Original subtitles

Two evil planes broke in little pieces and fire came.

Two evil planes

broke in little pieces and fire came.

Two evil planes

broke in little pieces

and fire came.

Two evil

planes

broke

in little pieces

and fi...

...came.

Here we are at the Twin Towers.

My name is Jon Walczak.

I'm an investigative journalist.

And that kid you hear is me, 11 years old,

in the plaza of the World Trade Center.

In one year, one month, and 17 days...

...these towers will rain down in a violent cascade of glass...

...and steel and concrete,

killing a mystery photographer on West Street,

just on the other side of that tower...

...the North Tower,

300 feet from where I'm standing right now.

- His camera will survive. - His final photos too.

Hidden for decades, until one day, I get an email.

This is my grandma.

But don't look at her.

Look at the tables and the chairs

as we transition to 9/11 and back.

I was born on 9/8/88.

I'll turn 13 on 9/8/01.

On 9/11,

I'll drag a typewriter downstairs

and crank out a...

...news bulletin.

I'll come of age in the shadow of these towers.

Life will drag me down a jagged path

until it spits me out at this spot,

again and again.

Here we are at the Twin Towers.

Twin Towers...

And there's the World Trade Center.

Child Jon is a bit confused.

The World Trade Center is the name of the complex

made up of seven buildings.

The Twin Towers, the towers.

This is the Marriott. Remember it.

You'll see it again, cut in half.

In 2021,

I'll do a podcast calledMissing on 9/11.

I'll put out a call for unpublished footage:

photos, video, audio.

I'll get an email from a firefighter

who says his dad, a retired FDNY chief,

has new photos of 9/11 from a previously unknown camera

- found in the rubble of... - The World Trade Center.

Hard to believe.

At first, I'll think it's a scam.

This can't be real, right?

But it is.

And now it's on me.

I didn't seek out these photos. They came to me.

A man in the dust, whose face I can't see,

speaking to me through these photos.

In my hands, the final moments of his life.

- Who is he? I need to know. - Grandma, what do you have to say, Grandma?

So I'll dig.

Into the photos.

Into history.

Into a list of suspects.

I'll use clues in each frame to ID the photographer.

What a story.

Thirty-two new photos of 9/11,

then 32 of the photographer's life.

Hug the family, close the loop.

Thirty-two frames.

If only it were that easy.

Okay.

Can I have some water, please? Thank you.

That was an explosion.

That was an explosion.

- You got that message? - No, what is that?

A plane into the World Trade Center.

Lori, what are you talking about?

This is Port Authority Police dispatch.

- Okay. - We have a confirmed,

uh, explosion at the World Trade Center.

I have never seen so much smoke

coming from a building as I see from the World Trade Center.

- What the hell is going on out there? - -A plane

- into the World Trade Center. - I know. I'm looking

at it right now on the screen.

I walked down the hallway. I kinda ran down the hallway.

I walked over the window, pulled up the Venetian blind.

I said, "Chief, look, a plane just hit the World Trade Center."

Just get into my uniform,

and that's when the alarms went off.

The radio just started to go insane.

I called into the desk and they were, like,

"Go, go, go, go, go!"

And I'm hearing it on police radio.

"We're under attack."

I just jumped on the highway. I just started hauling

to the location, lights and sirens.

I was probably going, like, pretty fast. You know?

- How fast were you going? - I don't know.

The speed limit?

I had a medical bag in my car, and I headed down to--

West and Vesey, at the command post.

Zoom in. Here.

Stop.

-West and... -VESS-ey.

-VESS-ey. -VEE-sey Street.

West and VEE-sey?

- VESS-ey and West Street. - VESS-ey?

- VESS-ey. - VESS-ey Street.

-Do you say VESS-ey or VEE-sey? -It depends.

- I know. Everybody-- - It's 50-50.

-VEE-sey Street. -Okay, VEE-sey. Okay.

I feel like I-- I'm not gonna win on that.

- It's like Houston and Houston. - Yeah.

Anyway, the heart of our story.

West and VESS-ey.

The ground zero of Ground Zero.

Now, let's look at a few landmarks

to guide us as we move forward.

We have the Verizon Building.

World Trade Center 6, or WTC 6.

The north pedestrian bridge, aka the Vesey bridge.

Notice the banner on the bridge, quebecnewyork.com.

And, of course, the Marriott.

Here's our key block on Labor Day 2001...

...and eight days later.

Our photographer hasn't arrived yet, but he will, soon.

He has 86 minutes to live.

In that 86 minutes, he'll take 32 photos, 30 of them here.

That's why it's important to orient--

What the hell's going on?

This is not a grand story of 9/11.

It's not Bush or the Pentagon.

It's not even New York, Manhattan, or the Trade Center.

It's one intersection,

and the people who converged on it

at a fateful moment.

I heard the throttle going down, like,

where the guy was really gonna give it all it's got,

so you heard...

...and then in.

You just see it for a second. It's just a shadow.

And, bang, into the building, and fire comes out the side.

I couldn't get a picture 'cause I'm driving, you know?

If you're driving NASCAR, you're not taking pictures

at the same time, are you?

But, you know, that's the way I drove.

I didn't know it was a plane, actually. I just saw a ball of fire.

You can actually feel the heat at street level...

...from 80, 85 stories up.

We always say, when we run into guys at a fire,

second alarm, third alarm, he goes, "Ah, see you at the big one."

This was the big one.

This is where our story really starts.

After the second plane strike...

...at the intersection of West Broadway and Worth,

ten blocks north of the Trade Center.

Frame one...

...and two.

What do you notice?

Do you see the clues?

That's Building 7, and, and then One World Trade is

where 6 World Trade used to be,

so the towers would have been just to the left.

And this would have been one of the first clear shots

- he had looking towards the tower. - Yeah. Yeah.

Clue one.

Both towers are on fire.

Both are still standing.

So, this was taken between 9:03,

when the second plane hit,

and 9:59, when the first tower fell.

Meaning our photographer got to the Trade Center after 9:03.

By car.

Which rules out everyone who walked or took public transit.

The photos seem to be taken out of a passenger window.

So, he's with someone.

Ruling out anyone who drove alone.

He's going the wrong way, toward disaster.

Who does that?

-You see the antenna? -I do, yeah.

-You see the edge of the window? -Mm-hmm.

Clue five:

the antenna.

It's less consistent with a consumer car

and more consistent with an emergency response vehicle.

These are actually the least dramatic of our 32 frames,

but in many ways, they're the most important.

So many clues.

Our photographer drives to the Trade Center,

toward disaster, with someone

between 9:03 and 9:59.

Anything else?

The shadows.

So, this is frame number one.

What can we tell from the lighting,

from the sun, and from the shadows?

So, actually, you can tell quite a bit.

This particular building is located at 60 Hudson Street

in Lower Manhattan.

We had a taller building at 33 Thomas Street,

casting a shadow on the eastern face of this building.

Just based upon that, using some very simple geometry and trigonometry,

we were able to figure out what the sun angle was

at the time this photograph was taken.

Plugging all this information in,

a sun angle of 33.37 degrees

on September 11th, 2001,

occurred at 9:38 a.m.

So, we know that this photograph was taken at 9:38 a.m.

Clue seven: the route they take.

Down West Broadway to Vesey.

After snapping frame one,

it takes our photographer maybe five to ten minutes

to reach the Trade Center.

He arrives around 9:45,

only 14 minutes before the first tower falls.

Frame three, taken on West Street.

Look at the top left.

That's the north bridge, the Vesey bridge.

Our photographer stands under it,

leaning out, taking pictures as debris rains down.

It was chaos.

Lots of ambulances...

...lots of fire trucks, lots of cop cars.

People running out and people injured,

and there's plane parts all over the ground.

And I'm getting a lot of pictures.

The amount of smoke, the amount of fire,

the amount of debris falling down was incredible.

Each tower was a quarter of a mile high.

All of a sudden, there's a piece of debris falling,

comes through the cloud like it's gonna hit you in a couple of seconds.

It was hitting like bullets.

Uh, there was a piece of metal that hit a car, and it,

and it went right through the hood.

It was a piece of the plane.

My helmet flies off, and I turn around and I look,

and there's my helmet on the ground with an arm laying next to it.

And I'm like, "Okay, this is not gonna be a good day."

As we were getting closer to West Street,

we were coming across

more and more body parts just laying in the street.

And it got to the point,

when you got really close to West Street,

it almost looked like an anatomy class.

Let's go back for a minute to clue five.

Who speeds toward disaster?

Journalists. But very few made it to the Trade Center

before the towers fell.

Also, obviously, first responders.

Which is why timing is important.

Because we have records of when many of them arrived.

For example, these FDNY company reports.

And we know that anyone who got to the Trade Center

before, say, 9:45, can't be our photographer.

What compels you to run toward disaster

when so many other people run away?

Stupidity.

What do you think?

We were trained to run toward the danger,

not away from the danger, to help people.

And that's what it was all about.

You go to where the fire is,

you go to where the murder is,

you go to where the action is,

and you make sure that you're the witness.

Look at that.

Oh, wow.

Do you see it? The dot?

Him or her.

Poor bastards.

A-- as gory as this is gonna sound,

people were coming down like rain.

I, I, I mean, uh, you can cut it out if you want,

but I saw at least 125 people jump.

Numerous people jumping.

Numerous people jumping.

These poor people,

who were g-- guilty of nothing but going to work that day,

that's all they did, was go to work.

They're standing at smashed glass.

What kind of hell had to be behind them

that jumping from the 98th floor was a better option?

I could not wrap my head around that.

The part we were in had a roof overhang,

uh, and they were hitting it.

It was noise of the, of the worst kind.

You just knew every one was a human life.

I know some people will be angry at us

for publishing these photos, and that's okay.

I get it.

Should we publish them? There's no correct answer.

I don't believe in censorship.

But I've also sat with survivors.

I've watched their faces contort in pain,

remembering people who jumped or fell.

Oh, wow.

Yeah, those were, uh, those were rough

because you had to watch

and then you had to hear the noise.

You know, and it's just a long,

long drop.

- Shit. - -Channel 6 has been designated a command channel.

