Episode 116: Full Damsel Mode And A Solo Water Skiing Trip (Kidnapping of Barbara Jane Mackle Part II)

In this week's episode, Abby returns with the conclusion of the two-part series on the kidnapping of heiress and college student Barbara Jane Mackle. Join the crew as they explore the identity of the kidnappers, their failed plan and capture, and the dramatic rescue of Barbara Mackle after she was buried alive.

Credits:
83 Hours Till Dawn by Gene Miller, in collaboration with Barbara Mackle
Time.com
Wikipedia.com
Murderpedia.org


Music By:
Brokeforfree.com
Matt Edon

Edited By:
Michael

Website:
https://anxiousandafraidthepod.com/

Support the show by purchasing our merch!
https://www.teepublic.com/stores/anxious-and-afraid-the-pod?ref_id=13121

Have an episode topic suggestion? Email us! [e-mail]

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Look, you are like really relaxed. Can we have a couch?
A zillion times?

Speaker 2 (00:05):
Corre?

Speaker 1 (00:08):
Whoa, oh, Roscoe, you think you can sit on the
couch with the both of us? Are you gonna sit
on our laps? Get?

Speaker 3 (00:22):
It's not gonna be allowed, my friend.

Speaker 1 (00:26):
You're you're again. You're bigger than you think you are.
Off what the spot?

Speaker 3 (00:35):
Okay, squishy disobeedient little turn lay down, It'll be fine.

Speaker 1 (00:45):
Wants to be Roscoe dog your own spot.

Speaker 3 (00:53):
He's like, you're doing.

Speaker 1 (00:54):
Room for me right here. He is the ultimate dull
crow dog. Hello, Hey guys, welcome, welcome.

Speaker 3 (01:19):
I'm Mabbie and I'm Shuna, and this is anxious and
afraid in our new setup.

Speaker 1 (01:25):
We have a new setup.

Speaker 3 (01:26):
I can like just look.

Speaker 1 (01:27):
Over at your little face.

Speaker 4 (01:28):
We're sitting next to each other instead of across from
each other's it's more intimate and very intimate.

Speaker 3 (01:34):
But also we're not like staring straight into each other's eyes.

Speaker 1 (01:37):
No, but our legs are touching.

Speaker 3 (01:38):
Yeah, my hand is resting on her knee, which is.

Speaker 1 (01:41):
Each other's warmth. So I'm in sweatiness and I'm over
here away from them in the corner.

Speaker 3 (01:49):
Yeah, I'm digging this new setup.

Speaker 1 (01:52):
We have a couch, we have a table. Everything's so cool.

Speaker 3 (01:54):
We'll have to take a picture so you guys can
see the difference. But for sure, Michael like, I'm impressed.
Michael did all of it during our little break. To Michael, Yeah,
it's really cool.

Speaker 1 (02:05):
I can actually see both of you now because we
can look at us, we can look at you. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (02:09):
Now when I want to just stare at you and
make you uncomfortable, I have a clear shot. You cannot
hide behind your monitors, I.

Speaker 4 (02:16):
Feel like, and I'll be laughing. Wow, I love it.
Sorry for the break, you guys. Life been lifing is
real hard, like too hard, Like, come on, life, take
a chill hill.

Speaker 3 (02:29):
It's just a couple months, that's all.

Speaker 4 (02:32):
Yeah, January was we can't even talk about it, and
then now February is here.

Speaker 1 (02:37):
Sorry, guys. I think the last time I recorded was
Christmas or before Christmas.

Speaker 3 (02:41):
Yeah, and in the interim, THEO turned two and ran three.

Speaker 1 (02:47):
Yes, that's true. We had to celebrate both our kids' birthdays.
So that's a lot for us. Mama's it is.

Speaker 3 (02:52):
It's a lot of planning. It's exhausting, it is, but
but did it. Yes, look at us go here we are.
And then also I had some news. Oh technically I
had news the last time we recorded.

Speaker 1 (03:08):
And I did you sneak? I was being sneaky about it,
said it. I was like, oh my god, we recorded
a podcast.

Speaker 3 (03:14):
And I was pregnant. I'm pregnant again. That's the news.

Speaker 1 (03:22):
Wow.

Speaker 3 (03:22):
So it's been intense. I really didn't want to be
pregnant for the holidays, so of course that's what happened.
But now I'm through the first trimester. And if anyone
listening has been pregnant, you know that the first trimester
is some kind of hell on earth. It's a rough one,
and it's extra rough when you have a toddler.

Speaker 1 (03:42):
It's just so tired. I imagine she's already so tired,
so tired.

Speaker 3 (03:47):
So that's another reason that recording just didn't sound great,
or you know, working in general, so storrying to feel better. Yeah,
and we're having another boy.

Speaker 1 (04:00):
Congratulations to you guys. Yes, THEO is going to get
a brother.

Speaker 3 (04:04):
It's gonna be insane around here, but we're very excited.
Oh doorball delivery. But Roscoe's out to get it. He's
about to do his big boy bark.

Speaker 1 (04:14):
Oh boy.

Speaker 3 (04:15):
He has to tell the world that he's a big
tough man. But we all know that, but he's not.

Speaker 1 (04:19):
That's all a facade.

Speaker 2 (04:21):
There, he goes, should we pause maybe?

Speaker 1 (04:31):
Okay, we're back. We had to put a pause there, right, Yeah,
because of Roscoe. That's right, the doorbell.

Speaker 3 (04:43):
He's he's being a problem today, but we just love
him so much we're allowing it. Yeah, he's it's been
a while. He's also getting used to this new setup
we all are. And if there's a couch, he thinks
that he has to be on it, even if there's no.

Speaker 1 (04:55):
Rings he can fit.

Speaker 3 (04:57):
Yeah, he never fits news flash.

Speaker 4 (04:59):
Okay, Okay, So we left off with a part one
and then never came back.

Speaker 1 (05:05):
Yeah, that was rude of us.

Speaker 3 (05:08):
Sorry, the cliffiest of hangers. You still hang on. I
wouldn't be shocked if you forgot everything that happened. I'll
do a little tiny baby recap. So we're jumping back
into the two parter on the kidnapping of Barbara mackel.

Speaker 4 (05:26):
Okay, I did remember it was a kidnapping, but like anything,
you've forgotten everything.

Speaker 1 (05:30):
I don't remember. Okay.

Speaker 3 (05:32):
So when we left off, Barbara's father, Robert had just
returned home after delivering the ransom money for Barber's release,
per the very complicated instructions given to him by the kidnappers.
Do you remember the whole like speedlimmy, he had to
go a certain speed. Lammy, he had to wear all white.
They were like super deuper specific.

Speaker 1 (05:50):
Oh that's so gross. It was super annoying.

Speaker 3 (05:54):
So he tried his best, and but it got messed up.
So the kidnappers did recover the money, but then the
local police fucked it all up by attempting to apprehend
the kidnappers, not knowing that it was them because they
had been told like, don't interfere, don't interact, And so

(06:15):
then the police recovered the money, but the kidnappers got away.
And so now Barbara's family believes that they have just
doomed their daughter to her death inside a small box
buried underground, because oh, my forgot.

Speaker 1 (06:28):
That's right. Okay, she's in a frickin' box underground. Yeah
that's what I remember.

Speaker 3 (06:33):
Yeah, she's in a box. It you she can't move. No,
it's very small. It's basically a coffin.

Speaker 1 (06:38):
There's like a tube of air or something.

Speaker 3 (06:41):
It's ventilated, and there's like a water tube. But the
water that they gave her tasted really really gross.

Speaker 1 (06:46):
Right.

Speaker 3 (06:47):
They gave her some like tampons.

Speaker 1 (06:49):
Right, because we don't understand women's body.

Speaker 3 (06:52):
Yeah, and they gave her some like snacks.

Speaker 1 (06:54):
Right, Okay, I do remember that part now that you
mention it.

Speaker 3 (06:57):
Yeah, so terrific she's in there. She's also really sick
if I don't know if you remember that, she had
a freaking fever.

Speaker 1 (07:03):
Yeah, she had a really.

Speaker 3 (07:04):
Bad flu when they kidnapped her. Girl, And she's only
in her nightgown and like socks and that's it.

Speaker 1 (07:10):
And how young is she?

