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CNN Saturday Morning News

The Day Etan Patz Disappeared; Secret Service Scandal

Aired April 21, 2012 - 09:00   ET

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

RANDI KAYE, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): From CNN Center, this is CNN Saturday Morning.

George Zimmerman speaks:

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE ZIMMERMAN, DEFENDANT: I wanted to say I am sorry for the loss of your son.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAYE: His parents' plea at yesterday's bond hearing and why he might be set free as early as today. We'll have a live report.

Plus, we put the U.S. Secret Service in focus this morning as more agents are implicated in the scandal in Colombia. Is the agency forever tarnished? And what are some of the great heroes saying?

And new leads in an old mystery, why police are digging up a New York basement in the case of the 30-year-old disappearance of a now famous child.

It is Saturday, April 21st. Good morning. I'm Randi Kaye. Let's get straight to the news.

The fall out on the Secret Service prostitution scandal has cost three more agents their jobs. In a statement the agency said in part "Three additional employees have chosen to resign... as a result of the ongoing investigation in Cartagena, a twelfth employee has been implicated."

President Obama has now been briefed on the incident by Secret Service director Mark Sullivan who sources say has ordered a comprehensive review.

Helicopters are being brought in today to try and find victim's bodies from a plane crash in Pakistan. Officials believe that none of the 127 passengers or crew survived the crash in Islamabad. Family members are helping identify the victim (INAUDIBLE) have been recovered. Aviation officials say bad weather may have been a factor.

The United Nation's security council meets later this morning in an effort to expand the monetary mission in Syria. The peace plan was supposed to start with a ceasefire is not holding. Opposition forces say nearly 60 people were killed across the country yesterday. The U.N. wants to up their involvement to 30 monitors to 300.

A California woman has been charged with first degree murder in the death of Brittany Kilgore, the wife of a Marine. Authorities have not said how Kilgore who recently filed for divorce from her husband died or what her relationship was with the accused woman.

Jessica Lynn Lopez has pleaded not guilty. She is being held on $3 million bond.

The FBI is getting back to work this morning in the search for answers into a three decades old missing child case. Agents have been digging up a basement in lower Manhattan for clues in Etan Patz's disappearance. Investigators say both new and old information led them to question a carpenter who had a workshop in the place they are now searching. The carpenter has not been charged and says he has no involvement but what exactly happened the day that Etan went missing. Here's our national correspondent, Susan Candiotti.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: May 25th, 1979. It's a Friday and six year old Etan Patz is upstairs in his family's third floor apartment getting ready for school. He comes straight out this door all decked down in a corduroy jacket, pants and a kids' pilot hat. He can't wait to get to school. For the first time, Etan's mom and dad are allowing him to walk two blocks down the street this way to get to a school bus stop all by himself.

LISA COHEN, AUTHOR "AFTER ETAN": It was Friday before Memorial Day weekend and this was going to be one of his last opportunities and they finally relented that he could go.

CANDIOTTI: It's just after 8:00 a.m.. According to author Lisa Cohen, Etan's mom kisses him goodbye and watches his walk toward the bus stop. Everything seems fine. So his mother runs back upstairs to take care of her two-year-old son.

This is the corner where Etan was heading to meet the bus which is just two blocks away from their apartment. I can still see it from here. But Etan never made it.

(voice-over): At the end of the school day, when he didn't come home, his mom calls police.

COHEN: By that time, several hours had passed before anyone had any idea that there was something wrong. Those are crucial hours for an investigation.

CANDIOTTI: Etan's dad frantic starts grabbing photos of his son to show to people in the neighborhood. Investigators interviewed the parents and start canvassing the area for the youngster.

(on camera): See that traffic light. That's the bus stop and I am just a block away. This is where the FBI is now searching that basement. See all of their equipment here including that blue tent that you see? In that basement is where a carpenter used to have a workshop. Now years and years ago more than 30 years ago, police did search that basement, but they did not dig it up.

Now the FBI is trying to figure out more the key to his Etan's disappearance is right here all along.

