Original subtitles

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): 1966.

Quang Tri Province, South Vietnam.

A helicopter crash claims the life of Navy medic Mark Dennis.

Four years later, this photograph

of an unknown American POW appeared

in "Newsweek" magazine.

The Dennis family became convinced

that Mark had survived the crash and was

captured by the Viet Cong.

Dorothy Izatt, an unassuming Canadian homemaker,

has captured these eerie lights on film

and believes there is no explanation other than UFOs.

The skeptics are unconvinced.

Ricardo Caputo, a charismatic ladies' man

and allegedly a brutal killer.

According to the police, Caputo has murdered

at least five women, and authorities

need your help to catch him.

Also tonight, an update on our recent profile

of one of the FBI'S 10 Most Wanted criminals.

Thanks to our broadcast, a suspected serial child molester

is now in custody.

Join us.

You may be able to help solve a mystery.

[theme music]

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): March 1966.

Miamisburg, Ohio.

Well, if I remember right, this is the hardest part.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): The war in Vietnam was escalating.

Navy medic Mark Dennis said goodbye to his family.

See you later.

Take care, bud.

All right, will do.

OK, I'm gonna miss you.

Promise to write, OK?

I will.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Mark had joined the Navy in 1964

at the age of 17.

He chose to be a medic because he

believed it would be useful his desire to one day

become a missionary.

Son, be careful.

Do what they tell you to do, and you're gonna be all right.

Yes, sir.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Mark Dennis

was a deeply religious young man with strong sense

of compassion.

According to his family, he had volunteered for service

in Vietnam so that a married soldier with a family

would not have to go.

Once in Vietnam, Mark was attached to the Marine 2nd

Battalion, Company E, stationed in Dong Ha

next to the demilitarized zone.

In combat slang, the sector was hot.

Go! SOLDIER: Let's go!

Come on!

Get out of here!

JERRY DENNIS: We all knew he was going into combat,

but it was really not on anybody's mind

that it was as bad as it became a few months later.

So we all felt, you know, it was dangerous,

but it was his place to go.

He had volunteered.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): July 15, 1966.

Mark and 15 other men were aboard a Chinook helicopter

bringing assistance to a battalion

hemmed in by the North Vietnamese army.

The helicopter ran into heavy enemy gunfire.

This is an actual photograph of Mark's helicopter

shortly after it was hit.

The helicopter crashed and exploded in the midst

of an infantry firefight.

According to Navy records, only three men survived--

the pilot, copilot, and the gunner.

13 men had perished in the crash.

JERRY DENNIS (VOICEOVER): When I came down the street,

I saw the Navy vehicle.

The first thing that hit my mind is, did Mark get killed?

I pulled up to the house, and I heard my sister yell,

Marky's dead.

He's dead!

Oh, God.

Hold me!

No!

JERRY DENNIS: It was just a total shock.

Then the wait for the casket, it just was days and then

turned into weeks.

The whole thing was really a trauma that is difficult today

to even talk about.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Mark Dennis

was buried on August 9, 1966.

Due to the condition of the body,

the Navy suggested that the family not view the remains.

They complied.

The first four years was rough.

And the Vietnam War went on, and we just tried to shut it

out of our lives, until 1970.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): On November 30, 1970,

"Newsweek" magazine published this photograph

of an unknown prisoner of war.

When the Dennis family saw the photograph,

they thought it looked just like Mark.

Suddenly faced with the possibility

that Mark might be alive, they immediately contacted the Navy.

Naval authorities requested additional photographs of Mark

to see if they could make a positive identification.

Six weeks passed.

Finally, the Navy concluded the man

in the photograph was not Mark Dennis

but rather a previously documented prisoner.

The Navy continued to maintain Mark had been killed in action.

Unconvinced, Jerry Dennis requested that the Navy forward

Mark's death certificate.

The death certificate brought a disturbing revelation.

It appeared that every man killed in the crash

had been positively identified except Mark Dennis.

The Navy stated that they were definitely

able to match 12 bodies found in the wreckage with 12 men

from Mark's unit.

The 13th body was burned beyond recognition.

They apparently assumed it was Mark

by a process of elimination.

Jerry Dennis, still believing the man pictured in "Newsweek"

might be his brother, now became convinced

that Mark had survived.

Several weeks after the photograph

appeared, Jerry received further evidence that his brother might

not have died in the crash.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): In 1971,

an article about Jerry Dennis' efforts

to find out what happened to his brother

appeared in a local newspaper.

