>> that'll do it for me, thanks for watching. tune in tomorrow for a special edition of the sunday show as we kickoff 100 days till the presidential election. dnc chair jamie harrison joins us live to discuss the energy and enthusiasm behind vice president kamala harris's presidential bid. plus, the women following inheritances for step with historic senate runs. i'll speak with maryland's democratic senate candidate, angela also brooks, and democratic congresswoman and delaware senate candidate lisa blunt rochester. a jam-packed show tomorrow at 6:00 p.m. eastern, only on msnbc. >> this may be happened. >> you just think, i have to do

something. >> it was a miracle they lived through it. just two frightened kid, the night terror knocked on their door. >> you said move over here. >> a loving pastor's family, instant targets. >> i heard the first chart go off and said i love you. >> they were the only ones who survived, and no one knew then how long justice would take, or what it would cost. >> were you frightened, terrified that they would come back? >> absolutely. >> the chilling manhunt. a young survivor, driven to become a state senator. >> he was very, very passionate. >> with the ever come out of the dark? >> i can't believe it's been this long. >> 30 years later, an answer. >> the power of forgiveness. this is what my dad and my mom

taught me. it was time, to put it to rest, >> in his 40s and married again, he started fresh here on the beach of malibu. it was time, finally, to put it to rest. use hollywood to release those demons of his, get the nightmares in the rearview mirror. >> i look back, it was building a coat of armor. that was killing me and it was killing my marriages, my friendships, it was keeping me away. from people that i loved. >> after all, what else but a movie could make sense of it, what those people did to him, and what came of it. you couldn't make up.

and the movie, it turned out to be a decades long saga of crime and punishment, retribution and forgiveness. perhaps it was too unbelievable not to be true. though back where it happened, back east along the old route 6 where it snakes through oklahoma where his sister lived with demons of her own. a warning. >> it was really true, it's not like some scary movie that you watch on tv, or a csi, or whatever show you're watching, this really happened. >> it all did. the unspeakable crimes, the strange painful past and could there ever be forgiveness? god knows, that's what the father demanded. >> god knows all about us, there's not a secret crevice of our heart that he's not fully aware of. >> but could the sun obey? >> god never expect of us that which we cannot do, god never demands of us what he does not

empower. >> imagine, now, that it's 1979. a little place called okarche, oklahoma, a commutable drive as people were discovering back then. >> okarche is a smaller community, and a pretty quiet, peaceful town. >> to be frank, the douglass is didn't quite live in okarche property. they preferred a modest place by itself miles beyond the streetlights. a little detail worth keeping in mind later. but mention the douglass name back in 79, and this would be the location people would be apt to think of. the putnam city baptist church of oklahoma city, where the reverend richard douglass and family had established a remarkable reputation. >> richard douglass was one of the most influential baptist pastors in oklahoma. at the time, was pastor of a

3000 member church. >> the sort of family everybody wanted to associate with. the pastor's daughter, leslie. >> we became the people who we are because my parents were so strong. we lived a life that he would want us to live, and learn the lessons he wanted us to know. >> the fact that the reverend mr. douglass was a man of some heft in the baptist church seemed somehow secondary to his nature. kindly, approachable, principled. >> if he wasn't at the church he was visiting people, and helping them work out their problems all the time. >> pastor douglass preached his first sermon at 16 and once he'd grown into a husband and a father, took his family all the way down to the jungles of brazil. where he, and they, spent their happiest years in a missionary outpost.

it was for leslie, and her big brother, unlike anything they would ever know again. magic time. >> we grew up in the city belhaven, right on the mouth of the amazon, where the atlantic meets the amazon river, it finally occurred to me while loved being near the water so much. that's where i grew up, where i traveled with my dad. >> so they were close, as close as a family on its own as such a place as this could possibly be. and accomplished. marilyn douglass could have sung professionally, had she wanted to, could have done all kinds of things. >> she was a straight a student, i saw her as being so smart and successful and what it was that she wanted to do. >> what she wanted to do more than anything else was raised brooks and leslie. >> you can see their faces, still. >> and i can hear my mom

singing. >> she did, once, every week at church where she compete at miss teen oklahoma. >> i was the one that spent time with my mom, whether it be singing or her making me a new dress for a pageant. >> so autumn, 79. 16-year-old brooks was an advanced football playing senior in high school, making spending money breeding doberman pinscher dogs. leslie, was in middle school. dad was busy, and oliver oklahoma, a chaplain at the statehouse, visitor of prisoners at mcallister penitentiary, and packing them in at putnam baptist. for the pastor and his wife, charity began at home. >> their door was always open. they really truly cared about people, and where they were, and how they could help them and how they could serve. >> it was that generosity and

openness that, many years later, brooks would honor in his movie about his parents, and about that haunting night. it was october 15th, on monday. everybody home. >> my mom was in the kitchen. fixing dinner. leslie was in the kitchen with her. >> it was brooks who answered the knock at the door. people called all the time at the pastor's house. this one, he didn't recognize. a bearded stranger who wanted a favor. and no one felt the evil, then. as it entered the house. >> the first thing, i remember raising my hands and thinking, always happens to the other guy, never happens to me. and here we are. >> coming up, suddenly, just before dinner, terror. >> he had pulled out a 357, had it in my face and said move over here. >> i remember that night,

thinking you've got to remember this, you got to remember this. >> who was this at the door? when dateline continues. ine co. some things should stand the test of time. long lasting eylea hd could significantly improve your vision and can help you go up to 4 months between treatments. if you have an eye infection, eye pain or redness, or allergies to eylea hd, don't use. eye injections like eyla hd may cause eye infection, separation of the retina, or rare but severe swelling of blood vessels in the eye. an increase in eye pressure has been seen. there's an uncommon risk of heart attack or stroke associated with blood clots. the most common side effects were blurred vision, cataract, corneal injury, and eye floaters. and there's still so much to see. if you are on eylea or a similar type of treatment, ask your retina specialist about eylea hd today, for the potential for fewer injections.

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a little house in the country just outside okarche, oklahoma, october 15, 1979. pastor richard douglas and his family >> a little house in the or a country just outside okarche oklahoma, 1979. pastor richard douglass and his family were getting ready for a quiet school night dinner . around dusk, a knock at the door. 16-year-old brooks douglass put on his homework, answered it. a bearded stranger stood before him. >> he asked if he could use the phone, trying to get a hold of somebody who lived near us. >> he bent down, reached behind his back, and the awful business began. >> he pulled out a .357, had it, in my face.

