Episode 597: The Kidnapping of Barbara Jane Mackle
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Hey, weirdos. I'm Ash. And I'm Elena. And this is Morbid. It sure is. I just read something on Instagram. It says, this La Vida is getting a little too loca, if you ask me. And that's how I feel today. That's how I feel today. I feel like this La Vida is hella fucking loca. This is, it is hella fucking loca. Bella, where you been, loca? There you go. I love it. It's my favorite thing ever. One of the best lines in cinematic history, as far as I'm concerned.

Spot the lie. Spot the fucking lie. Spot it. Taylor Lautner came out, I don't know if it was recently, I saw it recently, and said how much he fucking hated that wig that they made him wear. That wig was nuts. Iconique. Nuts. Iconique. Bonkers. I mean, the Twilight, Twilight is such, like, hello, welcome to Morbid. Twilight is such a vibe. This is the skin of a killer, Bella. This is the skin.

That line. That line is one of the best lines in cinematic history. It's one of those things where it's like we can, people can hate on it as much as they want. You have to. Because you have to. But damn, what a moment that shit is. And what a vibe that shit, like I'll watch that again. The vibe is just for the vibe. Ha ha ha ha ha ha.

And the weather's about to be like that too. That came out at such an important, crucial time in my life. I was in middle school when those books came out. So, oh, you bet your bottom motherfucking dollar I was trying to do the Bella aesthetic. Oh, yeah. Like I was like, oh, new personality unlocked. That's me. I'm so different. I'm so different. I live with my dad and forks. See, it was my like looking at it. I was like, oh, this is everything I ever wanted as I was growing up was to meet a vampire.

Yeah.

To fall in love with. And have him love you. Like, that's literally all I wanted. John's really pale. I never... He is. And he's from Norway. There you go. That's giving vampire. There's definitely vampires there, I bet. Drew's Polish. I don't know if that's giving vampire. Polish vampires? You never know. I don't know. It's giving pierogies, so that's good. It's giving pierogies. It's giving pierogies, and I do love those. So I think, yeah, I found a vampire-esque man. And I found pierogies, so let's fucking go, girls. I was just thinking about...

So we found that the Hollywood Reporter did like a podcasting thing. Yeah, it was cool. And we were part of it and it was really fun. Thank you for featuring us, Hollywood Reporter. Yeah, that was really sick. And in it, we were all these other amazing podcasters that I was like, I'm sorry, what are we doing in there? But

I know it. But like Bill Simmons is one of those podcasters. He's like been around for literally ever. He's hilarious. And John loves him, like has loved him forever. And one of the things he said was a podcasting no-no. One of his things was like bullshit banter. Oh, no. Do you think he hates us?

And I was like, I get it because he does like serious interviews and like sports shit. So like, I understand. But I was like, this is all I could think of as we started. This was like, Bill, I'm sorry. But sometimes I know some of you do not come from the bullshit banner. That's not true.

No. Bantor, that's not for you. Totally get it. But I think a vast majority of our audience actually loves bullshit banter. Well, you just, you know, you're here with us. Because they're us. We try to be a little more mindful of how much we sprinkle it in at this point. Because, you know, like, we've grown. We've evolved.

And also, that was like not a knock at Bill Simmons because I love Bill Simmons. I just thought it was hilarious. No, that is funny. And I loved how honest he was in his answer. It was hilarious. You guys actually should go read that article because his answers were fucking hilarious. His are really funny. Theo Vaughn. Theo Vaughn's are really funny. Georgia and Karen were in there. Georgia and Karen were in there. They're really funny. Everyone had real... Everyone had differing opinions on 1.5 Speed listening to podcasts, which was funny. I think we're...

We forgot to answer that question. I think we did too. I think I also was just like, no, never. Yeah. And I felt weird saying no, never. I just get very stressed out with it. It's too fast for me. I get overstimulated very easily. I talk fast enough for my own self. Yeah. Putting me on 1.5. Could you fucking imagine? No. People probably do do that. Woo.

Can you even hear? Did that create a time warp? It did. Well, what's new in your personal world? So really quick, just before we get into this, which is it's going to be a two-parter because it's a very long but very interesting case. Very interesting. I just wanted to mention that I'm going on like a mini book tour. With me. With Ash. I get to go. I'm going on a mini book tour.

And there's a few dates. I think there's really only two that are not sold out, which like is really wild. There's one on September 18th at 6 p.m. in New York at the Union Square Barnes & Noble. You can get, if you go on the Barnes & Noble site and type in events and like go to that date and

In that location, you can get tickets. I think there's a bunch of tickets left. I'm not positive, but that's the last update I got. I just have to say it's really fucking cool. I had a real moment last night where I was like, bitch, that's my sister. Because Sarah Jessica Parker was just at that Barnes & Noble. That's pretty cool. And I saw that and I said...

And my sister got invited too. That's pretty cool. So I just wanted to say that. Thank you for that. You betcha. And I did an event for Butcher and the Wren there and they were amazing. It was fun. And I loved doing that event. Everybody who went was amazing. It was just like a really fun experience. Yeah, it was cool. So go check and see if there's tickets left for that one. And then I think there's like only a few tickets left in Great Barrington, Massachusetts in Berkshires. I love the Berkshires. At the Book Loft.

which is a really cool bookstore. It's cool. And yeah, so that's going to be fun. And, you know, I'll keep updating you on any future book events. Oh, and there is a sweepstakes that we're doing that is a really fun one. This is cool. So we're doing a sweepstakes where you can enter and you can you enter by just uploading your preorder receipt for the butcher game.

And you can, it's right in my Instagram bio or in, you know, you can go to thebutchergame.com, upload your pre-order receipt for The Butcher Game. And I'll see you in the next one.

And you can be entered to win like a stay at the Red Lion Inn in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. Which is one of the coolest fucking inns ever. It's iconic and it's beautiful. It's like so historic. My Bravo fans, that's where Dorinda used to work. Yes, exactly. And it's so much fun. And then a grand prize winner is going to get, so the grand prize winner is going to get the two night stay at the Red Lion Inn. And that's September 27th and 28th.

And they're going to get like all this other fun stuff to it. And this person is going to get tickets to a murder mystery dinner on September 28th. And that's going to be with me, with Ash being there. I can't fucking wait. Mikey's going to be there. I literally can't wait. And it's going to be a murder mystery dinner. So it's going to be fucking fun. And we're all going to hang out and we're going to have a vibey time. Yes.

So enter with your fucking pre-order receipt at thebutchergame.com. Pre-order The Butcher Game. Put your receipt in there. It's going to be like that episode when they're in the Berserk Shears and they do the murder mystery party at Bluestone Manor. Yes. I've never been to a murder mystery dinner. It's a blast. John and I went last year to one and it was so much fun. And so the grand prize winner gets the stay at the Red Lion Inn and a ticket to the dinner.

