Original subtitles

NARRATOR: This program is about unsolved mysteries.

Whenever possible the actual family members

and police officials have participated

in recreating the events.

What you are about to see is not a news broadcast.

NARRATOR: In 1978, 19-year-old Gus

Hoffman was accosted by a motorcycle

gang in San Jose, California.

For 10 years, his mother has haunted

gang hangouts in a desperate attempt

to find her son or his killers.

In 1927, two weeks before Charles Lindbergh's

famous Atlantic crossing, a pair of intrepid French aviators

attempted the same flight.

Some believe they made it, and aviation history

will have to be re-written.

In 1987, Patsy Wright was killed by a lethal dose of strychnine

in her col medicine.

Police believe the murder was someone close to her.

In 1942, the oil tanker Muskogee was sunk by a German U-boat.

All hands were lost.

45 years later, the son of the Muskogee's captain

has asked a Nazi U-boat commander

to help locate the missing relative of a man lose at sea.

Tonight four stories, which ordinary people are thrust

into the most extraordinary circumstances,

each needing one vital clue to solve a mystery.

Perhaps someone watching tonight can help.

Perhaps it's you.

[theme music]

In 1977, Gus Hoffman who was a popular 19-year-old

in San Jose, California.

He had a reputation as an excellent musician

and a mechanical whiz.

Gus was not a biker, but one of his hobbies

was restoring vintage motorcycles.

And he took great pride in his work.

In October of 1977, Gus bought a 1966 Harley Davidson Sportster.

He spent eight months and $4,000 restoring it to mint condition.

The motorcycle became a source of conflict

between Gus and his parents.

ROSE HOFFMAN: We didn't like it at all.

My husband gave him an ultimatum.

He said either you go or the bike.

And I said I don't want you to leave, Gus.

I said you've got to do something.

And neither does your dad want you to leave,

so he's just afraid that something

is going to happen to you.

We don't want you to have that bite.

He said, well, I'll just fix it up, and I'll sell it.

That's what he told us.

[motor starting]

NARRATOR: On July 4, 1978, Gus put the finishing

touches on his motorcycle.

He showed it off to his brother and told him he was taking

the bike out for a short ride.

Gus Hoffman's family would never see him again.

When Gus did not return, his mother, Rose Hoffman,

called the police to report her son missing.

Because they could take no action

until 48 hours had passed, she started

to investigate on her own.

This began a 10-year quest in which

Rose Hoffman never stopped trying to find out

what had happened to her son.

Rose has asked that an actress portray her in recreating

these most painful moments.

When Gus didn't return, Rose canvassed the neighborhood.

She questioned one of Gus' friends

who worked at a nearby gas station.

But about two days ago, I saw him pull up on his motorcycle.

There were these two other guys that were on choppers with him.

ROSE HOFFMAN: He said that he saw Gus riding by Meridian.

And he said there was two motorcycles in back

of him and a blue Monte Carlo.

And he said the reason he recognized

it was because these same two motorcycle guys came

in to the gas station, and they were like real mean to him,

and so he remembered them.

And they had real long hair.

And they were just real tough guys-- guys that you

don't fool around with.

NARRATOR: A second witness later said

that the two bikers had stopped Gus,

argued, and threatened him with chains.

[shouting]

When Gus pulled away, they roared

after him, the blue Monte Carlo in pursuit.

The two witnesses identified one of the bikers

as Michael Hodges, a member of the Forgotten Few Motorcycle

Gang.

The other was Michael Stevenson, another member

of the same gang.

SGT JEFF OUIMET: If there was ever

a person who you could say was a career criminal,

the name would be Michael Stevenson.

He's probably the most violent person

that I've ever investigated.

NARRATOR: The San Jose Police did not have enough evidence

to bring Stevenson and Hodges in for interrogation,

so they began to question other gang

members who knew the two men.

GANG MEMBER: Yeah? - The San Jose Police.

We've got a few questions to ask you.

All right.

What's up?

Yeah.

Do you know a Gus Hoffman by any chance?

No. Never heard of him.

NARRATOR: No one was willing to talk.

It appeared that everyone feared Michael Stevenson.

