MIKE GRACIA

Ronald William Howard is a director, producer, screenwriter,
and actor. He first came to prominence as a child actor,
guest-starring in several television series, including an
episode of The Twilight Zone. 


He is best known for playing young Opie Taylor, the son 
of Sheriff Andy Taylor (played by Andy Griffith) in the
sitcom The Andy Griffith Show from 1960 through 1968. He
is 69 years old today.  

1973

1976

1995

On March 1, 1932, in a crime that captured the attention of the
entire nation, Charles Lindbergh, Jr., the 20-month-old son of
aviation hero Charles Lindbergh, was kidnapped from the
family’s  new mansion in Hopewell, New Jersey. Lindbergh,
who became an international celebrity when he flew the first
solo flight across the Atlantic Ocean in 1927, and his wife
Anne discovered a ransom note demanding $50,000 in their
son’s empty room.

The Lindberghs were inundated by offers of assistance and
false clues. Even Al Capone offered his help from prison. For
three days, investigators found nothing and there was no
further word from the kidnappers. Then, a new letter showed
up, this time demanding $70,000.

Soon after an exhaustive search, the baby’s lifeless body was
discovered near the Lindbergh mansion. He had been killed
the night of the kidnapping and was found less than a mile
from home. The Lindberghs ended up donating the mansion
to charity and moved away.

The kidnapper used a ladder (above) to climb up to the open second-floor window and left muddy footprints in the room. 

Charles Augustus Lindbergh.

BRIAN THOMAS

Charles Augustus Lindbergh
(February 4, 1902 – August 26, 1974)

CAMILLE
BOHANNON

Patricia Campbell Hearst (born February 20, 1954)

On February 4, 1974, Patty Hearst (above), the 19-year-old
granddaughter of newspaper publisher William Randolph
Hearst, was kidnapped from her apartment in Berkeley,
California, by three armed strangers. Her fiancee, Stephen
Weed, was beaten and tied up along with a neighbor who
tried to help.

Three days later, the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA),
a small U.S. leftist group, announced in a letter to a local
radio station that it was holding Hearst as a “prisoner of
war.” Four days later, the SLA demanded that the Hearst
family give $70 in foodstuffs to every needy person from
Santa Rosa to Los Angeles. This done, said the SLA,
negotiation would begin for the return of Patricia Hearst.

In April, however, the situation changed dramatically when
a surveillance camera took a photo of Hearst participating
in an armed robbery of a San Francisco bank (below), and
she was also spotted during a robbery of a Los Angeles
store. She later declared, in a tape sent to the authorities,
that she had joined the SLA of her own free will.

Despite her claim that she had been brainwashed by the
SLA, Hearst was arrested on September 18, 1975 and
convicted of armed robbery on March 20, 1976. She was
sentenced to seven years in prison. She served 21 months
before her sentence was commuted by President Carter.

After leaving prison, she returned to a routine existence
and later married her bodyguard who died in 2013. She
was pardoned by President Clinton in January 2001.

Patty Hearst will be 67 years old on February
20.