Unsolved Mysteries with Robert Stack - Season 5, Episode 24 - Full Episode | Forensic Files

[Music] this program is about unsolved mysteries whenever possible the actual family
members and police officials have participated in recreating the events what you are about to see is not a news
broadcast on the surface Reggie De Palma was a caring and dedicated fireman in reality DePalma was a cynical
manipulator who used his position as a scout leader to prey on vulnerable young boys for years a woman named Miriam was
haunted by erratic frightening images from the life should barely remembered in time a fragmented portrait emerged -
two very special people Miriam believes helped her survive a troubled traumatic childhood based on
his own confession Michael south of Webster Texas was convicted of murdering two teenage girls myself has always
maintained that he is innocent and that the confession was coerced by a sadistic
police chief surprisingly both the local sheriff and a state prosecutor believe Michaels self story is true
and from the annals of World War two the fascinating legend of the ghost blip in
1942 a u.s. Navy airship crashed to earth in California with no one on board for this day the fate of its crew
remains an unsolved mystery joined perhaps you solve a mystery [Music] [Applause]
[Applause] [Music] her name is Miriam she is 50 years old lives in New York and has one grown
daughter Miriam's husband died in 1984 and she now does extensive volunteer work with other widows and widowers I
have this vague feeling in July of 1982 Miriam was seeing a psychologist therapy
led her down a frightening path filled with confusing fragmented images which appeared to spring from the depths of
her memory this image like a mummy was the only thing I could liken it to it was so terrifying and so frightening and
I became so petrified by it I didn't know what was happening I didn't understand what was going on the human
mind is a vast uncharted universe but thoughts and moments and memories lurk randomly for 10 years Miriam has been
piecing together the events of her childhood attempting to understand what is real and what is not wondering if
things happened as she remembers them her doctors are convinced they did in any case Miriam has now embarked on a
search for two people whom she recalls with love and compassion Miriam's journey into her past began in
1983 once her disconnected memory started to break through they simply refused to go
away I found myself getting up at night and sitting on the floor in the bathroom
and all of these memories started coming back of my father attacking me of my father being subdued by the police I
really allowed the images I worked at it I let them come and I try to figure out
what I was seeing and try to understand what was happening to me what would happen is that she began to become
subject to flight what she called flashbacks these would be images that would suddenly come out of nowhere and
grab her in such a way that she would just be paralyzed for the instant that it occurred those flashbacks indicated
that there was a certain amount of abuse that went on very early in life that she
did not have a handle on and there was a big part of her that they did not want to deal with it I only remembered good
things about my father and to suddenly have a whole new side of him revealed to me was a terrible shock and I remember
saying in therapy I don't want this to be true I don't want to believe this about my father
Miriam was an only child her father Harry died in 1984 two years and to Miriam psychotherapy although he had
often exhibited erratic behavior Miriam's conscious memories of him have always been happy ones now however the
years between her third and fifth birthdays began to hotter at the time Miriam lived with her mother and father
in Miami Beach the detail recreations you are about to see are based solely on Miriam's memories
[Music] somehow your mom he's an expert on coconut sir [Music] [Music] I remembered and my father was attacking
and somehow I guess I kicked him enough to hurt him and he put me down or dropped me or whatever and I ran and
wanted to hide from him I remember watching from a hiding place where he finally left me alone he was
calling me a dog and a cat he was calling me an animal I mean he didn't know it was me anymore
[Music] somehow policemen were there my father I mean he was ranting he had no idea there
was anybody there Miriam says that she remembers Hospital orderlies with the policeman trying to subdue her father
she assumes they were called by her mother I was terrified beyond anything I can possibly relate to you I don't know
how to tell you the terror that I felt Miriam has come to believe that her father suffered from severe mental
illness she now feels certain that while her mother tried to cope Miriam herself was taken away
[Music] when I started having these flashbacks I started thinking about mommy and daddy
and the images that went with my parents weren't the images that were popping in
my mind and I didn't know who these people were I suddenly realized they were people in
my life that were important to me and I didn't know who they were brought you something to eat really afraid I
remember I was absolutely frightened out of my mind slowly I realized that this was a safe place that these people were
kind and they weren't going to hurt me and they were loving and I was very happy there as a gates of repressed
memory opened miriam began to believe she had once been placed with foster parents she was inundated with images of
warmth and love my foster father had white hair and he was a young man it was very striking I remember his hands I
