On this day, Feb. 2, in 1977, the 11-year-old daughter of designer Calvin Klein and his first wife was abducted on her way to school.
Marci Klein’s kidnappers were baby sitter Paule Ransay, 23, her 19-year-old old half-brother, and a close friend.
Marci was taken from a bus to Ransay’s East Side Manhattan apartment. Her father received a phone call and was instructed to leave $100,000 in cash in the lobby of the Pan Am building.
Klein did as he was told and, after 10 hours, Marci was returned unharmed.
Police traced the call to Ransay’s apartment. She claimed she and Calvin Klein were lovers and that the fashion icon orchestrated the abduction to get publicity for his new line of clothes and cosmetics.
Ransay and her step-brother were sentenced to more than eight years in prison.
Today, Marci Klein is a producer of “30 Rock” and “Saturday Night Live.” During the 2007 Golden Globes, Alec Baldwin called her “the greatest producer in the history of broadcast television.”
— Scott McCabe
