Lilit Marcus

There have been at least 33 crypto kidnappings around the world this year. The case against William Duplessie and John Woeltz, who are accused of holding Italian tourist Michael Carturan captive in a $75,000 a month Nolita townhouse and torturing him for weeks in an attempt to get the password to his cryptocurrency accounts, would be the first known occurrence in New York. According to a manifesto written by the two, Duplessie, a Greenwich prep-school kid, and Woeltz, a reclusive nature enthusiast, claimed to be on a mission to steal foreigners’ cryptocurrency through an “intelligence operation,” writing “We will take bitcoin and crypto from evil people. This agency will actively purge America of its bad foreign powerhouses. Crypto keeps them alive because it is off the grid. It is our belief that these people need to lose their coin.” They moved from Kentucky to the five-story Prince Street townhouse, where they threw wild, drug-fueled parties, often attended by employees of the Brandy Melville store around the corner, and would show off their guns, knives, and cattle prods. "I just saw the headline, like, ‘Chain-Saw Torture in New York Penthouse,’ and I assumed it was Will," says one former friend of Duplessie. "That’s how on brand it was for him." Read the full cover story, by @ezra_marc and @jenwieczner, now: nymag.com/intelligencer/arti…