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Texas Teen Charged with Sexually Assaulting and Murdering a Six-Year-Old; Meeting Whitey Bulger Face-to-Face; Cheating in Sports and Relationships Examined; New Ways to Pay for College

Aired July 25, 2013 - 15:30   ET

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

SARA GANIM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Last week, someone torched her father's car in their driveway, a teddy bear memorial in her honor, also up in flames.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Scared. Boggled. I just don't understand people that can do this kind of thing.

GANIM: Police quickly ruled out any family member as a suspect in the murder, but it was 23 days before the community got answers.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I can assure the community of Saginaw and all surrounding areas that you're perfectly safe in this community. I believe this is going to be an isolated case.

GANIM: This week police got their break from DNA test results. Alana had been sexually assaulted, and DNA found on her body was a match for a 17-year-old neighbor, Tyler Holder, someone police had questioned early on.

When police moved in for an arrest, Holder opened fire, injuring Officer Charles Lodato from nearby Arlington, Texas.

Holder himself was shot in the head during the shootout. He's in critical condition.

Saginaw police told CNN he is being charged as an adult with capital murder.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROOKE BALDWIN, ANCHOR, "CNN NEWSROOM:: Sara Ganim now joins me live.

Sara, a couple of questions here, first, tell me about the reports of this suspect appearing at this little girl's vigil.

GANIM: Right, yeah, one of our affiliates, WFAA, some people who were at that vigil told them he showed up in this T-shirt, asking questions. but didn't appear nervous.

Now he was wearing this T-shirt that said the word, "Wanted."

I have to say also the court documents that CNN got a hold of yesterday show the reason that he was initially on the radar of police at all in the first place was because he was in the neighborhood the night her body was found, saying, this is Alanna Gallagher that was found, that body was Alanna Gallagher, and that information had not yet been made public by police, and so immediately, that was a red flag.

BALDWIN: And then you reported about the shootout between police and this 17-year-old.

How is the police officer who was shot?

GANIM: The police officer who was shot is expected to be fine, it was a nonlife-threatening injury, thanks to quick thinking by medics on the scene.

And Tyler Holder, I can report today, is also going to be charged with attempted murder of that police officer.

BALDWIN: Sara Ganim, thank you.

A terrifying face-to-face meeting with reputed south Boston mob boss "Whitey" Bulger, described in horrifying detail today by the man who lived it.

CNN's Deborah Feyerick was inside that courtroom for the fist-pounding testimony in this trial.

Fist-pounding? Tell me what happened.

DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Absolute fist-pounding. That fist-pounding got everyone's attention.

And this is a real estate developer who essentially was called in to offer an opinion about a fence that was along the property line of someone who was an associate of James Bulger's.

The real estate developer did not give an opinion that Bulger liked, and so Bulger called him into a meeting, and during that meeting, "Whitey" Bulger pounded on the table and said, he should have learned and known when to keep his mouth shut.

The real estate developer testified that Bulger took a shotgun off the table and then stuck it in his mouth. Then he pulled the gun out, punched him in the shoulder, said, Rich, you're a stand-up guy.

Then he took out another gun, put it to the man's head, and basically said that he could make amends by cutting him a check for $200,000, which is exactly what the real estate developer did. He cut a check. That check was cashed within a couple of days.

But, again, really this reinstituted the rage and the fury that Bulger had during his reign of terror that he had. He's not a big guy, and all the people who've taken the stand, you realize, are just physically larger, but to see the fury, the fact that the shotgun was put in this man's mouth and then a gun put to his head really shows exactly what everyone at the time was dealing with.

It's also, Brooke, the testimony from a victim who lived, somebody who witnessed it, firsthand. He said he was terrified of Bulger, always was.

Brooke?

BALDWIN: Bulger loomed large. It seems like his fury loomed large.

Deborah Feyerick for us, Deborah, thank you, in Boston.

From athletes to actors and politicians and performers, we've had our fair share of cheaters over the past couple of months.

So what's behind these people in powerful positions not telling the truth?