Right now...

From our perspective, as people that run to help people,

it was totally horrific for us

because we wanna help them,

and we can't.

That's the hardest part.

Sometimes I get really, uh, upset.

My wife says I yell, yell at night when I'm sleepin'.

I scream once in a while.

And it's about people falling.

The people falling...

...always gets to me.

Or should I say "jumping"?

It's brutal.

In the end, our photographer chose to take these images.

They literally died taking them.

Who am I to censor them?

One of my most famous pictures is a picture of a hand,

uh, from, from the plane.

The hand's on the ground,

a cigarette butt's around it...

...a Hershey bar,

and some other debris, just gravel.

But the hand is pointing.

And it's severed right about here at the wrist, and you see the bone.

And it almost doesn't look real,

but it, it, it's astonishing for people.

And it, and it jars them

to the reality of the horror of that day.

A lot of people like to talk.

A lot of people like to make comments.

Um, and, and you can actually say, "No, this is what happened."

There are certain things that you see that...

...you'll never forget.

Unfortunately, shooting some poor guy or girl

jumping out of a building because they're on fire, or they're gonna be on fire,

or it's too hot, that's real life.

You know, and, and, and people who don't wanna accept that.

There's a term for that in Italian.

"Go fuck yourself."

We also don't know the value of photos until they run.

Some families spent years trying to find

images of loved ones in windows or the sky,

seeking closure. Painful closure, but closure.

9/11 has been so sanitized.

Clean colors and lines.

A fireball, a blue sky, a dust cloud.

Roll credits.

No.

See it as it was,

as they saw it.

-I'll warn you, there are pictures of people falling-- -Yeah, no, I've--

Hey, listen, I've seen it live, so...

These are flagpoles on top of WTC 6.

You can also see them in thisDaily News photo.

Both images are taken here,

the nexus of WTC 6 and the North Tower.

In this previously unpublished image, you see the North Tower,

WTC 6, the Verizon Building,

and someone falling onto West Street.

No street is as dangerous as West Street.

As civilians rush out of the Trade Center,

they shield themselves with briefcases, backpacks,

even office chairs.

Frame seven.

Clue eight.

Our photographer is using a zoom lens, an SLR camera,

not a pocket disposable,

meaning he's likely either a professional

or a capable hobbyist.

Before we continue, I need to clarify something.

These photos came to me not in order.

I had to guess.

An educated guess, sure, but still a guess.

The first two, in the car, were easy.

Past that, I did my best.

What would really help are the negatives.

West and Vesey was the predetermined staging area.

Every truck was where it was supposed to be.

Every ambulance was where it was supposed to be.

And, uh... the world just,

the world just fell out from underneath us.

I always had a camera with me,

and I figured, "If I don't make it out of this thing,

at least somebody could find this."

The last picture I took was at 59 minutes after the hour.

I took the photo, I heard the rumble,

I looked up.

Now, you're gonna want me to describe it. Okay.

A fully loaded locomotive coming down the tracks doing about 100.

A jet aircraft taking off.

Car crash, a building collapse...

...and metal ripping.

All at the same time.

Like that, almost.

We hear this churning

and, and screeching,

and we hear metal.

It's just echoing through Lower Manhattan,

and that's the South Tower collapsing.

- One of the towers just collapsed. - -Because the building

- just collapsed on them. - Are you shitting me?

- There's gotta be thousands of people-- - That Tower 2?

One of the towers just came down on top of everybody.

The next 29 minutes are critical.

That's when the North Tower will collapse.

We're running out of time.

Frame nine.

This is the first frame we know, for sure,

was taken after the South Tower fell.

Our photographer runs north on West Street,

then hooks left on Vesey.

He turns around and snaps this photo.

Look here: Engine 15 and a fire hydrant.

You can also see them in this image,

taken later on 9/11.

It's hard to make out, but if you manipulate our photo

and zoom in, there's the Verizon Building.

And now, we start to see shadowy figures.

Who's this guy?

We don't know.

Dust Man Number One.

Frame nine is less important for what it shows

and more for what it tells us.

Our photographer is alive.

- Back, back, back, back. - -He survived the collapse of the South Tower,

so he can't be anyone who died at or before 9:59.

Frame ten.

Taken at West and Vesey, facing south.

There's the north bridge.

In frame ten, we also have our first identification:

Rabbi Edgar Gluck, a co-founder of Hatzalah,

a Jewish EMS organization.

He's now 89 years old.

Tati, Tati, roll the chair left a little bit.

- Right. - -Your whole body needs to move over two inches.

Perfect. The position you're in right now is perfect.

- Got it. - -So, Rabbi Gluck, can you tell me

where you were when the building fell? Uh, how were you protected?

I wasn't.

I wasn't.

I had no protection gear on. I had nothing on.

It's just that I went in to save lives.

You literally couldn't see.

The dust and everything was so thick.

And the building was coming down.

I ended up on Vesey Street

and police started washing out my eyes.

Do you remember seeing a photographer taking that picture?

- Do I remember what? - Do you remember a photographer taking that picture?

No. No.

In the middle of running and everything else,

I had absolutely no time.

I didn't even have time to smile.

I would interject and just say

the mere fact that I have seen a photo of my dad,

that we know a timeline and where he physically was,

like he was in between the Twin Towers

when one building was down, the second one wasn't.

He...

And is around to talk about that,

I mean, that, to me, is just amazing and fascinating,

and I thank God for that every day.

- Frame 11. - -And there we were, we were outside,

and there's, like, four inches of this type of paper dust.

You wanna pull that out and give that to me?

And then you could feel the World Trade Center.

You could smell it.

Pedro. Paige?

Get the bag out, out of the refrigerator.

So, this is a piece of the World Trade Center.

And, to me, I could smell it,

and it smells like the day of the World Trade Center.

Pedro, give me the bag. I haven't shared this with too many people.

But this was the dust

that was inside my clothes, inside my car.

So, you wanna know what the World Trade Center was like?

This is what it was like, and this is what it looked like.

And this is what it smelled like.

That's what the World Trade Centers were reduced to.

And this is what the people...

...were reduced to.

And if you smell that...

And sometimes I smell and go through it.

Smell it. You wanna smell it?

That's what it smelled like at Ground Zero.

It has that smell.

- It's like a musty-- - Yeah.

And it's not because of moisture.

And, you know, so, we, we keep it real.

You know? Oops.

Sorry, God.

And if you look in the bag...

...you could almost see here.

Look at this right here.

I don't wanna touch it because...

But if you look inside deep enough,

you could almost think you see hair follicles.

Here's-- It's a piece of glass or something. You don't know what.

I think. So, that's, that's the World Trade Center.

Here, Pedro.

Thanks. Let me wash my hands.

Excuse me.

Yeah, you should rinse your hands.

Frame 12. Great.

A cop bending down, facing away,

covered in dust. And a dog.

No way we'll ID them, right?

Wrong.

Bob Schnelle was a member

of the NYPD's elite Emergency Service Unit,

or ESU.

The only reason we found Bob is because of his dog, Atlas,

who's kind of 9/11 famous.

When I contacted you, you were able to tell right away

that this was you, because of Atlas,

-right? -Yeah, and I, I kinda know what I look like.

- Even, even from the back. - -Fair.

There are people that remember the dog's name

and then they won't remember my name.

- It's like the Atlas guy. - Yeah.

Atlas's handler. That's what I'm referred to.

I'm trying to figure out, like, what I was doing,

'cause it looks like I'm looking at something on the ground.

Am I looking at... a body part?

Could be.

Is it part of the plane?

'Cause there were pieces of the plane

spread out throughout the area.

Once that first tower came down, it just turned into total chaos.

It was like something chasing you.

Like, I could feel, like, this debris coming.

It was like being chased by a tornado.

Okay. So, this is... Here's Atlas.

He actually got promoted to detective too.

He made detective before I did.

He got promoted before me.

You don't recall seeing any still photographer?

No.

Nah. No.

See, this, this sergeant now is Tommy Sullivan.

- And this guy here... - Mm-hmm.

...I think he's an ESU cop.

His name was Frank.

He's got an Italian last name. He's very Italian.

Frank...

I think it's Massi, M-A-S-S-I.

Frank DeMasi. D-E, capital M-A-S-I.

On September 11th, I was assigned

to the NYPD Emergency Service Unit.

There's an old saying in emergency service,

"When someone needs help, they call a cop.

And when a cop needs help, he calls emergency service."

Frame 13 gives us five IDs.

Tommy Sullivan, Richie Donnangelo, Franco Barberio,

Curtis Garvey, seen here in 9/11 news footage.

Look at his left wrist.

Here, and here. Same guy.

And, finally, Frank DeMasi.

This is after the South Tower came down.

Before the North Tower came down.

About ten of us dove underneath

the big emergency service truck for cover.

Everything went pitch black...

...and there was a deafening silence.

You couldn't hear, you couldn't see,

and I was at the point where I couldn't breathe.

Your mouth was just being filled with glass

and debris and soot.

That was the biggest point of the day

that I thought I was gonna die.

And after about nine minutes,

I remember you can start seeing daylight

coming through the cloud.

And we climbed out from, from under the truck,

and we survived the South Tower collapse.

So, you said that you were under this truck

- for about nine minutes, right? - Yes.

The South Tower fell at 9:59.

That puts it at between 10:08 and 10:28

that this picture was taken.

Because this-- the other tower fell at 10:28.

Yes, this is definitely in between the two towers falling.

I was nowhere to be found on this intersection

as the North Tower was coming down.

I was running down West Street, running,

running toward the Hudson River.

So, when you say, uh, you running towards the Hudson,

-you were down Vesey towards the Hudson? -On, uh--

-West would have been going-- -On Vesey.

Yeah. I know this can be because West and--

I was running west on Vesey.

-West on Vesey. -Yes.

-Not north on West. Okay. -That's correct.

That's correct.

Moving on. Frame 14.

When I first saw this, I recognized the firefighter.

Not by name. But I knew I'd seen him before, somewhere.

It took me a minute. Then it clicked.

He was caught on camera before the South Tower fell

byNew York Daily News photographer David Handschuh.

