1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:03,680 This program is about unsolved mysteries. 2 00:00:03,680 --> 00:00:06,280 Whenever possible, the actual family members and police 3 00:00:06,280 --> 00:00:09,280 officials have participated in recreating the events. 4 00:00:09,280 --> 00:00:11,880 What you are about to see is not a news broadcast. 5 00:00:16,880 --> 00:00:21,000 In 1978, 19-year-old Gus Hoffman was accosted by a motorcycle 6 00:00:21,000 --> 00:00:23,360 gang in San Jose, California. 7 00:00:23,360 --> 00:00:26,360 For 10 years, his mother has haunted gang hangouts 8 00:00:26,360 --> 00:00:32,720 in a desperate attempt to find her son or his killers. 9 00:00:32,720 --> 00:00:36,200 In 1927, two weeks before Charles Lindbergh's famous 10 00:00:36,200 --> 00:00:38,880 Atlantic crossing, a pair of intrepid French aviators 11 00:00:38,880 --> 00:00:40,640 attempted the same flight. 12 00:00:40,640 --> 00:00:42,200 Some believe they made it. 13 00:00:42,200 --> 00:00:46,200 An aviation history will have to be rewritten. 14 00:00:46,200 --> 00:00:50,080 In 1987, Patsy Wright was killed by a lethal dose of strick 15 00:00:50,080 --> 00:00:51,720 in her cold medicine. 16 00:00:51,720 --> 00:00:53,800 Police believe he was a criminal. 17 00:00:53,920 --> 00:00:57,080 In her cold medicine, police believe the murderer 18 00:00:57,080 --> 00:00:59,960 was someone close to her. 19 00:00:59,960 --> 00:01:02,600 In 1942, the oil tanker Muscogee was 20 00:01:02,600 --> 00:01:04,200 sunk by a German U-boat. 21 00:01:04,200 --> 00:01:06,040 All hands were lost. 22 00:01:06,040 --> 00:01:09,160 45 years later, the son of the Muscogee's captain 23 00:01:09,160 --> 00:01:11,320 has asked the Nazi U-boat commander 24 00:01:11,320 --> 00:01:14,240 to help locate the missing relatives of the men lost 25 00:01:14,240 --> 00:01:16,480 at sea. 26 00:01:16,480 --> 00:01:19,400 Tonight, four stories in which ordinary people 27 00:01:19,400 --> 00:01:22,560 are thrust into the most extraordinary circumstances, 28 00:01:22,600 --> 00:01:25,800 each needing one vital clue to solve a mystery. 29 00:01:25,800 --> 00:01:28,480 Perhaps someone watching tonight can help. 30 00:01:28,480 --> 00:01:29,800 Perhaps it's you. 31 00:01:59,800 --> 00:02:25,920 In 1977, Gus Hoffman was a popular 19-year-old in San Jose, 32 00:02:25,920 --> 00:02:27,240 California. 33 00:02:27,240 --> 00:02:29,520 He had a reputation as an excellent musician 34 00:02:29,560 --> 00:02:31,280 and a mechanical whiz. 35 00:02:31,280 --> 00:02:34,080 Gus was not a biker, but one of his hobbies 36 00:02:34,080 --> 00:02:36,200 was restoring vintage motorcycles, 37 00:02:36,200 --> 00:02:38,040 and he took great pride in his work. 38 00:02:41,160 --> 00:02:45,920 In October of 1977, Gus bought a 1966 Harley-Davidson 39 00:02:45,920 --> 00:02:47,200 Sportster. 40 00:02:47,200 --> 00:02:49,680 He spent eight months and $4,000 41 00:02:49,680 --> 00:02:51,960 restoring it to mint condition. 42 00:02:51,960 --> 00:02:54,160 The motorcycle became a source of conflict 43 00:02:54,160 --> 00:02:58,000 between Gus and his parents. 44 00:02:58,000 --> 00:02:59,280 We didn't like it at all. 45 00:02:59,280 --> 00:03:03,200 My husband gave him an ultimatum. 46 00:03:03,200 --> 00:03:06,640 He said, either you go or the bike. 47 00:03:06,640 --> 00:03:08,520 I said, I don't want you to leave, Gus. 48 00:03:08,520 --> 00:03:10,720 I said, you've got to do something. 49 00:03:10,720 --> 00:03:12,440 And neither does your dad want you to leave. 50 00:03:12,440 --> 00:03:15,560 So he's just afraid that something's going to happen to you. 51 00:03:15,560 --> 00:03:18,080 We don't want you to have that bike. 52 00:03:18,080 --> 00:03:20,400 He said, well, I'll just fix it up and I'll sell it. 53 00:03:20,400 --> 00:03:21,320 That's what he told us. 54 00:03:25,360 --> 00:03:29,200 On July the 4th, 1978, Gus put the finishing touches 55 00:03:29,200 --> 00:03:30,680 on his motorcycle. 56 00:03:30,680 --> 00:03:32,880 He showed it off to his brother and told him 57 00:03:32,880 --> 00:03:35,000 he was taking the bike out for a short ride. 58 00:03:39,280 --> 00:03:43,680 Gus Hoffman's family would never see him again. 59 00:03:43,680 --> 00:03:46,760 When Gus did not return, his mother Rose Hoffman 60 00:03:46,760 --> 00:03:49,600 called the police to report her son missing. 61 00:03:49,600 --> 00:03:52,720 Because they could take no action until 48 hours had passed, 62 00:03:52,720 --> 00:03:55,280 she started to investigate on her own. 63 00:03:55,280 --> 00:03:58,160 This began a 10-year quest in which Rose Hoffman never 64 00:03:58,200 --> 00:04:01,720 stopped trying to find out what had happened to her son. 65 00:04:01,720 --> 00:04:04,320 Rose has asked that an actress portray her in recreating 66 00:04:04,320 --> 00:04:06,000 these most painful moments. 67 00:04:09,520 --> 00:04:13,160 When Gus didn't return, Rose canvassed the neighborhood. 68 00:04:13,160 --> 00:04:15,000 She questioned one of Gus's friends 69 00:04:15,000 --> 00:04:16,880 who worked at a nearby gas station. 70 00:04:16,880 --> 00:04:20,480 But about two days ago, I saw him pull up on his motorcycle. 71 00:04:20,480 --> 00:04:22,640 What were these two other guys that went choppers with him? 72 00:04:23,320 --> 00:04:27,560 He said that he saw Gus riding by meridian. 73 00:04:27,560 --> 00:04:30,680 And he said there was two motorcycles in back of him 74 00:04:30,680 --> 00:04:32,400 and a blue Monte Carlo. 75 00:04:32,400 --> 00:04:34,520 And he said the reason he recognized it 76 00:04:34,520 --> 00:04:39,000 was because these same two motorcycle guys came in 77 00:04:39,000 --> 00:04:43,880 to the gas station, and they were like real mean to him. 78 00:04:43,880 --> 00:04:46,440 And so he remembered them. 79 00:04:46,440 --> 00:04:51,520 And they had real long hair, and they were just real long hair. 80 00:04:51,560 --> 00:04:54,360 And they were just real tough guys, guys 81 00:04:54,360 --> 00:04:57,680 that you don't fool around with. 82 00:04:57,680 --> 00:05:01,560 A second witness later said that the two bikers had stopped Gus, 83 00:05:01,560 --> 00:05:03,680 argued, and threatened him with chains. 84 00:05:08,400 --> 00:05:11,160 When Gus pulled away, they roared after him, 85 00:05:11,160 --> 00:05:15,160 the blue Monte Carlo in pursuit. 86 00:05:15,160 --> 00:05:17,600 The two witnesses identified one of the bikers 87 00:05:17,600 --> 00:05:21,320 as Michael Hodges, a member of the forgotten few motorcycle 88 00:05:21,320 --> 00:05:22,280 gang. 89 00:05:22,280 --> 00:05:24,920 The other was Michael Stevenson, another member 90 00:05:24,920 --> 00:05:27,080 of the same gang. 91 00:05:27,080 --> 00:05:30,400 If there was ever a person who you could say was a criminal, 92 00:05:30,400 --> 00:05:32,160 the name would be Michael Stevenson. 