>> the second man armed with a double-barreled shotgun stormed through the door. it was a robbery, the man said. >> i took my wallet out, had 43 bucks in it, that's all you got. then he went through my mom's purse, and then he asked my mom if we had any rope. >> they pointed their guns, hog- tied them. >> they told us all to lie down on the living room floor, and they tied me up with hands and feet behind our back. >> the other ransacked the house, pulled the phones from the wall. then the man with the pistol returned to the living room, and he looked at pretty 12-year- old leslie. and now the character of the attack changed.

>> he got leslie, he said i want you to show me where all the other phones are, where you're hiding places for money are, she said we don't have any hiding places for money. and so he put his gun to the back of her head, and walked around the house, and then i heard him walk back into leslie's room, and i heard her start crying and saying no, no, no. >> you all knew what was going on. >> my mom of course was laying next to me, and she just was sobbing. and i said, mom, leslie's going to be okay, we're all going to be okay. >> brooks and his parents lay on the living room floor, hog- tied, and they listened, hopeless as each man took his turn, as each one raped leslie. >> they brought leslie and, tighter behind her back. >> i remember that night thinking, you've got to remember this, you got to

remember this. >> the two gunmen help themselves to the meal marilyn had cooking on the stove. >> they sat down at our table and ate our dinner. >> and then the terrifying round of bargaining began. >> they went back and forth about what they were going to do. at one point he said if you'll give us four hours, before you go to the police, then we won't shoot you. of course, we'll give you four hours. >> then two hours into their ordeal, the family heard the leader, the one with the pistol, issue an order. >> go outside, start the car, listen for the sound. >> was it pretty clear to you, listen for the sound meant, >> that's what i took it to mean was that he was going to shoot us. >> and at that point it came home to you that it was going to happen? >> i don't think i believe that we were going to get shot. what had we done, you know? >> and all they could do then was wait and pray. >> i remember him walking right

up over my head and saying, i don't want to have to shoot y'all, but, and i heard the first shot go off and felt it hit me, and i heard another shot went off and my mom screamed, and then there was two other shots, and two more, and i heard him run to the door and go out. >> shot twice in the back, brooks to meet on his stomach toward his parents. >> i went over to my mom, and untying her ropes with my teeth, i was able to get a hold of him and said i love you, mom. my dad was like, i love you, too, get me untied. he said quit worrying, get my mother untied. i said mom, you're loose. your ropes are loose, and she looked up at me one last time, and her head tipped down, and she faded. and i knew she died.

and i went over to my dad and i looked him in the face and i said dad, mom's dead. and they never really said anything else. i told him again i loved him, and he said i love you. and i said, it's okay, dad. leslie and i are going to be okay. >> it was the last thing pastor richard douglass ever heard. he died with his son at his side. the sons assurance, which the father may or may not have understood to be wishful thinking, because brooks and leslie were at death's door themselves. coming up, >> you just think, i want to live, i have to do something. >> what could they do? >> i needed to make a decision. i remember thinking as long as i can draw a breath or twitch muscle, i need to keep trying. >> a race for life, and for the gunman begins. when dateline continues. ine co. but it's been a few dog years since she was able to enjoy a smile of her own.

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two drifters raced away from the okarche, oklahoma home of the douglas family. in their wake lay the dead and dying. pastor richard douglas and his wife, marilyn, shot to death. 16-year-old brooks and his 12-year-old sister lesley, each shot twice, were hogtied and bleeding beside the bodies of their parents. if i was going to live, i needed to make a decision. i remember thinking as long as i can draw breath or even twitch a muscle, i need to keep trying. keith morrison (voiceover): the house was eerily quiet, and brooks feared his sister, too, was gone. i'd been shouting to her periodically. and she was responding, and then she stopped responding. keith morrison (voiceover): yet, despite being shot twice herself, leslie had somehow escaped her bonds and made her way to the kitchen. i looked up and leslie came running in with a knife and cut me loose. keith morrison: you're the one who got things going afterwards. right, right. where did that come from? i don't know.

i guess that internal drive that you just think, you know, i want to live. i want to be here. i have to do something. i can't just lay here. keith morrison (voiceover): brooks and leslie were bleeding to death, both of them. and at least, brooks knew it. we needed to get to a hospital, or we were going to die. keith morrison (voiceover): brooks carried leslie out to the family car. they were terrified, all but sure the killers must be out there somewhere, lying in wait for them. i remember also thinking they might be down at the end of the driveway, so i drove really fast and they weren't there, and then thinking they might be on the highway. keith morrison (voiceover): as they raced up route 81, brother and sister had a surreal, surprisingly composed conversation. it was very strange, because there was moments of silence. and then leslie asked me, mom and dad dead? and i said, yeah, they are. and she goes, so, you know, what are we going to do? i guess we'll go live with our aunts and uncles. and i said, i guess so. i just said, we don't need to worry about it right now.

we just need to get better. keith morrison (voiceover): brooks was doing better than 100 miles an hour in his dad's 1970 plymouth duster. he drove onto the lawn of the okarche home of a family friend, a doctor, blurted out what had happened. they actually didn't believe us. we were saying, we've been shot. mom and dad are around the house, dead. help us. and then i collapsed as soon as i got in the living room. keith morrison (voiceover): the doctor and his son carried brooks and leslie to a nearby hospital. and then the doctor and his son went out to the house to check on my mom and dad. keith morrison (voiceover): the children fought for their lives. in the middle of the night. they were moved to an intensive care unit in oklahoma city. their wounds were appalling. one bullet had nicked brook's heart. it came in the side of my back and collapsed this lung. and what about your sister's injuries? she was shot twice. one of them went through her forearm

because we had our arms tied together behind our back. and then it went through her lower back. and then the second bullet went through the middle, not-- just off the center of her back and came out her chest. keith morrison (voiceover): the doctor called the sheriff's office. officers reached the douglas home around 11:00 pm. lynn stedman was sheriff of canadian county. the preacher reverend douglas and mrs. douglas were still at the residence on the living room floor. dead. mm-hmm. pretty shocking thing. yes, certainly, it was. like an execution? yes, sir. keith morrison (voiceover): it didn't take lawmen long to identify their suspects. there had been another home invasion earlier that day in hennessey, oklahoma, just up the road from the douglas's. two men fled that crime in a distinctive banana-yellow chevy malibu with primer spots. the victims, who were robbed but not physically harmed,

