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Plane Collides with Tourist Helicopter; Sotomayor Sworn In; Funerals for Gym Shooting Victims; Town Hall Free-for-All
Aired August 08, 2009 - 22:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Yelling and screaming over health care, causing some people to end up in the slammer. The news starts right now.
Hello, everyone. I'm Don Lemon. We have a lot to get to tonight. But we start with breaking weather news. Tornado touched downs in the twin cities. Our Jacqui Jeras has the very latest.
Jacqui?
JACQUI JERAS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, Don. This has been going on for about 20 minutes now. This is in the Minneapolis, St. Paul area in the northern and western suburbs of Minneapolis. We have reports of touchdowns most recently in Plymouth, also in Mount and Long Lake. And there are storm trackers continuing to follow this storm. If you live in New Hope, if you live in Crystal, if you live in Brooklyn Park, this storm is heading your way. No reports of damage just yet, Don. As we get more information, we're monitoring our affiliate CARE-11. Of course, we'll bring that along to you.
LEMON: All right. Jacqui Jeras, we'll check back. Thank you very much.
We're also following breaking news tonight out of New York City. Divers will be back in the murky Hudson River early tomorrow. They will resume the search for two downed aircraft and six missing bodies off the Hoboken, New Jersey waterfront. A tourist helicopter with six people aboard and a small plane with three people aboard collided about noon today, sending both careening into the Hudson River. Three bodies have been recovered so far. Federal investigators are on the scene and have begun interviewing witnesses.
The NTSB says one witness is another helicopter pilot who radioed a warning to his fellow pilot, but it was too late. Moments later, hundreds, perhaps thousands of people saw the heart-stopping horror unfold before their eyes. In seconds, the wreckage sank to the bottom of the Hudson almost as if nothing had happened.
Let's go right now straight to the scene, Susan Candiotti. She has been on this story since it broke.
Susan?
SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Don, at this hour and over my shoulder, a U.S. Coast Guard cutter and other police boats are guarding the spot where the plane and the helicopter went down. And for now above, air space has been restricted to all other traffic for the time being.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CANDIOTTI (voice-over): As the sun set, divers who could barely see in the murky waters of the Hudson promised to resume work in the morning, painstakingly looking for victims and wreckage in up to 50 feet of water.
COMM. RAYMOND KELLY, NYPD: The ability to see is very limited -- two to three feet at most.
CANDIOTTI: On a bright, sunny day, it was hard to understand why a small plane and sightseeing helicopter shook a line over the Hudson River. Small plane with one pilot and two passengers including a child took off from New Jersey's Teterboro Airport and turned south over the Hudson. At the same time, five Italian tourists lifted off for a sightseeing tour in a helicopter.
ARNOLD STEVENS, WITNESS: There was a plane -- a small plane like a Cessna cutting back towards the Jersey side. The helicopter heading southbound, about 1,100, 1,200 feet. The plane rolled into the helicopter. Hit the side of it. The helicopter went straight down the water. There was like a poof of smoke like a bang, and the plane went further down and hit the water.
CANDIOTTI: Italian tourists who stayed behind waiting for their friends and family were stunned.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They told me that they have some relatives, not friends, but relatives.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: So they're inside the (INAUDIBLE)?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, but we don't know anything, because we asked, what -- if they are alive.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: But what did they say?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No body.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Were they crying?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No, no, no. They are very upset about this most of the time.
CANDIOTTI: The NTSB said that just before the accident happened, another pilot on the ground saw the plane approaching and tried to radio a warning to the helicopter pilot.
DEBBIE HERSMAN, NTSB CHAIRMAN: There was no response from the pilot. He stated that he saw the right wing of the airplane, contact the helicopter. He saw helicopter parts and the right wing fall and both aircraft descended into the Hudson River.
CANDIOTTI: By Saturday night, three bodies were recovered. Autopsies are to begin Sunday morning.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CANDIOTTI: And at least two debris fields and a possible third have been located using sonar.
Back to you, Don.
LEMON: All right. Susan Candiotti, thank you very much.
Liberty Tours operates the sightseeing helicopter. No comment so far from them. But two years ago, one of their helicopters dropped 500 feet with 7 passengers. The pilot was credited with safely landing in the Hudson, and evacuating all passengers. And in 1997, a rotor on a Liberty helicopter clipped a Manhattan building, forcing an emergency landing. No one was hurt there either.
