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Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees
Police Investigate Murder of Massachusetts Mother and Daughter; NFL Player's Double Life
Aired February 02, 2006 - 22:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Good evening again, everyone.
Tonight, someone somewhere knows what happened to a mother with a beautiful smile and the baby girl she loved so very much.
This is Rachel Entwistle and 9-month-old Lillian Rose. They are together in the picture. They are together again tonight, buried in a single grave near the church where Lillian was baptized, buried just yesterday.
In a crime that has attracted worldwide attention, Rachel and Lillian were shot to death, executed in cold blood, inside their Massachusetts home -- the little child shot in the stomach, the mother shot in the head. Publicly, detectives say they don't have any suspects yet, but there is one man they continue to track from thousands of miles away. Some call him a devoted husband, others, a loving father.
Police have another name for him, a person of interest.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER (voice-over): One day after the funeral for Rachel Entwistle and her 9-month-old baby girl, Lillian Rose, still no sign of her husband, Neil Entwistle -- these pictures are the last we saw of him, staying at his parents' house in Nottinghamshire, England. The 27-year-old has left the house, but prosecutors say they are tracking his movements.
Sources also say that Entwistle's car has been seized by Hopkinton police. Prosecutors insist, however, Neil Entwistle is still just a person of interest.
MARTHA COAKLEY, MIDDLESEX, MASSACHUSETTS, DISTRICT ATTORNEY: He is somebody we would always be interested in talking to, in that he's the husband of two people who have been killed. There are other people that we are interested in talking to, but he is not -- I am not going to label him a suspect at this stage. Obviously...
COOPER: Twenty-seven-year-old Rachel, and her baby, Lillian, were found murdered in their home in Hopkinton Massachusetts, Sunday evening, January 22.
Rachel was shot once in the head. Lillian Rose was shot in the belly and was lying in bed, alongside her mother. Saturday evening, family and friends had been invited to dinner, but when no one answered the door, they grew suspicious. Despite several searches of the house by family and police, the bodies were not discovered until Sunday evening. Neil Entwistle was nowhere to be found.
COAKLEY: We do not believe this was random. There was no sign of a forced entry or any sign of burglary.
COOPER: Prosecutors believe the murders happened some time between Thursday night and Saturday. Neil Entwistle flew to London somewhere between late Friday and early Saturday morning, raising many questions about his whereabouts during the killings.
Entwistle agreed to be questioned by U.S. investigators at the embassy in London last week, but refused to answer questions about the killings. A family source was quoted in the British "Sun" newspaper saying that Entwistle phoned Rachel's stepfather, Joseph Matterazzo, after the murders and said -- quote -- "I can't remember how I got to England. It is true Rachel and Lillian are dead?"
A spokesperson for Rachel's family says they would not comment on whether they have been in touch with Neil Entwistle and why they chose to omit him from both Rachel's and Lillian's death notices.
JOE FLAHERTY, ENTWISTLE FAMILY SPOKESMAN: Rachel was a wonderful wife, daughter, granddaughter, sister and mother. She was always first to share her beliefs, her love and her support to others. She made her close friends a part of her family, and she always kept her family at the center of her life.
COOPER: The couple's life together began in England, when they met her junior year abroad. After they married, Rachel was a teacher in England, Neil, a computer programmer. They moved to Massachusetts last summer, shortly after the baby was born, first living with Rachel's mother and stepfather, then moving into this rental home, just 10 days before the bodies were found.
Rachel stayed home and took care of Lillian, as Neil found work as a computer programmer. Prosecutors say he was running a get-rich- quick Internet site that showed customers how to start an Internet porn site. The couple also ran a business on eBay that was shut down when customers complained the goods weren't being delivered.
Some wrote comments, calling Rachel a thieving liar. Prosecutors say they're looking into all aspects of the Entwistles' lives, including their business interests. However, they're not commenting on the possibility of Rachel being a victim of angry customers, nor would they comment on a "Boston Herald" report on the gun collection that Rachel's stepfather owns and whether others had access to it -- another possibility in an already puzzling case.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: Well, it certainly is a puzzling case, a lot of questions left unanswered, very confusing, a lot of unknowns at this point.
Police are taking a close look at the timeline immediately before Rachel and Lillian, Lillian Rose, were murdered. So, let's just review what we know. We know that, on Thursday night, January 19, Rachel spoke with her family. It would be the last time she would ever talk to them.
That's because, some time over the next days, some time between early Friday and early Saturday, Rachel and Lillian Rose were shot to death. Now, on that Saturday, January 21, at 8:15 a.m. Eastern, according to "The Boston Globe," Neil Entwistle had a reservation on a flight for London. Later that night, at 8:27, police searched the Entwistle home in Hopkinton. They found nothing. The lights were on. So was the TV.
Sunday afternoon, friends and family searched the home. They found no one inside -- and, at 5:00 p.m., still no sign of them -- a missing-persons report filed with police. Sunday evening, 6:30 p.m., the bodies of Rachel and her baby were discovered in the bedroom.
Next to the police, my next guest probably knows this case better than anyone else, Dave Wedge. He is an investigative reporter for "The Boston Herald." He joins me now from Boston.
Dave, thanks for being with us.
What can you tell us about Rachel's stepfather's gun collection?
