Original subtitles

For every mystery, there is someone

somewhere who knows the truth.

Perhaps that someone is watching.

Perhaps it's you.

[eerie music]

[phone ringing]

Hello?

STUART SCHWARTZ: "Unsolved Mysteries"

was really the first program that combined

mysteries genres into one.

We were true crime, yes.

But we were also unexplained phenomenon.

We were also lost love.

We were also missing persons.

"Unsolved" was really unique.

And there was really, at the time we were doing it,

nothing like it on television.

We were basically creating a new format.

When the series started, I certainly

didn't think that it was going to last as long as it did.

And I don't think anybody thought it would.

I think everybody kind of went, maybe a year, maybe two years,

and then that'll be it.

Suddenly, "Unsolved" was a big hit.

The audience really liked "Unsolved Mysteries."

First of all, it was about a mystery.

Mystery shows have done well on TV.

If you look at the schedule, there's always a bunch of 'em.

And these are unsolved true stories,

which makes that even better.

Over the years, it's been amazing to see

that "Unsolved Mysteries" has become a household name.

Before the series, you would hear people

say, well, that's a mystery.

But now, more often than not, I hear them say, well,

that's an unsolved mystery.

[eerie music]

CHRISTINE LENIG: It was so unique.

It was the first show of its kind that, you know,

really engaged the audience as part

of the storytelling process.

And it's what really fueled the success.

Because the fans would help solve the case, and then

we would do updates.

And they'd come back for more.

The show was so talkable.

Audiences watch it at night.

And then, the next day, they'd want

to talk about what happened.

So it just became really, like, water cooler TV.

[fireworks exploding]

By the time we got to season four,

our ratings were really good.

We were typically-- it's certainly in the top 20 shows

most weeks.

Many weeks, we're in the top 10.

And we really had momentum.

JOHN JOSEPH: I think what's interesting is

that this show set the stage.

It set a certain kind of standard

and a certain trend in television,

and it changed the parameters.

Because at that time, people weren't doing shows like this.

And it really--

I think that's why people still like the show today

because it was unique.

And it was kind of, like-- had its own style.

And people really respond to that.

You know, you're making something out of nothing.

Well, it's something to me.

[music playing]

The thing that sparked "Unsolved Mysteries"

as a series was really a series of specials

that John and Terry had done for NBC called

"Missing, Have You Seen This Person?"

People started to figure out, well, wait a second.

We can do all sorts of stories that are mysteries that

will fall under the umbrella of a show

called "Unsolved Mysteries."

When we launched the weekly series in October of 1988,

we had already produced seven "Unsolved Mysteries Specials"

that NBC had put in different places all over their schedule.

And they didn't give us any promotion.

They didn't give us any publicity.

We were just kind of being tested out, I think,

because they wanted to see if the audience would

be interested enough in the show to try and find us.

The very first specials surprised the heck

out of everybody because they did really well.

Every week, we'll be bringing you the most intriguing stories

from across the country.

JOHN COSGROVE: I think, when we went to series,

people were really stunned.

The whole Hollywood community, nobody had heard of us.

They called up and said, um, "Unsolved

Mysteries," who are you guys?

[music playing]

TERRY DUNN MEURER: I really didn't know if the series

would be a success or not.

I wasn't sure if the audience would

come back each week to see stories

that didn't even have endings.

These are unsolved cases.

But then what we started to see was that the show

actually created endings.

And the audience was coming back to see

what cases have been solved or if there

were any updates for the cases.

And it all just took off from there.

[music playing]

What are you afraid of?

The dark?

Flying?

Heights?

JOHN COSGROVE: Bob Stack was an ideal choice

for "Unsolved Mysteries."

He had that deep, gravelly voice.

He had gravitas, that feeling of whatever he says is true.

He was legendary.

You're on a dark, lonely road.

The shadows seem to reach for you.

That voice was just so perfect at telling the stories,

getting people involved.

And also, I think people really liked him as a person

because he was a very likable guy.

And he was a Hollywood icon.

Join me on Wednesday for our next edition

of "Unsolved Mysteries."

SHANNON MCGINN: We shot a lot of his stand ups

on location and oftentimes at night to make it creepier,

and with the fog and the trench coat.

CREW: Clear the umbrella.

SHANNON MCGINN: And sometimes it was cold and damp out.

But he was a real trooper.

He never complained once.

Join me for this intriguing new mystery as well as

these fascinating cases.

CREW: Cut.

Please join me.

JOHN JOSEPH: Working with Bob Stack, as a director,

was always a pleasure because he was so easy to work with,

and he obviously knew how to hit his mark

and say his lines like a super pro.

We did have one time, though, that we

had-- ran into some problems.

I know, sweetheart. I know.

I know. I know.

I know. I know.

I know.

JOHN JOSEPH: We had this scene where Bob had to hold a dog.

And no matter how we had him hold the dog,

the dog was squirming, and Bob Stack was having trouble.

And he was kind of swearing under his breath.

At the beginning, he was trying to be a trooper

and get through it.

But after a while, he says, I can't hold this dog.

I'm sorry.

[laughs]

CREW: Beautiful.

Other than that, how'd you like the show, Mrs. Lincoln?

[music playing]

Whenever I'm talking about "Unsolved Mysteries," one

of the questions that people always

ask me is, how did you ever find all

the stories that you produced?

ROBERT STACK: When we return, a cold-blooded killer

strikes at a scenic restaurant in the Canadian wilderness.

SHANNON MCGINN: It's hard for people to remember the tools

that we had back in the late '80s

and '90s were so different in making television.

The research was a lot more difficult in finding

stories back in the day.

