The It was the late 1970s, and the city of Columbus, Georgia was being terrorized by serial

murderers who were targeting female victims. Several black prostitutes had been found dead in the

area, and a killer, who the media had nicknamed the stalking strangler, had been strangling

elderly women. Because all of the stalking stranglers' victims were white, the killer was

believed to be black. Although the two sets of killings were originally thought to be unrelated

because of the completely different victim profiles, an anonymous letter sent to the local police station

appeared to show that they were, in fact, connected.

The letter was handwritten on a piece of stationery from the U.S. Army, and claimed to be from

seven white males calling themselves the forces of evil who had banded together in an attempt to stop the stalking

strangler from taking any more victims. In the letter, the men claimed that they had taken

a hostage, a 21-year-old black woman by the name of Gail Jackson, who they intended to murder

unless the police succeeded in arresting the stalking strangler.

The forces of evil demanded that the local police chief replied to them by leaving messages

on the TV and radio.

They continued writing more letters to the police, demanding a total ransom of $10,000

in exchange for Gail's life, and eventually they escalated to placing phone calls

to the police station.

However, in April 1978, Gail Jackson's body was found.

She had been dead for more than a month.

Gail had been killed around five weeks ago, before the forces of evil sent their first letter,

claiming that she was their hostage.

Shortly after Gail's death was discovered, the forces of evil called the police station again,

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