DAVE WEDGE, CHIEF INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER, "THE BOSTON HERALD": Mr. Matterazzo, Joseph Matterazzo, who is Rachel's stepdad, was an avid gun collector. He had a lot of antique guns, as well as new guns. We don't know what the calibers were of the weapons. We do...
COOPER: Are any missing?
WEDGE: Our information is that there are none missing at this -- that investigators have found. That's right.
COOPER: Are they -- I assume they're going to look to see if any of them have been fired recently.
WEDGE: Investigators are taking a close look at these guns. We -- we know that. And I would -- I would assume that, you know, any guns that he owned that match the type of weapon that the mother and baby were killed with would -- they would be doing ballistic tests...
COOPER: Right...
WEDGE: ... on that.
COOPER: ... because it is a small-caliber handgun, and it has not been found.
Now, when friends showed up for dinner on Saturday night, the lights were on -- or at least one light was on, I understand. The -- the TV was on. What happened to the couple's dog? Was the dog there?
WEDGE: We are -- we're still looking into -- we believe -- actually, I believe, we -- we have confirmed the dog was in the house during those searches. And that -- that's another angle that the investigators are looking at, is, you know, if -- if the dog was there when the murders actually occurred.
COOPER: Because it would be strange. I mean, it's -- it's a basset hound. It would be a strange thing to have the dog in the house. And, clearly, it would have been disturbing for the dog. You would think the dog would maybe point out what was going on.
It is a rental house. How did the family and friends gain entrance to it on Sunday? Did they have keys?
WEDGE: Apparently, a neighbor had the code to the keypad alarm on the Entwistles' house, and that's how the police were able to get in. The door was locked, according to Martha Coakley's office. When police went to -- to recover the bodies, they had to gain entry that -- that way again.
COOPER: And when did police actually locate Neil Entwistle's BMW?
WEDGE: I believe his -- his car was located by police right away at the airport, I believe some time on Sunday or Monday.
COOPER: But they didn't impound it right away.
WEDGE: It was not impounded. It sat there for -- for a good four or five days. Then, it was moved to another part of the airport, where it was surrounded by state police vehicles.
And, today, it was moved -- either some time yesterday or today, it was moved to the Hopkinton police station, where it has been impounded. And there is a search warrant for that car.
COOPER: And there was a legal reason for not impounding it, which we will talk about a little bit later on.
Do you know for a fact that Neil Entwistle was on that Saturday- morning flight to England? The papers there have reported that he had a reservation. Do we know for a fact he actually boarded that flight?
WEDGE: We -- we don't know. All -- all the investigators are saying is that he left some time between late Friday night and some time early Saturday.
It makes the most sense that he was on that 8:15 flight. We just haven't been able to gain confirmation on that.
COOPER: And are they focusing -- I mean, they have said he's a person of interest. He's not a suspect. Are there any other persons of interest of suspects out there that we know of?
WEDGE: None -- none that we know of, and none that any -- anyone has said.
We -- we do know that the Matterazzo family was spoken to today by investigators, presumably about Neil and possibly this gun collection. It is -- it is hard to say what they were talking about. But all indications are that he remains the -- the main person that is -- that this is being focused on, and that there's no one else that is being looked at...
COOPER: All right, Dave...
WEDGE: ... as far as we know.
COOPER: Dave Wedge, appreciate you joining us for the latest.
WEDGE: Thank you.
COOPER: Thanks very much.
Entwistle did not attend his wife and child's funeral. There is no indication that he may travel back to the U.S. any time soon. So, the question is, what, if any, can authorities do to extradite him, if they choose to do that?
Helping us to answer the question, CNN senior legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin.
Can they get him back, unless they charge him with a crime?
JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: Absolutely not. There's -- that -- that's a clear rule. You have to be arrested. You have to be charged before extradition -- extradition can take place. Being a witness, even a grand jury subpoena, isn't enough to bring him back.
COOPER: So, I mean, that's a pretty high bar to jump, to actually have a charge against him. So, I mean, so, what -- what happens now? They will impanel a grand jury?
TOOBIN: Well, they -- they will have to decide how they want to proceed. They -- they can go by grand jury. They can just get an arrest warrant.
But that's only the beginning of the extradition process. It -- it then takes several turns that take -- take a long time to make happen.
COOPER: Why is that?
TOOBIN: Well, basically, it's -- it's a process that involves the State Department.
It -- it's a treaty between the United States and -- and Great Britain. We do have a treaty between us. And what happens is, the United -- the local authorities, the Massachusetts, either the state police or the Hopkinton police, whoever are the authorities, have to go to the State Department and do essentially a checklist of what the charges are, what the evidence is, what the potential penalties are.
The State Department then reviews this. They go to the British Foreign Office. The British Foreign Office looks and sees if it meets their requirements. Then, they go to their local authorities and try to get an arrest warrant.
Just from describing it, you can imagine how long the bureaucracy takes. It -- it can take two years.
COOPER: But is there anything like -- you know that some countries don't extradite people to a country that has a death penalty.
TOOBIN: Right.
COOPER: Is -- could that play a role?
TOOBIN: Well, England -- England is one of those countries. They will not extradite someone if they're potentially exposed to the death penalty.
Massachusetts does not have a death penalty, so I don't think this will be relevant -- that will be relevant in this case. So, certainly, all the pieces are in place for a successful extradition here. There -- this -- this a crime that's covered by the extradition treaty. The penalty, which is life in prison in Massachusetts, is eligible for extradition. So, there shouldn't be any roadblocks. It's just a slow and cumbersome process.