From now on, it is Justice Sonia Sotomayor.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHIEF JUSTICE JOHN ROBERTS, U.S. SUPREME COURT: I, Sonia Sotomayor do solemnly swear --
ASSOCIATE JUSTICE SONIA SOTOMAYOR, U.S. SUPREME COURT: I, Sonia Sotomayor, do solemnly swear.
ROBERTS: That I will administer justice without respect to persons.
SOTOMAYOR: That I will administer justice without respect to persons.
ROBERTS: And do equal right to the poor and to the rich.
SOTOMAYOR: And do equal right to the poor and to the rich.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: With her mother holding a bible, Sonia Sotomayor was sworn in this morning as America's 111th Supreme Court justice. Chief Justice John Roberts administered the judicial oath during a public ceremony in the high court's conference room. It was the first time the court is allowed TV coverage of a swearing-in ceremony.
And in New York Spanish Harlem, there was an enthusiastic viewing party. Sotomayor is the first Hispanic Supreme Court justice in U.S. history, and she's only the third woman to serve on the nation's high court, which is set to hear arguments in September, on September 9th in a campaign finance case.
And coming in October, CNN will present "LATINO IN AMERICA," a look at how Hispanics are reshaping politics, business, schools and culture. "LATINO IN AMERICA," only on CNN starting this October.
And the CNN international says there's been an alarming spike in Iranian executions. The cause is unclear, but it seems to have coincided with the disputed re-election of Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Amnesty International said there have been no less than 115 executions in Iran in the past 50 days. Now, it says, 24 of them occurred in one single day. We haven't been able to reach the Iranian government for comments on that story.
A bombing today in Baghdad killed six people. It happened outside a bakery in a Sunni Muslim neighborhood. Officials say the bomber arrived on a motorcycle loaded with explosives and set the bombs off as a police patrol passed by. Three police officers were among the dead. 30 other people were also hurt.
The investigation continues into what really happened before Diane Schuler, the so-called wrong-way mom, got behind the wheel, and when did she start drinking that day and smoking marijuana?
Also, getting inside the mind of a killer. We now know what George Sodini says pushed him over the edge. But was there any way for anyone else to know?
Plus this --
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Get off of me!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Everybody back off!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: People at a health care town hall get disruptive and sometimes violent. Some in the country are even ending up going to jail.
We want to hear from you -- Twitter, Facebook, MySpace or ireport.com.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: New York state police are retracing a mother's road trip up to the moment when she veered into traffic, killing herself and seven others. They are narrowing the time line for when Diane Schuler may have begun binge drinking. She was reportedly sober when she began her drive on July 26th, and officers say Schuler was fine, an hour later when she stopped at McDonald's. But the autopsy report said she may have had about ten vodkas and was high on marijuana when she crashed just north of New York City killing herself, her 2-year- old daughter, her three young nieces and three men in an SUV.
Boy, what a terrible story.
Schuler's 5-year-old son survived that crash.
Evil can't function any other way than in the dark. Well, those are the words from the priest who conducted Betsy Gannon's funeral today outside of Pittsburgh. Meantime, vigils were held this week for Gannon, Heidi Overmier and Jody Billingsley all shot to death at an area gym on Tuesday night. Nine others were wounded. Witnesses say 48-year-old George Sodini walked into a room inside the gym, shut off the lights and just started shooting. He then killed himself. Heidi Overmier's funeral also took place this morning. A visitation for Jody Billingsley happens tomorrow.
Here is new surveillance camera video from outside that gym. You can see women dressed in their gym clothes running out of the building and into a restaurant next door. They pleaded for help and had an employee call 911.
Can you imagine?
Every time a tragedy like this happens we ask how, why, and what kind of person does something like this? Neighbors and co-workers described gunman George Sodini as quiet, even unassuming.
Dr. Barbara Ziv is a forensic psychologist.
Doctor Ziv, thank you for joining us tonight. Now you say George Sodini is not a psychopath. Explain that to us.
Why do you say he's not a psychopath?
DR. BARBARA ZIV, FORENSIC PSYCHOLOGIST: You don't become 48 years old and have a stable job and live in a community without any overt psychiatric symptoms and can be characterize as a psycho path. I mean, clearly, what he did was pathological. But whether it was caused by an underlying mental disorder I don't think it was. I think that he was an odd, isolated but relatively normal guy who did an unspeakable act.
