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Child Molester Caught; Insurgent Attack Caught on Tape
Aired October 06, 2007 - 22:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: This father can hardly contain his joy.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I screamed at the top of my lungs and my neighbors came out.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: Sex offender accused of kidnapping his daughter is caught. Tonight, Rodger Franks' urgent message to other parents.
No Hollywood special effects. This is war, live and unedited. An insurgent attack on a convoy caught on tape in Baghdad.
She says a Supreme Court justice sexually harassed her. Remember Anita Hill?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANITA HILL: The conversations were very vivid. He spoke about acts that he had seen in pornographic films.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: Clarence Thomas still says he didn't do it. He said, she said 16 years later.
Habla Espanol? Do you need English subtitles on American television? This car dealer says yes, but now he is taking some serious heat for his language of choice.
A 60-year-old war secret.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There are us no head-slapping, no water boarding. No...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: None of that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: So how about interrogation by board game? World War II veterans tell us all about grilling Nazi prisoners right here in the U.S. And some amazing never-before-seen pictures of Princess Diana's final moments in that Paris tunnel. You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.
And good evening, everyone. I'm Tony Harris. He is running from the law no more. A Florida man, a registered sex offender, with a record as long as your arm. Police believe he lured a teenage girl away from her home, then ditched her at a Wal-mart. What happened in between remains unknown, but now the girl is safe. Police are happy. And her parents happy is not a strong enough word.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RODGER FRANK: Now I'll say these words on television.
HARRIS (voice-over): A teenaged girl's father three days ago, anguished.
FRANK: You're going to get what's coming to you. Let me tell you, you're going to get what's coming to you.
HARRIS: That was Wednesday. Today, the father sings a different, happier tune.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
FRANK: It's so hard to explain the feeling. I screamed at the top of my lungs and my neighbors came out. That's how excited I was. My wife's crying. I'm still shaking. It's an amazing feeling.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: This is what's making him feel that way. William Joe Mitchell is in jail. He was the only person sought in the online seduction and kidnapping of a 15-year-old Florida girl. The girl told friends she was in love with her Internet beau she thought was in his mid 20s. William Joe Mitchell is 46.
Police tracked him down four states away today.
GRADY JUDD, SHERIFF, POLK COUNTY, FLORIDA: Virginia State police took him down at gunpoint. He did not resist. And once he did that, and we were able to get to his car, he was still in his original car, we determined he had no money on him. But what he did have was our victim's personal effects visible in the car.
HARRIS: The girl's father doesn't blame the Internet, but he is about to become an online expert.
FRANK: We're going to get back on the Internet. We're going into install software that checks this for me. I'm going to go learn how to do this. I don't -- it's not my forte, but it's going to become that. We've had serious talks about no age, no -- no information of your own out there to the people. You can be who you want to be on the Internet. That's our problem. And people do give out their information. We don't do this. The Internet is for information. It's not a playground. Seriously. It's not a playground.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HARRIS: Not a playground. We have learned tonight that the kidnapping suspect, William Joe Mitchell, faces a list of charges most related to committing lewd acts and using the Internet to solicit a child. He is also wanted on charges in Alabama and Jacksonville, Florida.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NICHOLAS SCOPPETH, NYC FIRE DEPARTMENT: All three buildings are evacuated. The department of buildings will inspect the building for any structural damage.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: Well, this is a story we followed closely earlier this evening, an explosion which shook a Harlem neighborhood in New York City this afternoon. A five-story apartment building.
Firefighters say whatever exploded did so upward, not outward, blowing out windows and injuring 17 people, including four children. Witnesses at the scene tell CNN the building houses some kind of restaurant on the ground floor. The New York City fire commissioner says the blast appears to have been caused by a gas leak. And they're investigating.
And talk about your huge explosions. This one was heard and felt miles away. Tacoma, Washington now and the 100-year-old Atlas foundry. This isn't official, but witnesses believe a propane tank blew up at the iron mill and sent a fireball into the sky. Last we heard, two people were hurt and the fire shut down Interstate 5 in both directions for a while.
The streets of Baghdad and in the world of main streets, they don't get any meaner. You are about to see and hear some amazing video. It was shot today in Baghdad by an Associated Press cameraman. A Baghdad city official, a Shiite, and a heavily-armed convoy comes under fire in a mainly Sunni neighborhood. Watch and listen as all hell breaks loose.