A lot of times, cold calling.

We would just call up police stations,

and we would call up local newspaper.

And we would just ask if there were stories that they had.

STACY SCHNEIDER: We divided up the country state by state

and made contacts in those states.

And when we'd hear of a good story,

we'd call our contacts to help us flash them out.

We weren't just looking for unsolved murders

and missing persons and wanted fugitives.

We wanted any kind of story imaginable-- missing heirs,

treasure, lost loves, UFOs, even legendary creatures

like Bigfoot.

We had over 20 different categories of mysteries.

I think one of the most popular UFO stories

we did was about three people who were driving

down a highway in Texas.

It was at night.

Mama, what's that light?

CHRISTINE LENIG: And they see this big light in the sky.

I don't know.

It's awful bright.

Is that an airplane?

CHRISTINE LENIG: It's kind of shaped like a diamond.

They get out of the car to investigate,

and this heat is radiating from this UFO.

WOMAN: And I stood there, looking up to try to figure

out what this object was.

Mama, I'm sick.

TERRY DUNN MEURER: After this happened,

these three people found radiation

burns on their bodies, and they were totally traumatized.

The military said nothing strange had happened

in the area that night.

But you know something happened to those people.

On one, you're there.

[explosion]

One of my favorite stories was about a man

who claimed he was reincarnated from a World War II submariner

who had died during the war.

MAN: I was in my bunk when the attack happened.

SHANNON MCGINN: The fact that he had all these details

about what had happened on the submarine

down to what he was wearing, where he was in the submarine

and that we were able to fact check

with the actual story of this man.

ROBERT STACK: With each session, more details

emerged, details that appeared to come from the life

of James Edward Johnston.

I still can't understand how someone--

this is before the internet-- could

have such specific details and information

about another person's life who they never

knew and had died years before.

You just cannot make this stuff up.

MAN: Here, Joe.

Found it buried in your front yard.

Look at 'em, Joe.

Back in the days before there was an internet,

the way we would find stories was through a clipping service.

And what they did was they sent newspapers to people

all over the country whose job it

was to go through those papers, local newspapers,

find stories in the categories that we

sent them, and literally cut those out of the newspaper,

and send them to us.

And when you hit paydirt, when you

found a clipping with a great story,

there was nothing like it.

You would get goosebumps.

One of the most dramatic stories that we

did was the story of a young woman--

her name was Angela Hammond--

who was abducted from a phone booth

while she was talking to her fiancee.

While we were talking on the phone,

she mentioned to me about a truck

circling around the block, an older model

green Ford pickup truck.

--pickup truck.

They keep circling around the block.

BOYFRIEND [ON PHONE]: Do you recognize the truck?

No.

BOYFRIEND [ON PHONE]: He's probably not from around here.

Maybe he's just lost.

ANGELA [ON PHONE]: I guess so.

Anyway, do you still want to go to the lake this week?

ROBERT STACK: Angie remained unconcerned, until the truck

parked next to the phone booth.

Uh, Rob, he's pulling up next to the phones.

BOYFRIEND [ON PHONE]: What's the driver look like?

TERRY DUNN MEURER: And she gave a description of the guy.

And she gave a description of the truck.

Mustache, beard, and glasses, and he's wearing overalls.

Maybe I should come down there.

Oh, Rob, no.

I'm sure it's OK.

And that's when I heard a scream on the phone.

[angela screaming]

TERRY DUNN MEURER: The fiancee is on the phone.

He rushes to get to this parking lot,

and he sees the truck driving away.

His car breaks down, actually.

And he watches his girlfriend being abducted and driving off.

And she's never been found.

We received a lot of tips for the Angela Hammond story

because the fans really locked into this really unique clue,

which was there was this fish decal on the back of the truck

that the abductor had.

And even to this day, they're still out there

looking for her and the truck because the story

is still unsolved.

TERRY DUNN MEURER: I think the audience really related

to Angela's terror and to her fiancee's desperation

to try and save her.

It was a sad story.

There are certain things that we learned

to look for that would make a story really engaging

and resonant for viewers.

One of those things is twists and turns.

So we would look for the unusual.

We look for the emotional.

We would look for the relatable.

Our viewers could really identify

with the people in our stories because they

were just like them.

And so I think that was a really powerful

part of the appeal of the show.

ROBERT STACK: The Wackers are quiet, unassuming people

who tend to mind their own business.

Bill.

ROBERT STACK: Hardly the type to draw

the wrath of an unseen enemy.

TERRY DUNN MEURER: One of the more popular stories we did

was about a married couple that was being absolutely terrorized

by anonymous phone calls--

Hello?

TERRY DUNN MEURER: --threatening notes,

and even violent attacks.

And I think that what the viewers responded to

in that story was the fear that this couple felt,

knowing that they were being watched

and never knowing when their assailant was

going to strike again.

[muffled screaming]

As the show became more popular, we started getting huge piles

of mail from viewers.

Some of it was fan mail for Robert Stack.

But a lot of the letters were from viewers wanting

us to feature their stories.

I actually think the majority of the stories we produced

were submitted by "Unsolved Mysteries" viewers.

ROBERT STACK: Eight years ago, the mill town

of East Millinocket, Maine was safe and secure,

the last place you'd expect a brutal murder to occur.

TERRY DUNN MEURER: We did a story

called "Maine Petition," which took place in a small town.

And it's one of those stories that we might not have done,

it might not have come to the attention of the researchers

if the people in the town hadn't sent in a petition--

I think it was 6,000 signatures--

asking us to do this story.

MAN: I saw Joyce.

She wasn't moving.

Her body looked like it had been beaten.

TERRY DUNN MEURER: And that case was eventually solved.