LEMON: Relatively normal? I mean, how -- is there such a thing, you know, when people say, you know, you're a functioning alcoholic, you're a functioning drug dealer. I mean, can you be a functioning psychopath?
ZIV: Well, you can be a functioning mass murderer?
LEMON: Yes.
ZIV: I guess in this case he was, right? Because, you know, there are a lot of people around -- his family, his neighbors, his co- workers, everybody is going to be feeling guilty about what didn't I see. What could I have done? He was a lonely guy. He wrote this lonely blog. I could have intervened. But the truth is nobody could have helped George Sodini. Nobody could have prevented this from happening because he was a normal guy. And insofar as -- as there are tens of thousands, if not millions of guys, who fit his profile -- isolated, unable to connect.
LEMON: And the thing is like -- and I have seen it, when people want to isolate themselves whether it be because they are depressed about something or they're on drugs or they're on whatever, I have seen it in my own family and friendships, when someone really wants to isolate themselves, there's nothing that really that you can do about it.
Now, many people will say to a friend, listen, you're complaining too much. Come on, dude, snap out of it. But maybe no one have the opportunity to do this, Doctor, because maybe he kept himself so much.
ZIV: Well, I think probably people did say to him, come on, snap out of it. You know, in his blog, he said I'm going to work on this and that and the other thing. And it sounds -- some of that is a little bit psycho babbly. But some of that, obviously, people have told him. He went on dates. He went to parties. He worked every day. This was not a guy who was completely unconnected. He did have some connections. And he probably, you know, people did give him advice. He probably did hear from people about how to do the ABCs of dating. And he just had a fundamental inability to do it.
However, not being able to go out on dates or get a girlfriend does not necessarily a mass murderer make, except for in the case of George Sodini.
LEMON: You know, we always look for answers, doctor, in situations like this. But you know what, I think sometimes people just snap, and there's really nothing that you can do about it. Sometimes people just snap, and it's unfortunate.
ZIV: Well, I wish it was just snapping in his case. In his case, he was planning it for a year. And I think that this represents a societal shift. We used to be able to look at mass murderers and say this one is a psychopath or this one is psychotic, or this one, you know, was abused as a child. I think that George Sodini is the first of what may be an increasing series of normal -- quote/unquote, "normal" people who do unspeakable things.
LEMON: All right. Thank you. Unfortunately we're out of time. I would love to talk to you more about that. We're going to try to get you back, Doctor. Because I think that's a very good point that you made. Thank you so much. Have a good evening, OK?
ZIV: My pleasure. You, too.
LEMON: OK.
We're going to continue an update on our developing news that's coming out of New York City. A deadly midair crash over the Hudson River leaves nine people presumed dead. Now a disturbing question, how safe are the skies over the nation's largest city?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't know why I can't stay here, though.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Because I'm telling you to leave.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: Also, a reporter just trying to do his job is arrested at a health care town hall. What is going on here? And Los Zetas, they've earn their reputation as the most feared of the Mexican drug cartels. We'll show you why the U.S. is offering a $50 million reward for their capture.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: OK. You know, there's been a lot of disruption at those town hall meetings, and this one is takes it to a whole new level, because a reporter became the story at a town hall meeting in Missouri. I want you to take a look at this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: I don't know why I can't stay here, though.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Because I'm telling you to leave.
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're done. Game's over. Let's go.
Game's over. Let's go.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Wait. Wait.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You, come with us.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're going.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: I understand.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One more time, I'm going to tell you you leave it, or you're going to jail with me this evening. Which one would you like?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: That was St. Louis reporter Jake Wagman, who was arrested Thursday night while covering protests at Congressman Russ Carnahan's town hall meeting at a local school. Wagman said he was asked to move off private property as you just heard. Well, he says he complied but was still arrested across the street on public property. We'll check back in on that story.
You know, it is time-honored American tradition, the town hall meeting is. But when it comes to health care reform, some gatherings are turning into free-for-alls as noisy protesters hijack the debate. Still intelligent and passionate discussion manages to rise above the fray.
REP. DONNA EDWARDS, OXON, HILL, MD: I'm going to be respectful of you. I'm going to be respectful of you whether you agree or disagree with me, and I'm going to ask you to do the same with me and the same with each other. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I have one question. You're talking about savings. And since you read this monstrosity, and you know that there is not one word in there that says anything about pork reform. Thank you.
