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Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees
Bomber Eric Rudolph Pleads Guilty; Stray Cats a Nuisance in Wisconsin
Aired April 13, 2005 - 19:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Good evening everyone. A murderous bomber pleads guilty, but some victims say that is not enough. 360 starts now.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER (voice-over): Abortion clinic bomber Eric Rudolph pleads guilty.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Today Eric Rudolph's reign of terror ended.
COOPER: Tonight, a woman still pulling pieces of his bomb out of her body speaks out about Rudolph. Her pain and the plea deal that spared the bomber his life.
A 13-year-old girl missing since Sunday. Could she have fallen victim to a convicted sex offender living in her neighborhood? Tonight, the latest on the search for little Sarah.
NYPD Blue: a videotape puts New York cops in the hot seat. Phony reports, bold-faced lies told by police; tonight, how lying cope got caught on tap.
Cats in the cross hairs: A new plan allows hunters to kill cats without collars. Tonight, should it be open season on hunting kitties?
And what your bedroom says about you from your walls to the mysterious mess under your bed. Tonight, how your rooms reveal hidden truths about you.
ANNOUNCER: Live from the CNN broadcast center in New York, this is ANDERSON COOPER 360.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: And good evening again. Thanks for joining us.
For a half dozen years now, Eric Rudolph was one of the most wanted men in America. An anti-government fanatic who used home made bombs packed with nails to make his point.
His first attack, the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta. More than a hundred people wounded in that blast. 44-year-old Alice Hawthorne, a businesswoman from Albany, Georgia, died that night. Her 14-year-old daughter also among the injured. In early 1997, he set off bombs at an Atlanta abortion clinic and a Lesbian nightclub. A dozen more people were hurt.
And in early 1998, he hit another abortion clinic, this one Birmingham, Alabama. That's where security guard Robert Sanderson died. He left behind a wife and two children.
Today, Eric Rudolph pleaded guilty to those bombings in several court appearances. His pleas will spare him the death penalty which some of his victims believe is a worse deal than they got from him.
Beyond the headlines now with one of those victims. CNN's David Mattingly with the story of Emily Lyons.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
EMILY LYONS, BOMBING VICTIM: He tried to kill me. So in essence he wanted to be my judge, jury and executioner that day. Judging me for where I worked, trying to pass a sentence and then trying to carry it out himself. It failed.
DAVID MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): When Emily Lyons talks about Eric Robert Rudolph. It's not the words of anger, it's the pieces of shrapnel rubbing against her trachea. Just a few feet away when Rudolph detonated a bomb on the steps of a Birmingham women's clinic where she worked in 1998, Lyons life as she knew it was ripped away along with her left eye and so much skin and muscle tissue that skin grafts now cover much of her legs.
LYONS: My knees had so much nails into it that they had to cut it open to remove what they could. So, I have got arthritis in my knees from the damage.
MATTINGLY: She was so badly disfigured that at first her husband Jeffrey couldn't recognize her. It was almost a year later before she regained sight in her remaining eye and could see the frightening pictures herself.
LYONS: I've got this patch over my eye, my face is all back black and has all the holes everywhere. And my hair is just burnt to a crisp. And it's just sticking out everywhere.
I was like, what is that? Oh, my God. I am never going to be the same.
MATTINGLY: Seven years and 19 surgeries later, there are many scars. And enough pieces of shrapnel remain that a magnet will stick to parts of her body. Lyons describes daily discomfort and frequent battles with depression.
She has no memory of the blast that almost took her life and killed off-duty police officer Robert Sanderson, but she's never missed a day in court. Every day Rudolph has been before the judge, Lyons has been in the courtroom watching, hoping for the death penalty and waiting for satisfaction.
(on camera): Do you think he knows who you are?
LYONS: I guess he might.
MATTINGLY: Do you want him to know who you are?
LYONS: Yes, I do.
I saw him the other week in Huntsville. We had to stay out in the hallway when they brought him in. And the doors had these round glass. And I'm standing at the window and he walks by at that time. And probably this far away from the door and I'm there, too, and he turns. So I know he saw me. He couldn't have -- he couldn't have missed me that day.
MATTINGLY: You were almost face to face with him.
LYONS: I was face to face to him separated by a piece of glass. And I want the glass to be gone. I want to be close enough.
MATTINGLY: To do what?
LYONS: To talk to him, to show him, to make sure he knows he failed miserably.
MATTINGLY (voice-over): But when Eric Robert Rudolph pleaded guilty to four bombings in federal court, and gave up the location of hidden explosives in North Carolina, prosecutors agreed not to seek the death penalty.
(on camera): Lyons said that she believed in some way the justice system has now failed as well. And that she finds little comfort in knowing that Robert Rudolph will spend the rest of his life behind bars.
LYONS: He took himself out of society when he pushed the button that day. And in '96 with the bomb in Atlanta and '97 in Atlanta. He took himself away from society and put himself in isolation then. So taking him now and putting him in prison in isolation, there is no difference except he's going to be more comfortable.
MATTINGLY: The latest affront came from Rudolph himself. When asked by a federal judge if he detonated the Birmingham bomb, Rudolph clearly replied in court I certainly did. The words uttered less than ten feet from where Lyons was sitting.
LYONS: Angers me more so. He is proud of killing people. How is that? That is not what society is. That's not a norm in society.
MATTINGLY: But with Rudolph's fate sealed, Lyons attention will soon turn to surgery number 20: to remove the shrapnel in her throat. She knows it will only be a matter of time, though, before another piece causes pain somewhere else requiring more surgery. It's an endless cycle she is resigned to repeat the rest of her days.
LYONS: They will never be any closure as everybody says, because Rudolph is on my body, in this house every day. And will be until I die.
Knowing that he won't be able to hurt anybody else is about the only thing I can think of that is good about all of this.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MATTINGLY: After his courtroom confession, Rudolph released an 11-page statement attributing all of his crimes to a fight against a government that sanctions abortions. In one small section we have for you he wrote, "abortion is murder. And when the regime in Washington legalized, sanctioned and legitimized this practice, they forfeited their legitimacy and moral authority to govern."
He specifically mentioned at point Lyons and officer Sanderson saying they were targeted for what they do not as individuals. And when she was leaving the courtroom today, Emily Lyons said that she believes that Rudolph is laughing at all of us -- Anderson.
COOPER: You know, David. When she is able to run a magnet and a magnet sticks to her leg. I mean, that's extraordinary that she has that much shrapnel in her body. Is she going to get the chance to confront him at all, to speak to him without that glass between them?
MATTINGLY: That will happen in July. His victims in Birmingham will have the opportunity to say their piece, to say -- speak directly to him, say what they think about him, what they think about his crime. This will happen at the formal sentencing in July.
COOPER: All right. David Mattingly. Thanks for that.
360 next, do you trust the police to tell you the truth? Well, most of us do. But a new tape raises some troubling questions.
In a moment, you're going to see this tape right here. And see how it contradicts what New York police said really happened outside the Republican convention.
Also ahead tonight, hunting cats. That's right, hunting cats. A Wisconsin proposal is sparking outrage around the nation. Any cat without a collar could get killed. Is there possibly a good reason to make it legal? Tonight we are covering all the angles.
Plus, overflowing drawers, stuff hidden in your closets. Find out what your bedroom says about you. I even let them in my house. Hear what researchers had to say about me based on my apartment.
First, let's take a look at your picks. The most popular stories on CNN.com right now.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: Did police edit out the truth to bust protesters of the Republican National Convention? We'll show you the video, judge for yourself. 360 next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) COOPER: Well, you may remember some of those scenes from last summer's Republican National Convention in New York. Well, this scene seems to have gone into rerun. Videotapes have surfaced and a lot of them showing that a number who were arrested back then as protesters, well it turns out they did nothing wrong at all.
CNN's Jason Carroll have the Story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This police tape shows what happened last August in New York City as hundreds of bicyclist demonstrated against the Republican National Convention.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I came over here and the street was buzzing with people.
CARROLL: Alexander Dunlop (ph) says he got caught of it all when he headed out for sushi. I found a police officer, I said how do I get out of here. He said you exit over here, and he pointed right up here. I found him again, and I said, where do I exit? He said, well, I just told you to come up here so I could arrest you.
CARROLL: They arrested him for resisting arrest and disorderly conduct. Police presented their videotape which they claimed was unedited. It only showed Dunlop after his arrest, seated and handcuffed. All along I kept thinking at any moment they're going to realize their mistake. At any moment they'll figure out they made an error and that's it. It'll just go away. But it never went away.
CARROLL: That is until a week before his trial when Eileen Clancy looked at another version of the tape.
EILEEN CLANCY, I-WITNESS VIDEO: There he is walking his bicycle right there.
