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Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees
Idaho Murders Person-of-Interest Found; Al-Zarqawi Profiled; Judicial Nominee Janice Rogers Brown Profiled; Kansas Bank Robbery Turns into Shootout
Aired May 18, 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.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Police find the person of interest in the Idaho disappearance of two kids and the murder of three. Tonight, where are the children? What really happened inside this house?
Iraq's most wanted man declares open season on Muslim women and children. Tonight is the U.S. military any closer to catching this mass murder?
The mystery of the Piano Man found alive on a deserted beach unable to speak. He can only play the piano. Tonight leads are pouring in, but how close are authorities to figuring out the identity of the piano man?
She seduced a teen then convinced him to kill her husband. After 15 years behind bars she wants out. Tonight, an exclusive interview, a killer and why she believes she should go free.
How old is your mattress? How about your pillow? Might be sharing your bed with creepy-crawlies and not even know it. Tonight the tiny creatures living in your mattress and how they may be making you sick.
And a crime victim fights back by picking up her sketchbook and dedicating her life to helping cops catch criminals.
ANNOUNCER: Live from the CNN Broadcast Center in New York, this is a two-hour special edition of ANDERSON COOPER 360.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: Good evening again. We begin in Idaho tonight with new developments in a very puzzling crime. Three people were bound and killed, their bodies found in a house in the town of Coeur D'Alene. Now, not found in that home missing two children: Shasta K. Groene and her nine-year-old brother Dylan.
For two days now police have been looking for this man, Robert Roy Lutner who is believed to have been one of the last people to see the victims before the murders. Tonight, Lutner has apparently been found. The question now, what does he know? And where are the kids?
CNN's Sean Callebs is in Coeur D'Alene -- Sean. SEAN CALLEBS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Anderson, exactly right. A lot of questions this evening. Investigators here tell us that about an hour, hour and-a-half ago, that 33-year-old Robert Roy Lutner contacted authorities. Lutner apparently knew sheriff's officers, FBI were looking for him. He called.
The authorities here will not say exactly where Lutner was when he made the call. Investigators immediately began trying to make their way to that area trying to find out what, if anything, Lutner knows about the grisly crimes that happened in the modest home not terribly far behind me.
Now, they have identified Lutner as someone as a person of interest. They are not saying that he is a suspect in the killings just yet. He does have a long arrest record, mostly for misdemeanors: drugs, drunken driving, things of that nature.
Authorities say that once they do sit down with him, try to glean more information about the crime scene they will pass I on to us.
We are learning more about what went on in this house on -- sometime between Sunday and Monday. The three victims were killed brutally. That coming from the sheriff. They were apparently also tied up before their lives were taken.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CAPTAIN BEN WOLFINGER, KOOTENAI COUNTY SHERIFF'S DEPTARTMENT: We know this is a triple homicide, because all three victims were bound. That's new information I know for you guys. That's important to us as far as processing this crime scene.
We're not going to release how those people were bound, what they were bound with or anything like that. We're holding that close to the vest.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CALLEBS: One thing, also becoming quite clear, real police work takes time. It's not a CSI made-for-TV episode.
Now, authorities found the victims on Monday night. At that time, no one was still alive in the house to tell them that the two small children were missing. They didn't know those kids were missing until they identified the victims and notified next of kin.
Six hours elapsed between that time. Authorities say it was a very important time and they have been behind the 8 ball in this investigation basically ever since.
Also, it rained very heavy on Monday night. It turned the dirt to mud. And police say they lost a lot of clues in the crime scene just outside the home. The integrity there compromised. If indeed there were tire tracks or footprints leading up to the home, those are gone. Now, authorities say they could have been very useful in trying to determine who committed these crimes. Now, what about the two children? Nine-year-old Dylan. He's 4' tall, weighs about 60 pounds, has a blonde crewcut and blue eyes. And his younger, sister eight-year-old Shasta, she's a slight child, only about 40 pounds, under 4' tall.
An Amber Alert remains out this evening. Authorities say they received more than 165 calls. But while the signs keep flashing, there is no sign of the children -- Anderson.
COOPER: We'll continue to follow the story over the next two hours or so. Sean Callebs, thanks very much for that.
We learned more today about why there's been such an uptick in violence in Iraq lately, and there has. Nearly 500 people killed in just the last few weeks. No surprise U.S. officials are blaming this man, Abu Musab al Zarqawi, who they believe met recently with chief lieutenants to plot more attacks in the wake of the appointment of the new Iraqi government.
Now we also heard from al Zarqawi today, or at least someone believed to be him, on an audiotape. Zarqawi likes to make tapes. And they usually have the same message, the same sick rants.
What makes today's tape worth mentioning however is that al Zarqawi makes it very clear just how depraved he is. He says and I quote, "killing of infidels by any method, including martyrdom operations has been sanctified by many scholars, even if it means killing innocent Muslims." In other words, in the name of jihad it's OK to kill anyone, women, children, Christian, Muslims, anyone.
The tape made us wonder what kind of man would say such a thing? What kind of man would think like that? We asked CNN's Nic Robertson to find out.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Iraq, May 2004. American Nick Berg is about to be beheaded. His execution recorded and released on a Web site titled "Abu Musab al Zarqawi Slaughters An American." Its barbarity rockets Zarqawi from relative obscurity to front-page familiarity.
But already he is the deadliest insurgent in Iraq. To find out how Zarqawi got to this point, I have come to this jail in Jordan.
ABDULLAH RUMMAN, JOURNALIST AND FORMER JAIL MATE OF ZARQAWI: In this prison, in this jail, al Zarqawi became a leader.
ROBERTSON: This journalist Abdullah Rumman knew Zarqawi and is willing to talk. He was locked up with him in the mid 1990s.
(on camera): He was asking his men to march along.
RUMMAN: They use this way to walkout -- shouting -- like an army, exactly an army. And shouting... ROBERTSON (voice-over): Politely moved on by Jordanian security, Rumman tells me to learn more, I should begin where Zarqawi grew up. Born Ahmed Fadil al Khalaylah, he later took his nom de guerre Zarqawi from the name of his hometown Swaqa. It looks pretty from a distance, but up close it's different, crammed by successive waves of Palestinian refugees, one of the poorest towns in the country.
(on camera): With its densely packed housing and intense tribal loyalties Swaqa has been compared to the Bronx. But others liken its down-at-heel working class neighborhoods to Detroit. For Zarqawi, though, it was a place of limited opportunity.
(voice-over): Outside the house where he was born in October 1966, neighbors say they remember the family well.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): They were simple people. They lived a simple life. They barely made it.
ROBERTSON: His father fought against the Israelis in 1948 and was well respected before he died.
In this picture at the time, the young Zarqawi looks unremarkable, but seems determined to earn respect like his father.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): If someone would harm his neighbors or friends Zarqawi would always come to defend a victim. He always did good deeds. Nothing wrong.
ROBERTSON: His days were spent here Swaqa's school, but by all accounts he didn't excel academically.
(on camera): Zarqawi left school before his final exams, disappointing his parents. He didn't seem to have a career in mind. And his father tried to fix him up with a job at the local municipality.
(voice-over): That was 1982. Zarqawi was about 16, developing a reputation as a tough guy who, against Muslim custom, drank and got a tattoo.
Outside his old mosque, I tracked down his brother-in-law hoping he can tell me more.
(on camera): Excuse me sir, can we talk to you about Abu Musab, your brother-in-law, is that possible?
You don't -- nothing -- you don't want to say?
(voice-over): He's not unfriendly, just unwilling to talk.
In 1989, the U.S. backed mujahadin were on the verge of driving the Soviet Army out of Afghanistan. Thousands of Arabs, including Osama bin Laden were in the fight. Zarqawi decided to join them.
In these rare pictures taken soon after he arrived, Zarqawi is seen relaxing, mixing happily with other jihadis or Muslim holy warriors. He arrived as the jihad was ending.
Some reports say Zarqawi never fought the Soviets, others that he was very brave in battle. All accounts agree, though, he befriended this man, Abu Mohammed al Makdisi, a Kuwaiti-born cleric intent on the violent overthrow of secular Arab governments.
Much of what he did in Afghanistan is unknown. There are conflicting accounts of whether or not he met Osama bin Laden. General Ali Shukri was a military and intelligence adviser to Jordan's King Hussein and knows Zarqawi's case file.
GENERAL ALI SHUKRI, FMR JORDANIAN MILITARY ADVISER: He decided to join the fight against the Soviets in Afghanistan. He was trained there. He became a bomb expert.
ROBERTSON: Zarqawi left Afghanistan in 1992. He came back to Jordan with new friends, ideas, and an agenda.
Nic Robertson, CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: And, of course, we now know what the agenda was.
Next on this special two-hour edition of 360, the fight over filibusters and federal judges -- it's bringing the Senate to a near standstill. We're taking you "Beyond the Headlines" tonight. Find out what is really on the line.
Plus, a bank heist gone wrong: a half dozen hostages, and a dash for the airport -- made all the hostages strip. A bizarre crime -- find out how the robbery ended.
And a little later, did you know that there are microscopic bugs living in your mattresses and your pillows? We're talking about dust mites. You will not believe how many of them live in your mattress right now, and in your pillow. They might even be making you ill. Dr. Sanjay Gupta investigates. All that's ahead. First, your picks, the most popular stories on CNN.com right now.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: Well, push is coming to shove in the Senate where Majority Leader Bill Frist today called on his fellow senators to move toward an up or down vote on one of President Bush's most controversial judicial nominees. This, in the looming shadow of the so-called nuclear option which would change the Senate rule, allowing the minority to stall such nominations by filibuster or, endless debate.
So, this is a struggle between competing principles, majority rule versus the minority's right not to be bullied. But it's also a struggle over two particular individuals. With a portrait of one of them, here's CNN's John King.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) JOHN KING, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Janice Rogers Brown, a college liberal turned courthouse conservative, a Shakespeare and poetry-lover with a penchant for provocative words of her own.
These are "perilous times for people of faith," she warned in a speech last month, suggesting liberals want to divorce the country from its religious heritage. "It's not a shooting war," she said, "but it's a war."
JANICE ROGERS BROWN, JUDICIAL NOMINEE: The question for you will be whether the regime of freedom, which they founded, can survive the relentless enmity of the slave mentality.
KING: She calls the New Deal, which created Social Security and Medicare, "our socialist revolution," suggesting it created reliance on big government, a new slavery, contrary to the Constitution's authors' vision of limited government.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She's so radical that she says, with programs like Social Security and Medicare, seniors are cannibalizing their grandchildren.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hear ye, hear ye, the honorable Supreme Court...
KING: Perhaps her most noteworthy judicial decision -- a sweeping attack on affirmative action, saying society should be color blind and not allow "entitlement based on group representation."
EVA PATTERSON, EQUAL JUSTICE SOCIETY: As black woman I'm here to say, it doesn't matter what the color of her skin is, it matters how she is going to rule.
KING: Skin color very much mattered to young Janice Rogers in Laverne, Alabama. Whenever possible, her sharecropper father kept the family from establishments that had separate entrances and facilities for blacks.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I know they didn't have indoor plumbing. I know that it was a very, very rough existence. I can only imagine what it must have been like growing up as a youngster in the segregated South.
KING: She was six when, 50 miles away in Montgomery, Rosa Parks refused to move to the back of the bus. Fred Gray was Parks' lawyer, an African American, and to young Janice, an inspiration.
Rogers Brown graduated UCLA Law School in 1977, making her dream of becoming an attorney a reality. Raising a son as a single mother made personal responsibility a guiding theme, and her political views trended more conservative.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She believes the judiciary's single duty is to protect individuals from government overreaching.
KING: Critics see her provocative writings as evidence of ambition, including her 2000 ruling criticizing racial quotas or even goals as contrary to a society based on equal opportunity for all.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was not a typical opinion that you would see of a judge looking at the facts and applying the law. It was much more something that appeared to be specifically drafted to catch the attention of ultra-right wing conservative groups.
KING: Former Chief of Staff Bill Mount says it is not personal ambition but instead a deliberate effort to stir debate on the evolving role of courts and government.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She believes that something of a wrong turn was taken, maybe half a century ago when the welfare state grew, and I think she thinks that the national experience of African-Americans has been in some ways regrettable.
PATERSON: I think the Bush people are very brilliantly playing the race card.
KING: Eva Patterson's Equal Justice Society in San Francisco is one of the array of state and national civil rights organizations opposing the Brown nomination.
PATERSON: She is a sister and she has suffered many of the indignities that black women throughout history have suffered. And so, that tends to make you want to just be quiet and not oppose her. But, then my sense of political chess makes me realize that that's exactly what Karl Rove and President Bush want to have happen.
KING: Justice Rogers Brown is a regular here at the Church of Christ near Rancho Cordova, near Sacramento. Friends say her deep Christian faith is a critical part of both her personal and professional life, though some critics say that faith plays too much of a role in her judicial philosophy.
ROGERS BROWN: What we ultimately pursue is a true vision of justice and ordered liberty, respectful of human dignity and the authority of God.
KING: In a 1997 case, the State Supreme Court declared unconstitutional a law requiring parental consent before a minor could receive an abortion. But Justice Brown dissented, suggesting the majority's reasoning gave courts a green light "to topple every cultural icon, to dismiss all societal values, and to become the final arbiters of traditional morality."
Friend Steve Mercimer (ph) says they have never discussed abortion.
STEVE MERCIMER, FRIEND OF JUSTICE BROWN: I don't know what her views would be. I think she views the Constitution in a fairly strict, constructionist way, which is what the president says, he wants to appoint people like that. But I also think that she is -- I think it's a big mistake to try to pigeonhole her.
KING: She is, for example, not always adverse to government power. "Sometimes beauty is fierce; love is tough; freedom is painful," she wrote in a ruling upholding drug testing for government job applicants.
She also allowed cities to disperse gang members without proof of illegal conduct.
MERCIMER: Janice is an extremely private person. She is hard to -- she won't open up to just anybody.
KING: Mercimer met with Brown recently to discuss her nomination. He says she preferred to talk about her latest intellectual pursuit.
MERCIMER: I couldn't believe it when she said to me: Could you connect me with somebody? I want to learn Hebrew. It's just amazing. I said: Why? She said: Because I want to read the Torah in the original Hebrew.
KING: Friends say two years of hearing herself labeled as combative, temperamental, extremist and worse have taken a toll. But Justice Brown isn't one to flinch from a fight.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She told me she went to see the Ray Charles film and she loved the line when they said, "They're scandalizing my name." That's exactly how she feels.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think she finds it brutal, just brutal.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In the other sense she's in the eye of the storm and she's quite calm about it all.
KING: John King, CNN, San Francisco.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: And the fight goes on.
Coming up next on this special two-hour edition of "360": dust mites. I've heard of them but didn't really know what they were. You're not going to believe what you are about to hear. Millions of these microscopic bugs living in your pillows, in your mattresses, living off your skin and causing allergies. Our "360" M.D., Sanjay Gupta, explains how to breathe easier in your home if your home is making you sneeze.
Also tonight, a CNN exclusive.
PAMELA SMART, CONVICTED OF MURDER PLOT: I would much rather have the death penalty than life in prison. People don't understand that but the death sentence has an end. This doesn't.
COOPER: We'll take you behind bars to the woman sentenced to life in prison for convincing her teen lover to kill her husband. Some say she should never see the light of day. She is asking the state to set her free. Tonight, the jailhouse interview.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: Erica Hill from HEADLINE NEWS joins us with a look at several other stories we are following tonight
Hey, Erica.
ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR: Hey, Anderson.
An FBI agent says the grenade thrown at President Bush last week in the former Soviet republic of Georgia could have exploded. The agent says the grenade fell within 100 feet of the podium where the president was speaking and simply failed to function.
A reward equivalent to almost $11,000 U.S. is being offered in exchange for information that leads to the conviction of the person responsible.
Olathe, Kansas: a bank robbery and a hostage situation. Police say the suspect ordered six hostages to strip to their underwear and forced all of them to a minivan. They drove to a small airport where the suspect was shot by police. Investigators say he may have planned to make a getaway on a small plane. The suspect is hospitalized tonight. None of the hostages were hurt.
Coming up on "360," we'll have an interview with a witness and an FBI agent on the case. Stick around for that.
On to Indianapolis, Indiana, now where boaters were rescued today. Fire crews had trouble helping three boaters to shore. They all got stuck on the edge of a dam on the White River and had to be pulled in. The good news: No one was hurt.
And what do the Boston Red Sox, Detroit Pistons and Tiger Woods have in common? A British anthropologist says they wear red and that helps them win. The researcher who studies sports all over the globe can't say why red gives the edge, but he suggests the color may subconsciously intimidate opponents.
That is the latest from "HEADLINE NEWS," all the important things.
I notice you didn't wear your red, and I appreciate it I would be intimidated.
COOPER: I find that the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard. Red did wonders for the Soviet Union -- really worked wonders.
HILL: And I'm not anti-Red Sox at all because I'm from one of those split Connecticut families where I really support both teams. But the winning record hasn't been that great until last year.
COOPER: Another great point. Thanks, Erica. See you again in about 30 minutes.