That's amazing. And then 10 winners are going to get tickets to the Murder Mystery Dinner. Oh, my God. You guys have, like, enter to win. And even if you don't win, I'm going to be so sad for you. But go to the fucking Red Lion Inn. It's the best. And they have a really cute little shop there. Yeah, they do. I love that little shop. And it's just a cool inn. Like, you're really going to love it. I think they're going to be contacting the winners by September 6th.

So yeah, this is close. So make sure you get in there. Get in there. Get in there. If you want to enter to win. It'll be a fun time. And pre-order The Butcher Game if you haven't already yet. Go to thebutchergame.com. You can pre-order it anywhere. It really helps. It's really awesome. I'll be really grateful. And I promise you you're going to love it. I really love it. I really love it. I read it already. Yeah. I'm very excited about it. I got an ARC, LOL. I got an ARC. That made me feel cool. But yeah, it's coming out on September 17th. So pre-order now and you might get it a day before. You never know.

Amazing. So go do it. And now that we have annoyed you or made you happy or made you feel neutral about what we have just talked about, let's get into the kidnapping of Barbara Jane Mackle. Oh. Now, Barbara Jane Mackle is not a child, just so you know what you're getting into here. Okay, that's good to know. Which doesn't make it better. I'm just saying it's a different kind of kidnapping, a little bit of a young adult napping.

So let's just get right into it because this is a windy, twisty, wild tale. And it takes place in the 60s.

Ooh, I love the 60s. So in the weeks leading up to Christmas break in 1967, Emory University student Barbara Jane Mackle, so she's a young college student, she was looking really forward to the Christmas break. She was just psyched to be getting the last of her exams for the semester done, and then she was going to head home to Miami to visit her family.

Now, unfortunately, when her father, Robert Mackle, talked to his daughter on December 14th, he was pretty disappointed because he found out that she had a cold that had evolved into the flu and she was sounding and feeling awful. She just felt like shit. That's the worst. Yeah. So Jane Mackle, who is Barbara's mother, later recalled, Robert had talked to Barbara that Thursday and he was about ready to make her come home. She couldn't get into the infirmary at Emory because it was full, but Barbara wanted to stick it out.

And so she wanted to stick it out because if she was going to leave early, she would have to reschedule one or more of her exams. And she was just determined to finish them all before the holiday break and not have to worry. Yeah, you don't want that looming over your head your whole holiday break. That would suck. No, because then sometimes you overstudy and then you kind of like lose it. You know what I mean? You go too far. Literally could never be me, but I've heard that does happen. Yeah, if you overstudy, like you get obsessive about it.

No, I'm kidding. So she couldn't even get into the infirmary at school, though, because it was flu season. Everybody's got the flu. Everyone's got a cold. You're probably better off not going into the infirmary. I know, it's true. So eventually, Robert and Jane Mackle reached a compromise with Barbara. And this compromise was that, sure, you can stay to finish your exams because she was very determined. But her mother, Jane, said, I'm coming to Atlanta and I'm going to take care of you.

Oh, that's really sweet. So the next morning, Jane boarded the first available nonstop flight from Miami and was in Atlanta within a couple hours. Wow. She checked into the roadway in with her daughter a little before noon, and she said, you're going to stay with me here, and I'm going to take care of you, and then you can go take your exams. Yeah.

And Jane said, I took her temperature right away and she still had 101 degree fever. Oh, damn. But despite her really rough flu symptoms, she was determined as ever to be studying through the weekend and doing well on those exams. My God, she must have been exhausted. Yeah. Now, later that afternoon, Barbara drove to the Rich Building at Emory School of Business and sat down to start, you know, going for it. But the instructor was like,

You look like shit. Like you look so sick. Yeah. And like could tell that she was feeling awful. And he was like, you got to go to the infirmary. You can't sit in this class. Yeah. You're going to like get everybody else sick. And you're probably not going to do that great on your exams anyway. Because you're so out of it. Yeah. So she went to the infirmary. She had to wait for over an hour only to be sent home and told to rest. Oh my God. I'd be so pissed. Yeah.

Now, Barbara woke the next day feeling a little bit better, but she was determined to take her history exam. And this time she said she was going to go in there and just act totally fine. She wasn't going to say anything to her history instructor about her temperature or how she was feeling. She put a little concealer on the under eye. Yeah, she's like. A little blush on the cheeks and went for it. Now, meanwhile, back at the motel, the phone in Jane's room rang and she answered it. And she heard an unfamiliar man's voice. And this man said, I have a registered letter for Barbara Mackle. And

And earlier in the week, Barbara had complained to her mother that she let a guy borrow her class notes and he never returned them. Oh, fuck that guy. So Jane assumed that the boy had maybe mailed the bad notes back to like just to the motel. Yeah.

But apparently it didn't occur to her that like very few people knew that they were staying at the motel. Was going to ask that. Especially like casual acquaintances wouldn't have known. Right. But regardless, when Jane told Barbara someone had returned the notes, she told her mother it was too late to get them that night and that the letter should just be brought to the dorm tomorrow. Okay. So Jane told the caller that, thank the man, hung up, nothing else happened.

The next day, December 16th, Barbara's best friend, Stuart Woodward, spent most of the afternoon with her at the motel, helping her study for the one remaining exam she had.

And after leaving the motel for a bit, Stuart went by Barbara's dorm room to see if the class notes were there because he's like a best friend. Yeah. He was going to go pick them up for her. That's really sweet. Because she needed that, those notes. And when he got there, he saw that, yes, the red notebook was sitting on her desk. So he was like, oh, good. But there was no sign that they had ever gone through the mail. So he was like, that's a little weird. Yeah.

But Stuart returned to the roadway with the notes and spent the rest of the evening studying again with Barbara and didn't leave until like 10 p.m. And as he walked out the door, he jokingly said, well, don't talk to any strange men and then closed the door behind him. Oh, I hate that. Because I think they had brought up like that this guy had called and he was like, well, don't talk to any more strange men on the phone. Yeah, just joking. Now, after a long day of studying, Barbara was exhausted because she's still sick. Yeah. Still not feeling well by the time Stuart left. So she just was like,

I'm going to sleep. And Jane Mackle was also exhausted. So she was like, you know what? Let's go to sleep. But Jane was awoken a few hours later because she heard Barbara. Her breathing was sounding very congested, like she was that sick breathing. And

And so she asked, Barbara, are you awake? And Barbara said, yes, I can't sleep. My head is so stopped up. And Jane got up and walked to the motel window to look out over the parking lot and it was just dark. And then she looked down to her watch and saw it was only 3 a.m. So she was like way too early to get up for the day. So she went back to bed and she said she could hear Barbara's like congested breathing, but there was really nothing she could think to do. So they did fall back to sleep.