Look at his helmet.

Engine 55. Number 8934.

Once again, you see the North Tower,

the Vesey Bridge, WTC 6,

and the Verizon Building.

But who's the firefighter?

Oh, this is Paul Quinn, 55 Engine.

He was the chauffeur. He was right under the building.

I don't know how he survived.

You know, like the guy that walks between the raindrops?

This guy was right there, and he survived.

He was, he was a mess, though.

One more thing about Paul Quinn, maybe.

On December 23rd, 2001, I visited Ground Zero.

That's me.

Is this Quinn?

You can see a "5" on his helmet.

It kinda looks like him.

I tried to find him today, but I failed.

He's kind of a ghost.

So I still don't know if I ran into him 25 years ago.

Now, what about the other guy, White Helmet Man?

Wait, you misspelled it.

What does it mean to you

25 years later to see this picture?

It means what I say to everybody that asks me.

People that meet me and find out that I was there

ask me what it feels like to be a hero.

I said, "I don't know."

And they said, "Why?"

I said, "Because I'm not a hero."

I don't think that I really deserve

any extra recognition for being there.

The recognition I have is that I'm sitting here

25 years later, talking to you,

and I have a beautiful wife and two children.

Michele was getting ready to plan my funeral

when I got home and knocked on the door.

- Do you remember somebody taking your picture? - I don't.

I don't.

Frame 15.

We haven't ID'd this guy.

Mm. You can kinda read the last name.

- O-- - O-R-E.

- O-R-E, yeah. - Uh, maybe a T?

Yeah, it looks like a T.

Interesting.

Only one firefighter who died

had a last name that ended with those letters.

John August Santore, of Ladder 5.

They certainly look alike.

But many of these guys do.

I reached out to Santore's family.

They said, unfortunately, it isn't him.

So who is it?

Frame 16.

Is that the same guy?

It's hard to tell. Which highlights

something important about our 32 frames.

We haven't ID'd everyone.

There's no way to ID everyone unless we publish them.

Frame 17.

Taken on Vesey Street

in front of the American Express building.

My name is Rob Siragusa,

and I was a member of Engine Company 55

on September 11th.

After the first collapse,

there were guys walking around like zombies.

That's when I saw John.

He came walking out of the rubble,

covered in that white ash and dust from the Trade Center.

He was kind of in shock.

He was the chauffeur of 24 Engine that day,

so he was out in the street when the building came down.

So, I kind of just grabbed him.

I put him in the first ambulance,

and that was the last I saw of him for that day.

Do you remember the photo being taken?

No. No, I don't remember anybody taking this picture.

- Do you remember somebody taking this picture? - No, not at all.

Somebody had actually sent me this photo.

I think it was left on my coat rack

in an envelope where we keep our gear.

No name was ever put on it or anything.

It was just addressed to me.

And that was it.

The first time I saw this photo was

I was in front of the firehouse, a car pulls up,

a person, the driver calls my name,

never saw the person before in my life.

He says, "I have this picture."

He hands it to me.

"Okay, thank you." And he took off.

The weirdest thing.

Never saw the guy again.

I have no idea how he knew me.

Crazy.

Do you remember how long after the attacks?

Uh, couldn't be that long.

Had to be maybe a, a-- two weeks tops.

The origin story of our camera, of our photos, is murky.

Our source, John Calderone,

got them roughly a year after 9/11.

But who found the camera?

Who developed the photos?

Why did they anonymously send one to Siragusa?

Why did they toss it to Ottrando,

say, more or less, "Hey, it's you," and speed off?

We'll get back to that later.

For now, our photographer is, once again,

moving closer to the towers.

Wait, sorry. Tower. Singular.

Only one still stands. The North Tower.

But not for long.

Frame 18.

Taken under the Vesey bridge, looking north,

which is why you see blue sky and sunlight.

A momentary pause.

And then our photographer turns

and keeps walking into danger.

A decision that'll end his life.

Frame 19.

A man in a suit passes by our photographer,

staring right at him.

Suit Man. Likely a civilian,

one of thousands who evacuated.

He's a key witness.

If anyone can describe our photographer, it's him.

But a quarter century later, how are we supposed to find him?

Dark suit, tie, black bag, blue pen.

That's it. No real clues.

Which is frustrating.

I actually found another photo of him, taken a short time later.

Look at the details.

Same tie, bag, pen, suit, face. Same guy.

What's different is that his glasses are gone,

we can see that he's holding a yellow flashlight,

and most importantly, he's covered in dust.

The flashlight is interesting.

Why is he carrying it in broad daylight?

Where did it come from?

And look at the dust.

In frame 19, taken earlier, he's clean.

It seems that Suit Man was inside the North Tower

when the South Tower fell.

He's likely one of the final civilians

to escape the North Tower.

I search for anyone matching his description

and find none.

What about Silver Suit Man?

A first responder in some kind of protective gear.

But there were hundreds, if not thousands,

of first responders at or near the Trade Center on 9/11.

And we can't see his face.

I need some help.

- Hello. -Hey, Glen. It's Jon Walczak. How are you?

-Good. How are you doing? -Good.

So, there's a guy in a silver suit with a Scott tank,

and I'm curious if you can tell whether or not,

um, he's NYPD or FDNY.

That looks like a two-piece suit. Ours was one piece.

His hands are exposed.

And also, that air pack, ours went inside the suit.

So, this is a little bit different.

So, Silver Suit Man is not a cop.

Maybe he's a firefighter.

I decide to visit the New York City Fire Museum.

Thankfully, so far, everybody we've identified survived.

But I don't know who this is. Somebody with a Scott pack.

-So, that looks like Port Authority Fire, right? -That--

that-- I might know who that is.

-I know who that is. -That's--

That's my old roommate.

That's Patso Versage. He was Port Authority ESU.

He died of 9/11 illness in 2014.

He was my college roommate. We were fraternity brothers.

I can show you a picture of him.

Patrick Versage.

Right before he died, our homecoming.

- Wow. - And this, I'll show you.

- That's him. - Wow.

He talked down two jumpers on the Bayonne Bridge

in one day. But that's him.

Here's Silver Suit Man,

and here's Patrick in news video.

Amazingly, despite being photographed

walking toward the North Tower minutes before it fell,

he survived at first.

Thirteen years later, he died from 9/11-related illnesses.

I reach out to his family.

His wife, Carolyn, agrees that Silver Suit Man

is likely Patrick.

Now, one final thing.

Look at the truck.

Ladder 3.

There were hundreds of vehicles at the site on September 11th.

Out of all the vehicles that survived,

what immediately caught your eye about Ladder 3?

It was enigmatic.

I couldn't figure it out, actually.

I needed to walk around it to take it in.

And then I saw it as what you're seeing now.

The front cab is decapitated.

The ladder is distorted.

It's almost weeping.

And it seemed like a powerful surrogate

for everyone associated with Emergency Rescue that day.

I had asked the museum, uh, Stephanie,

and she said that unfortunately

there are no images of Ladder 3

between the fall of the South and the North Tower.

What would something like that mean?

Since all of the 11 firefighters

associated with this truck perished,

having a photograph of the rig parked nearby

would be a very poignant prelude.

Nobody going into that tower that morning

probably thought on their way up

that it was going to collapse on them.

Ah.

Oh, wow.

This is a previously unpublished photo

from an unknown camera that was found in the pile

that the images have surfaced

-24 years later. -Wow.

That's amazing. Look at it.

And the ladder is absolutely pristine.

- Ah. - -So this is after the fall of the S-- the South Tower.

South Tower, because of the debris that's on the street.

Absolutely.

That's just remarkable.

Moving on, our photographer crosses under the Vesey bridge.

As the North Tower burns above, he stands here.

Frame 20.

I don't know who any of these people are.

Like Suit Man, they appear to be some of the final civilians

to escape the North Tower, or maybe the Marriott.

A minute or two later, these three people are photographed

further north on West Street by Bill Biggart,

the only journalist killed while covering 9/11.

As of production, his estate hasn't allowed us to use the photo.

But since he took it with a digital camera,

we have an important clue, metadata.

Biggart snaps his photo at exactly 10:21:27,

six minutes and 58 seconds before the North Tower falls.

Incredibly, the same trio is photographed again,

this time by Mike Coppola,

a volunteer firefighter and EMT with a camera.

Seen here in this footage

taken by CBS News cameraman Mark LaGanga.

Why is this trio photographed three times

by three people in a matter of minutes?

Likely because, at this point,

there's so few other civilians in this area,

they stand out.

And then, even they leave.

Frame 21.

A lone man in a white shirt

stands in the rubble, in extreme danger,

with what appears to be a news camera,

filming the chaos.

How am I supposed to ID this guy?

The key, it turns out, is his footage.

I pore over hundreds of hours of video.

My eyes are bleary, my brain is fried.

I need Dramamine.

And then I see him, his reflection in a window.

First question. Can you tell us your name, and can you spell it?

Mark LaGanga. Uh, L-A-G-A-N-G-A.

The same guy who filmed Mike Coppola.

There's nothing going in there, bro. Get out!

The most stunning thing to me is how calm you were.

How do you stand under a, a burning tower

in the rubble of a collapsed 110-story building

and just kinda keep your cool and keep shooting?

I, I don't know.

Is he generally a calm guy?

When you're shooting, you kind of have a filter

between you and what's happening.

Everything you see is through one,

one little, tiny, tiny black-and-white screen.

So, when we see your video,

we're seeing it in color, but, in real time,

- you were seeing it in black and white? - -Yeah,

and it's two-dimensional.

And so it's a little bit of a shield.

You have a scar on your head.

Bo, the sound partner I was with, took a photo of me.

There was some debris when the building came down.

Frame 22,

which is almost identical to frame 21.

It appears our photographer is adjusting camera settings,

taking duplicate photos, trying to get a clear image

through haze and smoke.

We also see Mark in frame 23 and 24.

These were taken less than ten minutes before the North Tower fell.

What made you leave on time?

Um, I didn't know if-- to shoot anything else.

It was that straightforward.

There was a moment in your footage

where you pan over,

and it's right when our mystery photographer

-is taking your picture. -Oh, really?