CARROLL: Clancy is a member of I-Witness Video, a group that reviews videotapes of protest. What Clancy discovered astonished her.
CLANCY: Here he is right here.
CARROLL (on camera): So, that's Alexander.
CLANCY: That's him being placed into custody. See the police officer is holding on to him.
CARROLL (voice-over): Dunlop was on an unedited police tape, look again. That's him, calmly standing before his arrest. Not appearing to be resisting anyone.
CLANCY: It's quite troubling what happened, and it's not clear how or why this could have happened.
CARROLL: The district attorney's office says it was a mistake, one of their technicians actually cut the portion of showing Dunlop.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's terrifying to me. It's terrifying to think that this could happen. It could happen to anyone.
CARROLL: Dennis Kyne said it happened to him.
DENNIS KYNE, ARRESTED DURING RNC: I'm just totally disheartened and saddened. I can't harbor a lot of anger, because that would be totally futile to me.
CARROLL: Police charged Kyne with inciting a riot and resisting arrest during his participation in a separate convention protest. The officer who said he arrested him told the court we picked him up and we carried him while he squirmed and screamed. I had one of his legs. I believe because he was kicking, and refusing to walk on his own.
But a documentary filmmakers videotape shows otherwise. That's Kyne not being carried. In fact, the officer who accused him of resisting didn't take part in his arrest.
KYNE: I think it's a very appropriate for me to say that the man perjured himself on the stand for two and half hours.
CARROLL: We contacted police, they have not admitted any wrongdoing. It's unclear whether they'll discipline anyone in light of these tapes. The department says so many arrests occur during the convention there could have been unintentional mistakes.
RAY KELLY, NYPD POLICE COMMISSIONER: Officers who make multiple arrests sometimes may be confused about the specifics of a particular arrest.
CARROLL: Small consolation for these men who nearly went to jail if not for the tapes that showed the truth.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CARROLL: Right after the tapes surfaced the charges against Kyne and Dunlop were dropped. Both are filing lawsuits against the city for false arrested, and both say someone should be held accountable for what happened to them. And Anderson, they believe what happened to them could have happened to others who unfortunately don't have tapes to exonerate them.
COOPER: And the city is basicly saying it's an honest mistake.
CARROLL: Honest mistake.
COOPER: All right, we'll see. Thanks very much, Jason, appreciate it.
One brand of silicone breast implants clears a hurdle for possible FDA approval.
Erica Hill joins us now with the stories making headlines across the country. Hey, Erica.
ERICA HILL, CNN HEADLINE NEWS: Hey, Anderson. That's right, an FDA advisory panel has voted to recommend lifting the ban on some silicone breast implants. The panel says the Mentor Corporation provided convincing research, that if the implants are more durable and will last longer than previous version. The FDA pulled silicone implants off the market 13 years ago over concerns it could leak or burst. The FDA is not bound by the advisory panel recommendation, but generally does follow it.
The House today voted to permanently eliminate federal estate taxes in five years. Now, those taxes are levied on inherited estates. Currently they only affect estates worth more than one and half million dollars. The estate tax is scheduled to make a one year disappearance in 2010. But this new measure would make that permanent. Similar efforts have failed repeatedly in the Senate.
Cigarette lighters will probably be piling up at airport security check points tomorrow, that's when a new rule goes into effect banning the devices from all flights. The government is urging travelers to their Zippos, Bics and all other lighters at home. If one is seized, by the way, it will not be returned.
People in southern New Jersey are getting a rare opportunity to see a whale. And there you get to see it, too. A young beluga got a little of course and wound up in the Delaware River near Trenton. That's about 80 miles from the open sea. State officials say the 12- foot whale is now headed, though, in the right direction and working its way toward the open water. Go little guy, go -- Anderson.
COOPER: Free Willie.
HILL: There you go.
COOPER: All right, Erica, thanks very much. See you again in about 30 minutes.
Coming up next on 360, a teenager disappears from the Florida trailer. A sex offender was staying in her home and dozens more lived nearby. Tonight police are on a desperate search to find her. We'll have the latest.
Also ahead, hunting cats -- Wisconsin is considering making it legal. The e-mails of out rage are pouring in. But could there actually be a good reason for killing cats without collars. We're covering all the angles on that story tonight.
Also a little later, we're room raiding. Are you neat freak, a slob or somewhere in between like Jason Carroll. Find out what your bedroom says about you. Part of your special series, "Blink." We are covering all the angles.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KELLY MAY, SARAH LUNDE'S MOTHER: All we all want to do is bring Sarah home safely. And that's everybody's goal. (END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Well, those words today from the mother of Sara Lunde, a 13-year-old Florida girl who has gone missing. There is a search underway. She disappeared this past weekend. Her brother says he saw her before going out Saturday night; when he came home, he says she was gone. Lunde has run away from home before, but she's never been gone this long.
County officials are combing Lunde's hometown of Ruskin (ph), looking for any sign of her. 24 registered sex offenders live in the region, including one who was a friend of the girl's mother. Authorities are continuing to question him, though police say they have not named any suspects in this case.
Joining me from Ruskin is a woman who saw Lunde Saturday night at a church function. Sherry Cook is the wife of Lunde's pastor.
Sherry, thanks for being with us. She has run away before. In fact, she stayed in your home before. Do you think she has run away this time?
SHERRY COOK, LUNDE'S PASTOR'S WIFE: I don't believe she has, no.
COOPER: Why?
COOK: It was a year ago when she did run away. And I think she passed all of that. She had a wonderful weekend with the youth group and she was dropped off on Saturday night. She was just in great spirits, had a very good time and no one indicated anything in her attitude that would have caused her to run away from home.
COOPER: What is she like? What is her personality like?
COOK: Sarah is a very sweet-natured girl. She's very outgoing. She has a lot of friends. And she loves her church here and we're just hoping that she will be home.
COOPER: I know the police have been questioning a registered sex offender, a man by the name of David Onstaad (ph), who had a relationship, I guess, with her mother. Did she ever say anything to you about him?
COOK: No. I never knew anything. I had never heard the name before all of these things came up, unfortunately. We didn't know that.
COOPER: I understand your son went to pick Sarah up at her house on Sunday for Sunday school, and he was told she had already left for church. Who told him that?
COOK: Her brother. I don't know if he wasn't aware she wasn't there or what the situation was. But my son thought that she had been picked up and that he would see her here at church, but when he arrived she wasn't here. And no one else had picked her up.
COOPER: Had you been aware that there were so many sex offenders. registered sex offenders, living in your community?
COOK: No, I had no idea.
COOPER: And what is the scene like there now, Sherry? I know the searches are underway -- how many people are out looking?
COOK: Oh, I couldn't say how many there are. But we have been serving dinner and helping take care of everyone who has been so kind to volunteer and help in the search for Sarah. I would say there are probably 100, maybe 150 people, including -- that's including all of the officers and detectives and everyone is trying very hard doing what they can to help.
COOPER: Sherry, I know you are and I want to put Sarah's picture up on the screen one last time for any viewers out there, just take a look. This is a young girl who has been missing since this weekend. There are a lot of people looking for her who care an awful lot about her, and Sherry Cook is one of them. Sherry, we appreciate you joining us to talk about Sarah.
COOK: Thank you, so much.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Cats in the crosshairs: a new plan allows hunters to kill cats without collars. Tonight, should it be open season on hunting kitties?
And, what your bedroom says about you, from your walls to mysterious mess under your bed. Tonight, how your rooms reveal hidden truths about you. 360 continues.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: Well, the big issue in Wisconsin tonight is cats, hunting them. Now, on this program we don't take sides. We like to show stories from all different angles, and there are many sides to this story. Out of concern for the millions of songbirds that are killed every year, a Wisconsin citizen advisory group last night approved a proposal to allow the hunting of wild cats, any cat found without a collar, basically. It's a radical proposal and still has a way to go before it could become law. Some cat lovers are trying to prevent that from ever happening.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sort of crosses the line from wildlife management into people's pets.
COOPER (voice-over): "It" is a problem that plagues cities and towns across the country: how to control stray cats. Most municipalities seem to favor the catch-neuter-and-release method, or at worst, capture and euthanize. But conservation groups and lawmakers in Wisconsin are considering a more extreme method of controlling cats: see a stray cat and shoot it on site. We're not talking about mountain lions here, but feral cats, defined by a proposed state measure Q62, as, quote, "any domestic type cat which is not under the owner's direct control or whose owner has not placed a collar on such cat showing it to be their property."
