All language subtitles for America in Color Series 3 5of6 Crimes of the Century 1080p

[gunfire]

Narrator: This is
the story of america...

Seen in color
for the first time.

In the 1920s and '30s,

Gangsters like bonnie and clyde
become celebrities.

America's most wanted
try desperately

To stay one step ahead
of the law.

Man: He had the tips of
his fingers sliced by a knife.

Narrator: Crime soars,

And j. Edgar hoover's fbi
cracks down.

J. Edgar hoover: The special
agent must have the courage

To shoot it out with the most
venomous of public enemies.

Narrator:
New forensic technology

Helps catch
the most elusive criminals,

And hidden cameras bust
the largest nazi spy ring

In u.S. History.

[people screaming]

By the 1960s,

Americans can see
a mass shooting in real time.

And a novelist turns a murder
in the heartland

Into a pop culture phenomenon.

These are america's
crimes of the century,

As you've never
seen them before.

♪

John kennedy: I want us
to recapture that...

♪

Narrator: In April 1933,

Two of america's
most famous outlaws

Leave a stash
of remarkable photos

In an abandoned hideout
in joplin, missouri.

These shots of bonnie parker
and clyde barrow,

With their heady mix
of sex and violence,

Fascinate
depression-era americans.

A year later, a short
screened across america

Cements the couple's legacy.

The film mixes reality
and re-enactment,

Including the killers'
brutal slaying

Of two highway patrolmen.

[gunshot]

So far, they've killed 11.

William schieffer: I noticed
a car parked on that hill,

A man and a woman in it.

Narrator: William schieffer,
who claims he saw the outlaws

Kill the two motorcycle cops,

Is one of many eyewitnesses
to appear in newsreels.

Schieffer: They reached down
and got their gun and came up,

When they was
about ten feet away,

And says boom, boom, boom,
boom, boom!

Narrator: By may 1934,
the pair's violent exploits

Dominate the headlines

And a massive manhunt
is well underway.

The climax of the film
is a re-enactment

Of bonnie and clyde's
dramatic end

In a shootout with the cops

On this stretch of deserted road
in louisiana.

[gunshots]

But this part of the film
is no re-enactment.

It's actual police footage
taken by one of the sheriffs

Just minutes after they've
pumped over 100 rounds

Into clyde's yellow ford sedan,

With his and bonnie's corpses
slumped inside.

Announcer: Bonnie is seen
leaning against clyde.

Any one of these bullets would
have been fatal to both,

But after having killed
14 people,

It did not seem advisable
to fire just one bullet.

Narrator: The sheriffs show off
clyde's weapons for the cameras,

Along with bonnie's vanity case.

Announcer:
Really a pretty girl.

Bonnie was found
at the time of her death

To have had
a new permanent wave.

Her fingernails were clean
and prettily manicured.

Vanity, thy name is woman.

Narrator: Dead or alive,

Bonnie and clyde have
a magnetic appeal.

10,000 crowd the dallas, texas,
funeral home

Where clyde's body is laid out.

An estimated twice that
flock to bonnie's funeral.

Their demise pushes
public interest in crime

To an all-time high.

But it hasn't always
been this way.

At the dawn of the 20th century,

There is little newsreel
coverage of crime,

And most is reconstructed
for the cameras...

Such as these shots taken
in 1903 by the edison company,

Featuring river pirates
in new york harbor,

Who are captured by
a police patrol boat

Before they can make off
with any stolen cargo.

New york movie theaters show it
as a local oddity.

But in 1921, newsreel coverage
of an explosive criminal case

Captivates the whole country.

On may 5th,
two italian-born anarchists,

Nicola sacco, at right, and
bartolomeo vanzetti are arrested

For the robbery and murder
of two men

At a shoe factory
in massachusetts.

Their case becomes a sensation,

Thanks to the hot-button issue
of immigration.

By the 1920s, 4 million italians
have come to live in america.

