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 00:00:16,720 --> 00:00:18,960 On Christmas Eve in 1931, a couple 6 00:00:18,960 --> 00:00:21,860 made an incredible discovery in a lonely Arizona 7 00:00:21,860 --> 00:00:25,360 desert, a baby girl abandoned in a hat box. 8 00:00:25,360 --> 00:00:28,080 Today, Sheriff John H. W. H. 9 00:00:29,080 --> 00:00:32,240 Today, Sharon Elliott, the so-called Hat Box Baby, 10 00:00:32,240 --> 00:00:34,720 wants to learn the truth about her parents 11 00:00:34,720 --> 00:00:36,620 and find the couple who rescued her 12 00:00:36,620 --> 00:00:39,760 on that long ago Christmas Eve. 13 00:00:39,760 --> 00:00:43,200 For 30 years, Joe Shambier has been a real-life Santa Claus 14 00:00:43,200 --> 00:00:46,760 with millions of children who listened to his radio broadcast. 15 00:00:46,760 --> 00:00:49,240 But this man who has given children so much happiness 16 00:00:49,240 --> 00:00:51,600 is searching for his own child, Alberta 17 00:00:51,600 --> 00:00:56,040 Elaine, who was given up for adoption 50 years ago. 18 00:00:56,200 --> 00:00:58,920 Also tonight, we will tell the story of John Branian, 19 00:00:58,920 --> 00:01:00,680 a Chicago physician in civil rights 20 00:01:00,680 --> 00:01:04,200 work who was imprisoned for murdering his wife 20 years ago. 21 00:01:04,200 --> 00:01:07,040 A crime he swears he did not commit. 22 00:01:07,040 --> 00:01:08,600 Indeed, there is compelling evidence 23 00:01:08,600 --> 00:01:10,800 that supports his claim of innocence. 24 00:01:10,800 --> 00:01:14,800 If this is true, then a man has been unjustly imprisoned. 25 00:01:14,800 --> 00:01:17,120 Tonight, John Branian makes his final appeal. 26 00:01:56,040 --> 00:02:11,040 Christmas Eve, 1931. 27 00:02:11,040 --> 00:02:13,200 At 8 PM, a car broke down in the middle 28 00:02:13,200 --> 00:02:17,320 of the chilly Arizona desert, 56 miles outside Phoenix. 29 00:02:17,320 --> 00:02:19,040 The four people inside were returning 30 00:02:19,040 --> 00:02:20,600 from a day trip to the mountains. 31 00:02:21,200 --> 00:02:22,760 Ed Stewart took a look at the engine 32 00:02:22,760 --> 00:02:24,920 while his wife Julia waited in the car. 33 00:02:24,920 --> 00:02:26,600 What's wrong, Ed? 34 00:02:26,600 --> 00:02:29,600 It looks like a busted fuel line. 35 00:02:29,600 --> 00:02:31,600 I'll just get to work on it here. 36 00:02:31,600 --> 00:02:35,240 Julia's 15-year-old twin cousins, John and Betty Mansfield, 37 00:02:35,240 --> 00:02:36,600 looked on from the back seat. 38 00:02:36,600 --> 00:02:38,600 I'll just take a few minutes to fix. 39 00:02:38,600 --> 00:02:39,600 You're hungry. 40 00:02:39,600 --> 00:02:41,600 I know you aren't, kids. 41 00:02:41,600 --> 00:02:43,600 I'm going to stretch my legs a bit. 42 00:02:43,600 --> 00:02:44,600 All right. 43 00:02:44,600 --> 00:02:46,600 Honey, be careful out here. 44 00:02:46,600 --> 00:02:47,600 There's score on the car. 45 00:02:47,600 --> 00:02:49,600 I'll get you a little bit of it. 46 00:02:49,600 --> 00:02:50,600 Be careful out here. 47 00:02:50,600 --> 00:02:51,600 There's scorpions. 48 00:03:09,600 --> 00:03:10,600 Hey, Ed. 49 00:03:10,600 --> 00:03:11,600 Come here a minute. 50 00:03:11,600 --> 00:03:12,600 What? 51 00:03:12,600 --> 00:03:13,600 Come here. 52 00:03:13,600 --> 00:03:16,600 I found something. 53 00:03:16,600 --> 00:03:18,600 What is it? 54 00:03:18,600 --> 00:03:19,600 It's a hat box. 55 00:03:19,600 --> 00:03:22,600 That's probably just some child left by some campers. 56 00:03:22,600 --> 00:03:26,600 Of course, it don't look that weathered. 57 00:03:26,600 --> 00:03:28,600 Open it up. 58 00:03:31,600 --> 00:03:32,600 Oh, my gosh. 59 00:03:32,600 --> 00:03:33,600 It's a baby. 60 00:03:33,600 --> 00:03:34,600 Oh, my goodness. 61 00:03:34,600 --> 00:03:37,600 Lord, no on earth would leave a child out here. 62 00:03:37,600 --> 00:03:38,600 I know. 63 00:03:40,600 --> 00:03:43,600 I can't believe this. 64 00:03:43,600 --> 00:03:44,600 Is she OK? 65 00:03:44,600 --> 00:03:45,600 She seems all right. 66 00:03:45,600 --> 00:03:48,600 Did you see anybody when we drove up? 67 00:03:48,600 --> 00:03:49,600 No. 68 00:03:49,600 --> 00:03:52,600 Ed and Julius Stewart saw a new sign of the person 69 00:03:52,600 --> 00:03:54,600 who had abandoned the baby. 70 00:03:54,600 --> 00:03:56,600 They carried the tiny foundling back to their car. 71 00:04:01,600 --> 00:04:04,600 41 miles away at the Mesa, Arizona police station, 72 00:04:04,600 --> 00:04:07,600 Constable Joe Mayer was spending his Christmas Eve on duty. 73 00:04:07,600 --> 00:04:09,600 How's it been tonight? 74 00:04:09,600 --> 00:04:10,600 It's been slow. 75 00:04:10,600 --> 00:04:13,600 You know, Christmas Eve, people home with their families. 76 00:04:13,600 --> 00:04:14,600 Good evening. 77 00:04:14,600 --> 00:04:15,600 Good evening. 78 00:04:15,600 --> 00:04:16,600 Good evening. 79 00:04:16,600 --> 00:04:18,600 Joe, we got a bit of a problem here. 80 00:04:18,600 --> 00:04:20,600 We found this baby in the desert. 81 00:04:20,600 --> 00:04:21,600 You found the child in the desert? 82 00:04:21,600 --> 00:04:22,600 Yeah. 83 00:04:24,600 --> 00:04:26,600 Ed and Julius Stewart told Constable Mayer 84 00:04:26,600 --> 00:04:29,600 the incredible story of how they found the tiny infant 85 00:04:29,600 --> 00:04:30,600 in a hat box. 86 00:04:30,600 --> 00:04:31,600 You found the baby? 87 00:04:31,600 --> 00:04:32,600 In the box. 88 00:04:32,600 --> 00:04:33,600 Right down in the box. 89 00:04:33,600 --> 00:04:35,600 What I'll do is, I don't know exactly what to do with her either. 90 00:04:35,600 --> 00:04:37,600 I'll take her to Modena's for tonight. 91 00:04:37,600 --> 00:04:38,600 That's a good idea, Joe. 92 00:04:38,600 --> 00:04:39,600 You'll take care of her. 93 00:04:39,600 --> 00:04:40,600 We gotta get her home for the night. 94 00:04:40,600 --> 00:04:41,600 No, you didn't. 95 00:04:41,600 --> 00:04:42,600 Enjoy your Christmas. 96 00:04:42,600 --> 00:04:43,600 Merry Christmas to you, Joe. 97 00:04:43,600 --> 00:04:44,600 And to you, folks. 98 00:04:44,600 --> 00:04:46,600 I'll be back to you for a statement on this. 99 00:04:46,600 --> 00:04:47,600 All right. 100 00:04:47,600 --> 00:04:48,600 OK? 101 00:04:51,600 --> 00:04:54,600 Constable Mayer turned over his young charge to Modena, 102 00:04:54,600 --> 00:04:57,600 a midwife living near Florence, Arizona. 103 00:04:57,600 --> 00:04:58,600 She sounds real good. 104 00:04:58,600 --> 00:04:59,600 Oh, wonderful. 105 00:04:59,600 --> 00:05:00,600 Real good. 106 00:05:00,600 --> 00:05:01,600 You know, I thought she was probably about to be... 107 00:05:01,600 --> 00:05:03,600 She called in a doctor who pronounced the child 108 00:05:03,600 --> 00:05:05,600 a healthy seven-day-old girl suffering no ill effects 109 00:05:05,600 --> 00:05:07,600 from her time in the desert. 110 00:05:07,600 --> 00:05:08,600 She's a little bit bigger too. 111 00:05:08,600 --> 00:05:09,600 She sure is a nice-looking baby. 112 00:05:09,600 --> 00:05:10,600 Yeah, there's a picture. 113 00:05:11,600 --> 00:05:15,600 Local reporters were quick to turn up on Modena's porch. 114 00:05:15,600 --> 00:05:17,600 They called them real good, baby. 115 00:05:17,600 --> 00:05:19,600 They dubbed the child a miracle. 116 00:05:19,600 --> 00:05:23,600 News of the Christmas Eve baby spread like wildfire. 117 00:05:23,600 --> 00:05:26,600 People shower the little girl with love, gifts, and attention. 118 00:05:26,600 --> 00:05:27,600 OK, we've got it. 119 00:05:27,600 --> 00:05:28,600 Thank you. 120 00:05:28,600 --> 00:05:29,600 Thank you very much. 121 00:05:29,600 --> 00:05:31,600 We'd never had anything like that happen around Florence. 122 00:05:31,600 --> 00:05:33,600 That was a new thing. 123 00:05:33,600 --> 00:05:37,600 And everybody was very family-oriented 124 00:05:37,600 --> 00:05:40,600 and loved their children and thought of them first 125 00:05:40,600 --> 00:05:45,600 to think that somebody would desert a little helpless baby. 126 00:05:45,600 --> 00:05:48,600 And we felt it was surely a miracle that night 127 00:05:48,600 --> 00:05:50,600 that that little baby was saved. 128 00:05:50,600 --> 00:05:52,600 You're such a doll. 129 00:05:52,600 --> 00:05:54,600 You're going to be just fine. 130 00:05:54,600 --> 00:05:56,600 Yes, we're going to get you a bottle. 131 00:05:56,600 --> 00:05:58,600 The miracle Christmas Eve baby captured 132 00:05:58,600 --> 00:06:01,600 the imagination of the entire country. 