Without Googling, do you know who I'm talking about?

To pass the time on longer car trips, Ben and I play the Name Game wherein I name a famous person and he has to name another person whose first name starts with the first letter of the previous person’s last name, etc. Said famous person does not have to be a performer, but can be well known for other things such as heads of state, serial killers, Casey Anthony, etc.

I let his J answer pass because I know who it is but then we argued whether he is “well known”. So let’s see…

Without Googling, do you know who Jacob Wetterling is? Locations in your response may be helpful.

Jacob Wetterling was a boy who was kidnapped from his hometown here in MN when I was a kid in the late 80s and whose mother has since become a public figure advocating for child safety, particularly focused on the areas of abduction and abuse. Big story here but I’m not sure how far it reached.

I do because I live in Minneapolis, though I’ve only lived here since 2000 and only know because my husband told me about him. As far as I can tell it had a pretty significant psychological impact on kids from around here who were about Jacob’s age at the time.

No, I don’t know who he is. I live in Tucson, AZ. It may have been national news at the time, but it was over 20 years ago, and I don’t remember hearing of him and don’t know who his mother is.

Don’t recall ever hearing of him. Live in Pacific NW past 20 years, formerly lived on East Coast.

No. Ohio. Spent the late 80’s in Georgia.

I bet you don’t know who Kyron Horman is either.

Georgia then and now. No clue.

Nope. I even lived there for a few years in the mid-90s.

Not a clue.

Him, I’ve heard of. Jacob, I’ve not (or if I did I’ve forgotten).

I’m 51 yrs old, lived mostly in the South except for two years in Los Angeles.

Central NY State. The name vaguely rang a bell, but I had to vote no. Reading the story makes me think I probably heard the name as his mother was making a pest of herself, but she didn’t get me to care. Doesn’t do much for her cause, does it?

Last time I played a similar game was in the late 80s. It was “given two letters, come up with someone significant”. I got credit for AR by coming up with Anastasia Romanov. If your OP was intended to make me care, and all it did was resurrect a memory of playing a game in 1989, it isn’t doing anything useful. If your intent was to generate a ruling for a boredom-fighting word game, then… Ummm… Did you win?

Nope. Lived in Philly then as now.

Yes, but I live in Minnesota, and I have a daughter about five years younger than him.

Yes. I live near the Twin Cities.

No clue. Was living in Wisconsin at the time and most of my life up until about four years ago and generally read the news and especially news about crimes. Sounds like it must have been only a locally famous event.

Yes. From SoDak.

Yes. Was he a paperboy at the time? My daughter is a little old than he would be, and things like that stuck with me.

Southern US and nope.

Yes but…

Minnesotan.
Worked on the original Wetterling foundation website.
Had friends who worked on Patty’s campaign for House.

Nope, grew up in Southern Minnesota, now live in Minneapolis. Of course, I was born after the fact.