Today in History - January 23: After two months in captivity, the only people who didn't hate him were his kidnappers

A Belgian-French industrialist and nobleman was kidnapped on the streets of Paris on January 23, 1978.

Baron Eduoard-Jean Empain's Peugeot was intercepted by several armed men after a faked moped accident in its path.

The next day, guerilla organisation Armed Core Groups for Popular Autonomy claimed responsibility for the kidnapping in a call to a radio station.

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But the police knew they were lying.

The same day, the real kidnappers had contacted the baron's family and told them to go to a locker at a busy train station.

Inside, they found Empain's identity card, a ransom note demanding 80 million francs, and his pinkie finger.

The ransom note said more of the businessman's body parts would follow if they didn't pay.

Police instructed the family not to pay the enormous sum of money.

Meanwhile, officers tipped off the media to reports of the baron's infidelities and gambling debts.

The prevailing theory spreading throughout France was that Empain had kidnapped himself to pay back his poker losses.

After two months with no ransom, the kidnappers halved their demands.

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A rendezvous between the kidnappers and what turned out to be an undercover policeman posing as the Baron's aide turned bloody.

Two officers were injured and one kidnapper was killed, while another was arrested.

Two days later, Empain was abandoned on a street on the south side of Paris with a ten-franc note to get home.

He had been kept in relative darkness for two months and had not been able to walk in that time.

Empain managed to call his wife to let her know he had been released.

He arrived home to a cold shoulder, with his wife only saying: "I knew you were going out that evening."

During his captivity, his family and France as a whole had come to regard Empain as a cheat and a scoundrel.

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It didn't take long for him to get divorced, saying that he preferred the prison of his captivity to the prison of his marriage.

"I expected to be welcomed differently. Instead of friendship and love, they immediately spoke to me, without waiting for me to recover, about a number of facts from my private life," he said later.

The only people who had thought more positively of Empain following the ordeal were his kidnappers.

Kidnapper Alain Caillol later remarked the group had experienced "Stockholm syndrome in reverse".

"He dominated us morally," Caillol said.

"Everyone saw in him the dream of what he wanted to be: handsome, rich, powerful, intelligent."

Empain would forgive his kidnappers for their crime, but not the police.

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