(APPLAUSE)
REP. KATHY CASTOR, TAMPA, FL: Thank you all very much for joining us tonight. We are making historic progress on an issue that has alluded us fundamental to our families, to our seniors, to the well-being of our communities, but we're not going to stand for (INAUDIBLE) anymore.
SEN. CLAIRE MCCASKILL, ST. LOUIS, MO: Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid and the rest of the people in Congress and the Senate, are they going to be willing to be on the same plan they're asking us to be on?
REP. MIKE ROSS, LITTLE ROCK, AR: But nobody is talking about setting up, putting 47 million people in a public plan. We don't know that's going to be part of the bill.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, it was.
ROSS: What we are talking about -- what we are talking about is giving people who don't have health insurance options.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is affecting us all on our personal liberties, our personal freedom, our personal privacy. You need to open it up to the free markets. You need to government the hell out of our way.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: OK. So what is all the fuss about? Does anything really get accomplished? Can you get your point across when you're disrupting a meeting like this? Does it make sense? Is it real? Is it fake?
Tomorrow night, we'll go in depth on the health care town hall meetings. You want to stay tuned right here on CNN. Tomorrow night we'll report on that.
Tragedy over the Hudson River. Bodies are still missing after a deadly midair crash and the investigation is only beginning.
Plus, deadly drug dealers. CNN's Michael Ware takes us inside the most ruthless drug cartel in the world. They've got the manpower and they've got the guns, too.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: No rescues on the Hudson River today, only bodies and wreckage. A small plane and a tourist helicopter rammed in the sky just before noon, sending -- both plunging into the murky water below. Nine people, including a child, believed to be dead. But only three bodies have been found so far. So divers will head back into the river early tomorrow morning searching for victims. Eyewitnesses say the crash thundered like a bomb, then debris started raining down. It's raising serious air safety questions for the federal investigators who are looking into this. And they are scouring tonight for clues.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HERSMAN: We do expect to have some information that we can use from air traffic control radar data and other sources. Even if we do not recover the black box, even if we do not recover any recording device or the aircraft does not have a black box, the NTSB can still determine the cause of the accident, and that's what we're here to do.
Our very own Jacqui Jeras has been doing some investigating on this story. And Jacqui is going to take us through the flight path of both of these aircraft. And also, Jacqui, we heard from investigators really two feet of visibility. You're going to take us below in the Hudson River.
JERAS: Incredible pictures. Lot of stuff to show you. So let's get started, Don. This is on Google Earth, from the company called Flightwise.com. The Piper aircraft, the airplane that was flying had what we call flight following on it, so it was able to be detected by radar. And there you can see the flight path as it started out. It came into the radar in New Jersey, then it flew on a northerly track. It flew up here into the Teterboro area. And that's where we know it did take a stop. It picked up a passenger. It spent about a half an hour here. Then it took off again. You can see it moved on the easterly heading, heading towards the Hudson River. And there you can see the point where we started losing radar contact and it was over in here, of course, just outside of Hoboken, where the actual crash occurred with the helicopter.
Now, let's go ahead and take a look at some of these pictures. They're going to have to get in there tomorrow, and try and work on this recovery effort, and the visibility down to maybe two miles. This is some video that we have from the river project that's off of pier 26. And you could see the visibility is so, so poor. And there's a lot of filth that happens to be on the river bottom, which just really kind of adds more problems to that.
Now weather itself is going to be a concern. You can see some light rain showers starting to move into the area. We do have thunderstorms in the forecast for tomorrow, some of which can be severe and bring down some very heavy rain. So that could interrupt the recovery tomorrow.
Don?
LEMON: All right, Jacqui. Thank you very much for that. We appreciate it.
And Jacqui, also reporting on the tornadoes that she is following as well. We'll check back with her as she gets new information.
Meantime, Justin Green is an aviation attorney. He's also a Persian Gulf War vet who served in the U.S. Marine Corps as an attack helicopter pilot and aviation safety officer.
Thank you so much, sir, for joining us tonight. So here's my question. What is it going to take before stricter air traffic regulations are put into place where these crashes are happening? Especially in a very busy area like the New York City area?
JUSTIN GREEN, COMMERCIAL PILOT: Well, I hope that this accident is going to be enough to make the FAA take action. After the Cory Lidle accident, I, among others, suggested closing the VFR corridor, at least restricting access to it. But this is a double tragedy today.
