Return to Transcripts main page
American Morning
'Gimme a Minute'; Man Confesses Murder to Radio Producer
Aired July 01, 2005 - 08:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: There are some concerns on how the Natalee Holloway investigation is being handled, with some of the suspects being transported together. Exclusive CNN video shows two of the suspects being handcuffed together. Aruban officials explain what police could gain from this move.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RUBEN TRAPENBERG, ARUBAN OFFICIAL: The investigators have their particular techniques that they use to check the stories, see if they fit, and if not, if two guys are put together, it's to find out more what they have to tell each other.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: In the meantime, Beth Holloway Twitty held a vigil on Thursday praying for the safe return of her daughter.
NASA says it is ready for a July 13th launch. The space agency announcing the liftoff date following a not so stellar safety review. The launch will be the first since the Columbia disaster back in 2003. NASA's launch director says one of the biggest worries now is the weather.
And finally, an offer. The late Marlon Brando's son could not refuse the script from the legendary actor's 1972 film "The Godfather," sold for more than $300,000. It is the highest amount ever paid for a film script. The auction, held in New York City last night, brought in almost $2.5 million and it featured more than 250 items from Brando's home in Los Angeles.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: I don't think that he would approve.
COSTELLO: Marlon Brando?
M. O'BRIEN: Yes, yes.
COSTELLO: No. He was a very private person.
M. O'BRIEN: Yes.
COSTELLO: He was away from this country for a long time.
M. O'BRIEN: And somebody has his driver's license now. I don't know, what can they do with that?
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: And lots of personal documents that just seem...
COSTELLO: It's amazing what they auction off. When they auctioned off Marilyn Monroe's belongings, like I was looking through the catalogue, her underwear was in there.
M. O'BRIEN: Did you bid?
S. O'BRIEN: You got to...
COSTELLO: No! But it's like -- it's unbelievable.
M. O'BRIEN: Geez.
S. O'BRIEN: You do have to imagine the person who has passed would not be quite so excited.
COSTELLO: Not so thrilled.
S. O'BRIEN: All right, Carol, thanks.
Well guess what? It's Friday. And that means it's time for "Gimme A Minute." We are joined this week by a couple of political pros.
In Washington, D.C., Democratic consultant Jenny Backus is with us. Hey, Jenny, good morning.
JENNY BACKUS, DEMOCRATIC CONSULTANT: Good morning.
S. O'BRIEN: In New York, Republican consultant Tara Setmayer is joining us this morning. Nice to see you, Tara, good morning to you.
TARA SETMAYER, REPUBLICAN CONSULTANT: How are you?
S. O'BRIEN: And a man who consults to know men, Andy Borowitz of borowitzreport.com. Good morning to all of you.
`Let's get right going. Arnold Schwarzenegger is our topic. We're going to start with you, Jenny. "The Terminator." Poll numbers, not so good. Take a look at these numbers. Back in June, 39 percent said they were inclined to re-elect Schwarzenegger. Now that number'S up to 57 percent. What do you think is dragging down his numbers?
BACKUS: I think it's the same thing that's driving down the president's numbers, which is that Republicans aren't doing anything to help people. People have California, it was sort of -- Arnold Schwarzenegger is sort of like eating cotton candy. They took a little bit of taste of it. A couple months later, there's nothing there. And in fact, there's nothing there in their pockets. There's nothing there in the state budget. And Arnold is going down.
S. O'BRIEN: Tara, do you buy the eating cotton candy political analogy we got going there?
SETMAYER: No. We need to remember that polls are just a snapshot in time. He's been governor for 19 months and he inherited a mess from Democrat Gray Davis, which is why the people of California threw him out. And in 19 months, he's able to accomplish cutting the budget in half. He was able to have a balanced budget amendment passed. And he's taking on tough decisions out in California. He's a man of strength and vision, increasing opportunities for the people of California. I'm not worried.
S. O'BRIEN: Well, you know, you mentioned Gray Davis. When his numbers got that low, as you point out, they threw him out. Andy, what do you think?
BOROWITZ: Well, this is a just theory, but I think people miss that Gray Davis charisma. I do.
S. O'BRIEN: Could be true. Let's talk about these two reporters, Matt Cooper and Judith Miller, who really face jailtime now as they refuse to give up their confidential sources. Tara, you're going to take the first stab at this one. Do you think they should turn over their confidential sources as the court has asked them to do?
