It’s time to go home after a long night at work. You get on your bike and start the ride home. You’re happy, life is good. The night is peaceful, you even ride by a beautiful church. You notice that there’s a single car in the parking lot. It strikes you as odd, but you keep on riding. When you chance a glance back, that’s it, that’s the end – or is it? You are Lisa McVey, and this is her story of how she escaped the Classified Rapist.
It was November 3, 1984. 17-year-old Lisa McVey was riding her bike to her grandmother’s home after getting off of work. As she rode, she felt “happy, joyful, free as a bird.” When she reached an intersection, she saw a huge, beautiful church. She noticed a single car in the lot.
The car was maroon with spoke wheels.The rear drivers’ side tire looked like it had been reversed, as though he had had a flat, since the other tires had white walls. She kept on riding past, but thought it was strange. “Why is there a car in the middle of the parking lot of the church?”
She couldn’t shake the feeling, and looked back again at the car. That’s when someone jumped from behind and knocked her off of her bike. Down, she felt the barrel of a gun pressed to her temple. Then she heard it click.
She screamed, and he screamed back, yelling profanities at her. He told her to shut up before throwing her in the car, where she spotted a large hunting knife.
The man kept the gun trained on her while ordering her to strip and perform oral sex on him. He continued to shout at her, telling her that she’s gonna show him a good time, if she shows him a good time he wouldn’t kill her.
Lisa wanted to live, so she agreed that she’d do whatever he wanted, so long as he didn’t kill her.
He grabbed her by the hair and began to tie her up, using old bed sheets. Next he moved to blindfold her, and she clenched her jaw, so that when she relaxed, the blindfold would be loose. When he drove off, she was able to see – just a little.
She made mental notes of not only where they were going, but little details within the car; the thick red carpet, “Magnum” on the dashboard.
The car stopped in a dark, wooded area. He opened the door and got her out. She started walking toward the trees, believing this would be the end, but he redirected her toward a building. They climbed up 19 steps until they reached a door. Inside, she noticed the smell of fresh paint.
The man directed her to the bathroom where she was made to strip again. He removed the ligatures and the blindfold, and forced her into the shower, where he proceeded to bathe her.
She asked him why he was doing this, and he replied that he was getting back at women in general, he had just been through a bad breakup. That little tidbit of information was exactly what she needed.
He made her dry her hair with a blow dryer, and then the attack came. He raped her right there on the bathroom floor. It was hard and brutal, but Lisa knew better than to fight back. She knew resisting would only make it worse.
When he had finished, she told him she had to pee, and she wouldn’t go until he shut the door. With the door shut, she took the opportunity to touch everything. Leave fingerprints everywhere, the sink, walls, everywhere she could think of.
She had just minutes before he was directing her out of the bathroom and into a bedroom. The man once again tied her wrists and ankles, and this time directed her to lay down in the bed. Her rapist showed her his gun as a reminder of what he could do to her, just before he told her to go to sleep.
Laying there in the dark, she could hear him snore.
But this was only a short reprieve. When he awoke the nightmare began all over again. He raped her over and over again, so many times she lost count.
The man began to ask her things, about her family, and girls at school. He asked her to describe them to him, the girls in her gym class, what they looked like, the size of their breasts.
Although she was terrified, she knew she had to remain calm. She was afraid of what he would do if his temper were to flare, so she made it a point to treat him with respect. He would rage, and she would do what she could to keep him calm. At one point he abruptly got out of bed. She could hear the sound of metal on metal, and what she believed were bullets falling.
Lisa remained calm, and she remained safe for the time being. He took her hands and placed them on his face. She hadn’t been able to see what he looked like, so she knew this was her chance to note any details she could. His skin was pockmarked, he had small ears, and a clean moustache.
The man took her to the living room where she sat on the couch. He turned on the TV and a newsbreak came on. Police were searching for a 17-year-old girl, who had been abducted off of her bicycle. They were looking for her.
Overcome with emotion, she began crying, shaking, even screaming. He set off in a rage. Behind her he stuck the gun to her head, “Please don’t make me kill you,” he said. “Stop crying.”
