Original subtitles

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.

These outlaw legends were immortalized

by the movie starring Paul Newman and Robert Redford.

According to history, Butch and Sundance was gunned

down by soldiers in Bolivia.

But some experts now believe one of the famous bandits

escaped to the United States and lived

out his life as a prosperous Seattle businessman.

For nearly seven years, Cindy James

was a victim of more than 100 separate incidents

of harassment, including five violent physical attacks.

Police suspected that Cindy staged the incident herself.

Then in 1989, Cindy was found dead, her hands

and feet bound behind her back.

On a desolate highway in Texas, two women and a young boy

had a bizarre encounter with an unidentified object.

Today, all three are plagued by mysterious illnesses

whose symptoms began to appear that very night.

For every mystery, there is someone

somewhere who knows the truth.

Perhaps that someone is watching.

Perhaps it's you.

Join me.

[theme music]

REPORTER (ON TV): The body of the blonde woman

was clothed in brown slacks, a pink blouse, and shoes.

The 44-year-old--

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): June 8, 1989.

Richmond, a suburb of Vancouver, British Columbia.

The evening news carries a report

that has become all too common, the discovery of a dead body--

in this case, lying in the yard of an abandoned house.

MAN: The hands were behind her back, strapped to her feet.

REPORTER: Strapped to her feet?

Tied to her feet with a rope or a cord.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): The dead woman

was 44-year-old pediatric nurse Cindy James.

She lived less than two miles from the spot

where her body was found.

For seven years, Cindy had been reporting that she was

the victim of more than 100 separate incidents

of harassment, five of them violent physical attacks.

The police first believed then disbelieved Cindy's stories.

However, Cindy's parents are convinced that their daughter

was murdered.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Cindy James graduated

from nursing school in 1966.

Within a few years, she was named administrator

of a preschool for children with behavioral

and emotional disorders.

Cindy was married but never had children of her own.

In July of 1982, Cindy and her husband separated.

Four months later, the phone calls began.

[phone rings]

Hello?

Who is this?

TILLIE HACK: She said it was just a voice.

Sometimes it would change the sound,

and sometimes it was just whispering.

Sometimes it was just nothing, just silence.

As far as we know, she did not recognize the voice.

Of course, I think we should add a qualifier there

that she was very, very reluctant to talk

about this right to the end, and our feeling

was that she was withholding something extremely vital.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Cindy reported

the threatening calls to Vancouver police,

who began an investigation.

Over the next three months, she said

that the harassment escalated.

At night, she heard prowlers.

Her porch lights were smashed, her phone lines severed.

Bizarre cut-and-paste notes began

to appear on her doorstep.

She told me many times that he wanted to scare her to death.

She said, he doesn't want to kill me.

He wants to scare me to death.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): On January 27, 1983,

Agnes Woodcock dropped by Cindy's house for a visit.

Cindy?

AGNES WOODCOCK (VOICEOVER): I went out

and knocked on the door.

There was no answer.

I assumed she was having her bath.

She did every night.

And I thought I heard something, and I wasn't sure what it was.

AGNES: [gasp]

Cindy!

What happened?

AGNES WOODCOCK (VOICEOVER): I found

her crunched down with a nylon tied tightly around her neck.

AGNES: Oh, are you all right?

AGNES WOODCOCK: Cindy said she'd gone

out to the garage to get a box.

And just as she got to the garage,

she turned, and someone grabbed her from behind, she said.

And all she saw was white sneakers.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Cindy was thoroughly frightened.

She moved to a new house.

Later, she painted her car and eventually

changed her last name.

The police continued their investigation

and questioned Cindy several times.

OZZIE KABAN: She wouldn't tell them the entire story.

She would be evasive.

She would withhold information, and she simply would not act

as a normal victim would act.

And I can see where a police officer

would have a tremendous amount of problem

in believing her story.

Do you live in the city of Vancouver?

Yes.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Cindy was asked

to take a lie detector test.

The results were inconclusive.

Both times, the polygraph indicated that she

was withholding information.

POLYGRAPH OPERATOR: On January 27, 1983,

were you physically assaulted outside your home?

Yes.

TILLIE HACK: Cindy told me that after she was attacked,

the knife was held at her throat,

and she was told that if you talk, your sister will be next

and then your mother.

So just keep quiet. Don't tell anything.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): On January 30, 1984,

Ozzie Kaban, a private investigator hired by Cindy,

heard strange sounds coming over a two-way radio

he had given her.

