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 --> 00:00:12,080 What you are about to see is not a news broadcast. 5 00:00:16,080 --> 00:00:19,280 Tonight, a fascinating new mystery. 6 00:00:19,280 --> 00:00:22,400 For years, Jim Boombarton had the oddest encounters 7 00:00:22,400 --> 00:00:24,600 with people he had never seen before who 8 00:00:24,600 --> 00:00:26,800 were positive that he would have been 9 00:00:26,800 --> 00:00:28,360 someone else. 10 00:00:28,360 --> 00:00:31,000 Then his friends and family began to have odd run-ins 11 00:00:31,000 --> 00:00:35,440 with a mysterious stranger who appeared to be Jim's exact double. 12 00:00:35,440 --> 00:00:38,160 Was someone impersonating Jim Boombarton? 13 00:00:38,160 --> 00:00:42,360 If so, who and why? 14 00:00:42,360 --> 00:00:44,560 After he assassinated Abraham Lincoln, 15 00:00:44,560 --> 00:00:46,840 history records that John Wilkes Booth was tracked 16 00:00:46,840 --> 00:00:50,160 to a farm in Virginia and killed by Union troops. 17 00:00:50,160 --> 00:00:52,040 But history may be wrong. 18 00:00:52,040 --> 00:00:54,480 A few eyewitness accounts show that the story 19 00:00:54,480 --> 00:00:57,080 of the man in the barn was not Booth. 20 00:00:57,080 --> 00:01:00,960 And some historians now believe that Lincoln's assassin was never 21 00:01:00,960 --> 00:01:03,320 brought to justice. 22 00:01:03,320 --> 00:01:06,040 When Alex Cooper, a devoted father and grandfather, 23 00:01:06,040 --> 00:01:09,800 disappeared, his family made an unsettling discovery. 24 00:01:09,800 --> 00:01:12,760 There was no such person as Alex Cooper. 25 00:01:12,760 --> 00:01:19,240 He had created a fictitious past and become a man who never was. 26 00:01:19,240 --> 00:01:22,880 Join me for another edition of On The Side. 27 00:01:22,880 --> 00:01:25,280 For another edition of Unsolved Mysteries. 28 00:01:52,880 --> 00:02:19,280 April 1865, the Civil War was over. 29 00:02:19,280 --> 00:02:23,160 For nearly two weeks, 2,000 Union soldiers scoured the countryside 30 00:02:23,160 --> 00:02:24,160 searching for his assassin. 31 00:02:30,160 --> 00:02:34,640 On April 26th at 4 AM, a cavalry detachment surrounded 32 00:02:34,640 --> 00:02:39,680 a tobacco barn on Garrett Farm in Virginia. 33 00:02:39,680 --> 00:02:43,080 They had been told that Inside was one of the most notorious 34 00:02:43,080 --> 00:02:46,440 and most dangerous places in the world. 35 00:02:46,480 --> 00:02:49,520 They had been told that Inside was one of the most notorious 36 00:02:49,520 --> 00:02:53,400 criminals of the century or of any age. 37 00:02:53,400 --> 00:02:57,600 John Wilkes Booth, you are surrounded. 38 00:02:57,600 --> 00:02:59,960 You and all with you. 39 00:02:59,960 --> 00:03:03,760 26-year-old John Wilkes Booth was an actor of national fame 40 00:03:03,760 --> 00:03:07,120 considered by some the handsomest man in America. 41 00:03:07,120 --> 00:03:12,440 He was also deeply committed to the Confederate cause. 42 00:03:12,440 --> 00:03:15,760 On April 14th, Booth had mortally wounded President Lincoln 43 00:03:15,800 --> 00:03:19,840 at Ford's Theater in Washington. 44 00:03:19,840 --> 00:03:22,200 The man who had freed the slaves and given hope 45 00:03:22,200 --> 00:03:25,120 to the disenfranchised was gone. 46 00:03:25,120 --> 00:03:27,520 Abraham Lincoln, who had preserved the Union 47 00:03:27,520 --> 00:03:31,000 through sheer force of will, now belonged to the ages. 48 00:03:33,760 --> 00:03:37,200 On April 26th, 12 days after the assassination, 49 00:03:37,200 --> 00:03:39,800 an informant directed Union troops to the Garrett Farm. 50 00:03:40,440 --> 00:03:43,840 The man who surrendered was not John Wilkes Booth, 51 00:03:43,840 --> 00:03:47,280 but 21-year-old David Harrell, known to be one of Booth's 52 00:03:47,280 --> 00:03:48,280 co-conspirators. 53 00:03:51,360 --> 00:03:53,920 Lieutenant Edward Daugherty grew impatient. 54 00:03:53,920 --> 00:03:56,400 He gave the command to smoke out his quarry. 55 00:04:00,920 --> 00:04:02,520 The soldiers are under strict orders 56 00:04:02,520 --> 00:04:04,480 to take Booth off the ship. 57 00:04:04,480 --> 00:04:06,800 The soldiers were told to leave the ship 58 00:04:07,480 --> 00:04:10,600 The soldiers are under strict orders to take Booth alive. 59 00:04:10,600 --> 00:04:13,160 But an overzealous sergeant named Boston Corbett 60 00:04:13,160 --> 00:04:14,960 took matters into his own hands. 61 00:04:23,680 --> 00:04:26,400 Two soldiers dragged the body from the raging inferno. 62 00:04:29,120 --> 00:04:32,000 The nation was avenged, or was it? 63 00:04:32,800 --> 00:04:35,760 There is tremendous physical evidence, 64 00:04:35,760 --> 00:04:37,560 which proves beyond a doubt. 65 00:04:37,560 --> 00:04:40,040 John Wilkes Booth, in reality, was not killed 66 00:04:40,040 --> 00:04:43,360 by the federal government officers, as they claimed. 67 00:04:43,360 --> 00:04:47,280 In fact, lived until January 13, 1903, when he died 68 00:04:47,280 --> 00:04:48,560 in Enid, Oklahoma, Territory. 69 00:04:51,560 --> 00:04:53,720 According to official history, John Wilkes Booth 70 00:04:53,720 --> 00:04:57,160 died on April 26, 1865. 71 00:04:57,160 --> 00:05:01,000 Incredibly, this fact has given rise to a number of reasons. 72 00:05:01,000 --> 00:05:03,720 It has given rise to an unlikely controversy 73 00:05:03,720 --> 00:05:04,880 in historical circles. 74 00:05:11,720 --> 00:05:13,160 The matter of Booth's life and death 75 00:05:13,160 --> 00:05:15,000 has always seemed an indisputable chapter 76 00:05:15,000 --> 00:05:17,080 in American history. 77 00:05:17,080 --> 00:05:19,000 But even the encyclopedia Britannica 78 00:05:19,000 --> 00:05:21,560 states that the identification of the man shot in the barn 79 00:05:21,560 --> 00:05:24,200 was equivocal at the time. 80 00:05:24,200 --> 00:05:25,800 Those who question the official account 81 00:05:25,800 --> 00:05:28,440 believe that in the confusion following the Civil War, 82 00:05:28,440 --> 00:05:30,720 critical evidence may have been mistakenly recorded 83 00:05:30,760 --> 00:05:33,040 or perhaps covered up. 84 00:05:33,040 --> 00:05:36,280 Others dismissed these series as revisionist nonsense. 85 00:05:36,280 --> 00:05:39,240 We'll examine both sides of this fascinating controversy, which 86 00:05:39,240 --> 00:05:41,880 has been brewing for 125 years. 87 00:05:45,720 --> 00:05:48,880 In 1866, Senator Charles Sumner argued 88 00:05:48,880 --> 00:05:51,080 that the government reward for Booth's capture 89 00:05:51,080 --> 00:05:53,120 should not be paid out. 90 00:05:53,120 --> 00:05:55,440 He claimed that there was simply not enough evidence 91 00:05:55,440 --> 00:05:58,000 to verify Booth's identity. 92 00:05:58,040 --> 00:06:01,000 That same year, Senator Garrett Davis of Kentucky 93 00:06:01,000 --> 00:06:04,320 complained that he had never seen any satisfactory evidence 94 00:06:04,320 --> 00:06:06,320 that Booth had been killed. 95 00:06:06,320 --> 00:06:08,920 And in the early 1900s, John Schumacher, 96 00:06:08,920 --> 00:06:12,800 general counsel to the Department of the Army, wrote, 97 00:06:12,800 --> 00:06:14,880 The evidence put forth by the government 98 00:06:14,880 --> 00:06:17,040 to support the conclusion that the body was 99 00:06:17,040 --> 00:06:21,440 that of John Wilkes Booth was so insubstantial that it would not 100 00:06:21,440 --> 00:06:23,080 stand up in a court of law. 101 00:06:23,720 --> 00:06:25,680 Nate Orlowek and Dr. Arthur Chitty 102 00:06:25,680 --> 00:06:28,640 have spent years studying the Lincoln assassination. 103 00:06:28,640 --> 00:06:33,880 Independently, they have arrived at the same conclusion. 104 00:06:33,880 --> 00:06:38,360 The most persuasive evidence to me at Garrett's barn 105 00:06:38,360 --> 00:06:41,800 that the man in the barn was not Booth 106 00:06:41,800 --> 00:06:44,840 is the fact that his friend David E. Harold came out 107 00:06:44,840 --> 00:06:45,800 of the barn. 108 00:06:45,800 --> 00:06:48,480 And the first thing he said was, the man in there is not Booth. 109 00:06:48,480 --> 00:06:52,360 The man inside that barn is not John Wilkes Booth. 110 00:06:52,360 --> 00:06:55,360 His name is Booth. 111 00:06:55,360 --> 00:06:58,840 And there was a boyd who was a wanted fugitive at this time 112 00:06:58,840 --> 00:07:01,840 for killing a Captain Watkins in Maryland. 