Original subtitles

[Son Yo] No -- no.

[Son Yo] No.

Benjaman ever mention anything

about what he might remember about the Burger King?

When I found out that Benjaman Kyle had lied

about the injuries and the 911 call was a fake,

I was not about to drop it.

Because I knew this guy was lying for a reason.

So I kept going. And I said, "You know what?

I'm going to let him think that I still believe him."

He thinks I'm a stupid person that just wants to learn

about his memories.

But the whole time, I was actually thinking,

"Why are you lying?

What are you hiding?"

[dramatic chord strike]

Benjaman didn't...

Benjaman didn't tell me that he was not beaten.

I read a lot of the articles

that said that's how he woke up.

And at that point, being a student who was late on

assignment, I took that and went with it.

And Benjaman never corrected me on that.

The idea of him waking up covered in blood was something

that was made up by Katherine.

[Benjaman] Katherine was a nurse at the J.C. Lewis Health Center.

Out of the kindness of her heart,

she tried to help me.

As far as being covered with blood and stuff,

I think Katherine exaggerated some of that

because we had absolutely no help whatsoever.

I mean, no one was interested in this case.

She did exaggerated it to get help.

[reporter] Bleeding and possibly dead man.

[reporter #2] Head trauma from a brutal beating.

[reporter #3] Beaten and left for dead.

[John] He doesn't remember when he woke up.

So if an assertive person said, "You woke up covered in blood,"

this guy didn't have a narrative.

So I think he believed it.

You know, and I'll tell you, it gets exaggerated worse

the more further it goes.

It's like that old telephone story.

I don't know.

There was no -- I was not covered with blood.

[theme music playing]

[Michael] Left four fingers.

The Benjaman Kyle case is one of the most bizarre cases

I've ever worked.

It's very weird, a lot of unanswered questions.

My name's Michael Albritton.

I was a chief investigator

during the investigation on Benjaman Kyle.

I first got involved in the Benjaman Kyle case

when I received a phone call from Katherine Slater wanting

to know where we stood on the investigation with Mr. Kyle

and his assault.

I told Ms. Slater I was not aware of an assault,

and I talked to the police officers that were actually

on the original EMS call, and they disputed the claims,

basically saying that there was no visible injuries

to his body, that he was not bloodied.

I have a copy of the Bryan County EMS report

right here.

According to the report, no trauma noted.

So, I shared the information I discovered with Ms. Slater.

She was adversarial.

She insisted that he had been beaten

and that we were not doing our job

by investigating his assault.

It was very suspicious to me.

And eventually,

the Richmond Hill Police Department

and my reputation faced some backlash in this.

People began to believe that Benjaman Kyle had been beaten.

[reporter] Benjaman Kyle was found beaten.

[Michael] Especially when he did his media tours.

Ben, thank you for being here.

I never talked to the local police.

People began to believe

that the Richmond Hill Police Department

didn't care about Benjaman Kyle.

And this grew into an urban myth,

and it festered.

And even my mother called me on the phone, and my mother

basically said, "Son, I raised you better than that,"

because of the way I was portrayed in the media.

I felt angry because I knew what the truth was.

Benjaman Kyle was a fraud.

[Ken] The amnesia issue was perplexing to

psychiatric specialists,

on numerous occasions, questioned the amnesia

and was wondering if it was malingering.

You know, the doctors suspecting that he was

faking the amnesia.

♪ Oh ♪

♪ Whoa ♪

♪ Whoa ♪

♪ Whoa ♪

I don't remember the bloody part.

The beaten part, yes.

But bloody, I'm not --

I just can't recall at the moment.

But I didn't invent words.

I was trying to get help.

Benjaman lived with me for about four years.

I wanted to help him.

I was like, "What can I do to help identify you?"

I think it was a TV commercial, and I thought, "FamilyTreeDNA.

"Why not? Nothing else has worked.

How can it hurt?"

So I got that test and that I administered to him

and mailed it in.

He seemed genuine in the beginning,

but I saw little things

over time until I couldn't ignore it anymore.

Benjaman kept up with this online community

called Websleuths.

All these people that have been trying to help him.

I really like to look at Websleuths

in a very simple way --

don't be a jerk and stick to the facts.

But eventually he had some falling out.

They started to suspect

and believe that he's not for real.

