Tag: kidnappings

Inside The FBI-Tainted Whitmer ‘Kidnap Plot’ You’ve Heard Almost Nothing About

In a fiery exchange last month, CNN anchorwoman Abby Phillip told GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy that there was “no evidence” to support his claim that federal agents abetted protesters at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

Ramaswamy shot back that the FBI conspicuously has never denied that law enforcement agents were on duty in the crowd. He argued that federal officials have repeatedly “lied” to the American people about not only that investigation but one that has gotten much less attention: the alleged failed plot to kidnap and kill Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan in 2020.

“It was entrapment,” Ramaswamy said. “FBI agents putting them up to a kidnapping plot that we were told was true but wasn’t.”

His zeroing in on the Michigan case highlighted an uncharacteristic development in contemporary politics, where progressives vigorously defend law enforcement power while conservatives view it with deep suspicion. Further, Ramaswamy’s linking of Jan. 6 and the Whitmer plot resonated with many on the right who want similarities between the two episodes exposed to the general public, especially the FBI’s reliance on informants and other paid operatives.

On Oct. 8, 2020, Whitmer announced the shocking arrests of several men accused of planning to kidnap and possibly assassinate her. The case produced alarming headlines just weeks before Election Day; Democrats, including Whitmer, used news of the plot to blame Trump for inciting violence.

Joe Biden commended the FBI for thwarting the abduction plan and, in a written statement issued the same day, claimed that “there is a through line from President Trump’s dog whistles and tolerance of hate, vengeance, and lawlessness to plots such as this one.” Biden continued that line of attack during campaign speeches in Michigan, a swing state that voted for Trump in 2016, and one Biden needed to capture to win the presidency.

In the years since the election, the national press has given little attention to the case since the initial arrests, even though court documents have recast the episode as something more sinister. Instead of a heroic effort by the FBI to safeguard the country from domestic terrorists, it now appears to have been a broad conspiracy by law enforcement to entrap American citizens who held unpopular political views.

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Lindbergh Baby Kidnapping Case: Bombshell New Theory Proposes Aviator Staged Abduction After Medical Experiments Killed His Son

Anew theory gaining ground about the notorious 1930s Lindbergh kidnapping suggests aviator Charles Lindbergh volunteered his child for medical research and staged the crime to cover up the baby’s death.

The true crime author and retired judge passionately promoting this idea says an innocent man was executed for the crime, Knewz.com has learned.

The high-profile New Jersey kidnapping-turned-murder has been a closed case since Bruno Richard Hauptmann, a German native who lived in New York illegally, was convicted of the crime. Hauptmann maintained his innocence until the day he was sent to the electric chair.

Now, nearly a century later, “respected Bay Area historians are proposing a new, macabre theory about the case,” according to a Tuesday, January 2 report by The San Francisco Chronicle.

“A lot of leads weren’t followed, about a dozen state witnesses likely committed perjury, and the prosecution had 90,000 pages of investigation they didn’t let Hauptmann or his defense see,” retired judge and award-winning true crime author and filmmaker Lise Pearlman told The Chronicle. “The wrong man was executed, and my hope is that Hauptmann will be posthumously exonerated. And I am certainly not the only one who wants that.”

Pearlman believes Lindbergh was responsible for staging the kidnapping, and is pushing for New Jersey officials to release evidence from the case’s archives that may confirm these suspicions.

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‘He made it up’: Police say George Santos lied about Chinese communists kidnapping

During a series of phone calls with a New York Times journalist, Rep. George Santos (R-NY) claimed that his extended family was victimized by the Chinese Communist government which was behind the brief kidnapping of his niece.

According to a police official: it never happened.

In an extensive piece for the Times, journalist Grace Ashford detailed a history of receiving calls from the embattled lawmaker at all hours, where he alternately defended himself and complained about the turn his life has taken since entering Congress, one time claiming, “I literally threw my entire life into the toilet and flushed it to get elected.”

In the midst of those calls, he claimed his niece had been abducted in Queens and hinted the Chinese Communist government was possibly behind it.

According to Ashford, Santos was complaining about the threats he has faced when he confessed to her, “I’ll give you one, I’ll give you one story that nobody talks about,” she wrote before adding that he related, “… how his 5-year-old niece disappeared from a playground in Queens, only to be located 40 minutes later on a surveillance camera with two Chinese men. He said the incident was the subject of an active police investigation, implying heavily that it might have been in retaliation for his vocal stance against the Chinese Communist Party.”

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Disgraced Detective Arrested for Kidnapping Young Black Girls and Forcing Them into Sex Slave Ring

On Monday, the Department of Justice announced myriad charges against former Kansas City Police Department detective Roger Golubski and three other men – Cecil Brooks, LeMark Roberson and Richard Robinson. The group of men is alleged to have been kidnapping young Black girls and holding them in involuntary sex servitude.

The disturbing crimes are alleged to have taken place from 1996 to 1998 at a location in Kansas City. The four men held multiple young women as sex slaves at several units within Delevan Apartments, according to the DoJ.