He went straight to Cindy's house.

OZZIE KABAN (VOICEOVER): I went around the house,

and the house was locked.

I was able to look into the house through a window,

and I found Cindy lying there.

101 to base.

Get me the police.

Cindy?

Cindy, can you hear me?

OZZIE KABAN: I took a look at her,

and I thought she was dead.

There was a note that was pinned with a paring knife

through her hand.

I went to the telephone, called 911.

Within about two minutes, the medical people arrived.

And she revived briefly, and then

they took her to the hospital.

When I interviewed Cindy, she told me that she noticed

a man coming through the gate.

The next thing she remembers is being

hit on the side of the head with a piece of wood

or something of that nature.

She then remembered being held down on the floor,

and she remembered a needle going into her arm.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Neal Hall of the "Vancouver Sun"

has covered Cindy's case for two years.

$1 and 1/2 million, it's been estimated,

police spent investigating Cindy James' complaints,

more than 100 incidents.

And they could never find a suspect.

They could never find a--

they could never-- there was no sighting of a suspect.

There was never a fingerprint from a suspect.

There was no independent corroboration.

Cindy saw this person--

or sometimes she said there was two, sometimes three people--

going on year after year after year.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): After one attack,

Royal Canadian Mounted Police tape recorded

their questioning of Cindy.

This is an actual excerpt from that interview.

There were times I would talk with her, and I would say,

Cindy, please tell me what's going on.

And she'd say, I can't, Mother.

I can't.

I'd say, why not?

Because, she says, I'm afraid for you.

[phone rings]

Hello?

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): The threatening phone

calls continued but were too short to trace.

Why are you doing this to me?

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Police began to formulate

a disturbing theory.

Incredibly, they believed Cindy might

have been staging the entire harassment

campaign against herself.

They had 24-hour surveillance on her house for, like, days

on end with up to 14 officers.

But never, when surveillance was on her house, never

any event would happen.

As soon as surveillance was taken off,

of course, then she'd get another incident that happened.

When the police were watching the house,

we would say to them, well, you know,

if it's somebody doing that, sure as heck

he knows you're there.

And of course, nobody will do anything while you're

sitting there and watching.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): On December 11, 1985,

Cindy was found dazed and semi-conscious

lying in this ditch six miles from her home.

She was wearing a man's work boot and glove

and suffering from hypothermia.

Cuts and abrasions covered her body.

Once again, a black nylon stocking had been

tied tightly around her neck.

Once again, Cindy said she had no memory of what happened.

The police became more and more convinced that Cindy

was somehow attacking herself.

The police did not investigate the possibility of homicide,

of somebody murdering her, but zeroed in on trying to prove

that she committed suicide.

And I'm very angry with the ineptitude, the bungling

by those who are responsible to protect our citizens

and to do something about, first of all,

preventing a death like this, and secondly,

when it does occur, not investigating it properly.

[knocking]

Agnes, wake up!

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Several times,

Cindy asked Agnes Woodcock and her husband, Tom,

to spend the night with her.

On one occasion, Cindy woke them well after midnight.

AGNES WOODCOCK (VOICEOVER): Cindy came running to the door

and said, Tom, I heard a noise downstairs.

And Tom said, I heard it, too.

It was like a loud thump.

Something's burning.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Agnes and Tom

went downstairs with Cindy.

The basement was in flames.

Oh, my god! Agnes, call 911!

AGNES WOODCOCK: Cindy asked me to call the fire department.

So I ran to the phone, and the phone was dead.

So Tom went outside and called the neighbor

and asked if he would call the fire department.

And when he went out, there was a man standing on the curb.

And Tom asked him, and he ran away down the street.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): The police

suspected once again that Cindy had staged the incident.

--with further questions.

Thank you.

NEAL HALL: There was no dust or fingerprints

disturbed on the outside of the windowsill.

But somebody set the fires from inside the home,

and we had to climb through that window.

Now, that should have been one sign that people

should have realized.

Also, she said she was out walking her dog late at night

that night.

Now, if somebody was attacked, why would

they go out alone walking their dog at 3 o'clock

in the morning?

Does that make sense?

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Finally,

Cindy's doctor committed her to a local psychiatric ward.

He fully believed Cindy's accounts of harassment

but feared she was becoming suicidal.

ALLAN CONNOLLY: I think one of the things

that she found most difficult was

that people didn't believe her.

She was always doubted.

She knew she was doubted, and that

was what slowly drove her crazy, the fact

that she wasn't believed.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): 10 weeks

later, Cindy left the hospital.