Speaker 3 (07:11):
Like early twenties, early twenties. I think she was like
twenty one or in that range. Okay, yeah, So do
you have any other questions before we jump back in?

Speaker 1 (07:18):
No'm I'm back there unfortunately. Okay, let's go.

Speaker 3 (07:21):
And it was like a woman and a dude kidnapper.

Speaker 1 (07:23):
That's right, that's why it was okay.

Speaker 3 (07:25):
Yeah, and the dude's really annoying.

Speaker 1 (07:27):
The dude's really annoying.

Speaker 3 (07:28):
Yeah, that's right, okay, Okay, all right, So you might
be wondering how the ransom money became so severely bungled
by the local police and here is that story.

Speaker 1 (07:37):
So there's two officers.

Speaker 3 (07:39):
Named Paul Self and William Sweeney who were on patrol
that night, December nineteenth. Also, this is in December, so
it's fucking cold, that's right. Yeah, And neither had been
formally appraised of the kidnapping situation besides what they had
seen on the news, and besides the kidnapping or and
the kidnapping had been in Atlanta. They were in Florida,

(08:00):
So they're like, why would that be on a radar?
So well, because like Barbara's family lives in Florida. She
was going to school in Atlanta, right, so that's why
she was kidnected in Atlanta, got it. So, while patrolling
their area, the officers came across two park cars that
seemed suspicious. Upon or no, just one part car that

(08:21):
seemed suspicious. Upon investigation, they learned no, I was right,
there was two part cars. Sorry. So the two part
cars were two FBI officers working on a case, and
the cops needed to leave them alone so as not
to be conspicuous. So okay, so the cops like, fuck
off to patrol elsewhere, not knowing what those agents were

(08:43):
there for. Okay, they're there for the Barbara mackelcase. Okay,
So the police officers continue on their patrol and they
come to a blocked off residential area they were familiar with.
Upon arriving, they noticed a park car on the side
of the street that they didn't recognize and were immediately suspicious.

Speaker 1 (09:00):
It was a blue Volvo.

Speaker 3 (09:02):
Station wagon with a Massachusetts license plate, and if you'll remember,
that was the same car driven by the kidnappers in
part one. Okay, The officers saw that the car had
nobody inside, but had suitcases and clothing in the back
seat as if the owners were traveling. They ran the
license plate, but it came back clean. With their curiosity peaked,

(09:25):
the officers decided to wait to see if someone would
return to the car. Soon, they saw two people returning
to the car from different directions. One was carrying something.
Once the figure spotted the cops, they immediately ran, and
the police gave chase, cutting through people's yards and jumping
over fences. Traumatic Yes, one of the officers noticed one

(09:45):
of the assailants had a gun. He was holding it
as he ran. The two assailants had been split up
at this point, as had the officers. The officers following
The man with the gun chased into a fence and
the assailant jumped over, but was to stop or he
would be shot. The band paused, turned around with his
gun in his hands. The panicked officer took out his gun,

(10:06):
shot twice, knowing he had aimed high and likely missed,
But the assailant had turned and he escaped, and then
the other person got away as well, So yeah, so
they both got away. Not a very successful chase. The
officers returned to their cars and found the objects the
assailants had carried on the ground near the station wagon.

(10:28):
One was a duffel bag with the root or with
the name ruth Iceman written on it. Inside was a
damp wet suitcase or sorry no, a damp wetsuit you
know for diving wet suit.

Speaker 1 (10:41):
So it's not weird that it's damp, right, it's also
weird that it's.

Speaker 3 (10:45):
Damp, So yeah, so they find the wet suit and
there was also diving supplies that had recently been used.
Because I don't know if you remember, but they in
the in part one. The really complicated like ransom note
was that they had to leave this suitcase full of money,
which was like five hundred thousand dollars on this bridge.

(11:05):
I think they were supposed to like drop into a box.
I was supposed to drop into the water, and that
was going to get retrieved by these divers. This is
it was so so overly complicated. So that's where the
wet suits come in.

Speaker 1 (11:17):
Okay.

Speaker 3 (11:18):
So the officers were confused, thinking that they were about
to recover stolen objects from someone's house. They thought that
like these people were burgling like the local homes. But
instead they found this heavy suitcase and the officers opened
it and were astounded to find it crammed full of
cash half a million dollars to be exact. Once the

(11:39):
tale of the strange incident made it back to the
police station, the FBI was quickly notified and descended on
the scene to search the blue Volvo and the surrounding area.
Along with recovering the car and a treasure trove of
evidence inside, the agents also discovered in an abandoned boat
nearby used by the kidnappers to collect the money. When
they traced the owners of the boat, it came back

(12:01):
to the University of Miami Institute of Marine Sciences. As
for the volvo, the owner of the car was named
George Deacon, a former employee at MIT and a current
employee at the University of Miami Bingo, So he worked
at that institute. Yes, okay, So now we have the
kidnapper's names, George Deacon and Ruth Eisman because her name

(12:23):
was on the freaking duffel bag.

Speaker 1 (12:24):
Like, what, so that's her name, that's the woman that's
with the man.

Speaker 3 (12:28):
Yeah, they all everyone thought that she was like a
teenage boy because she was so small and she had
like that ski mask on and part one. Oh wow, Okay,
but like, why would you have a duffel bag with
your name.

Speaker 1 (12:38):
Especially if you're going to commit so many crimes?

Speaker 3 (12:40):
So guys, uh, Now, for as bright as George like
seems to think he is, that idiot left so much
evidence in the car there was there was like no
denying their involvement in the crime. The police recovered the
suitcases with their names on them, a motel key from
the roadside in where Barbara had been abducted, ski masks,

(13:03):
tape paper that had been used in the typewriter which
had written the ransom notes, shotgun shells, vials of sedatives,
and hypodermic needles, roots, purse with her ID passports from
Honduras and the US, as well as a University of
Miami student ID card, which had allowed her special access
to the Marine Institute after hours, because basically they just like,
here you go, this is everything you would ever need

(13:26):
to arrest us after the collection. Yeah, just everything so perfect.

Speaker 1 (13:29):
Okay. So the FBI also.

Speaker 3 (13:31):
Found a Sorry if I sound out of breath, like
my organs have moved.

Speaker 4 (13:35):
You remember when I was pregnant, literally can breathe at all?

Speaker 3 (13:39):
Yeah, Like, news flash, I popped super early this time,
Like I already have a stomach and I already can't breathe.

Speaker 1 (13:45):
So sorry if.

Speaker 3 (13:46):
It sounds like I just ran a marathon, it's okay.
So we all understand my lungsers questioned. Okay, So, the
FBI also found a Polaroid camera and some photos of
George and Ruth that they had taken of each other,
some in nude, showing that they had a romantic attachment.
Down racy photos. At the bottom of the pile, they

(14:08):
found the photo taken of Barbara just after they had
buried her with that you know, the kidnapped sign that
I had posted. Uh huh, so.

Speaker 1 (14:16):
Creepy, which is like, Yeah, it's very creepy, very eerie.

Speaker 3 (14:19):
It's such an eerie photo because you can tell she's like,
she's like smiling because they made her smile, but her eyes.

Speaker 1 (14:24):
Are just like glassy, sad.

Speaker 3 (14:27):
All right, So now there's obviously no dedying who committed
the crime. Let's just take a minute to get to
know the criminals, starting with George Deacon. Would you be
surprised to find that George Deacon isn't his real name? Oh,
of course it isn't. His real name is Gary Stephen
Christ and he was a born con man. Born in

(14:47):
Washington in nineteen forty five, Gary grew up in Alaska
and Utah. He was a brilliant kid, scoring a one
on a standard IQ test, making him like basically a
genius if you put stock in those tests.

Speaker 1 (15:00):
But he seemed to.

Speaker 3 (15:01):
Be that kind of like savvy that, if not channeled
into something positive, would most certainly get himself into.

Speaker 1 (15:06):
Trouble, which is the route he took. Yeah, I think
that's unfortunate.

Speaker 3 (15:10):
Yeah, gotta watch off for THEO kids really smart. We're
gonna have to really channel him into something positive.

Speaker 1 (15:19):
Power for good is power for good.

Speaker 3 (15:22):
By fourteen, he had already been arrested for a string
of burglaries, including boats and cars. By the time he
was eighteen, he had already been incarcerated in three different
states for thefts.

