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Paula Zahn Now
Former Priest Faces Accusers; Transatlantic Murder Mystery; Pill to Cure Compulsive Gambling?
Aired February 03, 2006 - 20:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Good evening, everyone. Really appreciate your joining us.
Tonight, a family tragedy, a double murder and a startling new development.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ZAHN (voice-over): "Outside the Law" -- an international mystery. His wife and baby were murdered. And, while his family mourns, why is this man still overseas? A mysterious case that is making transatlantic headlines.
Our "Eye Opener" -- facing his accusers in a dramatic and emotional confrontation.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're sick. People in this neighborhood should know about you, because you are a predator.
ZAHN: As a former priest confronts his past.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're note repenting. You're not...
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How do you want me to repent? Should I kneel down before you?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No.
ZAHN: And the victims who will never forget.
And a mystery of the mind -- why will some gamblers do just about anything to feed their habit?
LAUREN PATRIZI, RECOVERING GAMBLING ADDICT: I can't even begin to describe the high. But once you come down from it, it is like you hit rock bottom.
ZAHN: Could this pill put the chill on their gambling addiction?
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ZAHN: I want to begin tonight with a story that is gathering international attention, because someone is "Outside the Law." An American mother and her baby girl were murdered. Tonight, the man who is considered to be at the center of the case, her missing husband, has just resurfaced in England. There is a lot happening on both sides of the Atlantic tonight.
But, before we get the very latest from England, we want to make sure you're up to date on all of the facts.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ZAHN (voice-over): What happened inside this home just outside of Boston? And when? Here is what we know. The house had been rented around the new year by Neil and Rachel Entwistle, who moved in, along with their 9-month-old daughter, Lillian. To judge by their Internet Web site, they were the picture of a happy family.
So, on the night of Saturday, January 21st, things immediately seemed wrong when people they had invited to a dinner party found the Entwistle home empty, their SUV gone. The vehicle turned up at Boston's Logan Airport. Neil Entwistle had flown home to England, perhaps Friday night, maybe even Saturday morning.
Back at the house that Saturday night, the party guests were worried. So was Rachel Entwistle's mother. They called the police. Officers searched the home, found no one, but noticed the couple's bed was unmade and piled with blankets.
The next day, Sunday, with still no sign of life from the house, the police searched again. This time, they looked under the blankets and found mother and daughter dead. At first, investigators wondered if it was carbon monoxide poisoning.
But a closer examination found something far more sinister.
MARTHA COAKLEY, MIDDLESEX, MASSACHUSETTS, DISTRICT ATTORNEY: The cause of death to the baby, as we indicated yesterday, is, in fact, a gunshot wound to the torso.
ZAHN: Rachel Entwistle had been shot as well.
COAKLEY: Upon autopsy, the medical examiner determined that, in fact, she also suffered a gunshot wound to the head.
ZAHN: Their funeral was this Wednesday. Mother and daughter were laid to rest in a single wooden coffin.
And Neil Entwistle wasn't there. But investigators have learned a lot about him in the past two weeks. His Internet businesses had generated angry complaints from customers. Some of his Web sites dealt with pornography.
The DA back in Massachusetts today issued a statement, saying -- quote -- "Neil Entwistle is still considered a person of interest in this investigation. However, reports that we have indicated that he is the only person of interest are not accurate."
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ZAHN: Neil and Rachel Entwistle met while they were both going to York University in England back in 1999. She taught at an English school for a while. They got married in 2003.
Neil Entwistle and his parents have been besieged by reporters, and their whereabouts were a mystery for several days this week.
But, as Paula Newton reports tonight, everyone now knows where they are.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PAULA NEWTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Neil Entwistle returned to his childhood home with his parents late Friday. He had been out of sight for three days, but still on the minds of a lot of people and the media.
And he hasn't escaped the attention of police on both sides of the Atlantic. British authorities are still keeping tabs on him. The 27-year-old computer expert hasn't been charged with anything, and he hasn't said anything either. No matter how strange his departure from his home near Boston, no matter how unthinkable his not showing up for the funeral of his wife and baby, no one can force Entwistle to tell what, if anything, he might know of the murders.
When police officers tried to question him, he pleaded the British equivalent of the Fifth Amendment.
ALAN JONES, EXTRADITION LAWYER: He then says, I claim the privilege against self-incrimination. Then, you can't force him to speak, whether it is in this country or in the United States.
NEWTON (on camera): And, even if a British citizen is charged with a crime in the United States, a landmark ruling expected soon from Britain's high court could make it much more difficult to extradite them to the United States.
(voice-over): That ruling may make it easier for suspects in such cases to be tried in Britain, with a British jury.
JONES: Sentencing in this country, and, indeed, almost all other countries in the Western world, is far less severe and Draconian than it is in the United States of America.