Susan Candiotti, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KAYE: He is still behind bars this morning, but George Zimmerman could be released at any moment from a Florida jail. A judge set his bond at $150,000 yesterday. That means his family must put up $15,000 for his release. Zimmerman is charged with second degree murder in the February shooting death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin. He issued this apology to the teen's family.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE ZIMMERMAN, DEFENDANT: I am sorry for the loss of your son. I did not know how old he was. I thought he was a little bit younger than I am.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAYE: A lawyer for the Martin family called the apology disingenuous.

Haunted by the past. I'll talked to a former Secret Service agent who was there when John F. Kennedy was shot. I'll ask him about that day, the agency he left behind and the current scandal hovering over the heads of the active agents today. You are watching "CNN Saturday Morning" where news doesn't take the weekend off.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(MUSIC PLAYING)

KAYE: Oh, you got love these pictures. They were given to us by one of our great photographers here at CNN, Joel Dela Rosa. He's in Dallas. He's been checking out those bluebonnets with his son in recent days. They bloomed there early this year because of the recent weather patterns and the warmer temperatures. But how happy does that little boy look right there. Got to say, Reynolds, 7,000 people, including Joel's son have gone to check out the bluebonnets already.

REYNOLDS WOLF, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Oh, Texas, my Texas. It is a beautiful place to be, certainly, of course, this time of year. Joel's son, very handsome young man, smiling because Joel is his daddy - I mean(INAUDIBLE) Joel. I tell you, it's going to be a great day there. (INAUDIBLE) with the bluebonnets in Texas, just think it's the Texas version of the cherry blossoms in Washington, D.C., a very, very big deal.

And I tell you the weather today is going to be a very big deal in Texas. It should be fairly nice for the most part. In terms of delays, you're not going to find many in Texas. However you will find a bunch of them in Miami and Orlando due to the thunderstorms. The strongest of which may occur into the afternoon. In Atlanta, we got the low clouds, maybe a stray shower or two. Los Angeles, low clouds, marine layer should give way by mid day if not earlier. In San Francisco, you get the low clouds. Also very warm in San Francisco, New York and D.C. metros. You've got some scattered showers expect into the afternoon. Plus, yes, you got it, low clouds.

We got clouds and rain from New Orleans clear down to parts of Tampa and maybe Miami. The rain very light in Tampa. In fact, some of them popping in radar, the heavier action is still in the gulf. That will come later on today though. For much of the eastern seaboard, the rain is on the way too. You look back the west, plain as day you see that frontal boundary, and in the upper midwest, the western great lakes, we're going to see those scattered showers coming through, places like Minneapolis. Cooler air is going to be moving through, too.

Towards Thunder Bay, do not be surprise, you get some snowfall there even some snow in parts of the extreme northeast right behind that area of low pressure. You have the moisture there but it's also cool and some cooler air right behind it. A mix of southern clouds for parts of the Carolinas but severe storm possible into Florida.

Let's move right along and show you what we can expect in terms of your daytime highs. For the south lane, to California, 73 degrees. 79 degrees in San Francisco. Some 60s in Seattle. 78 degrees in Salt Lake City. 60s also for Kansas City. 40s in Minneapolis, mind you. (INAUDIBLE) in Chicago and 81 degrees in Washington.

As we wrap things up, we can expect again those delays possibly getting bigger I would say in spots like New York, mainly later in the afternoon. If you have a late afternoon, early evening flight, have fun with that. Let's send it back to you, Randi.

KAYE: Hey, by the way, on those bluebonnets, Reynolds, just got an e- mail from Joel, the grandparents are thrilled. They saw the little one on TV.

WOLF: What's not to love? The kiddos looks great. The flowers are pretty. Life is beautiful.

KAYE: So cute. All right. Reynolds, thank you very much. Time right now, about 10 minutes past the hour. Time to check out some of the stories making news around the nation.

In Oregon, this scene, a school bus flies off a wet road and teeters on the edge of an embankment. Inside, nearly two dozen students returning from a week at camp.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: All of a sudden, I see like people screaming and some people like clinging to their seats. It was all very scary.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAYE: The students cling to each other and then move to the high seats to steady the bus. Pretty smart. A sheriff's deputy is able to evacuate everyone. Amazingly, no students were hurt.

And just 30 miles from here in Portland, a swarm of honeybees decide to nest, not in a hive or even in a building, but on the rear window of a Lexus SUV.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JENNA COOPER-GROSS, CAR OWNER: I went to go pick up my daughter from school and didn't realize they were there. And then when we got back out, there they were.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAYE: Lucky for the bees, the driver plans to leave them alone until they are ready to move out.

