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Paula Zahn Now

Escalating Clash Over Port Security Deal; Stealing Body Parts; Are Kidnapped Teenagers Being Forced to Rob Banks?

Aired February 23, 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. And thank you all for being with us.
Tonight, a bruising battle over port security. Is the White House ready to step back?

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ZAHN (voice-over): On the CNN "Security Watch" -- in the clash over safety in our ports, was the administration too quick, even reckless, with national security?

SEN. HILLARY CLINTON (D), NEW YORK: This process is a failure of judgment.

ZAHN: Did anyone break the law?

ROBERT KIMMITT, DEPUTY SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY: We didn't ignore the law. We might have interpreted it differently.

ZAHN: With all the criticism, is the White House backing down?

The "Eye Opener" -- dramatic new developments in the bone- snatcher's case.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I was really angry and really concerned. People got diseased body parts.

ZAHN: Will someone stand trial for stealing body parts from the dead?

The deadly face-off -- you have seen this amazing video. But why did he try to kill a California lawyer?

WILLIAM STRIER, SHOT CALIFORNIA ATTORNEY: It's my body, but it is my -- not my mind. Somebody should have stopped me.

ZAHN: After years of silence, the gunman speaks.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ZAHN: We begin with CNN "Security Watch" and the nationwide insecurity about letting a company owned by the United Arab Emirates run six major U.S. ports.

The Bush administration didn't quite blink this afternoon, but a senior administration official is now telling CNN that a voluntary delay could give the company more time to explain what is going on and might be -- quote -- "a scenario where everyone wins.'

The company, Dubai Ports World, is supposed to start running things next week at ports in New York, Newark, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Miami, and New Orleans. And, this morning, the president said, the more people learn about the transaction, the more they will be comforted.

But, at hearings on Capitol Hill today, no one seemed comfortable at all, and there were questions about whether mid-level bureaucrats ignored the law when they OKed the deal.

There is a lot going on right now.

Let's get started with White House correspondent Dana Bash in Washington.

So, Dana, what have you learned about the -- the White House is hoping this will get delayed?

DANA BASH, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Paula, the bottom line is, this White House really doesn't want the president to use his very first veto in five-plus years against the Republican leadership on the issue of security.

So, what Bush officials are floating tonight is the idea that, perhaps, the two companies, P&O and DPW, could, on their own, decide to delay this transaction, to delay it to give members of Congress more time. In the words of one senior official to CNN today, this is a scenario where everybody would win.

Why? Because they insist here that, the more they are trying to explain this to members of Congress, even to -- to critical governors and mayors, that they're getting -- that they're making headway, they say, and the more time they would have to do that, the better.

They also think that, perhaps, that could -- could be better and could -- could be good for these companies. But one thing they are making clear here tonight, Paula -- and that is that, if it does come down to legislation, if the president gets legislation to delay this deal, he will still veto it.

ZAHN: But, Dana, here is what I don't get.

And, for anybody watching those hearings today, you can't imagine how any delay is going to silence the -- the critics of this plan.

BASH: Well, that's certainly an open question.

And -- and one of big open questions in this idea that is being floated is whether the companies are going to go for it. There is, at this time, no indication that they will. They are getting a lot of different advice from a lot of different areas, from their lawyers, from political consultants on both sides of the aisle, perhaps government them a lot -- a lot of different scenarios, where they should or -- what they should or shouldn't do.

I can tell you that some of those political consultants are close allies of the White House. So, don't be surprised if they're talking quietly behind the scenes, sending messages. But, in the words of the senior official I talked to tonight, there are a lot of moving parts here.

ZAHN: And you will keep us posted on all of them, Dana, counting on you, 24/7, for that.

And, as we mentioned a little bit earlier on, the mid-level bureaucrats who OKed the ports deal in the first place had a lot of explaining to do up on Capitol Hill today.

Andrea Koppel was listening as they took senators through their secret approval process.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANDREA KOPPEL, CNN STATE DEPARTMENT CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Today, President Bush was still defending his administration's decision and reassuring the American people.

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: This deal wouldn't go forward if we were concerned about the security for the United States of America.

KOPPEL: On Capitol Hill, Senate Democrats had some of the administration's key decision-makers in the port deal squarely in their crosshairs.

SEN. HILLARY CLINTON (D), NEW YORK: If 9/11 was failure of imagination, and Katrina was a failure of initiative, this process is a failure of judgment.

KOPPEL: This hastily arranged briefing before the Senate's Armed Services Committee was convened by Chairman John Warner, one of the few Republicans to openly support President Bush, in the hopes of stemming the flood of congressional criticism -- in attendance, senior officials who were involved in approving the controversial deal with the United Arab Emirates.