Joyce's killer was identified.

[music playing]

[eerie music]

GIRL: Please.

One of the things we've set out

to do from the very beginning was

to find stories that had a scary or creepy element to them

because, let's face it, people do like to be scared.

You're about to have the rare and disturbing opportunity

to go inside the mind of an arsonist.

JOHN JOSEPH: There was this one story

we did called "Unknown Arsonist," where a guy found

a jacket on the side of a road.

There was a videotape in the jacket, pulled

out the videotape, played it.

JOHN JOSEPH: The person who had set the fire

was narrating the tape.

Like, he was watching the fire happen

and narrating it at the same time.

It was very creepy.

JOHN JOSEPH: Once we aired the show,

I think a thousand tips came in.

And the police ended up solving it.

And it turned out to be two juveniles that had set,

like, 25 other fires.

I think one of the most incredible paranormal stories

we produced was about a nurse by the name of Teresita Basa.

ROBERT STACK: Initially, the apartment seemed unoccupied.

But soon, the firemen made a grim discovery.

TERRY DUNN MEURER: Teresita was brutally

murdered in her apartment in Chicago,

and there were no suspects.

Police were at a total dead end.

A Chicago couple claimed that the victim Teresita Basa had

named her own killer after she was murdered,

speaking to them from beyond the grave.

TERRY DUNN MEURER: A woman that Teresita used to work with

started going into trances, and she would

speak in the voice of Teresita.

You must go to the police.

The police cannot find my killer.

Tell them his name is Allan Showery.

TERRY DUNN MEURER: And she actually

named Teresita's killer.

And it turned out she was right.

Allan Showery was his name.

And he was arrested.

And he was so freaked out by how police were able to track

him down that he confessed to Teresita's murder

in the courtroom.

That is one story I will always remember.

[music playing]

[eerie music]

JOHN COSGROVE: When you talk about "Unsolved Mysteries,"

one of the key factors is the music.

It scared the heck out of people.

We get letters from people who say, it's been 30 years,

and I'm still scared by the "Unsolved Mysteries" music.

It is a key part of the show because it

sets up the atmosphere of weirdness and scariness.

We love to go to scary movies, and "Unsolved Mysteries" is

able to tap into that feeling.

What's surprising to me is, 35 years later, when people either

hear "Unsolved Mysteries" they go, oh, my god,

that theme song.

Or if they hear the theme song, they go, oh, my god.

I remember that.

You know, I remember climbing under the couch.

That music scared me so much.

I think that combination of that music and Robert

Stack's voice were key elements on why the show was so popular.

[music playing]

TERRY DUNN MEURER: When we first produced the "Unsolved

Mysteries Specials," John and I were on location all the time.

But once the series began, we were just

too busy to go out on the road.

So all the series producers and the series directors

got to go out.

And they got to have all the fun.

And they came home with some great stories about production.

One of the best things of "Unsolved Mysteries"

was that we shot on location, in the places with the people that

were involved in that mystery.

And for some places, it was the first time

they'd ever seen a TV film crew come into their town.

And they would just roll the red carpet out.

We'd be on local news.

I mean, it's kind of hysterical to think today, with all

the reality television.

But those days, it was very unusual sometimes for places

that we went to.

And everybody could not have been

more friendly, more helpful.

And I think that helped a lot in solving a lot of the mysteries.

TERRY DUNN MEURER: Law enforcement

agencies in the smaller towns were incredibly helpful.

They'd give us helicopter support.

And they would give us vehicles and actual officers

for our recreations.

I mean, they would close off highways for us.

But it was always a little bit risky.

I remember one shoot.

We probably had the entire police department helping

us recreate a crime scene, and we were

just about to start shooting.

And they got called to a real crime scene.

And the crew was left just standing

there with nothing to film.

But they eventually came back, and we

eventually got our scenes.

[music playing]

Hi, I'm Shane's dad.

Do you remember me?

Mr. Stewart.

When you go to the small town, you

can't get actors because you're far away

sometimes from a major city.

And you do want to work with the real people.

Excuse me.

Where are you from?

I'm from Brooklyn.

That's what I thought you said.

What section? - Bed-Stuy.

What we found is that-- it got tricky because when it was

an emotional story or something with a murder or somebody died,

the family, like, it almost bring them to tears sometimes.

It was really hard to watch.

Well, we've just completed all the tests on your little girl,

and I'm afraid the results confirm

that she's going to need a complete blood transfusion.

SHANNON MCGINN: A lot of times we

had to cast people that weren't necessarily actors

or certainly not good actors.

So we had people who are overacting,

people who are under acting, and people

who are not acting at all.

Sometimes people would even play themselves,

and that was always a problem too

because they'd be so nervous.

And, you know, it was really tough.

The directors had a big challenge a lot of times,

working with the actors.

- Well, I know her a little bit. - Oh, good.

Would you like to come down to the station

and give a statement?

Well, if my mama can come with me.

We would go into a small town to do a story,

and we would cast, quote, unquote, "actors."

And they would all come from small theater groups.

It's good to see you.

Who the hell is Fifi?

DAVID VASSAR: And so "Unsolved" was America's little theater.

WOMAN: Yeah, there was no reason for you to upset Ida like that.

That was totally uncalled for, Wendy.

She loves that little boy.

I love him too.

That's why I want to spend more time with you.

You get enough time to spend with him.

But he needs me. He needs--

ROBERT WISE: The casting process is always

very interesting problem.

What was most important for us was

that the actors looked like the real people,

so the audience wouldn't get confused.

And their ability to act wasn't nearly as important.