I want to ask you a personal question. How old is your mattress? How about your pillow? If it's more than a couple years old, you are probably sleeping with millions of these tiny creatures in your bed. They're microscopic. They feed off your skin cells and they could be making you sick. "360" M.D. Sanjay Gupta takes a look now under the covers. I want to warn you: After you see this story, you will not look at your mattress in the same way.
SANJAY GUPTA, M.D., CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): When they bought the new house in late 2004, Allyson and Reed Winnick were filled with promise and pride.
ALLYSON WINNICK, INDOOR ALLERGY SUFFERER: We moved here October 1 into a gorgeous home on the beach. And within a couple of weeks we all started getting sick: cough and congestion and runny noses.
GUPTA: The whole family was besieged by a mysterious illness. They were exhausted, moving at a slower pace. It became harder to wake up in the morning. And seven-year-old Justin was late for school almost every day.
A. WINNICK: I was ready to move out.
GUPTA: Increasingly frustrated they had air samples taken in the new home. They feared it was sinister mold growing in the air ducts or even asbestos or fiberglass from new construction. It was neither.
A. WINNICK: It was lots of dust mites -- lots and lots of dust mites. Nothing else; everything else came up clean. It was in every room that we tested -- the bedrooms, the playroom, the living room. It was everywhere.
GUPTA: The Winnicks were suffering from indoor allergies from dust mites. Dust mites are microscopic spiders so small that 7,000 of them can fit on a dime. They thrive in humidity and feed off skin cells humans shed.
The Winnicks aren't alone; 99 percent of all households have them. The average number in any given bed: 2 million.
GILLIAN SHEPERD, M.D., ALLERGY SPECIALIST: In the case of the dust, mites what the allergy substance is -- disgustingly -- it is a very potent protein in the fecal droppings of these mites. They tend to be in highest concentrations in bedding, in pillows.
GUPTA: While the Winnick's indoor allergy trigger is the dust mite, there are several other culprits when it comes to indoor allergies.
SHEPERD: Indoor allergies are extremely common, probably vastly more common than seasonal allergies. The number one culprit are the pets at home.
GUPTA: With cats and dogs, the actual allergen isn't the hair but a protein found in their saliva, dander, skin and urine It is so pervasive that it is easily transported on an owner's clothing.
As for cats, even if you remove one from a room, it takes six months before it is free of cat allergen. Also there may be a reason why some people are allergic to some cats and not others. CLIFFORD BASSETT, M.D., ALLERGY SPECIALIST: The darker the color of the pet dander on cats, the more allergy symptoms.
And male cats have more dander and seem to have more allergenic properties than female cats in a variety of preliminary studies.
GUPTA: Besides dust mites and pet dander, cockroaches are also a major source of indoor allergies in cities.
SHEPERD: On of the difficulties in many of these perennial allergens is that you can clean vigorously, however they are going to recur. So it's something that requires ongoing effort.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're going to use vibration and suction to get the allergens out of it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just roll it up now?
GUPTA: The Winnicks turned to Healthy Nest, a company that specializes in testing and riding the home of allergens. The treatments can cost hundreds of dollars.
AVINOAM HELLER, HEALTHY NEST: A good idea is actually to uncover the bed and leave it open, leave windows open when you can. And if you have the opportunity to expose your mattress or your bed to direct sunlight that's an excellent thing to do.
GUPTA: Other ways to fight indoor allergies, keep humidity below 50 percent possibly with a dehumidifier. Use allergy protecting covers for your mattress, box springs and pillow. Wash your sheets weekly in hot water and use a hot drier. Vacuum weekly with a HEPA filter. Consider hardwood or tile floors, carpets can accumulate a thousand times more allergens than noncarpeted floors. As for stuffed toys, put them in a plastic bag and freeze for 24 hours to kill those mites.
Now six months after finding the dust mites, the Winnicks have learned to deal with them.
WINNICK: So everything is good. No one sneezes in the morning when they wake up anymore.
GUPTA: Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN, Atlanta.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: The mystery of the Piano Man: found alive on a deserted beach, unable to speak, he can only play the piano. Tonight, leads are pouring in. But how close are authorities to figuring out the identity of the Piano Man?
She seduced a teen then convinced him to kill her husband. After 15 years behind bars. She wants out. Tonight an exclusive interview, a killer and why she believes she should go free.
This two-hour edition of 360 continues in a moment. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: Well, this Friday one of the teenagers convicted in the infamous Pamela Smart murder case is going to ask a parole board to let him be released from prison. Now, you may remember the story: 15 years ago Smart, a school employee, plotted with four of her students to kill her husband. Smart says she is innocent. And in an exclusive interview, she lays out the reasons why she deserves to be set free.
Here's CNN's Gary Tuchman with a report you will see only on CNN.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It was a sensational trial. Pamela Smart, accused of convincing her high school lover and friends to murder her husband.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How say you? Is the defendant guilty or not guilty of the offense charged?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Guilty.
TUCHMAN: The 23-year-old New Hampshire School District employee was immediately sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
That was then. This is now. Pamela Smart -- 37 years old, behind bars at the maximum security Bedford Hills Correctional Facility in New York State. All her legal appeals have been denied. So she is now using her last resort.
(on camera): Why are you asking for a pardon or a commutation from the governor of New Hampshire?
P. SMART: Well, I served 15 years in prison for a crime I didn't commit.
TUCHMAN (voice-over): Pamela Smart has asked New Hampshire Governor John Lynch for clemency. Her legal adviser and friend is Eleanor Pam.
ELEANOR PAM, EMERITA CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK: She works every day to improve the quality of life of the people around her. And I hope the governor sees that. And I hope he gets even a small glimpse of the person that I know.
TUCHMAN: The governor says he hasn't reviewed the request yet so he isn't commenting. The father of the murder victim is.
BILL SMART, GREGG SMART'S FATHER: I'm getting mad. I'm getting bitter. I'm older. I'm 15 years later. And I'm still fighting this woman. Why don't you just stop the appeals and do her sentence.
TUCHMAN: Bill Smart's son had been married less than a year. He was an insurance salesman like his dad. Prosecutors said Pam Smart seduced 15-year-old Bill Flynn who agreed to a plea bargain, testifying that he killed Gregory Smart after being asked by Pam Smart.
BILL FLYNN, KILLED GREGORY SMART: I pulled the trigger.
TUCHMAN: Flynn was aided by three of his friends.
Greg Smart was ambushed as he came home to his condo in Derry, New Hampshire. He was on his knees begging for his life. Before Flynn fired a bullet into his head in this hallway where Pamela Smart later found his body.
All the boys got lesser sentences than Smart. And that's one for her grounds for her clemency request.
P. SMART: The people that actually murdered my husband will get out of prison.
TUCHMAN: Prosecutors say the murder would not have happened without Pam Smart ordering it. They say the school district audio/visual employee wanted insurance money. Smart admitted at trial she did have a sexual relationship with Flynn.
P. SMART: I really didn't want to have an affair. And I was trying to fight my feelings.
TUCHMAN: But she has never accepted any responsibility for her husband's death until now, in the first TV news interview she has done in more than a decade.
P. SMART: I feel like my decision to get involved with Bill Flynn, to be involved with him when I'm telling you I knew it was wrong. I'm not saying that, oh, I didn't know any better. I was 21 years old. I knew it was wrong. I remember moments saying why are you doing this? This thing is wrong. And I still did it. OK. And I'm to blame for that.
I know even separate from my relationship, would Bill have ever killed Greg? Probably not. So I have to connect myself in some way to being responsible through my horrible act, my horrible acts with Bill Flynn to being involved in some way in Greg being dead.
TUCHMAN (on camera): Does it surprise you that she says that if she didn't have this affair her husband would still be alive?
B. SMART: It does surprise me, because she has never admitted anything. She's never admitted that -- she admitted she had the affair before, but she's never taken responsibility for Greg's death because of the affair.
TUCHMAN (voice-over): Pamela Smart also cites excessive media coverage of her case as grounds for clemency. The motion picture "To Die For" with Nicole Kidman is loosely based on the case.
JOAQUIN PHOENIX, ACTOR: A guy that does that to someone like you, doesn't deserve to live. That's the truth. Doesn't deserve to live.
NICOLE KIDMAN, ACTRESS: I suppose you're right. He doesn't.
TUCHMAN (on camera): "To Die For" was a big Hollywood movie. It was a big hit. And did you see the movie?
P. SMART: Yes.
TUCHMAN: And when you were done watching it, what was going through your mind?
P. SMART: With things like this, I'm never going to get out of here.
TUCHMAN (voice-over): In "To Die For" Nicole Kidman played a TV weather woman. Pam Smart wanted to be a TV reporter.
P. SMART: I interviewed with CNN. And I don't remember all the places but...
TUCHMAN (on camera): But you wanted to be a newsperson.
P. SMART: Yeah. I wanted to be involved with the news.
TUCHMAN: And you ended up being involved with the news.
P. SMART: I sure did. And that's why you have to be careful what you pray for.
TUCHMAN (voice-over): Like many inmates, Smart has had her share of problems behind bars. She was once attacked by other prisoners.
P. SMART: My face was cut open and a plastic plate was put in my -- my orbital socket was fractured.
TUCHMAN: But she says the physical pain doesn't compare to the emotional pain.
P. SMART: And I feel like -- I feel like if I don't get out of here, it's going to kill my mother.
TUCHMAN: But Bill Smart says, if she gets out it will literally be over his dead body.
B. SMART, FATHER: When I'm dead, it doesn't matter. But as long as I'm alive, I'm going to use every last breath I have to fight this woman. He was just a wonderful son. Any father would be proud to have him as a son. I wish to God that he was here, but I can't get him back. So I have to just go forward and I have to continue to fight her and I'm going to do it to the day I die.
TUCHMAN: Do you ever feel, maybe you're lucky that you didn't get the death penalty?
P. SMART: No, I would much rather have the death penalty than life in prison. People don't understand that, but the death sentence has an end. This doesn't.
B. SMART: I hope she lives for a long, long, long time.
TUCHMAN: Bill Smart attended the trial with his wife, Judy. She passed away several years ago. Stress, he believes, was a major factor in her death. Remarried now he surprised us and perhaps himself while answering this question about the clemency request.
If she were to say, if she would wake up tomorrow and say, you know what, I'm going to take responsibility, I did do this, would that change your opinion?
B. SMART: Then I would talk to her. Then I would help her. I might even parole her, or go to the parole board and ask for her pardon because then she admitted what she did. She became a real human being like the rest of us. Like -- not a psychopathic person that she is, devious, controlling, manipulative. If she said that to me, face to face, I would fight for her. I would help her. But let her say it.
TUCHMAN: She is not saying it.
P. SMART: You might be better off saying, well, I did this and I have remorse or whatever. But that would be lying and that is just not the truth. And I feel like that -- I just don't feel like that would be the right thing to do.
TUCHMAN: If Pamela Smart does not receive a pardon or a commutation, there are only two ways for her to ever go beyond these prison gates: one, is by escaping, the other is by dying.
Gary Tuchman, CNN, Bedford Hills, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: A fascinating case. We'll let you know what happens.
Next, on this special two-hour edition of 360, Britain's mysterious Piano Man. He isn't talking, but he does play the piano. A lot of tips have been phoning in about who he is. We'll find out if authorities are close to finding out his identity.
Also, tonight, a special report "Fighting Back" -- a little girl escapes an attacker's grip. She shows you how she did it and what you can teach your kids to keep them safe, too.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: Let's get you up-to-date with what is happening right now, this hour. Erica Hill from HEADLINE NEWS joins us at about 14 to the hour.
Hey, Erica.
HILL: Hey, Anderson.
We start out with what is a big boost for Latino power in Los Angeles. Antonio Villaraigosa defeated incumbent James Hahn to become the first Hispanic mayor of the City of Angels in more than 100 years. Villaraigosa won the run-off election with 59 percent of the vote.
In Mexico City, it is all smiles and handshakes as Mexican President Vicente Fox and civil rights leader Jesse Jackson patch up differences that started over an alleged racial slur. Last Friday, Fox told business leaders Mexican immigrants do jobs, quote, "that not even blacks want to do there in the United States," end quote. Well, Fox says he was misquoted and won't apologize. He invited Jackson to Mexico City to help calm the furor over the remarks.
In Tahiti, three-meter pits (ph) and awesome, winding barrels. It's a surfers' dream and a perfect championship venue for the Billabong Tahiti pro-tournament. Six-time world champion surfing -- world surfing champion Kelly Slater of the U.S. capped one of the best days of competitive surfing ever witnessed with two perfect 10-point rides to win the event for the third time. Check this out, Anderson.
You can do, that right?
COOPER: Wow, gnarly.
HILL: Totally, dude.
COOPER: Isn't that what the kids say, gnarly? Do the kids still say gnarly?
HILL: I don't think the kids say gnarly anymore. But, I don't think you are any less cool, so you can keep using it.
COOPER: Well, as long as you think I'm cool. Thank you, Erica Hill. See you again in about 30 minutes.
Coming up next on this special two-hour edition of 360. the Piano Man mystery. Leads are pouring in about who the guys is. The question is, are authorities really any closer to finding out the identity?
Also ahead tonight, a bank heist and hostages ordered to strip -- not sure why -- and taken to the airport. It all ends in a shoot-out. We'll talk to a witness and the FBI. Be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: The "World in 360" now. The latest on that baffling mystery we first told you about last night, the mystery of the "Piano Man." The guy was found last month wandering on a beach in England wearing a suit drenched in water. All the labels had been cut out. He hasn't spoken a word.
The only time he breaks the silence is at the piano where he plays classical music for hours and hours, very well, I might add.
Hundreds of calls about his identity have been pouring in.
CNN's Becky Anderson has been following it from London for us. I spoke with her earlier.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: So, Becky, what's the latest?
BECKY ANDERSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, this is what we know right now: It was originally thought that this "Piano Man," as he's being called, was from Eastern Europe and possibly an asylum-seeker.
The fact the labels were cut from his suit, possibly to avoid identification, is a ploy that asylum-seekers have used in the past to avoid being identified. For that reason, interpreters from Poland, Lithuania and Latvia were brought in to see if he was from Eastern Europe. No one was able to get through to him.
But today: a breakthrough. We have spoken to the police in Kent. They say he may be a French street entertainer by the name of Steven Masson. That news is after extensive media coverage that has elicited some 700 calls and, so far, over 250 names.
Police forces, orchestras, music groups all over Europe are being contacted to try to establish who this guy is. Now, it was in Italy a Polish illegal immigrants told Rome police that this guy, the "Piano Man," was his busking partner.
That in itself, Anderson, is amazing. Italian officers liaising with British colleagues via Interpol said the testimony is being taken extremely seriously because this man in Italy who came forward with the info is living illegally and has evidently put himself at risk by revealing that.
This is a really touching story, Anderson.
COOPER: Busking, street performers you are talking about?
ANDERSON: That's right. Absolutely. Street performers. What the papers across Europe have been talking about is: What is he? Where does he come from? Who is he?
There was some suggestion in the British press today that he may be autistic. Headline in the "Times": "Curious Incident of the Piano Man." That's after the classic novel, of course, of late: "Curious Incident of the Dog" which was about an autistic man.
There's lots of parallels that can be drawn to a chap that may have autism, particularly this idea he draws so beautifully. Do remember when he was brought in he wasn't communicating with anybody at this hospital but was given a pen and a piece of paper and he drew a grand piano almost perfectly with this really strange shadow underneath. Of course, he plays the piano faultlessly.
COOPER: All right. Still waiting for the identification. We'll see for sure
Becky Anderson, thanks.
ANDERSON: Absolutely. COOPER: Next on this special edition of "360," a brazen bank robbery and hostages ordered to strip then taken to an airport where there was a shoot-out. I'll talk with an FBI agent and a witness to the crime.
Also ahead tonight, a little girl fights back.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CANDY MCBRIDE, ESCAPED ATTACKER: He came behind me and put my hands up. Then I turned and I kicked him like that. I turned around and I punched him. Then he punched me back. Then I slapped him and he slapped me back. And then I hit him one more time in the stomach. Then I ran home.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: Don't mess with that little girl. All that thanks to some special training. She shares some tips you can teach your kids to keep them safe.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: A dramatic scene today in Olathe, Kansas, where a gunman held up a bank, took six hostages, forced them to strip to their underwear and shot it out with police at a nearby airport.
Sharita Hutton of KCTV has been following the action.
SHARITA HUTTON, KCTV (voice-over): Only our cameras were there as police towed the bank robbery suspect's car away from an Olathe golf course. It's believed he left his car here and walked to the bank at 151st and Merlin (ph) and launched a day of terror.
That is the suspect shooting at one of the van windows with six hostages inside. The van then left the parking lot. Only we were there as that van then took off down 151st Street with police cars following.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Unbelievable. I was just going to the bank and I wasn't allowed.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I was getting ready to go in the bank on 151st and the door was locked. I thought it was kind of funny. It wasn't a holiday. I went around on the other side of the bank. I saw five or six women standing there, stripped. And I saw the suspect with a hood over his face.
HUTTON: It was some two miles away when the van came to rest as the suspect tried to run toward a plane with two people on board. Police shot him before he went any further.
COOPER: The robbery started around 9:00 a.m. right in front of witnesses like Matt Braswell who watched it unfold from across the street. He joins me now on the phone from Overland Park, Kansas.