Jane had just started to drift in and out of sleep when she was startled by a knock at the motel room door in the middle of the night. Listening on Audible helps your imagination soar. Whether you listen to stories, motivation, expert advice, any genre you love, you can be inspired to imagine new worlds, new possibilities, and new ways of thinking. Find genres you love and discover new ones along the way. Explore bestsellers, new releases, and thousands of included audiobooks and originals that members can listen to all they want.

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Joe, as Jeremy, is probably one of the most terrifying things I've ever heard in my life. And Sophie does this, like, undercover NOLA accent for Ren that's just so good. As an Audible member, you can choose one title a month to keep from the entire catalog, including the latest bestsellers and new releases. New members can try Audible free for 30 days. Visit audible.com slash morbid or text morbid to 500-500. That's audible.com slash morbid or text morbid to 500-500 to try Audible free for 30 days. audible.com slash morbid.

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Subject to your available earnings location, daily max and pay period max. See earnin.com slash TOS for details. Earnin is a financial technology company, not a bank. Bank products are issued by Evolve Bank and Trust member FDIC. So she calls out and is like, who the fuck is there? But it was difficult to hear, but there was a man on the other side. And Jane said, I thought he said he was a detective, maybe a policeman. I'm not sure.

What? Mm-hmm.

Or just didn't relay it to her. So she said, I immediately thought of Stuart Woodward. Oh, okay. He had a white car. So she was like, so she said, is his name Stuart through the door? And the man said, yes, it is. Oh. Now Jane parted the curtain by the door a little and looked out. And she said she saw a man and could see that he was white, clean-shaven, and he was wearing a police officer's hat with a badge on it. Oh.

Uh-huh. So she was like, all right, well, this seems legit. So she started unhooking the chain that had been holding the door closed. But as she lifted up the chain, the man bashed his way with his shoulder into the room. What the fuck? Literally ripping the stripping away from the frame. Oh my God. He did it so hard. Knocked Jane to the floor and another figure appeared from behind him who was small and described as small and slender. Jane said the second intruder...

looked like they were maybe like a 12 or 13 year old. They were so small. What? And their face was covered by a black ski mask. Oh God. I hate that. Yeah. And they thought, and Jane thought it was like a young boy essentially. And the smaller intruder started tying Jane's hands and ankles and

And so Jane looked over at the policeman who was still wearing the cap, the policeman, quote unquote. And she said he was chunky and he had a round face, a moon face, she later said. That's a read. Yeah. And she said he spoke well and spoke softly. He didn't look like a hoodlum or anything like that. I love the 60s of it all.

Now, at first, Jane thought the two intruders came in to rob them. And so she immediately started saying, take anything you want in this room, but please do not hurt my daughter or me. Yeah. And seconds later, she said, as she's saying that, she feels a damp rag being pressed over her face. Oh.

And she started getting blurred and like it was covering her eyes. Hashtag chloroform. So she said it was either chloroform or ether, but I couldn't. And she said I could hear him saying, give her more, give her more. Oh my God. So assuming that they were going to keep pouring this substance, whatever it was, onto the rag and keep pressing it to her face until she passed out, she just pretended to fall unconscious. Fucking smart. Yeah.

She really is. Like that was some like queen shit. Cause they could have killed her. Yeah. Absolutely. So she's, she never lost consciousness. Wow. Cause she just faked it. But she said that the rag on her face did prevent her from seeing much of what was happening. Yeah.

And she was like a little woozy from it. I'm sure she had to close her eyes anyway to pretend she's passed out. So she said, I looked up and I saw just a flickering of Barbara's nightgown going out the door between them. And after that, her daughter and the intruders were just gone and the room was just deathly quiet. And they just left her there tied up? Yep.

So terrified and unable to do anything, she rolled over and started making her way towards the phone, which was knocked on the floor. She couldn't dial because her hands were behind her back. Oh, I didn't even think of that. So she started yelling into the receiver, but she's like, I didn't dial. So it didn't even go to the overnight clerk. Like she was hoping it would just connect maybe somehow, but it didn't. So she struggled to get to her feet and hopped towards the little kitchenette with a pair of scissors on the counter.

And with her hands still being bound, she got the scissors into her hands, but then dropped them and couldn't hold on to them or get them to work in any way. So she hopped towards the door and made her way out into the parking lot and began screaming for help. Wow. And she said, I got absolutely no response. I couldn't believe that no one heard. I know they heard. Oh. And if anyone did hear her cries for help, no one moved to help her.

And none of the lights went on. Nothing. It's so shitty because that's such a catch-22. Like, when you're in that position, you're like, why is nobody helping? But then hearing that, you're like, I'm not going out there. But you should call the police. Call the police. Like, come on. Your first thought should not be go out there because you don't know what you're going out by. No means go out there. But call the police. Call someone. Yeah. Call the front desks. Call someone. Call anybody. Literally, like, just call someone and say, I did it. I did what I needed to do. But don't just ignore it. Yeah, no, that's silly. That's crazy.

So unsure what to do or where to go, she's still tied up here. Oh my God. Jane spotted her car in the parking lot and started going towards it. She fell twice, cutting and bruising herself as she hit the ground with her hands tied behind her back. Oh God.

She did manage to get into the front seat of her car and she placed her chin on the steering wheel and used her head to press the horn as hard as she could. Wow. And just held it down. Genius. It took about a full minute before anyone responded, but soon a young woman in the room next to Jane and Barbara.

Which I was like, you didn't hear anything when he slammed. He literally broke down the door. Right. He didn't call anyone. Yeah. What the fuck? That's crazy. And also this lady called the front desk and said another crackpot is on the loose. Nice. Like, oh, okay. You heard all that. Real nice. You think maybe something's awry? Yeah, probably. The night clerk, Walter Perkins, who shame upon him. Uh-oh.

He stepped out into the lot, looked over and finally spotted what was happening. And he just said, hey, lady, shut up. You'll wake up the guests. So Jane finally lifts her head off the steering wheel and is like, hey, asshole, help me. I'm tied up. Right. And the man walks closer and could see a piece of adhesive tape like hanging from her mouth. And he was just like, what the fuck? And Jane said, they robbed me and took my daughter.

And he just stared at her and he said, I thought it was some sort of mother-daughter disturbance.

What? Do you see that a lot? They robbed me and took my daughter. Like, do you see that looking like this a lot? So he was like, so Jane was like, call the police. That's what I need you to do. Perkins was completely unmoved by this scene. And she said later, Jane said later, he just stood there and fussed at me. He didn't do a thing. Are you fucking kidding me? Walter Perkins, get it fucking together. Like what? Get it together. He didn't call the police at all?

Didn't call that he was literally like staring at her. Annoying. Like and you said he's the night watchman. Now later. Yeah, he was like the night the person at the front desk. Oh, good. Later, Walter Perkins, Walter Perkins would claim that he didn't want to alarm any of the other guests. So he was trying to be discreet.

