Beyond Belief - Season 4, Episode 8 - Full Episode | Forensic Files

beyond belief [Music] fact or fiction hosted by jonathan franks tonight your challenge is to separate what is
true from what is false five stories some real some fake can you judge which are fact and which
are fiction to find out you must enter a world of both truth and deception a world that is beyond belief
an interesting lesson in perspective take a look at the normal looking man in the background and the miniature
childlike figure in the foreground is it possible they're really the same size it's not only possible it's an absolute
fact but sometimes facts can appear to be falsehoods and vice versa so will you be able to determine which
of our stories are true and which are false we'll tell you which are which at the
end of the show and remember it's not an easy challenge but then again that's where we separate
the men from the boys there are a few things as beautiful as the glow of a candle
the warm glimmer of light has come to symbolize everything from religion to romance
the late mother of caitlyn woods designed this particular piece of sculpture she was a talented woman who passed on
to her daughter an artistic soul and a house full of problems but the candle that lights caitlyn's spirit
refuses to go out i was away at college studying criminology when my father was a victim
of a home invasion robbery when he tried to stop the thief he suffered a massive stroke
how you doing daddy you want some more no it's enough okay many months passed and my father's
speech returned but the left side of his body remained paralyzed my mom had passed away years
earlier so i moved back to help with my dad it's not right it shouldn't be my nurse you have a life
you should be living in daddy we've been over this again and again would you just stop it this is where i'm
supposed to be right now my father had no insurance and no money in the bank there was no way he could afford the
care he needed i was all he had in the world and i was determined not to let him down
my mom was a wonderful artist she always made beautiful gifts for me when i was growing up
our home was filled with her creations especially the beautiful things she did with candles
there was one that had an inscription on the holder when you need to light your way remember
my love and let it sparkle for you that day that was my favorite but it was gone the thief had stolen at
the night of the robbery i'll be right there daddy took my dad out for a walk almost every
day after lunch it made him feel less like a prisoner and it took my mind off our financial
situation our funds were running low and i didn't know how much longer i could take care
of my father without getting a job remember this place daddy the first time your mama and i took you in there you
were two years old look at that it hasn't changed one bit best mile high cake i ever had
you want some are you okay please watch my father caitlin what are you doing caitlyn
something strange came over me something that made me throw all caution to the wind
an invisible power seemed to be forcing me to follow him foreign ah [Music] i don't know how the fire started but it
made the thief run away [Music] i was too weak to get up i thought i would die but then the fire went out all by itself
and then i saw it it was the candle that had been stolen from our home the night
my father had the stroke [Music] thank god you're all right i'm so sorry dad don't ever do that again
caleb look what i found there's the candling mother major yeah the junky who stole my purse must have
been the same guy who robbed the house oh caitlin i'm so sorry daddy it's okay couldn't hold it
okay what's this i don't know daddy it's it's a diamond necklace so that's where she put it
what this necklace belonged to your grandmother your mother was gonna surprise you with
it on your birthday she [Music] she never did tell me where she hit it it sounds just like mom
i searched everywhere for this necklace i never did find it now i understand what mom's words meant
when you need to light your way remember my love and let it sparkle for you that day
i had the necklace appraised and we were shocked to find out it was worth almost
a hundred thousand dollars the necklace made it possible to hire qualified help to look after my father
he continued to recover and with his therapy he's now almost back to normal and i was able to go back to school and
finish my law enforcement degree my mother's candle did light the way what's at play here it's of course
possible that the same person who robbed caitlyn's father also stole her candle but who lit the
candle during the struggle and why did the fire that saved caitlyn's life go out so quickly was it a sudden gust
of wind or the spirit of caitlyn's mother watching over her does this story seem to be the result of
calm reasoned factual research or is it the product of devious writers who are burning the candle at both ends
we'll find out if this story is true or false at the end of our show next a detective encounters the
strangest witness of his life on beyond belief fact or fiction nature has provided flowers with many
attributes their beautiful appearance their fragrance smell their delicate feel and nothing adds to our sense of
well-being more than a perfectly placed flower arrangement detective russ parker
is not a man who fusses over petunias he's a hardened veteran of the force whose only use for a flower
