Crime Library: Criminal Minds and Methods

Perry March

Rescue in Mexico

In May 2000 the Levines traveled to Mexico, armed with court papers granting them visitation rights with their grandchildren. They knocked on March's door in Ajijic, but he refused to let them see Sammy or Tzipora.

As reported on 48 Hours Investigates, one month later the Levines were in Ajijic again, having been tipped off by the FBI that Mexican immigration officials planned to question March. Early one morning after the children had left for school, four Mexican officers seized March, telling him that there was a problem with his papers. They threw him into their van and drove off.

While this was happening, Carolyn and Lawrence Levine went to their grandchildren's school with a Mexican judge and a local lawyer, intent on getting their court-ordered visitation rights. But someone at the school called Arthur March, who raced there, fearing that Janet's parents would take the children. According to the Levines, Arthur March pulled a gun on them and "told them they would never get out of Mexico alive."

After an hour of heated argument, school administrators released Sammy and Tzipora to the judge who in turn gave them to the Levines. They then headed for the airport with their grandchildren, Arthur following in hot pursuit. The Levines managed to lose him along the way and boarded a plane for Nashville with Sammy and Tzipora.

Later that day Mexican officials released Perry March, and when he learned what had happened, he swore he would get his children back. He hired two attorneys who took his case to United States federal court, arguing that an international treaty signed by both countries prohibits the legal action that the Levines took in seizing the children. Lawrence and Carolyn Levine were ordered to return Sammy and Tzipora to their father, which they did.

"We're now the Brady Bunch," Perry March told 48 Hours Investigates in 2005, referring to his children and second wife's children all living together in the same house.

But Perry March's sitcom bliss wasn't destined to have a long run.

Dominic Dunne's Power, Priviledge and Justice

Categories
We're Following
Slender Man stabbing, Waukesha, Wisconsin
Gilberto Valle 'Cannibal Cop'
Advertisement