Weird Island

52. WEIRD NEWS: When the Wright’s Chicken Farm Kids were Kidnapped

Episode Summary

When a friend said to me, “What about an episode about that time the Wright’s Chicken Farm kids were kidnapped?” I had to know more. Today’s episode comes right from the newspaper archives, from March of 1979.

Episode Notes

Episode Source Material:

Episode Transcription

My friend Herb is one of those people who always has a good RI story to share. And the stories are never what you think they’re going to be. He knows all the hidden spots. All the best food. All the old news stories that have faded from memory. He’s the reason I know about the East Side train tunnel. The Fox Point hurricane barrier. The time Mick Jagger was arrested.
And one day, we were at the gym, and he said, “You know Wright’s Chicken Farm.”
And of course I know Wright’s Chicken Farm. It’s this absolutely huge, all you can eat, family style chicken restaurant that’s kind of a local institution. And if you’ve been here long enough, you’ve probably, at some point, had the conversation about Wright’s Chicken Farm and Wright’s Dairy Farm (another local institution) and whether or not the two are connected. And I thought Herb was about to suggest that I do an episode clearing up that exact question. And I was thinking to myself, “I don’t know if that’ll make for a very good episode.” Because, not to spoil anything, but they’re not connected at all.
But then Herb said, “What about an episode about that time the Wright’s Chicken Farm kids were kidnapped?” And that was a story I hadn’t heard before.
I’m Sara and you’re listening to Weird Island. Each week, I’ll be telling you about the strangest stories I can dig up from my tiny, little state of Rhode Island. And this week, I actually had another story planned for you. But, I’m having too much fun researching it and wanted to hold onto it a little longer before putting it out. Rather than miss a week, I thought I’d go into the newspaper archives and dig up that story Herb told me in the gym. About the time the Wright’s Chicken Farm kids were kidnapped.
Wright’s Chicken Farm is, like I mentioned, an all-you-can-eat family style restaurant. Meaning you order a bunch of food–including chicken, potatoes, pasta, salad and bread–and you all share it. And when a dish is empty, they bring you more. There aren’t a lot of restaurants like this in RI, and there certainly aren’t any as big as Wright’s. The family-owned restaurant has over 1,000 seats spread throughout six different rooms. And despite all of that space, you can still expect a wait to be seated.
So, you would expect that the family who owns the restaurant would be pretty wealthy, right? Because they’re doing a ton of business. Well that family is the Galleshaws. Frank and Joyce Galleshaw purchased Wright’s Farm Restaurant in 1972 from Gene Wright, who started it about 20 years earlier. And they grew the restaurant from a much smaller scale establishment to the thriving business it is today.
And in the late 1970s, someone looked at that family, who was starting to build their business and said, “I bet they have money. What if I kidnapped their kids and held them for ransom.” And that’s exactly what happened.
On March 8, 1979, 17-year-old Frank Galleshaw III and 15 year-old Tammy Galleshaw were about to leave for school from their Burrillville home, just like they would on any other Thursday morning. And their next door neighbor Kenneth was also with them. They headed into the garage, about to leave, when a man in a ski mask appeared out of nowhere. He pointed a .38 caliber pistol at the three teenagers and forced them into Frank’s car. Then the captor got into the driver's seat and peeled out of the driveway.
They only made it about a mile down the road before the captor realized the third teenager in the car wasn’t part of the Chicken Farm family. So he pulled over and dropped Kenneth on the side of the road, threatening to kill him if he went to the police. But as the car took off into the distance, Kenneth knew he had to get help. He called Frank and Tammy’s father, who said he was in a state of total disbelief when he received the panicked phone call. “I thought somebody was trying to steal the car, not take the kids,” he would later say. And yet, the kids were in danger. He immediately got in touch with the police.
When it comes to kidnapping cases, the FBI is immediately called in. So right away both the RI State Police and the local office of the FBI were involved in the investigation, which would ultimately result in a large-scale aircraft and vehicle surveillance operation across the state.
But while their father frantically contacted police for help, Tammy and Frank were being driven to an isolated, wooded area somewhere off Route 7 in North Smithfield, where their kidnapper conferred with two other co conspirators. Then they were taken from Frank’s car and forced into the trunk of a 1974 Chevy Impala. And then their original kidnapper drove them an hour to Fort Getty in Jamestown. Today, Fort Getty is a park and campground. But before it was a campground, it was a military fort constructed back in 1901. And there are still a few old ammunition bunkers in the area. Their kidnapper forced them into a bunker, which I have to imagine was dark, wet and cold since it was only early March. And thus began what must have been the longest and most terrifying 10 hours of their lives.
Meanwhile, the two other men involved in the kidnapping headed to Providence to begin the ransom part of the scheme. From a phone booth, one of the men called the Galleshaw home, where a neighbor actually picked up the phone. Using a phony German accent, he demanded $500K for the safe return of the Galleshaw children. A little later, the same man called back and reached Mr. Galleshaw. He made the same demands and then said he would call back at 5PM with further instructions about where to bring the money.
At 6:24PM, the man called back. But this time, it wasn't Mr. Galleshaw who picked up the phone. It was a member of the police pretending to be Mr. Galleshaw. And thus began a wild goose chase all over the state.
