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This program is about unsolved mysteries.

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Whenever possible, the actual family members and police

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officials have participated in recreating the events.

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What you are about to see is not a news broadcast.

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On the surface, Reggie DiPama was a caring and dedicated

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fireman.

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In reality, DiPama was a cynical manipulator who used his

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position as a scout for the fire.

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For years, a woman named Miriam was haunted by erratic

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frightening images from a life she barely remembered.

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In time, a fragmented portrait emerged of two very special

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people who Miriam believes helped her survive a

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troubled, traumatic childhood.

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Based on his own confession, Michael South of Webster,

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Texas was convicted of murdering two teenage girls.

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The murderers were also accused of murdering two

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Texas was convicted of murdering two teenage girls.

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The self has always maintained that he is innocent and that

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the confession was coerced by a sadistic police chief.

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Surprisingly, both a local sheriff and a state prosecutor

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believe Michael South's story is true.

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And from the annals of World War II, the fascinating legend

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of the ghost blimp, in 1942, a US Navy airship crashed to

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Earth in California with no one on board.

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To this day, the fate of its crew remains an unsolved mystery.

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Join me.

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Perhaps you may solve a mystery.

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Her name is Miriam.

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She is 50 years old, lives in New York,

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and has one grown daughter.

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Miriam's husband died in 1984.

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And she now does extensive volunteer work

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with other widows and widowers.

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I have this vague feeling that, uh,

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In July of 1982, Miriam was seeing a psychologist.

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Therapy led her down a frightening path,

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filled with confusing fragmented images,

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which appeared to spring from the depths of her memory.

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Oh, my god.

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I had this image like a mummy was the only thing

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I could like in it, too.

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It was so terrifying and so frightening.

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And I became so petrified by it.

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I didn't know what was happening.

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I didn't understand what was going on.

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The human mind is a vast, uncharted universe.

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But thoughts and moments and memories lurk randomly.

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For 10 years, Miriam has been piecing together

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the events of her childhood, attempting to understand

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what is real and what is not.

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Wondering if things happen as she remembers them.

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Her doctors are convinced they did.

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In any case, Miriam is now embarked

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on a search for two people whom she recalls

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with love and compassion.

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Miriam's journey into her past began in 1983.

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Once her disconnected memory started to break through,

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they simply refused to go away.

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I found myself getting up at night and sitting on the floor

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in the bathroom.

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And all of these memories started

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coming back of my father attacking me,

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of my father being subdued by the police.

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I really allowed the images.

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I worked at it.

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I let them come and I tried to figure out what I was seeing

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and try to understand what was happening to me.

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What would happen is that she began to become subject

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to what she called flashbacks.

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These would be images that would suddenly come out of nowhere

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and grab her in such a way that she would just be paralyzed

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for the instant that it occurred.

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Those flashbacks indicated that there was a certain amount

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of abuse that was going on.

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Those flashbacks indicated that there was a certain amount

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of abuse that went on very early in life

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that she did not have a handle on.

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And there was a big part of her that did not want to deal with it.

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I only remembered good things about my father.

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And to suddenly have a whole new side of him revealed to me

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that he was a terrible shock.

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And I remember saying in therapy,

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I don't want this to be true.

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I don't want to believe this about my father.

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Miriam was an only child.

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Her father, Harry, died in 1984,

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two years into Miriam's psychotherapy.

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Although he had often exhibited erratic behavior,

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Miriam's conscious memories of him had always been happy ones.

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Now, however, the years between her third and fifth birthdays

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began to haunt her.

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At the time, Miriam lived with her mother and father

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in Miami Beach.

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The detailed recreations you are about to see

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are based solely on Miriam's memories.

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I don't need a ride, honey.

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Janet's going to pick me up.

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All right.

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I'll see you later, Miriam.

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Bye.

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I have to go to the clinic.

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I don't see why not.

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Honey, I don't think that coconut's right yet.

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Honey, what are you talking about?

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A coconut is right when it falls off the tree.

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That's fine.

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Miriam, would you rather have some crackers?

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Crackers? She said she wanted a coconut.

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What does that even feel?

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Oh, not with that knife.

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So now your mommy's an expert on coconuts, huh?

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Yes.

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What?

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Just...

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Why are you going to be like that?

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I remembered that when he grabbed me

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and my father was attacking me.

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I don't want you!

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And somehow, I guess I kicked him enough to hurt him

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and he'd put me down or drop me or whatever.

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And I ran and wanted to hide from him.

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I remember watching from a hiding place

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where he finally left me alone.

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He was calling me a dog and a cat.

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He was calling me an animal.

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I mean, he didn't know it was me anymore.

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Somehow policemen were there.

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My father, I mean, he was ranting.

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He had no idea there was anybody there.

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Miriam says that she remembers hospital orderlies

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with the policemen trying to subdue her father.

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She assumes they were called by her mother.

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I was terrified beyond anything I can possibly relate to you.

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I don't know how to tell you the terror that I felt.

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Miriam has come to believe that her father

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suffered from severe mental illness.

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She now feels certain that while her mother tried to cope,

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Miriam herself was taken away.

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When I started having these flashbacks,

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I started thinking about mommy and daddy.

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And the images that went with my parents

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weren't the images that were popping in my mind

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and I didn't know who these people were.

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I suddenly realized there were people in my life

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that were important to me and I didn't know who they were.

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I brought you something to eat.

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I'm really afraid. It's all right.

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I remember I was absolutely frightened out of my mind.

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Slowly I realized that this was a safe place,

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that these people were kind and they weren't going to hurt me

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and they were loving and I was very happy there.

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What are you coloring, sweetheart?

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As the gates of repressed memory opened,

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Miriam began to believe she had once been placed with foster parents.

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She was inundated with images of warmth and love.

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My foster father had white hair and he was a young man.

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It was very striking.

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I remember his hands.

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I remember that they were strong and powerful hands

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that made me feel very safe.

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Miriam believes she called her foster parents

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Mommy, Pat and Daddy, Mike.

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Mike was a fireman and Pat sang her to sleep

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with Irish lullabies.

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I remember a song called Tura Lura Lura.

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All my life I've known this lullaby was sung to me.

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I just remember being hugged and kissed

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and just playing with Mommy Pat's ringlets

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and the overwhelming sense of being loved.

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They thought I was the most wonderful child in the world.

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And I really delighted in that.

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We have to talk to you.

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There's some people who think it might be...

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But unhappy memories soon intruded.

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First a serious discussion with Mike and Pat.

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Miriam sensed that she was about to lose them.

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Baby, what's important is that we love you.

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You always love you.

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Always love you.

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After hearing the testimony of all the parties...

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Miriam then saw herself in a courtroom

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sitting with a social worker.

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Her real parents as well as Pat and Mike were also there.

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Clearly Miriam Parton's foster parents

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have provided a good home during a difficult period.

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However, in cases like this

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we must consider first and foremost

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the best interest of the child.

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Since the original reasons for placement in the foster home

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no longer exist

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it's the decision of this court

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that Miriam Parton be returned to the

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physical custody of her natural parents.

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Court is adjourned.

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I was very, very distraught.

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I did not want to leave them.

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As far as I was concerned

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these are the people I wanted to spend the rest of my life with.

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I really didn't remember about that kiss for a very long time.

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Actually it didn't come until almost

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the very, very end of all my memories

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in fact that was probably one of the very last flashbacks I had.

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And until I had that memory

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I really felt at a loss.

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And somehow

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that I love you

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that came across in that kiss

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has been enough for me

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to make peace with the loss

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and to go on with my life

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and just keep their memory in my soul and in my heart.

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Miriam lived with her natural parents

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until she married at the age of 21.

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At the age of 47 she began her search for Mike and Pat.

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Their names were Pat and Mike

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and I think their last name was McGuire.

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According to Miriam

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her mother admits that Miriam's father had emotional problems

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and life was often difficult.

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However Miriam says her mother denies

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that she was ever placed in foster care

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which has prompted suggestions

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that Miriam might suffer from false memory syndrome

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and that Mike and Pat might never have existed.

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The question of whether this is made up

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certainly arises because it's hard to believe

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that people could be this way.

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All right.

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But I can't help but believe

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that this is the absolute truth.

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There may be a certain amount of condensation

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and distortion around the edges

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but essentially I think that the story is accurate

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and it was relayed in a truthful manner

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especially since all during the relation of this tale

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Miriam was wanting to get out of the treatment.

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Her emotional reactions

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to the pieces and to the whole

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were consistent with a real event

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and not with a fantasy.

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And in repeated flashbacks

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we got the beautiful picture

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of these marvelous foster parents

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and without these months

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with two loving parents

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she might not have survived.

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They gave me a lot.

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They saved me from despair

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and I would like them to know

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that there was a good outcome.

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I just pray that their lives are wonderful

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and that they've had happiness

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and I hope that I'll get a chance

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to be reunited with them

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and share with them the good things

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that I have in my life.

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Miriam believes that she lived with her foster parents

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in 1945 or 1946

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when she was between three and four years old.

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She remembers her last name as Maguire.

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Neither records of a court hearing

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nor records of foster care for Miriam had been found.

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However, the Dade County Clerk's office

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says it was not unusual in Florida

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during the period right after World War II.

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The Dade County Clerk's office

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was the only place where the Dade County Clerk's office

268
00:15:46,120 --> 00:15:48,120
was found.