Those with communist
or anarchist leanings

Are seen as
a national security threat.

Many have been deported.

The crackdown
on dangerous immigrants

Will fuel the extraordinary rise
of a young federal agent,

J. Edgar hoover.

But the case against
sacco and vanzetti is flimsy,

And many consider them
scapegoats.

When judge webster thayer
sentences both men to death,

People are outraged.

Thousands take to the streets
in protest.

As the story spreads,
riots erupt nationwide

And overseas.

First in paris, rome and milan,

Then in london,
where communists attack

America's excessive use
of the death penalty.

Back home,
judge thayer's house is bombed,

Along with a new york subway
station on 28th street.

But thayer holds firm,

And despite six years of appeals
and requests for a retrial,

On the 23rd of August 1927,

He sends sacco and vanzetti
to the electric chair.

Following this perceived
miscarriage of justice,

Idealists like
dr. William marston

Attempt to introduce
impartiality into the courts.

The harvard-educated
psychologist gets credit

For inventing an early form
of the lie detector.

Later, he creates wonder woman
and her lasso of truth.

In 1922, he tests the new device

On earl dudding
from west virginia,

Who's just served five years
for shooting his uncle.

Marston takes
his blood pressure.

His theory is that an elevated
reading would point to guilt.

But dudding's readings
stay even,

Suggesting to marston that
dudding's claim of self-defense

Has been true all along.

Police come to embrace
the polygraph.

But its findings are still
inadmissible in most trials.

Miles from massachusetts,
deep in the bible belt,

America puts science
itself on trial.

In dayton, tennessee, it's
darwin's word against god's.

It is July 1925, and a young
high school science teacher,

John scopes, is accused
of contravening

Tennessee's butler act, which
bans the teaching of evolution.

The press goes to town
with the story,

Dubbing it the monkey trial.

National newsreels
feature trained chimps

As so-called key evidence
for evolution.

Stores in dayton see a run
on toy monkeys.

For one of the first times ever,
motion picture cameras

Are allowed inside
the hot, crowded courtroom.

[banging gavel]

The trial will pit
two great legal heavyweights

Against each other.

Defending scopes:
Famous liberal clarence darrow.

For the prosecution: Three-time
populist presidential candidate

And devout christian
william jennings bryan.

Very quickly, the judge destroys
darrow's strategy by ruling

That scientific evidence
for evolution is inadmissible.

It is scopes who is on trial
for breaking the law,

Not the law itself.

Changing tactics,
darrow challenges

Bryan's literal reading
of the bible.

Asked if a whale
really swallowed jonah,

Bryan says he believes god
could make it happen.

Jurors convict scopes.

But the press and public opinion
give darrow the win

For ridiculing bryan.

Five days later,
exhausted and humiliated,

Bryan takes an afternoon nap...

And never wakes up.

As cameras become
more available,

Amateurs begin to capture crimes
and their aftermath

On film for the first time.

In rural michigan,
undertaker george bettes

Has been using his new
home movie camera

To document scenes
of local interest--

Farmers hard at work
during harvest

And preparing for michigan's
famous blossomtime festival.

But in may 1927,
he captures haunting scenes

That most locals
would prefer to forget.

Bettes' films, aired here
for the first time,

Show his wife greta
and a family friend

Holding the hands of
their two little girls

As they walk through the rubble

Of what was once
bath schoolhouse.

On may 18th, a suicide bomber
attacked the school.

Andrew kehoe, the 55-year-old
former school treasurer,

Planted hundreds of pounds
of dynamite

In the school's north wing,

Killing 44 people,
38 of them children.

The final act of devastation
comes when kehoe detonates

A shrapnel-filled device
in his truck,

Killing himself
and four bystanders.

The carnage at bath
shocks the nation.

It still ranks as america's
worst school massacre.

Within days, though, the bombing
is out of the headlines,

Replaced by news
of charles lindbergh's

First-ever non-stop
solo transatlantic flight.