I think in a minute, you'll turn a little bit.

But I would imagine it was around this moment.

Yeah, there you go. See?

Pause it right there.

So, roughly this moment,

just out of frame, maybe 100 feet away,

our photographer was, was taking your picture.

Every time I watch this,

I try to see if I can spot somebody.

So, this is-- You're right at West and Vesey.

So, like, even this gentleman, like every person that I see--

- What's he carrying? - Well, that's what I was-- I saw that earlier too.

That's like a strap.

I thought the same thing. And then I was, like,

"Is it a strap? Is it a, a tool?"

That looks to me like a camera strap.

And that's the way you would hold a still.

You were in the exact right spot at the right moment,

so the odds, like, in a few minutes,

a minute or two later when you're closer, he's photographing you.

- So, the chance-- That could be him. - -That looks like--

I'm glad that you said something 'cause I saw it earlier and I was--

but, I mean, you know, when I'm looking for somebody with a camera,

everything looks like a camera.

In our final frames,

as tens of millions of people around the world

watch on live TV,

below the fire, the smoke,

the quarter-mile-high skyscraper,

at the bottom, on the street,

near West and Vesey...

...it's just our photographer

and his camera.

Two more photos...

...and the North Tower falls.

Oh, my God.

Oh, my God.

Oh, my God.

Oh, my God. The whole building came down.

Oh, my gosh.

Oh, my God.

Oh, my God.

Oh, you gotta be kidding!

- What happened? - -Second World Trade building went down.

The second building went down.

I never saw anything like this in my entire life.

- Who is it? - Carol.

Why are you crying, Carol?

The World Trade Center collapsed.

Everything is collapsed, baby.

All those people. What about what's in there?

EMTs and paramedics and, and, and, and firefighters in there

- helping people to get out? - I don't know, sweetie. I really don't know.

I just look around

and I hear crackling sounds.

And there's fire coming out of the ground

and gas mains are blowing.

I saw the firemen buried in this ash.

I heard people screaming still.

And then, afterwards, it was like just a quiet canyon.

I could taste the chalk in the air.

In the eerie dead silence, honestly,

we really didn't know what to think at that point.

The Twin Towers are gone,

reduced to nearly two million tons of debris.

In there, somewhere, lies our photographer.

His camera too.

Between 9:59 and 10:28, when the towers fall,

very few cameramen are nearby.

Mark LaGanga, of CBS News, is one.

Jules Naudet, seen here, is another.

When I start this project, one of my goals

is to find as many of them as possible,

in part to see if they have unpublished images

that show our mystery photographer,

in part to hear their stories.

During this key 29-minute period,

maybe five to ten people with cameras

cross into the Danger Block:

West Street, between Liberty and Vesey.

Some are first responders, including Rich Rattazzi,

a firefighter with Ladder 16.

I always carried a disposable camera in my pocket,

and I would just hold it out in front of me

and I took pictures as I was walking.

Rich is with firefighter Rob Curatolo

and Lieutenant Ray Murphy.

We get under the north crosswalk,

and we're hearing, like, like a gush of air.

What it was, was due to the height of Marriott,

we couldn't see the South Tower,

and it was actually the South Tower collapsing.

And the only way we knew it was that

was the whole center of the Marriott exploded out at us.

Rattazzi circles the World Financial Center,

then crosses back to the Danger Block.

All you could hear was PASS alarms going off,

and it was, it was guys in the rubble.

I couldn't find Rob and Ray there.

And when I got to the corner of West and Vesey

is when the North Tower started to collapse.

So, I couldn't see, and I was having a real hard time breathin'.

I started throwing up cranberry sauce.

It was all blood.

Rattazzi snaps a few more photos,

including this, showing WTC 6.

And this, taken directly in front of it.

You can also see the collapsed Vesey bridge, here.

Banged up and vomiting blood,

Rich is taken to a nearby hospital

where he searches for Rob and Ray.

He can't find them.

Rob and Ray were still unaccounted for.

So, your photo actually became an important clue?

Yeah.

When we got it developed,

Ray was in front of the steel in the street.

So, when we went back down to dig,

that's where we started.

Both of them were found in that area.

Rob was under a high-rise rig on West Street,

and then Ray was underneath the crosswalk.

I ask Rich, a firefighter and photographer

who was in the right spot at the right time,

to look at our 32 frames.

What's incredible about these to me is how close...

-Yeah. -...he was.

And even, I mean, no--

you don't see any people. It's not because he wasn't even trying

- to photograph people, it's because-- - There aren't none.

There are none.

I think these are two firemen.

Well, that's what I'm curious to see.

- He's a fireman. - -He, you can tell him, but...

He doesn't look like a fireman.

Looks like he's wearing a baseball cap.

It's so close to capturing our person.

Our photographer is, like, right over here.

We're right in the same area.

-Mm. -Yeah, you're very close.

At this point, let's review our clues. What do we know?

Our photographer arrives at the World Trade Center...

...between 9:03 and 9:59. By car.

- Driven by someone else. - Toward disaster.

The antenna in frame one

is consistent with an emergency response vehicle.

Shadows tell us that he takes it around 9:38,

at West Broadway and Worth.

Putting him at the Trade Center maybe five minutes later.

Roughly 9:43.

He follows a north-south route.

Uses an SLR film camera with a zoom lens.

Takes photos near West and Vesey.

Survives the collapse of the South Tower.

And likely dies when the North Tower falls.

Now, let's condense and reorder our clues

and start looking at suspects.

First, no FDNY or NYPD photographers die.

Though, the NYPD does lose a videographer, Glen Pettit,

seen here entering the Trade Center.

There are only three serious suspects.

Suspect number one: Bill Biggart.

One of four confirmed rubble camera photographers.

By rubble camera, I mean a camera

found in the wreckage of the Trade Center

with photos of the attacks.

I first hear about him in late 2001

when I buy this magazine.

He's the only journalist who dies covering 9/11.

His body and three of his cameras,

two film, one digital,

are found a few days later, on West Street.

He approaches the Trade Center from the north,

survives the collapse of the South Tower,

and dies when the North Tower falls.

He certainly fits our profile.

I reach out to his family.

At first, they're skeptical.

But when they figure out I'm not a scam artist, they're shocked.

Is our camera Bill's?

I speak to his son and quickly determine that it can't be.

None of his cameras are missing,

and he was never in a car on 9/11.

He walked. So, he's not our guy.

Still, his family offers to help.

They review more than 300 photos, many never published,

looking for our photographer, who was very close to Bill.

So close, in fact, they photographed some of the same people

and scenes within minutes of each other.

But no luck.

No sign of our guy.

There are three more rubble camera photographers.

Number two is, of course, our mystery cameraman.

Number three is an unknown civilian

who took photos high in one of the towers.

His images are singular.

The only view of 9/11 from above a point of impact.

The FBI developed them from a disposable camera

found in his pocket.

I first learned about this in 2003

when I stumbled upon an article by Laura Sullivan,

then withThe Baltimore Sun.

For 15 years, I've tried to get the photos from the FBI,

which seemingly can't find them.

As of production, I'm suing the FBI in federal court.

Now, I've thought for years that our mystery cameraman died.

What if I'm wrong? What if he's alive?

Our fourth rubble photographer is also our second suspect:

Richard Smiouskas.

He's never spoken publicly until now.

On 9/11, I grabbed a duffel bag,

grabbed some cameras, a couple of bricks of film.

And I responded to Lower Manhattan.

Had my camera on my neck, the lens, and I start snapping away.

Like, just click, click, click, click, click, click, click.

Couldn't focus on one thing. There was so many things happening.

And as I was going across the plaza,

I photographed body parts.

It sounds-- As terrible as it sounds, it was a, it was a hand with a ring on it.

That was it, just a hand, and it was gray.

And what turned out to be-- it was a ribcage.

Just-- Somebody had-- Just this part.

Inside, you could see the ribs.

And then I s-- uh, and then a-- Strangely, a face.

Not the head or anything, just a face. Like somebody

just carved the face off and laid it on the ground.

Somebody with a little mustache. That's what I remember.

Hand with the ring on it,

a ribcage, and a face.

People were jumping out of the buildings.

They were hitting the atrium.

I, I heard crashing glass.

So I worked my way across the street,

and I went into the Winter Garden, they called it?

I was able to commandeer a, a security guy

to take me up to the roof.

I got up there, and I started photographing

people that were in the windows.

As the smoke cleared, there had to be 30, 40 faces.

And then they would get covered in smoke.

And then the smoke would blow away and you'd see the faces again.

And I said, "That's enough." I went back downstairs, went across the street,

and I wound up in World Trade Center 6.

And I heard an explosion.

And somebody had jumped, and they fell between the,

the North Tower and World Trade Center 6.

So, I had the glass window, and I put my camera to the glass

and I photographed the, uh, the person.

And then...

...what I know now is the building started collapsing.

The ground was shaking,

and I fell to the floor, my camera bag dropped.

I remember seeing some lenses and film rolling across.

And I rolled against the wall to protect myself.

Up until the, the first collapse,

I had photographed maybe ten or 12 r-- rolls of film,

about a dozen rolls.

As I was taking them out of the camera,

I was putting them in my duffel bag.

In retrospect, I should have put them in my pocket.

I would have had them.

There's only one roll of film that survived,

was in the camera that they found in the rubble.

When you heard that they found your camera,

what went through your head?

I said, "Oh, oh, good. I-- They saved some of my images."

'Cause that's the first thing I asked, "Was it intact?

Was the film destroyed?"

And I was, like, "Oh, they saved it." I go, "Oh, great."

At least I have something to prove I was there.

'Cause I had nothing else to prove I was there.

Rich's camera is now in the New York City Fire Museum.

They said it's in a little glass case,

and I said, "Let's, let's go check it out."

And then I mentioned it to my wife. I says,

I says, "You know, everybody in here

is, uh...

They're not, they're not alive."

You know, old chiefs and famous firefighters,

famous Dalmatians, you know?

But, as I'm looking around, I says, "I'm the only one that--

in this museum that's still alive."

Do you find it painful that the rest of your film wasn't recovered?