And then he started to get mad at Websleuths,

the administrator, Trish, and this woman, Liz Cook.

It really started to get bad.

Benjaman posed as Liz Cook,

this person he was mad at,

and went on to this other site

and got access and started bad-mouthing

her boss to get that person in trouble.

I think Benjaman's pretty good at computers.

He was good enough to go into that woman's account

and pose as her.

It is completely wrong.

It's unethical. It's immoral.

It's wrong.

He told me about it, laughing.

I think he thought that I would share in that joke.

And instead of me sharing the joke with him,

I got upset and said,

"Is that what you're gonna do when --

when I have a difference with you?"

And I was really upset that,

instead of this innocent, poor victim

that he portrays,

he is showing me how full of guile he is

and how bitter and hateful and ugly

that is to do that to a person.

It wasn't as overt as it was, "How can I damage someone?"

It was so unbelievable, and it's just

really underhanded.

I'm more afraid of people like that.

I don't believe he is devious.

And that was the day I said,

"How do I plan to get him out of here?"

[Katherine] I started talking to him about,

how do you want to transition? Where do you want to go?

I think our time is up.

He said, "I'm not going anywhere."

That's when it really started to get bad.

He really changed and became hostile -- very hostile.

And here I have this person that's very hostile to me

in my own home. It's -- it's scary.

It's scary.

And then I said, "Benjaman, we got to go now.

"You're out of here.

"Start cleaning some of this stuff.

It has to go."

And we were heading out,

and I just happened to turn around,

and he had this metal, like, ring in the yard,

and he's burning something.

I turn around and said, "What -- what are you doing?"

And I'm telling him, "Hey, this is my property.

You have to stop."

You know, "You're not allowed to

"just come and burn on someone's property.

I'm telling you not to do this."

And he's continuing to burn. I don't know what was in it.

And while he's doing this, I'm just circling around

with the hose, trying to keep the whole area wet

so it can't spread.

My brother, he's a retired cop.

And I said, "I need you here now."

And he came over.

Benjaman had to be out, [fingers snap], that moment.

He grabbed a backpack. Maybe he planned this.

I don't know. He grabbed a backpack.

I didn't search any of his stuff.

He did something to the computer.

Then he left.

He burns bridges.

He burns his bridges where he goes.

Benjaman must have had things

that he didn't want people to see.

Katherine had to get her brother,

who is a police officer,

to come and physically remove him from the property.

And it was only when I started to go and talk to people

about what their experience was with Benjaman Kyle

that I started to learn

who I was dealing with.

Benjaman has a long, long trail of people

that he's taken advantage of.

♪♪

[Josh] When I first became aware of Ben's story,

he was living in the woods at the time.

He couldn't get a job anywhere.

You know, it still almost brings tears to my eyes.

[sniffles]

Yeah.

So, you know, I kind of come from an area, you know,

I'd lost every -- my whole world at one time

had been lost and my life was

taken away from me when my dad died.

And I just felt this peace in my heart.

And he gained my trust so much, which is so hard to do.

But somehow this guy won me over.

♪ Ooh ♪

I had a garage apartment at my house.

I told him, "You're welcome to come stay at my house."

♪ Ooh ♪

But after a while, the trust really was shattered.

And ever since then, I haven't trusted him.

Yeah, he says, "Oh, I know everything

you guys talked about. I had it all recorded."

[ominous chord strike]

[Shannon] The more that we learned about Benjaman Kyle,

it started to seem like

he was an antisocial, aggressive, aberrant individual

that had a dark side.

And Katherine Slater said, "I have a computer.

"It's my computer, but he used it the entire time he was here.

He did something to it." He had wiped it.

So she gave us this computer, and we brought it to this

high-level computer forensic company.

Hi, it's Eric Evangelista and Shannon Evangelista.

-[Shannon] Hi, guys. -[investigator] Afternoon, everyone.

[Shannon] We also have Alexander Block with us today on our team.

So if you guys could kind of, like, start from scratch

in terms of the computer, that would be awesome.

[Shannon] Benjaman forensically wiped this whole.

And he didn't just use some, like, software that some

amateur buys at, like, the computer store.

He used high-level forensic wiping tools that you have

to have a very high level of computer knowledge

to be able to do.

[ominous music plays]

It was terrifying what was on the computer.

