So you have a Kidnapped a Judge; Now What?
February 11, 2016 § 1 Comment
Three Tupelo men, obviously not members of Mensa, are behind bars after being overheard plotting to burglarize the home of Lee County Circuit Judge Paul Funderburk and to kidnap him if he were home at the time.
You can read about this bizarre development on Phillip Thomas’s and Jane Tucker’s blogs.
Kidnapping is a serious matter. Not only is it serious when a citizen’s personal safety is threatened, but also when the judiciary is threatened.
Still, once you have a judge, what are you going to do with him or her? There’s not likely to be much ransom money to be gotten. And most judges are irascible, cranky characters not particularly tolerant of inconvenience and not happy at all when not getting their way. So kidnappers would have their hands full for little prospect of gain. It reminds me of O.Henry’s Ransom of Red Chief, in which the kidnappers had to pay the father to take back the little brat they had abducted.
Kudos to the alert bystander who overheard the conversation and reported this to law enforcement.
The Better Chancery Practice Blog 
I wish you could get our pal George Dent in Tupelo to tell the story of how his grandfather, an esteemed circuit judge in Collins was kidnapped and taken to Memphis. The citizens made up a possee to go fetch him home.