133 00:06:01,600 --> 00:06:03,600 To a people weathering the Great Depression, 134 00:06:03,600 --> 00:06:06,600 this tiny baby girl, rescued from the desert, 135 00:06:06,600 --> 00:06:08,600 became a symbol of the Christmas season, 136 00:06:08,600 --> 00:06:13,600 an array of hope in the midst of bleak times. 137 00:06:13,600 --> 00:06:15,600 The baby was put up for adoption. 138 00:06:15,600 --> 00:06:18,600 On February the 16th, 1932, 139 00:06:18,600 --> 00:06:21,600 a hearing was held at the Pinal County Courthouse 140 00:06:21,600 --> 00:06:24,600 in Florence, Arizona. 141 00:06:24,600 --> 00:06:27,600 You know, I think this baby must be the most fortunate baby 142 00:06:27,600 --> 00:06:28,600 in the county. 143 00:06:28,600 --> 00:06:31,600 17 couples had expressed interest in adopting the baby, 144 00:06:31,600 --> 00:06:34,600 but the feel finally narrowed to just two. 145 00:06:34,600 --> 00:06:36,600 I want the other party to know... 146 00:06:36,600 --> 00:06:39,600 Judge E. L. Green faced a difficult choice. 147 00:06:39,600 --> 00:06:41,600 Under all circumstances, 148 00:06:41,600 --> 00:06:44,600 I might say that since I know you haven't adopted a child 149 00:06:44,600 --> 00:06:47,600 and the other couple doesn't have one, 150 00:06:47,600 --> 00:06:50,600 I feel under the circumstances that I am forced to award 151 00:06:50,600 --> 00:06:52,600 the child to them. 152 00:06:58,600 --> 00:07:00,600 Let them leave the court room by themselves. 153 00:07:00,600 --> 00:07:01,600 What's your honor? 154 00:07:01,600 --> 00:07:03,600 I'm going to seal the court records on this case 155 00:07:03,600 --> 00:07:05,600 and we'd appreciate it very much if you boys 156 00:07:05,600 --> 00:07:07,600 would respect these people's privacy 157 00:07:07,600 --> 00:07:10,600 and let the child grow up in a normal life. 158 00:07:10,600 --> 00:07:12,600 Thank you. 159 00:07:12,600 --> 00:07:14,600 The reporters and photographers waited inside 160 00:07:14,600 --> 00:07:17,600 while the baby and her new parents made their exit. 161 00:07:17,600 --> 00:07:19,600 Only the people in court that day 162 00:07:19,600 --> 00:07:22,600 knew who had adopted the hatbox baby. 163 00:07:22,600 --> 00:07:24,600 For more than half a century, 164 00:07:24,600 --> 00:07:28,600 the identity of the family remained a closely guarded secret. 165 00:07:29,600 --> 00:07:31,600 Good morning. 166 00:07:31,600 --> 00:07:33,600 Good morning, honey. 167 00:07:33,600 --> 00:07:35,600 Finally, on August the 10th, 1986, 168 00:07:35,600 --> 00:07:38,600 the adopted mother broke her five-decade silence. 169 00:07:38,600 --> 00:07:41,600 Sharon, honey, there's something I've got to tell you. 170 00:07:41,600 --> 00:07:44,600 We tried to have children and we couldn't. 171 00:07:44,600 --> 00:07:46,600 You're adopted, honey. 172 00:07:46,600 --> 00:07:49,600 We adopted you when you were a little baby. 173 00:07:49,600 --> 00:07:52,600 I was shocked. I just couldn't believe it, you know? 174 00:07:52,600 --> 00:07:56,600 Because I had no idea that I was adopted. 175 00:07:56,600 --> 00:07:59,600 Nobody ever said a thing to me. 176 00:07:59,600 --> 00:08:01,600 It was never... 177 00:08:01,600 --> 00:08:03,600 I never even dreamt that I... 178 00:08:03,600 --> 00:08:05,600 That was the last thing I would think that, you know, 179 00:08:05,600 --> 00:08:07,600 I would hear from her. 180 00:08:07,600 --> 00:08:10,600 Sharon's mother also told her the amazing saga 181 00:08:10,600 --> 00:08:12,600 of how she had been found in the desert. 182 00:08:12,600 --> 00:08:15,600 I've never heard of the hatbox baby. 183 00:08:15,600 --> 00:08:17,600 I'm one person, I grow up, 184 00:08:17,600 --> 00:08:19,600 and I have a family and everything. 185 00:08:19,600 --> 00:08:21,600 Then I'm looking through all these pictures 186 00:08:21,600 --> 00:08:24,600 and it just seemed like it was unreal, kind of, 187 00:08:24,600 --> 00:08:26,600 that this could be me. 188 00:08:26,600 --> 00:08:29,600 Sharon began to look for her birth parents. 189 00:08:29,600 --> 00:08:33,600 News of her search reached an organization called Orphan Voyage, 190 00:08:33,600 --> 00:08:37,600 which reunites adopted children with their families of birth. 191 00:08:37,600 --> 00:08:41,600 Alice Simon, one of the research consultants at Orphan Voyage, 192 00:08:41,600 --> 00:08:43,600 took up Sharon's cause. 193 00:08:43,600 --> 00:08:46,600 Both women felt it was vital to have access 194 00:08:46,600 --> 00:08:49,600 to the sealed court documents from 1931. 195 00:08:49,600 --> 00:08:52,600 And the court has reviewed your file 196 00:08:52,600 --> 00:08:55,600 and determined that it would be in the best interest 197 00:08:55,600 --> 00:08:57,600 to release these files. 198 00:08:57,600 --> 00:08:59,600 So I'll let you look at them. 199 00:08:59,600 --> 00:09:01,600 OK. 200 00:09:01,600 --> 00:09:03,600 And you can review it, and after you've reviewed it, 201 00:09:03,600 --> 00:09:05,600 just leave it with my secretary. 202 00:09:05,600 --> 00:09:07,600 OK, sure, appreciate it. 203 00:09:07,600 --> 00:09:09,600 For the first time, Sharon read the stewards 204 00:09:09,600 --> 00:09:11,600 for Betham account of finding her in the desert. 205 00:09:11,600 --> 00:09:14,600 As she studied the record, she grew skeptical of their story. 206 00:09:14,600 --> 00:09:16,600 It seemed such an amazing coincidence 207 00:09:16,600 --> 00:09:19,600 that their car had broken down at the exact spot in the desert 208 00:09:19,600 --> 00:09:22,600 where the hat box had been left. 209 00:09:22,600 --> 00:09:23,600 I think it was a setup. 210 00:09:23,600 --> 00:09:26,600 Who's going to leave a baby in the desert, in the middle? 211 00:09:26,600 --> 00:09:28,600 This is winter. 212 00:09:28,600 --> 00:09:31,600 It's Christmas Eve, and it's that time of year. 213 00:09:31,600 --> 00:09:33,600 It's cold here. 214 00:09:33,600 --> 00:09:36,600 In sworn testimony, Ed and Julia Stewart 215 00:09:36,600 --> 00:09:40,600 stated they left home at dawn on December 24, 1931 216 00:09:40,600 --> 00:09:42,600 to drive up to the mountains. 217 00:09:42,600 --> 00:09:45,600 The stewards said they stopped only once, 218 00:09:45,600 --> 00:09:48,600 in Roosevelt, Arizona, one of several small towns on their route. 219 00:09:49,600 --> 00:09:54,600 Mrs. Stewart had left an eight-month-old nursing baby at home. 220 00:09:54,600 --> 00:09:57,600 It was Christmas Eve, the day that most people 221 00:09:57,600 --> 00:10:01,600 stay home and cook their turkey, wrap their Christmas presents. 222 00:10:01,600 --> 00:10:05,600 I think that they went up to Globe or Superior, 223 00:10:05,600 --> 00:10:08,600 or maybe Roosevelt, and they picked up the baby. 224 00:10:08,600 --> 00:10:12,600 Someone they knew, maybe a cousin, a relative, a friend, 225 00:10:12,600 --> 00:10:15,600 and brought it back to Mesa. 226 00:10:16,600 --> 00:10:19,600 Could the stewards have picked up the infant Sharon 227 00:10:19,600 --> 00:10:21,600 in Roosevelt or another small town, 228 00:10:21,600 --> 00:10:24,600 or did they indeed find her in the desert? 229 00:10:24,600 --> 00:10:27,600 Sharon's mysterious mother having placed her in the hat box 230 00:10:27,600 --> 00:10:30,600 only seconds before the stewards' car stopped. 231 00:10:31,600 --> 00:10:34,600 It would have been a carefully arranged ruse, 232 00:10:34,600 --> 00:10:36,600 staged for the benefit of the teenage cousins, 233 00:10:36,600 --> 00:10:38,600 John and Betty Mansfield, 234 00:10:38,600 --> 00:10:41,600 who had been brought along as innocent witnesses. 235 00:10:41,600 --> 00:10:44,600 In that day, if a girl got pregnant, 236 00:10:44,600 --> 00:10:47,600 if she was not married, it was, I guess, 237 00:10:47,600 --> 00:10:50,600 the greatest disgrace that she could bring up on her family. 238 00:10:50,600 --> 00:10:52,600 I think that probably they were just trying to help out a young girl. 239 00:10:52,600 --> 00:10:54,600 Maybe it was a relative. Could have been a niece. 240 00:10:54,600 --> 00:10:56,600 Could have been a friend. 241 00:10:56,600 --> 00:10:58,600 You know, I don't know. 242 00:10:58,600 --> 00:11:01,600 Maybe they had friends that had a daughter. 243 00:11:01,600 --> 00:11:04,600 Well, I'm just glad that I survived. 244 00:11:04,600 --> 00:11:07,600 I don't know if I have any brothers or sisters. 