COOPER: But it is also -- I mean, based -- it's going to be hard to get any evidence, if you can't talk to the guy, if you can't get anything.
TOOBIN: Well, that -- that's the paradox.
Well, even if he were in the United States, presumably, he would be citing the Fifth Amendment and he wouldn't be cooperating. So, he's unlikely to give much evidence. But they can't even get fingerprints from him, because you can't subpoena him for fingerprints.
COOPER: Right.
TOOBIN: You can't get a blood sample from him. You can't get a DNA sample from him. So, it -- it does make it harder to make the case work from the -- from the United States, with him in England.
COOPER: And if you believe the "Sun" newspaper in England, he allegedly called his father-in-law and -- and sort of asked, you know, do -- how did I get here?
Does that -- does it sound -- if that is true, does it sound like he's trying to build some sort of insanity defense?
TOOBIN: Well, it could be. He may not need one if he's never charged.
But it does sound like the kind of dissociation you would expect from someone who is -- who is claiming an insanity defense. However, it is always worth mentioning whenever an insanity defense comes up, it almost never works. COOPER: Really?
TOOBIN: Insanity defenses almost always fail, because jurors react to it -- to it the way normal -- you know, they're just normal people. They say, come on. There -- there -- there's no -- it just sounds like an excuse.
And, also, insanity defenses only work if you are so out of it, you don't even know what you're doing. And here have you a man, if he is, in fact, setting up such a defense, who got on an airplane, fled the jurisdiction. That's pretty much evidence of planning, of -- of reasonable behavior. That makes an insanity defense even harder, if -- if he decides to go that route.
But he's a long way from even being charged...
COOPER: Yes.
TOOBIN: ... much less having to raise that kind of defense.
COOPER: It sounds like a long road.
All right, Jeffrey Toobin, thanks.
They are a family in mourning, of course, a family waiting for justice tonight, the people closest to Rachel and Lillian Rose. Tonight, you are going to hear what they have to say about this unspeakable crime.
Also ahead tonight, as millions get ready to watch the Super Bowl, a former player, NFL player, tells all about the double life he led in the NFL.
Plus, sleep-crawling -- you won't believe who you're sharing a pillow with when you hit the hay. Yikes. Oh, bad news about what's laying in your sheets.
Across America and around the world, you're watching 360. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: Well, he has not been accused of anything. And, officially, he's not even a suspect. But the man whose wife and baby were murdered in Massachusetts attracting a lot of attention from both sides of the Atlantic. Neil Entwistle flew to England just before Rachel Entwistle and 9-month-old Lillian Rose -- now, those are the last pictures that -- really, that we have seen of him, the last video images we saw of him.
He has left his parents' home in Nottingham. And although authorities say they're tracking him, we're not sure where he is at this point. He agreed to talked to detectives. Entwistle failed, however, to answer key questions when he did. He also didn't attend his wife and baby's funeral. And now come reports from the British paper, "The Sun," that Entwistle may have had access to a family gun collection and that, when he arrived in England, he is claiming he was distraught and confused -- that according to "The Sun," if that is true.
Do you think he has something to hide?
My next two guests disagree on the answer. Joining me from Boston, former Massachusetts prosecutor Wendy Murphy, and, from Miami, defense attorney Jayne Weintraub.
Good to see both of you.
JAYNE WEINTRAUB, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Hi, Anderson.
COOPER: Wendy, a lot was made of the fact that Entwistle didn't attend the funeral yesterday. Now that it's over, you think we are going to see the pace of the investigation quicken. Why?
WENDY MURPHY, FORMER PROSECUTOR: Yes, because I think one of the reasons we weren't hearing very much from the prosecution was, they didn't want to give him an excuse for why he didn't show up at the funeral.
I mean, Jayne made a good point last night, that he was certainly in a position to say, I wanted to come to the funeral, but the DA had all the guns blaring for me. She was calling me a suspect, searching my car, getting an arrest warrant.
In fact, she did none of that. She -- she did absolutely nothing to ramp up the evidence, in terms of what we were hearing in the public against this guy. So, when -- if and when he is charged, and the question at trial comes up, "Why weren't you at the funeral?" -- and it will come up -- he's not going to be able to say, it was the DA's fault.
He is going to have to take the heat on that, just like Scott Peterson, with the blond hair, and being at the Mexican border, $15,000 in cash, behavioral evidence indicating his guilt that he could not explain away at trial. This guy is going to have the same problem.
COOPER: Jayne, for -- from the defense standpoint, though, if in fact this ever goes to trial, if in fact he is charged, if in fact he is -- is a suspect, which police are now saying he is not...
WEINTRAUB: If in fact they ever get any evidence.
(LAUGHTER)
COOPER: Yes, exactly -- a lot of ifs in this.
How do you address the fact that -- that this house was searched at least three times; on the third time, the police finally found the body? WEINTRAUB: I think the police didn't look. I think the police weren't careful. I think they overlooked the bodies. I think they didn't even bother to lift up the cover.
They went in to see if she was there and left. They didn't even look in the closet. We're not talking about invading his privacy rights and searching, you know, drawers, where there are private matters. We're talking about lifting a cover to see if there's somebody there, if there's a fleeing felon in the house.