The next day, Jerry was visited by a Navy dental technician

named Steve Wilcox.

Steve Wilcox had been Mark's best friend in boot camp.

Six months after Mark was reported killed,

Steve met another medic who had served with Mark in Vietnam.

Everybody that came to the hospital

had to come through my office.

They had to deliver their dental records to me.

So I knew where everybody came from,

and I knew there was just one medic who had come from 'Nam.

I saw him later, and we had a chance to talk.

We worked together a lot in the field as medics.

He's one of the best medics in the group, too.

STEVE WILCOX (VOICEOVER): I mentioned

that I had a friend that was killed in 'Nam,

and mentioned that it was Mark Dennis,

and he was in Mark's unit.

Hey, were you there when that chopper went down?

No, I wasn't actually there.

Look--

STEVE WILCOX (VOICEOVER): Then he

started to share some information with me that was--

caught me off guard.

It really surprised me.

I don't think Mark died that day.

But they sent the body home.

I mean, the family buried Mark.

Well, I was in the first recovery crew, right?

STEVE WILCOX: First of all, he said

that Mark was not supposed to have been on that helicopter.

And secondly, nobody really in the unit

believed that Mark was dead.

There was no evidence at the crash site

that he was on the helicopter when it crashed.

Let's go!

Let's get out of here!

Come on!

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): In the chaotic aftermath of the crash,

the medic recalled that no equipment bags belonging

to Navy medics were found in the debris,

nor were Mark Dennis' dog tags.

Most alarming, he reported that there were not 13 bodies

recovered, as claimed by the Navy.

STEVE WILCOX: I was very frustrated that I

could not remember his name.

There are a lot of things that were unsettling with him.

I was more concerned with Mark, naturally,

so that's what I remember the most.

But I do remember that he was--

he indicated things were happening there that he didn't

understand and bothered him.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Based on Steve Wilcox's story,

the Dennis family chose to ignore

the Navy's recommendation not to view the body.

They decided to have the remains exhumed.

Well, I guess I'm about as ready as I'll ever be.

Let's go ahead and do it.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Because the body had been

burned beyond recognition, military procedure

called for the uniform to be placed on top.

The remains were underneath, wrapped in a plastic bag

covered by a Navy blanket.

JERRY: Dog tag.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Jerry found

dog tags pinned to the blanket.

The tags seemed brand new and still had sharp edges.

I immediately grabbed the dog tag to read it,

and a burr in the dog tag sunk into my thumb, actually

drew blood.

And I immediately realized these dog tags were never worn,

or they would have cut your chest to ribbons.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Jerry also noticed

curious burn marks on the tags.

They were not from a helicopter crash.

I was into the arson field.

I knew what the temperatures reached in that helicopter

as it burned and melted down.

These dog tags were not in that helicopter.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Jerry Dennis

once again contacted the Navy.

Their initial response was that the tags must have

been thrown from the helicopter and burned at a lower

temperature.

Later, they arrived at a different conclusion.

The ID tags that are recovered from a crash site

would have been brought to the mortuary with the remains.

But since it was not mentioned on the death certificate

that ID tags were part of the identification process,

I have to assume that new ID tags were made

at the Army mortuary in Saigon.

That was standard policy at that time.

That is normal.

It is not normal to make up a dog tag

and burn it to make it simulate that it was in a crash.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Jerry had lab technicians

examine residue from the tags.

They concluded the tags had been charred in a low-grade fire

under a controlled flame.

A forensic anthropologist determined

that the height of the dead man was approximately 5 feet 7",

which corresponded with the Navy's estimate.

However, in 1963, Mark Dennis was measured at 5 feet,

9 and 1/2".

Further, his family claims that when

he left for Vietnam three years later,

he had grown to 6 feet tall.

Jerry also ordered tests on scrapings

taken from the remains.

The tests revealed traces of lead, another inconsistency.

The body was not blown up in a Chinook helicopter,

because a Chinook helicopter uses JP-4

or JP-5 non-leaded kerosene.

This body had been burned with regular gasoline.

What he failed to consider as possible other contaminants

of lead in that incident were military radio batteries

on board the aircraft, ammunition,

paint from the aircraft, that kind of thing.

The standard reference used by the FBI states

that there are also minute presence of lead that

occurs naturally in human bone.

We weren't talking about bone marrow.

We're talking about the residues,

the smoke on the surface of the burned areas, the bone,

the flesh, the skull itself.

So they were comparing eggs and oranges.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): In November 1971,

Jerry officially requested a change in Mark's status

from killed in action to missing in action.

