Peggy Ann Bradnick - Kidnapping

Kidnapping

On May 11, 1966, as Peggy Ann was walking home from her school bus stop with her five siblings, they were intercepted by Hollenbaugh, who grabbed Peggy Ann and dragged her into the woods.

Leaving Mary Louise to tend to the younger children, Jim Bradnick ran home and told his father, who was home frying chicken for dinner, while their mother was on a housecleaning job. Eugene Bradnick ran to try to find Peggy Ann; when he could not, he went into town to notify the police.

Stopping in a clearing in the woods, Hollenbaugh took off his goggles and stowed them in a haversack he was carrying. He then took out a cheek-filler made from two wooden discs wired together. Peggy Ann was so startled she blurted out, "I think I know who you are," and identified him as the "Bicycle Man". Hollenbaugh then removed a second jacket and second pair of pants and ordered Peggy Ann to wear them over her dress, saying, "That red dress sticks out like a sore thumb."

He took Peggy Ann under the Pennsylvania Turnpike through a culvert and was out of the search area. But then he was worried about his dogs, so he took her back north of the turnpike. He fetched a chain, chained her to a tree, and attempted to get his dogs but was not successful at that time. He took Peggy Ann to a cave that he had dug into the mountain, got a couple of cans of food and shared them with her. A few days later, he was able to fetch his dogs.

On May 16, he forced Peggy Ann to accompany him as he burglarized a house. He found a .32 automatic in the house.

On May 17, FBI agent Terry Ray Anderson spotted one of the Mountain Man's dogs and called to it. The Mountain Man (William Diller Hollenbaugh) opened fire, killing Anderson. He then shot two tracking dogs, killing one. Some of the other searchers spotted Peggy Ann so they knew she was still alive. They disappeared into the forest before the searchers could reach them.

That evening, after being unable to escape the search area by going under a bridge near Fort Littleton, Hollenbaugh came to a hunting lodge with a car parked there, in Burnt Cabins. The lodge had an outside washhouse. He made Peggy Ann hide with him in the shower of the washhouse. Shortly after dawn, Cambria County Deputy Sheriff Francis Sharpe came out to use the washhouse, where Hollenbaugh shot and wounded him. He then forced Sharpe to drive him and Peggy Ann toward the Pennsylvania Turnpike. The car was stopped by a closed cattle gate. Rain had been falling that morning, sometimes heavily. Hollenbaugh ordered Sharpe to open the gate. Sharpe called out to officers near the gate that Hollenbaugh was in the car. Hollenbaugh began firing through the car windows, left the car, and eventually got away; he took Peggy Ann down to US 522 and a farm owned by Luther Rubeck.