269
00:15:48,120 --> 00:15:50,120
The Dade County Clerk's office

270
00:15:50,120 --> 00:15:53,120
was the only place where the Dade County Clerk's office

271
00:15:53,120 --> 00:15:55,120
was found.

272
00:15:55,120 --> 00:15:57,120
The Dade County Clerk's office

273
00:15:57,120 --> 00:16:00,120
was the only place where the Dade County Clerk's office

274
00:16:00,120 --> 00:16:02,120
was found.

275
00:16:02,120 --> 00:16:04,120
The Dade County Clerk's office

276
00:16:04,120 --> 00:16:07,120
was the only place where the Dade County Clerk's office

277
00:16:07,120 --> 00:16:09,120
was found.

278
00:16:10,120 --> 00:16:12,120
Along the Pacific Coast,

279
00:16:12,120 --> 00:16:14,120
the hunt is on for the Jap submarine

280
00:16:14,120 --> 00:16:16,120
that brought the war to US soil.

281
00:16:16,120 --> 00:16:19,120
In 1942, the final outcome of World War II

282
00:16:19,120 --> 00:16:21,120
was still very much in doubt.

283
00:16:21,120 --> 00:16:24,120
The United States had every reason to fear

284
00:16:24,120 --> 00:16:27,120
a Japanese invasion of its western shores.

285
00:16:27,120 --> 00:16:29,120
There were known to be Japanese submarines

286
00:16:29,120 --> 00:16:31,120
operating off the coast.

287
00:16:31,120 --> 00:16:34,120
There had been an attack on an oil refinery

288
00:16:34,120 --> 00:16:36,120
down near Santa Monica.

289
00:16:36,120 --> 00:16:38,120
Los Angeles.

290
00:16:38,120 --> 00:16:41,120
There was great fear that there would be

291
00:16:41,120 --> 00:16:43,120
more attacks.

292
00:16:43,120 --> 00:16:45,120
One response to the threat

293
00:16:45,120 --> 00:16:47,120
was unusual to say the least.

294
00:16:49,120 --> 00:16:51,120
The Navy assembled an unlikely fleet

295
00:16:51,120 --> 00:16:53,120
of 12 odd-sized blimps to monitor

296
00:16:53,120 --> 00:16:55,120
possible enemy activity

297
00:16:55,120 --> 00:16:57,120
along the California coastline.

298
00:16:59,120 --> 00:17:01,120
The mission of Airship Squadron 32,

299
00:17:01,120 --> 00:17:03,120
though critical, was launched

300
00:17:03,120 --> 00:17:06,120
in 1932, until August 16, 1942.

301
00:17:13,120 --> 00:17:16,120
That day, an airship on its regular patrol

302
00:17:16,120 --> 00:17:18,120
made a spectacular descent

303
00:17:18,120 --> 00:17:21,120
and crashed to Earth with no one on board.

304
00:17:21,120 --> 00:17:24,120
Incredibly, its two-man crew had vanished

305
00:17:24,120 --> 00:17:27,120
and no trace of them was ever found.

306
00:17:27,120 --> 00:17:30,120
The legend of the ghost blimp had been born.

307
00:17:31,120 --> 00:17:33,120
It was almost impossible for the Hamdatu

308
00:17:33,120 --> 00:17:35,120
to have been seen by somebody,

309
00:17:35,120 --> 00:17:39,120
but nobody saw them go, nobody saw them jump,

310
00:17:39,120 --> 00:17:42,120
and there's no relics of them at all.

311
00:17:42,120 --> 00:17:44,120
A real puzzle.

312
00:17:48,120 --> 00:17:51,120
It was perhaps a strangest home front incident

313
00:17:51,120 --> 00:17:53,120
of the Second World War.

314
00:17:53,120 --> 00:17:56,120
So strange that many remember as if it happened

315
00:17:56,120 --> 00:17:58,120
only yesterday.

316
00:17:58,120 --> 00:18:01,120
Throughout the entire war, Airship Squadron 32

317
00:18:01,120 --> 00:18:04,120
lost only the two men who disappeared on that patrol.

318
00:18:04,120 --> 00:18:07,120
50 years later, their exact fate is still unknown,

319
00:18:07,120 --> 00:18:10,120
and the mystery surrounding the ghost blimp

320
00:18:10,120 --> 00:18:13,120
remains a subject of endless fascination.

321
00:18:16,120 --> 00:18:19,120
Sunday, August 16, 1942,

322
00:18:19,120 --> 00:18:22,120
the flight of the ghost blimp began like hundreds of others had.

323
00:18:22,120 --> 00:18:24,120
Just after 6 a.m.,

324
00:18:24,120 --> 00:18:27,120
a blimp-designated Flight 101 prepared to take off.

325
00:18:30,120 --> 00:18:34,120
Flight 101's pilots were 27-year-old Lieutenant Ernest DeWitt Cote

326
00:18:34,120 --> 00:18:37,120
and 34-year-old Ensign Charles Ellis Adams.

327
00:18:37,120 --> 00:18:40,120
Both were experienced and reliable,

328
00:18:40,120 --> 00:18:43,120
all the more reason to wonder about what would occur

329
00:18:43,120 --> 00:18:45,120
over the next five hours.

330
00:18:45,120 --> 00:18:48,120
Lieutenant Cote was a thoroughly experienced pilot.

331
00:18:48,120 --> 00:18:52,120
He had many, many hours in this particular type of an aircraft.

332
00:18:52,120 --> 00:18:56,120
He was called a very cool, determined,

333
00:18:56,120 --> 00:18:59,120
if somewhat taciturn officer.

334
00:18:59,120 --> 00:19:02,120
Adams had flown in the large dirgeables

335
00:19:02,120 --> 00:19:04,120
and was thoroughly checked out,

336
00:19:04,120 --> 00:19:07,120
but he had never flown in the small blimps,

337
00:19:07,120 --> 00:19:11,120
and this was an indoctrination flight for him that Sunday morning.

338
00:19:12,120 --> 00:19:14,120
Aviation Machinist mate Riley Hill

339
00:19:14,120 --> 00:19:17,120
was assigned a crew for Adams and Cote that morning.

340
00:19:17,120 --> 00:19:19,120
But just before departure,

341
00:19:19,120 --> 00:19:22,120
Hill was inexplicably ordered to leave the ship.

342
00:19:23,120 --> 00:19:25,120
No need for you to go, Riley.

343
00:19:25,120 --> 00:19:27,120
Adams and I will take it. Yes, sir.

344
00:19:27,120 --> 00:19:29,120
Hill now believes heavy moisture in the air

345
00:19:29,120 --> 00:19:31,120
was weighing the blimp down,

346
00:19:31,120 --> 00:19:35,120
making it unwise to take off with three men aboard.

347
00:19:35,120 --> 00:19:39,120
So I got out, shut the door, and locked it, closed,

348
00:19:39,120 --> 00:19:41,120
and they took off.

349
00:19:45,120 --> 00:19:48,120
The flight plan called for the 101 to depart Treasure Island,

350
00:19:48,120 --> 00:19:50,120
pass over the Golden Gate Bridge,

351
00:19:50,120 --> 00:19:54,120
then head to the Farallon Islands 25 miles off the coast.

352
00:19:54,120 --> 00:19:57,120
From there, the patrol will continue north the Point Reyes

353
00:19:57,120 --> 00:19:59,120
and south along the coastline.

354
00:20:03,120 --> 00:20:06,120
The first leg proceeded without incident.

355
00:20:07,120 --> 00:20:10,120
An hour and a half after takeoff at 7.38 a.m.,

356
00:20:10,120 --> 00:20:14,120
Lieutenant Cody at Radio Squadron headquarters at Moffett Field,

357
00:20:14,120 --> 00:20:18,120
positioned four miles east of the Farallons, stand by.

358
00:20:19,120 --> 00:20:22,120
Four minutes later, Cody called again.

359
00:20:24,120 --> 00:20:27,120
Investigating suspicious oil sling, stand by.

360
00:20:28,120 --> 00:20:30,120
Go 101.

361
00:20:30,120 --> 00:20:34,120
Those were the last words ever received from Flight 101.

362
00:20:34,120 --> 00:20:36,120
Go 101.

363
00:20:37,120 --> 00:20:42,120
When it came time for further explanation,

364
00:20:43,120 --> 00:20:46,120
and we didn't get it, we just assumed, well, that was negative,

365
00:20:46,120 --> 00:20:49,120
and they went on their way.

366
00:20:49,120 --> 00:20:51,120
Then it came time for the hourly position report,

367
00:20:51,120 --> 00:20:55,120
and that didn't come in, and the second one didn't come in.

368
00:20:55,120 --> 00:20:59,120
And that's when we began to feel that something was grossly wrong,

369
00:20:59,120 --> 00:21:02,120
and we just could not believe that our radios weren't working

370
00:21:02,120 --> 00:21:07,120
because we had good radio crew and the machinery was working.

371
00:21:08,120 --> 00:21:11,120
After more than three hours of radio silence,

372
00:21:11,120 --> 00:21:14,120
personnel at Moffett Field grew increasingly alarmed.

373
00:21:14,120 --> 00:21:17,120
Fraddyk attempts to contact the blimp when unanswered.

374
00:21:17,120 --> 00:21:18,120
Any word yet?

375
00:21:18,120 --> 00:21:19,120
No, sir.