--coming in now?

Well, then arrest me or, you know, get the heck out of here.

ROSE HOFFMAN: After they found out who they were,

they told me expect the worst.

I got very angry.

My husband got angry.

We said no.

This can't happen.

I just wanted to go after them after that.

I mean, that's all I thought about was going after them.

NARRATOR: In order to turn up leads for the police,

Rose and a friend named Carol Jensen

went undercover to infiltrate motorcycle gang hangouts.

I tried to dress like a biker person, a woman that's

been around in the biker world.

I wore my hair all wild, and tight pants,

and tight jeans, and heels, and bracelets.

I tried to look tough.

It was scary, but I don't think I was as

afraid as I should have been.

What about you?

Have you seen this guy?

Nah.

CAROL JENSEN: We just let it be known that I had a loaded gun.

It was not loaded, but we let them think it was

and that I would use it any moment to protect Rose.

NARRATOR: Hey, guys.

What's happening?

SGT JACK BAXTER: Rose Hoffman spent hundreds of hours going

to biker bars, different low class establishments,

soliciting information from informants,

buying information when necessary.

She followed up every lead, which she shared with us.

She and her daughters, family members, and friends

covered the whole area knocking on doors talking to anybody

whose name they were given.

The witness is in the motor home.

She doesn't want you to know who she is,

so she doesn't like t speak face to face.

NARRATOR: Rose hired a private investigator with connections

to motorcycle gangs.

He set up a meeting with a woman who claimed she

knew what had happened to Gus.

I understand you have information about my son?

INFORMANT: Yes, I do.

ROSE HOFFMAN: She told me that my son was dead.

And she told me that my son was tortured.

He was tortured for three to five days.

And-- and I begged her.

I said please tell me who did it.

You got to talk to the police.

You got to talk to the police.

I begged her.

I offered her money.

I said I'll give you anything you want, anything.

Please talk to the police and tell them.

Anyway, the investigator-- he just said no.

There's no way he could let her talk.

He said he just wanted her to let me

know what happened to my son.

And I begged him, too.

And he said I can't.

He said I don't want to be responsible for her death.

NARRATOR: Rose now felt she knew the horrible truth of what

had happened to her son, but she had no hard evidence

that could lead to an arrest.

ROSE HOFFMAN: I think they enticed him.

I think they said, well, let me see your bike.

Let me see your bike.

And then he was intimidated and said, well,

all right because they're real rough, tough-looking guys--

real tough guys.

And I think he was more intimidated into everything.

GUS HOFFMAN: What are you guys chasing me for?

[interposing voices]

CAROL JENSEN: And I think that once that he got off his bike,

that was it.

I think they wheeled the bike into the garage

and then walked him into the garage.

And when that garage door went down,

he was never seen again-- never seen again.

NARRATOR: On June 19, 1986, Michael Stevenson

was killed during a failed extortion attempt.

His death provided an unexpected break in the Hoffman case.

Let's see if you've ever seen this man before.

NARRATOR: With Stevenson dead, police

requestioned members of biker gangs

and other possible witnesses.

Now they talked, and they name names.

Yeah, that's Michael Lee Stevenson.

SGT JEFF OUIMET: It appears that Gus Hoffman was forced

through intimidation to go to Mike Stevenson's residence

in San Jose, was forced through intimidation

to enter the garage.

There were certain acts of violence against Gus Hoffman

inside that garage, which ultimately

resulted in his death and the disappearance

of his motorcycle.

NARRATOR: Police immediately arrested

Michael Hodges, one of the men witnesses

had linked to Gus' murder.

Richard Dollar, a friend of Hodge's, was picked up

at San Quentin where he was already serving

time for a parole violation.

The third remaining suspect, John Stelle,

was finally captured in northern California.

He was carrying a loaded handgun.

Tragically, no trace of Gus Hoffman has ever been found.

Rose Hoffman wants to give her son the dignity in death

that he was denied at the end of his life.

She hopes one of our viewers can help.

ROSE HOFFMAN: You can help me as if anyone knows-- if anybody

knows where my son is, please, I beg you, please tell the police

or call me.

I want my son.

