Today we´re talking about the kind of crime that makes you stop and ask a simple question: what were they thinking?

In November 1992, Sidney Reso—a respected executive, a husband, and a father—stepped out of his home on what should have been an ordinary morning. Then within moments, he was gone.

What followed is a case that shocked a quiet New Jersey suburb and baffled investigators. A planned kidnapping. A million-dollar ransom demand. And a crime that, at first, seemed calculated… deliberate… even ruthless. But as the truth began to unravel, the story became something else entirely. Not a master plan—but a series of bad choices. Decisions layered with desperation, arrogance, and a remarkable failure to think through the consequences.

Tonight, we’re not just asking what happened to Sid Reso. We’re asking something deeper—and maybe more unsettling: How did the people behind this crime convince themselves it would work? Where did it all go so wrong? And at every critical moment…what were they thinking?

This is the story of the Sidney Reso kidnapping. Join us for From Routine to Ruin.

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Sources

Details Given on Suspects in Abduction, The New York Times, McQuiston, John T.  6/21/1992. Retrieved 4/5/2026.

Mystery, Millions & Murder in North Jersey: The Tragic Kidnapping of Exxon’s Sidney Reso by John E. O’Rourke

Reso’s Last Days, Time, CNN, 3/10/2002. Retrieved 4/4/2026. https://web.archive.org/web/20070310152822/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,975990,00.html

A tragedy of errors: Remembering the murder of Morris Township resident Sidney Reso, MorristownGreen.com, 10/21/2019. Retrieved 4/4/2026. https://morristowngreen.com/2019/10/21/a-tragedy-of-errors-remembering-the-murder-of-morris-township-resident-sidney-reso/