But Jane Mackle said he was incredibly infuriating and he didn't give a shit. I'm also like, I think the other guest should already be alarmed because one of these doors has broken off the hinges. A woman's been beeping her horn and screaming for help and she was tied up. Yeah. Well, we should probably involve the police here. So she's saying, hey, call the police. And he's like, mm.

What? Nah. And she stands up and is like, hey, see how my hands are tied behind my back and my ankles? By the way, her ankles are still tied. My God. She hopped across the parking lot. Right. She stands up with her ankles tied and her hands tied behind her back. She's covered in cuts and bruises, has tape on her mouth. A mother-daughter disturbance. And she's like, hey, can you call the police? And then she also goes...

Hey, also, can you get some fucking scissors and uncut, like, un-fucking-time me? Do I need to spell everything out right now? So he did, but he ended up cutting her hands only. And she was like, my ankles are also cut. And he was like, can't help you there. What? He was like, this is weird. I don't want to do it. Why? He was so ineffective that Jane had to hop back to her own room where she was able to cut the bindings around her own ankles. What is happening here? Walter Perkins, get it fucking together. What is happening here?

So then she called the county police on her own because Walter Perkins did not call the police. I hope less people stayed at that motel after this. You know what Walter Perkins did? He just walked back to the counter in the front desk and sat behind it where he started. Huh. He just sat back at the front desk. Didn't call anyone. Just like that was weird. I can't understand. Shame on your name. I just can't understand why the, what? I don't understand him.

So when she saw, when Jane saw the intruders leaving with her daughter Barbara, she immediately imagined that they had robbed her before they had left. And now they were probably planning to sexually assault or kill Barbara. That's all she could think of. Of course. But when she entered the room after getting, you know, herself free, she realized her purse was still on the table and hadn't been touched. And in fact, everything was exactly as it had been before they were attacked and

The only thing missing was Barbara. And she said, when I realized they hadn't robbed us, I knew they were after Barbara, which must have been horrific. Now, DeKalb County officers Walter Bayer and S.L. Baumgrass were the first to arrive at the roadway, and they found Jane Mackle waiting outside the door of her room.

And when the call came in on the radio for a Signal 77, both of them recognized that as a kidnapping code. And it was uncommon in DeKalb County, so they rushed to the motel. They were very worried. Within minutes of placing the call, they were already there. Like, it was quick. Officer Bayer recalled she was terribly upset and terribly disturbed.

And he said it was difficult to understand what Jane was actually trying to tell them, but they just knew that she had reported a kidnapping. And Bayer said, I thought it was some sort of sexual abduction.

After all, in the moment, neither officer knew Jane or Barbara Mackle, and their instincts told them, why would a man and a teenage boy kidnap a young woman? Right. There's really only one reason, and it's horrible that they could think of. Yep. So like Walter Perkins, though, the roadway, you know, the roadway night clerk, Jane was immediately frustrated with these responding officers as well. Another shitty Walter. They weren't really taking her seriously. No.

She said, I tried to tell them Barbara was a co-ed at Emory and a very nice girl. And one of the policemen said very sarcastically, a co-ed at Emory and a nice girl.

As if those two things could not exist together. That's good. Yeah. That's fantastic. Just, you know, somebody trying to further their education. All of these men in this so far are fucking pigs. What the fuck? Like, this woman is literally, like, I was just tied up and chloroformed. And my daughter was ripped out of her bed. And my daughter was ripped out of her bed in front of me. And I don't know where she is by a man and a young boy, it seems. Yeah.

And they're like, and she's like, and she goes to Emery and she's a nice girl. And their response is like, your daughter is probably a whore. Emery? Like, what? What the actual fuck? You're a pig. Like, so far, the men in this are pigs except for Stuart. Yeah. Very much so. And Jane's dad. Like, that's it. Yeah. But by that point, Jane had called Stuart Woodward, the best friend, and he had arrived at the motel. He came running in the middle of the night. Yeah.

Since the Mackles were from Miami, Jane didn't know anyone in the area who she could call for help. In that moment, so she called Stuart and asked him to sit with her while she waited for her husband to arrive because Jane's father, Robert, was coming right away. Yeah, but he's coming from Miami. Now, Stuart wasn't there when all this happened, but he tried to help answer the officer's questions for Jane to like help through. It's almost like translate. Yeah. Yeah.

You know, who knows if they trusted his answers any more than hers. But the officers were eyeing Stewart a little bit, pretty suspiciously. And Jane kept saying, he's just a friend. But they listed him as Barbara's boyfriend.

And she was like, he's just and he was like, I'm just her like really good friend. They said girls and guys can't just be friends. Stuart explained that the previous day he had actually noticed a white male driving a late model blue car hanging around the Emory campus and staring at him. Oh. And he said just it was just a few hours before Barbara was taken. That's spooky. But he said when he approached the man to find out what the fuck he wanted, they sped away.

Other than that piece of information, they really didn't have anything else. That's weird. Yeah. So the two responding officers took Jane's statement and wrote it up more or less as she described it to them. But again, very little evidence at the scene. And a short time later, plainclothes detectives arrived at the motel, but it didn't really help at all either. There was nothing there. To Detective Mac Dover, Jane appeared, what he said, appeared mentally ill and could have passed for drunk.

Well, her daughter was just ripped out of her fucking bed at 3 a.m., so... This detective described her as, when I first saw her, she appeared looped.

Looped? Like loopy? Yeah, like looped, like loopy. She had just been chloroformed. Is anyone taking that into consideration? She appears drunk. She might have just huffed ether. So there's a very real possibility that she is fucked up, not of her own volition. Like, are you, is everyone all right? It feels like they're like judging her because she's at a motel. Yeah. And it's like, oh, I'm sorry that she came here to take care of her sick child. Yeah.

Like, what the fuck? But it's like they're not taking her seriously at all. No. Now, before long, however, though, he realized Jane was panicked and appeared to be in pain from the assault and also under the influence of whatever the fuck they had just suffocated her with with a rag. Still, both Jane and Stuart felt that the newly arrived detectives were just as suspicious of their story as the initial officers were.

And it's like they all were treating them like they did something wrong. And that remained the case until Robert Mackle arrived from Miami a few hours later. That's good. Yeah, as soon as the man appears, we're good. That's very 60s. Now, since the kidnapping of the Lindbergh baby in 1932, kidnapping had been a federal crime in the United States, which would make it the jurisdiction of the FBI. Okay.

We probably need them instead. Probably do. Yeah. Probably do. In addition to being an incredibly wealthy real estate developer in Florida, Robert Mackle also moved in some pretty powerful political circles. Oh. Yeah. Because I know you were probably wondering, like, what the fuck is going on here? This is a very well-known, like, a powerful family. Okay. He had also made a number of valuable contacts and close relationships through this family.

including a friendship with FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover. Shut the fuck up. Yeah. Holy shit. Robert Mackle was not fucking around. I'm surprised I haven't heard of this.