Oh, yes. Yes. I wish everything was found.

It would've shown a lot more than the-- that last roll I took.

Three of Rich's photos

are particularly striking.

He took this on top

of the north bridge, facing south.

This is the Danger Block:

West Street, between Liberty and Vesey.

There's the Marriott.

Rich also took this on top of the Vesey bridge.

It introduces a new key landmark:

the North Tower portico.

And finally, picture three,

taken on the roof of the World Financial Center,

across West Street.

You were the only person who got up on the roof

across the street with a camera,

and you had a view, not only into history,

but into what people were going through

that nobody else saw.

That's only in your memory now,

because we don't have those photos.

Are you an artist?

An artist?

We brought a sketch pad,

and I was wondering if you would be willing

to try to put to paper

one or two of the photos that were lost.

Oh, I don't know how good I could be with that.

I'm mostly like a stick figure guy.

There was one fellow standing in the building.

His arms were outstretched to the sides,

and, uh...

...he was, he was like this.

Obviously, it's not in perspective.

And there were just fa-- faces around him,

between his legs here. Just, you-- just faces and...

I don't know if-- This is kind of bizarre for me, doing this.

Th-- there just had to be 30 people, just faces.

Some of them were grip-- They were--

Like, the hands were like this.

They were holding on. I remember that.

Should I put eyeballs in here? I don't know if I should, I should do.

To make them look like people, you know?

Like...

That's basically what I photographed.

It's, uh... There was a fellow through my lens.

I saw him in the window, and he was holding on across, like this,

and there's all these faces around him.

He was spread out, and then he, he was probably nudged out.

I'm sure there were a lot of people behind these people.

You know, they were probably back there somewhere, maybe suffocating and, and...

But I would imagine there was more trying to get air.

- But you could see their faces? - Yeah, you could

definitely see-- you see the faces, definitely. You know?

Yes.

Still, that's one of,

that's one of the major things that I still remember, that image.

Rich's story and drawing are haunting.

But they also tell us

that he can't be our mystery photographer.

Now, I have a confession to make.

I've known the name of our photographer

from the beginning, the entire time.

Suspect number three: Bobby Crawford.

This is what my source, John Calderone,

tells me in 2021.

So I tracked down Stephen King, Crawford's boss.

-Did he have a camera with him on 9/11? -Yes.

Crawford was known to carry an SLR film camera...

...survived the collapse of the South Tower

and died when the North Tower fell.

An immediate yes to half our criteria.

But do we even need the clue matrix?

The camera was found near Crawford's body,

which more or less solves this, right?

Still, I need to be sure.

I saw the explosion from my office window.

I turned right away to Bobby Crawford

and I said, "Bobby, get the car. We're going in."

Did Bobby take any photos that day while in the car?

No. He was driving.

And it was just the two of you?

Yes.

We first pulled in there

eight minutes from when I saw it in my window.

That was before the second plane hit that you arrived?

Oh, yeah. I was in there well before the second plane hit.

That's a definite.

At one point, I'm going up to the third or fourth floor,

and I lost my balance.

I'm falling backwards, and I put out my left foot

and something snaps.

I was in excruciating pain.

And I said, "Bobby, I gotta go downstairs. I, I can't climb."

And he said, "Okay, Chief.

I'm just gonna check out this floor quick,

and I'll be down in a couple of minutes."

So I kinda thought he might

go up another flight or something.

I never envisioned him going much higher.

Did he get to the 10th floor? The 30th floor?

I mean, we knew nothing after that.

Nobody was able to ever contact him.

I email his son, Mark. This is what he tells me.

That his dad's body is found in the North Tower,

in a stairwell, between floors ten and 15.

Remember, our final photos

are taken in front of the North Tower

less than ten minutes before it falls.

Is it possible that Crawford takes them,

bolts back into the tower,

and runs up ten to 15 flights of stairs?

In less than ten minutes?

It's extremely unlikely.

I was asking you about Bobby's camera

'cause I was trying to figure if he could be the photographer.

No, no. He's not the photographer.

I know he's not the photographer.

Oh, there's no way on Earth.

Trust me.

At this point, I'm extremely confused.

So few people had an SLR film camera.

And survived the collapse of the South Tower.

And died when the North Tower fell.

And our camera was found near his body?

How is Crawford not our guy?

I've exhausted all suspects.

Every rubble camera photographer,

every journalist. Everyone.

But someone had a camera on 9/11 and took our 32 frames.

So, back to zero.

At this point, there's only one thing to do.

- Something exhilarating. - Something glamorous.

Something cinematic.

Make a spreadsheet.

If our mystery cameraman is not a journalist,

he's likely a first responder.

So, we list everyone who died on 9/11.

Then we comb through public records and news accounts,

ruling out suspects, one by one.

At one point, I get excited.

I read about a man named Joe Lovero,

a fire dispatcher from Jersey City

who responded on 9/11 as a volunteer.

One of his hobbies? Photography.

But according to news reports,

he died when the South Tower fell.

So it can't be him.

I return to the photos, the people in them.

The most important is Suit Man, the best witness.

We need to find him.

And we do. Amazingly, we do.

I write him a letter. I email him.

I call him. He never responds.

So we're on the way to the home of Suit Man.

We ID'd him. He was a civilian in the North Tower

who got out right before it fell.

I hate door knocking, but he hasn't responded,

so I'm gonna try to talk to him in person

and ask him if we can do an interview,

or if he'll at least look at the photo and see.

What do you think our chances are?

I say, given how we haven't heard back from him at all,

it seems like signs point to no.

It seems like Jon is talking to somebody about it

because it's been a few minutes, and he hasn't come back out yet.

I don't know.

There he is.

All right.

Let me think.

He called the police. We gotta go.

Go.

I'm just kidding. He didn't call the police.

- Are you still filming? - Oh, come on.

Sure, I am.

I-- No. Yeah, totally kidding.

Uh, super friendly guy.

Uh...

Uh, very, very nice man.

Um, I met him. I, I recognize him from the photo.

Obviously, he's older. But, um, he was very friendly,

and we have an interview on Wednesday at 4:30 p.m.

Wow.

My name is Jitendra Mavadia.

Jitendra was a contractor for the Port Authority.

He oversaw World Trade Center security systems.

At 8:30 a.m. on 9/11, he's at the top of the South Tower, floor 107.

He leaves just in time and makes his way to the North Tower,

which is immediately hit by a plane.

I was trapped in my office because outside in the corridor,

everything was totally dark, total dusty,

too much gasoline smell, and debris were blocking the doors.

At that time, I left a message on my home phone

that... "Looks like I'm not gonna make it.

And let me take care of the people who are here

and see what I can do."

Finally, firefighters reach him.

They clear debris and open the door.

Jitendra is free.

Somewhere above him in the North Tower...

...is firefighter Lawrence Virgilio.

Larry has two college degrees.

He's a winemaker, a scuba diver, a rock climber.

He trained in classical ballet

and performed in community theater.

With 38 minutes to live,

he calls his partner of six years,

Abigail Francis, and leaves a voicemail.

Shared here, publicly, for the first time.

It's an intimate ear in the North Tower.

What people like Jitendra and Larry hear

as they choose to stay, to save people.

On Valentine's Day 1997,

Larry gave this to Abigail.

An EKG.

Dear Abigail, I didn't get you a card for Valentine's Day.

Here's my heart instead. Love, Larry.

All of a sudden, the whole entire system went down.

So there's no electric power, there's nothing there, so nothing works.

Jitendra descends a darkened stairwell

and enters a desolate lobby.

There was nothing there. The dust, all over the place.

The window glasses were broken.

The revolving doors were not functioning properly,

or some of them are out.

- Was anybody in the lobby? - Maybe a couple of ladies

and a couple of men.

That's it.

And when I started walking out. At that time, the tower fell.

And then a huge cloud of dust roaring towards me.

You see, up in the sky, there's no sun.

All dark, all black.

But then I see a firetruck parked right there,

and I went under the firetruck just to shelter myself,

that if something fall on me. But that didn't help

because there was no oxygen in there.

For some reason...

...one firefighter came in

under the truck and shared his mask with me.

For a couple of seconds or maybe few times,

maybe one or two times.

But then, by the time the cloud settled down,

I look around, he's not there anymore.

Looks like he just came to save me.

Then I came out of there.

I see two young guys like you.

They had a skateboard with them.

They say, "How can I help you, sir? Can, can we do anything for you?"

So they put me on a skateboard. I say, "I don't know how to skate."

Both of them on each side, they hold my hand, and they...

...take me far away, to their home.

What did their kindness mean to you in that moment?

Unbelievable.

Unbelievable. That people don't know people,

but the time of crisis...

...we all are one.

We all are human being.

We are there to help each other.

That means a lot to me.

Jitendra makes his way home.

By ferry or bus, he doesn't remember.

My wife was there before me,

and she was so happy to see me.

I don't want to get debris or anything inside the house.

So, with the suit, I took a shower.

And then take the suit out, put in a laundry machine, then came up.

And I turned on the TV, and then I broke down.

I lost all my courage.

That, what is happening, and why did it happen?

This must be

after the South Tower fell, while I'm walking out,

because my clothes are not that dirty. It is clean.

So, this photo of you,

they found the camera in the rubble.

We think it was a first responder who didn't survive.

Unbelievable.

Do you remember this photo being taken?

No. No idea.

So, my work continues.

I'm running out of ideas and time.

It could take years to manually rule out every first responder.

And, regardless, no one seems to fit the profile.

Which is where this guy comes in: Mike Coppola.

The volunteer firefighter and EMT who made it to West and Vesey

before the North Tower fell with a camera.

Oh, shit.

That's a new problem.

Fuck.

I might have the key in the car. If not, my house is, like--

that's, like, like, ten blocks away.

You can take a ride with me if you want. It'd be easier.

You'd think I'd be more organized, given my background.

Where the fuck? Yeah. Fuck. We gotta run to the house. Shit. You guys can hop in.

- No, actually-- - All right. Stand by.

- Next thing you know-- - I don't, I don't know. You know.

I don't fucking-- Yeah, I don't know.

