Buried Alive for 83 Hours: The Kidnapping of Barbara Jane Mackle
- dthholland
- Apr 29
- 7 min read
There are few scenarios more terrifying than being buried alive, it’s the stuff of nightmares, horror films and gothic fiction. But in December 1968, for one young woman from Florida, that fear became a gruelling and all-too-real experience. Barbara Jane Mackle, a 20-year-old university student and heiress to a multimillion-dollar fortune, was kidnapped at gunpoint and left in a purpose-built box beneath the Georgia soil. Remarkably, she survived. Her story, one of calm resilience under unthinkable circumstances, remains one of the most bizarre and chilling kidnappings in American criminal history.
A Heiress in Peril
Barbara Mackle was, by all accounts, living a comfortable and privileged life. The daughter of Robert Mackle, a prominent Florida property developer and head of Deltona Corporation, Barbara had wealth, status, and a promising future. The Mackle family were close to political power too — family friends included Senator George Smathers and even President-elect Richard Nixon.
Barbara was studying at Emory University in Atlanta when the Hong Kong flu swept through campus in December 1968. Feeling increasingly unwell, she left an exam early and called her mother, Jane, to collect her so she could return home to Coral Gables for the Christmas break. They checked into Room 137 at a nearby motel — the Rodeway Inn — planning to leave for Florida the next day.
The 4 A.M. Knock
What happened in the early hours of 17 December reads like the beginning of a crime thriller. At around 4 a.m., there was a knock at the door. A man claiming to be a detective said there had been a traffic accident involving a white Ford — the same type of car driven by Barbara’s boyfriend, Stewart Woodward, who had visited them earlier that evening. Alarmed, Jane opened the door.
Instead of a detective, two masked individuals forced their way inside. One was tall and carried a shotgun; the other, shorter and slighter, appeared to be a teenage boy — later revealed to be a woman in disguise. The taller intruder, Gary Steven Krist, used chloroform to subdue Jane, while the accomplice, Ruth Eisemann-Schier, bound her hands and feet. Barbara was taken at gunpoint and forced into their waiting car.
Jane Mackle regained consciousness quickly and alerted the police. But by then, Barbara was being transported north, away from Atlanta and into the Georgia countryside.
A Box Beneath the Earth
The kidnappers drove Barbara to a secluded pine grove in Gwinnett County, Georgia, where they had prepared a “coffin-like” box to imprison her. It was no ordinary box — it had been reinforced with fibreglass and fitted with air pipes, a battery-powered lamp, a supply of water (laced with sedatives), and food. It even included a fan to circulate air. The attention to detail was chilling. Barbara was sedated and locked inside before Krist and Eisemann-Schier buried the box beneath 45 centimetres (around a foot and a half) of earth.
Inside she found this message:
DO NOT BE ALARMED. YOU ARE SAFE.
YOU ARE PRESENTLY INSIDE A FIBERGLASS REINFORCED PLYWOOD CAPSULE BURIED BENEATH THE GROUND NEAR THE HOUSE IN WHICH YOUR KIDNAPPERS ARE STAYING. YOUR STATUS WILL BE CHECKED APPROXIMATELY EVERY 2 HOURS.
THE CAPSULE IS QUITE STRONG, YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO BREAK IT OPEN. BE ADVISED, HOWEVER, THAT YOU ARE BENEATH THE WATER TABLE. IF YOU BREAK OPEN A SEAM YOU WOULD DROWN BEFORE WE COULD DIG YOU OUT. THE CAPSULE INSTRUMENTATION CONTAINS A WATER SENSITIVE SWITCH WHICH WILL WARN US IF THE WATER ENTERS THE CAPSULE TO A DANGEROUS DEGREE.
YOUR LIFE DEPENDS ON THE AIR DELIVERED TO YOUR CHAMBER VIA THE VENTILATION FAN. THIS FAN IS POWERED BY A LEAD-ACID STORAGE BATTERY CAPABLE OF SUPPLYING THE FAN MOTOR WITH POWER FOR 270 HOURS. HOWEVER, THE USE OF THE LIGHT AND OTHER SYSTEMS FOR ONLY A FEW HOURS COUPLED WITH THE HIGHER AMPERAGE DRAIN WILL REDUCE THIS FIGURE TO ONLY ONE WEEK OF SAFETY.