The Navy refused.

I was given a choice--

either accepting that body, you know,

or if we refused to accept it, the Navy

was going to bury it in Arlington Cemetery

with Mark's headstone on it.

And I decided there was no way in hell

they're going to do that.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Two months

later, the Dennis family reburied

the body in Miamisburg.

Jerry placed a ribbon upon the headstone.

It read, "In memory of one known only to God."

March 1973.

The war in Vietnam was over.

The first prisoners of war began coming home.

The Dennis family prayed that Mark would be among them.

He was not.

The arrival of the Vietnamese boat people in the late 1970s

brought renewed hope, stories of American GIs still

being held captive in Vietnam.

For most of us, the Vietnam War had begun to fade by 1980.

For Jerry Dennis and the families of other men

whose fate was still unknown, the war raged on.

Jerry decided to renew his efforts

and petitioned his congressman to investigate

the circumstances surrounding Mark's death.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): In 1981,

pressure from Jerry's congressman

forced the Navy into interviewing

Capt. Gary Lucas, the helicopter gunner who survived the crash.

In a signed affidavit, Lucas stated that two men

had jumped from the helicopter, though he

assumed they were killed.

The man who got out of this alive

said men jumped out of the aircraft in enemy territory

prior to the crash.

At least two he saw jump.

Did he see it?

The pilot said that the smoke was so bad

after the aircraft was hit he could

not see to fly the helicopter.

Or did he see two people move towards the rear

of the aircraft to try and get away from the fire?

The fact remains that all the remains

of those that perished on that aircraft were recovered.

When I first became involved in this,

it was a personal issue.

It was a brother, Mark Dennis, the kid that got left

behind by the US government.

And it was a very personal thing.

Everybody involved in this issue, the family members,

start out that way.

But you don't remain that way very long.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Over the next four years,

Jerry Dennis became increasingly active in national POW and MIA

organizations.

He made numerous trips to Washington to plead his case.

Then in December of 1986, Jerry got

another piece of compelling evidence

that Mark had not died in the crash.

Where did you get these bracelets?

WOMAN: This is a bracelet of Jerry's

brother, who's a POW/MIA.

A gentleman to my left really became absorbed in listening,

and I knew he was interested.

JERRY: --probability he may be alive today.

- Excuse me. - Yes, sir.

I didn't want to interrupt, but I happened to overhear

part of your conversation.

My name is John King.

John, I'm Jerry. This is Carol.

Hi.

Hi.

I heard you talking about the POWs.

When I was in the Air Force, I happened to be

a POW myself from '66 to '69.

Um, I was moved around a lot, four different camps.

In the last camp I was in, there was a gentleman

by the name of Dennis.

And I said, well, what was his first name?

He said, I don't know.

We all went by nicknames.

I said, what was his nickname?

When he told me his nickname was Preacher, I got cold chills.

Mark was very close to the Church.

He talked about becoming a missionary

before he went in the service.

While in the service, he had just written home in letters

that his unit was separated and he was the acting chaplain

for the group he was in.

He was proud of that.

Here's a man telling us all these years later--

excuse me-- that that was his nickname.

Then we pulled out Mark's picture.

Yeah.

Yeah, that's him.

JERRY: You're sure? - I'm positive.

That's him.

It's what I had been saying all along could be--

probably was-- that he lived.

He definitely lived through the crash in '66.

The odds he was still alive, especially if he was once

captured as a medic-- he was useful to these people

as a medic.

I basically feel I have become pretty good friends

with Mr. Jerry Dennis over the years

since I've been working with him.

And I've made every effort on behalf of the Navy

to try and convince him that we have a positive identification

of his brother Mark's remains.

I get the impression from Mr. Dennis

that he still does not believe they are his brother's remains,

or for some reason doesn't want to believe it.

But I, in my own heart, feel that for sure we have

the remains of Mark Dennis.

No matter what we come up with--

I swear if I marched Mark Dennis into the United States Navy

headquarters tomorrow, they'd find some excuse to discredit

his identification.

It doesn't matter what you present.

They aren't going to change.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Did Mark Dennis

die in the helicopter crash?

Or did he survive, only to be taken prisoner

by the North Vietnamese?

Jerry Dennis may never know who is

buried in his brother's grave.

But if it isn't Mark Dennis, then

another family has never been able to put their son to rest.

Whether Mark is alive today, I don't know.

What condition he would be in, where he would be,

I don't know.