That's the most important thing.

[music playing]

[theme music]

NARRATOR: On a previous broadcast,

we brought you the story of a Los Angeles resident

who one midnight last summer went

to an automatic teller machine to make a cash withdrawal.

He never returned home.

On June 8, 1988, 22-year-old Matthew Chase left his house

and drove to his bank a few blocks away.

That night a hidden camera took these photographs

of an unknown man standing next to Matthew

as he used the automatic teller machine.

The person standing next to Matt was somewhat

shorter, somewhat stockier.

And, overall, he shouldn't have been in the photograph.

No one is going to let someone stand that close to him

while they're using an ATM machine where

they can see the PIN number.

Police believe that Matthew was abducted in a robbery attempt,

and that this mysterious figure was his kidnapper.

TERESA DAHL: Today I sense that he's still alive.

And that has kept us going.

And we'll never stop looking for him until we find him.

And I know we'll find him.

NARRATOR: Over the next few months,

Matthew's friends and family scoured Los Angeles searching

for the missing youth.

They turned up nothing.

SUSAN CHASE: Los Angeles can be a dangerous place at night.

We saw a lot of things that were very frightening, I think.

And that only made it more real to us

that something perhaps very serious had happened to Matt.

On March 29, one chapter of this mysterious case

came to a close when the Los Angeles

coroner's office positively identified

the body of Matthew Chase.

His remains were discovered in a ravine in nearby Pasadena

on September the 17th of last year,

three months after he disappeared.

Identification was delayed by the difficulty

in tracking down dental records.

The cause of death was a gunshot wound.

DET LIONEL SALGADO: We had estimated that he had been

down in this canyon area since the last week

in June of last year to September when he was located.

This case is being handled as a robbery homicide at this point.

The man in the bank photograph is

wanted for questioning in the disappearance

and death of Matthew Chase.

NARRATOR: This is an artist's rendering of the prime suspect

in this case based on computer enhancements

of the bank photographs.

Matthew's car was also stolen and later abandoned.

The killer may have been seen driving this car in early June.

It was a red two-door 1983 Volkswagen GTI.

When this car was recovered, a blue bandana was found inside.

It is thought the bandana may have belonged to the killer.

TERESA DAHL: I do hope to find his killer.

And I think that we need to see this through,

and we will see it through.

And this person must be brought to justice.

NARRATOR: We extend our condolences to Matthew's family

and friends.

We strongly share the Chase family's desire to see

their son's killer apprehended.

[theme music]

[music playing]

NARRATOR: On May 21, 1927, Charles Lindbergh

electrified the world by being the first to fly

nonstop across the Atlantic from New York to Paris.

[music playing]

[crowd cheering]

NARRATOR: When he returned home, he received a hero's welcome.

10 days earlier, two French pilots, Charles Nungesser

and Francois Coli, were preparing to beat Lindbergh

across the Atlantic in their plane, "L'Oiseau

Blanc," "The White Bird."

[non-english speech]

NARRATOR: Their plan was to take off from an airfield near Paris

and land their watertight plane in the New York Harbor

at the base of the Statue of Liberty.

[non-english speech]

NARRATOR: Nungesser was France's most

decorated World War I pilot.

Coli was the first man to fly nonstop

across the Mediterranean.

[non-english speech]

NARRATOR: He had promised his wife that this

would be his last adventure.

[non-english speech]

NARRATOR: As fate would have it, he kept his promise.

"The White Bird" was last seen by escort planes

as it crossed the coast of France

and headed out over the vast reaches of the Atlantic.

It was never seen again.

Most experts assume the plane simply crashed at sea.

Nearly 50 years later in 1971, Jim Reed, a local hunter,

was deep in the remote woods of Maine

when he came across a strange, moss-covered mound.

JIM REED: I saw something that just didn't look right.

I thought it was a boulder at first.

And shortly thereafter, I went up, and I probed a around.

And it was an engine, an aircraft engine.

Well, I was a mechanic.

And it was definitely not a diesel engine

or an automobile engine.

The cooling elements, the way it was built,

indicated to me that it was an aircraft engine.