She finally admitted to her family and friends

that she had been withholding information.

OTTO HACK: She told me for the first time she was convinced

who the perpetrator was, and in her own words,

if the police can't solve this, I'll solve it for them.

And she said, when it's all over,

I'll explain everything to you.

But I can't tell you now.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): On May 25, 1989, six years and seven

months after the first threatening phone call,

Cindy James disappeared.

That same day, her car was found in a neighborhood parking lot.

Inside were groceries and a wrapped gift.

There was blood on the driver's side door,

and items from Cindy's wallet were under the car.

Two weeks later, Cindy's body was

found at the abandoned house.

Cindy James' death had all the earmarks of a sadistic murder.

Her hands and feet were bound together behind her back.

A black nylon stocking was tied tightly around her neck.

Yet an autopsy would reveal that Cindy had died from an overdose

of morphine and other drugs.

Police believe Cindy had committed an elaborate suicide.

OZZIE KABAN: There is no way that she could have

been able, after ingesting that amount of drugs,

to tie herself up.

There was absolutely nothing at the crime scene

to indicate that she had used any form of syringe

or she had used any drinking device

or anything of that nature.

The morphine wouldn't have taken effect for, say,

15 minutes, half an hour.

The knot specialist who came in and recreated the same type

of knots in the way she was tied up, it took him three minutes.

So basically, if she took the drugs at the same time,

she would have had about 15 minutes

in order to tie herself up.

Cindy was the type of person who was a very proud person.

If she wanted to commit suicide, she would take her dog,

dress herself up properly, lay on the bed,

and that's how she would commit suicide.

Not the way she was found in that horrible place.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): At the coroner's inquest,

the theory was raised that Cindy suffered

from multiple personality disorder

and that one of her personalities

was trying to destroy the other.

ALLAN CONNOLLY: There was no indication in all of the time

that I saw her--

and I saw her not just in conversational states.

I saw her in deep hypnotic states as well--

there was never any evidence that there

were other personalities there.

So the psychiatrists that were speculating about that

were looking for an explanation for things

that can't be explained.

Then who can argue against multiple personality disorder?

There was never any evidence whatsoever in our relations

with our daughter that there was anything but the personality

that we knew, and we saw her under many circumstances

many different times.

There's just no question that she was not mentally ill.

NEAL HALL: So I think that one of the defense

mechanisms that people have is denial.

And I think it must be very hard for them to believe that, you

know, they were taken into--

drawn into this whole thing year after year after year and that

it was all delusional.

And you can feel sympathy for the family and friends

and colleagues who were all close to her

and trying to help her and protect her.

And, well, they went through hell themselves.

TILLIE HACK: If we could only find out what really happened,

I think it would be easier on us.

Right now, we just wonder.

What happened?

What happened?

I can see her in front of me.

I hear her laughter, the fun we had.

I-- you know, I still find it hard to believe

she's not there.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Is it possible

that Cindy James had descended so far into mental illness

that she could inflict terrible pain on herself, up to

and including the point of death?

Cindy's friends and family are convinced it is not possible.

They believe there is someone in Vancouver, Canada, who

is getting away with murder.

December 29, 1980.

State Road 1485 on the outskirts of Houston, Texas.

That sure was a good dinner we had.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): At around 9:00 PM, Betty Cash,

Vickie Landrum, and Vickie's 7-year-old grandson,

Colby, were returning home after dinner.

Mawmaw, what's that light?

What is that light?

I don't know.

It's awful bright, though.

Is that an airplane?

BETTY CASH: We were just driving along talking,

and all of a sudden we seen this bright light.

We didn't know what it was, but we

knew that there was something that was lighting up the sky.

It seems to be moving closer.

I think you're right, Vickie.

It is.

VICKIE LANDRUM: You could see it through the trees.

You know, you'd lose it, and then you'd see it.

You'd lose it and you'd see it.

And we traveled about close to a mile, I guess, when it was--

started to get real close.

Then I knew wasn't a plane.

Mawmaw, what is that?

I don't know. I don't know, honey.

It's so bright.

I can hardly see to drive.

BETTY CASH: We had began to feel the heat.

And all of a sudden, Vickie screamed for me to stop.

And when I stopped, she went forward,

and her handprint was embedded into the dash of the car.

And I thought, well, I've got to see what this is.

So I walked toward the front of the automobile,

and I stood there looking up to try to figure

out what this object was.

It was a diamond-shaped object, four points.

