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This program is about unsolved mysteries. Whenever possible, the actual family members

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and police officials have participated in recreating the events. What you are about

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to see is not a news broadcast.

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This is Walpole State Prison, 30 miles south of Boston, Massachusetts. A stone fortress

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housing all manner of dangerous criminals. A place where violence is an everyday fact

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of life. On the morning of November 26, 1973, an inmate was found stabbed to death in his

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cell. The victim was Walpole's most famous prisoner and perhaps the most notorious criminal

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of his time, Albert DeSalvo, a Boston strangler. Eight years earlier, DeSalvo had confessed

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to murdering 13 women during an 18-month siege that had terrorized all of Boston. But many

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people who knew DeSalvo, including some members of the police department, thought the confession

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was bogus. In fact, DeSalvo was murdered the night before he was to meet with his former

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psychiatrist and a reporter, the finally reveal he claimed, the truth about the strangler.

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For those most intimately involved with the investigation, DeSalvo's death added another

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layer of mystery to an ongoing controversy. Was Albert DeSalvo the Boston strangler?

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I was quite sure that he was not and could not have been 30 years ago. His homicide just

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before he was going to talk to me convinced me even more. And now that I've had an opportunity

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to review the tapes of his interrogation and confession, I am even more convinced that

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he was not and probably could not have been the Boston strangler. Most people today assume

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that Albert DeSalvo was a Boston strangler. Yet few know that he was never convicted in

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court, only in the press. Tonight in addition to Dr. Ames Roby, you'll meet Effley Bailey,

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DeSalvo's defense attorney, and George Nasser, a prison inmate who some believe was the real

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Boston strangler. Join me for this fascinating investigation as well as these other intriguing

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mysteries. Also, we'll take you to Czechoslovakia, a remarkable saga of selfless heroism. When

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an American bomber crash landed near her village during World War II, 17-year-old Helen Elash

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risked her life to shelter and protect the crew from the Nazis. Now Helen needs your

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help to find the American airman that she came to regard his family. On May 3rd, 1991,

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19-year-old Kevin Heel of Hawaiian Gardens, California was gunned down, the innocent victim

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of a gang-related shooting. Ever since, his mother and father have waged a lonely personal

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crusade to track down their son's killers. Perhaps someone watching tonight has vital

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information that will bring their quest to an end.

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In the 1960s, Boston was a city gripped with fear. Between June of 1962 and November of

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1963, 10 women were found murdered in their apartments. The first was Anna Sleezer's age

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55. Next, Helen Blake, 65. And on the same day, Nina Nichols, 68. Then came Ida Urga,

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75. Jane Sullivan, 67. Sophie Clark, age 20. Patricia Beset, 23. Beverly Sammons,

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23. Evelyn Corbin, 58. And Joanne Graff, 23 years old. Four women in their early 20s,

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six women, 55 years of age or older. Ten women with almost nothing in common except the

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manner in which they died strangled in their own apartments. For the public, every night

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was an exercise in terror. The police were frustrated. No one seemed to have any answers.

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There are stories of women rushing out to dog pounds to buy every available stray mutt

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for protection. Locksmiths reported a run on their businesses. People were obviously

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quite clearly frightened by whatever was out there. The police speculated that the killer

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was a rabid woman-hater who chose as victims at random. On January 4, 1964, 19-year-old

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Mary Sullivan was found strangled to death in her bedroom. She would be the 11th and

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last acknowledged victim of the Boston Strangler. Ten months later, few people noticed when

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a man named Albert DeSalva was arrested on unrelated sexual assault charges. No one

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imagined that this itinerant handyman would one day become a household name. Although

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he was married and had two children, 32-year-old Albert DeSalva had an extensive history of

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sexual offenses. He also had a propensity for collecting nicknames. Long before the Boston

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Strangler, DeSalva was dubbed the Measuring Man.

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Good morning. Wow, your neighbors were right. You really are beautiful. My name is Jack

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Johnson. I'm from the Cambridge modeling agency over in Cambridge. Oh, you must have

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the wrong apartment. No, from your looks, I think I got the right doll right here.

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Under the pretense of recruiting fashion models, DeSalva would talk his way into houses. He

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would measure women for clothing and then fondle them. Here's a contract I was talking

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to you about. And I'm going to need to take some measurements for the gowns. DeSalva's

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escapades would eventually catch up with him. In March of 1961, he was arrested and sent

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to a state correctional facility for one year. Soon after DeSalva's release, police began

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receiving complaints about a sex offender whom they came to call the Green Man, a maintenance

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worker who smooth talked his way into women's apartments and then assaulted them. Good morning.