One time, we did a story about a fugitive who was on the lam,

and we cast a guy who looked exactly like him.

The show aired, and someone called in that the fugitive

was eating at a restaurant.

So they sent the police over, and they arrested him.

But it was the actor, not the fugitive.

So after that, we decided to start giving the actors who

played bad guys a card they could carry around

with them to prove to law enforcement

that if they were ever arrested, that they were just an actor

and they were not a wanted fugitive.

JOHN JOSEPH: We did have one time, though,

that we had to cast a scene where

these two guys robbed somebody.

And we're calling people in to, you know, audition.

And so we'd have them do a little quick improv.

So these two guys come in, and they do the improv.

And they scared everybody in the room.

They, like, did the perfect robbery.

They, like, strong-armed the person.

They gave him a look and--

you know, we're all like, oh, my god.

How did-- so I asked them.

I said, how come you--

what do you guys really do?

And they go, oh, we're really robbers.

That's what we do.

So they got the part.

TERRY DUNN MEURER: When the actors didn't match

the real people quite as well as we needed them to,

we would use makeup and wigs to help create a better match.

And some of those wigs and mustaches

actually made matters worse, I think.

They-- looking back on some of those recreations,

they were just too funny.

There's actually an Instagram account called Wigs of Unsolved

that one of our fans put together,

and it's dedicated to the ridiculous-looking wigs

of "Unsolved Mysteries."

Don't stop, Holly.

Just keep going.

SHANNON MCGINN: Another funny part about the actors

is-- we would come into town, and we would do local casting.

And any time we would ask an actor

if they could do something, like drive a stick shift car

or ride a horse or swim or drive a boat,

they would always say yes.

So we did a story once about a couple,

and they were horse riders.

And so when we cast the lookalike actor,

asked him if he rode a horse.

Oh, yeah, I grew up on horses.

I've ridden officers all my life.

We hired these two.

They got him up on a horse, and they were

riding alongside of the road.

It's supposed to be a nice, romantic ride

together to establish their love relationship.

And the horse just takes off, just

galloping away from the set.

Fast.

And you could see he had no idea how to control this horse.

He was hanging on for dear life.

Luckily, the woman was a good horsewoman,

and she was able to catch up to his horse,

stop the horse before he fell off and really hurt himself.

Needless to say, there were no horse riding scenes with him

after.

Have you got the note?

What note?

The note from the parking garage.

STUART SCHWARTZ: For the most part,

the actors in our recreations were actors who were just

starting out in their careers.

But sometimes some of those actors

would actually become really famous.

TERRY DUNN MEURER: Daniel Dae Kim

was one actor who was cast on "Unsolved."

He played the relative of a murder victim.

[speaking korean]

TERRY DUNN MEURER: And Cheryl Hines too.

She played the mother of a child who was

almost murdered by her nanny.

DOCTOR: Can you tell me how this happened?

I-- I-- she apparently had some sort of seizure

and fell and hit her head.

How far was the fall?

MOM: It wasn't far.

She just fell on the floor.

I don't know.

I wasn't there.

She was with the nanny.

STUART SCHWARTZ: Perhaps the most famous of those actors

was Matthew McConaughey. - I want talk to him.

All right, honey. Honey, look.

STUART SCHWARTZ: Who played a murder

victim in one of our stories.

And we all still laugh because the episode was shot in Texas,

before Matthew even moved to LA.

And it was in the summer, and it was hot.

So the director told Matthew he could take

his shirt off for the scene where the character was

mowing the lawn.

Now Matthew McConaughey is very famous

for his shirtless scenes.

Give me the keys!

No!

Tell him to give me the keys.

MOM: Don't give him the keys.

Tell him to give me the keys.

If you don't leave, I'll call the police.

STUART SCHWARTZ: And Matthew McConaughey had to do

a fairly robust death scene.

He was working in his garage, and he was shot by a man

who pulled up with a shotgun.

ROBERT STACK: Larry had been shot four times in the chest

and once in the head with a .22 pistol.

STUART SCHWARTZ: Let's just say that his acting

has come a long way since then.

And in fact, he did an appearance on "The Tonight

Show," and he referred to the "Unsolved Mysteries" story

in that segment as his first big break in Hollywood.

[music playing]

It was a big challenge making TV in those days.

I remember when computers came out, and you had--

its own suitcase, lugging it around and the first Motorola

cell phones that were this brick that we were so excited

that we could call from set.

And we also shot on film, which requires so much more lighting.

Sometimes, on a night shoot, you would spend the first six hours

lighting, and then you'd have the other half a day

to do the shooting.

And now you put up one light, and you're ready to go.

I think the hardest part of producing "Unsolved Mysteries"

was that essentially, we were shooting

a mini movie in four or five days with actors

and costumes and vehicles.

RAYMOND BRIDGERS: There were a lot of challenges

on the production.

And sometimes you'd end up with huge set pieces

because it'd be a big crime or some kind of event happening.

And a lot of the directors, we came

from the documentary world, where

we were used to sitting back and just recording and documenting

what was going on.

Suddenly, we've got actors.

We've got props.

We've got period pieces.

I think it really spurred the creativity because John

and Terry weren't telling us-- they weren't saying,

no, don't do this, don't do that, do things this way.

They were saying, just go out there and get us

a great story because we trust your judgment.

I think one of the most memorable stories

that I directed was a story called "KC Blast."

It was a story about six firefighters

who died while fighting a fire at a construction site.

DISPATCHER: Pump for 30 to 97.

So as a director, I had to try to find a way to recreate

this moment, so the audience really

feels that what the firefighters were up against

and the tragedy of what happened.

So we try to make it as real as we could.

We exploded it.

