Did I imagine this hostage situation?

September 27, 2010 2:54 PM

Was there a hostage situation involving executives or heirs of Dow Chemical in the late 80's or early 90's?

A standoff? A shootout? A hostage situation?

As I recall, there was a standoff lasting a couple of days at the mansion of some higher-up from Dow, involving hostages who may have been family members.

Although I was a teen and mostly uninterested in the news, this story really knocked me over, and it seems even more interesting than it used to when I think of it now. So if I'm three quarters wrong about the premise, I'd still love to know the real story.

I can't find any info about it now. I don't know if that's because my search capabilities aren't good enough, because it never happened, or because "The Dow" really does make searching news archives for this topic impossible.

posted by heatvision to Law & Government (4 answers total)

Are you sure you aren't thinking of the DuPont family? Most of the crazy in chemical families comes from them.
posted by The Bellman at 2:58 PM on September 27, 2010

Best answer: Could you possibly be thinking of one of these two high-profile crimes connected with heirs to the du Pont chemical fortune? Note that the first one involved a multi-day standoff with the police.
posted by dersins at 3:00 PM on September 27, 2010

There was also a Du Pont heir was was kidnapped in the early 1990s in a cult deprogramming thing, if I recall correctly. Here's some info.
posted by The Bellman at 3:05 PM on September 27, 2010 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: Hey I bet I was thinking of DuPont! Thanks y'all!
posted by heatvision at 3:31 PM on September 27, 2010