93 00:05:32,160 --> 00:05:33,920 He's probably the most violent person 94 00:05:33,920 --> 00:05:35,120 that I've ever investigated. 95 00:05:38,800 --> 00:05:41,160 The San Jose police did not have enough evidence 96 00:05:41,160 --> 00:05:44,320 to bring Stevenson and Hodges in for interrogation. 97 00:05:44,320 --> 00:05:46,600 So they began to question other gang members who 98 00:05:46,600 --> 00:05:47,600 knew the two men. 99 00:05:47,600 --> 00:05:48,500 Yeah. 100 00:05:48,500 --> 00:05:49,400 We're with the San Jose police. 101 00:05:49,400 --> 00:05:50,840 Got a few questions to ask him. 102 00:05:50,840 --> 00:05:51,640 All right. 103 00:05:51,640 --> 00:05:52,600 What's up? 104 00:05:52,600 --> 00:05:54,760 Yeah, do you know Gus Hoffman, buddy, Chance? 105 00:05:54,760 --> 00:05:55,840 No, I've never heard of him. 106 00:05:55,840 --> 00:05:57,880 No one was willing to talk. 107 00:05:57,880 --> 00:06:00,840 It appeared that everyone feared Michael Stevenson. 108 00:06:00,840 --> 00:06:03,960 Are you coming in now, or will then arrest me, 109 00:06:03,960 --> 00:06:05,680 or get the heck out of here? 110 00:06:05,680 --> 00:06:08,000 After they found out who they were, 111 00:06:08,000 --> 00:06:11,640 they told me, expect the worst. 112 00:06:11,640 --> 00:06:13,080 I got very angry. 113 00:06:13,080 --> 00:06:15,400 My husband got angry. 114 00:06:15,400 --> 00:06:17,160 We said, no, this can't happen. 115 00:06:18,000 --> 00:06:19,520 I just wanted to go after them after that. 116 00:06:19,520 --> 00:06:23,200 I mean, that's all I thought about was going after them. 117 00:06:28,400 --> 00:06:30,800 In order to turn up leads for the police, 118 00:06:30,800 --> 00:06:32,720 Rose and a friend named Carol Jensen 119 00:06:32,720 --> 00:06:37,800 went undercover to infiltrate motorcycle gang hangouts. 120 00:06:37,800 --> 00:06:41,280 I tried to dress like a biker person, a woman that's 121 00:06:41,280 --> 00:06:44,240 been around in the biker world. 122 00:06:44,280 --> 00:06:50,280 I had to, I wore my hair all wild and tight pants 123 00:06:50,280 --> 00:06:54,000 and tight jeans and heels and bracelets. 124 00:06:54,000 --> 00:06:58,520 And just, I tried to look tough. 125 00:06:58,520 --> 00:07:02,520 It was scary, but I don't think I was as afraid 126 00:07:02,520 --> 00:07:03,480 as I should have been. 127 00:07:03,480 --> 00:07:04,360 What about you? 128 00:07:04,360 --> 00:07:05,280 You seen this guy? 129 00:07:07,280 --> 00:07:10,080 No. 130 00:07:10,080 --> 00:07:13,080 We just let it be known that he was a biker. 131 00:07:13,080 --> 00:07:15,920 We just let it be known that I had a loaded gun. 132 00:07:15,920 --> 00:07:19,680 It was not loaded, but we let him think it was, 133 00:07:19,680 --> 00:07:22,560 and that I would use it any moment to protect Rose. 134 00:07:26,240 --> 00:07:27,960 Rose Hoffman spent hundreds of hours 135 00:07:27,960 --> 00:07:32,400 going to biker bars, different low class establishments, 136 00:07:32,400 --> 00:07:34,720 soliciting information from informants, 137 00:07:34,720 --> 00:07:37,200 buying information when necessary. 138 00:07:37,200 --> 00:07:40,720 She followed up every lead which she shared with us. 139 00:07:40,720 --> 00:07:46,440 She and her daughters, family members and friends 140 00:07:46,440 --> 00:07:48,920 covered the whole area, knocking on doors, 141 00:07:48,920 --> 00:07:52,920 talking to anybody whose name they were given. 142 00:07:57,000 --> 00:07:58,400 The witness is in the motor home. 143 00:07:58,400 --> 00:08:00,480 She doesn't want you to know who she is. 144 00:08:00,480 --> 00:08:03,680 So she doesn't want you to see face to face. 145 00:08:03,680 --> 00:08:05,520 Rose hired a private investigator 146 00:08:05,520 --> 00:08:09,120 with connections to motorcycle gangs. 147 00:08:09,120 --> 00:08:11,480 He set up a meeting with a woman who claimed 148 00:08:11,480 --> 00:08:15,640 she knew what had happened to Gus. 149 00:08:15,640 --> 00:08:19,040 I understand you have information about my son. 150 00:08:19,040 --> 00:08:20,880 Yes, I do. 151 00:08:20,880 --> 00:08:23,440 She told me that my son was dead. 152 00:08:23,440 --> 00:08:27,880 And she told me that my son was tortured. 153 00:08:27,880 --> 00:08:32,280 He was tortured for three to five days. 154 00:08:32,280 --> 00:08:40,280 And I begged her. 155 00:08:40,280 --> 00:08:46,480 I said, please tell me who did it. 156 00:08:46,480 --> 00:08:50,000 You got to talk to the police. 157 00:08:50,000 --> 00:08:51,120 You got to talk to the police. 158 00:08:51,120 --> 00:08:51,640 I begged her. 159 00:08:51,640 --> 00:08:52,680 I offered her money. 160 00:08:52,680 --> 00:08:55,480 I said, I'll give you anything you want, anything. 161 00:08:55,480 --> 00:08:57,400 Please talk to the police and tell them. 162 00:08:58,160 --> 00:09:05,360 And she, anyway, the investigator, he just said, no, 163 00:09:05,360 --> 00:09:07,000 there's no way he could let her talk. 164 00:09:07,000 --> 00:09:09,120 He said, he just wanted her to let me know what happened 165 00:09:09,120 --> 00:09:11,080 to my son. 166 00:09:11,080 --> 00:09:14,120 And I begged him too. 167 00:09:14,120 --> 00:09:15,000 And he said, I can't. 168 00:09:15,000 --> 00:09:17,240 He said, I don't want to be responsible for her death. 169 00:09:22,960 --> 00:09:25,520 Rose now felt she knew the horrible truth of what 170 00:09:25,520 --> 00:09:27,160 had happened to her son. 171 00:09:27,160 --> 00:09:32,720 But she had no hard evidence that could lead to an arrest. 172 00:09:32,720 --> 00:09:35,800 I think they enticed him. 173 00:09:35,800 --> 00:09:38,400 I think they said, well, let me see your bike. 174 00:09:38,400 --> 00:09:39,280 Let me see your bike. 175 00:09:39,280 --> 00:09:41,400 And then he was intimidated and said, well, 176 00:09:41,400 --> 00:09:44,720 because they're real rough, tough-looking guys, real tough 177 00:09:44,720 --> 00:09:45,960 guys. 178 00:09:45,960 --> 00:09:49,360 And I think he was more intimidated into everything. 179 00:09:52,840 --> 00:09:54,000 What are you guys chasing him for? 180 00:09:54,000 --> 00:09:54,800 Oh, damn. 181 00:09:54,800 --> 00:09:55,800 I wasn't chasing him. 182 00:09:55,800 --> 00:09:56,800 I wasn't chasing him. 183 00:09:57,800 --> 00:10:02,160 And I think that once that he got off his bike, that was it. 184 00:10:02,160 --> 00:10:05,440 I think they wheeled the bike into the garage 185 00:10:05,440 --> 00:10:08,200 and then walked him into the garage. 