204: The Kidnapped Heiress: Barbara Jane Mackle

WEBVTT

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Southern Fried. True crime covers cases
that are not suitable for young listeners,

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and there may also be some explicit
language used. Listener discretion is advised when

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you really think about it. We
are rarely in situations where we are completely

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safe. We are out and about
in the world, not generally worried that

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anything bad will happen to us,
dashing home from work, running errands,

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taking the kids to ball practice,
dropping by the grocery store for that one

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last thing, and during all of
these moments we will only exited the safety

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of our homes. There is an
unspoken power when a door separates you from

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the rest of the world. Today's
case starts with a man knocking on a

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door under false pretenses. He was
pretending to be something he was not,

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and he was able to trick his
victim into opening the door. Barbara Mackle

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could never have dreamed what the next
four days of her life would be like.

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Welcome to Episode two four, The
Kidnapped Heiress Barbara Mackle. Barbara Jane

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Mackell was born on October nineteenth,
nineteen forty eight, to parents Jane and

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Robert Mackel, in Florida. She
had one brother, Robert Junior, Barbara's

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childhood was probably pretty different from yours
and mine. It was very privileged and

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lavish, filled with private schools,
summer homes, and debutante balls. Barbara's

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family was extremely wealthy and relatively famous, at least in Florida. Barbara's father

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was a successful land developer. It
was a family business started by Robert's own

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father back in nineteen ten. Barbara's
grandfather, Frank Michael, Sr. Had

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Started a real estate and development company. About thirty five years later, by

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nineteen forty five, Frank Senior's three
sons had taken over the business. There

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was Barbara's father, Robert, and
his two brothers, Eliot, who was

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older than Robert, and Frank Junior, who was younger. Together the three

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men purchased, developed, and profited
off nearly twenty communities in Florida. If

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you have spent some time in Florida, you might have heard of some like

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the Key Biscayne Area the Pompino Beach
Highlands. Over time, the Mackwell family

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business would go buy a few names
and pursue several projects. However, the

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crux of their business plan remained constant. They would buy large swaths of Florida

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land. Then they would build a
nice bunch of homes or hotels on it.

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Next, they would advertise this new
exciting property for a shockingly affordable monthly

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price, something like pay this easy
to swallow amount of money now and the

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land is years to use for this
still very low amount of money a month.

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We're all familiar with installment plans today, but at this time, in

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the mid nineteen fifties, this business
strategy was very innovative. Around this time,

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the Miami Herald reported that a down
payment for a vacation home from the

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mackel brothers was about three hundred to
six hundred dollars. That somewhere between three

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and six thousand dollars today. Then
the monthly payments were between thirty and forty

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dollars, which is around four hundred
today. Even when you account for inflation.

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These prices for brand new Florida vacation
homes were affordable to many. The

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mackle brothers told the Miami Herald that
they believed a family could buy one of

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their vacation homes for the same price
that a standard Florida vacation would cost.

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So how did the mackels even make
money at prices like that? Well,

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they were banking on the longevity of
the market. The Mackel brothers hoped that

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families who vacationed in Florida would later
retire there, and a lot of them

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did so. By the time Little
Barbara came along, her father was making

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big, big money through the many
mergers and iterations of the Mackell company.

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Robert was usually named the treasurer and
secretary. Typically, his younger brother,

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Frank Junior, was the president and
his older brother Elliot the vice president.

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By December nineteen fifty four, when
Barbara was eight years old, the Miami

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Herald reported that the Mackel Company was
the largest home building firm in Florida.

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Five years later, in August of
nineteen fifty nine, the Herald reported that

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the mackels had sold about seventy five
thousand lots. At this point, Frank,

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Elliott and Robert Mackle's names were symbolic
of the current Florida's land bonanza.

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Although we don't know exactly how much
Barbara's family was worth, we know they

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were multi millionaires. They had at
least two million in assets and two million

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in the fifties and sixties. That's
more than twenty million today. So yeah,

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Barbara's childhood was a little different than
ours. She was in the public

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eye very early on. The local
newspapers reported when the mackels attended a play

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at the theater. They kept tabs
on birthday parties and summer vacations to put

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things in perspective. Once, in
July of nineteen fifty, the Miami Herald

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did an entire piece on Barbara's uncle, Eliot. He was moving his family

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fifteen miles from Coral Gables, which
is a rich Miami suburb, to Sunset

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Island, Io, another rich Miami
suburb, and that was news. If

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ever, there was an equivalent to
the show Keeping Up with the Kardashians for

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Florida in the fifties and sixties,
it was the mackell family Mina saw the

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ridiculous drama. Of course, Barbara's
family also owned a summer home in Hendersonville,

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North Carolina. Barbara, her mother, and her brother spent a fair

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amount of time there. However,
Robert usually stayed in Florida for work,

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and the macaels were also devout Catholics. They regularly attended the Church of the

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Little Flower and Coral Gables. Barbara's
father, Robert also famously loved to golf,

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especially at the Riviera Country Club golf
course, which was conveniently located right

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next to the mackell family home in
Coral Gables. Robert was also very into

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horse racing. He became the president
of the Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association.

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He and his brothers own their own
stables, specifically for racehorses. Barbara's mother,

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Jane, was a Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
native. She had relocated to the

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Miami area when she was fifteen years
old. Her family owned a hotel as

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well as several coal mines. Jane
married Robert in nineteen forty three, when

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she was around twenty six years old
and he was about thirty two. At

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that point, Jane had already earned
her bachelor's in economics from Duke University,

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and she had worked for the FBI
during World War II. That might have

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been how she and Robert met.
He was in the Navy. In fact,

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their wedding was a military affair,
taking place in Washington, d C.

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As Missus Robert Mackel, Jane was
an active philanthropist. She worked with

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the General Federation of Women's Clubs,
which is an organization dedicated to improving communities

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through volunteer service. She also marched
to raise awareness for polio. She was

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involved with the American Cancer Society,
the March of Dimes, and a member

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of the Gilded Lilies of the Easter
Still Society. And she was an avid

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bridge player. And naturally, their
daughter, Barbara was a high achieving young

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lady. I'm going to pause now
for a short commercial break. Barbara mackell

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was a very intelligent young woman.
She began her school years at Saint Teresa's

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Parochial School. Then she spent her
freshman year at the Immaculada LaSalle High School.

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After that, Barbara transferred to the
Everglade School for Girls, at the

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time an elite private school. While
at the Everglade School for Girls, Barbara

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was a rising star. She was
elected senior class president. A year before

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that, she had won the Smith
College Award. As a sophomore, she

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had won the National Education Development Test
Award. She was the treasurer of the

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twenty Little Working Girls. That's an
organization that focuses on volunteer work. She

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was also president of the National Honor
Society, and she was editor of their

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yearbook. Not surprisingly, when Barbara
graduated, she was the valedictorian. Obviously,

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Barbara was also a hard worker.
According to her classmates, she was

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always studying. She never let a
break between classes or study hall go to

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waste, and Barbara was also active
in other activities like tennis. In nineteen

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sixty six, seventeen year old Barber
was chosen as a debutante for the fourth

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annual Debutant Cotillion. These cotillions are
coming out society parties for young women between

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the ages of sixteen and twenty one. According to the Miami Herald, all

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chosen debutantes, of which they were
fifteen, were from outstanding families. Barbara

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was clearly an amazing accomplished young woman. I don't want to diminish that,

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but she was selected to be a
debutante by a committee, and the head

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of that committee was none other than
her own aunt, missus Elliot mackel of

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Sunset Island too. Barbara's friends and
classmates described her as mature, sophisticated,

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well coifed. Some people believed Barbara
was shy until she got to know someone,

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but Barbara's closest friends would claim that
wasn't quite right. She wasn't one

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to avoid people or keep her head
down. She was both discerning and friendly.

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She just wasn't one to waste her
words. A classmate of Barbara's told

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The Miami Harold she was not at
all impressed by her background her social status.

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That's what impressed me about her.
She just went out of her way

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to make everyone feel the same.
In the fall of nineteen sixty six,

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Barbara enrolled at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. She was a member of

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the Delta Delta Delta sorority, and
she majored in economics. According to those

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who knew Barbara, by her junior
year, she was seriously considering transferring out

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of Emory. She wanted to go
to the University of North Carolina and Chapel

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Hill. And I wonder if Barbara
was motivated to transfer so that she could

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be closer to her very good friend, Stuart Hunt Woodward. Stuart was one

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year older than Barbara. He was
born in Charlottesville, Virginia, though most

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newspapers list him being from Philadelphia.
Just like Barbara, Stuart had also attended

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Emory University to study economics, which
is where he and Barbara first met.

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After Stuart graduated from Emory with his
bachelor's degree, He went on to earn

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his MBA from the University of Pennsylvania
Wharton School of Finance, and that's where

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Stuart was when Barbara was considering her
college transfer. At this point, Barbara

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and Stuart were not dating. Originally, Barbara's mother had referred to Stuart as

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Barbara's fiancee to local journalists, but
Stuart told the papers that this was incorrect.

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He said he and Barbara were good
friends, but insisted there was no

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romantic involvement. On Friday, December
thirteenth, nineteen sixty eight, twenty year

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old Barbara was in the midst of
her final semester exams, and she was

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also really sick with something like the
flu. It had come on fast.