But the one at the top was rounded and so were the sides.

Then at the bottom, flames were shooting out.

The heat was tremendous.

It just felt like I was burning from the inside out.

Betty, let's get outta here!

BETTY CASH (VOICEOVER): I was horrified.

I was actually afraid really to move.

When I reached for the door handle,

the door handle was so hot I couldn't

even begin to hold on to it.

I was more than scared.

It's moving away.

The only thing I was thinking was, are

were gonna get out of here alive?

[helicopters whirring]

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Just moments

later, a large squadron of helicopters

descended on the area.

VICKIE LANDRUM: They were the large helicopters that

has the double rotors on them.

I counted 22.

And Colby said, there's another one, and I said, that makes 23.

And they were the kind of helicopters

that you just don't see, because I didn't

know what kind they were.

And they, I knew, had belonged to the Army.

[helicopters whirring]

Betty Cash and Vickie Landrum had no idea

the events of that night would plague

them the rest of their lives.

Given the evidence, there seems little doubt that something

incredible happened to Betty, Vickie, and Colby,

something that no one has been able to explain.

For more than 10 years, they've been embroiled

in both a legal battle with the United States government

and a desperate fight against mysterious illnesses

whose symptoms began to appear just six hours

after the bizarre encounter.

Mawmaw!

Mawmaw!

I need a drink of water!

Mawmaw!

Colby?

Mawmaw, I'm sick.

VICKIE LANDRUM (VOICEOVER): At 1 o'clock,

Colby woke me up crying, and he was begging me for water.

Honey, you're burning up.

VICKIE LANDRUM (VOICEOVER): He had a fever,

and he had vomited all over the bed.

I need some more water.

VICKIE LANDRUM (VOICEOVER): And while I was seeing to him,

I got sick.

Finally, though, I got him back to sleep, and I went to sleep.

And the next morning, I didn't dream that we had been hurt.

When I got up, him and me both was yet sick.

[knocking]

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): The next morning, Vickie and Colby

were still suffering from nausea and what appeared

to be severe cases of sunburn.

Betty?

Betty, it's Vickie.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Concerned, Vickie

went to Betty's house to check on her well-being.

Betty?

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): But Vickie was

shocked by Betty's condition.

Her temperature was dangerously high,

and large red welts had appeared on her face and hands.

Water.

Oh, what do you want?

You want some water?

I was so sick.

All I wanted was water.

My head was killing me.

I could not get rid of the headache.

I had an upset stomach.

Just-- I was just sick, I mean completely.

Hi, Betty.

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

Betty's condition grew more serious.

How long has she been this way?

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Vickie finally convinced

her to see a doctor in Houston.

DOCTOR: Has she been burned?

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): He immediately admitted

Betty to Parkway Hospital.

Do you know if she's been out in the sun much, maybe?

No.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Records

show that three weeks later, she underwent treatment

for acute radiation poisoning.

What I'd like to do is admit her to the hospital

and run some more tests.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): During a six-week hospitalization,

Betty lost more than 50% of her hair and patches of skin

on her face.

DOCTOR: And I'll have somebody from admitting come down

and check--

DR. BRIAN MCLELLAND: There was absolutely no doubt in my mind

that Betty was exposed to high doses of radiation.

As to what the source was, I can't exactly say.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Dr. Brian McClelland has been

Betty's physician since 1985.

I don't know.

All I know is that she received high doses of radiation.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): After her release,

Betty continued to suffer side effects--

extreme swelling of her face and arms, painful headaches, and

a dramatic loss of appetite.

Vickie and Colby had similar symptoms.

However, their conditions were less severe than Betty's.

JOHN SCHUESSLER: Betty Cash called

me approximately six weeks after she got out of the hospital.

Her case was very unusual.

It was intriguing.

It had situations involved that I hadn't

heard about in the Texas area before,

so I naturally became involved.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): John Schuessler

is an executive for a major aeronautics engineering firm

and is a deputy director of the Mutual UFO Network.

JOHN SCHUESSLER (VOICEOVER): We had done several interviews

with Betty and Vickie, and then we went out to the location

where this happened.

They were very, very clear on where it happened

and how it happened.

Yes, sir.

It came right over those trees right there, sir.

They were able to tell us exactly where along the road

that they stopped, because there were certain markers

that identified the spot.

They were able to point out exactly what they saw,

the object coming down out of the sky over the road

and hovering there.

They were able to point out a spot on the road that

indicated that it had been heated

to an extreme level of heating.