is to hide a wire tap inside but he's just been called to investigate a death in a flower shop
and there's a familiar fragrance in the air the scent of murder i've been working the murder beat in
tacoma for the past 15 years step back folks watch the tape that i've seen just about everything but the
homicide of cytos garden works turned out to be the strangest one yet what do we got male asian about 60 years
old owns a shop and got no witnesses my partner dean santoni came over to homicide after only a couple of years
with a department he had a college degree something i didn't have he also had wild ideas
but i liked him oh man i just remembered what's that oh i got to get my wife some flowers
it's our anniversary tomorrow congratulations there he is his nephew found him like this this
morning when he came in for work any calling cards here bernie well the hose is clean
in fact the whole scene is clean yeah the killer was probably wearing gloves no kidding you learned that in college
the guy put up quite a struggle whoever did it finally finished him with the garden hose
crushed his windpipe the cash register was open and all the money was gone so we got a
robbery that got out of hand i'm not surprised this whole neighborhood's gone downhill
transients it's a shame it used to be a decent place to live not anymore would you say found him
god's nephew he's that's what he shook up it's so horrible i love my uncle he was like a second
father to me he took me in and he taught me the business did he have any enemies
everyone loved him everybody except the killer listen if you can think of anything that
might help give us a call thanks we're uh sorry for your loss [Music] i'm done here uh you can take them
whenever you're ready no suspects no witnesses no prints all right let's round up some of the
transits uh we'll see if any of them about their standard of living i have a better idea why don't we put
together a lineup line up how do we have a lineup if we don't have any witnesses
the plants were here the plants yeah when i was in college i took a biology class with a professor
named comstock now he was well he was a little out there but he had this theory that
plants have the same emotions and reactions that we do where are you going with this i know it
sounds crazy but comstock hooked up a plant to a polygraph machine and exposed it to
all kinds of different um violent acts like boiling a lobster alive the needles went nuts i saw it
myself the plant felt the lobster's pain you're kidding me right you're telling me these plants know
we're talking about them right now all i know is what i saw and the experiments worked
look we got nothing to lose russ [Music] with no witnesses at all i agreed to the
crazy plan besides sometimes you do something anything and the guilty start betraying
themselves i made them do it after hours though i didn't dare use any of the regular
polygraph guys they would have laughed me right out of the station house so santoni got his old
professor to come in and set the whole thing up as we got closer to actually doing this
crazy thing i started getting a naked in my gut i didn't like feeling stupid are you
ready professor you can call in your first suspect i can't believe we're doing this first
man step up state your name my rights are being violated i want to see a lawyer shut up and say your name
it's ray dietz and i didn't do nothing have him approach the plant walk up to the table and give us two
profiles all right get back in line next man same routine it was no surprise to me that the
professor's theory was coming up empty as i figured there was no unusual movement on the polygraph machine
okay that's good that was the last one you sure your machine's hooked up properly doc
yeah it's hooked up right well maybe one of your leaves was having a hard time remembering
hey what's uh going on i saw the lights uh nothing just a little experiment so um you guys getting leads on who
murdered my uncle yeah actually we did a real good one see uh a witness just turned up
really well yeah i didn't know if there were any witnesses yeah there was a witness
and uh he just identified he was the killer that's crazy why'd you do it steve oh where are you going steve i i didn't
kill my uncle see i think he did after two hours of questioning steve cyto finally broke down and confessed to
the murder of his uncle his motive an inheritance he didn't want to wait for after he confessed he asked me who the
witness was i told him i was sure he knew in fact he probably even watered him a few times
could this story be true can a plant really identify a murderer actual studies have shown that plants and
flowers respond to outside stimuli they even grow faster when they're talked to and
treated with love does this story of the flower jury carry the bouquet of truth or is it just another blooming lie
we'll find out if this story is true or false at the end of our show next an escape artist is trapped in an
icy tomb on beyond belief fact or fiction nobody has ever captured the imagination of the
american public like harry houdini even with the modern spectacular heirs to the throne
many still consider houdini the greatest escape artist of all time of course in his own day houdini had his
imitators and competitors but the only ones who came close were leonard and philip kirby
as we joined their story they're so sure of themselves they claim they can escape