I mean, if going to do a well-being search, something is amiss. Something is awry. You want to make sure that nobody is -- you know, homeless people or people that are armed, doing drugs, aren't in that house. You want to make sure the house is safe.
COOPER: Wendy...
(LAUGHTER)
WEINTRAUB: And, so, you look under blankets and things.
COOPER: Wendy, is that really fair, though? I mean, this was just sort of a -- a -- a cursory search, at least the first search around, because, they're -- you know, people showed up to a dinner party, and the TV was on, and they just got concerned that no one answered the door.
MURPHY: Yes. No, a well-being check is just that, a very superficial check.
And you know what's funny about Jayne's position, I will tell you this. If the police had done a big search, lifted up covers, opened up doors -- and, remember, they didn't have a search warrant, so they couldn't lawfully do that. But, if they had, Jayne would be saying, and they violated Neil Entwistle's rights, and the evidence has to be suppressed.
And the very same people who are complaining the police didn't look closely enough in the house would be saying, they looked too damn close, and they violated his rights, and they screwed up the case.
They did exactly what they had the lawful permission to do, which is to walk through the house, yell out her name, touch nothing, lift up nothing, especially in the super-private space of a bedroom.
COOPER: But, Jayne, even the fact that...
WEINTRAUB: Wendy...
(CROSSTALK)
COOPER: The fact that they did all these searches, doesn't that taint the crime scene?
And, if this thing ever does go to trial, can't a clever defense attorney argue, look, there were people, there were family members, there were police walking in and out of here; we don't know whose fingerprints are where, or fingerprints are what?
WEINTRAUB: Well, yes, the scene would have been contaminated, even by the guests coming into the house.
But -- but here is the hitch with it, Anderson. Remember, the suspect here is the husband. He lives in the home. It is not as if you are going to find, you know, a strange hair of the suspect near the corpse. No. It's the husband. So, his hair, his fiber, his blood, his saliva anywhere near the body or anywhere in that house isn't going to be any much of a crime scene.
What is a crime scene would be casings of a bullet, would be receipts that he bought ammunition somewhere, e-mails, text-messages printed out, maybe a motive somewhere. That would be evidence at a crime scene that would be contaminated, if touched by others.
COOPER: We are going to have leave it there.
Wendy Murphy, Jayne Weintraub, thanks very much. Appreciate it.
MURPHY: You bet.
WEINTRAUB: Thank you, Anderson.
COOPER: It's important to point out again that, while Neil Entwistle is a person of interest, he has not been labeled a suspect, nor has he been charged in any connection with the deaths of his wife and child.
It is a fact of police work that, when a wife is murdered, however, police want to talk to the husband, and often with good reason. According to the FBI, 579 wives were killed by their spouses in 2004.
CNN's Rick Sanchez takes a look.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RICK SANCHEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Redwood City, California, December 2002, Scott Peterson kills his wife, Laci. She was eight months pregnant.
Boston, 1989, lawyer Charles Stuart makes up a story about a -- quote -- "black man" who shot his wife. Turns out it was Stuart who pulled the trigger.
North Carolina, 2003, novelist Michael Peterson is convicted of bludgeoning his wife of five years. He did it in the stairwell of their Durham mansion.
All are cases that fascinated and made us wonder why. Why would a husband kill his own wife? Even mere accusations seem to make us all take notice. Who in America can say they don't remember this?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
O.J. SIMPSON, DEFENDANT: Absolutely, 100 percent not guilty.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: O.J. Simpson was found not guilty, but the fascination with everything O.J. continues, as does every book, TV show or movie on husbands who stand accused of killing their wives.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP, "THE FUGITIVE")
TOMMY LEE JONES, ACTOR: Your fugitive's name is Dr. Richard Kimble.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You have crime. You have sex. You have money.
SANCHEZ: Criminologist Robert Friedman (ph) has spent decades studying why people kill. He says, to understand the motives of men like Scott Peterson, you first have to understand not why they did it, but why they needed to do it.
(on camera): What's to gain? Why -- why not walk out?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If the convenience of the moment is that he deems her standing in his way, he will resort to that resolution that, for the wide majority of the population, is incomprehensible.
SANCHEZ (voice-over): Friedman (ph) says wife-killers all have a problem they need to resolve. Whether it's greed, lack of freedom, convenience, ego or jealousy, the answer tends to be the same, if the man views life as frivolous.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The ultimate resolution that he arrives at is that taking her out is best for him.
SANCHEZ: So, for police, the challenge is to find out what their suspect was trying to resolve.
(on camera): So, when you figure out what the conflict is, that will lead you to figure out what the motive was?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Exactly.
SANCHEZ (voice-over): So, why do husbands kill? Power, authority, possessiveness. We have all heard the pop psychology, but key to breaking any case, says this veteran investigator, is finding out what conflict was seemingly resolved when a spouse turned up dead.
Rick Sanchez, CNN, Atlanta.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: So, who was Rachel Entwistle? What was she really like? Coming up, what the family of Rachel Entwistle wants you to know about their loss. Also ahead tonight, the hidden life of an NFL star. A $1,000- dollar-a-day drug habit nearly drives a gentle giant to suicide. And that's just the beginning. Tonight, we find out the truth of one NFL's player's double life.