Speaker 1 (15:33):
Oh.

Speaker 3 (15:34):
It is said that while biding his time in jail,
Gary spent the time planning the perfect crime, the kidnapping
of a rich heiress at eighteen.

Speaker 1 (15:43):
Wow, that's that's wild to think about, I know. Uh.

Speaker 3 (15:47):
In nineteen sixty four, Gary met a girl named Carmen
Simon at a roller rink and the two married that year. However,
only weeks after the marriage, Gary would be arrested again
on car theF charges and sent to a California jail
for five year sentence. While in jail, Gary's first child,
a son, would be born. In nineteen sixty six, Just
eight months after entering the prison, Gary and another inmate

(16:10):
would escape the prison. Gary made it out, but the
other prisoner was killed. Oh yeah yeah. He then reunited
with his wife and child and fled to Boston.

Speaker 1 (16:20):
Which is crazy.

Speaker 3 (16:21):
He could just escape from jail so easily, like so weird.
It was so much more common. So in Boston, he
grew a beard and took on the name George Deacon
This was the sixties, after all, and changing your identity
was a whole lot easier to do. While in Boston,
Gary now George, answered an ad in the paper for
a research assistant position at MIT. He quickly got the job,

(16:44):
and for the next year and a half, Gary and
his wife lived a pretty normal life. They even had
a second son during this time. Gary's coworkers at MIT
were often impressed with how smart he was, seemingly able
to read a book once on physics and be able
to hold his own with professors, But Gary's personality often
rubbed people the wrong way. He was abrasive, overly confident,

(17:06):
and arrogant fa such Yeah, he was quick to anger
and seldom took responsibility for his failings yike. He was
also prone to making up fantastical stories about himself and
seemed to lie compulsively.

Speaker 1 (17:18):
Oh.

Speaker 3 (17:19):
In the summer of nineteen sixty eight, Gary packed up
the family and moved to Miami, Florida, where he began
working at the University of Miami's Institute for Marine Research
as a marine technician. That September, Gary embarked on a
two week research trip to Bermuda on a ship named
the Pillsbury, where he met an attractive and bright young

(17:41):
graduate student named Ruth Heisman Sheer.

Speaker 1 (17:44):
No.

Speaker 3 (17:45):
All right, now, let's talk about miss Ruth for a second.
Ruth Eisman Shear was born in nineteen forty two in
Honduras to two Jewish Austrians who had fled their country
to escape persecution from the Nazis. She was a very
intelligent person who earned a master's degree in pharmaceutical chemistry,
which dan from the National University of Mexico. In nineteen

(18:08):
sixty seven, she enrolled in Mondino School of Languages in Washington,
d c. Where she attended for twenty months, becoming fluent
in German and French, as well as her native Spanish
and competent English. In the summer of nineteen sixty eight,
Ruth was accepted to the University of Miami as a
grad student in the Marine Lab. She was a petit woman.

(18:30):
She was only five foot two and one hundred and
fifteen pounds, and she was described as polite, friendly, vivacious
to some, but reserved to others. It was said that
she never lacked attention from the boys, but she rarely
seemed to date anyone seriously, much like Gary Christ. Ruth
was also prone to telling fantastic, exaggerated stories about herself

(18:51):
that most people found hard to believe. Her friend in
grad school once called her out on it, and Ruth said, quote, well,
I guess I make them up before I read, and
then I have to keep them up.

Speaker 1 (19:03):
Okay.

Speaker 2 (19:04):
Sure.

Speaker 3 (19:06):
On September twenty third, Ruth would leave with thirteen other
scientists on a two week research trip aboard the Pillsbury.
She was only one of two women aboard, both grad students,
and their presence caused quite a stir among the rest
of the crew and scientists okay, who were all men.
And I can only imagine the looks in commons those

(19:27):
poor women got on that trip.

Speaker 4 (19:29):
Yeah, just being a woman full of men and you
like know that everyone's oggling you.

Speaker 3 (19:34):
Oh, it's like yeah, in close quarters on a ship.
And like, I don't know if the sixties, if it
was still considered bad luck to have women on ships,
or if that kind of that was considered bad luck
to have a woman on chips. Oh, from like the
early days of of sailing, like it was bad luck
to have a woman on ship.

Speaker 1 (19:50):
Wow.

Speaker 3 (19:51):
Women just I just hate women, Like, especially back in
the day I don't get why.

Speaker 1 (19:59):
I mean, we have to, but you guys hate us
but also love us for them. It's very confusing, very confusing. Yeah,
I can't have random rands like this forever.

Speaker 3 (20:09):
There's a lot of lore around why men think women
are unlucky on jokes, but obviously the one of the
biggest reasons is because they're just too distracted by their
own penises to get anything else done if there's a
lady on board. So m hm anyway, so uh ruth
like she didn't really seem to mind the attention, especially

(20:30):
after attracting the eye of A one George Deacon aka.

Speaker 1 (20:33):
Fine one and that's hot, Like then it becomes.

Speaker 3 (20:35):
Fine, then it's fine. So Gary Christ the wanted fugitive.
So this is where their origin story begins. Okay, the
pair hit it off pretty quickly. They began a romantic affair.
Remember George is married with two children.

Speaker 4 (20:50):
I was gonna say, like kind of sad because he
seemed to have like a good family so far.

Speaker 1 (20:54):
He was kind of fixing his life.

Speaker 3 (20:55):
Maybe well, no, he was always an asshole, but like.

Speaker 1 (20:57):
Yeah he wasn't. We had a good girl and two right.

Speaker 3 (21:00):
Yeah, he had a wife and two kids a job.
I think from what she said, he was always kind
of had a wandering eye.

Speaker 1 (21:07):
But yeah, this time he acted on it.

Speaker 3 (21:10):
Yeah, so they had this affair on the research vestival.
He did eventually tell her that he was married with
two kids, but that their love life had fizzled out,
you know, after she had two kids. Yeah, and he
had plans to leave her. So what a catch. Ruth
didn't seem to mind, though, and unlike most people, didn't

(21:31):
seem to be intimidated by the larger than life Gary
with his you know brain and like how he was
a huge dude, Like he was a whole foot and
one hundred pounds bigger than she was.

Speaker 1 (21:42):
Oh wow, okay, yeah, like very opposite. Yes.

Speaker 3 (21:46):
Though they did keep their relationship discreete on the ship,
the pair would be seen canoodling together whenever they were
allowed to go on shore. The research trip ended in
early October, and Ruth and Gary continued to see each other,
although they kept their relationship secret. Gary's wife, though, she
knew something was up, and she wasn't surprised when in

(22:06):
early December he told her he no longer loved her
and brought or he bought her and the two young children,
a one way ticket back to California.

Speaker 1 (22:14):
Wow early December.

Speaker 3 (22:16):
Yeah, and like the crime happens in December, so it
is so odd. They meet in October and by December
they kidnap a girl.

Speaker 1 (22:23):
Like it's so fast, so vast people are weird.

Speaker 3 (22:28):
Yeah. By now he and Ruth had been collaborating on
his plan to kidnap an heiress and make a ton
of money. And their plan was to run away, maybe
to Europe, and live happily ever after, Like what could
go wrong?

Speaker 1 (22:40):
Wow?

Speaker 3 (22:41):
Gary had been using his position at the Marine Lab
to work on a secretive project, the construction of a
watertight box complete with a light and ventilation fan. I
wonder what that's for. Gary was such a pain in
the ass to work with. Most of his coworkers weren't
concerned with what he was doing as long as he
left them alone. So people didn't really understand, like what

(23:02):
he was working on, or they didn't care. As as
far as selecting his target, it was as impersonal as
Gary going to the public library to look at newspaper
clippings to find a wealthy family with a daughter that
would be easy to snatch. He had narrowed it down
to the macall family, valued at sixty five million, with
a daughter attending Emory University, and that was that. He

(23:24):
and Ruth sold off their belongings, loaded the wooden box
into his Volvo station wagon and drove to Georgia, where
they found a spot to bury the box, and then
proceeded to track down and kidnap Barbara, which I belief
puts us back on our story where we left. Okay, questions, comments, concerns,
just that this is crazy. That's an appropriate comment. You

(23:50):
got anything, Michael?

Speaker 1 (23:51):
You good? Oh good, he's good.

