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CNN Wolf Blitzer Reports

The Sioux City Killings: An Iowa Town Is Torn Apart

Aired August 31, 2001 - 20:00   ET

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

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Tonight, the Sioux City killings. An Iowa town is torn apart. The victims, two adults and five children. We'll get a live update on the man police say is behind the bloodshed. And...

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE FRISBIE, SIOUX CITY POLICE CHIEF: In the 34 years I've been police officer, I've -- you know, you've seen a lot of homicides. I've never seen one as bad as this.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: I'll speak live with Sioux City police chief Joe Frisbie.

Our focus segment, the CIA goes Hollywood. It's been there before. As the post Cold War spy agency takes on a new role, is it looking for a new image? Three spy thrillers are about to take to the air waves.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Daddy?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: CNN national security correspondent David Ensor looks behind the scenes. And I'll ask former CIA director Jim Woolsey if all this publicity is good for the spy business.

Good evening I'm Wolf Blitzer reporting tonight from Capitol Hill.

In recent weeks, it seems we've been numbed by the highly publicized killings of whole families, whether in Sacramento or in Houston.

Now it's happened again, this time in Sioux City, Iowa. Seven people, including a mother and her five children, have been killed. Police have arrested a suspect. Tonight, the Sioux City killings.

The killings have even left veteran police officers shaken. Let's go live to Sioux City and our own Jeff Flock, standing by. You have new information on the suspect, Jeff. Tell us what's going on?

JEFF FLOCK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Indeed, Wolf. Standing live outside police headquarters in Sioux City, we have spent the better part of this day combing through court documents, trying to get a picture of 23-year-old Adam Moss. By my count based on just the documents that we've been able to obtain, 34 separate criminal charges against him dating back to his juvenile days. And keep in mind, he's only 23-years-old.

And those charges range from everything from juvenile delinquency to theft to burglary. And we have learned that the most recent charge on his rap sheet was a domestic violence allegation filed by his own brother, who is two years younger than him, filed just nine days ago.

And Mr. Moss was to have appeared yesterday in the court building that is just across the way from where I am standing now. 3:00 yesterday was the court appearance to answer those allegations. He did not show up. Instead just three hours later was when police found those two crime scenes on two separate sections of town. And that even entire family wiped out. That's what we know thus far.

Wolf?

BLITZER: Jeff, I understand you've spoken to a local about this suspect. What did the judge have to say?

FLOCK: The judge -- he came before this judge, having violated his probation. Obviously with all of the length of this rap sheet, he came before a lot of judges in this jurisdiction. This judge says when somebody like him comes in and violates probation, that tells me that they don't want to be out on the street.

In fact, he sent him back to jail. But of course, this man on the street and trying to -- or was about to answer this allegation when this crime came to light, wolf.

BLITZER: Jeff Flock, our man on the scene in Sioux City. Thanks so much for joining us.

And these killings are the worst he's seen in more than three decades as a law officer.

I'm joined now by the Sioux City police chief, Joe Frisbie. Chief Frisbie, thanks for joining us. And tell us how it's possible that this suspect, with such a long record if you will, managed to commit this kind of a crime?

FRISBIE: Well, I think that's a good question. I mean, you got a person with a lot of crimes. Of course, they didn't rate up with anything like homicide, that sort of thing. These kinds of crimes, usually crimes of passion, are pretty much unexplainable. You know, in fact, we're trying to reason ourselves right now why this could happen. You know, and investigators are still working with the subject and trying to ascertain exactly what the motive was here.

BLITZER: Chief, sorry for interrupting, but is there an apparent motive in this homicide?

FRISBIE: Not at this point. They're senseless killings is what it looks like at this point, but we are not through with that yet. And probably in this next couple days, we'll probably know more.

BLITZER: Chief, what led to you this suspect? What did he do that convinced you that he's apparently the murderer?

FRISBIE: Well, first of all, when we got calls that there was a body found up on Sylvian Way, and then a little later, bodies found out on West Street, when we first went in there, we didn't realize there was a connection other than the fact we knew who the boyfriend was on the -- for the family that was murdered over on West Street.

Later we found out that the only thing in common between these two homicides was that the person that we wanted to interview, which was Mr. Moss knew both subjects. So that was the only common denominator. The victims didn't know each other, but however Mr. Moss did know both families. So that was the first clue.

