#7: The $10,000 Ransom Letter
The pair mailed carefully typed instructions demanding $10,000 from Franks’s family, hoping to continue the kidnapping deception even after his death. The letter included complicated directions designed to make the ransom difficult for police to trace. Their plan unraveled because the body was found before payment could be completed. Once Franks had been identified, the elaborate ransom scheme became largely useless. Seven months of planning had collided with one discovery they had failed to anticipate.
