The Inimitable Power Of Mercy
Revenge seems to be a fungible commodity in modern society. Vengeance is the rocket fuel that drives the never-ending wars in the Middle East. Luigi Mangione was just another unremarkable rich kid right up until he gunned down an insurance executive on a New York City sidewalk with a 3D-printed gun. Now, he seems to have been transformed into some kind of modern-day homicidal Robin Hood online.
The movie industry orbits around such sordid stuff. Through four high-octane movies and several pending spinoffs, John Wick exacts bloody vengeance over, of all things, the insensible murder of his dog. The tagline to the irresistibly shlocky 1985 Arnold Schwarzenegger action classic Commando is, “Somewhere, somehow, somebody is going to pay.” Revenge seems to be somehow hardwired into our DNA. Tragically, that axiom rather defines our desperately flawed humanity.
Practical Applications
In September 1972, eight members of the Palestinian terrorist organization Black September infiltrated the Olympic Village in Munich, West Germany. They ultimately murdered 11 Israeli coaches and athletes. In response, the Israeli Mossad launched Operation Wrath of God. Over the course of two decades, Israeli hit squads terminated at least nine Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) terrorists around the world. While the operation did have the effect of striking a lethal blow against this particular PLO terrorist apparatus, those actually doing the killing invariably struggled with the aftermath.
Like all such base instincts, revenge in practical application isn’t really all it is cracked up to be. Vengeance really doesn’t have much of a retirement plan. Of all the things in which one might choose to invest one’s life, retribution is just not terribly satisfying. By contrast, mercy, as unnatural as it invariably seems, turns out to be reliably cathartic.
Here we see a young George Weyerhaeuser being
interviewed by reporters following his 8-day kidnapping ordeal.
The Kidnapping
On May 24, 1935, nine-year-old George Weyerhaeuser left school a bit early. George was the son of prominent lumber tycoon JP Weyerhaeuser, and his family was profoundly wealthy.
George made his way to the nearby Annie Wright Seminary to meet his sister, Ann. The family chauffeur had planned to meet the two children there and bring them home for lunch. As he was earlier than usual, the young man opted simply to walk home.
En route, young George encountered a man who asked for directions. As he answered the man’s query, the kidnapper scooped him up and tossed him into a car. When he failed to make it home for lunch, his parents notified the police.
Later that same day, a letter arrived at the Weyerhaeuser home demanding $200,000 in unmarked five-, ten- and twenty-dollar bills. That would be about $4 million today. George’s signature was scribbled in pencil on the back of the envelope to establish the note’s bona fides. In consultation with the FBI, the Weyerhaeuser family decided to comply with the kidnappers’ demands.
In keeping with the criminals’ instructions, JP Weyerhaeuser embarked on a bizarre scavenger hunt that spanned May 29-30. He moved from place to place, discovering instructions to move to the next at each point. Eventually, he found himself at the end of a desolate dirt road. The last instruction directed him to leave the money in his car with the door open and the dome light on and walk away. Weyerhaeuser complied, and a man leaped from the bushes and absconded with his car. George was subsequently released unharmed.
Harmon Waley was one of George Weyerhaeuser’s kidnappers.
He eventually turned his life around.
The Hunt
Before the ransom money was released, the FBI documented the serial numbers of the bills. Once George was home safe, these numbers were distributed to banks, hotels, railway stations and law enforcement agencies. Three days after George’s release, a $20 bill identified as part of the ransom was used to purchase a railway ticket from Huntington, Oregon, to Salt Lake City. The FBI determined that the passenger’s name was Harmon Wetz Waley.
In short order, ransom bills began showing up with some regularity in Salt Lake City. A police detective subsequently arrested Harmon’s wife, Margaret, in a Woolworth’s store with the tainted money in her purse. Soon, the FBI had both of the Waleys, as well as an accomplice named William Dainard, in custody as the result of some fairly inspired police work.
The FBI eventually recovered $157,319.47. Fingerprint evidence definitively tied Waley and Dainard to the crime. Waley claimed his wife knew nothing of the initial kidnapping. Harmon Waley was sentenced to 45 years, while his wife Margaret drew 20. Dainard was sentenced to 60 years but was subsequently declared insane and remanded to a mental hospital.
George Weyerhaeuser eventually died at age 95
as a respected captain of American industry.
The Rest of the Story
Young George Weyerhaeuser eventually grew up to take over his dad’s lumber empire. Along the way, Harmon Waley wrote to him several times, apologizing for the part he had played in the kidnapping. George later reported that Harmon had treated him kindly throughout his ordeal.
When Waley became eligible, George Weyerhaeuser wrote the parole board on his behalf. Harmon Waley was released from prison on June 3, 1963. He was 52 years old and had spent 28 years incarcerated at Alcatraz for his crimes.
Upon his release, George offered Harmon Waley a job at one of his Oregon plants. Waley died in 1984 at age 73, by all accounts having subsequently lived an exemplary life. For his part, George lived to be 95 and was renowned for his business acumen and philanthropy. It’s not just every day you hear of a happy ending to a sordid child kidnapping, but this was indeed one of them.
Revenge sells movie tickets and reliably boosts circulating catecholamines. However, as can be seen in the ongoing carnage that is the Middle East, nobody really wins in that space. In the end, it is mercy, not vengeance, that has the power to transform a human life.