And we brought in some dummies and put

them in firefighter suits.

There's shots where you see what looks

like firefighters getting blown away literally by the fire.

I felt like we really were able to capture that moment

and how tragic this event really was.

DISPATCHER: Pumper 41 or Pumper 30.

Pumper 41 or Pumper 30.

For some reason, this one really

hit home for me because these were firefighters.

They're just doing their job trying to save property

and they died in the process.

Obviously, it was hard for us as a crew

to hear those kinds of stories.

Look at this.

DAD: What do you got?

There's some weird tracks.

BEN STASSEN: One of the most memorable stories from Unsolved

was "Bigfoot."

We rented the Harry and the Hendersons Bigfoot costume,

and we hired the 6 foot 7 inch actor to wear the costume.

And he was a rather foreboding figure.

One of the sightings in the Bigfoot story

took place outside of a bar at 2:00

in the morning when the crowd came out.

We're set up and we're filming and we're filming

and we're filming and the bar closes.

And a half a dozen patrons come out of the bar,

clearly, they'd been imbibing most of the evening,

and the Bigfoot goes by.

A couple of people scream, and one of the guys

actually jumped off the curb and chased the Bigfoot.

The entire crew lost it.

Everybody broke up because it was just hysterical.

It was one of the best moments in the 14 years

I worked for the show.

On March 1st at exactly 7:27 PM,

tragedy struck the West End Baptist Church.

JOHN COSGROVE: There was a story we did called the "Lucky Choir"

and it was a story about a church that had an explosion,

a gas heater went.

SHANNON MCGINN: All 10 to 12 people showed up late that day.

So it blew up and there was nobody inside the church.

We found a little abandoned church in the state

where this had happened and they were

going to let us blow it up.

JOHN COSGROVE: We hired a special effects fellow.

And the director said don't go too far,

we don't want to rattle the windows in the neighborhood.

He completely overdid the amount

of dynamite and explosives inside the church.

JOHN COSGROVE: Boom.

Boom.

It was a huge explosion.

It didn't rattle the windows.

It broke windows for about five or six blocks all around.

SHANNON MCGINN: And also not only did it explode,

but all these pieces of wood started flying and hitting

the hut, and the producer almost got stabbed by a piece

of wood coming through.

So I guess it was a second miracle

that nobody was injured.

ROBERT STACK: The story began with a violent storm

on July 2nd 1947.

RAYMOND BRIDGERS: As a director, probably my best memory

is the "Roswell" UFO story.

We built a two scale replica of the flying saucer

that someone claimed to have seen crashed in a gully

in New Mexico.

We created alien beings based on eyewitness accounts.

That's really the first time that I

felt like I was making a movie.

BEN STASSEN: One of the strangest stories

that I ever directed was a story called "Rainboy."

This guy was possessed and he had the capacity

to make it rain inside.

If you're going to have it rain inside, you have to have

what's called a wet set, which means that you build

the set at a 30-degree angle, so all

the water runs off into a trough that is then recovered.

What's up?

BEN STASSEN: We ended up putting sprinklers

off camera in the ceiling.

We just basically turned them on and off to create the effect.

We had to waterproof the living room

floor, walls and furniture.

And then after each take quickly rush in

and squeegee off the floors.

BEN STASSEN: In between every take,

it was like 35 or 40 minutes for the second take.

The actor's hair was wet.

The actor's wardrobe was wet.

We had industrial dryers to dry the soaked clothes

and our poor wardrobe supervisor really

had our work cut out for her.

It was a nightmare.

This is your fault. You made it rain in the living room.

You made it rain in peps places.

This is all your fault.

It's you, Danny.

You're the one that's doing this and you have to make it stop.

The pots and pans that were over the stove, they

started rattling.

That's when I got levitated off the floor.

We used a hidden harness to levitate

the actor and a bungee rig to slingshot him across the room.

It wasn't like somebody taking your hand and pushing you.

It was like feeling it all over your body.

BEN STASSEN: One of the weirdest things about Rainboy

was that on the morning we left, all the crew was

on the same floor in the hotel.

And there was two inches of water in everyone's room,

including the hallway outside our room.

I called the hotel manager who said

there wasn't a plumbing problem and there

was nothing to explain it.

So whether or not it was a supernatural force that

was instigated by the Rainboy who, in fact,

we had interviewed during the show, I'll leave it to you.

STUART SCHWARTZ: And a lot of stories

we also employed special effects for things like car

crashes and stunts.

And those were very real because those were created

by real Hollywood stuntmen.

JOHN JOSEPH: Well, you got a story where this guy lived

in a small town and for some reason,

he jumped on an airplane to leave the town.

What a story?

I mean, we're like, OK, wait a minute.

Now we're going to show this guy getting on a wing and the plane

taking off with the guy on the wing.

How are we going to do that?

We had to have a stunt pilot who could fly the plane.

We had to find a stunt guy who would

be willing to get on the wing.

We made special rigging so the person could hang on the plane,

and you couldn't see it on the camera.

And I couldn't watch.

I mean, I did watch, but I can't believe we're doing this.

We did pull it off.

Nobody got hurt.

You know what?

It was amazing they solved the case.

The whole mystery was who was this guy

and why did he jump on the plane,

and they were actually able to identify

him and find out what happened.

SHANNON MCGINN: As the seasons went on,

we got more complex with stunts and with special effects

and we were able to do much bigger stories.

One that I produced was about a woman who had actually

gotten run over by a boat on a lake, but it was a hit and run.

So to do that reenactment, we actually had to jump like boats

over each other off of a ramp.

They had to build the ramp in the water.

We had to put a camera in the boat.