Five years later,
this all-american hero

Will be back in the headlines,

This time at the center
of a shocking crime.

In March 1932,

Newsreel cameramen flood
into hopewell, new jersey.

Someone has kidnapped

Charles lindbergh's
20-month-old son

From the family mansion.

News of the kidnapping
spreads fast.

Hordes of reporters
converge on the site,

Destroying valuable
footprint evidence.

The only clues left behind
are a $50,000 ransom note

And a wooden ladder used
to access the child's bedroom.

This is just one of 283
kidnapping cases that year,

But the toddler's profile
is by far the highest.

Announcer:
The sympathy of the world

Goes out to colonel lindbergh
and his devoted wife

In their supreme anguish.

Narrator: When all leads dry up,

The deeply private and
publicity-shy lindberghs

Release treasured home movies
of their young son.

Police plaster posters
with photos

Of golden-haired little lindy
all over new york.

[whistle blows]

But soon after the ransom money
is paid via a go-between,

His decomposed body is
discovered in the undergrowth

Near the lindbergh mansion.

Kidnapping is not yet
a federal crime.

But now president herbert hoover
passes the new lindbergh law,

Giving jurisdiction for all
interstate kidnapping cases

To the bureau of investigation.

Its director, j. Edgar hoover,
in charge for 8 years now,

Appeals directly
to the american public.

Hoover: May I emphasize

That the federal bureau
of investigation

Is as close to you
as your nearest telephone.

If you give proper notification
immediately upon the receipt

Of a threat of kidnapping
or extortion,

The entire power and facilities
of this bureau

Will be thrown into action to
bring the culprits to justice.

Narrator: Even so,
it takes the fbi two years

To arrest a suspect--

German immigrant
bruno hauptmann.

Announcer: Bruno hauptmann
is questioned

In the prisoner's line-up

At new york's
police headquarters.

Under the spotlight he still
maintains his innocence.

[singing]

Narrator: His wife anna,

Herself a mother
to a golden-haired baby son,

Stands by him.

Anna hauptmann: I'm positively
sure that my husband

Had nothing to do with
the lindbergh baby kidnapping.

Narrator: But when over $13,000
of the ransom money

Is discovered in his garage,
along with wood

That is identical
to the kidnapper's ladder,

The fbi agents are convinced
they have their man.

Before hauptmann is tried,

The fbi also arrests
george "machine gun" kelly.

In September 1933, they charge
kelly and his gang

With kidnapping
an oklahoma oil tycoon.

Eager to paper over
his bureau's poor performance

In the lindbergh case,

Hoover makes much
of kelly's trial.

Announcer:
Uncle sam wars on kidnappers.

Abductors of charles urschel,
oil millionaire,

Are sentenced for life

Under the new so-called
lindbergh federal law.

Narrator:
Kelly's court appearance

Shows off the fbi's
hardball tactics.

Announcer: Look at the knot
on his head,

Which he received at the hands
of one of the federal guards.

He has another one on the back,

And his yellow-dyed hair was
streaked with his own blood.

Narrator: The press report
that kelly,

Cornered without his famous
machine gun when arrested,

Yelled, "don't shoot, g-men!"

Popularizing the nickname
for the fbi's government men.

[applause]

Narrator: Kelly gets away
with his life,

Even if the rest of it
will be spent

In the fed's now notorious new
maximum security prison,

Alcatraz.

Just over a year later,
on January 3, 1935,

Huge crowds descend
on flemington, new jersey.

Announcer: Unashamed, thousands
who come from near and far

Struggle to get a seat
at the grim legal drama

That will decide a man's
life or death.

Narrator: Bruno hauptmann,

The suspected
lindbergh kidnapper,

Is brought into court
for what is quickly billed

The most sensational trial
of the century

By over 700 reporters
and celebrated writers.

Announcer: Arthur brisbane,
famous writer,

Sits with adela rogers st. Johns
and james cameron,

And nearby sits walter winchell,

All awaiting the greatest
of courtroom dramas.

