'I HAD TO CHARM HIM OR DIE'

BARBARA MABEE ABEL CAME HOME FROM WORK TO DISCOVER THAT A CRIMINAL WHO'D ESCAPED FROM JAIL HAD ASSAULTED HER SISTER AND WAS THREATENING TO ABDUCT HER SON. HER COURAGE AND QUICK THINKING SAVED AT LEAST THREE LIVES 

- LIAM QUINN

On Nov. 14, 1974, Barbara Mabee Abel was a 31-yearold single mother in West Palm Beach, Fla., working to support her 6-year-old son Dale and her twin sister, Beverly, who had cerebral palsy, when she was kidnapped by a killer. Dubbed the Casanova Killer for his good looks, Paul John Knowles was eventually linked to 18 murders. In her own words, Abel— who appears on a new episode of People Magazine Investigates: Surviving a Serial Killer on ID—tells how she escaped becoming his next victim.

When I got to work that morning, I had an eerie feeling. I didn’t know what, but something was wrong. I called Beverly, who always answered because she was always at home. But there was no answer. I left around 5 p.m. and picked up Dale at school. When we got to the house, I called out for Beverly and told Dale, “Go look for her, honey,” while I went to the kitchen to get a glass of water. That’s when I heard a voice say, “Don’t turn around, or I’ll shoot.”