Speaker 3 (23:53):
Okay, Well, let's take a break. Welcome back, glad to
be here, Thank you.

Speaker 1 (24:06):
Okay.

Speaker 3 (24:08):
So now we know the authorities know who the kidnappers
are and who they are searching for, but they still
have no idea where Barbara is buried, which is kind
of crucial since she has a limited amount of time
and the local police have just completely fucked up the
ransom money situation. So now everyone assumes Barbara is going
to die unless they can quickly unfuck it all up.

Speaker 1 (24:29):
Wow, that's no pressure.

Speaker 3 (24:32):
Robert Mackle immediately writes a message that is repeatedly read
on radio broadcasts and news stations. It essentially said I
had nothing to do with the police contact you experienced
after the ransom money was dropped off. I only want
to get my daughter back. We have your money. Please
contact us again so we can try this again. During
this time of waiting, the maclholme received a letter from

(24:55):
the kidnappers that had been sent immediately after the kidnapping.
The envelope cant the polaroid of Barbara holding onto the
kidnap sign, along with her jewelry that they had taken
off of her to prove that it was her, although
I feel like the picture.

Speaker 1 (25:08):
Is good enough of her face.

Speaker 3 (25:11):
Yeah, so this is like the only proof of life
that they had seen thus far, which was very alarming
to them obviously.

Speaker 1 (25:18):
Yeah, that's SERI.

Speaker 3 (25:20):
After the polea from Robert had been placed in the
papers and over broadcast channels, it didn't take long for
the kidnappers to contact them once again. Gary Christ called
the mackelhome on ten thirty five on Thursday evening to
give them the new drop off location for the ransom money.
This time, he was audibly stressed and gave much simpler
instructions on where to place the money. No speed limit comments,

(25:43):
no outfit requirements. He didn't even say Robert had to
do it. He just wanted them to drop off the
money on a specific dirt road and drive away.

Speaker 1 (25:52):
Easy enough.

Speaker 3 (25:53):
But this time it would be Billy Vessel's, a close
friend and business associate of Robert, who would be doing
the drop off. And he is going to have an
FBI agent hiding in the back seat with a map.
So they didn't get fucking lost this time, because I
don't know if you remember it, but Robert got super
lost the first time. He was panicking. He had to
be on his own. This is before any kind of GPS.

(26:14):
So you're just riding around in the dark.

Speaker 1 (26:17):
What year is it. It's in the sixties, like late sixties.
We're still in the late sixties, late sixties.

Speaker 3 (26:23):
It's in the sixties. Yeah, So like you have paper maps,
which right, I can't imagine anything more stressful than trying
to navigate with a paper map.

Speaker 1 (26:31):
How did you guys do it? I don't know. I
really don't understand.

Speaker 3 (26:34):
How did anyone get anywhere? I just I guess they
were better at it.

Speaker 1 (26:38):
Or they just followed roads and signs and stuff.

Speaker 3 (26:40):
If I look at a map like I get confused.
If somebody says like, go North.

Speaker 1 (26:44):
I'm like, what's North?

Speaker 3 (26:46):
I'm not a fucking compass. How do I know who
North is? I know anyway, Okay, So, wasting no time,
the men loaded up into their car and sped towards
the drop off location. When they arrived, they saw a
car sitting on the road facing them with their headlights off.
Assuming this was the kidnapper, Billy scurried out.

Speaker 1 (27:05):
He dropped the.

Speaker 3 (27:06):
Suitcase with the five hundred thousand bucks on the dirt,
and then peeled off, shouting into the radio. The packages
dropped before heading back to the mccail residence. The next day,
the FBI would get a break in the case when
both Gary and Ruth were seen at the Florida Bible College. However,
they were not seen together, but they had shown up
at the college six hours apart, leading the FBI to

(27:29):
believe that the pair had been separated after the police
encounter and so like when they both got chased in
different directions, They're like, I don't think that they actually
met up after that. So they also received a tip
from a nurse who worked at Jackson Memorial Hospital in Florida.
The nurse had treated Gary, who was still going by
George Deacon at this point for a laceration on one

(27:51):
of his testicles. He had told he told the nurse
he tripped over a pitchfork, but it was but it
was pretty obviously the FBI that he had injured his
junk jumping over that chain link fence when escaping the police. Oh,
he like literally ripped his nuts. That's what you get out,

(28:15):
I know, my god. The nurse said she probably wouldn't
have remembered him, but the patient obnoxiously imparted his medical
knowledge to them during treatment because he was explaining to
them how to do their own job. It's such an
insufferable asshole. He could They probably would have remembered him,
but he had to be such an ass that they're like, oh, yeah,

(28:36):
that one dick, I remember him.

Speaker 1 (28:39):
He ripped his ball tech, which is also kind of hilarious.

Speaker 3 (28:43):
On a pitchfork, Like you're gonna come up with anything better?

Speaker 1 (28:46):
Also, that's terrible.

Speaker 3 (28:48):
The FBI had tracked down plane tickets purchased by Gary
and Ruth, but they had missed their flights after the
ransom money had been bungled the first time. They had
also found that Gary had recently rented a car and
and apb went out on the make and model of
the vehicle. Ruth at this point had bought a bus
ticket and was on her way west. The plan had
been to rendezvous with Gary and Texas after he would

(29:11):
buy a boat and sail from Florida to Texas via
the Gulf of Mexico. I'm sorry, the Gulf of America.

Speaker 1 (29:17):
Oh no, that happened too quickly, just randomly in this conversation.
Things are happening, you guys. Oh, let's just disassociate from that.
He's not be in reality right now. Okay.

Speaker 3 (29:38):
Meanwhile, poor Barbara was still in that damn box by now.
She was soaking wet, freezing cold, unbelievably stiff and stiff
and sore, and doing her best not to lose her mind,
waiting for rescue in the dark because remember her little
light bulb that she had burnt out pretty quickly, right,
So she's just wet cold, and because of the condensation

(29:58):
in the box, she's getting dripped on.

Speaker 1 (30:00):
Oh terribly.

Speaker 3 (30:01):
She can't move, she can't move, Oh God, hours and
hours and hours. She continued to sing Christmas songs to
herself and laugh at how bad she sounded she was
just doing anything to keep her mind straight, which is
commendable because I would have lost it.

Speaker 1 (30:17):
Yeah, I probably would have let myself lose it. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (30:20):
Luckily for Barbara, hope was not lost, and Gary was
about to prove he wasn't the absolute biggest piece of
shit on the planet, although he did come close. The
Atlanta office of the FBI received a call from a
man with instructions on where to find the capsule Barbara
was buried in. He told the operator of the directions
on how to get to a secluded farmhouse located in

(30:42):
a wooded area. He told them to walk about one
hundred feet into the woods and that is where they
would find Barbara. Seven agents immediately jumped into their cars
and began speeding towards the area they had been directed to.
As they got closer, the agents noted the icicles hanging
from trees and drove faster, knowing that Barber's condition could

(31:02):
be worsening by the second.

Speaker 1 (31:04):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (31:05):
When they finally arrived, it was just after four pm,
and the agents rushed from their cars and began combing
the woods. Which four pm in December, Like, that's almost.

Speaker 1 (31:13):
Dark, that's pretty much very close to dark. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (31:17):
They began to panic as they found nothing within the
one hundred feet they were told to look. As the
men began heading back to their cars to regroup, one
of the agents stopped dead in his tracks and said
to wait, asking for silence, He said he had heard something,
and everyone stopped to listen.

Speaker 4 (31:33):
Are they gonna hear her sing Christmas?

Speaker 3 (31:37):
That would be something else, but that would not quite
So can you imagine Christmas?

Speaker 1 (31:44):
It's so sad? Oh? Okay, so that doesn't happen.

Speaker 3 (31:48):
Okay, No, But they listened closely, and it was the
sound of faint pounding right below their feet.

Speaker 1 (31:56):
Oo eerie.

Speaker 3 (31:58):
Standing on, Barbara had thought she had heard the sound
of an animal wrestling in the brush above her, and
she turned off her ventilation fan to listen.

Speaker 2 (32:07):
Ooh.

Speaker 3 (32:08):
When she heard more wrestling, she didn't even care if
it turned out to be an animal. She began frantically
pounding on the top of the box she was trapped in,
and then stopped to listen.