It seems like he was creating fake emails to look like

Katherine's and sending himself cold-case murders that happened

in Colorado when he was there.

This is the John Doe case.

On February 17th, 1977, hikers discovered a body.

One of the murders he sent himself

was right by where he was standing on a mountain saying...

[Benjaman] If anyone wants to get rid of a body,

this would be a good place to shove one off.

[Shannon] There was serial killer stuff on there.

I mean, you go into my computer,

it's like "J.Crew is having a sale."

It's not like, "Man murders prostitutes

and feeds them to pigs" and "Burger Chef murder."

[reporter] Four employees went to work and were never seen alive again.

[reporter #2] The brutal killing of four Burger Chef employees

is one of the most notorious unsolved crimes

in Indiana history.

[Shannon] Burger Chef murder, Burger Chef murder,

Burger Chef murder,

all over his computer, everywhere.

As you can see from this, he has bookmarks

for Burger Chef.

I mean, if you take all of this stuff together,

it was like getting into the mind of Benjaman Kyle.

It painted a picture of a very disturbed

and terrifying individual.

[Shannon] When we got the results of the computer forensics,

it revealed a terrifying side of Benjaman Kyle.

This was a very scary person.

And then, out of the blue, we got shocking news.

It's a Georgia mystery we've been following for close

to a year, and this morning, we've learned the unidentified

man living under the name Benjaman Kyle now knows

his true identity.

[Shannon] This is more than ten years after Benjaman was discovered

by the dumpster behind Burger King.

[reporter] This is kind of a turning point for you right here.

[Benjaman] Oh, it's a big turning point,

because I did, you know, legally, I didn't exist.

[ID clatters]

My name is William Burgess Powell.

I just got an ID card in my real name so that I can work

and get a job. I am no longer a ghost.

I exist, and I have proof now.

I never thought it would happen. [laughs]

[reporter] Benjaman Kyle tells me he finally knows his real name.

Benjaman got help from this woman.

Colleen Fitzpatrick, a forensic genealogist,

linked Benjaman to the last name Powell

and this woman, CeCe Moore.

The methodology that we used to solve the Benjaman Kyle case

was actually developed for adoption searches.

[reporter] Moore and a team worked on Benjaman's case

for two and a half years, comparing his DNA to those

in databases across the country.

Along with information BK thought he remembered,

Moore's team made the connection.

When we first learned who Benjaman Kyle was,

that he was William Powell,

all it did was raise more questions.

When they first told me, it was just shock.

It was just shock.

When they figured out that they thought it was

William Burgess Powell, they know I had three brothers.

Furman is the oldest, then it's Thomas,

then it's me, and then it's Robert.

Furman is in Indiana,

Thomas is dead.

And Robert is in Florida.

They did, uh.

They thought I was dead, so they stopped looking.

[eerie music playing]

We are in my apartment in Jacksonville,

where I am packing up to leave for Indiana.

It looks like my brother needed some help, and I feel

that that's my responsibility, so...

moving to Lafayette.

-[Josh] You all packed? -[Benjaman] Yep.

Getting ready to leave.

Definitely, you know, I still think your whole story's

frickin' amazing.

Um, after these four or five years together,

you're always welcome back here

if things don't work out up there.

[Benjaman] All right.

-I'd always help you out. -[Benjaman] Let's, uh...

let's bring this to a close before we both start crying.

All right, man.

Best of luck to you up there. Travel safe.

And if this thing was a hoax...

-I really don't know what I would say. -[Benjaman laughs]

I would feel terrible, but, uh,

you know...

I really don't know what I would say at this point.

No, you'd probably say, "God, he was good.

He fooled everyone."

[Josh sighs]

[Josh] When he first told me that he's been found,

it was so interesting.

There wasn't this giant excitement.

There wasn't tears of joy.

It was more of like, "They found me."

[chuckles sheepishly] "Oh, boy."

You know, I was like,

"That is such an odd reaction."

And then I says, "Ben, what are you going to do

"if they find out some solid information that...

you made this whole thing up?"

He says, "I'd be screwed."

I'm assuming I worked in restaurants, I just --

I just know too much about restaurants.

Oh, maybe something like an Applebee's or a, you know,

a Denny's, you know, stuff like that.

Which, by the way, you want to film me getting a tattoo

with that number tattooed on my butt?

-[Shannon laughs] -[John] Yeah.

