01x03 - Episode 3

[bunniefuu]

[TV static drones]

[bright tone]

[train horn blares]

I used to read
true crime novels.

I don't anymore.

I lost interest in that...

Years ago in prison
when I realized

I was actually
living through one, really.

[soft dramatic music]

[♪ ♪]

I lived above Mrs. Wilson

in the apartment
directly above hers.

You're here
because you want to talk to me

about what happened.

It's... complicated.

It's disgusting.

It is and always will be
a part of my life.

[♪ ♪]

I was the last one
to be arrested.

There's a misconception

that we were
some sort of g*ng.

I didn't know any of them,

except for Joseph.

[♪ ♪]

Joseph had been
a brief roommate.

He worked
some sort of construction.

I remember I said,

"Everything is included
in the rent."

I said, "So if you want
to take a shower,

- you can."
- "Oh, I'm good."

Okay.

Didn't say nothing.

Couple of days later,
I'm about to do laundry.

I said, "You know,
I can throw your clothes in.

You can still take a shower
if you want."

"No."

But I waited a couple more days
'cause he was very polite.

He picked up after himself.

He was a nice guy.

And finally I said,
"Lobo, you gotta take a bath."

[chuckles]

And he kind of looked at me,
and I said, "I'm sorry."

I said, "I can smell you
outside in the hallway."

I said, "I don't want
to be rude here, dude,

but you smell bad."

I said, "And I'm not gonna
come home to that smell."

He said, "Okay, no problem."

He packed his things.
He left.

[♪ ♪]

I didn't talk to him again.

[♪ ♪]

I left Beatrice

at the end of February of '85.

I had thrown away
a bunch of old clothes.

One of 'em was a bra
that had blood on it.

[♪ ♪]

In 1989,
I was in Denver, Colorado.

One day,
the sheriff came down,

and he looked vaguely familiar,
and he introduced himself.

He says,
"Do you know who I am?"

And I said, "Well,
obviously you're a cop."

He says,
"I'm here to arrest you

for the m*rder
of Helen Wilson."

And he goes, "In 1985,

"your neighbor
was r*ped and k*lled,

and we have reason to believe
you were there."

[ominous music]

[♪ ♪]

When I met my lawyer, he said,
"Unless you have an alibi

as good as sleeping
with the pope that night,"

he said,
"you're going to prison,

"and your only choice
you're gonna have

is for how long."

Well, he didn't lie there.

[dramatic music]

[♪ ♪]

Well, this
is a Smith & Wesson

stainless steel

.45-caliber
semiautomatic p*stol.

And...
[g*n c*ck]

It has been engraved,

"Gratefully,
Helen Wilson family."

It reminds me of a...

Lot of work that was done

on what I considered
a major case.

And I'm proud of it.

[eerie music]

[♪ ♪]


Our temperature at 25.

Looking
at partly cloudy skies today

and a high up around 52.

Preliminary hearings were set
for the six individuals

charged with the slaying
of a Beatrice woman

more than four years ago.

They are being held
without bond

in the county jail.

[dramatic music]

The Helen Wilson homicide

really dominated the news
for a while.

Beatrice in the 1980s
was a lot different

than it is in today's world.

[♪ ♪]

A lot of what
you relied on was

listening to an account
given verbally on the radio

or watching the newspaper
to see

who these people are,
getting a photo of them

to at least put a face
with the name.

I think everybody
was just saying,

"Hmm, I don't really know
these people."

These people, commonly known
as the Beatrice Six,

are not what you'd call
high society in Beatrice.

They're the bottom floaters,

often out of work,
often on welfare,

often in trouble.

They're the kind of people
that the average juror

in Gage County
would not be real happy with.

[♪ ♪]

This is when d*ck Smith

started kind of floating

some plea bargains notions
to us.

d*ck Smith,
as the county attorney,

was sometimes referred to
as King Richard.

I guess I'd describe him
as being somewhat haughty.

Richard Smith
obviously was not afraid

to exercise his power,

and he was putting pressure
on all of the attorneys

to accept the guilty plea

and get somebody to crack

and have
kind of the domino effect.

We didn't know
who was gonna jump first.

[♪ ♪]

There's a saying
among trial attorneys:

"You gotta know
when to fold 'em,

and you gotta know
when to hold 'em,"

and I believe that.

