10x02 - Marked For Life

[bunniefuu]

[ Sirens wailing ]
narrator: in the 1950s,

Police searched all over
california for a man who had

Committed a series of heinous
crimes, including m*rder, all in

The same night.

They checked literally thousands
of leads, but eventually, the

Case went cold.

Almost five decades later,
advances in computer technology

And handwriting analysis prove
the old adage that you can run,

But you can't hide.

Mile after mile of sand
warmed by the sun,

Beach beauties everywhere...

Narrator: in the 1950s, life
was much simpler.

Ward?

Narrator: it was the golden
age of television, with shows

That reflected the innocence of
the times.

Beaver, how can you lose
money just by counting it?

Every time I look at it, I
think of something I need.

Narrator: and an automobile
was more than just a way to get

Around.

The backseat of a car was
kind of like a -- what a motel

Is now to the young people.

It gave you a chance to kiss
your girlfriend and, you know,

Be without any interruptions.

Narrator: and that's what bob
was doing on may 22, 1957.

He and his date and another
couple were parked on a deserted

Stretch of road near el segundo,
california -- an area known as

Lovers' lane.

The windows were steamy, as
they normally get when you're

Sitting with your girlfriend and
kissing for an hour --

Or however long it is.

Narrator: when bob opened the
window for some air, he

Discovered they weren't alone.

Now you saw the g*n as the
only thing that came through the

Window.

That was my whole life in that
millisecond.

Narrator: the man -- a white
male in his early 20s --

Demanded their money and
jewelry.

Then he ordered the two couples
to get out of the car and to

Remove their clothes.

He then tied their hands behind
their backs and forced three of

Them into the backseat of the
car.

Then he sexually assaulted one
of the girls.

We just -- we couldn't stop
it.

He had a g*n.

Narrator: later he forced all
four of them out into the field

And lined them up in a row.

I thought for sure that he
would k*ll the girl because she

Probably had seen him.

But I guess he was gonna k*ll
all of us.

And we stood out there stark
naked for, like, three or four

Minutes, and we just expected to
hear the g*n start going off.

Narrator: but the man drove
off in the teens' car without

Firing a shot.

Before the teenagers could
report what happened, their

Attacker went through a red
light in front of two police

Officers.

The car had not been reported
stolen at that time, therefore

It was not in the system.

So there was no way for those
officers to have known that that

Was a stolen vehicle or had just
been used in that crime.

Narrator: the policemen
signaled the car to pull over.

The driver got out of the car,
then started sh**ting.

[ g*nshots ]
[ horn blaring ]

Both officers were shot three
times.

The last thing that
officer phillips did was that he

Drew his own firearm and fired
six rounds in the direction of

The fleeing suspect.

Narrator: but by the time
help arrived, both officers were

Dead.

The stolen car was found a short
time later just four blocks

Away.

There were two b*llet holes
through the back window, and one

Through the trunk.

How does an officer who's
been shot three times

Point-blank in the back, who's
dying, get up and sh**t at a car

Fleeing down a road and hit it
three times?

I mean, that is amazing.

Narrator: two of the b*ll*ts
were recovered, but the third

Couldn't be found.

Was it possible that before he
died, officer phillips hit the

Assailant?

You'd look at these
photographs and say, "he had to

Have been hit."

Narrator: in el segundo,
california, two police officers

Were k*lled after stopping a car
for running a red light.


Been on the force for only two

Months.

He left behind a wife and two
children.

It was like, "what are they
doing here?"

And, uh, it was pretty much like
"he's sleeping -- why doesn't he

Come home and sleep?"
And she says he's in heaven.

Narrator: the other victim,


Was also married with three
children.

His daughter carolyn remembers
the promise the police

Department made to her mother.

We vow to you that no matter
where you are, no matter how

Much time goes by, we will find
you if we ever solve this case.

Narrator: police soon
discovered that the m*rder

Suspect had been driving a car
stolen from the teenagers.

They had been robbed and
assaulted.

Dewar described the assailant as
a white male in his early 20s,


Dark blond hair and an

Unfamiliar accent.

He wasn't from this area,
and he was soft-spoken, and he

Was slow -- not educated -- and
he kind of had a drawl.

Narrator: howard speaks
examined the stolen car for

Evidence.

When they called me that
there had been two policemen

Shot and k*lled, I knew the
importance of the situation.

If there was any evidence that
I could get, I'd have to get it.

Narrator: speaks was
initially disappointed with what

He found.

Nothing on the rearview
mirror.

That's usually a good place if
you're gonna get a

Fingerprint -- if it's been
moved, adjusting it for the

Driver.

But nothing on the rearview
mirror at all.

Narrator: but the steering
wheel was a different story.

