Hello and thank you for joining us for another episode of Into the Killing. If this is the first episode you're listening to, thanks for checking us out. For today's episode, we're going back to December 1979.

In December, 1979, 11 people were killed at a rock concert, or the band, The Who, was supposed to play in Cincinnati, Ohio.

The seats were unreserved, and there was a stampede as people raised to get seats close to the stage.

Also in December 1979, it was certified that smallpox was eradicated, making it the first human disease driven to extinction.

Star Trek, the motion picture, premiered at the MacArthur Theater in Washington, D.C.

On opening weekend, it was number one at the box office, making $11 million, breaking records for a three-day weekend.

One person who didn't get to see Star Trek the motion picture was 19-year-old Charles Collingwood.

That was because he was incarcerated at the Bavar Correctional Institution in Coco, Florida. He was serving time for car theft.

On December 12th, 1979, Collingwood escaped from prison.

A massive search for him was conducted, but he was nowhere to be found.

At the time of his escape, a 44-year-old correctional officer named John McRae was under investigation because he was supposedly having a sexual relationship with Collingwood.

McRae was questioned and he denied doing anything inappropriate with Collingwood. McRae was questioned and he denied doing anything inappropriate with Collingwood.

But investigators were suspicious.

They thought he facilitated the escape to avoid getting in trouble for the relationship.

The investigators looked into McRae's background,

and they were deeply disturbed

by what they found.

St. Clair Shores

is a small city

in the Detroit metropolitan area.

It is situated

on the banks of Lake St. Clair.

...