But in my opinion, no one else knows, either,

except some Vietnamese who hold the keys.

But the point is, Mark Dennis has

a right, a constitutional right, to not be listed

dead by the stroke of a pen.

He has a right to be accounted for.

He has a right to be demanded.

And that's never been done by our government for Mark Dennis.

After this story originally aired,

additional details emerged which may shed new light

on the mystery of Mark Dennis.

We were contacted by the Department of the Army,

which sought to clarify some of the more controversial issues

presented in our broadcast.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): As we reported,

Jerry Dennis first became convinced

that his brother might still be alive

when "Newsweek" magazine published

this photograph of an unidentified prisoner of war.

Jerry felt that it bore a strong resemblance to Mark.

Six months later, the Dennis family was told by the Navy

that the man had been positively identified as Paul Galanti,

a US Navy commander shot down over North Vietnam in 1966

and released from captivity in 1973.

Nevertheless, Jerry Dennis continued to press

his case against the military.

When I was in the Air Force, I happened to be

a POW myself from '66 to '69.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): 16 years later, in 1986, Jerry met

a man named John King.

King presented himself as a former POW

who had managed to escape.

He claimed to have met Mark Dennis

while both were in captivity.

Yeah.

Yeah, that's him.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): It is now known that the name John

King is not officially listed as a POW

in any branch of the military.

Perhaps the most controversial aspect of the case

concerns the remains exhumed from Mark Dennis' grave.

Jerry Dennis did not believe X-rays taken of those bones

matched X-rays taken of his brother

at the time of his enlistment.

With the cooperation of the US Department of the Army,

we contacted Dr. John Fitzpatrick,

an independent forensic radiologist.

To positively identify the body, Dr. Fitzpatrick

examined a blowup of a known X-ray of Mark Dennis

with an X-ray of the remains buried in Mark Dennis' grave.

When he compared three specific points from the X-rays,

he concluded that the bones had exactly the same configuration.

I compared the X-rays taken on the three vertebrae that were

excavated from the site in Vietnam

with the X-ray of Mark Dennis.

The three vertebrae are identical.

There's enough unique about everybody,

no matter what we look at, that no two people are alike.

And therefore, the vertebrate are those of Mark Dennis,

and this is a 100% identification.

After we received Dr. Fitzpatrick's analysis,

we contacted Jerry Dennis for his comments.

In spite of the new forensic findings,

Jerry still believes that his brother did not

die when the Navy said he did.

The Department of the Army considers

the case of Mark Dennis closed.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Next, our viewers

help capture Kenneth Robert Stanton, one of the FBI's

10 Most Wanted criminals.

Recently, the director of the FBI, William Sessions,

made a special appeal on "Unsolved Mysteries"

to announce the latest addition to the FBI's 10

Most Wanted list.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): In 1964, Kenneth Robert Stanton

was convicted of child molestation

and diagnosed as a criminal sexual psychopath.

He was later declared fit to re-enter society

and was set free.

In 1989, Stanton was identified in Jackson, Mississippi,

by a 12-year-old girl he allegedly attempted to molest.

According to the girl, Stanton gained entry into her home

by posing as a policeman.

Hi.

Is your mother home?

No.

Well, I'm Officer Tom Coles.

I'm with the local police department.

FRED C. STOFER (VOICEOVER): He has a high IQ,

and he's very intelligent, and he's

able to gain their confidence to get inside the house.

- And I'll be gone. - OK.

All right.

Once he's inside and he's determined

that the children or child is alone,

he blindfolds them frequently.

Quite often, he uses eye drops and a thermometer, possibly

for a distraction.

It's at that time then that he continues on

and assaults the children.

GIRL: [screaming]

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): According

to the 12-year-old girl, Stanton fled when she began screaming.

FRED C. STOFER (VOICEOVER): After the Jackson, Mississippi,

assault, there were identifications

of Stanton in Columbus, Mississippi,

as well as Tuscaloosa, Alabama; Leesburg,

Georgia; Douglasville, Georgia; and Warner Robins, Georgia.

After reviewing a number of these cases

and looking at Stanton's history from the early 1960s,

we were able to conclude that he apparently was a lifelong child

molester and probably could be described

as a serial child molester.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Update.

Kenneth Robert Stanton has been captured.

Within minutes of our broadcast, several viewers

called our telecenter to report that Stanton

was living in a trailer park in Moraine, Ohio, with his wife.

He had been married just a few weeks earlier.

Local police and FBI agents arrived at Stanton's trailer

only to learn that he himself had seen our broadcast

and fled.