So here's the question. How many of you would keep the camera rolling during all that gun fire? Here's the amazing part of the story. After all that shooting, no one in the convoy was hit. No one was hurt. Just another day in the Baghdad combat zone.
More street crime, this one right here in the United States. Philadelphia where the city formally filed murder charges today against Mustafi Ali. Police think that's him. You'll see him here in the baseball cap with a gun sticking up the crew of an armored car on Thursday. Two guards shot dead. The two victims worked for Lumes, the armored car company. Joseph Allulo and William Widmayer, both were retired police officers.
And this is the Little Rock Arkansas area. The police are following a ripped-off school bus on a 40-mile pursuit through three counties. You can imagine how this ends. They almost always end the same way, with a thief in handcuffs. But you won't believe is who behind the wheel.
Here's Amanda Manatt with our Little Rock affiliate KATV.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
AMANDA MANATT, KATV CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): As the stolen Lumes (ph) school bus flies down highway 65 Friday night, dozens of officers from three counties, four towns, and state police remain in hot pursuit. Lumes (ph) school officials have been closing up after their football game around 11:00 p.m., when they noticed lights coming from the bus yard and reported the vehicle stolen. From there, the driver of the bus led police down Highway 65, all the way into Jefferson County. That's despite road spikes state police set up to try and slow down the bus.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He missed them all. We're now coming into town. Speed is 25 miles an hour.
MANATT: Finally as the bus pulls into Pine Bluff city limits, the driver slows down enough for a deputy to make the stop. But as officers approach, they're surprised by who they find behind the wheel. Police say the driver's a 10-year-old boy. He was immediately cuffed and taken into police custody, then later released to his parents.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: Ten years old. Say it again, 10 years old. School officials say they're not terribly surprised. The same boy was caught in a group trying to steal a bus just last month.
Our top video picks of the day are coming right up. Watch this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No! I'm not doing anything!
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HARRIS: You think this is out of hand? You ain't seen nothing yet. This scene goes from bad to worse. You'll see more of it in just a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: So here are tonight's top picks. This is dash cam video from a cop car. Listen to a little bit of the audio here.
Oh, OK, no audio. All right, fine. This happened in West Palm Beach, Florida. The girl is 15 years old. The officer reportedly said he stopped her for violating curfew and acting suspiciously. You see, she's resisting arrest there. The officer, you saw it a moment ago, punches her and then blasted her with the pepper spray after she apparently tried to bite him. I'm sure - well, I'm pretty sure we haven't heard the last of this story.
On to New Jersey now, where we (INAUDIBLE) this not so wise guy covered in mud and soaked in shame. As we've been told, he was trying to outrun the police and was doing a pretty good job of it until he hopped in a creek when police closed in on him. He swam into a drain pipe, where he was stuck for five hours. They pulled him out. As you can see, they hosed him down and then they hauled him off to jail.
The bears in New Hampshire are apparently smarter than the average. You know, your eyes aren't deceiving you here. Yes, that was the bear shuffling and ultimately picking a winner from a raffle wheel. Echo is her name. And she is doing her part to help raise money for animal care. People buy a raffle ticket, Echo draws a winner, and the winner wins a bear. A stuffed bear.
Years after the fact, Anita Hill wasn't counting on the verbal backlash that emerged this week. It initially came in the form of a book, an autobiography, penned by the man she accused in 1991 of sexual harassment, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. Hill's allegations almost kept Thomas from being confirmed, but even now she's not flinching. And neither's he. Here's CNN's Carol Costello.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Sixteen years have passed, but the anger remains. A he said, she said with no definitive answer about what actually happened. On CBS' "60 Minutes," he still says...
CLARENCE THOMAS: It didn't happen.
COSTELLO: And she still says...
ANITA HILL: I know what the truth is. I know what happened.
COSTELLO: Flashback to 1991, one of the most lured Senate confirmation hearings in United States history. It had all it. Race, sex, and according to Thomas, the worst kind of politics.
THOMAS: I think most well-meaning people understand it for what it was. It was a weapon to destroy me. Clear and simple.
COSTELLO: Thomas claims Anita Hill was a pawn, that her claim he'd sexually harassed her at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission was a ploy, a ploy to derail his nomination because of his opposition to abortion. She says that's nonsense.