gave deputies good descriptions, both of the men in their vehicle. investigators were able to trace that distinctive car to an oil field a few miles up the road from the douglas property. two roughnecks working the drilling rig had up and quit that very morning, taking off in a borrowed car. thought they were wanted for parole violations, apparently. they weren't. they thought they were. the two were named steven hatch and glen ake. and they were familiar already to the local police. one of them had a burglary conviction. these are petty criminals. yes, sir. keith morrison (voiceover): as police pieced together ake and hatch's activity that day. they learned that after the two borrowed the yellow chevy, they drove into town and cleaned out their bank accounts. each one of them got approximately $500 out of the savings account. keith morrison (voiceover): they bought beer and whiskey and scored some speed and cocaine, then roared off in the borrowed car to rob

the family in hennessey. that crime netted more than $1,000 and a double barreled shotgun. from there, they headed south to okarche and the pastor's modest ranch house out beyond the streetlights. assistant district attorney bill james responded to the crime scene at the douglas home that night. he was starting to help build a case. within 2:00, 3:00, or 4 o'clock in the morning, we had the identity of the people and-- because of the prior robbery. they took money out of their bank accounts. then they robbed another place. they had a couple of thousand dollars. they had a car. they had guns. why go into yet another house? i think it was so easy that they had somewhat of a high from doing that first time, so they wanted to do it again. keith morrison (voiceover): the county sheriff, the state police, the oklahoma bureau of investigation, and the fbi were all looking for ake and hatch. but the fugitives had at least a six-hour start. they weren't here. they were gone, yeah. keith morrison (voiceover): meanwhile, back in an oklahoma city hospital, brooks

and leslie douglas clung to life in an intensive care unit. and lawmen had a bad feeling. i really was afraid. when i was down in the scene that night, i was like, these people are likely to go out and commit one murder after another because it was just so cold, without thought, without necessity. keith morrison (voiceover): coming up. were you frightened, terrified that they would come back and try to kill you? absolutely. keith morrison (voiceover): around the clock protection for brooks and leslie. were they still in danger? people don't know where these two guys are. they could be anywhere. keith morrison (voiceover): when "dateline" continues. ♪♪ stay ahead of your moderate-to-severe eczema. and show off clearer skin and less itch with dupixent, the #1 prescribed biologic by dermatologists and allergists, that helps heal your skin from within. serious allergic reactions can occur that can be severe. tell your doctor about new or worsening eye problems such as eye pain or vision changes

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to the hospital and pronounced dead there. back in the u.s., the governor of california declared a state of emergency for areas affected by two wildfires that have destroyed several homes and threatened infrastructure. the park fire started in chico on wednesday, and rapidly moved into wild lands to the north. it is currently the largest of the states active fires. now, back to dateline. datelin. the choir sang "amazing grace." and 2,000 mourners crowded into putnam city baptist church for the funeral of the church's beloved pastor, richard douglas, and his wife, marilyn. even the governor was there. it was three days after the home invasion, after the murder. the children couldn't be there. brooks and leslie remained in intensive care. brooks took a turn for the worse. the morning of the funeral, my temperature shot way up. and they thought at that point,

they were going to lose me. but they caught it early, and they treated it. and so it was pretty miraculous. keith morrison (voiceover): as the mourners listened to eulogies and the douglas's favorite hymns, a multi-state manhunt was on for the shooting suspects, oil field roustabouts glen ake and steven hatch. leslie and brooks were kept together in the same hospital room, under 24-hour police guard. were you frightened, terrified, that they would come back and try to kill you? absolutely, yeah. it obviously caused some angst among the police and the family. keith morrison (voiceover): it wasn't just the still healing douglas children who were frightened. the enormity of the crime transfixed oklahomans. russ mccaskey was an anchor at kjrh tulsa. and this terrible thing has happened. there's a manhunt that's going on. you know, there's a lot of tension. people don't know where these two guys are. they could be anywhere. keith morrison (voiceover): reports of sightings came in, some of them disturbingly close.

what were they up to? bill james was assistant district attorney. were you worried that they'd come back and try to get those other two kids once they learned that they were alive? correct. somebody thought they had seen him almost in the okarche area. and we had a manhunt up there. keith morrison (voiceover): but of course, brooks and leslie douglas were more than just victims, more than survivors, even. they were crucial witnesses. i went to the hospital and met them. how were they? they were pretty stable at that time. and they'd answer any question i asked them directly. what was interesting about them to you? how analytical they were about it and discussing and exact questions and what was going to happen and that they were pretty intelligent kids. and they were actually pretty well in control of their emotions. as you were lying in the hospital, trying to recover, trying to understand what had happened to you, what was that like for you? it was really strange. part of it was i think nobody knew how to react.

members of the church would come in and console us. and we would wind up consoling them and hugging them. and hey, it's going to be ok. we're going to be ok. keith morrison (voiceover): three weeks after the shooting, brooks and leslie were spirited out of the hospital and taken to a secure location, still under police guard. it was halloween. we were staying in a little house that was owned by the church in a residential neighborhood. and a bunch of trick or treaters came out. they were adults and showed up at the door, wearing masks. leslie and i both about came out of our skin. and the highway patrolman actually had his weapon drawn behind the door and was telling him, you don't want to be here. that was a scary moment. keith morrison (voiceover): out of the hospital, orphaned now, the finality of the children's loss sank in all the way. the hardest thing was the cemetery.

i remember walking towards the gravesite. it was just dirt and with a grave marker, with both of their names on it. and that was the first moment that it was real to me that they were gone. and i just felt like everything that was in me at that moment just fell out. and i remember falling on my knees and just thinking, how senseless. keith morrison (voiceover): then, imagine this, having survived the deadly attack, having lost their parents, having soldiered through an arduous recovery, brooks and leslie's home and all the family's possessions were auctioned off to pay their medical bills. and so began repercussions neither they nor anyone else imagined, a haunting, really, that would go on for decades.