SHOULD THE AIR SUPPLIED PROVE TO BE TOO MUCH YOU CAN PARTLY BLOCK THE AIR OUTLET WITH A PIECE OF PAPER. A MUFFLER HAS BEEN PLACED IN THE AIR PASSAGE TO PREVENT ANY NOISE YOU MAKE FROM REACHING THE SURFACE: IF WE DETECT ANY COMMOTION WHICH WE FEEL IS DANGEROUS, WE WILL INTRODUCE ETHER TO THE AIR INTAKE AND PUT YOU TO SLEEP.
THE FAN OPERATES ON 6 VOLTS. IT HAS A SWITCH WITH TWO POSITIONS TO SWITCH BETWEEN THE TWO AVAILABLE CIRCUITS. SHOULD ONE CIRCUIT FAIL TURN TO THE OTHER.
THE BOX HAS A PUMP WHICH WILL EVACUATE ANY ACCIDENTAL LEAKAGE FROM THE BOX WHEN YOU TURN THE PUMP SWITCH ON TO THE “ON” POSITION. THIS PUMP USES 15 TIMES AS MUCH POWER AS YOUR VENTILATION FAN (7.5 AMPS); YOUR LIFE SUPPORT BATTERY WILL NOT ALLOW USE OF THE PUMP EXCEPT FOR EMERGENCY WATER EVACUATION.
THE LIGHT USES 2.5 TIMES THE AMPERAGE OF THE AIR CIRCULATION SYSTEM. USE OF THE LIGHT WHEN NOT NECESSARY WILL CUT YOUR BATTERY SAFETY MARGIN SUBSTANTIALLY. IF YOU USE THE LIGHT CONTINUOUSLY YOUR LIFE EXPECTANCY WILL BE CUT TO ONE THIRD OF THE WEEK WE HAVE ALLOTTED YOU BEFORE YOU ARE RELEASED.
YOUR CAPSULE CONTAINS A WATER JUG WITH THREE GALLONS OF WATER AND A TUBE FROM WHICH TO DRINK IT. BE CAREFUL TO BLOW THE WATER FROM THE TUBE WHEN YOU ARE FINISHED DRINKING TO AVOID SIPHONING THE WATER ONTO THE FLOOR WHEN THE TUBE END DROPS BELOW THE WATER LEVEL.
YOUR CAPSULE CONTAINS A BUCKET FOR REFUSE AND THE PRODUCTS OF YOUR BOWEL MOVEMENTS. THE BUCKET HAS AN ANTIBACTERIAL SOLUTION IN IT: DON’T TIP IT OVER. THE LID SEALS TIGHTLY TO PREVENT THE ESCAPE OF ODORS. A ROLL OF WAX PAPER IS PROVIDED – USE IT TO PREVENT SOLID WASTE FROM CONTAMINATING YOUR BED. KOTEX IS PROVIDED SHOULD YOU NEED IT.
BLANKETS AND A MAT ARE PROVIDED. YOUR WARMTH DEPENDS ON BODY HEAT SO REGULATE THE AIR TO PREVENT LOSS OF HEAT FROM THE CAPSULE.
A CASE OF CANDY IS PROVIDED TO FURNISH ENERGY TO YOUR BODY.
TRANQUILIZERS ARE PROVIDED TO AID YOU IN SLEEPING – THE BEST WAY YOU HAVE TO PASS THE TIME.
THE VENTILATION SYSTEM IS DOUBLY SCREENED TO PREVENT INSECTS OR ANIMALS FROM ENTERING THE CAPSULE AREA. YOU RISK BEING EATEN BY ANTS SHOULD YOU BREAK THESE PROTECTION SCREENS.