You're watching 360.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: It's hard to believe that anybody could kill a child so small.
Tonight, we're covering a store that continues to send shockwaves across the Atlantic, the brutal murders of a mother and her baby. Rachel Entwistle and 9-month-old Lillian Rose were shot to death almost two weeks ago -- their bodies found together under blankets in their Massachusetts home. The husband and father flew to England before police made the grim discovery. He has emerged as a person of interest in the deaths of his wife and child.
Yesterday, Rachel and Lillian Rose were laid to rest. Too often, we think, in these tragic cases, the reality of the loss gets lost. Amid all the allegations and suspicions, tonight, we want to remember that a family is in mourning because their daughter and their granddaughter are no longer here.
Joe Flaherty is a spokesman for Rachel's family. He joins me now from Boston.
Joe, how -- how are the Entwistles doing?
FLAHERTY: Well, as you can imagine, Anderson, they're -- you know, these are the -- the days -- they just laid to rest Rachel and Lillian yesterday. These are difficult times. There are going to be a lot of difficult times ahead for this family.
And, you know, they're -- they're thankful for all the prayers and support that your viewers and the wonderful messages they have received. That's one of the things that's going to help them through, along with being a very close-knit family and a -- a very faith-built family. They will -- you know, they will -- they will hold -- they're holding up very well, under the circumstances.
COOPER: I mean, it is said -- it is so raw and so -- it is such a short time ago that all this happened. They have got to be just caught up. I mean, it's just -- I can't imagine what it is like.
What -- what -- what was Rachel like?
FLAHERTY: Well, I think Rachel's mother, Priscilla, I think, would describe her as the daughter that every mother would love to have. She was beautiful. She was intelligent. She loved to laugh and have fun. She was the essence of a -- a great wife and mother and sister, and to her brother, Jerome, and granddaughter.
And she loved being a mother. Lily (ph) was the center of her life. She had many close, close friends. Everybody who met her fell in love with her. And -- and I -- I think that this -- this loss is -- is very, very deep for the family because of that.
COOPER: I'm sorry. I said Entwistle family. Of course, I should have said Souza family. Souza is Rachel's maiden name.
How -- how was the -- I mean, the funeral yesterday, obviously, a horrific experience. Mother and child were -- were laid to rest together, yes?
FLAHERTY: Yes, that's -- that's correct.
COOPER: And I -- I also saw that there were a lot of pictures at the wake of -- of pictures -- can you talk about just how the service was, anything about what the family wanted to get across with -- with -- with the service?
FLAHERTY: It -- it was a beautiful service.
And one of Rachel's, actually, high school classmates gave a eulogy at the -- at the church that was very telling, I think, of the type of person that Rachel was. And it -- it was a young lady who had been influenced in high school by Rachel many years ago and looked up to her even then.
And -- and it was very touching. The -- the music was beautiful. The homily by Father McKinnon (ph) was fantastic. And, of course, you know, he -- as he pointed out, he had just baptized Lily (ph), Lillian Rose, not seven weeks prior to this funeral.
COOPER: Geez. Unbelievable.
Joe, I -- I appreciate you being on. I know it's been a -- a busy day for you.
And, please, give our condolences to the Souza family. Thank you very much.
FLAHERTY: I will do that. Thank you, Anderson.
COOPER: All right.
Joe Flaherty, a -- a spokesperson for the Souza family.
Just ahead, a football player's life on the field with a drug habit and another secret to go with it, many secrets.
But, first, Erica Hill from Headline News joins us with some of the other stories that we're following tonight.
Hey, Erica.
ERICA HILL, HEADLINE NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Anderson.
Police in New Bedford, Massachusetts and all across the state searching tonight for a man they're calling violent, armed, dangerous and suicidal. According to authorities, Jacob Robida walked into a gay bar last night, had one drink, ordered another, then took out a hatchet and started swinging. And when patrons tackled him, he pulled a gun, shooting three patrons. Tonight he's on the run wanted for hate crimes and three counts of attempted murder.
In Atlanta memorial plans unveiled for Coretta Scott King. The wife of Martin Luther King, Jr. will lie in repose over the weekend in the Georgia state capitol. Then there will be a viewing at the original Ebenezer Baptist Church where her husband was pastor. Funeral services are scheduled for Tuesday.
Two massive additions to the federal budget. The Bush administration saying today it will ask Congress for another $120 billion to fight the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and an additional $18 billion to rebuild from Hurricane Katrina, that's on top of an initial $85 billion for the Gulf Coast.
Score one tonight for the woman known as the Black Widow. She's small but don't mess with her. Twenty six grilled cheese sandwiches in 10 minutes. No tomato soup in sight to help wash it down, by the way. The event took place in Times Square in New York, of course. The Black Widow, real name Sonya Thomas. She said she could have done better. In fact, Anderson, she was aiming for 30 grilled cheese sandwiches in 10 minutes. Apparently a little disappointed. Thirty.
COOPER: And I guess -- yeah, I don't even get that. I don't understand that sport.
HILL: I don't really understand the eating thing either.
COOPER: Is it a sport? It's not a sport.
HILL: I don't know. For her it is. She's done pretty well. She's won a number of these things. Oysters, what else, bratwurst, turkey, you name it, the girl has eaten it. And look how little she is.
COOPER: This is her eating the turkey, I guess.
