High profile ransom demands

01

Kidnapping of Adolfo Constanzo

Adolfo Constanzo ransomed cartel rivals, then ground their bones into ritual cauldrons. He believed the dead granted protection in drug wars. His cult operated openly in Matamoros until a missing U.S. student exposed the altar.

02

Kiki Camarena

No ransom note ever arrived. DEA agent Kiki Camarena was taken off a Guadalajara street in broad daylight, kept alive for 30 hours of recorded torture, then buried in a ranch. The tape was the only demand.

03

Ransom Room

Atahualpa filled a 22-foot room once with gold and twice with silver to purchase his freedom. Pizarro accepted the metal, pocketed the treasure, then had the Inca emperor strangled anyway in 1533.

04

Guadalajara cartel

The Guadalajara cartel tortured a federal agent for 30 hours while a physician monitored his vitals to keep him conscious. The screams were recorded. The tape surfaced as proof of what money could not fix.

05

John Paul Getty III

J. Paul Getty — then the world's richest man — refused his grandson's ransom until a severed ear arrived by post. He negotiated the $17 million demand down to $2.2 million, the maximum he could deduct on taxes.

06

Abu Sayyaf

Abu Sayyaf accumulated over $25 million in ransoms across the 2000s, running hostage-taking as a product line. Deadlines were not negotiable: late payments ended in beheadings filmed and distributed as marketing.

07

Patty Hearst

The Symbionese Liberation Army demanded $6 million in free food as Patty Hearst's ransom — then she picked up a rifle, renamed herself 'Tania,' and robbed a San Francisco bank with them 10 weeks later.

08

Entebbe raid

At Entebbe, hijackers sorted 248 passengers by passport — Jews to one side, non-Jews released. The remaining hostages were held in a terminal as ransom for 53 prisoners held across four countries. Israeli commandos flew 2,500 miles to answer.

09

Lacson-Enrile hostage crisis

Philippine senators arrived for work and found their own armed bodyguards had barricaded the Senate and issued ransom demands to the institution itself. The men sworn to protect the legislature held it hostage.

10

Tribulation of Dionysius of Syracuse

Dionysius of Syracuse was captured, ransomed himself for a negotiated fee, walked free, then immediately raised a new army and besieged the city that had just released him. The ransom funded the re-invasion.