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New Day

Injured Climber Speaks Out; O.J. Simpson's Wild Ride 20 Years Later; The Money is the Message

Aired June 10, 2014 - 08:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: Quite a story to tell you here on NEW DAY. It was a near fatal plunge and an incredible fight for survival all caught on tape. A Kentucky college professor on a research trip, out for a walk, took a terrible fall in the worst possible place to take a fall. He was down, but certainly not out. We're going to hear from him in just a moment.

But first, let's take a look at his incredible story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHN ALL: I fell through that hole. Thankfully I didn't keep falling that way.

PEREIRA (voice-over): Professor John All was climbing alone on a Himalayan mountain when the worst case scenario happened.

ALL: Ah.

PEREIRA: He plunged 70 feet below the ice, trapped and alone, breaking several ribs and fracturing his arm in the fall.

ALL: My right arm is seizing up. I can't use it anymore.

PEREIRA: All was conducting climate research in the mountains of Nepal when he suddenly fell into a hidden icy crevasse, landing on a three- foot wide ledge that likely saved him.

ALL: Ah! Ah!

PEREIRA: Like in the film "127 Hours," the professor had a small camera with him. He says filming his ordeal helped give him the will to survive.

ALL: If I can somehow climb out that way.

PEREIRA: For more than five agonizing hours, Professor All made his way slowly to the surface using an ice ax.

ALL: That hurt bad, but I got to get out.

PEREIRA: It was the fight of his life. But All eventually reached his camp, and was brought to safety.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PEREIRA: Dr. John All joins us now from Kentucky. His very first national TV interview.

And, my friend, you sure are a sight for sore eyes. You're looking good.

JOHN ALL, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR, WESTERN KENTUCKY UNIVERSITY: Thanks. Trying to heal as fast as I can.

PEREIRA: Well, I would say that you - you are a healer because the last time we saw you, all of us remarked on what a terrible piece of video seeing you so badly bruised and broken. You look like you have been recovering. How are you feeling?

ALL: Better. Better. I go in for surgery tomorrow and -- to repair my shoulder. And I -- but every day is a little bit better and that's all you can ask for.

PEREIRA: That is all you can ask for considering how bad it could have been. We both know that you - you escaped death on a number of levels here and we'll talk about that in a second. It's really interesting to me that you had the presence of mind, Dr. All, to pull out that camera and film it. What was your purpose in doing that? Why did you want to record that?

ALL: Well, I'm a scientist, and so we record everything we do. I take -- the reason I had that camera so readily available is, every time I take an ice sample or a snow sample, I take pictures of everything I'm doing with my GPS and everything else. And so that's sort of second nature.

And then when I was thinking about how I was going to explain what happened to my family and friends and everyone else, I realized that showing them a video would explain it a lot better, because me talking about falling into a crevasse is one thing, but they've never been in a crevasse. They've never seen a crevasse. So taking that video was sort of an affirmation that I was going to be getting back out and I could show them the video and explain to them what happened.

PEREIRA: Wow. Powerful statement. So, at any point were you feeling like this might be it for you? Were you feeling afraid for your life?

ALL: Oh, I knew from the beginning, the second I felt that vertigo of falling, I knew I was dead. I mean you just don't start falling down a crevasse and live. And somehow I stopped. And then once I got up and saw how difficult it was going to be to get out, same thing, I knew I was dead. But it was one of those things that, as long as there was a chance, I was going to keep moving forward. And if everything worked out right, I knew I could potentially get out. And so it's one of those things where you know you're dead, but at the same time you just don't stop. You keep going.

PEREIRA: What an interesting dichotomy. You know you're dead, but you just keep going.

This is what I also have to marvel at. OK, so you've got one - you've got one arm that's not functioning. You've got several broken ribs. Your face is smashed up. But you do have this ice pick and you decide to just give it a shot and try and get yourself out of there. It took you five hours to get out of that crevasse?

ALL: Yes. And, to be honest, I was super lucky because I went in so early. I fell in the crevasse at probably 9:30.

PEREIRA: OK.

ALL: And so the entire time I had daylight. And so it was one of those things where there's no reason to stop. You know, it's a bright day. It's, you know, why would you stop when the sunlight is so close? If it had been dark and the temperature had plunged, it would have been a totally different matter. But, yes, it's -- I had the time, so why not keep going forward.

PEREIRA: What else were you doing?

ALL: Exactly.

PEREIRA: But, wait, folks, it gets worse. So five hours to get out of the crevasse and then it took you another three hours to reach your tent where you were able to send communication that you needed help. Once that message was received by your research team, the helicopter didn't get to you for another 24 hours?