SETMAYER: As a student of journalism at George Washington University, my journalism professor taught me, that -- in Journalism 101 -- that you always protect your sources, because journalists have a responsibility to bring the news in the best public interest. And I question whether that should be done or not. This is a murky case and I think this case should not be used as the example for this question. There's just entirely too many variables involved here.
S. O'BRIEN: The head of Time, Inc., said yesterday, reporters are not above the law. That was his justification for Time, Inc., turning over these documents to the court. What do you think, Jenny?
BACKUS: I think the focus is completely off on this case. The real focus is, where is the prosecution? And when's the White House going to come up with who revealed the source of a CIA agent? A lot of the noise around this -- Matt and Judith are being brave and doing the right thing. They're standing up for an American freedom, which is freedom of speech and they're protecting American values. What's the White House doing? Where is the name of -- where's the name of the person who gave up the I.D. of a CIA agent?
S. O'BRIEN: Andy, it's after the bell. What do you think?
BOROWITZ: Well, Time, Inc., has the same parent company as CNN, so I'm going to say, go Time, Inc. You're doing the right thing!
S. O'BRIEN: Let's talk about the Supreme Court. We're going back to Jenny to start this one. Eminent domain is our topic of conversation. Of course it means that some people who own private property could lose that property if the city or the jurisdiction determines they need to build something else there. People really upset about this story. It seems brutally unfair, Jenny?
BACKUS: Well, look, I sort of agree. I think there's a lot of questions. The House took some action last night. You have to be really careful so that people's property rights who are poor, don't have a lot of money, aren't railroaded over by a developer. But, you know, it's kind of interesting with these cases right now. Someone's going after Souter's house. I wonder if the Democrats can file a takings claim against the White House?
S. O'BRIEN: Hmm, interesting thought there. The law, though, Tara, as much as people are up in arms, has been on the books for a while. And no one minded as much when it was a highway that was going through somebody's house. Now that it could be like a mall, it seems like it raises more issues. Or a restaurant.
SETMAYER: Yes, I think because of the broad scope of what constitutes public use is what's concerning people. Justice Thomas said it best in his dissent that the American people are safe in their homes, but their homes are not safe from the government. And Jenny's right. I'm scared to say we agree that the most -- the people who are hurt the most are minorities and those who don't have a voice for themselves. It's a concern.
S. O'BRIEN: Oh, look at that. They agree. Andy, are you going to jump in and agree, too? We could all be a big, old happy family here this morning?
BOROWITZ: No, I disagree. I have a bunch of relatives coming to my house this weekend. I would rather have the government seize it. I would.
S. O'BRIEN: Let do the undercovered story of the week. Tara, why don't you start us off. What did you think we missed?
SETMAYER: This week, a group of 9/11 families week came together in protest of the International Freedom Center, which is proposed to be put on the entranceway of the memorial. And unfortunately, on the surface, it seems is a good idea, but unfortunately, this is backed by the Human Rights First groups, radical left wing groups that have anti-American hate speech and things, that could potentially be included at the center. And there is no place for that. This is a hallowed area, a hallowed ground. There's no place for politics. And people should be there to memorialize these folks, not to be taught a history lesson in tolerance. No politics at Ground Zero.
S. O'BRIEN: Jenny, what do you think we missed?
BACKUS: Well, I am a little concerned about politicization of 9/11 there. But my undercovered story of the week had to do with what's happening out in Ohio and the fact that George Bush and the Bush administration have five of their most senior donors, including a guy named Tom Noe out in Ohio, under investigation right now for illegal activities. Tom Noe squandered pension fund in Ohio by investing in coins. And the governor may need to step down. So there's a lot of mismanaging going on out there and I think we need to keep our eye on it.
S. O'BRIEN: Andy, you get this final word this morning.
BOROWITZ: Well, in a deeply divided decision, the Supreme Court permitted the Texas state capitol to display the five commandments. S. O'BRIEN: And that's it, you guys. Thank you very much for talking with us. Nice to see you and have a wonderful weekend, a nice, long holiday weekend, OK?
BOROWITZ: You, too.
SETMAYER: You, too.