NEWTON: The legal process is now on Entwistle's side. He has nothing to gain by speaking right now. Still, people here in his native Britain are stunned that he can remain so detached from the murders and the mourning.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It is weird to me, that she, the wife and the baby is, you know, dead, and what is -- what is -- where was he, then, when it happened?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You know, the media glare and everything is not easy for anyone at any time, especially if, like, your wife and kid is dead.
NEWTON: The "Sun" newspaper here in Britain reported that Entwistle called his father-in-law, apparently distraught about the murders, and adding, he was confused, didn't know how he even managed to make it to England.
There is no independent confirmation that that took place. In every other respect, Neil Entwistle is maintaining his silence.
Paula Newton, CNN, London.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ZAHN: Again, despite the suspicion centered on Neil Entwistle, Massachusetts authorities went way out of their way today to say he is not the only person of interest in this case. But there are certainly an awful lot of questions to answer tonight.
And to help clear up some of those, I'm joined from Boston by a former district attorney, Bill Fallon.
Bill, thanks for joining us.
You yourself, as we just said, are a former prosecutor. You know the assistant DA working on this case. Based on everything we have heard so far tonight, do you think the authorities believe Neil Entwistle is the person who murdered this young woman and her daughter?
BILL FALLON, FORMER PROSECUTOR: Paula, you know, Martha Coakley is a supremely qualified district attorney. She's a professional.
I think the statement that you read today came out that she said he's not the only person of interest, because, earlier in the day, there had been a report -- or a misreport -- that she said -- her office had come out and said he is the only person of interest. Martha Coakley's office, appropriately so, says, we don't concentrate and we don't confirm that anybody is -- quote -- "a suspect" in the media.
I think it came very close to saying he was a suspect. I think they wanted to back off on that. Now, what we have here is a professional prosecutor saying, I do not want a rush to judgment. I actually think that Entwistle is over in England, in fact, benefits the prosecution.
That is, as when I was a prosecutor in a homicide case, there would be such a need to get that person off the street. This time, they have an ability to cross the T's, dot the I's, and get all their ducks in a row, using all mixed metaphors here.
Do I think that anybody could possibly think he is not a prime suspect? No, I do not.
You know, in the old days, my parents use to say there was a program called "Columbo" on. And Columbo used common sense. Today, we use the "CSI" science sense. Well, this is a way they're going to have to mesh, because, quite frankly, if you use your common sense, you have to think of the word guilt.
No way does anyone, where their daughter, their wife have been executed in this way, in their home -- he then leaves either that night, Friday night, or the next morning, in somewhat a rush to England. Usually, you rush to a funeral. You don't rush away from a dead body.
One of the things is that they have to be looking at is, when everybody comes up with, I wonder who did this, even if they didn't have him there, even if they didn't have a body discovered starting to decompose, it seems, on Sunday night -- 48 hours back would put it on, say, Friday night. And that -- that is just a guesstimate. Obviously, I'm not privy to any more facts...
ZAHN: Sure.
FALLON: ... than anybody else here -- but those types of facts are going to say, hmm, using my Columbo common sense, I know there is something that is not right here.
ZAHN: OK, so, Bill, what do you think this case hinges on...
FALLON: I think what...
ZAHN: ... at this hour?
FALLON: I think, Paula, what they're trying to do is, they're trying to get -- we know what the cause of death is for the baby. We know what the cause of death is -- I mean, DA Coakley said that -- for the mother.
I think they're looking to see, can we now have the forensic? What we learned in the O.J. case is, when you get Henry Lee, get Henry Lee. You want to put all these pieces together. You want to look on the Internet. You want to see what came down with the business. You want to see -- they have lived there nine days.
Remember, he was expected to be there. I think they're going to see, did he have access to the guns? It seems the father-in-law had a whole cache of weapons, that, in fact, I think he was a hunter or something.
I think they have the time -- and it is a luxurious time right now -- knowing he's over there. Let's get as much as we can before we get a warrant. I mean, they might have information that I don't know. I'm -- I'm obviously...
ZAHN: Sure.
FALLON: ... conjecturing here what -- what we have.
ZAHN: And...
FALLON: So, they're trying to say, let's look at the science; let's look at the autopsy; let's look at the house; let's look at any evidence.
And a small fact, but a very important fact is, I think that, for those of us who work in this type of domestic violence field, only someone who put a blanket back over an executed mother, an executed baby, to me, that indicates someone either had guilt or -- or actually apprehension that...
ZAHN: All right.
FALLON: ... of what they did.
ZAHN: But, Bill Fallon, as we leave you, we want to remind our audience that, if the prosecution was that far ahead in this case, they perhaps would have filed charges by now.
We look forward to talking to you down the road, as more of these facts become clear.
Bill Fallon, thanks so much.
Still to come, a story that will remind you of the Titanic. There were 1,400 people aboard a ferry boat in the Red Sea, and nowhere near enough lifeboats. What went so horribly wrong?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Jason Carroll.