First try!

Oh, fuck. I had bins in here? Shit. I just went and bought them too.

I'm gonna go back this way. I think I kept all the Trade Center stuff in here.

Here, here you go.

Let's see what we got here.

Anytime I see a photo like this, at this moment,

I'm always looking for a photographer.

- These are the day-of photos, by the way. - -Mm.

Even though 9/11 was the most documented event in human history,

there were very few people where you were.

Oh, yeah. News, or buffs like us.

And anybody else was getting kicked out or running the other way.

The first time I speak to Mike, by phone,

and I did not record it,

when I tell him the gist of this film, our 32 frames,

my hunt for the photographer, he stops me.

"I know who it is," he says.

But we already ruled out Lovero.

He died when the South Tower fell.

He's literally the last person on our new list of suspects.

But, okay, I'll double check.

Confirmation he was killed by the South Tower

here, from the Associated Press,

and here, fromThe Star-Ledger.

- Wait, bring that back. - Lovero...

So, Lovero did go to the Trade Center to shoot photos,

and was fatally injured when one of the towers fell.

But which tower?

Not a single source says the North Tower.

And if the South Tower killed him,

he's not our guy.

I keep digging and find this.

An interview with FDNY Battalion Chief Ed Henry,

from 2001.

So I proceeded to an area where there was a portico,

part of the Trade Center.

I got under that so I wouldn't be hit by anything.

The only two people under that were myself

and a dispatcher from the Jersey City Fire Department.

Within one second, this whole portico

collapsed to the floor, pinned me to the floor.

My face was six inches off the floor as rocks and rubble

and everything were rolling past me.

Shortly thereafter, it stopped.

And this big cloud of dust, where you couldn't see anything,

it was like a fog, permeated the area.

My legs were pinned a little bit, but not too bad.

I was able to get them loose,

and I crawled to where I felt cold air

on the side of my face.

And I crawled and I crawled and I crawled.

Finally, I got out into the open air.

I saw the clear blue sky.

I found the dispatcher from Jersey City.

...and I waved to him.

They put us on two backboards,

and they put us in an ambulance.

And shortly after that, we left.

So, Lovero was killed by the North Tower.

Chief Henry doesn't name him, but his description,

a Jersey City dispatcher, on site,

taking photos, killed when a tower fell,

fits one person: Joe Lovero.

This is a strong lead,

but I still have a bunch of questions.

-Say your name, and then spell your name. -And spell it.

- Uh, Rob-- - I'll go, I'll go first.

- Yeah. - You ready?

-Go ahead. -I'm retired Battalion Chief

John Austin. J-O-H-N A-U-S-T-I-N.

I'm Robert Cobb, retired deputy chief,

Jersey City Fire Department.

C-O-B-B.

As the attacks begin, Joe Lovero gets off work.

Meanwhile, the Port Authority issues an urgent call for mutual aid.

They wanted our MSU, our Mask Service Unit,

because of the amount of Scott bottles that they, they could carry with them.

We had close to 400 bottles full of air on this one truck.

When we saw how high up that fire was, we said,

"These guys are gonna need a ton of air."

That day, when did you first see Joe Lovero?

When I arranged to rendezvous with the MSU.

I came from the southwest corner of Jersey City, uh,

by the Hackensack River,

and I was going through downtown,

heading for the Holland Tunnel,

so I picked this intersection:

Newark and Jersey Avenues, in downtown Jersey City.

MSU knew I was gonna meet up with them.

I stopped next to them, and Joe was already there.

He was waiting. And as soon as I stopped the car by the MSU,

he asked me for a ride. "Get in the back. Let's go."

And what did he have with him?

Two bags. Camera bags.

When Joe would show up to fires,

did he always have his camera with him?

Yeah. I never saw him without it.

I don't know.

What kind of cameras did Joe typically have on him?

-He always seemed to have a single-lens reflex. -SLRs.

Do you remember Joe taking any photos

when you were driving to the site?

I was driving and I was driving.

I was in excess of the speed limit,

and I wasn't looking back at what was going on.

How fast did you go through the Holland Tunnel?

-When it's empty. -Oh, yeah. How...

- When it's empty. - ...how fast were you going?

About 80, 85 miles an hour.

- Who was in front? The MSU truck or you? -Me.

- So, you were leading the charge. - I was leading the charge.

How many people were in your car,

and who was in each vehicle?

Buck Weaver was driving the MSU

with Captain Charlie Smith.

In my vehicle, I was driving.

I had Jerry Drennan and I had Joe Lovero in the back seat.

So we flew through the tunnel,

headed down, got to West and Vesey.

And how long were you there before the South Tower fell?

Not long. Uh...

Probably less than ten minutes.

It was probably like about 9:50

I was there.

We all got out.

Joe Lovero grabbed his camera and took off

before I could give my guys their safety briefing

and tell them where we were gonna rendezvous

if something went wrong.

And I didn't see Joe again.

Can you describe him to me?

Yeah, it was real, real easy. He was balding slightly on top.

- Yeah. Like I was. - And he was built just like you, but shorter.

- So, I'm 5'8". So... - He, he was--

- Yeah. He was shorter than you. - He looked--

Exactly. He was 5'6".

A couple of pounds overweight, just like me.

He, he had a little...

-a little... -A little paunch.

...paunch going.

When you stopped and you got out of the car,

how quickly did Joe run?

I couldn't have stopped him.

I'm shutting the car off, he's getting out the door.

You know? And then I get out the door.

He's already 25, 35 yards away

- and going. - Towards?

- Towards-- - Towards the North Tower.

Did Joe say anything to you when he bolted from the car?

Not a word.

Do you remember what he was wearing?

No.

He had a blue t-shirt and blue pants on,

and that, and that was, that was it.

- Did he have a helmet or anything? - No.

- Did he have any protective gear? - No.

John starts to make his way to the FDNY command post.

Never got that far.

I was walking around the North Tower,

towards the South Tower when...

...a body hit.

And I was, like, "What was that?"

And so there's a body.

And it was just a, a red splotch.

I said, "Where's the bones? Where's the clothes?

Where's the--"

No. Just a red mist when they hit.

I looked up to make sure I wasn't gonna get hit with another body,

and the top of the South Tower

was already doing that mushroom act, you know, where...

We hadn't heard it yet. The sound hadn't reached us

when I said, "That's it. Run away."

Toward the MSU truck.

This is where it parked.

You can see it here, as the South Tower collapses,

and here.

Butch, your radio call sign

-that day was 6 Alpha? -6 Alpha, yeah.

-What was yours? -Battalion 3.

When did you realize that Joe was missing?

-As soon as we got to the rendezvous point. -Yeah.

As soon as we got to the rendezvous point, I'm counting heads, saying,

"Okay, I got the two from the MSU.

I got myself and Jerry. Where is Joe Lovero?"

When I finally got back to my car, there was,

on the windshield, and I thought it was a ticket.

I said, "Who would write me a ticket at this thing?"

But in actuality,

it was a bill from Windows on the World.

It was dated that morning for breakfast.

The corner of it was burned off.

And I picked it up, and I looked at it...

...and I said, "No, I, I don't want

- a souvenir from this place." - Yeah.

And I just put it under the car in the dust

and I drove away.

When did Jersey City first get the call

that Joe had been taken to St. Vincent's?

It was probably close to midnight.

I had heard he was alive when they got him to St. Vincent's,

and he died before they could get him into surgery.

He died in the emergency room.

Do you have the pictures from that, from that camera?

Yeah. Would you like to see them?

-Yeah, I would. -Yeah, absolutely.

These are some great pictures.

I can just picture him running up to the building

- and taking these pictures -Exactly.

Because if you'd seen Joe's pictures before these,

he always wanted to run up right to the front of the building,

the alpha side of the building, and take a picture of it.

-Yeah. -So...

This is West Broadway and Worth. So it's pretty close.

That's where your car would have been.

Uh, I was probably coming down West Broadway to Vesey.

It's incredible,

as a photographer, if these are Joe's photos,

and we, we think they are, nobody was that close.

The closest person was Bill Biggart, who was killed.

-Yes. -And he was still further back.

-Yeah. -And so these are the closest photos

of that moment in time, when nobody else was there.

These are-- this is it. And so people talk about, well,

9/11 was the most documented moment,

-moment in human history... -Oh, yeah.

-...ever. But-- -Not like that.

- Not like this. - People were looking...

-...from the outside looking in. -Yes.

Nobody was standing 20 feet from the half-collapsed hotel

with the other tower burning above them.

Everything that I know about Joe Lovero and his camera

-is consistent with these photos. -Absolutely, yeah. I think.

The South Tower falls at 9:59.

Lovero gets to the Trade Center ten to 15 minutes earlier,

roughly 9:44-9:49...

...within one minute of our estimate

of when the photographer arrives.

He rides over in a Jersey City Fire vehicle,

driven by John Austin,

through the Holland Tunnel, then south.

Lovero uses an SLR film camera with a zoom lens.

Survives the collapse of the South Tower

and is killed by the North Tower.

So, when you look at those first two photos,

there's an antenna visible.

An, an antenna on what?

- Down here? In the corner? - Let's see, real quick.

It's right here. You see the antenna?

Okay.

Okay. That's an antenna?

An automobile antenna.

-Ah, it's too big. Huh? -Well, it looks like

it has a little ball on the end of it, but--

-It wouldn't be your car though. -No, it wouldn't,

because my car didn't have that antenna.

My car had one of those little, little ones on the center

-of the roof in the back. -I don't know what the hell that is.

It looks like it's down the block, but, you know...

Wait. Can I-- I'm sorry. Can I go back to the antenna picture?

- Yeah. - So, you're saying that

that's not consistent with your car?

-No, because... -No. No.

...it did have a, a, a mast antenna on it,

but it was on the right fender, on the right side.

I apologize. Uh, so, describe the antenna, and tell me where it was.

Just forward of the windshield, on the right front fender.

Well, I think that's consistent with this.

The antenna is just outside the windshield,

on the right side of the vehicle, on the fender.

Okay? So, if the passenger was sitting there,

the antenna would be right here.