John Berman, hello, my friend. He shakes his head. He is pinch- hitting for Jake Tapper on "THE LEAD" today.

We're going to talk to him about cheating, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: At the top of the show and throughout, we told you about Anthony Weiner dropping really quite a number in a fresh new poll here since the new chapter in his sexting scandal broke.

As John Berman is about to point out, it has been a summer of scandals.

John Berman, pinch-hitting for Mr. Tapper on "THE LEAD," sounds scandalous.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's great to be here with you, Brooke, and I mean that, that's the truth, and that might be the only true thing you hear all summer because it seems like we're in this season of lies.

It's actually more like an era of lies with some big-time lies from some pretty big-time liars. Check this out.

Ryan Braun, former MVP baseball player, he's suspended now. He was telling some big lies about performance-enhancing drugs.

Alex Rodriguez, he's back in the spotlight for having some truth issues.

James Clapper, the director of national intelligence, had to apologize for some statements that were not completely true.

And, of course, Mr. Anthony Weiner.

Just listen to some of the things some of these men have said over the last few years.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Have you ever used steroids, human growth hormone, or any other performance-enhancing substance? ALEX RODRIGUEZ, PROFESSIONAL BASEBALL PLAYER: No.

SENATOR RON WYDEN (D), ORGEON: Does the NSA collect any type of data at all on millions or hundreds of millions of Americans?

JAMES CLAPPER, DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE: No, sir.

REPRESENTATIVE ANTHONY WEINER (D), NEW YORK: Someone got access to my account. That's bad. They sent a picture that makes fun of the name Weiner.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Ah, the Wolf interview.

BERMAN: Problem with all those statements is they turned out to be a lot less than true, as in completely false.

So we are in this era of lies, Brooke, and all we can hope is The X- Files, as they say, "the truth is out there," somewhere.

BALDWIN: I've loved watching you all week in for Tapper.

How's my truthiness? How's my truthiness meter?

BERMAN: Your truthiness ranking is very high. This is the place to go for truth because there's a lot of less than truth out there.

BALDWIN: I can't wait to see it.

John Berman, we'll look for you at the top of the hour, "The Lead," starting in just a couple of minutes.

But before I go, something you have probably never seen a president do on purpose, at least here.

Look at this, former President George H. W. Bush with no hair, shaved his head, in solidarity with this two-year-old cancer patient he is holding there in his lap, has leukemia. The two-year-old is the son of a member of his security detail.

And it's not just the former president. Look at this picture. I love this. Other members of the detail have also shaved their heads as they raise money to help pay for that little boy's treatment.

Most parents want their kids to go to college, but would probably prefer not to pay or at least as much as tuition seems to be lately. Listen to this. Nothing in American life has risen in price so quickly as the cost of college.

Christine Romans takes a look at exactly how expensive it's gotten and what American families are doing in response.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: If you are packing up to head off to college, or your child is, you probably just got a bill for fall tuition fees. Did you faint?

Last night in Missouri, President Obama said he is looking for a solution.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: I asked my team to shake the trees all across the country for some of the best ideas out there for keeping college costs down.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Well, a lot of parents are out there shaking the trees as well.

CNN's Christine Romans has the bottom line on the rising cost of college.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS ANCHOR: Brooke, nothing in American life has risen so quickly as the price of college. Two-thirds of college graduates have loan debt in average of $26,000 each. Those huge, huge numbers not lost on the country's most famous student loan recipient.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: We'll never have enough loan money. We'll never have enough grant money to keep up with costs that are going up five, six, seven percent a year. We've got to get more out of what we pay for.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: Costs up, job prospects down. Thirty-six percent of recent grads are working in jobs that do not require a college degree.

It can't go on. Americans can't just keep borrowing more money to pay for something that isn't returning more on the investment.

Already, behavior is changing. Parents are shelling out less of their own money for a kid's college tuition. Students rely now on grants and scholarships for 30 percent of their college cost, but have to find or borrow money for the rest.

So a stunning 67 percent of families are crossing off schools from their wish list because they cost too much. More students are living at home in college to save money.