In other words, you want to start keeping close tabs on your tabby or he is fair game. The controversial cat fight had Wisconsinites out in packs debating then voting on the measure. Claws were out on both sides of the battle.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He's so fluffy that a collar, a collar, can't be seen on him.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We used to have on our property -- we used to have a lot of rabbits. You can go back there now for years and you cannot find a rabbit. I correlate the two.
COOPER: Q-62 was proposed by Mark Smith, a firefighter from La Crosse who says cats are not so much furry, purrying bundles of joy, but beastly bird killers that need to be dealt a deadly blow.
And he cites a study done in 1996 by University of Wisconsin professor Stanley Temple who says the state's strays kill between 7.8 and 219 million songbirds each year.
STANLEY TEMPLE, UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN/MADISON: So 1.4 million cats times 28 kills a year and 20 percent of those kills being birds adds up to at least, and I'll emphasize, at least 7.8 million birds that it killed by free ranging cats a year. That's an alarming number.
COOPER: Thought the measure passed last night's voting 6,830 to 5,201 cat lovers can stay calm for now. There are several more steps to go before the law can be changed and kitties start getting caught in the sights of Wisconsin's small game hunters.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: Well, we try to get all angles on 360. We don't take sides. We wanted to let you hear both sides of this heated debate. We contacted people for and against the cat hunting proposal, however, every person who is for it who were were able to contact refused to speak with us on camera.
Joining me from Madison, Wisconsin is someone who is against wildcat hunting, Ted O'Donnell, founder of Dontshootthecat.com. Ted, thanks for being with us.
This proposal passed in 70 percent of the counties where it was voted on. General public was able to attend these meetings. If the majority wants it, what is wrong with it?
TED O'DONNELL, DONTSHOOTTHECAT.COM: Well, I think there are a lot of things wrong with it. I think, first to say that a majority of Wisconsinites want it might be a little misguided, because less than 0.2 percent of the total population actually showed up to vote. And it was actually a record turnout. More than twice as many participants than we had last year, which really goes to my point is how serious is this body if one guy Mark Smith and 43 of his friends can get together a year ago and put this on the ballot, it gets reviewed and then essentially the entire state has to respond to a taxpayer funded rod and gun club, which is really a hunter dominated group that has a very specific set of interests when it comes to outdoor cats.
COOPER: Ted, because we don't have someone on the other side I'm just going to take the other side and argue -- not argue, but bring up some other points to have you respond to. We just -- you know, in that piece we heard feral cats are responsible for killing millions of songbirds a year? Why shouldn't there be measures in place to protect the birds from these cats?
O'DONNELL: Well, the funny thing is we want to protect the birds, as well. What we say attack the problem and not the cat. In fact, what we find that the largest population impact that wild birds face, according to the Autobahn Society is habitat loss due to humans which really gets into the birth rates impacts that cause population...
COOPER: You are saying cats don't have any impact on songbirds at all?
O'DONNELL: They absolutely have an individual impact. But what they don't have is measured population impacts. And that's what he Stan Temple failed to study. What he had was a simple study that was really funded the American Bird Conservancy that's predisposed against outdoor cats. This is basically...
COOPER: But arguing that it's human encroachment on habitats is what is hurting birds, you are not going to be able to stop human encroachment. I mean, that's a longer-term, larger issue. Why not start with cats?
O'DONNELL: Well, first of all, it's sort of a false leadoff to begin with. We didn't get into it to help the birds, we basically grabbed a bird study that correlated with our desire to legalize the shooting of cats. So again, I'd question who brought this?
We're not talking about elected officials or even state leaders. We're talking about a mob of 44 people or 54 people who got together last year and made the entire state respond to it this year. And anybody inside of Wisconsin knows the Conservation Congress really is a rod and gun club. This is a hunter dominated lobby that the citizens of Wisconsin have never had a voice inside of. I mean, 88 percent of us don't hunt. This lobby is dominated by hunters.
COOPER: I'm not sure the hunting demand is to shoot kitty cats. This proposal really is for feral cats. Why not just put a collar on your cat?
O'DONNELL: Well, you know, I'm all for putting collars on the cats we own. And I find generally speaking the people that opposed this are the cat rescue community. And I think that when you try -- you are really preaching to the choir when you talk to the folks that go out and try to fix the problems. We're all for taking control of your cat.
But if you have a million and a half cats that have no owner, we want to get out there and fix the problem that we caused. So the main point here is not to demonize the cat for something it obviously does, but there's no measured population impact. That's what we definitely want to be clear about.
Somebody is going to need to do some fresh science in order to make this clear. Because what Stan Temple did was really bought and paid for by a group of folks that already had a huge issue with outdoor cats.
COOPER: We'll cede this issue -- obviously, it is still continuing in Wisconsin. We'll be following it. Ted O'Donnell, appreciate your perspective. Thanks.
O'DONNELL: Thank you.
COOPER: Coming up next on 360: from your walls to your closets. Are you messy, are you neat? What your bedroom really says about you. You might be surprised. Part of our special series.
Also ahead tonight, LexisNexis, Choicepoint, now Master Card accounts possibly compromised. Identity theft: We'll take that to the Nth Degree. We have got a possible solution.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The way you left it ten years ago.
KEENAN IVORY WAYANS, ACTOR: Oh, mama.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My baby is home.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: That's a scene from "I'm Going to Get You Sucka." A bedroom so messy and smelly it attract flies. What do you think that says about the guy who lived there. More than you might imagine according to sociologist Sam Gosling. Gosling is featured in the new best-selling book "Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking" by Malcolm Gladwell.
This week on 360, we're looking at judgments that all of us make in the blink of an eye and don't know about it. Tonight, from your walls to your closet, what your bedroom says about you.
CNN's Ed Lavendera goes in pursuit of a room with a view.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SAM GOSLING, SOCIOLOGIST: ...stereotypes, race stereotypes or sex stereotypes or...
ED LAVENDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Sam Gosling makes a living snooping around people's homes. He's a sociologist who says our rooms say more about us than we might think. Today, we're putting his skills to the test.
GOSLING: We are in one of the largest dorms, one of the newest dorms in the University of Texas campus.
LAVENDERA: We found three students to open up their dorm rooms and their souls for our experiment.
Fallon Ngo is a senior. This is her room.
This is Rachel Saatoff's room. She's a freshman.
And here's a peak in Merritt Field's room. He's also a freshman.
But that's we'll tell you about them for now.
GOSLING: We'll see how we do.
LAVENDERA: Sam has never met these students. He'll analyze their rooms first. Then, we'll compare notes with the students and some of their friends.
First up, Fallon's room.
GOSLING: The first thing to look at, I would look at in his room, is the stuff there's nothing there. I mean, you look at the walls, and it's pretty blank. This is someone who is I would say their work is pretty central to them. The room mainly seems focused on this desk, that's what's going on here. And we probably should get on our knees and look around. And the bottles, look at that, all neatly prepared. So, again, the fact that we have all this preparation, this is someone who thinks ahead. They would be more concrete rather than playful with ideas and experimenting. My assessment of this person would be as someone who is relatively introverted, shows up on time for things, this is the person who is more conventional in lifestyle and ideas and activities.
LAVANDERA: OK, so did he get it right? Let's bring in Fallon Ngo.
FALLON NGO, STUDENT: I am very school oriented. There's a lot of books from my classes around my room. I'm very functional, no frills. So everything around me has some sort of purpose or use and nothing extra.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I like this one. He says you probably show up on time.
NGO: I do. And I make sure that I'm 15 minutes early for an appointment.
LAVANDERA: Her friends agree with Sam that Fallon is all about her work.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This girl's on a mission. I mean, she wants to go the medical school, and she knows exactly how to get there. I mean, she mapped everything else.
LAVANDERA: But listen to this.
NGO: I have a hard time grasping abstract ideas. I'm very concrete.
LAVANDERA: What did she say?
NGO: I'm very concrete.
LAVANDERA: That sounds familiar, doesn't it?
GOSLING: They would be more concrete.
LAVANDERA: Now let's move to Rachel Saathoof's room.
GOSLING: This room is a spectacular -- monument.
LAVANDERA (on camera): ... things have drasticly changed.
GOSLING: Friends are a very important part of this person's life. It's colorful. It's -- it says energy, doesn't it? It says this person is probably energetic, and outgoing.
LAVANDERA: It doesn't say school work.
GOSLING: It does not say school work. But notice it's easier to get at the fashion magazines, as we said before than to get at these books. Here they are right, right here. Yes.
LAVANDERA: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) here.
GOSLING: They're here. They're here for people to see. Just -- let's keep the learning material out of the way. We wouldn't want to ruin our reputation. Look at this. Yes, someone who makes things. Creative, look crayons, glue gun, pens, so somebody's who's creative.
LAVANDERA: In, the last room we instantly knew the person was probably a chemistry major.