first, the siblings who kept each other alive through crisis and recovery were separated. leslie moved in with relatives in another town and started at a new school. brooks, just a term shy of high school graduation, stayed in the neighborhood with church members, so he could finish school. at the end of the day, i was still a 16-year-old kid that didn't want to be strapped down in a hospital. and i didn't want to be stuck in a house with security. it was all necessary, but it was hard to take for a 16-year-old and a 13-year-old. keith morrison (voiceover): and glen ake and steven hatch were still out there somewhere. coming up. worst fears are confirmed. their feet and hands were bound behind their back. they had hoods over their head, and both of them had been shot execution-style. keith morrison (voiceover): the suspects strike again and again.

the car just got away, just disappeared. keith morrison (voiceover): but police are about to get the break they need. when "dateline" continues. type 2 diabetes? discover the ozempic® tri-zone. ♪ ♪ i got the power of 3. i lowered my a1c, cv risk, and lost some weight. in studies, the majority of people reached an a1c under 7 and maintained it. i'm under 7. ozempic® lowers the risk of major cardiovascular events such as stroke, heart attack, or death in adults also with known heart disease. i'm lowering my risk. adults lost up to 14 pounds. i lost some weight. ozempic® isn't for people with type 1 diabetes. don't share needles or pens, or reuse needles. don't take ozempic® if you or your family ever had medullary thyroid cancer, or have multiple endocrine neoplasia syndrome type 2, or if allergic to it. stop ozempic® and get medical help right away if you get a lump or swelling in your neck, severe stomach pain, or an allergic reaction. serious side effects may include pancreatitis. gallbladder problems may occur. tell your provider about vision problems or changes. taking ozempic® with a sulfonylurea

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and there's still so much to see. if you are on eylea or a similar type of treatment, ask your retina specialist about eylea hd today, for the potential for fewer injections. ask your retina specialist about eylea hd steven hatch and glen ake were on the run. the day after the murders, ake called family in oklahoma and learned that lawmen were on their trail for killing pastor and mrs. douglas and shooting leslie and brooks. sheriff lynn stedman led the investigation. and they ended up that next morning in fort smith, arkansas. keith morrison: still in the yellow malibu? yes, sir. they spent the night. then they walked to the bus station. keith morrison (voiceover): eventually, police managed to track down their yellow getaway car, abandoned now. but by then, they were long gone, had hopped a bus to memphis. they spent three nights there, drinking heavily. they lost about $1,000 while they were in the motel as a result of a cabbie

bringing a couple of hookers to their room. and the hookers rolled them for about $1,000. keith morrison (voiceover): and after memphis, they wandered around southern louisiana looking for oilfield work before hitchhiking to new orleans. there, the two found jobs in a carnival. and ake took up with a young woman named virginia ginger keef. they hooked up with her. and they went on the road with her for a good while. keith morrison (voiceover): back on the road after they lost those carnival jobs. it happened when they got drunk at work and fired a shotgun in the air. they were just about broke by then, except for a credit card they had stolen from mrs. douglas. by early november, three weeks after the douglas murders, ake, hatch, and ginger caught a bus as far as their remaining funds would take them. that was lumberton, texas. ake and hatch and virginia keef arrived there. they were on a continental trailways bus. keith morrison (voiceover): billy payne was sheriff

of hardin county back then. they got the bus to stop right out in front of the house. and they went and broke into the house. the two men did. virginia stayed out in the woods. and they was going to wait 'til somebody come home. keith morrison (voiceover): and when the homeowner returned, a friend along with him, ake and hatch were waiting with a sawed off shotgun. sheriff payne later found some signs of a struggle, but otherwise, the crime scene was a carbon copy of the douglas murders. they had been tied with the ropes. their feet and hands were bound behind their back. they had hoods over their head. and both of them had been shot execution-style. keith morrison (voiceover): payne didn't know then about the douglas case, didn't connect the two right away. but he did have something to go on. the homeowners knew dotson 280z was missing. and we were able to put out a national bulletin for that vehicle.

keith morrison (voiceover): hatch, ake, and ginger keef squeezed into the stolen car and headed west. they had a little cash, a gasoline credit card stolen in the texas murders, and marilyn douglas's visa. the trio drove to california, then doubled back east to wyoming, hatch and ake again looking for oilfield work. but their murderous road trip was about to end. in a bar in downtown baggs, wyoming, ake got drunk, started slapping ginger around. she'd had enough and at her first opportunity, spilled her guts to the barkeep. the bar owner alerted the police. by then, ake and hatch had escaped in colorado. jeff [inaudible] was a detective sergeant in moffat county, colorado back then. our deputies found out that the car was associated with ake and hatch and that they were wanted on a number of different murders in oklahoma and texas. they tried to pursue the car. but what we had then was just kind of old pickup trucks for patrol vehicles. and of course, these guys got away real quick.

keith morrison (voiceover): ake and hatch floored the 280z, lost the lawmen. aware of how dangerous the two were, the searches scoured the county. our guys gave chase, and the car just got away from them, just disappeared about 25 miles north of town. keith morrison (voiceover): they'd given the cops the slip. low on money and freezing in the colorado winter, ake and hatch was desperate as cornered animals. they resorted to what they knew. they invaded a ranch house belonging to mike pondella outside craig, colorado. and they got the car stuck in the driveway leading up to his house. they went out of the car, went to his house, basically forced their way in, armed, of course, and took pondella hostage. keith morrison (voiceover): here's how ake and hatch convinced the rancher they meant business. mr. pondella had a little dog. he called it his little three-legged dog. and the dog went to jump up on the bed, and one of the guys shot and killed that dog.

