Ransom

A gunman invaded the Anneslie home of a bank manager yesterday and forced his wife, who is more than eight months pregnant with her first child, to telephone a $50,000 ransom demand to him at the bank. The extortion attempt failed, however.It was the second incident in two weeks of a bank employee's family being threatened for ransom. On Feb. 21, two children of a NationsBank teller were abducted for ransom in Pimlico.Yesterday, a man posing as a flower deliveryman knocked on the door of the home of Scott and Sheila Ann Gomsak in the 500 block of Regester Ave., police said.

Homebound patients can get house callsWe are writing in response to Myra Welsh's Oct. 31 letter to the editor to let her and other readers know that there are programs that have nurse practitioners and doctors who will visit homebound patients.In the Geriatric Nurse Practitioner House Call program at Bon Secours Hospital, a nurse practitioner visits homebound patients and provides primary care for them just as a physician would.Nurse practitioners are licensed in Maryland to perform physical exams, order tests and prescribe medicine.

I judge thrillers strictly on the twitch factor. That is, if I'm sitting there and suddenly someone is going "ULP!" "OOF!" and "AGH!" and punching the air, and annoying everybody around him, and that person is me, the movie deserves a friendly reception.What those spasms signify, of course, is that the story has gotten beyond the rational brain and connected with the subconscious. It has taken over, like the critter inside John Hurt's belly in "Alien." It's running the show.On that scale, then, "Ransom" gets three "Ulps," a couple of "Oofs" but only one "Agh!"

TOKYO -- The Japanese government approved a payment 10 years ago to left-wing guerrillas who threatened the life of its ambassador in Peru, in an incident oddly similar to the current hostage crisis in Lima, a Japanese newspaper reported yesterday.The Asahi Shimbun, a widely respected newspaper with good contacts in the government, said that in 1986 the Japanese ambassador was sent a letter warning that he would be killed unless he paid a ransom, and that this threat was delivered during an embassy party in Lima.

UPPER MARLBORO -- Walt Disney Co. was sued by the International Associations of Machinists yesterday over the labor group's portrayal in the hit film "Ransom," which has a reference to a corrupt Machinists official.The suit, filed in Prince George's County Circuit Court, seeks $50 million in compensatory damages, plus punitive damages, for allegedly injuring the union's reputation.The film describes a person known as a corrupt "Machinists Union" official who accepts a $250,000 bribe to prevent a strike.

THE KIDNAPPERS who held Mamoru Konno captive nine days in Tijuana until his company paid $2 million in ransom did more than organized labor or Pat Buchanan or Ross Perot to discourage investment in Mexico.Mr. Konno is the head of a U.S. subsidiary of a giant Japanese corporation, Sanyo Electric, with an office in San Diego and a television assembly plant across the border making sets for the U.S. and other markets. He lives in a suburb of San Diego near the border.That way, the Japanese executives could live a U.S. life while paying Mexican wages.

Long shot Word O'Ransom had everything her way in the $37,625 Stefanita Stakes yesterday at Laurel Park.The 15-to-1 choice sped into the lead at the start and went on to a front-running victory under Omar Klinger, her third in the past four starts.With Klinger aboard, Word O'Ransom is 5-for-5, prompting the jockey to say: "I guess she likes me."The score was the first of two straight for trainer Mary Eppler, who completed the last of the day's running daily doubles with P. J. Higgins ($10 straight)

It has been nearly six months since federal agents raided a three-bedroom brick house in Prince George's County where, they said, dozens of illegal Chinese immigrants were being held for ransom at gunpoint and frequently beaten.Yesterday, as a federal trial opened in Baltimore for five of their alleged captors, an aura of violence continued to surround the case.Many of the 51 hostages prosecutors say were found in squalid conditions in the basement of the house claim to have been threatened with harm if they cooperate in the case, according to court records.

Gasp! Incredibly beautiful and famous television newswoman kills famous author after attempted rape! Handsome big-time lawyer, father of newswoman's son and pretty famous himself, defends her! And that's just the beginning!The contest for best trash novel of the year may be over, and this is only January. Richard North Patterson's "Degree of Guilt" contains average prose, a frequently telegraphed plot and some unintentionally hilarious dialogue.It's also going to fly off the bookstore shelves.

Only 45 percent of the 35,000 vehicles involved in traffic accidents in Baltimore in 1989 were registered in the city, according to a study that will be used to back efforts to limit the impact geography has on automobile insurance rates.And while claims resulting from the accidents are supposed to be listed in the area where a vehicle is registered, the study found no method for verifying that the reassignment actually occurs, said the study's author.Les Ransom, an insurance consultant who wrote the study, also said yesterday that in Maryland, automobile "insurance rates are the highest where the percentage of minority residents is highest."

