Ransom

President Reagan said today that he and his aides talked about paying money to win the release of American hostages, "but I never thought of that as ransom. " Reagan also said he has seen no evidence "that I've been mortally wounded" by the Iran-Contra scandal and that Americans do not "seem to be unhappy about what we've been doing here. " Asked about a claim by his former national security adviser, Robert C. McFarlane, that Reagan had approved paying $2 million in bribes and ransom in an effort to free American hostages in Lebanon, Reagan said: "I am having some trouble remembering that.

Three gunmen have kidnapped Jennifer Guinness, the wife of a prominent Dublin banker who is distantly related to the Guinness brewing family, and demanded a ransom of $2.6 million, police announced yesterday. Jennifer Guinness, 48, was taken from her suburban Dublin home Tuesday afternoon by three armed and masked men, who, as they left, made a demand for two million Irish pounds in ransom (about $2.6 million). Guinness' husband, John, 51, is chairman of Guinness & Mahon, a Dublin merchant bank.

One of the most destructive pressures on government is the constant, mindless pressure to "do something. " In some cases calculated inaction is the most effective form of action. In most others doing nothing is far preferable to whatever the proponents of the latest "new idea" have in mind. Nowhere is the virtue of doing nothing greater than in certain phases of a hostage situation. In dealing with terrorists, there is a place for stern retaliatory action. But with regard to the demands of terrorist kidnappers, it must be made incandescently and even brutally clear that the government will not be budged from its commitment to do precisely nothing.

The three men insisted there was money in the house. But their efforts to get two men and a woman to tell them where it was were unavailing yesterday, despite torturing with a hot iron and kidnapping, police said. First a man was driven around in the trunk of his car. Then the woman and her infant daughter were driven around in the car trunk. A ransom call could not be completed because the kidnappers had chosen a pay phone that did not take incoming calls, cops said.

Mel Gibson and Ron Howard, who combined for more than a half-dozen Oscars last year with "Braveheart" and "Apollo 13," join forces this year in the kidnap thriller "Ransom. " But don't expect a passel of nominations for "Ransom," a picture a little too grim and nasty for the Academy's taste. Don't expect Gibson to care, either. He already has his "Braveheart" hardware, and he pocketed $20 million up front for "Ransom. " Mel's $20 million payoff is worth mentioning insofar as "Ransom" - though billed as a suspense yarn - is really a movie about the widely heralded split in this society between the Haves and the Haven'ts.

Through a scratchy cell-phone connection, a man's voice told a frightened Barbara Pratt that he had her granddaughter and that it would cost "a hundred and fifty" to get the child back. "A hundred and fifty dollars?" Pratt asked. No, the man told her. He wanted $150,000. "Or they was going to kill my granddaughter. " Barbara Pratt yesterday told the harrowing story of the kidnapping in July of 7-year-old Erica Pratt as a trial began in Common Pleas Court for James Burns, 30, one of two men accused of abducting the girl.

Two men have been charged with conspiracy and receiving stolen property after police said that they attempted to collect $2,000 in ransom Friday by saying they were being held hostage. Police said Keith Paddyfoot, 24, of Rhinecliff, N.Y., and Brian Jarratt, 19, of the 2200 block of Grubbs Mill Road, Berwyn, told Paddyfoot's family on Friday that they had been kidnapped and would be released if the family sent $2,000 to the Western Union office in Paoli. The family reported the incident to New York state police, who contacted Pennsylvania state police in Embreeville, Chester County.

Nicknames used in a ransom note were critical clues that helped Upper Merion police crack the weeklong mystery that gripped the region and Asian Indians around the world after Monday's discovery of the throat-slashed body of 61-year-old Satayrathi Venna, and the disappearance of her 10-month-old granddaughter Saanvi. On Friday, law enforcement announced the baby's body was discovered around 4:30 a.m. in an unused basement sauna at the Marquis Apartments in King of Prussia, where she and her father, Venkata Konda "Siva" Venna, and mother, Chenchu "Latha" Punuru, shared a sixth-floor apartment.

An ambulance works its way down Fifth Avenue, sirens screaming, the wintry trees of Central Park to one side, the luxury apartments of Manhattan's elite on the other. So begins Ransom, announcing from the outset that disaster can strike anyone, any time. Even the Mullen family - an airline CEO, his wife and their young son - ensconced in a penthouse with Hopper paintings and designer furniture, is not immune. And sure enough, in a quietly chilling abduction that occurs in broad daylight in Central Park, towheaded Sean Mullen (Brawley Nolte, son of Nick)

"As low a price as possible," cautioned Thomas Jefferson, as he dispatched his negotiators to ransom U.S. seamen from the clutches of the Muslim terrorists of his day. Good advice, a commendable regard for the taxpayer's dollar, but since the Barbary pirates had the keys to the dungeons and Jefferson didn't, it didn't cut much ice in Barbary. Jefferson was to learn, as Ronald Reagan has, to endure the chafing "degrading yoke" of having to pay off terrorists to get his people back.

