03/14/2026
On the 16th of March, 1984, at Baton Rouge Metropolitan Airport in Louisiana, police escorted a handcuffed kidnapping suspect through the terminal. As cameras rolled, a father stepped out of a crowd and shot the man, who was accused of abusing his 11 year old son...
Jeff Doucet had kidnapped 11 year old Jody Plauché weeks earlier. I will mention here that Doucet was Jody’s karate teacher, and he had been molesting the child for at least a year before the abduction.
He had taken the little boy from Louisiana to Anaheim, where he sexually abused him while hiding out in a motel. Authorities eventually found them, rescued Jody, and arrested Doucet. He was being flown back to Louisiana to face charges.
And that brings us to March 16th, and officers walking Doucet through the terminal after extraditing him from California. News crews were there to film the transfer, it should have been a routine media moment in a case that had already shocked the community. What no one knew was that Jody’s father, Gary Plauché, was waiting.
Gary stood beside a row of payphones as he waited for Doucet to walk past, and when he did, handcuffed and flanked by deputies, Gary turned toward Doucet and fired a single shot at point-blank range into his head.
Doucet was critically wounded and later died at a hospital. Officers immediately subdued and arrested Gary at the scene.
The case and the video that had been captured of the shooting quickly became one of the most widely viewed acts of vigilante violence in American history. For some, it was an act of a devastated father, while for others, it was a worrying example of taking justice into one’s own hands.
Gary was charged with second-degree murder and would go on to receive a suspended seven-year sentence, five years of probation, and 300 hours of community service. He served no prison time.
•Hekate•