376
00:21:19,120 --> 00:21:22,120
No communications from the crew since the report at 7.42.

377
00:21:22,120 --> 00:21:25,120
I'm investigating suspicious oil sling.

378
00:21:25,120 --> 00:21:26,120
Yes, sir.

379
00:21:27,120 --> 00:21:28,120
Flight 101.

380
00:21:28,120 --> 00:21:32,120
Finally, a message was received, but not from Flight 101.

381
00:21:32,120 --> 00:21:34,120
San Francisco short patrol.

382
00:21:34,120 --> 00:21:36,120
One blimp crossed the beach at playland,

383
00:21:36,120 --> 00:21:39,120
crashed into the golf course, and dropped the depth charge,

384
00:21:39,120 --> 00:21:41,120
peeled it off.

385
00:21:41,120 --> 00:21:44,120
Let's get a team over there right away.

386
00:21:44,120 --> 00:21:47,120
The blimp had come ashore just south of San Francisco.

387
00:21:47,120 --> 00:21:53,120
Flight 101 had inexplicably drifted eight miles off course.

388
00:21:53,120 --> 00:21:57,120
There was a swimmer there, a man called Mr. Capovia,

389
00:21:57,120 --> 00:22:00,120
who was standing ready to go into the water,

390
00:22:00,120 --> 00:22:05,120
and all of a sudden he saw this huge gray mass just coming right at him.

391
00:22:05,120 --> 00:22:10,120
Remember, this thing is 47 feet wide, and it wasn't too high off the water.

392
00:22:10,120 --> 00:22:12,120
And he watched it come in.

393
00:22:12,120 --> 00:22:15,120
It dragged its wheel along the sand at the water's edge,

394
00:22:15,120 --> 00:22:17,120
then hit a little sand knoll.

395
00:22:17,120 --> 00:22:21,120
It bounced up into the air and then slid up a little bit of a canyon,

396
00:22:21,120 --> 00:22:25,120
and then hit rather heavily on the side of the canyon,

397
00:22:25,120 --> 00:22:29,120
and this knocked off what turned out to be depth charge.

398
00:22:30,120 --> 00:22:35,120
Relieved of the weight, the L8 then soared up into the overcast again,

399
00:22:35,120 --> 00:22:38,120
and out of sight of this Mr. Capovia,

400
00:22:38,120 --> 00:22:43,120
and began to drift inland, I guess, with the winds over Daly City.

401
00:22:45,120 --> 00:22:49,120
The rapidly deflating blimp was seen by hundreds of people.

402
00:22:49,120 --> 00:22:53,120
Bunny Gillespie was 16 years old at the time.

403
00:22:53,120 --> 00:22:55,120
I was on the way home from Sunday school,

404
00:22:55,120 --> 00:23:00,120
and I saw this big gray thing coming in over

405
00:23:00,120 --> 00:23:03,120
what I thought was going to be right over Templeton Avenue.

406
00:23:04,120 --> 00:23:07,120
When I saw this thing coming in through the sky,

407
00:23:07,120 --> 00:23:10,120
I was very surprised, as were a lot of other people,

408
00:23:10,120 --> 00:23:13,120
because things like that just didn't happen in Daly City.

409
00:23:14,120 --> 00:23:17,120
Flight 101 was quickly losing altitude

410
00:23:17,120 --> 00:23:20,120
and in danger of becoming entangled in power lines.

411
00:23:21,120 --> 00:23:26,120
The blimp was on a collision course with the steep hills in Daly City.

412
00:23:28,120 --> 00:23:32,120
One woman's house almost became the point of impact.

413
00:23:33,120 --> 00:23:35,120
It was a Mrs. Appleton.

414
00:23:35,120 --> 00:23:40,120
She said that all of a sudden this huge behemoth had settled

415
00:23:40,120 --> 00:23:42,120
and scraped across the top of her roof,

416
00:23:42,120 --> 00:23:45,120
and she said it sounded like chains dragging.

417
00:23:46,120 --> 00:23:51,120
But the entire house was blacked out because of the size of this thing,

418
00:23:51,120 --> 00:23:55,120
and she raised to the front window, wondering what the world was going on,

419
00:23:55,120 --> 00:23:59,120
and she saw the rest of it, the gondola hit the crossarm,

420
00:23:59,120 --> 00:24:03,120
break off part of the mechanism there,

421
00:24:03,120 --> 00:24:06,120
and gradually settled down to the ground.

422
00:24:06,120 --> 00:24:08,120
I missed the actual landing of the thing,

423
00:24:08,120 --> 00:24:12,120
but when I got there it was just like a big gray monster

424
00:24:12,120 --> 00:24:17,120
with the gondola jutting up towards the tops of the houses.

425
00:24:17,120 --> 00:24:18,120
It was huge.

426
00:24:19,120 --> 00:24:21,120
Miraculously no one was injured

427
00:24:21,120 --> 00:24:24,120
as a blimp came to rest in the middle of the street.

428
00:24:25,120 --> 00:24:29,120
Almost immediately, Daly City officials were on the scene.

429
00:24:30,120 --> 00:24:31,120
When Navy personnel arrived,

430
00:24:31,120 --> 00:24:36,120
they were stunned to discover that there was no sign of Lieutenant Cody or Ensign Adams.

431
00:24:37,120 --> 00:24:40,120
Apparently the blimp had piloted itself

432
00:24:40,120 --> 00:24:43,120
straight into downtown Daly City.

433
00:24:47,120 --> 00:24:51,120
A search of the gondola left investigators perplexed.

434
00:24:52,120 --> 00:24:56,120
The door was latched open, a highly unusual in-flight position.

435
00:24:56,120 --> 00:25:01,120
The safety bar, normally used to block the doorway, was no longer in place.

436
00:25:03,120 --> 00:25:07,120
A microphone hooked to an external loudspeaker dangled out of the gondola.

437
00:25:08,120 --> 00:25:11,120
The ignition switches were still on.

438
00:25:12,120 --> 00:25:15,120
The radio was still on and working.

439
00:25:16,120 --> 00:25:19,120
Nobody had touched my fuel valves.

440
00:25:19,120 --> 00:25:23,120
They were set up just exactly the way that I'd left them.

441
00:25:23,120 --> 00:25:27,120
We still had another six hours of fuel.

442
00:25:28,120 --> 00:25:33,120
Two lifejackets out of the three that were normally carried aboard were missing,

443
00:25:33,120 --> 00:25:37,120
but there was no other equipment that was gone.

444
00:25:38,120 --> 00:25:42,120
The machine gun was still there, the other flares,

445
00:25:42,120 --> 00:25:44,120
there were three other flares were still there.

446
00:25:44,120 --> 00:25:51,120
The expandable life raft was there and one more lifejacket.

447
00:25:51,120 --> 00:25:53,120
There was nothing missing.

448
00:25:54,120 --> 00:25:57,120
Lieutenant Cody's cap lay on the instrument panel.

449
00:25:57,120 --> 00:26:01,120
The missing lifejackets indicated the crew had put them on before takeoff

450
00:26:01,120 --> 00:26:04,120
as regulations required.

451
00:26:06,120 --> 00:26:11,120
A locked and heavily weighted briefcase containing top secret codes was still in place.

452
00:26:13,120 --> 00:26:18,120
It was as if Cody and Adams had opened the door and simply stepped out into thin air.

453
00:26:22,120 --> 00:26:27,120
The Navy investigation revealed that Flight 101 had been seen by several ships and planes

454
00:26:27,120 --> 00:26:29,120
between 7 and 11 a.m.

455
00:26:29,120 --> 00:26:34,120
Some of the eyewitnesses reported being close enough to make out Cody and Adams in the gondola.

456
00:26:34,120 --> 00:26:39,120
In each instance, everything about Flight 101 seemed normal.

457
00:26:42,120 --> 00:26:46,120
Speculation on the fate of the two Navy airmen ran rampant.

458
00:26:46,120 --> 00:26:50,120
Some people believe that Cody and Adams had spotted an enemy submarine.

459
00:26:50,120 --> 00:26:54,120
When they descended to investigate, they were taken prisoner.

460
00:26:55,120 --> 00:27:02,120
One outrageous rumor suggested that the pirates were involved in a lover's triangle with an unknown woman.

461
00:27:02,120 --> 00:27:09,120
One had murdered the other in a jealous rage the story went and then fled when the LA reached land.

462
00:27:11,120 --> 00:27:14,120
The Navy finally settled on the most plausible theory.

463
00:27:14,120 --> 00:27:19,120
There had been an accident on board, perhaps caused by mechanical malfunction.

464
00:27:19,120 --> 00:27:25,120
Presumably one of the men had climbed outside the gondola to correct the problem and had run into trouble.

465
00:27:25,120 --> 00:27:30,120
When the second man tried to come to his aid, both fell to their doom.

466
00:27:33,120 --> 00:27:42,120
A year later, on August 17, 1943, Lieutenant Ernest DeWitt Cody and Ensign Charles Ellis Adams were officially declared dead

467
00:27:42,120 --> 00:27:46,120
and the mystery of Flight 101 passed into legend.

468
00:27:50,120 --> 00:27:57,120
After the crash, the L-8 was patched up and put back into service by the Navy.

469
00:27:57,120 --> 00:28:05,120
Ultimately, the blimp became part of the Goodyear fleet and during the 1960s and 70s, it was seen by millions of sporting events.