It was burned, and it was very clear to the naked eye.

Several weeks after we went to the spot

and saw this burned area, someone came along,

dug up the road, and hauled it away and replaced it

with new asphalt. Some of the witnesses

that watched this happen said that people brought

in unmarked trucks, dug up the road,

put the material on the trucks, covered it with a tarpaulin,

and drove away.

And what did it do when it hovered over the trees?

JOHN SCHUESSLER: In addition to taking Betty and Vickie's

testimony, we went to every individual living

within five miles of this area.

And at least 10 other people had seen the object,

and seven or eight other people had seen the helicopters.

And their descriptions were all very similar to what

Betty and Vickie described.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): One eyewitness was Dayton, Texas,

police officer LL Walker.

Walker was in the area on the night

that Betty and Vickie encountered the object.

LL WALKER: My wife Marie and I was returning back

from her mother and dad's, and as we

was coming out of some tree lines, I saw a helicopter.

It was shining a spotlight at the ground.

And then I heard other noise of other helicopters behind it.

And about that time, a helicopter

started sideslipping toward us, with the beam

hitting me in the eyes.

And I stopped the car, because I didn't know what was going on.

The helicopters were military, and they was all flying

fairly low to the ground.

And all of them had search beams on.

I thought maybe there was an airplane down,

but they didn't hesitate.

They just kept on in the same direction they was going,

which would probably intersect the area where Vickie

said that her encounter was.

They was headed in that general direction.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Convinced that the military was

somehow involved, Betty and Vickie wrote to Texas senators

John Tower and Lloyd Bentsen.

Sen.

Lloyd Bentsen and Sen.

Tower had sent us the reply back that Bergstrom Air Force Base

had been notified and that they had been made well

aware of what had happened to us,

that they would be more than glad to help us in any way.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): On August 21, 1981,

Betty, Vickie, and Colby arrived at Bergstrom.

Expecting to receive medical help,

they brought overnight bags.

Colby, honey, come on with me.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): As they entered the room,

Vickie noticed a large map.

Betty.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): The exact spot

where the encounter had occurred was clearly marked.

I understand you're here about an incident that

occurred on 29 December 1980. - Yes.

Can you tell us what happened?

Well, sir, we were coming home from dinner.

And as we were going down this road, we saw this large object.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): According to Betty and Vickie,

they were questioned for more than two hours.

The interview was recorded by a military stenographer.

It was as big as a water tower,

and it was kind of diamond shaped.

What did you do after you spotted--

BETTY CASH: It was a deposition they were taking

from each one of us, just general of everything that

had happened to us.

And we were still blistered and had blisters on us.

And at the time, I was wearing a wig because my hair

had already gone.

They wanted me to take my wig off so they could see my head.

About how long a period of time was this?

10 or 12 minutes.

Then what happened?

Well, as I got in the car, then

the helicopters started approaching.

What helicopters?

The military helicopters.

You say military.

Yes, sir.

How do you know they were military?

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): The two interviewers

denied that any military or government operation was

conducted on December 29, 1980.

Ladies, what would you like for us to do?

We want help.

We're sick.

What do you want the Air Force to do?

I feel you're partly responsible,

and I would like some help.

None of the information that I have here

indicates that the Air Force nor the government

is responsible for any of the claims that you've made.

However, if you'd like--

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): The women

were told that they were entitled to file a claim

and that the Air Force would review the case.

Get them to your lawyers, and get them back to us.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Four weeks

later, Betty and Vickie's claim for medical damages was denied.

Come on, Colby.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): In 1982,

Betty and Vickie filed a lawsuit against the United States

government.

The case was dismissed by a federal judge

for lack of evidence.

I thought there was no justice left in the United States

at all.

And to think that we had a federal judge

that would not even give us a chance to speak up

or to be heard.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): What did Betty Cash, Vickie Landrum,

and Colby Landrum see in the Texas sky on that winter

night over 10 years ago?

JOHN SCHUESSLER: There are two possible explanations

in this case.

One is it was an experiment craft of some kind

by probably our government.

The other, it was an unidentified flying object,

possibly extraterrestrial.

I don't believe in the little green men.

And it had to be an object--

it could have been a spacecraft--

that the government was carrying.

But our government was carrying it.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Today, Betty Cash, Vickie Landrum,

and Colby Landrum continue to battle

illnesses which they believe a result

of massive radiation exposure.

Betty has been diagnosed with several types of cancer.