HILL: I think that's the turkey, yeah. The grilled cheese thing apparently grand prize $8,000.
COOPER: All right enough of her. Erica, thank you. We'll see you again shortly.
Coming up tonight, we're also going to have more on the hate crime, the attack in that bar in Massachusetts. That's at the top of the 11:00 hour. A suspect is on the loose in that. We want to show you his picture as well.
Coming up, though, ahead, an NFL player that went to the Super Bowl is finally coming to terms with his past. Coming up, the hidden life of Roy Simmons. He reveals all about drugs and about the abuse he suffered and about the pressure to keep a major part of his life secret for many years. And before you go to sleep tonight, I want to know what's on your pillow. It might just be making you sick. We'll tell you how to protect yourself when 360 continues.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: This Sunday football fans will gather around their TVs rooting for Pittsburgh or Seattle in the Super Bowl. It's a big event certainly across America, even bigger for those who are playing in the NFL's championship game.
Roy Simmons knows what it is like. The former offensive lineman was with the Washington Redskins when they went to the Super Bowl back in 1984. But that day Simmons wasn't just high on the excitement. He says he was also high on cocaine and drug addiction wasn't his only struggle. Simmons had been keeping a secret about his sexuality, a secret he'd had a hard time talking about until now. He's written a book "Out of Bounds, My Fast Times, Wild Nights and Outlaw Life In and Out of the NFL Closet." Simmons sat down with CNN's Heidi Collins.
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HEIDI COLLINS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Sugarbear is what they called him at Georgia Tech. At 250 pounds, Roy Simmons was the fastest lineman on the team.
ROY SIMMONS, FORMER FOOTBALL PLAYER: Due to my size and my speed, I've always felt special with that.
COLLINS: In '79, life couldn't get any sweeter for the humble kid from the row house in Savannah when he was drafted by the Giants.
SIMMONS: I was very glad that, you know, I was chosen to actually be a part of the NFL and the New York Giants, which I loved them very much.
COLLINS: But with success came temptations.
SIMMONS: I was introduced to I guess cocaine actually when I was in my second year there. And, I guess from then on, you know, the partying really commenced. You know, the drugs, alcohol, cocaine, pot, women, guys all that.
COLLINS: But deep down Simmons shouldered a secret. He was gay.
SIMMONS: It was always, you know, did they know? Do they know where I was last night? Are they following me? So it was always a little paranoia involved.
COLLINS (on camera): You really were looking over your shoulder?
SIMMONS: Yeah. Yeah. And that causes a lot of stress.
COLLINS (voice-over): The stress, the sex, the thousand dollar a day drug habit he says were catching up with him. In '82, Simmons quit the Giants at the height of his career to be a baggage handler at Kennedy Airport to get his head together. In '83, he wanted his job back. But he says Giants' coach Bill Parcells told him, "We are not a charity organization." And Simmons was crushed.
SIMMONS: I left there with anger, total anger toward him. I carried it through life.
COLLINS: But football wasn't through with Simmons. The offensive lineman was picked up by the Washington Redskins and went to the super bowl in '84 stoned.
(voice-over): Another chance and yet you did coke the day of the Super Bowl.
SIMMONS: Yeah.
COLLINS: How does that happen?
SIMMONS: I don't want to say -- it's just one of those things.
COLLINS (voice-over): One year later, Simmons left the NFL. Broke, addicted, having sex for cash, and at the very core of it all, another dirty secret. Around age 10, he was raped.
SIMMONS: I was asked exactly by my grandmother, but you know, I lied and said -- because she found the blood in the briefs. And I lied, you know, and said I was fine.
COLLINS (on camera): Do you wish you would have told her?
SIMMONS: Yeah. I think a lot of the drinking and drugging were to hide from the lies and all the deceitfulness that I was going through. I did a lot of lying, a lot of cheating, a lot of hiding, a lot of fear.
COLLINS (voice-over): In '97, five years after coming out as a gay football player on the Phil Donahue show, Simmons faced his own worst fear. He was HIV positive.
SIMMONS: I was scared to death. It was just a sad time, basically, for me. Then comes the part where when, where, how, who? And I couldn't pinpoint it.
COLLINS: Simmons could have given up, but he didn't. And he credits wanting to be a good dad to his only daughter. Today he says he's clean, he manages his illness and Roy Simmons has advice for a life gone out of bounds - "Face the truth. I know you can fumble and fail and survive."
SIMMONS: I remain teachable. So I'm never too big or too bad not to learn something.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COLLINS (on camera): Roy Simmons is now working at a halfway house in Long Island, New York, and is one of three NFL players to ever come out of the closet. He says there are certainly more in the league, but they face the same pressures today as he did back in the early '80s. He told me, you can be a wife beater or a drug dealer, but if you're gay in the NFL, forget about it. It's totally unacceptable.
And Anderson, there are quite a few wild parties and wild nights with men, women, drugs, alcohol. In the book that he speaks about. And so in light of James Frey and "A Million Little Pieces" we asked is this all really true? He said emphatically, yes.
COOPER: He seems like such a sweet guy. He's clearly had a very long struggle.
COLLINS: Yeah. It's not been easy for him. He has fallen off the wagon for a couple of times. Been sober for a couple of years. And there were even thoughts of suicide, as he said, on the Golden Gate Bridge and remembered the words of his grandmother who said "Suicide is a Sin." And so that kept him in that car.