470
00:28:05,120 --> 00:28:12,120
Few of them had any idea that the stately craft circling overhead was a fabled ghost blimp.

471
00:28:13,120 --> 00:28:21,120
Next, a respected community leader goes into hiding after he is convicted of statutory rape and sexual assault.

472
00:28:31,120 --> 00:28:35,120
Perhaps the most disturbing crimes are those that betray the trust of children.

473
00:28:36,120 --> 00:28:43,120
In 1981, a group of teenage girls in Danbury, Connecticut were betrayed by a respected community leader.

474
00:28:43,120 --> 00:28:50,120
Reggie DePama was a 12-year veteran of the Danbury Fire Department and adviser to a local explorer scout post.

475
00:28:50,120 --> 00:28:57,120
But behind the facade of respectability, DePama was a time bomb just waiting to explode.

476
00:28:58,120 --> 00:29:07,120
In 1978, Reggie DePama had organized the explorer post in affiliation with the fire department.

477
00:29:07,120 --> 00:29:15,120
His girlfriend, Connie, was co-leader and the group quickly became a popular after-school activity.

478
00:29:15,120 --> 00:29:23,120
When I first joined the troop, my impression of Reggie and Connie were that they were very nice people.

479
00:29:23,120 --> 00:29:28,120
So it was just never even a question that you would not trust them with anything.

480
00:29:28,120 --> 00:29:36,120
You just tell them confidential things and you would really feel like you would trust them all the time and go to them if you needed help.

481
00:29:41,120 --> 00:29:47,120
By 1981, the explorer posts had grown to include 15 girls and 10 boys.

482
00:29:47,120 --> 00:29:53,120
They met at the fire station regularly and were drilled in life-saving and rescue techniques.

483
00:29:55,120 --> 00:30:02,120
Reggie was supervisor of Danbury's ambulance service and the scout's training was often interrupted by emergency calls.

484
00:30:08,120 --> 00:30:15,120
The post members idolized Reggie DePama and he soon became a virtual hero, especially to the girls.

485
00:30:18,120 --> 00:30:23,120
It's kind of hard to describe Reggie.

486
00:30:23,120 --> 00:30:30,120
Reggie was a lot of fun. Reggie and his girlfriend, Connie, they were easygoing people.

487
00:30:30,120 --> 00:30:38,120
They were easy to talk to. If you had a problem, they really wanted you to open up to them and get close to them.

488
00:30:38,120 --> 00:30:44,120
And, you know, they were good at getting people's trust.

489
00:30:48,120 --> 00:30:54,120
In 1981, the explorers organized a Halloween-haunted house to raise money for an upcoming camping trip.

490
00:30:54,120 --> 00:30:58,120
It was a night which would burn itself into Terry's memory.

491
00:30:59,120 --> 00:31:01,120
So you're 13 and you still don't have a boyfriend?

492
00:31:01,120 --> 00:31:02,120
Yeah.

493
00:31:02,120 --> 00:31:05,120
Have you ever gone all the way with a boy before?

494
00:31:05,120 --> 00:31:06,120
No.

495
00:31:06,120 --> 00:31:11,120
Well, I'd like to teach you about that because I'm your friend. Are you my friend?

496
00:31:11,120 --> 00:31:12,120
Yeah.

497
00:31:14,120 --> 00:31:15,120
Good.

498
00:31:16,120 --> 00:31:24,120
I thought that he was concerned with me and, you know, how I'd, you know, handle it because we were at that age.

499
00:31:24,120 --> 00:31:36,120
And, you know, I took it as like a fatherly concern and, you know, something that, you know, he wanted to not be a part of but help with.

500
00:31:38,120 --> 00:31:40,120
Hey, are you okay?

501
00:31:40,120 --> 00:31:42,120
Yeah, just something Reggie said.

502
00:31:42,120 --> 00:31:46,120
And, you know, Johnny came up to me and said, you know, we have to go get some things.

503
00:31:46,120 --> 00:31:48,120
You know, why don't you come with me?

504
00:31:48,120 --> 00:31:53,120
And we, you know, promptly went back to the house where Reggie was waiting.

505
00:31:58,120 --> 00:32:04,120
We went back to the apartment and, you know, she said, why don't you go shower and, you know, get some of this makeup off.

506
00:32:04,120 --> 00:32:09,120
So I did. I didn't think anything of it. When I came out, it all happened.

507
00:32:12,120 --> 00:32:13,120
Hey.

508
00:32:20,120 --> 00:32:21,120
Hey.

509
00:32:21,120 --> 00:32:22,120
Hey.

510
00:32:22,120 --> 00:32:23,120
Come on in, honey.

511
00:32:23,120 --> 00:32:25,120
Yeah, we're just watching some TV.

512
00:32:25,120 --> 00:32:30,120
That night, Reggie forced Terry to have sexual intercourse while Connie watched.

513
00:32:33,120 --> 00:32:38,120
Tragically, Terry was not Reggie De Palma's first victim, nor would she be his last.

514
00:32:39,120 --> 00:32:52,120
I was 13 years old and I did not go immediately to my parents or the authorities because at that age, I don't think that you have any understanding even what's going on.

515
00:32:52,120 --> 00:32:59,120
You just feel a terrible amount of humiliation, of guilt. What did I do wrong to cause this to happen?

516
00:32:59,120 --> 00:33:02,120
I don't know what to do. I can't believe he did it to you.

517
00:33:02,120 --> 00:33:08,120
Over the next year, Reggie De Palma continued to sexually abuse girls in the Explorer post.

518
00:33:08,120 --> 00:33:11,120
Finally, they began to confide in one another.

519
00:33:11,120 --> 00:33:14,120
Are you guys going to go back? I mean, if he asks you.

520
00:33:14,120 --> 00:33:18,120
I've been back, but I can't go back anymore.

521
00:33:18,120 --> 00:33:28,120
One of the girls had gotten upset about something and started talking and it just started snowballing because as soon as she said something, then the next person and everybody started coming forth.

522
00:33:28,120 --> 00:33:34,120
And then we all realized that we weren't alone, that we were all in this group together and that together we could try to stop this.

523
00:33:34,120 --> 00:33:36,120
We have to tell somebody.

524
00:33:36,120 --> 00:33:38,120
Okay.

525
00:33:38,120 --> 00:33:40,120
Are you going to do it?

526
00:33:40,120 --> 00:33:42,120
We'll go with you if you want.

527
00:33:42,120 --> 00:33:43,120
Yeah.

528
00:33:43,120 --> 00:33:44,120
Will you tell?

529
00:33:44,120 --> 00:33:45,120
Yeah.

530
00:33:45,120 --> 00:33:47,120
I'll tell my mom.

531
00:33:49,120 --> 00:33:50,120
Okay.

532
00:33:51,120 --> 00:33:58,120
One of the girls' mothers came to the police station to report what her daughter had told her.

533
00:33:58,120 --> 00:34:07,120
So Detective Benjamin and I were assigned to investigate this and I spoke with all the girls involved and he spoke with all the boys.

534
00:34:07,120 --> 00:34:13,120
At that point, you know, I was still very young in high school trying to deal with all this.

535
00:34:13,120 --> 00:34:17,120
It was not an easy thing to just discuss with someone to tell them.

536
00:34:17,120 --> 00:34:22,120
She was very supportive. She was very nice and helped me through it a lot.

537
00:34:22,120 --> 00:34:29,120
So what I need to know is did you ever have occasion to be alone with Reggie?

538
00:34:29,120 --> 00:34:36,120
Um, yeah. There was one time when I was at his apartment.

539
00:34:36,120 --> 00:34:40,120
Okay. So what happened once you got to the apartment?

540
00:34:40,120 --> 00:34:43,120
He gave me some wine.

541
00:34:43,120 --> 00:34:48,120
Uh-huh. And how much wine did you have?

542
00:34:48,120 --> 00:34:50,120
Three glasses.

543
00:34:50,120 --> 00:34:51,120
Three glasses of wine?

544
00:34:51,120 --> 00:34:52,120
Three.

545
00:34:52,120 --> 00:34:53,120
Okay.

546
00:34:53,120 --> 00:35:04,120
Right off the bat, when I heard the stories that these girls told, I felt myself betrayed and I don't even know Reggie.

547
00:35:04,120 --> 00:35:13,120
These girls were so devastated over what had happened to them that I had nightmares.

548
00:35:13,120 --> 00:35:14,120
To his bedroom.

549
00:35:14,120 --> 00:35:22,120
The details of what they were telling me made me feel such rage towards this man.

550
00:35:22,120 --> 00:35:27,120
I had to get him rested as soon as possible.

551
00:35:27,120 --> 00:35:29,120
Why don't you just tell me what's going on, Russ?

552
00:35:29,120 --> 00:35:32,120
Five counts of child molestation, Reggie.

553
00:35:32,120 --> 00:35:36,120
You have the right to remain silent. You understand?

554
00:35:36,120 --> 00:35:37,120
Yeah.

555
00:35:37,120 --> 00:35:39,120
You have the right to an attorney. You understand?

556
00:35:39,120 --> 00:35:44,120
If you waive that right, anything you say or do will be used against you in a court of law. You understand?

557
00:35:44,120 --> 00:35:45,120
Yeah.

558
00:35:45,120 --> 00:35:50,120
On the same day Reggie was arrested, his girlfriend Connie was questioned.

559
00:35:50,120 --> 00:35:56,120
She believed in him so much she would have done anything for him.