LEMON: After Cory Lidle, you know, they shut down that space over the east river for quite -- for a bit of time. They didn't do that today. Might they do that if their investigation turns up some sort of problem with this air space and the safety there and the communication?
GREEN: Well, I mean, clearly, there was an accident caused by a collision of the two airplanes. The question is, is whether the NTSB and the FAA will draw a conclusion that because so many airplanes are being directed to a very low altitude and a very narrow air space, really just along the Hudson River, whether -- it's really just a recipe for disaster. I think today any pilot who flies in this area would tell you that today is not a surprise. It's just something that we always expected to happen.
LEMON: You know what, it's interesting. I was going to ask you that night. I think at one time, Chuck Schumer wanted to shut it down or pass some sort of legislation to sort of get this area under control. So you thought it was an accident waiting to happen and many others did as well?
GREEN: Yes, absolutely. I mean, it's just -- you know, it's really a highway. The pilots fly down on one side of the river and fly up on the other side. And just like you're going to have accidents on the highway in a car, you're going to have accidents on this highway. Unfortunately, today, we lost a lot of lives.
LEMON: Give us a solution here.
GREEN: I think that, first of all, they should close the area to civilian aircraft until they figure a new policy. And then they can use a model like Washington, D.C., where they actually have training courses for pilots before they are allowed to find Washington, D.C. Air Space. They need to -- they need to cut down the traffic, and make sure that pilots who know what they're doing are the only pilots being allowed into the New York City air space.
LEMON: Pilot and aviation attorney Justin Green, thank you very much, sir.
GREEN: Thank you, Don.
LEMON: Members of Los Zetas. They have earned their reputation as the most feared among the Mexican drug cartels. We will show you why the U.S. is offering a $50 million reward for their capture.
And what does a Mexican mafia have to do with the murder of a Florida couple? It's one of the latest leads investigators are chasing.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: President Barack Obama heads to Guadalajara, Mexico tomorrow night to meet with leaders of Mexico and Canada. A critical item on the agenda, the increasingly deadly Mexican drug cartels.
Mexican President Calderon declared war on the cartels two years ago. Since then, an estimated 10,000 people -- 10,000 people -- have died in drug-related violence. And President Obama has pledged $700 million to help out, which sounds like a lot, until you consider drug cartels generate up to $40 billion a year.
CNN's Michael Ware recently visited the Mexican coastal city of Veracruz, where one drug cartel in particular has recently emerged as law enforcement's worst nightmare. They are known as Los Zetas, the zeros, a name that strikes fear across Mexico and perhaps one day right here inside of the U.S.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MICHAEL WARE, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): The dead always tell a story. And here in Mexico, that story is the war raging on America's doorstep, being fought for the right to supply America's demand for illegal drugs, a war becoming more violent, more ruthless, mostly because of one group.
(on camera): To even begin to understand that violence, come with me here in a barrio in the southern Mexican city of Veracruz.
Imagine, if you will, a band of Special Forces Green Beret soldiers go rogue and offer their services and their firepower to the drug cartels. Well, that's precisely what's happened in Mexico in the 1990s. Commandos from the Mexican army deserted and set up their own cartel known as the Los Zetas.
The Los Zetas, a group that the U.S. government now says is the most technologically advanced, sophisticated and dangerous cartel operating in Mexico. And this is an example of some of their most recent work.
Until not so long ago, this was the home to a local police commander, commanded just two months before. And at 5:00 a.m. one morning, two cars pulled up in these streets. Eight or nine gunmen got out, armed with assault rifles and 40 millimeter grenade launchers. They blasted their way into this house and it took them less than five minutes to execute the father, the police commander, his wife, a policewoman, and in the blaze that they started, to kill four children.
This is the drug war in Mexico. This is a war that the Los Zetas are fighting. And this is the war on America's doorstep that shows no sign of ending.
(voice over): And with their fearsome weaponry and military expertise, U.S. agencies consider the Zetas America's most formidable enemy in the drug war.
RALPH REYES, MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICAN CHIEF, DEA: The Zetas have obviously assumed the role of being the number one organization responsible for the majority of the homicides, the narcotic-related homicides, the beheadings, the kidnappings, the extortions that take place in Mexico.
WARE: From this Washington, D.C. office, DEA Central American chief Ralph Reyes directs America's fight against the Zetas, a fight he says that will take years.