Also with me from Kansas City, Missouri, is FBI Spokesman Jeff Lanza.
Agent Lanza, let's start off with you. What do you know at this time? Have you been able to question the suspect or any of the hostages.
JEFF LANZA, FBI SPECIAL AGENT: The hostages have been questioned. The suspect is in critical condition at a local hospital. We have not had the opportunity to question him, but all the hostages have been questioned in addition to numerous witnesses at the scene and in the bank.
COOPER: At this point do you know motives? Do you know what he was trying to accomplish at the airport?
LANZA: It would be impossible to tell at this point. He did have a pilot's license, but whether he had planned to get on a plane or not is really impossible to tell until we have an opportunity to talk to him.
COOPER: Fair enough.
Matt, you said the scene outside the bank was like a traumatic movie.
Tell us what you saw there.
MATT BRASWELL, Well, started out with first I pulled up on the scene and you know, all of a sudden you see these -- I mean, there are policemen forever. They had it orchestrated, all the policemen sitting just perfect.
I'm sitting there watching and all of a sudden there is a lady comes out and she wearing her underwear and heads out towards the van. And then about 10, 20 seconds later here comes another three in the front and three in the back and like on a chain gang of the people. You know, three hostages in the front, three in the back and robber in the middle. He had a black hood on, black shirt.
And they get in this van and they try to get out of the parking lot and armored vehicle comes in and tries to stop them. And wasn't able to do that. And so then all of a sudden we heard a shot fired. And at the time I didn't know who had shot the fire -- actually shot the -- but then they tried to get out of the parking lot and I guess they jumped over the curb and --
COOPER: And that shot you heard, that was the windshield being shot, one of the windows being shot at by the gunman?
BRASWELL: Right -- it was actually a window behind the driver.
COOPER: OK, we're looking at a picture of that.
Agent Lanza, do you know why he made the hostages strip? I mean, does that make any sense?
LANZA: We haven't come across that before. I would say it would be a matter of a control issue. But, again, until we talk to him there is no way to tell why he went through that scenario.
COOPER: What happened once he got to the airport? How did -- it ended with a shootout. How did that transpire?
LANZA: He got to the airport and the van, which he was not driving, one of the hostages was, was driven up about two car lengths from the airplane. He jumped out and tried to get into the airplane and that's when the shooting took place by police.
COOPER: But again, you don't know if was trying to take off in a plane?
LANZA: Our presumption is he was trying to get into that airplane for some reason, most likely to take off. But to know that with certainty right now is impossible.
COOPER: Can you say what the hostages told you? I mean, did they have any information? Did they overhear the guy say anything? Did he tell them anything that you can tell us?
LANZA: Not at this time. I can't -- I wouldn't be able to release what the hostages told us at this time. Certainly, it was a very scary scenario for all of them in that situation in the van.
COOPER: Is it your belief that the hostages -- that this guy was acting alone?
LANZA: At this point we do believe that. There is still a lot of investigation to take place. But it looks like he was acting alone right now.
COOPER: In this video, we're seeing some of the hostages cuffed. Was that you guys who cuffed them?
LANZA: Oh, no. What -- well, I can tell you this, he had the hostages cuffed with flex cuffs, which is a plastic form of a handcuff. He had them cuffed inside the bank before he took them out. He actually had chains which he had them actually wrapped around their waist and together as they walked outside the bank into the van.
COOPER: As far as bank robberies go, how organized was this guy? He brought flexi-cuffs with him. It seems he certainly had a plan in mind.
LANZA: He had a plan in mind. He also had a walkie-talkie with him, two walkie-talkies. And he had one of the hostages bring out a walkie-talkie to give to the police to communicate with them. In which they did for a short time. He certainly had something in mind when he went into this bank, above and beyond the normal bank robbery.
COOPER: It is fascinating he was prepared enough to bring walkie-talkies to communicate with police. But, again, you have no indication if those walkie-talkies were linked to anyone else who had a walkie-talkie, a possible accomplice?
LANZA: No, it doesn't look that way. He had both walkie-talkies except for the one he eventually gave to one of the hostages. So, it would be unlikely he was communicating with somebody else. But at this point in time there is no indication that is the case.
COOPER: Matt, when you got to the scene, you heard that shot. What was going through your mind? Was this like anything you had seen before?
BRASWELL: The first thing I thought was duck. Just make sure that I wasn't in the line of fire. We saw snipers shooting up in the buildings behind us, so we just wanted to make sure we weren't -- it wasn't them actually shooting. But you know, first thing like I said, first thing is to duck.
COOPER: How close were you to the van?
BRASWELL: What now?
COOPER: How close were you to the minivan?
BRASWELL: Oh, I figure we were probably 100 yards, a football field away.
COOPER: So you hear the shot, what happens them?
BRASWELL: Then after the shot, the armored vehicle tries to get around them. To try to pin them in and wasn't able to and that's when the vehicle proceeded to leave the bank and jump over the curb, and get on 151st Street and head east towards Merlin (ph). There were stop sticks there, also. And he maneuvered to get past those and that's when -- like I told some other people today, it is just -- it was like ants coming out of the wood work. There were so many policemen on the chase for him.
COOPER: Agent Lanza, is that -- Matt was saying that he saw basically this armored vehicle trying to stop the minivan from getting away initially. Is that a common procedure? Try to keep them in that locale?
LANZA: Absolutely. You don't want hostages on the move. Certainly that presents a lot more danger to all those involved. They had the armored vehicle there and they did everything they should have done, set up a perimeter. But he forced the hostage who was driving the minivan to jump over a curb. There is not much you can do to prevent that from happening in most cases.
COOPER: Well, as you said he's in the hospital now and you're waiting to talk to him.
Jeff Lanza, appreciate you talking with us and Matt Braswell, as well. Thank you very much.
LANZA: You're welcome.
COOPER: Coming up, the hunt for a killer. We'll take you to Idaho where an Amber Alert has been issued for two children and a person of interest -- well, has been found by police. Also ahead -- (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOHN WALSH, AMERICA'S MOST WANTED: The worst phone call in my life. The worst day of my life.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: He's man behind "America's Most Wanted." Find out the whole story of what turned John Walsh into an anti-crime crusader.
And a little later a woman who is fighting back against criminals by drawing them. She's one of the best police sketch artists in the world. She sketches from experience.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: Developing story tonight in Idaho. An Amber Alert is still out for two missing kids who disappeared after a triple murder in Coeur d'Alene. Police have been looking for a man described as a person of interest in the case. Let's get the latest from Sean Callebs.
Sean?
SEAN CALLEBS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Anderson, you're exactly right in that, in the verbiage that they're using, very specific. They are not calling this individual a suspect, simply a person of interest. His name, Robert Roy Lutner. He is 33 years old. And about two hours ago he called investigators, he knew the local sheriff's office as well as FBI had been looking for him. He turned himself in.
At the time the sheriff's authorities wouldn't say where Lutner was, but we know he's pretty close. Within an hour the investigators reached him and they have been talking to him for past hour or so. Authorities say they want to talk to Lutner because he was a good -- at least a friend of the victims who were killed sometime either Sunday or Monday. And they have reason to believe that he saw them just about the same time that the crimes were committed.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WOLFINGER: We don't know if he's involved in the crime. But we know he was here Sunday evening. That's the last time for him we can put everybody here at the house alive.
So he's presented -- he may have seen something, he may have known someone else was here at the residence. He may have met somebody as he was leaving the residence. As he was leaving, they may have been coming in. That's the kind of information we hope to glean from him.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CALLEBS: We're also trying to find out if they can find out any information about this triple murder or where those two children are. Lutner does have a history of crime in this area, misdemeanors, drug possession, DUI, crimes of that nature.
At the same time we also know that the three victims were tied up and brutally murdered, that information coming from the sheriff's office today. At the same time, they're pouring over the crime scene trying to glean any kind of information they can. But this isn't a made-for-TV episode. This is something that will take some time. It is painstaking.
Authorities went there Monday night around 6:00 local time, but it took six full hours for them to determine that indeed two other children were missing. They weren't able to do that until they notified the next of kin. And then they found out that nine-year-old Dylan, who is about four-foot tall, 60 pounds, short blond crew cut and blue eyes; and his eight-year-old sister, Shasta, slight girl, less than 4 foot tall, about 40 pounds, with long auburn hair and hazel eyes.
Authorities are still looking for those two. There is an Amber Alert out. We can tell you there is a command center that has been set up here. It is first time this county has had to lose the Amber Alert. Within 24 hours, about 165 phone calls came in from all over the country, as far away as Florida, Chicago.
The big concern, the six hours between the time investigators came to the crime scene and they determined that the children were missing. They say the first two hours the most important. If you think about it, six hours would have given someone enough time to drive all the way to Seattle.
Authorities say they're holding out hope that the two children are alive because their rationale is, why would three people be murdered and then two children killed and taken away? If they would have been killed, they suspect that all would have happened in the same area that is indeed their hope and that, Anderson, is what they're working on this evening.
COOPER: Sean, just very briefly, how were the kids related to the three people who were killed? Do we know?
CALLEBS: Yes. The two children, the nine-year-old and eight- year-old, are the children of the woman who was killed, 40-year-old Brenda Groene. And also the brother and sister of 13-year-old Slade, another victim. And 37-year-old Mark McKenzie was also killed that night. He apparently was Brenda's boyfriend.
COOPER: All right. Sean Callebs, thanks. Covering the story for us right now.
Keeping track of child predators was the focus on Capitol Hill today. "America's Most Wanted" host John Walsh joined families of abducted kids in backing a proposal for federal law to register sex offenders before they're ever released from prison, and to force two- time offenders to wear tracking devices for life.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) WALSH: I try to hunt these people down on my show. I am sick of watching them get caught and looking at their rap sheets; 20, 30 arrests. The man that was arrested for Jessica Lunsford's murder, was accused of murdering that beautiful nine-year-old girl, served two years of a ten-year sentence for molesting a child. He had 22 arrests. The system doesn't work for children in this country.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: John Walsh has, of course, been on a very personal crusade for nearly 25 years now for tougher laws on child predators. For the rest of the special hour on 360, we're looking at the heroic ways that many Americans are fighting back against crime, in ways large and small. We begin with John Walsh's story. Here is Paula Zahn.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ANNOUNCER: Now, from our Washington Crime Center, John Walsh.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR (voice over): He's the driving force behind "America's Most Wanted".
WALSH: This week, your tips have led to not one, but two captures.
ZAHN: John Walsh, the nation's go-to guy from fugitives to missing children.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's the hardest working guy I have ever met in show business.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think he probably has visited almost every single city in the United States in talking to people.
ZAHN: John Walsh has become synonymous with fighting crime. And with catching the uncatchable, with giving voice to the voiceless. After more than 15 years on "America's Most Wanted," Walsh's a certified pop culture icon wrapped in a leather jacket. TV host, crusader, activist, John Walsh has been in the public eye for more than 20 years, years no father should have ever had to bear.
John Walsh was born the day after Christmas, 1945, in Auburn, New York; the first of four children.
SUSAN SCHINDEHETTE, CO-AUTHOR, "TEARS OF RAGE": John grew up as part of a big family in upstate New York. Irish Catholic, very traditional values, had a wonderful, wonderful father and I met his mother and she was a lovely, lovely woman.
ZAHN: Walsh idolized his parents, especially his father, who was known as Gentleman Jack or more often by his nickname, Adam.
WALSH: I had a great father. Went to Notre Dame, he was a World War II hero, B-24 bomber pilot. I was lucky and blessed, but I was wild. I just loved to have fun. I loved dangerous sports. In those days, you know, people didn't get a gun and kill somebody, you fought. We fist fought.
ZAHN: If Walsh sometimes fought for fun, he more often than not fought to protect. Somewhere early on he had picked up the idea that it was his job, his duty to take care of things.
SCHINDEHETTE: John really felt this kind of overwhelming sense of responsibility, that he was tougher and stronger and smarter, and would last longer than anybody who came up against him.
ZAHN: Walsh was popular growing up -- even more so when he entered college. He was single and loving it, until a young woman named Reve Drew walked into his life.
WALSH: I met Reve when I was in college, beautiful lady. I remember one of my buddies said, you know there is this beautiful gal that wants to meet you over here and we'll take you over and introduce you to her. And that was the beginning.
ZAHN: John Walsh and Reve Drew began dating and eventually they left upstate New York for Florida. By 1971, the self-described hell raiser was married and working as a marketing executive in the hotel industry. Walsh's work also took him around the world, away from home away from Reve.
SCHINDEHETTE: One of the points that John always made is that he and Reve did not want to start a family immediately.
WALSH: I always thought that being a father would be a huge responsibility. And I think Reve thought the same thing.
ZAHN: On November 14, 1974, after more than four years of marriage, Reve gave birth to a baby boy, a son the Walshes named Adam, after John's father.
SCHINDEHETTE: After Adam was born, these two care free people, I think, shifted their sights.
ZAHN: The Walshes doted on their new son. They took him to the Bahamas to share John's love of the ocean. They took him to Disney world. Adam was never alone.
WALSH: A lot of people used to say Adam is so gracious, he's so loving, he's so kind. He lights up a room when he comes in the room. He's an old soul. And it kind of summed up Adam. He was that kind of a loving -- he was very different than me.
ZAHN: John and Reve hovered over Adam, partly out of instinct, but mostly out of love, out of joy.
WALSH: Reve was a full time stay-at-home, 100 percent devoted mom. Brought Adam to school, private school, brought him every single day, picked him up every single day.
ZAHN: If the Walshes were sometimes overprotective, Adam didn't seem to notice. In the summer of 1981, Adam was six, and he was learning to play baseball. And when he wasn't running the bases, he was with Reve as she went about her daily routine in Hollywood, Florida. On July 27th, 1981, Reve and Adam were out running errands. It was an ordinary day. They stopped at the Hollywood Mall and went into Sears to get some lamps.
SCHINDEHETTE: She and Adam went into the store and in the center of the toy department was something that was brand new, brand new. They were called video games. No one had really seen much of them. And as soon as they got to the video games, Adam said, mom, mom, can I stay here and play with the games? And she said, OK, Adam, now I'm going to be over in the lamp department. It's just around the corner.
ZAHN: Reve didn't specifically tell Adam to stay put. She never had to warn him before.
SCHINDEHETTE: Reve came around the corner and went back to where the video games were. And she said to me, it wasn't just that Adam wasn't there, she said it was so quiet all of a sudden. All of a sudden no one was there.
ZAHN: Suddenly the little boy who never strayed had vanished without a trace.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: When John Walsh's story continues, an unimaginable tragedy turns tears into rage.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WALSH: The worst day of my life. He was my best friend. And he said, uh, those remains, my son was decapitated, it was Adam.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: But the news that shattered John Walsh's world turned him into America's best known crime fighter.
Later tonight, an artist fighting back with criminals with just her pens and pencils and a sketch pad, but what power she has.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: Welcome back to the special edition of 360: "Fighting Back". We're looking at crime this week on CNN and tonight how every one of us can fight back. John Walsh has of course been a fixture on television for so many years that you may have forgotten he was just an ordinary dad until July 27th, 1981. That's when his six-year-old son Adam vanished. That is what would send John Walsh on a crusade that continues to this day. Once again, here is Paula Zahn.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ZAHN: Two weeks after Adam Walsh vanished in the summer of 1981, the remains of a small boy were found in a canal 150 miles north of Hollywood, Florida. John and Reve Walsh were in New York at the time. They had just appeared on a national morning show, pleading for information about their missing son. John was in the hotel by himself when the phone rang.
WALSH: The worst phone call in my life. Mm-hmm? The worst day of my life. He was my best friend. And he said, those remains, my son was decapitated, it was Adam. And that's -- that's all I remember. I remember smashing things and wrecking things and throwing things around and I don't remember him breaking into the room, but I was told they did, security. And I guess they got a hotel doctor or some -- a doctor from somewhere and I told them that what I had to do was call Reve.
I had to find Reve because I didn't want anybody else to tell her. I was -- I wanted to tell her myself. I said, you know, it is going to be the hardest thing I've ever done but I have do it myself.
ZAHN: The abduction and murder of his son Adam nearly consumed John Walsh. For a time, he didn't want to go on. Desperate and grieving, Walsh looked for answers. But all he found were more questions.
ERNIE ALLEN, NATIONAL CTR. FOR MISSING CHILDREN: Twenty years ago, if your child was abducted, you were pretty much on your own. Today there is a national network for disseminating images and information. There are 50 state missing children clearinghouses; 20 years ago there were none.
ZAHN: John and Reve started a local missing children's center out of their garage. And eight weeks after Adam's death, they testified before Congress on behalf of the Missing Children's Act, which would require the authorities to keep files on missing children and unidentified bodies. John Walsh had come to Washington for help, for action, what he ran into was resistance.
SCHINDEHETTE: He was a nobody from Florida, and it was a sad story, and he lost his little boy. And they wanted to pat him on the head and have him go away.
WALSH: We don't even know how many of our children are missing.
ZAHN: But Walsh wouldn't go away, wouldn't give up.
WALSH: Any coroner will tell you most children are murdered in 24 hours.