Even in families with earnings of a hundred grand and higher, even in high-income households, 48 percent live at home while in college.

Five years in college to find yourself, Brooke, that was the bubble. Those days are over.

A college degree still critical, the unemployment rates are super low in engineering, physical therapy, accounting, technology fields, all kinds of places. That's why finding ways to make college more affordable in the first place is so imperative. Brooke?

BALDWIN: Christine, thank you.

Now some of the hottest stories in a flash, "Rapid Fire." Roll it.

Closing arguments in the Bradley Manning trial under way today. You know the story, Manning accused of disclosing information to Wikileaks in the largest leak of classified documents in U.S. history.

The 25-year-old soldier was court-martialed more than three years ago. If convicted of the most serious charge, aiding the enemy, he faces life in prison.

And for the very first time in at least 20 years, Consumer Reports has named an American car as best new sedan.

Drum roll. The honor goes to the newly redesigned Chevrolet Impala.

That's a huge turnaround for the Impala, which for years has scored at the bottom in testing by Consumer Reports.

And the tape you have to see yourself. Watch the trooper. Semi truck sideswipes this Wisconsin state trooper's car during a traffic stop nearly hitting the trooper.

Trooper just pulled someone over for speeding, he was heading back to his cruiser.

When you see it, again, the 18-wheeler comes screaming by, actually rips off part of the front end of the cruiser.

The driver was cited for the crash.

Now this, Lance Armstrong denied rumors that he was doping for years and years. He has since come clean, faces this huge lawsuit from his sponsor.

But you know what he's saying now? He's saying he should not pay up. His reason? They should have known he wasn't playing by the rules.

We're on the case next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Former cyclist Lance Armstrong lawyers are telling the government to drop a $120 million federal lawsuit against him. That suit claims his sponsor, the U.S. Postal Service, was fooled about his doping.

But Armstrong's lawyers say the postal service, who sponsored him for years and years, knew about the allegations of his doping going all the way back to 2000.

But instead of investigating those claims, they say the postal service reaped the benefits from his stardom.

Armstrong admitted to doping during that Oprah interview after years and years of lying. He was also stripped of his seven Tour de France titles.

Let me bring in criminal defense attorney Janet Johnson. Janet Johnson, is that a good defense for Armstrong?

JANET JOHNSON, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: I like, it Brooke. I mean, the defense is basically not only did you know that France was investigating me and we all heard about this for years, but you gave me a new contract knowing that France was investigating me.

And, you know, ultimately, the law is called the False Claims Act and I guess he did falsely claim not to be doping, but he also defends himself by saying everybody else was doing it, so you knew it, you profited and you're outside the statute of limitations.

BALDWIN: Because they're past the statute of limitations, what kind of case does the government have against him?

JOHNSON: Well, the motion's really good, actually. Usually the motion is one of those motions where you think this is a "Hail Mary." It's never going to work. We rarely see it work.

But this one is really well taken. And what his lawyers say is it was six years and six days before Landis, who is the person who initially find the lawsuit, who was also doping, before he filed his lawsuit, and the statute of limitations is six years, so they be six days too late, which is one of the things that lawyers have nightmares about.

BALDWIN: Six days too late. We'll see. We'll follow it through.

Janet Johnson, thank you so much.

JOHNSON: Thanks, Brooke.

BALDWIN: And this a story we have been wanting to tell here.

You leave the cash, credit cards, even your whole wallet, leave it at home because you soon may be able to pay with your face. Yep, your face.

We'll look at the new technology next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: When John Hinckley, Jr., shot President Ronald Reagan, it wasn't about politics. He was trying to get the attention of actress Jodi Foster, an inside look at Hinckley's obsession and the danger Foster was really in on this week on "Crimes of the Century."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In the summer of 1980, Hinckley read a story about Jodi Foster. The 18-year-old who was taking a sabbatical from Hollywood to attend Yale University, so Hinckley told his parents that he was going back to college, but at Yale, not Texas Tech.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And so he makes up a whole elaborate ruse to his parents about how he's going to go to Yale for a writing class that doesn't exist.

