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The FBI experts found something startling in the letter: parts of it were taken almost verbatim from the ransom message delivered in the 1968 kidnaping of Barbara Jane Mackle in Georgia (see box page 13), who had indeed been buried in a box. But FBI agents theorized that Sam's abductors were stressing the Mackle resemblance to mislead police. The FBI doubted that Sam really was buried.
MONDAY. Edgar Bronfman left his estate by helicopter to assemble the huge amount of cash in Manhattan. A tape recording arrived by mail at his Park Avenue apartment. It contained Sam's voice, assuring his father that he was well but pleading for prompt payment of the ransom. Sam said he wanted to come home.
At Yorktown, the family restlessly waited out developments in the large English Tudor house. They mostly sat and talked to one another, sometimes napping fitfully by day, sleeping little at night. Young Adam, described as especially fond of his brother, tried to entice others into Monopoly games to pass the anguished hours. A score of FBI agents arrived at the estate to advise the family and monitor events. Up to 50 reporters and photographers kept vigil at the gates. Helicopters came and went, each flight sending rumors through the ranks of the watching press.
TUESDAY. Specific instructions for the ransom delivery were conveyed in tele phone calls to the Yorktown house. Apparently realizing the impracticality of handling $4.6 million in the denominations asked—the mass would weigh about 1,000 Ibs.—the kidnapers cut their demand in half, now asking for $2.3 million. The drop was set for Wednesday night. Bronfman was to put the money in a car and personally take it to John F. Kennedy International Airport, then wait at a specific public telephone booth.
The newspaper ads signaling cooperation with the kidnapers appeared in three New York newspapers. At least one had been placed by an FBI agent —a fact quickly discovered and reported by the city's highly competitive newspapers. It read:
JACK PLEASE COME HOME.
Your mother is very anxious, we will be happier in the future. FRED DOLLARD
WEDNESDAY. The kidnapers sent another taped message to the family. In it Sam expressed alarm over the newspaper accounts of ransom negotiations and urged that such reporting be cut off. He said that the revelations could endanger his life. (Justice Department and FBI officials in Washington shared this concern over press disclosures and talked of taking legal action against newspapers if Sam were harmed as a result.) The tape included music playing faintly in the background, reassuringly indicating that Sam was not buried. But FBI analysts learned that the tape might have been erased twice, then recorded a third time. The family feared that Sam might have been in bad condition or hysterical and had had to retape the message to suit his captors.