Celebrities and Kidnapping

We hear so much about the paparazzi sticking cameras in celebrities' faces and stalking them for days just for a photo or two and how sick celebrities are of being hounded in this obnoxious fashion. Paparazzi harassment, however, pales in comparison to kidnapping threats. Celebrities must ever be on their guard against threats against them and their families. They must be sure to have extraordinary security measures in place at all times to protect themselves and their loved ones.

In 2005, a painter employed on David Letterman's ranch in Montana hatched a plan to kidnap Letterman's baby son and his nanny. Kelly A. Frank, 43, was caught before he could execute the despicable plan because he confided the plot to a man who in turn told the police. Frank said he had a key to the house and knew where the baby slept. He intended to kidnap the nanny so she could take care of the child until he collected a $5 million dollar ransom. Frank was sentenced to 10 years in jail in a plea bargain. David Letterman was stalked for years prior to this by a deranged fan, Margaret Ray, who believed they were married. She continually broke into his home in Connecticut house. Margaret Ray was sent to prison, where she served 10 months and, after she was diagnosed with schizophrenia, she served 14 months in a mental institution. She later committed suicide at age 46.

Madonna was forced to cancel a concert in 2004 when she received corresponding threatening her children, Lourdes and Rocco. The correspondence contained details that badly frightened Madonna since she readily discerned that her home and staff were being watched.

In 2001, Australian actor Russell Crowe, of Gladiator fame, was informed by the FBI that they were taking a kidnap threat against him seriously and insisted upon accompanying him to the Academy Awards to protect him. Crowe later revealed that the threats came from al-Qaeda.

That's just a mere sampling of plots that were discovered before any harm could be done. Unfortunately, this is not always the case. In 1985, Julio Iglesias' father, Julio Iglesias, Sr., was kidnapped by Basque terrorists and held captive for 2 weeks, repeatedly threatened with death. Spanish police were able to rescue him unharmed one day before the ransom money was to be paid. The incident was far from over for the Iglesias family. The singer's father was deeply traumatized and suffered for a long time after the rescue.

In 1973, John Paul Getty III, the grandson of billionaire John Paul Getty, was kidnapped by the Italian Red Brigades in Rome and held in the Calabrian Mountains. His father did not have enough money to pay the $17 million ransom demand, and while his rich grandfather initially refused to help. John Paul Getty did not wanting to give in to the kidnapper's demands and reportedly said: "I have 14 other grandchildren, and if I pay one penny now, then I will have 14 kidnapped grandchildren." Several weeks later, when one of his grandson's ears arrived in an Italian newspaper's mail, he agreed to help. John Paul Getty III's life continued to deteriorate after his return. He later took a mixture of prescription drugs that put him a 6-week coma and left him paralyzed and blind.

Celebrities pay hundreds of thousands of dollars every year to take every imaginable security precaution, including 24-hour bodyguards, to deal with the ever-present spectre of kidnapping and stalking. They cannot know what goes on in the minds of the deranged and criminal in every instance, and, tragically, as the John Lennon murder case illustrates, sometimes the attacker can appear in a non-threatening situation that then turns deadly.