[♪ ♪]

It was natural
that Richard Smith

would give his best deals

to the people that pled first

and became witnesses.

It's simply the way
the system works.

[♪ ♪]

With Tom Winslow's case,
based on all the facts,

I assumed
that there was enough there

for his conviction.

Richard Smith had told me,
"Either you make a deal,

or I'm going after
the death penalty."

And I said something rude
to him

which I will not repeat
on the air,

but I think you know
what I said.

It wasn't, "Merry Christmas."

JoAnn Taylor
was facing the death penalty.

It occurred to me
that JoAnn is culpable,

and so when the prosecution

took the death penalty
off the table

and offered us
second-degree m*rder,

which does not carry the
death penalty in this state,

I saw a way of saving her life.

That's what you have to do
if you're gonna practice

criminal defense law
in rural Nebraska.

[♪ ♪]

Joe White didn't care
what the others were doing.

He wasn't taking
any deal whatsoever.

[♪ ♪]

You're always optimistic.

I mean, you got a client
that said he didn't do it,

hey, I'm going with that.

You want to go to trial,
we'll go to trial.

We had a defense.

That's what you do.

[♪ ♪]

Joseph White's trial
generated a lot of interest.

It was clear that everyone...

The attorneys,
the judge, the jurors,

the defendant, the onlookers...

Everybody was just
intimately engaged

in this...

spectacle.

[♪ ♪]

We knew it was
an uphill battle

because it's such
a horrendous crime.

The best you can do sometimes

is just try to pick holes

in the prosecution's case.

So it was obvious the defense
was going to be

that these people
weren't credible.

This afternoon,


of Lincoln testified
for more than an hour

on what occurred
February 5, 1985.

[♪ ♪]

I know I was walked over
to the courthouse.

I was going over there to...

'Cause they had someone
on trial.

I think it was Joseph White.

I don't remember a lot of that.

I just know
that he was on trial,

and I told them Joseph White

was the one who done it
and everything.

[♪ ♪]

One of the state's
key witnesses

in the trial
of Joseph Edgar White

was called to the stand
Friday morning.

I go on the stand

putting the whole thing
on Joseph White, basically.

That's the first time
I'd seen him

since this whole thing
went down.

I was scared
of what he would think of me

and what the jury
would think of me

and what, you know,
lawyers would think, all that.

I just told 'em what they
wanted to hear, I guess.

Ada JoAnn Taylor,
who has pleaded guilty

to second-degree m*rder,
testified Tuesday

that Joseph Edgar White
r*ped Helen Wilson

and, while doing so,
said she deserved it.

They asked her,
"Why did you hold the pillow

over her face?"

And her answer was,

"I didn't want her to see
who was raping her."

[♪ ♪]

And as a family,
when you hear that,

it's such a crazy,
twisted nightmare,

you know,
coming to the forefront

of your thoughts again, and...

that's the tragedy
of this whole thing.

When JoAnn Taylor
started describing

what she did, I...

Blocked that out completely.

You're sitting in a courtroom,

trying to force yourself
to keep from going up there

and doing something
really wrong.

The coroner's.

When they showed the jury
pictures of Grandma.

The pictures
of what they did to her,

because then, you know,
they had to explain

what the pictures were.

[♪ ♪]

This case
was absolutely brutal.

[♪ ♪]

The facts of this case
were so absolutely terrible,

and these ordinary people
in Beatrice

are sitting there
listening to these facts.

I thought
he was probably guilty.

[♪ ♪]

Every time
that a trial lawyer

tries a case
and a jury comes back,

the system worked,
and in this case,

the state won the case.


of Lincoln,


of Lincoln,

and 29-year-old Kathy Gonzalez
of Denver

each sentenced
to ten years in prison

Friday afternoon,
despite requests for probation

by their attorneys.

Ada JoAnn Taylor
has been sentenced

to 40 years in prison

and Thomas Winslow sentenced
to 50 years in prison

after he pleaded no contest
in the crime.

Joseph Edgar White,
the last defendant

to be sentenced in connection
with the 1985 m*rder

of Helen Wilson, was sentenced
to life in prison

on Friday.

[♪ ♪]

There was some relief
when he was found guilty.

There was a little bit of peace
in the fact

that we now know
what happened to Grandma.

That helped.
It helped a lot.

