we discussed scenarios. we planned scenarios. we planned strategies. strategies stretching over a six-week period that involved coaching kim s mom and dad in how to elicit information should their daughter or robert call. it had to be their words as they would talk to their daughter, questions that they would normally ask their daughter because freegard was a formidable opponent. he would sense if something was amiss. the trap was set. jackie just needed kim to call home. any calls would be secretly recorded by fbi agents in the u.s. a few days later, jackie got her lucky break. freegard and kim had run out of cash. freegard, with kim under his control, had placed a series of calls to kim parents concocting a story that the two needed still more money to pay for spy school. you have put up some of your money and some of kim s money to whoever it is that s giving you these tests, right? i fronted $61,000, cause
dressed in designer suits and jetted off to exotic destinations on vacation. it was clear to the fbi agent hunting robert freegard and kim adams that the students who eventually escaped their captor had been bamboozled in the most cruel fashion. fleeing the irish terrorists, the beatings, the miserable safe houses, vast sums of money were all part of a big hoax. robert freegard was not an undercover cop, a spy or a secret agent. he was a con man, a brilliant one. freegard was someone that did not complete his secondary education. tried his hand at becoming a carpenter, a barman, very little personal success in his life. and the fbi agent discovered the con man had used his velvety charm on a string of other victims, all women, including a lawyer caroline cooper, another, a company executive, even a
gone now for three months as her investigation began, but freegard was so clever, he had left no footprints. the trail was cold and so the agent had fbi agents in the states contact kim s parents to see if they knew where their daughter and robert were. when the fbi called up her father the first time he hung up on them. mr. freegard had instructed kimberly s father by saying you know, you re going to be called one day by someone who claims to be the fbi. and they re going to tell you that i m not a spy. and that s a test. dad hangs up and thought he passed the test. yes. he reached out that far. he was that good. as far as kim s parents knew their daughter was still about to marry robert. but after the fbi convinced them that kim, they, too, were victims of a dangerous con artist, they were only too eager to help find their daughter and get evidence that would put freegard away.
so they re a counterpart of the cia? yes. the two were training to man a lighthouse in scotland and be on the lookout for enemy submarines. james bond work. james bond work, absolutely. but problem, the agency that employs the real james bond of the british secret service had never heard of a robert freegard. his story about the lighthouse and spy school, it didn t check out. and pretty soon the british cop suspected that the missing american woman had been kidnapped by freegard. that s when they turned to the fbi for help and when agent zappacosta discovered some creepy details about freegard s past, the case became a matter of life and death. but before the agent could even begin to pick up a scent of the missing kim adams, she would discover an astonishing story of deceit, terror and vicious brutality. the fbi agent learned that robert freegard s trail began almost ten years before in 1993.
that s all i could put my hands on. and i don t have any more money than that, john. that wiped me out. so the reason they re calling home to the states is to get money. yes. we knew if we didn t capitalize on that break that we may not hear from kimberly again for a long time. after the fbi and british police determined that freegard and kim had traveled to france, out of their jurisdiction, they set up a plan that kim s schoolteacher mom would execute. you had to learn how to become something of a little spy yourself. well, i guess i did, yes. i hadn t thought of it that way. back home in phoenix, ann s instructions were to use the sporadic phone calls to lure robert and her daughter back to england. hi, ann, how are you doing? a plan was set with tempting bait. kim s mom would give them a check for $20,000 but only if she could deliver it herself in london. she was even given a script by the fbi to deal with curveballs as when robert cleverly suggested that kim s mom fly