COOPER: His name is Roy Simmons, the book, again, is "Out Of Bounds, My Fast Times, Wild Nights and Outlaw Life in and Out of the NFL Closet."
Heidi, thanks.
A big arrest south of the border to tell you about. Remember the puppies that had heroin surgically implanted in their stomachs? It's hard to believe. They were shipped to the U.S. Well, the DEA has taken action against some suspects. Find out where coming up.
And we hate to get you as you're going off to sleep to tell you what may be in your bed, but the pillow you're sleeping on may be harboring millions of microscopic monsters. They're microscopic but they're still pretty gross. That's coming up next on 360 investigation.
Your chance to get a second opinion. Ask Dr. Sanjay Gupta a medical question about, you know, bed bugs or whatever. Log on to cnn.com/360 and click on the email link.
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COOPER: So in one of his classic songs Billy Joel assures us that no matter where a person sleeps, it's okay, you wake up with yourself. Oh, Billy Joel, Billy Joel, you're so naive. We don't care who you are, you are going to be astounded when you learn that who you are really sleeping with or what you're really sleeping with. CNN's Gary Tuchman investigates.
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GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The young, the old and all those in between sleep. And while most rest their heads in a comfortable pillow to do so you realize that while they're dreaming, they're feeding an entire ecosystem.
DR. DAVID DENNING, PROFESSOR, UNIVERSITY OF MANCHESTER: We lose a lot of skin scales every day. And we sweat in our beds. So that combination of product, if you like, drives both the house dust mite and the fungus.
TUCHMAN: Those house mites and fungi are feeding and reproducing from our body's castoffs, creating a legion of fungus and bacteria that could make you sick.
DENNING: We also know that fungi produce toxins occasionally. And we really have no idea of the health effects of the exposure of fungal toxins directly in front of your face. What I'm worried about is fungi in your lungs.
TUCHMAN: After reading Drs. David Denning and Ashley Woodcock's study on pillow problems we decided to do our own test. We took pillows from an airplane, two posh New York hotels, a retired couple, the CNN producer I worked with on this story and several pillows from the Josh Klainberg family of New York City. The Klainberg were particularly interested in participated, because with two small girls at home, colds are fast and furious and the father Josh has asthma.
JOSH KLAINBERG, PILLOWS TESTED: When I purchased pillows or mattresses or things like that, I've tried to get things that are hypoallergenic or covers for dust mites and so that's always a concern of mine to make sure that things won't be triggering my asthma.
TUCHMAN: So Josh and his wife gave us their pillows from their room, his daughter Shana's (ph) bed.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Can you give me that pillow?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No!
TUCHMAN: And a 20-year-old big pillow they call Marvin who is virtually a member of the family. All three pillows never to be seen again.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Time to say good-bye Uncle Marvin. Say goodbye.
TUCHMAN: And when we asked them what they thought we might find, well, Josh was optimistic.
KLAINBERG: I'm hoping you'll find sweet dreams and not nightmares.
TUCHMAN: We bagged up all the pillows, including Marvin, and shipped them off to the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio where they put our pillows to the test. Three tests, in fact. One used an Anderson air sampler which uses air to suck out the bacteria and fungi from the pillows. The two other tests involve a culture broth and a bulk culture of both the inside and outside of the pillows. Then we waited two weeks to see what lurked inside them.
KLAINBERG: The results, I thought, were surprising.
TUCHMAN: Annette Fothergill is the technical director of the fungus testing lab that conducted the tests for us. She found thousands of bacteria and fungi in nearly everything we sent her. With names like pencillium, rhizopus, aureobasidium pullulans, cladosporium, aspergillus niger. All sound pretty scary.
(on camera): Let's say you have severe allergies and your pillow has a lot of these organisms on them. What can happen?
ANNETTE FOTHERGILL, TECHNICAL DIRECTOR OF FUNGUS TESTING: Well, a child or adult that is laying on a pillow with lots of fungal -- with a heavy fungal burden or load is -- this could be a trigger to set off an asthma attack.
TUCHMAN (voice-over): Our worst offender was something of a surprise.
FOTHERGILL: That's the most that we saw from any of the organisms, 34 on a one centimeter square.
TUCHMAN: It was my producer's pillow.
FOTHERGILL: Because nothing else was that high.
TUCHMAN (on camera): So that's not great.
FOTHERGILL: If I tested my pillow and it had 34 penicillium, I'd think fine I'll just get a new one.
TUCHMAN (voice-over): But before you throw out all of your pillows, a colleague of Annette cautions that fungus is normal and not always harmful.
MICHAEL RINALDI, UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS, SAN ANTONIO: There's nowhere on earth where there's a pillow where there isn't a fungus. The nature of these fungi is that they are truly ubiquitous. They're everywhere.
TUCHMAN: Dr. Michael Rinaldi says that those who are immunocompromised, asthmatic or sick are at the most risk. The researchers say it could be a concern for anyone.
ASHLEY WOODCOCK, PROFESSOR, UNIVERSITY OF MANCHESTER: The issue really is that you spend eight hours of your -- of every 24, a third of your life, with your face in your pillow. We think there might be a specific risk which could be quite large.
TUCHMAN (on camera): If all this pillow talk is making you wonder what you can do to have healthier pillows, we can tell you the solutions are rather simple.