245 00:11:07,600 --> 00:11:10,600 I don't even know the exact date of my birth, 246 00:11:10,600 --> 00:11:12,600 or even where I was born. 247 00:11:12,600 --> 00:11:15,600 I don't know what heritage I am, what nationality, 248 00:11:15,600 --> 00:11:18,600 or where I come from. 249 00:11:18,600 --> 00:11:20,600 And I want to know, you know, who I look like, 250 00:11:20,600 --> 00:11:23,600 and I think my daughter would like to know about her grandmother, too, 251 00:11:23,600 --> 00:11:26,600 her real grandmother. 252 00:11:26,600 --> 00:11:31,600 The Christmas Eve miracle has remained a mystery for nearly six decades. 253 00:11:31,600 --> 00:11:34,600 The vital missing links to Sharon Elliott's lost identity 254 00:11:34,600 --> 00:11:37,600 are the couple who found her in the desert. 255 00:11:37,600 --> 00:11:41,600 If they are alive, Ed and Julia Stewart would be today in their 80s. 256 00:11:41,600 --> 00:11:44,600 Only they know the truth about Sharon Elliott, 257 00:11:44,600 --> 00:11:47,600 the woman who began her life 58 years ago, 258 00:11:47,600 --> 00:11:49,600 as a poignant baby in a hat box, 259 00:11:49,600 --> 00:11:53,600 lost in the chill December blackness of an Arizona desert night. 260 00:11:56,600 --> 00:11:59,600 When we return the story of a Chicago physician 261 00:11:59,600 --> 00:12:01,600 who was convicted of murdering his wife, 262 00:12:01,600 --> 00:12:05,600 dramatic evidence suggests that he may have been unjustly imprisoned. 263 00:12:11,600 --> 00:12:14,600 Donna! 264 00:12:14,600 --> 00:12:17,600 Donna! 265 00:12:17,600 --> 00:12:19,600 Donna! 266 00:12:19,600 --> 00:12:23,600 December 22, 1967, Chicago, Illinois. 267 00:12:23,600 --> 00:12:27,600 A 41-year-old physician named John Bracken and his son, Joby, 268 00:12:27,600 --> 00:12:30,600 arrived home to pick up John's wife, Donna. 269 00:12:30,600 --> 00:12:34,600 The family was planning to go Christmas shopping together. 270 00:12:34,600 --> 00:12:37,600 Joby and I returned from the nursing school 271 00:12:37,600 --> 00:12:39,600 and went into the... 272 00:12:39,600 --> 00:12:41,600 to the house. 273 00:12:41,600 --> 00:12:44,600 And the first thing that struck me was all the lights were on 274 00:12:44,600 --> 00:12:47,600 and the two television sets were on. 275 00:12:47,600 --> 00:12:49,600 And I called out to Donna. 276 00:12:49,600 --> 00:12:51,600 I got no answer. 277 00:12:53,600 --> 00:12:55,600 And then when I got to the kitchen, 278 00:12:55,600 --> 00:12:57,600 I looked to the right and I could see feet, 279 00:12:57,600 --> 00:13:00,600 her legs really sticking out of the utility room. 280 00:13:00,600 --> 00:13:03,600 And she was dead. 281 00:13:03,600 --> 00:13:06,600 She wasn't breathing. 282 00:13:07,600 --> 00:13:10,600 Her legs were askew 283 00:13:10,600 --> 00:13:12,600 and her skirt was kind of 284 00:13:12,600 --> 00:13:15,600 ruckered up over her legs. 285 00:13:16,600 --> 00:13:19,600 I switched off the light 286 00:13:19,600 --> 00:13:22,600 and reached around and grabbed Joby 287 00:13:22,600 --> 00:13:25,600 and ran out of the back of the house. 288 00:13:25,600 --> 00:13:28,600 After his grim discovery, 289 00:13:28,600 --> 00:13:31,600 Dr. Branian immediately called the police. 290 00:13:32,600 --> 00:13:35,600 Five months later, he was on trial for his life. 291 00:13:38,600 --> 00:13:41,600 Today, John Branian is serving a 20 to 30 year term 292 00:13:41,600 --> 00:13:43,600 at Illinois' Dixon Correctional Center 293 00:13:43,600 --> 00:13:46,600 for the first degree murder of his wife. 294 00:13:46,600 --> 00:13:49,600 A crime he swears he did not commit. 295 00:13:49,600 --> 00:13:52,600 I think it was an atrocity. 296 00:13:52,600 --> 00:13:55,600 I think it was extremely unfair. 297 00:13:55,600 --> 00:13:58,600 I feel that it was a set-up. 298 00:13:58,600 --> 00:14:01,600 My father was railroaded because he didn't kill my mother. 299 00:14:01,600 --> 00:14:04,600 I think he's innocent because the evidence shows 300 00:14:04,600 --> 00:14:06,600 that he could not have physically been there 301 00:14:06,600 --> 00:14:08,600 at the time these events were going on. 302 00:14:08,600 --> 00:14:12,600 I think the jury was emotionally caught up in the case 303 00:14:12,600 --> 00:14:15,600 and just didn't forgot or didn't pay attention 304 00:14:15,600 --> 00:14:18,600 to the evidence that overwhelmingly proved 305 00:14:18,600 --> 00:14:21,600 that John couldn't have been the killer. 306 00:14:21,600 --> 00:14:24,600 I couldn't murder the mother of the killer. 307 00:14:24,600 --> 00:14:27,600 I think it was a murder. 308 00:14:28,600 --> 00:14:30,600 I think it was a murder of my children. 309 00:14:30,600 --> 00:14:32,600 I couldn't murder my high school sweetheart. 310 00:14:32,600 --> 00:14:35,600 Don and I had known each other since the age of 14. 311 00:14:35,600 --> 00:14:38,600 I didn't murder her. 312 00:14:40,600 --> 00:14:42,600 It is not uncommon for a convicted criminal 313 00:14:42,600 --> 00:14:44,600 to stoutly maintain his innocence. 314 00:14:44,600 --> 00:14:47,600 But in John Branian's case, he is not alone. 315 00:14:47,600 --> 00:14:49,600 Though some say he is a murderer, 316 00:14:49,600 --> 00:14:51,600 others are convinced that he was framed. 317 00:14:51,600 --> 00:14:54,600 For John Branian, this debate is literally a matter of life 318 00:14:54,600 --> 00:14:56,600 and death. 319 00:14:56,600 --> 00:14:59,600 In his five heart attacks, he desperately needs a heart transplant. 320 00:14:59,600 --> 00:15:01,600 But because he is a convicted murderer, 321 00:15:01,600 --> 00:15:05,600 the operation he needs to survive has been denied him. 322 00:15:05,600 --> 00:15:08,600 This is John Branian's story. 323 00:15:08,600 --> 00:15:13,600 He shall open fire. 324 00:15:15,600 --> 00:15:17,600 During the mid-60s, Martin Luther King 325 00:15:17,600 --> 00:15:20,600 dreamed his dreams of equality for all Americans. 326 00:15:20,600 --> 00:15:22,600 John Branian marched by his side. 327 00:15:22,600 --> 00:15:26,600 In 1966, he was King's personal physician in Chicago. 328 00:15:26,600 --> 00:15:30,600 Chicago was a racial battleground during those years. 329 00:15:30,600 --> 00:15:32,600 Branian was often on the front lines. 330 00:15:35,600 --> 00:15:38,600 He even went so far as to provide medical services 331 00:15:38,600 --> 00:15:40,600 for the Black Panthers, the Weathermen, 332 00:15:40,600 --> 00:15:43,600 and other extreme revolutionary groups. 333 00:15:43,600 --> 00:15:46,600 Not surprising, Branian was viewed with hostility 334 00:15:46,600 --> 00:15:49,600 by the Chicago police. 335 00:15:49,600 --> 00:15:52,600 I've always struggled for equal rights 336 00:15:52,600 --> 00:15:55,600 and struggled for freedom, 337 00:15:55,600 --> 00:15:58,600 hoping that there would eventually be 338 00:15:58,600 --> 00:16:01,600 freedom and equal rights. 339 00:16:01,600 --> 00:16:03,600 And I've done it all my life. 340 00:16:03,600 --> 00:16:08,600 I did it very early in very left-wing groups. 341 00:16:08,600 --> 00:16:11,600 And I'll do it when I get out of here. 342 00:16:13,600 --> 00:16:16,600 The son of a prominent attorney, John Branian, 343 00:16:16,600 --> 00:16:18,600 worked at a busy community clinic 344 00:16:18,600 --> 00:16:21,600 and lived in Chicago's affluent Hyde Park District. 345 00:16:21,600 --> 00:16:24,600 In 1946, he married Donna Brown, 346 00:16:24,600 --> 00:16:26,600 and they had two children. 347 00:16:28,600 --> 00:16:31,600 December 22, 1967. 348 00:16:31,600 --> 00:16:33,600 After being called by John Branian, 349 00:16:33,600 --> 00:16:37,600 the Chicago police arrived at his Hyde Park home. 350 00:16:38,600 --> 00:16:41,600 Dr. Branian, how are you holding up? 351 00:16:41,600 --> 00:16:43,600 I've been OK. 352 00:16:43,600 --> 00:16:45,600 Spare with me. 353 00:16:45,600 --> 00:16:47,600 I've noticed anything missing, 354 00:16:47,600 --> 00:16:49,600 anything that might have been taken from the apartment. 355 00:16:49,600 --> 00:16:51,600 Investigators found four shell casings 356 00:16:51,600 --> 00:16:54,600 from a 9-millimeter gun next to Donna's body. 357 00:16:54,600 --> 00:16:57,600 They assumed that she had been shot four times. 358 00:16:57,600 --> 00:16:59,600 You own a 9-millimeter weapon? 359 00:16:59,600 --> 00:17:01,600 Yes. 360 00:17:01,600 --> 00:17:03,600 Branian was an avid gun collector, 361 00:17:03,600 --> 00:17:05,600 and says that police asked him for any weapon in his collection 362 00:17:05,600 --> 00:17:08,600 capable of firing a 9-millimeter bullet. 