113 00:07:01,840 --> 00:07:05,800 Of course, Harold was not permitted to testify in his trial, 114 00:07:05,800 --> 00:07:07,600 as was the case with all the defendants. 115 00:07:07,600 --> 00:07:09,440 None of them were permitted to testify. 116 00:07:09,440 --> 00:07:11,440 His statement, of course, was kept secret, 117 00:07:11,440 --> 00:07:12,440 as all the others were. 118 00:07:12,440 --> 00:07:14,440 So we don't want to be a victim of the fact 119 00:07:14,440 --> 00:07:16,440 that the man in the barn was not Booth. 120 00:07:16,480 --> 00:07:18,160 It was kept secret, as all the others were. 121 00:07:18,160 --> 00:07:20,760 So we don't really know, because Harold was not 122 00:07:20,760 --> 00:07:21,840 permitted to say anything. 123 00:07:21,840 --> 00:07:22,880 And of course, he was hanged. 124 00:07:22,880 --> 00:07:26,760 So we don't know exactly who the man was. 125 00:07:26,760 --> 00:07:31,800 I have heard the account that Harold was pulled out of Garrett's 126 00:07:31,800 --> 00:07:34,640 barn and said, that's not Booth in there. 127 00:07:34,640 --> 00:07:36,600 I have no source for that. 128 00:07:36,600 --> 00:07:40,200 I don't know where the story came from. 129 00:07:40,200 --> 00:07:42,800 Historian James Hall refused this incident 130 00:07:42,800 --> 00:07:45,840 by citing a 40-page statement made by David Harold 131 00:07:45,880 --> 00:07:50,760 to government investigators 36 hours after his arrest. 132 00:07:50,760 --> 00:07:54,880 Harold referred to Booth 10 times by name 133 00:07:54,880 --> 00:07:58,080 when he was discussing what went on in the barn 134 00:07:58,080 --> 00:08:00,920 while it was being surrounded by the soldiers. 135 00:08:00,920 --> 00:08:02,760 To me, that's conclusive. 136 00:08:02,760 --> 00:08:06,200 I can't see where they get the idea that he'd come running out 137 00:08:06,200 --> 00:08:07,800 and say it's not Booth. 138 00:08:07,800 --> 00:08:11,080 By the time David E. Harold changed his testimony, 139 00:08:11,080 --> 00:08:13,600 he was under such enormous pressure. 140 00:08:13,600 --> 00:08:15,640 He was in fear of his life. 141 00:08:15,640 --> 00:08:20,320 He had been incarcerated with a canvas bag over his head 142 00:08:20,320 --> 00:08:23,720 and just a little hole to be fed through. 143 00:08:23,720 --> 00:08:26,120 He was under terrible emotional strain 144 00:08:26,120 --> 00:08:28,200 and was trying to save his neck. 145 00:08:28,200 --> 00:08:31,000 And so therefore, when he thought 146 00:08:31,000 --> 00:08:34,400 that he would survive by changing his story, 147 00:08:34,400 --> 00:08:35,600 he changed his story. 148 00:08:38,720 --> 00:08:41,400 According to Nate Orlowek, other eyewitnesses 149 00:08:41,400 --> 00:08:44,080 also refuted the government's identification 150 00:08:44,080 --> 00:08:45,840 of the man killed at Garrett's Farm. 151 00:08:48,480 --> 00:08:51,840 Colonel, this man is not Booth. 152 00:08:51,840 --> 00:08:53,360 What's that, Lieutenant? 153 00:08:53,360 --> 00:08:54,720 This man is not Booth. 154 00:08:54,720 --> 00:08:56,120 This man has red hair. 155 00:08:56,120 --> 00:08:57,040 Lieutenant. 156 00:08:57,040 --> 00:08:59,240 Lieutenant William C. Allen worked for the United States Secret 157 00:08:59,240 --> 00:09:01,200 Service in 1865. 158 00:09:01,200 --> 00:09:05,920 And in August of 1937, his widow, Mrs. Hannah Allen, 159 00:09:05,920 --> 00:09:09,720 told a journalist that her husband had told her 160 00:09:09,720 --> 00:09:13,840 that he saw the man at Garrett's Farm who had been killed 161 00:09:13,880 --> 00:09:17,800 and that the man had red hair and that the government knew 162 00:09:17,800 --> 00:09:19,480 that that man was not Booth. 163 00:09:19,480 --> 00:09:23,200 But they were determined to force this man on the nation 164 00:09:23,200 --> 00:09:25,760 as Booth. 165 00:09:25,760 --> 00:09:29,480 By every historical account, Booth's hair was jet black. 166 00:09:29,480 --> 00:09:31,920 Stephen's testimony about the red-haired man 167 00:09:31,920 --> 00:09:35,000 was corroborated by two other Union soldiers, 168 00:09:35,000 --> 00:09:39,640 Private Joseph Zistian and quartermaster Wilson D. Kenzie. 169 00:09:39,640 --> 00:09:41,560 The 16th, they surrounded Garrett's barn. 170 00:09:41,560 --> 00:09:42,640 They burned the barn down. 171 00:09:42,640 --> 00:09:44,120 They shot John Wilkes Booth. 172 00:09:44,120 --> 00:09:45,400 Only it's not Booth. 173 00:09:45,400 --> 00:09:45,800 How do you know? 174 00:09:45,800 --> 00:09:47,000 It doesn't look like him. 175 00:09:47,000 --> 00:09:47,920 No one will believe me. 176 00:09:47,920 --> 00:09:48,720 Come back with me. 177 00:09:48,720 --> 00:09:51,080 Kenzie and his buddy Joseph Zistian 178 00:09:51,080 --> 00:09:56,320 were friends of Booth in 1862 and 63 in New Orleans. 179 00:09:56,320 --> 00:09:58,960 Kenzie was a quartermaster and was 180 00:09:58,960 --> 00:10:01,280 free to go wherever he wanted, basically, 181 00:10:01,280 --> 00:10:02,440 within the military lines. 182 00:10:02,440 --> 00:10:05,200 And so he went with Zistian to Garrett's Farm 183 00:10:05,200 --> 00:10:06,520 because he had an interest in what 184 00:10:06,520 --> 00:10:07,480 was going to happen to Booth. 185 00:10:08,200 --> 00:10:14,920 In 1922, when he was 77 years old, 186 00:10:14,920 --> 00:10:17,440 Kenzie detailed what he saw at Garrett's Farm 187 00:10:17,440 --> 00:10:20,360 in a sworn affidavit. 188 00:10:20,360 --> 00:10:24,160 As I rode up, Joseph Zistian called here a communist sergeant 189 00:10:24,160 --> 00:10:26,640 to St. John Wilkes Booth tall. 190 00:10:26,640 --> 00:10:29,200 His face was exposed enough so I could see the color 191 00:10:29,200 --> 00:10:31,680 of his hair on the side of his face. 192 00:10:31,680 --> 00:10:34,000 From the fact that this man had sandy hair 193 00:10:34,000 --> 00:10:36,760 and Booth had very dark hair, I knew at once 194 00:10:36,760 --> 00:10:38,360 it wasn't he. 195 00:10:38,360 --> 00:10:41,400 His body was exposed, the lower part of it, 196 00:10:41,400 --> 00:10:45,640 and he had no injured leg that I could see. 197 00:10:45,640 --> 00:10:48,560 You men, move away from that body. 198 00:10:48,560 --> 00:10:51,000 You two are under direct orders to speak to no one 199 00:10:51,000 --> 00:10:52,080 of what you've seen here today. 200 00:10:52,080 --> 00:10:53,480 Do you understand me? 201 00:10:53,480 --> 00:10:56,640 And he said that the officers there told him, 202 00:10:56,640 --> 00:10:59,240 everyone has to keep this secret. 203 00:10:59,240 --> 00:11:03,520 There'll be dire consequences for anyone who tells the truth. 204 00:11:03,520 --> 00:11:05,080 The military really meant business, 205 00:11:05,080 --> 00:11:07,480 and they were not going to risk their lives just 206 00:11:07,480 --> 00:11:08,200 to tell the truth. 207 00:11:11,600 --> 00:11:13,440 The government autopsy was performed 208 00:11:13,440 --> 00:11:15,520 by a physician who was acquainted with Booth. 209 00:11:20,040 --> 00:11:22,960 Dr. John F. May was a Washington surgeon 210 00:11:22,960 --> 00:11:25,760 who removed a tumor from the back of Booth's neck 211 00:11:25,760 --> 00:11:29,680 a few months before the assassination in 1865. 212 00:11:29,680 --> 00:11:34,320 His statement is now in the National Archives. 213 00:11:34,320 --> 00:11:36,000 Like all the other government records on the case, 214 00:11:36,000 --> 00:11:38,280 it was held secret for 70 years. 215 00:11:45,280 --> 00:11:48,880 The corpse bears no resemblance to the actor John Luke's Booth. 216 00:11:53,000 --> 00:11:55,640 John and Frederick May wanted to tell the truth, 217 00:11:55,640 --> 00:11:58,640 and he recognized that this was not Booth, 218 00:11:58,640 --> 00:12:01,240 but it was made pretty clear to him very early on 219 00:12:01,240 --> 00:12:03,000 that this better be Booth. 220 00:12:04,320 --> 00:12:05,320 It's freckled. 221 00:12:05,320 --> 00:12:07,000 I do not remember Booth as being freckled. 222 00:12:10,000 --> 00:12:13,480 And so we have the curious affidavit, which starts off 223 00:12:13,480 --> 00:12:16,600 saying, I'm sure this is Booth. 224 00:12:16,600 --> 00:12:20,080 And then goes on to say, but it doesn't look like Booth. 225 00:12:20,080 --> 00:12:25,880 And it goes on to say, I recall Booth is having black hair, 226 00:12:25,880 --> 00:12:28,840 and this man has sandy hair. 227 00:12:28,840 --> 00:12:31,560 I recall that Booth had rather clear complexion 228 00:12:31,560 --> 00:12:34,120 and this man is freckled. 