Yeah, I'm not surprised. I'd imagine an experience like being kidnapped would really change someone. Glad the little fella's made it back to his family.
-Ken M
this post was submitted on 20 Nov 2025
256 points (99.6% liked)
Today I Learned
25786 readers
1180 users here now
What did you learn today? Share it with us!
We learn something new every day. This is a community dedicated to informing each other and helping to spread knowledge.
The rules for posting and commenting, besides the rules defined here for lemmy.world, are as follows:
Rules (interactive)
Rule 1- All posts must begin with TIL. Linking to a source of info is optional, but highly recommended as it helps to spark discussion.
** Posts must be about an actual fact that you have learned, but it doesn't matter if you learned it today. See Rule 6 for all exceptions.**
Rule 2- Your post subject cannot be illegal or NSFW material.
Your post subject cannot be illegal or NSFW material. You will be warned first, banned second.
Rule 3- Do not seek mental, medical and professional help here.
Do not seek mental, medical and professional help here. Breaking this rule will not get you or your post removed, but it will put you at risk, and possibly in danger.
Rule 4- No self promotion or upvote-farming of any kind.
That's it.
Rule 5- No baiting or sealioning or promoting an agenda.
Posts and comments which, instead of being of an innocuous nature, are specifically intended (based on reports and in the opinion of our crack moderation team) to bait users into ideological wars on charged political topics will be removed and the authors warned - or banned - depending on severity.
Rule 6- Regarding non-TIL posts.
Provided it is about the community itself, you may post non-TIL posts using the [META] tag on your post title.
Rule 7- You can't harass or disturb other members.
If you vocally harass or discriminate against any individual member, you will be removed.
Likewise, if you are a member, sympathiser or a resemblant of a movement that is known to largely hate, mock, discriminate against, and/or want to take lives of a group of people, and you were provably vocal about your hate, then you will be banned on sight.
For further explanation, clarification and feedback about this rule, you may follow this link.
Rule 8- All comments should try to stay relevant to their parent content.
Rule 9- Reposts from other platforms are not allowed.
Let everyone have their own content.
Rule 10- Majority of bots aren't allowed to participate here.
Unless included in our Whitelist for Bots, your bot will not be allowed to participate in this community. To have your bot whitelisted, please contact the moderators for a short review.
Partnered Communities
You can view our partnered communities list by following this link. To partner with our community and be included, you are free to message the moderators or comment on a pinned post.
Community Moderation
For inquiry on becoming a moderator of this community, you may comment on the pinned post of the time, or simply shoot a message to the current moderators.
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
Oh shit, is Ken M still around?
that's his signature, proof enough for me
GOOD point
God I wish, lol. Pretty sure he's long since retired.
This headline just inspired me to channel his spirit, lol.
Ken M. works like the dread pirate Roberts. You are the new Ken M. now.
Wife says dead pirate robots kidnapped that boy, and altered his DNA.
We are all Ken M on this blessed day!
Speak for yourself!
I am all Ken M on this blessed day!
The ritual is complete! The prophecy is accomplished!
Man, and the kid they DID bring back they basically stole from another family.
The cops just found a guy who was on a trip repairing pianos with a kid that slightly looked like the one they were looking for. They arrested him and took the kid. Even when the mother came to town to attest that it was her kid, they gave her the run around and, since she was too poor to fight it in court, stole her kid. Those kids didn't even look anything alike... People nowadays don't seem too bright on average, but I think maybe people back then were extra stupid.
It doesn’t even seem clear that the real Bobby Dunbar was kidnapped. He disappeared while on a fishing trip. An accident seems more likely than a kidnapping.
Just another case of poor people's kids being stolen and having no legal recourse.
The "See also" section on that article is bonkers.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Fronczak_triple_disappearance
This American Life did a full episode on this.
i'm suprised no one seems to have point-blank asked him who his parents were in court, or if they did why that wasn't the beginning and end of the case
Because he was a four year old boy, I reckon.
This was back in the era where 'children should be seen and not heard'. So the kid and his opinions weren't considered important, unfortunately.
Well nobody was seeing the kid because the two look nothing alike in that comparison photo from the newspapers.
What’s the old trope where a dog or cat comes running to its true owner? They could have set something like that up with the kid. That or the Solomon treatment.
Four is old enough to know who your parents are though.
I think you meant to reply to the comment about him being only four.
I did. Fuck.
It's too late now. Look at what you've done!
I ruined Lemmy :(
Yep! Where's the voice of the child?
The kidnappers mutated him?!?
/s
I mean…. He was the same child. Just not the right one.