THOMAS: The Senate contacted me and asked me a direct question about what happened to me in the workplace. And I responded truthfully. And there was no intermediate group that put me up to anything.
COSTELLO: Hill is clearly still affected by those hearings 16 years ago. Millions watched on television as Hill calmly delivered her no holds barred descriptions of how Thomas had allegedly harassed her while both worked at the EEOC. HILL: His conversations were very vivid. He spoke about acts that he had seen in pornographic films involving such matters as women having sex with animals and films showing group sex or rape scenes.
COSTELLO: She testified such talk in other conversations made her uncomfortable.
HILL: He got up from the table, at which we were working, went over to his desk to get the coat, looked at the can and asked who has put pubic hair on my Coke?
COSTELLO: Thomas writes he never listened to Hill's testimony. In his book "My Grandfather's Son", he says it consisted of lies from a mediocre former employee who was angry at not being promoted over a light-complexioned woman.
HILL: This is a typical tactic that accused people take. When you're accused of bad behavior, as opposed to wanting people to look at all of the evidence, look at all of the credible evidence, what you do is you attack your accuser. And you mischaracterize them. You slander them. You smear them. And -- in an effort to deflect the truth.
COSTELLO (on camera): She says, though, Thomas won. He sits on the United States Supreme Court. He says they both lost, that the hearings hurt both of them.
Carol Costello, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HARRIS: And coming up in the CNN NEWSROOM, some are saying the salesman is a sell-out for speaking Spanish.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I wasn't trying to make a political statement. I was trying to sell more Toyotas.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: Well, wait a minute here. English subtitles on an English station? Folks aren't too happy with this guy. His story is next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: And welcome back, everyone to the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Tony Harris.
A scary night for some people on board a roller coaster. It happened at the Six Flags just outside of Washington, D.C. Let's go now to Angela Stark from our affiliate WJLA. Angela, good to see you. What happened out there?
ANGELA STARK, WJLA CORRESPONDENT: Well, Tony, this happened aboard the ride called the two face. It's got a joker theme. There was no joke about this tonight. We are at the entrance of the Six Flags of America here in Largo, Maryland.
The park is closing up right now. A lot of people leaving. The ride has been shut down. This started about 7:00 when a call came out to have people rescued from a ride.
Now according to the folks here at Six Flags, they say that a safety system detected a malfunction in the ride's stop at the safest point, which happened to be up at the top. Park and engineering maintenance assessed the ride and manually had to bring that ride down. That's when, unfortunately, hydraulic lines leaked and they went over several people. A couple of people had to be decontaminated. Two people were taken to the hospital. Again, 12 people treated here on the scene.
A Six Flags spokesperson says that they will not open this ride as far as they know tomorrow, but certainly this was described to us as a very scary, a very chaotic situation with park maintenance and also the local fire and EMS out here trying to help those people off that ride.
We understand the ride came down very quickly, accelerated at one point. And it caused a lot of neck and back injuries. Tony, so hopefully those people taken - those two people taken to the hospital will be all right.
HARRIS: Yes, OK. Angela Stark for us from our Washington, D.C. affiliate WJLA. Good to see you. Thank you.
What do you think of this? Savvy marketing or simply un- American? You be the judge.
So this Florida man owns a car dealership. And to try to diversify his consumer base, he created a Spanish language commercial with English subtitles. And boy, that certainly has people talking. CNN national correspondent Susan Candiotti has the story from West Palm Beach.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Without cue cards, Earl Stewart doesn't speak a lick of Spanish, but he knows how to sell cars. His family has been in the business for 70 years in West Palm Beach, Florida. He figured why not advertise in Spanish with subtitles on English language TV to reach Latinos who might be watching.
EARL STEWART: I wasn't trying to make a political statement. I was trying to sell more Toyotas.
CANDIOTTI: Viewers started calling with a vengeance.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We will no longer be buying anything from your dealership. Thank you.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is not right. Your advertisement is unbelievable.
CANDIOTTI: Within days, he got more than 200 angry e-mails.
STEWART: "I find your Spanish commercial stupid and insulting. I would never buy a car from someone who doesn't know what country he lives in. This is not Mexico.
CANDIOTTI: This one says tell Earl he's a traitor and un- American. When you started to run these ads, did you think it would create such a stir?
STEWART: I had no idea. I was shocked.
CANDIOTTI: On the other hand, Sadanos Hispanic supermarket chain is running a combo Spanish/English commercial on Miami's English language TV with no complaints.