Stanton's wife and neighbors were stunned.

I've talked to my son, and I've had him

in front of the house staying in the yard

just in case he come back.

And, you know, I don't want someone

like that running around the streets at all.

You know, anyone that does anything

like that should be put away.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Five days later, Stanton

was identified in Rock Hill, South Carolina,

after he allegedly attempted to molest a 9-year-old girl.

JOHN PIERSON: Based on seeing the segment on the program,

coupled with the police report, we

suspected there was a strong possibility

that Stanton was in Rock Hill or somewhere in this area.

And we proceeded on an assumption

that he was possibly staying at a local motel.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Two days later,

FBI agents spotted Stanton's car in the parking

lot of this motel.

JOHN PIERSON (VOICEOVER): After identifying the vehicle,

we established a surveillance of the motel with FBI agents

and York County Sheriff's Department detectives.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Incredibly, a check

with the motel office revealed that Stanton had

registered under his own name.

JOHN PIERSON: He had indicated to the clerk

previously that he wanted to stay an additional week

but he also wanted to move to the main building.

The clerk, at our direction, called his room

and told him the new room was ready and he could move.

When Stanton emerged from his room, we arrested him.

We asked his name.

He said, you know who I am, and he indicated

that he was not a threat to us, that he

was only a threat to himself.

He did indicate that the following day was his birthday.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): When we return,

the police are hunting for a suspect who they believe has

murdered at least five women.

July 31, 1971.

Nassau County, New York, 11:00 PM.

A 20-year-old Argentine man named

Ricardo Caputo made a late-night call to the police.

OFFICER (ON TELEPHONE): Police Department.

I'd like to talk to the police.

OFFICER (ON TELEPHONE): How can I help you?

I want to report something very important.

OFFICER (ON TELEPHONE): Where are you calling from?

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): He told police to go to the home

of his girlfriend's parents.

Her name was Natalie Brown.

Caputo had been dating Natalie for over a year

and had told authorities that he intended to marry her.

DET.

VANCE E. RENDELL: I responded to the scene on Middle Neck Road.

It was a small, cottage-type, Cape Cod house.

I went in the front door.

And immediately on my left, I saw a kitchen,

and in the kitchen was the body of Miss Brown.

She had been stabbed repeatedly.

The room was covered with blood.

It was really a vicious assault on her.

It was the worst I ever seen in my history,

and I've covered a lot of homicides in my life.

During the time that Natalie and Ricardo were seeing

each other, I never saw any signs of volatile behavior

on his part.

Both my father and mother seemed to like him.

They got along with him well.

They both thought he was a nice boy.

Natalie Brown's friends and family

described her fiance as amiable and attractive

with a winning personality.

But in the case of Ricardo Caputo,

appearances were more than deceiving,

they became a lethal weapon.

Police believe that since 1971, Caputo

has employed his charms to kill again and again and again.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): After Caputo was taken into custody

for Natalie Brown's murder, authorities

learned that before arriving in the United States in 1970,

he had been treated for mental illness

in an Argentine hospital.

The psychiatric review ruled that Caputo

was incompetent to stand trial, so he

was remanded to the Matteawan State Hospital

in upstate New York.

Matteawan is a maximum security institution,

and it was there that Caputo would

meet a 26-year-old psychologist named Judith Becker.

Well, hello there.

My doctor, my friend.

How are you?

I'm very well, thank you.

How are you?

Fine.

Now, listen.

There's something I want to talk to you about.

The other doctors and I were discussing a project which

would involve taking you and a few other patients

outside to grow a garden.

I think it--

JANE STORRS: I believe it was a relationship of a psychologist

and a patient.

She felt that her patients were also her friends.

She wanted them to trust her, and I

think she felt they had to trust her in order for her

to be able to help them.

I will grow you the biggest tomatoes.

OK.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Judith Becker was charmed by Caputo,

and over the next two years he worked

overtime to gain her trust.

Apparently, he succeeded.

I do not like to remember.

In speaking to other inmates of Matteawan State Hospital,

several of them stated that Ricardo Caputo had been

bragging that he was going to use

Judith Becker to gain his freedom

from Matteawan State Hospital.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): In 1973, with Judith Becker's

assistance, Ricardo Caputo managed

to get transferred out of Matteawan to a Manhattan

psychiatric hospital.

It had been two years since Natalie Brown

had been stabbed to death.

This hospital was much less restrictive than Matteawan

and allowed patients to leave the facility during the day.

