KidnappingSolved
The Kidnapping of Samuel Bronfman II
Purchase, New York, United StatesAugust 9, 1975
Samuel Bronfman II, son of Edgar Bronfman Sr. and heir to the Seagram liquor fortune, was kidnapped from his Purchase, New York, home on August 9, 1975. A $2.3 million ransom was paid. In a bizarre twist, when police arrested the kidnappers — Mel Lynch and Dominic Byrne — Bronfman appeared to be cooperating with them, leading to speculation he had staged his own kidnapping. The jury acquitted both men of kidnapping but convicted them of extortion, in one of the era's strangest trials.