The cheering continued to the doorstep of the lavish Peugeot apartment as Eric's father held him securely wrapped in a blanket. The press asked Mr. Roland Peugeot for a statement. The teary-eyed dad replied, "I can't say anything." The photographer's flashbulbs went off like lightning, stunning and surprising little Eric, who wondered what all the fuss was about.

But as far as the police were concerned, the affair was far from over. Police Inspector Albert Gillet, told the media "Now everything is being done to find the kidnappers as quickly as possible."

The police investigated leads from France, Spain, Turkey, and the United States. Interpol tried to trace the money by using lists of serial numbers. Their efforts were fruitless. Then, 11 months later, they got a tip from a mysterious mobster.

The anonymous source told Interpol he knew of two unseemly and unemployed characters living in the lap of luxury. The tipster thought the suspicious-looking men might be the kidnappers.

Meanwhile, at Mégéve, a posh ski resort in the Alps region of France, Raymond Rolland and his current lover Ingelise Bodin, a Danish beauty queen, were lying in bed at a luxurious ski chalet.

"Oooh, Raymond! I think I had too much champagne!" said a hungover Lise as she tried to get out of bed.

"Nonsense!" Raymond replied as he pulled the 20-year-old blonde back under the sheets. "One can never have too much... of anything!"

"Oh, Ray! Not now. I'm hungry. Let's get breakfast."

"I thought you had a headache. How can you eat with a headache?"

"I always get hungry when I have a headache... or a hangover."

"I don't suppose you'd want caviar again for breakfast."

"No, I don't. Now get up, you lazy bad boy!"

At that moment, the two lovers were startled by a loud pounding on the door.

"POLICE! You're under arrest!"

Before the couple could respond, a swarm of cops entered the room. "Okay, you two, put some clothes on, and don't try anything foolish," commanded one of the policemen. As soon as they half-dressed themselves, the cops cuffed them.

When Raymond and Ingelise arrived at the police headquarters, they met their accomplices: mastermind Pierre Larcher and his mistress Rolande Niemezyk, Ray's friend Jean-Simon Rotman and his female companion – a French-Japanese exotic dancer named Mitsouko.

The police grilled a wearied Raymond for 45 hours before he fainted from the stress. Once he recovered, he confessed everything along with Pierre. They included details like what they did with the typewriter they borrowed to write the ransom note - dumping it in the Seine. They described how they torched the getaway car used in the kidnapping and where the police could find it. They even told them where the rest of the ransom money was, less than six million francs ($11,500) - Pierre had locked it in the trunk of his Fiat.

Their luck had run out, as well as the loot. Their only legacy was their greed and their malicious brush with fame.

Story Copyright © 2023 by Michael DeFrancesco