MERCEDES CUBAS, SIBONEYUSA: People who advertise in Spanish are just trying to expand their consumer base. They're being smart. They want to sell their products.
CANDIOTTI: We asked one of Stewart's customers to watch the ad. She gets it, but doesn't think it helps Hispanics assimilate.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They help draw the people in, which is what he wants. But they don't help them learn English.
STEWART: Well, I think it's nonsense to think that a car dealer's commercial on television is going to encourage anybody not to learn English.
CANDIOTTI: Stewart shrugs off e-mails like anything to make a buck, right, Earl?
STEWART: I did do it for the almighty dollar. I did it to sell more Toyotas.
CANDIOTTI: If you think those Spanish language ads have had a negative impact on car sales, remember those people who said they would never set their foot inside this dealership? Well, apparently, just the opposite has happened. Earl Stewart says he had a record sales month in September. He says he won't mess with success. In the words of Tom Petty, you will not back down.
STEWART: I'm not going to back down. I'm going to continue to run my Hispanic TV commercial. And it will be a permanent part of my television advertising from now on.
CANDIOTTI: Susan Candiotti, CNN, West Palm Beach, Florida.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HARRIS: A new fallout tonight from the Jena 6 case in Louisiana. This time, it's over a song by John Mellencamp.
So what do you think? Well, Jena's mayor says the video is "so inflammatory that a line has been crossed." And enough is enough. The song makes reference to nooses hung from a tree outside Jena High School. Six black teens, as you'll recall, were arrested for allegedly beating a white student amid growing racial tensions. In a statement on his website, Mellencamp says the song wasn't written to indict the people of Jena, but to condemn racism.
Still to come in the NEWSROOM, presidential candidate Mitt Romney is doing well in the polls, but he is not likely to get this man's vote. Next up, listen in on this awkward moment on the campaign trail today.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: Time now for some dog bone politics. Political news with a bite. Mitt Romney's run-in with a wheelchair-bound voter tops our list tonight. The man had a tough question for the Republican presidential hopeful. At a New Hampshire event today, first he told Romney he uses medical marijuana to treat his muscular dystrophy. Then he asked if as president Romney would have him arrested for using it. Well, things got a little awkward. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Will you arrest me and my doctors if I use medical marijuana?
MITT ROMNEY: I'm not in favor of medical marijuana.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Will you have me arrested? Will you please answer my question?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're not going to answer his question, governor?
ROMNEY: I think I have. I'm not...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He asked if you were going to arrest him. You're going to...
ROMNEY: Hi, how are you? Hi, how are you?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: Well, as you heard, others joined in a chorus to get Romney to answer the man's question, would you arrest me. But Romney, as you heard there, wouldn't take the bait. Senator Barack Obama dealt with a young heckler a little more smoothly this week. He was announcing his plan for security contractors following the Blackwater controversy, when he was interrupted. Check this out.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. BARACK OBAMA (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: This plan would require contractors to coordinate with the U.S. military to stop contractors from acting in ways that undermine our mission. Contractors would also have to follow rules of engagement. Yes, I know he's outraged, too, about Blackwater. Yes, I know. It's terrible.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: OK. And, yes, we know candidate Fred Thompson's wife is 24 years younger than him, but don't call her a trophy wife. Jeri Thompson tells "People" magazine it's hard not to be defensive. She defends her five year marriage as true love. She says they met at a Nashville supermarket check-out line. And she felt sorry for him because he was buying a can of beanie wienies and half a tuna sandwich. So she asked him for a date.
A war-time secret kept for more than 60 years. Speaking out for the first time, U.S. military interrogators unveil what they did to get Nazi prisoners to talk, including the likes of Rudolph Hess. You don't want to miss this. It's 90 seconds away, right here in the CNN NEWSROOM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: OK, this is an absolutely incredible story. A war-time secret kept secret for decades until right now. 60-plus years after World War II, we're learning how U.S. servicemen managed to get German POWs to talk right here on U.S. soil. Believe it or not, a lot of the technique was all fun and games. CNN's Kathleen Koch has details on this stunning revelation.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It was called P.O. Box 1142, so secret it was only known by its Virginia postal code. From 1942 to 1945, U.S. servicemen there pried secrets out of high-value German prisoners of war. John Gunter Dean was 18 when he started there.