363 00:17:08,600 --> 00:17:13,600 He gave them a Luger pistol. 364 00:17:13,600 --> 00:17:16,600 Wait, Dr. Branian, let me get the gun. 365 00:17:16,600 --> 00:17:18,600 Thank you. 366 00:17:18,600 --> 00:17:22,600 Police determined that the gun had not been recently fired. 367 00:17:22,600 --> 00:17:25,600 They would later claim that Branian had denied 368 00:17:25,600 --> 00:17:29,600 owning any other gun capable of firing the fatal bullets. 369 00:17:29,600 --> 00:17:32,600 Have a seat here, gentlemen. 370 00:17:32,600 --> 00:17:34,600 The same evening at the police station, 371 00:17:34,600 --> 00:17:37,600 Branian gave detectives his alibi. 372 00:17:37,600 --> 00:17:40,600 Dr. Branian, I know it's been a long difficult day. 373 00:17:40,600 --> 00:17:42,600 I'd like to go over one more time 374 00:17:42,600 --> 00:17:44,600 and you'll wear a box for me. 375 00:17:46,600 --> 00:17:48,600 Branian told police that he had left the clinic 376 00:17:48,600 --> 00:17:50,600 where he worked at 11.30 a.m. 377 00:17:50,600 --> 00:17:51,600 Hey, John, how's it going? 378 00:17:51,600 --> 00:17:52,600 Morning. Good. 379 00:17:52,600 --> 00:17:54,600 Listen, I'm on my way to pick up Joby. 380 00:17:54,600 --> 00:17:56,600 I won't be back anymore this afternoon. 381 00:17:56,600 --> 00:17:58,600 Merry Christmas. 382 00:17:58,600 --> 00:18:00,600 He then drove to his four-year-old son's nursery school 383 00:18:00,600 --> 00:18:02,600 to pick him up. 384 00:18:02,600 --> 00:18:04,600 Come on, here's your coat. 385 00:18:06,600 --> 00:18:08,600 After leaving the school, 386 00:18:08,600 --> 00:18:10,600 he was asked to see his wife's cousin, Maxine Brown, 387 00:18:10,600 --> 00:18:12,600 to meet her for lunch. 388 00:18:12,600 --> 00:18:14,600 Hi. 389 00:18:14,600 --> 00:18:17,600 Oh, goodness, I can't go. 390 00:18:17,600 --> 00:18:20,600 I'm looking for a way to close in this afternoon. 391 00:18:20,600 --> 00:18:22,600 I have to be here to take care of it. 392 00:18:22,600 --> 00:18:24,600 She was unable to join them. 393 00:18:24,600 --> 00:18:28,600 Branian told police that he then proceeded home. 394 00:18:28,600 --> 00:18:31,600 There, he discovered the body of his wife. 395 00:18:32,600 --> 00:18:35,600 And you arrived home at what time? 396 00:18:35,600 --> 00:18:37,600 Ground noon. 397 00:18:39,600 --> 00:18:42,600 Dr. Branian, would you submit to a lie detector test? 398 00:18:42,600 --> 00:18:45,600 John, I don't think that's such a good idea. 399 00:18:45,600 --> 00:18:48,600 No, but I would like to have a nitrate test, though. 400 00:18:48,600 --> 00:18:50,600 We don't have the chemicals. 401 00:18:50,600 --> 00:18:53,600 A nitrate test would have determined whether he had fired a gun, 402 00:18:53,600 --> 00:18:56,600 but the Chicago police were unable to conduct this test. 403 00:18:57,600 --> 00:19:00,600 That night, Branian was released without being charged. 404 00:19:04,600 --> 00:19:06,600 Morning. 405 00:19:06,600 --> 00:19:08,600 One month passed. 406 00:19:08,600 --> 00:19:10,600 Then on January 22, 1968, 407 00:19:10,600 --> 00:19:13,600 the police made an unexpected visit to Branian's clinic. 408 00:19:13,600 --> 00:19:16,600 Dr. Branian, you're under arrest for the murder of your wife. 409 00:19:16,600 --> 00:19:18,600 How can it be? 410 00:19:18,600 --> 00:19:20,600 You'll have to come with us right now. 411 00:19:20,600 --> 00:19:23,600 I think that the police were under great deal of pressure 412 00:19:24,600 --> 00:19:27,600 from the black press at the time. 413 00:19:27,600 --> 00:19:30,600 And I think they saw a chance, 414 00:19:30,600 --> 00:19:34,600 because 85% of murders are committed by either the family or friends, 415 00:19:34,600 --> 00:19:37,600 close friends, they saw a chance to arrest me. 416 00:19:37,600 --> 00:19:39,600 And they did. 417 00:19:39,600 --> 00:19:42,600 I don't think they thought they were going to convict me, 418 00:19:42,600 --> 00:19:44,600 but they arrested me anyway. 419 00:19:54,600 --> 00:19:58,600 On April 4, 1968, Martin Luther King was gunned down in Memphis, 420 00:19:58,600 --> 00:20:01,600 and riots broke out in Chicago. 421 00:20:01,600 --> 00:20:05,600 Racial tensions in the city were at an all-time high. 422 00:20:05,600 --> 00:20:09,600 In this polarized atmosphere, John Branian's trial began. 423 00:20:09,600 --> 00:20:11,600 Would you state your name, please, sir? 424 00:20:11,600 --> 00:20:13,600 Michael Boyle. 425 00:20:13,600 --> 00:20:15,600 His jury was composed of 11 whites and one black. 426 00:20:15,600 --> 00:20:18,600 I'm a detective for the Chicago Police Department. 427 00:20:18,600 --> 00:20:21,600 The prosecution's case was reported to the police 428 00:20:21,600 --> 00:20:23,600 on the day of the murder. 429 00:20:23,600 --> 00:20:26,600 The prosecution's case was built on three assertions. 430 00:20:26,600 --> 00:20:29,600 First, although the murder weapon was never found, 431 00:20:29,600 --> 00:20:31,600 they claimed that the bullets that killed Donna 432 00:20:31,600 --> 00:20:33,600 could have been fired from a Walther PPK 433 00:20:33,600 --> 00:20:35,600 that was part of Branian's gun collection. 434 00:20:35,600 --> 00:20:38,600 A gun they maintained, he had denied owning. 435 00:20:38,600 --> 00:20:42,600 The detective testified and went back to him 436 00:20:42,600 --> 00:20:45,600 and said, do you have a Walther PPK? 437 00:20:45,600 --> 00:20:48,600 And he said, no, he never had one. 438 00:20:48,600 --> 00:20:51,600 It turned out that he had, a Walther PPK 439 00:20:51,600 --> 00:20:55,600 had been sold about a year before to a man named Hooks, 440 00:20:55,600 --> 00:20:58,600 who was one of the good friends of Dr. Branian. 441 00:20:58,600 --> 00:21:01,600 The police then went to Hooks and asked him where his gun was, 442 00:21:01,600 --> 00:21:03,600 and he said, no, he bought that gun for Branian 443 00:21:03,600 --> 00:21:06,600 as a Christmas present the year before. 444 00:21:06,600 --> 00:21:09,600 Now, sir, what, if any, relationship 445 00:21:09,600 --> 00:21:11,600 did Mrs. Branian bear to you? 446 00:21:11,600 --> 00:21:13,600 She was my sister. 447 00:21:13,600 --> 00:21:16,600 Later during the trial, Donna Branian's brother, Nelson Brown, 448 00:21:16,600 --> 00:21:19,600 testified that John Branian had told him 449 00:21:19,600 --> 00:21:21,600 that the day Donna was murdered, 450 00:21:21,600 --> 00:21:24,600 his Walther PPK had been stolen from his bedside. 451 00:21:24,600 --> 00:21:26,600 He mentioned that there were two guns missing, 452 00:21:26,600 --> 00:21:29,600 one was a PPK and the other was a collector's item 453 00:21:29,600 --> 00:21:32,600 worth $1,500 to $2,000. 454 00:21:32,600 --> 00:21:35,600 In the confusion following his wife's death, 455 00:21:35,600 --> 00:21:38,600 Branian had not immediately noticed the theft. 456 00:21:38,600 --> 00:21:40,600 I show you now that which has been marked 457 00:21:40,600 --> 00:21:42,600 as people's exhibit, 13. 458 00:21:42,600 --> 00:21:44,600 The prosecution's second assertion 459 00:21:44,600 --> 00:21:47,600 was that the four shell casings found by Donna's body 460 00:21:47,600 --> 00:21:49,600 had come from a box of ammunition they had discovered 461 00:21:49,600 --> 00:21:52,600 when they searched Branian's closet. 462 00:21:52,600 --> 00:21:55,600 Four shells were missing from this box. 463 00:21:55,600 --> 00:21:58,600 These are the shells that I recovered from the shelf 464 00:21:58,600 --> 00:22:00,600 in the den closet. 465 00:22:00,600 --> 00:22:02,600 Finally, the prosecution claimed that John Branian 466 00:22:02,600 --> 00:22:05,600 had a motive for wanting his wife dead. 467 00:22:05,600 --> 00:22:08,600 At the time of Donna's death, his marriage was in trouble. 468 00:22:08,600 --> 00:22:11,600 For six years, John Branian had been conducting an affair 469 00:22:11,600 --> 00:22:14,600 with a nurse at his clinic named Shirley Hudson. 470 00:22:14,600 --> 00:22:18,600 His wife knew about the affair, but the couple had not divorced. 471 00:22:18,600 --> 00:22:23,600 My theory of the trial was that it was to get out of a bad marriage, 472 00:22:23,600 --> 00:22:26,600 or get out of a marriage without having to pay 473 00:22:26,600 --> 00:22:30,600 all the consequences of divorce and that. 474 00:22:30,600 --> 00:22:34,600 Certainly I had a friend, a girlfriend. 