ZAHN: And his persistence paid off. In 1982, he was there when President Ronald Reagan signed the Missing Children's Act into law. Walsh's activism helped establish the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
By this time, he was becoming a very familiar face, not only in Washington, but around the nation. Walsh continued to hone his camera skills through news conferences and talk shows and appearances, appearances that impressed executives at a fledgling network called FOX. WALSH: I became a victim of crime when my young son Adam...
ZAHN: They had an idea for a new program that would profile criminals and solicit tips from viewers. TV was ready for John Walsh, but he wasn't sure he was ready for TV. He said no for six months. Until finally --
WALSH: I asked Reve, I said, you know, Reve, they want me to do a pilot. I don't know what a pilot is. And Reve said, you know what, do it. That's what we're about.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WALSH: Good evening from Washington, D.C. I'm John Walsh.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ZAHN: "America's Most Wanted" debuted in February of 1988.
WALSH: Our first case is from the FBI's 10 Most Wanted List.
ZAHN: The first person profiled was caught three days later. And a once reluctant John Walsh has been the host for nearly 20 years.
WALSH: Good evening.
ZAHN: In that time, "America's Most Wanted" has led to the capture of hundreds of fugitives. No one has ever been charged in Adam Walsh's murder. In 1997, however, John published "Tears of Rage". In it, he and his co-author combed through Adam's 10,000 page police report. They also name a suspect.
WALSH: I believe that Ottis Toole, serial killer, who died on death row in Florida from AIDS and cirrhosis of the liver, killed Adam. He confessed to Adam's murder on several occasions, in spite of the media saying he recanted his story. He didn't recant his confession, his lawyer did.
ZAHN: Over the last two decades, John Walsh has been a tireless advocate, not only for children's rights, but also victims' rights. He has fought for new laws and he has helped thousands. And he's done it all with one person in mind.
WALSH: I've often thought I wanted to make sure Adam didn't die in vain. That his beautiful little life wasn't in vain. And, you know, I think -- I think he's up there saying go get them, dad. Hang in there.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: That was Paula Zahn's report. According to "America's Most Wanted", the show's viewers have helped capture 843 fugitives.
Erica Hill from "HEADLINE NEWS" joins us with the latest at about half hour past the hour.
Erica?
HILL: Hi, Anderson.
An emotional plea for more government protection for judges came today from Chicago Judge Loan Lefkow in her first public comment since her husband and her mother were murdered by an enraged plaintiff in February. She called it her own personal 9/11.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOAN LEFKOW, U.S. DISTRICT JUDGE: Finally, I'm the wife who wakes up in the morning not to a cup of coffee presented by my husband of 30 years, to reopen what we called the endless conversation of marriage, but to an open book that I was reading in an effort to banish the memories of 5:30 p.m. on the day our world changed forever.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HILL: Judge Lefkow says, she continues to be targeted by protesters in public. She's asked for more spending on security for federal judges.
There is a better chance interest rates won't be going up again after the government reported only a modest increase in April consumer prices, just one half of one percent. An Associated Press report meantime says Democrats digging into John Bolton's background have thought he tried to get an intelligence analyst he disagreed with punished. The report also says Bolton misled a Senate committee about his actions while testifying under oath at his confirmation hearing to be U.N. ambassador.
As Iraqis burned an assassinated Sunni -- buried, rather, an assassinated Sunni cleric today, another mortar attack killed two Iraqis and injured seven schoolchildren in Mosul. Seven more bodies were found bound and shot execution style in the town west of Baghdad.
Toyota's Lexus and nine other Toyota models were tops in quality in this year's survey by J.D. Powers. Detroit wasn't shut out, though, the survey shows five GM vehicles among the high in quality. Gm's Hummer, meantime, was labeled most improved.
And that's the latest from HEADLINE NEWS at this hour. Anderson, back to you.
COOPER: Thanks, we'll see you again in 30 minutes.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER (voice-over): "Fighting Back:" a young girl faces down her attacker. What she did to save her life. And what your child should know before heading out the door.
And a crime victim fights back by picking up her sketch book and dedicating her life to helping cops catch criminals.
This special edition of 360 "Fighting Back" continues in a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: She's one of the most successful crime fighters in the world, helping to catch more than a thousand criminals. The amazing thing is that she does it with just a pencil and sketch pad. And there are 18 other people in this country who do what she does. But for Lois Gibson, it is a personal mission, payback to a man who almost killed her.
Here again, CNN's Paula Zahn.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LOIS GIBSON, SKETCH ARTIST: Someone tried to kill me when I was 21 years old. It was a torture rape. He strangled me. He made me black out four times during the attack. I thought I was going to die. And then I would come to again and he probably didn't care if I did die. And after that I was destroyed.
ZAHN (voice-over: Scared, embarrassed, even ashamed, 21-year-old Lois Gibson never reported her attack.
GIBSON: I thought, well, they'll think I deserved it or I asked for it. I couldn't have hacked that.
ZAHN: The trauma didn't stop Lois, she finished her college degree and started a sidewalk stand in San Antonio painting portraits of passers by.
GIBSON: You get fast and you get good at picking up on those unique features. And by the time I moved to Houston, I was a major portrait artist.
ZAHN: Yet Lois was still haunted. But then one day that changed. She was watching a news report about a criminal on the loose.
GIBSON: All they were saying was 5'10, brown hair, brown eyes, over and over. And I thought, wow. I could draw a picture and show that unusual nose, what about the hairstyle? What about the facial structure? The lips, the chin.
This is going to be real easy. Just relax.
I realized I wanted to catch people, because I wanted to get back at the guy that hurt me and tried to kill me.
How tall do you think he was?
ZAHN: Surprisingly, she says police departments didn't want someone who had never been a cop helping on major criminal investigations. They saw her as just a mother, a housewife and an artist.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: On his nose -- I was talking about that scar...
GIBSON: I had to force myself on them. It was not -- it was oil and water. But all that is water under the bridge. Suffice it to say, it took me seven and-a-half years before they gave me a full time job. Even though one out of every three sketches I would do, it would solve the case.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think he's looking at me right there.
ZAHN: Since then, more than 3,000 sketches and more than 700 convictions.
Look at the sketches and compare them to the mug shots of the person arrested and ultimately convicted of the crime. You don't have to be an expert to see how strikingly accurate they are.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE; She's able to relate and show compassion to people and she has the ability to build a trust quickly with people. I think that allows people to be relaxed and comfortable with her and recall facts of their experience.
GIBSON: My attack gives me an edge because every time a witness comes in my room and I close the door, almost the first thing I tell them is well, somebody tried to kill me for fun, and they immediately relax.
ZAHN: Pam Minks was one of those witnesses. In 1996 she was brutally beaten by a stranger outside her drugstore one spring night. Fortunately Pam saw her attacker. With no eyewitnesses, only Pam's memory, and Lois' talent stood between the attacker and justice.
PAM MINKS, VICTIM: It is difficult to talk about this to begin with. At that point it was so fresh and raw that it was very difficult. And she was very empathetic without being condescending.
ZAHN: It took Lois a little over two hours to transform Pam's memories into a composite.
MINKS: When she actually showed me the finished sketch, I couldn't believe it. It gave me goosebumps. It was so frighteningly real, so frighteningly him.
GIBSON: Do you see how...
ZAHN: For than a year, Pam carried the sketch around with her, showing it to strangers. And one day a friend of a friend recognized it. The man was tried and convicted.
MINKS: It is a relief. An enormous relief to have him off the streets.
GIBSON: That's why I go through this work, because I want the people that I'm with to feel what it feels like to get justice. Because I know what it feels like to want it so bad.
MINKS: It was so close to him. It was scary. Without that sketch we wouldn't have caught him. And I just can't thank you enough for your gift. Because you gave me my gift. You put him behind bars.
GIBSON: That's all I wanted for you.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: One woman's story.
Still to come, a chilling new declaration from one of the worst enemies of progress in Iraq.
Also ahead tonight, a class that may be a life saver for your kids. It teaches them how to get away from predators.
And a little later, how Star Wars action figures could save Social Security? We'll find out.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: And, the incomparable Larry King is coming up at the top of the hour. Larry, who's with you tonight?
LARRY KING, HOST "LARRY KING LIVE": Incomparable? I like that.
Tim Russert will be with us tonight, the host of "Meet the Press," an old friend of about 25 years. They've just issued the paperback version of "Big Russ and Me," his enormous best-seller. We'll talk about that and lots of other things in the news and maybe he'll have a cure for the common cold. Of course, your extraordinary person here has the common cold.
COOPER: That's what makes you extraordinary. You're working, even though you got a cold. You're the hardest working man in news.
KING: The show must go on, right?
COOPER: A business we call show. Larry, thank you much. We'll see you again in about 17 minutes.
Coming up, a story of a little girl who got away from her attacker because she knew exactly how to fight back.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MCBRIDE: Whoever hits me, believe me, they're going to get something back.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: What your kids need to know to keep themselves safe.
Also, later, using the force to save Social Security? Take that idea beyond light speed. I'm your father.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: We continue to follow a developing story right now in Idaho. Police are still searching for those two children who vanished after a triple murder in Coeur d'Alene. Sean Callebs joins me now with the latest.
Sean, three bodies were found in this house. Two of the kids are still missing. What do we know about the victims at this point?
CALLEBS: Well, we can tell you, the 40-year-old is the mother of the two children who are missing, also the mother of one of the victims, 13-year-old Slade Groene. The other -- the boyfriend of the mother. The mother and the boyfriend have somewhat of a history in drugs. The mother had been arrested on a number of occasions, mostly misdemeanors, possession. According to (ph) public defender...
COOPER: What are we talking about, methamphetamines, here?
CALLEBS: Don't know if it is methamphetamine. Don't know. We talked to the sheriff, but I can tell you that methamphetamine is a huge problem in this area, as it is in many rural areas. The sheriff said that it's just ripe for an area for it to be cooked, sold. It's cheap. It is easy to get out. So, if indeed there is a connection to drugs, which no one is saying at this point, but certainly this is not a random killing, very brutal. They're trying find something kind of motive. It could have been drugs. It could very well have been something like crystal meth.
COOPER: Now, the people who were killed, they were bound, is that correct?
CALLEBS: Yes, the people who were killed were bound, and apparently it was a very bloody crime scene. The sheriff isn't saying exactly how they were killed. Autopsies are being performed right now. They hope to gain some information from that. They're also trying to take finger prints off the bodies, which apparently is extremely difficult to do. Two autopsies have been completed. The third is expected to be completed tomorrow, and at that time we should know the cause of death.
COOPER: And what do we know about the person of interest? Let's put his picture up if we can, because this is the man the police have been looking for quite some time. I know he called into the police when they found -- when he found out they were looking him. What do we know about this guy?
CALLEBS: Yes, this is a real wild card out there. I'm really curious because they're not calling this individual a suspect. His name is Robert Roy Lutner. He is 33 years old. He was apparently at the home. He's a friend of the family's. He had been there at the time frame when the crimes were committed. So, certainly, they hope that if this person can explain what was leading up to the crime, that maybe it can shed some light and perhaps even, Anderson, give some indication of where the two children are.
COOPER: All right, a lot of questions still unanswered. Sean Callebs, appreciate it. Thanks very much.
Erica Hill from HEADLINE NEWS joins us now with the latest at about 11 minutes to the hour. Hey Erica.
HILL: Anderson, a chilling new audiotape has surfaced, one that justifies the killing of innocent Muslims in the war against Iraq's new government.
A voice thought to be that of most-wanted terrorist Abu Musab al- Zarqawi says religious doctrine does not forbid Muslims to be killed in the holy war against infidels. Zarqawi is thought to be behind the deaths of hundreds of Iraqis in car bombings this year. U.S. military officials say he and his top aides recently met in Syria to plan insurgent attacks.
Two major anti-terror dragnets in Italy today. Police arrested four North African suspects and issued arrest warrants for 10 more suspected of recruiting people for terror attacks in Italy and in other countries.
President Bush was closer to danger than we originally thought during a rally in Tblisi, Georgia, last week. American and Georgian investigators say it was a live grenade that failed to explode, not a dummy as first thought. It landed in the crowd about 100 feet from the stage. A suspect is still on the loose.
And no, Toto, this isn't Kansas but Key West, Florida, where 17 funnel clouds were spotted over the waters today, several of them large enough to be a hazard to boaters.
A freaky mid-spring storm coated parts of China with a white blanket of snow. It may be pretty but dozens of deaths were blamed on the snow in the northwest as well as torrential rains in the southeast.
That's the latest from HEADLINE NEWS.
Anderson, back to you.
COOPER: Erica, thanks very much.
Parents going to heroic lengths to protect their kids. How many of you have thought of giving them self-defense training so they can fight back and maybe save their lives?
Ed Lavandera now has the story of one young girl who survived because she was prepared for the worst.
ED LAVANDERA, CNN (voice-over): Candy Mcbride is nine years old, 4'8" tall and is stuck at 79 pounds. But don't let cute fool you.
(on camera): For all the other fourth graders how would you describe yourself?
MCBRIDE: Cool, athletic, funny. I can kick butt.
LAVANDERA (voice-over): That's the strong-willed attitude her family says helped Candy put 26-year-old Jimmy Guard in jail. The 5'10", 185-pound man is awaiting trial for attempted kidnapping. He's accused of trying to abduct Candy last November and has pled not guilty.
CHARLOTTE CARR, CANDY'S MOTHER: She comes up -- there was grass or what have you. And she was cutting across here. And so it happened just like right here.
LAVANDERA: Candy just got off her school bus when police say Guard jumped from behind a tree.
CARR: When he grabbed her, he put his hands over her mouth and he had her arms up behind her head.
LAVANDERA (on camera): The attack happened 100 yards away from Candy's home and just a few feet away from a busy roadway. It was 4:00 in the afternoon. Cars were driving by, other kids were walking home from school. But still no one was close enough to help.
(voice-ocer): Candy was alone but hardly helpless. In an instant, this little 4th grader got mad enough to unleash her fury.
MCBRIDE: He came behind me and put my hands up. Then I turned. I kicked him like that. I turned around and punched him, and then he punched me back. Then I slapped him, and he slapped me back. And then I hit him one more time in the stomach and then I ran home.
LAVANDERA: Candy developed the confidence to fight back in a self-defense training course called RAD Kids.
ALLISON LAWSON, RAD KIDS INSTRUCTOR: RAD Kid stance. Yell: Stay back!
LAVANDERA: "RAD" stands for "resist aggression defensively." She took the class as a 2nd grader but the lessons stuck.
MCBRIDE: Whoever hits me, believe me, they're going to get something back.
LAWSON: "No," and then maybe they'll let go. What do we do? We run away and go tell somebody, right?
LAVANDERA: Allison Lawson is the instructor who taught Candy. She says the course doesn't just tell kids how to be safe; it shows them what to do to protect themselves like how to allude and escape an attacker's grip.
LAWSON: One of the things I think RAD Kids did for her was to help give her the mindset so that when it really happens, they're able to kind of take control of that situation. And instead of kind of freaking out for a minute and trying to decide what to do, there is a little bit of, "Oh, I know." There is a little bit of control there.
LAVANDERA: Not only did Candy get away, police say she got a good enough look at the attacker that the next day she instantly picked Jimmy Guard out of a photo lineup. Candy's mother credits the RAD Kids course for helping her daughter stay cool under pressure.
(on camera): Were you ever scared?
MCBRIDE: Never.
LAVANDERA: Never?
MCBRIDE: I'm not scared. Not of anything but my mom.
(LAUGHTER)
LAVANDERA: Candy has a message for every young child who thinks they're too small and weak to get away from a strong attacker. Confidence, she says, is key.
MCBRIDE: They can be two feet for all I care; they can do it.
LAVANDERA: Ed Lavandera, CNN. Provo, Utah
COOPER: Confident kid. **** Coming up, a radical idea for saving Social Security. It's all about "Star Wars." Instead of investing in stocks, how about relying on Darth Vader? It's not as crazy as you think. `
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: Tonight: taking "social insecurity" to the "Nth Degree." If you're already on line for tonight's premiere of "Revenge of the Sith," you're beyond the reach of my voice and cannot benefit from the investment advice I'm about to give you, which is that you would be better off online at the toy counter or the used car lot than at the movie theater.
Look here -- and we're indebted to "USA Today" for these figures -- if you bought yourself a 1978 Darth Vader action figure, 20 years later back in 1998 when it was going for 205 bucks, you would now be 193 percent ahead of the game.
A '78 Darth in its original packaging is currently worth 600 smackeroos.
Or suppose you had real cash in '98 and scored a 27-year-old Plymouth Hemi Cuda four-door hardtop for 60 grand, which is what they were going for then: The value today of that muscle car, 600,000 grand, an appreciation of 900 percent.
A '57 T-bird, better than twice what you paid in '98. A '78 Luke Skywalker, better than twice who you paid in '98. A cow, up 43 percent. Coffee, ahead 14 percent.
The NASDAQ composite, down 2 percent.
Memo to the president:
"Dear, sir: Maybe moving Americans' retirement funds into stocks isn't the best idea. Maybe Uncle Sam ought to buy collectibles for all us old-folks-to-be. Not Pez dispensers, though; they've done worse than the NASDAQ.
I personally have lost a bundle on the Storm Troopers which are down about 29 percent.
Thanks for watching this special two-hour edition of "360." I'm Anderson Cooper. CNN's prime time coverage continues now with "LARRY KING LIVE." Larry's guest tonight, Tim Russert.