ALL: Eighteen hours, but, yes. I had to wait overnight. The weather in Nepal, as the monsoon approaches, is just horrible. I mean there's clouds. And, obviously, if you're flying a helicopter through the Himalayas, you don't want to smack into a mountain.

PEREIRA: No.

ALL: And so if there's cloud cover, then you just can't fly. So they had to wait until early in the morning when the sun is -- before the sun is sort of creating a lot of the cloud cover that's going to block everything. So, yes, it was a long, difficult wait.

PEREIRA: Well, you, my friend, get the badge -- you are a warrior as far as I'm concerned. By the way, he's 6'5" and over 200 pounds. So that was not an easy haul up the side of that crevasse. He's headed out on another research trip to Peru. We hope that your shoulder heals and the rest of your injuries heal so that you have -- you're fully capable to make that trip I believe it's next month, is it not?

ALL: Yes. It's about three weeks from now, yes. So, thank you. Appreciate it.

PEREIRA: You better heal. You better heal, Dr. All.

ALL: I'll try.

PEREIRA: All right. Thanks so much for sharing your story with us. I've got to tell you guy, I am just so moved by this. This guy had a

desire to live. He said, I thought I was going to die, but I might as well just keep fighting. That, right there, incredible.

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: That's what kicks in. I mean I wouldn't know, and I hope not to, but when you're in a situation like that, something just, you know, gets going and you are just -- got to get outta here.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Rare to see that many stages of challenge, though.

PEREIRA: Right.

CUOMO: You know, falls down the crevasse.

BALDWIN: Why me?

CUOMO: That would have been enough.

BALDWIN: Helicopter.

CUOMO: Out (ph) into the tent. The waiting. Amazing.

BALDWIN: Amazing.

Coming up next here on NEW DAY, it was 20 years ago this week O.J. Simpson's fame grew exponentially for possibly the worst reason imaginable. We will take a look back at his wild ride. Do you remember where you were when you were watching this as he was accused of murder.

CUOMO: Immortalized Bronco forever.

And the hidden cash philanthropist, not so hidden any more. He's here on NEW DAY.

BALDWIN: Revealed.

CUOMO: Where did the idea come from? And wait until you hear the plans going forward.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Welcome back to NEW DAY.

Do you believe it was 20 years ago this week that O.J. Simpson went from actor and celebrity to murder suspect. After the slayings of his ex-wife are and her friend, the strange turn of events capped days later. We all watched, right? It's estimated 95 million TV viewers watching this scene play out. The long ride in a white Bronco holding a gun to his head. It is possibly the most famous car chase ever filmed and the subject of a new CNN special. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: At this point we can only pray that they'll be able to pull this off in a safe measure.

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Distraught, with a gun to his head, O.J. Simpson is on the run and threatening to end his emotional pain with a bullet.

TOM LANGE, FORMER LOS ANGELES POLICE DEPT. DETECTIVE (voice-over): Just throw it out the window.

O.J. SIMPSON (voice-over): Ah --

LANGE: And nobody's going to get hurt.

SIMPSON: I'm the only one that deserves it.

LANGE: No, you don't deserve that.

SIMPSON: I'm going to get hurt.

LANGE: You do not deserve to get hurt.

PHILLIPS: Detective Tom Lange is on the phone hoping to prevent O.J. from committing suicide.

PHILLIPS (on camera): Was that gun loaded?

LANGE (on camera): Oh, yes. It was a real gun. Real bullets.

This is now a public safety issue.

SIMPSON: I love everybody. I'm trying to show everybody my whole life that I love everybody.

LANGE (voice-over): We know that. And everybody loves you.

SIMPSON: Ah.

LANGE: Especially your family. Your mother, your kids, all of your friends, A.C.

SIMPSON: Oh.

LANGE: Everybody does. Don't do this.

PHILLIPS: Lange is doing all that he can to try and keep things from escalating.

LANGE (on camera): What if he shoots himself? Cowlings? How about one of these dummies running up to the car? What he says really doesn't matter. What I say doesn't matter, as long as he doesn't shoot somebody.

PHILLIPS: (on camera): How did you know what to say?

LANGE: I didn't.

PHILLIPS: It was just you and your gut? LANGE: Yes, basically. Some people kept putting little notes in front

of me, but I didn't have time to read all that crap. So it was just whatever kind of came up and I figured, family. You can be the biggest sociopath in the world, it doesn't mean he hates his family.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: You saw her just there in that interview. She joins us now.