remember that they were strong and powerful hands that made me feel very safe miriam believes she called her
foster parents mommy pat and daddy Mike Mike was a fireman and Pat sang her to sleep with Irish lullabies I remember a
song called toora loora loora all my life I've known this lullaby was sung to me
I just remember being hugged and kissed and just playing with mommy pats ringlets and the overwhelming sense of
being loved they thought I was the most wonderful child in the world and I really delighted in that we have to talk
to you there's some people but unhappy memories soon intruded first a serious discussion
with Mike and Pam Merriam sensed that she was about to lose them baby what's important is that we love
you after hearing the testimony of all the parties Miriam then saw herself in a courtroom sitting with a social worker a
real parents as well as Pat and Mike were also there clearly Miriam Parton's foster parents have provided a good home
during a difficult period however in cases like this we must consider first and foremost the best interest of the
child since the original reasons for placement in the foster home no longer exist it's the decision of this court
that Miriam Parton be returned to the physical custody of her natural parents heart is a journey I was very very
distraught I did not want to leave them as far as I was concerned these are the people I wanted to spend the rest of my
life with [Music] I really didn't remember about that kiss for a very long time actually it didn't
come until almost the very very end of all my memories in fact that was probably one of the very last flashbacks
I had and until I had that memory I really felt at a loss and somehow that I loved you that was came across and that
kiss has been enough for me to make peace with the loss and to go on with my life and just keep their memory in my
soul and in my heart [Music] Miriam lived with her natural parents until she married at the age of 21 at
the age of 47 she began her search for Mike compat their names were Pat and Mike and I think their last name was
McGuire according to Miriam her mother admits that Miriam's father had emotional problems and that life was
often difficult however Miriam says her mother denies that she was ever placed in foster care which has prompted
suggestions that Miriam might suffer from false memory syndrome and that Mike and Pat might never have existed the
question of whether all of this is made up certainly arises because it's hard to
believe that people could be this way all right but I can't help but believe that this is the absolute truth there
may be a certain amount of condensation and distortion around the edges but essentially I think that the story is
accurate and it was relayed in the truthful manner especially since all during the relation of this tale Miriam
was wanting to get out of the treatment there are emotional reactions to the pieces and to the whole were consistent
with a real event and not with a fantasy and in repeated flashbacks we got the beautiful picture of these marvelous
foster parents and without these months with two loving parents she might not have survived they gave me a lot they
saved me from despair and I would like them to know that there was a good outcome
I just pray that their lives are wonderful and that they've had happiness and I hope that I'll get a chance to be
reunited with them and share with them the good things that I have in my life Mariam believes that she lived with her
foster parents in 1945 or 1946 and she was between three and four years old she remembers their last name as McGuire
neither records of a court hearing the records of foster care from Miriam had been found
however the Dade County Clerk's office says this was not unusual in Florida during the period right after World War
two [Music] along the Pacific coast the hunt is on for the [ __ ] submarine that brought the
water US soil in 1942 the final outcome of world war ii was still very much in doubt the United States had every reason
to fear a Japanese invasion of his western shores they were known to be Japanese submarines operating off the
coast there had been an attack on an oil refinery down in near santa monica los angeles there was a great fear that
there would be more attacks one response to the threat was unusual to say the least
the Navy assembled an unlikely fleet of 12 odd sized blimps to monitor possible enemy activity along the California
coastline the mission of airship squadron 32 though critical was largely routine and uneventful until August 16th
1942 that day an airship on his regular patrol made a spectacular descent and crashed to earth with no one on board
incredibly its two-man crew had vanished and no trace of them was ever found The
Legend of the ghost blimp had been born it was almost impossible for them him not to have been seen by somebody but
nobody saw him go nobody saw him jump and there's no relics of them at all a real puzzle
it is perhaps a stranger's home front incident of the Second World War so strange
many remembered as if it happened only yesterday throughout the entire war airship squadron 32 lost only the two
men who disappeared on that Patrol fifty years later the exact fate is still unknown the mystery surrounding the
ghost blimp remains a subject of endless fascination Sunday August 16th 1942 the
flight of the ghost blimp began like hundreds of others had just after 6:00 a.m. a blimp designated flight 101
prepared to take off flight 101 spiders were 27 year old lieutenant Ernest DeWitt Cody and 34 year old ensign
Charles Alice Adams both were experienced and reliable all the more reason to wonder about what would occur