229 00:12:34,120 --> 00:12:39,840 But this is certainly Booth, signed John Frederick May. 230 00:12:39,840 --> 00:12:42,680 In 1906, Dr. May clarified his findings 231 00:12:42,680 --> 00:12:45,880 in an article titled The Mark of the Scalpel. 232 00:12:45,880 --> 00:12:48,280 He said he believed the discrepancies he found 233 00:12:48,280 --> 00:12:50,520 were due to the physical deterioration of Booth 234 00:12:50,520 --> 00:12:52,280 while he was on the run. 235 00:12:52,280 --> 00:12:54,880 Dr. May also said there was a scar on the neck 236 00:12:54,880 --> 00:12:59,480 which corresponded to the scar left by his surgery in 1867. 237 00:13:00,480 --> 00:13:05,040 Now had the government really believed that that body was Booth's, 238 00:13:05,040 --> 00:13:06,920 they would have taken pictures of it. 239 00:13:06,920 --> 00:13:09,880 They would have had many, many hundreds of people 240 00:13:09,880 --> 00:13:11,440 to identify it. 241 00:13:11,440 --> 00:13:13,040 But the War Department didn't do that. 242 00:13:13,040 --> 00:13:15,640 The government knew that that man was not Booth. 243 00:13:21,040 --> 00:13:23,800 Eventually, Booth's body was secretly buried 244 00:13:23,800 --> 00:13:25,960 in the basement of the old man's body. 245 00:13:26,000 --> 00:13:28,000 Eventually, Booth's body was secretly 246 00:13:28,000 --> 00:13:33,000 buried in the basement of the old naval prison in Washington. 247 00:13:33,000 --> 00:13:35,480 It seems incredible that union authorities would have 248 00:13:35,480 --> 00:13:38,960 misidentified the assassin of President Lincoln. 249 00:13:38,960 --> 00:13:41,400 But if John Wilkes Booth was not killed at Garrett's 250 00:13:41,400 --> 00:13:45,320 barn in 1865, then what became of him? 251 00:13:45,320 --> 00:13:48,960 When we return, we'll present evidence of Booth's escape 252 00:13:48,960 --> 00:13:51,320 his later years and startling facts 253 00:13:51,320 --> 00:13:52,960 about the assassination conspiracy. 254 00:13:56,960 --> 00:13:59,680 In 1865, the government moved quickly 255 00:13:59,680 --> 00:14:02,840 to close the books on the Lincoln assassination. 256 00:14:02,840 --> 00:14:06,000 John Wilkes Booth had been hunted down and killed. 257 00:14:06,000 --> 00:14:07,840 The trial of Booth's co-conspirators 258 00:14:07,840 --> 00:14:12,120 resulted in four hangings and three life sentences. 259 00:14:12,120 --> 00:14:15,400 As the nation began to rebuild, the details of the conspiracy 260 00:14:15,400 --> 00:14:18,560 were classified as secret and hidden away. 261 00:14:18,560 --> 00:14:22,320 Some believe, however, that John Wilkes Booth escaped union 262 00:14:22,360 --> 00:14:25,840 soldiers, that he fled south under assumed names 263 00:14:25,840 --> 00:14:30,480 and lived another 38 years. 264 00:14:30,480 --> 00:14:34,280 In 1907, an obscure attorney from Texas named Finest Bates 265 00:14:34,280 --> 00:14:37,200 published this book, The Escape and Suicide of John Wilkes 266 00:14:37,200 --> 00:14:38,680 Booth. 267 00:14:38,680 --> 00:14:41,280 In these pages, Bates claimed that he learned the true story 268 00:14:41,280 --> 00:14:44,000 of Booth from one of his clients, a man named John St. 269 00:14:44,000 --> 00:14:45,600 Helen of Grandbury, Texas. 270 00:14:46,600 --> 00:14:53,000 In 1877, St. Helen felt grievous liel, 271 00:14:53,000 --> 00:14:56,160 and thinking he was about to die made a startling confession 272 00:14:56,160 --> 00:14:57,640 to Finest Bates. 273 00:14:57,640 --> 00:15:00,080 Finest. 274 00:15:00,080 --> 00:15:00,840 John. 275 00:15:00,840 --> 00:15:03,760 Finest. 276 00:15:03,760 --> 00:15:07,400 My name is not John St. Helen. 277 00:15:07,400 --> 00:15:12,720 It's really John Wilkes Booth, assassin, resident Lincoln. 278 00:15:15,600 --> 00:15:20,560 If I die, tell my brother Edwin I'm dead. 279 00:15:20,560 --> 00:15:24,560 Well, Bates, of course, thought this guy was crazy. 280 00:15:24,560 --> 00:15:26,360 He had been told, as everyone else had, 281 00:15:26,360 --> 00:15:28,920 that Booth had been killed in 1865. 282 00:15:28,920 --> 00:15:30,360 So he thought he was just hallucinating. 283 00:15:30,360 --> 00:15:32,080 TV rope. 284 00:15:32,080 --> 00:15:35,040 And Booth said to him, no, I really am John Wilkes Booth. 285 00:15:35,040 --> 00:15:36,480 And now that I've told you my secret, 286 00:15:36,480 --> 00:15:39,480 I want to give you the whole story. 287 00:15:39,480 --> 00:15:42,600 So he poured out for Bates a very long confession, 288 00:15:42,640 --> 00:15:46,040 detailing in great detail the kidnapped conspiracy, 289 00:15:46,040 --> 00:15:49,160 the murder conspiracy, how he got out of Washington, 290 00:15:49,160 --> 00:15:51,320 how he escaped altogether. 291 00:15:51,320 --> 00:15:56,920 Escaped Washington DC using a password. 292 00:15:56,920 --> 00:15:58,720 TV rope. 293 00:15:58,720 --> 00:16:01,400 St. Helen explained that during the Civil War, 294 00:16:01,400 --> 00:16:04,440 all bridges out of Washington were closed after nightfall 295 00:16:04,440 --> 00:16:09,480 and heavily guarded, making escape near impossible. 296 00:16:09,480 --> 00:16:11,480 I'll tell you what, I'll tell you what. 297 00:16:11,480 --> 00:16:12,760 But I must cross. 298 00:16:12,760 --> 00:16:15,320 I'm sorry, the bridge is closed. 299 00:16:15,320 --> 00:16:16,840 I have a password. 300 00:16:16,840 --> 00:16:18,080 Password? 301 00:16:18,080 --> 00:16:19,320 TV. 302 00:16:19,320 --> 00:16:22,240 TV rope. 303 00:16:22,240 --> 00:16:23,320 All right, you may pass. 304 00:16:33,120 --> 00:16:36,560 Carroborating Booth alias St. Helen telling Bates 305 00:16:36,560 --> 00:16:39,960 of this password is the dramatic letter written 306 00:16:39,960 --> 00:16:42,720 by Frederick A. DeMond, who was one of the guards 307 00:16:42,720 --> 00:16:46,120 at the Navy Yard Bridge the night of the assassination. 308 00:16:46,120 --> 00:16:51,640 On May 31, 1916, DeMond sent Bates a letter. 309 00:16:51,640 --> 00:16:55,080 In that letter, DeMond says at about 10 PM that night, 310 00:16:55,080 --> 00:16:58,440 a captain rode up to the bridge and said, 311 00:16:58,440 --> 00:17:03,960 if anyone comes up using a certain password, let him through. 312 00:17:03,960 --> 00:17:08,720 And that password was TV, TV road. 313 00:17:08,720 --> 00:17:10,560 DeMond says that was very peculiar, 314 00:17:10,560 --> 00:17:13,880 because never before had anyone been allowed to cross 315 00:17:13,880 --> 00:17:15,480 the bridge using a password. 316 00:17:15,480 --> 00:17:17,640 Bridge out of Washington is closed up to dark. 317 00:17:17,640 --> 00:17:19,760 I don't know what happened there that night. 318 00:17:19,760 --> 00:17:23,560 These were just a bunch of old soldiers later on remembering 319 00:17:23,560 --> 00:17:24,600 it. 320 00:17:24,600 --> 00:17:28,000 But Sergeant Silas Cobb, who was in charge of the squad 321 00:17:28,000 --> 00:17:32,160 at the bridge, made a statement, which 322 00:17:32,280 --> 00:17:33,680 is in the National Archives. 323 00:17:33,680 --> 00:17:37,120 And he also testified at the conspiracy trial. 324 00:17:37,120 --> 00:17:40,160 And he didn't say anything about passwords. 325 00:17:40,160 --> 00:17:43,360 All he said was that I thought these people were proper people 326 00:17:43,360 --> 00:17:45,760 to go across the bridge, and I let them cross. 327 00:17:45,760 --> 00:17:50,520 I can't tell you why these old soldiers dreamed up 328 00:17:50,520 --> 00:17:51,600 this as a password. 329 00:17:55,440 --> 00:17:57,600 St. Helen's narrative continued. 330 00:17:57,600 --> 00:18:00,360 He told Bates that he joined up with co-conspirator David 331 00:18:00,400 --> 00:18:03,040 Harold, and together they visited a doctor who 332 00:18:03,040 --> 00:18:05,960 said his broken leg. 333 00:18:05,960 --> 00:18:07,280 I'm going to have to take your boot off 334 00:18:07,280 --> 00:18:09,040 so I can see your leg, all right? 335 00:18:09,040 --> 00:18:11,080 Booth, alias St. Helen, told Bates 336 00:18:11,080 --> 00:18:13,800 that when he was going through the open country in Virginia, 337 00:18:13,800 --> 00:18:15,280 he hid in the back of a wagon. 338 00:18:18,000 --> 00:18:20,800 And at one point, he heard someone shout, 339 00:18:20,800 --> 00:18:22,720 Darsdam soldiers now. 340 00:18:22,720 --> 00:18:24,800 He thought they were northern soldiers. 