“One of those units was a ‘relaxed’ area, where young girls used alcohol and drugs with the defendants, and another was ‘working house,’ where some girls were compelled to perform sexual services for adult men who visited Delevan,” the indictment says.

According to the indictment, Brooks, Roberson, and Robinson “provided drugs to the girls in the ‘working house,’ who were addicts.” They also allegedly “beat and threatened to beat girls who did not agree to provide sexual services in exchange for shelter, drugs, or clothes.”

Golubski used his badge to provide cover for the human trafficking operation and eventually became involved in the operation. Once he fully submersed himself in the criminal operation, Golubski allegedly had an affinity for young Black girls, according to authorities.

“At Delevan, Defendant ROGER GOLUBSKI primarily chose young Black girls, ranging in age from 13 to 17 years old, to submit to sex and to provide sexual services to him,” the indictment says.

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Body Found in Tennessee Confirmed as Missing Heiress Eliza Fletcher

Memphis police confirmed Tuesday that they found the remains of teacher Eliza “Liza” Fletcher, who was reportedly abducted last week

The police department wrote on Twitter that “the deceased victim that was located yesterday in the 1600 block of Victor [street] has been identified as 34-year-old Eliza Fletcher, a teacher who was also the heiress to the Orgill Inc. hardware fortune.

The development comes after Cleotha Abston, a 38-year-old male, was charged in connection to Fletcher’s kidnapping and with tampering with evidence. His DNA was found on a pair of sandals near her disappearance, police said.

Authorities wrote Tuesday that Abston now faces additional charges, including first-degree murder and first-degree murder in perpetration of kidnapping. Previously he was charged with aggravated kidnapping and evidence.

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‘It makes me sick’: Neighbors’ shock after body is discovered in search for billionaire heiress near home of suspect’s brother ahead of his court appearance today – as medical examiner leaves scene after six hours

Heartbroken neighbours have described their horror after a body was found in the search for missing Eliza Fletcher ahead of her suspected kidnappers court appearance in Memphis, Tennessee, today.

Police have yet to confirm the identity of the body, which was found seven miles from where the billionaire heiress, 34, was last seen.

She vanished while out for a jog around 4.30am on Friday, sparking a four-day long hunt for the mother-of-two.

The area where the body was found is just a hundred yards from the Longview Gardens apartment complex – where 38-year-old kidnapping suspect Cleotha Abston’s brother, Mario, lives.

Just prior to the announcement of the discovery of human remains, a large Memphis Police Department mobile command unit truck was moved into area. Reporters who were covering the search were also asked to move further back from the scene. 

A van believed to belong to the medical examiners unit left the scene six hours after the remains were found, and is thought to have been transporting the body. 

Photos from the scene showed a police helicopter circling above the search. Horrified neighbors gathered around the crime scene as the gruesome discovery was made. 

‘It’s emotional, it really hurts,’ April Jackson, 30, told DailyMail.com at 7.30pm, with the body yet to be removed.

‘That could have been anybody out jogging that morning, a student, anyone. And he was just released two years ago for another abduction and he gets out and does it again,’ she said. 

‘It makes me sick.’ She was out yesterday offering to aid the search, when police and a bloodhound were out in the area, within a couple hundred yards of the body. 

In the criminal complaint against Cleotha, witnesses were quoted as saying they saw the suspect at his brother’s home behaving strangely and washing the carpet of this 2013 GMC Terrain. 

The violent felon, accused of snatching billionaire heiress Eliza, had stalked the area she went missing from while jogging for almost 30 minutes before her abduction.

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Memphis jogger abducted on street, bundled into SUV is billionaire heiress

The Tennessee teacher who had been kidnapped while jogging early Friday morning is actually the heiress to a billion-dollar company.

Eliza Fletcher, 34, is the granddaughter to hardware magnate Joseph “Joe” Orgill III, whose wholesale family business, Orgill Inc., is described as “the world’s largest independent hardlines distributor with annual sales of $3 billion,” according to the company’s website. Fletcher’s family is now offering a $50,000 cash prize for information that leads to her rescue, according to the Daily Mail.

“We look forward to Eliza’s safe return and hope that this award will help police capture those who committed this crime,” Fletcher’s family said in a statement.

Orgill Inc. is a privately owned business and employs over 5,500 people. Fletcher is married to Richard “Richie” Fletcher III and a mother to their two children, according to the outlet.

In response to Fletcher’s kidnapping, her husband had “reportedly lawyered up,” according to reporter Melanie Moon.

Fletcher was last seen in a pair of purple jogging shorts and a pink top at around 4:20 a.m. on Friday morning before she was pushed into an SUV by an “unknown individual,” Memphis police said in a press release. She is approximately 5’6″ and 137 pounds with brown hair and green eyes, according to the release.

The suspect in this kidnapping is a man in a dark-colored vehicle and was traveling westbound on Central Avenue, according to police.

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