Speaker 1 (32:18):
Oh my god, so sad. Okay, how far deep is
she in? Ooh?

Speaker 3 (32:21):
I don't remember how deep they buried her. Okay, they
had like a tube for air, so I couldn't have
been that deep, but like because the ground was really
hard and frozen, So I don't think they buried her
super duper deep.

Speaker 1 (32:32):
But sure, but she's pounding and they're hearing it as
like a faint yeah pounding, yeah yikes.

Speaker 3 (32:38):
Okay, Uh so she stops to listen after she turned
off that fan, and a muffled voice shouted from above,
Barbara Mackle, Barbara Mackle, this.

Speaker 1 (32:47):
Is the FBI. Oh it gives me chills.

Speaker 3 (32:50):
So the agent fell to the ground and began attempting
to dig up the hard Georgia clay soil with their
bare hands.

Speaker 1 (32:57):
They don't have anything on them, no, Some of the.

Speaker 3 (32:59):
Agents ran back to their cars to radio for help,
and the men's haste. No one had thought to bring
a fucking shovel.

Speaker 1 (33:06):
And you're looking for a buried girl. They're looking for
a buried woman and you don't bring anything.

Speaker 3 (33:11):
They're like, oh shit, now we're here.

Speaker 1 (33:13):
We found her.

Speaker 4 (33:14):
Uh guy, so typical, Come on, okay.

Speaker 3 (33:18):
Agents began to grab anything they could to dig. They
found sticks, an old muffler. They used their bare hands
until they were literally bleeding, all the while telling Barbara
they were gonna get her. Out inside the box. Barbara
thought her face would crack from how hard she was smiling.
She said she had never felt such immense relief in
her whole life, and she began combing the dirt out

(33:38):
of her hair in preparation to meet her rescue. Oh,
she has to still look, She's like, let me freshen
app let me fresh up for a thing. Once the
dirt had been mostly removed from the top of the box,
the agents saw it had been screwed down, and they
ran to get a tire iron.

Speaker 1 (33:56):
I am so sorry.

Speaker 3 (33:59):
So I don't know a larm. Yes, it's a time
to take pills.

Speaker 1 (34:03):
It's time to take pills.

Speaker 3 (34:04):
Do we need a break so you can take your pills?

Speaker 1 (34:06):
I probably should because I will feel forget.

Speaker 3 (34:08):
You'll forget.

Speaker 1 (34:16):
Hey, Okay, I am medicated.

Speaker 4 (34:18):
And I am good, and she has chocolate, so so
I'm extra.

Speaker 3 (34:22):
Good, extra medicated. Couldn't be better.

Speaker 1 (34:23):
I feel good. Okay.

Speaker 3 (34:26):
It is true though, if we don't, if we don't
take them, when the.

Speaker 1 (34:28):
Alarm goes off, I will forget, and I have I
half forgotten.

Speaker 3 (34:31):
Yeah, it's gotta be done.

Speaker 1 (34:35):
Okay.

Speaker 3 (34:35):
So agents are attempting to get this lid off the box,
which is screwed down, So they go and get a
tire iron and using brute force, the men pried the
lid from the box and the first thing Barbara saw
was blinding white light, even though I guess it's more dusk,
but I guess after being in a dark box so dark,

(34:56):
any light would be really bright. And then she saw
hands reaching for her. As her eyes adjusted to the light,
she looked up to see the faces of several men,
all dirty, sweaty, and crying. I know they were all crying.
She simply grinned at them and attempted to stand on
her own before falling because their legs gave out. Yeah,

(35:18):
because I think in the book she said she didn't
eat that whole time. How could you, Like, even though
they gave her stuff, like some snacks, she was like,
I didn't want to have to poop in this box
because of that.

Speaker 4 (35:28):
That.

Speaker 3 (35:28):
Yeah, because like peeing in the box, she already peat
all over herself, like trying to do it right. And
she also just said she wasn't hungry, probably because she
was sick.

Speaker 1 (35:36):
So yeah, she's super weak. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (35:39):
One of the agents grabbed her and lifted her into
his arms. Carrying her through the woods back to their cars.

Speaker 1 (35:45):
I mean, I don't care what you look like. I'd
be falling in love with everything. I would just be like,
oh my gosh, she is carrying right.

Speaker 4 (35:53):
They're rescued, and that is all I need to consume
right now.

Speaker 1 (35:59):
I'm in full damsel mode. And they are holding me
in their strong arms that are sweaty.

Speaker 4 (36:06):
That saved that strong FBI armed, right.

Speaker 1 (36:11):
And they're like in suits. They're important men. Of course
they're in suits. Fall in love.

Speaker 3 (36:18):
Okay, sorry, I just had to have that moment. There's
got to be a romance novel just exactly like this
out there. I'm sure there is book talking on that. Okay,
So let's see. So they're carrying her back to the car.
Barbara asked them how her family was, and they replied
that they were fine, seemingly overcome with emotion. Like the

(36:39):
the agents could barely talk to her because they're all
just so emotional.

Speaker 1 (36:43):
As for you. Yeah, you're bringing all these strong men
to their knees, so emotional over me, little of me
in the spot.

Speaker 3 (36:58):
When they asked her how she was, she simply said, fine, Oh,
sweet girl, I know, she's so nice. The agents asked
her how long she had been down there after telling
and or sorry, after telling her that it was Friday afternoon,
and she told them that she had been placed in
the box shortly after she had been kidnapped. So Barbara
had been in that box, buried alive for eighty three hours.

(37:20):
Eighty three hours, that's four days and three nights.

Speaker 1 (37:26):
Whoa, It's just that is such a.

Speaker 3 (37:29):
Long amount of time to be in one position in
the cold, wet, sick. That's like miraculous that she's alive
and fine, like literally she said, she's fine, Like she
gets out of the box, she's not start creating mad.

Speaker 1 (37:41):
And she's trying to fix her hair. I know I
would be I don't even know catatonic.

Speaker 3 (37:45):
I feel like she has to be like feverish, like
what delusional or well I think by then her fever
had broken. But yeah, I just what a strong ass woman.
I know the mental fortitude that it would take to
just still be okay.

Speaker 1 (37:59):
I just can't so long and you wantn't even know
how long it is. I just feel like a.

Speaker 4 (38:04):
Good yeah, that's your other thing. There's no he took
like really close to death, I'd think.

Speaker 3 (38:08):
And they took her watch, so she's like, no concept
of time, no concept of when it was day, when
it was night.

Speaker 1 (38:15):
That's terrible. Wow.

Speaker 3 (38:17):
So once they were in the car, the silence was tense.
Barbara knew. Barbara knew the men were angry about what
had been done to her, and they were, but they
were hesitant to ask her any questions. So soon after
being rescued, to lighten the mood, Barbara said, you are
the most handsome men I have ever seen.

Speaker 4 (38:35):
There.

Speaker 1 (38:36):
You know, girl, you fall in love with those men.

Speaker 3 (38:39):
And the agents all laughed and said, well, now we
know there's something wrong with you.

Speaker 1 (38:46):
Hilarious.

Speaker 3 (38:47):
Back at the macle home, the vibe was quite and tense,
and the family milled about, waiting and hoping for some
good news. Finally, the phone rang.

Speaker 1 (38:55):
It was j.

Speaker 3 (38:57):
Edgar Hoover on the line, who was the FBI director
at that time.

Speaker 2 (39:01):
Right uh.

Speaker 3 (39:02):
He quickly told the family he had he had good news.
Barbara had been found alive and well, and before he
could say anything else, the entire house erupted in joyous chaos.
Like everyone's smiling, they're crying, they're shouting.

Speaker 4 (39:15):
I mean totally see him wanting that moment of like,
oh the news, Like that's such a high famous person.

Speaker 3 (39:21):
Yeah, and I'm like I get I guess I get
the high profile call. But like, also, you didn't do
any hard work.

Speaker 1 (39:28):
Also that like also he's not great, like but I know,
so like whoa to take time to call you?

Speaker 3 (39:33):
Yeah, it's a double edged thing, so you just want
the limelight. But also like, I guess you're the director,
so fine.

Speaker 1 (39:40):
So awesome, good for you, yess, good for you.

Speaker 3 (39:42):
I guess I don't like you.