The Pentagon's Gordon England told senators that, since 9/11, the UAE has become a close ally.

GORDON R. ENGLAND, DEPUTY SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: We have more of our Navy ships in United Arab Emirates than any other port outside the United States. Last year, in the UAE, we had 590 of our military Sealift Command ships in the UAE. We had 56 of our warships in their ports.

KOPPEL: But Democrats wondered why, when two of the 9/11 hijackers were from the UAE, no one raised a red flag.

SEN. EDWARD KENNEDY (D), MASSACHUSETTS: Did anyone on the panel raise any national -- any national security concerns at all? ROBERT KIMMITT, DEPUTY SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY: By consensus, they said that there was not a national security concern.

KOPPEL: Of the five lawmakers who attended, four were Democrats -- among them, senators Hillary Clinton and Carl Levin, who accused the Treasury Department's Robert Kimmitt of ignoring the law by failing to launch more than a routine investigation.

KIMMITT: We didn't ignore the law. We might have interpreted it differently. But the fundamental fact here, concerns were raised; they were resolved.

SEN. CARL LEVIN (D), MICHIGAN: If the national security could be affected, this requires -- this law requires an investigation, period, not just what you call resolution of concerns. It requires that 45- day investigation. That's what the law says.

KOPPEL: But Kimmitt and Gordon England insisted that, far from rushing the review, they spent nearly 90 days on the case.

ENGLAND: It was approved by the United States Army; it was approved by the United States Navy; it was approved by the United States Air Force; by the Defense Security Service; by the Defense Intelligence Agency; by the National Security Agency; by the Defense Information Systems Agency; and, as I said, by the U.S. Transportation Command and many others.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ZAHN: So, Andrea, we heard a little bit of the reporting from Dana Bash about the -- the White House hoping that some kind of delay will put this deal off, and maybe not come back to -- to haunt the White House, the way it has this week. Where do you think the debate goes from here?

KOPPEL: Well, it depends who you ask, Paula.

Congress is officially on recess until next week. That's when D.P. World, as you had already pointed out, is supposed to take over those six U.S. ports. But some lawmakers, like Senator Clinton, who attended today's briefing, says she still intends to push her legislation through, which would prevent all foreign ownership of U.S. port facilities.

There are also other lawmakers on both sides of the aisle who said that they intend to introduce legislation to try to stop this deal from being finalized. But on the other side of the debate is President Bush, who has threatened to veto such a deal.

And -- and, Paula, really, for the president, this split that has developed between himself and, really, the top members of the Republican Party is not just a headache; it is a huge embarrassment. So, you can bet, whichever way this goes, the White House is going to want to wrap this up as quickly as possible -- Paula.

ZAHN: Got that one right. Andrea Koppel, thanks for the update.

Tonight, the hunt is on for the masterminds behind a bizarre string of crimes. Who is kidnapping teenagers and forcing them to rob banks?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Ed Lavandera in Anoka, Minnesota.

Many people who attended a military funeral at this church just a few hours ago say what happened here was disgusting and horrifying -- religious protesters lashing out at the family of a fallen soldier. It is happening more often than you think.

I will have that story coming up -- when PAULA ZAHN NOW continues.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZAHN: And hundreds of people who have received tissue implants are now being told they should get tested for HIV and other diseases. Where did the donor tissue come from? The answer is startling.

But, first, on to our countdown of the top 10 most popular stories on CNN.com. About 20 million of you logged on today.

At number 10 -- outbreaks of religious violence in Nigeria -- Christians and Muslims have been fighting for the past five days. At least 120 people have been killed.

Number nine -- in Russia, a roof collapsed at a market in Moscow, killing 56 people, injuring 32 others. Heavy snow on that roof might have caused it to collapse -- numbers eight and seven on our countdown minutes away.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ZAHN: Remember these pictures outside a courthouse, a gunman chasing a lawyer, firing off many shots. What happened to these men? Well, they will both tell us tonight.

Meanwhile, police in Maryland at this hour are still searching for one half of a team of thieves suspected of kidnapping teenaged boys and forcing them, at gunpoint, to rob banks. They haven't seen anything like this before.

Here is Jason Carroll with a bizarre story "Outside the Law."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Barely old enough to shave, and still has a baby face for a 17-year-old. But police say Jeremiah Hall is no innocent teenager. They say he's a streetwise criminal, partly responsible for a string of bizarre bank robberies in suburban Washington, D.C.

MAJOR DANIEL DUSSEAU, PRINCE GEORGE'S COUNTY, MARYLAND, POLICE DEPARTMENT: Somebody who is used to being hardened by the streets develops that hard outer shell, and is not easily influenced.