from anything including their fate [Music] the first time frederick rain saw the
kirby brothers perform he knew they had something only the great ones possess the fact was frederick had always
dreamed of discovering an act that could achieve the same greatness as his idol master of escape
harry houdini [Applause] [Music] but he never expected it to be two houdini's frederick took the kirby brothers under
his wing becoming both their mentor and manager unfortunately he was only able to get
the brothers sporadic bookings all the public wanted was to see houdini who in 1925
was at the pinnacle of a success in spite of all that word was getting out the kirby brothers
could escape from anything and no one could figure out the secrets of their death-defying stunts
[Music] where's my brother right here leonard while the brothers abilities were truly
amazing there was a dark rumor surrounding them it was said that they had a curse on their heads put
there by a gypsy from a little-known town in east europe as punishment for stealing the gypsy's
secrets one of the brothers would die while performing an escape [Music] this houdini that i'm so sick of the
great houdini calm down leonard i won't calm down but he's holding us back he's a great
artist leonard he's earned his acclaim what are you saying that we're not as good of course not
would i be here if i believed that buried alive i mean we can do this trick we could do it faster
and better leonard what's the point if we just keep duplicating houdini's tricks we'll never get out of his shadow
philip's right we have to come up with something different something more dazzling than
being buried alive then that's what we'll do we'll show everyone including harry houdini that
were the greatest escape artists in the world it took the kirby brothers less than a
week to come up with a trick that would surpass houdini's buried alive [Music] philip was to be entombed in a coffin of
ice for 24 hours leonard i thought i was fine with this but now that i see the ice i don't know
frederick it's all been worked through it just seemed so dangerous that's the point frederick it has to
seem dangerous or it won't entertain the audience well well what if something goes wrong
it won't look i'll be standing vigil for the entire 24 hours if i see even the slightest problem i'll
release philip immediately i don't know it's that ridiculous curse isn't it that one of us will die during an escape
i'm just you don't believe in that do you i'm just worried about you boys i won't die in there frederick i promise
you ladies and gentlemen you are witnessing something that has never been attempted before not even the great
houdini himself could have imagined it welcome to frozen alive my brother will remain entombed
inside this frozen casket for the next 24 hours go about your business but i guarantee
that every time you return my brother will still be inside this coffin of ice frozen alive
[Applause] the first few hours passed quickly and philip seemed to be doing fine
there was no evidence of the curse with only two hours left the kirby brothers were about to make history
and then something went terribly wrong [Music] help me [Music] he's gonna die in there
[Music] [Applause] [Music] all right how did we do 22 hours are you all right i'll be fine you see
fredrik i didn't die his brother leonard was dead an autopsy was performed but no absolute
cause of death was found some suspected it was his heart but leonard kirby was in perfect health
and only 23 years old after leonard kirby's death his brother philip retired houdini himself died a
year later from a burst appendix but were the kirby brothers really cursed or was the threat of the curse
enough to make leonard's heart stop from fear causing a tragic self-fulfilling prophecy do you believe
this story really happened or is it just an escape from reality we'll find out if this story is true or
false at the end of our show next an x-con's life is changed by an old bicycle on beyond belief fact or fiction
bicycles like everything else it'll make them the way they used to this one made years ago was built to
last a new seat some fresh paint a few new parts it'll be ready again maybe not for the
tour de france but certainly for a local paper route nick and kenny morgan are about to come
across this bike and they're going to make some changes to it but what they're really about to
change is their future i just picked up my younger brother kenny at the county prison farm
he needed some clothes so we stopped at a thrift shop on the way home kenny had just done six months for a
drunken brawl in a bar but really he wasn't a bad kid he started getting into trouble after
our parents died in a car accident 10 years earlier it was real hard on both of us but kenny
had a temper we had no other family so we just bounced around from one foster home to
another hey what do you think it's you i'll take it kenny drove me crazy but he reminded me of our dad you know i
was glad he was out of jail but the bad news was i just lost my job and i was going through my savings real
fast hey nick come here look at this what did you find look at this thing it's a classic
it's got to be at least 50 years old and they only want five bucks for it it's because it's falling apart
look at all the rust yeah it's a piece of junk okay so it needs a little work we can we can fix it up it'll be a blast
we can do it together i don't know come on nick it's only five bucks i'll pay you back i liked seeing kenny