560
00:35:56,120 --> 00:36:08,120
And she felt so insecure about their relationship that she even went this far to do these things with these girls for Reggie.

561
00:36:08,120 --> 00:36:12,120
Ladies and gentlemen, I just have one more set of questions I'd like to ask Terry.

562
00:36:12,120 --> 00:36:22,120
Just over a year after his arrest, Reggie Dupama went to trial on nine counts, including two counts of statutory rape and five counts of risking injury to a minor.

563
00:36:22,120 --> 00:36:31,120
This terrible night, you didn't tell someone about what happened. Why particularly you didn't tell your parents?

564
00:36:31,120 --> 00:36:43,120
I thought that they would think less of me and that maybe it was my fault too. And Reggie had told me not to tell anybody.

565
00:36:43,120 --> 00:36:52,120
Reggie Dupama, the first day during the trial, was obvious that he did not believe the girls had the courage to testify against him.

566
00:36:52,120 --> 00:36:59,120
He felt he still had sufficient sway over them that they would crumble on the witness stand.

567
00:36:59,120 --> 00:37:07,120
After the first witness was able to testify against him, certainly then his conference had to waver.

568
00:37:07,120 --> 00:37:15,120
And of course after the third girl had testified, he must have decided that he would be better in parts unknown.

569
00:37:20,120 --> 00:37:27,120
After the fifth day of the trial, Reggie Dupama, who was out on bail, left Danbury to visit his mother.

570
00:37:27,120 --> 00:37:32,120
She was hospitalized at New Haven, Connecticut, 38 miles away.

571
00:37:32,120 --> 00:37:37,120
Although his car was found in the hospital parking lot, Dupama never showed up in his mother's room.

572
00:37:37,120 --> 00:37:42,120
A fugitive warrant was issued for his arrest.

573
00:37:42,120 --> 00:37:54,120
The trial continued without him and on October 25, 1983, Reggie Dupama was convicted on seven counts and sentenced in absentia to 21 years in prison.

574
00:37:54,120 --> 00:37:59,120
He is still at large and has never served a single day behind bars.

575
00:37:59,120 --> 00:38:05,120
His victims are now adults, but the chilling effects of abuse linger.

576
00:38:05,120 --> 00:38:13,120
There are times when I'll psych myself out, like if I'm leaving work late or when I was in college,

577
00:38:13,120 --> 00:38:20,120
if I was walking back to the dorms or something late at night, that I was like, you know, he's out there somewhere.

578
00:38:20,120 --> 00:38:23,120
You know, he could be watching me right now.

579
00:38:23,120 --> 00:38:27,120
When I think about the fact that he's still out there somewhere is very upsetting.

580
00:38:27,120 --> 00:38:34,120
The first, of course, to all of us, the injustice that we feel because he is not paying for the crimes that were committed.

581
00:38:34,120 --> 00:38:42,120
And then again, the fear for other people out there that he could be harming individuals all over again and put them all through this living hell.

582
00:38:53,120 --> 00:39:11,120
When we return, a convicted killer claims he is innocent and at least one prosecutor believes he is telling the truth.

583
00:39:24,120 --> 00:39:40,120
In the past, we've presented a number of final appeal cases, dramatic profiles of men and women who claim they have been wrongfully convicted of a crime.

584
00:39:40,120 --> 00:39:46,120
They were saying that they knew that their baby had been poisoned by either me or my husband.

585
00:39:46,120 --> 00:39:49,120
I was devastated. I was blown away.

586
00:39:50,120 --> 00:39:55,120
I just could not believe that they could even think, I mean, Ryan was my world.

587
00:39:55,120 --> 00:40:01,120
In 1989, Patty Stallings was arrested for poisoning her five-month-old son.

588
00:40:01,120 --> 00:40:05,120
When the baby died, she was charged with murder and later convicted.

589
00:40:08,120 --> 00:40:13,120
Unfortunately, we can't undo the suffering that the Stallings have endured.

590
00:40:13,120 --> 00:40:17,120
And I apologize to them, both personally and for the state of Missouri.

591
00:40:17,120 --> 00:40:27,120
After our broadcast, Patty Stallings was released from prison and exonerated when doctors determined that her son, Ryan, had actually suffered from a rare genetic disorder.

592
00:40:30,120 --> 00:40:38,120
I absolutely did not commit to robbery or the shooting of the police officer. I'm a musician and artist. I'm not a criminal.

593
00:40:39,120 --> 00:40:48,120
Tony Miller spent eight and a half years in prison for robbery and assault. Today, Miller is a free man, and the charges against him have been dropped.

594
00:40:48,120 --> 00:41:02,120
After his story aired, a viewer who had been an eyewitness to the crime contacted the court. Miller's conviction was overturned thanks in part to the witness's sworn statement that Tony was not the guilty party.

595
00:41:03,120 --> 00:41:13,120
I am innocent. It's a phrase that echoes through every cell block in every prison in America. Almost always, it is an empty claim, little more than jailhouse posturing.

596
00:41:13,120 --> 00:41:22,120
But as you've just seen, those three words do sometimes carry the ring of truth. A few cases like our next one deserve a second look.

597
00:41:23,120 --> 00:41:31,120
January 3, 1972. Two boys out fishing on Taylor Bayou near Webster, Texas, found evidence of a tragedy.

598
00:41:31,120 --> 00:41:42,120
What's that right there? That looks like a ball.

599
00:41:43,120 --> 00:41:55,120
It was a scull of a young girl. Six weeks later, police discovered the rest of her bones, along with the remains of another young woman.

600
00:41:55,120 --> 00:42:00,120
Come on in here and get a shot of this.

601
00:42:01,120 --> 00:42:14,120
Dental records identify the two girls as 14-year-old Rhonda Renee Johnson and 15-year-old Sharon Shaw, who'd been missing since a previous summer. The cause of their deaths could not be determined.

602
00:42:14,120 --> 00:42:26,120
Five months after the bones were found, police arrested 23-year-old Michael Self, a gas station attendant with below average intelligence. Self was charged with two counts of murder.

603
00:42:27,120 --> 00:42:33,120
Twenty years later, he is still in prison, convicted of a crime he swears he did not commit.

604
00:42:33,120 --> 00:42:49,120
I did not kill Sharon Shaw and Renee Johnson. It was just all behind politics and a warning of conviction. That was it. Just somebody to play the patsy.

605
00:42:50,120 --> 00:42:58,120
Imagine that you're a jury member in a murder trial. The defendant has confessed twice and you vote to convict him.

606
00:42:58,120 --> 00:43:08,120
Later, you discover that confessions were allegedly coerced by two police officers, used a kind of rough justice, physical and psychological intimidation.

607
00:43:08,120 --> 00:43:19,120
As it turned out, those two police officers were criminals themselves. It may seem incredible, but Michael Self claims that he was a victim of just that scenario.

608
00:43:22,120 --> 00:43:34,120
Rhonda Johnson and Sharon Shaw disappeared on August 4, 1971. They were last seen heading toward the Jericho Surf and Ski Shop in Galveston, Texas, 20 miles south of Rhonda's hometown of Webster.

609
00:43:35,120 --> 00:43:50,120
Police immediately launched an exhaustive investigation. There was a great deal of community pressure to find the girls. Pressure intensified by the fact that Rhonda was a granddaughter of a prominent Webster City Councilman.

610
00:43:51,120 --> 00:44:08,120
I put in many hours, many hours, night and day, on trying to find out what happened to these girls when they disappeared. But I kept coming up to some loose ends. I was getting close to, I thought, for them then it would disappear. All my leads would disappear.

611
00:44:08,120 --> 00:44:11,120
We're all for luck you have a couple of DPS boys on board.

612
00:44:11,120 --> 00:44:23,120
In late May of 1972, the Webster City Council hired a new police chief, Don Morris. Morris and his assistant chief, Tommy Deal, came from the traffic division of the Texas Department of Public Safety.

613
00:44:23,120 --> 00:44:27,120
Son, I'm glad you're with us. I know I can count on you.

614
00:44:27,120 --> 00:44:28,120
Yes, sir.

615
00:44:28,120 --> 00:44:35,120
The hunt for Rhonda and Sharon had been going on fruitlessly for 10 months, but within three weeks of taking office, Morris got a tip on a suspect.

616
00:44:36,120 --> 00:44:40,120
Seems to me a few years back a boy named Michael Self was...

617
00:44:40,120 --> 00:44:50,120
Glenn Price, another city councilman, suggested Tommy Deal checked known sex offenders and mentioned Michael Self's name. Self had been arrested twice in peeping Tom incidents.

618
00:44:50,120 --> 00:44:52,120
I know you do. Good job, Tommy.

619
00:44:52,120 --> 00:44:53,120
Give it a whirl, Glenn.

620
00:44:53,120 --> 00:44:54,120
Bye.

621
00:44:54,120 --> 00:44:55,120
Bye.

622
00:45:00,120 --> 00:45:10,120
June 9th, 1972, at 5 a.m., assistant chief Tommy Deal and officer Herman Morgan stopped by the gas station where 23-year-old Michael Self worked the night shift.

623
00:45:10,120 --> 00:45:12,120
Say, look here, Mike.

624
00:45:12,120 --> 00:45:13,120
What's up?

625
00:45:13,120 --> 00:45:15,120
You got ESP?

626
00:45:15,120 --> 00:45:17,120
Say it again?