186 00:10:08,200 --> 00:10:11,600 And when that garage door went down, 187 00:10:11,600 --> 00:10:14,480 he was never seen again. 188 00:10:14,480 --> 00:10:15,760 Never seen again. 189 00:10:18,640 --> 00:10:22,200 On June the 19th, 1986, Michael Stevenson 190 00:10:22,200 --> 00:10:25,200 was killed during a failed extortion attempt. 191 00:10:25,240 --> 00:10:29,080 His death provided an unexpected break in the Hoffman case. 192 00:10:32,080 --> 00:10:34,720 With Stevenson dead, police re-question 193 00:10:34,720 --> 00:10:38,040 members of biker gangs and other possible witnesses. 194 00:10:38,040 --> 00:10:41,200 Now they talk and they name names. 195 00:10:41,200 --> 00:10:42,840 That's Michael Stevenson. 196 00:10:42,840 --> 00:10:47,000 It appears that Gus Hoffman was forced 197 00:10:47,000 --> 00:10:50,120 through intimidation to go to Mike Stevenson's residence 198 00:10:50,120 --> 00:10:51,400 in San Jose. 199 00:10:51,400 --> 00:10:55,080 Was forced through intimidation to enter the garage. 200 00:10:55,120 --> 00:10:57,240 There were certain acts of violence 201 00:10:57,240 --> 00:11:00,880 against Gus Hoffman inside the garage, which ultimately resulted 202 00:11:00,880 --> 00:11:04,000 in his death and the disappearance of his motorcycle. 203 00:11:04,000 --> 00:11:07,240 Police immediately arrested Michael Hodges, one of the man 204 00:11:07,240 --> 00:11:10,400 witnesses had linked to Gus's murder. 205 00:11:10,400 --> 00:11:12,400 Richard Daller, a friend of Hodges, 206 00:11:12,400 --> 00:11:15,000 was picked up at San Quentin, where he was already 207 00:11:15,000 --> 00:11:17,960 serving time for a parole violation. 208 00:11:17,960 --> 00:11:20,720 The third remaining suspect, John Stell, 209 00:11:20,720 --> 00:11:23,600 was finally captured in Northern California. 210 00:11:23,640 --> 00:11:25,600 He was carrying a loaded handgun. 211 00:11:28,080 --> 00:11:32,320 Tragically, no trace of Gus Hoffman has ever been found. 212 00:11:32,320 --> 00:11:35,640 Rose Hoffman wants to give her son the dignity and death 213 00:11:35,640 --> 00:11:38,360 that he was denied at the end of his life. 214 00:11:38,360 --> 00:11:41,480 She hopes one of our viewers can help. 215 00:11:41,480 --> 00:11:46,520 You can help me as if anyone knows. 216 00:11:46,520 --> 00:11:53,240 If anybody knows where my son is, please. 217 00:11:53,280 --> 00:11:55,000 I beg you. 218 00:11:55,000 --> 00:11:58,000 Please tell the police or call me. 219 00:11:58,000 --> 00:12:00,080 I want my son. 220 00:12:00,080 --> 00:12:01,640 That's the most important thing. 221 00:12:01,840 --> 00:12:06,460 What if reported? 222 00:12:06,460 --> 00:12:13,460 The End 223 00:12:26,060 --> 00:12:29,420 On a previous broadcast we brought you the story of a Los Angeles resident 224 00:12:29,420 --> 00:12:33,060 who one midnight last summer went to an automatic teller machine to make a cash 225 00:12:33,060 --> 00:12:33,820 withdrawal. 226 00:12:33,820 --> 00:12:39,660 He never returned home. 227 00:12:39,660 --> 00:12:45,780 On June 8th, 1988, 22 year old Matthew Chase left his house and drove to his bank a few blocks away. 228 00:12:45,780 --> 00:12:52,780 That night, a hidden camera took these photographs of an unknown man standing next to Matthew 229 00:12:52,780 --> 00:12:55,060 as he used the automatic teller machine. 230 00:12:55,060 --> 00:12:58,340 The person standing next to Matt was 231 00:12:58,340 --> 00:13:03,140 somewhat shorter, somewhat stockier, and overall he shouldn't have been 232 00:13:03,140 --> 00:13:07,500 in the photograph. No one is going to let someone stand that close to him 233 00:13:07,500 --> 00:13:11,020 while they're using an ATM machine where they can see the pin number. 234 00:13:11,020 --> 00:13:15,700 Police believe that Matthew was abducted in a robbery attempt 235 00:13:15,700 --> 00:13:18,860 and that this mysterious figure was his kidnapper. 236 00:13:18,860 --> 00:13:23,340 Today I sense that he's still alive 237 00:13:23,340 --> 00:13:28,300 and that has kept us going and we'll never 238 00:13:28,300 --> 00:13:31,540 stop looking for him until we find him and I know we'll find him. 239 00:13:32,420 --> 00:13:38,340 Over the next few months, Matthew's friends and family scoured Los Angeles, 240 00:13:38,340 --> 00:13:39,860 searching for the missing youth. 241 00:13:39,860 --> 00:13:43,500 They turned up nothing. 242 00:13:43,500 --> 00:13:47,500 Los Angeles can be a dangerous place at night. 243 00:13:47,500 --> 00:13:50,820 We saw a lot of things that were very frightening, I think, 244 00:13:50,820 --> 00:13:55,020 and that only made it more real to us that 245 00:13:55,020 --> 00:13:58,380 that something perhaps 246 00:13:58,460 --> 00:14:02,340 very serious had happened to Matt. 247 00:14:02,340 --> 00:14:06,460 On March 29th, one chapter of this mysterious case came to a close 248 00:14:06,460 --> 00:14:09,940 when the Los Angeles coroner's office positively identified the body 249 00:14:09,940 --> 00:14:13,940 of Matthew Chase. 250 00:14:13,940 --> 00:14:17,340 His remains were discovered in a ravine in nearby Pasadena 251 00:14:17,340 --> 00:14:22,820 on September the 17th of last year, three months after he disappeared. 252 00:14:22,820 --> 00:14:28,020 Identification was delayed by the difficulty in tracking down dental records. 253 00:14:28,060 --> 00:14:31,380 The cause of death was a gunshot wound. 254 00:14:31,380 --> 00:14:35,900 We had estimated that he had been down in this canyon area 255 00:14:35,900 --> 00:14:40,500 since the last week in June of last year to 256 00:14:40,500 --> 00:14:43,700 September when he was located. 257 00:14:43,700 --> 00:14:48,940 This case is being handled as a robbery, homicide at this point. 258 00:14:48,940 --> 00:14:52,420 The man in the bank photograph is wanted 259 00:14:52,420 --> 00:14:56,100 for questioning and the disappearance and death of 260 00:14:56,140 --> 00:14:59,380 Matthew Chase. 261 00:14:59,380 --> 00:15:02,620 This is an artist's rendering of the prime suspect in this case 262 00:15:02,620 --> 00:15:07,460 based on computer enhancements of the bank photographs. 263 00:15:07,460 --> 00:15:10,620 Matthew's car was also stolen and later abandoned. 264 00:15:10,620 --> 00:15:14,860 The killer may have been seen driving this car in early June. 265 00:15:14,860 --> 00:15:19,100 It was a red two-door 1983 Volkswagen GTI. 266 00:15:19,100 --> 00:15:23,380 When this car was recovered, a blue bandana was found inside. 267 00:15:23,460 --> 00:15:27,540 It is thought the bandana may have belonged to the killer. 