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How are you? Fine. How are you? Good. The superintendent told me to take a little

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bit of your plumbing. She would let him in. He would make an overture tour. If the overture

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were repelled, he would leave. But a surprising number of times, it wasn't according to him.

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And he ended up making love with the woman. Right down the aisle. Later, his assaults became

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much more aggressive. And eventually, these were the charges that he was arrested for,

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uh, sexually assaulting four women. DeSalva was arrested for committing unnatural acts.

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He was remanded to Bridgewater State Mental Hospital. Dr. Ames Roby was a medical director.

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I, um, I see here that you've been charged with a series of molestations.

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A molestation may be too strong a word. Well, how do you mean?

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Well, I mean, all the women I was with, they had a very good time.

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Well, some of them didn't enjoy it. That is, after all, why you're here.

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Yeah, well, they, they enjoyed it at the time.

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Well, the first thing that was so obvious about Albert was his incredible need to be

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somebody important. How many women would you say you introduced yourself to with your

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measuring and repair work schemes? Uh, 600.

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600? Uh, well, um, probably more actually, uh, over a thousand.

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And how many of them enjoyed their experience with you?

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All of them. You're confident of that?

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Yeah, I am. He would brag about almost anything. He gave the feeling, although he didn't say

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so at that time, that he sort of wanted to be as well known as, in quotes, the Boston

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Strangler. Albert DeSalba was about to get his wish. Three months later, George Nasser,

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a fellow inmate at Bridgewater, engaged his attorney, Effley Bailey, in an odd conversation

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about the Boston Strangler.

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Listen, um, there's one other thing I'd like to ask you.

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Go ahead. If a man was the Strangler, the guy who killed all those women, would it

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be possible for him to publish his story and make some money with it?

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You mean before or after this man strived for the crime?

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Before. It's perfectly possible to publish.

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He asked me whether or not it would be possible for someone who had done the Stranglings to

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write a book and provide money for his family. And my offhand answer was sure, but you might

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go to the electric chair as a consequence. Later on, I was asked to get down and see

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this fellow Albert DeSalba by my client.

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Albert specifically, what do you want me to do for you?

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I got a wife. I got a two-year-old son, a seven-year-old daughter, and, um, I know I'm

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going to be locked up for the rest of my life. I just hope it's in our hospital.

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It was a little incredulous because everybody develops a profile. They're looking for a

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monster, some of the, you know, jowls are dripping in. Just didn't seem to fit.

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There are obvious problems, uh, about confessing to a crime in print when there hasn't been

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a trial.

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He wanted to be able to tell his story. He said, I would like to find out why I am like

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this. Maybe people could give me tests or something, and I would like to take care of

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my family if I could. Those are the things I would like. Now you tell me what's possible.

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Before we even consider that, I need to know what that story is. I need details.

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All right. Well, his judge probably told you. I'm no one that'll look and fall. I want

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to get all the stranglers out there, teen. I thought there were only 11. There were

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two that the cops didn't know about that they haven't tagged me with yet. Okay. I had no

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way of knowing whether or not he was telling the truth, fantasizing because he was crazy,

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or had read a lot of things in the newspapers and wanted to be famous. Let's move on to

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Sophie Clark.

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Two days later, Bailey returned to Bridgewater armed with a tape recorder and a list of questions.

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With the Salvo's consent, Bailey had struck a rather unorthodox deal with a Boston police.

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They provided him with details only the strangler would know. In return, Bailey was guaranteed

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that the tapes would never be admissible in court.

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I remember that I went to the address and it gets like a stalk and something to wrap

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it up. And I knocked a pack of cigarettes on the floor. I knocked a pack of cigarettes

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on the floor. I left him there when I left. This guy has got to be it. Later, Bailey met

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with the officers assigned to the case. John Donovan was then chief of homicide. I think

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we got to follow up in every way. More questions, more details, more everything.

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We heard him answer correctly the question that I had given Mr. Bailey and we liked

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what we heard. His description of the crime scenes, it was just so accurate that that

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impressed me very much.

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Later when Dr. Ames Robey heard the tape, he was anything but impressed. He was convinced

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there was another explanation for the Salvo's knowledge of the crime scenes.