JOHN GUNTER DEAN, FMR. MILITARY INTERROGATOR: We were nice to people. Yes, I -- I did go and play cards with prisoners and trying to establish a relationship that he would be helpful to what we wanted to know.
KOCH: You got information that way?
DEAN: We got a lot of information.
KOCH: Chief interrogator Henry Kolm once played chess with Hitler's deputy, Rudolph Hess.
HENRY KOLM, FMR. MILITARY INTERROGATOR: We got more information out of the German general scientist by -- over a game of chess or ping-pong than by threats and brutality.
KOCH: There was no head-slapping, no water boarding?
GEORGE FRANKEL, FMR. MILITARY INTERROGATOR: None of that. I was appalled when I read in "The Washington Post" that these methods had been employed. It was totally against my humanitarian instincts.
KOCH: Werner Moritz says his team discovered Germany had developed deadly V-1 and V-2 missiles by eavesdropping on prisoners.
WERNER MORITZ, FMR. MILITARY INTERROGATOR: It took us three, four days. And it took three, four different people constantly listening just to -- the recording was scratchy. Became a very important part of the second World War. And the fact that we discovered it that way was wonderful.
KOCH: The men of P.O. Box 1142 were brought together this weekend by the National Park Service. It stumbled across one of the veterans while trying to piece together the history of their Alexandria facility, now a recreation area owned by the park service. Historian Brandon Bies was stunned the man had kept their work secret for so long.
BRANDON BIES, NATIONAL PARK SERVICE: They took their oath of secrecy very seriously for 60-plus years. And only after we were able to convince them this has been declassified, it's important to tell their stories that they really felt the need, that it was OK to tell these stories. And they realized that yes, maybe what they did may have made a difference.
KOCH: A difference with lessons they believe still apply today.
Kathleen Koch, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HARRIS: And still to come this evening, images of Princess Diana's final hours. Never before seen pictures and a new debate about what really happened on that tragic night. You don't want to miss this. Stay with us in the NEWSROOM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: We have new images tonight of Princess Diana's final hours, pictures you probably haven't seen. Her last minutes as a London jury ponders whether Diana's death was an accident or murder. Front and center, limo driver Henri Paul declared drunk, yet that's not how he looks in his final hours. Here's Phil Black.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PHIL BLACK, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This was the scene Princess Diana and her boyfriend Dodi al Fayed were desperate to avoid the night they died. A crowd of paparazzi and onlookers waiting outside their hotel.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Chasing Princess Diana.
BLACK: These images were captured by an Australian tourist and shown to the jury at the inquest into the couples' death to give a sense of the atmosphere that night.
To fool those photographers, two cars were left waiting outside the front entrance, shown here on the hotel's closed circuit TV. Meanwhile, Diana and Dodi rode the service lift to the ground floor and a staff entrance at the rear of the building. There they waited for about seven minutes for the car to arrive. And in that time, the security camera captured the couple's intimacy. Diana and Dodi are seen standing close, sometimes holding hands, sometimes holding each other. At one point, Diana is seen speaking to her driver Henri Paul. And she appears to salute him.
ROBERT JOBSON, ROYAL AUTHOR: The fact that she saluted Henri Paul almost mocking him really, it seems to me, the security arrangements were a little bit - well, they weren't really well- organized.
BLACK: In the 90 minutes of security video played to the court, Henri Paul is seen often. But at no time does he appear drunk. The jury was shown images of him bending down to retie both shoelaces without any problem. Previous investigations had found Paul's high blood alcohol reading was a likely contributor to the accident that killed himself, Diana, and Dodi.
Other CCTV images showed Paul talking to members of the paparazzi on three occasions. And just before Diana and Dodi left the building, he is seen gesturing in the direction of two waiting photographers.
JOBSON: Henri Paul raised his hand as if to wave at the photographers, almost a signal that they were coming out any second. Now we don't know if that was the case, but the truth is when you see the footage like that, it's quite compelling.
BLACK: The photographers start flashing as Diana and Dodi, their bodyguard, and driver walk out onto the street and get into the car. Shortly after, three of them would be dead.
(on camera): The hearings have adjourned for the week. On Monday, they move to Paris. The jury will see the key locations first-hand. The hotel and the sight of the accident that is still being investigated ten years later.