BACKUS: You, too, thanks.
S. O'BRIEN: Miles?
M. O'BRIEN: An incredible story out of Atlanta to tell you about. Incredible, but apparently true. A man called to the WSB radio host Neal Boortz on Wednesday. Didn't get on the air, but while talking to a producer, he confessed to a decade-old murder.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
CHEO ASH, ADMITTED TO MURDER: In the act of the robbery, I killed this Indian guy. I apologize and I send my deepest condolences. I took your father, and I took your husband all because the rent was due.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
M. O'BRIEN: Now, police say the confession matched information only the killer could have known and they have a sworn-out warrant out for murder. With
Belinda Skelton is a producer with WSB Radio in Atlanta. Belinda, good to see you this morning. You take all kinds of calls in your job. This has to be a first.
BELINDA SKELTON, WSB RADIO PRODUCER: Absolutely it's a first. Not every day you get a confession of a murder.
M. O'BRIEN: The call came in. When did you realize the gravity of what you were hearing?
SKELTON: Well, the first few minutes of the call, I didn't take him very seriously. He said I'm calling to confess a murder. And I said OK, well, who did you kill, where's the body? And then as he started giving me every detail, I started taking him seriously and started writing down the information that he was giving me over the phone. And it was very detailed. And I started asking as many questions as I possibly could.
M. O'BRIEN: What kinds of questions did you ask him?
SKELTON: I asked him where the murder took place. He gave me specific streets, business, how many times he shot the victim, what the victim was saying to him. He gave me his full name, his birth date, his Social Security number. The man wanted to turn himself in, obviously. M. O'BRIEN: So you were focused on this call. Meanwhile, your boss is saying, come on, keep the calls coming. How did you tell everybody what was going on there and keep that call going?
SKELTON: Well, I got advice from Neal. I didn't know, should I take him seriously or not? We did have a live show going on at the time. But he said, get as much information as you possibly can, call the authorities in the county in which he says the murder took place, talk to homicide and see if the facts pans out.
M. O'BRIEN: Of course, Neal Boortz's being a lawyer probably helped out at that point. The police asked you not to the air this particular conversation with specific details. We just aired a little excerpt without details. Why was that important?
SKELTON: Because the police do hold back facts of a case that the public is not aware of. And as Mr. Ash was giving facts, they were matching up with some that were held back, that were not public, that no one would have known unless you were involved in the crime.
M. O'BRIEN: All right, so I know you've got caller ID there. Did you know where he was calling from.
SKELTON: He told me he was calling from. He was calling from a state mental hospital in Texas.
M. O'BRIEN: And you still believed him? Because as time went on, it became more believable, is that what happened?
SKELTON: I don't know if it was a gut feeling, a sixth sense. But as we continued to talk, I tried to remain as long as possible. I wanted them to hang on the long as long as possible. I didn't want him to hang up. I wanted to get all the information I needed to get for the authorities to locate him and verify if he was for real or not.
M. O'BRIEN: And I know in your business, ratings are important. Any listener is a good listener, but you kind of surprised that your show was singled out?
SKELTON: You know, hindsight being 20/20, Miles, I wish I had asked why our show? Because he was calling from a state hospital, he had to use a pay phone, so he had to use an 800 number, and he called in on one of our 800 numbers for the show.
M. O'BRIEN: All right, Belinda Skelton, the whiz producer for Neal Boortz show, and we should tell DeKalb County Police and authorities are investigating. No official charges have been filed just yet. We'll keep you posted on that one. Thanks very much, Belinda.
S. O'BRIEN: Definitely one of the strange but true, it seems, stories.
M. O'BRIEN: Well, you know, in newrooms you get a lot of calls fro prisoners in mental hospitals. S. O'BRIEN: You do, you get a lot of nutty people.
M. O'BRIEN: It is a lot of chaff with the wheat, and good for Belinda for seeing that call for what it is.
S. O'BRIEN: Yes, No question.
(WEATHER REPORT)
M. O'BRIEN: All right, still to come on AMERICAN MORNING, a Windy City wallop. Sales tax in Chicago rises to the highest in the nation. We're "Minding Your Business."