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The week before, Barbara was just
fine. She even went Christmas caroling at

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a local old folks home with her
sorority sisters. But now she had taken

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a turn for the worse. Her
throat was so hoarse she couldn't speak,

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her nose was running, She had
a headache and nausea. Later she would

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be diagnosed with a respiratory infection.
That same Friday, her mother, fifty

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one year old Jane, had checked
into a motel less than three miles away

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from the Emery campus. She had
come to Atlanta to take care of her

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sick daughter. The next day,
on Saturday, December fourteenth, Barbara was

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taking her three hour economics final,
but she couldn't finish it. She felt

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so sick that she had to leave
early. Emory's medical center for students was

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full, so Barbara stayed at the
Roadway Inn with her mother. She and

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her mother were there for several days
while Barbara recuperated. At times, her

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temperature was at least one hundred and
two degrees. By Tuesday, December seventeenth,

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Barbara and her mother were still in
the hotel in Room one thirty seven.

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The Roadway in itself was decent,
but not a five star establishment.

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Barbara and Jane's room had two double
beds and a color TV. At about

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four a m. That Tuesday,
someone knocked on Room one thirty seven's door.

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According to Barbara and Jane Miller's book
Eighty three Hours Till Dawn, Barbara

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never heard the knock, but her
mother did. As Jane went to answer

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the door, Barbara told her to
stop, but the voice on the other

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side of the door was loud and
demanding. It was a man who claimed

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he was a police officer. He
insisted that he needed to talk to Jane

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and Barbara. He sounded convincing,
self assured Jane could see through the door's

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peopole that he wore a visor cap
with the words police printed on it.

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This supposed policeman said he was looking
into an accident. Something had happened to

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a white Ford vehicle. There was
a young man involved, and the young

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man was asking for Barbara. A
white Ford was the exact kind of vehicle

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that Barbara's friend Stewart drove. He
had recently visited Barbara and Jane at the

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roadway end to make sure they were
getting along okay. Worried that Stuart was

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in trouble. Jane opened the door, but it wasn't a police officer.

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A burly white man in his mid
twenties walked in. He was holding a

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shotgun. According to Jane's initial accounts
of all of this, a young boy

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was with this menacing man. He
was around twelve years old and wearing a

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ski mask. The intruders forced Barbara
to turn around. Then they covered her

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mouth and nose with a chloroform soaked
rag and tied her hands and feet with

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a white cord. They also tied
Jane's hands and feet and put tape over

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her mouth. She watched helplessly as
her daughter was carried out the door.

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Barbara was abducted at gunpoint while wearing
a red and white checked flannel gown.

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And that's important because it was freezing
outside, literally below thirty two degrees fahrenheit,

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and that's all Barbara had on against
the bitter cold. After the kidnappers

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left, Jane yelled for help.
Even though they had taped her mouth shut,

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the adhesive had loosened quickly. Now
the tape just hung off her chin

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as she screamed, but no one
responded. Desperate, Jane maneuvered herself out

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to the parking lot. There,
she managed to open the driver's side door

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of Barbara's green Firebird, even though
Jane's hands and feet were still bound.

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Each step was more of a hop, and she had to open the car

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door backwards, but she got in
and then pressed her body weight on the

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car horn. She had to get
someone's attention. The roadway in bookkeeper woke

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up to this blaring car horn,
and she was livid. She thought a

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patient had escaped from the nearby VA
Hospital and was causing a rucus. It

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had happened before, so the bookkeeper
called the night clerk. The roadway in

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night clerk went to the parking lot
to see what was going on. He

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spotted Jane, and she must have
been quite a sight. Her hands and

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feet were still bound. She was
frantic and bruised, and still the night

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clerk said, according to the Miami
Herald, hey lady, shut up,

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you'll wake all the guests. He
wasn't even swayed when Jane yelled, they

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robbed me and took my daughter.
The night clerk just figured this was some

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sort of mother daughter argument. After
Jane explained again, the night clerk finally

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helped her out of her bindings before
making a hasty exit. At last,

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around four eleven am, Jane called
the Decap County police. I'm going to

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Five hours later, at nine ten
am, the phone in Robert Mackel's Den

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rank it was the kidnapper. He
instructed Robert to dig six inches under a

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rock at the edge of his Coral
Gables property. When Robert did, he

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found a test tube. Inside of
that test tube was the three page typed

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ransom note. The note was incredibly
detailed. It explained that Barbara had been

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buried in an underground box. The
box was equipped with enough provisions for Barbara

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to stay alive for seven days,
but no longer. If Robert ever wanted

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to see his only daughter alive again, he would have to pay five hundred

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thousand dollars. That's four point four
million in today's money. When you think

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about the logistics of kidnapping for the
purpose of ransom, there are a lot

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of moving parts. You have to
get the money in cash, and that

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cash would need to be untraceable.
Then you'd need a way to transport the

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money from point A to point B, and that's harder than it sounds.

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Depending on the type of bills,
the bag could weigh up to one thousand

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pounds. But Barbara's kidnappers had seemingly
thought of everything. The ransom note outlined

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that the five hundred thousand was to
be arranged in twenty five thousand, twenty

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dollars bills, none of which could
have consecutive serial numbers or be older than

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nineteen fifty. They were to be
rolled into one thousand dollars bundles, and

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all of the cash had to be
stored in a specific Samsonite suit case.

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The note indicated that as soon as
Robert had the money, he was to

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put a want ad in the Miami
Herald paper. The ad needed to have

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this exact language quote, loved one, please come home. We will pay

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all expenses and meet you anywhere at
any time your family. Next, Robert

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would drive to the designated drop spot. The kidnappers even told Robert which of

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his cars he needed to use,
a recently purchased nineteen sixty one Lincoln.

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Then Robert was to wait for a
light to flash three times. That was

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his signal to leave the money.
Afterward, he would be given the location

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of his daughter. Around this time, the FBI became involved in Barbara's case,

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and from the jump, Robert made
it very clear to the FBI agents

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he was going to cooperate with the
kidnappers. Robert would do anything to get

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his daughter back. He would not
risk putting her life in danger, and

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the FBI accepted that they were confident
that they could find Barbara's abductors after the

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money had changed hands. So Robert
set about to do exactly as he was

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instructed. He got a business loan
from his bank to cover the ransom.

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The bank formed a special team to
assemble the money exactly as the kidnapper had

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00:22:37.599 --> 00:22:41.519
demanded, and the second that was
ready to go. Robert put the ad

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in the Miami Herald, but the
ad did not get published immediately, so

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on Wednesday, the kidnapper mailed a
package to Robert mackele's home. It included

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a polaroid photo and one of Barbara's
rings. In the photo, Barbara was

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lying in a coffin like box with
a sign across her chest that read kidnapped.

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The kidnappers then contacted the Church of
the Little Flower. This was the

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church the macals attended regularly. They
enlisted thirty two year old father John mulcahey,

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a priest whom the macals had never
met, to be an intermediary.

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This way the kidnappers could avoid contacting
the mackell family directly. They were certain

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that by now the FBI had wiretapped
all of the Mackles phone lines, and

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they were right. The FBI had
the Mackail home completely bugged. While the

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FBI and Robert Mackel were arranging for
Barbara's safe return, the press was going

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wild. Everyone was glued to their
TVs watching the saga of the beautiful Florida

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heiress who was kidnapped. The headlines
practically wrote themselves. Despite the fact that

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Barbara's kidnapping made front page news,
the papers actually had very few details.

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If the FBI had had it their
way, the news would have zero details

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00:24:02.000 --> 00:24:06.119
about the abduction. For Barbara's safety, they wanted to keep the whole thing

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under wraps. Who knew what could
happen if the kidnappers became spooked by coverage.

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But right now, the news of
Barbara's abduction was leaked. Apparently,

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00:24:17.119 --> 00:24:22.839
the Decab County police officer gave the
information to a radio newsman. The newsman,

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00:24:22.039 --> 00:24:26.160
Bob Neil of w q XI,
said they thought it was public record.

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Bob told the Miami Herald, we
didn't know anything about a secrecy lid.

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This problem of FBI versus local police
officers would persist throughout Barbara's case.

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00:24:38.119 --> 00:24:41.759
At one point, a policeman told
journalists. I never in my life have

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00:24:41.839 --> 00:24:48.119
seen anything so tightly socked in.
Meanwhile, the Miami Herald reported that an

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00:24:48.200 --> 00:24:53.039
FBI agent told a local officer,
you people talk to goddamn much. It

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00:24:53.079 --> 00:24:57.839
had been two days since Barbara was
taken. Her abductors had seen Roberts add

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00:24:57.839 --> 00:25:02.519
in the paper. They had heard
from their go between, father Mulkay.