CARROLL: Investigators say Hall, and another man, who is still on the loose, but seen here in this composite sketch, kidnapped teenagers, forcing them to rob banks.

The crime spree began on January 20 at this metro station. A 15- year-old boy gets off the train. He's abducted at gunpoint and given a note.

KEVIN PERKINS, ASSISTANT SPECIAL AGENT IN CHARGE, BALTIMORE FIELD OFFICE: Well, essentially, it is -- it is what we refer to as a demand note. It is a note that it -- it is provided to a bank teller that tells them, hand over the money.

CARROLL (on camera): The 15-year-old gives the demand note to a teller inside this Wachovia bank in Landover, Maryland. Once he has the cash, he rushes out and hands the money over to the suspects waiting outside.

Minutes later, he's forced to do it again at this SunTrust bank, just a few miles away. The suspects take all the cash and leave him.

(voice-over): The boy immediately called police. Major Daniel Dusseau says, at the time, he was skeptical of his story.

DUSSEAU: We're checking -- listening to the story, checking out the truthfulness of it, found it very strange.

CARROLL: February 6, analyst 15-year-old boy is kidnapped after getting off a bus. He's forced to rob this SunTrust bank in Prince George's County, three miles from the previous robberies. Police say his abductors wait outside, avoiding surveillance cameras.

Detectives catch the teen and realize, the case is unlike anything they had seen before.

DUSSEAU: He tells, basically, a very similar story. And -- and, as we start looking at this, we put the pieces together, realizing, we may have a string of incidents.

CARROLL: This surveillance tape gave them another clue. It shows the suspect, the one who is still at large, taking a piece of paper from a store, located near the SunTrust bank. Police say the suspects use it to write a demand note.

February 8, a 14-year-old boy abducted while walking home. He's forced to rob this bank in Bethesda. The demand note reads, "Give me all your money, or I will shoot someone."

PERKINS: An individual threatened them personally, threatened their families, unless they would comply with -- with their demands. CARROLL: Thanks to a tip, police arrested Jeremiah Hall last week, charging him with kidnapping and assault. Robbery charges are still pending. Hall hasn't entered a plea. His grandmother says, police have the wrong man.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I just feel that they should find the person that -- who is really responsible.

CARROLL: But Marlene Johnson says, Hall's grandmother is in denial. She has lived next door to her for years.

MARLENE JOHNSON, NEIGHBOR OF JEREMIAH BROWN HALL'S GRANDMOTHER: If his grandmother would tell the truth, she would tell you, last year, he stole her car. I had to help her go find him. And her car, he stole. I mean, he just -- the boy just does -- and he does things like that.

CARROLL: Hall has a juvenile record, but police are restricted from releasing details about it. What concerns investigators isn't just the age of the victims, but the age of their suspect in custody.

PERKINS: Surprising, disappointing, disturbing -- it is -- it is unfortunate that -- that someone of that age would be involved in something along these lines.

CARROLL: Hall's age won't prevent him from being prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. He will be charged as an adult.

Jason Carroll, CNN, Prince George's County, Maryland.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ZAHN: And there is this: Jeremiah Hall is due back in court next Tuesday for a preliminary hearing.

There has been a big break in another bizarre case. Who would stoop to stealing dead bodies?

A little bit later on, watch out: How did this car end up going the wrong way in the fast lane?

First, though, let's turn to Erica Hill of Headline News with the hour's other top stories.

Hi, Erica. Good to see you.

ERICA HILL, HEADLINE NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Hi. Hi, Paula. Nice to see you as well.

Unrelenting violence in Iraq today, including a gruesome discovery near the town of Baquba, where gunmen executed 47 civilians. At least 120 others have died since the bombing of a Shiite shrine, including a TV news crew and seven American soldiers.

Vice President Cheney's former chief of staff is asking a federal judge to quash his indictment on a technicality. Lewis Libby is accused of lying to investigators about the leak of a CIA operative's identity.

And you may call it the election that will never die. An election watchdog group says it found tens of thousands of voting irregularities after examining machine records in the 2004 Florida race.

Finally, best-selling author James Frey has reportedly been dropped by his publisher, Riverhead Books. Last month, you may recall, Frey admitted, much of his best-selling memoir, "A Million Little Pieces," was, in fact, fiction.

Paula, the fallout from that continues.

ZAHN: Well, you know what isn't fiction, but fact tonight, Erica Hill?

HILL: What's that?

ZAHN: About nine thumbs up from the studio -- all of them males, I might add -- on your hair.

(LAUGHTER)

HILL: Well, thank you. I will tell Funda (ph) upstairs, who did it for me.

ZAHN: All right.