REYES: They continue to train new recruits through several campaigns, one of them is a very public and open narco banners that they post around the country of Mexico, specifically tailored to the military in that they will offer better bay and better benefits if they join the ranks of the Zetas.
WARE: With their mastery of combat, says Reyes, this organized crime network operates more like a U.S. infantry company patrolling the streets of Fallujah in Iraq than they do a street gang. And they're only getting stronger.
(on camera): Veracruz is a popular tourist destination, with colorful plazas just like this one. But it's actually a thin veneer for what's actually going on beneath. Local newspapers almost daily have headlines of the horror of the bloody violence of the drug cartels, cartels that here in Veracruz are more often than not linked to the Los Zetas.
The American Drug Enforcement Agency tells me that whilst it was originally based on military lines, it's been built on a business structure with quarterly meetings, business ledgers kept, even votes on key assassinations.
And now the Los Zetas are taxing businesses beyond even their drug reach, from human trafficking across the American border to as one recent scandal shows, they've been imposing a kind of tax on the Mexican government itself. The state-run oil company, it's just been revealed, has been bleeding billions through corrupt officials linked to the Los Zetas.
And as a DEA agent told me, the American border makes little difference to the Los Zetas. To them, it doesn't matter whether their violence is being perpetrated on the Mexican side of the border or on the American side.
(voice over): On that American side, one of their instruments of assassination was teenager Rosalio Reta. He was just 13 years old when he first killed.
"I love doing it," says Reta in this police interrogation. "Killing that first person, I loved it. I thought I was superman." But you can be certain there are more like him, and there will be until America can defeat adversaries like Zetas and end the drug wars across its border.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON: CNN's Michael Ware joins us now from Mexico City.
So, Michael, tell us about these Los Zetas. Where do they come from? Who are they? Is there -- is there a comparable term here in the U.S., maybe like the Green Berets?
WARE: Well, that's it precisely, Don. I mean, essentially, these guys were made of a group of Mexican Green Berets, who deserted the military in the 1990s. So if you can possibly imagine an outfit, a platoon of American Green Berets go rogue and like here with the Zetas, they then offer their services as enforcers to a drug cartel.
Now, that was in the 90s. Since then, Los Zetas have grown. They developed more muscle. They developed an intelligence network that rivals almost any military organization operating in this country. And originally, they were providing security services to one of the major drug cartels known as the Gulf Cartel.
Well, just a couple of years ago, Los Zetas turned around and said to themselves, hang on, why are we taking orders?
And so what we've seen in the last two or three years is Los Zetas have stepped up themselves and they've become a cartel in their own right. And as the Drug Enforcement Agency says, they're the bloodiest, they're the most sophisticated, they're the most brutal and, by far and away, Los Zetas are the most fearsome cartel in Mexico.
Don?
LEMON: Well, that brings us to this question then. What is their relationship, if they have any, with other cartels? Or do they think they're going to take over the entire place there? They're going to take over Mexico and become the only cartel?
WARE: Well, every cartel has that aspiration. They certainly love to dominate this business. So, that's what it is, Don. This is a multibillion dollar business that operates here in Mexico -- supplying America with its demand of elicit drugs.
Now, Los Zetas don't have a chance of monopolizing this entire industry. I mean, there's essentially seven large cartels. I mean, there's a whole proliferation and there's alliances within alliances. There's double dealing. There's betrayals. But by and large, we have these major factions that are constantly brawling and battling it out for control of this business.
And indeed, on average just this year alone, 570 Mexicans have been dying every single month. But by and large, that's cartel on cartel violence. That does not, of course, exclude the possibilities like we see far too often here. The target may be a cartel member sitting in a restaurant, but when the head team comes in that restaurant, they just spray it full of bullets and the family sitting next to the target gets killed as well, Don.
LEMON: Oh, boy, that's unfortunate. You said in your story there, Michael, that, you know, the Zetas openly recruit members of the Mexican military. What about the government? What do they have to say? Do they have the power, the will, the resources to fight against the Zetas?
WARE: Listen, Washington doesn't have the power or the will or the resources to fight against Los Zetas. What do you think the Mexican government can do?
As the recruitment openly says in posters and banners, by word of mouth, we offer better pay, we offer better benefits, you've got much greater chance of promotion, a much greater career.
It's a very appealing option. And let's not forget, they're recruiting not just soldiers and currently serving members of the military, but even teenagers and kids from the barrio. Now, another cartel will just put an M16 in their hand and send them off.