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00:25:02.599 --> 00:25:07.759
He The kidnappers had every reason to
believe that Robert mackall was going to cooperate

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00:25:07.799 --> 00:25:11.559
fully, and so they were ready
to tell him where the drop location was

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00:25:11.599 --> 00:25:15.960
for the five hundred thousand. At
the same time that Robert picked up the

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phone, twenty FBI agents roamed Miami. They were all given specific instructions not

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to interfere with this transaction. But
guess who else was roaming the area Miami's

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00:25:27.680 --> 00:25:32.920
very own local police officers. No
one had said anything to them about not

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00:25:33.039 --> 00:25:38.119
interfering. At four oh five am
on Thursday, December nineteenth, the kidnappers

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00:25:38.160 --> 00:25:42.880
called Robert mackell. They told him
where to go. He drove five minutes

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00:25:42.920 --> 00:25:48.359
to the location and followed the directions
to a tee. He went to the

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00:25:48.440 --> 00:25:52.839
land facing end of the fair Isle
Causeway. He placed the one hundred pound

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00:25:52.920 --> 00:25:57.079
suitcase over the sea wall, and
he left it resting on a patch of

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00:25:57.160 --> 00:26:03.880
land that would remain dry until higher
tides came later that day. Shortly after

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00:26:03.000 --> 00:26:07.880
Robert left, the kidnappers arrived by
boat to grab the money. Then they

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00:26:07.920 --> 00:26:12.200
carried it north along the sea wall. They had planted their getaway car in

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00:26:12.240 --> 00:26:18.000
a nearby neighborhood, but their getaway
car was causing a hubbub. Several people

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00:26:18.039 --> 00:26:22.720
had called the police already about the
mysterious volvo. It was parked in an

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00:26:22.799 --> 00:26:29.680
area where usually no cars were parked. Plus others had heard a boat rushing

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00:26:29.720 --> 00:26:33.880
by in the early morning hours,
and still more had heard dogs barking at

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00:26:33.920 --> 00:26:38.079
people walking through backyards. So Miami
police officers were on the lookout in this

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00:26:38.240 --> 00:26:44.000
area. They had no idea that
a high stakes ransom transaction was occurring just

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00:26:44.039 --> 00:26:48.480
a few miles away. They had
no way of knowing. The FBI had

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00:26:48.519 --> 00:26:53.519
not told any other Florida law enforcement
agency. So when the police officers saw

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00:26:53.559 --> 00:26:59.559
two people carrying a suitcase get into
this mysterious volvo, they approached them,

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00:27:00.200 --> 00:27:03.400
and then the kidnappers jumped out of
the car and ran. The officers chased

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00:27:03.440 --> 00:27:07.519
them on foot. One of the
kidnappers had a doffel bag and a carbine,

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00:27:07.920 --> 00:27:11.440
which is like a rifle but with
a shorter barrel. He fired two

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00:27:11.480 --> 00:27:17.440
shots at the officer, and the
officer returned fire but missed. The second

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00:27:17.519 --> 00:27:21.359
kidnapper had a duffel bag, a
carbine, and a suitcase full of money,

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00:27:21.400 --> 00:27:25.480
and they dropped all three as they
ran. In the end, both

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00:27:25.559 --> 00:27:30.160
kidnappers escaped into the darkness. The
one with a duffel bag and carbine had

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00:27:30.160 --> 00:27:33.519
scrambled into a dense mangrove thicket.
The other, who had dropped all of

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00:27:33.519 --> 00:27:38.759
their items, had vanished. The
officers were left with a duffel bag full

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00:27:38.799 --> 00:27:44.279
of diving gear, an unfired carbine, and a suitcase filled with five hundred

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00:27:44.319 --> 00:27:49.559
thousand dollars. Later, both the
FBI and the Miami Police Department with spend

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00:27:49.640 --> 00:27:56.079
some time finger pointing about all this. The spokesman for the Miami PD complained

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00:27:56.400 --> 00:27:59.960
that they would have left well enough
alone had the FBI been more transparent.

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00:28:00.839 --> 00:28:04.480
The FBI complained that they didn't have
enough time to alert the Miami authorities,

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00:28:06.160 --> 00:28:11.119
and that is true between the time
that the kidnappers called Robert and when the

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00:28:11.160 --> 00:28:15.480
actual drop off happened only a few
minutes had passed. It was a quick

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00:28:15.559 --> 00:28:18.839
exchange. They couldn't just blast out
the information on a police radio either.

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00:28:21.119 --> 00:28:25.319
Before they received the call from the
kidnappers, the FBI wasn't even certain the

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00:28:25.440 --> 00:28:29.960
drop off would be in Miami.
They had had suspicions that it would occur

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00:28:30.039 --> 00:28:34.799
at the location of Barbara's kidnapping back
in Atlanta. Ultimately, both the federal

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00:28:34.799 --> 00:28:38.880
and county law enforcement agencies blamed the
kidnappers for making the plan go awry.

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00:28:40.759 --> 00:28:45.799
They believed that the kidnappers were too
obviously suspicious, as in, had these

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00:28:45.839 --> 00:28:51.680
criminals been sneakier, everything would have
worked out fine. Meanwhile, Robert Michael

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00:28:51.720 --> 00:28:53.960
had returned to the same sea wall
where he had left the money. It

338
00:28:55.000 --> 00:28:59.839
had been two hours and the kidnappers
had not given him Barbara's location yet Robert

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00:28:59.839 --> 00:29:03.720
was worried something had gone wrong.
It was then that the FBI relayed the

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00:29:03.759 --> 00:29:08.160
bad news to Robert. The kidnappers
had not gotten their money and they had

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00:29:08.200 --> 00:29:12.799
gotten away. According to the Miami
Herald, Robert was on two days of

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00:29:12.799 --> 00:29:18.440
no sleep. He was exhausted and
began sobbing. He said, my God,

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00:29:18.759 --> 00:29:22.640
they're going to kill my daughter.
Even though the FBI and Miami PD

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00:29:23.160 --> 00:29:29.359
had accidentally bungled this ransom handoff,
there was one small silver lining. Now.

345
00:29:29.400 --> 00:29:34.240
Investigators had the kidnappers car a blue
nineteen sixty six Volvo station wagon with

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00:29:34.359 --> 00:29:41.440
Massachusetts license tags. The Volvo was
registered to a twenty eight year old George

347
00:29:41.440 --> 00:29:45.359
C. Deacon, and with a
little investigation, the FBI soon learned that

348
00:29:45.440 --> 00:29:51.920
George C. Deacon did not exist, but a prison escape ee named Gary

349
00:29:51.920 --> 00:29:56.440
Stephen Christ did exist, and he
had been using the alias George C.

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00:29:56.559 --> 00:30:03.519
Deacon to pose as a research technician
for the Universe of Miami. I'm going

351
00:30:03.519 --> 00:30:11.200
to pause now for a short commercial
break. Gary Stephen Christ was born in

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00:30:11.240 --> 00:30:17.640
April of nineteen forty five in Aberdeen, Washington. According to the Atlanta Magazine,

353
00:30:17.960 --> 00:30:22.480
Gary spent most of his childhood in
Pelican, Alaska. Gary's father was

354
00:30:22.480 --> 00:30:26.480
a salmon fisherman, and his mother
helped his dad with the business, but

355
00:30:26.599 --> 00:30:30.599
Gary wasn't interested in following in his
family's fisherman footsteps. He was too busy

356
00:30:30.640 --> 00:30:36.240
getting in trouble. As a child, Gary was known for being a petty

357
00:30:36.240 --> 00:30:40.240
thief, and when his parents would
go out to see for work, Gary

358
00:30:40.279 --> 00:30:45.359
often terrorized his babysitters. According to
the Atlanta Magazine, he once hired a

359
00:30:45.400 --> 00:30:51.119
shotgun over a babysitter's head. In
nineteen fifty nine, Gary was fourteen years

360
00:30:51.119 --> 00:30:53.279
old, and that's when he and
a friend went on a crime spreed that

361
00:30:53.400 --> 00:30:57.720
landed him in actual legal trouble.
Then, in the early sixties, Gary

362
00:30:57.720 --> 00:31:02.720
stole a car, which was doubly
bad because he was already on probation.

363
00:31:03.920 --> 00:31:07.559
After this incident, Gary was forced
to go to a reform school in Ogden,

364
00:31:07.720 --> 00:31:11.799
Utah. He would attempt to escape
from this school twice. In nineteen

365
00:31:11.880 --> 00:31:17.200
sixty one, the Ogden Reform School
released Gary and then, according to the

366
00:31:17.240 --> 00:31:21.519
Miami Herald, he graduated from high
school in Sitka, Alaska, in nineteen

367
00:31:21.559 --> 00:31:26.960
sixty three. Shortly after graduating high
school, Gary moved to Roadwood City,

368
00:31:26.000 --> 00:31:32.480
California. There he met a young
woman named Carmen Simmons. They first crossed

369
00:31:32.519 --> 00:31:37.119
paths at a roller rink right before
Christmas of nineteen sixty four, and just

370
00:31:37.240 --> 00:31:41.759
four months later. Eighteen year old
Gary married seventeen year old Carmen in March

371
00:31:41.759 --> 00:31:45.240
of nineteen sixty five. Soon after, they had their first son together,

372
00:31:47.720 --> 00:31:52.000
but by nineteen sixty six. Gary
was in prison at the Dual Vocational Institution

373
00:31:52.160 --> 00:31:56.680
in Tracy, California. He was
sentenced to five years for auto theft,

374
00:31:56.160 --> 00:32:00.920
but about eight months into his sentence, on November eleventh, nineteen sixty eight,

375
00:32:00.440 --> 00:32:06.559
Gary escaped. Gary and his cellmate
used a hacksaw blade to cut the

376
00:32:06.559 --> 00:32:09.880
bars of their prison window. They
carefully put the bars back so no one

377
00:32:09.920 --> 00:32:15.400
would know they were gone. They
also put dummies on their cots. During

378
00:32:15.440 --> 00:32:20.200
the escape attempt, a tower guard
saw Gary and his cellmate push a metal

379
00:32:20.200 --> 00:32:23.359
scaffold to the fence. The guard
watched as Gary and the other guy through

380
00:32:23.400 --> 00:32:27.880
a piece of wood across the top
of the inner fence to the outer fence.

381
00:32:28.680 --> 00:32:31.920
At this the guard fired a warning
shot, but the inmates kept going.

