The Baby in the Well

In front of the world’s TV cameras, 18-month-old Jessica McClure - affectionately known as “Baby Jessica” - was lifted from a disused well in Midland, Texas on 16th October, 1987, having been trapped down there for two and a half harrowing days. 

Jessica had slipped into the eight-inch-wide shaft while playing in her aunt’s backyard. The hole was too narrow for adults to enter, and too deep for a simple rescue; within hours, the local emergency had turned into a media storm. CNN, still a young network at the time, broadcast the event live to millions, cementing the story of Baby Jessica as one of the first true 24-hour news sensations.

In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly explain how the rescue operation took shape, with a heady mix of engineers, miners, firefighters, and volunteers; reveal that the hero of the day, paramedic Robert O’Donnell, never recovered from the trauma of the rescue; and check-in with ‘Baby’ Jessica now, forty years on…

Further Reading:

• ‘RESCUE WORKERS FREE CHILD TRAPPED 2 1/2 DAYS IN WELL’ (The Washington Post, 1987): https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1987/10/17/rescue-workers-free-child-trapped-2-12-days-in-well/53916dc9-3911-4352-9b63-8b92b93ac302/

• ‘Opinion: How 58 hours in Midland, Texas, changed the future of TV news’ (CNN, 2021): https://edition.cnn.com/2021/07/30/opinions/baby-jessica-cnn-films-shorts-mark-bone-opinion

• ‘Baby Jessica: 30 Years After Being Rescued From The Well’ (People, 2019): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksZMIvHNeJ0

#Strange #80s #US #Child

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The Retrospectors are Olly Mann, Rebecca Messina & Arion McNicoll, with Matt Hill.

Theme Music: Pass The Peas. Announcer: Bob Ravelli. Graphic Design: Terry Saunders. Edit Producer: Ollie Peart

Copyright: Rethink Audio / Olly Mann 2025.

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