Narrator:
Anne and charles lindbergh

Enter the crowded courtroom to
relive every parent's nightmare,

As the prosecution lays out
its evidence,

Detailing every twist and turn
of the horrific case.

Man: Number 3 garment is
the child's nightclothes.

Narrator: Forensic evidence from
america's leading graphologist

Confirms hauptmann's handwriting

Matches that
in the ransom notes.

The infamous ladder also
makes an appearance.

In a dramatic climax,
cameras roll as hauptmann

Takes to the witness stand
to defend himself.

Announcer: Spellbound,
crowds and jury sit tense

As sound cameras record
the relentless cross-examination

By prosecutor wilentz.

Narrator: With this pile of
evidence stacked up against him,

The jury finds hauptmann guilty.

For six weeks, the trial
has gripped americans.

Adela rogers st. Johns,
reporting on the case

In nationally syndicated
newsreels, explains.

Adela rogers st. Johns:
This has been the greatest

Emotional trial
that I have ever covered.

In one courtroom,
within a few short days,

We've had the heartbreak
of anne lindbergh,

The tragedy of lindy
and his baby,

And the horror
of bruno hauptmann

As possibly the arch criminal
of our age,

And one of the most amazing
mystery dramas

That anyone has ever conceived.

Narrator: The final chapter
in this explosive drama

Closes in April 1936,

When hauptmann goes
to the electric chair,

Still protesting his innocence.

High-profile cases like these

Prove there is a dark glamour
in solving crimes.

And as the reporting
of crime goes up,

So, too, does
the public's interest.

Now entrepreneurs cash in
on a growing market

For amateur sleuths,
keen to play detectives for fun.

Announcer:
Latest development of all

Is the crime file or clue book.

This solemn
industrial innovation

Is compounded of tangible clues
for crime-conscious readers.

Strands of hair from
the victim's clenched hands,

Telltale matches
dropped by the murderer

At the scene of the crime.

Given such evidence as this,

Families can spend
whole evenings

Hot on the trail of some
elusive homicidal maniac!

Narrator: With hollywood
whodunits at an all-time high,

Amateurs from
all over the country

Try making their very own
murder mysteries.

Jack calvin from sitka, alaska,
corrals his entire family

Into starring in his debut
feature, "murder is fun."

In medford, oregon,
15-year-old mary kem

Persuades her dad, huxley,

To let her use
his prized movie camera.

Mary has no shortage
of volunteers

At the auditions
for her new movie,

In which she and
her cousin martha

Confront two escaped convicts
hiding out in the woods.

[screaming]

[gunshot]

All ends well, and the two perps
are eventually rounded up

And returned to the local jail.

Back in the real world, the fbi
develops ingenious new means

Of tracking down
the most hardened criminals.

[gunshot]

Between 1934 and 1937,

Homicides in the united states
drop 20 percent.

Many of the public enemies
are dead or behind bars.

Credit goes to hoover,
who has expanded the fbi

Into a nationwide
investigative force.

[gunshots]

A film promoting the fbi's new
national police academy

Polishes that reputation
and sends a stark warning

To all would-be criminals.

Announcer: Spurred on by
the presence of j. Edgar hoover,

Their chief,
uncle sam's ace g-men

Sharpen their shooting eyes
on public target number one,

Oscar the dummy.

[gunshot]

Hoover: The special agent
must be a good marksman

And have the courage
to shoot it out

With the most venomous
of public enemies.

[gunshots]

Narrator: Hoover's g-men take
aim at crime from every angle.

[gunshots]

The films show agents training

At the academy's combat ghost
village well into the night.

They don't spare the ammunition.

Announcer:
Even darkness can't hide

Lawbreakers from g-men.

[gunfire]

Narrator: But there is
another crucial new weapon

In the fbi's armory.

[gunfire]

An army of special agents
now labors away

In the fbi's new
forensic laboratories.