382
00:32:34.079 --> 00:32:37.000
Then the guard fired at them again. Gary and his cellmate were about

383
00:32:37.000 --> 00:32:40.720
one hundred and forty six yards away, that's more than a football field.

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00:32:42.279 --> 00:32:46.519
Still, his cellmate was killed,
but somehow twenty year old Gary managed to

385
00:32:46.599 --> 00:32:52.880
jump over the outer fence and into
the night, and thus twenty eight year

386
00:32:52.920 --> 00:32:58.039
old George C. Deacon was born. Gary assumed this new identity, moved

387
00:32:58.039 --> 00:33:01.960
his growing family to Massachusetts, and
started his new life. His wife Carmen

388
00:33:02.079 --> 00:33:07.480
took on the alias Dorothy and Gary
Slash George found a job at MIT.

389
00:33:08.319 --> 00:33:15.119
Yeah, I'm not kidding. The
Massachusetts Institute of Technology hired an escaped convict

390
00:33:15.200 --> 00:33:20.960
with an assumed name. Gary worked
as a lab technician for their National Magnet

391
00:33:21.000 --> 00:33:24.640
Laboratory, and he was well regarded
there. People referred to him as highly

392
00:33:24.680 --> 00:33:30.400
intellectual. His supervisor told the Atlanta
Magazine that Gary was one of the brightest

393
00:33:30.480 --> 00:33:35.759
lab technicians he'd ever worked with,
especially considering his lack of formal training.

394
00:33:36.920 --> 00:33:40.960
According to Gary's wife, Carmen Slash
Dorothy, all of Gary's expertise came from

395
00:33:40.960 --> 00:33:47.359
his time in prison. Apparently he'd
spent the bulk of it studying electronics,

396
00:33:47.440 --> 00:33:52.799
so much so that, according to
Carmen, Gary never felt out of place,

397
00:33:52.319 --> 00:33:57.400
not even while working alongside some of
the smartest people in the US.

398
00:33:58.000 --> 00:34:01.359
But Gary was not the easiest to
get along with colleagues. Remember that Gary

399
00:34:01.359 --> 00:34:06.559
would get testy when he bid off
more than he could chew, and neighbors

400
00:34:06.559 --> 00:34:10.360
sometimes referred to Gary as bitter.
He wanted a more expensive lifestyle than his

401
00:34:10.440 --> 00:34:15.960
current paycheck would allow. Carmen would
later tell the Miami Herald, Gary doesn't

402
00:34:16.000 --> 00:34:20.800
want to lead a mediocre life.
He wants to be remembered. He always

403
00:34:20.800 --> 00:34:22.920
wanted to make an impact on the
world he lives in, and he likes

404
00:34:23.000 --> 00:34:29.400
nice clothes and cars. She said. Gary had a big ego and numerous

405
00:34:29.440 --> 00:34:32.679
people remarked on Gary's love for money. It was well known that he resented

406
00:34:32.719 --> 00:34:37.920
having to live in low income housing
and drive have broken cars. In the

407
00:34:37.920 --> 00:34:42.360
summer of nineteen sixty eight, Gary, his wife, and his now two

408
00:34:42.440 --> 00:34:46.320
young children relocated to Miami. They
moved into a blue and white trailer into

409
00:34:46.360 --> 00:34:52.079
a trailer park on Fourteenth Avenue.
Gary told his Massachusetts friends that he was

410
00:34:52.119 --> 00:34:55.280
moving across the country to work with
what he loved most, the sea,

411
00:34:57.960 --> 00:35:00.719
and so Gary began a new job
as a re research technician for the University

412
00:35:00.719 --> 00:35:06.400
of Miami on June first, nineteen
sixty eight. He worked at their Institute

413
00:35:06.480 --> 00:35:10.360
of Marine Sciences, and that's where
he met another young woman. Her name

414
00:35:10.440 --> 00:35:15.559
was Ruth. She was a twenty
six year old graduate student. Ruth Eisman

415
00:35:15.679 --> 00:35:21.679
Schier was born on November of nineteen
forty two in El Hatillo, Hondoras.

416
00:35:22.599 --> 00:35:25.360
According to those who knew Ruth,
her father was a scientist and her mother

417
00:35:25.480 --> 00:35:30.760
was a doctor. She practiced dentistry
and medicine, and Ruth herself was very

418
00:35:30.760 --> 00:35:36.519
smart. She earned her Master of
Arts in Chemistry, pharmacy and biology from

419
00:35:36.559 --> 00:35:40.320
the National University in Mexico City,
and by the time she came to the

420
00:35:40.440 --> 00:35:46.119
United States, she spoke Spanish,
German, French, and English. Ruth's

421
00:35:46.159 --> 00:35:50.599
English became excellent. After she had
a brief stint in Washington, d c.

422
00:35:51.559 --> 00:35:53.960
In the late sixties, Ruth went
to work for the Pan American Union,

423
00:35:54.239 --> 00:35:59.599
where she was a biology researcher for
the Department of Scientific Affairs. While

424
00:35:59.599 --> 00:36:02.519
there, she made seven thousand dollars
a year. That's sixty two thousand and

425
00:36:02.599 --> 00:36:07.119
today's money. After staying on that
path for about a year, she obtained

426
00:36:07.119 --> 00:36:12.119
a fellowship from her employer. They
were going to pay her to complete some

427
00:36:12.119 --> 00:36:16.440
additional schooling at the University of Miami. She would study biology as a graduate

428
00:36:16.480 --> 00:36:21.199
student. So Ruth enrolled and made
her way to Miami in the fall of

429
00:36:21.280 --> 00:36:25.199
nineteen sixty eight, and at first
she excelled there. She made good grades

430
00:36:25.239 --> 00:36:30.440
and she was well liked. But
then things began to fall apart. It

431
00:36:30.480 --> 00:36:35.079
all started with a cruise. According
to the Atlanta magazine. In September of

432
00:36:35.159 --> 00:36:38.159
nineteen sixty eight, twenty five year
old Ruth and twenty three year old Gary

433
00:36:38.639 --> 00:36:43.639
just happened to go on the same
cruise. It was a two week work

434
00:36:43.719 --> 00:36:47.800
cruise. They would conduct scientific research
for the University of Miami Institute of Marine

435
00:36:47.880 --> 00:36:53.639
Science. During those two weeks,
Ruth and Gary became very close. They

436
00:36:53.679 --> 00:36:59.400
flirted constantly, and when Ruth couldn't
drive a scooter to get around a location,

437
00:37:00.119 --> 00:37:02.639
she wrote on the back of Gary's
They were also seen sailing together.

438
00:37:04.960 --> 00:37:09.280
Gary and Ruth's relationship had quickly become
romantic, and by the time the research

439
00:37:09.360 --> 00:37:15.320
vessel returned in early October of nineteen
sixty eight, Gary had revealed his criminal

440
00:37:15.360 --> 00:37:20.360
pass to Ruth and they were ready
to start a life together. So in

441
00:37:20.400 --> 00:37:24.440
mid November nineteen sixty eight, Ruth
emptied out her Miami bank account. On

442
00:37:24.480 --> 00:37:30.840
that same time, her grades at
the University of Miami plummeted. This was

443
00:37:30.880 --> 00:37:35.599
because Ruth was focused on a new, time consuming project. She was helping

444
00:37:35.639 --> 00:37:40.119
Gary with his wildly complex plot to
kidnap Barbara Jane Mackel. How else would

445
00:37:40.159 --> 00:37:45.840
these two lovebirds jump start their lives
together, But apparently this kidnapping plot had

446
00:37:45.840 --> 00:37:51.119
been in Gary's head for quite some
time. His actual wife, Carmen later

447
00:37:51.159 --> 00:37:54.880
told The Miami Harold that Gary had
dreamed of kidnapping someone for ransom ever since

448
00:37:54.920 --> 00:38:00.719
he was thirteen years old. Recently, Gary had told carl that he didn't

449
00:38:00.760 --> 00:38:04.280
want to do that anymore, that
it was childish and he had moved on.

450
00:38:05.559 --> 00:38:07.719
But Gary hadn't moved on at all. He had just moved on from

451
00:38:07.760 --> 00:38:14.280
Carmen. On Monday, December sixteenth, nineteen sixty eight, Gary told his

452
00:38:14.320 --> 00:38:17.920
wife Carmen that he didn't love her
anymore, but she had no idea about

453
00:38:17.960 --> 00:38:22.159
his new girlfriend, Ruth, and
Gary didn't tell her. Instead, he

454
00:38:22.280 --> 00:38:27.840
asked her for a separation. According
to Carmen's interviews with The Miami Herald,

455
00:38:28.119 --> 00:38:32.320
she didn't believe in divorce but until
then. Carmen took their two kids,

456
00:38:32.519 --> 00:38:36.559
who were three years old and eight
months old, and moved in with her

457
00:38:36.599 --> 00:38:42.000
parents in Redwood City, California.
The same time, Gary told his neighbors

458
00:38:42.039 --> 00:38:45.400
that he was going to travel around
Southwest Asia for eight months, and Ruth

459
00:38:45.440 --> 00:38:50.840
told her friends that she was going
to do some traveling that December. She

460
00:38:50.920 --> 00:38:52.960
had a friend in North central Florida
with a ranch, and they were going

461
00:38:53.000 --> 00:38:59.199
to ride horses. But of course
there was no trip to Asia, and

462
00:38:59.239 --> 00:39:01.960
there was no friend who owned horses. Ruth and Gary were just in the

463
00:39:02.000 --> 00:39:07.800
process of preparing for one of the
most famous crimes in Florida history. In

464
00:39:07.840 --> 00:39:13.519
the weeks leading up to Barbara's abduction, Gary and Ruth were busy. Gary

465
00:39:13.519 --> 00:39:16.920
built the wooden box that Barbara would
be kept in at his trailer. The

466
00:39:16.960 --> 00:39:21.760
box was about eight feet long,
two feet wide, and three feet deep.

