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This episode marks the inaugural edition of the True Crime Reporter™ Texas Ranger Case Files.
Robert Riggs and Bill Johnston feature exclusive stories about criminal cases in interviews with legendary officers of the Texas Rangers.
The Texas Rangers constitute the oldest state law enforcement organization in North America dating to 1823.
You can read more about the history of the Texas Rangers and their influence on popular culture on our blog at the True Crime Reporter™ website.
Robert and Bill interview retired Ranger Captain Bob Prince, a legendary modern-day Texas Ranger about his most memorable case.
Our story begins with the rescue of 13-year old Amy McNiel of Alvarado, Texas from five kidnappers in mid-January of 1985.
It captures the frontier spirit and courage of the officers who wear the distinctive 5-star badge of the Texas Rangers.
The teenage daughter of Don McNiel, a pioneer in the development of the first hand-held calculator, was snatched at gunpoint on the way to school.
Kidnappers ran a jeep driven by her 17-year old brother off the road and put a sawed-off shotgun to his face as they grabbed his sister.
They demanded a $100,000 ransom for the seventh grader’s safe return but had no intention of releasing the teenage girl alive.
Throughout McNiel’s abduction, the five kidnappers snorted and injected drugs and talked about “driving” to Hawaii with the ransom money.
The teen defiantly insisted that her captors feed a hungry dog in their backyard before she would cooperate.
Their ringleader, 34-year James Wesley Foote lived near the McNiel’s mansion and his son was her school classmate but unknown to her. Foote’s son had once stabbed a fellow student in the arm with a knife.
Two weeks before McNiel’s abduction, Foote who was wanted for attempted murder had burst into the home of a prominent businessman in Arlington near Fort Worth, Texas to kidnap his two young children.
The family’s housekeeper wrestled Foote’s gun away from him and fought him in a bloody 45-minute struggle.
The gun discharged near her head and Foote fled.
A few weeks later, Foote and his accomplices then abducted 13-year old Amy McNiel
Retired Ranger Captain Bob Prince remembers a tension-filled 48 hour, 600 mile game of cat and mouse and a 100 mph running gunbattle in this episode of Texas Ranger Files.
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