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So when he learned of what had happened here that night, Robert, the father, immediately placed a call to Hoover's office directly. And the case was given the highest priority, taking it completely out of the hands of the local police right away. Can you imagine those fuckwads when he stepped on the scene and was like, yeah, get the fuck out. I'm going to call J Edgar Hoover. Yeah. Bye. You pieces of shit who are just ignoring this. I would have... If I had connections, the...

way that I would get them ripped off the fucking force immediately. Like, what the fuck are you doing? So he got immediately ripped right out of the hands of those local asshole police officers. Peace out, poop heads. And was just placed delicately into the hands of the nation's most powerful law enforcement agency. Just like, excuse me, I'll take that.

Now, as he drove north towards Atlanta, Robert said he just was fixated on his daughter and what she was going through, what could be happening at this moment. He said, I kept thinking, I'll wake up. This has to be a nightmare. And he said he just couldn't stop thinking about it.

And he said this was before the idea that this could be a kidnap for ransom. He just was thinking she was kidnapped to do awful shit to her and kill her. And although it had become far less common, the whole kidnapping for ransom thing than it had been in the past, they still did happen, especially for like ransom, other material or political gains. They happened. And given his wealth and social status,

and like how he was in political socials and circles. I don't know why I said social circles. He was a far more likely candidate for that. Sounds like it. Yeah.

While Robert made his way to be with his wife in Georgia, several family members and friends waited for any word at the Mackle House. They all came to help back in Miami. And that included Robert's business partner, William O'Dowd Jr. O'Dowd had been posted by the phone just consistently. He would not leave, which I was like, what a good business partner. That's a really good friend. Yeah.

As soon as Robert left, he just took his place. And he was intent on keeping the line clear in case any calls came in regarding Barbara. And a little after 9 a.m., the phone rang and O'Dowd answered. And he said he heard a man's voice asking for Robert Mackle. And he said he's on his way to Atlanta.

And there was a long pause. And then the man on the other end said, well, tell him to look under a palm tree in the northeast corner of the house, under a rock about six inches down. Okay. So to O'Dowd...

This was very confusing and strange because he didn't know any of the details of what was happening. He just knew something bad happened. They didn't know where Barbara was and he had to leave. So he just like came with very little information. It was just like, I'm here. I'll just be here for whatever. And they're telling him to go look under this palm tree? They said tell Robert to do that. Okay.

So he's like, like I said, he's going to Atlanta. So he tried to ask follow up questions because he was like, what the fuck? And the man on the other end just said, that's all. Like Miranda Priestly. Oh, that's all. And then hung up.

So to William O'Dowd, the caller on the other end of the line, he said sounded Latino. He said not Spanish necessarily, but possibly from a country or maybe just a home that spoke native Spanish. Okay. But he said he also thought it could have been a Canadian caller trying to disguise their voice with an accent.

Okay. I wonder what made him think that. He said it was a very like muddled and it kept falling in and out of like an accent. So he didn't know if it was real, not real, kind of had a Canadian vibe to it. It was giving Dorit Kemp's lead. Yeah. He couldn't figure out what was happening there. Okay. But whatever it was, he said he didn't recognize it and it didn't give any other identifying information. So he was like, that's really all I got. Yeah. Yeah.

Although the prospect of digging for clues in the yard seemed kind of crazy to him, a little preposterous. Might as well. O'Dowd cared about this family. He cared about Barbara. He cared about his business partner, Robert. He cared about Jane. So his instinct was to just rush outside and start digging where that person said, because he's like, I just want to help. I feel like that's what I would do. But Robert's brother, Elliot, said we should wait for the FBI. They're on their way to the house. Let's not touch anything like...

They're almost here. Like, let's just wait and do this right. Yeah, you don't want to, like, fuck with evidence. So when he arrived at the house, Agent Joseph St. Pierre listened to O'Dowd's story about the mysterious caller with the maybe Spanish accent and the clues supposedly buried in the yard.

St. Pierre called his partner, Agent Cass, who was with Robert and Jane in Atlanta. And Cass confirmed for the couple that this did appear to be a genuine kidnapping and then asked whether they had any palm trees in their yard at home. So Robert was like, well, yeah, we have a cluster of Phoenix palms in the northeast corner of the house. Yeah, like we live in Miami. That's exactly where they said. Uh-huh. So they relayed that back to Agent St. Pierre in Miami. Yeah.

With some help from the Mackles gardener, Walter Powell, Agent St. Pierre located what he believed to be a large piece of coral about the size of a man's fist beneath the Phoenix palms. Okay. And he instructed Walter to begin digging very carefully. He was like, I think we're coming upon something. So he didn't want to destroy anything. But in the second shovel of dirt, St. Pierre spotted what appeared to be a rolled up piece of paper protruding from a black rubber stopper.

Okay. And when he carefully removed this from the dirt, it appeared to be a broken laboratory beaker. Huh. And it was smashed when the shovel went into the dirt. Oh. So they were like, fuck.

And it appeared that whoever had placed this note in the bottle had trimmed the rubber stopper to like get the note in the bottle. And it was rolled very tightly. So they're finding laboratory equipment buried in the yard. In the yard of a Miami real estate developer? Pretty strange. But St. Pierre was far more concerned that there was a note here. And he was like, this is a little scary.

So the agent carefully carried the whole thing back to the house and asked the housekeeper to get him some tweezers because he didn't want to touch the note. Touch anything, yeah. So she did that. And once they pulled it out of the bottle and unfurled it, they realized that this was

Very real and very fucking scary and very dark. A ransom note? So the note said, Robert Mackle, sir, your daughter has been kidnapped by us and we now hold her for ransom. She's quite safe, if somewhat uncomfortable.

We offer no proof of our possession of her at this time. It will arrive by mail in a few days. Barbara is presently alive inside a small capsule buried in a remote piece of soil. What the fuck? She has enough food and water and air to last seven days. At the end of the seven days, the life-supporting batteries will be discharged and her air supply will be cut off.

The box is waterproof and very strong. Fiberglass reinforced plywood. She has little chance of escaping. The box is in an unusual and lonely place. She has no chance of being accidentally stumbled upon. What in the actual fuck? This young woman is in a fiberglass and plywood coffin in the middle of the forest somewhere. Buried in the ground. What the fuck?

The three-page note, which is a very long note, was very detailed, and it went on to demand $500,000, which in 2024 is $4.5 million. Oh, my God. And they demanded it in recently issued $20 bills, and no more than 10 notes may have consecutive serial numbers.

The kidnappers also claimed each bill would undergo, quote, a minimum of eight hours of intense examination before they revealed where Barbara was. They also noted that the money should occupy, quote, no more than 4,000 cubic inches and therefore should be delivered in a standard suitcase that is 31.5 inches long by 18.75 inches high by 6.25 inches deep.