627
00:45:17,120 --> 00:45:18,120
I got ESP.

628
00:45:18,120 --> 00:45:19,120
Is that right?

629
00:45:19,120 --> 00:45:20,120
That's right.

630
00:45:20,120 --> 00:45:25,120
And I can tell you exactly what you're thinking right now.

631
00:45:25,120 --> 00:45:28,120
You're thinking about two girls.

632
00:45:31,120 --> 00:45:34,120
Well, I didn't know what two girls he was talking about.

633
00:45:34,120 --> 00:45:35,120
Well, I don't see what the problem is.

634
00:45:35,120 --> 00:45:37,120
My wife and I had been separated.

635
00:45:37,120 --> 00:45:38,120
Yeah.

636
00:45:38,120 --> 00:45:40,120
And I was dating a girl.

637
00:45:40,120 --> 00:45:45,120
And I thought that's who he was, you know, talking about. That's the only one I could think of.

638
00:45:46,120 --> 00:45:52,120
Later that morning, Michael Self voluntarily went to the police station.

639
00:45:52,120 --> 00:45:55,120
Police detective, Detective Haines.

640
00:45:55,120 --> 00:45:57,120
I knew I hadn't done anything.

641
00:45:57,120 --> 00:46:00,120
I just went ahead and agreed to meet him there.

642
00:46:00,120 --> 00:46:03,120
Now, Mike, I want you to answer some questions for me.

643
00:46:03,120 --> 00:46:09,120
I want you to tell us if you've ever seen either one of these girls before.

644
00:46:09,120 --> 00:46:12,120
Some said he recognized the girls but did not know them.

645
00:46:12,120 --> 00:46:13,120
Yes.

646
00:46:14,120 --> 00:46:15,120
Renee Johnson.

647
00:46:15,120 --> 00:46:18,120
To his surprise, he was immediately taken into custody.

648
00:46:18,120 --> 00:46:19,120
Sharon Shaw.

649
00:46:19,120 --> 00:46:20,120
That's right.

650
00:46:20,120 --> 00:46:21,120
Cuffing.

651
00:46:21,120 --> 00:46:22,120
Why?

652
00:46:22,120 --> 00:46:23,120
We are putting you under arrest.

653
00:46:23,120 --> 00:46:24,120
Right here, son.

654
00:46:24,120 --> 00:46:26,120
Sit down in that chair.

655
00:46:26,120 --> 00:46:27,120
All right.

656
00:46:29,120 --> 00:46:32,120
Mike, Mike, Mike.

657
00:46:35,120 --> 00:46:37,120
You know, we already know you killed those two girls.

658
00:46:37,120 --> 00:46:39,120
We got the evidence.

659
00:46:39,120 --> 00:46:40,120
Oh, come on.

660
00:46:40,120 --> 00:46:42,120
I didn't have nothing to do with killing no girls.

661
00:46:42,120 --> 00:46:43,120
And you all know that.

662
00:46:43,120 --> 00:46:48,120
While Self was being questioned, another police officer, Jerry Mitchell, stopped by to observe.

663
00:46:48,120 --> 00:46:54,120
Mitchell knew Self and says Self was not at all nervous at that stage of the interrogation.

664
00:46:54,120 --> 00:46:55,120
What happened to somebody?

665
00:46:55,120 --> 00:46:57,120
They get called for doing something like that.

666
00:46:57,120 --> 00:46:58,120
Mike was relaxed.

667
00:46:58,120 --> 00:47:01,120
He was going kind of laid back and grinning.

668
00:47:01,120 --> 00:47:08,120
And I don't know that it ever really sunk into, at that time, what he was being involved in.

669
00:47:08,120 --> 00:47:10,120
You got something to tell us?

670
00:47:10,120 --> 00:47:13,120
Well, like I say, I ain't done nothing.

671
00:47:13,120 --> 00:47:15,120
I ain't broke no law.

672
00:47:17,120 --> 00:47:19,120
Don't you need to be on patrol?

673
00:47:19,120 --> 00:47:21,120
Mitchell left the room.

674
00:47:21,120 --> 00:47:28,120
According to Self, Chief Don Morris then took personal charge of the interrogation and the tone changed radically.

675
00:47:28,120 --> 00:47:29,120
No, Don, we're not.

676
00:47:29,120 --> 00:47:31,120
What, is he innocent?

677
00:47:31,120 --> 00:47:35,120
You ain't a Saint Michael?

678
00:47:35,120 --> 00:47:36,120
Yes, sir.

679
00:47:36,120 --> 00:47:38,120
They were down, weren't you?

680
00:47:38,120 --> 00:47:40,120
Go home and take a nap and let me in?

681
00:47:40,120 --> 00:47:44,120
What you were about to see is based on Michael Self's recollection.

682
00:47:44,120 --> 00:47:46,120
Yeah, Michael.

683
00:47:46,120 --> 00:47:52,120
Don Morris started asking me questions of why I killed these girls.

684
00:47:52,120 --> 00:47:56,120
I told him I didn't know what he was talking about.

685
00:47:56,120 --> 00:47:59,120
I've seen a lot of innocent people, Michael.

686
00:47:59,120 --> 00:48:02,120
You don't look like one of them.

687
00:48:02,120 --> 00:48:04,120
Tell me about the girls.

688
00:48:04,120 --> 00:48:08,120
Don't really know what you want me to tell you about the girls, sir.

689
00:48:08,120 --> 00:48:14,120
He said that he wanted a confession I wasn't going to leave until he got one.

690
00:48:14,120 --> 00:48:17,120
Tell me about the girls.

691
00:48:17,120 --> 00:48:20,120
I don't know nothing about no girls, I done told you.

692
00:48:20,120 --> 00:48:24,120
I think I go around to some stray dogs.

693
00:48:24,120 --> 00:48:26,120
Hey, be careful out there.

694
00:48:27,120 --> 00:48:32,120
I said, don't you ever guilty conscience for doing this,

695
00:48:32,120 --> 00:48:36,120
having to look Roy Johnson in the face.

696
00:48:36,120 --> 00:48:40,120
And I'd tell him that I didn't know what he was talking about.

697
00:48:40,120 --> 00:48:44,120
He had him against the wall.

698
00:48:44,120 --> 00:48:46,120
My hands were behind my back.

699
00:48:46,120 --> 00:48:54,120
And he's poking this night stick in my stomp and said he was going to get a confession.

700
00:48:55,120 --> 00:49:01,120
You tell him he was more or less a mad man about it.

701
00:49:01,120 --> 00:49:04,120
You getting tired of this, Michael?

702
00:49:04,120 --> 00:49:06,120
I'm pretty tired of it myself.

703
00:49:06,120 --> 00:49:09,120
I was crying, I was upset.

704
00:49:09,120 --> 00:49:20,120
He took his gun, opens the cylinder and takes five bullets and stands him on end, where I can see him.

705
00:49:20,120 --> 00:49:24,120
I want you to tell me where you picked him up.

706
00:49:24,120 --> 00:49:26,120
I told you sir.

707
00:49:26,120 --> 00:49:28,120
I was most scared.

708
00:49:28,120 --> 00:49:32,120
I didn't know what was going on, I didn't know what to say.

709
00:49:32,120 --> 00:49:34,120
Because I will blow your head off.

710
00:49:34,120 --> 00:49:36,120
No!

711
00:49:36,120 --> 00:49:38,120
Tell me about the girls.

712
00:49:38,120 --> 00:49:44,120
He closed it, he spun the chamber and he points his gun like this

713
00:49:44,120 --> 00:49:49,120
and says he's going to blow my brains out if I don't sign the confession.

714
00:49:49,120 --> 00:49:52,120
Okay, okay, okay.

715
00:49:52,120 --> 00:49:59,120
Now, I want you to write down everything you remember about that day.

716
00:49:59,120 --> 00:50:02,120
He had already beaten up half to death.

717
00:50:02,120 --> 00:50:07,120
He poke him in the stomach and I can see that he was meant what he said.

718
00:50:07,120 --> 00:50:11,120
And I ask him, what do you want me to sign?

719
00:50:11,120 --> 00:50:17,120
He tells me that he'll tell me what to write.

720
00:50:17,120 --> 00:50:21,120
You were drinking beer while you were riding around, didn't that the way it happened?

721
00:50:21,120 --> 00:50:23,120
Yes, sir.

722
00:50:23,120 --> 00:50:26,120
Less than an hour after Jerry Mitchell left the room, he returned.

723
00:50:26,120 --> 00:50:29,120
Self now seemed upset and visibly shaken.

724
00:50:29,120 --> 00:50:31,120
Let me see what you wrote down.

725
00:50:31,120 --> 00:50:39,120
My opinion kind of being led in the sequence of events is how they wanted it written.

726
00:50:39,120 --> 00:50:44,120
I had seen you at about half a page of writing on there by the time it was all over with.

727
00:50:44,120 --> 00:50:48,120
I think they had to rewrite that when something wasn't right in it.

728
00:50:48,120 --> 00:50:50,120
I want you to write some truth. Now let's start again.

729
00:50:50,120 --> 00:50:55,120
Not being part of the investigation, I really wasn't privy to all the details of it.

730
00:50:55,120 --> 00:50:57,120
The why's and the wherefores.

731
00:50:57,120 --> 00:51:01,120
But I do know that they re-wrote the confessions several times.

