Barbara Jane Mackle
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Barbara Jane Mackle (born 1948) is an American heiress who was the victim of a notorious crime. She wrote a book about her ordeal and the book was the basis for two television movies.
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[edit] The crime
On December 17, 1968, Mackle – then a 20-year-old Emory University student – was staying at the Rodeway Inn in Decatur, Georgia with her mother. Mackle was sick with the Hong Kong flu, which had severely struck the student body of Emory, and her mother had driven to the Atlanta area to take care of her daughter and then drive her daughter back to the family home in Coral Gables, Florida for the Christmas break. A stranger, Gary Steven Krist, knocked on the door, claiming to be with the police and told Mackle that Stewart Hunt Woodward had been in a traffic accident. [Woodward is usually described as Mackle's boyfriend or fiancé but in Mackle's written account she calls him 'a good friend'.] Once inside, Krist and his accomplice, Ruth Eisemann-Schier (who was disguised as a man), chloroformed Mackle’s mother, bound Mackle’s wrists and kidnapped her at gunpoint. They drove her to a remote pine forest off of South Berkeley Lake Road in Gwinnett County near Duluth. There Krist and Eisemann-Schier buried Mackle in a fiberglass reinforced box. The box was provided with an air pump, a battery-powered lamp, water laced with sedatives, and food. Two plastic pipes provided Mackle with outside air.
Krist and Eisemann-Schier demanded, and received, a $500,000 ransom from Mackle’s father, Robert Mackle, a wealthy Florida land developer. On December 20, Krist called and gave a switchboard operator at the FBI vague directions to Mackle’s burial place. The FBI set up their base in Lawrenceville, Gwinnett’s county seat, and more than 100 agents spread out through the area in an attempt to find her, digging the ground with anything they could find to use, including their hands. Mackle was rescued alive and unharmed, though she was dehydrated. She had spent over three days underground.
[edit] The punishment
Krist was soon arrested off the coast of Florida in a speedboat bought with part of the ransom money. Eisemann-Schier was arrested 79 days later. (She has the distinction of being the first woman on the FBI's ten most wanted list.) She was convicted and sentenced to seven years in prison, paroled after serving four years and deported to her native Honduras. She currently lives in Honduras, where she is married to Salvatore Randazzo and has 4 children. Krist was convicted and sentenced to life in prison in 1969, but was released on parole after ten years. Krist received a pardon to allow him to attend medical school. He practiced medicine in Indiana before his license was revoked in 2003 as a result of lying about disciplinary action received during his residency.
In March of 2006 an arrest warrant was issued for Krist after Barrow County, Georgia police found an underground drug lab for manufacturing cocaine buried beneath a shed on his property. (Barrow is adjacent to the county where Krist buried Mackle.) He was arrested (along with his stepson) on a sailboat off the coast of Alabama with over 38 pounds of cocaine in his possession (about $1 million worth). On May 16, 2006 he pled guilty to drug smuggling, and on January 19, 2007 he was sentenced to more than five years in prison.
[edit] The books and movies
Mackle wrote a book (with Miami Herald reporter Gene Miller) about her experience: 83 Hours ‘Til Dawn, published in 1971. ABC aired the story in 1972 as part of its ABC Movie of the Week showcase under the title The Longest Night. However due to litigation surrounding the rights to the story, the movie was never aired again. The book was made into a second television movie, 83 Hours 'Til Dawn in 1990. Krist also wrote a book, Life: The Man Who Kidnapped Barbara Jane Mackle, published in 1972 (ISBN 0-7004-0100-8).
[edit] Mackle's present life
Mackle went on to marry Woodward and have two children. At last report she was living in Florida. She declines all requests for interviews.
[edit] References
- South Florida's Crimes of the Century Riveted The Nation by Edna Buchanan, Miami Herald, September 15, 2002, retrieved September 12, 2006
- The Talented Dr. Krist From the November 2006 issue of Atlanta Magazine
- The Girl in the Box Time Magazine, December 27, 1968
- Making an Impact Time Magazine, January 3, 1969
- Gary Krist: The Einstein of Crime By David Krajicek from Court TV Crime Library
- Gary Steven Krist Crimezzz
- Residents Look Back On Incident by Lateef Mungin, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, March 14, 2006, retrieved September 12, 2006
- Underground Coke Lab Found on Mackle Captor's Land by John Ghirardini, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, March 16, 2006, retrieved September 12, 2006
- Q&A, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, June 28, 2006, retrieved September 12, 2006
- Doctor’s License Revoked WISH-TV, August 29, 2003 (includes a picture of Krist) retrieved September 12, 2006
- Georgia man in 1960s buried alive case gets 5 years in drug case WPMI-TV, January 19, 2007.
| Persondata | |
|---|---|
| NAME | Mackle, Barbara Jane |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | |
| SHORT DESCRIPTION | Crime victim |
| DATE OF BIRTH | |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | |
| DATE OF DEATH | |
| PLACE OF DEATH | |