Oh, that's scary because these people know what the fuck they're doing, like down to every last centimeter. That's horrifying. Once the Mackles were ready to make the exchange, they were instructed to place an ad in the personal section of all the Miami newspapers that read, quote, Once the ad appeared in all the papers, the kidnappers would call to tell them further instructions.

I have chills. I'm absolutely shook. The amount of shit that they have to do right now under such duress. Absolutely, perfectly. Or their daughter is going to die in a box in the middle of the fucking forest. Is going to die of suffocation being buried alive. Yeah.

So this whole thing clearly confirmed that Barbara had been kidnapped for ransom. It also showed them, like you said, these kidnappers are fucking brilliant, well-organized, and very serious. It doesn't sound like this is the first time they've done something like this. And the details contained in the note

implied that they had thought through several aspects of this crime. It was not quickly done. Down to the dimensions necessary for a suitcase to hold $500,000. And finally, the presence of the note at the Mackle House suggested that this was not impulsive at all.

In order, you know, the note had to be found, the note was going to be found right after Barbara was kidnapped. So they either had to have somebody stationed there who then snuck onto the property once the deed had been done and buried it, or they had buried it in advance. Right. Like days before. That's what I was wondering. And the news of the kidnapped millionaire's daughter clearly broke the news.

the following day and made headlines across the country. But despite their best efforts, reporters got very little information from investigators because remember, they're tight with the family and they had like no access to the family. Well, that's good because they could have fucked everything up. An FBI agent said in response to reporters' requests for a statement from the family, they just need a little peace and quiet. We're getting them away from the motel. Good. Now,

Now, Barbara's friends and classmates were also protective of the family in the situation. That's great. When they couldn't get any information from the FBI or the family, a lot of reporters did, you know, what reporters do. And they all went to Emory University campus and they searched for leads. Mostly they came up empty. Good. One student told a reporter from the Atlanta Constitution, I'm not going to tell you anything.

Just fuck off. Vibes. And Barbara's roommate, Ramsey Owens, was also like, no, I'm not telling you shit. What a fantastic name. Ramsey Owens. Love that. They said, I've talked to the FBI and I feel like anything that can help has been said and done. I haven't been at Emory since Saturday and I don't know anything up to the minute. Good. So they were just like, leave us alone. Zip. The FBI's got it.

Nobody's yapping. Those who were willing to talk to the press avoided specific questions about the case and instead just talked about what a great person Barbara was, that she was very warm, very friendly, and they would see her again. That's it. They would not talk about the case. They wouldn't talk about that family other than to say, we love that family. Good. So it sounds like this family also had a lot of people who really cared for them. Yeah. While FBI agents and government officials around the country were scrambling to find Barbara Mackle...

she lay very still inside a coffin-shaped box buried somewhere in the remote forests of Georgia. So she really was in a fucking box. Now...

To give you all a little bit of ease, Barbara lives. Okay, I needed to know that. I needed you to tell me that. And the reason I'm telling you this ahead of time is one, to give you that, but also to give you her thoughts while she was here in this box because she was open about what she was going through. So I think it's important. She said she thought to herself, I'm being left here to die. And she said, this is it. This is the end.

And what the vessels had put her in, the one that was referenced in the ransom letter, was little more than a reinforced plywood box with two pipes leading out of the lid, presumably to the surface above. She had no idea where she was. She didn't know how deeply she had been buried. In fact, she only knew what her kidnappers had told her. She had food and water and air for seven days. And if her father paid the ransom, she would be set free.

And she said the kidnappers had left a small amount of food within her reach, which I was like, you're laying down though and you have to eat.

Yeah. And she was able to access the water bottle at the bottom of the box through a long straw. Wow. And later, after she had been rescued, Barbara would learn her captors had drugged her water to make her sluggish and docile. Uh-huh. Which is really fucked up. And the only other things in the box were an exhaust fan supplying her air at a single light.

And the electrical supply to both the light and the fan were connected. So when one was on, the other one would go off. This is like unfathomable. It's like salt comes up with this. It literally feels like salt. And she's laying there fucking panicking. And she said at first, like after pretty much right away, she said, I had really dark thoughts and I was just like, I can't do this. I mean, yeah. And she said, instead of waiting a week for this to happen, why should I, why not just turn off the fan?

Like, she's like, should I just turn off the fan and let it happen? I don't blame her. Why should I go through this for a week? Because also you're probably sitting there wondering, are they actually telling me the truth? Like, are they going after my dad for ransom? Exactly. Or are they just fucking with him? And are they going to get the ransom and then just leave me here? Like, are they just going to do it for the hell of it? But she wasn't a defeatist. And she was like, she's a strong, strong lady. So she was like, I just could not allow myself to give up in that moment. Even though, like, I can't fathom that. I'm sure that's all she wanted to do. I can't fathom that. No. No.

She said, as I lay there, I began to think about the kidnappers. I kept thinking of him, not her. Look, I said, if he was going to let me die, he wouldn't have gone to all this trouble. If he wanted me to die, he would have just killed me, right? Yeah. And remember, she just said, I kept thinking of him, not her. So is the little one a girl? Maybe. So what she's thinking is true, too. Like, if her kidnappers had gone to such incredible lengths to arrange this super elaborate crime...

It did stand to reason that they, like, maybe had intentions of returning her once they got the money. Mm-hmm. Like, there's always that chance, obviously, that they're just going to run away into the wild blue yonder after they get their money. Yeah, of course. But, like, they did go through... Because my... Like, I think her thought finally went to, like,

They would have just buried me with no air and nothing and just been like, yep, she's under there with no air. Like, they didn't give any evidence to the family that she was alive, so they didn't have to give her all this if they didn't plan on releasing her after a week. Yeah. You know, they at least had intentions of trying. That's, I mean, the long straw, the food, the light. Yeah. Seems like that's a lot, and it's like...

But then I'm sure she's going dark and sitting there thinking, but are they just torturing me for a week? Yeah. And letting me think that and making me go through this for a week before I die. Right. Like this is torture. My God, I can't imagine.

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So Barbara later told a reporter, I can't remember the exact sequence of things. I can't remember what I was thinking at exact times. I know I started singing after counting. I knew I had turned off the light. I didn't want to waste the battery. And she said she did everything she could to take her mind off these fucking awful circumstances and any of the awful potential outcomes that she couldn't stop running through her head.

You know, anything could go wrong at this point. So she said she sang Christmas carols. She counted because remember, it's Christmas break coming up. I forgot that. She sang Christmas carols. She counted. She talked to herself endlessly. And she thought about her family and friends, she said. And she said, and then it happened. And she said, you know how a light bulb flickers just before it burns out? That's what it did.