over the next five hours lieutenant Cody was a thoroughly experienced pilot he had many many hours
in this particular type of an aircraft he was called a very cool determined if somewhat taciturn officer Adams had
flown in the large durables and was thoroughly checked out but he had never flown in this small blimps and
this was an indoctrination flight for him that Sunday morning aviation machinist mate Riley Hill was assigned a
crew for Adams and Cody that morning but just before departure Hill was inexplicably ordered to leave the ship
he'll now believes heavy moisture in the air was weighing the blimp down making it unwise to take off with three men
aboard so I got out shut the door and locked it closed and they took off the flight plan called for the 101 to
depart Treasure Island pass over the Golden Gate Bridge then head to the Farallon Islands 25 miles
off the coast from there the patrol would continue north the point raised and south along the coast line the first
leg proceeded without incident an hour and a half after takeoff at 7:30 8 a.m. lieutenant Cody at radioed squadron
headquarters at Moffett Field positioned 4 miles east to the farallon's standby 4 minutes later Cody called
again those were the last words ever received in flight 101 when it came time for further explanation and we didn't
get it we just assumed well that was negative and they had went on their way then it came time for the hourly
position report and that didn't come in and the second one didn't come in and that's when we began to feel that
something was grossly wrong and we just could not believe that our radios weren't working because we had good
radio crew and machinery was working after more than three hours of radio silence personnel at Moffett Field grew
increasingly alarmed frantic attempts to contact the blimp went unanswered any word yet no sir
no communications from the crews since the report at 7:42 I'm investigating suspicious oil sir yes sir
finally a message was received but not from flight 101 let's get a team over there right away
the blimp had come ashore just south of San Francisco flight 101 had inexplicably drifted eight miles off
course there was a swimmer there a man called mr. Capel via who was standing ready to
go into the water and all of a sudden he saw this huge gray mass just coming right at him
remember this thing is 47 feet wide and it wasn't too high off the water and he watched it come in he had dragged him
suil along the sand at the water's edge then hit a little sand knoll it bounced up into the air and then slid up a
little bit of a canyon and then hit rather heavily on the side of the canyon and this knocked off what turned out to
be depth charge relieved of the weight the LA then soared up into the overcast again and out of sight of this mr. Capel
via and began to drift inland I guess with the winds over Daly City the rapidly deflating blimp was seen by
hundreds of people bunny Gillespie was 16 years old at the time I was on the way home from Sunday school and I saw
this big grey thing coming in over what I thought was going to be right over Templeton Avenue oh and I saw this thing
coming in through the sky I was very surprised as were a lot of other people because things like that just didn't
happen in Daly City flight 101 was quickly losing altitude and in danger of becoming entangled and
powerlines the blimp was on a collision course with the steep hills and Daly City one
woman's house almost became the point of impact it was a mrs. Appleton she said that all of a sudden this huge behemoth
had settled and scraped across the top of her roof and she said - sounded like chains dragging but the entire house was
blacked out because of the size of this thing and she raced to the front window wondering wondering what the world was
going on and she saw the rest of it the gondola hit the cross-arm break off part
of the mechanism there and gradually settled down to the ground I missed the actual landing of the thing
but when I got there was just one great big gray monster with the gondola jutting up into the towards the tops of
the houses it was huge miraculously no one was injured as a blimp came to rest in the middle of the street
almost immediately daily city officials are on the scene or Navy personnel arrived they were stunned to discover
that there was no sign of lieutenant Cody or ensign Adams apparently the blimp had piloted itself
straight into downtown Daly City a search of the gondola left investigators perplexed the door was
latched open a highly unusual in-flight position the safety bar normally used to
block the doorway was no longer in place a microphone hooked to an external loudspeaker dangled out of the gondola
the ignition switches were still on the radio was still on and working nobody had touched my fuel valves they were set
up just exactly the way that I'd left them we still had another six hours of fuel it's two life jackets out of the
three that were normally carried aboard were missing but there was no other equipment that was gone the machine gun
was still layer' the other flares there were three other flares were still there
the expandable life raft was there and one more life jacket there was nothing missing
lieutenant Cody's cab lay on the instrument panel the missing lifejackets indicated the
crew had put them on before takeoff as regulations required a locked in heavily weighted briefcase containing top-secret
codes was still in place It was as if Cody and Adams had opened the door and simply stepped out into thin air
the Navy investigation revealed that flight 101 had been seen by several ships and planes between 7 and 11 a.m.