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Albert indicated to us that he had gone to the various sites that the newspapers had

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named after the police tapes and the like were off the doors in the apartments just to

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be there and see what it was like.

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I'm fascinated, you know. I just want to be there, walk around, get a feeling for it.

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Dr. Robey says that during the course of his sessions with the Salvo, he discovered that

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the Salvo had a photographic memory. Perhaps the Salvo had visited the victim's apartments,

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but perhaps he was merely repeating what someone else had described for him.

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As police began to suspect DeSalvo, Robey began to believe that DeSalvo's friend, George

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Nasser, was somehow involved.

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I first began to wonder about something going on when no other inmates would come near them

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and they would immediately stop talking if any one of the guards or staff came anywhere

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near where they could hear. But on this ward, they would have extensive conversations about

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what? Of course, we didn't know.

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For 30 years, people have speculated about George Nasser and his possible involvement

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in the killings. Nasser, a career criminal, is currently imprisoned for shooting and killing

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a gas station attendant shortly after the strangler claimed his final victim.

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Tonight, for the first time, Nasser has agreed to discuss his role in the case and his relationship

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with Albert DeSalvo.

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With Albert DeSalvo, I was simply an associate. I've done the same thing with many, many

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prisoners. People come to me and ask me for advice. I give it to them if they say, if

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it's worthy of me assisting them, I assist them. For my reasons, because I feel it's

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a worthy thing to do.

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By order of the Massachusetts Attorney General, news of DeSalvo's confession was kept under

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wraps. Privately, the authorities raised the number of strangler victims from 11 to 13.

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But within the police department, there was a split over whether DeSalvo was in fact the

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killer.

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I really couldn't break it down percentage-wise. Probably a little more than 50% believed DeSalvo

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was the strangler and a little less than 50% believed he was not the strangler.

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Inevitably, someone leaked the story of the confession to the local papers and the media

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circus ensued.

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In response to the news coverage, two women came forward. One a survivor of a possible

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strangler attack, the other a neighbor of one of the victims. On March 20, 1965, they

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were brought to Bridgewater to see if they recognized any of the inmates.

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Do you see somebody? Which one?

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The gentleman all the way in the back, right next to the guard.

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Next to the guard?

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Yes, next to the guard.

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An unfamiliar face did not belong to Albert DeSalvo, but to George Nasser.

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George Nasser would fit the profile of the Boston strangler. We found nothing that would

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rule him out. Not even one iota.

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I do not kill women. I've never conceived of it. I wouldn't conceive of it. I have

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a great respect and regard for women beginning with my mother who brought me up that way.

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We had people from all over the country with different theories wanting to get a piece of

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the action. George Nasser was eliminated as the strangler. I don't think he had the profile

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of a strangler. George Nasser used a gun.

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All right, Albert. I want you to imagine a calendar.

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Albert DeSalvo remained the state's prime and only suspect, even though there was no

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physical evidence that linked him to any of the killings. On the advice of F. Lee Bailey,

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DeSalvo underwent hypnosis.

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You tear that off and you do it with each sheet, back farther and farther.

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We had him hypnotized and age regressed right through one of the homicides and the things

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that developed in the presence of a very bright medical hypnotist were of great interest.

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I didn't want to hurt. I had to hurt her to help her.

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This recreation was based upon F. Lee Bailey's recollections of the hypnosis session.

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Albert, when you were strangling that woman, who were you really trying to hurt?

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I don't know. I think you do know Albert.

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My mother?

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Yes, Albert. Tell me how you really feel about her.

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I love her.

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No, Albert. No, you don't.

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Yes, I do. She took care of me.

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Albert.

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I love her.

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Tell me how you really feel about her.

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I love her, Albert!

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I love her!

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Albert!

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All right, get off me, Albert.

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It's all right. I love her.

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You can sleep.

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The session seemed to reveal that DeSalvo had had strained relationships with every significant woman in his life.

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We found an involvement of his wife, who he married in Germany.

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His daughter, who had a physical disability that troubled him greatly.

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His mother, for whom he had a love-hate relationship, and it was just the beginning.

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The answers were almost implied in the question, which at least from my training is something you don't do.

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Ames Roby observed the session and came to a remarkably different conclusion.

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I was not at all convinced that anything had been uncovered.

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And was a little surprised later when Mr. Bailey announced that what had occurred under hypnosis was definitive evidence.