GOSLING: Right. You are right. Exactly. Exactly.
LAVANDERA: We're not sure what she studies, right?
GOSLING: No. I would say extroverted, outgoing, socialable, friends are a central part of this person's life.
LAVANDERA (voice-over): All right, we'll here's Rachel and a few friends.
Rachels definitely easygoing. Rachel is more like trying to live her life, you know, to get the -- have the most fun. RACHEL SAATHOFF, STUDENT: I sleep right by all my friends. It's so happy. So...
LAVANDERA: Remember we couldn't figure out what Rachel was studying? Well, it turns out there's a reason why.
(on camera): We had a hard time figuring out what your major is.
SAATHOFF: What I major. I definitely don't have one. I am...
LAVANDERA (voice-over): But she says she's thinking of a career in advertising. Oh, didn't Sam say she was creative?
(on camera): Is it weird that we can say all this stuff to you just by looking at your stuff?
SAATHOFF: Everything you have said has been right, like, hit right on the nose. So it is a little creepy.
LAVANDERA: Well, we'll end our so-called creepy experiment in Merritt Field's room.
GOSLING: This is clearly a male's room. The newspaper which is the sort of alternative humorous university newspaper. What this room says to me most of all is again, someone who -- they have a Macintosh, someone who thinks different. It's someone who's nonconventional.
LAVANDERA: But what about how outgoing or resevered Merritt might be?
GOSLING: It's hard to judge here. This room is interesting. It's interesting really because it doesn't say so much about many things, especially as the other room. But it does have a strong signal about the way this person is -- an alternative sort of thinker or nonconventional.
LAVANDERA: With that, we brought in Merritt and a few friends. Watch the group as Sam gives his description.
GOSLING: It's seems from the decro you have and the books you have, and what you have the -- you're someone who's thoughtful, sort of philosophical, also quite nonconventional in your thinking, at least, compared to others.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's pretty dead. I mean, we've had, like, conversations about philosophical and what not. But like -- also you get his total, you know, unconvential way and everything as well.
MERRITT FIELDS, STUDENT: I like to think of myself as kind of outside the box person, I guess.
LAVANDERA: There's also a reason why it was hard to pick up on how outgoing he is. His friends say he's both outgoing and reserved.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You know, he's guarded. But once you get to know him and he talks to you all the time. LAVANDERA: These dorm room snapshots offer a quick glance into the student's personality, but life coach Martha Beck says rooms can also offer an even deeper perhaps darker view into someone's mind.
MARTHA BECK, LIFE COACH: Our troubled minds are -- soul sickness -- whatever it is we have in us, we always create in our outer lives through the living spaces we make.
LAVANDERA: She showed us these pictures of the home of a 50- year-old man she counsels. She was struck by the bareness of the walls and lack of color.
BECK: Imagine this was the inside of a person's heart. It basically says this man is lonely.
LAVANDERA: Beck also says to look out for another trait.
BECK: When somebody has a habit of pushing away unpleasant psychological material, you'll find that their closets are very messy. They stuff things under the bed. There will be messes, but they'll be hidden and that's usually a sign that they need to bring something out into the light.
LAVANDERA: Experts say no matter how hard you might try to hide your personality from the world, your room will always offer a view into your innermost secrets.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LAVANDERA: All right, Anderson, well, it's time to have a little bit of fun with you. We sent off three pictures from your home, you're living room, entertainment room and dining room and the kitchen to Sam and Martha. They offered back a few of the thoughts. We'll start off with the good stuff here, all right.
COOPER: OK.
LAVANDERA: They said very intelligent, high achieving. You're focused and task oriented, although, you do have a secret fear of not knowing enough. Socialable, yet you treasure your private space and that you're very polite. How's that?
COOPER: Sounds good. What's the bad stuff.
LAVANDERA: All right, some of the tougher stuff to hear perhaps, you're self-conscious, you might experience anxiety, you're very hard on yourself. You tend to like to be in control and often compare yourself to others, maybe kind of keeping score.
COOPER: Hmm, interesting. Well, I do often keep scores against Dobbs over there. But that's, actually, pretty on the money. That's fascinating. Wow.
LAVANDERA: Yes, all your colleagues said it was pretty right on, too.
COOPER: They are all fired.
Ed, thanks very much, fasinating report.
Tomorrow night on 360, we're going to continue our special series in a "Blink," the power of your instincts, with the height of success. Why those who are vertically challenged -- that guy got me dead on, actually. I'm thinking about that now. Why those who are very vertically challenged could be losing out when it comes to love and money. Yikes, bad new there.
360 next, an American businessman held hostage in Iraq. We're going to bring you the latest on him.
And we want to hear from you. Log onto our Web site, cnn.com/360. Click on the instant feedback link. We're going to share some of your e-mails coming up. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: Well, an American is being held hostage in Iraq. Erica Hill from "HEADLINE NEWS" joins us with the latest at about 10 to the hour. Erica?
ERICA HILL, CNN HEADLINE NEWS: Anderson, the Arab network al Jazeera has now released a video revealing the identity of an American businessman taken hostage in Iraq. We now know Jeffrey Ake was kidnapped on Monday outside Baghdad. The video shows him holding a U.S. passport, his Indiana driver's license and a picture of his family. Flanked by armed men, he reads a statement asking his family to urge the U.S. government to save his life by opening up talks with Iraqi insurgents and removing U.S. troops from Iraq.
Federal health officials are trying to figure out how a deadly flu virus was included in sample kits sent out to more than 4,000 testing labs worldwide. Now, those kits are used to verify whether labs can accurately identify different flu strains. But the company providing them included a strain of the Asian flu that killed more than one million people in 1957. Health officials have ordered the lab to destroy all of the samples.
The sight, a pretty familiar one, marathon runners grabbing cups of water during a race. But, a new study says athletes better watch how many they drink. The study found one in eight runners in the 2002 Boston Marathon actually drank too much water, putting them at risk for a condition called hypo-nutrinia -- let's hope I pronounce that correctly. That's when blood salt levels are too low. One runner actually died of it. It's a pretty serious condition.
Martha Stewart has a couple of new awards to go with her famous ankle bracelets. Two of her publications won national magazine awards, the first such recognition since her prison term. "Martha Stewart Weddings" and the magazine "Kids," fun stuff to do together, earned the honors. Stewart's house arrest ends in August, so look for fashionable ways to update the ankle bracelet for the summer. Anderson, that's the latest from "HEADLINE NEWS," back to you.
COOPER: All right, Erica. We'll see you in about 30 minutes, thanks very much.
Time to check with some of our e-mails, and boy, did we get plenty writing about the Wisconsin proposal to allow hunting of feral cats.
Ann from Massena, New York, writes, "What we Americans should do if this God-awful law passes is boycott everything from Wisconsin! Their cheese, sports teams, and whatever else they have up there in Barbaria. Then maybe the Badger State will stop badgering cats."
Tom from St. Germain, Wisconsin, counters, "Wisconsin is not proposing a hunting season for cats. They are proposing to make feral cats designated an invasive species. Other states already have the same law, Minnesota for one. The story did not mention that feral cats are detrimental to the environment." A lot of people say they kill songbirds.
And Cindy from Vancouver, British Columbia, offers the Canadian solution: "Instead of shooting wild cats without collars, let's shoot irresponsible owners who don't get their pets spayed or neutered."
We're really not for shooting anyone right now, but thanks for your e-mails. Got something on your mind, e-mail us at CNN.com/360, click on the instant feedback link. We'll try to put your e-mail on the air if we can.
Coming up next on '03, identity theft, Lexis-Nexis, other companies admitting their databases have been hacked. We have a possible solution. We'll take that to "The Nth Degree."
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: Taking identity theft to "The Nth Degree." Sure, it's upsetting. Hackers freely helping themselves to your good name and credit and bank accounts by swiping digits and data that are supposed to be secure and yours alone. First it was Choicepoint, then Lexis- Nexis. Today came that 187,000 General Motors-brand Master cards issued by the international bank HSBC have been compromised.
The solution to this sticky problem is staring us right in the face. Think about it: why, in this day and age, are we walking around with nothing more than a single identity each? Of course we're in trouble when it's stolen. If someone else becomes you, you are left out in the cold. If we had backup identities, spare names, extra histories, say, alternate backgrounds and Social Security numbers, it wouldn't be such a big deal. If some thief assumes the identity of, say, Anderson Cooper then Anderson Cooper simply becomes Lou Dobbs.
I mean, really, here we are in the third millennium. If we can carry around a thousand songs on a gizmo the size of a toothbrush, surely we can supply ourselves with a few extra identities just to be on the safe side. That's our idea, anyway. I'm Anderson Cooper. Thanks for watching 360. Prime time coverage continues right now with Paula Zahn. Hey Paula.
END TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired April 13, 2005 - 19:00 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 everyone. A murderous bomber pleads guilty, but some victims say that is not enough. 360 starts now.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER (voice-over): Abortion clinic bomber Eric Rudolph pleads guilty.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Today Eric Rudolph's reign of terror ended.
COOPER: Tonight, a woman still pulling pieces of his bomb out of her body speaks out about Rudolph. Her pain and the plea deal that spared the bomber his life.
A 13-year-old girl missing since Sunday. Could she have fallen victim to a convicted sex offender living in her neighborhood? Tonight, the latest on the search for little Sarah.
NYPD Blue: a videotape puts New York cops in the hot seat. Phony reports, bold-faced lies told by police; tonight, how lying cope got caught on tap.
Cats in the cross hairs: A new plan allows hunters to kill cats without collars. Tonight, should it be open season on hunting kitties?
And what your bedroom says about you from your walls to the mysterious mess under your bed. Tonight, how your rooms reveal hidden truths about you.
ANNOUNCER: Live from the CNN broadcast center in New York, this is ANDERSON COOPER 360.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: And good evening again. Thanks for joining us.
For a half dozen years now, Eric Rudolph was one of the most wanted men in America. An anti-government fanatic who used home made bombs packed with nails to make his point.
His first attack, the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta. More than a hundred people wounded in that blast. 44-year-old Alice Hawthorne, a businesswoman from Albany, Georgia, died that night. Her 14-year-old daughter also among the injured. In early 1997, he set off bombs at an Atlanta abortion clinic and a Lesbian nightclub. A dozen more people were hurt.
And in early 1998, he hit another abortion clinic, this one Birmingham, Alabama. That's where security guard Robert Sanderson died. He left behind a wife and two children.
Today, Eric Rudolph pleaded guilty to those bombings in several court appearances. His pleas will spare him the death penalty which some of his victims believe is a worse deal than they got from him.
Beyond the headlines now with one of those victims. CNN's David Mattingly with the story of Emily Lyons.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
EMILY LYONS, BOMBING VICTIM: He tried to kill me. So in essence he wanted to be my judge, jury and executioner that day. Judging me for where I worked, trying to pass a sentence and then trying to carry it out himself. It failed.
DAVID MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): When Emily Lyons talks about Eric Robert Rudolph. It's not the words of anger, it's the pieces of shrapnel rubbing against her trachea. Just a few feet away when Rudolph detonated a bomb on the steps of a Birmingham women's clinic where she worked in 1998, Lyons life as she knew it was ripped away along with her left eye and so much skin and muscle tissue that skin grafts now cover much of her legs.
LYONS: My knees had so much nails into it that they had to cut it open to remove what they could. So, I have got arthritis in my knees from the damage.
MATTINGLY: She was so badly disfigured that at first her husband Jeffrey couldn't recognize her. It was almost a year later before she regained sight in her remaining eye and could see the frightening pictures herself.
LYONS: I've got this patch over my eye, my face is all back black and has all the holes everywhere. And my hair is just burnt to a crisp. And it's just sticking out everywhere.
I was like, what is that? Oh, my God. I am never going to be the same.
MATTINGLY: Seven years and 19 surgeries later, there are many scars. And enough pieces of shrapnel remain that a magnet will stick to parts of her body. Lyons describes daily discomfort and frequent battles with depression.
She has no memory of the blast that almost took her life and killed off-duty police officer Robert Sanderson, but she's never missed a day in court. Every day Rudolph has been before the judge, Lyons has been in the courtroom watching, hoping for the death penalty and waiting for satisfaction.
(on camera): Do you think he knows who you are?
LYONS: I guess he might.
MATTINGLY: Do you want him to know who you are?
LYONS: Yes, I do.
I saw him the other week in Huntsville. We had to stay out in the hallway when they brought him in. And the doors had these round glass. And I'm standing at the window and he walks by at that time. And probably this far away from the door and I'm there, too, and he turns. So I know he saw me. He couldn't have -- he couldn't have missed me that day.
MATTINGLY: You were almost face to face with him.
LYONS: I was face to face to him separated by a piece of glass. And I want the glass to be gone. I want to be close enough.
MATTINGLY: To do what?
LYONS: To talk to him, to show him, to make sure he knows he failed miserably.
MATTINGLY (voice-over): But when Eric Robert Rudolph pleaded guilty to four bombings in federal court, and gave up the location of hidden explosives in North Carolina, prosecutors agreed not to seek the death penalty.
(on camera): Lyons said that she believed in some way the justice system has now failed as well. And that she finds little comfort in knowing that Robert Rudolph will spend the rest of his life behind bars.
LYONS: He took himself out of society when he pushed the button that day. And in '96 with the bomb in Atlanta and '97 in Atlanta. He took himself away from society and put himself in isolation then. So taking him now and putting him in prison in isolation, there is no difference except he's going to be more comfortable.
MATTINGLY: The latest affront came from Rudolph himself. When asked by a federal judge if he detonated the Birmingham bomb, Rudolph clearly replied in court I certainly did. The words uttered less than ten feet from where Lyons was sitting.
LYONS: Angers me more so. He is proud of killing people. How is that? That is not what society is. That's not a norm in society.
MATTINGLY: But with Rudolph's fate sealed, Lyons attention will soon turn to surgery number 20: to remove the shrapnel in her throat. She knows it will only be a matter of time, though, before another piece causes pain somewhere else requiring more surgery. It's an endless cycle she is resigned to repeat the rest of her days.
LYONS: They will never be any closure as everybody says, because Rudolph is on my body, in this house every day. And will be until I die.
Knowing that he won't be able to hurt anybody else is about the only thing I can think of that is good about all of this.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MATTINGLY: After his courtroom confession, Rudolph released an 11-page statement attributing all of his crimes to a fight against a government that sanctions abortions. In one small section we have for you he wrote, "abortion is murder. And when the regime in Washington legalized, sanctioned and legitimized this practice, they forfeited their legitimacy and moral authority to govern."
He specifically mentioned at point Lyons and officer Sanderson saying they were targeted for what they do not as individuals. And when she was leaving the courtroom today, Emily Lyons said that she believes that Rudolph is laughing at all of us -- Anderson.
COOPER: You know, David. When she is able to run a magnet and a magnet sticks to her leg. I mean, that's extraordinary that she has that much shrapnel in her body. Is she going to get the chance to confront him at all, to speak to him without that glass between them?
MATTINGLY: That will happen in July. His victims in Birmingham will have the opportunity to say their piece, to say -- speak directly to him, say what they think about him, what they think about his crime. This will happen at the formal sentencing in July.
COOPER: All right. David Mattingly. Thanks for that.
360 next, do you trust the police to tell you the truth? Well, most of us do. But a new tape raises some troubling questions.
In a moment, you're going to see this tape right here. And see how it contradicts what New York police said really happened outside the Republican convention.
Also ahead tonight, hunting cats. That's right, hunting cats. A Wisconsin proposal is sparking outrage around the nation. Any cat without a collar could get killed. Is there possibly a good reason to make it legal? Tonight we are covering all the angles.
Plus, overflowing drawers, stuff hidden in your closets. Find out what your bedroom says about you. I even let them in my house. Hear what researchers had to say about me based on my apartment.
First, let's take a look at your picks. The most popular stories on CNN.com right now.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: Did police edit out the truth to bust protesters of the Republican National Convention? We'll show you the video, judge for yourself. 360 next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) COOPER: Well, you may remember some of those scenes from last summer's Republican National Convention in New York. Well, this scene seems to have gone into rerun. Videotapes have surfaced and a lot of them showing that a number who were arrested back then as protesters, well it turns out they did nothing wrong at all.
CNN's Jason Carroll have the Story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This police tape shows what happened last August in New York City as hundreds of bicyclist demonstrated against the Republican National Convention.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I came over here and the street was buzzing with people.
CARROLL: Alexander Dunlop (ph) says he got caught of it all when he headed out for sushi. I found a police officer, I said how do I get out of here. He said you exit over here, and he pointed right up here. I found him again, and I said, where do I exit? He said, well, I just told you to come up here so I could arrest you.
CARROLL: They arrested him for resisting arrest and disorderly conduct. Police presented their videotape which they claimed was unedited. It only showed Dunlop after his arrest, seated and handcuffed. All along I kept thinking at any moment they're going to realize their mistake. At any moment they'll figure out they made an error and that's it. It'll just go away. But it never went away.
CARROLL: That is until a week before his trial when Eileen Clancy looked at another version of the tape.
EILEEN CLANCY, I-WITNESS VIDEO: There he is walking his bicycle right there.