some of the eyewitnesses reported being close enough to make out Cody and Adams in the gondola in each instance
everything about flight 101 seemed normal [Music] speculation on the fate of the two Navy
Airmen ran rampant some people believe that Cody and Adams had spotted an enemy submarine when they descended to
investigate they were taken prisoner one outrageous rumor suggested that the Pirates were involved in a lover's
triangle with an unknown woman one had murdered the other in a jealous rage the story went and then fled when the l8
reached land the Navy finally settled on the most plausible theory there had been
an accident onboard perhaps caused by a mechanical malfunction presumably one of
the men had climbed outside the gondola to correct the problem and run into trouble when the second man tried to
come to his aid both fell to their doom a year later along his 17th 1943 lieutenant Ernest DeWitt Cody and ensign
Charles Alice Adams were officially declared dead and the mystery of flight 101 passed into legend
after the crash the l8 was patched up and put back into service by the Navy ultimately the blimp became part of the
Goodyear fleet during the 1960s and 70s it was seen by millions of sporting events few of them had any idea that the
stately craft circling overhead was a fabled ghost blimp next a respected community leader goes
into hiding after he is convicted of statutory rape and sexual assault [Music] perhaps the most disturbing crimes and
those that betray the trust of children in 1981 a group of teenage girls in Danbury Connecticut were betrayed by a
respected community leader Reggie De Palma was a 12 year veteran of the Danbury fire department an advisor to a
local Explorer Scout Post but behind the facade of respectability DePalma was a time bomb just waiting to explode in
1978 Reggie De Palma had organized the Explorer post an affiliation with the fire department
his girlfriend Connie was co-leader when the group quickly became a popular after-school activity when I first
joined the truth my impression of Reggie and Connie we're that they were very nice people so it was just never even a
question that you would not trust them with anything I mean you just tell them confidential things and you would really
feel like you would trust them all the time and go to them if you needed help [Music]
by 1981 the explorer posts had grown to include 15 girls and 10 boys they met at
the fire station regularly and were drilled in life-saving and rescue techniques Reggie was supervisor of
danbury's ambulance service and the scouts training was often interrupted by emergency calls the post members
idolized Reggie De Palma and he soon became a virtual hero especially to the girls
it's kind of hard to describe Reggie Reggie was a lot of fun Reggie and his girlfriend Connie
they were easygoing people they were easy to talk to if you had a problem they really wanted you to open up to
them and get close to them and you know they were good at getting people's trust
in 1981 the Explorers organized a Halloween haunted house to raise money for an upcoming camping trip it was a
night which would burn itself into Terry's memory zero 13 and you still don't have a boyfriend have you ever
gone all the way with a boy balloon well I'd like to teach you about that because I'm your friend are you my
friend I thought that he was concerned with me and you know how I'd you know handle it
because we were at that age and you know I took it as like a fatherly concern and
you know something that you know he wanted to not be a part of but helped with Connie came up to me and said you
know we have to go get some things you know why don't you come with me and we you know promptly went back to
the house where regem was waiting we went back to the apartment and you know she said why don't you go shower and you
know get some of this makeup off so I did didn't think anything of it when I came out it all happened
hey money yeah we're just watching some TV that night Reggie forced Terry to have sexual
intercourse while Connie watched [Music] tragically Terry was not Reggie to pama's first victim nor would she be his
last I was 13 years old and I did not go immediately to my parents or the authorities because at that age I don't
think that you have any understanding even what's going on you just feel a terrible amount of humiliation of guilt
what did I do wrong to cause this to happen I don't know what to do I can't believe he did it over the next year
Reggie De Palma continued to sexually abuse girls in the Explorer post finally they began to confide in one
another I mean I've been back but I can't go back anymore one of the girls had gotten
upset about something and started talking and it just started snowballing because as soon as she said something
then the next person and everybody started coming forth and then we all realized that we weren't alone that
we're all in this group together and that together we could try to stop this we have to tell somebody okay are you
gonna do it we'll go with you if you want yeah will you tell I'll tell my mom one of the girls
mothers came to the police station to report what her daughter had told her so detective Benjamin and I were assigned
to investigate this and I spoke with all the girls involved and he spoke with all