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Albert, even with the crimes he was charged with, he was considered gentle, polite, his sexual proclivities, his general attitude.

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He was not angry and hostile, and he presented as a rather likable individual, so that for all of these reasons, as well as his being married and others, he just simply didn't fit.

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Once you were inside the apartment, what did you see?

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In the summer of 1965, the Massachusetts Attorney General's office conducted their own series of interrogations, which once again were not admissible in court.

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The transcripts of those interviews were never released.

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Recently, however, author Susan Kelly managed to obtain a copy while researching her book about the stranglings, called Deadly Charade.

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When you read the transcript of those interrogations and you come to a point where Albert gives an incorrect answer to a question, he is guided to give the correct answer.

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And Albert, who was a smart guy, caught on very quickly.

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I remember there were two chairs. I remember I took the chairs out and I remember laying them down in the back.

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Where did you get the chairs? From the dining room?

211
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Yeah, from the dining room.

212
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The principal reason I think the transcripts or the tapes of Albert's confession were never made public is simply that whoever read them or heard them would have reacted to them the same as I did, which was simply to say, this man was not the Boston Strangler. He didn't kill anyone.

213
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They had the right guy beyond question known as ever come up with anything meaningful to contradict that. The question was how could we try him as the Strangler and close the file in the public minds?

214
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F. Lee Bailey struck a deal with the state. On January 10, 1967, Albert DeSalvo went on trial, but not for any of the stranglings. Instead, he was tried for sexual assault and other crimes in connection with a Green Man case.

215
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In return, the state agreed not to press for the death penalty.

216
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This session.

217
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That's all we wanted. Nobody ever wanted Albert on the street, including Albert, and to ask not to be executed so that he could be studied seemed to me a reasonable objective. I never heard a cogent word of argument from any of the authorities. They didn't want to kill him either.

218
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After less than four hours of deliberation, the jury reached his verdict.

219
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On all counts of breaking and entering, and on all counts of unnatural acts, the jury finds the defendant guilty.

220
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DeSalvo had been hoping to be institutionalized at a state mental hospital, but his insanity defense failed. In total, Albert DeSalvo was found guilty on eight criminal counts.

221
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It was a much more severe sentence than he would have received normally on the sex charges of which he'd been convicted, but he was being sent to prison as the Boston Strangler. It was that simple.

222
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I think the most difficult part of all of this was the feeling that whether they had it solved or not, they had quieted the public's concern. So, theoretically, everyone was happy.

223
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At Walpole State Prison, DeSalvo was reunited with his old friend George Nassar. Once again, questions were raised regarding Nassar's possible involvement with the Stranglers.

224
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Because Al wasn't tried, this case had become mythical. That the characters were like in a play. I mean, you can manipulate them. You can say, well, let's make him the suspect, or let's say he isn't.

225
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That it had become a real media event in the sense that it became part of a public fantasy of what really happened. It became a continuing mystery when it should have been resolved. And I was part of the mystery.

226
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The Boston Strangler continued to tantalize the public. Over the next few years, no less than three books in a Hollywood movie chronicled the life of Albert DeSalvo. Outside of prison, he had achieved immortality. But inside, he feared his notoriety and made him a marked man.

227
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Finally, after more than six years behind bars, DeSalvo asked to be transferred to a cell in the prison infirmary, where he would be isolated from the other inmates.

228
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On the evening of November 25, 1973, DeSalvo telephoned his former psychiatrist, Dr. Ames Roby.

229
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Hello?

230
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Dr. Roby?

231
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Yes?

232
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Albert DeSalvo.

233
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Well, Albert, this is quite a surprise. Is everything all right?

234
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He wanted to talk to me.

235
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To tell me the quote, real story.

236
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It's not going to be a good idea for you to come down here tomorrow. There's some things I need to talk to you about.

237
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Oh, can't we just talk here on the phone?

238
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No, no, no. It's nothing I can talk about over the phone. Listen, I got a reporter coming down here at two o'clock tomorrow. I think it'd be a good idea for you to come as well.

239
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He didn't say what the real story was, and I could only hope that this is what I would hear, but I never heard it.

240
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When everybody assembled, it was in the infirmary, in my office, as soon as possible.

241
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The next morning, before DeSalvo could talk to Dr. Roby and the reporter, he was found murdered in his cell, stabbed repeatedly in the chest.

242
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Two theories immediately surfaced among the inmates. Some believe that DeSalvo was murdered in a drug deal. Others, including George Nasser, say DeSalvo was killed in a dispute over cuts of meat he was allegedly selling on the prison black market.