732
00:51:01,120 --> 00:51:05,120
Self's confession, however, did not fit the known facts of the girl's disappearance.

733
00:51:05,120 --> 00:51:07,120
One glaring instance.

734
00:51:07,120 --> 00:51:11,120
The confession said self dumped the bodies at a place called El Largo

735
00:51:11,120 --> 00:51:15,120
20 miles from the Taylor Bayou where the bodies are actually found.

736
00:51:15,120 --> 00:51:21,120
Self's appellate attorney, Jerry Bernberg, points out other discrepancies.

737
00:51:21,120 --> 00:51:26,120
There's the statement in here that what he did was, in essence, he choked one of the two girls.

738
00:51:26,120 --> 00:51:31,120
There was no evidence of the breaking of some very tender bones in the neck

739
00:51:31,120 --> 00:51:37,120
that necessarily would have been damaged if, in fact, he had choked one of the girls to death.

740
00:51:37,120 --> 00:51:42,120
There is this claim that he went to Sharon Shaw's house.

741
00:51:42,120 --> 00:51:48,120
Well, Sharon Shaw's family contradicts that, so she wasn't home that day. That didn't occur.

742
00:51:48,120 --> 00:51:52,120
There's the statement that the girls were hanging out of the window and hollering

743
00:51:52,120 --> 00:51:54,120
as they were all driving in the car.

744
00:51:54,120 --> 00:51:58,120
And yet Dave Colburn did this very thorough investigation

745
00:51:58,120 --> 00:52:05,120
and nobody saw the two girls that night or anybody else driving down the road, hollering, waving and screaming.

746
00:52:05,120 --> 00:52:11,120
I had statements from two girls signed by their parents as a witness

747
00:52:11,120 --> 00:52:18,120
that they talked to Sharon Shaw and Ray Johnson in Galveston between 8 and 9 o'clock.

748
00:52:18,120 --> 00:52:25,120
There's no conceivable way that Sharon Shaw and Ray Johnson could have got another ride and been in Webster

749
00:52:25,120 --> 00:52:30,120
riding around with Michael O'odself at the time that they've gotten this confession.

750
00:52:31,120 --> 00:52:35,120
Three days after Michael O'odself's arrest, he went against his original attorney's advice

751
00:52:35,120 --> 00:52:38,120
and agreed to take a lie detector test.

752
00:52:38,120 --> 00:52:41,120
Is your first name Michael?

753
00:52:41,120 --> 00:52:43,120
Yes, sir.

754
00:52:43,120 --> 00:52:48,120
According to Jerry Bernberg, police asked self about more area murders.

755
00:52:48,120 --> 00:52:55,120
Between July 1971 and February 1972, seven other young girls and one young boy

756
00:52:55,120 --> 00:52:59,120
had been found murdered in a four-cowdy area that included Webster.

757
00:52:59,120 --> 00:53:03,120
Do you know who caused the death of the two girls?

758
00:53:03,120 --> 00:53:05,120
Yes.

759
00:53:05,120 --> 00:53:07,120
In the course of giving him the polygraph exam, they say,

760
00:53:07,120 --> 00:53:10,120
well, now we've got this statement that you gave last Friday

761
00:53:10,120 --> 00:53:12,120
where you confessed to killing these two girls.

762
00:53:12,120 --> 00:53:13,120
Is it true?

763
00:53:13,120 --> 00:53:14,120
And he says, yeah.

764
00:53:14,120 --> 00:53:16,120
And the lie detector says, no, it's not.

765
00:53:16,120 --> 00:53:18,120
It's not true at all.

766
00:53:18,120 --> 00:53:20,120
Yes, sir.

767
00:53:20,120 --> 00:53:24,120
After taking the polygraph, self says he was still so afraid of Chief Morris

768
00:53:24,120 --> 00:53:27,120
that he agreed to sign a second confession.

769
00:53:27,120 --> 00:53:29,120
It did not mention any of the other murders,

770
00:53:29,120 --> 00:53:35,120
but did contain a new version of the deaths of Rhonda and Sharon.

771
00:53:35,120 --> 00:53:39,120
In the first confession, self said he struck Sharon Shaw with his fist

772
00:53:39,120 --> 00:53:42,120
and shoved the girls' bodies into a culvert.

773
00:53:42,120 --> 00:53:46,120
In the second, self claimed he hit Shaw with a coke bottle

774
00:53:46,120 --> 00:53:48,120
and dumped their bodies in the bayou.

775
00:53:48,120 --> 00:53:52,120
The second confession also says self stripped the murdered girls of their clothing

776
00:53:52,120 --> 00:53:55,120
and tossed it out along the highway.

777
00:53:55,120 --> 00:53:58,120
However, clothing was found with the remains,

778
00:53:58,120 --> 00:54:01,120
along with an unidentified set of car keys

779
00:54:01,120 --> 00:54:06,120
and a crucifix worn by Sharon Shaw.

780
00:54:06,120 --> 00:54:10,120
There was a slight difference in the two written confessions.

781
00:54:10,120 --> 00:54:17,120
But all I had to do was offer in evidence the confession I wanted to go with.

782
00:54:17,120 --> 00:54:21,120
And if the facts, the outlying facts,

783
00:54:21,120 --> 00:54:25,120
tended to support the elements of this confession,

784
00:54:25,120 --> 00:54:29,120
that's all I needed if the jury believed it.

785
00:54:29,120 --> 00:54:32,120
You were out driving around around 9 or 10 o'clock, weren't you?

786
00:54:32,120 --> 00:54:33,120
Yes, sir.

787
00:54:33,120 --> 00:54:35,120
Two weeks after self's arrest,

788
00:54:35,120 --> 00:54:38,120
two Harris County Sheriff's deputies checked him out of jail

789
00:54:38,120 --> 00:54:41,120
in the pretext of buying him a hamburger.

790
00:54:41,120 --> 00:54:45,120
Afterwards, they drove him to places mentioned in the confessions

791
00:54:45,120 --> 00:54:48,120
and took pictures of him at each location.

792
00:54:48,120 --> 00:54:52,120
It was presented in court as a third confession.

793
00:54:52,120 --> 00:54:54,120
He didn't confess a third time.

794
00:54:54,120 --> 00:54:56,120
He went on a ride with two police officers

795
00:54:56,120 --> 00:54:59,120
who had illegally checked him out of the jail

796
00:54:59,120 --> 00:55:02,120
to drive him around to take pictures to get evidence for a trial.

797
00:55:02,120 --> 00:55:04,120
They didn't discover anything new.

798
00:55:09,120 --> 00:55:11,120
While self was awaiting trial,

799
00:55:11,120 --> 00:55:13,120
he was visited by Dave Coburn,

800
00:55:13,120 --> 00:55:16,120
who was by then chief of police in nearby Cleveland, Texas.

801
00:55:17,120 --> 00:55:18,120
How you doing, Mr. Coburn?

802
00:55:18,120 --> 00:55:19,120
Fine, how are you doing?

803
00:55:19,120 --> 00:55:21,120
Well, not too good.

804
00:55:21,120 --> 00:55:25,120
At the time, he looked very depressed and very distraught,

805
00:55:25,120 --> 00:55:26,120
you know, when I walked in.

806
00:55:26,120 --> 00:55:27,120
Oh, that's a good...

807
00:55:27,120 --> 00:55:29,120
And I asked him, he said he didn't do it,

808
00:55:29,120 --> 00:55:31,120
and I asked him what had happened.

809
00:55:31,120 --> 00:55:36,120
And he had told me about Don Morris

810
00:55:36,120 --> 00:55:39,120
threatening him with this Billy Club and poking him.

811
00:55:39,120 --> 00:55:41,120
He pulled out his gun.

812
00:55:41,120 --> 00:55:42,120
Yes.

813
00:55:42,120 --> 00:55:44,120
When he made that statement to me,

814
00:55:44,120 --> 00:55:46,120
I knew what had to come down,

815
00:55:46,120 --> 00:55:53,120
because a year prior, I witnessed Don Morris

816
00:55:53,120 --> 00:55:55,120
taking one shell out of his revolver,

817
00:55:55,120 --> 00:55:59,120
hiding it, placing five shells in front of a prisoner,

818
00:55:59,120 --> 00:56:02,120
and playing Russian roulette with that prisoner, threatening him.

819
00:56:02,120 --> 00:56:04,120
And there's no doubt in my mind

820
00:56:04,120 --> 00:56:06,120
that he did that to Michael O'Leary.

821
00:56:06,120 --> 00:56:08,120
He was a very good man.

822
00:56:08,120 --> 00:56:10,120
He was a very good man.

823
00:56:10,120 --> 00:56:14,120
I had no doubt in my mind that he did that to Michael O'Leary.

824
00:56:14,120 --> 00:56:16,120
And when he came to the trial,

825
00:56:16,120 --> 00:56:19,120
I was prepared to go in and make statements,

826
00:56:19,120 --> 00:56:21,120
and I was never caught.

827
00:56:21,120 --> 00:56:25,120
I don't know whether he did the Russian roulette number.

828
00:56:25,120 --> 00:56:28,120
Bottom line, all three confessions are consistent.

829
00:56:28,120 --> 00:56:31,120
I killed the girls.

830
00:56:31,120 --> 00:56:35,120
All of them are consistent.

831
00:56:35,120 --> 00:56:39,120
On May 15, 1973, Michael O'Leary was convicted of murder

832
00:56:39,120 --> 00:56:43,120
and sentenced to life in prison.