give a damn about something and there was something about that old bike that was important to him
and he was right you know it was fun working on it together it was like we were kids again
for a while everything was okay [Music] we were going out every day looking for work
it was pretty discouraging but i knew i'd get something kenny was another story oh just take it easy i'm never gonna get
a job nick no one's gonna hire me well give it a chance it's only been a week i've been in jail
nick nobody wants me stop feeling so sorry for yourself hey don't tell me how to feel okay
fine i won't tell you anything yeah that's right that night kenny started drinking again
and with kenny one beer was one too many you can't drink here it's just i know i know what you like
when you start drinking oh would you just leave me alone man you're not my dad do you want to go to
jail again is that what you want you know it ain't gonna be six months this time it's gonna
be a lot more well who cares i'm getting out of here no no get off my back are you gonna go
get out before you're even like this sorry man yeah me too i thought it was broken
it was [Music] [Music] that was weird there's something inside the handlebar i i don't believe this it's a
property of johnny morgan dad well that can't be it's got to be another johnny morgan
it says if found please return to 1267 maple drive in hackensack new jersey that's her dad was born hackensack new
jersey [Music] this was dad's bike we knew it was a long shot but kenny and i called new jersey information
and gave them the name morgan and the address on the note and we got the surprise of our lives
when the person who answered the phone said he was our father's brother glenn and we never even knew we had an
uncle our father never mentioned him and well glenn didn't know about us either hi he must be uh nick nick
it's your dad's bike all right our mom took this when john first got it he was just 16 years old wow
look at that i can't believe you found this thing way out here it was stolen in hackensack 40 years ago
how come he never uh willie never told us about you [Music] pretty stupid really
[Music] your dad and i started this construction company when we were both in our
early 20s then we had this bad falling out he moved away and we just lost touch i never even knew he died
or that he was ever married you never try to find each other we were both real stubborn
the years just passed look i'd like to um i still have the company that your dad
and i started not the biggest in the world but i really could use some help you want us to work for you no with me
what do you think that'd be great looks like i got a job nick kenny and i moved to hackensack and
joined uncle glenn in the family business and we didn't take a whole lot with us
but we made sure we took our dad's old bike a bike that had been lost for 40 years
is suddenly found by the owner's son thousands of miles away just a coincidence if so how do you explain the bike's
broken horn starting to beep just as the brothers began to fight another coincidence was the father's
spirit residing somewhere in this old schwinn bike is this story coasting in on the truth
are we trying to peddle a lie we'll find out if this story is true or false at the end of our
show next a teacher attempts to lift a curse off his star pupil on beyond belief fact or fiction
[Music] who can explain the mystery of music how can a genius like beethoven create masterpieces
though deaf and how could mozart create full classical compositions at the age of five what about today's
child prodigies children who can sit down at the piano for the first time and play perfectly
nathaniel bourne is a musical genius since he was a child he could captivate audiences with his
musical gift but can a gift be taken back nathaniel bourne is starting to think so
and the thought is striking a desperate cord i was one of the most successful concert
pianists in the world everyone knew the name nathaniel bourne i made my debut when i was only 11 at
carnegie hall's new york philharmonic under leonard bernstein i played chopin's piano concerto number
one in e minor it brought tears to bernstein's eyes the next 22 years of my life were like a dream
i sold millions of records and played in all the great concert halls and then something terrible happened
while playing my signature chopin concerto i became frozen it was an artist's greatest nightmare
somehow i had developed a creative block and could not play you shouldn't be sitting outside in the
rain like this nathaniel you'll get sick doesn't matter don't be like that let's go inside where
it's warm i built a fire i tried psychiatrists hypnotists everything i could think of nothing
worked then my wife helena brought us back to boston where i grew up she hoped this might touch things that
would unblock me but it just got worse gregory canceled two more months of concert dates
i'm not scheduled to play again for the rest of the year i might as well tell him to cancel next
year too why don't you call martin schiller martin schiller why he was your first teacher and you always
spoke so fondly of him perhaps he could help martin martin was quite a character
i haven't seen him in years i think the last time was at uh lincoln center yes i remember he wore a
red bow tie with a tuxedo you know martin first started teaching me when i was five years old
