True Crime Collection

Barbara Mackle Kidnapping

On 17th December, 1968, Barbara Mackle, then a 20 year old Emory University student, was staying at the Rodeway Inn at Decatur, Georgia, United States with her mother. Barbara was sick with the Hong Kong Flu, which had hit the student body population of Emory hard; 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 Stephen Krist, knocked on the door, claiming to be with the police and wearing a policeman's cap, and told Barbara that Stewart Hunt Woodward had been in a traffic accident. (Stewart, to whom Barbara was later married, is usually described as Barbara's boyfriend or fiancé.)

Once inside, Gary and his accomplice, Ruth Eisemann-Schier, disguised as a man, chloroformed, bound and gagged Barbara's mother and forced Barbara at gunpoint into the back of their waiting car, informing her that she was being kidnapped. They drove her to a remote pine stand off South Berkeley Lake Road in Gwinnett County near Duluth and buried Barbara in a shallow trench inside a fibre glass reinforced box. The box was outfitted with an air pump, a battery-powered lamp, water laced with sedatives, and food. 2 plastic pipes provided Barbara with outside air. 

Gary and Ruth demanded a $500,000 ransom, $3.5 million in 2018 dollars, from Barbara's father, Robert Mackle, a wealthy Florida land developer. The first attempt at a ransom drop was disrupted when 2 policemen drove by. The kidnappers fled on foot, and the FBI found their car abandoned. Inside the car, the FBI found photographs of a man with a policeman's hat and the car registration in the name of George Deacon. 

The 2nd ransom drop was successful, but there was no word from the kidnappers. The FBI was able to trace George Deacon to the University of Miami, where they realised he built ventilated boxes for a living. George's boss provided the name of Ruth Eisemann-Schier, who also worked at the university, as someone George spent time with. The FBI was contacted by a local man in Georgia claiming he had just bought a small trailer from a man and found some odd paperwork inside. The FBI discovered letters addressed to George Deacon and Gary Krist, an escapee from California prison since 1966, and when the FBI compared the prints found in the car to the ones found in Gary's file, they realised George was actually Gary. On 20th December, Gary called and gave a switchboard operator of the FBI vague directions to Barbara'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 their hands and anything they could find to use. Barbara was found and rescued, suffering from dehydration but otherwise unharmed. She had spent more than 3 days buried underground.

Barbara was asked how she remained so positive not only during the kidnapping but after, when she showed no ill effects from the ordeal. She claimed she would imagine spending Christmas with her family and never doubted she would be rescued. 

Gary was soon arrested,  hiding in a Florida swamp. Ruth was arrested 79 days later in Norman, Oklahoma. Ruth claims she left Miami because she and Gary became separated after the money drop and she was unable to get back to the car and thought Gary had abandoned her. She was convicted and sentenced to 7 years in prison, paroled after serving 4 years, and deported to her native Honduras. 

Gary was convicted and sentenced to life in prison in 1969, but was released on parole after 10 years. Gary received a pardon to allow him to attend medical school. He practiced medicine in Indiana before his license was revoked in 2003 for lying about a disciplinary action received during his residency. 

In March 2006, Gary was arrested on a sailboat off the coast of Alabama with 14 kilograms of cocaine, reportedly worth about $1 million. He was sentenced to 5 years and 5 months in prison and released in November 2010.

On 27th August, 2012, in Mobile, Alabama, U.S. District Judge Callie Virginia Granade revoked Gary's supervised release for violation of his probation. He had left the country without permission, sailing to Cuba and South America on his sailboat. Judge Granade sentenced Gary to 40 months imprisonment.