She, Vickie, and Colby all have far below normal white blood

cell counts.

Their immune systems now have difficulty fighting

off even minor infections.

The child especially, he's going to have to make decisions

about having children, about what

he's going to do with his life.

And how long is he going to live?

What's going to happen to him?

For Betty, she's just entering into the risk

period for other cancers or other problems.

And Vickie is, too.

Vickie's having visual problems, and there

are lots of suggestions that that may be

related to radiation as well.

But it depends on the kind of exposure,

and someone needs to tell us what the exposure

was so we can figure it out.

If it's a top secret object that's protecting the United

States, then I could say--

I could forgive them for that.

But at least they owe us to tell us exactly why we were burned

and what type of radiation that we were exposed to

and how much.

The United States Air Force declined our invitation to be

interviewed for this story.

Their official position is that no military or government

operation occurred near Dayton, Texas, on December 29, 1980.

Betty Cash and Vickie Landrum disagree.

They believe that the military knows exactly what happened

that night and hope that someone will

come forward with information.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): When we return,

the legend of Wild West outlaws Butch

Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.

Did they really die in a shootout in South America?

Meet Robert LeRoy Parker and Harry Alonzo Longabaugh.

In the late 1800s, these two men became outlaw legends as Butch

Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.

Decades later, they were immortalized

in a movie about their lives starring

Paul Newman and Robert Redford.

The 1969 fact-based film chronicles

the adventurous final days of the famed outlaws.

The movie, like history, has Butch and Sundance

meeting their demise in a fiery gun battle in South America.

But some experts believe that Hollywood

and history may be wrong.

Some say that Jesse James sang at his own funeral

and fled to South America, that Billy the Kid was not

gunned down by Pat Garrett and lived

to the ripe old age of 92.

The folklore of the American West

is full of stories of famous outlaws

who somehow outlived their own deaths.

But in the case of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,

there is compelling evidence that at least one

of the infamous criminals returned to the United States

and died of natural causes.

Let's do this run.

We're gonna run over to that feed.

Yes, sir.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Spokane, Washington, 1910.

Two years after Butch and Sundance were reportedly

gunned down, a mysterious man named William Thaddeus

Phillips arrived in Spokane.

How's it going, Roy?

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Phillips eventually opened

a machine shop which became a success,

earning him the reputation as a prominent businessman.

But oddly, William Phillips was a man without a past.

JAMES DULLENTY: The first definitive record

of William Phillips was his marriage

certificate dated May 14, 1908.

There is no other previous record of William Phillips.

In the 1920s, about 1922, the first reports

began circulating in the West that Butch

Cassidy had returned.

People began to say that Butch Cassidy was William Phillips.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): There does indeed

seem to be an eerie resemblance between William Thaddeus

Phillips and George "Butch" Cassidy.

But if Phillips was Cassidy, then how did

the outlaw escape from Bolivia?

[speaking spanish]

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): According to some historians,

the story of Butch and Sundance's demise in Bolivia

has been attributed to one man, Percy Seibert.

[speaking spanish]

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Seibert

had worked with the outlaws at a tin mine in Bolivia

and had become friends with them.

He allegedly identified them as the two

men killed in the shootout.

[speaking spanish]

LARRY POINTER: I believe that Percy told the story of Butch

Cassidy and the Sundance Kid's death in Bolivia

to pay back what he felt was a debt of loyalty and friendship,

to allow these outlaws to begin a life under amnesty

without a past, to bury the legend of Butch Cassidy

and the Sundance Kid forever.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Larry Pointer

is convinced that Butch Cassidy assumed the identity of William

Phillips and that, as Phillips, he even returned

to the mountains of Wyoming, the same territory

that Butch Cassidy and his outlaw gang had once roamed.

JAMES DULLENTY: We know the man who went with Phillips

to Wyoming in 1933.

This man died recently, but we have interviewed him.

He was there all summer with Phillips.

And he met all the old timers that Phillips met.

And in almost every case, these old timers

accepted Phillips as Cassidy.

Well, old timers' stories are always the most interesting

and the least reliable.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Author Dan

Buck has researched the life and death of Butch Cassidy.

He is convinced that William Phillips

was merely an imposter.

DAN BUCK: The William Phillips story is

chock full of old timer tales.

People would claim they were good friends with Cassidy

and knew Phillips was Cassidy.

And usually it's when asked by someone,

when prompted by someone.

Well, you were a good friend of Butch Cassidy's, weren't you?

And of course, the answer is yes.

Who wants to say no?