Announcer:
This is the g-man science

Which has helped
in the conviction

Of more than 11,000
federal offenders

During the last three years.

Narrator: Fbi films show off
the new technology

They hope will halt criminals
in their tracks:

Plastic molds of footprints,
heads, and machine guns,

Made into 3d models
as key courtroom exhibits;

Firearms and ballistic analysis;

And testing fabric
for traces of blood.

One particular set of forensics
proves particularly useful.

Announcer: All important
in the war on crime

Is fingerprinting, the surest
and most scientific means

For keeping track
of law-breakers.

Narrator: In 1936,
an amateur detection club

From elizabeth, new jersey,

Made up of doctors,
dentists and chemists,

Steps in to lend hoover
a helping hand.

The volunteer group comes up
with a pioneering invention--

The comparison projector,

A device which makes it easy
to I.D. Matching fingerprints.

New jersey cops use it
to solve over 300 cases.

That same year hoover endorses

A voluntary fingerprinting
program across america.

By 1951, the agency will have
the fingerprints

Of 20 million americans on file.

In berkeley, california,
famous aviator amelia earhart

Inspires others to join her

In one of the program's
most successful drives.

16,000 locals, nearly half
berkeley's population,

Line up to have
their prints taken.

But it's not long before
some residents start to fear

It will become
a compulsory exercise,

And the campaign is stopped.

Criminals follow
the newsreels, too,

And some are determined
to outwit the new technology.

By 1933, alvin "creepy" karpis
is public enemy number one

On the fbi's hit list.

Karpis rolls with the notorious
ma barker gang,

So called because gangsters fred
and arthur barker's mother,

Kate, is seen as the brains
behind the operation.

Over four years,
they've netted $3 million

In robberies and kidnappings,
leaving ten dead.

In June, the gang kidnaps

Wealthy minnesota brewer
william hamm.

His family pays the ransom
to gain his release unhurt.

But hoover now sets out
to make an example

Of the ma barker gang.

His agents run
ma and fred barker to ground

In ocklawaha, florida,
when the shooting starts.

As with bonnie and clyde,

Newsreels are quick to cover
the aftermath.

Announcer: For six hours
the neighborhood

Was like a battlefield.

Agents fired more than 1,500
rounds of ammunition.

A neighbor, mrs. A.F. Westbury,
was in the direct line of fire.

Mrs. Westbury:
The firing began at 7 o'clock,

And the bullets went
through our house,

And one went through my hair,
and we went through the window.

Narrator: The fbi's policy of
shoot first, ask questions later

Is justified by the huge
arsenal of weapons

Found stashed inside
the barkers' hideout.

Announcer: In the center
is the tommy gun found

Clutched in the stiffening
fingers of the 55-year-old ma.

Narrator: It takes another year,
but the fbi eventually catches

Their accomplice,
alvin "creepy" karpis.

Thanks to the fbi's latest

Silver nitrate
fingerprinting techniques,

His prints are detected
on the ransom notes,

Despite the best efforts
of an underworld surgeon.

Announcer: Karpis was afraid
of fingerprints.

Here's the g-man record.

He had the tips of his fingers
sliced by a knife.

No use. His fingerprint
characteristics

Identified him just the same.

He had his face lifted,
his ears clipped.

But look at his eyes!
Same old creepy.

[gunshot]

Narrator: In the mid 1930s,

The same camera technology
that reports on crime

Begins to catch criminals
in the act.

[gunshots]

Here one of l.A.'s finest
demonstrates

The pistol movie camera,

The harbinger of
the 21st century bodycam.

New film technology
also finds its way

Onto the increasingly
busy roads.

Ingenious inventions
like the traffic eye,

Which allows highway patrolmen
to incriminate speeding drivers.

Announcer: The speedometer
on the fender

Is in range of the camera

That registers the speed
as the police chase a culprit.

Be careful how you weave
on the highways,

For from now on, it's your word
against the camera.