(LAUGHTER)

ZAHN: I know you can get back to the serious business of journalism in our next break.

Thank, Erica.

(LAUGHTER)

ZAHN: Appreciate it.

HILL: Thanks, Paula.

ZAHN: Could you believe that anybody would actually show up at the funeral of a soldier killed in Iraq and shout something like this?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You are a hell-bound minister of Satan.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZAHN: These people aren't against the war in Iraq. So, what are they thinking?

And, a little bit later on, who has been stealing human bodies, and why?

Before that, numbers eight and seven on our CNN.com countdown.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ZAHN: Guess it doesn't take much of an imagination to try to figure out how you might feel if your son or daughter died in Iraq, and then someone showed up to protest at the funeral. But it is happening. And it's happening all over the place. And the reason for the protests may shock you.

Here is Ed Lavandera with a story that is bound to make you wonder, what were they thinking?

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE)...

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... that you are a hell-bound minister of Satan.

LAVANDERA (voice-over): Shirley Phelps and a small group of religious protesters came out swinging at the mayor of Anoka, Minnesota, the small town mourning the death of 23-year-old Corporal Andrew Kemple.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: God hates you. And you're going to go to hell for what you're doing.

LAVANDERA: That was just the beginning of an hour-long verbal assault on the family and friends of Corporal Kemple, who had come to this church to honor the life of an Army soldier killed in Iraq.

LISA MURPHY, FRIEND OF KEMPLE FAMILY: She's grieving over the loss of her child, their only son. You know, they should not have to deal with -- with -- with crazy people like this. It's just -- it -- it is beyond reason. I -- I can't even think of words to describe what -- if -- if it was my child, I would -- I would go nuts. I would probably attack this person.

LAVANDERA: Phelps and her family have made a name for themselves protesting what they call the acceptance of homosexual culture in America. They say soldiers who die fighting for a country that supports homosexuality should not be honored.

Shirley Phelps says she has protested at more than 100 military funerals.

(on camera): You have no qualms coming here on a day where a family and...

(CROSSTALK)

LAVANDERA: Excuse me -- where people are -- are -- are mourning the loss of -- of a loved one, and you no qualms about showing up here on this particular day? SHIRLEY PHELPS-ROPER, PROTESTER: They failed him. They failed to teach him what the lord, his God, required of him, and sent him to hell, cut off before his life got started.

LAVANDERA (voice-over): Phelps is unmoved, even when Corporal Kemple's mother comes over and asks her to leave. She unleashes another religious tirade.

PHELPS-ROPER: You made that child the tormented child he was, because you taught him that God was a liar.

LAVANDERA: Kemple's mother fires back, calling Phelps' behavior disgusting. Then, another relative tries again to reason with Phelps, saying, this isn't the time or place for such a protest.

PHELPS-ROPER: He went to hell for her sins. It is not too late for you -- your eyes, hardened your heart.

LAVANDERA: She discovers arguing is pointless.

(on camera): The Phelps protesters might be small in number, but they're generating a great deal of anger. They vow to continue showing up at military funerals across the country.

So, now more than a dozen state governments are already debating legislation that would restrict these types of demonstrations at funerals.

JOHN LUTSCH, PATRIOT GUARD RIDERS (singing): O say, can you see...

LAVANDERA: One of these protests caught the attention of John Lutsch. He promises to drown out Phelps' message with songs of support for military families. Lutsch is with a group called the Patriot Riders. They promise to show up wherever military families feel threatened by these protests.

LUTSCH: This is about having empathy for the family and -- and expressing -- expressing your patriot -- patriotism. And that is -- it is a moving thing for me. I get a little choked up about it.

LAVANDERA: Lutsch finds it horrifying that a family must confront these protesters, when they're struggling with a personal and private tragedy. They want families who lose soldiers in Iraq to know they won't be alone if this protest comes to them.

LUTSCH: That's -- that's the good part of this whole thing, you know, that there are people that are willing to come out here, stand out here, sing off key...

(LAUGHTER)

LUTSCH: ... and -- and -- and do our best to -- to comfort the family.

LAVANDERA: Today, they just hope Corporal Andrew Kemple's family found the sound of their voices to be much sweeter than the sound of Shirley Phelps' rage.

Ed Lavandera, CNN, Anoka, Minnesota.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ZAHN: And the Patriot Riders group says it has been inundated with offers of help at military funerals. And they say word is spreading among military families that help is out there, if families want it.

Let's move on to number six on our CNN.com countdown.

Cody Posey, the teen convicted of killing three family members on a New Mexico ranch, has been sentenced as a juvenile. That will mean he will remain in state custody until he's 21. Had he been sentenced as an adult, he would have gotten 50 years.