467
00:39:22.679 --> 00:39:27.559
That's approximately the size of a coffin. Inside the box was a battery

468
00:39:27.599 --> 00:39:30.599
powered light, small amounts of food
and water, an air pump, and

469
00:39:30.639 --> 00:39:36.760
two pipes for ventilation. The pipes
would be barely visible above the ground and

470
00:39:36.840 --> 00:39:40.760
the top of the box would be
fastened down with screws. Also, Gary

471
00:39:40.760 --> 00:39:45.679
and Ruth spent a considerable amount of
time stalking Barbara. According to the Miami

472
00:39:45.679 --> 00:39:51.039
Herald, in the days before Barbara
was abducted, Gary and Ruth drove around

473
00:39:51.039 --> 00:39:54.719
Emory University. They asked o their
students about Barbara. This is how they

474
00:39:54.760 --> 00:39:59.840
found out what kind of car Stewart
drove the detail that lured Barbara out of

475
00:40:00.079 --> 00:40:04.440
the motel room. They chose the
location where they were going to bury Barbara.

476
00:40:05.000 --> 00:40:08.880
It was an isolated woodsy area surrounded
by barbed wire fencing and littered with

477
00:40:08.920 --> 00:40:13.880
beer cans, and of course they
had to get that test tube note to

478
00:40:13.960 --> 00:40:20.119
Robert Michael's backyard in Coral Gables,
Florida. Once everything was ready, they

479
00:40:20.159 --> 00:40:23.760
put their plan in motion, forced
their way into the roadway in and kidnapped

480
00:40:23.800 --> 00:40:29.320
Barbara Michael. Barbara's mother, Jane, had mistaken Ruth for a twelve year

481
00:40:29.360 --> 00:40:34.280
old boy, which makes sense.
Ruth was about five three in slender and

482
00:40:34.360 --> 00:40:37.239
at the time Jane saw her,
she had been wearing a ski mask.

483
00:40:37.840 --> 00:40:43.840
When they grabbed Barbara, Gary injected
her with a tranquilizer. Ruth was supposed

484
00:40:43.840 --> 00:40:46.719
to do it, but she refused. She felt more empathy toward Barbara than

485
00:40:46.800 --> 00:40:52.119
Gary did. As soon as Ruth
realized Barbara was sick, she tried to

486
00:40:52.159 --> 00:40:54.400
convince Gary to leave some nose drops
with her in the box, but he

487
00:40:54.480 --> 00:41:00.440
said no. All the while,
Barbara tried to talk her kidnappers to letting

488
00:41:00.480 --> 00:41:04.639
her go, but her words fell
on deaf fears, and as soon as

489
00:41:04.679 --> 00:41:08.199
she was sluggish from the tranquilizer,
Gary and Ruth took those polaroid photos of

490
00:41:08.239 --> 00:41:14.440
Barbara to send to her family.
They also took some photos of themselves with

491
00:41:14.480 --> 00:41:19.480
the same camera. These polaroid photos, including some of Barbara, were left

492
00:41:19.519 --> 00:41:23.800
in Gary's blue nineteen sixty six Volvo
station Wagon, the same Valvo that was

493
00:41:23.800 --> 00:41:28.920
now in the custody of the FBI. Since both Gary and Ruth had fled

494
00:41:28.960 --> 00:41:34.840
the scene and dropped their suitcase of
money. After the couple escaped, authorities

495
00:41:34.880 --> 00:41:38.599
monitored all of Miami's major exit ways. They watched highways, side roads,

496
00:41:38.639 --> 00:41:43.519
airplanes, buses, and trains for
any sign of Gary or Ruth, but

497
00:41:43.599 --> 00:41:46.840
they didn't find them. The next
day, on Friday, December twentieth,

498
00:41:47.159 --> 00:41:52.280
Robert Mackell published the following message to
Barbara's kidnappers and the Miami Herald. I

499
00:41:52.320 --> 00:41:55.960
had nothing to do with the action
Thursday morning of the Miami police who tried

500
00:41:55.960 --> 00:42:00.639
to arrest you and recovered the money
which I had left for you. I

501
00:42:00.719 --> 00:42:04.480
regret that you did not get the
money because my only interest is the safety

502
00:42:04.519 --> 00:42:07.280
of my daughter. I pray that
you have not harmed my daughter. I

503
00:42:07.320 --> 00:42:10.199
did everything you told me to do, and I had nothing to do with

504
00:42:10.239 --> 00:42:15.320
the accidental appearance of the Miami police
on the scene. Please contact me again

505
00:42:15.400 --> 00:42:20.119
through any channel. I will do
anything you ask so my daughter will be

506
00:42:20.159 --> 00:42:24.880
freed. By the time this plea
was published, Robert's money had already been

507
00:42:24.880 --> 00:42:29.679
handed off to the kidnappers, well
one of the kidnappers. At least,

508
00:42:30.360 --> 00:42:34.920
Gary was on his own now.
Apparently, when Ruth started running away from

509
00:42:34.920 --> 00:42:37.719
the police on the morning of Thursday, December nineteenth, she didn't stop,

510
00:42:38.559 --> 00:42:43.239
and Gary had no idea where she
went. He hadn't seen her, but

511
00:42:43.320 --> 00:42:47.599
he couldn't stop his kidnapping plot.
He was in too deep. So later

512
00:42:47.679 --> 00:42:52.599
that same day, Gary reached out
to Robert again. They organized an exchange

513
00:42:52.639 --> 00:42:58.280
at the Coral Park shopping center around
midnight that night, and this time Gary

514
00:42:58.320 --> 00:43:01.800
got his hands on the suitcase with
five hundred thousand dollars, and then he

515
00:43:01.840 --> 00:43:07.840
told Robert where Barbara was buried.
As promised. I'm going to pause now

516
00:43:07.880 --> 00:43:16.039
for a short commercial break. On
Friday, December twentieth, nineteen sixty eight,

517
00:43:16.480 --> 00:43:22.679
after spending about eighty three hours buried
eighteen inches underground in a box,

518
00:43:22.400 --> 00:43:27.639
twenty year old Barbara Jane Mackel was
found, and although she had lost about

519
00:43:27.679 --> 00:43:31.320
ten pounds, she was largely unharmed. Her first words were, how are

520
00:43:31.360 --> 00:43:37.840
my parents? When Barbara first heard
the FBI agent's footsteps, she had assumed

521
00:43:37.880 --> 00:43:42.880
it was her kidnapper's returning. She
told the Miami Harold, I had been

522
00:43:42.920 --> 00:43:46.119
there so long, I really didn't
care. So Barbara began knocking on the

523
00:43:46.159 --> 00:43:52.320
coffin. She wanted to help whoever
was up there kidnapp her or otherwise find

524
00:43:52.360 --> 00:43:57.760
her, and eventually they did.
However, the FBI agents didn't think to

525
00:43:57.800 --> 00:44:00.679
bring shovels, so digging Barbara out
with her hands and a tree limb took

526
00:44:00.719 --> 00:44:05.559
longer than expected. They had to
pry open the top of Barbara's box with

527
00:44:05.639 --> 00:44:09.960
a tire iron. Gary and Ruth
had buried Barbara under a tree filled hillside

528
00:44:09.960 --> 00:44:15.000
about twenty miles from Atlanta, Georgia. Unbeknownst to Barbara, she was less

529
00:44:15.039 --> 00:44:20.440
than a mile away from a residential
neighborhood. In fact, a police officer

530
00:44:20.480 --> 00:44:23.119
lived nearby. He drove his car
right by where Barbara was buried when he

531
00:44:23.159 --> 00:44:28.559
went to work each day. At
the time Barbara was saved, she was

532
00:44:28.559 --> 00:44:31.199
still wearing that same red and white
checkered nightgown that she had been kidnapped in,

533
00:44:31.840 --> 00:44:36.559
and she also had a sweater.
According to the Weather Bureau, Barbara

534
00:44:36.599 --> 00:44:40.119
would have experienced temperatures somewhere in the
fifties while in the box. The dirt

535
00:44:40.159 --> 00:44:45.679
would have insulated her from the worst
of the cold. Still that didn't mean

536
00:44:45.719 --> 00:44:49.800
Barbara's time in the box was comfortable. Her battery powered light had gone out

537
00:44:49.800 --> 00:44:52.840
within three hours, so she was
trapped in complete darkness. She had no

538
00:44:52.960 --> 00:44:58.199
concept of time. One of the
fans she had been provided made an awful,

539
00:44:58.239 --> 00:45:01.719
repetitive noise, so she had turned
it off early on. She also

540
00:45:01.760 --> 00:45:05.880
had a hard time drinking the water
that Gary and Ruth had provided for her.

541
00:45:06.360 --> 00:45:10.760
According to Barbara, it tasted funny
and the box was cramped. Barbara,

542
00:45:10.800 --> 00:45:15.519
who was fairly tall at five ten, was uncomfortable. It might have

543
00:45:15.559 --> 00:45:17.519
been eight feet long, but it
was only two feet wide and three feet

544
00:45:17.559 --> 00:45:22.800
deep. She couldn't move around much
at all. When she was rescued,

545
00:45:22.000 --> 00:45:27.199
she couldn't walk. The FBI agents
had to gently lift her from the box.