This new freedom allowed Judith and Caputo

to spend more time together outside the hospital walls.

Today, there is still a debate on just

how intimate they became.

From there, their relationship became romantic.

From time to time, he would leave the grounds

and go up to her apartment in Yonkers.

Judy and Ricardo did not have a romantic relationship.

She never described it that way.

And I believe she knew enough about her profession

and her patients to not have allowed that to happen.

I think she felt that he needed whatever help

she might be able to give him.

What about your family, though?

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Judith even took

Caputo home to meet her family.

JANE STORRS: When we met Ricardo,

she introduced him as a fellow who

worked with her at Matteawan.

She continued the relationship as a friend

and as a psychologist and as somebody he could turn to.

And I don't believe that she knew she was in as much danger

as she ultimately was.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): October 21, 1974.

Judith had failed to meet her parents as planned for a family

boating trip.

Concerned, they went to her apartment.

I did. It's ringing.

Did you press 2C? DET.

JOSEPH SURLAK (VOICEOVER): They located the super

of the apartment building, and by the use of a pass key,

he allowed them to enter the apartment.

Judy?

DET.

JOSEPH SURLAK (VOICEOVER): When they entered the apartment

where she lived, there was dinner for two on the coffee

table in the living room.

Judy? DET.

JOSEPH SURLAK: And when they walked into the bedroom,

they found their daughter lying on her back in bed

wearing only a half slip.

She had been brutally beaten about the head

and strangled with one of her stockings.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Police believe

that Caputo took Judith's car, checkbook,

and some of her clothing.

Then he disappeared.

San Francisco, six months later.

Ricardo Caputo had met another trusting woman.

Barbara Taylor was a local book editor.

These pictures were taken by Barbara and Caputo

on a romantic getaway to Yosemite.

But on March 30, 1975, Barbara was discovered beaten

to death in her apartment.

Caputo's fingerprints were found at the scene of the crime.

By the time Barbara's body was discovered,

Ricardo Caputo was nowhere to be found.

Five days later, El Paso, Texas.

The search for Ricardo Caputo took a dramatic turn.

A man calling himself Ricardo Diaz

was delivered into the hands of US Immigration

by Mexican authorities.

BYRON V. MACDONALD: He was turned over

to the custody of US officials, and he was incarcerated

at the alien detention facility, which is

located here in El Paso, Texas.

It was actually a lockup there where he was being detained.

No charges had been filed against him.

It was just an administrative thing.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): At first,

Diaz attracted little attention, until he was fingerprinted.

He knew then that it would not take long for his real identity

to be uncovered.

Ricardo Diaz was, in reality, Ricardo Caputo.

April 7, 1975.

Caputo and three other detainees took the guard hostage

and picked up makeshift weapons in the kitchen.

[shouting in spanish]

The men then fled the compound and crossed the border

into Mexico in a stolen car.

All the men were recaptured with the exception of Caputo.

His companions told police Caputo

was headed to Mexico City.

There, he moved in with a young

21-year-old college student by the name of Laura Marie Gomez.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Two years later,

23-year-old Laura Marie Gomez was found dead

in her Mexico City apartment.

Miss Gomez was found brutally beaten, stomped to death.

She had been tortured prior to her death.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Laura Gomez was

two and 1/2 months pregnant.

Police believe the killer and the father

were the same man, Ricardo Caputo.

DET.

JOSEPH SURLAK: Handsome, charming, intelligent,

has a violent temper which usually

results in homicidal outbursts.

Since he's done this all over the United States

and in Mexico, we have to consider him a serial killer.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Incredibly,

police believe Ricardo Caputo has killed again.

On August 2, 1983, 60-year-old Jackie Bernard,

a prominent author and social activist,

was found murdered, her throat crushed,

in her West Side Manhattan apartment.

On January 22, 1985, a private investigator

hired by Jackie's family received

an anonymous phone call identifying Jackie's

killer as Ricardo Caputo.

The caller also said that Caputo

boasted about killing several other women and also some men.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): At Jackie Bernard's residence,

her superintendent told Gordon McEwan that he was positive

that he had seen Caputo on the premises attempting to gain

entry into Jackie's apartment.

Yeah, I know that guy.

GORDON MCEWAN: The superintendent

was absolutely positive of his identification of Caputo.

He even added that the hairline of Caputo's hair

had receded somewhat.

He also informed me that Caputo spoke

with a South American accent.

He was very positive.

BYRON V. MACDONALD: Caputo is a chameleon.