the boys at that point you know I was still very young in high school trying to deal with all this it was not an easy
thing to just discuss with someone to tell them she was very supportive she was very nice and helped me through it a
lot so what I need to know is did you ever have occasion to be alone with with regi yeah
there was one time when I was at his apartment okay so what happened once you got to the
apartment keep me some wine and how much wine did you have pink glasses every glass of wine
three okay right off the bat one night when I heard this the stories that these girls told I felt myself betrayed and I
don't even know Reggie these girls were so devastated over what had happened to them that I had nightmares
it was the details of what they were telling me made me feel such a rage towards this man I had to get him rested
as soon as possible why just tell me what's going on Russ five counts of child molestation Reggie
you're the right to remain silent you understand you have a right to an attorney
do you understand if you waive that right anything you say or do will be used against you in a court of law if
you understand on the same day Reggie was arrested his girlfriend Connie was questioned she believed in him so much
she would have done anything for him and she felt so insecure about their relationship that she even went this far
to do these things with these girls for Reggie just over a year after his arrest
Reggie DePalma went to trial on nine counts including two counts of statutory rape and five counts of risking injury
to a minor terrible night you didn't tell someone about what happened why particularly you didn't tell your
parents I thought I thought that they would think less of me and that maybe it was my fault too and Reggie had told me
not to tell anybody Reggie - Reggie DePalma the first day during the trial was obvious that he did
not believe the girls had the courage to testify against him he felt he still had
sufficient sway over them that they would crumble on the witness stand after the first witness was able to testify
against him certainly then his confidence had to waver and of course after a third girl had testified he must
have decided that he would be better in parts unknown after the fifth day of the trial
Reggie De Palma who was out on bail left Danbury to visit his mother she was hospitalized at New Haven Connecticut 38
miles away although his car was found in the hospital parking lot De Palma never
showed up in his mother's room a fugitive warrant was issued for his arrest the trial continued without him and on
October 25th 1983 Reginald DePalma was convicted on seven counts and sent to sin absentia to 21 years in prison he is
still at large and has never served a single day behind bars his victims are now adults but the chilling effects of
abuse linger there are times when I'll psych myself out like if I'm leaving work late or you know when I was in
college if I was walking back to the dorms or something late at night that I was like you know he's out there
somewhere you know he could be watching me right now when I think about the fact
that he's still out there somewhere is very upsetting the first of course to all of us the injustice that we feel
because he is not paying for the crimes that were committed and then again the fear for other people out there that he
could be harming individuals all over again and put them all through this living hell
[Music] when we returned a convicted killer claims he is innocent and at least one
prosecutor believes he is telling the truth [Music] in the past we presented a number of
final appeal cases dramatic profiles of men and women who claim they have been wrongfully convicted of a crime they
were saying that they knew that their baby had been poisoned by either me or my husband I was devastated I was blown
away I just could not believe that they could even think I mean Ryan was my world
in 1989 Patti Stallings was arrested for poisoning her five-month-old son when the baby died she was charged with
murder and later convicted unfortunately we can't undo the suffering that the starlings have endured and I apologized
to them both personally and for the state of Missouri after our broadcast Patti Stallings was released from prison
and exonerated when doctors determined that her son Ryan had actually suffered from a rare genetic disorder I
absolutely did not commit the robbery or the shooting under police office I'm a musician and artist I'm not a
criminal Tony Miller spent eight and a half years in prison for robbery and assault
today Miller is a free man the charges against him have been dropped after his story aired a viewer who had been an
eyewitness to the crime contacted the court Miller's conviction was overturned thanks in part to the witness a sworn
statement that Tony was not a guilty party I am innocence is a phrase that echoes
through every cellblock in every prison in America almost always it is an empty claim little more than jailhouse
posturing but as you have just seen those three words do sometimes carry the ring of truth a few cases like our next
one deserve a second look January 3rd 1972 two boys out fishing on Taylor Bayou near Webster Texas found evidence
of a tragedy it was a skull of a young girl six weeks later police discovered the
rest of her bones along with the remains of another young woman Don ttle records