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): In Wyoming,

Phillips arranged to meet a woman named Mary Boyd Rhodes.

In 1934, Mary and her 16-year-old granddaughter Ione

rode out to Phillips' campsite in the Wind River Mountains.

IONE MANNING: The man that my grandmother

met that day was going by the name of William Phillips.

And she knew him by the name of LeRoy George Parker,

who is known as Butch Cassidy.

Mary Boyd.

IONE MANNING (VOICEOVER): He recognized her immediately,

and she recognized him.

Oh, George Parker.

IONE MANNING: I sensed that they had a relationship that I

had never known much about.

So my grandmother had finally told me that he

was her childhood sweetheart.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Three years

after his meeting with Mary Boyd Rhodes in Wyoming, William

Phillips died of cancer.

But shortly before his death, Phillips

mailed this ring to Mary.

It was engraved "George C. and Mary B."

I believe William Phillips pretended to be Butch Cassidy

because he was having fun.

He traveled out to the West.

He met some people.

He probably got some free beers.

He certainly got a lot of adventures out of it.

He definitely looked like Butch Cassidy.

But some people have recently done some photo comparisons

of the two and established that they have different heads

and different faces.

Cassidy basically had small features on a big head

with a lantern jaw.

And Phillips had more normal features with a more or less

pointed chin, and his head was basically an inch or more

lower than Butch Cassidy's.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Several other clues, however,

suggest that Butch and Phillips were one and the same man.

William Phillips wrote an unpublished manuscript

entitled "A Bandit Invincible: The Story of Butch Cassidy."

It contained specific details about Cassidy's outlaw

adventures.

JAMES DULLENTY: Well, there's material in that manuscript

that no one else knew, that had never been published.

Either the man who wrote it had to have intimate knowledge

of Cassidy, or he was Cassidy.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Phillips owned

this six-shot Colt revolver.

Carved into the pistol grip is a unique brand.

LARRY POINTER: That brand was the reverse E

box E. To most people in Spokane,

that would be meaningless.

But to a researcher from Wyoming,

that was exciting, because that was Butch

Cassidy's brand in the 1890s.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Another piece

of evidence that seems to connect the two

men is their handwriting.

"Unsolved Mysteries" contacted certified graphologist Sheila

Lowe, who has been used as an expert witness

by the California judicial court system.

Sheila compared five handwritten letters,

four penned by Butch Cassidy, the other

written by William Phillips.

She concluded that all five letters

are written by the same man.

SHEILA LOWE: I found that some of the letter forms

were identical.

And especially when I laid one transparency over the other,

they were--

it was as if they were written at the same moment,

they were so similar.

I believe that, without doubt, the man known to Wyoming

residents in the 1890s as George "Butch" Cassidy

was William T. Phillips who died in Spokane in 1937.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Was William

Phillips indeed Butch Cassidy?

If so, then what became of his famed partner,

the Sundance Kid?

There are some who believe that he, too, returned to the US

and died of old age.

There is perhaps little chance that this mystery

will ever be solved.

But one thing is certain.

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid

were legends destined to live long past their own deaths,

regardless of when or where that may have been.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Next, a woman's heartwarming search

for the brothers and sister she hasn't

seen in more than 20 years.

Lakewood, Colorado, 1960.

Another day begins for the Smith family.

Once again, five-year-old Aleatha

is left alone to care for her younger brothers and sister.

Wake up, Aleatha.

We're hungry.

Is Mommy and Daddy home?

BOY: No.

We'd wake up in the morning and be alone.

And Richard and I would go in and get

Marty and Noreen out of bed.

Richard was 4, Marty was around 3, and Noreen was just about 2.

Sometimes, she'd halfway fall, but we got her out.

I'd go in the kitchen, get the bread out

and put it in the toaster, put peanut butter on it.

And that was breakfast.

Marty, stop sucking your thumb.

ALEATHA EVERTZ (VOICEOVER): I remember giving Noreen bottles.

I remember asking Marty to stop sucking his thumb.

It was empty.

We were afraid. I know I was.

Aleatha Smith's parents were married

as teenagers, still unprepared for the challenges

of raising a family.

Sadly, both were often absent from the home.

Five-year-old Aleatha assumed the role of mother, father,

and protector for her brothers, Richard and Marty,

and her sister, Noreen.

When their parents separated, the children

were placed in the state's foster care system. .

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): July 1960.

The Smith children went to live with foster parents

Frank and Mary Anne Wiley.