It has now been 17 hours.
Once Lisa has calmed herself, he once again took her to the bedroom, where he raped her once more before going to sleep.
The man wakes at 4am and asks her what he should do with her. “I’ve got you, I did these horrific things to you, but now what do I do with you?”
Hoping to pacify him, she told him she’ll be his girlfriend. She told him she’ll take care of him and no one will ever have to know what he did. But he couldn’t. He couldn’t keep her.
The man ordered her to get dressed and took her outside. He told her to get into the car, but it was so foggy, she couldn’t see it, so he had to lead the way. He asked where she lived, and then agreed to drop her off.
She couldn’t believe what he was saying, she knew for sure this would be the end, he would kill her. He blindfolded her before leaving and they drove for a while until they reached a bank. When he got out, he left her alone in the car. Lisa pondered what she should do, but before she could do anything, he was back.
The man asked her for directions, so she told him right where to go, and even asked him to drop her off at the intersection of Hillsborough and Rome. But he didn’t. He drove past it and started screaming again, “What am I supposed to do with you?”
Somehow Lisa managed to stay calm. She could see where they were, even with the blindfold, but didn’t dare let him know. “Where you at?” she asked him. When he told her, she calmly told him to just take a “U-turn, the light’s where you’re supposed to drop me off at.”
Much to her surprise, he did. The man grabbed her, hugged her, and apologized. He opened the door and let her out, told her to stay there for five minutes, and he’d let her live.
Standing on the side of the road, she watched in astonishment and disbelief as he drove away.
She ran, and ran, and ran, until she made it to the police station. Lisa told them everything she knew, everything she saw, everything she could remember. She told them about the car, and the word, “Magnum.”
Looking for a red Dodge Magnum, and using landmarks she saw along the drive, police were able to take that information and got a list of names from banks in the area. When compared to DMV records, they had their man, “Bobby Joe Long.”
Police began surveillance of Bobby Joe Long immediately, and on November 16, 1984, he was arrested. He quickly admitted to kidnapping Lisa McVey and to having sex with her multiple times, although he added that at one point, she said she did not want to leave.
When shown photos of five known murder victims, he was asked if he knew them. His reply was a short and concise, “No.” Long asked for a bathroom break, and when he returned the investigators began talking about the physical evidence they had collected, specifically the left rear tire of his car and the tire impressions. A look of understanding crossed his face, “I think I might need an attorney.”
Instead of ending the interrogation there, as required by law, Sgt. Latimer went on to urge him to be honest, as they already had a strong enough case against him through the physical evidence. That’s when a smile crossed Bobby Joe Long’s face and he said, “Well, I guess you got me good… Yes, I killed them… All the ones in the paper. I did them all.”
Bobby Joe Long, also known as “the Classified Rapist,” was convicted of first-degree murder in April 1985, and was sentenced to death. His execution by lethal injection was carried out on May 23, 2019, after his last request for a stay of execution was denied.
Lisa McVey and another survivor, Linda Nuttall, were present for his execution. She has candidly recounted her experience as a victim of abuse, even before her abduction. “I was being sexually abused at home. My grandmother’s boyfriend used to put a gun to my head every time he molested me for three years. It was nothing new to me. One bad situation got me to another bad situation is what saved my life. Because the night before [the abduction] I’m doing my suicide note and the next night I’m fighting for my life.”
She is a survivor, and a strong one at that. In 1994, she began working for the Hillsborough County Parks and Recreation department. When she reported a break-in at the office, the deputy who came to the scene said, “You’ve got the attitude to be a cop. Ever thought of that?”
In 1999, she was transferred to the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office as a dispatcher and became a reserve deputy. She put herself through the police academy and was deputized in 2004.
Now, she works in the same department that found and arrested her captor specializing in combating sex crimes and working to protect children in addition to working as a middle school resource officer where she uses her story to teach students how to handle potentially dangerous situations.
Though Lisa survived, there were many that didn’t. Read more about Bobby Joe Long, The Classified Rapist. To see the movie, chronicling her night of horror, check out Believe Me: The Abduction of Lisa McVey.
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