341 00:18:24,800 --> 00:18:27,880 So hurriedly, he was yanked out at the back of the wagon 342 00:18:27,920 --> 00:18:29,080 and hustled into the woods. 343 00:18:34,960 --> 00:18:38,200 When that happened, his papers and other personal effects 344 00:18:38,200 --> 00:18:38,600 fell out. 345 00:18:42,320 --> 00:18:44,160 St. Helen claimed that while on his way 346 00:18:44,160 --> 00:18:46,600 to the Garrett plantation, he sent a man back 347 00:18:46,600 --> 00:18:48,360 to retrieve his papers. 348 00:18:48,360 --> 00:18:50,600 Before the man returned and while David Harold 349 00:18:50,600 --> 00:18:55,440 was out seeking supplies, news came of approaching Union troops. 350 00:18:55,440 --> 00:18:58,280 Mr. Booth, Union soldiers are riding in from Bowling Green. 351 00:18:58,280 --> 00:18:59,840 You do be getting out of here. 352 00:18:59,840 --> 00:19:00,960 How far behind you are they? 353 00:19:00,960 --> 00:19:02,160 About two hours. 354 00:19:02,160 --> 00:19:03,060 Thank you. 355 00:19:03,060 --> 00:19:05,360 Thank you, gentlemen. 356 00:19:05,360 --> 00:19:07,600 According to St. Helen, he immediately fled. 357 00:19:07,600 --> 00:19:09,400 Yeah. 358 00:19:09,400 --> 00:19:10,200 Yeah. 359 00:19:10,200 --> 00:19:12,120 The man sent to retrieve his papers 360 00:19:12,120 --> 00:19:14,240 was in the Garrett barn with David Harold 361 00:19:14,240 --> 00:19:18,840 when it was surrounded by Union troops on April 26. 362 00:19:18,840 --> 00:19:20,600 Harold decided to surrender. 363 00:19:20,600 --> 00:19:22,600 It's not Booth. 364 00:19:22,600 --> 00:19:27,960 The other man was shot inside the barn 365 00:19:27,960 --> 00:19:30,440 because a dead man carried Booth's papers. 366 00:19:30,440 --> 00:19:32,760 He was identified as the assassin. 367 00:19:37,120 --> 00:19:38,200 I believe you, John. 368 00:19:38,200 --> 00:19:40,200 I want you to rest. 369 00:19:40,200 --> 00:19:41,840 All right? 370 00:19:41,840 --> 00:19:45,240 Several weeks later, St. Helen recovered from his illness. 371 00:19:45,240 --> 00:19:47,040 Bates tried to dismiss the confession 372 00:19:47,040 --> 00:19:50,160 as hallucinations brought on by the fever. 373 00:19:50,160 --> 00:19:54,240 But St. Helen later added even more details to his story. 374 00:19:54,240 --> 00:19:57,280 The following year, John St. Helen left Texas. 375 00:19:57,280 --> 00:20:02,480 But Finest Bates was haunted by his confession. 376 00:20:02,480 --> 00:20:04,840 Can you imagine a young lawyer talking 377 00:20:04,840 --> 00:20:09,440 to a bar owner down in Texas, a gullible young lawyer? 378 00:20:09,440 --> 00:20:13,960 So he just fills him full of a great, big, long story. 379 00:20:13,960 --> 00:20:17,640 And later on, Bates, that was the name of this young lawyer, 380 00:20:17,640 --> 00:20:23,000 embroidered the story nicely and wrote a book about it. 381 00:20:23,000 --> 00:20:28,000 But I think he just took a young lawyer and fed him a line. 382 00:20:28,000 --> 00:20:28,600 It's that easy. 383 00:20:28,600 --> 00:20:32,040 Certainly it wasn't Booth. 384 00:20:32,040 --> 00:20:35,720 Is it possible that John St. Helen was in reality John Wilkes 385 00:20:35,720 --> 00:20:36,920 Booth? 386 00:20:36,920 --> 00:20:42,520 A comparison of photographs shows a striking resemblance. 387 00:20:42,520 --> 00:20:46,200 On January 13, 1903, while staying at a boarding house 388 00:20:46,200 --> 00:20:49,920 in Enid, Oklahoma, John St. Helen committed suicide 389 00:20:49,920 --> 00:20:54,320 by drinking a glass of wine laced with strict line. 390 00:20:54,320 --> 00:20:57,920 Bates had the body preserved. 391 00:20:57,920 --> 00:21:00,960 He took many pictures of the body. 392 00:21:00,960 --> 00:21:03,720 And eventually, he had the body mummified 393 00:21:03,720 --> 00:21:06,520 to preserve it for posterity, to prove once and for all 394 00:21:06,520 --> 00:21:10,120 that the government had fooled us all. 395 00:21:10,120 --> 00:21:12,360 And he was going to not allow that coverup 396 00:21:12,360 --> 00:21:15,040 to stand. 397 00:21:15,040 --> 00:21:18,480 In 1931, six Chicago physicians examined 398 00:21:18,480 --> 00:21:20,720 the mummified body of John St. Helen 399 00:21:20,720 --> 00:21:23,600 and recorded their findings in this affidavit. 400 00:21:23,600 --> 00:21:26,480 They specifically noted a scarred right eyebrow, 401 00:21:26,480 --> 00:21:30,000 a crushed right thumb, and a broken left leg. 402 00:21:30,000 --> 00:21:33,360 John Wilkes Booth is known to have had all three 403 00:21:33,360 --> 00:21:37,640 of these unusual characteristics. 404 00:21:37,640 --> 00:21:40,960 Did John Wilkes Booth escape Union troops at Garrett Farm 405 00:21:40,960 --> 00:21:43,280 only to kill himself 38 years later 406 00:21:43,280 --> 00:21:45,640 in an Oklahoma boarding house? 407 00:21:45,640 --> 00:21:47,800 The history books say no. 408 00:21:47,800 --> 00:21:51,160 John Wilkes Booth died in 1865. 409 00:21:51,160 --> 00:21:53,960 Four years later, his remains were returned to Maryland 410 00:21:53,960 --> 00:21:57,280 and buried in an unmarked grave in the family plot. 411 00:21:57,280 --> 00:22:00,040 Perhaps there rests the definitive answer 412 00:22:00,040 --> 00:22:04,320 to this unsolved mystery. 413 00:22:04,320 --> 00:22:20,320 MUSIC 414 00:22:28,320 --> 00:22:32,000 Imagine that there's someone who looks exactly like you, 415 00:22:32,000 --> 00:22:35,720 walks the same way you do, talks the same way you do. 416 00:22:35,720 --> 00:22:38,520 That has been the bizarre fact of life for Jim Boomgarden, 417 00:22:38,520 --> 00:22:40,360 a buyer in Illinois. 418 00:22:40,360 --> 00:22:42,440 For years, Jim has been haunted by the specter 419 00:22:42,440 --> 00:22:46,240 of a strange double, a man who seems to be everywhere, 420 00:22:46,240 --> 00:22:48,560 or at least everywhere Jim isn't. 421 00:22:53,440 --> 00:22:57,000 The place Rockford, Illinois in 1984, 422 00:22:57,000 --> 00:23:00,240 the occasion, a company softball game. 423 00:23:00,280 --> 00:23:03,560 It is a typical Saturday morning except for an eerie event 424 00:23:03,560 --> 00:23:05,640 about to unfold. 425 00:23:05,640 --> 00:23:09,120 Third baseman Rick Holder is coming up to bat. 426 00:23:09,120 --> 00:23:11,760 Suddenly, his brother-in-law Jim Boomgarden, 427 00:23:11,760 --> 00:23:14,200 who should be 20 miles away at home, 428 00:23:14,200 --> 00:23:16,800 enters the game to pitch for the opposing team. 429 00:23:16,800 --> 00:23:18,200 Hey, Jim. 430 00:23:18,200 --> 00:23:20,200 Jim. 431 00:23:20,200 --> 00:23:23,080 Hey, Jim. 432 00:23:23,080 --> 00:23:25,880 You know, I would say hi to him and say, hi, Jim. 433 00:23:25,880 --> 00:23:26,800 Hello, Jim. 434 00:23:26,800 --> 00:23:28,920 And I wasn't getting no response from the guy. 435 00:23:28,920 --> 00:23:30,960 So I just thought, you know, after the game was over, 436 00:23:30,960 --> 00:23:33,560 I'd go up and I'd talk to the guy. 437 00:23:33,560 --> 00:23:34,480 Hey, Jim. 438 00:23:36,600 --> 00:23:37,400 How's Cindy and the kids? 439 00:23:40,040 --> 00:23:43,080 After the game, he said he went up, shook his hand, 440 00:23:43,080 --> 00:23:45,480 and thinking he was talking to me. 441 00:23:45,480 --> 00:23:47,760 And he said, the guy just kind of looked at him weird, 442 00:23:47,760 --> 00:23:49,120 gave him a funny look, and turned around 443 00:23:49,120 --> 00:23:52,040 and walked away from him. 444 00:23:52,040 --> 00:23:54,920 Five years later, and just a few miles away, 445 00:23:54,920 --> 00:23:57,960 Jim Boomgarden's father, Ernie, was leaving the doctor's 446 00:23:58,000 --> 00:23:59,880 office when he saw his son. 447 00:23:59,880 --> 00:24:02,080 Jim. 448 00:24:02,080 --> 00:24:04,760 My dad came after this guy. 449 00:24:04,760 --> 00:24:05,720 Was yelling at him. 450 00:24:05,720 --> 00:24:06,720 Jim. 451 00:24:11,720 --> 00:24:14,160 This guy ignored him, got into a car, 452 00:24:14,160 --> 00:24:17,240 which he said was very similar to mine, 453 00:24:17,240 --> 00:24:19,560 drove off, and didn't even acknowledge him. 454 00:24:22,200 --> 00:24:26,680 Now we had two people who knew me very well. 455 00:24:26,720 --> 00:24:31,680 And they were both fooled, especially my dad who reared me. 456 00:24:31,680 --> 00:24:35,000 This guy fooled my dad. 457 00:24:35,000 --> 00:24:38,400 He has to look almost identical to me. 458 00:24:44,480 --> 00:24:48,120 Jim spent his childhood in the suburb of Rockford, Illinois. 