Oh, yeah, buddy?

Tell it to the judge.

Narrator: With the end
of prohibition,

A new type of criminal
looms into view.

In 1938, nearly one in eight
drivers are caught

With significant alcohol levels
in their blood.

Reconstruction shows
a clearly-worse-for-wear driver

In pasadena hauled
into the police station

And asked to walk the line.

The filmed evidence
convicts him in court.

Judge: After seeing this film,
I can't imagine what defense

You'd possibly have
to this charge.

Man: I have nothing to offer.

Narrator: As war looms,
the fbi now turns its attention

To a new public enemy:
The enemy within.

In 1940,

President franklin roosevelt
has j. Edgar hoover

Create the special
intelligence service.

Its job: To track german spies
on u.S. Soil.

Hoover: Never before was there
greater need for unity.

The rabble-rousing communists,
the goose-stepping bundsmen,

Their stooges and
seemingly innocent fronts,

They seek to weaken
law enforcement

In every conceivable manner.

Narrator:
A morale-boosting newsreel,

Narrated by hoover himself,

Reveals the ingenious means by
which the largest nazi spy ring

In u.S. History is caught.

It's 1941

On a busy new york street.

Double-agent harry sawyer
is secretly filmed

Luring frederick fritz duquesne
and other members

To his downtown office,
where duquesne has promised

To give sawyer
stolen america secrets.

Inside, fbi agents are poised,

Ready to use
the earliest examples

Of surveillance footage,
as hoover's narration explains.

Hoover: A concealed camera
in the next office

Took these
incriminating pictures.

The money kleiss
is giving to sawyer

Is for the purchase
of a leica camera

To be used in his activities
as a spy.

There's duquesne,
the leader of the ring,

And the most cautious
of them all.

Narrator: A veteran spy,

Duquesne knows to check
for microphones.

But he overlooks
the camouflaged lens.

It films him handing over
diagrams of the m-1 rifle

And other top-secret documents,
which he's hidden in his sock.

It's one of
the earliest instances

Of a crime being filmed
as it occurs.

And on the strength of this
incontrovertible evidence,

All 33 male and female members
of duquesne's spy ring

Are found guilty.

Fritz duquesne himself
is sentenced to 18 years.

Newsreels go big on america's
most successful spy sting.

Announcer: 33 nazi agents
afraid to show their faces,

And with good reason.

These agents of adolf hitler

Have now had their
poisoned fangs extracted.

Narrator: Foreign espionage
continues to preoccupy the fbi

Throughout world war ii.

But in peacetime, the agency
refocuses on domestic crime.

In 1950, one in particular
proves a tough nut to crack--

The great brinks robbery,

Which will go down in history as
the almost perfect bank heist.

On January 17th,
a skilled team of thieves

Carries out a precisely
planned strike

On the brinks armored car depot

In boston.

A day later,

A brinks guard reconstructs

The gang's unique m.O.

Guard: ...And I heard
a "stick 'em up!"

I looked up quick, and I saw
approximately about 7 men

With the Halloween masks on

With the chauffeur's caps
and pea coats and blue pants.

I look down and see
the revolver,

And he said, "lay still!"

So I lay there for about the
longest 20 minutes of my life.

Narrator: That's all the time
it takes for the masked thieves

To take off with $2.8 million
in cash and checks

From the securely
guarded building.

The thieves agree
not to touch the loot

For six years
to avoid detection.

But on January 6, 1956,

Just 11 days before the statute
of limitation runs out,

One of the gang members,
joseph "specs" o'keefe,

Confesses while in prison
for another crime.

One by one, his accomplices
are marched into court.

But one thief remains at large,

And there is no sign
of the stolen loot.

Announcer: The first money
to be recovered

From the 1950
brinks million-dollar robbery

Turns up in baltimore
with the arrest of jordan perry,

Caught passing
a suspicious $10 bill.