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 May 18, 2005 - 19:00 Â ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Police find the person of interest in the Idaho disappearance of two kids and the murder of three. Tonight, where are the children? What really happened inside this house?
Iraq's most wanted man declares open season on Muslim women and children. Tonight is the U.S. military any closer to catching this mass murder?
The mystery of the Piano Man found alive on a deserted beach unable to speak. He can only play the piano. Tonight leads are pouring in, but how close are authorities to figuring out the identity of the piano man?
She seduced a teen then convinced him to kill her husband. After 15 years behind bars she wants out. Tonight, an exclusive interview, a killer and why she believes she should go free.
How old is your mattress? How about your pillow? Might be sharing your bed with creepy-crawlies and not even know it. Tonight the tiny creatures living in your mattress and how they may be making you sick.
And a crime victim fights back by picking up her sketchbook and dedicating her life to helping cops catch criminals.
ANNOUNCER: Live from the CNN Broadcast Center in New York, this is a two-hour special edition of ANDERSON COOPER 360.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: Good evening again. We begin in Idaho tonight with new developments in a very puzzling crime. Three people were bound and killed, their bodies found in a house in the town of Coeur D'Alene. Now, not found in that home missing two children: Shasta K. Groene and her nine-year-old brother Dylan.
For two days now police have been looking for this man, Robert Roy Lutner who is believed to have been one of the last people to see the victims before the murders. Tonight, Lutner has apparently been found. The question now, what does he know? And where are the kids?
CNN's Sean Callebs is in Coeur D'Alene -- Sean. SEAN CALLEBS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Anderson, exactly right. A lot of questions this evening. Investigators here tell us that about an hour, hour and-a-half ago, that 33-year-old Robert Roy Lutner contacted authorities. Lutner apparently knew sheriff's officers, FBI were looking for him. He called.
The authorities here will not say exactly where Lutner was when he made the call. Investigators immediately began trying to make their way to that area trying to find out what, if anything, Lutner knows about the grisly crimes that happened in the modest home not terribly far behind me.
Now, they have identified Lutner as someone as a person of interest. They are not saying that he is a suspect in the killings just yet. He does have a long arrest record, mostly for misdemeanors: drugs, drunken driving, things of that nature.
Authorities say that once they do sit down with him, try to glean more information about the crime scene they will pass I on to us.
We are learning more about what went on in this house on -- sometime between Sunday and Monday. The three victims were killed brutally. That coming from the sheriff. They were apparently also tied up before their lives were taken.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CAPTAIN BEN WOLFINGER, KOOTENAI COUNTY SHERIFF'S DEPTARTMENT: We know this is a triple homicide, because all three victims were bound. That's new information I know for you guys. That's important to us as far as processing this crime scene.
We're not going to release how those people were bound, what they were bound with or anything like that. We're holding that close to the vest.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CALLEBS: One thing, also becoming quite clear, real police work takes time. It's not a CSI made-for-TV episode.
Now, authorities found the victims on Monday night. At that time, no one was still alive in the house to tell them that the two small children were missing. They didn't know those kids were missing until they identified the victims and notified next of kin.
Six hours elapsed between that time. Authorities say it was a very important time and they have been behind the 8 ball in this investigation basically ever since.
Also, it rained very heavy on Monday night. It turned the dirt to mud. And police say they lost a lot of clues in the crime scene just outside the home. The integrity there compromised. If indeed there were tire tracks or footprints leading up to the home, those are gone. Now, authorities say they could have been very useful in trying to determine who committed these crimes. Now, what about the two children? Nine-year-old Dylan. He's 4' tall, weighs about 60 pounds, has a blonde crewcut and blue eyes. And his younger, sister eight-year-old Shasta, she's a slight child, only about 40 pounds, under 4' tall.
An Amber Alert remains out this evening. Authorities say they received more than 165 calls. But while the signs keep flashing, there is no sign of the children -- Anderson.
COOPER: We'll continue to follow the story over the next two hours or so. Sean Callebs, thanks very much for that.
We learned more today about why there's been such an uptick in violence in Iraq lately, and there has. Nearly 500 people killed in just the last few weeks. No surprise U.S. officials are blaming this man, Abu Musab al Zarqawi, who they believe met recently with chief lieutenants to plot more attacks in the wake of the appointment of the new Iraqi government.
Now we also heard from al Zarqawi today, or at least someone believed to be him, on an audiotape. Zarqawi likes to make tapes. And they usually have the same message, the same sick rants.
What makes today's tape worth mentioning however is that al Zarqawi makes it very clear just how depraved he is. He says and I quote, "killing of infidels by any method, including martyrdom operations has been sanctified by many scholars, even if it means killing innocent Muslims." In other words, in the name of jihad it's OK to kill anyone, women, children, Christian, Muslims, anyone.
The tape made us wonder what kind of man would say such a thing? What kind of man would think like that? We asked CNN's Nic Robertson to find out.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Iraq, May 2004. American Nick Berg is about to be beheaded. His execution recorded and released on a Web site titled "Abu Musab al Zarqawi Slaughters An American." Its barbarity rockets Zarqawi from relative obscurity to front-page familiarity.
But already he is the deadliest insurgent in Iraq. To find out how Zarqawi got to this point, I have come to this jail in Jordan.
ABDULLAH RUMMAN, JOURNALIST AND FORMER JAIL MATE OF ZARQAWI: In this prison, in this jail, al Zarqawi became a leader.
ROBERTSON: This journalist Abdullah Rumman knew Zarqawi and is willing to talk. He was locked up with him in the mid 1990s.
(on camera): He was asking his men to march along.
RUMMAN: They use this way to walkout -- shouting -- like an army, exactly an army. And shouting... ROBERTSON (voice-over): Politely moved on by Jordanian security, Rumman tells me to learn more, I should begin where Zarqawi grew up. Born Ahmed Fadil al Khalaylah, he later took his nom de guerre Zarqawi from the name of his hometown Swaqa. It looks pretty from a distance, but up close it's different, crammed by successive waves of Palestinian refugees, one of the poorest towns in the country.
(on camera): With its densely packed housing and intense tribal loyalties Swaqa has been compared to the Bronx. But others liken its down-at-heel working class neighborhoods to Detroit. For Zarqawi, though, it was a place of limited opportunity.
(voice-over): Outside the house where he was born in October 1966, neighbors say they remember the family well.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): They were simple people. They lived a simple life. They barely made it.
ROBERTSON: His father fought against the Israelis in 1948 and was well respected before he died.
In this picture at the time, the young Zarqawi looks unremarkable, but seems determined to earn respect like his father.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): If someone would harm his neighbors or friends Zarqawi would always come to defend a victim. He always did good deeds. Nothing wrong.
ROBERTSON: His days were spent here Swaqa's school, but by all accounts he didn't excel academically.
(on camera): Zarqawi left school before his final exams, disappointing his parents. He didn't seem to have a career in mind. And his father tried to fix him up with a job at the local municipality.
(voice-over): That was 1982. Zarqawi was about 16, developing a reputation as a tough guy who, against Muslim custom, drank and got a tattoo.
Outside his old mosque, I tracked down his brother-in-law hoping he can tell me more.
(on camera): Excuse me sir, can we talk to you about Abu Musab, your brother-in-law, is that possible?
You don't -- nothing -- you don't want to say?
(voice-over): He's not unfriendly, just unwilling to talk.
In 1989, the U.S. backed mujahadin were on the verge of driving the Soviet Army out of Afghanistan. Thousands of Arabs, including Osama bin Laden were in the fight. Zarqawi decided to join them.
In these rare pictures taken soon after he arrived, Zarqawi is seen relaxing, mixing happily with other jihadis or Muslim holy warriors. He arrived as the jihad was ending.
Some reports say Zarqawi never fought the Soviets, others that he was very brave in battle. All accounts agree, though, he befriended this man, Abu Mohammed al Makdisi, a Kuwaiti-born cleric intent on the violent overthrow of secular Arab governments.
Much of what he did in Afghanistan is unknown. There are conflicting accounts of whether or not he met Osama bin Laden. General Ali Shukri was a military and intelligence adviser to Jordan's King Hussein and knows Zarqawi's case file.
GENERAL ALI SHUKRI, FMR JORDANIAN MILITARY ADVISER: He decided to join the fight against the Soviets in Afghanistan. He was trained there. He became a bomb expert.
ROBERTSON: Zarqawi left Afghanistan in 1992. He came back to Jordan with new friends, ideas, and an agenda.
Nic Robertson, CNN.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: And, of course, we now know what the agenda was.
Next on this special two-hour edition of 360, the fight over filibusters and federal judges -- it's bringing the Senate to a near standstill. We're taking you "Beyond the Headlines" tonight. Find out what is really on the line.
Plus, a bank heist gone wrong: a half dozen hostages, and a dash for the airport -- made all the hostages strip. A bizarre crime -- find out how the robbery ended.
And a little later, did you know that there are microscopic bugs living in your mattresses and your pillows? We're talking about dust mites. You will not believe how many of them live in your mattress right now, and in your pillow. They might even be making you ill. Dr. Sanjay Gupta investigates. All that's ahead. First, your picks, the most popular stories on CNN.com right now.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: Well, push is coming to shove in the Senate where Majority Leader Bill Frist today called on his fellow senators to move toward an up or down vote on one of President Bush's most controversial judicial nominees. This, in the looming shadow of the so-called nuclear option which would change the Senate rule, allowing the minority to stall such nominations by filibuster or, endless debate.
So, this is a struggle between competing principles, majority rule versus the minority's right not to be bullied. But it's also a struggle over two particular individuals. With a portrait of one of them, here's CNN's John King.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) JOHN KING, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Janice Rogers Brown, a college liberal turned courthouse conservative, a Shakespeare and poetry-lover with a penchant for provocative words of her own.
These are "perilous times for people of faith," she warned in a speech last month, suggesting liberals want to divorce the country from its religious heritage. "It's not a shooting war," she said, "but it's a war."
JANICE ROGERS BROWN, JUDICIAL NOMINEE: The question for you will be whether the regime of freedom, which they founded, can survive the relentless enmity of the slave mentality.
KING: She calls the New Deal, which created Social Security and Medicare, "our socialist revolution," suggesting it created reliance on big government, a new slavery, contrary to the Constitution's authors' vision of limited government.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She's so radical that she says, with programs like Social Security and Medicare, seniors are cannibalizing their grandchildren.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hear ye, hear ye, the honorable Supreme Court...
KING: Perhaps her most noteworthy judicial decision -- a sweeping attack on affirmative action, saying society should be color blind and not allow "entitlement based on group representation."
EVA PATTERSON, EQUAL JUSTICE SOCIETY: As black woman I'm here to say, it doesn't matter what the color of her skin is, it matters how she is going to rule.
KING: Skin color very much mattered to young Janice Rogers in Laverne, Alabama. Whenever possible, her sharecropper father kept the family from establishments that had separate entrances and facilities for blacks.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I know they didn't have indoor plumbing. I know that it was a very, very rough existence. I can only imagine what it must have been like growing up as a youngster in the segregated South.
KING: She was six when, 50 miles away in Montgomery, Rosa Parks refused to move to the back of the bus. Fred Gray was Parks' lawyer, an African American, and to young Janice, an inspiration.
Rogers Brown graduated UCLA Law School in 1977, making her dream of becoming an attorney a reality. Raising a son as a single mother made personal responsibility a guiding theme, and her political views trended more conservative.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She believes the judiciary's single duty is to protect individuals from government overreaching.
KING: Critics see her provocative writings as evidence of ambition, including her 2000 ruling criticizing racial quotas or even goals as contrary to a society based on equal opportunity for all.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was not a typical opinion that you would see of a judge looking at the facts and applying the law. It was much more something that appeared to be specifically drafted to catch the attention of ultra-right wing conservative groups.
KING: Former Chief of Staff Bill Mount says it is not personal ambition but instead a deliberate effort to stir debate on the evolving role of courts and government.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She believes that something of a wrong turn was taken, maybe half a century ago when the welfare state grew, and I think she thinks that the national experience of African-Americans has been in some ways regrettable.
PATERSON: I think the Bush people are very brilliantly playing the race card.
KING: Eva Patterson's Equal Justice Society in San Francisco is one of the array of state and national civil rights organizations opposing the Brown nomination.
PATERSON: She is a sister and she has suffered many of the indignities that black women throughout history have suffered. And so, that tends to make you want to just be quiet and not oppose her. But, then my sense of political chess makes me realize that that's exactly what Karl Rove and President Bush want to have happen.
KING: Justice Rogers Brown is a regular here at the Church of Christ near Rancho Cordova, near Sacramento. Friends say her deep Christian faith is a critical part of both her personal and professional life, though some critics say that faith plays too much of a role in her judicial philosophy.
ROGERS BROWN: What we ultimately pursue is a true vision of justice and ordered liberty, respectful of human dignity and the authority of God.
KING: In a 1997 case, the State Supreme Court declared unconstitutional a law requiring parental consent before a minor could receive an abortion. But Justice Brown dissented, suggesting the majority's reasoning gave courts a green light "to topple every cultural icon, to dismiss all societal values, and to become the final arbiters of traditional morality."
Friend Steve Mercimer (ph) says they have never discussed abortion.
STEVE MERCIMER, FRIEND OF JUSTICE BROWN: I don't know what her views would be. I think she views the Constitution in a fairly strict, constructionist way, which is what the president says, he wants to appoint people like that. But I also think that she is -- I think it's a big mistake to try to pigeonhole her.
KING: She is, for example, not always adverse to government power. "Sometimes beauty is fierce; love is tough; freedom is painful," she wrote in a ruling upholding drug testing for government job applicants.
She also allowed cities to disperse gang members without proof of illegal conduct.
MERCIMER: Janice is an extremely private person. She is hard to -- she won't open up to just anybody.
KING: Mercimer met with Brown recently to discuss her nomination. He says she preferred to talk about her latest intellectual pursuit.
MERCIMER: I couldn't believe it when she said to me: Could you connect me with somebody? I want to learn Hebrew. It's just amazing. I said: Why? She said: Because I want to read the Torah in the original Hebrew.
KING: Friends say two years of hearing herself labeled as combative, temperamental, extremist and worse have taken a toll. But Justice Brown isn't one to flinch from a fight.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She told me she went to see the Ray Charles film and she loved the line when they said, "They're scandalizing my name." That's exactly how she feels.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think she finds it brutal, just brutal.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In the other sense she's in the eye of the storm and she's quite calm about it all.
KING: John King, CNN, San Francisco.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: And the fight goes on.
Coming up next on this special two-hour edition of "360": dust mites. I've heard of them but didn't really know what they were. You're not going to believe what you are about to hear. Millions of these microscopic bugs living in your pillows, in your mattresses, living off your skin and causing allergies. Our "360" M.D., Sanjay Gupta, explains how to breathe easier in your home if your home is making you sneeze.
Also tonight, a CNN exclusive.
PAMELA SMART, CONVICTED OF MURDER PLOT: I would much rather have the death penalty than life in prison. People don't understand that but the death sentence has an end. This doesn't.
COOPER: We'll take you behind bars to the woman sentenced to life in prison for convincing her teen lover to kill her husband. Some say she should never see the light of day. She is asking the state to set her free. Tonight, the jailhouse interview.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: Erica Hill from HEADLINE NEWS joins us with a look at several other stories we are following tonight
Hey, Erica.
ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR: Hey, Anderson.
An FBI agent says the grenade thrown at President Bush last week in the former Soviet republic of Georgia could have exploded. The agent says the grenade fell within 100 feet of the podium where the president was speaking and simply failed to function.
A reward equivalent to almost $11,000 U.S. is being offered in exchange for information that leads to the conviction of the person responsible.
Olathe, Kansas: a bank robbery and a hostage situation. Police say the suspect ordered six hostages to strip to their underwear and forced all of them to a minivan. They drove to a small airport where the suspect was shot by police. Investigators say he may have planned to make a getaway on a small plane. The suspect is hospitalized tonight. None of the hostages were hurt.
Coming up on "360," we'll have an interview with a witness and an FBI agent on the case. Stick around for that.
On to Indianapolis, Indiana, now where boaters were rescued today. Fire crews had trouble helping three boaters to shore. They all got stuck on the edge of a dam on the White River and had to be pulled in. The good news: No one was hurt.
And what do the Boston Red Sox, Detroit Pistons and Tiger Woods have in common? A British anthropologist says they wear red and that helps them win. The researcher who studies sports all over the globe can't say why red gives the edge, but he suggests the color may subconsciously intimidate opponents.
That is the latest from "HEADLINE NEWS," all the important things.
I notice you didn't wear your red, and I appreciate it I would be intimidated.
COOPER: I find that the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard. Red did wonders for the Soviet Union -- really worked wonders.
HILL: And I'm not anti-Red Sox at all because I'm from one of those split Connecticut families where I really support both teams. But the winning record hasn't been that great until last year.
COOPER: Another great point. Thanks, Erica. See you again in about 30 minutes.
I want to ask you a personal question. How old is your mattress? How about your pillow? If it's more than a couple years old, you are probably sleeping with millions of these tiny creatures in your bed. They're microscopic. They feed off your skin cells and they could be making you sick. "360" M.D. Sanjay Gupta takes a look now under the covers. I want to warn you: After you see this story, you will not look at your mattress in the same way.