PHILLIPS: He never holds back.

BALDWIN: Never --

PHILLIPS: Twenty years ago Tom Lange didn't hold back. He tells me things now I thought he would never tell me. Doesn't hold back with regard to the hatred for O.J. for sure.

BALDWIN: Yes.

PHILLIPS: But, you know, Pete (ph) here on the floor was asking, A.C. Cowlings, right, what happened to him?

BALDWIN: Yes.

PHILLIPS: Why did he never talk? I went back to my sources. I said, hey, by chance, do you still have a number for him? Hold on a second. I get a text message. I call up his cell phone. He answers the phone. A.C., Kyra Phillips. What do you want? I didn't talk to you 20 years ago. I don't want to talk to you now. Just gave it to me.

BALDWIN: He remembers.

PHILLIPS: But he wanted to make it clear, he's not going to talk. That he's an old man. He wants people to leave him alone. But he's that -- he holds so much. He was the one in that car, driving the car.

BALDWIN: For the whole time.

PHILLIPS: $9,000 in his pocket. There was a bag with a loaded gun. A mustache. A disguise. O.J.'s passport. I mean that man holds so many secrets. I tried to crack that nut, but I just couldn't.

BALDWIN: Kyra Phillips, she talked how these people covered the story 20 years ago and now it's like -

PHILLIPS: Do you guys remember where you were?

BALDWIN: When - I absolutely remember sitting with my family in my basement of my house. We were all just absolutely glued. I'll never forget it. You were just starting out in TV?

PEREIRA: I was just saying the insight (ph) was really - I just starting out my career in television in Canada and I was in the newsroom and we were about to go out on some shoots that were scheduled for the day but we kept coming back to the newsroom to watch - because, as you said, it went on and on and on. PHILLIPS: It went on for hours.

PEREIRA: But then the interesting thing, ten years later almost to the month I moved to L.A. and to see it -- the story from inside ten years later -- so fascinating.

PHILLIPS: You know what could have changed history? It's called the trial of the century -- right? That SWAT team was in place. If he would have wielded that gun out that window, they were ready to take him out.

BALDWIN: We will watch tonight, 9:00 here on CNN. 9:00 Eastern, for Kyra's CNN special report, "O.J.'S WILD RIDE: 20 YEARS AFTER THE CHASE". Again 9:00 Eastern here on CNN. Kyra Phillips.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN HOST: Such a big culture moment -- even the Bronco was immortalized forever. Like the entire line of that vehicle.

PHILLIPS: Do you know you can still rent that car?

CUOMO: The actual one.

BALDWIN: That actual car?

PHILLIPS: That is a whole other story in itself -- yes.

CUOMO: Tell me that one in the break.

PHILLIPS: Yes.

CUOMO: Coming up here on NEW DAY, we have the man behind a very different California story -- the Hidden Cash craze. Well, it's not a secret anymore. You're going to meet him right here on New Day. He's going to talk about why he started leaving clues for cash across the state and where he's giving next. It's "The Good Stuff" coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CUOMO: Well, a lot of people do need the money and it kind of is about the money but we like the song. This is just "The Good Stuff" as you saw -- it's the better stuff. A little while ago we told you about someone who's hiding cash --

PEREIRA: Yes, great story.

CUOMO: -- in the San Francisco Bay Area and giving clues where to find it on Twitter. The handle was, "Hidden Cash". The amounts just kept rising -- $15,000 given away over two weeks. The person behind the donations, anonymous until recently. Hidden cash, better known as real estate developer Mr. Jason Buzi joining us now.

PEREIRA: Look at him.

BALDWIN: Revealed.

CUOMO: Mr. Buzi -- it's great to meet you. So tell us in a bundle of questions, why did you do it? Why did you decide to come forward, and what are you going to do next?

MR. JASON BUZI, HIDDEN CASH: Well, you know, a couple weeks ago I got together with some friends and we were talking about our desire to give back and do it in a fun way. And we looked at a bunch of different ideas of how to do that, and most of them we'd dismiss as just being too complex. And then, you know, I said, well, what if we just leave cash around, and do a Web site and kind of tell people, give them clues where it is?

My friend said, well, you know, that could work, but let's do Twitter instead of a Web site. I had never used Twitter. Now I have half a million followers and I never even used Twitter a couple weeks ago.

BALDWIN: That's a (inaudible) -- give away money.

