The Emerging Plot
When I write about true-crime, I look for the story-within-the-story — the innermost subplot that helps bring the overarching crimescape into focus. In Butcher, Baker that “subplot” was Cindy Paulson’s escape from Robert Hansen. An escape that, for too long, swerved dangerously close to a failed opportunity. And then there’s Kill Brother, Kill Sister. In that work, a central pivot is… Neil Mackay smuggling his son — Scotty Mackay — first out of Alaska and then out of Hawaii. [1]
A brief chronology is in order: In December, 1977, Mackay unceremoniously took Scotty from Alaska to Hawaii. Alaska authorities didn’t take kindly to that, and issued a summons demanding Scotty’s return. Indeed, the mere fact that Neil Mackay felt he had to take Scotty from Alaska to Hawaii already spoke to his dwindling choices. After all, Hawaii was supposed to be the ultimate escape hatch. Mackay owned a condo in Waikiki. He lived there. But… No sooner had they arrived than he learned — was he surprised? — that local authorities were looking for him. He quickly inserted Chuck Sullivan — a long-time Alaska friend who, with his wife Jean, were now living in Hawaii — as the new “resident.” If anything happened, he’d be there.
On The Run Again
As February of 1978 dawned, Neil Mackay was on the run, again. A Hawaii judge, acting under the Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction Act, ordered Neil S. Mackay to “return Neil P. (Scotty) Mackay, a minor, to an authorized officer of the Superior Court of Alaska, Third Judicial District , at Anchorage, via the first available air transportation from Honolulu to Anchorage.” Neil Mackay did the opposite, dipping in and out of condos owned by the Sullivans and avoiding the inevitable, one squirrelly move at a time.
Indeed, the two of them — Scotty and Neil — had to move a lot. A LOT. After the Sullivan condos, they spent a few days living in Makaha, on the leeward side of Oahu. Then north to the Kuilima Hotel, where dad helped Scotty with his swim moves. It was almost normal: While there, they watched Muhammed Ali fight Leon Spinks. (Spinks defeated Ali via a 15-round split decision to claim the WBA and WBC Heavyweight titles. My guess is dad liked it more than his son).
That said, there was no celebrating when they learned that ten or so Sheriff’s deputies had arrived at the door of Mackay’s condo, Alaska warrant in hand. Chuck Sullivan stationed himself at the door, then panicked when the cops started pounding it with a battering ram. He called the police — on the police. Clearly, additional measures were called for.
Another Defensive Move
In the meantime, Mackay felt it necessary to land some kind of — any kind of — a counter narrative. Somehow — somehow? — he enlisted his legal secretary, Virginia Zawacki, to write an achingly saccharine letter to the court, oozing about how “great it was” for Scotty to be in Hawaii with his father. (To this writer, the entire missive sounded like it came from Neil Mackay’s hand, but whatever.)
I am informed and believe that since going to Hawaii with his father on December 10, 1977, Scotty has experienced the greatest period of growth, development, good health and happiness in his entire life to date. Scotty has been swimming, diving, surfing, sailing, enjoying long hours with his Dad, soaking up sunshine, eating fresh fruits and vegetables, and... [he] has also enjoyed traveling between islands, [...] made many new friends and has had many new educational experiences.
Virginia Zawacki, January 9, 1978
It’s Not Working
With failure stalking them in every direction, what came next was a wild swing toward the Marshall Islands. It’s the kind of place one goes to get convincingly lost, one that features vast expanses of water, many atolls, few islands and even fewer people. As the following map shows — note the area outlined in magenta — it’s a territory that spans a space as large as the continental U.S. If you squint, you can also spot Hawaii — and the Hawaiian Islands — the “starting point” for Scotty Mackay’s “big adventure.” Talk about getting away from it all. This had all the makings of “Where’s Waldo” on steroids.
Explain This To Me
How they ended up actually moving toward the South Pacific is a story onto itself. As usual, Neil Mackay played every angle he could imagine — until there were no cards left to play. It was Jean Sullivan who took over as matchmaker. She had a lot to work with.
Scotty’s dead mother, killed by a car bomb. Rumors of a Mafia hit, because Muriel Pfeil wouldn’t sell her very successful travel business. Then there were the courts, bent on taking rightful custody from the child’s own father. The nerve! If that wasn’t bad enough, the courts had shopped the kid from one temporary custodian to another, on the premise that Neil Mackay was an unfit father. Imagine that! Someone taking your own child away from you!
Good arguments all. Some of them true.
The agreed premise was that it was untenable to leave Scotty on Oahu, prey to the whims of both Hawaiian and Alaskan authorities. Even “escaping” to one of the other Hawaiian islands seemed destined to fail. But… Jean Sullivan knew someone who could get Scotty even farther away. Somewhere that, because it was a U.S. Trust Territory, would not require Scotty to show a passport on entry. Enter a man named Rodger Cotting. He provided entree to a remote Pacific atoll called Majuro.
No Ordinary Bureaucrat
Rodger was not just some run-of-the-mill dude, at least within the context of the Marshall Islands. He was among the elite cadre of Americans that governed the Marshall Islands District, one of six districts within the sprawling Trust Territory. In fact, Cotting was near the top of the local pecking order: In Majuro there was a District Administrator (colloquially, the Distad). An Attorney General. A Deputy Administrator. And then Rodger Cotting, Director of Budget and Finance. The money guy. The perfect candidate for the job.
For what it’s worth, the Sullivans knew Rodger by way of his father, who lived in a unit near their primary residence at the Ilikai. Because Rodger’s dad had a bit of a drinking problem — by all accounts a severe one — Jean Sullivan, eternal Good Samaritan that she was, helped rescue the senior Cotting from time to time. Handy, since Rodger’s residence in the Marshall Islands meant he couldn’t just come to Oahu at the drop of a hat.
Soon enough, Rodger Cotting was read into the plot. Was this an offer he could not refuse?
In On The Plot
According to Neil Mackay’s account, his meeting with Rodger Cotting was always part of the plan. “I came into town to meet Rodger Cotting,” he claimed. “And I was, I’d been most interested in the Micronesian Islands for some time… I was interested in what the situation was in Micronesia, because there are properties coming out of Trust at the first of the year and I was, uh…”
Let’s be clear: Mackay was, uh, not telling the complete, unvarnished truth. In a post-incident deposition, he said something substantially different:
Q. What was the purpose of his taking Scotty to Micronesia?
A. I told him [Cotting] I had some problems.
Q. Did you tell him what the problems were?
A. I told him I had had some problems. I don’t remember in any specifics as to what I went into, but I told him I did want to come over and that he agreed to take Scotty.
STOP. STOP RIGHT THERE: I’m talking to you from the future, Rodger. So it wasn’t really about “properties?” And you didn’t see any risk in dragging Scotty thousands of miles to Majuro? Or that Mackay had vaguely mentioned something about how “he had some problems?” Ordinary problems don’t usually require such extreme measures, right?
Wake up, man. Wake up. This Mackay dude has a knack for dragging people into places where they shouldn’t be.
[1] Taking Scotty from Alaska to Hawaii, though unauthorized, was both announced and pulled off in broad daylight. The Marshall Islands caper was pure subterfuge all the way.
The Book: Kill Brother, Kill Sister
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Copyright Leland E. Hale (2026)