SANJAY GUPTA, M.D., CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): When they bought the new house in late 2004, Allyson and Reed Winnick were filled with promise and pride.
ALLYSON WINNICK, INDOOR ALLERGY SUFFERER: We moved here October 1 into a gorgeous home on the beach. And within a couple of weeks we all started getting sick: cough and congestion and runny noses.
GUPTA: The whole family was besieged by a mysterious illness. They were exhausted, moving at a slower pace. It became harder to wake up in the morning. And seven-year-old Justin was late for school almost every day.
A. WINNICK: I was ready to move out.
GUPTA: Increasingly frustrated they had air samples taken in the new home. They feared it was sinister mold growing in the air ducts or even asbestos or fiberglass from new construction. It was neither.
A. WINNICK: It was lots of dust mites -- lots and lots of dust mites. Nothing else; everything else came up clean. It was in every room that we tested -- the bedrooms, the playroom, the living room. It was everywhere.
GUPTA: The Winnicks were suffering from indoor allergies from dust mites. Dust mites are microscopic spiders so small that 7,000 of them can fit on a dime. They thrive in humidity and feed off skin cells humans shed.
The Winnicks aren't alone; 99 percent of all households have them. The average number in any given bed: 2 million.
GILLIAN SHEPERD, M.D., ALLERGY SPECIALIST: In the case of the dust, mites what the allergy substance is -- disgustingly -- it is a very potent protein in the fecal droppings of these mites. They tend to be in highest concentrations in bedding, in pillows.
GUPTA: While the Winnick's indoor allergy trigger is the dust mite, there are several other culprits when it comes to indoor allergies.
SHEPERD: Indoor allergies are extremely common, probably vastly more common than seasonal allergies. The number one culprit are the pets at home.
GUPTA: With cats and dogs, the actual allergen isn't the hair but a protein found in their saliva, dander, skin and urine It is so pervasive that it is easily transported on an owner's clothing.
As for cats, even if you remove one from a room, it takes six months before it is free of cat allergen. Also there may be a reason why some people are allergic to some cats and not others. CLIFFORD BASSETT, M.D., ALLERGY SPECIALIST: The darker the color of the pet dander on cats, the more allergy symptoms.
And male cats have more dander and seem to have more allergenic properties than female cats in a variety of preliminary studies.
GUPTA: Besides dust mites and pet dander, cockroaches are also a major source of indoor allergies in cities.
SHEPERD: On of the difficulties in many of these perennial allergens is that you can clean vigorously, however they are going to recur. So it's something that requires ongoing effort.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're going to use vibration and suction to get the allergens out of it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just roll it up now?
GUPTA: The Winnicks turned to Healthy Nest, a company that specializes in testing and riding the home of allergens. The treatments can cost hundreds of dollars.
AVINOAM HELLER, HEALTHY NEST: A good idea is actually to uncover the bed and leave it open, leave windows open when you can. And if you have the opportunity to expose your mattress or your bed to direct sunlight that's an excellent thing to do.
GUPTA: Other ways to fight indoor allergies, keep humidity below 50 percent possibly with a dehumidifier. Use allergy protecting covers for your mattress, box springs and pillow. Wash your sheets weekly in hot water and use a hot drier. Vacuum weekly with a HEPA filter. Consider hardwood or tile floors, carpets can accumulate a thousand times more allergens than noncarpeted floors. As for stuffed toys, put them in a plastic bag and freeze for 24 hours to kill those mites.
Now six months after finding the dust mites, the Winnicks have learned to deal with them.
WINNICK: So everything is good. No one sneezes in the morning when they wake up anymore.
GUPTA: Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN, Atlanta.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: The mystery of the Piano Man: found alive on a deserted beach, unable to speak, he can only play the piano. Tonight, leads are pouring in. But how close are authorities to figuring out the identity of the Piano Man?
She seduced a teen then convinced him to kill her husband. After 15 years behind bars. She wants out. Tonight an exclusive interview, a killer and why she believes she should go free.
This two-hour edition of 360 continues in a moment. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: Well, this Friday one of the teenagers convicted in the infamous Pamela Smart murder case is going to ask a parole board to let him be released from prison. Now, you may remember the story: 15 years ago Smart, a school employee, plotted with four of her students to kill her husband. Smart says she is innocent. And in an exclusive interview, she lays out the reasons why she deserves to be set free.
Here's CNN's Gary Tuchman with a report you will see only on CNN.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It was a sensational trial. Pamela Smart, accused of convincing her high school lover and friends to murder her husband.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How say you? Is the defendant guilty or not guilty of the offense charged?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Guilty.
TUCHMAN: The 23-year-old New Hampshire School District employee was immediately sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
That was then. This is now. Pamela Smart -- 37 years old, behind bars at the maximum security Bedford Hills Correctional Facility in New York State. All her legal appeals have been denied. So she is now using her last resort.
(on camera): Why are you asking for a pardon or a commutation from the governor of New Hampshire?
P. SMART: Well, I served 15 years in prison for a crime I didn't commit.
TUCHMAN (voice-over): Pamela Smart has asked New Hampshire Governor John Lynch for clemency. Her legal adviser and friend is Eleanor Pam.
ELEANOR PAM, EMERITA CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK: She works every day to improve the quality of life of the people around her. And I hope the governor sees that. And I hope he gets even a small glimpse of the person that I know.
TUCHMAN: The governor says he hasn't reviewed the request yet so he isn't commenting. The father of the murder victim is.
BILL SMART, GREGG SMART'S FATHER: I'm getting mad. I'm getting bitter. I'm older. I'm 15 years later. And I'm still fighting this woman. Why don't you just stop the appeals and do her sentence.
TUCHMAN: Bill Smart's son had been married less than a year. He was an insurance salesman like his dad. Prosecutors said Pam Smart seduced 15-year-old Bill Flynn who agreed to a plea bargain, testifying that he killed Gregory Smart after being asked by Pam Smart.
BILL FLYNN, KILLED GREGORY SMART: I pulled the trigger.
TUCHMAN: Flynn was aided by three of his friends.
Greg Smart was ambushed as he came home to his condo in Derry, New Hampshire. He was on his knees begging for his life. Before Flynn fired a bullet into his head in this hallway where Pamela Smart later found his body.
All the boys got lesser sentences than Smart. And that's one for her grounds for her clemency request.
P. SMART: The people that actually murdered my husband will get out of prison.
TUCHMAN: Prosecutors say the murder would not have happened without Pam Smart ordering it. They say the school district audio/visual employee wanted insurance money. Smart admitted at trial she did have a sexual relationship with Flynn.
P. SMART: I really didn't want to have an affair. And I was trying to fight my feelings.
TUCHMAN: But she has never accepted any responsibility for her husband's death until now, in the first TV news interview she has done in more than a decade.
P. SMART: I feel like my decision to get involved with Bill Flynn, to be involved with him when I'm telling you I knew it was wrong. I'm not saying that, oh, I didn't know any better. I was 21 years old. I knew it was wrong. I remember moments saying why are you doing this? This thing is wrong. And I still did it. OK. And I'm to blame for that.
I know even separate from my relationship, would Bill have ever killed Greg? Probably not. So I have to connect myself in some way to being responsible through my horrible act, my horrible acts with Bill Flynn to being involved in some way in Greg being dead.
TUCHMAN (on camera): Does it surprise you that she says that if she didn't have this affair her husband would still be alive?
B. SMART: It does surprise me, because she has never admitted anything. She's never admitted that -- she admitted she had the affair before, but she's never taken responsibility for Greg's death because of the affair.
TUCHMAN (voice-over): Pamela Smart also cites excessive media coverage of her case as grounds for clemency. The motion picture "To Die For" with Nicole Kidman is loosely based on the case.
JOAQUIN PHOENIX, ACTOR: A guy that does that to someone like you, doesn't deserve to live. That's the truth. Doesn't deserve to live.
NICOLE KIDMAN, ACTRESS: I suppose you're right. He doesn't.
TUCHMAN (on camera): "To Die For" was a big Hollywood movie. It was a big hit. And did you see the movie?
P. SMART: Yes.
TUCHMAN: And when you were done watching it, what was going through your mind?
P. SMART: With things like this, I'm never going to get out of here.
TUCHMAN (voice-over): In "To Die For" Nicole Kidman played a TV weather woman. Pam Smart wanted to be a TV reporter.
P. SMART: I interviewed with CNN. And I don't remember all the places but...
TUCHMAN (on camera): But you wanted to be a newsperson.
P. SMART: Yeah. I wanted to be involved with the news.
TUCHMAN: And you ended up being involved with the news.
P. SMART: I sure did. And that's why you have to be careful what you pray for.
TUCHMAN (voice-over): Like many inmates, Smart has had her share of problems behind bars. She was once attacked by other prisoners.
P. SMART: My face was cut open and a plastic plate was put in my -- my orbital socket was fractured.
TUCHMAN: But she says the physical pain doesn't compare to the emotional pain.
P. SMART: And I feel like -- I feel like if I don't get out of here, it's going to kill my mother.
TUCHMAN: But Bill Smart says, if she gets out it will literally be over his dead body.
B. SMART, FATHER: When I'm dead, it doesn't matter. But as long as I'm alive, I'm going to use every last breath I have to fight this woman. He was just a wonderful son. Any father would be proud to have him as a son. I wish to God that he was here, but I can't get him back. So I have to just go forward and I have to continue to fight her and I'm going to do it to the day I die.
TUCHMAN: Do you ever feel, maybe you're lucky that you didn't get the death penalty?
P. SMART: No, I would much rather have the death penalty than life in prison. People don't understand that, but the death sentence has an end. This doesn't.
B. SMART: I hope she lives for a long, long, long time.
TUCHMAN: Bill Smart attended the trial with his wife, Judy. She passed away several years ago. Stress, he believes, was a major factor in her death. Remarried now he surprised us and perhaps himself while answering this question about the clemency request.
If she were to say, if she would wake up tomorrow and say, you know what, I'm going to take responsibility, I did do this, would that change your opinion?
B. SMART: Then I would talk to her. Then I would help her. I might even parole her, or go to the parole board and ask for her pardon because then she admitted what she did. She became a real human being like the rest of us. Like -- not a psychopathic person that she is, devious, controlling, manipulative. If she said that to me, face to face, I would fight for her. I would help her. But let her say it.
TUCHMAN: She is not saying it.
P. SMART: You might be better off saying, well, I did this and I have remorse or whatever. But that would be lying and that is just not the truth. And I feel like that -- I just don't feel like that would be the right thing to do.
TUCHMAN: If Pamela Smart does not receive a pardon or a commutation, there are only two ways for her to ever go beyond these prison gates: one, is by escaping, the other is by dying.
Gary Tuchman, CNN, Bedford Hills, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: A fascinating case. We'll let you know what happens.
Next, on this special two-hour edition of 360, Britain's mysterious Piano Man. He isn't talking, but he does play the piano. A lot of tips have been phoning in about who he is. We'll find out if authorities are close to finding out his identity.
Also, tonight, a special report "Fighting Back" -- a little girl escapes an attacker's grip. She shows you how she did it and what you can teach your kids to keep them safe, too.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: Let's get you up-to-date with what is happening right now, this hour. Erica Hill from HEADLINE NEWS joins us at about 14 to the hour.
Hey, Erica.
HILL: Hey, Anderson.
We start out with what is a big boost for Latino power in Los Angeles. Antonio Villaraigosa defeated incumbent James Hahn to become the first Hispanic mayor of the City of Angels in more than 100 years. Villaraigosa won the run-off election with 59 percent of the vote.
In Mexico City, it is all smiles and handshakes as Mexican President Vicente Fox and civil rights leader Jesse Jackson patch up differences that started over an alleged racial slur. Last Friday, Fox told business leaders Mexican immigrants do jobs, quote, "that not even blacks want to do there in the United States," end quote. Well, Fox says he was misquoted and won't apologize. He invited Jackson to Mexico City to help calm the furor over the remarks.
In Tahiti, three-meter pits (ph) and awesome, winding barrels. It's a surfers' dream and a perfect championship venue for the Billabong Tahiti pro-tournament. Six-time world champion surfing -- world surfing champion Kelly Slater of the U.S. capped one of the best days of competitive surfing ever witnessed with two perfect 10-point rides to win the event for the third time. Check this out, Anderson.
You can do, that right?
COOPER: Wow, gnarly.
HILL: Totally, dude.
COOPER: Isn't that what the kids say, gnarly? Do the kids still say gnarly?
HILL: I don't think the kids say gnarly anymore. But, I don't think you are any less cool, so you can keep using it.
COOPER: Well, as long as you think I'm cool. Thank you, Erica Hill. See you again in about 30 minutes.
Coming up next on this special two-hour edition of 360. the Piano Man mystery. Leads are pouring in about who the guys is. The question is, are authorities really any closer to finding out the identity?
Also ahead tonight, a bank heist and hostages ordered to strip -- not sure why -- and taken to the airport. It all ends in a shoot-out. We'll talk to a witness and the FBI. Be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: The "World in 360" now. The latest on that baffling mystery we first told you about last night, the mystery of the "Piano Man." The guy was found last month wandering on a beach in England wearing a suit drenched in water. All the labels had been cut out. He hasn't spoken a word.
The only time he breaks the silence is at the piano where he plays classical music for hours and hours, very well, I might add.
Hundreds of calls about his identity have been pouring in.
CNN's Becky Anderson has been following it from London for us. I spoke with her earlier.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: So, Becky, what's the latest?
BECKY ANDERSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, this is what we know right now: It was originally thought that this "Piano Man," as he's being called, was from Eastern Europe and possibly an asylum-seeker.
The fact the labels were cut from his suit, possibly to avoid identification, is a ploy that asylum-seekers have used in the past to avoid being identified. For that reason, interpreters from Poland, Lithuania and Latvia were brought in to see if he was from Eastern Europe. No one was able to get through to him.
But today: a breakthrough. We have spoken to the police in Kent. They say he may be a French street entertainer by the name of Steven Masson. That news is after extensive media coverage that has elicited some 700 calls and, so far, over 250 names.
Police forces, orchestras, music groups all over Europe are being contacted to try to establish who this guy is. Now, it was in Italy a Polish illegal immigrants told Rome police that this guy, the "Piano Man," was his busking partner.
That in itself, Anderson, is amazing. Italian officers liaising with British colleagues via Interpol said the testimony is being taken extremely seriously because this man in Italy who came forward with the info is living illegally and has evidently put himself at risk by revealing that.
This is a really touching story, Anderson.
COOPER: Busking, street performers you are talking about?
ANDERSON: That's right. Absolutely. Street performers. What the papers across Europe have been talking about is: What is he? Where does he come from? Who is he?
There was some suggestion in the British press today that he may be autistic. Headline in the "Times": "Curious Incident of the Piano Man." That's after the classic novel, of course, of late: "Curious Incident of the Dog" which was about an autistic man.
There's lots of parallels that can be drawn to a chap that may have autism, particularly this idea he draws so beautifully. Do remember when he was brought in he wasn't communicating with anybody at this hospital but was given a pen and a piece of paper and he drew a grand piano almost perfectly with this really strange shadow underneath. Of course, he plays the piano faultlessly.
COOPER: All right. Still waiting for the identification. We'll see for sure
Becky Anderson, thanks.
ANDERSON: Absolutely. COOPER: Next on this special edition of "360," a brazen bank robbery and hostages ordered to strip then taken to an airport where there was a shoot-out. I'll talk with an FBI agent and a witness to the crime.
Also ahead tonight, a little girl fights back.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CANDY MCBRIDE, ESCAPED ATTACKER: He came behind me and put my hands up. Then I turned and I kicked him like that. I turned around and I punched him. Then he punched me back. Then I slapped him and he slapped me back. And then I hit him one more time in the stomach. Then I ran home.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: Don't mess with that little girl. All that thanks to some special training. She shares some tips you can teach your kids to keep them safe.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: A dramatic scene today in Olathe, Kansas, where a gunman held up a bank, took six hostages, forced them to strip to their underwear and shot it out with police at a nearby airport.
Sharita Hutton of KCTV has been following the action.
SHARITA HUTTON, KCTV (voice-over): Only our cameras were there as police towed the bank robbery suspect's car away from an Olathe golf course. It's believed he left his car here and walked to the bank at 151st and Merlin (ph) and launched a day of terror.
That is the suspect shooting at one of the van windows with six hostages inside. The van then left the parking lot. Only we were there as that van then took off down 151st Street with police cars following.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Unbelievable. I was just going to the bank and I wasn't allowed.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I was getting ready to go in the bank on 151st and the door was locked. I thought it was kind of funny. It wasn't a holiday. I went around on the other side of the bank. I saw five or six women standing there, stripped. And I saw the suspect with a hood over his face.
HUTTON: It was some two miles away when the van came to rest as the suspect tried to run toward a plane with two people on board. Police shot him before he went any further.
COOPER: The robbery started around 9:00 a.m. right in front of witnesses like Matt Braswell who watched it unfold from across the street. He joins me now on the phone from Overland Park, Kansas.
Also with me from Kansas City, Missouri, is FBI Spokesman Jeff Lanza.