It took multiple nights of shooting.

No one was hurt.

And I would just always be so happy when it was over

and we were done and we got what we needed.

You stay here.

JOHN JOSEPH: We were working on a story

about a murder that happened inside a trailer that

was burning.

So I had literally four or five people

running around inside a burning trailer,

and we're trying to figure out how to do

this and make it look real.

And what they did was they piped the inside of the trailer

with like you turn on your gas stove like gas lines

that they could turn on and turn off.

Literally we go action, they turn it on,

the fire would start, we'd run it

for like two or three minutes.

Because we couldn't burn the walls because then it

would look burn.

At the end of the whole stunt, we did burn down the trailer

but it was a really tricky stunt.

STUART SCHWARTZ: One of the great things

about Unsolved Mysteries for the audience and also for us

as producers is that we traveled all over the world.

BEN STASSEN: The most memorable international story that I

directed was "Mummy's Curse."

We spent two nights in the Egyptian Museum.

We were in the treasure room with all the treasures

that Howard Carter had pulled out of the tomb.

The life mask of Tutankhamun is likely the most iconic artifact

ever created by the human race.

It was really awesome.

TERRY DUNN MEURER: In Turkey, we search for "Noah's Ark"

and we did the miracle at "Fatima" in Portugal.

We filmed a number of cases in Mexico.

"Nazca Lines" in Peru, and in the South Pacific

we did a story about "Amelia Earhart."

We got Wallach.

Amelia Earhart.

What's this stuff doing here?

SHANNON MCGINN: One of the most interesting episodes I produced

was about "Anastasia."

This was in the early 90s and Russia had just opened up.

[foreign language]

Yes, but I would like to see the pictures.

SHANNON MCGINN: So the challenge of shooting in Russia

was so complex.

First of all, we only took a couple of Americans

and hired everybody else locally.

So that means everything had to be translated because very

few Russians spoke English.

ROBERT STACK: And so the great riddle continues.

Is the body of Grand Duchess Anastasia

hidden in a shallow grave near the spot

where the rest of her family was found or did Anastasia somehow

survive the assassination?

Only to emerge years later as the eccentric Anna Anderson.

JOHN JOSEPH: They were trying to prove that Anastasia

wasn't in the grave.

And there was a number of women who had claimed to be Anastasia

and she was still alive.

Suspect just exhumed these bodies

and they literally laid out the entire family in this room

so they could figure out who was who.

We were ushered into this room.

It was really astounding.

It was just like watching history.

TERRY DUNN MEURER: I think everyone who worked on the show

and all the viewers probably have

their own favorite Unsolved Mysteries case from the show.

One of the really creepy and puzzling stories we did

was about a woman named Cindy James

who had been terrorized by an unknown assailant for seven

years.

I mean, these attacks were crazy.

He had a knife put through her hand.

She was found unconscious numerous times.

There was no independent corroboration.

Cindy saw this person or sometimes she said there was

two, sometimes three people.

TERRY DUNN MEURER: And she was eventually

found dead in the yard of an abandoned house.

But then it turned out that there was a chance she had

dissociative identity disorder.

And one of her identities was actually

the source of the attacks.

Why are you doing this to me?

TERRY DUNN MEURER: Then the theory

became that one of her personalities

had ultimately killed her.

So the question was, did she really

have an unknown assailant?

I've got a young lad here who went to spirit.

SHANNON MCGINN: We did an episode about a psychic artist.

ROBERT STACK: During the past four decades,

Coral Polge has drawn more than 100,000 eerie portraits.

SHANNON MCGINN: She would go to big groups of people

and she would touch the person's hand.

And then just with a pad and a pencil,

she would sketch a portrait of someone that had gone beyond,

but that was related somehow to the person.

CORAL POLGE: And I honestly don't quite know how I do it.

I just sense them.

Also there is an element of what we call automatic control, as

if somebody takes over my hand and gives

me a certain amount of help in getting the drawings accurate.

SHANNON MCGINN: After we finished the episode,

I asked if she could do a portrait for me.

So she did one, it was an older lady, I didn't recognize it.

She was a little frustrated so she said let me do another one.

Did another one, older man, didn't recognize him.

But I took the sketches with me.

And I went home and my mom said, "Those are my grandparents."

And she went and got photos of my great grandparents

who I had never met and didn't know that what they look like.

And the pictures that she showed me

were so close to the sketches.

They ended up using them in the episode against a photograph

of the real people.

ROBERT STACK: Morning coffee at K and Mike Fletcher

is hardly ranked as an unsolved mystery,

until the peculiar events of February 11th 1996.

It happened just after 9:00 AM.

STUART SCHWARTZ: One of the creepiest stories that we ever

did was about a phenomenon called

spontaneous human combustion.

When a perfectly normal person burst

into flame without warning and without apparent cause.

STUART SCHWARTZ: One of the challenges

in that story was the recreation,

because we had to literally set somebody on fire.

So how do you do that?

Well, we used something called a fire suit which a stunt person

would put on and the fire suit was coated with a flammable gel

that you could actually set on fire.

One of the things that happened is when we aired the story,

we would get calls at our phone center

from viewers who were scared that that

was going to happen to them.

After crushing Capone in Chicago,

Eliot Ness became one of the most respected

lawman in the country.

TERRY DUNN MEURER: One story we produced

was about the real Eliot Ness.

It was about the only case that he'd never solved,

and Bob loved doing that story.

That was one of his favorites.

TV ANNOUNCER: Tonight's episode, "The Waxey Gordon Story."

Starring Robert Stack as Eliot Ness.

TERRY DUNN MEURER: In the early 60s,

Bob played the role of Eliot Ness in the Untouchables.