and they told mr. pondella that if he didn't do exactly as they said, he would be next. keith morrison (voiceover): after ake's bloody warning, the rancher stalled for time. he got them to drink a lot of beer. and when they either went to sleep or passed out, he got away from them. so his quick thinking and the way that he handled himself in that situation absolutely saved his life. keith morrison (voiceover): the rancher met with the sheriff. we showed him the pictures of ake and hatch. he instantly identified them as the two people that had taken him hostage the night before. keith morrison (voiceover): the rancher warned the lawmen that ake and hatch had access to an arsenal. between the firearms and the ammunition that he had and the firearms and the ammunition that they brought, they were very, very well armed. i want to say, close to 30 different firearms and thousands of rounds of ammunition. keith morrison (voiceover): early the next morning, nearly a dozen lawmen stormed the ranch house. and right, as we're driving up to the house,

we see two men, ake and hatch, jump from a window in the house and run, and they run in two different directions. they were both armed. keith morrison (voiceover): a deputy fired a warning shot, double odd buckshot over ake's head. ake tripped over an irrigation ditch out in this meadow and fell down. it was all of our thought at the time that we had, in fact, hit that guy, that maybe we would have killed him, but not a scratch. keith morrison (voiceover): ake and hatch had surrendered without firing a shot. they were taken to the county jail. when their belongings were inventoried, they each had less than $1 and change, a gas credit card belonging to a texas victim, and pastor and mrs. douglas's wedding rings. coming up, arrested at last. was the long nightmare over for brooks and leslie douglas? or was it just beginning?

keith morrison (voiceover): chilling words from a killer. did you have any idea how much you still had to go through, even though they caught them? oh, heavens no. no idea. keith morrison (voiceover): when "dateline" continues. if you have moderate to severe ulcerative colitis or crohn's disease... put it in check with rinvoq... a once-daily pill. when symptoms tried to take control, i got rapid relief and reduced fatigue with rinvoq. check! when flares kept trying to slow me down i got lasting steroid-free remission with rinvoq. check! and when my doctor saw damage, rinvoq helped visibly reduce damage of the intestinal lining. check! for both uc and crohn's: rapid symptom relief lasting steroid-free remission. and visibly reduced damage. check. check. and check! rinvoq can lower your ability to fight infections, including tb. serious infections and blood clots, some fatal, cancers, including lymphoma and skin, heart attack, stroke, and gi tears occurred.

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and upset stomach. it was stunning news. thanksgiving eve, 1979, six weeks after the okarche, oklahoma murders of richard and marilyn douglas, the shooting of their children, the manhunt was over. the governor calls a news conference. it was that big of a deal. they wanted to put people at rest that these two guys weren't out there, terrorizing the state of oklahoma anymore. it was a big deal. keith morrison (voiceover): glen and steven hatch, who were by now also wanted for questioning in two additional murders in texas, had been captured in colorado after another home invasion. word reached the prosecutor bill james

at the el reno courthouse. it was the call he was waiting for. i jumped over the railing, ran the office. we prepared the extradition papers. i put a call in the governor. he signed them. we had them done within a few hours. why the hurry? why the rush? we wanted them. keith morrison (voiceover): remember, the fugitives had committed a double murder in texas, too. but the oklahomans were determined they wanted first crack at ake and hatch, had to get there before some lawmen from texas beat them to it. the news of the capture was a huge relief, of course, to brooks and leslie douglas. and now the race to bring back ake and hatch. sheriff lynn stedman flew by charter to colorado. it was about 2:30 to 3 o'clock in the morning that we landed at will rogers world airport here in oklahoma city with them and then took them by car on back to el reno. keith morrison (voiceover): and then the sort of thing that almost never happens.

on their way back to oklahoma, hatch and ake told the lawmen they wanted to make a statement. we had a semblance of thanksgiving that day will facility, a more modern place just down the block. thanksgiving night, sheriff's deputies collected the two of them, took them around the corner there and down to the sheriff's office so they could deliver those confessions they seem so eager to make. and so they did. apparently, without any remorse or emotion, first, hatch, and then ake, calmly described their activities on that murderous night.

they told us they didn't do that kind of stuff, in their words, unless they were drunk. and they had been drinking heavily the day that this happened of october the 15th of '79. taking drugs as well? yes, sir. in one of their areas, they mentioned some speed. ake even mentioned cocaine that they had taken. keith morrison (voiceover): glen ake made it clear in his statement that he was the shooter. he was in charge.

why did hatch go along with him? hatch was a-- and this is ake's words. hatch is a follower. ake said, i'm the strong one and made all the decisions. mm. so it was like a big dog, a little dog, and hatch would follow along behind him? keith morrison (voiceover): ake told the sheriff that he and he alone was the trigger man, not only in the douglas killings, but in texas as well. keith morrison: the other incident was the shooting of those two fellows in texas. did ake tell you about that and about why he pulled the trigger then? he said that he had to do it because steve hatch was just too weak to do it. was afraid to pull the trigger. yes, sir. did either one of them express any remorse in these statements? the only remorse that i got was that ake said i want the death penalty.

he knew what he had done. yes, sir. keith morrison (voiceover): for brooks and leslie douglas, the capture of the killers appeared to put an end to their ordeal. little did they know. did you have any idea how much you still had to go through, even though they caught them? oh, heavens no. no idea. you figured it was sort of done at that point probably. yeah, yeah. naive little you. oh, yeah. keith morrison (voiceover): by the early weeks of 1980, brooks and leslie douglas had healed sufficiently to return to school-- healed physically, that is. but now, shell-shocked after the murder of their parents the previous october, they struggled, any semblance of teenager normalcy forever lost to them. and they coped separately. leslie had moved to another town. brooks was still in the old neighborhood

near his high school. and they still had no idea that oklahoma winter that the legal trials of the men who killed their parents, which were about to begin, would become their own decades long tribulation. despite their long and detailed confessions, glen ake, the triggerman, and steven hatch, his accomplice, had pleaded not guilty to charges of murdering reverend richard douglas and his wife, marilyn, and shooting the douglas children. steven hatch was tried first at the canadian county courthouse. hatch was a follower, but he's the one that picked out the house that night. he's the one that wanted to commit another crime. he's the one that created the energy for action for the second crime. keith morrison (voiceover): and the state of oklahoma looked to have an ironclad case against him. most important, of course, the harrowing stories of the eyewitnesses and survivors leslie and brooks douglas. then hatch and ake's thanksgiving statements, those confessions. the state also had ballistic evidence linking them

to the murders, and the testimony of ginger keef, their traveling companion while they were on the run. keef, who was never charged with any crime, testified that ake and hatch told her about killing the douglas's and shooting brooks and leslie. we had two surviving witnesses. we were able to identify who the people were. we were able to put the bullet in. you know, we somewhat kept it simple. keith morrison (voiceover): simple? for the judge hearing the case, maybe, but certainly not for those surviving witnesses. brooks had already testified once in the preliminary hearing, but both he and his sister would have to relive it all for hatch's trial. reporter: 13-year-old leslie douglas appeared in court for the first time since the shooting that left her and her brother critically wounded and her parents dead. keith morrison: how did those two kids do on the stand? oh, they did excellent. they were good. they were both well. stood up under cross-examination? yeah. we tried the case in chief in one day. just, we just-- one witness after another.