243
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Obviously, I was not going to go for the interview, and the assumption I had was somebody found out. Somebody didn't want that interview happening, and I think they have said before, dead men tell no tales.

244
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Three inmates were eventually charged with Albert DeSalvo's murder, but their trials ended in hung juries and no one was ever convicted.

245
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For those who believe that DeSalvo was guilty, his death was a fitting climax to a brutal reign of terror, but there lies the rub. Was Albert DeSalvo in reality the Boston Strangler?

246
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Albert DeSalvo was the Boston Strangler. We learned that at great and tragic expense to the community, and then wasted him away. We could have learned a lot from Albert. We didn't.

247
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I think Albert became the Boston Strangler because he wanted so much to be the Boston Strangler. It was the most important thing in his life. For somebody who felt all his life that he was a nobody, all of a sudden he could become world renowned.

248
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Not many people are handed a golden opportunity to do that, if Albert was.

249
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In death as in life, Albert DeSalvo remained shrouded in mystery. Shortly after his murder, authorities came across a collection of poems he had written in prison. One of them provided a cryptic enigmatic footnote to the saga of the Boston Strangler.

250
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Here's the story of the Strangler, yet untold. The man who claims he murdered 13 women, young and old. Today he sits in a prison cell, deep inside only a secret he can tell. People everywhere are still in doubt. Is the Strangler in prison or Roman about?

251
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The Strangler is the man who claims he murdered 13 women, young and old. The Strangler is the man who claims he murdered 13 women, young and old.

252
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The Second World War, one of the darkest chapters in history. But even the tragedy of war is sometimes eased by occasional acts of kindness and compassion.

253
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Over the years, Unsolved Mysteries has brought you several stories about survivors searching for that one special person who offered them comfort in the midst of the hardship.

254
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We've even solved some of these cases and shared in the joyful celebration of friendships which have spanned more than half a century.

255
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But rarely is a cause for reunion touches as deeply as a story you're about to see.

256
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Recently we traveled to the Czech Republic to film the incredible saga of Helen Elosh, a woman who showed remarkable resilience in the face of overwhelming odds, whose courage and devotion may have saved the lives of an American bomber crew.

257
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Helen was born in 1927 in the village of Kizmora, Czechoslovakia. When Helen's mother died, Helen's childhood became a nightmare.

258
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She was treated with contempt by her stepmother and regularly beaten by her father.

259
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I think he blamed me for my mother's death. To my sister he was good, to my brothers he was good. Only to me he just tossed me on his side like I don't belong in a family.

260
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Rejected by her family and often denied the essentials, Helen was forced to learn the lessons of survival on her own.

261
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She found work on a nearby farm and in exchange she was given food and clothing.

262
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But the end of each workday met a return to the harsh realities of her own home.

263
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Often Helen would escape to the forest, the one place where she could find solace. Even the wild animals accepted her presence.

264
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The boots were very important to me because it was quiet there. Nobody yelled at me, nobody pushed me around. I was my own self there. This was my hiding place.

265
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That's why I loved it there. And I spent many nights over there. Many nights.

266
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One day while walking in the woods, Helen discovered a mysterious hidden entryway. She was instantly seized with curiosity.

267
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I went inside and I saw this is a tunnel. I was surprised. I didn't know where the tunnel was going to go.

268
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The narrow entrance gave way to a remarkable network of underground passageways. Perhaps long forgotten escape routes for a medieval castle bestowed at the outskirts of town.

269
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For Helen, the tunnel soon became like a second home.

270
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Every time I come there, I bring something with me. Like we say blanket, I bring it with me. And I bring lots of hay, you know, and that hay keeps you warm from that floor. And I made it like my home there, you know.

271
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And nobody knew nothing about this place. Nobody.

272
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However, the safe haven Helen had created for herself could not protect her from the forces of history that would soon sweep across Europe.

273
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In 1938, Hitler's armies marched into Czechoslovakia. Within a year, the Second World War would engulf most of the continent.

274
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By 1943, the medieval castle was a Nazi headquarters. Helen, then 17, had come to despise a Nazi presence. More and more, she took refuge in her secret hiding place.

275
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One afternoon, the quiet of the forest was pierced by the sound of a sputtering airplane engine, almost directly overhead.

276
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I saw a plane in buzz and fire. And I saw it coming down, down, down. And I ran. I ran there. I ran so fast.