459 00:24:48,120 --> 00:24:50,640 He knew he had been given up at birth by his mother, 460 00:24:50,640 --> 00:24:53,640 but he had no idea who she was. 461 00:24:53,640 --> 00:24:56,120 Jim loved his adopted family, and his life 462 00:24:56,160 --> 00:25:00,280 was happy and uneventful, except for one strange incident. 463 00:25:03,360 --> 00:25:05,920 When Jim was 11, and visiting his grandparents 464 00:25:05,920 --> 00:25:08,320 in Rochelle, Illinois, he was approached 465 00:25:08,320 --> 00:25:11,360 by a group of neighborhood boys. 466 00:25:11,360 --> 00:25:13,200 Billy. 467 00:25:13,200 --> 00:25:14,280 You talking to me? 468 00:25:14,280 --> 00:25:14,680 Yeah. 469 00:25:14,680 --> 00:25:16,360 Do you want to play basketball with us? 470 00:25:16,360 --> 00:25:18,400 My name isn't Billy. 471 00:25:18,400 --> 00:25:19,320 What are you talking about? 472 00:25:19,320 --> 00:25:20,200 It's not Billy. 473 00:25:20,200 --> 00:25:22,040 My name is Jimmy. 474 00:25:22,040 --> 00:25:23,560 It's Billy. 475 00:25:23,560 --> 00:25:25,920 Look, if you don't call me by my right name, 476 00:25:25,920 --> 00:25:27,560 I won't play basketball with you. 477 00:25:31,800 --> 00:25:34,680 I couldn't understand why they want me to play basketball 478 00:25:34,680 --> 00:25:37,600 so much, and they wouldn't call me by my name, 479 00:25:37,600 --> 00:25:39,160 and why they were making this name up. 480 00:25:39,160 --> 00:25:42,000 I could not understand that. 481 00:25:42,000 --> 00:25:47,200 Jim filed the incident away at the back of his mind. 482 00:25:47,200 --> 00:25:49,000 After high school, he joined the army 483 00:25:49,000 --> 00:25:52,880 and served a tour in Vietnam. 484 00:25:52,920 --> 00:25:56,000 In 1978, Jim married Cindy Holder. 485 00:25:56,000 --> 00:26:01,120 They settled near Rockford, Illinois, and had two children. 486 00:26:01,120 --> 00:26:04,280 Often in Rockford, people Jim didn't recognize 487 00:26:04,280 --> 00:26:07,120 greeted him in an unusually friendly way. 488 00:26:07,120 --> 00:26:08,520 How's it going, man? 489 00:26:08,520 --> 00:26:09,360 I've seen it a long time. 490 00:26:09,360 --> 00:26:10,920 What's going on? 491 00:26:10,920 --> 00:26:12,800 Not much. 492 00:26:12,800 --> 00:26:15,520 I'll see you around, OK? 493 00:26:15,520 --> 00:26:16,800 I met a lot of people, and there's 494 00:26:16,800 --> 00:26:20,440 no way that you can remember every face you see. 495 00:26:20,480 --> 00:26:23,480 So I kind of brushed off as nothing 496 00:26:23,480 --> 00:26:29,280 until some people would see me in places that I never was, 497 00:26:29,280 --> 00:26:30,800 or I wasn't at that time. 498 00:26:33,440 --> 00:26:36,880 Finally on Christmas Day 1991, the strange encounters 499 00:26:36,880 --> 00:26:40,800 culminated at a mini-mart just five blocks from Jim's house. 500 00:26:40,800 --> 00:26:44,760 Shirley Hurlene was behind the cash register. 501 00:26:44,760 --> 00:26:48,840 I was working, and this gentleman came in. 502 00:26:48,840 --> 00:26:50,200 I assumed it was Jim. 503 00:26:50,200 --> 00:26:52,600 No, not today. 504 00:26:52,600 --> 00:26:53,760 He looked like him. 505 00:26:53,760 --> 00:26:58,960 He walked the same talk, the same mannerisms. 506 00:26:58,960 --> 00:27:01,560 I assumed it was Jim. 507 00:27:01,560 --> 00:27:04,720 Within minutes, Jim and Cindy walk in. 508 00:27:04,720 --> 00:27:05,920 Do you forget something? 509 00:27:05,920 --> 00:27:06,800 No, why? 510 00:27:06,800 --> 00:27:08,680 Well, you were just here a few minutes ago. 511 00:27:08,680 --> 00:27:10,680 First time I've been here today. 512 00:27:10,680 --> 00:27:11,800 And I looked over at Cindy. 513 00:27:11,800 --> 00:27:13,800 I said, he's kidding, right? 514 00:27:13,800 --> 00:27:17,800 And she said, no, this first time he'd been out today. 515 00:27:17,800 --> 00:27:19,840 And I said, well, my god, there was somebody that came in 516 00:27:19,840 --> 00:27:21,720 and looked just like you. 517 00:27:21,720 --> 00:27:25,840 If I'd been just 15 minutes earlier, just maybe 518 00:27:25,840 --> 00:27:28,440 we could have ran into each other as he was coming out, 519 00:27:28,440 --> 00:27:31,600 and I was going in and met face to face, 520 00:27:31,600 --> 00:27:37,600 how awesome that would have been to see yourself. 521 00:27:37,600 --> 00:27:40,640 The lady who was there said she saw a man who looked exactly 522 00:27:40,640 --> 00:27:43,920 like Jim, and they're not 15 minutes ago. 523 00:27:43,920 --> 00:27:47,440 She said he could have been Jim's twin. 524 00:27:48,080 --> 00:27:51,520 Three weeks later, Jim's wife Cindy 525 00:27:51,520 --> 00:27:53,320 was visiting his grandmother, Sophie. 526 00:27:56,640 --> 00:27:59,200 Sophie grew strangely quiet when Cindy told her 527 00:27:59,200 --> 00:28:04,680 about the odd case of mistaken identity at the mini mart. 528 00:28:04,680 --> 00:28:05,720 Grandma, what's wrong? 529 00:28:08,440 --> 00:28:09,280 Are you OK? 530 00:28:12,680 --> 00:28:16,760 Bernie told me something a long time ago. 531 00:28:16,800 --> 00:28:19,880 And I promised to keep it a secret. 532 00:28:19,880 --> 00:28:22,960 Jim's father, Ernie, had died a few months earlier. 533 00:28:22,960 --> 00:28:25,680 And Cindy had no idea she was about to hear 534 00:28:25,680 --> 00:28:28,640 a long-held family secret. 535 00:28:28,640 --> 00:28:31,800 Ernie told me that when he contacted his lawyers 536 00:28:31,800 --> 00:28:38,320 about adopting Jimmy, he learned that Jimmy had a brother, 537 00:28:38,320 --> 00:28:39,240 a twin. 538 00:28:39,240 --> 00:28:41,000 Jim had a twin. 539 00:28:41,000 --> 00:28:44,520 She said that Ernie didn't like keeping it a secret, 540 00:28:44,520 --> 00:28:48,640 but yet he figured that Jim had never known his brother. 541 00:28:48,640 --> 00:28:51,360 He would never miss him. 542 00:28:51,360 --> 00:28:54,880 I was kind of hurt at Ernie because he never told us 543 00:28:54,880 --> 00:28:57,640 his self while he was alive. 544 00:28:57,640 --> 00:29:01,160 But I was very relieved that we had somebody 545 00:29:01,160 --> 00:29:04,520 that could confirm that there was a twin. 546 00:29:04,520 --> 00:29:09,080 I was excited. 547 00:29:09,080 --> 00:29:12,640 All the speculations are now true. 548 00:29:12,680 --> 00:29:17,280 I am looking for a twin brother. 549 00:29:17,280 --> 00:29:20,800 Jim obtained a family history from the adoption agency. 550 00:29:20,800 --> 00:29:23,440 To his disappointment, no names were used, 551 00:29:23,440 --> 00:29:26,040 but the report did give one clue. 552 00:29:26,040 --> 00:29:31,680 His birth mother had a nephew who drowned at the age of 14. 553 00:29:31,680 --> 00:29:34,960 Desperate for details, Jim spent hours in the library 554 00:29:34,960 --> 00:29:38,920 until he found the story in a 1945 newspaper. 555 00:29:38,920 --> 00:29:42,640 Finally, Jim had come up with a family name, Heronimus. 556 00:29:46,160 --> 00:29:49,520 Through the phone book, Jim located a woman by that name, 557 00:29:49,520 --> 00:29:53,520 living just 20 miles away. 558 00:29:53,520 --> 00:29:54,400 May I help you? 559 00:29:54,400 --> 00:29:55,320 Good afternoon. 560 00:29:55,320 --> 00:29:56,800 My name is Jim Boomegarden. 561 00:29:56,800 --> 00:29:58,600 This is my wife, Cindy. 562 00:29:58,600 --> 00:30:00,800 And I apologize for disturbing you, 563 00:30:00,800 --> 00:30:03,120 but I was wondering if you could help me. 564 00:30:03,120 --> 00:30:05,280 Is your last name Heronimus? 565 00:30:05,280 --> 00:30:06,640 Yes. 566 00:30:06,640 --> 00:30:08,920 I think we might be related. 567 00:30:08,920 --> 00:30:11,200 You don't have to tell me we're related. 568 00:30:11,200 --> 00:30:14,600 You look exactly like my brother, Bud. 569 00:30:14,600 --> 00:30:18,560 Jim had found his aunt, Myrtle, his birth mother's sister, 570 00:30:18,560 --> 00:30:22,920 the mother of the boy who had drowned in 1945. 571 00:30:22,920 --> 00:30:25,360 That would have been taken sometime in the mid-40s. 572 00:30:25,360 --> 00:30:28,120 She was about 33 or 34 at that time. 573 00:30:28,120 --> 00:30:30,840 That's about the time I was born. 574 00:30:30,840 --> 00:30:32,880 I tell you. 575 00:30:32,880 --> 00:30:35,240 For the first time, Jim saw a photograph 576 00:30:35,280 --> 00:30:37,680 of his mother, Hazel, and learned that she had died 577 00:30:37,680 --> 00:30:39,720 three years earlier. 