A fact from Bronfman kidnapping appeared on Wikipedia's Main Page in the Did you know column on 19 February 2023 (check views). The text of the entry was as follows:
Did you know... that a lawyer got his client acquitted of a 1975 kidnapping by accusing the victim of masterminding his own abduction—but in 2020 admitted that he had known it was a lie?
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... that an attorney got a client acquitted of a 1975 kidnapping by accusing the victim of masterminding his own abduction to extort money from his family, but in 2020 admitted he'd known it was a lie? Source: "Their conversations, he told the court, focused on Mr. Bronfman’s desire to shake down his family for cash; it was Sam’s idea to stage his own kidnapping." and "Following Mr. Lynch’s commanding performance, Mr. DeBlasio tailored his defense to fit with the hoax angle, telling the court what he knew to be an outright lie. “There was no kidnapping,” he said, addressing the jury. As for the F.B.I., he offered, “They should have been checking Sam Bronfman.” Mr. DeBlasio portrayed the Seagram heir as resentful that he had not “grown up the way the father wanted him.” Calling Mr. DeBlasio “brilliant,” Newsweek wrote that he “stirred jurors to his summation.” Two jurors told The Times they believed that Mr. Bronfman had indeed “engineered his own kidnapping.” Mr. De Blasio waited nearly 45 years to reveal that he had no doubt the story that convinced those jurors was false." Both from https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/12/nyregion/sam-bronfman-kidnapping-1975-confession-peter-deblasio.html , also "Back in 1976, Mr. DeBlasio secured an exoneration for his client, one of two charged with kidnapping, by persuading jurors that Mr. Bronfman staged the crime as a hoax to shake down his family for cash. But on Page 474 of Mr. DeBlasio’s book, I discovered, he said the opposite was true. “I want it to be clear to all who may ever read these pages that Samuel Bronfman was not a part of the kidnapping,” Mr. DeBlasio wrote. “I have always felt sorry for him.” at https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/03/insider/how-a-tip-to-obituaries-breathed-new-life-into-a-decades-old-mystery.html
@Valereee: (with help from Tamzin) Now that is a good crime hook. Article is new enough, long enough, neutral, and plagiarism-free; a few sourcing issues, though. I don't love that Legacy.com is being used as a source for key statements, I think the statement on Time on it being the largest ransom needs a timeliness clarification (the article was written in the '70s); also, there's a missing citation at the end of paragraph 2 of "Defense". Hook is cited and definitely interesting, but I got a bit lost while reading it for the first time. How about:
ALT0a: ... that two men were acquitted of kidnapping after their lawyer accused the victim of masterminding his own abduction—which the lawyer admitted was a lie 45 years later?
I agree the hook is overlong and has too many clauses. I actually did that that same clause out first, but it was such an interesting tidbit that I decided to see what someone else might think. ALT0a isn't actually accurate, the two men had different lawyers.
ALT0b: ... that a lawyer got his client acquitted of a 1975 kidnapping by accusing the victim of masterminding his own abduction—but in 2020 admitted he'd known it was a lie?
Pulled the one cite to the obit, as it wasn't needed, the only one left is just to support the name of his mother, and it's actually from a newspaper, just reprinted at Legacy.com. And it doesn't look like a family obit, I doubt the family would bring up the kidnapping in her obit. I wasn't able to find the original on Newspapers.com, but I found two other mentions of her. And dammit I couldn't re-find the unshakeable that I forgot to put the reference on, but I found a mesmerizing. :D Valereee (talk) 15:17, 16 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]