277
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An American bomber had crash landed in a remote field. As the crew stumbled from the wreckage, Helen says she made a decision that would forever change the course of her life.

278
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Helen led the men to the one place where she knew they would be safe.

279
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I was so scared. I mean, I was scared. If Germans would get them, I know what they would do with them.

280
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I know they would kill them, every one of them. And nobody would even know that they were killed.

281
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Helen had placed herself squarely in danger, but she refused to shirk the responsibility of caring for the men, two of whom were severely injured.

282
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But the local hospital was in danger. Helen was in danger. Helen was in danger. Helen was in danger. Helen was in danger.

283
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The majority of caring for the men, two of whom were severely injured.

284
00:35:30,820 --> 00:35:36,820
At the local hospital, Helen scoured the trash in search of discarded bandages and ointments.

285
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I couldn't tell nobody. I couldn't tell nobody. I was scared that if I tell somebody, somebody will go to squeak and they are dead.

286
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And I just couldn't allow that to happen.

287
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They were in bandages.

288
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Get them out here.

289
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Helen says that as soon as the injured men began to recover, she turned to a greater challenge.

290
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So many men in hiding required plentiful amounts of food. Helen surreptitiously set aside portions of the harvest to take to them.

291
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With no money at her disposal, Helen created a clever roost to obtain additional food.

292
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She charmed the local baker with a heartbreaking tale of helping a widow and her twelve hungry children.

293
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The longer I was with them, I cared for them more and more.

294
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I was doing lots of work, I mean carrying all the food so far and stealing and everything, cheating and everything.

295
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And this was not easy for me because I had never done it this before. But I had to do it for them.

296
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And they were grateful. You could see their eyes, a love for me. I know that because I felt it about them like this too.

297
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For several weeks Helen managed to keep up her charade, but her partisan activities did not go unnoticed.

298
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In August of 1943, Helen was apparently betrayed by her own stepmother.

299
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I saw her under the corner talking to those two men and I was scared.

300
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I just knew that something is not right.

301
00:37:36,820 --> 00:37:43,820
In desperation, Helen turned to the only place where she might find a sympathetic ear, the local Catholic Church.

302
00:37:47,820 --> 00:37:50,820
I would like to talk to you.

303
00:37:50,820 --> 00:37:54,820
Why are you so upset, Marcelo? What happened?

304
00:37:55,820 --> 00:37:57,820
I'm very scared.

305
00:37:58,820 --> 00:38:03,820
When I went to him, I cried. I said, somebody have to help me. I got no place to go only to you. You've got to help me, you've got to help me.

306
00:38:04,820 --> 00:38:07,820
But you have to show it to me that I can trust you.

307
00:38:08,820 --> 00:38:10,820
I'm not afraid of you.

308
00:38:11,820 --> 00:38:13,820
I'm afraid of you.

309
00:38:13,820 --> 00:38:18,820
You've got to help me, you've got to help me, but you have to show it to me that I can trust you.

310
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And then he told me, he says, I work for the underground. Trust me.

311
00:38:27,820 --> 00:38:29,820
I said, okay, prove it to me.

312
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And he says, come tomorrow.

313
00:38:37,820 --> 00:38:40,820
Helen says she returned to the church the next day.

314
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In the privacy of the confessional, the priest showed her the two-way radio, the underground used to communicate with England.

315
00:39:02,820 --> 00:39:04,820
It was such a relief for me.

316
00:39:05,820 --> 00:39:12,820
And so then I told him how many men and where they are and how he can find them.

317
00:39:19,820 --> 00:39:23,820
Helen says her decision to contact the underground had been made just in time.

318
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Helen says she was interrogated and beaten for three days.

319
00:40:05,820 --> 00:40:08,820
They didn't get nothing from me, just I don't know anything.

320
00:40:09,820 --> 00:40:12,820
I'd rather die myself before I'm going to kill all those men.

321
00:40:14,820 --> 00:40:18,820
This is a very bad man feeling and I was prepared for it.

322
00:40:19,820 --> 00:40:22,820
Really, I was prepared for this, that I'm going to die.

323
00:40:27,820 --> 00:40:31,820
But nothing could have prepared Helen for the horror she was about to endure.

324
00:40:32,820 --> 00:40:34,820
A concentration camp in Poland.

325
00:40:40,820 --> 00:40:42,820
Garniz, go.