268 00:15:27,540 --> 00:15:33,220 I do hope to find his killer and I think that we need to see this through 269 00:15:33,220 --> 00:15:37,220 and we will see it through and this person must be brought to justice. 270 00:15:54,220 --> 00:15:59,220 On May 21, 1927, Charles Lindberg electrified the world 271 00:15:59,220 --> 00:16:04,220 by being the first to fly nonstop across the Atlantic from New York to Paris. 272 00:16:04,220 --> 00:16:10,220 All together, shout it now, there's no time. 273 00:16:10,220 --> 00:16:14,220 When he returned home, he received a hero's welcome. 274 00:16:15,060 --> 00:16:21,060 Ten days earlier, two French pilots, Charles Nungasser and Francois Collier, 275 00:16:21,060 --> 00:16:26,060 were preparing to beat Lindbergh across the Atlantic in their plain lois au blanc, 276 00:16:26,060 --> 00:16:29,060 the white bird. 277 00:16:29,060 --> 00:16:33,060 Their plan was to take off from an airfield near Paris 278 00:16:33,060 --> 00:16:38,060 and land their watertight land on the coast of Paris. 279 00:16:38,060 --> 00:16:43,060 The French pilot, Charles Nungasser and Francois Collier, 280 00:16:43,060 --> 00:16:48,060 land their watertight plane in the New York harbor at the base of the Statue of Liberty. 281 00:16:48,060 --> 00:16:53,060 Nungasser was France's most decorated World War I pilot. 282 00:16:53,060 --> 00:16:59,060 Collier was the first man to fly nonstop across the Mediterranean. 283 00:16:59,060 --> 00:17:04,060 He had promised his wife that this would be his last adventure. 284 00:17:04,060 --> 00:17:09,060 As fate would have it, he kept his promise. 285 00:17:10,060 --> 00:17:15,060 The white bird was last seen by escort planes as it crossed the coast of France 286 00:17:15,060 --> 00:17:20,060 and headed out over the vast reaches of the Atlantic. 287 00:17:20,060 --> 00:17:23,060 It was never seen again. 288 00:17:23,060 --> 00:17:28,060 Most experts assumed the plane simply crashed at sea. 289 00:17:31,060 --> 00:17:36,060 Nearly 50 years later, in 1971, Jim Reid, a local hunter, 290 00:17:36,060 --> 00:17:41,060 was deep in the remote woods of Maine when he came across a strange, moss-covered mound. 291 00:17:41,060 --> 00:17:46,060 I saw something that just didn't look right. I thought it was a boulder at first. 292 00:17:46,060 --> 00:17:52,060 And shortly thereafter, I went up and I probed around and it was an engine, an aircraft engine. 293 00:17:52,060 --> 00:17:58,060 I was a mechanic and was definitely not a diesel engine or an automobile engine. 294 00:17:58,060 --> 00:18:04,060 The cooling elements, the way it was built, it indicated to me it was an aircraft engine. 295 00:18:05,060 --> 00:18:12,060 Jim Reid was never able to relocate the engine, although he made several attempts to retrace his steps through the dense woods. 296 00:18:12,060 --> 00:18:16,060 Could it have been the last remains of the white bird 297 00:18:16,060 --> 00:18:22,060 and proof that the French pilots actually crossed the Atlantic two weeks before Lindberg? 298 00:18:23,060 --> 00:18:27,060 It's very much like trying to assemble a jigsaw puzzle. 299 00:18:27,060 --> 00:18:33,060 In little bit by little bit, the pieces come together and make a picture of the white bird. 300 00:18:33,060 --> 00:18:40,060 And we have enough of a picture now to convince us that we're on to the trail. 301 00:18:40,060 --> 00:18:43,060 Rick Gillespie and his wife Pat Thrasher are aircraft archeologists 302 00:18:43,060 --> 00:18:46,060 who've been searching for the white bird for over four years. 303 00:18:46,060 --> 00:18:52,060 They're so convinced the plane crashed in Maine, they've given up their jobs to devote their lives to search for the missing plane. 304 00:18:52,060 --> 00:19:00,060 After 50 years, most of the aircraft made of wooden fabric will have totally disintegrated, but they feel they are close. 305 00:19:01,060 --> 00:19:10,060 Using a helicopter equipped with an infrared scanner, the investigators surveyed the area near Machias, Maine, where the engine had been sighted. 306 00:19:10,060 --> 00:19:17,060 They were hoping to find traces of metal that would indicate where the white bird had crashed. 307 00:19:17,060 --> 00:19:23,060 From the very beginning of this project, we felt that technology would be the answer. 308 00:19:23,060 --> 00:19:28,060 And we have driven ourselves nuts trying to find that technology. 309 00:19:28,060 --> 00:19:33,060 And time and time again, what has worked is people. 310 00:19:33,060 --> 00:19:37,060 People have succeeded. People have led us closer. 311 00:19:39,060 --> 00:19:48,060 Rick and Pat concentrated their investigation on longtime Maine residents who might have seen or heard the white bird 50 years ago. 312 00:19:49,060 --> 00:19:54,060 They visited a retired blueberry farmer who had lived in the area for 77 years. 313 00:19:54,060 --> 00:19:59,060 I was outside and all of a sudden this plane was overhead. 314 00:19:59,060 --> 00:20:01,060 You heard the aircraft? 315 00:20:01,060 --> 00:20:02,060 I heard the airplane. 316 00:20:02,060 --> 00:20:08,060 Harold Vining is the last person still alive who claims to have heard the white bird on its final flight. 317 00:20:08,060 --> 00:20:14,060 At that time, we was all keyed up, listening for Lindbergh. 318 00:20:15,060 --> 00:20:22,060 Due to the fact that this plane was traveling in the wrong direction, it couldn't have been Lindbergh. 319 00:20:25,060 --> 00:20:31,060 I was out chopping wood when I heard this plane go over. 320 00:20:31,060 --> 00:20:37,060 I honestly believe that that's the first plane that I ever heard in my life. 321 00:20:37,060 --> 00:20:42,060 That's why this so outstanding in my mind. 322 00:20:42,060 --> 00:20:51,060 Not knowing that it was these French people who try and make history, I just had no time to do it. 323 00:20:54,060 --> 00:21:03,060 Three miles from Harold Vining's home, a young couple, Everett and Abigail Scott, heard a plane and stopped their car to listen. 324 00:21:07,060 --> 00:21:16,060 Two miles away, Mary Gould was in her kitchen when she too heard the sound of a plane. 325 00:21:16,060 --> 00:21:20,060 It was real foggy for several days. 326 00:21:20,060 --> 00:21:22,060 I remember the day well. 327 00:21:22,060 --> 00:21:29,060 Maurice Berry's cousin, Hanson Berry, was fishing when he too heard a plane fly over. 328 00:21:29,060 --> 00:21:32,060 Then heard its engine stop. 329 00:21:37,060 --> 00:21:42,060 Hanson said that he heard a ripping rain. 330 00:21:42,060 --> 00:21:45,060 I believe the man, I believe what he said. 331 00:21:45,060 --> 00:21:54,060 And I fully believe that that airplane is down there somewhere. 