578 00:30:39,720 --> 00:30:42,160 Myrtle told Jim that his mother had cut herself off 579 00:30:42,160 --> 00:30:45,520 from the family, and that they had known nothing of his birth 580 00:30:45,520 --> 00:30:47,880 or his twin brothers. 581 00:30:47,880 --> 00:30:49,720 Did you know my father? 582 00:30:49,720 --> 00:30:53,680 Well, there was a man Hazel was seeing. 583 00:30:53,680 --> 00:30:55,400 I think he might have been married. 584 00:30:55,400 --> 00:30:57,960 I didn't really know him. 585 00:30:57,960 --> 00:31:01,120 Hazel never told you about me and my brother? 586 00:31:01,120 --> 00:31:02,000 No. 587 00:31:02,000 --> 00:31:06,640 He never said anything about having had twin boys. 588 00:31:06,640 --> 00:31:09,680 Of course, I knew about the little girl she had. 589 00:31:09,680 --> 00:31:11,280 Little girl? 590 00:31:11,280 --> 00:31:12,480 When? 591 00:31:12,480 --> 00:31:13,440 Well, let's see. 592 00:31:13,440 --> 00:31:18,160 It was October, November 1945. 593 00:31:18,160 --> 00:31:20,440 I was in the hospital myself. 594 00:31:20,440 --> 00:31:22,880 Jim's aunt had dropped a bombshell. 595 00:31:22,880 --> 00:31:25,040 Not only did Jim have a twin brother, 596 00:31:25,040 --> 00:31:28,400 he had an older sister as well. 597 00:31:28,400 --> 00:31:29,520 Now the mystery is even harder. 598 00:31:29,520 --> 00:31:31,320 Now I got two to find instead of one. 599 00:31:31,320 --> 00:31:33,760 But I'm bounding to her, and I want to find them 600 00:31:33,760 --> 00:31:37,000 one way or the other. 601 00:31:37,000 --> 00:31:41,080 Finally, Jim was able to visit his birth mother's family plot. 602 00:31:41,080 --> 00:31:44,520 Her maiden name was Hazel Georgetta de Balfour. 603 00:31:44,520 --> 00:31:49,680 Eventually, she married a man named Connor, also now deceased. 604 00:31:49,680 --> 00:31:54,120 I found out everything except my brother and my sister 605 00:31:54,120 --> 00:31:56,120 in finding my family. 606 00:31:56,120 --> 00:31:59,480 It's the only part of the web that needs to be untangled now 607 00:31:59,520 --> 00:32:00,400 is finding them. 608 00:32:00,400 --> 00:32:05,200 And then it will be complete, and I will be satisfied and relaxed. 609 00:32:09,360 --> 00:32:12,720 Jim Boonegarten and his brother, whose first name might be Billy, 610 00:32:12,720 --> 00:32:15,360 were born in the Salvation Army Hospital in Cook County, 611 00:32:15,360 --> 00:32:18,920 Illinois, on March 29, 1947. 612 00:32:18,920 --> 00:32:22,320 His brother was adopted by a family in Rochelle, Illinois. 613 00:32:22,320 --> 00:32:24,840 Their older sister was also born in Rockford, 614 00:32:24,840 --> 00:32:28,800 St. Anthony's Hospital in October or November of 1945. 615 00:32:48,800 --> 00:32:52,640 Next, the baffling disappearance of a 65-year-old salesman 616 00:32:52,640 --> 00:32:54,800 from Canada. 617 00:32:54,800 --> 00:33:07,240 Alex Cooper of Cranbrook, British Columbia, Canada, 618 00:33:07,240 --> 00:33:09,240 was an accomplished musician. 619 00:33:09,240 --> 00:33:11,160 A folksy, down-to-earth family man 620 00:33:11,160 --> 00:33:13,520 who enjoyed nothing more than fishing and camping 621 00:33:13,520 --> 00:33:16,320 with his wife, Margaret, his five grown children 622 00:33:16,320 --> 00:33:19,520 and his three grandchildren. 623 00:33:19,520 --> 00:33:22,640 Alex was a local businessman who worked in the cleaning industry 624 00:33:22,640 --> 00:33:26,040 from 1974 to 1983. 625 00:33:26,040 --> 00:33:29,080 Then in 1986, he took a job as a salesman 626 00:33:29,080 --> 00:33:32,000 and began to spend some of his time on the road. 627 00:33:32,000 --> 00:33:33,960 Everyone who knew him agreed. 628 00:33:33,960 --> 00:33:35,880 Alex Cooper was the last person you'd 629 00:33:35,880 --> 00:33:39,440 expect to find at the center of a mystery. 630 00:33:39,440 --> 00:33:42,280 Then came the morning of April 4, 1987, 631 00:33:42,280 --> 00:33:45,200 when Alex's daughter Lila and her husband Pete 632 00:33:45,200 --> 00:33:49,240 left Cranbrook for a shopping trip. 633 00:33:49,240 --> 00:33:52,080 We left Cranbrook quite early that morning, about 7, 7.30. 634 00:33:52,080 --> 00:33:54,320 We were going to drive to another city, 635 00:33:54,320 --> 00:33:56,160 which was about a three-hour drive. 636 00:33:56,160 --> 00:34:00,520 And it was actually Pete that said, that's your dad's car. 637 00:34:00,520 --> 00:34:03,440 And it was, obviously, his car. 638 00:34:03,440 --> 00:34:04,720 Does anyone know what he's doing here? 639 00:34:04,720 --> 00:34:06,120 Let's stop and see what he's doing. 640 00:34:06,120 --> 00:34:07,600 My dad and I were so close. 641 00:34:07,600 --> 00:34:10,240 Pete would have known that if we didn't stop and say hello, 642 00:34:10,240 --> 00:34:12,080 I was just going to sell all day anyway. 643 00:34:12,080 --> 00:34:13,520 So we did. 644 00:34:13,520 --> 00:34:15,400 We right away turned around. 645 00:34:15,400 --> 00:34:18,880 And I just couldn't imagine driving by without stopping 646 00:34:18,880 --> 00:34:19,720 and saying hello. 647 00:34:19,720 --> 00:34:21,280 It's just the way we were. 648 00:34:22,200 --> 00:34:24,400 So we just walked right by the car. 649 00:34:24,400 --> 00:34:25,760 I didn't really pay any attention. 650 00:34:25,760 --> 00:34:30,240 We walked by it, walked down the bank to the water. 651 00:34:30,240 --> 00:34:31,760 We just assumed that he was fishing. 652 00:34:31,760 --> 00:34:32,260 Yeah. 653 00:34:32,260 --> 00:34:32,760 It's a long time. 654 00:34:32,760 --> 00:34:33,760 He got away on the weekend. 655 00:34:33,760 --> 00:34:34,760 Yeah, that's true. 656 00:34:37,240 --> 00:34:38,720 Guys got down here. 657 00:34:38,720 --> 00:34:39,220 Dad! 658 00:34:43,600 --> 00:34:44,100 Dad! 659 00:34:46,640 --> 00:34:48,840 At the water, I was curious. 660 00:34:48,880 --> 00:34:51,320 When I got back to the car, I started 661 00:34:51,320 --> 00:34:54,240 to get a little bit that feeling in your stomach 662 00:34:54,240 --> 00:34:57,200 like, this is really unusual. 663 00:34:57,200 --> 00:34:58,280 Past curious now. 664 00:35:01,480 --> 00:35:03,840 Concerned because her father had a heart condition, 665 00:35:03,840 --> 00:35:06,240 Lila called her mother. 666 00:35:06,240 --> 00:35:12,160 Margaret Cooper had not seen her husband for more than 24 hours. 667 00:35:12,160 --> 00:35:14,760 I felt a great deal of fear. 668 00:35:14,760 --> 00:35:18,680 Lila suggested that she check out the hotel, which was close. 669 00:35:18,680 --> 00:35:21,480 The hospitals. 670 00:35:21,480 --> 00:35:26,480 And then if he didn't find him, she would go to the police. 671 00:35:26,480 --> 00:35:28,120 Do you know where he was headed to? 672 00:35:28,120 --> 00:35:30,680 He was on a regular sales trip, as far as we know. 673 00:35:30,680 --> 00:35:33,680 On his way through the valley to sell some supplies. 674 00:35:33,680 --> 00:35:35,720 What kind of supplies does he sell? 675 00:35:35,720 --> 00:35:37,040 Restaurant equipment. 676 00:35:37,040 --> 00:35:40,320 There was no footprints or any other physical evidence 677 00:35:40,320 --> 00:35:42,960 that may be around the vehicle. 678 00:35:42,960 --> 00:35:44,840 The vehicle was locked. 679 00:35:44,840 --> 00:35:46,960 He had a set of clothes that were left in the vehicle, 680 00:35:46,960 --> 00:35:49,120 along with some fishing tackle. 681 00:35:49,120 --> 00:35:51,080 Nothing that we found around the vehicle 682 00:35:51,080 --> 00:35:53,000 would suggest that foul play was involved in this. 683 00:35:56,000 --> 00:35:57,920 We're going to have to take the car, too. 684 00:35:57,920 --> 00:36:00,400 You can see he's going to be towing it away. 685 00:36:00,400 --> 00:36:01,520 They have to take the car. 686 00:36:01,520 --> 00:36:03,040 That has to go back to our office. 687 00:36:03,040 --> 00:36:05,920 We've got to check it to see if there's any evidence at all. 688 00:36:05,920 --> 00:36:08,200 I felt very lost seeing the car go away. 689 00:36:08,200 --> 00:36:09,560 I wanted to make them leave it. 690 00:36:09,560 --> 00:36:10,360 Very good. 691 00:36:10,360 --> 00:36:11,160 Happy taking. 