in August 2007 at age 87. She famously left $12 million to her dog, Trouble.

Article Details:

December 12, 1989 : The Queen of Mean is sentenced to the slammer

• Author

  History.com Staff

• Website Name

  History.com

• Year Published

  2009

• Title

  December 12, 1989 : The Queen of Mean is sentenced to the slammer

• URL

  http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/the-queen-of-mean-is-sentenced-to-the-slammer

• Access Date

  December 11, 2015

• Publisher

  A+E Networks

This Day in Crime History: DECEMBER 11, 2008 : BILLIONAIRE CONMAN BERNARD MADOFF ARRESTED

On this day in 2008, financier Bernard Madoff is arrested at his New York City apartment and charged with masterminding a long-running Ponzi scheme later estimated to involve around $65 billion, making it one of the biggest investment frauds in Wall Street history.

Madoff, who was born in Queens, New York, in 1938, founded a small trading firm bearing his name in 1960. The business was established, in part, with money he earned working as a lifeguard. Two decades later, Madoff’s firm, which helped revolutionize the way stocks are traded, had grown into one of the largest independent trading operations in the securities industry, and he and his family lived a life of luxury, owning multiple homes, boats and expensive artwork and jewelry.

Based on the success of his legitimate operations, Madoff launched an investment-advisory business as part of his firm, and it was this business that by the 1990s had become a Ponzi scheme, in which he paid his earlier investors with funds received from more recent investors. For years, clients of this business were sent account statements showing consistently high—and fraudulent—returns. Potential new customers clamored for Madoff to invest their money. However, in 2008, with the U.S. economy in crisis, Madoff’s financial swindle began to fall apart as his clients took money out faster than he could bring in fresh cash.

On December 10, 2008, Madoff revealed to his brother and two sons, who worked for the legitimate arm of his firm, that his investment-advisory business was a fraud and nearly bankrupt. Madoff’s sons turned in their father to federal authorities, who arrested him the next day. Madoff was freed on $10 million bail, and placed under 24-hour house arrest at his penthouse on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. 

The fallout from Madoff’s scam was widespread: The victims included everyone from his wealthy country-club acquaintances, Hollywood celebrities, banks and hedge funds to universities, charities and ordinary individual investors, some of whom lost their life savings. The charitable foundation of Holocaust survivor and Nobel Peace Prize winner Elie Wiesel lost more than $15 million, and Wiesel also lost his personal savings. Public outrage was further stoked when it was revealed that since the late 1990s a private financial fraud investigator, Harry Markopolos, had repeatedly warned the Securities and Exchange Commission about his suspicion that Madoff was operating a massive investment scam.

On March 12, 2009, Madoff pleaded guilty to the 11 felony counts against him, including securities fraud, money laundering and perjury. On June 29 of that year, a federal district court judge in Manhattan sentenced Madoff to 150 years behind bars, calling his actions “extraordinary evil.” 

On December 11, 2010, the second anniversary of Madoff’s arrest, his 46-year-old son Mark was found dead in his Manhattan apartment after committing suicide. Bernard Madoff, who is serving his sentence at the Butner Federal Correctional Complex in North Carolina, has maintained that his family members knew nothing about his crimes and although they have faced intense scrutiny, none have been charged with any wrongdoing. Several of Madoff’s former employees, including his accountant and chief financial officer, have pleaded guilty in connection with the long-running fraud.

Article Details:

December 11, 2008 : Billionaire conman Bernard Madoff arrested

• Author

  History.com Staff

• Website Name

  History.com

• Year Published

  2011

• Title

  December 11, 2008 : Billionaire conman Bernard Madoff arrested

• URL

  http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/billionaire-conman-bernard-madoff-arrested

• Access Date

  December 10, 2015

• Publisher

  A+E Networks