NARRATOR: Jim Reed was never able to relocate the engine,

although he made several attempts to retrace his steps

through the dense woods.

Could it have been the last remains of "The White Bird"

and proof that the French pilots actually crossed the Atlantic

two weeks before Lindbergh?

RICK GILLESPIE: It's very much like trying

to assemble a jigsaw puzzle.

And little bit by little bit, the pieces come together

and make a picture.

And we have enough of a picture now

to convince us that we're onto the trail.

Rick Gillespie and his wife, Pat Thrasher,

are aircraft archaeologists who have

been searching for "The White Bird" for over four years.

They're so convinced the plane crashed in Maine,

they have given up their job to devote their lives to search

for the missing plane.

After 50 years, most of the aircraft

made of wooden fabric will have totally disintegrated.

But they feel they are close.

Using a helicopter equipped with an infrared scanner,

the investigators survey the area near Machias, Maine, where

the engine had been sighted.

Rick, we're about to come--

NARRATOR: They were hoping to find traces

of metal that would indicate where

"The White Bird" had crashed.

RICK GILLESPIE: From the very beginning of this project,

we felt that technology would be the answer.

And we have driven ourselves nuts

trying to find that technology.

And time and time again, what has worked is people.

People have succeeded.

People have led us closer.

NARRATOR: Rick and Pat concentrated

their investigation on longtime Maine

residents who might have seen or heard "The White Bird"

50 years ago.

They visited a retired blueberry farmer who had

lived in the area for 77 years.

HAROLD VINING: I was outside, and, all of a sudden,

this plane was overhead.

RICK GILLESPIE: You heard the aircraft?

I heard the airplane.

NARRATOR: Harold Vining is the last person still alive

who claims to have heard "The White

Bird" on its final flight.

At that time, we was all keyed up listening for Lindbergh.

Due to the fact that this plane was

traveling in the wrong direction,

it couldn't have been Lindbergh.

I was out chopping wood when I heard this plane go over.

And I honestly believe that that's the first plane

that I ever heard in my life.

That's why it is so outstanding in my mind.

Not knowing that it was these French people

trying to make history, I just paid no attention to it.

NARRATOR: Three miles from Harold Vining's home,

a young couple, Everett and Abigail Scott, heard a plane

and stopped their car to listen.

Two miles away, Mary Gould was in her kitchen

when she, too, heard the sound of a plane.

MAURICE BERRY: It was real foggy for several days.

I remember the day-- well--

NARRATOR: Maurice Berry's cousin, Anson Berry,

was fishing when he, too, heard a plane fly over, then

heard its engine stop.

[engine sputtering]

[crash]

MAURICE BERRY: Anson said that he heard a ripping crash.

I believed the man.

I believed what he said.

And I fully believe that that airplane

is down there somewhere.

You just haven't stumbled onto it.

[branches cracking]

NARRATOR: The team searched one possible crash site near where

the old timers heard the plane.

There they discovered an unusual piece of wood.

RICK GILLESPIE: Hey, Pat?

It turns out to be a single stalk of something that

has been run through a roller, man- fashioned,

the kind of generic material that would have been used

for any kind of a padding purpose but not in Maine

because it's not from Maine.

And it's not even apparently from North America.

NARRATOR: Eventually they found 23 more

fragments of the same strip.

Together they formed a length of two meters, the exact width

of "The White Bird's" wing.

RICK GILLESPIE: We will continue on the project

as long as it seems reasonable to do it.

But it's kept us going in the past.

New information keeps coming out that corroborates

what's come before.

And there's very much a feeling of getting closer, and closer,

and closer.

Watch the ground.

Watch your alignment.

NARRATOR: Rick believes that there still may be a hunter who

has spent time in the desolate woods near Machais, Maine,

and who has seen some clue to the fate of "The White Bird."

They intend to search until the ill-fated French plane is

found.

Only then will Nungesser and Coli

be awarded their rightful place in the annals

of aviation history.

[theme music]

[bell ringing]

NARRATOR: October 1987, Arlington, Texas, the friends

and family of 43-year-old Patsy Bolton Wright mourn

her tragic and unexpected death.

She had died suddenly at 3:00 in the morning in her own bedroom.