Phil Black, CNN, London.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HARRIS: And here's an even closer look at what the inquest jury has seen this week, but you probably have not. These pictures taken possibly just moments before the crash that claimed Diana's life, as well as the lives of Dodi al Fayed and driver Henri Paul. Smoke still coming from the wheels in that one photo there. Many people think Paul was employed by the princess or her boyfriend.
In fact, Henri Paul was head of security at the Ritz. French and British police concluded he had double the legal limit of alcohol in his blood at the time of the crash and lost control of the car as it raced ahead of photographers. Three photographers were prosecuted for invasion of privacy after taking pictures of the smashed Mercedes. Well, after a series of appeals, though, each was fined a token $1.42 last year.
And here we go again. The video is dark, but you can certainly hear the commotion. A crowd of paparazzi, all clamoring for a shot of Prince William and his girlfriend, Kate, leaving a London nightclub. What happens next is eerily similar to what happened to his mother and Dodi al Fayed 10 years ago. ITN's Rohid Kashru (ph) picks up the story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ROHID KASHRU (ph), ITN NEWS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): 2:00 this morning, a crowd of photographers assemble outside London's Uji (ph) nightclub. Shortly thereafter, it's the departure of William and Kate, said to be a couple again.
When they emerge, they're surrounded by photographers. They attempt to get into their car. You can just about make them out here. Clarence House says later as they made their way home, they were pursued aggressively by paparazzi on motorcycles and on foot.
A spokesman said the events seemed incomprehensible at this time. He was referring to the ongoing inquest into the death of William's mother when these images were released yesterday. They show the hordes of photographers waiting for Diana outside the Ritz Hotel on the night of her death.
MARK STEPHENS, MEDIA LAWYER: The fact that they were out at a nightclub, the fact that they were rekindling their relationship is all matters of great public interest. Who he's going to be, the future queen of this country, is a matter of enormous public interest.
KASHRU (ph): As girlfriend to the heir to the throne, Kate Middleton has already experienced huge press attention. But royal reaction to this morning's events have been particularly strong.
Rohid Kashru (ph), ITV News.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HARRIS: The prince and the paparazzi. Also, how Britain is reacting tonight to new images of a mysterious ending that over the last 10 years has gained a life of its own. What difference, if any, do these images make? We will ask a writer who's made a career out of watching the royal family. That's coming up next in the NEWSROOM.
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HARRIS: New images, old questions, all centering around Princess Diana's final hours. This story has captivated Britain for 10 years. Now with this week's revelations, is the country any closer to getting closure? Deborah Strober has been writing about the royal family her business. She joins us on the phone from New York.
Deborah, good to talk to you.
DEBORAH STROBER, AUTHOR: Good to talk to you, too, Tony.
HARRIS: Well, Deborah, was this British inquest inevitable? I ask because in reading some of the papers across the pond there, many are asking why are we holding an inquest on a couple that was killed in France?
STROBER: Well, first of all, Diana was a British subject. And she was the mother of the heir to the British throne. And by law, there would have to have been an inquest. And it was delayed for quite some time, but now it's finally getting underway.
HARRIS: In the treatment of the story now, I'm just curious, is this story being driven by public fascination, press fascination? As you would expect, it's all over the papers.
STROBER: It's a combination of both. You know, I think it's generational for the public. Young people adore Diana. She was a breath of fresh air, a glamorous person of movie star import. And the press, she's of endless fascination because we live in a celebrity culture.
HARRIS: Yes. Deborah, 10 years ago, I have to say that, 10 years ago. And I understand that this inquest could last as long as six months. Why?
STROBER: There's a lot of evidence to sift through. And if you recall, Mohammed al Fayed has charged a conspiracy that there was a plot to murder Diana because she maintains she was pregnant. Now we know this is not the case at all. I believe it came out the other day that she was certainly not carrying a child.
HARRIS: So Deborah, if after six months of investigating this, you come out with the conclusion that the French ended up with in their 1999 inquiry that this is a case of Henri Paul being drunk and having an accident, losing control of this vehicle, will that satisfy the conspiracy theorists all over the world, I suppose?
STROBER: No, that's -- you know, we're looking at the -- and I liken it to JFK. There is still conspiracy theorists out there. There have been endless books, case closed and other books, but they're still out there. People love a conspiracy.
HARRIS: So it won't end?
STROBER: I don't think so. And, you know, Mohammed al Fayed, who's a tragic figure, he lost his son, he's not going to let this thing go.
