Today, the story of 17-year-old Danny Goldman’s disappearance sounds like the farfetched plot of a movie, but in 1966, it really happened.
On March 28, 1966, a large man with a limp broke into Aaron and Sally Goldman’s home in Surfside, Florida, using an unlocked sliding glass door, People reported. The man wore a hat and pointed a gun at the family, demanding $10,000 in cash and using the couples’ first names. As People noted, $10,000 in 1966 is equivalent to nearly $90,000 today, and the Goldman’s said they didn’t have that much lying around.
The intruder said he’d take a hostage – their son Danny.
“I’m going to hold Danny for security,” he allegedly told the family before increasing his demand to $25,000. He allegedly told them he would call that day at 6 p.m. with more instructions, but he never did. And Danny was never seen again.
Danny’s childhood friend David Graubart told People that at the time he and others “thought he’d be back in two or three days somehow, with this crazy story to tell.”
But that didn’t happen.
Aaron Goldman died in 2010. Sally died two years later. They never found out what happened to their son.
Graubart, his younger brother Joe, and several other friends including Paul Novack soon began spending their own time and resources to find out what happened to their childhood friend – and the truth is wild.
Hellbound and Down 