A dramatic confrontation between a former priest who lives here and several of his alleged victims -- details coming up on PAULA ZAHN NOW.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ZAHN: And, a little bit later on, a kindergartner you might be tempted to envy -- her body doesn't feel any pain at all. So, why is that such a serious problem?
But, right now, more than 22 million of you went to CNN.com today. Here is number 10 on our countdown of the top 10 stories on our Web site.
In Los Angeles today, a car racing at speeds up to 90 miles per hour crashed into a health clinic filled with patients, injuring 13 people.
And, at number nine, the FBI is investigating fires at six Baptist churches in Alabama. Most had white congregations. Officials are trying to determine if this is a hate crime.
Please stay with us -- number seven and eight coming your way.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ZAHN: This little girl has a very serious problem, though you might not think so at first glance. She never feels any pain at all. What is wrong with that? We are going to show you in a little bit.
And, tonight, more than 1,000 people may be dead after a nightmare in the Red Sea. At least 1,400 people were on board a ferry that sank mysteriously overnight. So far, there are only about 340 known survivors.
Joining me now from Safaga, Egypt, where the ship was headed, Ben Wedeman, with the very latest on this disaster at sea.
Ben, do we have any idea what sunk this ferry?
BEN WEDEMAN, CNN CAIRO BUREAU CHIEF: No, Paula, no idea whatsoever.
They're talking about rough seas, high winds, high waves. At this point, what we do know, according to Egyptian officials, 343 people have been pulled from the Red Sea. Some of those survivors have already been brought to shore.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
WEDEMAN (voice-over): The first unsteady shots showed some had survived. But many, many more remain missing.
Egyptian officials are blaming bad weather in the northern Red Sea. High winds and high waves, they believe, may have caused the ferry to go down in the dead of night. The Salaam Boccaccio 98 was carrying more than 1,400 passengers and crew from the Saudi port of Dubah to Safaga on the Egyptian coast, filled to capacity with people and vehicles.
The ferry was first launched more than 35 years ago in Italy and refurbished in 1990 in an Egyptian shipyard -- many of the passengers, Egyptian laborers returning from jobs in Saudi Arabia. Hundreds of relatives were on hand to greet them, but a joyous homecoming has turned into a grim vigil.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WEDEMAN: And, Paula, we understand from Egyptian officials that, despite the fact it is night, it is cold out here, the investigation and the search-and-rescue mission will go on around the clock.
ZAHN: Ben, have any of these authorities told you specifically how ferries follow safety procedures that are supposed to be in place?
WEDEMAN: Well, Egyptian officials have been telling us throughout the day, in fact, that they follow stringent measures and standards for safety.
But I can -- I have been in Egypt for eight years. And I can tell you, the safety standards sometimes leave something to be desired. In fact, I spoke with one man who rode on that ferry a month ago, and he told me, there are too many trucks on board, that passengers were crammed in like sardines, and that the rescue equipment was very clearly not up to standard as well -- Paula. ZAHN: Ben Wedeman, thanks for the update -- so heartbreaking to see those family members hold up pictures of those that are missing at this hour.
We're going to switch gears -- in a few minutes, a look into the breakthrough that could help the millions of people who can't stop themselves from gambling, particularly on Super Bowl weekend. How can a pill stop an addiction? And could it be available soon?
That and more -- but, first, some of the hour's other top stories from Erica Hill at Headline News.
Hi, Erica.
ERICA HILL, HEADLINE NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Paula. Good to see you tonight.
ZAHN: Thank you.
HILL: Missouri Congressman Roy Blunt blames negative media coverage stoked by a few fellow Republicans for his defeat by John Boehner. Boehner was elected House majority leader yesterday.
Jury selection begins on Monday in the trial of Zacarias Moussaoui. He's the only person charged with planning the 9/11 hijackings. Prosecutors will ask for the death penalty.
In Connecticut, police tonight investigating whether a man used a Web site popular with teenagers, especially girls, to find victims and assault as many as seven of them in the same town. Myspace allows users to post profiles, which can include photos, phone numbers and other personal information.
No one was hurt, but look at what is left of a television tower that collapsed north of Tyler, Texas. The tower was almost as high as an 80-story building -- no cause yet.
And a sailor who dropped a message in a bottle in the Atlantic last fall, boy, he got an earful in return. This is a great story. The Long Island man says someone in England found it, sent it back to him, and then said, stop littering. The way he looks at it, no good deed goes unpunished -- Paula.
(LAUGHTER)
ZAHN: Oh, you had me set all up for a love story there, Erica.
HILL: I know. I know. I'm sorry.
ZAHN: You know, with Kevin Costner...
HILL: It's a recycling story.
(LAUGHTER)
ZAHN: ... in the lead role. You know, we have seen him in that lead role before.
Thanks. See you a little bit later on.
And, in a little bit, we are going to meet a little girl you might be tempted to envy. Her body never feels any pain at all. So, why wouldn't anybody want to be like that? Well, wait until you see what the reality of her life is like.