I had the light out and I reached up to turn it on. It flickered and it just went out. Oh, so now she's just in total darkness. She plunged into complete and utter darkness. And she said that's when she panicked. She went hysterical and she said, I was absolutely convinced I was going to die in a makeshift coffin in the middle of the woods alone. Oh my God. And the PTSD that she must have endured afterwards. Oh my God.

Now, it took about a day for Robert Mackle to get this money together. Because remember, today's money is $4.5 million. It's a lot of fucking money. And it's so specific. Very specific. They can't be like the serial numbers and everything. It has to be in new 20s. But by the night of December 18th, he had collected all the $500,000 in cash as requested. And he loaded the stacked bills into the suitcase. Wow.

Now, because there was such a tight timeline here, they had a lot of difficulty finding a specific suitcase that matched those dimensions. Mm-hmm.

But eventually, it was Robert's employee, Billy Vessels, who found one that fit the entire amount. Wow. He must have gotten fucking promoted after that. His, like, business people are all, like, coming together to help this situation. It makes you really think that these are good fucking people. Yeah. So Billy Vessels said, to me, it was fantastic the way the money fit. I don't think they could have put in one other bill. It was so damn heavy, I couldn't believe. Wow. So they had measured it down to the last bill. Wow.

And with the money ready to go, an ad was placed in the personal sections, exactly how they told them, and the Mackles could just wait. And with each hour that passed without word, they started wondering whether they would ever hear from anybody again or whether they'd ever see their daughter again. Vessels, the employee, said it was high noon waiting for the damn telephone. We were rendered completely helpless. Yes.

And the process was made all more painful and frustrating when the phone finally did ring a few hours later. And it was someone pranking the family, telling them they knew where Barbara was. Because people are always going to fucking keep them. When I tell you people have always and will always be peopling, get it fucking together. Yeah. The fact that people exist out there that take these situations and do that is...

You're twisted. You gotta be a fucking piece of shit. Well, you're just twisted. I wish we could get all these people that make prank phone calls to families that are going through this kind of shit and put them on a list. Well, it should be like a high offense. Like if you get caught. Put them on an island together. You all live together, you pieces of shit. You deserve each other. Like that's like God. Wow. So finally in the early hours of the morning when everyone was about to give up, the phone rang a little before 4 a.m. Oh my God. It was a man's voice.

And they said the man's voice was cold and very formal. They said nothing like the prank caller's tone. And Robert said he just instinctively knew this was the real kidnapper.

And the caller gave Robert directions to a remote location on Fair Isle Street in rural Atlanta, and it passes over a causeway. And he said, if you look down the causeway, you'll see a blinking white light. You'll put the money in the box, which will have a light on it. And he said, do it gently and then gently close the lid and you'll turn around and leave. Is that clear?

Robert said yes, he understood. And the kidnapper also provided a few other instructions. He said you are to come alone, you are to drive your Lincoln to the location, you are to wear a white suit, and that's it. These all indicated that the kidnappers were going to be monitoring the entire drop site and what was happening to make sure that he listened. This is reminding me of one of the cases that you just did and everything got ruined. The Marion Parker one. The Marion, yes. Now, given his, you know, power...

in, you know, social standing, Robert Mackle had a lot of control over how this case was handled, luckily. Mm-hmm. Particularly when it came to law enforcement. So he told everyone he wanted to cooperate with the kidnappers and follow the instructions exactly. I would want to. And none of the agents are going to argue with him and attempt to interfere. He was like, this is it. I'm doing it. Thank goodness that he held the power that he did. Because this could go so differently. But they did tell him, we are going to follow you in an unmarked car at a considerable distance. Yeah.

that we're going to have agents around. Makes me so nervous. And, you know, an agent in the passenger seat would be calling out each cross street they passed over the radio so everyone at headquarters could follow along on the map. Okay. Now, when Robert finally reached the general area of the causeway, he became confused about where he was and he got turned around and lost his sense of direction. This is before GPS, remember? Yeah.

And he was panicking because he was going to miss the deadline. And so he's frantically looking for any houses or businesses that he can ask for directions to. And he spotted a fisherman and he,

This confusion had rippled back to the agents trailing him. So the cars and all the family members waiting back at headquarters are like, where is he? Where is he going? What's going on? They're all worried that the kidnappers are going to leave Barbara to die if anything goes wrong. Everyone's panicking. And Robert was luckily able to talk to this fisherman who gave him good directions. Hell yeah, brother. Thank you, fisherman. Thank you, brother.

And Robert was able to backtrack and make his way to the drop site. Oh my God. And he found a box under the causeway. So it was still there. The sun was starting to come up as Robert placed the suitcase in the metal box, did what he was told and went back to his car and drove away. Why did he have to wear a white suit? So they could tell that he was listening to what they said. That's fucking terrifying. And they just want to know that you'll follow all their directions basically. And they want to make sure it's you. They want to make sure all of that. And Robert,

But at this point, he's so scared that the chaos and confusion, like, fucked all this up. And he's like, I did everything perfect, but, like... What if I didn't? Did they see anybody else? Did I mess something up? Yeah, like, what happened? Yeah.

Less than 30 minutes after Robert drove away from this whole thing, two police officers, Paul Self and William Sweeney, were just out patrolling. And they spotted a parked car out by the causeway. And this area where the causeway is is super rural. And even in, you know, a place where there's a lot of rural landscapes, a car being here was strange. So Self, the police officer, said, automatically I knew it didn't belong there. I didn't recognize it.

So he's thinking it's something nefarious. He's like, what's going on here? So the officers kind of like talk to each other, like, should we check it out? Should we just leave it alone? And they finally were like, let's go take a look. Let's at least go talk to this person.

Shut the fuck up. Uh-huh. Yeah.

And while the smaller of the two men disappeared into the woods, the officers focused on pursuing the man with the suitcase. By the time they caught up to him, he was scrambling over a tall chain link fence and he dropped the suitcase behind him. I'm so nervous right now. Realizing they probably didn't get they're not going to catch up to him at this point. They ended the chase and just grabbed the suitcase and went back to the local precinct.

So as the FBI agents back at headquarters listened to the police channels on the radio while they waited for Robert to come back, they caught a brief mention of two officers who'd spotted some suspicious activity out by the Fair Isle Causeway and pursued two unknown suspects into the woods. I'm so nervous that this is, like, gonna fuck everything up, though. Yeah. It didn't take long before they realized, um...

that, oops, the local police didn't have any knowledge of the ransom exchange happening. Oh, my God. So the local police had no idea what they had just stumbled into. Yeah.

And so they had inadvertently botched the ransom drop. Why did I know that? Why do ransom drops just never go to plan? Yeah. In a statement later that day, police chief Charles Price said, there has been no coordination between us and the family or others. So that meant that FBI never informed them of the ransom drop.