The little piggy is hard at work. This is definitely one lucky pig in Iowa. Believe it or not, the little pig was headed for the slaughter house but on the way bounced off the truck. She survived the fall. And a local animal rescue league is now helping her heal from a broken leg. A little water therapy, I guess. They named her Olivia after Olivia, the feisty pig from the children's books and the Nickelodeon show. Now, Olivia is getting a second shot at life. That is just too cute.

Coming up, a very special look inside the Secret Service. I'm so excited to be able talk to with my next guest. He was there when John F. Kennedy was shot. And says he wishes that he could have taken that bullet. A real hero just a couple of minutes away.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAYE: We are going in focus this morning on the Secret Service. The agency has come under fire for that prostitution scandal in Colombia, a story that we first told you about last weekend. The fallout has cost six agents their jobs and a 12th has now been implicated. I want to focus in on some of the heroics though of the agents over the years. So let me bring you back to that day that changed everything for the Secret Service. November 22nd, 1963.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WALTER CRONKITE, CBS CORRESPONDENT: From Dallas, Texas, (INAUDIBLE) apparently official, President Kennedy died at 1:00 p.m. Central Standard Time, 2:00 Eastern Standard Time, some 38 minutes ago.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAYE: That was the report by CBS correspondent Walter Cronkite as he announced that President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas.

Most Americans who are old enough remember exactly where they were at that very moment. This is especially true for my next guest. Clint Hill was there that day as a member of the president's Secret Service detail. You can see him here in these pictures. When the shots rang out over (INAUDIBLE) Plaza, he was the first to reach the president and the first lady.

Clint Hill, we are honored to have you on the show today. Thank you so much for joining us. Since President Kennedy's assassination, you have rarely done any interviews. But now, you've actually released a new memoir, "Mrs. Kennedy and Me," about the four years that you spent as First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy's Secret Service agent. Why release this now? Any significance to the timing?

CLINT HILL, FMR. SECRET SERVICE AGENT: Well, I thought I never would write a book or contribute to a book. The timing is just such that I'm not getting any younger. I was convinced by (INAUDIBLE) who helped me write the book that I had information that was historical and should be documented. Other people who came to me and said the same thing. So I thought it was time to write something down and pay tribute to a wonderful lady.

KAYE: What can you tell us about the Mrs. Kennedy that we may now know?

HILL: Well, many people don't know, she was extremely intelligent. She's very athletic. She was an accomplished horsewoman. She loved to water ski, loved to play tennis, play golf. She was a very hands- on mother. She wanted her two children, Caroline and John to grow up as normal young children as possible. I always thought that was impossible since they will always be the children of a president. But that's what she wanted and that's what she was like. She had a wonderful sense of humor and she was very devoted to her husband. And he was very devoted to her. They made a great couple.

KAYE: I want to take you back to November, 1963. You had an incredibly tough time there in those years after that assassination. Can you talk about what you went through, what you were dealing with emotionally at that time?

HILL: Well, because of the way the situation developed in Dallas, I was in the car right behind the president's car. When the shots rang out from the right rear, I scanned to my right toward the shots. And so I saw what happened in the presidential vehicle. The other agents scanned toward the noise. So their eyes went away from the presidential vehicle. They didn't see what happened. And so I reacted. I was the only one who had a chance to react. And I always had a sense of responsibility and felt a sense of guilt that I wasn't able to do more. I thought I should have been able to get on that car and shield the president and Mrs. Kennedy from any further damage but I was unable to get there in time.

KAYE: You were in the following car, correct?

HILL: (INAUDIBLE) Yes. I was in the follow up car on the running board on the left end side, in the front. My responsibility that day was Mrs. Kennedy.

KAYE: I want to play a clip now from an interview that you did with "60 Minutes" back in 1975. Let's listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Was there any way, was there anything that the Secret Service or that Clint Hill could have done to keep that from happening?

HILL: Clint Hill, yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Clint Hill, yes, what do you mean?

HILL: If he had reacted about five tenths of a second faster or maybe a second faster, I wouldn't be here today.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You mean you would have gotten there and you would have taken the shot, the third shot?