[birds chirping]

[soft dramatic music]

[♪ ♪]

After he solved the case,

Burt and I got married,

and we've been married
for 26 years.

[♪ ♪]

When I was reading the papers
about the m*rder,

I was very happy
that this case was solved,

and later on when I met Burt,
I realized I met somebody

even larger than life.

[♪ ♪]

We would go out
to restaurants,

and he just knows everybody,

and everybody
would call him by his name

and patting him on the back

and saying, you know,
"Just awesome.

You're a great guy,"
things like that.

That just made me smile more,

and my eyes
got bigger and brighter.

[♪ ♪]

"Congratulations, Burt.
Beatrice is proud of you."

Oh, this one.

Picture of him
with his mustache.

Shaved off the mustache for me.

"Congratulations,
Lieutenant Searcey.

This is fantastic news."

This is from
Springfield, Missouri.

That's a long ways away
from Beatrice.

It was just really exciting
time for all of us,

but after the case was solved,

that's when he was
looking for a change.

Yes, it's that time
of year again

to cheer on the Huskers
to another national title.

At the House of Bottles,
Burt Searcey and staff

would like to invite you
to stop in

for all your party needs.

When shopping
at the House of Bottles...

I left
the sheriff's department

in '96, I think.

Since then,
I've owned a liquor store.

I've been a real estate agent.

I'm a flower child now.

Single red rose.
Okay.

We bought the flower shop
five years ago.

[soft orchestral music]

Cindy is a damn good florist.

I take care of deliveries.

- Hi, you Lonnie?
- I'm her daughter.

Well, would you
give that to Lonnie?

- I sure will.
- Thank you.

- Thank you very much.
- Mm-hmm.

When he goes to deliver,
that makes him feel so good

as compared
to his job as a sheriff

because people
didn't like to see him

when he was knocking
on the door,

and now they do.

But after he retired
from law enforcement,

I think that sometimes
Burt gets bored.

He remembers
the accomplishment

of getting it done.

I mean, that's just how he is.

[♪ ♪]

When I was
a rookie police officer,

you know,
I patrolled these streets.

I know every crack,
crook, cranny

in this town and county.

I worked hundreds of cases

and helped people with
a lot of different situations,

from penny-ante theft

up to homicides,

and I tried to do it
the best I could.

That's what I want
to be remembered as.

But that'll probably
never happen,

and I'll just be another guy,
you know?

And that's fine...

But I don't want people
to remember me

from the Beatrice Six...

And being a bad cop

because I'm not, and I wasn't.

[dramatic orchestral music]

[♪ ♪]

Scene 26,
blood on the coat.

And when you're ready.

Bullshit, Tom.

I got people telling me

exactly what you did
to that woman.

You butt-f*cked her.

Don't sit here and lie to me.

I'm not gonna listen
to this sh*t.

Thank you. That's great.

Do we have to use

the word "butt-f*cked"?

- It's what was said.
- It's from the tape.

- It is?
- Yeah.

There's so...
I have to say,

it's a really, really
important question,

but I'm wondering, even in
the JoAnn Taylor arrest thing

where she's using the F word,

if you could just
not even use the F word.

Just say "effing,"
you know, that kind of thing.

I mean, I don't know
if that bothers you...

But I don't know... like,
you're gonna use "butt-f*cked."

- You might as well use "f*ck."
- Yeah.

Can I ask why
you don't like it?

I'm just thinking,

"How quickly could that turn
everyone off in the audience?"

I understand that,
but Burt Searcey used that

in reference
to an elderly woman.

That's, like,
really what happened.

And I totally am with you,
Paige,

'cause it makes me
really uncomfortable, too,

to, like, hear it,
and that's really hard,

but I also think
that that is maybe good...

Not good, but, like,

it will be powerful
for the audience

to hear that truth.

There needs to be a little
bit of uncomfortableness.

But I don't want 'em
to be so uncomfortable

that they're like, "Oh, well,
this is too much for me.

- I need to leave."
- Okay.

I mean,
we also state on page one

that the words spoken
by the actors

are from interviews,
trial transcripts,

and public record.

Like, we're stating
that this is stuff

that was actually said.

We'll continue
to think about changes

and cutting.

We'll get there.

We'll get there.
We're getting closer.

[♪ ♪]

Double-Decker.

There's the salmon.

I heard
one of my coworkers.

"Oh, did you hear?