Agent Lanza, let's start off with you. What do you know at this time? Have you been able to question the suspect or any of the hostages.
JEFF LANZA, FBI SPECIAL AGENT: The hostages have been questioned. The suspect is in critical condition at a local hospital. We have not had the opportunity to question him, but all the hostages have been questioned in addition to numerous witnesses at the scene and in the bank.
COOPER: At this point do you know motives? Do you know what he was trying to accomplish at the airport?
LANZA: It would be impossible to tell at this point. He did have a pilot's license, but whether he had planned to get on a plane or not is really impossible to tell until we have an opportunity to talk to him.
COOPER: Fair enough.
Matt, you said the scene outside the bank was like a traumatic movie.
Tell us what you saw there.
MATT BRASWELL, Well, started out with first I pulled up on the scene and you know, all of a sudden you see these -- I mean, there are policemen forever. They had it orchestrated, all the policemen sitting just perfect.
I'm sitting there watching and all of a sudden there is a lady comes out and she wearing her underwear and heads out towards the van. And then about 10, 20 seconds later here comes another three in the front and three in the back and like on a chain gang of the people. You know, three hostages in the front, three in the back and robber in the middle. He had a black hood on, black shirt.
And they get in this van and they try to get out of the parking lot and armored vehicle comes in and tries to stop them. And wasn't able to do that. And so then all of a sudden we heard a shot fired. And at the time I didn't know who had shot the fire -- actually shot the -- but then they tried to get out of the parking lot and I guess they jumped over the curb and --
COOPER: And that shot you heard, that was the windshield being shot, one of the windows being shot at by the gunman?
BRASWELL: Right -- it was actually a window behind the driver.
COOPER: OK, we're looking at a picture of that.
Agent Lanza, do you know why he made the hostages strip? I mean, does that make any sense?
LANZA: We haven't come across that before. I would say it would be a matter of a control issue. But, again, until we talk to him there is no way to tell why he went through that scenario.
COOPER: What happened once he got to the airport? How did -- it ended with a shootout. How did that transpire?
LANZA: He got to the airport and the van, which he was not driving, one of the hostages was, was driven up about two car lengths from the airplane. He jumped out and tried to get into the airplane and that's when the shooting took place by police.
COOPER: But again, you don't know if was trying to take off in a plane?
LANZA: Our presumption is he was trying to get into that airplane for some reason, most likely to take off. But to know that with certainty right now is impossible.
COOPER: Can you say what the hostages told you? I mean, did they have any information? Did they overhear the guy say anything? Did he tell them anything that you can tell us?
LANZA: Not at this time. I can't -- I wouldn't be able to release what the hostages told us at this time. Certainly, it was a very scary scenario for all of them in that situation in the van.
COOPER: Is it your belief that the hostages -- that this guy was acting alone?
LANZA: At this point we do believe that. There is still a lot of investigation to take place. But it looks like he was acting alone right now.
COOPER: In this video, we're seeing some of the hostages cuffed. Was that you guys who cuffed them?
LANZA: Oh, no. What -- well, I can tell you this, he had the hostages cuffed with flex cuffs, which is a plastic form of a handcuff. He had them cuffed inside the bank before he took them out. He actually had chains which he had them actually wrapped around their waist and together as they walked outside the bank into the van.
COOPER: As far as bank robberies go, how organized was this guy? He brought flexi-cuffs with him. It seems he certainly had a plan in mind.
LANZA: He had a plan in mind. He also had a walkie-talkie with him, two walkie-talkies. And he had one of the hostages bring out a walkie-talkie to give to the police to communicate with them. In which they did for a short time. He certainly had something in mind when he went into this bank, above and beyond the normal bank robbery.
COOPER: It is fascinating he was prepared enough to bring walkie-talkies to communicate with police. But, again, you have no indication if those walkie-talkies were linked to anyone else who had a walkie-talkie, a possible accomplice?
LANZA: No, it doesn't look that way. He had both walkie-talkies except for the one he eventually gave to one of the hostages. So, it would be unlikely he was communicating with somebody else. But at this point in time there is no indication that is the case.
COOPER: Matt, when you got to the scene, you heard that shot. What was going through your mind? Was this like anything you had seen before?
BRASWELL: The first thing I thought was duck. Just make sure that I wasn't in the line of fire. We saw snipers shooting up in the buildings behind us, so we just wanted to make sure we weren't -- it wasn't them actually shooting. But you know, first thing like I said, first thing is to duck.
COOPER: How close were you to the van?
BRASWELL: What now?
COOPER: How close were you to the minivan?
BRASWELL: Oh, I figure we were probably 100 yards, a football field away.
COOPER: So you hear the shot, what happens them?
BRASWELL: Then after the shot, the armored vehicle tries to get around them. To try to pin them in and wasn't able to and that's when the vehicle proceeded to leave the bank and jump over the curb, and get on 151st Street and head east towards Merlin (ph). There were stop sticks there, also. And he maneuvered to get past those and that's when -- like I told some other people today, it is just -- it was like ants coming out of the wood work. There were so many policemen on the chase for him.
COOPER: Agent Lanza, is that -- Matt was saying that he saw basically this armored vehicle trying to stop the minivan from getting away initially. Is that a common procedure? Try to keep them in that locale?
LANZA: Absolutely. You don't want hostages on the move. Certainly that presents a lot more danger to all those involved. They had the armored vehicle there and they did everything they should have done, set up a perimeter. But he forced the hostage who was driving the minivan to jump over a curb. There is not much you can do to prevent that from happening in most cases.
COOPER: Well, as you said he's in the hospital now and you're waiting to talk to him.
Jeff Lanza, appreciate you talking with us and Matt Braswell, as well. Thank you very much.
LANZA: You're welcome.
COOPER: Coming up, the hunt for a killer. We'll take you to Idaho where an Amber Alert has been issued for two children and a person of interest -- well, has been found by police. Also ahead -- (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOHN WALSH, AMERICA'S MOST WANTED: The worst phone call in my life. The worst day of my life.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: He's man behind "America's Most Wanted." Find out the whole story of what turned John Walsh into an anti-crime crusader.
And a little later a woman who is fighting back against criminals by drawing them. She's one of the best police sketch artists in the world. She sketches from experience.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: Developing story tonight in Idaho. An Amber Alert is still out for two missing kids who disappeared after a triple murder in Coeur d'Alene. Police have been looking for a man described as a person of interest in the case. Let's get the latest from Sean Callebs.
Sean?
SEAN CALLEBS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Anderson, you're exactly right in that, in the verbiage that they're using, very specific. They are not calling this individual a suspect, simply a person of interest. His name, Robert Roy Lutner. He is 33 years old. And about two hours ago he called investigators, he knew the local sheriff's office as well as FBI had been looking for him. He turned himself in.
At the time the sheriff's authorities wouldn't say where Lutner was, but we know he's pretty close. Within an hour the investigators reached him and they have been talking to him for past hour or so. Authorities say they want to talk to Lutner because he was a good -- at least a friend of the victims who were killed sometime either Sunday or Monday. And they have reason to believe that he saw them just about the same time that the crimes were committed.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WOLFINGER: We don't know if he's involved in the crime. But we know he was here Sunday evening. That's the last time for him we can put everybody here at the house alive.
So he's presented -- he may have seen something, he may have known someone else was here at the residence. He may have met somebody as he was leaving the residence. As he was leaving, they may have been coming in. That's the kind of information we hope to glean from him.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CALLEBS: We're also trying to find out if they can find out any information about this triple murder or where those two children are. Lutner does have a history of crime in this area, misdemeanors, drug possession, DUI, crimes of that nature.
At the same time we also know that the three victims were tied up and brutally murdered, that information coming from the sheriff's office today. At the same time, they're pouring over the crime scene trying to glean any kind of information they can. But this isn't a made-for-TV episode. This is something that will take some time. It is painstaking.
Authorities went there Monday night around 6:00 local time, but it took six full hours for them to determine that indeed two other children were missing. They weren't able to do that until they notified the next of kin. And then they found out that nine-year-old Dylan, who is about four-foot tall, 60 pounds, short blond crew cut and blue eyes; and his eight-year-old sister, Shasta, slight girl, less than 4 foot tall, about 40 pounds, with long auburn hair and hazel eyes.
Authorities are still looking for those two. There is an Amber Alert out. We can tell you there is a command center that has been set up here. It is first time this county has had to lose the Amber Alert. Within 24 hours, about 165 phone calls came in from all over the country, as far away as Florida, Chicago.
The big concern, the six hours between the time investigators came to the crime scene and they determined that the children were missing. They say the first two hours the most important. If you think about it, six hours would have given someone enough time to drive all the way to Seattle.
Authorities say they're holding out hope that the two children are alive because their rationale is, why would three people be murdered and then two children killed and taken away? If they would have been killed, they suspect that all would have happened in the same area that is indeed their hope and that, Anderson, is what they're working on this evening.
COOPER: Sean, just very briefly, how were the kids related to the three people who were killed? Do we know?
CALLEBS: Yes. The two children, the nine-year-old and eight- year-old, are the children of the woman who was killed, 40-year-old Brenda Groene. And also the brother and sister of 13-year-old Slade, another victim. And 37-year-old Mark McKenzie was also killed that night. He apparently was Brenda's boyfriend.
COOPER: All right. Sean Callebs, thanks. Covering the story for us right now.
Keeping track of child predators was the focus on Capitol Hill today. "America's Most Wanted" host John Walsh joined families of abducted kids in backing a proposal for federal law to register sex offenders before they're ever released from prison, and to force two- time offenders to wear tracking devices for life.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) WALSH: I try to hunt these people down on my show. I am sick of watching them get caught and looking at their rap sheets; 20, 30 arrests. The man that was arrested for Jessica Lunsford's murder, was accused of murdering that beautiful nine-year-old girl, served two years of a ten-year sentence for molesting a child. He had 22 arrests. The system doesn't work for children in this country.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: John Walsh has, of course, been on a very personal crusade for nearly 25 years now for tougher laws on child predators. For the rest of the special hour on 360, we're looking at the heroic ways that many Americans are fighting back against crime, in ways large and small. We begin with John Walsh's story. Here is Paula Zahn.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ANNOUNCER: Now, from our Washington Crime Center, John Walsh.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR (voice over): He's the driving force behind "America's Most Wanted".
WALSH: This week, your tips have led to not one, but two captures.
ZAHN: John Walsh, the nation's go-to guy from fugitives to missing children.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's the hardest working guy I have ever met in show business.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think he probably has visited almost every single city in the United States in talking to people.
ZAHN: John Walsh has become synonymous with fighting crime. And with catching the uncatchable, with giving voice to the voiceless. After more than 15 years on "America's Most Wanted," Walsh's a certified pop culture icon wrapped in a leather jacket. TV host, crusader, activist, John Walsh has been in the public eye for more than 20 years, years no father should have ever had to bear.
John Walsh was born the day after Christmas, 1945, in Auburn, New York; the first of four children.
SUSAN SCHINDEHETTE, CO-AUTHOR, "TEARS OF RAGE": John grew up as part of a big family in upstate New York. Irish Catholic, very traditional values, had a wonderful, wonderful father and I met his mother and she was a lovely, lovely woman.
ZAHN: Walsh idolized his parents, especially his father, who was known as Gentleman Jack or more often by his nickname, Adam.
WALSH: I had a great father. Went to Notre Dame, he was a World War II hero, B-24 bomber pilot. I was lucky and blessed, but I was wild. I just loved to have fun. I loved dangerous sports. In those days, you know, people didn't get a gun and kill somebody, you fought. We fist fought.
ZAHN: If Walsh sometimes fought for fun, he more often than not fought to protect. Somewhere early on he had picked up the idea that it was his job, his duty to take care of things.
SCHINDEHETTE: John really felt this kind of overwhelming sense of responsibility, that he was tougher and stronger and smarter, and would last longer than anybody who came up against him.
ZAHN: Walsh was popular growing up -- even more so when he entered college. He was single and loving it, until a young woman named Reve Drew walked into his life.
WALSH: I met Reve when I was in college, beautiful lady. I remember one of my buddies said, you know there is this beautiful gal that wants to meet you over here and we'll take you over and introduce you to her. And that was the beginning.
ZAHN: John Walsh and Reve Drew began dating and eventually they left upstate New York for Florida. By 1971, the self-described hell raiser was married and working as a marketing executive in the hotel industry. Walsh's work also took him around the world, away from home away from Reve.
SCHINDEHETTE: One of the points that John always made is that he and Reve did not want to start a family immediately.
WALSH: I always thought that being a father would be a huge responsibility. And I think Reve thought the same thing.
ZAHN: On November 14, 1974, after more than four years of marriage, Reve gave birth to a baby boy, a son the Walshes named Adam, after John's father.
SCHINDEHETTE: After Adam was born, these two care free people, I think, shifted their sights.
ZAHN: The Walshes doted on their new son. They took him to the Bahamas to share John's love of the ocean. They took him to Disney world. Adam was never alone.
WALSH: A lot of people used to say Adam is so gracious, he's so loving, he's so kind. He lights up a room when he comes in the room. He's an old soul. And it kind of summed up Adam. He was that kind of a loving -- he was very different than me.
ZAHN: John and Reve hovered over Adam, partly out of instinct, but mostly out of love, out of joy.
WALSH: Reve was a full time stay-at-home, 100 percent devoted mom. Brought Adam to school, private school, brought him every single day, picked him up every single day.
ZAHN: If the Walshes were sometimes overprotective, Adam didn't seem to notice. In the summer of 1981, Adam was six, and he was learning to play baseball. And when he wasn't running the bases, he was with Reve as she went about her daily routine in Hollywood, Florida. On July 27th, 1981, Reve and Adam were out running errands. It was an ordinary day. They stopped at the Hollywood Mall and went into Sears to get some lamps.
SCHINDEHETTE: She and Adam went into the store and in the center of the toy department was something that was brand new, brand new. They were called video games. No one had really seen much of them. And as soon as they got to the video games, Adam said, mom, mom, can I stay here and play with the games? And she said, OK, Adam, now I'm going to be over in the lamp department. It's just around the corner.
ZAHN: Reve didn't specifically tell Adam to stay put. She never had to warn him before.
SCHINDEHETTE: Reve came around the corner and went back to where the video games were. And she said to me, it wasn't just that Adam wasn't there, she said it was so quiet all of a sudden. All of a sudden no one was there.
ZAHN: Suddenly the little boy who never strayed had vanished without a trace.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: When John Walsh's story continues, an unimaginable tragedy turns tears into rage.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WALSH: The worst day of my life. He was my best friend. And he said, uh, those remains, my son was decapitated, it was Adam.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: But the news that shattered John Walsh's world turned him into America's best known crime fighter.
Later tonight, an artist fighting back with criminals with just her pens and pencils and a sketch pad, but what power she has.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: Welcome back to the special edition of 360: "Fighting Back". We're looking at crime this week on CNN and tonight how every one of us can fight back. John Walsh has of course been a fixture on television for so many years that you may have forgotten he was just an ordinary dad until July 27th, 1981. That's when his six-year-old son Adam vanished. That is what would send John Walsh on a crusade that continues to this day. Once again, here is Paula Zahn.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ZAHN: Two weeks after Adam Walsh vanished in the summer of 1981, the remains of a small boy were found in a canal 150 miles north of Hollywood, Florida. John and Reve Walsh were in New York at the time. They had just appeared on a national morning show, pleading for information about their missing son. John was in the hotel by himself when the phone rang.
WALSH: The worst phone call in my life. Mm-hmm? The worst day of my life. He was my best friend. And he said, those remains, my son was decapitated, it was Adam. And that's -- that's all I remember. I remember smashing things and wrecking things and throwing things around and I don't remember him breaking into the room, but I was told they did, security. And I guess they got a hotel doctor or some -- a doctor from somewhere and I told them that what I had to do was call Reve.
I had to find Reve because I didn't want anybody else to tell her. I was -- I wanted to tell her myself. I said, you know, it is going to be the hardest thing I've ever done but I have do it myself.
ZAHN: The abduction and murder of his son Adam nearly consumed John Walsh. For a time, he didn't want to go on. Desperate and grieving, Walsh looked for answers. But all he found were more questions.
ERNIE ALLEN, NATIONAL CTR. FOR MISSING CHILDREN: Twenty years ago, if your child was abducted, you were pretty much on your own. Today there is a national network for disseminating images and information. There are 50 state missing children clearinghouses; 20 years ago there were none.
ZAHN: John and Reve started a local missing children's center out of their garage. And eight weeks after Adam's death, they testified before Congress on behalf of the Missing Children's Act, which would require the authorities to keep files on missing children and unidentified bodies. John Walsh had come to Washington for help, for action, what he ran into was resistance.
SCHINDEHETTE: He was a nobody from Florida, and it was a sad story, and he lost his little boy. And they wanted to pat him on the head and have him go away.
WALSH: We don't even know how many of our children are missing.
ZAHN: But Walsh wouldn't go away, wouldn't give up.
WALSH: Any coroner will tell you most children are murdered in 24 hours.
ZAHN: And his persistence paid off. In 1982, he was there when President Ronald Reagan signed the Missing Children's Act into law. Walsh's activism helped establish the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
By this time, he was becoming a very familiar face, not only in Washington, but around the nation. Walsh continued to hone his camera skills through news conferences and talk shows and appearances, appearances that impressed executives at a fledgling network called FOX. WALSH: I became a victim of crime when my young son Adam...
