This is my first post. I am honored to be here, having read the Straight Dope books back in the 80s.
Ok, so we know that Kim Jong-Il had a habit in the years 1978 to 1983 of having people kidnapped from beaches in Japan and movie studios in South Korea. But what about the cast of the sitcom Eight is Enough?
There’s a Wikipedia entry on North Korean abductions and it claims that actress Susan Richardson came forward in 1987 with a wild story of having been seized by North Korean kidnappers. That no one believed her, and she had a nervous breakdown.
The trouble is, I cant find anything on this in news archives. Has anyone heard of this? Or is it just another Eight is Enough hoax, like when Might Magazine claimed in the early 1990s that star Adam Rich had died a tragic death?
Well the Eight Is Enough website says, “Susan said on a radio interview that it was recently declassified by the FBI as of November 1999, and she just sold the rights of her story to a big New York company and she can’t talk about it right now.”[sup]1[/sup]
Looking at the FBI’s Freedom of Information Act listings under ‘R’, there is no Susan Richardson, however.[sup]2[/sup] I’m sure that that’s not the full listing of declassified documents on their webpage, but it does seem to focus on names people might recognize–so it’s decently conceivable that she’d be in there if they had anything to say about her.
But, realistically speaking, I can’t think of why the FBI would be investigating an international incident, given that they’re only concerned with domestic matters.
I’d personally guess that she simply had/has some issues, barring any evidence to the contrary.
Now that’s darn interesting. It’s not that I necessarily believe or don’t believe it, I just wanted to know if she really made that claim.
The FBI FOIA room mostly covers the really big questions, like “Was there an FBI file on John Lennon.” Sounds like I need to file a FOIA report to get the Susan Richardson files, which would likely be too obscure to put up there.
Yeah, there’s really no evidence, but on the other hand Kim Jong-Il has always tried to push the envelope as far as international kidnapping.
This was also a trope on the sit-com 30 Rock where Jack Donneghey’s wife/girlfriend Avery (played by Elizabeth Banks) was newscaster kidnapped by the North Koreans and forced to do North Korean propaganda news shows.
See her on this 1987 talk show talking about her claim:
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I watched most of that and I didn't see her claim anywhere that she was abducted by North Koreans. Rather it seems her story involved her being lured to Seoul by agents of a South Korean child pornography ring, who then marked her passport in such a way that it prevented her from leaving the country. Did I miss some part about Kim Jong-Il?
Zombie or not, it’s about North Korea, so it’s okay with me!
I’ve read a lot about NK, and while I’ve seen much discussion of Kim Jong-Il’s little kidnapping habit, I’ve never heard about this one from any source, credible or otherwise.
gnoitall - You deserve to be Ban Ki-Mooned for that one.
I was living in and working for a construction company in Big Bear Lake, California. Circa 1982-83, we were replacing a water main in front of a little junk house which Susan Richardson was renting. She was huge! She was allegedly in business making and selling expensive dolls. Some of the guys I knew in town claimed to be “dating” and supplying her "habit. She sure wasn’t in North Korea in the early - mid 80’s. She was living in Big Bear Lake.