He can change his identity, he can change his looks,

and he can kill and have no remorse for having killed.

He's a good con artist.

He's a smooth talker.

He could function in probably just about any situation

he set his mind to go into.

I'd hate to think that Ricardo will have

the opportunity to do it to another lady or anybody else,

for that matter.

And I think he'd be better off dead.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): When we return,

an eerie tale of bizarre lights in the Canadian sky and

the woman who has filmed them.

UFO sightings can usually be explained away

as airplane lights, weather balloons, military maneuvers,

even mass hysteria.

Sightings sometimes gain credibility when

they're supported by photographs which cannot be

written off as obvious hoaxes.

All of these photographs and thousands like them

have been taken over the last 16 years in Canada.

They baffle even the harshest skeptic

and raise two elegantly simple questions--

how and why?

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Vancouver, British Columbia,

on the Pacific coast of Canada.

For 35 years, this city has reported an inordinate number

of UFO sightings.

The most frequent and well-documented

of the sightings have all been attributed

to one woman, Dorothy Izatt, a homemaker and mother of four.

Dorothy's first sighting occurred 16 years ago

on November 9, 1974.

She was 52 years old.

DOROTHY IZATT: I was in the kitchen fixing myself

a cup of tea, and I had a sensation

that something was watching me, a very, very strong feeling.

So I went over to the window, and here

was this enormous object sitting up in the sky.

It looked like an enormous diamond.

It was just flashing and going around and around and around.

It was so beautiful to look at that I

thought I was really lifted up.

It was absolutely a wonderful feeling.

I wasn't afraid at all, you know.

I was-- I felt really privileged to be able to see

something like that.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): At that time,

Dorothy and her family lived in Richmond,

a modest suburb of Vancouver.

They considered themselves average working-class people.

Dorothy's husband and children took her UFO sightings

lightly, almost as a joke.

Their skepticism motivated Dorothy

to prove that what she had seen was not

simply a star or an airplane.

DOROTHY IZATT: I said, I must find some way of communicating

with this thing up there.

So I picked up a flashlight and said, all right,

whatever I do with this flashlight,

will you please imitate me?

So I flashed the light three times to the left,

and this object went three times to the left.

Then I flashed it three times to the right,

and the object went three times to the right.

Then I went three times upwards.

It went three upwards.

Three times downwards, it went three times downwards.

It was doing everything.

And then zigzagging, and it went zigzag.

So I said, I'm not imagining this.

I said, this is really happening.

So it's intelligent.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Dorothy

was amazed that the lights seemed

to be trying to communicate with her,

so she attempted to capture them on film.

The results would be startling.

What I saw in the sky was just round objects of light,

round balls of light.

But what was on the film, you see the balls of light.

But after a couple of frames, there would be

this enormous blast of light.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): This is

actual footage from Dorothy's Super 8 millimeter home movies.

On her home viewer, Dorothy inched

the film back and forth until she

isolated a single bright frame.

What had at first appeared to be a simple flash of light

was actually a maze of colored streaks.

Oddly, the light did not spill over onto adjacent frames.

I noticed that while I'm filming these objects,

they'll suddenly stop.

And then I'll notice one object, like, shooting out

a little beam at the other object,

and then that object would be shooting

out another beam back at it.

And so I guess it must be messages

or something that they're passing back and forth

on these beams of light.

And then when I get it developed,

I'll find all these strange, one-frame shots on it.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Dorothy

had the single frames of film blown up into photographs.

Bright, kinetic beams careened in all directions.

She also blew up frames of the mysterious balls of light.

These photographs began to show more and more curious details.

Sometimes, they'll beam a light down at me.

They'll just beam this enormous light down at me, you know,

and I'll be all lit up with this light.

I used to ask them to come closer and closer,

because I wanted better shots.

And they did, you know, like, come closer and closer.

DR. DU-FAY DERR: I don't think she's

lying about what she's doing.

I feel that she's quite sincere.

On the other hand, I am not able to assess

her photographs professionally, because that's

not part of my expertise.

But her personality makeup would make me believe that she

is not making things up.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Like most UFO sightings,

Dorothy's experiences and her photographs seem

to defy conventional logic.

She says she used three different cameras.

Each one yielded similar results.

We asked a photography expert to evaluate Dorothy's film.

VERN MILLER: I have seen several similar examples of photography

like this.

Light sources in the sky with dark backgrounds

are quite easy to manipulate.