Police found $4,600 cash
in his room,

With serial numbers matching
those stolen six years ago.

Narrator: Perry leads the fbi to
this boarding house in boston,

Where another $52,000 is found

Stashed in the ceiling
and walls.

The rest of the $2.8 million
is never recovered.

Despite that, the round-up
of all 11 suspects

Is trumpeted in the press
as a huge coup for the fbi.

But it doesn't act
as much of a deterrent.

[alarm ringing]

Throughout the '50s,
a series of bank robberies,

568 in 1955 alone,

Prompt banks to invest huge sums

In developing new
surveillance technology

To catch stick-up men.

Announcer: An investment
in science pays off

For a west side manhattan bank

When it is visited by a robber
who doesn't believe in signs.

Narrator: In 1959, an early
closed-circuit tv system

Captures an unsuspecting thief

Slipping teller
margaret kilkenny

A threatening note
over the counter.

Announcer: She tripped
the automatic cameras

That caught the hold-up man
in the act.

He turns and flees,
dropping a few hundred dollars.

[alarm ringing]

But since police are armed
with the in-the-act mugshots,

It's likely he won't get far

In his well-documented
career of crime.

[alarm ringing]

♪

Narrator: As the country
enters the '60s,

Racial tensions explode...

And tv reports
on the assassination

Of a prominent civil rights
leader shock the nation.

Hoover:
...Law enforcement agencies

The resources to adequately...

Narrator: October 3, 1960,

Washington, d.C.

65-year-old j. Edgar hoover,

Now 36 years into his job
as fbi head,

Gives a sobering speech

To the international association
of chiefs of police.

Hoover: Today we find ourselves
confronted with the worst era

Of lawlessness in
our nation's history.

Each 20 seconds,

Another serious crime is added
to the nation's total.

Narrator: Hoover blames
the breakdown in law and order

On a new anti-establishment
generation.

The era of the g-men is over.

The mood of the country
is changing,

And many are fighting back,

Especially in
the segregated south.

Hoover keeps a close eye
on the civil rights movement,

Which he and many others
consider subversive.

In 1963, medgar evers,

The naacp secretary
for jackson, mississippi,

Organizes boycotts of shops
that enforce jim crow laws.

Medgar evers:
Let me say this to you,

I had one merchant to call me,

And he said, "we don't need
nigger business."

So, let us not trade
at these stores.

Let's let the merchants
down on capital street

Feel the economic pinch.

[applause]

Narrator: Nbc news cameras carry

Evers' impassioned speech
nationwide.

Three weeks later, a gunman
shoots him in the back.

Reporter: Shortly after midnight
on June 12th,

Medgar evers stepped from
his car in this driveway.

He was silhouetted against
the carport light behind me.

A shot from a high-powered rifle
fired from a vacant lot

Across the street
from evers' home

Shatters the nighttime
stillness.

Evers fell, fatally wounded.
He was 37.

Narrator:
As a world war ii veteran,

Evers is buried with
full military honors

At arlington national cemetery.

His funeral airs
on national television.

Over 3,000 mourners come
to pay their respects.

His brother charles,
a fellow activist,

Comforts his distraught
widow myrlie

And their two young children,
darrell and reena.

Evers' murder only deepens
the movement's resolve

To defeat racism through
non-violent means.

At his memorial service
held in jackson,

A 5,000-strong March is led
by dr. Martin luther king, jr.

Martin luther king, jr.: The
brutal murder of medgar evers

Came as shocking and tragic news
to all people of goodwill.

I think this reveals

That we still have a long,
long way to go in this nation

Before we achieve
the ideals of decency

And the ideals of brotherhood.

Narrator: It will be another
30 years before evers' killer

Is finally brought to justice.

Former u.S. Marine and white
supremacist byron de la beckwith

Is arrested just days
after evers' funeral,

Smiling for the camera.

He's twice tried
by an all-white jury.

Both trials end in a hung jury.

It's not until 1994 that
he's eventually found guilty.