332 00:21:54,060 --> 00:21:57,060 You just haven't stumbled onto it. 333 00:22:00,060 --> 00:22:05,060 The team searched one possible crash site near where the old timers heard the plane. 334 00:22:05,060 --> 00:22:08,060 There they discovered an unusual piece of wood. 335 00:22:08,060 --> 00:22:10,060 Hey, Pat! 336 00:22:10,060 --> 00:22:19,060 It turns out to be a single stalk of something that has been run through a roller, man-fashioned. 337 00:22:19,060 --> 00:22:26,060 The kind of generic material that would have been used for any kind of a padding purpose. 338 00:22:26,060 --> 00:22:32,060 But not in Maine, because it's not from Maine and it's not even apparently from North America. 339 00:22:32,060 --> 00:22:36,060 Eventually they found 23 more fragments of the same strip. 340 00:22:36,060 --> 00:22:43,060 Together they formed a length of two meters, the exact width of the white bird's wing. 341 00:22:43,060 --> 00:22:48,060 We will continue on the project as long as it seems reasonable to do it. 342 00:22:48,060 --> 00:22:53,060 What has kept us going in the past has been the new information keeps coming out, 343 00:22:53,060 --> 00:22:56,060 the corroborates, what's come before. 344 00:22:56,060 --> 00:23:01,060 And there's very much a feeling of getting closer and closer and closer. 345 00:23:03,060 --> 00:23:06,060 Watch the ground, watch your lines. 346 00:23:06,060 --> 00:23:12,060 Rick believes that there still may be a hunter who has spent time in the desolate woods near Mishias, Maine, 347 00:23:12,060 --> 00:23:16,060 and who has seen some clue to the fate of the white bird. 348 00:23:16,060 --> 00:23:20,060 They intend to search until the ill-fated French plane is found. 349 00:23:20,060 --> 00:23:27,060 Only then will Nungasser and Coley be awarded their rightful place in the annals of aviation history. 350 00:23:32,060 --> 00:23:43,060 Music 351 00:23:43,060 --> 00:23:47,060 October 1987, Arlington, Texas. 352 00:23:47,060 --> 00:23:54,060 The friends and family of 43-year-old Patsy Bolton Wright mourned her tragic and unexpected death. 353 00:23:54,060 --> 00:24:00,060 She had died suddenly at three in the morning in her own bedroom, and no one knew why. 354 00:24:02,060 --> 00:24:09,060 You would never ever expect that to happen, because, you know, I mean, she was, she was so alive, she was so healthy. 355 00:24:09,060 --> 00:24:14,060 There was nothing wrong with her, and when it happened, you're just in awe, 356 00:24:14,060 --> 00:24:18,060 because you would never ever have expected that to happen to her. 357 00:24:18,060 --> 00:24:23,060 There's not a day that goes by that we can even believe that this has happened. 358 00:24:23,060 --> 00:24:28,060 We can all, you know, still see Patsy coming into the room smiling, and we can hear her laugh, 359 00:24:28,060 --> 00:24:33,060 and, you know, it just doesn't seem real at all. 360 00:24:33,060 --> 00:24:38,060 Eight days after Patsy's memorial service, a routine autopsy was performed. 361 00:24:38,060 --> 00:24:45,060 A mass spectrometer checked for 56,000 different foreign substances in Patsy's blood samples. 362 00:24:45,060 --> 00:24:51,060 Suddenly, the machine showed a violent, positive reaction. 363 00:24:51,060 --> 00:24:55,060 The lab technician immediately requested identification. 364 00:24:55,060 --> 00:24:58,060 Within seconds, the chilling answer came back. 365 00:24:58,060 --> 00:25:01,060 Strick Nine. 366 00:25:01,060 --> 00:25:07,060 Because of its horrible side effects, Strick Nine poisoning is considered an unusually cruel way to die. 367 00:25:07,060 --> 00:25:10,060 Death by Strick Nine is also very rare. 368 00:25:10,060 --> 00:25:19,060 According to a leading toxicologist, since 1950, there's only been one confirmed case of homicide by Strick Nine poisoning in the entire United States. 369 00:25:19,060 --> 00:25:23,060 In the death of Patsy Wright, the Texas authorities faced a puzzling question. 370 00:25:23,060 --> 00:25:27,060 How had this virulent poison entered Patsy's bloodstream? 371 00:25:30,060 --> 00:25:36,060 3 a.m., the morning of Patsy's death, Steve and Sally Horning were awakened by a frantic phone call. 372 00:25:36,060 --> 00:25:39,060 Oh, I need to talk to Sally. 373 00:25:39,060 --> 00:25:41,060 Patsy, what's the matter? 374 00:25:41,060 --> 00:25:43,060 I can't breathe. 375 00:25:43,060 --> 00:25:45,060 The caller was Sally's sister, Patsy Wright. 376 00:25:45,060 --> 00:25:47,060 Hello, Patsy? 377 00:25:47,060 --> 00:25:49,060 Oh, something's really wrong. 378 00:25:49,060 --> 00:25:51,060 What's the matter? What is it? 379 00:25:51,060 --> 00:25:55,060 Patsy? Patsy? 380 00:25:57,060 --> 00:26:02,060 We got to the house and parked in the driveway and went up to the front door. 381 00:26:02,060 --> 00:26:06,060 And of course, the door was locked and we couldn't get in. 382 00:26:06,060 --> 00:26:08,060 Patsy, she's right over there. 383 00:26:08,060 --> 00:26:11,060 Patsy, open up. It's Sally. 384 00:26:11,060 --> 00:26:18,060 I went around to the side. The window was open just, I suppose, for getting fresh air in there. 385 00:26:18,060 --> 00:26:23,060 Opened it up, jumped through the window, came through and I saw Patsy on the bed. 386 00:26:27,060 --> 00:26:28,060 Jim Patsy! 387 00:26:28,060 --> 00:26:31,060 When we got in, she was in the bedroom. 388 00:26:31,060 --> 00:26:33,060 She just looked like she had kind of fainted. 389 00:26:33,060 --> 00:26:35,060 So I thought, that's what had happened. 390 00:26:35,060 --> 00:26:38,060 And so we tried to get her up. 391 00:26:38,060 --> 00:26:40,060 And that didn't work. 392 00:26:40,060 --> 00:26:42,060 All right, we need an ambulance. 393 00:26:42,060 --> 00:26:45,060 Three out of one, seven, home of Good Arlington immediately. 394 00:26:45,060 --> 00:26:48,060 My sister's not breathing. 395 00:26:48,060 --> 00:26:53,060 I worked on both her heart and mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. 396 00:26:53,060 --> 00:26:58,060 During that, a lot of green fluid came up from her. 397 00:26:58,060 --> 00:27:04,060 And I would continually spit that out onto the bed or there was a towel there, as I remember. 398 00:27:04,060 --> 00:27:07,060 Sometime after that, the medics came. 399 00:27:07,060 --> 00:27:09,060 Was it the last time they'll talk to her? 400 00:27:09,060 --> 00:27:12,060 About three o'clock this morning, they should just stop talking to us. 401 00:27:12,060 --> 00:27:15,060 We think the phone dropped and we rushed over here as quick as we could. 