But these are more extraordinary in the sense

that they were done with an 8-millimeter camera, a motion

picture camera, rather than a still camera,

and they have so many different types of effects.

And there's images that I can't explain at all,

explain how the lights got into the individual frames.

I can suggest ways that they could have been

put in intentionally, but no ways

that they could accidentally have been placed into the film.

I believe that these images were produced

by a natural occurring phenomenon in the night sky

and not by extraterrestrial beings or unexplained objects.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Despite endless skepticism

from the scientific community, Dorothy Izatt

has become an internationally known

figure in the world of UFOs.

As Dorothy's fame spread, people often

came to visit her in Vancouver.

One of them was Gerry Mackay, a planning

and marketing consultant.

He had read an article about Dorothy

and felt strongly that he had to meet her.

GERRY MACKAY (VOICEOVER): I was interested enough and moved

enough by that article that I really

did just want to find out more for my own interest's sake.

I think it's healthy to be skeptical,

because I was myself.

I didn't have any previous experience

with the subject matter at all.

I didn't even realize up until that point that I had as much

of an interest with it as it's turned out that I do.

And these are, like, daytime-type shots.

Or they look like it. Is it?

Or is it just the type of lighting or whatever?

Well, I was told to try and get

some pictures in the daytime as well,

and that's why I got these.

GERRY MACKAY (VOICEOVER): I was listening very intently to what

she was saying, at which time I noticed that I was hearing

some kind of audible sensing thing that was

happening only in my right ear.

--so that they know it's solid and it's not just a--

Excuse me, Dorothy.

I-- I don't mean to interrupt you, but, um,

I'm getting a strange sensation in my ear here,

so I'm sort of losing what you're saying.

You can hear that?

And I looked at her, and I said, yes, I can.

What is it?

And just this brilliant beam of smile

went from ear to ear on her face.

And I remember the look that she gave me, and she said,

they're here.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Gerry Mackay

was the first person to say he actually heard the same thing

that Dorothy heard.

[gentle ringing]

GERRY MACKAY (VOICEOVER): I don't think any more than 15

or 20 seconds went by, and she said, do you see it?

Do you see it, Gerry?

No, I don't see anything.

Where are you looking?

I'm looking straight ahead across to Cypress Ball.

GERRY MACKAY: She goes, no, no, no.

Look over here to the left where I am.

To my complete shock and amazement,

what appeared to be sitting right

out in front of the window just to our left

was a hard, metallic object.

I remember the feeling was so intense,

it was like I was standing in a vacuum

and all my hair was standing on end.

And as soon as it disappeared, Dorothy let out a giggle

that was like, there you go.

What do you think of that?

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Gerry commissioned an artist to draw

what he and Dorothy had seen.

He says he was completely overwhelmed.

It did not occur to him to try to photograph the object.

Dorothy has accumulated more than 25 hours of film

and has had blowups made of 3,000 frames.

Her enthusiasm remains unabated, and she continues to film,

hoping that she can one day decipher the meaning, if any,

of the lights.

DOROTHY IZATT: I feel there is some sort

of message in there for us.

They're trying to tell us something from these pictures.

It seems like they're coming closer

and closer all the time compared to the first pictures I

used to take.

And each picture now that I'm getting is far more vivid.

It varies all the time.

My mission is to just keep filming, I guess,

and receiving these pictures for as long as I am able to

and hope that one day, someone or somewhere will

be able to understand what it's all about.

When "Unsolved Mysteries" visited Dorothy Izatt's home

in Vancouver, she told us the lights were there,

and she filmed them with her Super 8-millimeter camera.

We could not see the lights, but our cameraman

attempted to film them anyway.

He also asked Dorothy to operate his camera.

The film from Dorothy's 8-millimeter camera

showed the usual brilliant light patterns.

When we developed our film, we did

find one tiny unidentifiable light in the sky,

but it exhibited none of the characteristics

seen in Dorothy's photographs.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Next week on "Unsolved Mysteries,"

in 1986, the body of 28-year-old Debbie Wolfe

was found in an oil drum submerged

in the icy waters of a pond near Fayetteville, North Carolina.

The police ruled it accidental drowning.

The family says it was murder.

80 years ago, Conradina Olsen boarded a train in Wisconsin

and was never seen again.

Her granddaughter will not rest until she finds an answer.

Did Conradina simply run away, or was she murdered?

We'll also bring you a dramatic update

on our recent story of a female prison

guard who fell in love with a convict

and allegedly helped him escape.

Join me next week for another edition

of "Unsolved Mysteries."

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