S. O'BRIEN: Also ahead this morning, we'll take you live to London, where tens of thousands of people are expected to gather for this weekend's Live 8 concert to raise money for the hungry in Africa. More on that's ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
S. O'BRIEN: Live 8 organizers are making some final preparations for tomorrow's concerts. Nine megashows in nine cities around the globe tomorrow, all to raise awareness for poverty in Africa.
Mallika Kapur is live for us at Hyde Park in London this morning,
Mallika, give us a sense who's scheduled to perform there?
MALLIKA KAPUR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Oh, Soledad, some of the biggest names in the music world are scheduled to perform here in Hyde Park tomorrow, and they're going to be performing at the stage right behind me. We're talking about names like Madonna, Elton John, Coldplay. Sting is going to be here, Bono. So it's a very impressive list, and the crowds here are going to be very impressive as well. This place is going to be packed tomorrow. Organizers say they're expected 200,000 people to show up. Now that's about three times the number of people who showed up for Live Aid 20 years ago.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MALLIKA KAPUR, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This was a concert that rocked the world into action in 1985, Live Aid, a star- studded extravaganza organized by Bob Geldof, raised around $100 million for Africa's famine victims. One of the areas the money to is Makela (ph), a northern Ethiopian town, the scene of starvation and death during the great famine. Twenty years later it has cattle, canals and food reserve, but that's just Makela.
BOB GELDOF, LIVE AID/LIVE 8 ORGANIZER: Africa has got worse. Africa has declined economically 25 percent in 20 years. It's the only continent in an economic decline.
KAPUR: To reverse that tide, economists say Africa needs more than one-off charity event. RAZIA KHAN, STANDARD CHARTERED: What African countries need to be able to meet millennium development goals, to be able to tackle poverty in the longer term is certainly of flows. So aid flows that persists over time are going to important.
KAPUR: At this weekend's Live 8 concert, Geldof isn't asking for individual donations. Backed by a host of musicians, he's asking G8 leaders to increase aid to Africa and forgive its debts.
JOSS STONE, SINGER: As 8 people already know, all they have to do is agree on the right thing. It's not hard.
KAPUR: While celebrities may not have an opportunity to make a lasting difference, they've shown they have the power to draw massive crowds. Two million participated in a lottery for tickets to this Saturday's Live 8 date (ph) in London.
BEN JONES, VIRGIN RADIO: More people, as I say, listen to the politics of Chris Matthew, and listen to the politics of Bono, and so Bob Geldof can than listen to Bush, Blair, Schroeder and so on.
KAPUR: And that's precisely what Geldof is trying to do, make a new generation of people aware of Africa's plight and inspire an older generation to act. The question is, will the G-8 leaders really be listening?
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KAPUR: Well, the concert is just one of the events Bob Geldoff is organizing which he hopes to send a message to those G-8 leaders. He's also calling on a million people to march in Edinborough next week, next Wednesday, which is the first day of the G-8 summit.
S. O'BRIEN: Mallika Kapur for us this morning. Mallika, thanks. And I hope you're getting to go to the concert. And it you are, enjoy it -- Miles.
M. O'BRIEN: Nice work if you can get it.
Still to come, it just goes to show that no one is immune, even the leader of a group that fights I.D. theft has become a victim herself. Andy's "Minding Your Business," ahead on AMERICAN MORNING.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
M. O'BRIEN: A woman in Utah has literally has sold her forehead on eBay. The winning bidder is an online casino, goldenpalace.com, which has had the name of its Web site permanently tattooed above her eyes. Is that right? Permanent?
ANDY SERWER, "FORTUNE" COLUMNIST: Permanently. That's different.
M. O'BRIEN: How much would you charge for a permanent tattoo?
SERWER: A million. M. O'BRIEN: She got 10 grand. Only 10 grand. 30-year-old Carrie Smith (ph)...
SERWER: Crazy.
M. O'BRIEN: You should have gotten more, girl. She says she can now afford to send her daughter to private school. Maybe she should do some -- wow, I don't know. Gosh, that looks like it hurts, too. Incidentally, the same casino has made other interesting purchases, including a grilled cheese sandwich that some say looked like Virgin Mary. You remember that one.
SERWER: Yes.
M. O'BRIEN: That went for about $25,000. And they also paid to have a message displayed on a pregnant woman's belly. So you got a little more forehead than her.
SERWER: Well, thank you, Miles, I'm glad you noticed.