And no one knows why.

LESLIE WRIGHT: You would never ever

expect that to happen because, you know, I mean, she was.

She was so alive.

She was so healthy.

There was nothing wrong with her.

And when it happened, you're just in awe

because you would never ever have

expected that to happen to her.

SALLY HORNING: There's not a day that goes by that we can even

believe that this has happened.

We can all still see Patsy coming into the room smiling,

and we can hear her laugh.

And it just doesn't seem real at all.

NARRATOR: Eight days after Patsy's memorial service,

a routine autopsy was performed.

A mass spectrometer checked for 56,000

different foreign substances in Patsy's blood samples.

Suddenly, the machine showed a violent, positive reaction.

The lab technician immediately requested identification.

Within seconds, the chilling answer came back, strychnine.

Because of its horrible side effects,

strychnine poisoning is considered

an unusually cruel way to die.

Death by strychnine is also very rare.

According to a leading toxicologist, since 1950,

there's only been one confirmed case of homicide

by strychnine poisoning in the entire United States.

In the death of Patsy Wright, the Texas authorities

faced a puzzling question.

How had this virulent poison entered Patsy's bloodstream?

[phone ringing]

3: 00 AM the morning of Patsy's death,

Steve and Sally Horning were awakened

by a frantic phone call.

STEVE HORNING: Hello?

I need to talk to Sally.

STEVE HORNING: Patsy?

What's the matter?

I can't breathe.

NARRATOR: The caller was Sally's sister, Patsy Wright.

Hello, Patsy?

I took some cold medicine and something is really wrong.

What's the matter?

What is it?

Patsy?

Patsy?

We got to the house, and parked in the driveway,

and went to the front door.

And, of course, the door was locked.

And we couldn't get in.

(FRANTICALLY) Patsy!

Steve, go around the back.

Patsy?

Open up!

It's Sally!

STEVE HORNING: I went around to the side.

The window was open just, I suppose,

for getting fresh air in there.

Open it up, jump through the window, came through.

And I saw Patsy on the bed.

Patsy?

In the bedroom.

SALLY HORNING: When we got in, she was in the bedroom.

She just looked like she had kind of fainted,

so I thought that's what had happened.

And so we tried to get her up.

And that didn't work.

Operator?

We need an ambulance at 3017 Homeoak and Arlington

immediately.

My sister's not breathing.

STEVE HORNING: I worked on both her heart and mouth

to mouth resuscitation.

During that, a lot of green fluid came out up from her.

And I would continually spit that out onto the bed,

or there was a towel there, as I remember.

Sometime after that, the medics came.

MEDIC: When was the last time y'all talked to her?

About 3 o'clock this morning, and she

just stopped talking to us.

We think the phone dropped.

And we rushed over here as quick as we could, and--

This the way y'all found her?

Yes.

We, at first, thought that she was responding because I could

see the monitor going up and down,

but it was every time they were pushing on her chest

that that's what it was.

MEDIC: We're coming down.

Step.

There you go.

Step.

SALLY HORNING: I rode to the hospital in the ambulance

with her.

And, uh, they said that, um, they were not able to save her.

And they said they had done everything they could do.

And there just wasn't anything they could do.

NARRATOR: Neither Sally nor the police

had any reason to suspect foul play.

But in her phone call, Patsy had mentioned taking cold medicine,

so police collected the bottle for possible analysis.

Patsy's cold medicine contained huge amounts of strychnine.

The FBI ruled out product tampering.

Patsy Wright seemed to have everything to live for.

She had two children, a son Wayne and a daughter Lesley,

to whom she was very close.

Patsy and her sister, Sally, were successful businesswomen.

They owned two wax museums worth over $6 million.

Also, Patsy had just bought three prized quarter horses,

and she'd planned to train them herself.

DR JOANN HOUTS: In my professional opinion,

it's highly unlikely that Patsy committed suicide

or was a high risk for suicide.

NARRATOR: Sergeant Jay Gustavson of the Arlington, Texas, police

began to investigate Patsy's death as a murder.

He had two clues which made him think

that the murder was probably someone Patsy knew very well.