546
00:45:28.840 --> 00:45:34.519
Moments later, the famed FBI director
j Edgar Hoover called Robert Michael himself.

547
00:45:35.480 --> 00:45:38.639
He told him that Barbara was safe
and sound. Shortly after, Barbara's

548
00:45:38.639 --> 00:45:43.960
doctor would tell the newspapers that she
was very cheerful and had developed no fears

549
00:45:44.000 --> 00:45:47.760
as a result of this ordeal.
She told the Miami Harold, I just

550
00:45:47.840 --> 00:45:53.639
feel wonderful. I really do.
Robert, Jane and Robert Junior were overjoyed

551
00:45:53.639 --> 00:45:58.760
to hear that Barbara was safe in
coming home. Later on, Robert would

552
00:45:58.760 --> 00:46:02.519
attribute his resilience to his faith in
God, and Robert Junior would tell reporters,

553
00:46:02.960 --> 00:46:07.239
this will be the best Christmas we've
ever had. And by December twenty

554
00:46:07.280 --> 00:46:13.159
third, Barbara had indeed returned to
the mackel family home in Coral Gables.

555
00:46:14.440 --> 00:46:17.320
So step one of the authority's job
was complete. They had found Barbara,

556
00:46:19.159 --> 00:46:22.280
but there was still step two.
They needed to find her kidnappers, and

557
00:46:22.360 --> 00:46:28.559
so the search began. The FBI
already knew they were looking for Gary Stephen

558
00:46:28.679 --> 00:46:34.800
Christ and Ruth eisman Shire. That
information was easily obtained from the fingerprints covering

559
00:46:34.840 --> 00:46:39.440
Gary's recovered Volvo. Plus there were
those polaried pictures in the Volvo, as

560
00:46:39.480 --> 00:46:45.519
well as Ruth's passport, all strong
evidence tying both Ruth and Gary to Barbara's

561
00:46:45.519 --> 00:46:50.559
abduction. The FBI also already knew
that Gary and Ruth had snipped off a

562
00:46:50.599 --> 00:46:54.079
padlock and stolen a boat from the
University of Miami Institute for Marine Sciences.

563
00:46:54.960 --> 00:46:59.039
That's what the couple used to drive
up to the initial drop off location.

564
00:47:00.519 --> 00:47:06.079
Law enforcement also knew that Gary was
injured after escaping the police when he crawled

565
00:47:06.119 --> 00:47:09.000
through the mangrove thicket. He had
been cut by wayward brambles, and that

566
00:47:09.159 --> 00:47:14.920
day he went to Jackson Memorial Hospital
for treatment. A doctor, not knowing

567
00:47:14.960 --> 00:47:20.239
who Gary was, had given him
four stitches in his scrotum. The FBI

568
00:47:20.400 --> 00:47:23.679
was also in contact with people from
all over Miami. In Atlanta, many

569
00:47:23.719 --> 00:47:28.719
of whom had seen Gary and Ruth
preparing to kidnap Barbara. They had also

570
00:47:28.760 --> 00:47:34.000
seen them arranging the first money drop
off. General store cashier clerks had watched

571
00:47:34.000 --> 00:47:37.000
Gary and Ruth purchase food. A
caretaker saw them scope out where they would

572
00:47:37.079 --> 00:47:43.480
leave their Volvo. After retrieving the
five hundred thousand, Geary had immediately ran.

573
00:47:44.039 --> 00:47:47.280
He made his way west toward the
Gulf of Mexico. Initially, he

574
00:47:47.320 --> 00:47:51.280
and Ruth had planned to live out
the rest of their days in Australia.

575
00:47:51.639 --> 00:47:54.480
After getting the ransom money, they
were going to buy a research vessel and

576
00:47:54.559 --> 00:48:00.920
create an Encyclopedia of Oceanography, but
obviously was gone now, so Gary moved

577
00:48:00.920 --> 00:48:07.000
on to Plan B. And Plan
B might have worked except for one random

578
00:48:07.000 --> 00:48:10.559
occurrence. Gary bought a boat for
twenty three hundred dollars cash in West Palm

579
00:48:10.599 --> 00:48:15.920
Beach. At first, the guy
who sold him the boat, Dick's Oliphant,

580
00:48:15.320 --> 00:48:20.039
didn't think much of this transaction.
He wasn't at all faced by Gary,

581
00:48:20.320 --> 00:48:23.800
who was using a fake name sliding
one hundred and fifteen twenty dollars bills

582
00:48:23.840 --> 00:48:30.239
over the counter. Oliphant told the
Miami Herald, this is a screwy business.

583
00:48:30.480 --> 00:48:34.199
People pay you in all kinds of
ways. But Oliphant's son had been

584
00:48:34.199 --> 00:48:38.119
watching the news and he suggested that
Gary could be one of Barbara's kidnappers.

585
00:48:38.960 --> 00:48:43.880
So on the off chance that they
could help, Dix and his son contacted

586
00:48:43.880 --> 00:48:47.159
the FBI. By the time the
FBI caught up to Gary, he'd made

587
00:48:47.159 --> 00:48:52.800
his way through the Okeechebbee Waterway.
At each checkpoint along the waterway, Gary

588
00:48:52.840 --> 00:48:58.559
signed his name as Art Horowitz,
but it was too late. The FBI

589
00:48:58.679 --> 00:49:01.800
was on to Gary thanks to Dix's
Oliphant and his son. At one point,

590
00:49:01.920 --> 00:49:06.360
Harbor Patrol caught sight of Gary's boat, but then he fled north,

591
00:49:07.119 --> 00:49:09.679
and in a case of sheer bad
luck, that harbor patrol boat sprung a

592
00:49:09.760 --> 00:49:15.800
leak just as they were gaining on
Gary. At about noon on Saturday,

593
00:49:15.800 --> 00:49:21.280
December twenty first, a Coastguard helicopter
crew watched Gary abandon his boat. He

594
00:49:21.400 --> 00:49:24.760
was going to hide on a tiny
piece of land called Hog Island. Eager

595
00:49:24.800 --> 00:49:30.320
to catch Gary, some FBI agents
borrowed a local man's boat. His name

596
00:49:30.360 --> 00:49:34.559
was Ed Pakolski. He owned a
fish camp across the river from Hog Island.

597
00:49:35.760 --> 00:49:38.880
But unfortunately, when the FBI borrowed
his boat, they forgot to secure

598
00:49:38.920 --> 00:49:45.719
it properly, and Ed watched his
own boat plunge into the river. Finding

599
00:49:45.760 --> 00:49:50.000
Gary on Hog Island was an ordeal. Sure, they had him cornered with

600
00:49:50.039 --> 00:49:53.000
no way to escape, but finding
one person who doesn't want to be found

601
00:49:53.079 --> 00:49:59.079
in a dense forested area is tricky, especially on Hog Island, which was

602
00:49:59.079 --> 00:50:04.760
a swampy area with difficult terrain,
and there were alligators and snakes, and

603
00:50:04.800 --> 00:50:08.679
the mud was awful. It was
deep and sticky like glue. The authorities

604
00:50:08.719 --> 00:50:13.440
tried to bring in bloodhounds to sniff
Gary out, but the dogs couldn't walk

605
00:50:13.440 --> 00:50:19.159
through the sludge, and Gary had
come prepared with diving equipment. He wore

606
00:50:19.159 --> 00:50:22.519
a scuba suit and had some sort
of breathing apparatus, so whenever Gary could

607
00:50:22.559 --> 00:50:27.119
tell the authorities were closing in on
him, he would duck under water until

608
00:50:27.119 --> 00:50:31.559
they left. By the time sunset
hit, law enforcement agents knew they wouldn't

609
00:50:31.559 --> 00:50:36.519
find Gary in the darkness. The
Charlotte County Sheriff told the Miami Herald,

610
00:50:36.840 --> 00:50:39.280
we are operating on the assumption he
is still out there. I don't see

611
00:50:39.280 --> 00:50:44.440
how he could have gotten off the
island. I know I couldn't. At

612
00:50:44.440 --> 00:50:47.960
this point, the authorities adjusted their
goals. They just needed to hold Gary

613
00:50:49.000 --> 00:50:52.280
on Hog Island until daytime. Then
they could launch a line search of one

614
00:50:52.320 --> 00:50:57.960
hundred and twenty five officers. Until
then, all of their helicopters turned on

615
00:50:58.000 --> 00:51:00.920
their searchlights. That way, if
Gary tried to leave Hog Island, they

616
00:51:00.920 --> 00:51:07.519
would see him. Finally, after
twelve hours of evading law enforcement on a

617
00:51:07.519 --> 00:51:10.320
Hog Island, on Sunday, December
twenty second, twenty three year old Gary

618
00:51:10.320 --> 00:51:15.000
Stephen crist was caught and arrested.
They transported him to Fort Myers, Florida,

619
00:51:15.039 --> 00:51:20.159
to be arraigned and treated at a
local hospital. By five o'clock that

620
00:51:20.280 --> 00:51:23.360
evening, Gary had been booked in
a Miami jail and his bond was set,

621
00:51:23.679 --> 00:51:30.840
ironically at five hundred thousand. Then
Gary was taken back to Georgia since

622
00:51:30.880 --> 00:51:36.719
that's where the initial kidnapping took place. Georgia would get first DIBs and maybe

623
00:51:36.800 --> 00:51:40.800
last dips because kidnapping was a capital
crime in Georgia, so Gary could be

624
00:51:40.880 --> 00:51:46.480
facing the death penalty. I'm going
to pause now for a final commercial break.