692 00:36:11,160 --> 00:36:12,200 It has to go. 693 00:36:12,200 --> 00:36:13,720 I felt that if the car was there, 694 00:36:13,720 --> 00:36:16,200 you would probably come back and get into it. 695 00:36:16,200 --> 00:36:23,080 And we would just wait and get to the car away. 696 00:36:23,080 --> 00:36:24,360 And he didn't come back. 697 00:36:30,120 --> 00:36:32,800 The police launched an extensive air and land search, 698 00:36:32,800 --> 00:36:35,760 but Alex Cooper had absolutely vanished. 699 00:36:35,760 --> 00:36:38,360 Perplexed and heartbroken, his family desperately 700 00:36:38,360 --> 00:36:39,480 searched for answers. 701 00:36:42,040 --> 00:36:44,400 They learned that on the day Alex disappeared, 702 00:36:44,400 --> 00:36:46,760 he ate lunch at a restaurant less than a mile 703 00:36:46,760 --> 00:36:48,560 from where his car was found. 704 00:36:48,560 --> 00:36:49,560 Hi. 705 00:36:49,560 --> 00:36:53,080 Alex had a very bad habit in that he carried his money 706 00:36:53,080 --> 00:36:55,480 in a roll in his front pocket. 707 00:36:55,480 --> 00:36:58,080 And if he was going to pay for anything, out came the roll. 708 00:36:58,080 --> 00:37:01,680 He took off what he needed, popped it back in. 709 00:37:01,680 --> 00:37:04,920 And that worried me a great deal afterward. 710 00:37:04,920 --> 00:37:05,820 Excuse me, sir. 711 00:37:05,820 --> 00:37:06,720 Yeah. 712 00:37:06,720 --> 00:37:07,720 He's heading up the road this week? 713 00:37:07,720 --> 00:37:08,620 Yeah. 714 00:37:08,620 --> 00:37:09,880 I was wondering, could I catch a ride with you? 715 00:37:09,880 --> 00:37:11,520 I'm just going up a little ways. 716 00:37:11,520 --> 00:37:12,320 Sure. 717 00:37:12,320 --> 00:37:14,120 Climb in. 718 00:37:14,120 --> 00:37:17,160 Margaret Cooper feared the worst possible scenario. 719 00:37:17,160 --> 00:37:19,840 Someone may have robbed her husband, killed him, 720 00:37:19,840 --> 00:37:23,780 dumped his body in the Canadian wilderness. 721 00:37:23,780 --> 00:37:26,720 Lila Cooper imagined an altogether different course 722 00:37:26,720 --> 00:37:29,520 of events. 723 00:37:29,520 --> 00:37:31,680 I was thinking about all the things 724 00:37:31,680 --> 00:37:34,160 that could have happened to him. 725 00:37:34,160 --> 00:37:36,040 I focused on the water. 726 00:37:36,040 --> 00:37:37,680 Number one, that was my main thought, 727 00:37:37,680 --> 00:37:39,600 was that he had fallen into the water. 728 00:37:39,600 --> 00:37:43,240 I could see him maybe going down to the creek, to the water. 729 00:37:43,240 --> 00:37:46,040 Being a fisherman, seeing what the possibility was 730 00:37:46,040 --> 00:37:49,440 of maybe trying to catch something or drop a line in. 731 00:37:49,440 --> 00:37:52,000 And he fell in, or he had a heart attack and fell in. 732 00:37:59,760 --> 00:38:02,080 Police divers dragged the creek and found nothing. 733 00:38:05,000 --> 00:38:07,400 The media picked up the story. 734 00:38:07,400 --> 00:38:09,120 Newspaper and television coverage 735 00:38:09,120 --> 00:38:12,360 provided yet another theory. 736 00:38:12,360 --> 00:38:14,960 After the broadcast, we had numerous sightings. 737 00:38:14,960 --> 00:38:17,760 People come to our office reporting 738 00:38:17,760 --> 00:38:21,440 that they had seen a fellow matching a similar description 739 00:38:21,440 --> 00:38:25,560 as Alex Cooper for height, weight, same type of clothing. 740 00:38:25,560 --> 00:38:28,560 They'd seen hitchhiking in the area of the vehicle. 741 00:38:28,560 --> 00:38:31,240 The investigators' theory was he just 742 00:38:31,240 --> 00:38:35,320 left the area on his own for what reasons we have no idea. 743 00:38:35,800 --> 00:38:40,000 If Alex had indeed left by his own free will, 744 00:38:40,000 --> 00:38:42,400 why did he leave his heart medication and credit cards 745 00:38:42,400 --> 00:38:47,600 at home, and why had he taken only the clothes he was wearing? 746 00:38:47,600 --> 00:38:52,920 It was suggested that maybe he had stays of disappearance 747 00:38:52,920 --> 00:38:54,400 and just ran away from us. 748 00:38:57,960 --> 00:39:01,520 I wasn't able to accept that at all. 749 00:39:01,520 --> 00:39:07,560 Alex wasn't the kind of man who would be capable of creating 750 00:39:07,560 --> 00:39:11,280 that kind of pain for his family. 751 00:39:11,280 --> 00:39:14,240 He was the best father anybody could ever want. 752 00:39:14,240 --> 00:39:15,360 And he loved us all. 753 00:39:15,360 --> 00:39:19,720 And he was funny and he was sincere and he was honest. 754 00:39:19,720 --> 00:39:25,240 And if I'm proven wrong, I guess I'll have to eat my words. 755 00:39:25,240 --> 00:39:27,800 But I believed everything he ever told me. 756 00:39:32,520 --> 00:39:35,520 The Cooper family suffered through an entire year 757 00:39:35,520 --> 00:39:37,600 with no word from Alex. 758 00:39:37,600 --> 00:39:40,040 Eventually, they had to face the painful reality 759 00:39:40,040 --> 00:39:42,160 that he was gone forever. 760 00:39:42,160 --> 00:39:45,240 Margaret Cooper petitioned the Supreme Court of British Columbia 761 00:39:45,240 --> 00:39:48,120 to have her husband declared legally dead. 762 00:39:48,120 --> 00:39:51,960 Her request was granted. 763 00:39:51,960 --> 00:39:56,360 I'm calling in regards to Alex Cooper, birth certificate. 764 00:39:56,360 --> 00:39:58,720 Margaret tried to obtain Alex's birth certificate 765 00:39:58,720 --> 00:40:01,240 and made a chilling discovery. 766 00:40:01,240 --> 00:40:03,320 No information at all. 767 00:40:03,320 --> 00:40:04,960 Did you check out? 768 00:40:04,960 --> 00:40:07,680 She was stunned to learn that a birth certificate was never 769 00:40:07,680 --> 00:40:09,880 issued in Alex's name. 770 00:40:09,880 --> 00:40:13,560 In fact, prior to his marriage to Margaret, 1952, 771 00:40:13,560 --> 00:40:16,520 there were no official records of Alex Cooper, 772 00:40:16,520 --> 00:40:19,920 no high school transcripts, no military papers, 773 00:40:19,920 --> 00:40:21,800 no medical history. 774 00:40:21,800 --> 00:40:25,960 As far as anyone could tell, Alex Cooper simply did not 775 00:40:25,960 --> 00:40:29,280 and had never existed. 776 00:40:29,320 --> 00:40:34,240 Finding no record of him made me feel very mixed up. 777 00:40:37,800 --> 00:40:44,640 I'm sure of myself and of him because I guess I had to really 778 00:40:44,640 --> 00:40:48,600 admit for the first time that he hadn't been completely honest 779 00:40:48,600 --> 00:40:51,200 with me in things. 780 00:40:51,200 --> 00:40:54,640 Made me really wonder about his identity. 781 00:40:54,640 --> 00:40:58,320 Didn't make me wonder about him as a person, though. 782 00:40:58,360 --> 00:41:02,720 Because if he'd have been Joe Smith, I'd still love him. 783 00:41:02,720 --> 00:41:04,880 Who was Alex Cooper? 784 00:41:04,880 --> 00:41:07,240 Why had he assumed an alias and, in essence, 785 00:41:07,240 --> 00:41:10,040 lived alive for more than 30 years? 786 00:41:10,040 --> 00:41:13,000 And most important, was he still alive? 787 00:41:13,000 --> 00:41:15,800 If so, why had he chosen to disappear? 788 00:41:20,000 --> 00:41:22,000 For four long years, the Cooper family 789 00:41:22,000 --> 00:41:24,840 lived in a constant state of uncertainty. 790 00:41:24,840 --> 00:41:28,400 Then on May 27, 1991, a mystery of Alex Cooper 791 00:41:28,400 --> 00:41:30,800 finally began to unravel. 792 00:41:30,800 --> 00:41:32,680 Halfway across the country in Toronto, 793 00:41:32,680 --> 00:41:34,960 another man was reported missing. 794 00:41:34,960 --> 00:41:37,240 He was also a traveling salesman. 795 00:41:37,240 --> 00:41:39,200 His name was David Cooper, and he 796 00:41:39,200 --> 00:41:44,040 born on Canary resemblance to Alex Cooper. 797 00:41:44,040 --> 00:41:45,880 Do you like saving money? 798 00:41:45,880 --> 00:41:47,000 Everybody likes saving money. 799 00:41:47,000 --> 00:41:49,200 You certainly sound like a sensible person. 800 00:41:49,200 --> 00:41:52,000 The man known as David Cooper had lived in a boarding house 801 00:41:52,000 --> 00:41:53,600 in Toronto for nearly a year. 802 00:41:54,880 --> 00:41:57,480 Every week, he would venture out to a new community, 803 00:41:57,480 --> 00:42:01,720 selling meat products to families via the telephone. 804 00:42:01,720 --> 00:42:02,480 Yeah, that's right. 805 00:42:02,480 --> 00:42:03,320 Half a cow. 806 00:42:03,320 --> 00:42:05,320 We take the shell off it, though. 807 00:42:05,320 --> 00:42:06,000 All you get is a city. 808 00:42:06,000 --> 00:42:07,680 During one of Cooper's business trips, 809 00:42:07,680 --> 00:42:09,920 a friend reported him as missing. 