March 2007 - Posts
by Keith Morrison, Dateline correspondent
One of the truly sad things people in our business encounter as we chase around to uncover the misdeeds of con artists is human collateral damage. They tend to leave a lot of once innocent women in their wake.
Smart women, mind you. Caring women. Women who almost universally feel incredibly foolish and used once the slippery criminal has gone off in search of new victims.
Matthew Cox used women, too. Single mothers. Young women disappointed in some way with their circumstances in life and looking for money, excitement, romance. He saw them coming, did Matthew. He'd romance each of them in remarkably similar ways, encourage them to slide into illegal behavior and, once he had them, use them as part of his scams. Then he'd leave.
And we would meet them -- in prison, where they faced huge fines,years without their children, without their freedom, without the innocence that made them marks in the first place.
Hardcore conmen will use almost anyone to get what they want.. but it often seems to be women who pay the biggest price.
"Thief of Hearts" aired Dateline Sunday, 8 p.m. Read a post on the story from producer Shane Bishop, below. Click here for the transcript and video of the report, as well as links to Cox's art and an excerpt of his unpublished book.
by Shane Bishop, Dateline producer
Mortgage Fraud.
Those words in the lead sentence of a story assignment starts a pit forming in the stomach of any television producer. Visual, shall we say, it ain't. You'll have no dramatic video caught by surveillance cameras to work with; no exciting car chases; no crime scenes littered with fingerprints or revealing clues.
"What pictures are we going to cover this with?" my colleagues and I joked. "This is a great story," one added. "For a newspaper."
But oh, how wrong we were. The tale of accused mortgage fraud mastermind Matthew Cox would surprise us all in many ways.
First, Cox was not some boring banker-type in a gray flannel suit, but a hip, young daredevil who wore expensive clothes, drove flashy cars, and loved to skydive. He was also an accomplished visual artist with a flair for the dramatic. He painted sprawling art deco murals in several of the apartments where he lived. Our camera crews were stunned when they entered Cox's former living spaces still adorned by floor-to-ceiling panoramas painted by the wanted man.
CONTINUED >>
If you’re like most Americans, you know all too well how pervasive credit card fraud is. You might have been a victim yourself. A few years ago, I got a call from my bank asking if I had charged $24,000 dollars at a store in New Zealand? I most certainly had not, but I had bought my son something on a Website that apparently was not secure and thieves were able to obtain and use my number.
In a groundbreaking investigation a year in the making, we’ll take you into the thieves markets on the Internet where your stolen credit card numbers and identity information could be for sale at this very moment. Very seldom are we able to infiltrate a criminal syndicate the way we do in the case of our investigation into identity theft and credit card fraud.
CONTINUED >>
by Josh Mankiewicz, Dateline correspondent
What do you get when you mix Mentos and diet coke?
What do you get when you eat a live praying mantis?
What do you get when you put on a rabbit suit and stage a bunch of fist fights?
The answer’s the same for all of them. What you get is an explosion of e-lebrity. In other words, you become famous....on the Internet.
Chances are, if you have access to a computer, you recognize one or all of these. Maybe you were the first to click on one of them. More likely, someone told you about it, or sent it to you.
CONTINUED >>
by Joel Grover, KNBC reporter
In my 18 years as an investigative reporter, I've realized there are few issues more important to consumers than the safety and cleanliness of the food they eat. People assume that food in a restaurant or supermarket has been properly handled, but they never know for sure. It's our job as journalists to find out.
So I knew I might be on the trail of a big story, when I was tipped off about filthy conditions at Los Angeles' huge 7th Street Wholesale Produce Market. This is the place where thousands of restaurants and stores in California and some in neighboring states buy produce. The story began when I got a phonecall from a whistleblower who worked inside the market, telling me in great detail about how food there was getting contaminated before it even got to restaurants. Even worse, the source told me that he had repeatedly complained to the Los Angeles County Health Department about this, but inspectors had done little to force the market to correct serious health code violations. To me, this wasn't just a story about food safety. It was a story about government failing to do it's job to protect us. CONTINUED >>
by Chris Hansen, Dateline correspondent
“My name is Mrs Maryam Ibrahim,...{I am} suffering from long time cancer of the breast...Before my late husband died {he} deposited the sum of 20 million dollars ..20% of this money will be for your time and effort...”
If you’re like me, you’ve likely received unsolicited e-mails offering you the chance of a lifetime. A financial windfall is out there and all you have to do is take advantage of a rare opportunity. They usually sound a little fishy. The pitch goes something like this -- a government official or someone with influence in an African nation has access to a fund containing millions of dollars. But, for some reason that person needs your help to get the money out of Africa and into another country. Oh, and by the way, you’ll need to come up with $14,000 in processing fees and expenses. Once you wire the person this money…the multi-million dollar funds transfer can go through and you’ll get a generous cut of the deal, perhaps $2 million dollars.
