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Virginia Piper, wife of Harry “Bobby” Piper, the chairman and CEO of the Minneapolis, Minnesota investment firm Piper, Jaffray and Hopwood, Inc. — was kidnapped on July 27, 1972 while gardening outside her Orono home. She was held chained to a tree for two nights in Jay Cooke State Park near Duluth. After receiving payment of ransom of $1 million from Virginia's husband, the kidnappers called an unconnected person and told them of her location. Shortly after, Piper was found and released by the FBI.
The kidnapping received not only regional but national attention because of the prominence of the victim and her husband, the time (broad daylight) and location (a large and opulent estate) of her kidnapping, the time of the arrest of the two men eventually charged with the kidnapping (just days before the five-year statute of limitations expired in 1977), the acquittal on appeal in 1979 of the two men, and the fact that only $4000 of the one million paid to the kidnappers was ever recovered.