When Run Run Shaw’s son was kidnapped in Singapore by gunmen and held captive for nearly 12 days
“Four armed men today kidnapped in broad daylight the eldest son of Mr Run Run Shaw, the multi-millionaire and cinema magnate,” reported the South China Morning Post on February 6, 1964.
“Mr Vee Meng Shaw (32), a lawyer and legal adviser in his father’s enterprise, the Shaw Brothers organisation, was kidnapped while he was on his way to work with his wife in a chauffeur-driven car [in Singapore].
“Four gunmen, in a van, blocked the way as Mr Shaw’s car was turning into the main road, a few hundred yards from his house on Holland Hill, pulled him and his chauffeur out, bundled them into the van, and drove away.
“The kidnappers, with guns and daggers, left Mrs Shaw unharmed. Police believe that Mr Shaw is being held for ransom by the kidnappers, but the Shaw family declined to say anything about the kidnapping.”
On February 18, the Post reported that “a Police spokesman said Mr Shaw and his driver, Mundari, were both released in a suburb of Singapore between 5pm and 6pm [on February 17]. The spokesman said they were both weak and fatigued.”
According to a Post report on February 19, Shaw “told reporters that he spent nearly 12 days blindfolded in a bare cement-floored room wondering if his captors would spare his life”.
“‘They blindfolded me but […] I was not assaulted because I obeyed their instructions […] Then I felt I was being led into an attap (native) hut because when I felt the walls they were planks. Moreover, I heard ducks and chickens.’
“Mr Shaw said there seemed to be two possible reasons [he] had been released – firstly, because the kidnappers could not get any ransom, or secondly, both he and [his driver] had fallen ‘very ill with violent stomach trouble’.”