PEREIRA: It kind of taps into our -- I think it taps into our desire, you know, as a kid, you'd always so excited if you found a nickel or secret treasure. Do you think maybe that it grew out of something like that that you had as a child?

BUZI: Definitely, that's I think part of it, and I think the other part is people are just saying they're enjoying getting out and, of course, it works for us that the weather's been so nice in most of the country and especially here in California.

CUOMO: Well, seeing how you did it --

BUZI: And people going out to the beach, the park and finding money.

CUOMO: You did it on Twitter. That raises an obvious question. Who doesn't like it? Are you getting any haters on there? It's hard to hate on free money, but it is Twitter. So let's just take a stab. You've gotten any negative reaction that you're a bad guy somehow for doing this?

BUZI: It's not so much negative reaction for doing this, although there's a little bit of that with people saying, well, why are you doing this instead of giving to charities? We've said from the beginning, we're not doing this in stead of charity. This is in addition to charity.

But I think there's also a lot of people that don't trust the motive. They think that this is some kind of business scheme or, you know, there's something that we're trying to get out of it and we're really not. We're really doing it to give back in a fun way. Some people just can't believe that --

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: There's a cynic inside each and every one of us. And I'll say guilty, you know, it's sort of curious as well. But not only -- now that you are revealed, you are still going to give away money. You are still going to do this in multiple other cities. Tell us where?

BUZI: Well, so far we've only been in California. We've been in San Francisco, Bay Area, and Los Angeles. But the interesting thing that's happened in the last couple weeks, since we started, is now we have several hundred copycats in different states and cities around the country.

PEREIRA: That's a great copycat.

BUZI: Yes. But we are, ourselves, going this weekend to be in New York City.

CUOMO: Oh.

PEREIRA: Hello.

BUZI: I do two locations -- yes. Manhattan and Brooklyn, Chicago, Houston, Las Vegas and actually Mexico City, through a friend of ours.

PEREIRA: Very cool. I love this. This is a good way to pay it forward. I like it. I like it.

BALDWIN: It is. I love it. I love it.

BUZI: There'll be some silver dollars coming. Some silver dollars in New York City.

CUOMO: I like it. Look forward to the clues, Mr. Buzi. It's always nice to find someone who's thinking about how to be nice. So thank you for doing it.

BUZI: Thank you.

CUOMO: We look forward to seeing where the trail leads.

BALDWIN: Yes @hiddencash.

PEREIRA: Exactly. Makes it easy to follow it on Twitter.

BALDWIN: We'll be watching.

CUOMO: Bye, Mr. Buzi. Anonymous no more.

PEREIRA: I know.

BALDWIN: Coming up, Mike Rowe of "Dirty Jobs" fame has a new mission. That story is next.

CUOMO: He's a good guy, too. He doesn't leave you cash but --

PEREIRA: No.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CUOMO: All right. Now time for this week's "Impact Your World". One of our newest colleagues a man known as Mike Rowe made a name for himself by getting dirty. But off camera Rowe is on an entirely differ and decidedly clean mission. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: During his eight seasons as host of Discovery Channel's "Dirty Jobs" Mike Rowe learned all about the hard working men and women who are keeping America running. But he found there was a disconnect between unemployment and available jobs.

MIKE ROWE, HOST, "DIRTY JOBS": Everywhere I was going I saw "Help Wanted" signs and everybody I talked to said how hard it was to find people who were willing to retool, retrain, learn a truly useful skill and apply it.

Micro Works evolved to shine a light on a lot of jobs that for whatever reason were going unloved, and then we set up a foundation and began to award work ethic scholarships.

It's really, really great to be here.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Rowe travels the country to get his message out.

ROWE: This is the biggest STEM event in the country. People love acronyms and Science, Technology, Engineering and Math are, in fact, the careers that are going to keep the country competitive. It ought to be STEMS, right? Add another S at the end of it because if you take the skill out of any of those disciplines, then what do you have? You can't promote careers in STEM at the expense of skill and you shouldn't promote higher education at the expense of trade schools.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PEREIRA: Impactful. You got that.

CUOMO: He is a good man and he raises a good issue there.

BALDWIN: Science is the new skills. Anyone heard that?

PEREIRA: Part of the family now.

CUOMO: Also the nickname of our meteorologist.

BALDWIN: Cuomo's nickname for Indra.

(CROSSTALK)

CUOMO: A lot of news this morning. Let's get you to someone who is a scientist of news. Carol Costello.

BALDWIN: That was an awful segue, by the way.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: How did you know I was known as a scientist of news? You know, everything Chris Cuomo.