CARROLL: Clancy is a member of I-Witness Video, a group that reviews videotapes of protest. What Clancy discovered astonished her.
CLANCY: Here he is right here.
CARROLL (on camera): So, that's Alexander.
CLANCY: That's him being placed into custody. See the police officer is holding on to him.
CARROLL (voice-over): Dunlop was on an unedited police tape, look again. That's him, calmly standing before his arrest. Not appearing to be resisting anyone.
CLANCY: It's quite troubling what happened, and it's not clear how or why this could have happened.
CARROLL: The district attorney's office says it was a mistake, one of their technicians actually cut the portion of showing Dunlop.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's terrifying to me. It's terrifying to think that this could happen. It could happen to anyone.
CARROLL: Dennis Kyne said it happened to him.
DENNIS KYNE, ARRESTED DURING RNC: I'm just totally disheartened and saddened. I can't harbor a lot of anger, because that would be totally futile to me.
CARROLL: Police charged Kyne with inciting a riot and resisting arrest during his participation in a separate convention protest. The officer who said he arrested him told the court we picked him up and we carried him while he squirmed and screamed. I had one of his legs. I believe because he was kicking, and refusing to walk on his own.
But a documentary filmmakers videotape shows otherwise. That's Kyne not being carried. In fact, the officer who accused him of resisting didn't take part in his arrest.
KYNE: I think it's a very appropriate for me to say that the man perjured himself on the stand for two and half hours.
CARROLL: We contacted police, they have not admitted any wrongdoing. It's unclear whether they'll discipline anyone in light of these tapes. The department says so many arrests occur during the convention there could have been unintentional mistakes.
RAY KELLY, NYPD POLICE COMMISSIONER: Officers who make multiple arrests sometimes may be confused about the specifics of a particular arrest.
CARROLL: Small consolation for these men who nearly went to jail if not for the tapes that showed the truth.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CARROLL: Right after the tapes surfaced the charges against Kyne and Dunlop were dropped. Both are filing lawsuits against the city for false arrested, and both say someone should be held accountable for what happened to them. And Anderson, they believe what happened to them could have happened to others who unfortunately don't have tapes to exonerate them.
COOPER: And the city is basicly saying it's an honest mistake.
CARROLL: Honest mistake.
COOPER: All right, we'll see. Thanks very much, Jason, appreciate it.
One brand of silicone breast implants clears a hurdle for possible FDA approval.
Erica Hill joins us now with the stories making headlines across the country. Hey, Erica.
ERICA HILL, CNN HEADLINE NEWS: Hey, Anderson. That's right, an FDA advisory panel has voted to recommend lifting the ban on some silicone breast implants. The panel says the Mentor Corporation provided convincing research, that if the implants are more durable and will last longer than previous version. The FDA pulled silicone implants off the market 13 years ago over concerns it could leak or burst. The FDA is not bound by the advisory panel recommendation, but generally does follow it.
The House today voted to permanently eliminate federal estate taxes in five years. Now, those taxes are levied on inherited estates. Currently they only affect estates worth more than one and half million dollars. The estate tax is scheduled to make a one year disappearance in 2010. But this new measure would make that permanent. Similar efforts have failed repeatedly in the Senate.
Cigarette lighters will probably be piling up at airport security check points tomorrow, that's when a new rule goes into effect banning the devices from all flights. The government is urging travelers to their Zippos, Bics and all other lighters at home. If one is seized, by the way, it will not be returned.
People in southern New Jersey are getting a rare opportunity to see a whale. And there you get to see it, too. A young beluga got a little of course and wound up in the Delaware River near Trenton. That's about 80 miles from the open sea. State officials say the 12- foot whale is now headed, though, in the right direction and working its way toward the open water. Go little guy, go -- Anderson.
COOPER: Free Willie.
HILL: There you go.
COOPER: All right, Erica, thanks very much. See you again in about 30 minutes.
Coming up next on 360, a teenager disappears from the Florida trailer. A sex offender was staying in her home and dozens more lived nearby. Tonight police are on a desperate search to find her. We'll have the latest.
Also ahead, hunting cats -- Wisconsin is considering making it legal. The e-mails of out rage are pouring in. But could there actually be a good reason for killing cats without collars. We're covering all the angles on that story tonight.
Also a little later, we're room raiding. Are you neat freak, a slob or somewhere in between like Jason Carroll. Find out what your bedroom says about you. Part of your special series, "Blink." We are covering all the angles.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KELLY MAY, SARAH LUNDE'S MOTHER: All we all want to do is bring Sarah home safely. And that's everybody's goal. (END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Well, those words today from the mother of Sara Lunde, a 13-year-old Florida girl who has gone missing. There is a search underway. She disappeared this past weekend. Her brother says he saw her before going out Saturday night; when he came home, he says she was gone. Lunde has run away from home before, but she's never been gone this long.
County officials are combing Lunde's hometown of Ruskin (ph), looking for any sign of her. 24 registered sex offenders live in the region, including one who was a friend of the girl's mother. Authorities are continuing to question him, though police say they have not named any suspects in this case.
Joining me from Ruskin is a woman who saw Lunde Saturday night at a church function. Sherry Cook is the wife of Lunde's pastor.
Sherry, thanks for being with us. She has run away before. In fact, she stayed in your home before. Do you think she has run away this time?
SHERRY COOK, LUNDE'S PASTOR'S WIFE: I don't believe she has, no.
COOPER: Why?
COOK: It was a year ago when she did run away. And I think she passed all of that. She had a wonderful weekend with the youth group and she was dropped off on Saturday night. She was just in great spirits, had a very good time and no one indicated anything in her attitude that would have caused her to run away from home.
COOPER: What is she like? What is her personality like?
COOK: Sarah is a very sweet-natured girl. She's very outgoing. She has a lot of friends. And she loves her church here and we're just hoping that she will be home.
COOPER: I know the police have been questioning a registered sex offender, a man by the name of David Onstaad (ph), who had a relationship, I guess, with her mother. Did she ever say anything to you about him?
COOK: No. I never knew anything. I had never heard the name before all of these things came up, unfortunately. We didn't know that.
COOPER: I understand your son went to pick Sarah up at her house on Sunday for Sunday school, and he was told she had already left for church. Who told him that?
COOK: Her brother. I don't know if he wasn't aware she wasn't there or what the situation was. But my son thought that she had been picked up and that he would see her here at church, but when he arrived she wasn't here. And no one else had picked her up.
COOPER: Had you been aware that there were so many sex offenders. registered sex offenders, living in your community?
COOK: No, I had no idea.
COOPER: And what is the scene like there now, Sherry? I know the searches are underway -- how many people are out looking?
COOK: Oh, I couldn't say how many there are. But we have been serving dinner and helping take care of everyone who has been so kind to volunteer and help in the search for Sarah. I would say there are probably 100, maybe 150 people, including -- that's including all of the officers and detectives and everyone is trying very hard doing what they can to help.
COOPER: Sherry, I know you are and I want to put Sarah's picture up on the screen one last time for any viewers out there, just take a look. This is a young girl who has been missing since this weekend. There are a lot of people looking for her who care an awful lot about her, and Sherry Cook is one of them. Sherry, we appreciate you joining us to talk about Sarah.
COOK: Thank you, so much.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Cats in the crosshairs: a new plan allows hunters to kill cats without collars. Tonight, should it be open season on hunting kitties?
And, what your bedroom says about you, from your walls to mysterious mess under your bed. Tonight, how your rooms reveal hidden truths about you. 360 continues.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: Well, the big issue in Wisconsin tonight is cats, hunting them. Now, on this program we don't take sides. We like to show stories from all different angles, and there are many sides to this story. Out of concern for the millions of songbirds that are killed every year, a Wisconsin citizen advisory group last night approved a proposal to allow the hunting of wild cats, any cat found without a collar, basically. It's a radical proposal and still has a way to go before it could become law. Some cat lovers are trying to prevent that from ever happening.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sort of crosses the line from wildlife management into people's pets.
COOPER (voice-over): "It" is a problem that plagues cities and towns across the country: how to control stray cats. Most municipalities seem to favor the catch-neuter-and-release method, or at worst, capture and euthanize. But conservation groups and lawmakers in Wisconsin are considering a more extreme method of controlling cats: see a stray cat and shoot it on site. We're not talking about mountain lions here, but feral cats, defined by a proposed state measure Q62, as, quote, "any domestic type cat which is not under the owner's direct control or whose owner has not placed a collar on such cat showing it to be their property."
In other words, you want to start keeping close tabs on your tabby or he is fair game. The controversial cat fight had Wisconsinites out in packs debating then voting on the measure. Claws were out on both sides of the battle.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He's so fluffy that a collar, a collar, can't be seen on him.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We used to have on our property -- we used to have a lot of rabbits. You can go back there now for years and you cannot find a rabbit. I correlate the two.
