EP286: The Cost of an Heir

Crimes and Consequences

True Crime, Society & Culture, Documentary

4.6 • 869 Ratings

🗓️ 22 January 2026

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

On a quiet February morning in 1960, one of America’s most powerful brewing dynasties collided with every parent’s worst nightmare. Adolph Coors III—heir to a beer empire, devoted father, and fixture of Colorado’s elite—vanished on his way to work, leaving behind an abandoned car, a single shoe, and a trail of unanswered questions. What followed was a tense, high-stakes drama that gripped the nation: cryptic demands, frantic negotiations, and a family forced to make impossible decisions under the glare of public attention. This is the story of a disappearance that exposed the vulnerabilities of immense wealth—and set off a chain of events no one could control.

SOURCES:
1) A Look Back on the Coors Kidnapping
2) Coors Kidnapping Ransom Note
3) On This Day in History: Coors brewery heir kidnapped
4) Adolph Coors III
5) Joseph Corbett v. The People of the State of Colorado 6) Archivegrid: Adolph Coors III investigation collection

Transcript

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0:00.0	This episode may contain content of a graphic nature, including descriptions of physical and sexual violence against adults, children, and animals.
0:21.4	Listener discretion is advised.
0:34.3	Hi, this is Tanya.
0:36.5	Hi, this is Shannon. And we are Crimes and Consequences, a is Tanya. Hi, this is Shannon.
0:37.9	And we are Crimes and Consequences, a hardcore true crime podcast.
0:44.4	Hey, Shannon.
0:46.1	Hey, Tanya.
0:47.0	How are you?
0:48.0	I am doing all right.
0:49.7	Post-Christmas letdown.
0:52.5	I don't know.
0:52.9	What's the right word?
0:55.1	Inflation.
0:56.1	Inflation. Yeah.
0:58.3	Trying to live through, clean up my house. You know, it's a mess. And every day feels like the next.
1:06.0	So, because I'm awful. They do blur. You know, they are blur. I don't know if it's Monday or Friday or whatever.
1:13.3	So yeah, it's good, though.
1:15.6	It's a first world problem to have, right?
1:19.3	Yes.
1:20.2	I'm definitely suffering for some very much first world problems.
1:25.2	How are you?
1:26.5	Same, you know, pretty much.
	...

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