For the first time, they knew the comfort

and security of a stable home.

All right, this is the kids.

Hi, guys.

WOMAN: This is Noreen and Aleatha.

MARY ANNE WILEY: They were cure little kids.

Little Noreen, you know, just a baby.

Marty was mild mannered.

Richard was a little more of a free spirit.

And Aleatha was just a sweet girl.

They were nice little kids to have.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): The Wileys' small farm opened up

a whole new world for the children, particularly

Aleatha, who got her first real taste of childhood.

ALEATHA EVERTZ: We played a lot outdoors.

They had farm animals.

We'd feed them or gather eggs.

Living at the Wileys was warm and caring.

She took care of the meals and the clothes,

and that felt good and secure.

Right up there.

- Right up here? - Mm-hmm.

OK.

[phone rings]

Hello?

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): In December 1962, the dream ended.

Yes?

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Aleatha's father

had arranged to take the children back for Christmas.

Well, I really don't think this

is a very good time for the kids to have to go with you.

MARY ANNE WILEY: I told him that I felt that they should be

able to have their Christmas wherever they had it planned,

that disrupting them at that point

was going to be difficult for them.

And so they did agree to let us have our Christmas morning

and our Christmas dinner.

And then they would come after that

and take the children over there, which they did.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Regrettably, the children

found life with their father unchanged.

Aleatha was once again left to care

for her brothers and sister.

[knocking]

But the situation did not go unnoticed.

Hi, honey. ALEATHA: Hi.

Uh, is your mommy home?

ALEATHA: No.

How about your daddy?

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Concerned

neighbors had alerted the police to the dilemma

of the Smith children.

They were once again taken from their home

and returned to the foster care system.

Eventually, the children were placed with separate families

and lost touch with one another.

Aleatha was shuttled from foster home

to foster home until, four years later, she was sent

back to live with the Wileys.

MARY ANNE WILEY: I remember it like it was yesterday.

I received a phone call from social services,

and she asked me if I remembered Aleatha Smith.

And I said, I sure do.

And she said, how would you like to have her back?

And I said yes.

In a matter of 40 minutes, she was walking in the front door.

But it took her a while to loosen up.

And it was-- you know, I think I expected her

to be all warm and wonderful.

And she had had a lot of bad times,

and it was going to take a while.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Aleatha's years

in foster care had left her a bitter,

temperamental adolescent.

She longed to find her natural parents

and eventually ran away from the Wileys.

ALEATHA EVERTZ (VOICEOVER): I had saved my allowances,

and I got--

I believe it was $21.

My plan was to go to Oklahoma, Sand Springs, Oklahoma,

to find my parents.

I had an idea that my grandmother lived there.

With my allowance money, I bought my ticket

for the bus trip to Oklahoma.

I remember while I was riding along flashing back on memories

of when I was little.

And that's all I thought about, was getting there.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Aleatha

journeyed more than 600 miles to Sand Springs, Oklahoma.

Alone with nowhere else to turn, she sought

refuge in a local church.

ALEATHA EVERTZ: I went to a church

and talked to a minister.

He agreed to take me around, and we'd drive to try to find

this farm that I remembered.

Do you remember what the house looked like?

I think it was white or gray.

MINISTER: White or gray.

Anything else?

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Aleatha and the minister

spent several hours searching for her grandmother's farm--

Was it like that one there?

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): --to no avail.

It was bigger.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): Late that afternoon,

he dropped Aleatha off at the local police station.

They identified her as a runaway and returned her

to the foster care system once again.

It would be years before Aleatha was reunited

with her natural parents.

She never did find her brothers, Richard and Marty,

or her sister, Noreen.

It's like reading a good book and you get a phone call

you have to rush off to work.

You have to put that book down.

Most people know they can come back to that book.

I've never gone back.

Now, I want to know.

I want to know.

ROBERT STACK (VOICEOVER): On the next "Unsolved Mysteries,"

in 1987, Michael Francke was hired to reform

the prison system in Oregon.

Two years later, he was found stabbed to death

just outside his office.

His family believes he was assassinated.

Chicago, the 1930s.

Eliot Ness, a 26-year-old Treasury agent,

organized the immortal crime busting unit the Untouchables

and helped bring down the empire of Al Capone.

Later, in Cleveland, Ohio, Eliot Ness finally

encountered the one criminal he could not

bring to justice, a serial killer who may have left

behind more than 30 victims.

Join me next time for this special segment

as we illuminate a side of Eliot Ness

few people have ever known.

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