Speaker 1 (39:45):
Yeah, I'm sure. Yeah he's probably problematic.

Speaker 3 (39:48):
He is not the best. Okay. So, yes, the news
is out. Everyone's like so happy, crying, screaming, huge celebration
at home. Happy. Yes, Barbara was alive. They were they
were going to be able to speak to her on
the phone when she was brought to one of the
agent's homes. On the way there, the agents asked Barbara

(40:10):
how much she had thought she had been ransomed for,
and this was something she had thought about a lot
while she was buried under ground.

Speaker 1 (40:18):
How much money she's worth? Yeah, and she honestly I
would think about it too, like it better not be
a low amount. She was the opposite.

Speaker 3 (40:26):
She was like, I don't know, like five or ten thousand,
Like she really serious. Girls, she really didn't think that
they asked for very much. And like when they told
her it was half a million dollars, she was just
like laughing. She was like, there's no way, and they're like, yeah,
they paid.

Speaker 1 (40:40):
It, Like wha. Her reactions are funny, like I know,
a weird story.

Speaker 3 (40:44):
She's like, I'm not worth that kind of trouble or money,
and they're like, girl, do you even know what's been
happening while you've been underground?

Speaker 1 (40:49):
Like wow, you were all over the news, like so
much has happened, Holy moly.

Speaker 3 (40:54):
Once they arrived at the agent's home, Barbara was carried
inside and immediately examined by a doctor. By now her
fever had broken, many of her cold symptoms were subsiding.
She lost about ten pounds, but other than that, she
seemed physically okay, besides you know, being hungry and hydrated,
and the first thing she asked for was an ice
cold coke and a hot bath.

Speaker 1 (41:16):
Yes. Same.

Speaker 3 (41:18):
Once she was clean and fed, Barbara lay down in
a comfy bed and, for the first time in several days,
stretched her limbs out as far as they could go.
Savoring the feeling of being free in an open space.
Oh my gosh, I would never like stop be in
that position that she was an ut box again. I
would just be like, ah, stretch out.

Speaker 1 (41:37):
That's yeah, that's wild.

Speaker 4 (41:38):
Now that you get like some strength back in you, yeah,
and you just are able to move.

Speaker 1 (41:42):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (41:43):
So her I think, yeah, she had been like the
doctor tried to like do a like a rape kit
examination kind of thing on her, but she was like, no,
they didn't like sexually assault me. So they allowed her
to have that done.

Speaker 4 (41:57):
Which is good because that in itself could be very
traumatizing and traumatizing and invasive, especially if like it didn't happen.

Speaker 1 (42:04):
Yeah. Yeah, I'm glad they respected that.

Speaker 3 (42:06):
Yeah. So her family called on the phone for a
very emotional reunion before traveling to Atlanta to see her
in person. Everyone was crying, even the hardened FBI agents.
Nobody could believe how well Barbara was doing. She seemed
genuinely happy for the ordeal to be over it, and
was completely mystified at how big of a deal her

(42:27):
story had become. She found it hard to believe that
she had been on the news, let alone the front
page like nationwide.

Speaker 4 (42:35):
Yeah, she probably thinks, like this is a police job,
like not even FBI status, right, But no, you're like national.

Speaker 1 (42:43):
Girl, You're an heiress first of all. First of all, yeah,
that's right.

Speaker 3 (42:47):
Yeah, but like the way she was raised, I think
she just didn't think.

Speaker 1 (42:50):
Of herself that way. Yeah. So yeah, it's interesting, innocent.

Speaker 3 (42:55):
Yeah, it's very She was showing a lineup of potential suspects,
and she quickly paided out Ruth and George, confirming to
the FBI that they had the correct targets, although it
was hard to not after they left all that stuff
in the car.

Speaker 1 (43:08):
So definitely having your names on these.

Speaker 3 (43:10):
Suitcases and your idea and your passport everything. The next day,
photos of the happy family would be printed on the
front page of newspapers, along with pictures of George and Ruth,
warning the public to keep an eye out for these
potentially armed and dangerous suspects. Luckily, a break in the
case had already come before they had even dug up.
Barbara from the court called Georgia Clay. The FBI received

(43:34):
a call from a boat salesman in West Palm Beach, Florida,
on Friday morning. The salesman told them. A freshly shaven
man had come in driving a Florida rental car, asking
to buy a boat that could go at least forty
miles per hour because he wanted to do some water
skiing on his own, even after shaving his beard. Gary

(43:58):
Chris was a hard man to missarly based on his size,
because he was such a big dude. Yes, and an asshole.
So that's another thing you can quickly pick out. Uh.
Once he had picked.

Speaker 1 (44:08):
With the ripped up testicle, let's remember is he walking
funny that he must still be in pain?

Speaker 3 (44:17):
Right?

Speaker 1 (44:17):
I mean we.

Speaker 3 (44:18):
Probaly to get so, Michael's probably so uncomfortable. I don't
like it, Okay. So once he had picked out the
boat he wanted, he paid for it in cash twenty
dollars bills and filled out the boat registration form with
a stolen ID. The boat would take three hours to
get ready, so Gary went and bought some supplies in

(44:40):
the meantime. He returned with a lot of camping gear
such as a cooler, sleeping bag, lantern, and binoculars, but
had also purchased a ton of different nautical charts and maps,
something he didn't have with him though, which gave the
salesman pause was water skis.

Speaker 1 (44:58):
He also can't water ski.

Speaker 3 (45:00):
On your own, so, like, I know, that's like soar,
Like how is this supposed to work? When Gary wasn't around,
the salesman's son made the joke that they were probably
raking up a boat for the maccl kidnappers, a joke
that became more and more serious as all of the
oddities of the sales started adding up. Gary, though, was

(45:21):
able to load up the boat and set off towards
Fort Lauderdale before the salesman worked up the courage to
call the FBI, because like, I can feel for that guy,
Like what are the odds, Like, what are the odds
that I just sold a boat to to this kidnapper?
But I'm glad he called. So agents arrived at the
boat shop quickly after the call had been placed, and
now the hunt was well and truly on. By Saturday morning,

(45:45):
the sea and air were swarming with Coastguard boats and
aircraft on the hunt for Gary. It seemed that Gary
was headed for the Gulf of Mexico. I'm still I'm
just gonna keep it. I guess what, it's the Gulf
of Mexico. You guys when I wrote was sorry, the
Gulf of America was a joke because I didn't think
it was actually gonna happen.

Speaker 1 (46:04):
So and then Google maps it is now changed and
the world is really weird right now.

Speaker 3 (46:09):
And the world thinks that we're really weird right now,
which is a super fair. So he was headed for
the Gulf of Mexico.

Speaker 1 (46:17):
God, world, I'm sorry. I can't even handle it. It's
not even been a month yet, alright, sorry.

Speaker 3 (46:28):
Based on witness reports who saw him when he stopped
for gas and supplies, but they were like, okay, that's
the direction he's headed in. None of the witnesses realized
who they were helping at the time, but were able
to supply helpful information on the direction Gary was headed in.
At about ten thirty am on Saturday, the Coast Guard
aircraft spotted a boat matching the description of the one

(46:49):
Gary had purchased, and a lone white male was driving it.
When the aircraft flew low over the boat, the driver
didn't wave at them, which was highly suspicious.

Speaker 1 (47:01):
They're like, everyone waves, everyone waves. If I'm this closed,
they think it's cool. They kind of true, because it's
like I would wave when a boat.

Speaker 4 (47:09):
Passes by, like everyone just tends to wave at them,
like it's just like an unnamed rule.

Speaker 1 (47:14):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (47:15):
Well they're saying, like he didn't wave at the aircraft.

Speaker 1 (47:18):
Which is even cooler, but yeah, which is.

Speaker 3 (47:20):
Even weirder because like, if they're that close to you flying,
like wouldn't you look and like wave?

Speaker 1 (47:25):
Yeah, I'd be scared. Yeah what I do? Is it
because I'm skiing on my own? Uh? Okay?

Speaker 3 (47:34):
So they were like this is the guy for sure,
and so two police boats gave chase, but Gary was
traveling at top speed and the police boats were unable
to keep up. Gary was still being why why don't they.

Speaker 1 (47:46):
Have boats that can keep up? You're the police.

Speaker 3 (47:48):
I know, I guess he got like the best boat.
I'm not sure.