On August 1, 1966,

Another former marine,
charles whitman,

Sets a grisly precedent
in austin, texas.

Armed with a hunting rifle
and scope,

Whitman heads to
the university of texas

To sow an entirely new
kind of terror.

♪

Commentator: A murderously
accurate sniper

Atop the university of texas
tower

Eludes austin police
counter fire for 80 minutes

As he picks and shoots
his victims, 27 stories below.

[people screaming]

Narrator: Tv news cameras
capture each second

Of the country's first
mass shooting on a campus

As it unfolds.

That same night,
these shocking scenes play out

In people's living rooms.

Announcer: Armored cars move in
to pick up the bodies

Of the 40 human targets
of charles j. Whitman.

[gunshot]

Narrator: As a former student
of the university,

Whitman easily manages
to gain entrance

To the tower's observation deck.

From there, he picks off
his terrified victims,

Who take cover where they can.

Some locals shoot back
with their own weapons.

But the carnage only stops when
police manage to rush the tower

And shoot whitman dead.

Announcer: Later it is found

That he had slain
his wife and mother

Before he armed himself with
an arsenal of rifles and pistols

And gave into the rage,

Which he had previously
described to a psychiatrist,

To kill people
from this very tower.

Narrator: In total, whitman has
injured 31 and killed 14.

40 years after andrew kehoe's

Seemingly motiveless
bath school massacre,

Insanity is again suggested
as a probable cause.

The mass shooting prompts
president johnson

To call for tougher
regulations on firearms.

But more than 50 years later,

Mass shootings still plague
the united states.

Holcomb, kansas, November 1959.

A new chapter in america's
fascination with crime

Is about to open.

Herbert clutter, his wife
and two of their four children

Are brutally murdered
in their home.

News reporters are quick
to pick up the case.

Narrator: Within hours, police
discover a bloody footprint,

Which eventually leads
to the conviction

Of perry smith
and richard hickock.

In 1960, they are
sentenced to death.

Reporter: Tonight,
shortly after midnight,

Two men, richard eugene hickock
and perry edward smith,

Will be hanged by the neck
until dead.

Narrator: The media's interest
in the quadruple murder

Might have ended here.

But a year later the publication
of this instant best-seller,

"in cold blood,"

Turns it into one of the most
notorious crimes of the century,

And its author, truman capote,
into an international star.

In 1966, as the book's sales
skyrocket,

An nbc crew follows capote
as he returns to kansas.

Truman capote: Well, here we are
on the prairie-blown main street

Of little holcomb, kansas,
population 270.

When I first came out here
to western kansas

At the time of
the clutter murder case

With the idea of working
on this book,

It was for me a very strange
and different atmosphere

Than anything I was used to,

And I guess I was something
quite different

From anything they were used to.

Narrator: In nearby garden city,
star-struck locals line up

To have their prized copies
signed by the famous author.

Capote: Thank you very much.
Woman: Thank you.

Woman: We've all read it,

And everyone's been
so interested.

Narrator: Despite the book's
horrific subject matter,

Most locals are flattered
capote has immortalized them.

Woman: My husband was
herb clutter's college roommate,

So he'll be especially happy.

Capote: Well!

Reporter: When capote first came
to holcomb and garden city,

Most of the local residents
had never heard of him.

Today his "in cold blood" is
known here simply as "the book."

And now there are two books
every western kansan

Is sure to have read:
The book and the bible.

George page, nbc news,
reporting from holcomb, kansas.

Narrator: Blending journalism
and evocative prose,

"in cold blood"
popularizes a new genre,

The true crime
non-fiction novel.

In 1967, it's adapted
for the screen

By director richard brooks,

Who returns to the original site
of the quadruple murder

To make his movie
as authentic as possible.

"in cold blood" goes on
to be nominated

For four academy awards,

Setting a high bar
for the true-crime stories

That continue to feed
a voracious public appetite

To this day.