Episode 180 The Kidnapping of Barbara Jane Mackle

Southern Mysteries Podcast

Shannon Ballard

True Crime, Society & Culture, History

4.8 • 1K Ratings

🗓️ 8 December 2025

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In December 1968, Barbara Jane Mackle was kidnapped from a motel room outside Atlanta, Georgia. The circumstances surrounding her abduction were so strange, investigators could barely make sense of them. The search for twenty year old Barbara Jane Mackle became a race against time that gripped her family and drew national attention. Join the Community on Patreon: Want more Southern Mysteries? You can hear the Southern Mysteries show archive of 60+ episodes along with Patron exclusive podcast, Audacious: Tales of American Crime and more when you become a patron of the show. You can immediately access exclusive content now at patreon.com/southernmysteries 🎧 Explore More Southern Mysteries Visit SouthernMysteries.com for more episodes and source lists. 📱 Follow on Social Media: Facebook: Southern Mysteries PodcastTikTok @southernmysteriesInstagram: @southernmysteriesEmail: southernmysteriespodcast@gmail.com Episode Sources Miller, Gene. 83 Hours Till Dawn. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1971. “FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives: Ruth Eisemann-Schier, 1969.” Federal Bureau of Investigation, Ten Most Wanted Program Archives. “Kidnapped Heiress Rescued from Buried Box.” The Miami Herald, December 21, 1968. “Barbara Mackle Found Alive.” The Atlanta Constitution, December 21, 1968. “Agents Seize Suspect in Mackle Kidnapping.” The Miami Herald, December 21–23, 1968. “Man Held in Heiress Kidnap Case.” The New York Times, December 22, 1968. “Girl in Box Case.” Los Angeles Times, December 22, 1968. “Suspect Caught in Marsh After Days on the Run.” Sun-Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale), December 1968. “Woman on FBI List Seized in Oklahoma.” The Oklahoman, February 8, 1969. United States v. Gary Steven Krist, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, 1969. United States v. Ruth Eisemann-Schier, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, 1969. FBI, Supplemental Case Report: Kidnapping of Barbara Jane Mackle, December 1968 (declassified portions). Jordan, C.D. “Account of the Mackle Kidnapping Rescue.” Interview, FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin, 1970. Associated Press. “Heiress Found Alive in Buried Box; Ransom Paid.” December 21, 1968. United Press International. “Search Intensifies for Kidnappers After Ransom Drop Fails.” December 1968. “Krist Granted Medical License Despite Record.” The Indianapolis News, July 23, 1985. U.S. Department of Justice. “South Florida Man Sentenced in Cocaine Trafficking Case.” DOJ Press Release, 2006. “Eisemann-Schier Paroled and Deported.” The Miami Herald, 1973. Emory Wheel (Emory University). “Student Kidnapped from Decatur Motel.” December 18–22, 1968 coverage. “The Mackle Kidnapping Revisited.” People Magazine (retrospective feature), 1998. “Buried Alive: The 1968 Abduction of Barbara Mackle.” CNN.com, Crime Retrospective Series, 2003. “83 Hours in the Earth.” CBS News Sunday Morning, archival retrospective segment. Episode Music Out of the Mines, courtesy of Ross Gentry, Asheville, North Carolina.

Transcript

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0:00.0	In December 1968, as the country reeled from a year of loss and unrest, a young woman vanished
0:18.3	from a motel room just outside Atlanta, Georgia.
0:22.4	Under circumstances so strange, investigators could barely make sense of them.
0:28.0	With almost no leads and a shaken mother's account of two masked intruders, the search for
0:33.9	20-year-old Barbara Mackle became a race against time that gripped her family and drew national attention.
0:42.4	What investigators would uncover over the next four days was unlike anything they had encountered before.
0:50.6	Welcome to Southern Mysteries, exploring Southern history and true crime.
0:55.5	I'm your host, Shannon Ballard.
0:58.6	This is episode 180, The Kidnapping of Barbara Jane Mackle.
1:07.7	In December 1968, the United States was closing out a year that had already felt impossibly heavy.
1:16.5	Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. had been assassinated in April, Senator Robert F. Kennedy in June.
1:23.7	Protests over Vietnam and civil rights filled streets and evening newscast.
1:29.3	It was a year of grief, uncertainty, and anger.
1:33.3	In the middle of it all, far from the headlines of Washington and Memphis,
1:38.3	a quiet young woman in Atlanta was trying to get through her college finals and make it home to her family
1:45.9	in Florida in time for Christmas. Her name was Barbara Jane McEl. Barbara was born in 1948 to Robert
1:54.3	and Jane Mcall who lived in Coral Gables, Florida. Her father was a successful Florida land developer and co-founder of the
2:03.7	Deltona Corporation, a major home building company. She had an older brother, four years ahead of her.
2:11.3	Barbara's life was one of privilege, a comfortable home, a prominent father, and good schools. But people who knew Barbara never spoke of
2:21.3	her privilege first. They described her as soft-spoken, serious about school, and incredibly loyal to her
2:29.8	friends. Not a socialite and not someone who sought the spotlight. In the fall of 1968, she was studying
2:38.5	at Emory University in Atlanta, and like thousands of students that year. She got sick. That fall and
	...

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