Ernest L. Ransome III, 86, of Okatie, S.C., and formerly of Camden County, a nationally ranked college athlete who earned the 1995 Ike Grainger Award from the U.S. Golf Association for more than 25 years of volunteer work, died Sunday, May 5, at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston. A 16-year resident of Okatie, he previously resided at Pine Valley Golf Club in Pine Valley, Camden County, a daughter, Elizabeth Ransome, said Tuesday. Mr. Ransome since 1988 had been board chairman of his family firm, Giles & Ransome Inc., distributor of heavy construction equipment, with headquarters in Bensalem.

On March 1, 1932, the 20-month-old son of the aviator Charles A. Lindbergh was kidnapped for ransom from the family's Hunterdon County, N.J., mansion in a crime that stunned the nation and remains the subject of doubt and speculation more than 80 years later. Now the PBS science program Nova is weighing in on the case, relying on behavioral science and forensics to try to solve it. But, as in past efforts, the program, scheduled to air at 9 p.m. Wednesday on WHYY TV12, offers answers to some questions but raises others as well.

UGUETH URBINA was released from prison on Saturday after serving about 5 1/2 years of his 14-year sentence. Time off for good behavior, they said. What was his crime? He tried to slice and burn two farm workers suspected of trespassing on his family's Venezuelan ranch. The attack came just 2 weeks after Urbina pitched two-thirds of an inning in the Phillies' final game of 2005. In what was his last big-league season, Urbina went 4-3 with a save and a 4.13 ERA for the Phils. He came to Philadelphia along with Ramon Martinez from Detroit in June in exchange for Placido Polanco, who was traded so that a young Chase Utley could get more at-bats.

RAGHUNANDAN "Raghu" Yandamuri had money troubles. After losing $50,000 gambling at casinos and running up a $26,268 debt on nine credit cards, the software engineer filed for bankruptcy in California and moved to Pennsylvania for a fresh start. Now, Yandamuri no doubt longs for the days when debt was his worst problem. On Wednesday, he'll be in court in Montgomery County to answer charges that he murdered a baby girl and her grandmother last month in their King of Prussia apartment in a failed ransom scheme.

Rashivar Karnati didn't know. He shared an apartment in San Jose, Calif., with Raghunandan Yandamuri in 2011, but could recall only one time his roommate visited a casino in Reno. Chendu Tummala had met Yandamuri years earlier in undergraduate school in India. Long after both men moved to the United States, they still hewed to Indian traditions and would never have discussed Yandamuri's gambling problem. "Asking financial information is not a good thing," Tummala told me. "We didn't even know he had filed for bankruptcy.

Nicknames used in a ransom note were critical clues that helped Upper Merion police crack the weeklong mystery that gripped the region and Asian Indians around the world after Monday's discovery of the throat-slashed body of 61-year-old Satayrathi Venna, and the disappearance of her 10-month-old granddaughter Saanvi. On Friday, law enforcement announced the baby's body was discovered around 4:30 a.m. in an unused basement sauna at the Marquis Apartments in King of Prussia, where she and her father, Venkata Konda "Siva" Venna, and mother, Chenchu "Latha" Punuru, shared a sixth-floor apartment.

FOR THREE DAYS, Raghunandan "Ragu" Yandamuri seemed the most caring of friends. After someone killed Satyavathi Venna and kidnapped her 10-month-old granddaughter, Saanvi, from the family's King of Prussia apartment Monday, Yandamuri attended a candlelight vigil and helped create and distribute fliers offering a reward for the baby's safe return. To show support for the family, he even visited the Upper Merion Police Department, where Saanvi's parents, Venkata Venna and Chenchu Latha Punuru, camped out with investigators, desperately waiting for any word of their missing infant.

The body of a missing 10-month-old child has been found at the King of Prussia apartment complex where she was snatched as her grandmother tried to save her life, authorities said today. The body of Saanvi Venna was discovered at 4:30 a.m. in a basement area of the apartment building, said Montgomery County District Attorney Risa Ferman. Police arrested Raghunanean Yandamuri, a family friend, who they said had sought a $50,000 ransom. Yandamuri, who lives in the same Marquis apartments complex, left a chilling ransom note.

A 34-year-old Kensington man who the prosecutor said tried to eliminate a witness by cornering and shooting him like an arcade animal was sentenced Wednesday to up to 60 years in prison. Hector Trinidad said nothing before Common Pleas Court Judge Lillian H. Ransom sentenced him for the Dec. 27, 2008 attempted murder of Roberto Rosado. Ransom was similarly silent and simply announced a 27-1/2 to 60 years in prison for shooting Rosado, 30, as he was about to enter his mother's Thayer Street house for a holiday dinner.