An audacious kidnapping in 1970s Paris
HistoryExtra podcast
00:00
The French Police Response to Wado's Abduction
The French police in the beginning were stymied. They tapped their informants, nobody knew anything. So for a long time, they just came up empty. But one of the key aspects of the police response was that the police chief, Pierre Otavioli, insisted that no ransom be paid. He would lure them with the promise of a fake ransom and try to capture at least one of them is a counter hostage. Once you have a hostage, then you can use that hostage to put pressure on his Confederates to release the Baron. And in the end, it worked.
Play episode from 14:44
Transcript