475 00:22:34,600 --> 00:22:39,600 Of six years, it wasn't a hot on the burner affair. 476 00:22:39,600 --> 00:22:42,600 There was nothing pressing about our relationship. 477 00:22:42,600 --> 00:22:45,600 Our relationship was mutually accepted. 478 00:22:45,600 --> 00:22:48,600 Shirley never pressed me. 479 00:22:48,600 --> 00:22:52,600 And I never ever thought of leaving, Donna. 480 00:22:52,600 --> 00:22:56,600 Why would I suddenly decide to kill her? 481 00:22:56,600 --> 00:22:58,600 No. 482 00:22:59,600 --> 00:23:03,600 Our theory of prosecution was that he had planned 483 00:23:03,600 --> 00:23:06,600 for why that day we don't know to kill his wife 484 00:23:06,600 --> 00:23:08,600 and that he was going to leave the hospital, 485 00:23:08,600 --> 00:23:11,600 come home and kill her, do it silently 486 00:23:11,600 --> 00:23:13,600 when that didn't work, he used the gun. 487 00:23:13,600 --> 00:23:16,600 Then pick up his son at school, 488 00:23:16,600 --> 00:23:19,600 then pick up Maxine for the luncheon date 489 00:23:19,600 --> 00:23:22,600 that was made at the very last minute of the night before. 490 00:23:22,600 --> 00:23:26,600 Have lunch, have an alibi for the period of time involved, 491 00:23:26,600 --> 00:23:30,600 and then have either someone or himself find the body 492 00:23:30,600 --> 00:23:33,600 and have a very good alibi. 493 00:23:34,600 --> 00:23:36,600 Are you ready with your next witness? 494 00:23:36,600 --> 00:23:38,600 Branyan's defense was simple. 495 00:23:38,600 --> 00:23:41,600 He and his attorney were certain his alibi was airtight 496 00:23:41,600 --> 00:23:43,600 as they maintained it was impossible for Branyan 497 00:23:43,600 --> 00:23:45,600 to be in two places at once. 498 00:23:45,600 --> 00:23:48,600 Mrs. Kentra, when you got home, 499 00:23:48,600 --> 00:23:50,600 did you have occasion to look at your clock? 500 00:23:50,600 --> 00:23:52,600 Yes. 501 00:23:52,600 --> 00:23:55,600 This alibi was strengthened when Branyan's next door neighbor 502 00:23:55,600 --> 00:23:58,600 testified that she had heard the fatal gunshots at 11.20 a.m. 503 00:23:58,600 --> 00:24:02,600 while Branyan was reportedly still at his clinic. 504 00:24:02,600 --> 00:24:05,600 The doctor Branyan's left the hospital at 11.30, 505 00:24:05,600 --> 00:24:09,600 and I heard the shots at 11.20, and I'm sure of it. 506 00:24:09,600 --> 00:24:11,600 I was sure then, and I'm sure now 507 00:24:11,600 --> 00:24:14,600 that it's impossible for him to shoot his wife, 508 00:24:14,600 --> 00:24:16,600 to be there at that time. 509 00:24:16,600 --> 00:24:18,600 When you heard those sounds, 510 00:24:18,600 --> 00:24:20,600 while you were putting away the groceries, 511 00:24:20,600 --> 00:24:24,600 surprisingly, this testimony would have little impact on the jury. 512 00:24:24,600 --> 00:24:26,600 The prosecution pursued their theory 513 00:24:26,600 --> 00:24:29,600 that the murder took place after Branyan left the clinic. 514 00:24:29,600 --> 00:24:31,600 Yes. 515 00:24:31,600 --> 00:24:36,600 Now, officer, you also stated that you drove certain routes 516 00:24:36,600 --> 00:24:38,600 and that you totaled these times 517 00:24:38,600 --> 00:24:41,600 and that the time you arrived at was from 6 to 12 minutes. 518 00:24:41,600 --> 00:24:42,600 Is that right? 519 00:24:42,600 --> 00:24:44,600 Yes. 520 00:24:44,600 --> 00:24:46,600 Police testified that they had driven 521 00:24:46,600 --> 00:24:48,600 and timed Branyan's route on the morning of the murder 522 00:24:48,600 --> 00:24:50,600 and had determined that he did, in fact, 523 00:24:50,600 --> 00:24:52,600 have just enough time to kill his wife 524 00:24:52,600 --> 00:24:54,600 before he picked up his son. 525 00:24:54,600 --> 00:24:56,600 Yes. 526 00:24:56,600 --> 00:24:58,600 And when you arrived at Dr. Branyan's home... 527 00:24:58,600 --> 00:25:00,600 However, in one of the trial's most dramatic moments, 528 00:25:00,600 --> 00:25:02,600 the defense challenged this timetable. 529 00:25:02,600 --> 00:25:04,600 It's not the watch. 530 00:25:04,600 --> 00:25:08,600 By the way, officer, when you arrived at the nursery school, 531 00:25:08,600 --> 00:25:10,600 whose little boy did you use? 532 00:25:10,600 --> 00:25:13,600 I don't understand your question, sir. 533 00:25:13,600 --> 00:25:16,600 Well, I assumed that you went to the nursery school 534 00:25:16,600 --> 00:25:18,600 to cover some time about checking on a kid. 535 00:25:18,600 --> 00:25:21,600 Now, how much time did you allow for him to pick up his son 536 00:25:21,600 --> 00:25:23,600 from the nursery school? 537 00:25:23,600 --> 00:25:25,600 We allowed no time for that. 538 00:25:25,600 --> 00:25:27,600 You didn't allow that? 539 00:25:27,600 --> 00:25:32,600 I can remember feeling a chill in the courtroom 540 00:25:32,600 --> 00:25:34,600 when he sent us, 541 00:25:34,600 --> 00:25:37,600 in that you are moving a lot slower 542 00:25:37,600 --> 00:25:39,600 when you've got a child in tow 543 00:25:39,600 --> 00:25:42,600 than when you're with yourself. 544 00:25:42,600 --> 00:25:45,600 So I thought that was an effective point. 545 00:25:45,600 --> 00:25:47,600 The point of... 546 00:25:47,600 --> 00:25:49,600 The other point is when he walked into the house 547 00:25:49,600 --> 00:25:51,600 knowing his wife was dead with the kid. 548 00:25:51,600 --> 00:25:55,600 That's a shocking thing to see if he knew what had happened. 549 00:25:55,600 --> 00:25:59,600 So I thought those were the strong points they had going for them. 550 00:25:59,600 --> 00:26:02,600 On May 28, 1968, 551 00:26:02,600 --> 00:26:04,600 after deliberating for eight hours, 552 00:26:04,600 --> 00:26:07,600 the jury reached their decision. 553 00:26:07,600 --> 00:26:12,600 Mr. Foreman, has the jury reached the verdict? 554 00:26:12,600 --> 00:26:13,600 We have, Your Honor. 555 00:26:13,600 --> 00:26:15,600 Read the verdict, Mr. Foreman. 556 00:26:15,600 --> 00:26:18,600 We, the jury, find the defendant, 557 00:26:18,600 --> 00:26:20,600 John Brannian Jr. Guilty, 558 00:26:20,600 --> 00:26:24,600 and manner and form is charged in the indictment. 559 00:26:25,600 --> 00:26:28,600 When the judge said I was guilty, 560 00:26:28,600 --> 00:26:29,600 the verdict will be entered. 561 00:26:29,600 --> 00:26:32,600 I felt hollow. 562 00:26:32,600 --> 00:26:35,600 I felt as though I was no longer. 563 00:26:35,600 --> 00:26:37,600 But I know what I did do. 564 00:26:37,600 --> 00:26:39,600 I remember kind of sticking my head up. 565 00:26:39,600 --> 00:26:42,600 I don't know why, but I remember that. 566 00:26:42,600 --> 00:26:43,600 I did that. 567 00:26:43,600 --> 00:26:47,600 I know my shoulders got a little straighter. 568 00:26:47,600 --> 00:26:50,600 But it certainly hurt when he said that. 569 00:26:50,600 --> 00:26:53,600 It really hurt. 570 00:26:54,600 --> 00:26:56,600 Congratulations. 571 00:26:59,600 --> 00:27:01,600 For three years, Brannian was free on board 572 00:27:01,600 --> 00:27:03,600 as he appealed his verdict. 573 00:27:03,600 --> 00:27:08,600 During this time, he married his former girlfriend Shirley. 574 00:27:08,600 --> 00:27:12,600 I loved him, and I still love him very much. 575 00:27:12,600 --> 00:27:17,600 And I could not desert him 576 00:27:17,600 --> 00:27:20,600 as people were beginning to do. 577 00:27:21,600 --> 00:27:24,600 He was a walking shell. 578 00:27:24,600 --> 00:27:27,600 He loved both of us. 579 00:27:27,600 --> 00:27:30,600 He loved Donna, and he loved me. 580 00:27:32,600 --> 00:27:35,600 In April of 1971, his appeal was denied, 581 00:27:35,600 --> 00:27:37,600 and John Brannian was ordered to begin 582 00:27:37,600 --> 00:27:40,600 serving his 20 to 30 year sentence. 583 00:27:42,600 --> 00:27:44,600 A few days later, after the Supreme Court 584 00:27:44,600 --> 00:27:46,600 declined to hear his case, 585 00:27:46,600 --> 00:27:49,600 Brannian jumped bail and left the country. 586 00:27:50,600 --> 00:27:53,600 For 12 years, Brannian lived in Africa, 587 00:27:53,600 --> 00:27:56,600 but in 1983, he was apprehended in Uganda. 588 00:27:59,600 --> 00:28:02,600 He was brought back to Illinois to serve his sentence. 589 00:28:05,600 --> 00:28:09,600 An innocent person should be found innocent in this country. 