The F.B.I. refers to the 1972 Virginia Piper kidnapping as the most successful kidnapping in American history. In July of that year, Virginia Piper, socialite wife of Bobby Piper, the CEO of Piper, Jaffray and Hopwood, was abducted from her home, taken to Jay Cooke State Park near Duluth, and tied to a tree. The ransom demand was one million dollars.
My guest, William Swanson, with help from the Piper family, has meticulously researched a case that many Minnesotans still remember in vivid detail. The product of his hard work is the book “Stolen From the Garden: The Kidnapping of Virginia Piper”.
