The Bronfman Kidnap: Peter DeBlasio

In August 1975, Samuel Bronfman was kidnapped by two strangers. As his father was a multi-millionaire, the FBI suspected that money was the motive behind the abduction. But then, at the trial in 1976, one of the defending lawyers — Peter DeBlasio — spun a convincing and captivating tale that Samuel in fact masterminded his own kidnap. DeBlasio told the jury about Samuel’s homosexual affair with one of his captors, the resentment he felt towards his own father, and evidence that seemed to prove Samuel was not a victim at all. Months before his death in 2020, DeBlasio published a memoir that included a shameful deathbed confession: Samuel Bronfman was not involved in his own kidnap. What really happened during that infamous night in August 1975?

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