Adrift with his captors in sight of U.S. warships, the American sea captain being held for ransom by Somali pirates briefly escaped their lifeboat by jumping overboard, a U.S. official said Friday, but was recaptured and brought back. The U.S. military said Richard Phillips, who was taken by the pirates from the U.S.-flagged Maersk Alabama on Wednesday, appeared unharmed after the escape attempt. The military, which has been maintaining real-time video surveillance via an unmanned drone overhead, observed him moving around on the lifeboat after he was recaptured.

On November 6, 2008, EVELYN E. RANSOM. On Tuesday, friends may call at the VAUGHN C. GREENE FUNERAL SERVICES, 5151 Baltimore National Pike from 3 to 7 P.M. On Wednesday, Mrs. Ransom will lie in state at Morning Star Baptist Church of Christ, 1063 W. Fayette Street, where the family will receive friends from 10 to 10:30 A.M with services to follow. In lieu of flowers, all donations should go to the church listed above in the name of Evelyn E. Ransom. Inquiries to (410) 233-2400.

An Edgewater woman whose pit bull was shot and killed by an Anne Arundel County police officer last fall has filed a $3 million lawsuit, alleging the officer was reckless and used excessive force. The lawsuit accuses the unnamed police officer of attempting to enter the home of Deborah Ransom, 58, on Nov. 28, when the dog "enthusiastically and gently" pulled at the officer's sleeve, according to court records. With Ransom and her teenage daughter, Tiffany Hancock, standing just a few feet away, the officer shot the dog in the back.

On May 4, 2007, NELLIE RANSOM. Friends may call at the FAMILY OWNED MARCH FUNERAL HOME EAST, 1101 E. North Avenue on Wednesday, after 8 am where the family will receive friends on Thursday, at 9:30 am. Funeral Services will follow at 10 am.

NEW YORK -- Walgreen Co., the largest U.S. drugstore chain, agreed yesterday to buy Happy Harry's Inc. drugstore chain, its biggest purchase ever, to expand into Delaware. Walgreen is acquiring all 76 Happy Harry's stores in Delaware, Pennsylvania, Maryland and New Jersey, and Happy Harry's corporate office and distribution center in Newark, Del., the retailer said. Financial terms weren't disclosed. Walgreen, which operates 5,251 stores in 45 states and Puerto Rico, typically grows by building stores instead of through acquisitions as has rival CVS Corp.

On April 15, 2006, RANSOM PUGH, SR. Loving husband of Rebecca Pugh On Friday, friends may call at VAUGHN C. GREENE FUNERAL SERVICES, 4905 York Road, where the family will receive friends from 3:00 to 8:00 P.M. On Saturday, services will be held at 1st Charity Baptist Church, 611 N. Aisquith Street, where the family will receive friends from 9:00 to 9:30 A.M. with services to follow. Inquiries to (410) 433-7500.

A week after a Harford County man was kidnapped, only to be found dead even though his relatives paid thousands of dollars in ransom, investigators have no solid leads in the case, police said yesterday. Jeryl Anthony Singleterry, 29, of Edgewood was unemployed and had no criminal record, police said. Police have no evidence that Singleterry was involved in drugs or anything else illegal, said Bill Toohey, a county police spokesman. "He's a victim," Toohey said, "not a suspect." Police said that kidnapping for ransom is a rare crime and that killing after a kidnapping is even more unusual.

Man believed abducted is found dead in van A Harford County man believed kidnapped Monday afternoon was found dead early yesterday in his minivan, hours after his family had reported dropping off thousands of dollars in ransom money, police said. Shortly before 5 a.m., a resident of the 5100 block of McFaul Road in the Holland Hills section of Rosedale, near Interstate 95, called police to report that a green 1996 Chrysler Town & Country minivan fitting the description of the missing man's vehicle was parked on his street.

Almanac-- Nov. 24--1859: British naturalist Charles Darwin published On the Origin of Species, which explained his theory of evolution. 1971: Hijacker "D.B. Cooper" parachuted from a Northwest Airlines 727 over Washington state with $200,000 in ransom -- his fate remains unknown.

A Harford County man who might have been kidnapped Monday remained missing yesterday, despite his family paying at least $10,000 in ransom for his return, police said. Jeryl Anthony Singleterry, 26, of Edgewood was last seen about 5 p.m. Monday driving a green 1996 minivan with Chesapeake Bay tags 23048CB, moments after leaving his grandmother's house on East Hoffman Street in Baltimore, police said. Several times Monday night, Singleterry and a man who might have been the kidnapper contacted the family about where to drop off ransom money - an undisclosed site in eastern Baltimore County.