M. O'BRIEN: And so you got more space.
SERWER: How nice of you to notice.
M. O'BRIEN: I would go for 20 grand.
SERWER: Well, and the grilled cheese went for more than the forehead, too.
M. O'BRIEN: There you go. So she -- well, she needs a better agent...
(CROSSTALK)
M. O'BRIEN: All right, we're not talking about that. We're talking about what's going on in Wall Street, if anything. Trading in the Hamptons this weekend, maybe, and I.D. theft.
SERWER: Yes, I.D. theft. We'll start off there. You ever get the feeling, Miles, that government officials aren't feeling your pain? That they don't know what you're going through? Well, here's a case where one government official is definitely walking in our shoes. Deborah Platt Majoras is the head of the FTC, the Federal Trade Commission. And the Federal Trade Commission is one of the agencies that helps Americans cope with identity theft. Obviously, we've been talking about that a lot over the past couple of months.
Now it turns out that old Deborah is herself the victim of identity theft. That's right. She was one of those consumers who shopped at DSW, that shoe retailer out of Ohio, that back in March announced that 1.4 million of its customers had been the victim of identity theft. And the old shoe company is a little slow in getting around to telling its customers. And they called up Deborah and said, you're one of them. And we don't have a lot more information than that, how much money she lost or anything like that.
M. O'BRIEN: Yes.
SERWER: Kind of interesting. We have one of these shoe cards, a DSW card.
M. O'BRIEN: I guess she felt like a real heel?
SERWER: That was actually very clever. Soledad, what do you think?
S. O'BRIEN: No, it wasn't. It was just a bad pun.
SERWER: I'm trying to be nice.
M. O'BRIEN: Pretty lame.
SERWER: I'm trying to be nice. All right, let's talk about taxes.
M. O'BRIEN: You got no sole.
SERWER: Yes, thank you. All right, enough.
M. O'BRIEN: I know.
SERWER: Let's talk about taxes. Chicago is about to have the distinction of being the most expensive city in the U.S., in terms of sales tax, going up a quarter point from 8.75 percent to 9 percent, making it have the highest sales tax of any major city in the United States. You can see here. Chicago. New York's high, but not like Chicago. L.A.'s high, not like Chicago. Down at the bottom is Boston, where the sales tax is only 5 percent. So if you're buying a $1,000 P.C. in Chicago vs. Boston, versus, you're going to be paying $40 more in tax. And you know, that adds up after a while, right?
M. O'BRIEN: It sure does. And I wouldn't have guessed Chicago. I would have guessed, you know, New York.
SERWER: New York or L.A.?
M. O'BRIEN: Yes.
SERWER: I mean, maybe they're hurting. Probably you get better schools in Chicago than in Boston. That's what they would probably claim, right?
M. O'BRIEN: I wouldn't care to opine on that this morning.
SERWER: Well, that's what they might suggest.
M. O'BRIEN: For fear of being a heel. All right. Let's press on, shall we? Because, obviously...
SERWER: You need to press on. You really do.
S. O'BRIEN: We should -- I'll take it from here, OK?
M. O'BRIEN: Save me, Soledad, please save me.
SERWER: Soledad, save, save.
S. O'BRIEN: We'll just carry on. Well, this month we here at CNN are celebrating 25 years on the air. And as part of that celebration, CNN's Ali Velshi takes a look back at some of the top business stories that made headlines during CNN's first 25 years.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ALI VELSHI, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The top business stories of CNN's first 25 years. We asked the editors at "Money" magazine to come up with a list.
At number five, the death of inflation. In 1980, inflation was a scary word. Today, we aren't as intimidated.
STEPHEN GANDEL, STAFF WRITER, "MONEY" MAGAZINE: There's a fear that inflation will begin to rise again, but that's probably not going to be the case.
VELSHI: Number four is at our fingertips. The Internet has given us a virtual world with no boundaries.
As U.S. companies expand, the world keeps getting smaller. Globalization is number three.
ERIC SCHURENBERG, MANAGING EDITOR, "MONEY" MAGAZINE: It has created an atmosphere in which there are no economic borders.
VELSHI: Number two, the consumer is king. Low prices, freedom of choice and buying made easy.
Stay tuned as we count down to number one.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