Speaker 1 (47:51):
Okay.

Speaker 3 (47:52):
Gary was still being followed by aircraft that tracked him
heading inland through the many waterways Florida has to offer.
He was in an area with various rivers, harbors, and
small islands, and he knew the authorities were hot on
his heels. The Coast Guard aircraft watched as Gary suddenly
made a hard turn in his boat for land, running

(48:13):
aground on Hog Island in Florida.

Speaker 1 (48:17):
Though he didn't know it.

Speaker 3 (48:18):
Ironically, Hog Island had once been owned by Robert mackel
and his land development company, so small world. Hog Island
wasn't exactly a friendly place to land either. It was
a small, uninhabited island about two miles long and one
mile wide. The land, if you could call it that,
was mostly dense swamp choked like mangrove trees and other

(48:42):
thick vegetation. So it's not it's not a good place
to go.

Speaker 1 (48:45):
It's Florida. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (48:47):
The air is thick with mosquitos, and the swamp ground
ran rampant with poisonous water snakes and alligators.

Speaker 1 (48:53):
It's cheek.

Speaker 3 (48:54):
It's a real Florida treat. But Gary was out of options,
so he left the boat running, grabbed a bag from
the boat, and started desperately wading towards the trees, ducking
into the mangroves for cover. By that afternoon, about eighty
five agents had converged on the island. Wow, their work
was cut out for them, though after they quickly realized

(49:14):
that a man could be five feet away from them
and they would never see him because the vegetation was
that though.

Speaker 1 (49:20):
Okay, oh, that's creepy. It is crazy that way.

Speaker 3 (49:23):
And also just knowing there's a bunch of snakes and
alligators like.

Speaker 1 (49:26):
Oh gosh, they want to eat you. Yes, everything in
Florida does. It's like Australia. That's it is.

Speaker 3 (49:34):
More agents arrived on the island as the day drug
on into the night. By nightfall, at least three hundred
officers were looking for Gary.

Speaker 1 (49:41):
Well, this is like not a big island, two.

Speaker 3 (49:44):
Miles by one, like not big wild. Two local officers
got tired of the agents bumbling around making too much
noise and decided to sit silently and wait in an
area that they thought Gary was likely to come to
if he was going to try and escape the island
to mean smart. Yes, they're like the you know, like
the good old boys that were probably raised in the swamp.

Speaker 1 (50:06):
We know how it words.

Speaker 3 (50:08):
Soon they heard him attempting to move through the swamp
as quietly as he could. The two officers stood up
and pointed their guns and flashlights right into Gary's surprised
and tired face. It was about twelve thirty am and
Gary christ had eluded his captors for about twelve hours
on that miserable island. Wow, he was exhausted, wet, filthy,

(50:29):
and covered in mosquito bites. He didn't even try and
fight them when they arrested him.

Speaker 1 (50:35):
He's like, I done.

Speaker 3 (50:37):
I want to be done. He told them they might
as well shoot him. He was a dead man anyway.
When they didn't shoot him, he decided to ask for
water instead.

Speaker 1 (50:46):
Oh, I guess if I'm not getting shot, I'm kind
of thirsty, you guys. The ripped up balls of that man.

Speaker 4 (50:51):
The ripped up post, the audacity.

Speaker 3 (50:57):
He's like, well, could I have a water? This is great?
The deputy pointed at the swampy water and said, drink that,
you louse.

Speaker 1 (51:08):
Savage.

Speaker 3 (51:09):
Gary's bag that they found on him had eighteen grand
and twenty dollars bills, and the rest of the cash
had been left on the boat. He had that money
for less than two days. He just took eighteen grand
with him. All right, Okay, this is another spot where
I put a break in. So I guess we can
We're going to take it. I mean we don't have to.

(51:31):
We already took one. I guess I can keep going,
should I.

Speaker 1 (51:43):
Good?

Speaker 3 (51:43):
You good? Okay, Okay, let's just keep going power through. Okay,
So after Gary was brought in. The focus was now
on finding Ruth. A week after Gary's capture December twenty eighth,
nineteen sixty eight.

Speaker 1 (51:56):
Ruth.

Speaker 3 (51:57):
Okay, so it's nineteen sixty eight. Okay, Ruth, right, that
was right? Yeah, Ruth Eisman Sheer was added to the
FBI's Top ten Most Wanted list. What an accomplishment for
I know, it's actually kind of a cool thing to
have in your bucket, like at a party, if you're going.

Speaker 1 (52:13):
To be a criminal. Yeah, that's cool.

Speaker 3 (52:15):
Fact and fun fact. Ruth was the first woman to
ever make that list.

Speaker 1 (52:20):
Women get a girl. She's like, yeah, I was the first.
So yeah, that was hilarious. Okay.

Speaker 3 (52:30):
So Ruth would have maade capture for several months. She
was better at it. The She didn't get like a
flashy boat and said she was going to go skiing
by herself.

Speaker 1 (52:40):
She thought about it.

Speaker 3 (52:43):
She was able to more easily blend into society than Gary,
and had been working odd jobs and relying on the
hospitality of trusting people to get by. She may have
stayed a free woman for even longer if she hadn't
slipped up while applying for a job at the Central
State Hospital in Norman, Oklahoma. During the application process, she
had been required to submit fingerprint cards for their records

(53:07):
snap YEP. She had applied under the name Donna Sue Wills,
but when the clerk was going through applications, she could
find no record of a Donna Sue Mills. The clerk
then checked the fingerprint against the fingerprint database and found
that it was a match for a wanted fugitive Wow
Ruth Heisman shear. The FBI quickly tracked her down and

(53:29):
found that she was working at a drive up burger joint.
So like pulled up and she's in like roller skates
and like this face skating the cars. She was like
a roller skate drive up. She probably did look really cute.
So the FBI converged on the burger place on March fifth,
nineteen sixty nine. She saw them coming and calmly stepped

(53:51):
outside to meet them. The agents asked, are you Donna
Sue Mills, Yes, she replied, Then they asked are you
Ruth Eisman.

Speaker 1 (53:59):
She they just wanted to have so much she.

Speaker 3 (54:03):
Can replied yes, yes, and the agent said we are
from the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Ruth simply said I
know and was arrested without further comment. Wow, kind of
anti climactic end for her. She's just like, yeah, you
got me. Under questioning, Ruth told a story of intimidation
and coercion by Gary to make her help with the

(54:27):
kidnapping and other various crimes.

Speaker 1 (54:30):
She then changed her.

Speaker 3 (54:31):
Tune and said that she had been blindly and madly
in love with Christ, which compelled her to commit the crimes.
Either way, Ruth pled guilty and was convicted in a
Georgia courtroom, receiving seven years. She was paroled after only
four and deported back to Honduras. Wow, as far as
I can tell, she's still alive today. She turned away

(54:51):
from a life of crime.

Speaker 1 (54:52):
She I mean living.

Speaker 3 (54:53):
I guess I couldn't really find anything else on her,
so I guess she put it behind her.

Speaker 1 (54:58):
And just changed.

Speaker 3 (55:01):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (55:01):
Amazing, Yeah, good for her.

Speaker 3 (55:04):
The same could not be said for Gary Gary Christ.
After his arrest, Chris attempted the insanity plea. He confessed
to several murders he didn't commit, as well as other crimes.

Speaker 1 (55:16):
Why he's a piece of work, But it was.

Speaker 3 (55:19):
All in vain. Chris was tried in Georgia and the
prosecution sought the death penalty, which was apparently loud in
Georgia at that time, for kidnapping for ransom. WHOA, you
could be put to death for kidnapping for ransom? That's
wild to me. Luckily, for Christ it was not a
unanimous decision for the death penalty, and he was instead
sentenced to life in prison. While serving his time in prison,

(55:43):
Chris would write a self aggrandizing memoir titled Life. Compelling
title Gary, this is Life. He would also make an
attempt to escape by hiding in a garbage truck, but
his plan ultimately failed.

Speaker 1 (55:57):
Enormous because he's trash.