identify the two girls as 14 year old Rhonda Renee Johnson 15 year old Sharon Shaw who had been missing since a
previous summer the cause of their deaths could not be determined five months after the bones were found police
arrested 23 year-old Michael self a gas station attendant with below average intelligence self was charged with two
counts of murder 20 years later he is still in prison convicted of a crime he swears he did not commit
I did not kill Sharon Shaw in Renee Johnson it was just all behind politics wanting
a conviction that was in just somebody to play the patsy imagine that you're a jury member in a
murder trial the defendant has confessed twice and you vote to convict him later
you discover that confessions were allegedly coerced by two police officers used a kind of rough justice physical
and psychological intimidation as it turned out those two police officers were criminals themselves it may seem
incredible but Michael self claims that he was a victim of just that scenario [Music]
Rhonda Johnson and Sharon Shaw disappeared on August 4th 1971 they were last seen heading toward the Jericho
surf and ski shop in Galveston Texas 20 miles south of Rhonda's home town of Webster police immediately launched an
exhaustive investigation there was a great deal of community pressure to find the girls pressure intensified by the
fact that Rhonda was a granddaughter of a prominent Webster City Councilman put in many hours many hours night and day
I'm trying to find out what happened to these girls when they disappeared but I kept coming up to some loose ends I was
getting closed I thought firm dented they would disappear all my leads would just disappear in late May of 1972 the
Webster City Council hired a new police chief Don Morris Morris and his assistant
chief tommy deal came from the Traffic Division of the Texas Department of Public Safety son I'm glad you're with
us I know I can count on you yes sir the hunt for Rhonda and Sharon has been going on fruit Lissie for ten months but
within three weeks of taking office Morris got a tip on a suspect seems to me a few years back a boy named Michael
self Glenn price another City Councilman suggested Tommy deal check known sex offenders and mention Michaels selfs
name self had been arrested twice and peeping tom incidents I know you do a good job Tommy
I'll give it a whirl in back [Music] June 9th 1972 at 5:00 a.m. assistant chief Tommy D and officer
Herman Morgan stopped by the gas station where 23-year old Michael self worked the night shift
say look here Mike you got ESP yeah I got ESP right that's right and I can tell you exactly what you're thinking
right now you're thinking about two girls I didn't know what to girls he was talking about my wife and I had been
separated and I was dating a girl and I thought that's who he was you know talking about
that's only what I can thank you later that morning Michaels self voluntarily went to the police station detective I
knew I hadn't done anything I just went ahead and agreed to meet him there no Mike I want you to answer some questions
for me I want you to tell us if you've ever seen either one of these girls before some said he recognized the girls
but did not know that her night Johnson to his surprise he was immediately taken
into custody Rancho that's right Cuffy why we are putting you under arrest Mike Mike you know we already know you kill
those two girls we got the evidence come on I didn't have nothing to do with killing no girls while Seth was being
questioned another police officer Jerry Mitchell's stopped by to observe Mitchell new self and says self was not
at all nervous at that stage of the interrogation what happened somebody code doing something like Mike looked
relaxed easy-going kind of laid back you know grinning and I don't know that it ever really sunk in at that time
what he wasn't being involved in he got something to tell us well like I said I ain't done nothin ain't broke no law
don't you need to be on patrol Mitchell left the room according to self chief don morris then took personal charge of
the interrogation and the tone changed radically not what is he innocent you gonna sit back favorite I want you go
home and take a nap what you were about to see is based on Michael selfs recollection
Don Morris started asking me questions why I kill these girls I told him I didn't know what he was
talking about see a lot of innocent people Michael you don't look like one of them tell me about the girls
don't know what you want me to tell you about the girls he said that he wanted a
confession I wouldn't leave until he got one me about the girls I don't know nothing
about no girls I done told you I think I go around up some stray dogs thank you careful
I said don't you have a guilty conscience for doing this having to look Lloyd Johnson in the face and I'd tell
him but I didn't know what he was talking about he had me against the wall my hands are behind my back he's posting
this nightstick and my stomp and said he was going to get a confession you tell it he was more or less a mad
man about it I was crying I was upset he took his gun opens the cylinder and takes you by bullets and stands him on
in ragasiyam I was most scared I was anything I didn't know what was going you know what to say closed it they spun
the chamber he points his gun like this and says he's gonna blow my brains out if I don't sign a confession