The local authorities had no idea, and they said if we had known, we wouldn't have interfered. That was an oversight. But since they had not been aware of any of the situation, the two officers had no idea what they were walking into and just thought they were stopping a prowler. Doing their job. And when he learned of what had occurred, Robert Mackle was absolutely devastated. Of course he was. And he was absolutely certain he wasn't getting his daughter back. He was like, we fucked it up.

While the FBI refused to make any statement on the botched ransom drop, they did release a statement on Robert's behalf, indicating to the kidnappers that what had happened was in no way the fault of the Mackle family. Robert was quoted as saying, it was my desire and wish that everybody leave it alone. I want to do business with them. Please do not harm her. Now, the press release was broadcast all day and night on local television and radio stations, hoping the kidnappers would hear it and contact the Mackles.

Later that evening, they did.

Robert Mackle received another call from the kidnapper who agreed to give him one final chance to save their daughter. Damn. Well, because they want their money. They want the money. So he's told to take the money to the remote location again. So now he's got to take a whole other set of that money. Well, now they have the suitcase. Oh, because the police got it. So he was told to take the money to another remote location on the outskirts of where they were. And this time he was supposed to come alone. Mm-hmm.

So not wanting to botch the exchange a second time, the FBI informed the local authorities of the upcoming exchange this time. They were like, this is happening and all parties agreed we will not interfere. And this time,

Everything went as planned. Thank goodness. Now, while the local police interference had foiled the plans for one smooth exchange, it wasn't all bad that that had happened. Because in their pursuit of the suspicious individuals on the causeway, officers Self and Sweeney discovered a Volvo station wagon with Massachusetts plates. Huh.

that they believed belonged to the two men they pursued into the woods. I hate that it's Massachusetts in this case. I know, I'm like, damn. Inside the car, they found rope, tape, a ski mask, believed to have been worn by the smaller person during the abduction, and more importantly, a key to Jane and Barbara's room at the roadway inn.

How did they get a key? I don't know. Was it on Barbara, possibly? They must have taken it. Okay. They also found other less incriminating evidence, including a woman's blonde wig, several roadmaps, miscellaneous camera equipment, and rolls of film. What? At the scene, they also discovered a boat registered to Dr. Robert Hurley, which they believe the kidnappers used to reach the pickup location.

Okay. Now, when the agents ran the plates on the Volvo, they learned that the car belonged to a man named George Gary Deacon, a resident of Massachusetts with no known criminal record and barely any evidence of any public existence whatsoever. That's weird. That's suspicious. Inside the Volvo, they also found a stack of Polaroid photos depicting who they believed to be the kidnapper, George Deacon.

They were very provocative photos with an unknown young woman. Wait, they were just like pics of the kidnapper? Yeah. In one photo, Deacon was described as, quote, nude, heavily bearded. This is the description, by the way. You got to do what you got to do. I don't necessarily want you to, but here we are. Nude, heavily bearded. So what are you going to say, bitch? And beefy and fat. Yeah.

Lying on his back on the bed. Not beefy. Beefy. Barbara gets out of this, guys. Don't worry. Beefy. Just describing him as beefy. That's out of pocket. That's out of pocket. That is out of pocket. You didn't just say that.

Oh my god. Guys, that's the relief we needed in this tension-filled episode. It's the beefy. It's the beefy. It's the beefy for me. Sometimes I'm feeling beefy. You know what I mean? Just beefy.

I wish they wrote, I wish they were so reckless with this. Instead they could have said thick with two C's. But they said beefy. I mean, this guy seems like an asshole, so. Yeah, and also, just to be clear, this other person in the photo is not Barbara, so don't worry, this is not that situation. And they're describing George with those adjectives. George Deacon. Those quote unquote adjectives. Yeah, and in another photo, Deacon is nude except for a police cap on his head.

Remember the kidnapper had the police cap. Yeah. And he's holding a telephone as though he's about to make a call. And the other photos are of the young woman in various states of undress posing provocatively. What the fuck are they up to here?

Who knows? Just having a good time. Now, when the agents get to the fifth photo in the set... Oh, no. There's suddenly evidence that this is definitely their kidnapper. Because it's Barbara. The fifth photo is of Barbara Mackle laying on her back on the ground. She is dressed. And she has a sign reading kidnapped placed under her chin. Oh, my God. In the photo, Barbara's eyes are open. Her mouth is like a little open. And she looks...

She doesn't look like... It's a strange look on her face. Can you look it up? You can look it up. Okay, I'm gonna look. And remember... Which is probably fucking terrified. She is alive in this photo, but when they saw this photo, and I understand why they thought this. Did they think she was dead? They thought she might be dead in the photo. Oh, God. Just because of the look on her face. Um...

The photo set contained seven photos in total, but the agents knew the... And this is very interesting and, like, smart of them. Uh-huh. The agents knew that the Polaroid cartridge that they used produced eight photos in total. Huh. So based on that, they presumed that there was one missing photo, and that photo was likely of Barbara, and that was probably the proof of existence that the ransom letter had referred to that they said they would send to the Mackles later.

Okay. But the backless had not received it yet. Oh, wow. I can see why they thought. Right? She does have a look on her face that could be looked at as she's not with us. Because she's not smiling. But she's not. She's not not smiling? Yeah. Like, she's definitely not happy. That's not what I'm saying. But it's a strange look. And I think that's why they were like, is she alive? Yeah. Yeah.

Oh, my God. This is fucking chilling. So they assume that this final photo is the one that was being sent to the Mackles, but they hadn't received it yet. So they found all these photos. They now have a name, George Deacon. They have dropped off. Don't you dare. Their ransom. Don't you do it. Everything has been put in place, and now they just have to wait. And when we come back for part two...

You're going to hear some mind-blowing shit about George Deacon. I'm so scared. So get ready. It gets crazier. How even? It gets crazier. Alina, this case is cuckoo nuts bananas. This might be, and especially because she survives, one of my favorite cases we've covered. Dave also was saying this as he was going through it. He was like, this is fucking mind-blowing. Sometimes you just need a case where...

Where somebody survives. Yes. Six years in. And there's a fun little, like, there's also a fun little tidbit at the end that even adds to, like, the, like, oh, wow. All right. Okay. So, like, it'll all come, in the end, we'll all get to go, huh, okay. All right. See, sometimes you need that. There'll be that. But it's going to get wild until then. Okay. Okey-doke. So strap in. Well, keep listening. We hope you do. We hope you keep listening. And we hope you... Keep it wild.

But not so weird that you forget your outro and just babble it all out. I was like, I'll figure out how to do that. I was like, listening. We hope. Our hopes. Listening. Our hopes. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye.

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What happens when a hacker uncovers hundreds of murder plots targeting people all over the world? Each of them posted on a Hitman for Hire site on the dark web, with their photos, habits and intimate details all used against them. What happens when they learn that the threat is coming from the person closest to them? Or what is the psychological profile of a father who would murder his own son and wife all to hide a drug addiction and years of embezzlement?

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