COOPER: Q-62 was proposed by Mark Smith, a firefighter from La Crosse who says cats are not so much furry, purrying bundles of joy, but beastly bird killers that need to be dealt a deadly blow.
And he cites a study done in 1996 by University of Wisconsin professor Stanley Temple who says the state's strays kill between 7.8 and 219 million songbirds each year.
STANLEY TEMPLE, UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN/MADISON: So 1.4 million cats times 28 kills a year and 20 percent of those kills being birds adds up to at least, and I'll emphasize, at least 7.8 million birds that it killed by free ranging cats a year. That's an alarming number.
COOPER: Thought the measure passed last night's voting 6,830 to 5,201 cat lovers can stay calm for now. There are several more steps to go before the law can be changed and kitties start getting caught in the sights of Wisconsin's small game hunters.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: Well, we try to get all angles on 360. We don't take sides. We wanted to let you hear both sides of this heated debate. We contacted people for and against the cat hunting proposal, however, every person who is for it who were were able to contact refused to speak with us on camera.
Joining me from Madison, Wisconsin is someone who is against wildcat hunting, Ted O'Donnell, founder of Dontshootthecat.com. Ted, thanks for being with us.
This proposal passed in 70 percent of the counties where it was voted on. General public was able to attend these meetings. If the majority wants it, what is wrong with it?
TED O'DONNELL, DONTSHOOTTHECAT.COM: Well, I think there are a lot of things wrong with it. I think, first to say that a majority of Wisconsinites want it might be a little misguided, because less than 0.2 percent of the total population actually showed up to vote. And it was actually a record turnout. More than twice as many participants than we had last year, which really goes to my point is how serious is this body if one guy Mark Smith and 43 of his friends can get together a year ago and put this on the ballot, it gets reviewed and then essentially the entire state has to respond to a taxpayer funded rod and gun club, which is really a hunter dominated group that has a very specific set of interests when it comes to outdoor cats.
COOPER: Ted, because we don't have someone on the other side I'm just going to take the other side and argue -- not argue, but bring up some other points to have you respond to. We just -- you know, in that piece we heard feral cats are responsible for killing millions of songbirds a year? Why shouldn't there be measures in place to protect the birds from these cats?
O'DONNELL: Well, the funny thing is we want to protect the birds, as well. What we say attack the problem and not the cat. In fact, what we find that the largest population impact that wild birds face, according to the Autobahn Society is habitat loss due to humans which really gets into the birth rates impacts that cause population...
COOPER: You are saying cats don't have any impact on songbirds at all?
O'DONNELL: They absolutely have an individual impact. But what they don't have is measured population impacts. And that's what he Stan Temple failed to study. What he had was a simple study that was really funded the American Bird Conservancy that's predisposed against outdoor cats. This is basically...
COOPER: But arguing that it's human encroachment on habitats is what is hurting birds, you are not going to be able to stop human encroachment. I mean, that's a longer-term, larger issue. Why not start with cats?
O'DONNELL: Well, first of all, it's sort of a false leadoff to begin with. We didn't get into it to help the birds, we basically grabbed a bird study that correlated with our desire to legalize the shooting of cats. So again, I'd question who brought this?
We're not talking about elected officials or even state leaders. We're talking about a mob of 44 people or 54 people who got together last year and made the entire state respond to it this year. And anybody inside of Wisconsin knows the Conservation Congress really is a rod and gun club. This is a hunter dominated lobby that the citizens of Wisconsin have never had a voice inside of. I mean, 88 percent of us don't hunt. This lobby is dominated by hunters.
COOPER: I'm not sure the hunting demand is to shoot kitty cats. This proposal really is for feral cats. Why not just put a collar on your cat?
O'DONNELL: Well, you know, I'm all for putting collars on the cats we own. And I find generally speaking the people that opposed this are the cat rescue community. And I think that when you try -- you are really preaching to the choir when you talk to the folks that go out and try to fix the problems. We're all for taking control of your cat.
But if you have a million and a half cats that have no owner, we want to get out there and fix the problem that we caused. So the main point here is not to demonize the cat for something it obviously does, but there's no measured population impact. That's what we definitely want to be clear about.
Somebody is going to need to do some fresh science in order to make this clear. Because what Stan Temple did was really bought and paid for by a group of folks that already had a huge issue with outdoor cats.
COOPER: We'll cede this issue -- obviously, it is still continuing in Wisconsin. We'll be following it. Ted O'Donnell, appreciate your perspective. Thanks.
O'DONNELL: Thank you.
COOPER: Coming up next on 360: from your walls to your closets. Are you messy, are you neat? What your bedroom really says about you. You might be surprised. Part of our special series.
Also ahead tonight, LexisNexis, Choicepoint, now Master Card accounts possibly compromised. Identity theft: We'll take that to the Nth Degree. We have got a possible solution.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The way you left it ten years ago.
KEENAN IVORY WAYANS, ACTOR: Oh, mama.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My baby is home.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: That's a scene from "I'm Going to Get You Sucka." A bedroom so messy and smelly it attract flies. What do you think that says about the guy who lived there. More than you might imagine according to sociologist Sam Gosling. Gosling is featured in the new best-selling book "Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking" by Malcolm Gladwell.
This week on 360, we're looking at judgments that all of us make in the blink of an eye and don't know about it. Tonight, from your walls to your closet, what your bedroom says about you.
CNN's Ed Lavendera goes in pursuit of a room with a view.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SAM GOSLING, SOCIOLOGIST: ...stereotypes, race stereotypes or sex stereotypes or...
ED LAVENDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Sam Gosling makes a living snooping around people's homes. He's a sociologist who says our rooms say more about us than we might think. Today, we're putting his skills to the test.
GOSLING: We are in one of the largest dorms, one of the newest dorms in the University of Texas campus.
LAVENDERA: We found three students to open up their dorm rooms and their souls for our experiment.
Fallon Ngo is a senior. This is her room.
This is Rachel Saatoff's room. She's a freshman.
And here's a peak in Merritt Field's room. He's also a freshman.
But that's we'll tell you about them for now.
GOSLING: We'll see how we do.
LAVENDERA: Sam has never met these students. He'll analyze their rooms first. Then, we'll compare notes with the students and some of their friends.
First up, Fallon's room.
GOSLING: The first thing to look at, I would look at in his room, is the stuff there's nothing there. I mean, you look at the walls, and it's pretty blank. This is someone who is I would say their work is pretty central to them. The room mainly seems focused on this desk, that's what's going on here. And we probably should get on our knees and look around. And the bottles, look at that, all neatly prepared. So, again, the fact that we have all this preparation, this is someone who thinks ahead. They would be more concrete rather than playful with ideas and experimenting. My assessment of this person would be as someone who is relatively introverted, shows up on time for things, this is the person who is more conventional in lifestyle and ideas and activities.
LAVANDERA: OK, so did he get it right? Let's bring in Fallon Ngo.
FALLON NGO, STUDENT: I am very school oriented. There's a lot of books from my classes around my room. I'm very functional, no frills. So everything around me has some sort of purpose or use and nothing extra.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I like this one. He says you probably show up on time.
NGO: I do. And I make sure that I'm 15 minutes early for an appointment.
LAVANDERA: Her friends agree with Sam that Fallon is all about her work.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This girl's on a mission. I mean, she wants to go the medical school, and she knows exactly how to get there. I mean, she mapped everything else.
LAVANDERA: But listen to this.
NGO: I have a hard time grasping abstract ideas. I'm very concrete.
LAVANDERA: What did she say?
NGO: I'm very concrete.
LAVANDERA: That sounds familiar, doesn't it?
GOSLING: They would be more concrete.
LAVANDERA: Now let's move to Rachel Saathoof's room.
GOSLING: This room is a spectacular -- monument.
LAVANDERA (on camera): ... things have drasticly changed.
GOSLING: Friends are a very important part of this person's life. It's colorful. It's -- it says energy, doesn't it? It says this person is probably energetic, and outgoing.
LAVANDERA: It doesn't say school work.
GOSLING: It does not say school work. But notice it's easier to get at the fashion magazines, as we said before than to get at these books. Here they are right, right here. Yes.
LAVANDERA: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) here.
GOSLING: They're here. They're here for people to see. Just -- let's keep the learning material out of the way. We wouldn't want to ruin our reputation. Look at this. Yes, someone who makes things. Creative, look crayons, glue gun, pens, so somebody's who's creative.
LAVANDERA: In, the last room we instantly knew the person was probably a chemistry major.
GOSLING: Right. You are right. Exactly. Exactly.