And I think he really identified with Ness as a crime fighter.

It's like Lexi's got his eye on New Jersey now.

STUART SCHWARTZ: And he brought the gravitas of Eliot Ness

to his role as a host of Unsolved Mysteries.

RAYMOND BRIDGERS: He really loved this show.

He loved being involved in it.

He loved the mysteries.

He always wanted to know what was the backstory.

He was a big proponent of the show

and a big champion of the show.

TV ANNOUNCER: Update.

Within minutes of our broadcast, two viewers

call our 800 number to report that they

recognized Arthur Frankfurt.

RAYMOND BRIDGERS: It was pretty cool

when cases started to be solved because people watching had

a stake in the show.

Even the very first episode of the first season,

a case was solved.

ROBERT STACK: June 21st 1986, Gail Delano

drove alone to a restaurant in Brunswick, Maine

to meet a blind date.

BEN STASSEN: The first story I directed

was about a young woman in Maine named Gail Delano,

and she had disappeared.

ROBERT STACK: If anyone watching tonight has seen Gail Delano

or knows anything about her mysterious disappearance,

please contact the Maine State Police.

BEN STASSEN: The thought among police and her family

was that she was answering personal ads

and she may have been abducted by one of the people

that she connected with.

The show aired, and someone who worked

in the morgue in a small town in Alabama

recognized Gail's photograph from Unsolved Mysteries

and in fact solved the mystery.

And that was the moment that I realized that this

was a different kind of show.

SHANNON MCGINN: The minute that we solved the mystery,

it exploded.

Even more people started to watch.

It was unbelievable.

Tonight, we present an unusual update about lost love.

CHRISTINE LENIG: Nobody loves anything more than hearing

Bob Stack say the word update, because then you

know a mystery has been solved.

RAYMOND BRIDGERS: When we got to solve,

we really went into scramble mode.

The next time we were on the air,

we wanted to update the audience as quickly as we could.

We sent crews out to do interviews and to get footage,

and we may have had a show that was all ready to go.

And suddenly, we're rearranging everything because we need

to free up 5 minutes of time.

So we always had extra stories so we could swap stories

in and out of shows as needed.

LAVAR BATES: When the guy from Unsolved Mysteries

called me said that Peggy had seen me on television

and seen me.

RAYMOND BRIDGERS: One of the things we had to do, of course,

was to pull Bob Stack in.

Sometimes we'd want to film him on camera.

It was never just like, Oh, an update.

Great.

It's on the air.

There was a lot that went on behind the scenes

to make that happen.

TERRY DUNN MEURER: When the series first began,

viewers were told to write to a PO box

and we got bags and bags full of viewer mail.

Then we went to an 800 number where

people would call a phone center and we

call that the Telecenter.

ROBERT STACK: For the past seven years,

the phone center has been an integral part of our operation.

TERRY DUNN MEURER: This was a huge room,

almost like a warehouse in Los Angeles.

And it was filled with probably 50

operators all sitting at desks each

with a phone in front of them.

Background action.

Action.

TERRY DUNN MEURER: And when the show would air,

it would start on the East Coast and the calls would immediately

start to come in with tips.

JOHN COSGROVE: What a fun part was the law enforcement people

were in the teller centers and if a veritable tip came in

that operators held up a red flag.

And every once in a while, you'd see like six or seven red flags

and scurrying around.

A case could be solved that night

and the audience loved it.

The capture of a criminal suspect

always brings us great satisfaction.

Tonight, another fugitive is in custody.

Thanks to your calls.

STUART SCHWARTZ: We did a fugitive case about a man

who was wanted and on the run.

We got a call at our phone center

from somebody who said that she was a housekeeper in a motel

and she had observed somebody who looked

exactly like our suspect.

PAM POTEETE: It's the way he acted.

He was weird.

Man he stood by the beds, in between the beds,

by the luggage.

He would never sit down.

They want you to make the beds, stuff like that.

STUART SCHWARTZ: She searched his trash can

and she found paper with his name on it.

We immediately notified the authorities

and they caught up with him and arrested him.

ROBERT STACK: The mystery of Melissa Mundy

begins in 1985 in the small Maryland town of Hancock.

JOHN COSGROVE: We did a story about a teenage girl

named Missy Mundy.

She got romantically involved with a man named

Jerry Strickland about five or six years older

of a shady character.

She ran away with him.

We wanted to tell this story to try to recover Missy Mundy

because she was in harm's way.

ROBERT STACK: Missy was swept off her feet by Jerry.

JOHN COSGROVE: And so we put up pictures of Missy and Jerry.

ROBERT STACK: Within minutes of our broadcast,

20 viewers in this small rural community

called the police to say they recognized Jerry

Strickland and Missy Mundy.

Seven hours later, the police arrested the fugitive couple

at a friend's house.

They discovered that Jerry and Missy had

themselves watched the broadcast and were

waiting for the police.

I figured the time was about seven hours and 15 minutes

from the time the Unsolved Mysteries aired

and he was in custody.

JOHN COSGROVE: When the police showed up,

he said "You must be from Unsolved Mysteries."

They've been watching Unsolved Mysteries and their own story

and sat there and waited for the police to come up.

And they put the cuffs on him and

about to push his head down so he could go in the police car.

And he said, "That's my favorite show Unsolved Mysteries."

TERRY DUNN MEURER: Some of the arrests

were really quite dramatic there was one fugitive named Dennis

Depue who was wanted for killing his wife,

and he led police on a 15 mile high speed chase.

He broke through a couple of police barriers.

He shot at the police, and then he turned the gun on himself.