And of course, a little later on when we were looking for this individual, we come up with information where we could place Mr. Moss the same day as Mr. Fish's death. We could place Mr. Moss in Mr. Fish's motor vehicle, after the death had actually already occurred. So there was another piece of information that actually led us to him.

And it obviously made him a real good suspect and somebody we wanted to talk to. And I can tell you after, of course looking for him all night and finally finding him today around noon time, and we were able to interview this subject, after a couple hours, we ascertained that we did have enough information, enough physical information. And of course from the interviews, we believe that we had enough to charge this person with seven counts of murder.

BLITZER: How were these seven people killed, Chief?

FRISBIE: The method of the homicide is something that I'm not going to be able to get into with you. I've discussed this with the county attorney. I can tell you it was very heinous crime. I can tell you there was a lot of trauma, but to discuss the murder weapon or the method of killing, is something I won't be able to share with you. I apologize for that, but the county attorney felt this would be damaging to the case right now. We don't want do anything to injure this case.

BLITZER: But you have described the crime scenes. And you've suggested this is the worst in all your years of law in enforcement that you've ever seen. Tell us what you saw?

FRISBIE: Well, by the sheer numbers of deaths, it makes it one of the worst I've ever seen. I've seen some bad homicides in my life, but I can tell you there's a lot of blood, an awful lot of trauma, a lot of damage. There was no mutilation or anything like that, but an awful lot of injuries to these subjects, especially Mr. Fish on the north side.

BLITZER: I take it, Chief, Sioux City is not used to these kinds of multiple murders? What's the mood in your city tonight?

FRISBIE: Well I can tell you what it was earlier, before we caught this individual. A lot of people were very concerned and were scared that this person was on the loose in our community. And there was no doubt he was here because we kept getting sightings. And we usually seem to be about a half hour behind this individual until around noon today.

There was a lot of very upset, very scared individuals, and a lot of concern on the part of our council and that sort of thing. I can tell you it was an extreme relief to this entire community when we finally were able to put this person behind bars today. There's no explaining the relief that we felt. And we feel we do have a good case. And we feel that this individual is certainly involved or we wouldn't have charged him today.

BLITZER: Chief Frisbie, thanks so much for joining us on a difficult day, a difficult night in Iowa City. Thanks so much for joining us.

FRISBIE: OK, thank you.

BLITZER: Good luck to you.

In another disturbing crime story today in suburban Los Angeles, where an attempt to serve a search warrant turned deadly. Authorities say Deputy Jake Kuredjian was shot and killed by a man ATF agents and Sheriff's deputies went to arrest on charges of firearms violations and impersonating a law enforcement officer.

35-year-old James Beck then held officers at bay for several hours before they tried to flush him out with tear gas. Things turned more dramatic when the Santa Clarita home erupted in flames. The cause of the fire is unclear. Police believe Beck did not escape the fire.

And just ahead, three new spy dramas will soon be on your TV screen this fall. And the real spies couldn't be happier. Looking to remake its image, the CIA is going Hollywood. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Welcome back. The CIA goes Hollywood. From covert operations to turncoats, the spy agency's image has taken a beating over the years. But the Cold War long since over, the CIA has been working to remake that image. Now it's the focus of three new television dramas.

And officials have a clear favorite, as CNN national security correspondent David Ensor reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ma'am. Well come the agency.

DAVID ENSOR, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Permission to film fiction in the CIA's front lobby is not given lightly. Of the three upcoming shows about the CIA, there is no question the professionals like CBS' "The Agency" best.

CHASE BRANDON, CIA OFFICIAL: They really have got all of the pieces of how we live and work and perform our duties here every day. They have all that down in their script.

ENSOR: The CIA's Chase Brandon should know. He worked undercover overseas for 25 years.

BRANDON: Well, if you could make those changes, that'd be great for me.

ENSOR: His job now is reading scripts, helping writers make their fiction more like reality.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right, so how do we make contact?

ENSOR: As the CIA sees it.

BRANDON: But you don't get to come in here and film in our hallway and use our facilities if you're going to type cast us as ugly, nefarious people. If you want to capture that sense of bravery and service, then we'll consider it on a case by case basis.

ENSOR: But Brandon says the CIA has nothing against portrayals of CIA bad guys. After all, there have been a few.

BRANDON: The reality is we had Rick Ames and Harold Nicholson. I mean, they were the worst kind of traitors imaginable.