810 00:42:09,920 --> 00:42:13,080 Police searched Cooper's room and found this photograph. 811 00:42:13,080 --> 00:42:17,680 David Cooper and Alex Cooper were one and the same. 812 00:42:17,680 --> 00:42:21,600 Sitting there holding this Polaroid of him, 813 00:42:21,600 --> 00:42:24,200 I couldn't believe every prayer that I'd ever made. 814 00:42:24,200 --> 00:42:28,040 And my dreams were answered because he was alive, 815 00:42:28,040 --> 00:42:29,320 but I didn't have him. 816 00:42:29,320 --> 00:42:32,320 He was there, but he wasn't there. 817 00:42:32,320 --> 00:42:37,320 I had my 39th wedding anniversary, not too long ago, 818 00:42:37,320 --> 00:42:40,120 by myself. 819 00:42:40,120 --> 00:42:41,040 Please see. 820 00:42:44,120 --> 00:42:45,000 Had it been limbo. 821 00:42:49,440 --> 00:42:52,800 On the 29th of May, when Mr. Cooper returned home, 822 00:42:52,800 --> 00:42:54,240 he went up to his room. 823 00:42:54,240 --> 00:42:58,160 And when he went into his room or his flat, 824 00:42:58,160 --> 00:43:01,680 he noticed that there was evidence of police presence 825 00:43:01,680 --> 00:43:03,560 to dust that's used. 826 00:43:03,560 --> 00:43:06,360 To take fingerprints was on the wall 827 00:43:06,360 --> 00:43:09,360 and it was on a couple of other places. 828 00:43:19,200 --> 00:43:20,600 This is Chase. 829 00:43:20,600 --> 00:43:22,280 This is Chase. 830 00:43:22,320 --> 00:43:24,320 What happened to my room? 831 00:43:24,320 --> 00:43:25,560 Mr. Cooper. 832 00:43:25,560 --> 00:43:28,320 And at that time, his landlady advised him 833 00:43:28,320 --> 00:43:30,560 that he'd been reported missing by the police 834 00:43:30,560 --> 00:43:34,040 and the police were trying to find out where he was. 835 00:43:34,040 --> 00:43:35,840 Well, who reported me missing? 836 00:43:35,840 --> 00:43:38,560 I have no idea, but I know I didn't. 837 00:43:38,560 --> 00:43:40,480 I did all right, didn't I? 838 00:43:40,480 --> 00:43:43,240 It's not your fault, Mrs. Chase. 839 00:43:43,240 --> 00:43:45,520 By the time police returned to the boarding house, 840 00:43:45,520 --> 00:43:48,420 Alex Cooper had disappeared once again for reasons 841 00:43:48,420 --> 00:43:50,920 known only to himself. 842 00:43:50,920 --> 00:43:53,200 We have a person who has something 843 00:43:53,200 --> 00:43:56,960 to hide to a point where he would walk away 844 00:43:56,960 --> 00:43:59,080 and leave the family that has been with her 845 00:43:59,080 --> 00:44:01,640 for the last 35 years. 846 00:44:01,640 --> 00:44:05,240 So it has to be something that's very serious, 847 00:44:05,240 --> 00:44:09,080 or at least he believes it's very serious. 848 00:44:09,080 --> 00:44:11,960 I'd love to get him back. 849 00:44:11,960 --> 00:44:13,320 I want to give him a real big hug, 850 00:44:13,320 --> 00:44:16,880 and then I kind of want to give him a kick in the butt 851 00:44:16,880 --> 00:44:18,920 and then another big hug. 852 00:44:18,920 --> 00:44:22,680 But I'd love to have him back. 853 00:44:22,680 --> 00:44:26,240 If he's running, I don't know why he's running, 854 00:44:26,240 --> 00:44:29,680 but it's time he quit. 855 00:44:29,680 --> 00:44:33,160 He's got this family that care about him. 856 00:44:33,160 --> 00:44:36,760 And if he's out there living among strangers, 857 00:44:36,760 --> 00:44:39,280 he should rethink this thing. 858 00:44:39,280 --> 00:44:40,880 We deserve it. 859 00:44:40,880 --> 00:44:41,880 And so does he. 860 00:44:41,880 --> 00:44:46,880 The Story of Alex Cooper 861 00:45:00,880 --> 00:45:04,000 Shortly after this story aired, a viewer in Hamilton, 862 00:45:04,000 --> 00:45:06,720 Canada recognized Alex Cooper and immediately called 863 00:45:06,720 --> 00:45:08,360 authorities. 864 00:45:08,360 --> 00:45:11,240 During questioning, the mystery surrounding his life 865 00:45:11,280 --> 00:45:14,480 began to unravel. 866 00:45:14,480 --> 00:45:17,560 Alex Cooper told police that his true name was Albin 867 00:45:17,560 --> 00:45:18,760 Arsenault. 868 00:45:18,760 --> 00:45:22,480 In 1948, he was accused of robbing an office of the Canadian 869 00:45:22,480 --> 00:45:27,080 Pacific Railroad where he was employed at the time. 870 00:45:27,080 --> 00:45:30,120 I was young and I panicked. 871 00:45:30,120 --> 00:45:33,400 And I said to myself, there is no way I'm going to take 872 00:45:33,400 --> 00:45:38,120 the fall for this because I didn't do it. 873 00:45:38,240 --> 00:45:42,440 I took off at that time and I became Alex 874 00:45:42,440 --> 00:45:45,160 and Cooper at that point. 875 00:45:45,160 --> 00:45:47,840 Four years later, Alex married Margaret. 876 00:45:47,840 --> 00:45:50,880 He had no idea that any criminal charges that might have been 877 00:45:50,880 --> 00:45:54,040 filed against him had probably been dropped. 878 00:45:54,040 --> 00:45:58,560 For more than 35 years, his true identity remained a secret. 879 00:45:58,560 --> 00:46:02,320 Then as a 65th birthday neared, Alex Cooper's past 880 00:46:02,320 --> 00:46:05,840 began to catch up. 881 00:46:05,920 --> 00:46:10,200 I was due for pension and you required to submit a birth 882 00:46:10,200 --> 00:46:12,640 certificate. 883 00:46:12,640 --> 00:46:13,800 I knew I couldn't produce one. 884 00:46:16,520 --> 00:46:20,080 Several months prior to this, I knew this was coming up. 885 00:46:20,080 --> 00:46:24,560 I couldn't bring myself about to tell my family. 886 00:46:24,560 --> 00:46:27,760 So I walked away. 887 00:46:27,760 --> 00:46:35,240 It was a snap decision and it was a wrong one. 888 00:46:35,280 --> 00:46:38,480 Two days after his question by Hamilton authorities, 889 00:46:38,480 --> 00:46:40,840 Alex Cooper returned to British Columbia 890 00:46:40,840 --> 00:46:46,280 and was reunited with his family after more than five years. 891 00:46:46,280 --> 00:46:47,960 We were a very close family. 892 00:46:47,960 --> 00:46:50,080 And this has been very devastating for all of us 893 00:46:50,080 --> 00:46:53,040 since we were young. 894 00:46:53,040 --> 00:46:56,960 And I'm really hoping that we can work through this 895 00:46:56,960 --> 00:47:00,840 and put it back together if not the way it is, 896 00:47:00,840 --> 00:47:03,880 maybe something better. 897 00:47:03,880 --> 00:47:08,880 We can't pick up where we left off because things have changed. 898 00:47:08,880 --> 00:47:12,680 But we're going to start fresh, take it a day at a time. 899 00:47:12,680 --> 00:47:17,840 The way I feel, I don't deserve for anybody to accept 900 00:47:17,840 --> 00:47:19,760 my apology. 901 00:47:19,760 --> 00:47:25,440 What I'd done, abandonment of your family to me 902 00:47:25,440 --> 00:47:28,640 is one hell of a crime. 903 00:47:28,640 --> 00:47:32,360 And the biggest job for me at this point 904 00:47:32,360 --> 00:47:34,560 will be to make amends. 905 00:47:34,560 --> 00:47:38,240 And I would say it'll probably take me the rest of my life. 906 00:47:44,240 --> 00:47:54,440 On our next unsolved mysteries, this 907 00:47:54,440 --> 00:47:56,960 is a legendary shroud of Turin. 908 00:47:56,960 --> 00:47:58,760 Believers say it is the actual burial 909 00:47:58,760 --> 00:48:01,280 cloth of Jesus Christ and that his image has 910 00:48:01,320 --> 00:48:03,920 been miraculously imprinted upon it. 911 00:48:03,920 --> 00:48:05,800 Skeptics claim the image was somehow 912 00:48:05,800 --> 00:48:09,720 etched on the cloth in the 14th century by a master painter. 913 00:48:09,720 --> 00:48:14,800 What is the truth behind the mysterious shroud of Turin? 914 00:48:14,800 --> 00:48:17,840 In 1989, Ethel Kidd began building her dream 915 00:48:17,840 --> 00:48:21,120 home in rural Virginia, seeking the safety and security 916 00:48:21,120 --> 00:48:22,600 of country living. 917 00:48:22,600 --> 00:48:25,080 But in a fatal twist of fate, Ethel soon 918 00:48:25,080 --> 00:48:27,640 felt prey to the same kind of senseless crime 919 00:48:27,640 --> 00:48:30,680 she had been trying to escape. 920 00:48:30,680 --> 00:48:32,960 Joe Maloney was a master of deception 921 00:48:32,960 --> 00:48:35,120 and a master of manipulation. 922 00:48:35,120 --> 00:48:38,400 He fashioned a devious plot against his estranged wife, 923 00:48:38,400 --> 00:48:44,080 in which the murder weapon was a party drink laced with poison. 924 00:48:44,080 --> 00:48:48,000 Join me next time for another edition of Unsolved Mysteries.