He walk up to the van and you recognize him

as being the person that was on Unsolved Mysteries.

It's a funny feeling.

ROBERT STACK: Update.

TERRY DUNN MEURER: Sometimes, I catch myself

saying we solved these cases.

But the truth is, as the producers of the show,

we didn't solve these cases, it was the viewers

and it was diligent law enforcement agencies that

actually solve these cases.

It's hard to believe, but over 600

of all the cases we ever produced have been solved.

And 180 were wanted fugitives who were brought to justice.

And that's something we're very proud of.

STUART SCHWARTZ: One of the most satisfying kinds of stories

to do for us was what we call Lost Loves, where somebody was

looking to find someone who had been

really important in their life.

TERRY DUNN MEURER: These were stories of families torn apart

by adoption or maybe a war.

Sometimes people who just wanted to say

thank you to someone who had had an impact on their lives.

STUART SCHWARTZ: More often than not,

we would solve those stories.

And when we did, we would put together a reunion

and be able to film the first time

that those people saw each other.

And sometimes decades.

Those were very emotional, very live,

and caught on tape so to speak, really authentic.

The emotions were amazing.

It wasn't emotional just for them.

It was emotional for our crew, emotional for our viewers,

emotional for our producers.

The tears were flowing freely everywhere.

ROBERT STACK: For a mother and daughter,

it was an emotional end to 26 years of painful separation.

I think one of the most emotional cases

for me that was solved was one that we

called a final appeal story.

ROBERT STACK: July 9th 1989 at Saint Louis, Missouri,

Patty Stallings rushed her critically

ill son to the hospital.

TERRY DUNN MEURER: It was about a woman named Patty Stallings

who was accused of poisoning her five-month-old son

with antifreeze.

But there was strong evidence that she

had not killed her baby.

As a mother myself, it was just devastating to me

to think that this woman could spend the rest of her life

in prison knowing that she had not killed her child.

On the night the story aired, calls from physicians

familiar with MMA poured into our Telecenter.

Patty Stallings new attorneys petitioned the court

to grant her another trial, based on the fact

that she had previously received ineffectual counsel.

On July 30th 1991, Patty Stallings

was granted a new trial and released from prison.

After the Unsolved Mysteries aired,

people were writing and calling and just

want to know how can we help.

I can't thank those people enough because,

I mean, through all of that, wheels started turning

and everything just started pushing forward really fast.

TERRY DUNN MEURER: Medical experts and prosecutors

took another look and it was determined that Patty's son had

died from a rare genetic disease,

and she was released from prison.

Unfortunately, we can't undo the suffering

that the Stallings have endured during this entire ordeal.

I apologize to them both personally

and for the state of Missouri.

RAYMOND BRIDGERS: We always kind of felt like Unsolved Mysteries

went beyond television because a lot of people

were affected by this show, a lot of people

were helped by this show.

And this show brought some amount of comfort

to a lot of people.

As long as this show has been on the air

and as long as it's ever going to be on the air,

we're going to continue to do updates.

Stories get solved all the time that

aired five years ago, 10 years ago, 20 years ago,

and we're still doing updates.

What's your behind the music?

What's your Unsolved Mystery?

What's your true Hollywood story?

STUART SCHWARTZ: Over the years, Unsolved Mysteries

became a staple of television and also a household name.

That led to a lot of parodying of Unsolved Mysteries

on other shows.

Don't even get me started on Unsolved Mysteries.

STUART SCHWARTZ: It was really an homage to the series

and an affectionate parody and a compliment.

As the host of Unsolved Mysteries,

I've come to appreciate all the hard work

that goes into a dramatic recreation

of a real life event.

Saturday Night Live did a parody

of the way we did the recreations

of Unsolved Mysteries.

You have to take your knocks, like when you get famous,

you've got to take your knocks.

I think Unsolved Mysteries has remained popular

all these years because of all the viewers

around the world whose lives are touched.

After the show ended, I would travel on other projects,

sometimes wearing my Unsolved Mysteries jacket in airports.

And I was always stopped by fans of the show who told

me how much it meant to them.

It's been five weeks and the entire country

is demanding to know who committed this horrible crime.

STUART SCHWARTZ: Unsolved Mysteries

viewers were the best.

There are no other viewers on television like them.

I think it's because they felt they

were actually part of the show.

You could never be a part of will and grace,

you could never be a part of murder she wrote,

but you could be a part of Unsolved Mysteries.

BEN STASSEN: Unsolved Mysteries is simply

unlike anything I've ever worked on,

and I've been doing this for 50 years.

So that counts for something.

JOHN JOSEPH: I lost track of how many stories

they did on Unsolved, but what was really amazing

is that every story was unique.

It was different.

Having this experience was something I'll never forget.

It was really astounding.

What's most remarkable maybe is

the fact that Unsolved Mysteries has never been off the air.

I mean, it went from network into cable

and it's still going and reruns.

It's one of those shows that feels like it's been on the air

forever, and feels like it will always be on the air forever.

It's like I Love Lucy except it's a little scarier.

JOHN COSGROVE: One thing I feel is

that the show made a difference, and it feels so great to have

been a part of it.

TERRY DUNN MEURER: We are so proud of all that

Unsolved Mysteries has accomplished,

and we hope that more cases will continue to be solved.

John and I would love to take credit

for the success of this series.

But I truly believe that it's the Unsolved Mysteries fans

that deserve all the credit.

We are overwhelmed by the love that they

have shown for this series.

And we can't thank them enough for their help

in solving so many cases.

They've proven what we always believe

to be true, which is someone somewhere knows the truth.

Perhaps that someone is watching.

Perhaps it's you.

[theme music playing]