Paris Snatch
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The businessman Édouard-Jean Empain gets into his car in Paris, 1979, the year after he was kidnapped by Alain Caillol.
The 1970s were well named as "the Years of Lead." The term—originating from the Italian "Anni di Piombo"—referred to a violent era of kidnappings and assassinations that could be measured in bullets.
In the case of high-profile kidnappings, amputated body parts became another gruesome calling card in the quest for quick money payouts. One of John Paul Getty III’s ears was notoriously sliced off and sent to a newspaper in Rome.
Baron Édouard-Jean Empain, who is the subject of the riveting and disturbing book, The Last Baron: The Paris Kidnapping That Brought Down an Empire, fared only slightly better when he had the first joint of a little finger chopped off and mailed to his family, along with a massive ransom demand…