590 00:28:09,600 --> 00:28:12,600 We've been taught that ever since we were kids. 591 00:28:12,600 --> 00:28:14,600 So because of that, I had to flee 592 00:28:14,600 --> 00:28:17,600 because I couldn't get justice anywhere else. 593 00:28:17,600 --> 00:28:19,600 The evidence against me proves 594 00:28:19,600 --> 00:28:22,600 that I couldn't have done the crime, yet I'm here. 595 00:28:25,600 --> 00:28:27,600 Currently, two investigators 596 00:28:27,600 --> 00:28:30,600 have volunteered their services to Brannian's case. 597 00:28:30,600 --> 00:28:32,600 Anthony DeMotto, a prominent law professor 598 00:28:32,600 --> 00:28:34,600 from Northwestern University, 599 00:28:34,600 --> 00:28:36,600 and his wife, Arthur Barber DeMotto, 600 00:28:36,600 --> 00:28:38,600 are working with Brannian's wife Shirley 601 00:28:38,600 --> 00:28:40,600 to document what they consider to be 602 00:28:40,600 --> 00:28:43,600 a shocking miscarriage of justice. 603 00:28:44,600 --> 00:28:46,600 When Mrs. Brannian said, 604 00:28:46,600 --> 00:28:48,600 my husband was innocent, 605 00:28:48,600 --> 00:28:50,600 I was very skeptical about that. 606 00:28:50,600 --> 00:28:52,600 I don't tend to believe people's statements 607 00:28:52,600 --> 00:28:54,600 about things like this. 608 00:28:54,600 --> 00:28:56,600 And it was only Barber's investigation of the thing 609 00:28:56,600 --> 00:28:59,600 that proved to me that no matter what John Brannian said, 610 00:28:59,600 --> 00:29:01,600 he couldn't have done it. 611 00:29:01,600 --> 00:29:03,600 That was the amazing thing about this case. 612 00:29:03,600 --> 00:29:05,600 It was an impossibility case, 613 00:29:05,600 --> 00:29:08,600 not a case of somebody's word against somebody else's word. 614 00:29:09,600 --> 00:29:12,600 John Brannian is currently serving his sentence in Illinois 615 00:29:12,600 --> 00:29:15,600 for the 1967 murder of his wife Donna. 616 00:29:15,600 --> 00:29:18,600 He could be incarcerated until the year 2006. 617 00:29:20,600 --> 00:29:22,600 But Tony and Barber DeMotto 618 00:29:22,600 --> 00:29:25,600 believe he deserves to be released immediately. 619 00:29:25,600 --> 00:29:27,600 They claim that by reconstructing the events 620 00:29:27,600 --> 00:29:31,600 that took place in the late morning of December 22, 1967, 621 00:29:31,600 --> 00:29:35,600 it can be proved that John Brannian did not shoot his wife. 622 00:29:36,600 --> 00:29:40,600 The fact is that when his wife was murdered, 623 00:29:40,600 --> 00:29:43,600 he was a mile and a half away treating patients in a hospital, 624 00:29:43,600 --> 00:29:45,600 and that's proven. That's a fact. 625 00:29:45,600 --> 00:29:48,600 So there's no, there's no legal rule whatsoever 626 00:29:48,600 --> 00:29:51,600 that says an innocent man has to stay in prison. 627 00:29:51,600 --> 00:29:53,600 Now stay off this, okay? 628 00:29:53,600 --> 00:29:55,600 As it cannot definitely be proved 629 00:29:55,600 --> 00:29:58,600 that the fatal shots were fired at 1120, 630 00:29:58,600 --> 00:30:01,600 then it is possible that Donna was murdered later. 631 00:30:01,600 --> 00:30:03,600 Brannian's gun was shot in the face 632 00:30:03,600 --> 00:30:05,600 of the murder of his wife. 633 00:30:05,600 --> 00:30:07,600 But when he was murdered later, 634 00:30:07,600 --> 00:30:10,600 Brannian's guilt or innocence might rest on the 10-minute window 635 00:30:10,600 --> 00:30:13,600 of time between 1135 when he left his clinic 636 00:30:13,600 --> 00:30:15,600 and the time that he arrived at the nursery school 637 00:30:15,600 --> 00:30:17,600 to pick up his son. 638 00:30:17,600 --> 00:30:19,600 What seems to be your trouble, Ken? 639 00:30:19,600 --> 00:30:22,600 Oh, I'm a stomach doctor out of pain. 640 00:30:22,600 --> 00:30:24,600 John Brannian spent the morning of December 22 641 00:30:24,600 --> 00:30:27,600 at his clinic where he saw 14 different patients. 642 00:30:27,600 --> 00:30:30,600 Three to four times a day. 643 00:30:30,600 --> 00:30:33,600 The doctor at the clinic located here 644 00:30:33,600 --> 00:30:35,600 stopped outside to talk with Leonard Scott, 645 00:30:35,600 --> 00:30:38,600 the hospital's administrator. 646 00:30:38,600 --> 00:30:41,600 He was next seen by a teacher at his son's nursery school 647 00:30:41,600 --> 00:30:44,600 here approximately 10 minutes later. 648 00:30:44,600 --> 00:30:46,600 In order to have murdered Donna, 649 00:30:46,600 --> 00:30:48,600 Brannian would have had to have driven to his home, 650 00:30:48,600 --> 00:30:50,600 shot his wife, 651 00:30:50,600 --> 00:30:52,600 and then raced to his son's school 652 00:30:52,600 --> 00:30:55,600 all in less than 10 minutes. 653 00:30:55,600 --> 00:30:59,600 Now there's no way the police could have made this in six minutes. 654 00:30:59,600 --> 00:31:01,600 In the trial, police claimed that this drive 655 00:31:01,600 --> 00:31:03,600 could be made in as little as six minutes. 656 00:31:03,600 --> 00:31:05,600 But according to the Domados, 657 00:31:05,600 --> 00:31:09,600 the police grossly underestimated the actual time this drive would take. 658 00:31:09,600 --> 00:31:12,600 The Domados traveled the same route several times. 659 00:31:12,600 --> 00:31:15,600 It took them at least 11 minutes. 660 00:31:17,600 --> 00:31:20,600 The police testified that they got it down as low as six minutes, 661 00:31:20,600 --> 00:31:24,600 but they also said that they sometimes it took them 12 minutes. 662 00:31:24,600 --> 00:31:27,600 Well, that's a huge disparity between six and 12. 663 00:31:27,600 --> 00:31:30,600 I just wonder how they could have pulled off that six minutes, 664 00:31:30,600 --> 00:31:32,600 and they certainly couldn't have done it at a time 665 00:31:32,600 --> 00:31:34,600 when there were other cars on the street, 666 00:31:34,600 --> 00:31:36,600 or pedestrians, or snow, or anything else, 667 00:31:36,600 --> 00:31:39,600 like the conditions that John Brannian had to drive it in. 668 00:31:39,600 --> 00:31:41,600 It's one thing to say, well, if you're going to kill your wife, 669 00:31:41,600 --> 00:31:43,600 you can speed and hurry up to get home, 670 00:31:43,600 --> 00:31:45,600 but you can't drive through a car ahead of you. 671 00:31:45,600 --> 00:31:47,600 Now if the streets are filled with pedestrians 672 00:31:47,600 --> 00:31:50,600 and people crossing the streets and other kinds of cars, 673 00:31:50,600 --> 00:31:53,600 it was just clearly impossible. 674 00:31:53,600 --> 00:31:55,600 Out of the bedroom, around the corner, 675 00:31:55,600 --> 00:31:57,600 and she would have been resisting. 676 00:31:57,600 --> 00:32:00,600 Further evidence that Brannian could not have shot his wife 677 00:32:00,600 --> 00:32:04,600 came when the Domados consulted pathologist Douglas Shanklin. 678 00:32:04,600 --> 00:32:09,600 After examining the original autopsy reports on Donna Brannian, 679 00:32:09,600 --> 00:32:12,600 Shanklin believes he can prove that she was first assaulted 680 00:32:12,600 --> 00:32:16,600 at least a half hour before John Brannian had even begun to drive home. 681 00:32:16,600 --> 00:32:20,600 An attack, he believes, would have required at least two assailants. 682 00:32:21,600 --> 00:32:24,600 It's very important to note that there were bruises 683 00:32:24,600 --> 00:32:26,600 and other marks on her body, 684 00:32:26,600 --> 00:32:29,600 the most particular of which is a groove in her neck. 685 00:32:29,600 --> 00:32:33,600 It was a very deep groove that began in the anterior neck 686 00:32:33,600 --> 00:32:36,600 and moved laterally and then disappeared behind 687 00:32:36,600 --> 00:32:40,600 as though somebody was standing in back with a taut cord, 688 00:32:40,600 --> 00:32:43,600 not strong enough to strangle a person, 689 00:32:43,600 --> 00:32:45,600 but strong enough to hold them, 690 00:32:45,600 --> 00:32:48,600 to move their body as you wish them to move 691 00:32:48,600 --> 00:32:51,600 and to restrain them from escape. 692 00:32:51,600 --> 00:32:54,600 And of course, as soon as she was shot and the cord was released, 693 00:32:54,600 --> 00:32:56,600 this groove stayed there. 694 00:32:56,600 --> 00:32:59,600 It's not going to continue to form after death 695 00:32:59,600 --> 00:33:01,600 because of the loss of circulation. 696 00:33:01,600 --> 00:33:05,600 It takes at least 15 minutes for such a groove to be formed 697 00:33:05,600 --> 00:33:07,600 and possibly longer. 698 00:33:09,600 --> 00:33:15,600 So you've got a minimum of 15 minutes before the gun is used. 699 00:33:16,600 --> 00:33:20,600 The latest time in testimony for those sounds was approximately 11.25. 