Number five -- in England, two people arrested in connection with yesterday's armed robbery of about 50 million pounds. That's about $87 million -- number four just minutes away.

Also, tonight, police think they know who is behind a bizarre string of thefts. Why would anyone steal dead bodies? We will update a CNN investigation next.

And, then a little bit later on, some incredible pictures from a police camera. Who is going the wrong way and why?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TED ROWLANDS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Ted Rowlands in Los Angeles.

You may remember this amazing video of a courthouse shooting caught on tape. Tonight, we will talk to not only the lawyer who was shot five times, but also the man that shot him.

It is coming up -- as PAULA ZAHN NOW continues.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ZAHN: Coming up in this half hour, a remarkable story with some very graphic pictures. An attorney chased down by a gunman shot five times but miraculously survived. What was each man thinking at that time?

Also, the driver who caused a flood of calls to 911. How long did she go the wrong way on a very busy interstate? I'm trying to find her on the road right now. Couldn't make it out on that shot.

Then coming up at the top of the hour, the parents of missing teenager Natalee Holloway on "LARRY KING LIVE."

But tonight, there is a major development and chilling story we have been following from the very beginning. I want to warn you that some of the pictures you're about to see could be a lot for most of you out there.

Today, four men were charged with cutting up bodies from New York funeral homes, selling bone and skin for transplants. So who are they? Well two of them, Michael Mastromarino and Joseph Nicelli were central figures in our first report on the story two months ago and since then, hundreds of patients all over the country have been notified that they should get tested for HIV because they may have received diseased implants from people whose organs should never have been donated in the first place. Here is Deborah Feyerick with tonight's "Eye Opener."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Michael Bruno was a good old New York City cab driver with an opinion about everything, even his own death. After a losing battle with cancer two years ago, his son Vito honored his last wishes.

VITO BRUNO, ALLEGED VICTIM'S SON: My father had requested to be cremated.

FEYERICK: And today in this box lie Michael Bruno's remains, at least that's what Vito used to think. Now, he's not so sure.

BRUNO: They said this was the remains of Michael Bruno.

FEYERICK (on camera): Now what do you think?

BRUNO: Don't know what this is, don't know what's in here at all.

FEYERICK (voice-over): That's because Michael Bruno may have unwillingly become the victim of a scandal that's making ghoulish headlines. It is sending shock waves through a billion dollar industry that until now has remained out of the spotlight, the business of human body parts.

It is an industry that relies on the goodwill of donors who believe they're helping medical research or saving lives. And business is booming. Heads, torsos, limbs, you name it, command hefty prices. By one estimate, a single body chopped into pieces can be worth up to $150,000.

The donor never sees a penny. But it seems everyone else does, including the funeral home which can charge $1,000 per body for storage and transportation. And Michael Bruno is not alone. Another alleged victim...

ALISTAIR COOKE, DECEASED T.V. HOST: Alistair Cooke, Masterpiece Theatre, good night.

FEYERICK: T.V. host Alistair Cooke, most famous for PBS's "Masterpiece Theater." Some of Cooke's bones were allegedly stolen before he was cremated. New York City investigators believe they may be among hundreds if not more whose body parts were taken without permission and passed off as legitimate donations to companies which make money processing the bodies and providing them to the medical community.

BRUNO: It's just beyond anything anybody could ever comprehend. Just the sickest, sickest story you could hear.

FEYERICK: In question, six funeral homes where a number of thefts appear to have taken place, along with two men at the center of the case. Dr. Michael Mastromarino, of Biomedical Tissue Services in New Jersey and his partner, embalmer Joseph Nicelli.

Police believe they may have carved up bodies without consent, then changed the cause of death to conceal deadly diseases like cancer. This way the stolen body parts could be marketed as healthy to an industry desperate for donations.

TODD R. OLSON, DOCTOR, ALBERT EINSTEIN COLLEGE OF MEDICINE: We are dealing simply with an open market, where the supply and the demand is the only limiting factor on how much people are going to be able to profit.

FEYERICK: So why didn't anyone notice? Many of the dead were cremated or doctored to hide missing parts. Bones, for example, may have been taken out and swapped with plumbing pipe. Yes, plumbing pipe. Mario Gallucci represents one of the doctors.

(on camera): Did your client as suggested replace any bones or anything in a cadaver with pipe?

MARIO GALLUCCI, MICHAEL MASTROMARINO'S ATTORNEY: Absolutely.

FEYERICK: He replaced bones with pipe?

GALLUCCI: Absolutely.

FEYERICK: Because?

GALLUCCI: That's the appropriate way to replace bone. It's a medical piping. It is not -- you don't -- he did not go to Home Depot and buy PVC pipe and put it into donors.

