Pop the name "Boettcher" at ten pedestrians and nine are likely to answer "kidnapping." Snatched one night in February 1933 while he and his wife were putting their car away, Charles Boettcher 2nd of Denver was kept prisoner 17 days on a South Dakota ranch, released just before $60,000 ransom was paid. In a Sioux Falls penitentiary one year later, Verne Sankey, 'legger, made a noose of two cravats and hanged himself just before he was to plead guilty to the Boettcher kidnapping (TIME, Feb. 19). Last week in Pierre, S. Dak. the trial...
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