The Kidnapping of Barbara Mackle

Barbara Jane Mackle was the 20-year-old daughter of Florida real estate developer Robert Mackle who was kidnapped from a Decatur, Georgia, motel room on December 17, 1968, by Gary Steven Krist and Ruth Eisemann-Schier. Krist chloroformed Barbara and her mother, then abducted Barbara alone. She was buried alive in a fiberglass capsule approximately eighteen inches underground in a wooded area outside Atlanta, equipped with a battery-powered ventilation system, water, food, and a lamp — a sophisticated device that indicated meticulous planning.

Robert Mackle paid a $500,000 ransom — one of the largest ransoms paid in the United States to that point. Even after payment, the kidnappers initially failed to provide the exact location of the capsule, and there was genuine fear Barbara would die before she was found. She was recovered eighty-three hours after her abduction, dehydrated and traumatized but physically surviving. The rescue was one of the most dramatic kidnapping recoveries in American history.

Gary Krist was captured within days through a combination of FBI surveillance and a tip after he attempted to launder ransom money in Florida. Eisemann-Schier — the first woman placed on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list — was captured in Oklahoma two months later. Krist was convicted of kidnapping and sentenced to life in prison, but was paroled after ten years. He later earned a medical degree, had his medical license revoked, and was subsequently convicted in Alaska of transporting women for illegal purposes.

Barbara Mackle recovered from her ordeal and later married. She wrote about her experience in a book. The Mackle kidnapping inspired changes in how the FBI coordinated with local law enforcement during kidnapping investigations and accelerated the development of standardized federal protocols for ransom negotiation. It remains one of the most technically elaborate and chilling kidnapping cases of the twentieth century.