FEYERICK (voice-over): Vito Bruno says he learned of the alleged theft when a New York City detective showed up at his door with a donation consent form Bruno had supposedly signed.

BRUNO: That was not my signature so they forged my name.

FEYERICK: Bruno also says his father's cause of death was listed falsely as heart disease instead of kidney cancer.

BRUNO: I was really angry and really concerned, concerned that these body parts went into other people, people got diseased body parts. FEYERICK: In the case of Alistair Cooke, his consent form read heart attack, not the lung cancer which his daughter says actually killed him. How many other victims were there? And how long had body parts theft gone undetected?

In Denver, Colorado, some 1,800 miles away, an apparent whistle- blower.

(on camera): How many people could receive tissue from a single donor?

DR. MICHAEL BAUER, BONFILS BLOOD CENTER: We have had a recent case where we have -- we have traced it back, and there were over 90 different patients who were benefiting by one donation.

FEYERICK: Ninety different patients?

BAUER: That's exactly right.

FEYERICK (voice-over): Michael Bauer examines donated body parts for disease. He says he discovered phone numbers on donor records sent by Mastromarino's company were bogus.

BAUER: I still hoped that there would be a logical explanation for it. What was going through my mind was, Dr. Mastromarino had not received permission to recover these tissues.

FEYERICK: The FDA ordered a nationwide recall of body parts from Mastromarino's company, parts like skin, heart valves, bones, key to cosmetic and reconstructive surgery. Patients who receive those questionable parts are now getting grim warning. Get tested for hepatitis, syphilis and HIV.

In Texas, Rolando Estrada, got one of those calls after his doctor used what he thought was a healthy cadaver ligament to repair Estrada's knee.

ROLANDO ESTRADA, RECIPIENT OF ALLEGED STOLEN TISSUE: And that's when it really sank in that I could have been exposed to something life-threatening, and that's kind of when I started getting really worried.

FEYERICK: Luckily Estrada's tests came back negative. But his case is one of many sparking fear and concern among thousands of people throughout the U.S. and Canada. And though processing companies insist that rigorous testing weeds out diseased body parts, in New Jersey, three people have tested positive for hepatitis and syphilis after receiving implants they believe came from Mastromarino's company.

Sanford Rubenstein is Bruno's attorney in a lawsuit against the New Jersey doctor, his partner, and the funeral home which handled his father's cremation.

SANFORD RUBENSTEIN, VITO BRUNO'S ATTORNEY: This is a double outrage. It's an outrage not just to the families who without consent saw their loved ones who were deceased, their body parts used in others, but it's an outrage to those people who received tissue.

FEYERICK: In New York, investigators have begun the grizzly task of digging up bodies from cemeteries like this one, to see for themselves if bones, limbs and other body parts are missing. The funeral home which handled Michael Bruno's body denied any ties to the alleged body snatching ring. Embalmer Joseph Nicelli and his attorney both denied our request for an interview. Vito Bruno, meanwhile, is left with anger and doubt.

(on camera): To think you can actually make a business by illegally selling, illegally taking body parts.

BRUNO: Sounds look a bad movie, doesn't it?

FEYERICK (voice over): But it's not. It's a real-life bone snatching scam which, if proven, could expose the dark side of the death business. Deborah Feyerick, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ZAHN: In spite of what you've heard, I this it's important to add one more thing. And that is that organ donation is a legitimate business that saves many, many lives, more than 27,000 last year alone. Tissue transplants improve the quality of life for about a million people every year. And medical schools depend on body donations to train thousands of new doctors every year.

Coming up in a little bit, Jeanne Moos has a story of a driver who is very lucky to be alive. How did she get going in the wrong way on this interstate highway?

First though, let's see what direction the stock market was moving in today. Erica Hill has a "Headline News Business Break."

(STOCK MARKET REPORT)

ZAHN: Thanks so much Erica, appreciate it. We have a couple of stories with some unnerving pictures. Remember when a gunman chased a lawyer in front of a courthouse? Both men survived. What were they thinking at this very moment?

And you can ask the same thing about a driver in North Carolina. How did she get going in the wrong direction in the fast lane? And how did she get out?

Now on to numbers four and five on our CNN.com countdown.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ZAHN: Tomorrow a California man is scheduled to be sentenced in a crime that shocked absolutely everyone who saw it. And many of us did because it happened to be caught on videotape. About two years ago outside a courthouse in California, a lawyer was shot repeatedly at close range. T.V. cameras recorded all of it. The lawyer miraculously survived. Tonight, you're going to hear from him and from the gunman himself. Here is Ted Rowlands.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ROWLANDS (voice-over): The target in this unforgettable video is Jerry Curry. It was Halloween, 2003. Curry, an attorney, says he was outside a Los Angeles area courthouse when a gunman walked up to him, asked him his name and shot him in the neck.