625
00:51:52.280 --> 00:51:55.239
Now on to Ruth, because if
catching Gary was tricky, catching Ruth

626
00:51:55.280 --> 00:52:00.280
seemed almost impossible. As soon as
the first drop off fiasco happened, she

627
00:52:00.440 --> 00:52:05.079
vanished, and for a long while, the FBI had no idea where she

628
00:52:05.159 --> 00:52:08.400
went. Right after they captured Gary, Ruth became the first of her woman

629
00:52:08.440 --> 00:52:14.960
to be placed on the FBI's most
Wanted list. Since the Most Wanted list's

630
00:52:15.039 --> 00:52:19.119
inception, almost every person on it
had been captured within one hundred and thirty

631
00:52:19.119 --> 00:52:23.079
one days, except for ten people
whose charges were dropped. But Ruth looked

632
00:52:23.079 --> 00:52:27.519
like she might be the first to
break the streak, because by Saturday,

633
00:52:27.559 --> 00:52:30.800
December twenty eighth, the FBI admitted
to the press that Ruth could be anywhere.

634
00:52:32.119 --> 00:52:37.000
One FBI spokesman said, this girl
is so plain looking. She could

635
00:52:37.000 --> 00:52:39.599
buy a twenty dollars long black wig
and a one dollar pair of sunglasses and

636
00:52:39.599 --> 00:52:45.599
get lost in a phone booth.
And it was true. Ruth was known

637
00:52:45.599 --> 00:52:50.320
to change her hair frequently. Sometimes
she was blonde, sometimes brunette. She

638
00:52:50.360 --> 00:52:53.280
could speak multiple languages, and she
could pass as a woman or a small

639
00:52:53.320 --> 00:53:00.320
boy, depending on the situation.
The public theorized that Gary had killed Ruth,

640
00:53:00.679 --> 00:53:05.760
but law enforcements suspected this wasn't true. Still, the authorities were willing

641
00:53:05.800 --> 00:53:09.440
to examine any angle. On March
second, nineteen sixty nine, three months

642
00:53:09.440 --> 00:53:14.639
after Barbara was kidnapped, the police
wondered if they had found Ruth. Some

643
00:53:14.760 --> 00:53:19.840
snake hunters and the Everglades had uncovered
charred skeletal remains, but this theory was

644
00:53:19.880 --> 00:53:24.199
disproven with additional forensic testing. Three
days after those remains were found, on

645
00:53:24.239 --> 00:53:29.559
March fifth, nineteen sixty nine,
Ruth was arrested in Norman, Oklahoma.

646
00:53:30.280 --> 00:53:34.719
As it turns out, she had
arrived in Oklahoma on February thirteenth, two

647
00:53:34.719 --> 00:53:38.199
months after Barbara's kidnapping. We're not
sure where she was in the interim,

648
00:53:38.719 --> 00:53:43.079
but we do know that she was
now going by the alias of Donna Sue

649
00:53:43.079 --> 00:53:47.119
Willis. In Norman, Oklahoma,
Ruth had gained the sympathy of an eighteen

650
00:53:47.159 --> 00:53:52.400
year old kid named John Ray.
She told John she was eighteen years old

651
00:53:52.480 --> 00:53:58.239
and running away from her physically abusive
German parents. Ruth said these fictional parents

652
00:53:58.280 --> 00:54:01.320
lived in Edmund, Oklahoma, which
is about thirty five miles north of Norman.

653
00:54:02.719 --> 00:54:06.920
John took Ruth under his wing.
He helped her find a place to

654
00:54:06.920 --> 00:54:10.320
stay with his friend who owned a
rooming house, and John connected Ruth to

655
00:54:10.360 --> 00:54:15.719
the owner of a small restaurant called
the Boomerang. Right away, Ruth talked

656
00:54:15.719 --> 00:54:20.400
her way into a car hop gig
there. By the time John realized that

657
00:54:20.480 --> 00:54:23.440
Ruth was not interested in him romantically, she was pretty well set up.

658
00:54:24.000 --> 00:54:28.039
She had a job that paid a
dollar twenty five an hour plus tips,

659
00:54:28.400 --> 00:54:31.519
and she had a room that she
could afford. Plus. Ruth had also

660
00:54:31.559 --> 00:54:37.559
applied to be a nurse's aide at
the Oklahoma State Mental Hospital. Within a

661
00:54:37.599 --> 00:54:40.199
few days, the hospital offered Ruth
the job. As they did with all

662
00:54:40.239 --> 00:54:45.360
new hires, they took her finger
prints, and those prints were sent to

663
00:54:45.360 --> 00:54:50.960
the Oklahoma State Bureau and the FBI. Ruth's finger prints were mailed on February

664
00:54:51.000 --> 00:54:55.119
twenty eighth, and within the week
she was arrested. She too was held

665
00:54:55.159 --> 00:55:00.719
on a five hundred thousand dollars bond
and transported to Georgia. If she hadn't

666
00:55:00.719 --> 00:55:04.239
gone for that nurse's ag job at
the hospital, she might have remained a

667
00:55:04.239 --> 00:55:09.599
free woman. Almost immediately, Ruth
confessed to everything. By the end of

668
00:55:09.639 --> 00:55:15.079
May nineteen sixty nine, Ruth had
written two letters to the Mackel family asking

669
00:55:15.119 --> 00:55:20.360
for their forgiveness. Ultimately, Ruth
was sentenced to seven years on a Georgia

670
00:55:20.400 --> 00:55:27.199
prison, but she received parole after
just four years. Then she was deported

671
00:55:27.239 --> 00:55:31.519
back to Honduras. Gary decided to
plead not guilty and go to trial,

672
00:55:32.199 --> 00:55:37.960
which was a bold decision considering the
mountain of evidence. But Gary was full

673
00:55:37.000 --> 00:55:40.760
of bold moves. In the spring
of nineteen sixty nine, he went for

674
00:55:40.840 --> 00:55:45.519
nearly a month with no food.
He would only drink two gallons of water

675
00:55:45.559 --> 00:55:49.880
each day. He said he was
on a hunger strike because he believed that

676
00:55:49.960 --> 00:55:53.440
his jailers were trying to poison him. But Gary's jailers were pretty sure,

677
00:55:53.519 --> 00:55:58.400
he just wanted to be held in
an easier place to escape from, after

678
00:55:58.480 --> 00:56:02.000
all, he had done it before. On Tuesday, April twenty second,

679
00:56:02.280 --> 00:56:07.880
Gary collapsed. He'd stopped drinking his
daily two gallons of water, and his

680
00:56:07.960 --> 00:56:10.519
body weight had dropped from two hundred
ten pounds to one hundred and seventy five

681
00:56:10.559 --> 00:56:15.760
pounds. Eventually, the authorities relented
and put Gary in the Grady Hospital in

682
00:56:15.800 --> 00:56:22.880
Atlanta. He was evaluated there for
three weeks. On Monday, May nineteenth,

683
00:56:22.039 --> 00:56:28.239
nineteen sixty nine, Gary's trial began. The prosecution had assembled more than

684
00:56:28.239 --> 00:56:32.360
two hundred and fifty witnesses to potentially
call against Gary, and Gary, on

685
00:56:32.400 --> 00:56:37.039
the other hand, hired a lawyer
who was once an imperial wizard for the

686
00:56:37.079 --> 00:56:43.079
Ku Klux Klan. His name was
James Venable. During the trial, the

687
00:56:43.079 --> 00:56:46.800
prosecution presented a rock solid case.
They proved without a shadow of a doubt,

688
00:56:46.880 --> 00:56:52.280
that Gary had masterminded the kidnapping of
Barbara Jane Mackel for a five hundred

689
00:56:52.280 --> 00:56:57.719
thousand dollars ransom. They had the
polaroids, they had his prints all over

690
00:56:57.800 --> 00:57:02.320
multiple vehicles, including the getaway.
They had Ruth and Barbara's eyewitness testimony,

691
00:57:02.599 --> 00:57:07.360
and they even brought in the box
that Barbara had been confined in. Meanwhile,

692
00:57:07.480 --> 00:57:13.639
Gary's defense team's argument was that Georgia
law did not define the ramifications for

693
00:57:13.719 --> 00:57:20.880
kidnapping versus kidnapping for ransom clearly.
Also, Gary's defense argued that the FBI

694
00:57:20.960 --> 00:57:25.880
spent too much money and resources trying
to find Barbara and convict Gary. Gary

695
00:57:27.039 --> 00:57:30.760
did not testify on his own behalf. By the end of the trial,

696
00:57:31.159 --> 00:57:37.840
Gary's ex KKK lawyer, James Venable, was just yelling. The Miami Herald

697
00:57:37.840 --> 00:57:42.760
wrote he was shouting almost incoherently.
During closing statements. He was red faced

698
00:57:42.800 --> 00:57:46.039
and weeping. At one point,
Venable cried out, God help you,

699
00:57:46.159 --> 00:57:51.599
and God pity people charged with crimes
if you are gullible enough to believe this

700
00:57:51.719 --> 00:57:57.039
kind of evidence from the boy scouts
of the FB and I. On the

701
00:57:57.079 --> 00:58:00.159
evening of Monday, May twenty sixth, nineteen six sixty nine, after four

702
00:58:00.199 --> 00:58:05.840
hours of deliberation, the jury convicted
twenty four year old Gary Stephen Christ of

