The Evening News (84 page)

The male hostage, Sven, described his captors as
"kind
“
Elisabeth agreed
.
Stockholm's police, waging a war of attrition to free the prisoners
,
encountered hostility
from them. Kristin said by telephone that she
trusted the robbers, adding "I want you to let us go away with them .
.
. They have been very nice
.”
Of Olsson, she declared, "He is protecting
us from the police
.”

"
th
en told "
The police will not harm you,
“
Kristin
replied, "I do not believe it
“
It was revealed later that Kristin held hands with the younger
criminal, Ol
sson. She told an investigator, "Clark gave me tenderness
.”
And after the hostages' release, while being taken by stretcher to an a
mbulance, Kristin called to Ol
sson, "Clark, I'll see you again
.”
Lab technicians searching the vault found traces of semen. Following a
week of questioning, one of the women, while denying having had sex, said
that during one night while others were asleep she helped Olsson to
masturbate. Investigators, while skeptical about the no-sex statement
,
dropped the matter
.
During questioning by doctors the freed hostages referred to police as
"the enemy
”
and believed it was the criminals to whom they owed their
lives. Elisabeth accused a doctor of attempting to "brainwash away
”
her
regard
for Olsson and Olaf
fsson
.
In 1974, nearly a year after the b
ank drama, Birgitta visited Ol
sson
in jail, conversing with him for half an hour
.
Investigating doctors eventually declared the hostages' reaction typical
of anyone caught in "survival situations
.”
They quoted Anna Freud who
described such reactions as "identification with the aggressor
.”
But it
took the Swedish bank drama to create a permanent, memorable name.- the
Stockholm syndrome.

"Hey, that's neat, Mom
,”
Nicky called out
.”
I never knew all that, Jessie
,”
Angus added
.
Nicky asked, "Got any more good stuff
?
”

Jessica was pleased
.”
A little
.”

Once more she drew on her memories of the Britisher, Brigadier Wade
.”
I
have two pieces of advice for you
,”
he once told his anti-terrorist
class
.”
First, if you're a captive and a hostage: Beware the Stockholm
syndrome
!
Second, when dealing with terrorists keep in mind that 'Love
your enemies' is vapid nonsense. At the other extreme, don't squander
time and effort hating terrorists, because hate is a wasteful, draining
emotion. Just never for a moment trust them, or like them, and never stop
thinking of them as the enemy
.”

Jessica repeated the Wade advice for Nicky and Angus. She went on to
describe airplane hijackings where people who had been seized and abused
developed friendly feelings for their attackers. This proved true with
the infamous TWA flight 847
i
n 1985 when some passengers expressed sympathy for the Shiite hijackers and expounded their captors' propagandist views
.
More recently, Jessica explained, a released hostage from the Middle East-a
pathetic figure, clearly another victim of the Stockholm syndrome-even
delivered a message from his jailers to the Pope and the U.S. President
,
gaining much publicity while he did. The nature of the message was not
disclosed, though unofficially it was called banal and pointless
.
Of even greater concern to those who understood the Stockholm syndrome was
the case of kidnap victim Patricia Hearst. Unfortunately for Hearst, who
was arrested in 1975 and tried the following year for alleged crimes while
dominated by her brutish captors, the events in Stockholm were not
sufficiently known to allow either sympathy or justice. Speaking at one of
the Wade anti-terrorist sessions, an American lawyer declared, "In legal
and intellectual values the Patty Hearst trial must be equated with the
Salem witchcraft trials of 1692
.”

He added, "Knowing what we do now, and
remembering that the wrong done was recognized by President Carter who
commuted her prison sentence, it will be a dark day of shame for our
country if Patricia Hearst is allowed to die unpardoned
.”

"So what you're saying, Jessie
,”
Angus said, "is not to be taken in by
Vicente's seeming easy. He's still an enemy
.”

"If he weren't
,”
Jessica pointed out, "we could just walk out of here while
he's guarding us
.”