keith morrison (voiceover): altogether, the hatch case took three days of the court's time. hatch testified in his own defense. he was convicted, sentenced to death. glen ake's trial in early summer didn't take much longer. but in the courtroom, they kept him under heavy guard. ake was volatile, unpredictable. ake was really mean. i mean, he just was a mean person. keith morrison (voiceover): sheriff lynn stedman testified for two hours about ake's thanksgiving confession. then came the star witnesses for the prosecution, brooks and leslie, two teenage siblings who are about to revisit the most traumatic night of their lives. coming up. face-to-face with the gunman. it was like, i had to pretend like i was somebody else. keith morrison (voiceover): leslie and brooks find the courage to speak. when "dateline" continues. i was stuck. unresolved depression symptoms were in my way.

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trkeith morrisona (voiceover): glen ake was on trial for the murders of the reverend richard douglass and his wife, marilyn. the cold-blooded executions were witnessed by the douglass children, and now brooks and leslie would have to relive the horrific details of that night from the stand. they both calmly identified ake as the man who shot them and murdered their parents. did you watch the children's testimony? yes. brooks was very strong in his testimony. leslie was, too, but it bothered her more than it did brooks to testify. it was like i had to pretend like i was somebody else just telling a story of what happened. and it's kind of like the night that it happened and i had to remember all this, i have to remember all this. keith morrison (voiceover): that promise that leslie douglass made to herself the night her parents were killed not to forget anything. that's what carried her through, she said. i didn't know why. i just knew that i had to remember every detail.

and, so, whenever it was time to be on the stand, i knew that everything that i said was important, and that i had to be specific and remember. so, it's like i don't know what got in my head. i just have to remove all emotional attachment. keith morrison (voiceover): the jury needed just two hours to make up its mind. ake was convicted. he was sentenced to 1,000 years for shooting the douglass children. and as for the murder of brooks and leslie's parents-- we the jury impaneled and sworn by to try the issues in the above entitled cause do, upon our oath, having heretofore found the defendant glen barton ake guilty of murder in the first degree, takes punishment at death. keith morrison (voiceover): so, end of the road for ake and hatch. or so lawman and prosecutors assumed. sheriff stedman escorted ake to mcalester penitentiary and death row.

when i took glen burton ake to mcalester, oklahoma, to be processed in by the department of corrections, when we got out of the car i told him, glen, this is the last time i will see you until i come back to see you die. keith morrison (voiceover): with this monstrous chapter of their lives apparently over, leslie and brooks began to thrive. leslie, living in that new town with her mother's family, became a stellar high school student, a cheerleader, college bound. how on heaven's name did you go on to do all the things that you did like any regular teenage person? i think it's because my mom saying when night, if anything ever happened to him, she wanted me to be strong and move on with my life. and i remember crying, going, mom, why are you saying that? nothing's ever going to happen to you. but i think it was one of those things that i just had in the back of my mind,

and it helped me push through things. keith morrison (voiceover): through those first trials and in the years immediately after, brooks also felt his parents were somehow still with him. i was able to, at least during that first couple of years-- and even now, but especially, i think, in that first few years-- i could hear them, hear their voices as i was having them make decisions or do things. and so i felt like they were still with me. and it wasn't until years later, somebody said, oh, you were orphaned. keith morrison (voiceover): oh, yes he was. and because of what happened to make him one both the law and life began now to in very strange directions, certainly beyond his control, as it began to look like his parents killers might just escape justice after all. coming up.

i felt the bullet hit me. and i heard another one go off and my mother scream. keith morrison (voiceover): brooks and leslie return to the courtroom. i screamed and then he shot me again. keith morrison (voiceover): but this time the outcome will be very different. i remember when the verdicts were read in the courtroom. there was an audible gasp. keith morrison (voiceover): when "dateline" continues. if you have wet amd, you never want to lose sight of the things you love. some things should stand the test of time. long lasting eylea hd could significantly improve your vision and can help you go up to 4 months between treatments. if you have an eye infection, eye pain or redness, or allergies to eylea hd, don't use. eye injections like eyla hd may cause eye infection, separation of the retina, or rare but severe swelling of blood vessels in the eye.

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get started now some days it seemed that for every step forward he made, brooks douglass took two back. he made it out of high school all right, though orphaned with his sister by the murder of his parents, and haunted by the complications of survival, grief, confusion, he was adrift. though scattered might be a better word for those years after brooks headed off to college. i went to six or seven different universities because i call that my road scholar days, because i'd either go for eight weeks and either get kicked out, or leave, and drop out and drive down the road to the next school and enroll there for six or eight weeks. and, so, i was having a hard time. i'd get in, i had a hard time focusing. keith morrison (voiceover): and legal developments over the next few years didn't make it any easier. the appeals of the two men convicted of killing brooks' parents seemed to be drifting, too-- deflected and scattered and confusing. a us supreme court ruling on the death penalty

in a far-off case in florida led to hatch's death sentence being vacated twice, and therefore more uncertainty for the douglass kids. more legal hearings. if this case doesn't fit the aggravating circumstances that was especially heinous, atrocious, or cruel, i can't imagine a case that would. keith morrison (voiceover): his sentence reinstated, steven hatch went back to death row. and meanwhile, glen ake, the triggerman, had been filing appeals from a nearby cell. in february of 1985, six years after the douglasses were murdered, the united states supreme court ruled in ake versus oklahoma that he deserved a new trial. prosecutors had failed to provide a psychiatrist at state expense. cathy stocker was the da. i contacted brooks and leslie and indicated that we would have to retry ake.