First, Patsy's burglar alarm had not

been set on the night she died.

Secondly, only those close to Patsy

knew it was her habit to take nighttime cold medicine

when she had trouble sleeping.

DR JOANN HOUTS: I can pretty much

say that this case involves someone that

knew Patsy, knew her habits.

And then I have to put together motive and opportunity.

NARRATOR: The first people Sergeant Gustafson questioned

were Patsy's sister and brother-in-law, Sally

and Steve Horning.

SALLY HORNING: They started asking a lot

of questions of all of us.

And, uh, I guess we came to the realization

that we were all, you know, pretty much suspects.

And they had to ask us some questions that, you know,

were not very comfortable.

And, you know I--I-- I don't ever

want to go through that again.

NARRATOR: The Sergeant looked for a motive.

Patsy's wealth came from the two wax museums

she owned with her sister. - OK.

Y'all come here. - Whoa!

[scream] - Whoa!

[laughter]

NARRATOR: Not only were the museums tourist attractions.

They were also centers of social life in their respective towns.

When Patsy died, the museums were inherited

by Steve and Sally Horning.

STEVE HORNING: We as family members were being asked

questions that you never even think

you're ever going to be asked.

So surprise, and hurt, and yet knowing that questions

like these have to be asked.

Did you put that strychnine in Patsy's cold medicine?

STEVE HORNING: No.

NARRATOR: The authorities also speculated

that if Steve Horning had poisoned Patsy,

he would not have performed mouth

to mouth resuscitation on her, taking potentially deadly

liquid into his own mouth.

Steve and Sally along with other family members voluntarily

took polygraph tests.

All of them passed.

Police also gave Patsy's former boyfriend,

Leo Fikes, a polygraph test.

SGT GUSTAFSON: He was one of the ones that would have been close

enough to her to have known about her

taking the liquid cold medicine on occasion.

He was very much in love with Patsy.

But for reasons from Patsy herself,

she did not want to get remarried.

Do you know for sure who caused Patsy to be poisoned?

No.

I had no fear of any questions.

I had no fear of a polygraph test.

In realizing that I was a suspect,

I think the most difficult part of it

for me was that Patsy had rejected me,

and we had not been real close for seven

or eight months prior to that.

I'd seen her, been out with her two or three times,

but there was a certain tenseness

when we were together.

NARRATOR: Leo Fikes passed his polygraph test.

Patsy's ex-husband, Robert Cox, was another person

questioned by the police.

Patsy had obtained a restraining order against Cox

during their separation because she

claimed he was harassing her.

SGT GUSTAFSON: I had some people give me statements

that Patsy had some fears of her ex-husband, Bob Cox.

I understand that there are times that Patsy

believed that Bob Cox had driven by

or parked close to her house.

[engine starting]

SALLY HORNING: We knew that Patsy was going

to be testifying against her second husband

in an upcoming civil suit about an arson fire.

And, uh, we knew that he had called her

on a number of occasions and asked her

to change this or that story.

And she had told him that she was going to tell the truth.

He was offered a polygraph test the same as several others

that I had, uh, interviewed and taken statements from.

And, uh, he refused to take a polygraph test.

NARRATOR: Robert Cox maintains his innocence

as does Leo Fikes.

And there is evidence to suggest that neither of them is guilty.

Next to Patsy's bed on the night she died were two

empty dinner plates on a tray.

It seems highly unlikely that Patsy would

have spent an intimate evening with either Robert Cox or Leo

Fikes.

Could there have been an unknown visitor that night

intimate enough to know Patsy's personal habits

and to share a late night dinner with her?

The day after Patsy died, her daughter, Lesley,

received a strange phone call.

No, she's not right now.

May I take a message?

I said hello, and this person asked for my mother.

And I said, well, she's not here right now, you know.

Can I take a message?

And this person persisted in wanting to talk with her.

Um, well, she passed away yesterday.

She said something to the effect that--

[phone hanging up]

--well, good.

I wanted her dead or something like that.

Um, I don't know if it was a prank phone call.

If it meant something.

Maybe somebody wanted to find out

if she had died by taking the cold medicine

with the poison in it.