402 00:27:15,060 --> 00:27:16,060 This is the way y'all found us? 403 00:27:16,060 --> 00:27:17,060 Yes. 404 00:27:17,060 --> 00:27:23,060 We at first thought that she was responding because I could see the monitor going up and down. 405 00:27:23,060 --> 00:27:27,060 But it was every time they were pushing on her chest that that's what it was. 406 00:27:27,060 --> 00:27:29,060 Coming down. 407 00:27:29,060 --> 00:27:31,060 Down. 408 00:27:31,060 --> 00:27:33,060 Coming down. 409 00:27:33,060 --> 00:27:40,060 I wrote to the hospital in the ambulance with her. 410 00:27:40,060 --> 00:27:43,060 And they said that they were not able to save her. 411 00:27:43,060 --> 00:27:46,060 And they said they had done everything they could do. 412 00:27:46,060 --> 00:27:49,060 And there just wasn't anything they could do. 413 00:27:49,060 --> 00:27:55,060 Neither Sally nor the police had any reason to suspect foul play. 414 00:27:55,060 --> 00:27:59,060 But in her phone call, Patsy had mentioned taking cold medicine. 415 00:27:59,060 --> 00:28:03,060 So police collected the bottle for possible analysis. 416 00:28:03,060 --> 00:28:07,060 Patsy's cold medicine contained huge amounts of strict 9. 417 00:28:07,060 --> 00:28:11,060 The FBI ruled out product tampering. 418 00:28:11,060 --> 00:28:17,060 Patsy's right seemed to have everything to live for. 419 00:28:17,060 --> 00:28:23,060 She had two children, a son Wayne and a daughter Leslie, to whom she was very close. 420 00:28:23,060 --> 00:28:26,060 Patsy and her sister Sally were successful business winners. 421 00:28:26,060 --> 00:28:30,060 They owned two wax museums worth over $6 million. 422 00:28:30,060 --> 00:28:34,060 Also Patsy had just bought three prize quarter horses. 423 00:28:34,060 --> 00:28:37,060 And she planned to train them herself. 424 00:28:37,060 --> 00:28:42,060 In my professional opinion, it's highly unlikely that Patsy committed suicide 425 00:28:42,060 --> 00:28:46,060 or was a high risk for suicide. 426 00:28:46,060 --> 00:28:51,060 Sergeant Jay Gustafson of the Arlington, Texas police began to investigate Patsy's death 427 00:28:51,060 --> 00:28:53,060 as a murder of a woman. 428 00:28:53,060 --> 00:29:00,060 He had two clues which made him think that the murder was probably someone Patsy knew very well. 429 00:29:00,060 --> 00:29:06,060 First, Patsy's burglar alarm had not been set on the night she died. 430 00:29:06,060 --> 00:29:12,060 Secondly, only those close to Patsy knew it was her habit to take nighttime gold medicine 431 00:29:12,060 --> 00:29:14,060 when she had trouble sleeping. 432 00:29:14,060 --> 00:29:21,060 I can pretty much say that this case involved someone that knew Patsy had been killed. 433 00:29:21,060 --> 00:29:25,060 That knew Patsy knew her habits. 434 00:29:25,060 --> 00:29:29,060 And then I have to put together motive and opportunity. 435 00:29:29,060 --> 00:29:36,060 The first people Sergeant Gustafson questioned were Patsy's sister and brother-in-law Sally and Steve Horning. 436 00:29:36,060 --> 00:29:40,060 They started asking a lot of questions of all of us. 437 00:29:40,060 --> 00:29:46,060 And I guess we came to the realization that we were all pretty much suspects. 438 00:29:46,060 --> 00:29:50,060 And they had to ask us some questions that were not very comfortable. 439 00:29:50,060 --> 00:29:55,060 And I don't ever want to go through that again. 440 00:29:55,060 --> 00:29:57,060 The sergeant looked for a motive. 441 00:29:57,060 --> 00:30:02,060 Patsy's wealth came from the two wax museums she owned with her sister. 442 00:30:02,060 --> 00:30:04,060 Hey, y'all come here. 443 00:30:04,060 --> 00:30:06,060 Whoa! 444 00:30:06,060 --> 00:30:12,060 Not only were the museum's tourist attractions, they were also centers of social life in the respective towns. 445 00:30:12,060 --> 00:30:18,060 When Patsy died, the museums were inherited by Steve and Sally Horning. 446 00:30:18,060 --> 00:30:26,060 We as family members were being asked questions that you never even think you're ever going to be asked. 447 00:30:26,060 --> 00:30:30,060 So, surprise and hurt. 448 00:30:30,060 --> 00:30:36,060 And yet knowing that questions like these have to be asked. 449 00:30:36,060 --> 00:30:40,060 Did you put that strychnine in Patsy's cold medicine? 450 00:30:40,060 --> 00:30:41,060 No. 451 00:30:41,060 --> 00:30:46,060 The authorities also speculated that if Steve Horning had poisoned Patsy, 452 00:30:46,060 --> 00:30:49,060 he would not have performed mouth-to-mouth resuscitation on her, 453 00:30:49,060 --> 00:30:53,060 taking potentially deadly liquid into his own mouth. 454 00:30:53,060 --> 00:30:59,060 Steve and Sally, along with other family members, voluntarily took polygraph tests. 455 00:30:59,060 --> 00:31:02,060 All of them passed. 456 00:31:02,060 --> 00:31:07,060 Police also gave Patsy's former boyfriend Leo Fikes a polygraph test. 457 00:31:07,060 --> 00:31:15,060 He was one of the ones that would have been close enough to her to have known about her taking the liquid cold medicine on occasion. 458 00:31:15,060 --> 00:31:24,060 He was very much in love with Patsy, but for reasons from Patsy herself, she did not want to get remarried. 459 00:31:24,060 --> 00:31:28,060 Do you know for sure who caused Patsy to be poisoned? 460 00:31:28,060 --> 00:31:29,060 No. 461 00:31:29,060 --> 00:31:35,060 I had no fear of any questions. I had no fear of a polygraph test. 462 00:31:36,060 --> 00:31:43,060 In realizing that I was a suspect, I think the most difficult part of it for me was that Patsy had rejected me, 463 00:31:43,060 --> 00:31:49,060 and we had not been real close for seven or eight months prior to that. 464 00:31:49,060 --> 00:31:59,060 I'd seen her, been out with her two or three times, but there was a certain tenseness when we were together. 465 00:31:59,060 --> 00:32:03,060 Leo Fikes passed his polygraph test. 466 00:32:03,060 --> 00:32:08,060 Patsy's ex-husband, Robert Cox, was another person questioned by the police. 467 00:32:08,060 --> 00:32:15,060 Patsy had obtained a restraining order against Cox during their separation because she claimed he was harassing her. 468 00:32:15,060 --> 00:32:26,060 I had some people give me statements that Patsy had some fears of her ex-husband, Bob Cox. 469 00:32:26,060 --> 00:32:35,060 I understand that there are times that Patsy believed that Bob Cox had driven by or parked close to her house. 470 00:32:41,060 --> 00:32:49,060 We knew that Patsy was going to be testifying against her second husband in an upcoming civil suit about an arson fire. 471 00:32:49,060 --> 00:32:57,060 And we knew that he had called her on a number of occasions and asked her to change this or that story, 472 00:32:57,060 --> 00:33:00,060 and she had told him that she was going to tell the truth. 