833
00:56:43,120 --> 00:56:46,120
Three years later, the town of Webster was shocked

834
00:56:46,120 --> 00:56:50,120
when Don Morris and Tommy Deal were arrested for bank robbery.

835
00:56:50,120 --> 00:56:52,120
They were members of a gang of robbers

836
00:56:52,120 --> 00:56:55,120
that had been sticking up banks as far back as 1972,

837
00:56:55,120 --> 00:57:00,120
five months before Michael's self was arrested.

838
00:57:00,120 --> 00:57:04,120
In early 1976, Don Morris was sentenced to 55 years.

839
00:57:04,120 --> 00:57:07,120
Tommy Deal to 30 years.

840
00:57:07,120 --> 00:57:09,120
Both were eventually paroled,

841
00:57:09,120 --> 00:57:11,120
but Tommy Deal returned to robbing banks

842
00:57:11,120 --> 00:57:15,120
and is now back in federal prison.

843
00:57:15,120 --> 00:57:19,120
Jerry Bernberg petitioned the court to get Michael's self a new trial.

844
00:57:19,120 --> 00:57:21,120
After an extensive evidentiary hearing

845
00:57:21,120 --> 00:57:24,120
and just nine days before oral arguments,

846
00:57:24,120 --> 00:57:27,120
the defense got what looked like a gift from heaven.

847
00:57:27,120 --> 00:57:29,120
It's been bugging me for a long time.

848
00:57:29,120 --> 00:57:31,120
I just wanted to get it off my chest.

849
00:57:31,120 --> 00:57:33,120
It was Sharon Shaw and Renee Johnson.

850
00:57:33,120 --> 00:57:35,120
I'm the one that killed them.

851
00:57:35,120 --> 00:57:38,120
In the second 1980, a man walked into the police station

852
00:57:38,120 --> 00:57:40,120
in Tainer Lake, Texas.

853
00:57:40,120 --> 00:57:43,120
He told George Carrum and state prosecutor Douglas O'Brien

854
00:57:43,120 --> 00:57:47,120
that he, not Michael's self, had murdered Rhonda Johnson

855
00:57:47,120 --> 00:57:49,120
and Sharon Shaw.

856
00:57:49,120 --> 00:57:51,120
What did you use to kill them with?

857
00:57:51,120 --> 00:57:53,120
I don't remember exactly.

858
00:57:53,120 --> 00:57:55,120
Douglas O'Brien represented the state

859
00:57:55,120 --> 00:57:57,120
when self-appealed as conviction,

860
00:57:57,120 --> 00:57:59,120
but now believes self is innocent.

861
00:57:59,120 --> 00:58:01,120
What did you do with their bodies after you killed them?

862
00:58:01,120 --> 00:58:03,120
I basically got the impression from him

863
00:58:03,120 --> 00:58:05,120
that I was trying to get it off his chest

864
00:58:05,120 --> 00:58:08,120
and confess to the fact that he didn't kill the girls,

865
00:58:08,120 --> 00:58:10,120
but at the same time not give information

866
00:58:10,120 --> 00:58:13,120
which would allow prosecution of him.

867
00:58:13,120 --> 00:58:16,120
Where'd you put their bodies in the water?

868
00:58:16,120 --> 00:58:18,120
I don't know. It was beside where the car was.

869
00:58:18,120 --> 00:58:20,120
I mean, they didn't want to go through with it on a date,

870
00:58:20,120 --> 00:58:23,120
and it was like I tied them up with this black cord

871
00:58:23,120 --> 00:58:26,120
and I tied them up and I just put them in the water.

872
00:58:26,120 --> 00:58:28,120
His account of how he killed them

873
00:58:28,120 --> 00:58:30,120
or whatever was very vague and disjointed,

874
00:58:30,120 --> 00:58:32,120
but he did mention that he used a cord

875
00:58:32,120 --> 00:58:35,120
in which to tie the girls' bodies down

876
00:58:35,120 --> 00:58:37,120
when he put them into the water.

877
00:58:37,120 --> 00:58:39,120
The statement by this individual

878
00:58:39,120 --> 00:58:42,120
indicated that he had tied their feet with black cord.

879
00:58:42,120 --> 00:58:44,120
Something Michael Self had never mentioned.

880
00:58:44,120 --> 00:58:47,120
Not found in any statement by Michael Self.

881
00:58:47,120 --> 00:58:49,120
That was the secret fact

882
00:58:49,120 --> 00:58:52,120
that the police had held back all these years.

883
00:58:52,120 --> 00:58:54,120
This guy knew it.

884
00:58:54,120 --> 00:58:57,120
That guy was out of his cord.

885
00:58:58,120 --> 00:59:01,120
He was... I don't know why he came forward.

886
00:59:01,120 --> 00:59:04,120
I think he was unbalanced.

887
00:59:04,120 --> 00:59:06,120
I don't remember exactly what I did.

888
00:59:06,120 --> 00:59:08,120
All right? I don't remember exactly.

889
00:59:08,120 --> 00:59:10,120
What he talked about was anything

890
00:59:10,120 --> 00:59:12,120
that could have been picked out of the newspaper.

891
00:59:12,120 --> 00:59:14,120
And even then he had it right.

892
00:59:14,120 --> 00:59:16,120
There's no question by my mind

893
00:59:16,120 --> 00:59:19,120
that this person who came forward

894
00:59:19,120 --> 00:59:23,120
was just one of these people who like to confess to crimes.

895
00:59:23,120 --> 00:59:26,120
The individual was clearly a very troubled person

896
00:59:26,120 --> 00:59:29,120
with some flights to psychosis,

897
00:59:29,120 --> 00:59:32,120
but he knew the girls.

898
00:59:32,120 --> 00:59:36,120
He lived in the same apartment complex with one of them.

899
00:59:36,120 --> 00:59:38,120
And the most important thing of all,

900
00:59:38,120 --> 00:59:40,120
he knew about the black cord.

901
00:59:41,120 --> 00:59:43,120
Despite the surprise confession

902
00:59:43,120 --> 00:59:45,120
and the credibility gap created

903
00:59:45,120 --> 00:59:47,120
by the criminal activities of Morrison Deal,

904
00:59:47,120 --> 00:59:50,120
Michael Self's conviction was upheld.

905
00:59:51,120 --> 00:59:54,120
They have no quabring evidence whatsoever.

906
00:59:54,120 --> 00:59:57,120
Nothing to tie him to any murders

907
00:59:57,120 --> 01:00:00,120
or to even being seen with these girls except this.

908
01:00:02,120 --> 01:00:05,120
Which is not worth the paper's rogown.

909
01:00:05,120 --> 01:00:09,120
Legally speaking, he's innocent just from a standpoint

910
01:00:09,120 --> 01:00:11,120
that, number one, I don't think his confessions

911
01:00:11,120 --> 01:00:13,120
were voluntarily entered.

912
01:00:13,120 --> 01:00:15,120
Number two, I don't think there's any corroborating evidence

913
01:00:15,120 --> 01:00:17,120
concerning those confessions.

914
01:00:17,120 --> 01:00:21,120
He was the type of personality

915
01:00:21,120 --> 01:00:24,120
that was easy prey for Don Morris,

916
01:00:24,120 --> 01:00:27,120
that was easy prey for Tommy Deal.

917
01:00:27,120 --> 01:00:31,120
It's easy prey for bank robbers parading as police officers.

918
01:00:31,120 --> 01:00:33,120
And that's what happened.

919
01:00:33,120 --> 01:00:35,120
If he would try today,

920
01:00:36,120 --> 01:00:39,120
naturally some of these areas would be clarified.

921
01:00:39,120 --> 01:00:42,120
These particular points we're talking about.

922
01:00:42,120 --> 01:00:46,120
We go back and spend more time

923
01:00:46,120 --> 01:00:49,120
and send better investigators out.

924
01:00:49,120 --> 01:00:54,120
And make our decision as to whether to prosecute or not.

925
01:01:20,120 --> 01:01:24,120
Next Wednesday on the season premiere of Unsolved Mysteries.

926
01:01:24,120 --> 01:01:27,120
For five years, Bruce Kelly has been haunted

927
01:01:27,120 --> 01:01:30,120
by fragmented images of a life not his own.

928
01:01:30,120 --> 01:01:33,120
The life that apparently ended on a doomed submarine

929
01:01:33,120 --> 01:01:35,120
during World War II.

930
01:01:35,120 --> 01:01:38,120
Is Kelly's story a remarkable case of reincarnation?

931
01:01:38,120 --> 01:01:41,120
Or is there another, more rational explanation?

932
01:01:42,120 --> 01:01:46,120
In Chicago, a young boy was victimized by a hit-and-run driver.

933
01:01:46,120 --> 01:01:51,120
His family needs your help to find the man they believe was responsible.

934
01:01:51,120 --> 01:01:54,120
And thanks to tips from you, our viewers,

935
01:01:54,120 --> 01:01:58,120
a fugitive cult leader wanted on criminal charges in Missouri

936
01:01:58,120 --> 01:02:00,120
has been arrested.

937
01:02:01,120 --> 01:02:03,120
Join me next Wednesday

938
01:02:03,120 --> 01:02:07,120
for the dramatic season premiere of Unsolved Mysteries.

939
01:02:46,120 --> 01:02:51,120
Unolved Mysteries