Speaks found two partial prints
on the steering wheel which

Appeared to be from a left
thumb.

And by putting the area
together, the two sides of the

Thumb put together made the
whole thumbprint.

The likelihood of finding two
partial fingerprints that are

The same finger is very remote.

And in my 18 years of doing
latent-print work, we have not

Done it since here.

Narrator: investigators
compared the left thumbprint to

Every print in their files of
known criminal offenders.

At the time, those examinations
were all done by hand.

It took hundreds of hours, but
they didn't find one that

Matched.

Thousands of people were
checked against that latent.

And, like I say, since so many
people had been checked, I began

To wonder if it was ever gonna
be identified.

Narrator: the teenagers said
the assailant had a southern

Accent.

Investigators thought he might
be from one of the nearby

Military bases.

I spent the whole week just
going up and down the coast

Fingerprinting army personnel.

Narrator: but that, too, was
a dead end.

I felt that at some point, he
would be caught.

But then over a period of time,
too, it was like nothing was

Being solved, nothing was coming
up.

Everything went cold on it.

Narrator: it took another
three years before police got

Their first real break.

A homeowner near the m*rder
scene was doing some yard work

When he came across part of a
handgun.

He was clearing out his
backyard and found the chamber

To a handgun and thought maybe
it had something to do with the

Frame he found a year prior.

So he went in his garage, looked
at it, put it together and found

That it was a match.

Narrator: police identified
the g*n as a 9-shot harrington &

Richardson .22-caliber revolver.

From the serial number, police
discovered the g*n was purchased

By g.d. Wilson from a sears
store in shreveport, louisiana.

At the time that they
interviewed the person who sold

That g*n, he told them that he
believed the man was from out of

Town and his accent didn't sound
like a louisiana accent.

It sounded more southern than
that.

Narrator: on the same day he
bought the g*n, a

George d. Wilson rented a room
in the ymca just across the

Street from the sears store.

We actually went into the
room where this george wilson

Had checked in.

And from this window of this
room, you could see the sears

Store.

And it was just kind of, for us,
overwhelming being in there and

Seeing that and trying to figure
out what was going on in this

Man's mind when he was there.

Narrator: george wilson
listed his home address in

Miami, florida.

The address turned out to be
a rock quarry.

There was nothing there.

For approximately four years,
they checked every person with

That name in the united states.

Narrator: all were dead ends.

It soon became clear that
george wilson was not his real

Name.

Narrator: for years, police
in california searched

Unsuccessfully for the man who
robbed four teenagers, stole

Their car, then k*lled two
police officers.

Despite several promising leads,
investigators were never able to

Identify a suspect.

Clues in that case that were
taken from the time of the

Incident all through the '70s,
'80s, '90s -- clues as to other

People that may have been
involved, anybody arrested at

Lovers' lane with a g*n, anybody
that fit the m.o. Of this

Crime -- it was considered a
clue.

I can't imagine.

I wouldn't have -- I would not
have wanted to deal with that

Investigation.

That would have been
overwhelming.

Narrator: then in september
of 2002, nearly five decades

Later, a woman called the
el segundo police department

With an almost unbelievable
story.

She said that her uncle had once
bragged about k*lling the two

Police officers back in the


This call kind of rejuvenated
everything with hope.

Narrator: when police
confronted the man, he denied

It.

His prints were compared to the
k*ller's thumbprint left in the

Stolen car and did not match.

But this dead end piqued the
interest of a new generation of

Fingerprint experts.

Dale falicon and don keir
decided to take a fresh look at

The thumbprint lifted from the
stolen car.

They now had computer technology
not available in 1957.

So they digitally enhanced the
k*ller's thumbprint, which made

The images easier to see than
the original ink fingerprint.

Sometimes there's areas that
are not clear.

They could be smudged, there
could be artifacts in there that

Are not clear, so the computer
may count that or read that as a

Particular characteristic.

Narrator: the digital copy of
the k*ller's print was then

Loaded into iafis, the fbi's
computer database of

Fingerprints of all known
criminal offenders from every

State in the country.


Were compared, and one seemed to

Match.

We stood hovering over his
computer screen looking at all

The ridge structure and the
information there.

And everything coincided.

My words were, "oh, my god."

I couldn't believe it.

I had to sit down and have them
repeat it, make sure they

Weren't joking.

Narrator: the print belonged
to gerald mason, who was now 70

Years old living in columbia,
south carolina.

He had been arrested for
burglary in 1956 -- a year

Before the murders.

Officials in south carolina had
only gotten around to submitting

Their fingerprints to the
nationwide database just two

Months earlier.

Mason was married, had children
and grandchildren.