JERRY CURRY, WOUNDED IN SHOOTING: I knew something bad had happened.

ROWLANDS: There were photographers at the courthouse that day.

J. CURRY: I was using a tree, trying to use a tree to keep the tree between the gun and my head and my torso. I was entirely focused on the gun, just watching the gun. I knew that the guy could kill me. I knew my life could end there and I was scared. I was no doubt about it, for about five or 10 seconds.

ROWLANDS: As Curry moved from side to side, the man kept shooting.

J. CURRY: I could feel the bullets hitting me. I was hit in the left shoulder three times and the right forearm. And I could feel the impact. I didn't feel any pain at that time.

ROWLANDS: Eventually the man ran out of bullets, Curry was still on his feet.

RO CURRY, WIFE: Raising his hands up in the air, saying "Someone help me. And no one was helping him."

ROWLANDS: Curry's wife Ro, who's talking for this first time about the video of her husband, says she first saw it when she got home from the hospital on the night of the shooting.

R. CURRY: It was pretty devastating. I started to cry. It was -- even when I see it now I still get very emotional.

ROWLANDS: Curry was shot five times. One bullet just missed an artery in his neck.

R. CURRY: He could have easily died that day. And he was saved, a miracle happened. He was saved.

J. CURRY: I remember hearing a click, click, click, and I was relieved, because I thought, "My God, he's out of bullets and I survived." Then he just kind of calmly put the gun in his pocket and then calmly walked away, didn't say a word.

ROWLANDS: That man calmly walking away is William Strier, who after years of public silence, has agreed to talk about the shooting. Why did he do it?

WILLIAM STRIER, SHOOTER: Something happened to me, I really can't explain that. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is the guy.

ROWLANDS: Strier, who's in jail now, says he was so drugged with painkillers for a bad back that he doesn't remember the shooting. But he has seen the video.

STRIER: It's me, it's my body, but it's not my mind really.

ROWLANDS: Strier claims the shooting was the result of months of growing frustration over a $100,000 trust that was for his medical treatment. Jerry Curry was the lawyer handling the trust.

(on camera): Strier says on the day of the shooting, he was already drugged up and frustrated when he left the courthouse following the latest hearing on his case.

STRIER: I went out, took more pills, and I became pretty weak at that point.

ROWLANDS (voice-over): He also took two handguns out of the trunk of his car.

STRIER: It was like a dream, opening up the trunk. Somebody should have stopped me because evidently I would never stop myself and -- I just wish somebody would have stopped me some way. I had no reason to shoot the man.

ROWLANDS: Strier and his lawyers say he's innocent of attempted murder and the video proves it. They maintain that no sane person would shoot someone in such a public place with T.V. cameras rolling.

ARNA ZLOTNIK, STRIER'S ATTORNEY: It supports the defense position that he was in a psychotic state, completely and thoroughly. He was totally oblivious to everything around him. He was acting totally irrationally. Nobody in their right mind would have make such a plan.

ROWLANDS: The defense brought up that theory at Strier's trial. The prosecution didn't buy it.

JIM FALCO, PROSECUTOR: It was nonsense. He was not stumbling. He had no problem handling the gun, putting it away.

ROWLANDS: The jury found Strier guilty. And at the age of 66, he'll most likely spend the rest of his life in prison.

Jerry and Ro Curry, who have three daughters and two grandchildren say they forgive Strier, but they'd like to see him locked up.

R. CURRY: I don't want him to be let out, no, I don't, because I don't know what he would do. He would probably still come after us.

ROWLANDS: Curry, who's made a full recovery, says the attack and the video have changed his life. J. CURRY: You appreciate your life a lot more. You appreciate the small things in your life you take for granted. And you really appreciate every day because you realize after something like this happens how fragile life is and how quickly it can be taken away from you.

ROWLANDS: Ted Rowlands, CNN, Los Angeles.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ZAHN: What an amazing story. And the man responsible for it joins us right now. Hi, Ted, how you doing tonight?

ROWLANDS: Hi, Paula.

ZAHN: So I can tell from the set, you're doing the "LARRY KING LIVE" thing tonight.

ROWLANDS: Yep, filling in for Larry. He's off tonight. We're going to have Beth and Dave Holloway on, the parents of Natalee Holloway. And they're going to be reacting to that interview that the suspect in the disappearance of Natalee Holloway did recently, Joran van der Sloot. We're going to play some clips from the interview and have Natalee's parents reaction to those clips. They also filed a lawsuit against not only Joran van der Sloot but his father, alleging that the father allowed him to run wild. We'll talk about that lawsuit as well. Paula?