And scientists are working on a pill to help problem gamblers. Coming up, we will ask the obvious question: Is it a good bet?
But, first, let's check out our countdown now.
At number 10, that crash at a clinic in L.A., nine, the FBI's civil rights probe into six Alabama church fires.
Coming in at eight, Dave Chappelle tells Oprah it was stress, not insanity or drugs, that made him walk away from his hit cable show last spring.
Number seven, rural areas of West Virginia have become dumping grounds for 350 dead cats and dogs and other animals. Investigators are focusing on the owners of shelters in Maryland and Virginia.
Don't go away -- five and six straight ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ZAHN: Well, if you have money on the Steelers and the Seahawks for this Sunday's Super Bowl -- and you know who you are -- you're on the same team as millions of Americans.
Super Bowl Sunday is the biggest sports betting day of the year, which also makes it a very rough time for people who have gambling problems. But now a new study in "The American Journal of Psychiatry" has some good news for people who need to kick the habit.
Here's medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen on one of the mysteries of the mind.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (singing): Super Bowl Sunday.
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Bookies estimate that Super Bowl betters will lay down almost $100 million in legal bets this week, and five times that much, more than half-a- billion dollars, illegally on one of countless Internet sites.
For most people, gambling is harmless, whether it is a bet on the game in Detroit or a bet on the table in Las Vegas. But the National Center on Problem Gambling says, at least two million Americans are playing out a reckless, uncontrollable urge, unable to control the urge to bet, wrecking families, and racking up debts, on average, twice their annual income.
Lauren Patrizi isn't a big football fan. Like millions of Americans, her game is poker. Like many, she got hooked.
LAUREN PATRIZI, RECOVERING GAMBLING ADDICT: It started out as sort of innocent, just, you know, playing $10 here, $10 there. And then, eventually, it -- it kept going and kept going, and it became like a compulsion.
COHEN: Patrizi played online from her college dorm room, as much as 11 hours a day.
PATRIZI: When I would play, and I would get a great hand, I remember I would literally wake up thinking, gosh, I would really like aces. I can't even begin to describe the high. It was one of the most excellent, euphoric feelings I have ever felt in my entire life. But, once you come down from it, it is like you hit rock bottom.
KEITH WHYTE, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, NATIONAL COUNCIL ON PROBLEM GAMBLING: When you look at the brain of a pathological gambler, it looks very similar to the brain of, for example, a heroin addict. You know, they -- the same pathways light up. The same changes in the brain occur.
COHEN: Keith Whyte runs the National Council on Problem Gambling. He's excited about research which shows a drug already used to help alcoholics might help gambling addicts, too.
The study looked at 207 problem gamblers. Of those who took the drug, nalmefene, for about 16 weeks, almost 60 percent said they no longer felt a strong desire to gamble. Of those on a sugar pill, just 34 percent lost the urge. About a third dropped out of the study because of side effects, mostly nausea.
The study was paid for by the Finnish company that makes the drug. Researchers believe that problem gamblers, like drug addicts, release brain chemicals that create overwhelming excitement when they place a bet. Nalmefene works because it blocks those chemicals. The thrill is gone. But Whyte says that is only a start.
WHYTE: This is not a silver bullet, but that if you -- if you are receiving good help, and if you have support from a -- from a 12- step group and from your family, that this can be part of the solution.
COHEN: Before she sought help, Patrizi she says she lost thousands of dollars, most of which she had scrounged from her parents. She says telling them was the hardest part.
PATRIZI: Once people in my family and my friends and my boyfriend came to understand, that was the day where I turned a corner. I take every day one day a time. There is a very good chance, as an addict, that I will gamble again. I just would like to think that I won't. I definitely consider myself an addict, and that is not an easy thing for me to say.
COHEN: The new pill is promising. But, as most gamblers know, there is no such thing as a sure thing.
Elizabeth Cohen, CNN, Atlanta.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ZAHN: And there's this: The National Council on Problem Gambling says calls to its hot line have been increasing by 25 percent a year just over the past few years.
Coming up, an amazing videotape.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Look at me in the eye this time. Look at me in the eye.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I can't say the same to you, that it is nice to see you.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you see me blink? You're a liar!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Jim (ph), you are...
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ZAHN: Why are these people arguing? And one of them was a priest. Why don't some of these folks want him as a neighbor?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... liar.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And you admitted it. And I have it on tape.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ZAHN: We're also going to meet a little girl who never feels any pain at all. Why do her doctors consider that a problem, and not a miracle?
And you're about to miss out on the most old-fashioned way of sending a brief message, you know that ones that came before e-mail and BlackBerrys?
Right now, though, we move on to another look at the countdown of the top 10 stories on CNN.com.
Moving in at number six, Mexican officials have shut down the alternative health clinic where Coretta Scott King died Monday night. Officials say it wasn't authorized to perform certain treatments.
