This is the real Barbara Mackle (police photo) In 1968, while a student at Emory College, Barbara Jane Mackle was kidnapped and buried alive in a plywood box containing food, water, and pipes leading to the outside air. The kidnappers demanded $500,000 in ransom, which Mackle's parents paid. She was rescued three and a half days later, and her captors were arrested and sent to prison. Her story was first told in the TV movie The Longest Night (1972) (TV). She wrote her own account in 1971, and this book served as the basis for another TV movie: 83 Hours 'Til Dawn (1990) (TV).