You know, it could be totally unrelated.

It could be related.

I don't know.

NARRATOR: The authorities are still

convinced that the murderer is someone

who will knew Patsy well.

Sorry for your loss.

Appreciate it.

It's frightening because we do know that somebody knew her

very well and, knew her habits, and was close enough to her

to know how to get in and to use that cold medicine.

So it is very frightening.

And we are afraid that we do know the person pretty well.

It's a hard thing for, I guess, my brother

and I just from the point that this person knew her very well.

And we obviously have to know them just because we are

such a big part of my mother's life

that we knew most the people that she did know.

And it's hard just because you don't really

know who to trust anymore.

SGT GUSTAFSON: This is not unlike someone

who wanted to set a trap out in the woods

to trap something illegal.

He knows what path the animal goes down.

He knows if he sets a trap and walks away from it

that he can be alone.

He can be in a crowd of people when the trap goes off.

What we've got is Patsy home alone.

She decided to take medication that night.

And that medication was like a trap.

It was laced with strychnine poisoning.

NARRATOR: In a moment, the story of an American oil tank

and the Nazi submarine that sunk her.

Over 45 years later, the real story can finally be told.

[theme music]

NARRATOR: December 7, 1941-- on that

day of infamy, the Japanese bombed

Pearl Harbor, and the United States

was thrust into World War II.

In the Pacific, the Japanese claimed victory after victory.

But in the Atlantic, the German Navy threatened the sea

lanes of America's backyard.

The German submarines, known as U-boats,

even infiltrated the waters of New

York Harbor and Chesapeake Bay.

In 1941, 39-year-old William Betts, a father of two boys,

was captain of the Muskogee, a tanker

that transported crude oil up and down the Atlantic coast.

[boat horn]

The oil was vital to the burgeoning war effort.

Because Betts had no time to go home to his family,

Ellen his wife would go to him.

On February 2, 1942, two months after Pearl Harbor,

the Muskogee was preparing to leave his home port.

William and Ellen exchanged what would be their final farewells.

Ellen returned home to her sons and waited

for word of her husband.

Are you Mrs. Betts?

I have a telegram for Mrs. William Betts.

ELLEN BETTS: I received a telegram

from the company saying that the ship was

probably lost on its way north.

And, uh, that is all they said.

They didn't know anything.

NARRATOR: Ellen had no idea what happened to her husband,

the father of her two boys.

One year later, the older son, George,

was drafted into the military.

But he remained haunted by his father's unknown fate.

For 13 years, there was no clue.

Then in 1955, a strange coincidence, a friend at work

showed him a book about German submarines

called "The Sea Wolves."

And George had his first clue as to what happened to his father.

GEORGE BETTS: It told of how this submarine, the U-123,

as soon as they arrived in their battle zone,

they came upon the tanker Muskogee and sunk it.

After I got done at work that day, I hopped In my car

and rode north to my mother's home

to see if I could find out if that's where the Muskogee had

come from was Wilmington.

And she said yes.

And I said, well, then I've just found out

what happened to Dad's ship when it went down.

[music playing]

NARRATOR: The Muskogee was just one of the 413 ships

sunk my German U-boats in 1942.

29,000 merchant sailors lost their lives.

Among them, the 34 missing mariners of the SS Muskogee.

These are photographs taken from the deck

of the German submarine in the U-123

only minutes after it torpedoed the Muskogee.

They were taken by a German war correspondent

and show seven survivors from William Betts' ship.

All seven would perish at sea.

These photographs took George Betts an important step

closer to uncovering the complete story

of his father's death.

As George learned more about the last moments of the Muskogee,

he began to develop a bond with this merchant marine captain

he never really knew.

By learning about his father's death,

he was establishing a closeness they never shared in life.

Well, it was fascinating to see the pictures at last.

And it made me feel closer to my dad's demise

when I saw the pictures here in the book.

I naturally looked to see if I could

recognize my father on the raft, but I didn't see him there.

And I could quite understand it because the basic rules of sea

are that the captain sees that all able-bodied men are

off the vessel before he leaves it.

Therefore, I felt it was a safe assumption that my dad

went down with his ship.