At number five, growing outrage around the world over cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed that many Muslims consider blasphemous. The cartoons first appeared in a Danish newspaper. One shows Mohammed with a bomb in his turban.
Don't go away. We will have number four straight ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ZAHN: Coming up in this half hour, why don't people want this priest in their neighborhood? Would you want him in yours? We'll have a complete story straight ahead.
Also, do you need a reason to hang onto your cell phone? One of the most famous low tech ways of communicating is going the way of the dinosaur.
Then, at the top of the hour on "LARRY KING LIVE," the latest tips for surviving America's deadliest killer, heart disease. Or at least one of them.
And in tonight's "Vital Signs," we have a really remarkable story for you, a life without pain. That probably sounds pretty good to you. But the next time you stub your toe or hit your thumb with a hammer, you ought to be pretty thankful.
Amazingly, a very small number of people never feel any pain at all. And they lead lives you simply have to see to believe.
Just watch as Keith Oppenheim introduces you to one little girl who doesn't know the meaning of pain. And her parents' painstaking efforts to keep her safe.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KEITH OPPENHEIM, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In this kindergarten class in Big Lake, Minnesota, the little girl in the pink shirt can't see very well.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This way, Gabby. Gabby, this way.
OPPENHEIM: But she is not one to lag behind.
GABRIELLE GINGRAS, SUFFERS FROM PAIN DISORDER: Wait up, Parker.
OPPENHEIM: Or slow down.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Go!
OPPENHEIM (on camera): In gym class today, you were running around.
G. GINGRAS: Yes.
OPPENHEIM: And you were good. You were running around...
G. GINGRAS: I was really fast.
OPPENHEIM: You were fast.
(voice-over): She is fast, funny, smart and constantly in danger. Five-year-old Gabrielle Gingras, or Gabby, does has a sense of touch but does not feel pain. At her young age, she's been burned, scratched, bruised, and never felt a thing. When Gabby gets knock down in gym class...
G. GINGRAS: Ow.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You're OK. Can you get up?
G. GINGRAS: Ow.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's OK.
G. GINGRAS: Ow.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It is all right.
OPPENHEIM: She says "ow" because her family taught her to let people know she could be injured. But if she was, she wouldn't know unless she could see it.
STEVE GINGRAS, GABBY'S FATHER: Could you imagine breaking a leg for a month or doing some internal damage? There's no pain signal to tell you that you've done something severe? Maybe even an appendix bursting. Would she know that? We don't know.
OPPENHEIM: Steve and Trish Gingras are Gabby's parents. When Gabby was 4 months old, they knew she was different from her older sister, Katie.
TRISH GINGRAS, GABBY'S MOTHER: Those first two teeth came through. She bit down on her fingers really hard, drew blood. I mean, really chewed up her fingers.
OPPENHEIM (on camera): And what was your reaction to that?
T. GINGRAS: This is not normal.
OPPENHEIM (voice-over): The Gingrases would learn Gabby has what's known as congenital insensitivity to pain with anhidrosis, an extremely rare disorder. There are only about 100 documented cases in the world. It means pain signals are not sent to Gabby's brain.
(on camera) What does it feel like? If you fall down and you say you got hurt, what does that feel like?
G. GINGRAS: It feels like you want to cry but you can't, but you cannot show. You have to go to the nurse.
DR. PETER DYCK, NEUROLOGIST, MAYO CLINIC: Not being able to feel pain is a terrible disadvantage.
OPPENHEIM: Gabby's doctor at the Mayo Clinic says patients with Gabby's condition also tend not to sweat.
DYCK: And so they come in with very high temperatures, which can cause their death.
OPPENHEIM: Before the Gingrases went to Mayo, it was a bumpy road. When Gabby was 2, her teeth were removed so she wouldn't bite herself. And as a toddler, she scratched her cornea.
Her parents say when a physician prescribed an eye gel there was little understanding that a child with her condition would rub her eyes and not feel any pain.
T. GINGRAS: When she rubbed, she rubbed severely. She didn't close her eye. She rubbed directly on the cornea. She didn't understand what was going on.
OPPENHEIM: In front of her parents eyes, young Gabby was severely damaging her eyes. And no one was sure how to stop her. Doctors tried sewing her eyelids.
(on camera) They weren't completely shut.
S. GINGRAS: They were sewn completely shut and so to keep all the moisture in and keep her fingers out and let her corneas heal. But when you don't feel pain she ripped the stitches open. She literally grabbed her eyelids and pulled them open.
OPPENHEIM (voice-over): After months of frustration, the Gingrases followed their instincts and put goggles on Gabby. It worked. But Gabby's left eye was so infected, it had to be surgically removed to prevent infection from spreading to the other eye.
G. GINGRAS: This one is my bad eye. This one is the one -- my...
OPPENHEIM (on camera): What you to call the other eye?
G. GINGRAS: A prosthetic.
OPPENHEIM: A prosthetic. Yes, that's right.