So, if somebody in the back seat got out the window

-and took a picture in that direction... -Yeah.

Yeah, they could have that antenna in there.

Mm.

-Oh. Yeah, yeah. -Thank you. Sorry.

No, no. No, no.

John, you were with Joe on 9/11.

He was in your car. What is it like for the two of you

to see these photos for the first time?

-I got goosebumps when you took them out. I just, I just-- -Yeah.

They said to me, "Joe Lovero."

As soon you, you took them out and I saw the first shot, just...

The first shot, with the antenna on it, I didn't, I didn't grasp that.

But when it got to the second time,

we're looking directly up at the building,

I remember Joe taking those pictures.

I, I... not 100%, but...

-...you know-- Yeah. -Ninety-plus percent.

There's no doubt in my mind that that,

that could be him. Absolutely.

He leaves behind-- There's kind of like a legacy

he leaves behind, what he was all about.

-That, if they're his-- -That's a little bit of history of Joe.

-That's him sitting in the... Yeah. -That's what it is.

One last thing. Remember, Joe had two camera bags on 9/11.

He took one with him as he ran toward the towers.

The other, he left in John's car.

John returned it to Joe's brother, Mike.

I was, like, "He had a camera bag on his shoulder

when he left me.

And this one was left in the car."

-Well, here's a-- -You know, get it back to whoever.

Were there any pictures on the other camera that,

that, that, that you gave to his brother?

- I, I don't know. - Hmm.

Joe Lovero is our guy. I think.

But I thought, for years, it was someone else:

Bobby Crawford. I made a mistake.

I don't wanna do that again.

I need physical evidence, the camera.

In 2002, Jack Calderone, my source,

put out a call for images of 9/11

to display in a small memorial on Staten Island.

A firefighter brought him the camera,

the negatives, and the photos.

He doesn't remember who.

Someone from Rescue 5.

Probably the person who found it at Ground Zero.

They seem to have a strong connection to Staten Island.

Rescue 5 is on the island.

They or someone they knew recognized Robert Siragusa

and John Ottrando, who live on the island.

The memorial is on the island.

Jack remembers getting the photos

in a distinct green-and-white envelope...

...likely from the now-closed

Wallich's Photo Lab, on the island.

Staten Island is sometimes called the forgotten borough.

Two hundred and seventy-four islanders died on 9/11,

but all anyone thinks about is the long-closed dump.

The island is the heart of our story,

and it's where, now, we hunt for the camera.

This is the National 9/11 Memorial & Museum,

in Manhattan.

This is the Staten Island 9/11 Memorial.

And this is the World Trade Center Educational Tribute,

part of the Snug Harbor Cultural Center, on Staten Island.

It's tucked away, hidden in trees,

maintained by a dedicated group of FDNY volunteers.

Well, this was a mortuary, right? When they built it,

they built it crooked so the soul could leave the building.

Yes, this building used to be a morgue

for retired sailors, including, strangely enough,

my great-grandfather, Charlie,

a merchant marine who served in World War II.

He retired on these grounds, died in 1964,

and was embalmed in this room,

the same room in which some of our 32 frames

have been displayed for 23 years.

This is where the camera should be, in this case.

But it's not.

It's gone.

Jack Calderone last remembers

seeing it here in 2016, when he retired.

The memorial shut down during Covid and reopened in 2022.

Sometime between 2016 and '22, the camera disappeared.

It's unclear if it was misplaced or stolen.

Everything else is accounted for,

including artifacts like this helmet

and this piece of one of the planes.

- These are all from that camera? - These are all from that camera.

Obviously, he was right under... the North Tower.

Sorry. Put that there.

You guys looked, to search storage here, to see if you could find the camera?

Yeah, we did a thorough search. Went through it twice this morning,

dug everything out. Nothing.

Finding the camera is our only hope

to prove that Joe Lovero is our photographer.

We could check the serial number.

We might even be able to pull DNA.

Vital clues.

Back in Jersey, Butch makes a surprise call.

Hey, Mike.

Yeah, it's Bobby Cobb.

Bobby Cobb. C-O-B-B.

Retired deputy chief from Jersey City.

No, no, I'm actually here in New Jersey with Johnny Austin,

doing a, uh, documentary on 9/11.

Yeah, so I'm actually here with them right now because they, they were--

Yeah.

Okay.

Okay, no, yeah, that's fine. That's fine. Fine.

I just wanted to check with you just to see. All right.

He just shut it down right away.

- Yeah. - He said no. I said, "You know what?

Leave it alone. I don't wanna talk about it."

I try to reach the Loveros.

I write and call and email and text. No response.

A family friend agrees to contact them for us.

Today. 10:13 p.m.

"Mr. Walczak, I have been in contact

with member of Joe Lovero's family.

They have made it extremely clear that they are not interested

in any contact regarding Joe.

The FDJC will honor the Lovero family wish to be undisturbed.

Please accept this text as our position in this matter."

So...

Uh, I mean, the family,

the family hasn't said anything to me, so...

I mean, I guess by not responding, they were clear.

But not really, because...

Imagine if we came out with this and we had these photos

and we didn't contact the family.

Since 2001, the story of Joe Lovero

has shifted from photographer to emergency rescue hero,

including an unverified account that he died while dismantling

turnstiles in the North Tower to help people escape.

The truth is, we know he took photos.

Everything else is speculation.

I think that we're honoring the wishes of the photographer

by publishing the photos,

because it was important enough

that this was the final act of their life.

That they were a first responder,

and we don't know exactly what they did,

but they very likely were helping people,

which makes them a hero, but they also were a photographer,

and I don't think that makes them any less of a hero.

I think, as far as, like, what we do with the...

...with this project,

I mean, it's not, it's not what I wanted.

I don't know. I just had this image of...

...32 photos of life and, like, a happy ending, but...

...it is not a happy ending.

When I first learn about Joe,

I'm startled to see his birthday.

September 8th. My birthday.

Seventy-two hours before the attacks, I turned 13.

He turned 60.

I wanna see him alive at that party,

but it's not up to me.

We say "never forget."

But who chooses what we remember?

Did Joe save lives, or did he take photos?

Why not both?

For one fateful moment,

at one intersection, West and Vesey,

everyone and everything fused together.

A swirling mass of glass and steel and dust and debris.

People who lived and died.

The before and after.

The first responder, the photographer, one.

A body fell from the sky onto firefighter Danny Suhr.

Todd Maisel helped evacuate him and took pictures.

The South Tower fell onto firefighter Kevin Shea.

Todd helped save him and took pictures.

If you have a choice of taking a photo

or helping someone, which are you doing?

I'm helping someone.

But photography is important, to tell the story,

tell their story.

They couldn't tell their story. They're dead.

Three hundred and forty-three firefighters, dead.

Seventy-eight fi-- cops, they're dead.

They couldn't tell their story. I could tell their story.

In the end, I know more about how Joe Lovero died

than how he lived.

I can show you photos and maps and landmarks.

I can take you to West and Vesey.

But I'll never know him.

I hear he was a good cook.

He always made great Italian food.

- Yeah. - -Do you remember one particular dish?

Yeah.

It had veal, and it had pasta,

and it was like a white cream sauce on it,

and I can't remember the name of it, but...

Oh, it was to die for.

There's a meme I can't license, but you can look up.

A girl stands in a field, the wind in her hair,

the sky blue, the Twin Towers behind her.

That's true of me, but not of people born in the last 25 years.

For them, it never existed.

My niece is 13, the same age I was on 9/11.

I show her my video from the towers.

I tell her of the world that was.

I pray for the world that is,

and the world I hope to come.

9/11 never ended.

We live it every day.

No one more so than the people who were there.

We've now lost more than 343 firemen

that died that day.

To the cancers.

We're close to 400 now.

We just buried a Staten Islander this weekend.

Eight firemen from Jersey City in every rank have died.

I have six illnesses from 9/11, by the way.

Migraine headaches, hearing loss, gastric reflux.

-Cancer. -Thyroid cancer.

-Cancer. -Lung scars, uh, nodules.

Coronary hypertension.

They told us the air was safe, by the way.

"The air is safe, guys. You can go in there and do your job."

I have my oxygen in the car if I need it, you know. So...

It's okay.

That's-- I have that at night.

You know, I, I can't complain about having a cough.

You know, when s-- when so many other people have so much worse,

it's like, you know...

To be fair, you also have thyroid cancer.

You know what? You know what the doctor said?

"You got the best cancer."

If anybody-- If you're gonna get cancer, get thyroid cancer.

It's slow-growing,

and you could live a long time with it.

When the kids were young,

I remember...

I remember sitting out in the back, on the, on the mound,

and the kids asking me to play with them,

and I used to tell them that,

"Daddy can't run around with you 'cause he's fat and out of shape."

The fact of the matter was I couldn't run around

with them 'cause I couldn't breathe

because I have three-quarters of an inch of salt

in the base of both of my lungs.

But they didn't need to know that at the time.

It was easy to say, "Daddy's fat and out of shape. I can't play with you."

You strike me like you have a good sense of humor.

You have to.

That's a coping mechanism, because, honestly,

after all the years that I've spent in the field,

and all the things I've seen,

and the World Trade Center,

if you don't laugh and you make--

you don't make jokes, you go crazy.

There have been countless, countless people

that I've worked with over the years that have taken their own lives,

because they can't deal with the stress.

9/11, I don't turn the TV on.

I've never gone to Manhattan since.

I have nightmares.

I've-- Just weird nightmares.

I had nightmares of, of the, of the rebar.

People stuck on the rebar.

Just weird stuff, like de-- decaying bodies on rebar

at the World Trade Center.

I was suffering from ha-- from hallucinations

where I would see a black bag on the floor,

and it looked like a body,

or if I was looking at my own feet,

it looked like the feet of people I recovered,

a person I recovered.

I couldn't take a shower and close the shower curtain

because I felt like I was trapped.

A few of my friends and colleagues,

I heard that they lost their mind

and they ended up in a mental institution.

That kind of wake me up that I don't want to end up like them.

I have to rebuild my life again.

But then I started analyzing my mind,

that why my mental status is like this?

And I realized it was a survivor guilt.