473 00:33:00,060 --> 00:33:14,060 He was offered a polygraph test, the same as several others that I had interviewed and taken statements from, and he refused to take a polygraph test. 474 00:33:15,060 --> 00:33:24,060 Robert Cox maintains his innocence, as does Leo Fikes, and there is evidence to suggest that neither of them is guilty. 475 00:33:24,060 --> 00:33:30,060 Next to Patsy's bed on the night she died were two empty dinner plates on a tray. 476 00:33:30,060 --> 00:33:36,060 It seems highly unlikely that Patsy would have spent an intimate evening with either Robert Cox or Leo Fikes. 477 00:33:36,060 --> 00:33:43,060 Could there have been an unknown visitor that night, intimate enough to know Patsy's personal habits 478 00:33:43,060 --> 00:33:46,060 and to share a late night dinner with her? 479 00:33:50,060 --> 00:33:56,060 The day after Patsy died, her daughter Leslie received a strange phone call. 480 00:33:56,060 --> 00:33:59,060 No, she's not right now. I'm going to take a message. 481 00:33:59,060 --> 00:34:03,060 I said, hello, and this person asked for my mother, and I said, well, she's not here right now. 482 00:34:03,060 --> 00:34:09,060 You know, can I take a message? And this person persisted in wanting to talk with her. 483 00:34:10,060 --> 00:34:13,060 Well, she passed away yesterday. 484 00:34:13,060 --> 00:34:19,060 She said something to the effect that, well, good, I wanted her dead or something like that. 485 00:34:19,060 --> 00:34:25,060 I don't know if it was a prank phone call, if it meant something, maybe somebody wanted to find out if she had died 486 00:34:25,060 --> 00:34:33,060 by taking the cold medicine with a poison in it. You know, it could be totally unrelated. It could be related, I don't know. 487 00:34:34,060 --> 00:34:42,060 The authorities are still convinced that the murderer is someone who knew Patsy well. 488 00:34:45,060 --> 00:34:50,060 It's frightening because we do know that somebody knew her very well and knew her habits 489 00:34:50,060 --> 00:34:56,060 and was close enough to her to know how to get in and to use that cold medicine. 490 00:34:56,060 --> 00:35:02,060 So it is very frightening, and we are afraid that we do know the person pretty well. 491 00:35:02,060 --> 00:35:10,060 It's a hard thing for, I guess, my brother and I just from the point that this person knew her very well, 492 00:35:10,060 --> 00:35:18,060 and we obviously have to know them just because we are such a big part of my mother's life that we knew most of the people that she didn't know. 493 00:35:18,060 --> 00:35:24,060 And it's hard just because you don't really know who to trust anymore. 494 00:35:24,060 --> 00:35:40,060 This is not unlike someone who wanted to set a trap out in the woods to trap something illegal. 495 00:35:40,060 --> 00:35:48,060 He knows what path the animal goes down. He knows if he sets a trap and walks away from it that he can be alone, 496 00:35:48,060 --> 00:35:54,060 he can be in a crowd of people when the trap goes off. 497 00:35:58,060 --> 00:36:05,060 What we've got is Patsy home, alone. She decided to take medication that night, 498 00:36:05,060 --> 00:36:11,060 and that medication was like a trap. It was laced with strict non-poison. 499 00:36:19,060 --> 00:36:26,060 In a moment the story of an American oil tank with a Nazi submarine that sunk over 45 years later, 500 00:36:26,060 --> 00:36:29,060 the real story can finally be told. 501 00:36:37,060 --> 00:36:40,060 December 7th, 1941. 502 00:36:41,060 --> 00:36:49,060 On that day of infamy, the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, and the United States was thrust into World War II. 503 00:36:49,060 --> 00:36:53,060 In the Pacific, the Japanese claimed victory after victory, 504 00:36:53,060 --> 00:36:59,060 but in the Atlantic, the German Navy threatened the sea lanes in America's backyard. 505 00:36:59,060 --> 00:37:06,060 The German submarines, known as U-boats, even infiltrated the waters of New York Harbor and Chesapeake Bay. 506 00:37:11,060 --> 00:37:17,060 In 1941, 39-year-old William Betts, a father of two boys, was captain of the Muskogee, 507 00:37:17,060 --> 00:37:22,060 a tanker that transported crude oil up and down the Atlantic coast. 508 00:37:22,060 --> 00:37:29,060 The oil was vital to the burgeoning war effort, because Betts had no time to go home to his family. 509 00:37:29,060 --> 00:37:32,060 Ellen, his wife, would go to him. 510 00:37:32,060 --> 00:37:40,060 On February 2nd, 1942, two months after Pearl Harbor, the Muskogee was preparing to leave its home port. 511 00:37:40,060 --> 00:37:44,060 William and Ellen exchanged what would be their final farewells. 512 00:37:47,060 --> 00:37:52,060 Ellen returned home to her sons and waited for word of her husband. 513 00:37:52,060 --> 00:37:54,060 Are you Mrs. Betts? 514 00:37:56,060 --> 00:37:59,060 I have a telegram for Mrs. William Betts. 515 00:38:03,060 --> 00:38:14,060 I received a telegram from the company saying that the ship was probably lost on its way north. 516 00:38:16,060 --> 00:38:21,060 And that is all they said. They didn't know anything. 517 00:38:23,060 --> 00:38:28,060 Ellen had no idea what happened to her husband, the father of her two boys. 518 00:38:29,060 --> 00:38:37,060 One year later, the older son, George, was drafted into the military, but he remained haunted by his father's unknown fate. 519 00:38:37,060 --> 00:38:40,060 For 13 years, it was no clue. 520 00:38:40,060 --> 00:38:49,060 Then in 1955, in a strange coincidence, a friend at work showed him a book about German submarines called the Sea Wolves. 521 00:38:49,060 --> 00:38:53,060 And George had his first clue as to what happened to his father. 522 00:38:54,060 --> 00:39:06,060 It told of how this submarine, the U-123, as soon as they arrived in their battle zone, why they came upon the tanker Muskogee, and sunk it. 523 00:39:06,060 --> 00:39:17,060 After I got done work that day, I hopped in my car and rode north to my mother's home, to see if I could find out if that's where the Muskogee had come from, was Wilmington. 524 00:39:17,060 --> 00:39:23,060 And she said yes. I said, well, then I've just found out what happened to that ship, when it went down. 525 00:39:33,060 --> 00:39:39,060 The Muskogee was just one of 413 ships sunk by German U-boats in 1942. 526 00:39:40,060 --> 00:39:47,060 29,000 merchant sailors lost their lives, among them the 34 missing mariners of the SS Muskogee. 527 00:39:50,060 --> 00:39:58,060 These are photographs taken from the deck of the German submarine, the U-123, only minutes after it torpedoed the Muskogee. 