(voice-over) Gabby's functioning eye has poor vision, 20/200. Watch what happens when she shows me how well she can read.
(on camera) This is going to be right there.
G. GINGRAS: In.
OPPENHEIM: In. OK. Let's go this one with the "G."
G. GINGRAS: I can't do it.
OPPENHEIM: You know why? Because it's far. It's far away. It's hard to see.
(voice-over) Gabby's teachers at Liberty Elementary are helping.
G. GINGRAS: Hi Daddy.
OPPENHEIM: They're showing her how to use a closed-circuit TV to magnify images in the classroom and to help with reading.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK, glasses off, please. OPPENHEIM: And whenever Gabby goes in school, she has an assistant to give her eye drops, watch her at all times, and take her to the nurse if she gets hurt.
(on camera) What's hard to do like the other kids?
G. GINGRAS: Well, they don't need a grown-up to watch them forever.
OPPENHEIM: Mm-hmm.
G. GINGRAS: And I just want to be like everybody else.
OPPENHEIM: Gabby's drive to be like everybody else and her zest for life may be one of her greatest assets.
(on camera) She's a hoot.
T. GINGRAS: We think so.
OPPENHEIM: Smart as a whip.
S. GINGRAS: Funny. Some -- she comes up with her own jokes.
G. GINGRAS: Ready, set, go.
OPPENHEIM: She is also about to get more attention. This month Gabby will be featured in a film to air on the Sundance Channel. Called "A Life Without Pain," the movie documents the life threatening challenges caused by this disease and ends on a hopeful message about one patient with a disorder now married with two children.
S. GINGRAS: I see that. I cry every time. That's a possible future for Gabby. We don't know what her -- we don't know what her future is. But we see other people that have made it and done it. And it gives us a lot of hope and something to look forward to.
OPPENHEIM: The Gingrases do more than hope. They created a web site, GiftOfPain.org, a way for them to share information with a tiny community of families around the globe whose children are like Gabby. It has been a way to help and be helped.
T. GINGRAS: Good night.
G. GINGRAS: Kiss for the monkey (ph).
T. GINGRAS: It used to be just Steve and I together in this, feeling very adrift. Well, now we've got some amazing people we can pick up the phone and call and say, "We need a little shoulder to cry on and need a little advice. What do you think?" And sometimes that makes all the difference in the world.
You all set?
G. GINGRAS: Yes.
T. GINGRAS: Good night.
OPPENHEIM: Keith Oppenheim, CNN, Big Lake, Minnesota.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ZAHN: What a special little girl and special parents to match.
Are you happy with all of your neighbors? Do you have a problem with someone down the street? Well, coming up, why are these people dead set against a priest moving in to their neighborhood? They square off next.
Also, computers and the Internet may have doomed a form of communication that, in its day, was the very highest form of high tech. Know what it is? Think hard.
Before that, though, the No. 3 position on the countdown of the top 10 most popular stories on CNN.com. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California has a new weapon in its armory. A high powered gun that fires 3,000 rounds a minute. Officials say it is one way to stop anyone who might try to storm the nuclear weapons lab.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ZAHN: You are about to see a remarkable confrontation caught on videotape. It shows exactly what happens when a neighborhood suddenly finds out that a man who has just moved in is a former priest, defrocked for abusing children.
Here's Jason Carroll with tonight's "Eye Opener."
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): He is almost always under surveillance, tracked by his victims and his victims' families. James Hanley is a former priest, who confessed that he abused children in his parish.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're not repenting.
JAMES HANLEY, DEFROCKED PRIEST: How do you want me to repent? Shall I kneel down before you?
CARROLL: Now those children have grown up, and some of them have followed Hanley to a new home.
HANLEY: So help me God, I did not abuse all those men.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You did. By your own confession.
CARROLL: The origins of this dramatic confrontation go back to 1962, when Hanley was ordained into the priesthood. He spent 40 years working in the Patterson, New Jersey, diocese, all the while hiding a dark secret.
Three years ago, Hanley confessed to his bishop he had molested at least a dozen boys between 1972 and 1982. He was defrocked. But the statute of limitations had run out on Hanley's admitted crimes. He wasn't prosecuted.
As a result, the police have no authority to notify communities where he settles or to force him to register as a sex offender. Hanley's victims say they have to keep track of him.
Ray Skettini was 12 years old when Hanley abused him. Patrick Kelly was just 11.
PATRICK KELLY, ABUSE VICTIM: What did I do to deserve it? What did my brothers do to deserve it? Why pick on little kids? We're not going to let that happen again.
RAY SKETTINI, ABUSE VICTIM: There is no control over where they go, because they've never been convicted of a crime.
CARROLL: Neither had seen Hanley in two decades. But they joined a group of former victims alerting residents in this neighborhood that Hanley had just moved to the block.