700 00:33:20,600 --> 00:33:24,600 So that pushes the beginning of the cord around the neck 701 00:33:24,600 --> 00:33:26,600 15 minutes earlier, 702 00:33:26,600 --> 00:33:30,600 and seems to me that the crime began probably around 11 o'clock 703 00:33:30,600 --> 00:33:32,600 or a few minutes before that. 704 00:33:32,600 --> 00:33:35,600 So she would lie that way in the alcove, 705 00:33:35,600 --> 00:33:36,600 and that would mean... 706 00:33:36,600 --> 00:33:38,600 I think Dr. Branion is innocent of this crime 707 00:33:38,600 --> 00:33:41,600 because there were two people at least involved, 708 00:33:41,600 --> 00:33:44,600 one of whom held the victim for a period of time 709 00:33:44,600 --> 00:33:46,600 but could not have shot at the same time. 710 00:33:46,600 --> 00:33:49,600 Bang, bang. She falls. 711 00:33:49,600 --> 00:33:53,600 So there had to be two parties to the final action of this scenario. 712 00:33:55,600 --> 00:33:58,600 But even if Donna Branion was killed by two assailants 713 00:33:58,600 --> 00:34:00,600 while her husband was at work, 714 00:34:00,600 --> 00:34:02,600 former prosecutor Patrick Tuitt 715 00:34:02,600 --> 00:34:05,600 believes that Branion may still be guilty. 716 00:34:06,600 --> 00:34:09,600 I always, even at the time of trial, 717 00:34:09,600 --> 00:34:12,600 had doubts as to whether he actually pulled the trigger. 718 00:34:12,600 --> 00:34:15,600 That was our theory of the prosecution. 719 00:34:15,600 --> 00:34:20,600 But I always felt and I still feel that he was somehow responsible for his death. 720 00:34:20,600 --> 00:34:22,600 He is a man that deals with facts. 721 00:34:22,600 --> 00:34:26,600 If there are facts that say that I did not kill my wife, 722 00:34:26,600 --> 00:34:28,600 but I hired someone else, 723 00:34:28,600 --> 00:34:30,600 then let him come forth with them. 724 00:34:30,600 --> 00:34:33,600 How? What gives him the right, the arrogance 725 00:34:33,600 --> 00:34:37,600 to say that he believes something 726 00:34:37,600 --> 00:34:39,600 when there's no evidence of it? 727 00:34:39,600 --> 00:34:41,600 If there was a second party involved, 728 00:34:41,600 --> 00:34:44,600 why did he get the second party and hang us both? 729 00:34:45,600 --> 00:34:48,600 There is no basis in the law whatsoever to say, 730 00:34:48,600 --> 00:34:51,600 oh, well, if he wasn't there, he hired someone to do it. 731 00:34:51,600 --> 00:34:55,600 It's the jury should hear if there was any evidence of anyone being hired, 732 00:34:55,600 --> 00:34:58,600 and if they didn't, if the state chose not to present that theory, 733 00:34:58,600 --> 00:35:01,600 then it is legally irrelevant. 734 00:35:02,600 --> 00:35:07,600 Today, John Branion and the Damados have exhausted all avenues of judicial appeal. 735 00:35:07,600 --> 00:35:11,600 Branion's only hope is clemency from the governor of Illinois, 736 00:35:11,600 --> 00:35:14,600 a clemency that cannot be delayed much longer, 737 00:35:14,600 --> 00:35:16,600 for John Branion needs a heart transplant 738 00:35:16,600 --> 00:35:20,600 that will be denied him as long as he remains in prison. 739 00:35:20,600 --> 00:35:29,600 Convicted murderers are not put on the waiting list for heart transplants. 740 00:35:29,600 --> 00:35:34,600 So he's almost, you know, he has a double death sentence. 741 00:35:34,600 --> 00:35:38,600 He's already in prison for a crime that he did not commit, 742 00:35:38,600 --> 00:35:42,600 and then he can't get the medical care that he needs to continue living. 743 00:35:42,600 --> 00:35:46,600 So in essence, he has a death sentence. 744 00:35:50,600 --> 00:35:55,600 Tonight, John Branion is in prison, and for him, time is running out. 745 00:35:55,600 --> 00:35:59,600 Is he a murderer or an innocent victim? 746 00:35:59,600 --> 00:36:03,600 If Branion's operation is delayed much further, 747 00:36:03,600 --> 00:36:06,600 the answer will make little difference. 748 00:36:20,600 --> 00:36:23,600 In a moment, the poignant story of a real-life Santa Claus 749 00:36:23,600 --> 00:36:26,600 who has given happiness to children across the country. 750 00:36:26,600 --> 00:36:29,600 But today, Joseph Shambier wants a Christmas present of his own 751 00:36:29,600 --> 00:36:32,600 to speak with his long-lost daughter. 752 00:36:33,600 --> 00:36:41,600 All of us are familiar with the department store 753 00:36:41,600 --> 00:36:45,600 Santa's and street corner Santa's who appear each December. 754 00:36:45,600 --> 00:36:48,600 These jolly men are cheerful symbols of the season. 755 00:36:48,600 --> 00:36:52,600 Yet our next story is about a Santa Claus who behind his jolly smile 756 00:36:52,600 --> 00:36:55,600 has been hiding a broken heart for more than 40 years. 757 00:36:55,600 --> 00:36:59,600 Tonight, maybe you can help bring about a happy ending to this story, 758 00:36:59,600 --> 00:37:02,600 which we call Santa's Baby. 759 00:37:04,600 --> 00:37:07,600 The story begins toward the end of the Great Depression. 760 00:37:07,600 --> 00:37:11,600 In 1937, the economy was slowly beginning to improve, 761 00:37:11,600 --> 00:37:14,600 but Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania remained hard hit. 762 00:37:14,600 --> 00:37:17,600 Bread lines were still a common sight. 763 00:37:17,600 --> 00:37:20,600 Good jobs were hard to come by. 764 00:37:20,600 --> 00:37:26,600 20-year-old Joseph Felix Shambier could find work only as a Western Union delivery boy. 765 00:37:26,600 --> 00:37:29,600 Against the backdrop of his bleak depression hit city, 766 00:37:29,600 --> 00:37:32,600 Joe did, however, find a wife. 767 00:37:32,600 --> 00:37:36,600 He and Garnet Ullry, two loners without family ties of their own, 768 00:37:36,600 --> 00:37:38,600 fell in love and married. 769 00:37:38,600 --> 00:37:41,600 They were both eager to begin a family. 770 00:37:41,600 --> 00:37:45,600 Two months after the wedding, Garnet became pregnant. 771 00:37:47,600 --> 00:37:51,600 On June 16, 1939, I was at work at Western Union. 772 00:37:51,600 --> 00:37:54,600 I had 14 cents in my pocket. 773 00:37:54,600 --> 00:37:58,600 Felix, Felix, you better get a move on. 774 00:37:58,600 --> 00:38:00,600 Your wife's just gone to labor. 775 00:38:00,600 --> 00:38:01,600 What? 776 00:38:01,600 --> 00:38:02,600 I just gave her another phone. 777 00:38:02,600 --> 00:38:05,600 My wife's gone to labor. She's having a baby. 778 00:38:05,600 --> 00:38:11,600 Neither I nor Garnet had any idea that this would happen so suddenly. 779 00:38:11,600 --> 00:38:14,600 We had given it like an additional couple of weeks. 780 00:38:14,600 --> 00:38:18,600 The doctor thought it would be an additional couple of weeks. 781 00:38:18,600 --> 00:38:20,600 But that wasn't solved. 782 00:38:23,600 --> 00:38:26,600 Needless to say, I ran up the three flights of stairs, 783 00:38:26,600 --> 00:38:30,600 and I was excited. Very excited. 784 00:38:31,600 --> 00:38:34,600 Garnet was further along in her labor than Joe had expected. 785 00:38:34,600 --> 00:38:38,600 The landlady had called for a doctor, but he had not yet arrived. 786 00:38:45,600 --> 00:38:49,600 Here, you just hold on. Hold on. 787 00:38:49,600 --> 00:38:51,600 Come on to my belt. There, now pull on. 788 00:38:51,600 --> 00:38:53,600 Hold on that time. 789 00:38:53,600 --> 00:38:56,600 I think the baby's coming. 790 00:38:56,600 --> 00:39:01,600 I didn't expect that baby to come rushing out and say hello right off the bat 791 00:39:01,600 --> 00:39:03,600 without the doctor being there. 792 00:39:03,600 --> 00:39:04,600 Come on. 793 00:39:04,600 --> 00:39:07,600 You know, that's quite a shock to the system. 794 00:39:09,600 --> 00:39:11,600 Come on, sweetheart. 795 00:39:11,600 --> 00:39:23,600 The two of us were so elated. 796 00:39:23,600 --> 00:39:27,600 It was like a package sent from heaven. 797 00:39:31,600 --> 00:39:35,600 At one o'clock in the afternoon, the doctor finally walked in. 798 00:39:35,600 --> 00:39:38,600 He pronounced both mother and daughter in good health 799 00:39:38,600 --> 00:39:40,600 and congratulated the new parents. 800 00:39:40,600 --> 00:39:42,600 Little baby girl, huh? 801 00:39:42,600 --> 00:39:49,600 Garnet, for the better part of an hour or so, 802 00:39:49,600 --> 00:39:52,600 had the baby in her arm and she kept talking about it. 803 00:39:52,600 --> 00:39:54,600 You know, it was quite... 