They're doing a play
about the Beatrice Six."

And I'm like, "Yeah.
Why?"

He said, "The wounds
are still fairly open in town,

"but I think this is clearly

a story that needs
to be told."

[♪ ♪]

So are we taking off, like,
quite a bit of length today,

- or what are you thinking?
- Yeah.

Have you heard,
like, any talk in town

about the play at all?

People have asked about,
like, seeing it and stuff.

Yeah.

It's just kind of...
I don't know.

I don't want to, like,
hurt anybody, you know?

I know, yeah.

It's just, like,
a really unfortunate situation

- all around...
- Yeah.

For a lot of people
and a lot of families.

It's just interesting.

Once, like, you kind of
start diving into it...

Mm-hmm.

There's a lot of confusion
about the actual details.

Yeah, totally.

So that's why I'm excited

that this is happening,
because hopefully

people can take the time
to learn

some of the actual facts,
you know?

Mm-hmm, yup, exactly.

[♪ ♪]

Initially I didn't really
think I wanted

to be a part of this,

but I realized
it's not enough

to view the story
from the outside,

especially
as a community member.

You have to actively help

the truth come to light.

All right,
let's give it a shot.

And so when she...

I got attached to the idea

of giving Joseph White
a voice in this.

Most things
that were in the news

only shows a tiny portion
of who he was

in those darkest times.

I didn't know her.

And so I've become defensive,
I guess,

of trying to portray him
as a whole person.

Are you scared right now,
Mr. White?

Yes, sir.

Why are you scared?

'Cause my life
is in the hands

of 12 people I don't know.

Joe White, he's very convinced
of himself,

and I think, for Joe,
having your family

on the outside telling you
that they believe you

and they never doubt you

is the most crucial touchstone

you could ever have when you're
in this alternate world

where everyone
believes you're a monster

except the people
you love the most.

I guess I...

wasn't the mother hen type.

I told somebody that...

I raised my kids

to go out on their own
when they were old enough,

and I didn't try
to micromanage their lives.

[soft dramatic music]

That smile's always there.

[♪ ♪]

That's Joseph, Jason, Jeffrey,

Nancy, Margaret, and Evelyn.

There are six of us.

Joseph's second to the oldest,

and I'm number four.

We played together.
We fought together.

Joseph was always a clown,

always laughing
and pulling pranks.

Sometimes
he was my best friend,

and sometimes
he was my worst enemy.

He's my brother.

I know how we were raised

and what kind of person
he was.

Was he perfect?
No.

Was he a butthead?
Yes.

But he wasn't a m*rder*r.

[♪ ♪]

Joseph stayed in Holly Pond
until he finished high school

and went immediately
into the army.

He wanted to see
some of the world.

And he stayed in Korea
about three years.

When he left the army,
he went to California.

When he'd move
from place to place,

he'd call me,

talk about doing things
that he enjoyed.

He called me later and told me
he was in Nebraska.

[♪ ♪]

After his trial, he told me,

"I'll be back,
and I'll prove my innocence."

[birds chirping]

I had some resentment
for people

that testified against him,

even the ones
that didn't testify,

and I mentioned that to him,
and he said,

"But, Mama, you don't know
what they went through."

"Nebraska Department
of Correctional Services.

"I, the chief
executive officer

"of the Nebraska Center
for Women,

"do hereby issue
this certificate of discharge

"to Gonzalez, Kathy A.

"This document shall be
evidence to all persons

"that the above captioned
individual

"is finally discharged

"and restored
all of his or her civil rights

"as provided by law,

effective this 19th day
of October, 1994."

[spirited music]

[♪ ♪]

When I got out,
it was euphoric.

[♪ ♪]

Me and Deb and James each did
a little over five years.

[♪ ♪]

When they finally let me
go out that gate,

I couldn't move.
[chuckles]

I couldn't go out the gate.

I was just like, "Whoa."

[♪ ♪]

I stood there, and they went
over the intercom,

and they go, "Debra,
you can go out the gate.

It's open."

[♪ ♪]

When I come out of prison,
I was a totally different guy,

you know what I'm saying?

I wasn't the same person.

My demeanor
had changed completely.

I guess I got to the point

where I just didn't give a sh*t
anymore, you know?

[♪ ♪]

I was scared
to go to Beatrice.