As they distributed leaflets and talked to the television crews they'd invited to cover their protest, no one expected Hanley to come out. But he did. Pat Kelly blamed his former priest of also abusing his brother, Jimmy, who committed suicide years later.
HANLEY: Pat, I did. Pat, I did. I did abuse you. Once. But never Jimmy. Never in my life. I swear -- I swear on my mother's grave...
KELLY: but he said you abused him.
HANLEY: He said I did. But I swear on my mother's grave I never did.
KELLY: I was apprehensive about seeing him after all these years. I didn't know how I'd feel. But after I started hearing -- after he started denying the abuse, I got angry.
CARROLL: The situation escalated. Lou Serrano accused Hanley of abusing his son, Mark, when he was 9.
HANLEY: Hello. Nice to see you again, Lou. Look at me in the eye this time. Look at me in the eye.
LOU SERRANO, SON ABUSED BY PRIEST: I can't say the same to you, Jim, that it's nice to see you.
HANLEY: Do you see me blink? You're a liar!
L. SERRANO: Jim, you are sick.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're a serial child rapist.
L. SERRANO: You're sick. You are a rapist. You raped my son when he was 9 years old. HANLEY: You're a liar.
L. SERRANO: And you admitted it. You're sick. You're a rapist and you're a sodomist and a rapist of children. And the people in this neighborhood should know about you, because you are a predator, confessed predator.
CARROLL: Hanley turned his anger towards Serrano's wife, Pat, asking if she was the one who hired a private detective to find Hanley and take pictures of him.
HANLEY: Did you take those pictures of me, Pat Serrano?
PAT SERRANO, SON ABUSED BY PRIEST: No, I did not.
HANLEY: Who was the private investigator?
P. SERRANO: It doesn't matter.
HANLEY: Who was the private investigator? Tell me who was the private investigator? Who took my pictures?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Families need to know about...
HANLEY: They're lies.
L. SERRANO: Don't get into my wife, Hanley, or I'll lose it.
CARROLL: Seconds later, Ray Skettini's wife stepped in.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do did you abuse this man right here?
HANLEY: Ray Skettini, yes, I did.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, he's my husband.
HANLEY: Yes, I know.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You married us.
HANLEY: Yes, I did.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You baptized our daughter.
HANLEY: Yes, I did. And Ray knows I'm goddamned sorry for what I did to him, too, right, Raymond? I love you, Ray, and I hope you forgive me, babe.
SKETTINI: I don't know that I can forgive anything anymore.
He likes to pretend he's remorseful, but in the next breath, what really shocked me was that he was calling people liars out here.
L. SERRANO: What surprised me a bit was his anger. He's the criminal. He's the perpetrator. And he was faced there with some of his victims. That kind of surprised me. CARROLL: Hanley did not answer his phone or door when we showed up on two separate occasions.
What surprises people here is that no one in authority told them about Hanley's past. Had his next door neighbor known, he says he never would have invited him over to a party.
ALFREDO ESTEVEZ, NEIGHBOR (through translator): I'm worried, as you can imagine, because I have three sons. Of course, I was worried after we found out the news.
HANLEY: I did not abuse all of them.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh!
CARROLL: The church is concerned confrontations like this could lead to vigilante justice.
(on camera) Are you worried at all about someone taking the law into their own hands and exacting their own form of justice?
KELLY: Honestly, I'm not worried about what may or may not happen to him.
CARROLL: How do you feel about something like that?
L. SERRANO: How I do feel about that? I wouldn't lose any sleep over it.
CARROLL: Hanley's victims believe this is the only justice they have. They say they will keep watching and warning.
Jason Carroll, CNN, Patterson, New Jersey.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ZAHN: Shattering story to watch.
Tonight, on "LARRY KING LIVE," what is the very latest advice on keeping your heart healthy? Be sure to watch at the top of the hour. It could save your life.
Now, though, let's turn to Erica Hill, who has tonight's Headline News business break -- Erica.
ERICA HILL, HEADLINE NEWS ANCHOR: Paula, a down week for Wall Street ends with another down day. Once again, higher oil prices and worries about future inflation cost the Dow nearly 18 points. Telecom stocks also pulled at the NASDAQ, which shed 19. The S&P was down 6.
Unemployment fell to 4.7 percent in January, though. That is its lowest rate in more than four years. Employers added 193,000 jobs in January. That was still less than expected. Analysts fear such low unemployment could restart inflation.
Some good news for defense contractors in a Pentagon blueprint for the future. It calls for developing new long range weapons as a hedge against China's emerging military power. Defense spending this year could total $439 billion. That doesn't include plans to modernize the bomber fleet.
The Insurance Institute says makers of SUVs have made significant improvements in safety. It reports the deaths from side impact crashes have been cut in half, and there have been fewer deaths in front and rear crashes, as well.
Drug maker Merck and Co. won FDA approval today for a new anti- diarrhea vaccine for children. That vaccine is aimed at the rotavirus. It's a major killer of children in developing countries and also sickens tens of thousands of American children. Merck's sales of the vaccine could top some $500 million.