LAVANDERA: We're not sure what she studies, right?
GOSLING: No. I would say extroverted, outgoing, socialable, friends are a central part of this person's life.
LAVANDERA (voice-over): All right, we'll here's Rachel and a few friends.
Rachels definitely easygoing. Rachel is more like trying to live her life, you know, to get the -- have the most fun. RACHEL SAATHOFF, STUDENT: I sleep right by all my friends. It's so happy. So...
LAVANDERA: Remember we couldn't figure out what Rachel was studying? Well, it turns out there's a reason why.
(on camera): We had a hard time figuring out what your major is.
SAATHOFF: What I major. I definitely don't have one. I am...
LAVANDERA (voice-over): But she says she's thinking of a career in advertising. Oh, didn't Sam say she was creative?
(on camera): Is it weird that we can say all this stuff to you just by looking at your stuff?
SAATHOFF: Everything you have said has been right, like, hit right on the nose. So it is a little creepy.
LAVANDERA: Well, we'll end our so-called creepy experiment in Merritt Field's room.
GOSLING: This is clearly a male's room. The newspaper which is the sort of alternative humorous university newspaper. What this room says to me most of all is again, someone who -- they have a Macintosh, someone who thinks different. It's someone who's nonconventional.
LAVANDERA: But what about how outgoing or resevered Merritt might be?
GOSLING: It's hard to judge here. This room is interesting. It's interesting really because it doesn't say so much about many things, especially as the other room. But it does have a strong signal about the way this person is -- an alternative sort of thinker or nonconventional.
LAVANDERA: With that, we brought in Merritt and a few friends. Watch the group as Sam gives his description.
GOSLING: It's seems from the decro you have and the books you have, and what you have the -- you're someone who's thoughtful, sort of philosophical, also quite nonconventional in your thinking, at least, compared to others.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's pretty dead. I mean, we've had, like, conversations about philosophical and what not. But like -- also you get his total, you know, unconvential way and everything as well.
MERRITT FIELDS, STUDENT: I like to think of myself as kind of outside the box person, I guess.
LAVANDERA: There's also a reason why it was hard to pick up on how outgoing he is. His friends say he's both outgoing and reserved.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You know, he's guarded. But once you get to know him and he talks to you all the time. LAVANDERA: These dorm room snapshots offer a quick glance into the student's personality, but life coach Martha Beck says rooms can also offer an even deeper perhaps darker view into someone's mind.
MARTHA BECK, LIFE COACH: Our troubled minds are -- soul sickness -- whatever it is we have in us, we always create in our outer lives through the living spaces we make.
LAVANDERA: She showed us these pictures of the home of a 50- year-old man she counsels. She was struck by the bareness of the walls and lack of color.
BECK: Imagine this was the inside of a person's heart. It basically says this man is lonely.
LAVANDERA: Beck also says to look out for another trait.
BECK: When somebody has a habit of pushing away unpleasant psychological material, you'll find that their closets are very messy. They stuff things under the bed. There will be messes, but they'll be hidden and that's usually a sign that they need to bring something out into the light.
LAVANDERA: Experts say no matter how hard you might try to hide your personality from the world, your room will always offer a view into your innermost secrets.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LAVANDERA: All right, Anderson, well, it's time to have a little bit of fun with you. We sent off three pictures from your home, you're living room, entertainment room and dining room and the kitchen to Sam and Martha. They offered back a few of the thoughts. We'll start off with the good stuff here, all right.
COOPER: OK.
LAVANDERA: They said very intelligent, high achieving. You're focused and task oriented, although, you do have a secret fear of not knowing enough. Socialable, yet you treasure your private space and that you're very polite. How's that?
COOPER: Sounds good. What's the bad stuff.
LAVANDERA: All right, some of the tougher stuff to hear perhaps, you're self-conscious, you might experience anxiety, you're very hard on yourself. You tend to like to be in control and often compare yourself to others, maybe kind of keeping score.
COOPER: Hmm, interesting. Well, I do often keep scores against Dobbs over there. But that's, actually, pretty on the money. That's fascinating. Wow.
LAVANDERA: Yes, all your colleagues said it was pretty right on, too.
COOPER: They are all fired.
Ed, thanks very much, fasinating report.
Tomorrow night on 360, we're going to continue our special series in a "Blink," the power of your instincts, with the height of success. Why those who are vertically challenged -- that guy got me dead on, actually. I'm thinking about that now. Why those who are very vertically challenged could be losing out when it comes to love and money. Yikes, bad new there.
360 next, an American businessman held hostage in Iraq. We're going to bring you the latest on him.
And we want to hear from you. Log onto our Web site, cnn.com/360. Click on the instant feedback link. We're going to share some of your e-mails coming up. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: Well, an American is being held hostage in Iraq. Erica Hill from "HEADLINE NEWS" joins us with the latest at about 10 to the hour. Erica?
ERICA HILL, CNN HEADLINE NEWS: Anderson, the Arab network al Jazeera has now released a video revealing the identity of an American businessman taken hostage in Iraq. We now know Jeffrey Ake was kidnapped on Monday outside Baghdad. The video shows him holding a U.S. passport, his Indiana driver's license and a picture of his family. Flanked by armed men, he reads a statement asking his family to urge the U.S. government to save his life by opening up talks with Iraqi insurgents and removing U.S. troops from Iraq.
Federal health officials are trying to figure out how a deadly flu virus was included in sample kits sent out to more than 4,000 testing labs worldwide. Now, those kits are used to verify whether labs can accurately identify different flu strains. But the company providing them included a strain of the Asian flu that killed more than one million people in 1957. Health officials have ordered the lab to destroy all of the samples.
The sight, a pretty familiar one, marathon runners grabbing cups of water during a race. But, a new study says athletes better watch how many they drink. The study found one in eight runners in the 2002 Boston Marathon actually drank too much water, putting them at risk for a condition called hypo-nutrinia -- let's hope I pronounce that correctly. That's when blood salt levels are too low. One runner actually died of it. It's a pretty serious condition.
Martha Stewart has a couple of new awards to go with her famous ankle bracelets. Two of her publications won national magazine awards, the first such recognition since her prison term. "Martha Stewart Weddings" and the magazine "Kids," fun stuff to do together, earned the honors. Stewart's house arrest ends in August, so look for fashionable ways to update the ankle bracelet for the summer. Anderson, that's the latest from "HEADLINE NEWS," back to you.
COOPER: All right, Erica. We'll see you in about 30 minutes, thanks very much.
Time to check with some of our e-mails, and boy, did we get plenty writing about the Wisconsin proposal to allow hunting of feral cats.
Ann from Massena, New York, writes, "What we Americans should do if this God-awful law passes is boycott everything from Wisconsin! Their cheese, sports teams, and whatever else they have up there in Barbaria. Then maybe the Badger State will stop badgering cats."
Tom from St. Germain, Wisconsin, counters, "Wisconsin is not proposing a hunting season for cats. They are proposing to make feral cats designated an invasive species. Other states already have the same law, Minnesota for one. The story did not mention that feral cats are detrimental to the environment." A lot of people say they kill songbirds.
And Cindy from Vancouver, British Columbia, offers the Canadian solution: "Instead of shooting wild cats without collars, let's shoot irresponsible owners who don't get their pets spayed or neutered."
We're really not for shooting anyone right now, but thanks for your e-mails. Got something on your mind, e-mail us at CNN.com/360, click on the instant feedback link. We'll try to put your e-mail on the air if we can.
Coming up next on '03, identity theft, Lexis-Nexis, other companies admitting their databases have been hacked. We have a possible solution. We'll take that to "The Nth Degree."
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: Taking identity theft to "The Nth Degree." Sure, it's upsetting. Hackers freely helping themselves to your good name and credit and bank accounts by swiping digits and data that are supposed to be secure and yours alone. First it was Choicepoint, then Lexis- Nexis. Today came that 187,000 General Motors-brand Master cards issued by the international bank HSBC have been compromised.
The solution to this sticky problem is staring us right in the face. Think about it: why, in this day and age, are we walking around with nothing more than a single identity each? Of course we're in trouble when it's stolen. If someone else becomes you, you are left out in the cold. If we had backup identities, spare names, extra histories, say, alternate backgrounds and Social Security numbers, it wouldn't be such a big deal. If some thief assumes the identity of, say, Anderson Cooper then Anderson Cooper simply becomes Lou Dobbs.
I mean, really, here we are in the third millennium. If we can carry around a thousand songs on a gizmo the size of a toothbrush, surely we can supply ourselves with a few extra identities just to be on the safe side. That's our idea, anyway. I'm Anderson Cooper. Thanks for watching 360. Prime time coverage continues right now with Paula Zahn. Hey Paula.
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