HARRIS: Deborah Strober, thanks if your time tonight. We appreciate it.
STROBER: Oh, thank you.
HARRIS: We are getting pictures into the NEWSROOM right now of a typhoon that hit Taiwan today. I-report's coming your way, next in the NEWSROOM.
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HARRIS: The last-minute weddings were her specialty. Apparently, she had another expertise. And the whole thing will make you say, you've got to be kidding.
Portland, Oregon. Let's go. A young couple looks to Craigslist to find someone to officiate their nuptials. Jackpot. They found just the person they wanted, or so they thought.
Police say this sinister minister helped them say, I do, then supposedly split with the couple's wedding gifts. They say she seemed a little obvious when she was so anxious to leave.
Red hot sex. Not your typical language for a church flier, but here are the two words that followed. I'm sorry. A Tennessee minister is saying tonight after he sent this flyer to about 50,000 church members advertising a marriage seminar. He says if he had used a more tame approach, no one would have shown up. Well, he definitely got their attention.
When we come back, a winter storm in the west. Jacqui Jeras is following that and a typhoon in Taiwan, coming up right after the break. You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Unreal. You know, it's never done this, as I remember.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You've been up here how long?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 26 years.
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HARRIS: Sorry. Talk about going out on a limb. Coming up, a comedy battle over a severed leg. Boy, you can't make it up. The full story in just a minute.
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HARRIS: You know what this next story's so off the wall, you might think that we made it up. But we wouldn't pull your leg on this one. Ha! It involves a legless man, a man who found the leg, and a lawsuit in the making. Jeanne Moos sorts it out for us.
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JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Forget the Britney Spears custody battle. In North Carolina, a one-legged guy is fighting for custody of his own severed leg, the one in this bag.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This thing has become a freak show.
MOOS: His rival for the leg found it in a meat smoker.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But this is off the wall, man. You know? I mean, a real foot with five toes.
MOOS: And when you find something like that in a smoker, you just bought at auction, you call 911.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What's the problem there?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I've got a human foot.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You have a what?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I've got a human left foot.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What's your name?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My name is Shannon Whisnant and it's plum nasty, got me grossed out.
MOOS: Don't say that to the original owner.
JOHN WOOD: It actually looks pretty good. I had a real nice pedicure before it was done.
MOOS: John Wood lost his leg in a plane crash a few years back and had it embalmed. He wanted to keep it so he could someday be cremated as a whole man.
He kept the leg at this mini storage in the meat smoker. But when he got behind in his storage rent, his belongings were sold and Whisnant bought the smoker with a surprise inside.
WHISNANT: It still got meat and bone and skin on it. Toenails.
MOOS: Whisnant turned it over to police. But soon after decided he wanted to display the leg as a tourist attraction, charging adults 3 bucks a peep. As for the original owner -- it's his leg. It's his very own flesh and blood leg.
WOOD: Well, honey, if he wanted it, he should have packed it up, put it in a duffle bag, and took it with him, because it sure don't take up much room.
MOOS: Hmm, police took it to a funeral home. John Wood's sister came and got it.
WOOD: I have it. I have possession of the leg. I have a leg up on this situation.
MOOS: And I see you have a sense of humor about it, too.
WOOD: And he doesn't have a leg to stand on.
MOOS: Or does he?
RAOUL FELDER, ATTORNEY: My client paid good money at an auction for it. It's his property.
MOOS: But he bought the cooker. He didn't buy the leg.
FELDER: Well, what about when you get a chest of drawers or something, and you find something in it? You own it.
MOOS: Do you know how much you paid for the smoker?
WHISNANT : Yes, ma'am.
MOOS: Well, how much did you pay for the smoker?
WHISNANT: Oh, let's just say I got a good deal.
MOOS: OK.
WHISNANT: I didn't give no arm and a leg for it.
MOOS: Now Whisnant's getting a lawyer. What we really need is an injunction against any more leg puns.
WHISNANT: I'll keep it close at hand. I'll guarantee you that.
MOOS: At hand.
WHISNANT: Yes.
MOOS: Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.
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HARRIS: Billy Bob Thornton in "Slingblade." That's what he sounds like. Anyone else? You would agree? Is that it? OK, all right. Got to go. Out of time. I'm Tony Harris. Thanks for joining us in the CNN NEWSROOM. Hope to see you back here tomorrow night.
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