[laughs heartily]

But I've been seriously thinking about that, yes.

Mine?

I put it in the phone books.

[John] I know.

Um...

Let's see. What number did I put in?

Oh, I put it under my name, I think.

[stammering] I put my -- oh, God.

And I got -- [mumbling]

What the hell's going on here?

Fellas, I did not grow up with a smartphone,

so I'm just not as damn fast

as what all you young kids are.

Uh-huh...

Contacts.

Uh...

You have the missing persons report that was filed

by my brother?

[Benjaman] All right, here it is -- I just sent it.

This is the one my brothers filed when they filed

a missing persons report.

[Benjaman] Yes.

Second page.

Upper -- upper-right corner.

When Benjaman found out he was William Powell, through DNA,

the Richmond Hill Police Department,

they gave it to him as a courtesy.

But he didn't even share that he had this document.

He's not being upfront with us.

[Shannon] He caused a scene --

[Shannon] This missing persons report states that he was last seen

in Indiana in March of 1976.

[Ken] So 1976 to 2004,

when he was discovered behind a Burger King

next to a dumpster, there's a long period of time,

almost 30 years that Benjaman says he has no memory.

[Shannon] It says that William Powell had stayed in Boulder, Colorado,

and was working as a cook in an Azar's restaurant.

Case withdrawn from the NCIC.

-We got his Social Security records. -[Ken] OK.

[Shannon] William Powell stopped existing in 1983.

Basically, finding out that Benjaman Kyle is William Powell

is only half of the story,

because who the hell was he for 30 years,

when he was living off the grid?

So we're going to Social Security.

Why are we going to Social Security?

We need to find out where you've been,

especially during that large gap of time.

At this stage of the game, this is what I know.

I know Benjaman Kyle is really William Powell.

I believe that Benjaman Kyle, aka William Powell,

never had amnesia.

I know that he was only William Powell until 1983.

Here's what I don't know.

I don't know where the hell he was

from 1983 until 2004.

[Ken] OK.

[Benjaman] I don't want to.

-Hi. -[indistinct chatter]

[clerk] Mm-hmm.

[Shannon] Social Security administrator told us that William Powell

had applied for Medicare

before CeCe Moore had figured out who he was,

before he knew he was William Powell.

I don't know.

Told you, I don't like to speculate.

I don't know. I changed my name, maybe?

Used another -- yeah, and used another...

made up a Social Security number, maybe.

I hear about people doing it all the time.

I thought that's what I should have done to begin with.

-Ten years ago. -And work off -- work off the books, you mean?

No, make up a Social Security number.

-Well, that's fraud. -I mean, yeah, well.

How do the Mexicans get away with it?

Well, not all of them get away with it.

They get deported and some of them get thrown in jail.

You don't want that to happen to you, do you?

Yeah, well, how about a federal,

what do they call those? A country club prison.

-[laughs] -Yeah, yeah, you know, we could probably

arrange that if you'd like.

[Benjaman] Eric and Shannon, they got...

twins.

Maybe they got a nanny.

[ominous music playing]

[Alexander] Yeah, that's not OK.

So if Benjaman...

signed up for Medicare in April of 2015. -Right.

He didn't discover who he was until July of 2015.

[Ken] Right.

How do you sign up for Medicare

if you don't know your Social Security number?

It's impossible.

You cannot sign up for Medicare

unless you have a Social Security number.

So, it clearly shows us very definitively that he knew

who he was at least as early as April 2015.

[Eric] It is a big deal. So, he's lying.

[Ken] He is absolutely lying.

-An intentional lie. -He's lying, he's lying.

[soft music playing]

We're on my hometown in Lafayette, Indiana,

and this is 18th Street.

I'm gonna meet my brother in about five minutes.

I mean, you know, it is weird because I don't --

I don't remember him,

and I'm gonna meet him.

We've talked a bit on the phone,

so this is, uh,

gonna be interesting.

I'm a little nervous, a little anxious.

For the last 10 years, I haven't had a family

or a past history,

and now all of a sudden I'm getting one,

and I hope it's one I like.

Uh...

Hopefully, all this is gonna bring back a lot of memories.

I don't, uh...

uh...

You know, these streets seem familiar we're driving on.

I'm sorry, I'm getting preoccupied by looking

at the scenery and talking at the same time.