ENSOR: As for the other new shows, Fox's "24" didn't ask for help and wouldn't have gotten much, since it depicts the CIA working in the U.S. to protect the life of the president, which is not its job.

BRANDON: They've got the agency misconstrued with the Secret Service somehow.

ENSOR: And then there is ABC's new show, "Alias." Exciting stuff, says Brandon, but real spies seldom use guns or getaway cars. That would blow your cover.

BRANDON: If those are the things you're having to do to extricate yourself from some situation, you have fundamentally screwed up as an Ops officer.

ENSOR: As an operations officer, a spy, Brandon spend years using false identities. so he understands the need for credible lines and good acting.

BRANDON: And the acting job that we do is part of our workaday world. It's very similar to the notion of role playing and acting in Hollywood. The difference is that here, when somebody says cut, you know they're talking about stopping the action. And you know for us, it could be your throat. ENSOR: Though the Pentagon and the FBI have long cooperated with Hollywood, the CIA only started to in recent years.

(on camera): One reason may be that in the absence of the Cold War or some major, national adversary, CIA officials still want to maintain public support for a U.S. intelligence budget that remains in the tens of billions of dollars.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How is he compromised?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He was caught making a dead drop at Cairo Airport.

ENSOR: At the CIA, they are hoping the new shows will bolster public support and help recruit the next generation of American spies.

David Ensor, CNN, Langley, Virginia.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: And up next, perspective from inside the walls of Langley. I'll talk with the former CIA director, Jim Woolsey, about the relationship between the agency and Hollywood. And an explosion rocks Tokyo. I'll have the latest on the victims.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Welcome back, the CIA goes Hollywood. When he held the top post after the Cold War, he vowed to open the CIA to greater public scrutiny. But with the spy agency's recent focus on public relations, can it still do its job of spying?

Joining me now is the former CIA director. Jim Woolsey. Mr. Woolsey, thanks for joining us.

JIM WOOLSEY, FORMER CIA DIRECTOR: Good to be with you, Wolf.

BLITZER: You didn't try to do this when you were the director of the CIA, get Hollywood interested in portraying the CIA in a very positive light?

WOOLSEY: I tried once and failed. I called Bill Cosby because he and Robert Culp ran a follow on episode of "I Spy," the 1960s show in the early 1990s. And it was absolutely terrific. I called Bill and asked him if there's anyway they could continue. And he said no, that was just a one shot for us.

BLITZER: All right. Well, this sounds strange to a lot of our viewers. Why is the CIA interested in having television programs or movies portray the CIA, which is supposed to be a secret organization?

WOOLSEY: Well, after "I Spy" in the '60s, it has been pretty much totally negative portrayal of -- by Hollywood or by television of the CIA from the '70s, '80s and '90s. Part of this was the memory of some of the things that really went bad, the -- you know, the assassination attempts in the Kennedy administration, some of the coups in the '50s, some of the domestic incidents. And they were portrayed by the church committed in 1975.

I think people are finally starting to realize that was incidents that were a third of a century ago, that were portrayed and made public a quarter of a century ago. But for a long time, that lasted in the public mind and in the minds of Hollywood producers and directors and television shows.

BLITZER: So this is a public relations operation in large measure, to try to bolster the image of the CIA?

WOOLSEY: Well it's partly that, but it's I think partly -- also, in order to give a somewhat more accurate depiction of what happens. I mean after all, there are a number of professions and jobs in which people do dangerous and important things for the country. The military, the FBI, the police, fire, CIA, intelligence in general.

Intelligence is the only one that has systematically, for the last 20 to 30 years, been portrayed by Hollywood and by television in a negative light. And I think it's a good thing to have some episodes that are somewhat more accurate and more positive.

BLITZER: As you know, I used to cover the Pentagon. The military's being doing this for years, having liaisons in Hollywood to try to portray the Army, the Air Force, the Navy, and the Marine Corps in a positive light. The FBI certainly has been doing it. What's taken the CIA so long?

WOOLSEY: Well, I guess maybe we were sort of slow learners. Partly, there was the tradition of everything having been so secret. Partly it was the Cold War. I think in the aftermath of the Cold War also, the fact that the real enemies of the country now are the rogue states like Iraq and Iran and North Korea and weapons smugglers and terrorists groups. It makes people a little bit more relaxed, I think, about seeing that the CIA is really always on their side against what everybody regards as the bad guys.

BLITZER: You know, this new ABC series that's called "Alias." This is how they describe what their show is going to be about their show, about the CIA. And I'll put it up on the screen.

