The tabloid queen. I'm Jason Horton. I'm Rebecca Leib. And this is Ghost Town.

On September 14, 1977, a 19-year-old American Mormon went missing on his mission in Great Britain.

But it didn't make headlines, not even close. But nearly overnight and based on details that

would shock, offend, and awe the British public, that would all change. Kirk Anderson and his

abductors, fellow Mormon and beauty queen Joyce McKinney and her admirer Keith May,

would turn the tabloid world upside down in a tale that includes the Mormon church, bondage,

the Burbank airport, kidnapping, cloned dogs, pornography, Holocaust survivors, and the osmons.

Take a breath and buckle up. Today, we're talking about the Manacled Mormon case and the outrageous

controversial life of Joyce McKinney. Joy McKinney was born on August 6, 1949, a

precocious only child to teachers of no particular religion, as far as I researched, living in remote

North Carolina. Growing up in the scenic but rural Appalachian mountains, Joy was bright and

energetic and quickly acclimated to her local school's accelerated program. Though she allegedly

had an IQ of 168, Joy was known more for being a cheerleader and drug major at than a scholar.

She went to college at East Tennessee University and then got a master's degree in drama

from the University of North Carolina. Somewhere between college and grad school,

Joy linked up with a Mormon family and eventually lived with them while finishing her studies.

This is what turned her on and then converted her to the Church of Latter-day Saints.

According to Joy, Mormonism was a way to be good, to reign in her highly volatile emotions

and sexual urges and, of course, find a respectable, family-oriented husband. But interestingly

enough, living concurrently with her religious fervor was her obsession with pageantry, drama,

and spectacle. After grad school, Joy moved to Wyoming to fully give pageants a real go.

After all, Wyoming was less populated and less competitive than both North Carolina or Tennessee.

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