THE ELECTRICAL COMPONENTS BEHIND THESE SCREENS ARE DELICATE AND THEY SUPPORT YOUR LIFE. DON’T ATTEMPT TO TOUCH THESE CIRCUITS.
WE’RE SURE YOUR FATHER WILL PAY THE RANSOM WE HAVE ASKED IN LESS THAN ONE WEEK. WHEN YOUR FATHER PAYS THE RANSOM WE WILL TELL HIM WHERE YOU ARE AND HE’LL COME FOR YOU. SHOULD HE FAIL TO PAY WE WILL RELEASE YOU, SO BE CALM AND REST – YOU’LL BE HOME FOR CHRISTMAS ONE WAY OR THE OTHER.
She remained buried alive for more than 80 hours.
Barbara later wrote about her ordeal in her memoir, 83 Hours Till Dawn, where she described the moment the box was sealed and the dirt began to pile up: “I screamed and screamed. The sound of the dirt got farther and farther away. Finally, I couldn’t hear anything above. I screamed for a long time after that.”
With no way to track the passage of time, she survived by focusing on the image of spending Christmas morning with her family.
The Ransom and FBI Manhunt
Barbara’s father, Robert Mackle, received a ransom demand for $500,000 — the equivalent of around $4.3 million in today’s money. He agreed without hesitation. A first attempt at a ransom drop failed when two policemen happened to drive by, causing the kidnappers to flee, abandoning their car in the process.
Inside that car were several crucial clues: photographs, chloroform, and documents pointing to a man named George D. Deacon, who worked at the University of Miami’s marine science department. He had experience constructing ventilated boxes, which raised red flags with the FBI. Further investigation revealed that Deacon didn’t exist — he was an alias being used by Gary Steven Krist, a 23-year-old who had escaped from a California prison in 1966.
The ransom was successfully delivered on the second attempt. Soon after, Krist made a call to the FBI, giving vague directions to Barbara’s location.
More than 100 FBI agents descended on the pine forest near Lawrenceville, Georgia. Using only the cryptic clues provided, they scoured the area with shovels, tools and their bare hands. Finally, on 20 December, after three and a half days underground, Barbara was found alive. She was dehydrated but in surprisingly good condition — her ability to remain calm and mentally focused was later described as extraordinary.
Aftermath and Arrests
Barbara was taken home to Florida, where she celebrated Christmas with her family just as she had envisioned while trapped underground. Publicly, she seemed to recover well, though she made few appearances in the media in the years following.
Meanwhile, the FBI intensified their search for the kidnappers. Krist was captured just days later, sailing a speedboat off the coast of Florida, bought using part of the ransom money. Eisemann-Schier was caught months later in Oklahoma, after her fingerprints matched those on file when she applied for a job at a hospital.
Krist was sentenced to life in prison in 1969 but served only ten years before being paroled. In an astonishing twist, he later received a pardon that allowed him to attend medical school. He became a licensed physician in Indiana — though this too ended in scandal. His medical licence was revoked in 2003 after it emerged he had lied about disciplinary actions during his residency.
Krist’s post-prison career continued to raise eyebrows. In 2006, he was arrested aboard a sailboat off the coast of Alabama with 14 kilograms of cocaine and several undocumented immigrants. He was sentenced to over five years in prison. Then, in 2012, he violated the terms of his probation by leaving the United States without permission, sailing to Cuba and South America. His supervised release was revoked and he was sentenced to a further 40 months.
As for Ruth Eisemann-Schier, she was sentenced to seven years in prison but was paroled after four and deported to her native Honduras. She remains the first woman ever to appear on the FBI’s Most Wanted list.
A Quiet Life After Trauma
Barbara Mackle rarely spoke publicly about the kidnapping after her book was released in 1971. She moved back to Atlanta, married, and raised a family. Those who knew her described her as remarkably composed and private — a young woman who had endured one of the most harrowing experiences imaginable and moved forward without fanfare.
The box she was buried in was later displayed by the FBI at lectures on criminal psychology and kidnapping techniques. It became a macabre symbol of criminal ingenuity — and of Barbara’s will to live.