And the whole time he spent stalking Foster. He finds out where she lives. He's slipping notes under her door.

And he's on the phone with her. And he taped these calls.

JODI FOSTER, ACTRESS (via telephone): Who is this? Oh, no. Who is this? Who is this?

JOHN HINCKLEY, ATTEMPTED ASSASSIN (via telephone): It's John.

FOSTER (via telephone): John who?

Oh, no, not you again!

Look, I really can't talk to you, OK? But do me a really big favor.

You understand why I can't carry on these conversations with people I don't know. You understand that it's dangerous and it's not done, it's not fair. It's rude, all right?

HINCKLEY (via telephone): Well, I'm not dangerous.

FOSTER (via telephone): Well, I understand that, but it's the same thing, OK?

HINCKLEY (via telephone): So you just don't ever want me to call again?

FOSTER (via telephone): No. It's been really nice talking to you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: You can catch the rest of the story on "Crimes of the Century," this Sunday, 9:00 p.m. Eastern and Pacific.

Forget cash, credit cards, Google wallet, quick code readers, there will soon be a way to spend your money that is so low maintenance it will be physically impossible to forget exactly what you need. I'm talking about paying with your face.

CNN personal finance correspondent Zain Asher is here to explain. I have read about this. Explain it to me. How does this work?

ZAIN ASHER, CNN PERSONAL FINANCE CORRESPONDENT: It's crazy. It's basically a new technology that allows your face to pretty much act like a credit card.

So when you go shopping, instead of swiping your card to make a payment, all you would have to do is look straight into a camera. It's all done using facial recognition software.

The company basically has a database that takes all of your biometric data, so what you look like, and it links that to your bank account.

The company, it's a European company known as Uniqul. It claims, get this, that it can even distinguish between identical twins.

It also claims that it can reduce transaction times from 30 seconds to about 5 seconds, so if you think about how many seconds it takes to swipe your card, type in your PIN, confirm the amount that, that kind of thing, with this technology, the cameras actually start recognizing you as you're standing in line.

By the time you get to the counter, it already knows who you are. You just simply have to click OK. And if there is any uncertainty about your identity, Brooke, it will ask you for a PIN, so there is a backup plan.

In terms of cost, customers would basically have to pay about $2.50 a month.

Brooke?

BALDWIN: You know, call me old fashioned. I'm a credit card and cash kind of gal, and I'm a little worried about privacy, I guess.

What about those concerns?

ASHER: Yeah, I did speak to someone at the Center for Democracy and Technology and they said that their main concern in all of this was hacking.

So imagine if someone hacks into the database and links their photograph to somebody else's bank account. Obviously, you can imagine the chaos.

The company's founder tells us, though, that facial recognition is a lot more secure than, say, credit cards, which can be stolen or compromised. Obviously your face can never be stolen.

Brooke?

BALDWIN: Zain Asher, something new every day, it seems. Zain, thank you very much.

And before we go, you recognize this anchor?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JASON SUDEIKIS, ACTOR: This is "THE SITUATION ROOM," which three nights a week also doubles as my bedroom.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: So this is "Saturday Night Live," imitating our one and only Wolf Blitzer. He now says he is not returning to the show.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SUDEIKIS: Me, yeah, no, I'm definitely done.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're leaving?

SUDEIKIS: I'm not coming back next the fall.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You won't be back in the fall.

SUDEIKIS: No, no.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Jason Sudeikis, joining a long line of cast members who are leaving, he's famous for playing Joe Biden, Howard Dean, of course, Mr. Blitzer, who is all a-twitter over this, says, "With Sudeikis leaving, who should play me next?"

Got to watch "THE SITUATION ROOM," 5:00 p.m. to hear Wolf's idea. And Wolf's very into this. I will say, Wolf Blitzer, you have been e- mailing me about this.

This is very exciting, so I cannot wait to tune in on "THE SIT ROOM" to see exactly who you think should be you, so we'll watch for that.

Meantime, John Berman is sitting in for Jake Tapper on "THE LEAD."

Thanks so much for being with me.

Send you to Washington. "THE LEAD" starts right now.