i'm sure they just thought, will this ever end? keith morrison (voiceover): that was exactly the stunned sibling's reaction. once again they opened their psychic and emotional wounds for inspection by the court. and this is the thing that is so remarkable is that you're able to go there again and again-- right. --in places that are daunting and difficult, and yet you clearly feel that same emotional turmoil every time it comes up. i do. keith morrison: here are sitting with us and you're feeling it all again. you'd think 31 years later it would be different. i always get a little emotional and start remembering. and think, wow, you know, i can't believe it's been this long. keith morrison (voiceover): as ake's second trial began in february 1986, his lawyer laid out the defense's case. we entered a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity.

and that will be-- we'll maintain that defense throughout the trial. keith morrison (voiceover): after six years in maximum security, glen ake was nearly unrecognizable. sheriff lynn stedman was in charge of security. in the second trial, he made not a sound during the trial. he had let his hair grow long, and he sat there with his head down looking at the table the entire trial. keith morrison (voiceover): but jurors heard from other witnesses. despite the passage of time, the details of the crime remained chilling. reverend douglass was, again, laying on his back. his feet were also tied together with a cord-type material. keith morrison (voiceover): although ake never took the stand, never even said a word to his lawyers, the jury heard his thanksgiving statement.

keith morrison (voiceover): then came the eyewitnesses to the carnage that night. leslie douglass, now 20 years old, a college student, calmly explained it all to the jury. and then i heard two more shots which hit my father. and then another shot, and i screamed, and then he shot me again. and then i heard him run out the door. i was amazed by her courage. she had to go back there in her mind and tell you exactly what happened, what she did. she did not falter. and she was rock solid? yes. keith morrison (voiceover): brooks douglass wasn't spared his turn on the stand. i felt the bullet hit me. and i heard another one go off and my mother scream. keith morrison (voiceover): the core of the defense case was the testimony of psychiatrists-- three of them. do you believe that he was insane

on the 15th of october, 1979? yes, sir. i am convinced that on date mr. ake did not know right from wrong. keith morrison (voiceover): and throughout it all in court, glen burton ake remained silent. presented himself more like a mental patient than a convicted murderer. sheriff stedman watched and decided it had to be a ploy-- he was feigning insanity. he had about five years or so to come up with this act. keith morrison (voiceover): but did the jury see what the sheriff believed he saw? the decision, when it came, was quite a surprise. i remember when the verdicts were read in the courtroom. there was an audible gasp. we the jury impaneled and sworn in above entitled cause do, upon our oaths, having heretofore found the defendant, glen barton ake, guilty of murder in the first degree for the death of richard barry

douglass, and fix his punishment at life in the state penitentiary. keith morrison (voiceover): no death penalty. this time, the jury spared his life. he would come off death row. the jury came back and sentenced ake to life for each of the murders, and to 200 years each for the shootings of the children. keith morrison (voiceover): but wait a minute-- steven hatch, who did not fire a weapon, faced execution. but ake, the triggerman, got life. brooks was floored. as i heard the decision read, what was going through my mind was that i can just see my parents dying and knowing that they would never be fully avenged. that they died, that this person took their life, and yet he's going to allow to continue living and at our expense.

as brooks saw it, after all this time, all the suffering-- his parents', his, his sister's-- glen ake had plain cheated the executioner. that day, after sentencing, a shell-shocked brooks escaped into a hallway followed by sheriff's deputies escorting glen ake back to a prison cell. there they were, standing feet apart. brooks looked at ake and something in him snapped. he saw the deputy passing by, his revolver tantalizingly close. and in that moment, brooks douglass contemplated murder. he reached for the officer's weapon. well, you saw, at one point, him being led somewhere, and there was a deputy with a gun. just by chance, i walked out of one door of the courtroom and he came out in front of me. and it was actually cathy stocker that grabbed my arm. she saw what you wanted to do. yeah. you might have done it?

i might have done it. you know, two can play that game. you know, if he can play crazy, i can, too. wow. so that crime had done a lot to you after all? yeah. keith morrison (voiceover): but brooks knew, he said, that he wouldn't, couldn't, have done it, even if the prosecutor had not stayed his hand. he told us it went back to the night he was shot and bleeding and made his decision to try to save himself. why did i get off that floor? did i get off that floor to go kill him? no. is that what my parents would have wanted for me? i would have been much better off to have died that night. i needed to live my life. and i'd never be able to do it as long as i was holding that like that. keith morrison (voiceover): but, of course, at that moment, he could have no idea that this was not the last time he'd encountered the man who killed his parents. no-- they were destined to meet again.

coming up-- a confrontation with a killer. keith morrison: what did you see in him? keith morrison (voiceover): powerful emotions and long-buried demons. what i really wanted was for it to be-- was for it to be over. keith morrison (voiceover): when "dateline" continues. an alternative to pills, voltaren is a clinically proven arthritis pain relief gel, which penetrates deep to target the source of pain with nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory medicine directly at the source. voltaren, the joy of movement. why do couples choose a sleep number smart bed? i need help with her snoring. sleep number does that. thank you. and now, save 40% on the sleep number limited edition smart bed. plus special financing. shop now at sleepnumber.com my name's trevor. i've tried other diets in the past never lasted before too long my cravings came back

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as the years rolled by, it seemed as if the emotional and psychic wounds inflicted the night brooks and leslie douglass were shot and their parents murdered might never heal.

but they did learn to live, and any outsider might think they had learned that lesson well. leslie, the cheerleader and high school homecoming queen, went on to college then graduate school. became first a teacher, later an assistant principal. had a family, two children of her own. i never wanted to seem like this person that just, you know, hid and fell apart. and be the stereotypical person that goes through all this kind of stuff. and i wanted to make something of myself. and if somebody said, well, she's never going to be ok, she's not ever going to go to college. so i went to college and i got a master's degree. you know, it was just one of those things that i don't like people to tell me i can't accomplish things and do things because they think i'm going to allow everything that's happened affect my whole life. keith morrison (voiceover): brooks finally struggled through college. took an army rotc commission then went to law school and got married.