326
00:40:47,820 --> 00:40:51,820
Helen says that she and several other women were selected as human guinea pigs

327
00:40:51,820 --> 00:40:54,820
in barbaric experiments performed by SS doctors.

328
00:40:55,820 --> 00:41:00,820
Helen was injected with unknown drugs and medications, which caused her to become violently ill.

329
00:41:05,820 --> 00:41:07,820
Don't move.

330
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She's very, very ill.

331
00:41:15,820 --> 00:41:18,820
The living hell lasted for two excruciating years.

332
00:41:19,820 --> 00:41:24,820
Finally in 1945, the camp was liberated by the Allies.

333
00:41:24,820 --> 00:41:27,820
Helen was among the survivors.

334
00:41:30,820 --> 00:41:34,820
In 1948, Helen married a fellow Czechoslovakian refugee.

335
00:41:34,820 --> 00:41:37,820
They later emigrated to the United States.

336
00:41:37,820 --> 00:41:43,820
Helen believes the experiments conducted by the SS left her physically unable to bear children.

337
00:41:44,820 --> 00:41:49,820
However Helen feels that saving the airmen was well worth her own personal sacrifice.

338
00:41:49,820 --> 00:41:54,820
In fact, over the years, she has come to regard the men almost as her sons.

339
00:41:59,820 --> 00:42:01,820
They are to me precious boys.

340
00:42:01,820 --> 00:42:03,820
Really precious.

341
00:42:03,820 --> 00:42:07,820
They were much older from me, but they were my boys.

342
00:42:08,820 --> 00:42:11,820
I hope to find them.

343
00:42:11,820 --> 00:42:13,820
Every one of them.

344
00:42:13,820 --> 00:42:18,820
And I would hug them and I would kiss them and I would be very happy.

345
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In a moment, a mother steadfast search for the gang members who murdered her son.

346
00:42:52,820 --> 00:42:56,820
In recent years, thousands of Americans have died in gang-related violence.

347
00:42:56,820 --> 00:42:58,820
Most of them in large urban areas.

348
00:42:58,820 --> 00:43:01,820
The numbers are staggering and still growing.

349
00:43:01,820 --> 00:43:04,820
In fact, for young people in a big city or at suburbs,

350
00:43:04,820 --> 00:43:07,820
it has become almost impossible to be a high school student

351
00:43:07,820 --> 00:43:10,820
and not come in contact with someone who belongs to a gang.

352
00:43:16,820 --> 00:43:18,820
This is Teresa Huy.

353
00:43:18,820 --> 00:43:24,820
On May 3rd, 1991, her only son, Kevin, was gunned down by four suspected gang members

354
00:43:24,820 --> 00:43:28,820
in Hawaiian Gardens, California, just south of Los Angeles.

355
00:43:29,820 --> 00:43:33,820
Ever since, Teresa and her husband have waged a lonely crusade

356
00:43:33,820 --> 00:43:36,820
to find out who killed Kevin and why.

357
00:43:40,820 --> 00:43:44,820
Kevin was what you might say a typical teenager.

358
00:43:44,820 --> 00:43:46,820
He loved his music really loud.

359
00:43:46,820 --> 00:43:49,820
He was a little bit on the shy side.

360
00:43:49,820 --> 00:43:52,820
He had a sense of humor you wouldn't believe.

361
00:43:52,820 --> 00:43:55,820
And he always, always had a smile on his face.

362
00:43:58,820 --> 00:44:02,820
But Kevin Wheale was not immune to the reality of life on the street.

363
00:44:02,820 --> 00:44:05,820
There was significant gang activity in Hawaiian Gardens,

364
00:44:05,820 --> 00:44:08,820
and Kevin knew several gang members.

365
00:44:08,820 --> 00:44:11,820
It was a casual association that would prove fatal.

366
00:44:16,820 --> 00:44:21,820
May 3rd, 1991, Kevin spent most of the evening at a friend's house.

367
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Around 11.30 p.m., he was seen driving south along Norwalk Boulevard,

368
00:44:26,820 --> 00:44:28,820
apparently on his way home.

369
00:44:30,820 --> 00:44:35,820
According to eyewitnesses, Kevin was approaching 221st Street

370
00:44:35,820 --> 00:44:37,820
when a vehicle began to follow him.

371
00:44:38,820 --> 00:44:40,820
The scene was shot down by a car.