Sorry, I guess I am getting nervous now.

My name is Furman Ansel Powell,

and Benjaman's my little brother.

And we grew up here

and actually grew up in this house.

I haven't seen my brother since the '70s,

and we just assumed he was dead.

[Benjaman] I'm glad we're finally doing this,

but, you know, this is

kind of strange to me because I'm meeting a stranger,

uh...

who is actually not supposed to be a stranger to me.

So I, uh...

[sighs]

Um.

I hope all this goes well.

I really want it to go well.

[groans softly]

[bleep]

That must be him.

I thought he had more hair.

Finally, we get to meet.

[Furman] I can't hear.

Oh, I said, "Finally we get to meet."

Oh, yeah. So do we look alike?

I think a little, yeah.

Well, which one's better looking?

-[both laughing] -[Benjaman] I'm not -- I'm not --

I'm not gonna go there.

-I'm not gonna go there. -[Furman laughs]

You don't have as much hair as what I thought you would have.

[Furman] No, it went years ago.

Ah, damn.

Old house. This was our grandma's house.

[Benjaman] Looks like it's aged like I have.

[laughs]

Where did you get that?

Oh, you and Dad made that when you were Cub Scouts.

[Benjaman] Pinewood Derby.

[Furman] Yeah.

I thought you'd like that.

[Benjaman] I'm surprised it's still here.

Well, Mom put that in a china closet.

Mom loved you.

Not a day came by that she weren't thinking of you.

They're all dead, but, you know, it's...

I got a family.

It gives me a sense of belonging that I never had before.

How'd it do in the race? Do you remember?

It is a lot prettier than it ran.

[both laughing]

Bill was extremely close to our mother.

She was still grieving for him the day she died.

-[Benjaman] That's Mom? -[Furman] Yeah.

And I could see Dad in your face a little bit.

At 10 years old, I didn't think our childhood was abnormal.

Today, looking back, it was very dysfunctional.

My father was drinking extremely heavy, and there was

a lot of, today it'd be called physical abuse.

My father losing his temper

and getting real physical with Bill.

Bill was in pure hell.

Some of the things that Furman told me,

he started describing

a few of the things that happened when we were kids.

And I have to admit, I just --

I just sat down and cried for a while.

I mean...

Ugh.

[voice breaking] I guess it was just upsetting.

I don't feel like talking.

The abuse when I was a kid,

if it's as bad as what my brother was saying,

it was -- saying it was, that might,

to a large extent, explain the memory amnesia.

Twenty years later, but...

I think there could be a delayed reaction.

[Dr. Gorgens] I'm not sold on Benjaman's amnesia.

Benjaman's assertion that his memory loss is a product

of childhood trauma decades later

doesn't necessarily add up.

It makes me suspicious

about whether Benjaman actually has amnesia.

After reviewing the medical records,

there are a lot of red flags.

When you see "malingering," it's like the scarlet letter.

The shorthand for "malingering" is faking.

But why would someone lie about having amnesia?

It might be because you were doing something illegal.

[Furman] With our father being abusive,

Bill had all this pent-up anger.

He'd fly off in a rage.

He'd blow up,

and he'd be totally out of control.

[Ken] We're listening, and Furman hadn't realized

he was being recorded. His mic's still on.

The cameramen hadn't shut it off,

and we captured this brief conversation

between Furman and his brother Bill.

[dark music playing]

That came out of -- completely came out of nowhere.

We were not expecting that.

[Ken] Why bring up killing people

to your brother who just returned home?

[Eric] Now we really suspect there's some big secrets

that we're not being led on to.

[woman] The only way to know the truth about Benjamin.

We have to knock on doors and talk to people who knew him.

He could be violent.

Did some stupid things.

[Woman speaking]

Come here buddy, where the hell have you been?

I thought he was dead.

I am not an ax murderer.

[laughter]

Maybe you killed somebody.

I don't know.

Two of you guys, you were trouble.

That's a fair thing to say.

Who, at 3 o'clock in the morning, takes the

plates off a car? People that are hiding something.

The only thing they could still be tried for

is a murder.

Christine Kozik was a Purdue student murdered in '77.

Christine Kozik, did he have something

to do with that?

I'm not afraid of Powell.

I'd worry a little bit about if it was me.

Really?

[nervous chuckle]

They're watching us at our house.

[uneasy music]