I figured someone
would bump into me

and say,
"Oh, you're that m*rder*r,"

you know,
and da-da-da.

I thought they were
gonna come at me

and throw stuff at me
or curse at me

or call me a bunch of names.

It was hard to get a job,
you know,

'cause now I've got
a Class A, Class B felony

on my record, and people
don't want to hire felons.

[♪ ♪]

Finally I become
a truck driver,

and I've been driving
ever since.

[♪ ♪]

I still have to go
to job interviews

where people are saying,

"Well, what did the body
look like?"

Or, "What was it like
going into that apartment?"

[♪ ♪]

I mean, James Dean
and Deb Shelden

said I was there with them
at the crime,

and it was like,

"I don't know
any of these people."

[♪ ♪]

That's all I can tell you.

Not really.

I don't really remember that.

I believe that to be true,
but...

There's so much sh*t
in this case

that I can't remember it all.

I didn't.

I didn't see Kathy much.

So I don't remember
a lot of things,

and there's a lot of things
I do not remember,

but yeah.

Yeah, I told them
that he was there,

but I don't remember
what I said or nothing, no,

but I did tell 'em
that he was there, yeah.

I told all of 'em
that they were there.

[chuckles]
Yeah.

[dramatic orchestral music]

[♪ ♪]

[stove clicking]

[♪ ♪]

After I got out of prison,

I really didn't give
my codefendants

any thoughts whatsoever.

And for a short time,
I forgot how serious it was,

and I put it
to the back of my head.

[sighs]

[♪ ♪]

And then one day,
I'm working at Valentino's

here in town
as the delivery person,

and as usual, I got there early
so I could read the paper.

[chuckles]

I remember reading it,
and I thought,

"Why is that familiar?
Why does he look familiar?"

And so I read the article,
and I went, "Oh, my God."

Joseph is on the front page.

And I was like, "Oh, this
is gonna disrupt my life."

[soft dramatic music]

[♪ ♪]

I sent this card to Joseph
while he was in prison.

"Look to tomorrow.

That is when you can
come home to us."

[♪ ♪]

We went once a year
to visit him in prison.

He always came
out the door smiling.

[♪ ♪]

We never knew if there
was gonna be hair or bald.

[♪ ♪]

I liked the hair better.

[♪ ♪]

In the time
Joseph was in prison,

he never gave up believing
that the truth would come out.

He got a job in one
of the prison workshops.

He told me to take his money
and try to get a lawyer.

He had a couple of people
take his money

and then decide
they couldn't take his case.

[♪ ♪]

I just told him we was
believing in him and...

Whatever we could do,
we'd do.

[♪ ♪]

Finally he got
a business card

from one of his friends

that had Doug Stratton's
phone number on it,

and he asked me to call him.

[buzzer blares]

[door humming]

I think I was the second

or third attorney

that he had hired

after his appeal.

To be honest with you,
I wasn't optimistic

going in to talk to a guy
that is talking about a m*rder

that happened in 1985

and he's talking to me in 2005.

The odds weren't gonna be good

that there was any fruit
at the end of this tunnel.

You do criminal work enough,

you start to have
a believability meter

that when you talk to people,

your meter goes one direction
or the other.

[dramatic music]

He starts off by saying,
"I didn't do this."

I wasn't there."

I said, "Can you tell me why

no one has filed a motion
for DNA testing?"

He couldn't.

He wasn't nervous.
He wasn't going crazy.

You got a very real sense
of calm about this guy.

And I said,
"Listen, this is a case

"that should have a lot of DNA.

If you weren't there,
we're gonna know that."

And he said, "Absolutely.
What do you need?"

[♪ ♪]

And I came out, and I said,
"Boy, this is wild."

You know, there's six people
that were involved in this,

three eyewitness testimonies,
and he says he wasn't there,

and there's something
about Joe White

that you believe.

[♪ ♪]

So I went down
and talked to Tom Winslow.

[♪ ♪]

I remember
when I first got into prison,

I'm walking
through this corridor.

Everyone's talking about you,

and you can feel them
talking about you

as you're walking through.

They're screaming
obscenity things

through the gate and stuff.

[indistinct yelling]

I was scared,
but you just sort of

just decide you have
to survive no matter what.

You're locked in a cell
all by yourself.

All you do is think.

[♪ ♪]

We went into
the apartment building,

and we went

into Helen Wilson's
apartment.