FOTHERGILL: It's a good idea to have an additional case between the pillowcase and the pillow that can be taken off and laundered regularly and put back on. That's the best way to try and protect a pillow.
TUCHMAN (voice-over): We took our results to the Klainbergs and see what they thought. Age of the pillow didn't seem to matter in the Klainberg house. He had Shana put her hands over her ears as we told the family her pillow less than six months old was teeming with bacteria and allergy producing fungi in the same amounts and types as 20-year-old Marvin.
(on camera): Does that make you want to never use a pillow again?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Not that one.
KLAINBERG: Not that one. And I'm sorry that Marvin had to go the way he did, but I think it's for the best.
TUCHMAN: Are you surprised by the results?
KLAINBERG: With the older pillow not terribly surprised. But with the newer ones I am very surprised.
TUCHMAN (voice-over): The Klainbergs vow to put an extra pillowcase on their pillows and at least surface clean them more regularly, which is exactly what the experts advise to anyone who wants to get a healthier night's sleep.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TUCHMAN (on camera): Now, this is my pillow from the hotel I'm staying at here in Texas. This was not part of our test, but the odds are that this, too, is full of bacteria and fungus. Now, we haven't told you the names of the hotel because it's not relevant. You can stay in the best hotel in the world and it is just as likely to have bacterial fungus as a cheap hotel. And that's a very important fact. There's bacteria and fungus everywhere you are in your house. But the reason this is so important, so relevant, is because you bury your head in your pillow eight, nine, in my case 12, 13 hours a night. And you do it every day. So you spend a lot of time with your head next to the pillow.
We do want to tell you during our test, the researchers were shocked at that retired couple. Their pillows had no bacteria or fungus. They tell us that's very rare. But Anderson, the pillow companies will be happy about me saying this, but if you don't want to put two covers on your pillow and you have asthma or you have allergies and wake up with a stuffy nose, it is good to buy a new pillow every year or so.
COOPER: They definitely will like that. Gary, thanks. Coming up next. The puppies, the drugs, and now the people in custody, you're watching 360.
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COOPER: Coming up, why NASA is shooting a spacesuit but no astronaut into space. But first here is Erica Hill with Headline News with some of the other stories we are following. Hey, Erica.
HILL: Hey Anderson. We're shooting off to Washington for our first story. The new House majority leader, John Boehner of Ohio. He defeated the apparent front runner Roy Blunt of Missouri by a vote of 122 to 109. Boehner, a self-proclaimed reformer, replaces Tom DeLay who is facing corruption charges in Texas.
Another political fallout from Hurricane Katrina. The White House will shortly begin providing more documents to the Senate committee investigating what went wrong. Republican Susan Collins, chair of that committee, and Joseph Lieberman, its ranking Democrat wrote to the White House weeks ago to complain that most of the documents the panel requested had not been provided.
Twenty-one people arrested in Colombia in connection with a foiled attempt to smuggle heroin into the U.S. by hiding it in the bellies of puppies. Three of those little guys died of infections following surgery to remove the contraband they were carrying. They rest were made by Colombian police and the U.S. DEA.
And if you want to know who the world's largest bookie likes in Super Bowl XL likes this Sunday? You're in luck because we're going to tell you. The Ft. Worth Zoo's Rasha picked the Seattle Seahawks this morning three out of three times. And you may be thinking elephant, what does the elephant know in football.
Well get this, in 2003 Rasha, on the money. Wrong in 2004 and last year she was a little too busy painting to make a pick at all. But still at this point, Anderson, from what we know, best record of any Asian elephant out there.
COOPER: You keeping track of that kind of thing, Erica?
HILL: Absolutely. I have a lot of spare time, you know?
COOPER: Yeah, I don't believe that. Erica, thanks very much. We want to thank our international viewers, as well, for watching right now.
But coming up next, though, on 360, a lot ahead. A shocking hate crime and a suspect on the loose right now. A man attacks patrons of a gay bar with a hatchet and a handgun. Tonight police are on the hunt for the suspect and appealing for your help.
Plus small signs of improvement for ABC News anchor Bob Woodruff, recovering from an attack in Iraq. We'll tell you how he is doing and what ABC plans to do in his absence. That when 360 continues.
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COOPER: Good evening. Tonight hate in Massachusetts. Patrons at a gay bar attacked, and a teenage suspect armed and dangerous now on the run.
ANNOUNCER: Police say this man walked into a gay bar, started swinging a hatchet, then began shooting. What led up to that moment of madness?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He hates everybody. You see the room downstairs. Swastikas.
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ANNOUNCER: A mother and (inaudible) in Massachusetts mysteriously shot dead in their sleep. The husband missing. Officially he is only a person of interest. So why is there talk of an extradition fight and talk of a possible insanity defense? Tonight new details.
And ABC News anchor bob woodruff in the states and showing improvement after the bomb blast in Iraq. Tonight 360 M.D. Dr. Sanjay Gupta with the military doctors who saved his life.
From across the U.S. and around the world, this is ANDERSON COOPER 360 live from the CNN studios in New York, here's Anderson Cooper.
COOPER: Good evening again. Police in Massachusetts are on the hunt tonight for an 18-year-old accused of attacking a gay bar in Bedford about 50 miles south of Boston. The suspect is said to be armed, dangerous, even suicidal. That is his picture. Take a close look.
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