"Alias balances the quirky tumult of 20-something life with the demanding perils of the spy game. Forget James Bond. Forget Emma Peel. Sydney Bristow is a completely modern young woman in a thoroughly contemporary, high octane, highly emotional new series." That's what life at the CIA is like?

WOOLSEY: Well, no, normally not. There's a lot of care, a lot of precision. Certainly for the operations officers overseas, there is a lot of masking your identity, dead drops, trailing people and the like, but violence is very, very rare. A lot of this is tedious, important, hard work, both in analysis and in operations. There's not a lot of kickboxing.

BLITZER: As you know, the new director, George Tenet -- he's actually not such a new director anymore. One of his goals in doing this is recruitment, getting a new generation of people to come and work at the CIA. In the CIA web site out there, this is how they describe a career in the CIA.

"For the extraordinary individual who wants more than just a job, we offer a unique career, a way of life that will challenge the deepest resources of your intelligence, self-reliance, and responsibility. How big of a demanding challenge is this to find thousands of good people to bring into the agency right now?

WOOLSEY: It's a huge challenge. The analytical people have to be as good as the best academics in the country. The scientific people have to be as good as the best scientists and engineers. And the operations people have to be clever, brave, shrewd and willing to live a life in which often even members of their own family don't know what they do for a living. It's tough work, important work. For the overseas people, often dangerous work. And I think that's an accurate ad.

BLITZER: And so presumably these new TV shows, these movies, the liaison from the CIA out to Hollywood can help that recruitment process?

WOOLSEY: Well, I hope so because we need good recruits in the CIA. But I think also -- I assume these are not going to be white washes. There will also be people with problems and issues and maybe occasionally a CIA spy like Ames. That ought to be depiction, as much Hollywood wants to be accurate, of life in the agency.

But what has happened over the last 20 or 30 years is not even close to being accurate. So I think this is definitely a step in the right direction.

BLITZER: Well, let's see if any of these shows do for the CIA what "West Wing" has done for the White House. We'll be watching. Jim Woolsey, thanks for joining us.

WOOLSEY: Good to be with you.

BLITZER: Thank you.

And it's the ultimate strike out, fallout from a Little League age scandal. And Congressman Gary Condit may be wooing a new group of voters, if he decides to run for reelection. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Welcome back. In other top stories tonight, fire, panic and death as an explosion tore through a crowded building in Tokyo night club district. At least 44 people were killed and dozens others injured when the blaze consumed a gaming parlor. Some people were injured when they jumped to escape the flames. The cause is under investigation.

Here in the United States, Condit country might soon be carved up. The California state legislature is reviewing a redistricting proposal that would dramatically change Gary Condit's home base. The new maps expand Condit's district north to include a large Hispanic population. Many political analysts say this would make it easier for the Democratic party to retain the seat if Condit decides not to seek reelection.

Meanwhile, Condit's public relations consultant, Marina Ein, announced today she's stepping back from her day to day responsibilities.

A big defeat for a New York Little League team that made it to World Series and its star pitcher. Officials ruled to day that pitcher Danny Almonte is actually 14, too old to play. The team must now forfeit all its tournament wins this year. And its coach was suspended.

The man baby boomers and their kids grew up with is hanging up his sweater for the last time. "Mister Rogers" is leaving the neighborhood. The pioneering children's TV host aired his last original episode today. Fred Rogers and his land of make believe now moves to the land of reruns.

And please stay with CNN throughout the night. At the top of the hour, Larry King has a panel that will assess Gary Condit's future. Up next, Greta Van Susteren. She's standing by to tell us what she has.

Greta?

GRETA VAN SUSTEREN, HOST, CNN'S "THE POINT": Wolf, it's hard to believe it's four years ago tonight we heard the news. Princess Diana died in an automobile crash. We're going to talk about the subject with some journalists who covered the story. Plus, there's one person who still thinks it's a conspiracy. Muhammed Al-Faydh. His lawyer joins us.

Wolf?

BLITZER: Greta, sounds good. And I'll see you Sunday on "LATE EDITION," the last word in Sunday talk. Among my guests, Senators Mitch McConnell and Byron Dorregan. That's Sunday, noon Eastern. Until then, thanks very much for watching.

I'm Wolf Blitzer on Capitol Hill. "THE POINT WITH GRETA VAN SUSTEREN" begins right now.

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