He owned a number of gas
stations and had not been

Arrested for any other crimes in
the years since the murders.

Now we've got a real suspect.

But we were still a little bit
apprehensive.

It's a fingerprint.

It's an old fingerprint.

What else do we have?

Narrator: one of the robbery
victims, bob dewar, was brought

In for a photographic lineup
but couldn't identify mason as

The man who stole the car.

So police needed to look
further.

They needed something more.

And what "more" was -- me.

Narrator: the man who bought
the m*rder w*apon in 1956 and

Rented a room at a ymca in
shreveport, louisiana, had

Printed his name on the
register.

Paul edholm, a forensic-document
examiner, was asked to compare

Gerald mason's handwriting to
the signature of george wilson

On the ymca register.

We look at things whether
documents are freely and

Naturally written, whether the
slant is the same, the height

Relationship of letters,
the alignment to the base line,

How the letters themselves are
formed, and whether there's open

Loops, closed loops, retraces,
how you punctuate, how you dot

I's and cross t's.

Narrator: almost immediately,
edholm noticed that some letters

Seemed to jump off the page.

First was the capital "g"
because we had "g" in george and

"G" in gerald.

And as far as the height
relationship, as far as the

Width of the letter, as far as
the slant, the amount of strokes

It took to form the letter --
each one of those was

Consistent.

And that was very important.

Narrator: there were other
similarities in the letter "d"

And "s," "o," "n," and there was
something more.

What I noted in mr. Mason's
handwriting was from 1957 --

At that time, he was 23 years
old -- until 1999, his

Handwriting did not change one
iota.

It was exactly the same.

Edholm was convinced that
gerald mason signed the ymca

Register with the alias
"george d. Wilson."

[ Sirens wailing ]
nearly five decades after the

Crime, mason was arrested and
charged with m*rder.

When we introduced ourselves
and told him we were homicide

Investigators, he was a little
bit irritated, and it was

Almost like, "you're here for
that?

That happened so long ago.

I can't believe you're here
bothering me with that 45, 46

Years later."

Narrator: based on the
forensic evidence, prosecutors

Believe gerald mason bought the
g*n in louisiana, then checked

Into a ymca using the alias
george d. Wilson.

Mason was a drifter when he went
to california in 1957.

He may have been drinking near
the hawthorn airport when he saw

Bob dewar's car parked in the
lovers' lane.

He robbed the teenagers,
committed a sexual as*ault, then

Stole the car at gunpoint.

While fleeing the scene, mason
went through a traffic light and

Was stopped by two police
officers.

The officers didn't know the car
was stolen.

Mason got out of the car so the
officers wouldn't see the stolen

Goods on the backseat.

And when officer phillips turned
away, he fired three sh*ts into

His back, then three more
through the windshield, k*lling

Officer curtis.

While speeding away,
officer phillips fired three

sh*ts with world-class
precision.

One went through the trunk,
hitting mason in the back.

When gerald mason was arrested,
investigators asked him to

Remove his shirt.

Sure enough, he had a b*llet
wound on his back -- proof that

Officer phillips got him.

Very last thing he did in
life was to mark forever the man

Who k*lled him and his partner.

And that's pretty compelling
because it's almost as if

Someone is speaking to you from
the grave, telling you, "ladies

And gentlemen, I told you who it
is.

I pointed him out with my
g*nf*re."

That was never reported, as
far as I know, to the media.

I said, "why didn't you tell
us?"

"'Cause we didn't want anybody
to know about it.

We didn't want him to go and get
plastic surgery or to --

Whatever."

It's amazing.

Narrator: the g*n was traced
to shreveport, louisiana.

The handwriting was
gerald mason's, as was the

Thumbprint on the steering wheel
of the car.

Thumbprint on the steering wheel
of the car.

Narrator: to avoid a public
trial, gerald mason pleaded

Guilty to the m*rder of the two
police officers and was

Sentenced to two consecutive
life terms in prison.

He only admitted the crime
because it was in his best

Interest to do so -- so that his
family -- his wife, his

Grandchildren -- would not hear
how he r*ped a teenager.

He traded the lives of two
on-duty police officers to avoid

Capture.

It is impossible to express
to so many people how sorry I

Am for the harm I inflicted that
night.

[ Crying ] I do not understand
why I did this.

It is contrary to all I believe
in and does not fit in my life.

It is not the person I know.

I detest these crimes.

What people would say about
him being at 24 years old and

Committing these crimes and then
living a life crime-free -- it

Doesn't matter.

He's a thief, he's a r*pist, and
he's a m*rder*r.

He just got old.

That's all there is to it.

All the scientific forensic
evidence -- we're gonna see a

Lot more cold cases being solved
based on the advancements in

Technology.