528 00:39:58,060 --> 00:40:08,060 They were taken by a German war correspondent and show seven survivors from William Betts' ship. All seven would perish at sea. 529 00:40:09,060 --> 00:40:15,060 These photographs took George Betts an important step closer to uncovering the complete story of his father's death. 530 00:40:15,060 --> 00:40:23,060 As George learned more about the last moments of the Muskogee, he began to develop a bond with this merchant marine captain he never really knew. 531 00:40:23,060 --> 00:40:28,060 By learning about his father's death, he was establishing a closeness they never shared in life. 532 00:40:29,060 --> 00:40:33,060 Well, it was fascinating to see the pictures at last. 533 00:40:33,060 --> 00:40:43,060 And it made me feel closer to my dad's demise when I saw the pictures here in the book. 534 00:40:43,060 --> 00:40:55,060 I naturally looked to see if I could recognize my father on the raft, but I didn't seem there and I could quite understand it because the basic rules of CR 535 00:40:55,060 --> 00:41:00,060 are that the captain sees that all able-bodied men are off the vessel before he leaves it. 536 00:41:00,060 --> 00:41:05,060 So therefore I felt it was a safe assumption that my dad went down with his ship. 537 00:41:08,060 --> 00:41:20,060 In 1979, George contacted the National Archives in Washington, D.C. and obtained a microfilm copy of German war records, including the captain's log of the U-123. 538 00:41:21,060 --> 00:41:32,060 Of course it was in German, but I could see the American name of the Muskogee ship sunk and I could read some of the fact that the ship was being fired on. 539 00:41:32,060 --> 00:41:44,060 Then I could see where the Muskogee was on that plotting chart and it would show the day and he even had it marked on there like SS Muskogee gesunken, meaning they sunk the ship. 540 00:41:45,060 --> 00:41:59,060 Captain Reinhardt Hartigan commanded the U-123 through most of the war. He sunk 23 Allied ships totaling 200,000 tons and was personally congratulated by Adolf Hitler. 541 00:42:01,060 --> 00:42:07,060 Only one out of ten U-boat personnel survived the war. Reinhardt Hartigan was among them. 542 00:42:08,060 --> 00:42:18,060 After the war he was elected to the West German Parliament and served 32 years. George began writing to Hartigan and they agreed to meet in Canada. 543 00:42:20,060 --> 00:42:28,060 I was all for it. A long last thought, I'm now going to talk to this man. I had no animosity toward him. That's the way I felt. 544 00:42:28,060 --> 00:42:35,060 I felt here's one World War II veteran that was on one side and one World War II veteran that was on the other side. 545 00:42:36,060 --> 00:42:40,060 And in our cases we were two of the lucky ones that survived the battles. 546 00:42:42,060 --> 00:42:51,060 In October of 1987 the two met. Reinhardt Hartigan gave George a chilling eyewitness report of the last moments of the Muskogee. 547 00:42:52,060 --> 00:43:05,060 In the morning of the 22nd of March in 1942 I saw steam and some mast and then I tried to get in front of the course of the ship. 548 00:43:05,060 --> 00:43:14,060 The ship was zig-zagging a little bit of nearly 15 degrees to every side. After nearly two hours I was in a good position and then I dived. 549 00:43:15,060 --> 00:43:28,060 And then I shot a torpedo with my stern tube. This torpedo hit in the engine room of the tanker. 550 00:43:29,060 --> 00:43:36,060 Therefore the tanker didn't burn and she sank very quick and it was all over. 551 00:43:36,060 --> 00:43:46,060 And it was too short for the crew to take lifeboats in the water and therefore there were only two rafts. 552 00:43:46,060 --> 00:43:53,060 I gave the crew on the rafts foot and water cigarettes and told them their position. 553 00:43:53,060 --> 00:44:03,060 I thought the next day the ship will find their rafts and so it was very sad information for me to learn from George Betts that no one of the crew was rescued. 554 00:44:07,060 --> 00:44:13,060 Now that George knew the truth about the Muskogee he was determined to let the families of the other crew members share in his knowledge. 555 00:44:14,060 --> 00:44:29,060 He managed to contact eight families. In September of 1988 he drove over 200 miles to meet with the family of Clifford Chesley, the radio man of the Muskogee. Clifford was 26 when he perished at sea. 556 00:44:31,060 --> 00:44:37,060 Now there's a picture of the ship going down from the deck, the bridge of the... 557 00:44:37,060 --> 00:44:48,060 The Chesley family had no idea what had happened to Clifford. Thanks to George for the first time the Chesleys learned the fate of their loved one 46 years earlier. 558 00:44:49,060 --> 00:44:56,060 We just assumed that it was either a storm or something that the ship was missing. 559 00:44:56,060 --> 00:45:09,060 Up till now we didn't even know actually if it went down. I mean there were so many prisoners of war and MIAs now could have happened the same thing back then. 560 00:45:10,060 --> 00:45:23,060 One day I almost thought I saw him walking across the street. You know they say everyone has a double but I almost ran over and I just was wondering you know where he could be. 561 00:45:23,060 --> 00:45:38,060 Now that I know it definitely was the sinking of the boat and he's gone out. Definitely will leave my mind to say you know my oldest brother and that's how he's gone. 562 00:45:39,060 --> 00:45:46,060 It's just a little more peace than finally knowing what really did happen. 563 00:45:46,060 --> 00:46:01,060 Of the seven men in this photograph, three have been identified. They are third mate Nathaniel Foster, chief mate Morgan Finucan, enable body semen Anthony Souza. 564 00:46:01,060 --> 00:46:09,060 The other four have never been identified but they are among these 34 men who disappeared on board the Muscogee. 565 00:46:10,060 --> 00:46:18,060 Like so many brave men who served in the Merchant Marine, they died unheralded, unrecognized until now. 566 00:46:32,060 --> 00:46:43,060 Next week on Unsolved Mysteries. The story of a 16 year old school girl who vanished just yards away from her parents home. 567 00:46:44,060 --> 00:46:52,060 A year later she may have been 1000 miles away in South Carolina. Then she disappeared again. Perhaps you can help find Carrie Lynn Nixon. 568 00:46:53,060 --> 00:47:05,060 Also a fascinating treasure hunt in New Mexico. 50 years ago a prospector discovered a maze of secret tunnels in a mountain which he claimed led to an underground chamber filled with gold bars and priceless relics. 569 00:47:06,060 --> 00:47:11,060 Join me next week for another edition of Unsolved Mysteries.