When you're a 23-year-old kid,

it's hard to describe...

How you...

Let yourself
get into that situation.

When I realized

how wrong I was

and I wanted
to pull myself out of it,

they wouldn't let me.

[♪ ♪]

You end up giving up.

[♪ ♪]

I chose not to go to trial,
plead no contest,

but refused to testify,

so it ended up
in the longer sentence,

but I don't regret that part.

[♪ ♪]

I'd been in quite a while.

I don't know how many years
left in my sentence,



It's hard to describe, but...

after a while,
you become numb.

[♪ ♪]

And then one day,
I got a lawyer visit.

I said, "I haven't seen
my lawyer in many years.

"I don't have a lawyer visit.
It must be a mistake.

"Will you call up front
and tell him

it must be a mistake?"

And they said, "No,
this guy is here to see him,

and he is an attorney."

[♪ ♪]

Tom probably
had not seen an attorney

associated with his case
for over a decade.

He walks in, and he
kind of looks me up and down.

He says, "I'd like to talk
to you for a few minutes."

He said, "You don't
have to talk to me."

And I said,
"Tom, Joe White's hired me

"because he claims...
If you can believe this...

He claims he wasn't even there
when the woman was m*rder*d."

Tom looked at me
standing there,

starts crying, and he says,

"I wasn't there either,
but nobody would believe me."

Then he got really serious
and looked across the table,

and he says, "I don't believe
you were there either."

[♪ ♪]

That's all he really said.

[♪ ♪]

We went down to court,

filed a motion
for DNA testing.

The same attorney
that had tried the m*rder case

was still the county attorney.

d*ck Smith handled
the argument against us

to not allow for DNA testing.

When I analyze his reaction,
I thought,

"If this really happened
the way you claim it happened,

you would sit back
and say, 'Test.'"

But he said, "No,
we don't want to do that."

The unfortunate part was,
the trial judge

accepted the argument
that the DNA testing

would not lead
to exculpable evidence.

We had to appeal it
to the Nebraska Supreme Court.

Took us years to get this done
because of d*ck Smith,

but a couple of things change
when Randy comes in.

When I came to Gage County,

d*ck Smith had been
the county attorney

for about 24 years.

He had never had anybody
run against him,

so I started looking into it
and decided that I would run,

and so he was
pretty upset about that.

He was a very domineering
kind of personality.

I certainly
found that to be the case

when I had to deal with him.

I defeated him in the primary,
got elected,

and came into office in 2007.

First day I walked
into the office,

every single computer
in that office had been wiped.

Clearly there was not
going to be any assistance

or any transition at all,
but we hit the deck running.

[dramatic orchestral music]

[♪ ♪]

In fact, I didn't know
anything about Beatrice Six.

I had never heard
of the convictions.

When I was actually contacted
about the case,

it was because
the Nebraska Supreme Court

ruled that the DNA evidence
was relevant.

Randy had an appropriate
prosecutor's heart.

Let's figure this out.

We made arrangements
for us to go together

along with the Beatrice police

down to their evidence room

to see what was there.

[♪ ♪]

Thank the Lord,
the Beatrice Police Department

had done a wonderful job
of preserving the evidence.

They had her underwear.
They had her robe.

They had everything preserved.

We chose 13 items
for testing.

I was very confident
that the result would be

that the DNA matched
both Winslow and White.

James Dean
was in the same boat.

He was out of prison
by that time,

so let's get him tested too.

In 2008,
I come home off the road,

and there was
a guy waiting for me,

a private investigator.

He said to me,
"I need your DNA."

I didn't believe him at first,
you know?

Which it would be
hard to swallow, you know,

in 2008,
somebody just comes up to you

and says, "Oh, I need your DNA
for this reason."

I told him

I really thought
Joseph White had done this,

him and Thomas Winslow.

[soft dramatic music]

[♪ ♪]

All of this takes not days,
not weeks.

It takes months.

I believe Joe.
I believe Tom.

But you never knew
how it was gonna turn out.

You never knew.

[♪ ♪]

From the time Doug Stratton
became his lawyer,

it took
approximately three years

for Joseph's DNA to be tested.

I was praying.

And I told him it...

It'll come through.

[♪ ♪]

This story has been
absolute hell for our family.

For a long time,

every time I looked
at that apartment,

I remembered what happened.

