The First
“One day last March, Bridget Flynn, a school librarian who lives in Philadelphia, was searching for an old family drawing to print on the invitations to her daughter Rebecca’s bridal shower. As she and Rebecca rummaged through the several generations of family artifacts—letters, photographs, an envelope of hair cuttings—she keeps in plastic bins in her basement, they found a stack of small envelopes tied together with a black shoelace.
“ ‘Oh, honey, these are love letters,’ Flynn said.”
But they weren’t love letters. They were ransom notes. Read the whole story—or as much as can be pieced together—of the first ransom notes sent in America (Past Imperfect).
From 3 of 5
“If this letter changes the course of events for these newborns, then perhaps our lives will have served a higher purpose.”—From a warning letter the three surviving Dionne quintuplets sent to the parents of the McCaughey septuplets (Letters of Note).