Speaker 3 (56:00):
When Chris realized escaping wasn't going to work this time,
he tried a different tactic. Being the so well behaved
they would have to let him out on parole tactic. Well,
Chris was nothing if not manipulative and charming when he
wanted to be, and the man managed to get into
the good graces of George Morris, a chairman of the

(56:21):
Georgia Parole Board. Morris saw Christ as reformed after he
began tutoring inmates, taking college courses, learning how to be
an EMT, and helping out at the prison hospital. So
After about ten years in prison and without a fight
from the Macael family, Christ was released from prison and
even received a pardon for his crimes. What so that

(56:43):
he could study medicine to become a doctor?

Speaker 1 (56:46):
What I know, whoa was that deserved?

Speaker 3 (56:54):
I wouldn't think so, but I guess fellas aren't allowed
to get medical degrees. And so they're like, well, the
only way you can get a medical degree if we
give you a pardon.

Speaker 1 (57:01):
So here you go. Oh just never existed for white men.

Speaker 3 (57:04):
No, Uh so he could. He couldn't get his degree
in the US, though, so he pursued his education in Mexico,
where he earned his medical degree and began practicing medicine
in Haiti during the nineties.

Speaker 1 (57:18):
Wow.

Speaker 3 (57:19):
But Christ wanted to come back to America, so he
petitioned the state of Alabama to allow him to practice
medicine there. They said absolutely not, but the state of
Indiana said sure, why not? So in two thousand and one.
He had some restrictions, like he had to submit for
evaluation every six months, and he wasn't allowed to prescribe

(57:40):
like certain medications, but they let him practice medicine. Wow, Indiana,
his medical career would be short lived, however, when a
story was published in Indiana about the maccel case and
he lost his job and very much felt like he
was a victim.

Speaker 1 (57:57):
Of course he did.

Speaker 3 (57:58):
He's like, why there went some mean to me? And
so what was a man to do? After the world
just wouldn't allow him to go straight? He had to
go back to crime, of course. So in two thousand
and six, Gary Chris would be arrested once more for
smuggling a whole lot of cocaine as well as undocumented
immigrants from Columbia via sailboat. Whoa maybe they went water skiing.

(58:23):
Chris was sentenced to another five years in prison, but
was paroled in twenty ten, then landed back in jail
for another forty months after violating his parole by leaving
the state and sailing to Cuba. He was again released
in twenty fifteen, and so far he hasn't landed himself
back in prison. But I just can't wait to hear
about his future crimes and exploits.

Speaker 4 (58:43):
It's gonna keep happening because it's I mean, it's gonna
figure something out.

Speaker 3 (58:46):
It's just his personality, like it's there's gonna be something right.

Speaker 1 (58:50):
It has to be.

Speaker 3 (58:51):
And as for Barbara, after the terrible ordeal she went through,
Barbara truly seemed to move on from it and she
didn't let it affect her life. She ended up getting
married to good old Stuart Woodward, remember her bff. That
Everyone was like, they're going to end up together.

Speaker 1 (59:04):
All they did wonderful and they ended up together and
they have two children. I know.

Speaker 3 (59:12):
And after writing the book eighty three Hours Till Dawn
in nineteen seventy one, Barbara never publicly spoke on it again.
She basically said she wrote the book to get.

Speaker 1 (59:20):
It all out and then to get rid of it. Yep.

Speaker 3 (59:23):
She just wanted it done. Live your life so I
can say it all in the most complete way I
can and then be done. And that's what she did.

Speaker 1 (59:28):
I love that so much. She's my hero and that's
the end. Wow, Bravo y one. A good story, what
a wild story.

Speaker 3 (59:36):
Right, and it just kept going so many details Carrie stop. Yeah,
So pretty wild, wild story, very wild story. That's like
a solid two parter.

Speaker 1 (59:49):
That's a lot of.

Speaker 3 (59:50):
Stuff going on. Good job to you, thank you, thank you.

Speaker 1 (59:55):
You can breathe now take a little brain as much.

Speaker 3 (59:58):
As one can when lungs are being squished, but true. Yeah, anyway,
the end, So what do we do now?

Speaker 1 (01:00:07):
I guess we could do City of the.

Speaker 4 (01:00:08):
Week okay, and that goes to our home based kind
of Eugene organ.

Speaker 1 (01:00:22):
Woo woo. Thanks for listening and supporting us. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:00:27):
Honestly, we've had quite the uptick in Eugene, so I
guess we have some new listeners.

Speaker 1 (01:00:31):
So hey, y'all, it's exciting. Hi.

Speaker 3 (01:00:33):
If you see us around town, you probably won't. We
don't get out much, but if you do, sure, Hi, Hi,
thank you. If you say anything to us in public,
we will crumble from We.

Speaker 4 (01:00:42):
Will be absolutely embarrassed, but we will do whatever.

Speaker 3 (01:00:47):
But then we'll excitedly talk about it later. Yes, yeah,
oh okay, wow, okay, well okay, well okay, well well
well well I.

Speaker 1 (01:00:57):
Don't think I have anything else to talk about. You.
You're good.

Speaker 4 (01:01:01):
Oh.

Speaker 3 (01:01:01):
I guess we didn't talk about anything we're watching and
listening to.

Speaker 1 (01:01:04):
Do we have anything good that's been.

Speaker 3 (01:01:06):
I've read some books in the break. There's a really
good book called The Women If you want to be
emotionally destroyed, and that's a good one. Other than that,
I don't think we're really watching much new.

Speaker 1 (01:01:20):
So yeah, I'm just like stuck on the Dick Van
Dyke Show. So, the Dick Van Dyke Show. It's true.
I have Google TV somehow and there's a whole channel
dedicated to that one show. And I just like the
old show, like the actual Yeah, and you're just watching
in black and white. Yeah, it's still comforting to me
right now. Oh so much. Huh. It's actually really funny.

(01:01:42):
I bet him so much. He's funny. He's funny, hilarious.

Speaker 3 (01:01:45):
Wow, yeah, I wouldn't have expected that from me.

Speaker 1 (01:01:48):
I'm in love with him. Oh a cold Play it's
made a music video like okay, yeah for him. I
heard about that because he's ninety nine years old now
it's still dancing. I'm still amazing and still there. And
I watched it and sobbed. Oh it was so beautiful.
And then I was like, I need to watch everything
of Dick Vandyke. So I was like Mary Poppins and

(01:02:09):
then I found the show and here I am.

Speaker 3 (01:02:11):
Oh, of course Mary Poppins. Oh well, okay, there you go, guys,
watch a Dick Vandyke show.

Speaker 1 (01:02:16):
That's where I'm at currently in my life.

Speaker 3 (01:02:18):
Sometimes you just need a really old comforting show. We're
rewatching Modern Family because it's an old comforting.

Speaker 1 (01:02:23):
Show, and yeah, that's nice.

Speaker 3 (01:02:25):
I was like, oh, this is such a different time
when the show is a.

Speaker 1 (01:02:28):
Much more hole. It's such a different time. Anyway.

Speaker 4 (01:02:33):
Okay, well, I'm glad we're back. I'm glad this was fun. Yes,
good job to us.

Speaker 1 (01:02:38):
It felt good. I'm glad that we did this too. Okay,
we love you guys, and good night. All right.

Speaker 3 (01:02:50):
For my sources, I read the book eighty three Hours
Told Dawn by Gene Miller in collaboration with Barbaramacle, Time
dot com, Wikipedia dot com, and Murderpedia dot org. Our
music is by Broke for Free and Matt Eden, and
you're edited by Michael.

Speaker 1 (01:03:12):
All right, should I listar social media? Please?

Speaker 3 (01:03:16):
Do?

Speaker 1 (01:03:17):
We have a lot of our things that Anxious and
Afraid the Pod. So that's our handle for both of
our Facebook page and group, along with our Instagram and Gmail.

Speaker 3 (01:03:26):
We have a Twitter at AA Thepod.

Speaker 4 (01:03:28):
You can support us on Patreon dot com forward slash
Anxious and Afraid.

Speaker 3 (01:03:33):
If you do that, you get some pretty nice perks.
You get ad free episodes that are released a whole
day early, and you get a free sticker.

Speaker 4 (01:03:42):
You can also support us for free if you can't
do any of that by leaving a rate review, subscribe
to the show, tell your friends, yeah, we.

Speaker 3 (01:03:50):
Would appreciate all of it.

Speaker 1 (01:03:52):
Right now, fe the dok tty, pay the spy, the
tight fee to the tenty, pay the spin the way,
try to the tu