You might think that most people would simply hit the delete button, but our investigation reveals that perhaps tens of thousands of people each year take the bait and are taken for a ride, some losing hundreds of thousands of dollars. Usually these cases go uninvestigated, because federal authorities are busy with more pressing matters like counter-terrorism. We decided to take up the challenge and go after these scammers. As you’ll see it’s an investigation that takes halfway across the world and let’s us turn the tables on the conmen.
Chris Hansen reports on 'To Catch a Con Man,' Dateline Tuesday, March 20, 8 p.m.
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All across the country millions of innocent wives are caught in a love triangle, battling for their husband's attention with the players of their favorite sports teams. Now, in a "Dateline" hidden camera challenge, the wives are fighting back by catching their unknowing husbands on videotape while they watch a game. Josh Mankiewicz travels from coast to coast to report in, "Honey, You're on Hidden Camera," airing on Sunday, March 18, 7 p.m.
For the hour-long report, "Dateline" isolated some of the most rabid football fans in the country and got their wives to go head to head against football for their husbands' attention. The wives allowed "Dateline" to set up hidden cameras and microphones in their homes and then worked with "Dateline" to devise ways to distract their husbands while they watched the games. Some of the most revealing moments captured on tape: CONTINUED >>
by Ellen Sherman, Dateline producer
From the start, the murder of Mary Lynn Witherspoon was a story that I couldn’t forget. The crime involved a gracious and beautiful woman, Mary Lynn Witherspoon, a French teacher known for her gentleness and generosity. Moreover, this brutal murder had taken place in the area known as South of Broad street.
Mary Lynn Witherspoon
The first time I visited Charleston I understood. Charleston is a jewel of a city with hundreds of architecturally stunning homes, many dating from the 1800s. It is a slow, genteel place where horse drawn carriages continually crisscross the cobblestone streets of the exclusive South Of Broad street neighborhood. Every yard is neat and orderly, every house seems a show place. It is such an unlikely scene for a grisly murder.
CONTINUED >>
by Chris Hansen, Dateline correspondent
This “To Catch A Predator” special takes a look back at our earlier investigations as well as a look forward at some critical areas involving online predators we’ve yet to explore.
More important, it’s told in a unique way. Producer Lynn Keller interviewed me, Del and Frag from the online watchdog group Perverted-Justice, some of the law enforcement officers who ran parallel investigations to arrest the men we confronted, and a prosecutor.
The story is told in essentially our own words. It will take you behind the scenes, going back to our very first investigation in Long Island, New York. You’ll see how the investigations developed and became more sophisticated. There are moments that are startling, disturbing and in a few instances even humorous. We’ll answer some of the questions you’ve raised here on the blog.
You may know that I recently wrote a book called “To Catch A Predator” in an effort to explore several important aspects of this subject that we’ve not had time to flesh out on television. One of those areas is that of collateral damage-- what happens to the wives and children of the men who are arrested. You’ll meet Darlene Calvin who appears in the book and you’ll hear the inspirational story of how she put her life back together after her husband’s arrest. You’ll also hear the unique prospective of Bob Shilling, a Seattle Police detective who investigates sex crimes against children, who himself was the victim of sexual abuse as a child.
Take a look at the program. I think you’ll find it interesting and insightful.
by Sara James, Dateline correspondent
Sometimes you do a story and think, "This should be a movie." Sometimes you meet a person and think, "She's a genuine hero." This is that kind of story. Melinda Elkins is that kind of person.
But here's the interesting thing about such people in real life. They don't wear "hero" on their sleeve. When I first met Melinda -- if I hadn't known her extraordinary tale of audacity and courage in the face of overwhelming, potentially life-destroying adversity -- what would have struck me first was simply how much fun she is. Because Melinda is warm, outgoing, vivacious.
But as our talk lengthened, as I heard the details of how her husband Clarence had been incarcerated for years for horrific crimes she didn't believe he'd committed, I saw a steely flash in her bright blue eyes. CONTINUED >>
by Bob Gilmartin, Dateline producer
While much of our story focuses on the work of Melinda Elkins, who in a word is incredible, two other things struck me about working on this story.
One was meeting Clarence Elkins, the other was the frustration I would experience dealing with the prosecutor's office and the Barberton police department in getting public information released to me.
First Clarence, and first impressions. Clarence appeared to me to be an extremely gentle, polite, kind person - not the kind of person who would ever commit the violent crimes he was charged with. If he was angry - and who wouldn't be after spending seven years in jail for a wrongful conviction - it didn't show. He said he was angry, but he said it without showing any outward signs of emotional rage.