What Los Zetas do is classic Green Beret techniques. You train the trainer. A Green Beret teaches a recruit how to be a Green Beret, and then teaches that recruit how to teach others how to be a Green Beret.
That's why you have the Drug Enforcement Agency, the men in Washington whose directing America's fight here against Los Zetas saying to me, the Los Zetas operate more like an American infantry company walking the streets of Fallujah in Iraq than they do any kind of criminal network.
This is an LA street gang on steroids with real training, real expertise. This is the ultimate law enforcement nightmare, Don.
LEMON: All right. CNN's Michael Ware. Michael, we're talking about billions and billions of dollars a year with drug cartel money, upwards of $40 billion. We appreciate you joining us, Michael. Stay safe.
WARE: Thank you, Don.
LEMON: Mexico's drug violence spills over to the U.S. We'll tell you why police think the Mexican Mafia is linked to the Billings family murders.
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LEMON: The Mexican Mafia and the murder of a Florida girl known for adopting -- a Florida couple, I should say, known for adopting special needs kids. Well, police say one man links the Mob to the murder victims. And now he's being questioned in connection with the death of Byrd and Melanie Billings.
CNN's Sean Callebs has more on how this investigation is becoming more tangled as time passes.
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SEAN CALLEBS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Sixty-one-year-old Henry Cab Tice was a longtime friend and business associate of Byrd and Melanie Billings, according to the Escambia County Sheriff David Morgan.
SHERIFF DAVID MORGAN, ESCAMBIA COUNTY, FLORIDA: They were business partners in a -- in a series of businesses, both in a finance company which financed cars and other things and, of course, in a couple of small car dealerships.
CALLEBS: However, the relationship soured. Tice owed Billings about $30,000 according to the sheriff, and he was arrested Thursday on a year-old charge of writing more than $17,000 in bad checks to the Billings. The sheriff also says he is not ruling out the Billings' murders could be a contract hit.
Another intriguing connection -- Tice, according to the sheriff, was also close to 35-year-old Patrick Gonzalez Jr., the man authorities portray as the ringleader in the murders of the Florida couple, who adopted 13 children, many with special needs.
MORGAN: He's had an ongoing relationship with Patrick Gonzalez Jr., as he described it, a father and son relationship, where they spoke on a daily basis.
CALLEBS: The sheriff says he's surprised by information Tice volunteered, like a connection to organized crime.
MORGAN: Where he affirmed that because he had got into financial trouble in the business, and he needed some money, that he made connections with what he referred to as the Mexican Mafia and secured a loan from them in order for the business not to fail.
CALLEBS: CNN was unable to locate Tice, but in an interview with NBC, he says he had nothing to do with the killings.
HENRY CAB TICE, MURDER SUSPECT: If anybody would say I had anything to do with the murder of Byrd or Melanie is a liar.
CALLEBS: The Billings family issued a statement saying, "We have faith that Sheriff Morgan will be diligent in determining whether there is any connection between Cab Tice and the murders."
Authorities say the big break in this case came when someone involved in the murders failed to turn off the Billings' security system. Cameras rolled as the gang roamed the Billings' house and caught images of the suspects in a red van leaving the house.
MORGAN: It would not be unrealistic to assume that Mr. Tice was aware of the security system. He had been in the home many times. Also at the office, Mr. Billings was known to pull up on his security system, his home system, so he could observe the children and how the home life was going. CALLEBS: Tice had been working at this car dealership and apparently living there as well. Tice has since been fired and told to move on.
(on camera): Tice frequently goes to Mexico for business dealings, and authorities say he also travels to the country of Colombia, where he has a wife or a girlfriend. While he remains free on bond, the sheriff has told Tice not to leave this area.
Sean Callebs, CNN, in Pensacola, Florida.
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LEMON: All right, Sean.
Keeping kids out of trouble. What -- the "Band Aid" of sorts. This week's hero will inspire you and maybe make you sing.
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LEMON: Fighting murder with music. With a soaring homicide rate, New Orleans is a city still struggling after Hurricane Katrina and the violence is sweeping up children as well. Two murders this year involved kids who are just 14 years old.
Tonight's CNN hero is fighting hard to give children a way out, and he is doing it with the power of music.
ANNOUNCER: This is "CNN Heroes."