“
Which we know we can't
.”

Angus directed his voice to the middle cell
.”
Have you got that, Nicky? Your mom's right and you and I were wrong
.”

Nicky nodded glumly, without speaking. One of the sadnesses of this
incarceration, Jessica thought, was that Nicky was being faced---earlier
than would have happened normally -with some harsh realities of human
infamy.

As always in Peru, the developing news concerning the Sloane family
kidnapping traveled over the longest distances and to the country's
remotest places by radio
.
The first news of the linkage of Peru and Sendero Luminoso to the
kidnapping was reported on Saturday, the day following
the CBA National Evening News broadcast in which the exclusive material assembled by the network's special task force was revealed. While the kidnapping h
ad been reported earlier by Perr
u's media in a minor way, the local involvement made it ins
tant major news. h
ere, too, radio was the means of widest, dissemination
.
Similarly, on the Tuesday morning following Monday's news breakthrough by
the Baltimore Star, radio delivered to the Andes mountain city of Ayacucho
and the Selva hamlet Nueva Esperanza the first report of Theodore Elliott's
rejection of the kidnappers' demands and his low opinion of Sendero
Luminoso
.
In Ayacucho the radio report was heard by Sendero leaders and in Nueva
Esperanza by the terrorist Ulises Rodriguez, alias Miguel'

Soon after, a telephone conversation took place between Miguel and a
Sendero leader in Ayacucho, though neither disclosed his name while
talking. Both were aware that the telephone connection was poor by modern
standards and that the line passed through other locations where anyone
could be listening, including the army or police. Thus they talked in
generalities and veiled references, at which many in Peru were practiced
,
though to both men the meaning was understood
.
This was: Something must be done immediately to prove to the American TV
network, CBA, that they were dealing with neither fools nor weaklings
.
Killing one of the hostages and leaving the body to be found in Lima was
a possibility. Miguel, while agreeing that would be effective, suggested
for the moment keeping all three hostages a
live, preserving them like capi
tal. Instead of killing, he advised another course of action
which-remembering something he had learned while at Hackensack-he believed
would be devastating psychologically to those at the other end of the
equation in New York
.
This was promptly agreed to and, since physical transportation would be
needed, a car or truck, whichever proved available, would leave Ayacucho
immediately for Nueva Esperanza
.
In Nueva Esperanza, Miguel began his preparations by sending for Socorro.
Jessica, Nicky and Angus looked up as a small procession filed into the
area immediately outside their cells. It consisted of Miguel, Socorro
,
Gustavo, Ramo
n and one of the other men who served as guards. From their
sense of purpose it was evident something was about to happen and Jessica
and the others waited apprehensively to discover what
.
One thing Jessica was sure of: Whatever was expected of her, she would
cooperate. It was now six days since she had made the videotape recording
in course of which, because of her initial defiance, Nicky had been
tortured by agonizing bums. Since then, Socorro had come in daily to
inspect the bums, which were sufficiently healed so that Nicky was no
longer in pain. Jessica, who still felt guilty about Nicky's suffering
,
was determined he would not be hurt again
.
Consequently, when Nicky's cell was opened and the -terrorists crowded
in with Nicky, ignoring Jessica and Angus, Jessica cried out anxiously
,
"What are you doing? I beg of you don't hurt him. He's suffered enough
.
Do what you have to do to me
!”

It was Socorro who swung to face Jessica and shouted through the screen
between them, "Shut up! There's no way you can stop what's going to
happen
.”

Jessica screamed frantically, "What is happening
?
”

Miguel, she saw, had
brought a small wooden table into Nicky's cell while Gustavo and the
fourth man had seized Nicky and were holding him so he was unable to
move. Jessica cried again, "Oh, this isn't fair! For god's sake let him
go
!”

Ignoring Jessica, Socorro said to Nicky, "You're going to have two of
your fingers cut off
.”