ZAHN: I don't take pride in being the greatest mind reader but one would imagine they are outraged by the arrogance this young man displays in the interview. We look forward to seeing you at 9:00, Ted, thanks.

ROWLANDS: OK.

ZAHN: At the Winter Games in Italy, Americans have won nearly a third of all of the snowboarding medals. And here in the states, a retired New Jersey grandmother is working to see that the next generation of U.S. snow boarders upholds that tradition. Here is Jennifer Westhoven with another story about "Life After Work."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JENNIFER WESTHOVEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In the early '90s, teenage snow boarders started shredding the slopes at Killington Resort in Vermont and Chickie Rosenberg decided it was time to try it out.

CHICKIE ROSENBERG, SNOWBOARD INSTRUCTOR: I switched because I felt it was safer for me in terms of injury. And once I got on the snowboard, it was just much more fun.

WESTHOVEN: Chickie left her job as an English teacher when her daughter was born and bought her first snowboard for her 50th birthday. She started training and 16 years later is one of Killington's top instructors. ROSENBERG: Stay on your toes and pick a little speed. Once I got involved, snowboarding, that's all I really wanted to do. So I stopped doing everything and just taught snowboarding.

WESTHOVEN: Now 65, Chickie says the age difference doesn't matter in the teen snowboarding culture.

ROSENBERG: I was always a counterculture person myself. And I've always related well to teenage kids. The snowboarding instructors, they're all my kids and they're all my buddies.

WESTHOVEN: You might not expect a grandmother of two out on the slopes teaching fearlessness and the thrills of snowboarding.

ROSENBERG: Come across the hill.

I have these two girls and they a bad morning and they were terrified. And they had the best afternoon. And that's a wonderful thing. And that's a gift. It is a wonderful thing to be able to teach and to be able to make a happy day for somebody.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you.

ROSENBERG: The most important thing I teach people is to have confidence in themselves. That's really what I give them.

WESTHOVEN: Jennifer Westhoven, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ZAHN: And we would all like to have Chickie's spirit at 65.

Have you ever tried to talk your way out of a traffic ticket? Well that was only one of the worries on a North Carolina driver's mind. How did her story turn out? It's a doozy.

First No. 2 on our CNN.com countdown. No. 1, straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ZAHN: I think all of us have had a bad day behind the wheel every now and then, stuck in endless traffic jams, maybe some engine trouble. But you often don't have days like this. Here is Jeanne Moos.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): There's a right way and a wrong way to drive on an interstate. This is the wrong way. You're looking at the dashboard camera on the police car that eventually stopped the wrong way roadster. No wonder 911 got flooded with 70 calls.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, there is a car going the wrong way on I- 40. MOOS (voice-over): The wrong way, like salmon swimming upstream, like the poodle who survived a romp on a New York expressway. Like Gene Hackman chasing bad guys in the French Connection. But a cop behind the wheel, this wasn't.

MARGARET RILEY, WRONG WAY DRIVER: I've got on the wrong side and I kept going on. I don't know how I did that. I have no idea.

MOOS: For 14 miles she did it, 80-year-old Margaret Riley drove her 1984 Crown Victoria the wrong way in the fast lane near Raleigh, North Carolina.

RILEY: Busy, busy, busy. They was blowing the horn.

MOOS: Margaret says she didn't realize she was going the wrong way until a deputy's car met her head on. She did manage to back up onto the shoulder.

RILEY: And I said, well, I am so sorry. I said I've got a doctor's appointment and I'm running late and I'm sorry.

MOOS: They didn't give her a ticket but her driver's license is being re-evaluated. How did other drivers evaluate things?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's a oh, I believe she's probably senile or got Alzheimer's disease and she is driving on the completely wrong way on the highway.

RILEY: I know I'm 80-years-old, but I know I'm not crazy yet.

MOOS: At least she remembered to put on her turn signal. Jeanne Moos, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ZAHN: Yes, she got that part of it right. And there's this. In all that wrong way driving Margaret Riley caused, no accidents, no one got hurt. And when the police were done with her, she actually drove herself to that doctor's appointment after all. No idea how fast, though.

No. 1 on our CNN.com countdown, fears of civil war in Iraq after yesterday's attack on a Shiite Muslim shrine. Friday, Baghdad will be under a daytime curfew to avoid violence on the Muslim day of prayer.

And that's it for all of us tonight. Thanks so much for joining us, we'll be back same time, same place tomorrow night. Until then, have a great night. See you tomorrow night. "LARRY KING LIVE" starts right now.

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