703
00:58:05.920 --> 00:58:12.000
kidnapping. He was sentenced to life
in prison. They granted Gary some mercy

704
00:58:12.079 --> 00:58:15.800
since he was not sentenced to death. The prosecution had requested the death penalty,

705
00:58:16.360 --> 00:58:20.840
but the jury was compelled by how
careful Gary was to ensure that Barbara

706
00:58:20.880 --> 00:58:25.079
wasn't hurt. Gary, who had
read a science textbook throughout most of his

707
00:58:25.159 --> 00:58:30.039
trial, was unsurprised. He told
the Miami Herald, no kidnapper who returned

708
00:58:30.039 --> 00:58:35.440
his victim alive has ever been executed, according to the World Almanac. He

709
00:58:35.519 --> 00:58:38.920
felt that if this jury had done
so, it would disincentivize kidnappers to keep

710
00:58:38.920 --> 00:58:45.000
their victims alive. At this time, Gary was not optimistic about receiving parole,

711
00:58:45.320 --> 00:58:50.360
which he was eligible for in seven
years. He was reported by the

712
00:58:50.400 --> 00:58:53.199
Miami Herald as saying, in the
vague and distant future, when I have

713
00:58:53.280 --> 00:58:57.960
rheumatism and gout, I will step
out of the prison doors onto a moving

714
00:58:58.039 --> 00:59:01.840
sidewalk, dodged the jet propelled hovercraft, stumble around, and wonder how I

715
00:59:01.880 --> 00:59:07.920
got into the next century. But
he was wrong. On May fourteenth,

716
00:59:08.119 --> 00:59:13.360
nineteen seventy nine, after about ten
years in prison, thirty four year old

717
00:59:13.360 --> 00:59:17.920
Gary crist was paroled. He had
received a pardon after being accepted into a

718
00:59:19.000 --> 00:59:23.159
medical program in Mexico. He was
going to be a doctor, and apparently

719
00:59:23.320 --> 00:59:28.360
that was enough for the Georgia Board
of Pardons and paroles. This, as

720
00:59:28.400 --> 00:59:34.119
you can imagine, caused an absolute
uproar. People could not understand how Gary,

721
00:59:34.400 --> 00:59:37.719
who had literally written a book in
prison about the crimes that he had

722
00:59:37.719 --> 00:59:42.119
committed, could be let out on
parole. The next year, in nineteen

723
00:59:42.199 --> 00:59:45.079
eighty, the Georgia Board of Pardons
and Parols would have a different parole decision

724
00:59:45.159 --> 00:59:52.559
deemed unconstitutional. As it turns out, Gary's parole wasn't the only questionable decision

725
00:59:52.639 --> 00:59:58.360
they had made recently, and as
a result, Georgia Governor George Busby made

726
00:59:58.400 --> 01:00:04.599
them create a better scientific, thick
approach to making parole decisions. But regardless,

727
01:00:04.679 --> 01:00:08.239
Gary was out. After he graduated
from medical school in Mexico, he

728
01:00:08.320 --> 01:00:13.800
returned to the United States. First, he tried to practice medicine in Alabama,

729
01:00:14.039 --> 01:00:17.840
but they denied him. Indiana,
however, did not, so in

730
01:00:17.880 --> 01:00:22.440
December of two thousand and one,
fifty six year old Gary opened up his

731
01:00:22.440 --> 01:00:25.679
own medical practice in Chisney, Indiana. He stayed there until two thousand and

732
01:00:25.679 --> 01:00:31.800
three, then his license was revoked. Apparently Gary had concealed a disciplinary action

733
01:00:32.199 --> 01:00:37.000
that he had received as a resident
doctor. In two thousand and six,

734
01:00:37.079 --> 01:00:42.760
Gary was arrested again. He was
found on a sailboat off of Alabama's coast

735
01:00:42.920 --> 01:00:47.239
with more than thirty eight pounds of
cocaine. He also had an underground cocaine

736
01:00:47.320 --> 01:00:52.000
lab on his Georgia property. Gary
pleaded guilty to these crimes in two thousand

737
01:00:52.000 --> 01:00:57.000
and seven. As a result,
he was sentenced to more than five years

738
01:00:57.000 --> 01:01:00.360
in prison. For a while,
Gary was in car garrated at the Marianna

739
01:01:00.400 --> 01:01:07.679
Federal Correctional Institute in Florida, but
once again Gary received parole. This time

740
01:01:07.719 --> 01:01:13.320
it was in November of twenty ten. Today, Gary Stephen Christ is seventy

741
01:01:13.360 --> 01:01:16.920
eight years old and probably living in
Georgia. As I mentioned, he did

742
01:01:16.920 --> 01:01:22.679
write an autobiography entitled Life the Man
who Kidnapped Barbara Mackle. It was published

743
01:01:22.679 --> 01:01:28.559
in nineteen seventy two, and I
did not read that book, mostly because

744
01:01:28.559 --> 01:01:32.480
it's a whopping one hundred and forty
one dollars on Amazon. Also fun fact,

745
01:01:32.880 --> 01:01:37.199
his book has one Amazon review and
it's from Gary himself. He gave

746
01:01:37.280 --> 01:01:42.400
himself five stars and wrote, the
honesty of the author shines through the words,

747
01:01:42.480 --> 01:01:45.239
even though the author is an acknowledged
criminal who has done an awful crime.

748
01:01:46.320 --> 01:01:51.519
Maybe Gary didn't know that we could
see who writes the reviews, and

749
01:01:51.599 --> 01:01:54.639
as for Ruth, she is likely
still in Honduras. She would be eighty

750
01:01:54.679 --> 01:02:01.519
one years old. After her extraordinary
orny, Barbara Jane Mackel went on to

751
01:02:01.559 --> 01:02:06.920
live a very happy and full life. In April of nineteen seventy one,

752
01:02:07.320 --> 01:02:10.320
twenty one year old Barbara married twenty
two year old Stuart Hunt Woodward at the

753
01:02:10.360 --> 01:02:16.400
Saint James Roman Catholic Church in Philadelphia. They honeymooned in New England. They

754
01:02:16.440 --> 01:02:21.639
had two children together before Stuart passed
away in twenty thirteen at the age of

755
01:02:21.679 --> 01:02:25.719
sixty six. Barbara and Stuart had
been married for forty three years and lived

756
01:02:25.719 --> 01:02:34.119
in the Vero Beach area of Florida. Barbara's story captured America's imagination. There

757
01:02:34.119 --> 01:02:37.519
were two TV movies produced about the
case, The Longest Night in nineteen seventy

758
01:02:37.559 --> 01:02:44.079
two and Eighty Three Hours Till Dawn
in nineteen ninety. Even President elect Richard

759
01:02:44.159 --> 01:02:47.880
Nixon stopped by the Mackell household on
Christmas Eve of nineteen sixty eight. He

760
01:02:49.000 --> 01:02:52.239
was a close friend of the mackell
family and wanted to welcome Barbara home.

761
01:02:52.000 --> 01:02:57.119
During his visit, he mentioned to
Barbara that she should write a book and

762
01:02:57.199 --> 01:03:02.599
she did. In nineteen seventy one, Barbara, Jane Mackel and Miami Herald

763
01:03:02.679 --> 01:03:09.519
journalist Gene Miller published eighty three Hours
Till Dawn. Besides an impromptu interview that

764
01:03:09.599 --> 01:03:15.920
Barbara granted Jane during a photoshoot,
this book is the only public statement Barbara

765
01:03:15.000 --> 01:03:23.719
has ever made about her abduction.
Southern frid True Crime is hosted and produced

766
01:03:23.719 --> 01:03:29.159
by me Erica Kelly. Today's episode
was researched and written by Andrea Marshbank.

767
01:03:29.519 --> 01:03:32.440
Southern Fred's original music is by Rob
Harrison of Gamma Radio and the original graphic

768
01:03:32.519 --> 01:03:37.960
artist by Cooley Horner. Today's episode
was edited and mixed by Brandon Scheck Sneyder

769
01:03:37.000 --> 01:03:42.360
of Southern Gothic and Erica Kelly.
If you have any case suggestions, please

770
01:03:42.360 --> 01:03:45.840
go to my website and click on
the listeners suggestion tap. This is the

771
01:03:45.880 --> 01:03:49.119
best way for me to get those
little known cases y'all always send me.

772
01:03:49.719 --> 01:03:53.599
Please remember that I don't accept suggestions
on social media private messaging, but please

773
01:03:53.639 --> 01:03:58.679
come join our Facebook group, Southern
Fried True Crime Fans Discussion Group, where

774
01:03:58.679 --> 01:04:01.239
we swap recipes, worship Dolly Parton, and share memes. We do,

775
01:04:01.320 --> 01:04:04.320
of course, discuss true crime,
not just Southern fried, but all kinds.

776
01:04:04.719 --> 01:04:09.079
But it is still very much a
Southern lifestyle group. Our group is

777
01:04:09.119 --> 01:04:11.760
a safe and on corner Facebook and
by God, we mean it when we

778
01:04:11.800 --> 01:04:14.840
say no shit assays allowed. It's
not just a motto, it's how we

779
01:04:14.920 --> 01:04:17.679
run the group. If you enjoy
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780
01:04:17.719 --> 01:04:21.760
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781
01:04:21.840 --> 01:04:27.599
iTunes, iHeart, Spotify, Amazon, and Audible. Until next time,

782
01:04:27.920 --> 01:04:30.320
thanks so much for listening. Y'all
take care