NARRATOR: In 1979, George contacted the National Archives

in Washington, D.C. and obtained a microfilm copy

of German war records, including the captain's log of the U-123.

GEORGE BETTS: Of course, it was in German,

but I could see the American name of the Muskogee ship sunk,

and I could read some of the fact

that the ship was being fired on.

And I could see where the Muskogee

was on that plodding chart.

And it would show the day.

And he even had it marked on there

like SS Muskogee got sunken.

They knew they'd sunk the ship.

NARRATOR: Captain Reinhard Hardegen commanded the U-123

thought most of the war.

He sunk 23 airline ships, totaling 200,000 tons

and was personally congratulated by Adolph Hitler.

Only one out of 10 U-boat personnel survived the war.

Reinhard Hardegen was among them.

After the war, he was elected to the West German parliament

and served 32 years.

George began writing to Hardegen.

And they agreed to meet in Canada.

GEORGE BETTS: I was all for it.

At long last, I thought I'm now going to talk to this man.

I had no animosity toward him.

That's the way I felt. I felt her's one more World War II

veteran that was on one side and one World War II veteran that

was on the other side.

And, in our cases, we were two of the lucky ones

that survived the battles.

NARRATOR: In October of 1987, the two met.

Reinhard Hardegen gave George a chilling

eyewitness report of the last moments of the "Muskogee."

In the morning of the 22nd of March in 1942,

I saw steam and some mast.

And then I tried to get in front of the [inaudible] of the ship.

The ship was zig-zagging a little bit of nearly 15 degrees

to every side.

As nearly two hours, I was in a good position.

And then I dived.

And then I shot a torpedo with my [inaudible].

This torpedo hit in the engine room of the tanker.

Therefore, the tanker didn't burn.

And she sank very quick.

In a minute, it was all over, and it

was too short for the crew to take lifeboats in the water.

And, therefore, there were only two rafts.

I gave the crew on the rafts food and water, cigarettes,

and told them their position.

I thought the next day a ship would find the rafts.

And so it was very sad information for me

to learn from George Betts that no one of the crew

were rescued.

NARRATOR: Now that George knew the truth about the Muskogee,

he was determined to let the families of the other crew

members share in his knowledge.

He managed to contact eight families.

In September of 1988, he drove over 200 miles

to meet with the family of Clifford Chesley,

the radioman of the Muskogee.

Clifford was 26 when he perished at sea.

Now there's a picture of the ship going down

from the deck bridge of the--

NARRATOR: The Chesley family had no idea

what had happened to Clifford.

Thanks to George, for the first time,

the Chesleys learned the fate of their loved

one 46 years earlier.

We just assumed that there was either a storm or something

that the ship was missing.

Up until now, we didn't even know actually if it went down.

I mean, there were so many prisoner of wars in my age now.

It could've happened the same thing back then.

One day, I almost thought I saw

him walking across the street.

They say everyone has a double.

I almost ran over.

And I just was wondering where he could be.

Now that I know it definitely was the sinking of the boat,

and it's gone, and I definitely will

believe my mind to say my oldest brother,

and that's how he's gone.

It's just a little more peace that finally

knowing what really did happen.

NARRATOR: Of the seven men in this photograph,

three have been identified.

They are Third Mate Nathaniel Foster,

Chief Mate Morgan Finucane, and able-bodied Seaman Anthony

Sousa.

The other four have never been identified,

but they are among these 34 men who disappeared

on board the "Muskogee."

Like so many brave men who served in the merchant marine,

they died unheralded, unrecognized until now.

[music playing]

[theme music]

Next week on "Unsolved Mysteries," the story

of a 16-year-old school girl who vanished just yards

away from her parents' home.

A year later, she may have been 1,000

miles away in South Carolina.

Then she disappeared again.

Perhaps you could help find Kari Lynn Nixon.

Also, a fascinating treasure hunt in New.

Mexico 50 years ago, a prospector

discovered a maze of secret tunnels

in a mountain, which he claimed led

to an underground chamber filled with gold bars

and priceless relics.

Join me next week for another edition

of "Unsolved Mysteries."

[theme music]