he'd already beat him half to death poke him in the stomach and I could see that he was meant what he said and I
asked him what do you what do you want me to sign he tells me that he'll tell me what to write less than an hour after
Jerry Mitchell left the room he returned self now seemed upset and visibly shaken
my opinion kind of being led in the sequence of events of how he wanted it Rizza
[Applause] I've seen you know about half a page of writing on there by the time it was all
over I think they had to rewrite that one something wasn't right in it not being part of the investigation I really
wasn't privy to all the details of it why isn't nowhere for us but how do you know that they rewrote the confession
several times selfs confession however did not fit the known facts of the girl's disappearance one glaring
instance the confession said self dumped the bodies at a place called El Largo 20
miles from the Taylor Bayou where the bodies are actually found selfs appellate attorney Jerry bernburg points
out other discrepancies there's the statement in here that what he did was in essence he choked one of
the two girls there was no evidence of the breaking of some very tender bones in the neck that necessarily would have
been damaged if in fact he had choked one of the girls to death there is this claim that he went to Sharon Shaw's
house well Sharon Sean's family contradicts that says she wasn't home that day that didn't occur there's the
statement that the girls were hanging out of the window and hollering as they were all driving in the car and yet Dave
Colburn did this very thorough investigation and nobody saw the two girls that night or anybody else driving
down the road hollering waving and screaming I had statements from two girls signed by their parents as a
witness that they talked to Sharon Shaw ray Johnson in Galveston between eight and nine o'clock there's no conceivable
way that Sharon Shawna Johnson has got another ID and been in Webster riding around with Michael or itself at the
time they've gotten this confession three days after Michael selfs arrest he went against his original attorneys
advice and agreed to take a lie-detector test is your first name Michael yes sir a
coding a Jerry bernburg police asked self about more area murders yes between July 1971 and February 1970 tuned seven
of the young girls and one young boy had been found murdered in a four County area that included Webster do you know
who caused the death of the two girls yes the course of giving him the polygraph exam they say well now we've
got this statement that you gave last Friday where you confess to killing these two girls is it true he says yeah
and the live detector says no it's not it's not true at all yes sir after taking the polygraph self says he was
still so afraid of Chief Morris but he agreed to sign a second confession it did not mention any of the other murders
but did contain a new version of the deaths of Rhonda and Sharon in the first confession self said he struck Sharon
Shaw with his fists and shoved the girls bodies into a culvert in the second self
claimed he hit Shaw with a coke bottle and dumped their bodies in the Bayou the second confession also says self
stripped the murdered girls of their clothing and toss it out along the highway however clothing was found with
the remains along with an unidentified set of car keys and a crucifix worn by Sharon Shaw
there was a slight difference in the two written but all I had to do was for offer in
evidence the confession I want to go with and if the facts the outline facts tended to support the elements of this
confession that's all I needed if the jury believed two weeks after selfs arrest to Harris County sheriff's
deputies checked him out of jail on the pretext of buying him a hamburger afterwards they drove him to places
mentioned in the confessions and took pictures of him at each location it was presented in court as a third confession
he didn't confess a third time he went on a ride with two police officers who had illegally checked him out of the
jail to drive him around to take pictures to get evidence for a trial they didn't discover anything new while
self was awaiting trial he was visited by Dave Coburn who was by then Chief of Police and nearby Cleveland Texas at the
time he looked very depressed and very distraught you know when I walked in and I asked him he said he didn't do it and
I asked him what had happened and he had told me about Don Morris threatening him
with this billy club and poking him started pulling out five bullets one at the time when he made that statement to
me I knew what he'll come down because a year prior I witnessed Don Morris taking one shell
out of his revolver hiding it placing five shells in front of a prisoner and playing Russian roulette
with that prisoner threatening him and there's no doubt in my mind that he did that to Michael or itself and when he
came to the trial I was prepared to go in and make statements and I was never caught I don't know whether he did the
Russian Roulette number bottom line all three confessions are consistent I killed the girls polymer consists on May
15 1973 Michael self was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison [Music]
three years later the town of Webster was shocked when Don Morris and Tommy deal were arrested for bank robbery they
