KIDNAPPING WAVE.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIV, Issue 287, 1 November 1934, Page 2

KIDNAPPING WAVE.

SWEEPING THROUGH UNITED STATES. SUMMARY JUSTICE. Kidnapping threatens to become a staple criminal industry in the United States. Edward Lickwala, aged 25, confessed to the Detroit police that he had sent a letter threatening death to Mr Edsel Ford, son of Mr Henry Ford, unless £sooo' was left in a designated place on a certain night. “You are “on the spot,’ and if you want to live it will cost you plenty,” the letter said. Mr Ford, alarmed, cooperated with the police, who found that Lickwala was operating alone. Lickwala lias been sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment for attempted extortion and kidnapping. • In New York, Louis Esposito, son of a wealthy Italian, was kidnapped on the eve of his wedding. Notes sent to the father say: “You won’t see him again unless you pay. And don’t talk to the cops!” In Cheshire, Connecticut, a . girl of eight has been kidnapped. Mrs Alice Speed Stoll, of Louisville, Kentucky, who was kidnapped and released, has completely recovered from her harrowing week’s experience with the kidnapper, Thomas Robinson, and his wife. Mrs Robinson and Robinson’s father, who passed on the ransom money of £IO,OOO to his son, have been arrested and charged with having abetted a kidnapping. Twice Thomas Robinson threatened to . kill Mrs Stoll when the police pressed them hard. The police have so far been unable to lay their hands on Robinson, who has the entire ransom, except £llO, while the police secured from his wife.