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DERRICK TABB, CNN HERO: Music has just always been with me. I love to play it. I keep drumsticks in my hand.
The music legacy in New Orleans is really dying fast. Life after Katrina is just really hard for kids. You have the violence, the drug life. I'm just tired of it. My aim is to get kids off the streets.
My name is Derrick Tabb and I started a free music education program for the kids of New Orleans.
Let's go. Horns up.
We do more than just teach music. We offer transportation. We offer instruments. I feed you so you're not hungry. I give you tutoring.
UNIDENTIFIED BOY: Which one, HR3?
TABB: I call it the "no excuse policy." You don't have no excuse why you're not here.
You don't have to have any experience.
Press down on it just like that. We meet five days a week, year-round. We constantly learn something new, and that's what keeps the kids coming back every day.
UNIDENTIFIED BOY: I was getting in trouble. Now when I'm here, I practice. When I'm at home, I practice. It just changed my life.
TABB: I love seeing kids happy, just having fun.
You have to keep teaching these kids this culture. I don't say that I'm saving lives. I say I'm giving life, a whole different life of music.
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LEMON: You can find out more about Derrick or any of our heroes at cnn.com/heroes. Cnn.com/heroes.
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LEMON: When it comes to creative ways to save a home from foreclosure, a New Jersey woman takes the cake.
CNN senior correspondent Allan Chernoff has tonight's "Money & Main St."
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ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Actress Angela Logan has played many roles to earn a living. She's worked as a teacher, model, hairdresser and is studying to be a nurse.
But when she recently fell into foreclosure on her Teaneck, New Jersey home -- she turned to baking.
ANGELA LOGAN, MORTGAGE APPLE CAKE: It is a flash of desperation. And I thought, wow, we can sell these cakes. They're so good.
CHERNOFF: A major reason Angela fell into a cash squeeze -- about two years ago, she hired a contractor to renovate the house. He took his money but he only did a portion of the work.
To save her home, Angela set a goal of selling 100 mortgage apple cakes in 10 days at $40 each. She asked everyone she knew to buy a cake.
LOGAN: The hardest part was to say, can you buy my cakes? This is my problem.
CHERNOFF: A local Hilton hotel offered its kitchen so Angela could bake faster. Angela says she's baked about 200 cakes, double her goal. And by qualifying for the federal "Make Home Affordable" program, her monthly mortgage payment is dropping by nearly 20 percent. Other Americans in a financial bind, she says, can also find creative answers to their cash crunch.
LOGAN: Find your talent. Find something that you can do that will help you. I can paint fences, you know. Who needs one?
CHERNOFF: Almost any talent can generate extra cash. Teaching a skill like playing an instrument, home repairs for those who are handy, even dog walking or pet-sitting for animal lovers.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Wow. This is incredible.
CHERNOFF: Internet retailer Bake Me a Wish got a whiff of the mortgage apple cake and now is greasing pans to mass produce it and share the proceeds with Angela. A whole line of Angela Logan cakes is planned.
Escaping foreclosure could propel Angela Logan to a new career as the queen of cakes.
But back in her kitchen, she still studies nursing, knowing from experience never to depend upon just one role.
Allan Chernoff, CNN, Teaneck, New Jersey.
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LEMON: Now, that's a good song. Trying to educate the person in here about music. Anyway, let's move on.
It is a massive street party at one of the music's most famous intersections. Beatlemania is surging on Abbey Road. It is all because 40 years ago today, John, Paul, George and Ringo were photographed strolling down the crosswalk, turning the ordinary London street into a musical mecca.
The famous photo that you're looking at right there is the cover for the "Abbey Road" album, which was the last album for the "Fab Four" that they recorded together. The photo shoot lasted about 15 minutes on August 8th, 1969. But the picture became an enduring Rock and Roll icon.
(INAUDIBLE) I love the Beatles. I listen to them all the time. You don't like the Beatles, do you, Eric? Oh, boy.
OK. Here's what some of you are saying about the stories that we are covering.
Tiaeskter says, "Cartel fix equals divide and conquer."
Mblackburn says, "The only sane solution to drug profits is decriminalization. As William F. Buckley, a true conservative once said."
MaryJCannabian -- "Cartels love prohibition. It's made them rich. Legalization and government control of drugs is the only solution to end drug war."
I'm Don Lemon. I'll see you back here tomorrow night at 6:00, 7:00 and 10:00 p.m. Eastern. Have a great night.