But over the course
of many years,

you start to move on.

We all went back somewhat
to our normal lives,

and you're starting to maybe
think of Grandma once a week

instead of once a day
or twice a day.

[♪ ♪]

And then, of course,
down the road,

that all got ripped out
from under us.

[♪ ♪]

[phone ringing]

We finally got the DNA.

I took the phone call.

[♪ ♪]

It wasn't their DNA.

Wasn't Tom's, wasn't James',
and it wasn't Joe's.

They were eliminated.

[♪ ♪]

That's a big deal.

That's a huge moment.

[♪ ♪]

We were just dumbfounded

that Winslow and White
didn't do the sexual as*ault.

Everybody's well aware
of the jokes

that everybody in prison
is innocent.

Well, some of them are.

New DNA tests revealed
that neither Winslow or White

were responsible
for the r*pe and m*rder

of 68-year-old Helen Wilson.

I was surprised.

I mean, you never know whether
a person's guilty or innocent,

but is there a way Joe
could have won his trial?

As far as the defense goes,

I don't think
there's anything that I know of

that we could have done
any differently.

[♪ ♪]

I was astonished

because at the trial
of Joseph White,

the evidence seemed conclusive

and persuasive,

so I thought that was

the right outcome
at that time.

In the line of work I'm in...
[chuckles]

You certainly
don't win 'em all,

and if you had
a lot of regrets,

why, you wouldn't be able
to do this work.

[♪ ♪]

Obviously I had to look back
and reflect upon

upon whether somehow
I screwed up,

and my conclusion was,

I think I did the right thing
at the right time

given the circumstances
as I knew them.

If you want to stay
in the practice of law,

you cannot bleed

for every client you have.

At the time he was convicted,

I assumed that he had made
the right choice for himself,

but if you're asking me
if I went to bed every night

thinking, "Oh, my God,
an innocent man's in the pen,"

no, I did not.

I thought,
"Wow, you know, I don't...

I don't believe it."

I mean, I did believe it
because I believe in DNA,

and I don't have
a problem with it.

I just didn't believe...

That result.
I didn't.

[♪ ♪]

You have to understand

where the DNA testing
was done, okay?

And it wasn't done on
everything in that apartment.

[♪ ♪]

In the crime scene,
there was a coffee maker

with a small amount of coffee
in the pot.

There were six cups

in the sink
that had been used.

Those cups weren't secured
as evidence

for some reason.

[♪ ♪]

You got to take all evidence
that you see

and take it,
and it all needs to be tested.

All needs to be tested and...

Before you could determine
who might be...

Had been in that apartment,
and it wasn't done.

Not everything was tested.

Not everything was secured.

Not everything
was taken as evidence.

A lot of things weren't.

[♪ ♪]

The police chief said,

"We can't let these people
stay in prison."

I looked at him.
I said, "Hold on, partner."

[laughs]

"I mean, we've got a lot to do
before we can decide

"that we're gonna release
these people

who've been accused of
and had admitted to m*rder."

[♪ ♪]

So I contacted
the attorney general's office,

and then we all agreed
that we were gonna set up

a joint task force
to address this.

I remember meeting at
the Beatrice Police Department

with the attorney general's
office,

and they told us
what they were doing.

They assured us that we have
nothing to worry about.

They did tell us, "Just
because there's no DNA evidence

doesn't mean
they weren't there."

"You guys don't have
anything to worry about.

"We know we have
the right guys.

This is a formality,"

but it just opened
the wounds again.

It's just one more step
in this...

In this nightmare
that we're living.

Gage County prosecutor
Randy Ritnour

says the case
is being reinvestigated.

"Just because
the DNA results came in,

"it doesn't necessarily
exonerate the defendants

of all criminal wrongdoing."

Exculpation
doesn't mean exoneration.

White and Winslow
are not free yet,

and White might have
to stand trial again

for the m*rder
of Helen Wilson.

The investigation
is now focusing

on finding the real k*ller
in this case.

[♪ ♪]

[eerie music]

[♪ ♪]

We were all
sitting there wondering,

"How in the world
can this happen?"

Because we've got five people
who admit and do plea bargains

for a m*rder.

It just doesn't make sense.

[dramatic orchestral music]

What is this exactly?

[♪ ♪]

Is it a seventh person?

[bright tone]