martin always came exactly at five o'clock on saturday he'd bring a piece of chocolate and he'd
tell me as soon as the lesson is over you may have the chocolate i honestly believe i used to play better
just knowing that piece of chocolate was waiting for me he must have been a wonderful teacher he
was i took helena's advice and called martin schiller i set our visit for five o'clock on
saturday i suddenly wanted very much to see him again mart dude coming right on time of course a punctual man
is a respectful man good to see you how have you been i could complain but what would be the
point people hate complainers you haven't changed a bit ah let's get to work oh this piano was a far cry from the
upright i used to teach you on as soon as our lesson is finished you may have this chocolate
i uh told you about my problem sit do you remember how we used to play together i do
[Music] play even though it was just simple scales something inside me was making it
impossible [Music] i'm sorry martin i can't nonsense the chocolate is waiting for you
[Music] [Music] give me your hands there was an energy coming from martin's hands that i felt throughout my entire
body now [Music] i felt like his hands were still there guiding me but i was on my own
[Music] yes [Music] it was impossible to measure the sense of gratitude i was feeling for martin
[Music] what happened next was totally unexpected [Music] hello hello mr borton yes
we've never met i'm martin schiller's son stefan ah you just missed your father he left
moments ago that's impossible i came over to tell you why he missed his appointment with
you my father passed away in his sleep last night [Music] from that day forward nathaniel bourne
resumed his stature as one of the world's great pianists but was it really the spirit of martin
schiller that visited nathanael that day or did the entire incident exist only in
nathaniel's mind but then how do you explain the chocolate wasn't that proof of martin
schiller's visit does this story play out as a composition of harmonious truth or have we hit a false note
next you'll find out which of our stories are fact and which are fictional when beyond
belief returns now let's look back at tonight's stories and find out which ones are inspired by
actual events and which ones are totally false what about the woman whose family and very
life were saved by a special candle [Music] i it was too weak to get up i thought i
would die but then the fire went out all by itself if you thought this story was based on a
real life occurrence you're right a similar story happened to a woman in the east
in the early 80s how about the flower that caught a murderer hey what's uh going on i saw the lights
uh nothing just a little experiment plus so um you guys get any leads on who murdered my uncle
this one has to be false right wrong our research shows a similar incident happened in the new york area
in the late 70s what about the escape artists who couldn't escape their terrible curse
i'll be standing vigil for the entire 24 hours if i see even the slightest problem i'll
release philip immediately i don't know it's that ridiculous curse isn't it that one of us will die during an escape
i'm just you don't believe in that do you i'm just worried about you boys i won't die in there frederick i promise
you if you thought this one was phony you're right it never happened how about the old bike that brought good
fortune to a family torn apart for years that was weird there's something inside
the handlebar i i don't believe this it's the property of johnny morgan dad have you heard a story like this
before you may have a similar event happened in new england in the 90s let's have one more look at the story of
the music teacher who returned from beyond to inspire his prized pupil give me your hands
[Music] there was an energy coming from martin's hands that i felt throughout my entire
body now i felt like his hands were still there guiding me but i was on my own did a similar story to
this one take place perhaps but this one has been made up truth and fiction they often seem to be
two sides of the same coin and when that coin is spun is the result fate luck or a combination of the two is it
possible to determine the fake from the real or are we dealing in a realm that is
truly beyond belief i'm jonathan franks the true stories on tonight's show were based upon first-hand research by author
robert treylands this is campbell lane [Music] you

This episode features the following cases: Caitlin's Candle, The Flower Jury, The Mentor, The Old Bike, The Music Teacher.

Brief Summary

Five stories challenge listeners to distinguish between fact and fiction, featuring themes of family, loss, and unexpected connections.

Key points

The Challenge of Truth. Can you separate fact from fiction in five stories?
A Candle's Light. Caitlyn Woods finds a stolen candle that symbolizes her mother's love.
The Flower Shop Murder. Detective Russ Parker investigates a bizarre murder in a flower shop.
The Kirby Brothers' Curse. The Kirby brothers attempt a dangerous escape trick, haunted by a curse.
A Life Changed by a Bicycle. Nick and Kenny Morgan find an old bike that changes their future.
The Lost Bike. A bike lost for 40 years is found, connecting family members.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

When you need to light your way, remember my love.

3:02WatchJan 27, 2021

Tension

65/ 100Some tension

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