were members of a gang of robbers that had been sticking up banks as far back as 1972 five months before Michaels soft
was arrested in early 1976 Don Morris was sentenced to 55 years tommy deal to 30 years
both were eventually parole itami deal returned to robbing banks and is now back in federal prison
jerry bernburg petitioned the court to get Michael self a new trial after an extensive evidentiary hearing and just
nine days before oral arguments the defense got what looked like a gift from heaven
it's been bugging me for a long time I just wanted to get it off my chest Sharon Shaw and Renee Johnson I'm the
one who killed how did you kill on April 2nd 1980 a man walked into the police station and Taylor Lake Texas
he told George Karimun state prosecutor Douglas O'Brien that he not Michael self
had murdered Rhonda Johnson and Sharon Shaw what she used to kill him with exactly doctors O'Brien represented the
state when self appealed his conviction but now believes self is innocent what you do with their bodies after you kill
them I basically got the impression from him that what he wanted to do was to get
it off his chest and confess to the fact she didn't kill the girls but at the same time not give
information which would allow prosecution of him where'd you put their bodies in the water I don't know it was
beside where the car was I mean they didn't want to go through with it on a date and it was like I tied him up with
this this black cord and I tied him up and I just thought put him in the water his account of how he killed him or
whatever was very vague and disjointed but he did mention that he used a cord in which to tie the girls bodies down
when he put him into the water the statement by this individual indicated that he had tied their feet with black
cord something Michael self had never mentioned not found in any statement by Michael self that was the secret fact
that the police had held back all these years this guy knew it that guy was out of his gourd
he was he was a I don't know why I came forward I think he was unbalanced I don't remember exactly what I did all
right I don't remember exactly what he talked about was anything that could have been picked out of the newspaper
and even then he had there's no question my mind just this person who came forward was just all these people who
like to confess the crimes individuals clearly a very troubled person with some flights to psychosis but he knew the
girls he lived in the same apartment complex with one of them and the most important thing of all he knew about the
black cord despite the surprise confession and the credibility gap created by the criminal
activities of Morrison deal Michael selfs conviction was upheld they have no qualms burying evidence
whatsoever nothing to tie him to any murders are to even being seen with these girls except this which is not
worth papers wrote on legally speaking he's innocent just from a standpoint that number one I don't think his
confessions were voluntarily entered number two I don't think there's any corroborating evidence concerning those
confessions he was the type of personality that was easy prey for Don Morris that was easy prey for Tommy deal
it's easy prey for bank robbers parading as police officers and that's what happened if you were trying today
naturally some of these areas would be clarified these particular points were talking about
we could buy a can and spend more time and send better investigators out and and make our decision as to whether
prosecutor on [Music] next Wednesday on the season premiere of unsolved mysteries for five years Bruce
Kelley has been haunted by fragmented images of a life not his own the life that apparently ended on a doom
submarine during World War two is Kelly's story a remarkable case of reincarnation there is ever another more
rational explanation in Chicago a young boy was victimized by a hit-and-run driver his family needs your help to
find the man they believed was responsible and thanks to tips from you our viewers a fugitive cult leader
wanted on criminal charges in Missouri has been arrested join me next Wednesday for the dramatic season premiere of
unsolved mystery [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music]

Brief Summary

Miriam recalls traumatic memories, the Ghost Blimp's mystery, and Michael Self's wrongful conviction case.

Key points

Miriam's Journey into the Past. Miriam embarks on a search for her lost childhood memories, uncovering painful truths.
The Ghost Blimp Mystery. An airship crashes with no crew aboard, leading to endless speculation about their fate.
Reggie De Palma's Dark Secrets. A respected fireman hides a shocking truth about his past actions against children.
The Trust Betrayed. Reggie De Palma was seen as a hero by the Explorer post, but he betrayed their trust in horrific ways.
The Horrific Revelation. Terry reveals the traumatic experience of being forced into a sexual act by Reggie.
The Fight for Justice. After confiding in each other, the girls unite to confront their abuser and seek help.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

The human mind is a vast uncharted universe.

Miriam reflects on her fragmented memories.

3:28WatchMay 23, 2019

Tension

65/ 100Some tension

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