“GANGSTERS OF NICE”

Greymouth Evening Star, 12 April 1932, Page 9

“GANGSTERS OF NICE”

ATTEMPT TO KIDNAP BOY.

NICE, February 21.

Two Bulgarians and a Serbian, who styled themselves “The Gangsters of Nice,” and who attempted early in December to kidnap the son of a wealthy Italian living on the Riviera, have been sentenced to terms of imprisonment by the Alpes Maritimes Assize Courts.

The condemned men, Ranghel Milanof, Dimitri Patrikof, and Joseph Bojetie, tried to capture Albert Caputo, a boy of 11, when on his way home from school in the company of another boy. One of the bandits invited him to enter an expensivelooking car standing by the kerb. But he refused.

He was then bustled into the car. His companion ran off and raised the alarm. The police arrived before the engine of the vehicle, which had been stolen in Nice on the previous day, could be got going. The would-be kidnappers, however, escaped. Three days later they sent Signor Caputo a letter, which was signed in English. “The Gangsters of Nice,” warning him that if he did not pay the sum of £lOO immediately his son would be taken away. Subsequently the men were arrested, and yesterday Miianof was sentenced to six years’ imprisonment and each of his companions to throe years.’ In the course of the trial the' three men maintained that a confession which they had made to ■iothe police had been extracted fronriihenr by “third degree” methods.