And the Kama Sutra worm didn't cause much fuss after all. Computer security experts say most companies and businesses heeded the warning to scan for the worm with antivirus programs. And so far, no reports of major disruptions.
And that -- those are, rather, your business headlines on this Friday, Paula. Have a great weekend.
ZAHN: You too, Erica. Thanks so much.
Coming up, the end of an era in communication. Don't worry. Your land line phone is safe for now. But something else is about to go down the line and never come back. What is it? Stay tuned. You may never see one again.
But first, here's No. 3 on CNN.com's top 10 countdown. After 11 years of marriage, actress Heather Locklear has filed for divorce from Richie Sambora, the guitarist for the band Bon Jovi.
Stay with us. No. 2 in our countdown coming right up. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ZAHN: We didn't electronically generate that. That's exactly what it looks like just outside our studio here at Time Warner. Beautiful New York night.
It's kind of hard to imagine the world without computers, radio and telephones. But long before any of them existed, the fastest way to communicate was, of course, by telegram. But tonight, we note the passing of the medium that paved wait for the electronic world, because the telegram has quietly slipped into the past.
Here's Jeanne Moos.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Western Union stops selling telegrams. Stop.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, gee.
MOOS: Telegrams now history. Stop.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I do feel like I missed that. I would have liked to have had a telegram.
MOOS: Better enjoy them in movies. Stop.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Stop being a sap. Stop.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Lonesome for you all. Stop.
MOOS: By the way, "stop" was used because "stop" is easier to signal in Morse code than periods are.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Morticia in danger. Stop.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I can remember Mom and Dad if they got a telegram and a man knocked on the door, somebody was dead.
MOOS: E-mail was the last nail in the telegram's coffin. Ironic that the news surfaced on Western Union's web site.
(on camera) Did you ever get a telegram?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No.
MOOS: Never?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Never.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Never.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Ever.
MOOS: Never.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Never. Yes.
MOOS: Kind of depressing. Me either.
(voice-over) Talk about depressing, the very first telegraphed message sent by Samuel Morse was "What hath God wrought?" But old- time performers like Evelyn Page remember getting nice telegrams.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's good luck and good wishes and break a leg and all that sort of thing.
MOOS: How about this telegram George Burns sent to Bob Hope: "I heard on the radio that you're 88, so I'm sending this wire. If you're not, send it back and I'll send it to you when you are."
Jazz singer Robbie Robinson still has the telegram a friend sent her. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Unable to make your opening. Stop. Please forgive me. And it worked. I forgave her.
MOOS: Some major celebs...
HARRISON FORD, ACTOR: Paging Mr. Ellis.
MOOS: ... have had roles delivering telegrams, from Harrison Ford to Madonna.
MADONNA, SINGER/ACTRESS: The deal is off. Stop.
ELTON JOHN, SINGER: I got a telegram from George Harrison, and I couldn't believe it, saying, "Congratulations on a great album, love George Harrison." And you know how much that meant to me, and that stayed with me forever and ever.
MOOS: Gone forever are the Western Union routers on roller skates. The company has also killed its singing telegrams.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (singing): I am your singing telegram
MOOS: This is the swan song for the telegram.
Ask a kid these days how a telegram works...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A messenger comes on a horse or whatever.
MOOS: And though they've never had a telegram...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I've had Golden Grahams.
MOOS (on camera): What's a Golden Graham?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Cereal you know.
MOOS (voice-over): Unlike Golden Grahams, the demise of the telegram is hard to digest.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Nobody is dead, I hope.
MOOS: Just the telegram. Stop.
Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ZAHN: And then there's this. Stop. When telegrams were at their peak in 1929, Americans sent 200 million of them. Last year, just 20,000.
Coming up at the top of the hour, some famous women who have survived one of America's deadliest killers. What they know about heart disease could save your life.
First, though, on to No. 2 on our countdown of the top ten stories on CNN.com today. Over 20 million of you logging on. It's a story that we featured here not long ago.
Remember the 15-year-old boy who married the 37-year-old woman in Georgia? Well, it seems he's vanished from the group home he was in, and his wife is due to give birth to their child later this month.
No. 1 is straight ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ZAHN: Now it's your turn to weigh in on some of the stories we've aired tonight. Earlier, we showed you an incredible confrontation caught on tape this weekend when a former priest who admitted abusing children moved into a New Jersey neighborhood this past weekend. We asked you how you would feel about that. Here's what you had to say.
"As a lifelong Catholic, I applaud your story on predatory priests. There isn't a hell hot enough for these monsters. Don't back off. Keep on reporting."
Let us know what you think about all of our stories here. Call 1-877-PAULA (sic) or e-mail us at HeyPaula@CNN.com.
Thanks so much for being with us tonight. Have a great weekend, everybody. We'll be back on Monday.
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