372
00:44:55,820 --> 00:44:59,820
Kevin was struck twice in the head and three times in the back.

373
00:45:00,820 --> 00:45:03,820
An hour later, Kevin Wheale was dead.

374
00:45:04,820 --> 00:45:09,820
Investigators immediately suspected that he had been the victim of a gang shooting.

375
00:45:10,820 --> 00:45:15,820
Some of Kevin's friends were Hawaiian Gardens gang members,

376
00:45:15,820 --> 00:45:18,820
but that doesn't mean that Kevin was a gang member.

377
00:45:18,820 --> 00:45:24,820
He just associated with them, and I feel the other gang recognized the car

378
00:45:24,820 --> 00:45:29,820
that may have had some of Kevin's friends in it from time to time.

379
00:45:29,820 --> 00:45:32,820
Kevin, who were Hawaiian Gardens gang members,

380
00:45:32,820 --> 00:45:37,820
and they just keyed on the car and not the occupants of the vehicle.

381
00:45:38,820 --> 00:45:43,820
I didn't want Kevin's case to be just another gang-related shooting.

382
00:45:43,820 --> 00:45:46,820
I didn't want it to be another shooting that went unsolved.

383
00:45:46,820 --> 00:45:49,820
I made a promise that I would do everything in my power

384
00:45:49,820 --> 00:45:52,820
to catch these guys who murdered him.

385
00:45:54,820 --> 00:45:57,820
In the days and weeks after Kevin's murder,

386
00:45:57,820 --> 00:46:02,820
his parents, Teresa and Stan, posted thousands of flyers around the area where he was shot.

387
00:46:04,820 --> 00:46:08,820
They even managed to pull together $10,000 in reward money.

388
00:46:10,820 --> 00:46:13,820
When the investigation first started, I thought, you know,

389
00:46:13,820 --> 00:46:16,820
there was so much information at first that this probably wouldn't be no problem,

390
00:46:16,820 --> 00:46:20,820
and being that Kevin wasn't a gang member, you know, people would talk.

391
00:46:20,820 --> 00:46:25,820
But, you know, I found out that I was really wrong.

392
00:46:28,820 --> 00:46:32,820
Gang shooting investigations are very frustrating.

393
00:46:33,820 --> 00:46:39,820
Within the gang culture, the reason the witnesses are not coming forward

394
00:46:39,820 --> 00:46:44,820
is because they feel that being a snitch is worse than death itself.

395
00:46:49,820 --> 00:46:54,820
The hardest part for Stan and I right now is, I think, dealing with the anger.

396
00:46:54,820 --> 00:46:59,820
The anger that our son is dead and buried in a grave at 19.

397
00:47:02,820 --> 00:47:06,820
There was no rhyme or reason why anybody would want to shoot Kevin.

398
00:47:06,820 --> 00:47:10,820
He's never been in any fights or disagreements with anybody.

399
00:47:10,820 --> 00:47:14,820
I mean, he was just, you know, a 19-year-old out having fun.

400
00:47:14,820 --> 00:47:17,820
It was just so senseless. It's so stupid.

401
00:47:17,820 --> 00:47:22,820
It was and still is such a shock that something like this could happen.

402
00:47:25,820 --> 00:47:28,820
The End

403
00:47:35,820 --> 00:47:37,820
Two weeks from tonight.

404
00:47:37,820 --> 00:47:40,820
Join me for a special two-hour season finale.

405
00:47:40,820 --> 00:47:42,820
Here's a sampling.

406
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When good things happen to us, is it pure chance?

407
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Or, as some people think, are there angels among us?

408
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Just ask Jeanne Chameau.

409
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In 1976, on a trip to the painted desert,

410
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she fell to what should have been her death.

411
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Before she still doesn't fully understand,

412
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apparently lifted her up to safety.

413
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Join a woman from Wisconsin as she sets out to find her missing husband.

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He disappeared from a Colorado motel on August 31, 1993.

415
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Some believe he engineered his own disappearance.

416
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But after he was allegedly spotted on an Amtrak train,

417
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disheveled and disoriented, the investigation took on a new urgency.

418
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For decades, rumors have circulated in the Pacific Northwest

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about Bigfoot, the fabled and elusive half-man, half-ape.

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But recent sightings have let increased credibility to the age-old rumors.

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Is Bigfoot real?

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Meet the eyewitnesses and judge for yourself.

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Join me two weeks from tonight

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for one of our most intriguing and fascinating episodes.