At the word "fingers
,”
Nicky, already frantic, screamed and struggled
,
but to no avail
.
Socorro continued, "These men will do it, and there's nothing you can do
to change that. But it will hurt more if you struggle, so keep still
!”

Ignoring the warning, mouthing incoherent words, his eyes moving wildly
,
Nicky fought even more desperately to free himself, to somehow pull back
his hands, but did not succeed.

Jessica emitted a piercing wail
.”
Oh, no!
Not fingers! Don't you
understand? He plays the piano! It's his life . .
.”

"I know
.”

This time it was Miguel who turned, a small smile on his face
.”
I heard your husband say so on television; he was answering a question
.
When he receives those fingers he'll wish he hadn't
.”

On the other side of Nicky's cell, Angus was banging his screen and
shouting too. He held up his hands
.”
Take mine! What difference will it
make? Why spoil the rest of the boy's life
?
”

Miguel, this time his face working angrily, flared back
.”
What do two
fingers of a bourgeois brat matter when every year sixty thousand Peru
children die before the age of five
?
”

"We're Americans
!”

Angus hurled at him
.”
We're not to blame for that
!”

"You are! The capitalist system, your system which exploits the people
,
is depraved, destructive. It is to blame . .
.”

Miguel's statistics about the deaths of children were a quote from
Abimael Guzma
n, Sendero Luminoso'
s founder. As Miguel knew, Guzma
n's
figure might be exaggerated, but without question Peru's child
malnutrition death toll was one of the highest in the world
.
While the epithets flowed back and forth, it happened quickly
.
The small table Gustavo had brought was moved in front of Nicky. While
the boy continued to squirm and wriggle, begging and crying, pleading
pitifully, Gustavo forced the boy's right index finger on top of the
table so it was there alone, the other fingers curled back against the
table's edge.
Ramon
had produced a sheath knife. Now, grinning, he tested
the bright blade's razor sharpness with a thumb
.
Satisfied,
Ramon
moved forward, placed the blade against the second joint
of Nicky's exposed finger and, with a single swift movement, brought the
h
eel of his beefy left hand down sharply against the back of the knife
.
With a thunk sound, a spurt of blood, and a piercing scream from Nicky
,
the finger was almost severed, but not quite.
Ramon
lifted the knife
,
then cut away the remaining tissue and flesh to complete the finger's
severance. Nicky's despairing cries, now from pain, were shrill and harrowing-
Blood flooded the tabletop and was on the hands of the men holding Nicky
.
They ignored it and moved the boy's little finger, also of the right
hand, from the table's edge to the top. This time the action and result
were faster. With a single chop of
Ramon
's knife, the finger was
separated from the hand, falling clear while more blood spurted
.
Socorro, who had collected the first severed finger and put it in a
plastic bag, now added the second and passed the bag to Miguel. Socorro
was pale, her lips compressed. She glanced briefly toward Jessica whose
face was covered with her hands, her body racked by sobbing
.
By now, Nicky-barely conscious, his features ashen white -had fallen back
on the narrow bed, his screaming turned to agonized moans. As Miguel
,
Ramon
and the fourth man moved out from the cell, taking the bloody table
with them, Socorro told Gustavo whom she had signaled to wait, "Agarra
el chico. Sientalo!
”
Responding, Gustavo raised Nicky to a seated position and held him while
Socorro moved outside, returning with a bowl of warm soapy water she had
brought when the group arrived. Taking Nicky's right hand and holding it
upright, Socorro carefully washed the raw stumps of the two severed
fingers to forestall infection. The water turned bright red as she did
.
Then, after covering both wounds with several gauze pads, she securely
bandaged the entire hand. Even through pads and bandage, bloodstains
showed, though it appeared the flow of blood was slowing
.
Through it all, Nicky, clearly in shock, his whole body trembling
,
neither helped nor hindered what was being done
.
Miguel was still in the area outside the cells and Jessica, who had moved
to her own cell doorway called to him tearfully
.”
Please let me go to my
son! Please, please, please
!”