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Question: But aren't you giving criminals ideas?
Answer: All these demonstrations are being done in an effort to make you safer and smarter if you cross paths with a criminal. Wild Bill is not showing you everything he knows .. and he's not giving criminals any new ideas. Where do you think Wild Bill got some of these ideas in the first place?
Stone Phillips: One question people may have is whether some of these scenarios that we've seen tonight are just so over-the-top that it's not really a legitimate test of how witnesses would react?
Bill Stanton: Well, to answer your question, no its wasn't over-the-top. Crimes come in all shapes and sizes and they happen in front of a lot of people in broad daylight. Crime doesn't punch a clock. When it sees the opportunity the bad guy will take.
Phillips: Time and again we saw witnesses observe you doing something behaving suspiciously and they did nothing. If we see something, what should we do?
Stanton: Be a conduit. Observe. Take a description. Take a license plate. Get on the phone to 911 and take action that way.
Phillips: Okay, what about protecting our property? What about our cars, what can we do?
CONTINUED >>
These posts were meant to coincide with the broadcast.
by Chris Hansen, Dateline correspondent
8:03 p.m.
Usually when two potential predators arrive at close to the same time, I try to move quickly through the first interview so that we are ready for the second. But here in Flagler Beach, you’re about to see something I’ve not done before. Two men show up so close to each other I have no choice but to conduct the interviews at the same time. Watch as I introduce the two men to each other and see if you can figure out which one has seen our previous Dateline investigations.
CONTINUED >>
by Chris Hansen, Dateline Correspondent
As our “To Catch a Predator” investigation in Flagler Beach, Florida continues, you’re going to see something we don’t experience very often. It’s hard to imagine, but we had an active duty member of law enforcement arrive at our hidden camera house after an extremely graphic online chat with a decoy posing as a 13-year-old girl for nearly a month.
We didn’t know it at the time but 41-year-old Todd Spikes was a police officer for the Florala, Alabama Police Department.
CONTINUED >>
by Josh Mankiewicz, Dateline Correspondent
Barack Obama and John McCain have several things in common. They’re both U.S. senators, they’re both running for president, and now they’ve both had to apologize for saying the same thing.
What they both said was that the lives of the more than 3,100 U.S. troops lost in the Iraq war were wasted.
Both had to quickly pull back and say that’s not really what they meant.
Well, it’s pretty clear to me that that is exactly what they meant. CONTINUED >>
Paul Joyal, who we interviewed for the "Dateline" report "The Last Days of a Secret Agent" was shot Thursday night as he got out of his car in front of his house in Adelphi, Md.
Investigators in Prince Georges County say a witness claims to have seen two men running away after the shooting. Joyal remains hospitalized with a gunshot wound to the midsection. Authorities have not said whether they've been able to talk to him.
Joyal is a long-time consultant on security and Russian affairs. From 1980 to 1989, he was director of security for the Senate Intelligence Committee.
On last weekend's report, he said of Litvenenko's death: "A message has been communicated to anyone who wants to speak out against the Kremlin: 'If you do, no matter who you are, where you are, we will find you and we will silence you — in the most horrible way possible.'"
The shooting has certainly raised eyebrows, because Maryland police are well aware of Joyal's views regarding the Litvinenko death. But at this point, they have no evidence suggesting this was anything other than an example of the rising crime rate in Washington's Maryland suburbs. Click here to read more from NBC's Pete Williams.
Click here to read a transcript of Sunday's report.
by Keith Morrison, Dateline correspondent
The man was attractive, unthreatening. He was clearly impressed by her look (and she knew — or had been told — that she was an uncommonly pretty young woman). He seemed to pick up on something basic about her, something the rest of the sprawling city she’d adopted hadn’t yet seemed to notice: she was remarkable, she had possibilities.
Her name was Kristi Johnson. She had been shopping at L.A.’s trendy Century City mall for a Valentine’s gift from her mother (‘Buy something nice,’ her mother had told her when she called from the Bay Area, ‘It will be a present from me.’).
Just what the man did or said to get her attention we can’t know. But his offer to her, once he had her under his spell, is as clear as the list of credit card receipts that followed.
And we know, of course, that he had used the same trick before, had used variations of it again and again, on bright and attractive young women who carried around the secret hope that someday the world would notice. The man told Kristi, if past behavior is an accurate guide, that he held a significant position in a Hollywood production company. There was, said the man, a new Bond movie coming up. And there she was, just walking through the mall, and the moment he saw her he knew she would be the perfect ‘Bond girl,’ perhaps to appear in the movie, certainly in the billboard campaign. There was big money involved.
Had she suddenly been ‘discovered’? CONTINUED >>