HILL: Yes, sir.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And that would have been all right with you?

HILL: That would have been fine with me.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But you couldn't. You got there in less than two seconds, Clint. You couldn't have gotten there earlier. You surely don't have any sense of guilt about that?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAYE: That was - that interview was 12 years after the assassination. It's been more than 30 years since that interview and nearly 50 years since the president's assassination. So stay with us. Because after the break, Clint, I would like to ask you if you still feel the same way and if you still feel that you are in part to blame. I want to talk a little bit more about that. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KAYE: Welcome back. We are back now with Clint Hill. He is the former Secret Service agent who will forever be remembered as the man who jumped on the limousine after John F. Kennedy was shot in an attempt to shield the president and the first lady.

Mr. Hill, in the years after the president's assassination, you have said that you feel guilty of not taking a bullet for the president and feel that you could have done more. Do you still think today, looking back that you could have done more?

HILL: Well, I'll always have that sense of guilt and responsibility. Because I was the only one who had a chance that day. I did come back to Daley Plaza in 1990 and walked the area and examined the situation and I did come to the conclusion that I did everything I could have done given the circumstances that existed at the time of the first shot. The first shot was free. And we only had a chance to react after that shot was fired.

KAYE: And have you worked through some of the guilt for not being able to save the president and not taking the bullet for him as you said you wish you could have done? HILL: Well, the guilt will always be there. But yes, the writing of the book, "Mrs. Kennedy and me" has helped a great deal because I have relived the situation, gone through it again and I've talked to people about it. It's been very cathartic to go through that process.

KAYE: I'm curious how - how do you find the courage? You know, most of us, we come to work everyday and we don't put our lives on the line. So how do you and those in the Secret Service today find the courage, find the nerve to be willing to take a bullet for someone else?

HILL: Well, I guess it was just the discipline we had and everything else. We certainly weren't in it for the money. We were there to do a job on behalf of the American people, to provide protection to the leadership of the United States and to keep them as safe as we possibly could, provide an environment in which they could function and do the jobs they were elected to do.

KAYE: And what is it today that you would like the public to know about the Secret Service?

HILL: That the men and women of the Secret Service today are some of the ones I worked with back in the 1960s and '70s. They are dedicated. They are determined. And what happened or what allegedly happened recently, I hope will not cause people to have bad feelings about the agents of the Secret Service because they are a dedicated, determined group of individuals. And they work extremely hard and do the best job they can.

I hope that everyone will remember that as they go about and see the president or any other protectee throughout the country.

KAYE: Are you all surprise by the current scandal unfolding in Colombia with Secret Service members allegedly involved with prostitutes there?

HILL: I was shocked to hear it. And I don't know anymore about it than I have heard in the media, but I was shocked. I have great confidence in the director, Director Sullivan. Because I now that he's a no-nonsense type of guy. After the investigation is concluded, he'll take the appropriate action and the situation will be clarified.

KAYE: How do you think this is being handled within the Secret Service right? What do you think some of the conversations are that are going on?

HILL: Well, I'm sure that everyone is extremely disappointed if what the allegations are proven to be true. But, I do know that the top management from Director Sullivan on down, they are going to take charge of this situation and it will be - those people who are involved or allegedly involved will be dealt with - probably very severely, more likely and that's - so be it. That's what has to be done.

KAYE: Clint Hill, it has been a great pleasure speaking with you this morning. Thank you so much for your heroic efforts all those years ago and congratulations on your new book, "Mrs. Kennedy and Me." I look forward to it.

HILL: Thank you very much for allowing me to be here.

KAYE: Thank you.

The fallout from the Secret Service prostitution scandal has caused three more agents their jobs. In a statement the agency says in part "three additional employees have chosen to resign. That, as a result of the ongoing investigation in Cartagena, a 12th employee has been implicated. President Obama has been briefed on the incident. Who sources now say has ordered a comprehensive review.

Helicopters being brought in today to try to find victim's bodies from a plane crash in Pakistan. Officials believe that none of the 127 passengers or crew survived. Family members are helping identify the victims, all but seven of the bodies have been recovered. Aviation officials say bad weather may have been a factor in this crash.

I'll be back with more top stories at the top of the hour.

But first, "YOUR BOTTOM LINE" with Christine Romans starts right now.