I lost this many people on one day.

As a security consultant, you're not supposed to lose a single life.

But on the same day I lost like 2600 people.

Other side of my mind started thinking,

"What's the major cause of death in the United States?"

Driving.

Then I started thinking, "Let me teach driving

from the root level, from 16 year old and up."

Teach them safe driving technique,

make them defensive drivers,

so that they save their life

and they save others' life also.

So, each one of my 16-year-old will be one tribute

to one lost life in World Trade Center.

That's the reason I started this,

and when I get my license,

I insist that my license should be stamped on 9/11.

So, this driving school, Vision Driving Schools,

first license was issued on 9/11/2006.

Have you been back to the site since?

Never.

I don't have that kind of courage to do that.

But when I see you, when you step in my office...

...and I thought to myself, "Why this guy is chasing me?

How did he get my number?"

I would keep asking my wife also

that, "How did he get my number?

Why? After 24 years, who search... like that?"

And you had a dedication.

I... I make up my mind.

After looking at you...

...I don't know what's driving me,

but maybe your face, maybe your eyes,

give me confidence.

"Let's get it over with, man. Move on with your life."

After you left, I told my wife,

"We'll book a hotel there. We'll go there.

I want to stay overnight there.

Let's see what I feel."

I will go there.

- How are you doing today? - Fine, fine.

Jitendra, I just wanna say

whatever you need today, we're here for you.

So, if you guys just want some space,

if you want us to kind of step away,

if-- just please let us know.

No, no, no, no. I will--

We want you to be with us.

You are my mentor.

I appreciate it.

- You are the reason, after 24 years, I'm going there. - -He's going on.

My son called me and says, "Dad, are you okay?

Are you okay to go over there?" I said, "Yeah, I'm trying to find myself."

Okay.

...destination on the left-hand side.

Do you remember some of this from before?

-This is totally new. -Yeah.

I didn't know that this...

The Twin Tower had a charm.

- Yeah. - Both towers together.

- It was special. - It was special.

The s-- the skyline is not the same.

So, when we get in front, I'm gonna show you

- where that photo was taken and... - -Oh.

...I'll kind of orient you.

Yeah, this is the intersection of West

- and Vesey. - -So, this is where I walked.

Yeah, this is where you walked.

- So, I was there. - Yes. This is what was

- uh, World Trade Center 6. - Right. Right.

And so you would've been, uh, in the street,

like, right over here.

I'll take you to, if you're okay with it, to the pool.

Right.

- How do you feel? - -I felt a little uneasy,

but now, I'm okay.

This is the fire truck.

That's where that picture is?

How does it feel to you to see this in person?

Incredible. Incredible.

I didn't know that after 24 years,

I'll be able to see it.

And I was there.

Unbelievable.

But I'm so glad I took this decision to come...

...to see all these things.

I don't know how to feel, but...

...I think once we get out of here, I'll feel much better

than all this last 24 years I was suffering.

I see a lot of...

...anxiety is evaporating from my body.

And I think that...

...if I wouldn't have seen this, I would've been...

Next 25 years, I would be same person.

But now that I see it, I think I can get it over with.

I can even bring my friends, somebody come visit,

I'll bring them here myself.

How does it feel that one day, you might be--

your picture might be here in the museum?

Wonderful. I'd be honored.

I will be really, really honored to see that.

-Yeah. -I feel very honored that you invited us to come today.

It means a lot. It was emotional.

Like I said, without you, I wouldn't have done this.

You are the best of the best.

I feel like my own children.

You know what I mean? Come on.

Give camera to somebody else. You come on too.

Come on, Purnima.

We're glad to be here with you.

There's one last thing to do.

I've never met Jack Calderone, my source.

For years, I ask for an interview.

He declines.

Finally, right before we leave New York,

he invites me to stop by.

- I just finished that. - Wow.

Are you publishing this?

It's gone. It's sold out already.

- Wow. - Did 500 copies.

Jack joined the FDNY in 1973.

He's a retired firefighter and talented photographer.

In fact, some of the photos in our intro are his.

You remember your first camera?

I think I still have it.

Huh. This is a still camera?

- Yeah. - Wow.

I know it's not the Zapruder camera,

but it kind of gives me the vibes of, like, that era...

...the Zapruder camera.

I ask Jack again about our camera,

the mystery camera.

When did he last see it?

2016.

Where are the negatives?

He can't find them.

Who gave it to him?

I could tell you it was a guy from Rescue 5.

I cannot remember who it was.

You know? Um...

And I don't think anyone's gonna come forward, 'cause I think

they were kinda guilty that they had the camera.

For 25 years, Jack thought he knew

who took our 32 frames: Bobby Crawford.

And now, I tell him, "No, it was Joe."

Lovero is the only one--

- How, how did you come up with him? - -So...

- That's interesting. - Yeah.

-Yeah. -Did you ever consider,

possibly, that it was Lovero?

No, I never did. It never dawned on me.

Jack and Joe were both members of the Gong Club,

a volunteer group that supports Jersey City firefighters.

-You knew him personally? -Yeah.

I mean, I wasn't a friend with him,

but I knew him as an acquaintance.

I think, for him, I mean, as a photographer,

it's, it's, it's a legacy. You know, I'm sure he'd rather

- be here, but it's still-- - Yeah.

It's a piece of history.

How do you feel that you captured history?

That's a good question. I don't know.

I never really thought about it that way.

How do I feel about capturing history?

Glad that I was there.

For all I know, people are going to hear this history

and see this history, and just file it under, "Okay,"

and then move on with their lives.

Um...

But I hope that's not the case.

And, uh, you know, I know I'm not a hero.

'Cause they're all dead.

We're talking about generational change

from, uh, the witness, lived experience generation

to the history generation.

You know, 40, 50% of our visitors were born after.

I'm about it. Maybe a few years younger than me,

people with direct memories, you know?

It's really kind of thirties now and above. Right?

And so, in 40 years, you know,

I'll be telling people that we met you guys,

and I think that's-- it's something.

You have any other questions for me?

Want another beer?

And with that, we returned to New Orleans,

where, one day, I get a call from Mark Desire,

with the New York City Office of the Chief Medical Examiner.

Mark has been fighting for 25 years

to identify 9/11 victims via DNA.

If we find this camera, do you think you would be able

to run DNA tests on it to possibly identify

- who the photographer is? - Yes.

So, if the camera was found at Ground Zero,

film still in it, film taken out and developed,

-and those pictures were fine, correct? -Yep.

Yeah, so the fact that the film survived

leads me to believe there's DNA in there.

So, this thing wasn't completely melted

or soaked in jet fuel, so there's a good chance

that somewhere on that camera, there's DNA.

This is the only way we can answer, definitively,

who took our 32 frames.

Someone has the camera. Please return it.

As I script this film, I get a package in the mail

from retired NYPD Detective Frank DeMasi.

A piece of glass from the World Trade Center, found at Ground Zero.

I wanna know more so I call Dan Sassa,

who wrote a book on the Trade Center.

His uncle, Michael E. Roberts,

a firefighter, died on 9/11.

I have a piece of window glass from the World Trade Center,

some limestone, a piece of steel, a piece of granite,

and some piece of liquefied concrete, molten or something.

The piece of glass that I have, and along with the piece that you shared with me,

is actually a piece from the lobbies of one of the towers.

It has a green tint to it,

and that's due to the iron oxide impurities

that they used for that thick glass.

And if you hold it at a specific angle,

you can see that, that, that, you know, green kind of hue.

It's almost like a portal for me to, to be able to look at it

and, you, you know, like I said, reflect.

When you look online, I think there is a hunger

for actual pieces of the Trade Center.

And, you know, some of that maybe is morbid curiosity,

but I, I think, personally, a lot of it is that people,

even people who weren't alive,

they feel a sense of loss.

That even if they don't remember 9/11,

even if they never went to the Trade Center,

that we're living through such tumultuous times

that when we look back, you know,

you and I can look back on the '90s and say,

"Oh, man, that was kinda like the '50s."

It was this, for lack of a better phrase,

not that it was perfect, but kind of a golden period

compared to what the last 25 years have been.

- Um-- - Absolutely. It's hard.

It's hard to, to drive by New York City

and not see the skyline the way it was and, and,

and think back to the way the world was prior to 9/11.

Dan agrees to meet us.

One winter night.

At Liberty State Park.

In Jersey City.

Home of Joe Lovero.

Birthplace of my father.

I used to stand here as a child, marveling at the towers.

Now, just empty sky.

♪ I lost you on the subway car ♪

♪ Got caught Without my MetroCard ♪

♪ I waited and I waited For the express train ♪

♪ Wanna catch up with you Wherever you are ♪

♪ I waited and I waited ♪

♪ I waited and I waited ♪

♪ I waited and I waited ♪

♪ I waited and I waited ♪

♪ And it was hot ♪

♪ And when it stopped ♪

♪ It was metal on the mental ♪

♪ It was somethin' in my heart ♪

♪ It was metal on the mental ♪

♪ It was somethin' in my heart ♪

♪ My heart ♪

♪ Got on the train ♪ And I took a seat ♪

♪ Thought why all these people are watching me ♪

♪ Caught my reflection ♪ In the subway car ♪

♪ Thought look at you ♪ Whoever you are ♪

♪ I waited and I waited ♪

♪ I waited and I waited ♪

♪ I waited and I waited ♪

♪ I waited and I waited ♪

♪ And it was cool ♪

♪ And when it stopped ♪

♪ It was metal on the mental ♪

♪ It was somethin' in my heart ♪

♪ Metal on the mental ♪

♪ It was somethin' in my heart ♪

♪ Well, I got, I got I got, I got ♪

♪ Got off, got off, on you ♪

♪ Well, I got, I got, I got ♪

♪ Got off, got off Got off, on you ♪

♪ Well, I got, got off, I got ♪

♪ Got off, got off Got off, on you ♪

♪ I got, I got, I got ♪

♪ Got off, got off Got off, on you ♪

♪ It was metal on the mental ♪

♪ It was somethin' in my heart ♪

♪ It was metal on the mental ♪

♪ Some somethin' in my heart ♪