ZAHN: They had an idea for a new program that would profile criminals and solicit tips from viewers. TV was ready for John Walsh, but he wasn't sure he was ready for TV. He said no for six months. Until finally --
WALSH: I asked Reve, I said, you know, Reve, they want me to do a pilot. I don't know what a pilot is. And Reve said, you know what, do it. That's what we're about.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WALSH: Good evening from Washington, D.C. I'm John Walsh.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ZAHN: "America's Most Wanted" debuted in February of 1988.
WALSH: Our first case is from the FBI's 10 Most Wanted List.
ZAHN: The first person profiled was caught three days later. And a once reluctant John Walsh has been the host for nearly 20 years.
WALSH: Good evening.
ZAHN: In that time, "America's Most Wanted" has led to the capture of hundreds of fugitives. No one has ever been charged in Adam Walsh's murder. In 1997, however, John published "Tears of Rage". In it, he and his co-author combed through Adam's 10,000 page police report. They also name a suspect.
WALSH: I believe that Ottis Toole, serial killer, who died on death row in Florida from AIDS and cirrhosis of the liver, killed Adam. He confessed to Adam's murder on several occasions, in spite of the media saying he recanted his story. He didn't recant his confession, his lawyer did.
ZAHN: Over the last two decades, John Walsh has been a tireless advocate, not only for children's rights, but also victims' rights. He has fought for new laws and he has helped thousands. And he's done it all with one person in mind.
WALSH: I've often thought I wanted to make sure Adam didn't die in vain. That his beautiful little life wasn't in vain. And, you know, I think -- I think he's up there saying go get them, dad. Hang in there.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: That was Paula Zahn's report. According to "America's Most Wanted", the show's viewers have helped capture 843 fugitives.
Erica Hill from "HEADLINE NEWS" joins us with the latest at about half hour past the hour.
Erica?
HILL: Hi, Anderson.
An emotional plea for more government protection for judges came today from Chicago Judge Loan Lefkow in her first public comment since her husband and her mother were murdered by an enraged plaintiff in February. She called it her own personal 9/11.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOAN LEFKOW, U.S. DISTRICT JUDGE: Finally, I'm the wife who wakes up in the morning not to a cup of coffee presented by my husband of 30 years, to reopen what we called the endless conversation of marriage, but to an open book that I was reading in an effort to banish the memories of 5:30 p.m. on the day our world changed forever.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HILL: Judge Lefkow says, she continues to be targeted by protesters in public. She's asked for more spending on security for federal judges.
There is a better chance interest rates won't be going up again after the government reported only a modest increase in April consumer prices, just one half of one percent. An Associated Press report meantime says Democrats digging into John Bolton's background have thought he tried to get an intelligence analyst he disagreed with punished. The report also says Bolton misled a Senate committee about his actions while testifying under oath at his confirmation hearing to be U.N. ambassador.
As Iraqis burned an assassinated Sunni -- buried, rather, an assassinated Sunni cleric today, another mortar attack killed two Iraqis and injured seven schoolchildren in Mosul. Seven more bodies were found bound and shot execution style in the town west of Baghdad.
Toyota's Lexus and nine other Toyota models were tops in quality in this year's survey by J.D. Powers. Detroit wasn't shut out, though, the survey shows five GM vehicles among the high in quality. Gm's Hummer, meantime, was labeled most improved.
And that's the latest from HEADLINE NEWS at this hour. Anderson, back to you.
COOPER: Thanks, we'll see you again in 30 minutes.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER (voice-over): "Fighting Back:" a young girl faces down her attacker. What she did to save her life. And what your child should know before heading out the door.
And a crime victim fights back by picking up her sketch book and dedicating her life to helping cops catch criminals.
This special edition of 360 "Fighting Back" continues in a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: She's one of the most successful crime fighters in the world, helping to catch more than a thousand criminals. The amazing thing is that she does it with just a pencil and sketch pad. And there are 18 other people in this country who do what she does. But for Lois Gibson, it is a personal mission, payback to a man who almost killed her.
Here again, CNN's Paula Zahn.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LOIS GIBSON, SKETCH ARTIST: Someone tried to kill me when I was 21 years old. It was a torture rape. He strangled me. He made me black out four times during the attack. I thought I was going to die. And then I would come to again and he probably didn't care if I did die. And after that I was destroyed.
ZAHN (voice-over: Scared, embarrassed, even ashamed, 21-year-old Lois Gibson never reported her attack.
GIBSON: I thought, well, they'll think I deserved it or I asked for it. I couldn't have hacked that.
ZAHN: The trauma didn't stop Lois, she finished her college degree and started a sidewalk stand in San Antonio painting portraits of passers by.
GIBSON: You get fast and you get good at picking up on those unique features. And by the time I moved to Houston, I was a major portrait artist.
ZAHN: Yet Lois was still haunted. But then one day that changed. She was watching a news report about a criminal on the loose.
GIBSON: All they were saying was 5'10, brown hair, brown eyes, over and over. And I thought, wow. I could draw a picture and show that unusual nose, what about the hairstyle? What about the facial structure? The lips, the chin.
This is going to be real easy. Just relax.
I realized I wanted to catch people, because I wanted to get back at the guy that hurt me and tried to kill me.
How tall do you think he was?
ZAHN: Surprisingly, she says police departments didn't want someone who had never been a cop helping on major criminal investigations. They saw her as just a mother, a housewife and an artist.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: On his nose -- I was talking about that scar...
GIBSON: I had to force myself on them. It was not -- it was oil and water. But all that is water under the bridge. Suffice it to say, it took me seven and-a-half years before they gave me a full time job. Even though one out of every three sketches I would do, it would solve the case.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think he's looking at me right there.
ZAHN: Since then, more than 3,000 sketches and more than 700 convictions.
Look at the sketches and compare them to the mug shots of the person arrested and ultimately convicted of the crime. You don't have to be an expert to see how strikingly accurate they are.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE; She's able to relate and show compassion to people and she has the ability to build a trust quickly with people. I think that allows people to be relaxed and comfortable with her and recall facts of their experience.
GIBSON: My attack gives me an edge because every time a witness comes in my room and I close the door, almost the first thing I tell them is well, somebody tried to kill me for fun, and they immediately relax.
ZAHN: Pam Minks was one of those witnesses. In 1996 she was brutally beaten by a stranger outside her drugstore one spring night. Fortunately Pam saw her attacker. With no eyewitnesses, only Pam's memory, and Lois' talent stood between the attacker and justice.
PAM MINKS, VICTIM: It is difficult to talk about this to begin with. At that point it was so fresh and raw that it was very difficult. And she was very empathetic without being condescending.
ZAHN: It took Lois a little over two hours to transform Pam's memories into a composite.
MINKS: When she actually showed me the finished sketch, I couldn't believe it. It gave me goosebumps. It was so frighteningly real, so frighteningly him.
GIBSON: Do you see how...
ZAHN: For than a year, Pam carried the sketch around with her, showing it to strangers. And one day a friend of a friend recognized it. The man was tried and convicted.
MINKS: It is a relief. An enormous relief to have him off the streets.
GIBSON: That's why I go through this work, because I want the people that I'm with to feel what it feels like to get justice. Because I know what it feels like to want it so bad.
MINKS: It was so close to him. It was scary. Without that sketch we wouldn't have caught him. And I just can't thank you enough for your gift. Because you gave me my gift. You put him behind bars.
GIBSON: That's all I wanted for you.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: One woman's story.
Still to come, a chilling new declaration from one of the worst enemies of progress in Iraq.
Also ahead tonight, a class that may be a life saver for your kids. It teaches them how to get away from predators.
And a little later, how Star Wars action figures could save Social Security? We'll find out.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: And, the incomparable Larry King is coming up at the top of the hour. Larry, who's with you tonight?
LARRY KING, HOST "LARRY KING LIVE": Incomparable? I like that.
Tim Russert will be with us tonight, the host of "Meet the Press," an old friend of about 25 years. They've just issued the paperback version of "Big Russ and Me," his enormous best-seller. We'll talk about that and lots of other things in the news and maybe he'll have a cure for the common cold. Of course, your extraordinary person here has the common cold.
COOPER: That's what makes you extraordinary. You're working, even though you got a cold. You're the hardest working man in news.
KING: The show must go on, right?
COOPER: A business we call show. Larry, thank you much. We'll see you again in about 17 minutes.
Coming up, a story of a little girl who got away from her attacker because she knew exactly how to fight back.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MCBRIDE: Whoever hits me, believe me, they're going to get something back.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: What your kids need to know to keep themselves safe.
Also, later, using the force to save Social Security? Take that idea beyond light speed. I'm your father.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: We continue to follow a developing story right now in Idaho. Police are still searching for those two children who vanished after a triple murder in Coeur d'Alene. Sean Callebs joins me now with the latest.
Sean, three bodies were found in this house. Two of the kids are still missing. What do we know about the victims at this point?
CALLEBS: Well, we can tell you, the 40-year-old is the mother of the two children who are missing, also the mother of one of the victims, 13-year-old Slade Groene. The other -- the boyfriend of the mother. The mother and the boyfriend have somewhat of a history in drugs. The mother had been arrested on a number of occasions, mostly misdemeanors, possession. According to (ph) public defender...
COOPER: What are we talking about, methamphetamines, here?
CALLEBS: Don't know if it is methamphetamine. Don't know. We talked to the sheriff, but I can tell you that methamphetamine is a huge problem in this area, as it is in many rural areas. The sheriff said that it's just ripe for an area for it to be cooked, sold. It's cheap. It is easy to get out. So, if indeed there is a connection to drugs, which no one is saying at this point, but certainly this is not a random killing, very brutal. They're trying find something kind of motive. It could have been drugs. It could very well have been something like crystal meth.
COOPER: Now, the people who were killed, they were bound, is that correct?
CALLEBS: Yes, the people who were killed were bound, and apparently it was a very bloody crime scene. The sheriff isn't saying exactly how they were killed. Autopsies are being performed right now. They hope to gain some information from that. They're also trying to take finger prints off the bodies, which apparently is extremely difficult to do. Two autopsies have been completed. The third is expected to be completed tomorrow, and at that time we should know the cause of death.
COOPER: And what do we know about the person of interest? Let's put his picture up if we can, because this is the man the police have been looking for quite some time. I know he called into the police when they found -- when he found out they were looking him. What do we know about this guy?
CALLEBS: Yes, this is a real wild card out there. I'm really curious because they're not calling this individual a suspect. His name is Robert Roy Lutner. He is 33 years old. He was apparently at the home. He's a friend of the family's. He had been there at the time frame when the crimes were committed. So, certainly, they hope that if this person can explain what was leading up to the crime, that maybe it can shed some light and perhaps even, Anderson, give some indication of where the two children are.
COOPER: All right, a lot of questions still unanswered. Sean Callebs, appreciate it. Thanks very much.
Erica Hill from HEADLINE NEWS joins us now with the latest at about 11 minutes to the hour. Hey Erica.
HILL: Anderson, a chilling new audiotape has surfaced, one that justifies the killing of innocent Muslims in the war against Iraq's new government.
A voice thought to be that of most-wanted terrorist Abu Musab al- Zarqawi says religious doctrine does not forbid Muslims to be killed in the holy war against infidels. Zarqawi is thought to be behind the deaths of hundreds of Iraqis in car bombings this year. U.S. military officials say he and his top aides recently met in Syria to plan insurgent attacks.
Two major anti-terror dragnets in Italy today. Police arrested four North African suspects and issued arrest warrants for 10 more suspected of recruiting people for terror attacks in Italy and in other countries.
President Bush was closer to danger than we originally thought during a rally in Tblisi, Georgia, last week. American and Georgian investigators say it was a live grenade that failed to explode, not a dummy as first thought. It landed in the crowd about 100 feet from the stage. A suspect is still on the loose.
And no, Toto, this isn't Kansas but Key West, Florida, where 17 funnel clouds were spotted over the waters today, several of them large enough to be a hazard to boaters.
A freaky mid-spring storm coated parts of China with a white blanket of snow. It may be pretty but dozens of deaths were blamed on the snow in the northwest as well as torrential rains in the southeast.
That's the latest from HEADLINE NEWS.
Anderson, back to you.
COOPER: Erica, thanks very much.
Parents going to heroic lengths to protect their kids. How many of you have thought of giving them self-defense training so they can fight back and maybe save their lives?
Ed Lavandera now has the story of one young girl who survived because she was prepared for the worst.
ED LAVANDERA, CNN (voice-over): Candy Mcbride is nine years old, 4'8" tall and is stuck at 79 pounds. But don't let cute fool you.
(on camera): For all the other fourth graders how would you describe yourself?
MCBRIDE: Cool, athletic, funny. I can kick butt.
LAVANDERA (voice-over): That's the strong-willed attitude her family says helped Candy put 26-year-old Jimmy Guard in jail. The 5'10", 185-pound man is awaiting trial for attempted kidnapping. He's accused of trying to abduct Candy last November and has pled not guilty.
CHARLOTTE CARR, CANDY'S MOTHER: She comes up -- there was grass or what have you. And she was cutting across here. And so it happened just like right here.
LAVANDERA: Candy just got off her school bus when police say Guard jumped from behind a tree.
CARR: When he grabbed her, he put his hands over her mouth and he had her arms up behind her head.
LAVANDERA (on camera): The attack happened 100 yards away from Candy's home and just a few feet away from a busy roadway. It was 4:00 in the afternoon. Cars were driving by, other kids were walking home from school. But still no one was close enough to help.
(voice-ocer): Candy was alone but hardly helpless. In an instant, this little 4th grader got mad enough to unleash her fury.
MCBRIDE: He came behind me and put my hands up. Then I turned. I kicked him like that. I turned around and punched him, and then he punched me back. Then I slapped him, and he slapped me back. And then I hit him one more time in the stomach and then I ran home.
LAVANDERA: Candy developed the confidence to fight back in a self-defense training course called RAD Kids.
ALLISON LAWSON, RAD KIDS INSTRUCTOR: RAD Kid stance. Yell: Stay back!
LAVANDERA: "RAD" stands for "resist aggression defensively." She took the class as a 2nd grader but the lessons stuck.
MCBRIDE: Whoever hits me, believe me, they're going to get something back.
LAWSON: "No," and then maybe they'll let go. What do we do? We run away and go tell somebody, right?
LAVANDERA: Allison Lawson is the instructor who taught Candy. She says the course doesn't just tell kids how to be safe; it shows them what to do to protect themselves like how to allude and escape an attacker's grip.
LAWSON: One of the things I think RAD Kids did for her was to help give her the mindset so that when it really happens, they're able to kind of take control of that situation. And instead of kind of freaking out for a minute and trying to decide what to do, there is a little bit of, "Oh, I know." There is a little bit of control there.
LAVANDERA: Not only did Candy get away, police say she got a good enough look at the attacker that the next day she instantly picked Jimmy Guard out of a photo lineup. Candy's mother credits the RAD Kids course for helping her daughter stay cool under pressure.
(on camera): Were you ever scared?
MCBRIDE: Never.
LAVANDERA: Never?
MCBRIDE: I'm not scared. Not of anything but my mom.
(LAUGHTER)
LAVANDERA: Candy has a message for every young child who thinks they're too small and weak to get away from a strong attacker. Confidence, she says, is key.
MCBRIDE: They can be two feet for all I care; they can do it.
LAVANDERA: Ed Lavandera, CNN. Provo, Utah
COOPER: Confident kid. **** Coming up, a radical idea for saving Social Security. It's all about "Star Wars." Instead of investing in stocks, how about relying on Darth Vader? It's not as crazy as you think. `
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: Tonight: taking "social insecurity" to the "Nth Degree." If you're already on line for tonight's premiere of "Revenge of the Sith," you're beyond the reach of my voice and cannot benefit from the investment advice I'm about to give you, which is that you would be better off online at the toy counter or the used car lot than at the movie theater.
Look here -- and we're indebted to "USA Today" for these figures -- if you bought yourself a 1978 Darth Vader action figure, 20 years later back in 1998 when it was going for 205 bucks, you would now be 193 percent ahead of the game.
A '78 Darth in its original packaging is currently worth 600 smackeroos.
Or suppose you had real cash in '98 and scored a 27-year-old Plymouth Hemi Cuda four-door hardtop for 60 grand, which is what they were going for then: The value today of that muscle car, 600,000 grand, an appreciation of 900 percent.
A '57 T-bird, better than twice what you paid in '98. A '78 Luke Skywalker, better than twice who you paid in '98. A cow, up 43 percent. Coffee, ahead 14 percent.
The NASDAQ composite, down 2 percent.
Memo to the president:
"Dear, sir: Maybe moving Americans' retirement funds into stocks isn't the best idea. Maybe Uncle Sam ought to buy collectibles for all us old-folks-to-be. Not Pez dispensers, though; they've done worse than the NASDAQ.
I personally have lost a bundle on the Storm Troopers which are down about 29 percent.
Thanks for watching this special two-hour edition of "360." I'm Anderson Cooper. CNN's prime time coverage continues now with "LARRY KING LIVE." Larry's guest tonight, Tim Russert.
END
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