The caller, still using the same phony German accent, told the cop (who he didn’t know was a cop) to bring the money to a phone booth at the Howard Johnson’s at Jefferson Boulevard in Warwick where he would receive further instructions.
So, a surveillance team of 15 vehicles went to Warwick. And from that phone booth in Warwick, the cop was instructed to head to another phone booth. The surveillance team was sent to a series of phone booths all over the state, eventually ending up at one in Swansea, MA. While the cops made their way to the Swansea phone booth, a state police lieutenant spotten a suspicious looking man at another pay phone about a mile from the location they were headed to. He identified the vehicle they had been on the lookout for, and was certain that after the long game of cat and mouse, they had finally found their guy.
As the man picked up the phone and dialed the number of the other phone booth, the Police lieutenant approached the suspect. On the other end of the line, cops could hear the lieutenant yell “State police!” as the suspect was placed under arrest.
Of course, the number one priority for the family and for the cops was the safety of the kids. But by the time this suspect was captured, the police didn’t have to ask where the teenagers were being held.
That’s because by this time, Frank and Tammy had actually escaped. During their 10 hours in captivity, the two teens feared the worst. Their captor kept the pistol aimed at them, and told them he had instructions to kill them if anything went wrong. They later told their mother they didn’t think they would ever get out. And yet, they kept their wits about them.
In the cold, dark ammunition bunker, they got a closer look at the man with the gun. And it turns out, he wasn’t too much older than either of them. The young man, who was later identified as Salvatore Savastano Jr, was only 18 years old. And had been voted the “cutest boy” in his high school’s graduating class. It soon became clear that he wasn’t the leader of this kidnapping. In fact, he seemed like the weak link in the chain, like someone who’d gotten himself in too deep. Later, Tammy would say, “I know it sounds funny to say this, but I almost liked him.”
The two started talking with their captor, persuading him that his accomplices had abandoned him. That they were making off with his share of the money, leaving him behind to face the punishment for the crime.
“He was really gullible,” Tammy said, “and we were making like he was our friend.”
And after hours of talking, their efforts paid off. Savastano removed the teenagers’ restraints and they fled the bunk, running a half mile through fields until they reached the closest house, and called their dad. “We’re all right,” they assured him. “Come and get us. We’re in Jamestown.”
Their parents rushed to get them, and their father would later remember that when he arrived, the two teenagers were more concerned about their parents than themselves. They wanted to make sure their mom and dad were okay.
They then gave a description of Savastano to the police, who set up a roadblock at the Newport Bridge. At 7:30PM a blue Rambler with two occupants was stopped at the roadblock. Savastano, who had been trying to hitchhike out of town, was in the passenger seat. After being arrested, Savastano named the other two suspects and described the vehicle they were driving. The two other men were Alan Gomel and Michael Ballard, who was described as the mastermind behind the kidnapping. It was Ballard who would be arrested at the phone booth shortly after Savastano was caught. And when he was arrested, Ballard was actually unaware that the teenagers had escaped. Alan Gomel, the third co-conspirator, was arrested the following morning at his home in Cumberland.
Following the arrests, Savastano turned state’s witness, and testified in great detail about the planning and execution of the kidnapping. Gomel and Savastano entered guilty pleas before trial, and were sentenced to serve 25 years in prison. Ballard received a heavier punishment: two life sentences for kidnapping-with-intent-to-extort plus an additional 65 years following for carrying a pistol without a license and three counts of assault with a dangerous weapon.
Allegedly Ballard, who was a Bristol golf pro, knew the Gallashaw kid’s father from the golf course and thought this might be a good get-rich-quick scheme. He supposedly got the idea for the abduction from a Reader’s Digest magazine article. An FBI agent testified during the trial that Ballard told him that on the morning of the kidnapping, he had second thoughts about going through with it, because he would be working against the FBI and the State Police, who he described as “People that knew what they were doing.” And it turns out he was right. At the end of the day, the kidnapping was unsuccessful, no ransom money was delivered (though the family had it and was prepared to if needed), and the kids got away safely.
And the whole thing is kind of this weird story behind this locally well-known restaurant. And while it’s kind of a funny story in retrospect for some reason, no one should ever have to go through what Frank and Tammy and their parents went through that day. The two teens would grow up and take over management of Wright’s Farm Restaurant after their parents. Tammy passed away a few years ago, but Frank still runs the restaurant today. And I have to say, I heard this story and was just incredibly impressed with their bravery and strength, the way they kept cool and negotiated their way out of a situation no one would ever expect to find themself in.
Thank you, as always, for sharing interesting stories with me, Herb! And thank you all for listening! I hope you liked this dive into the newspaper archives. If you did, I would love it if you could share the podcast with your family and friends. Or you can email me at Weird Rhode Island at Gmail.com or find me on Instagram at Weird Island Podcast. See you next week as we dig up more stories about all things weird and wonderful in the little state of Rhode Island. Until next time!