When Verne Sankey told his wife he and his gang were planning a kidnapping, he said, if “I don’t come back, don't identify my body.” Verne and his accomplice, Gordon Alcorn, were a pair of Depression-era outlaws whose successful high-profile kidnappings of Haskell Bohn, heir to Bohn Refrigeration, and millionaire Charles Boettcher II turned them into two of the most wanted criminals in the United States – in fact, their success inspired other gangsters to try kidnapping as a lucrative gig, and prompted FBI director J. Edgar Hoover to name Verne America's very first 'Public Enemy'.

<p>When Verne Sankey told his wife he and his gang were planning a kidnapping, he said, if “I don’t come back, don't identify my body.” Verne and his accomplice, Gordon Alcorn, were a pair of Depression-era outlaws whose successful high-profile kidnappings of Haskell Bohn, heir to Bohn Refrigeration, and millionaire Charles Boettcher II turned them into two of the most wanted criminals in the United States – in fact, their success inspired other gangsters to try kidnapping as a lucrative gig, and prompted FBI director J. Edgar Hoover to name Verne America's very first 'Public Enemy'.</p>

Humans have always committed crimes. What can we learn from the criminals and crimes of the past, and have humans gotten better or worse over time?

Criminalia

Verne Sankey and Gordon Alcorn and Their Depression-Era Kidnappings

https://api.omny.fm/orgs/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/clips/11c2d5c2-c984-4f29-8160-b209017b661a/transcript

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