804 00:39:54,600 --> 00:39:59,600 You'd have never known that she had gone through this misery 805 00:39:59,600 --> 00:40:02,600 of giving birth. 806 00:40:02,600 --> 00:40:04,600 She was so pleased with it. 807 00:40:04,600 --> 00:40:07,600 And I was too, because my goodness, 808 00:40:07,600 --> 00:40:09,600 look at that pretty girl. 809 00:40:09,600 --> 00:40:12,600 She got a little bit tired and I didn't have a bassinet, 810 00:40:12,600 --> 00:40:15,600 so what I did was wrap the baby up in the blanket 811 00:40:15,600 --> 00:40:17,600 and I placed her in the drawer. 812 00:40:17,600 --> 00:40:22,600 I had a bureau dresser there with three drawers. 813 00:40:22,600 --> 00:40:24,600 The bottom drawer was quite long and large 814 00:40:24,600 --> 00:40:28,600 and so once I made a bed in there and placed the baby in there. 815 00:40:28,600 --> 00:40:30,600 Temporary. 816 00:40:30,600 --> 00:40:36,600 And then Garnet had a sharp nap 817 00:40:36,600 --> 00:40:41,600 and woke up again and started speaking in a strange fashion. 818 00:40:41,600 --> 00:40:47,600 For example, Felix, if anything happens to me, 819 00:40:47,600 --> 00:40:50,600 make sure Alice Miller gets the baby. 820 00:40:50,600 --> 00:40:53,600 Alice raised Garnet, so to speak. 821 00:40:53,600 --> 00:40:56,600 There was a relationship there. 822 00:40:56,600 --> 00:40:58,600 More like a second mother. 823 00:40:58,600 --> 00:41:00,600 They were very close. 824 00:41:00,600 --> 00:41:03,600 Just get some. 825 00:41:04,600 --> 00:41:07,600 Take care of the baby, Alberta. 826 00:41:10,600 --> 00:41:14,600 Four o'clock, she just died. 827 00:41:14,600 --> 00:41:19,600 No fight, no suffering. 828 00:41:19,600 --> 00:41:21,600 Nothing of that sort. 829 00:41:21,600 --> 00:41:23,600 Garnet, wake up, what's wrong? 830 00:41:27,600 --> 00:41:29,600 I was numb. 831 00:41:29,600 --> 00:41:31,600 I was absolutely numb. 832 00:41:33,600 --> 00:41:36,600 So I followed her death bed wish. 833 00:41:36,600 --> 00:41:41,600 I did what I thought I was supposed to do. 834 00:41:41,600 --> 00:41:45,600 Joe took his baby daughter, Alberta Elaine, to Alice Miller. 835 00:41:45,600 --> 00:41:49,600 You're going to be a good little girl for Mrs. Miller, Alberta Elaine? 836 00:41:49,600 --> 00:41:50,600 Everything will be all right. 837 00:41:50,600 --> 00:41:53,600 There was a sense of relief in that 838 00:41:53,600 --> 00:41:56,600 I knew that the baby would be well taken care of. 839 00:41:56,600 --> 00:41:59,600 She'd be brought up properly. 840 00:41:59,600 --> 00:42:01,600 Your shirt's not too much trouble. 841 00:42:01,600 --> 00:42:03,600 Oh, no trouble at all. 842 00:42:03,600 --> 00:42:06,600 We'll have a good time. 843 00:42:06,600 --> 00:42:08,600 Well, I appreciate it. 844 00:42:08,600 --> 00:42:10,600 I know this is what Garnet wanted. 845 00:42:10,600 --> 00:42:12,600 God rest her soul. 846 00:42:12,600 --> 00:42:15,600 Alice was a very conscientious woman. 847 00:42:15,600 --> 00:42:19,600 Very loving, caring person. 848 00:42:19,600 --> 00:42:21,600 Good common sense. 849 00:42:21,600 --> 00:42:25,600 She was a typical good American woman. 850 00:42:26,600 --> 00:42:28,600 Don't worry. 851 00:42:29,600 --> 00:42:31,600 Thank you, man. 852 00:42:34,600 --> 00:42:37,600 Good jobs were still almost impossible to find. 853 00:42:37,600 --> 00:42:41,600 So one week before Pearl Harbor, Joe Shambier enlisted. 854 00:42:41,600 --> 00:42:47,600 He felt the army was his best chance to give some financial security to his tiny daughter. 855 00:42:47,600 --> 00:42:51,600 Joe was assigned to basic training in Fort Devens, Massachusetts, 856 00:42:51,600 --> 00:42:53,600 then shipped out to the Pacific Theater. 857 00:42:53,600 --> 00:42:57,600 His little daughter never left his mind. 858 00:42:57,600 --> 00:43:00,600 And all during the time that I was in the service, 859 00:43:00,600 --> 00:43:04,600 I kept a little prayer book here, 860 00:43:04,600 --> 00:43:07,600 the little manual is what it's called. 861 00:43:07,600 --> 00:43:11,600 And inside that manual is a picture of my daughter. 862 00:43:11,600 --> 00:43:15,600 It's the only picture that I have of her. 863 00:43:15,600 --> 00:43:20,600 I wrote to the Nulles several times. 864 00:43:20,600 --> 00:43:23,600 I don't know, five, six times. 865 00:43:23,600 --> 00:43:26,600 I never received a reply. 866 00:43:26,600 --> 00:43:29,600 No communications with Alice at all. 867 00:43:29,600 --> 00:43:32,600 All during the time I was in the army. 868 00:43:32,600 --> 00:43:39,600 In August of 1943, Joe suffered a head injury during air raid drills in the Panama Canal Zone. 869 00:43:39,600 --> 00:43:42,600 After treatment, he was plagued with intermittent neck and back pain, 870 00:43:42,600 --> 00:43:46,600 so he was shipped to a Boston hospital for further treatment. 871 00:43:46,600 --> 00:43:50,600 On the way, his plane stopped in Pittsburgh. 872 00:43:50,600 --> 00:43:55,600 At the Allegheny Airport, when we landed, we had a half an hour to refuel, 873 00:43:55,600 --> 00:43:58,600 and I asked permission to call Alice Miller. 874 00:43:58,600 --> 00:44:02,600 After all, she had the baby, and I wanted to find out about the baby, how she was doing, 875 00:44:02,600 --> 00:44:07,600 and so far the baby was roughly five years old at the time. 876 00:44:07,600 --> 00:44:08,600 Hello. 877 00:44:08,600 --> 00:44:15,600 This strange voice of a woman answered, and when I told her who I was, 878 00:44:15,600 --> 00:44:19,600 she said I was supposed to be dead, that the baby had been adopted. 879 00:44:19,600 --> 00:44:23,600 Bang, went to receive him. 880 00:44:23,600 --> 00:44:25,600 You gotta go. 881 00:44:25,600 --> 00:44:28,600 The nameless woman on the telephone left Joe dumbfounded. 882 00:44:28,600 --> 00:44:35,600 She said Alberta Elaine's adoption records were sealed, and he would never see his daughter again. 883 00:44:35,600 --> 00:44:37,600 Well, it's a blow. 884 00:44:37,600 --> 00:44:39,600 To say the least, it's a blow. 885 00:44:39,600 --> 00:44:43,600 It's enough to blow your mind. 886 00:44:43,600 --> 00:44:47,600 Despite Joe's best efforts, he could not locate his baby daughter. 887 00:44:47,600 --> 00:44:50,600 He never stopped trying to find her. 888 00:44:50,600 --> 00:44:54,600 In 1946, he married for the second time, then moved to New England, 889 00:44:54,600 --> 00:44:57,600 where he worked as a clerk at the Veterans Administration. 890 00:45:03,600 --> 00:45:07,600 Oh, Rudolph! Oh, oh boy! Slow down! 891 00:45:07,600 --> 00:45:11,600 One year later, at Christmas time, Joe phoned a little girl in his neighborhood 892 00:45:11,600 --> 00:45:13,600 pretending to be Santa Claus. 893 00:45:13,600 --> 00:45:15,600 Ho, ho, ho, ho! 894 00:45:15,600 --> 00:45:18,600 So this is Santa Claus calling from the North Pole. 895 00:45:18,600 --> 00:45:20,600 The little girl was delighted. 896 00:45:20,600 --> 00:45:24,600 Soon, all the other neighborhood children were clamoring for Santa to call them. 897 00:45:24,600 --> 00:45:28,600 By the next Christmas, a local radio station had put Joe on the air. 898 00:45:28,600 --> 00:45:33,600 Soon, thanks to newspaper articles across the country, telephone operators everywhere 899 00:45:33,600 --> 00:45:38,600 were referring young callers who asked to speak to Santa Claus to Joe's shambere. 900 00:45:38,600 --> 00:45:40,600 What would you like for Christmas? 901 00:45:40,600 --> 00:45:43,600 I'm writing this down in my big book. 902 00:45:43,600 --> 00:45:45,600 That's not work. 903 00:45:45,600 --> 00:45:47,600 It's a challenge. 904 00:45:47,600 --> 00:45:51,600 But you know, deep down, that you're doing something good, 905 00:45:51,600 --> 00:45:55,600 and at the same time, you are looking for that needle in the haystack. 906 00:45:55,600 --> 00:45:58,600 Namely, Alberta Elaine. 907 00:45:58,600 --> 00:46:01,600 That would be a heaven sent. 908 00:46:01,600 --> 00:46:08,600 To be able to look at her, be able to sit down with her, talk with her, 909 00:46:08,600 --> 00:46:13,600 maybe give her a big hug if she would let me. 910 00:46:13,600 --> 00:46:17,600 It's my own flesh and blood, and she deserves to know what took place. 911 00:46:37,600 --> 00:46:42,600 For every mystery, there is someone somewhere who knows the truth. 912 00:46:42,600 --> 00:46:44,600 Perhaps that's someone who's watching. 913 00:46:44,600 --> 00:46:46,600 Perhaps it's you.