but, again and again, both put their lives on hold to unpack their awful memories for trials, and appeals, and parole and clemency hearings for glen ake and steven hatch. keith morrison: how many times did you have to testify? i think it was a total of nine. what did it do to you? as soon as i would hear that i was going to need to go testify again, my mind would go to that place. and it would just-- it was a month of-- or however long leading up to it-- and the apprehension and the fear. just plain old fear. keith morrison (voiceover): in 1990, 11 years after the murders, just out of law school, just about broke, frankly, with a marriage headed south, brooks decided-- almost on a whim-- to run for the oklahoma state senate. was it that frustration with the system that made you decide to go and finish your law degree and to get involved in politics? i remember feeling helpless and looking for what are ways

that i can begin to gain a little bit of control over what's happening to me. didn't that seemed absolutely ludicrous to you? i think i was just sort of [laughs] really oblivious. you didn't know what was impossible. yeah. nobody told me i couldn't do it, so yeah, why not? let's do it. let's try. keith morrison (voiceover): he won. it was, need we say, an upset. it made him, at 27, the youngest senator in oklahoma history. russ mccaskey, then a tv reporter covering the capitol, became a close friend. his teenage years were pretty rough. he struggled for a long time, but he was starting to put the pieces back together. and i think that, you know, at that point, he was ready to start moving forward with his life. you could see a transformation in him. keith morrison (voiceover): he met another young senator, later governor, brad henry. it was just kind of natural that we gravitated

toward one another because we were the youngest by a long shot. and even though he is a republican and i'm a democrat, we just became very, very good friends. keith morrison (voiceover): it was in his second year in the senate when brooks found the cause close to his heart. victims rights was simply one of those things that nobody talked about. keith morrison (voiceover): but, of course, that was the core experience of his life. did he know how the system treats victims of crime? oh, yes, he did. and so he introduced oklahoma's first victims' rights act. the jury never hears one word about the family. we're not considering how brutal that crime was. this person took another individual's life in these cases. keith morrison (voiceover): the victims' rights movement was in its infancy then. it met resistance from judges and prosecutors. he was very, very passionate and focused

on victims rights. and who could argue with him? there was nobody in the senate, or in the house for that matter, who had been through that kind of a traumatic experience. keith morrison (voiceover): the law's passage was a huge victory for brooks and his allies in the legislature. and, personally, for him, well, it happened during his second term in the senate-- revelation. and not a happy one. for all he had accomplished all he had overcome-- the grief, the fury, the drift, the confusion-- it wasn't enough. perhaps it was his long dead father still whispering in his ear something he needed to do. he found himself on a legislative tour of oklahoma's infamous maximum security prison at mcalester. big mac's general population housed the state's most dangerous prisoners, including glen ake, the trigger triggerman and his parents' murder. and, in an even more secure wing, steven hatch,

ake's accomplice, waiting out his final days on death row. keith morrison: at first brooks was afraid he might run into glen ake behind the wall here at the penitentiary. he was nervous about that, wanted to avoid it. but then something started gnawing at him and eventually he realized he knew what he had to do. he had to confront the man who'd murdered his parents, the man he'd contemplated killing outside that courtroom years before. so he went to see the warden. being a senator does have its perks, and the warden sent a note to the prisoner. and, much to everyone's amazement, glen ake agreed to a meeting. it was february, 1995. brooks douglass found himself sitting across the table from the man who'd murdered his parents and shot him and his sister. i said, for 15 years i've wanted nothing more than to see you dead and i still want it.

and in hearing some of that, hearing myself say that, was very, very strange. and you had to confront the fact that you just said that to this man. yeah. that you wanted him dead. i wanted him dead. and by saying it, something went click inside. yeah. that-- that what i really wanted was for it to be-- was for it to be over. and i didn't realize how much i think that that was dominating my life. keith morrison (voiceover): it was not what he intended to do. didn't know what he would do when he found himself sitting face to face

with his parents' killer. but now the words came out and he realized he meant them completely-- he forgave glen ake. and inside him, he said, the reaction was almost physical. and yet you were now in the one in the position of having to forgive the unforgivable, and were confronted at the same time with your desire to see these guys die for what they did to your parents. right. keith morrison: what reaction did you see in him? he was he was completely remorseful, which surprised me right off the bat. and when that moment came was when he was messing with cuffs and was trying to wipe away tears. keith morrison (voiceover): brooks confided in his friends. he calls me after the meeting and i said, how'd it go? and he said, i forgave him. and there's just silence on the phone for a minute. my jaw is on the floor. the thing that really purged his soul was

this forgiveness that washed forward that he really couldn't explain. and i think he surprised himself that he actually would affirmatively forgive his parents' murderer. i think, because of the teachings of his father and his mother, was able to find that forgiveness inside somehow. and i think it has been a tremendous, tremendous load off of his shoulders. keith morrison (voiceover): leslie's reaction was more muted. he had told me about meeting with ake, and him forgiving him, and me having a hard time understanding it. is forgiving part of moving on like that? part of getting past it? i think it is. i mean, i feel like i've forgiven.

you can forgive but it just doesn't change the circumstances sometimes. keith morrison (voiceover): but there is a difference between forgiveness and forgetting. the state of oklahoma, along with brooks and leslie douglass, had some unfinished business with steven hatch. not the triggerman, no. but a murderer, yes. coming up. i was afraid to sleep at night. i was afraid somebody was coming to get me. keith morrison (voiceover): a new part of the story after all these years when "dateline" continues. ♪♪ stay ahead of your moderate-to-severe eczema. and show off clearer skin and less itch with dupixent, the #1 prescribed biologic by dermatologists and allergists, that helps heal your skin from within. serious allergic reactions can occur that can be severe. tell your doctor about new or worsening eye problems such as eye pain or vision changes including blurred vision, joint aches and pain, or a parasitic infection.

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here's a look at what's happening. rocket attack had a soccer field in israeli -controlled golan heights killing at least 11 people and hurting several others. israel blamed hezbollah for the strike but they have denied any role. israel insists they struck a military base in the area in retaliation for israeli attacks on lebanon villages. the men's four by 100 freestyle relay team brought home the first gold medal for team usa. australia finished just behind the u.s. and italy took home the bronze. bronze. it was 18 months after that extraordinary meeting with glen ake, the one at which brooks douglass forgave

his parents' killer the other man convicted in their murder, steven hatch, was scheduled to die. brooks had tried to meet with hatch on death row. he was rebuffed. appeals exhausted, hatch's execution date was set in the summer of 1996. there was a final clemency hearing. brooks and leslie would have to testify against him one last time. hatch pleaded for his life. i'm sorry for the pain the children, brooks and leslie douglass, continue to feel. i can say sorry for the rest of time and that would not be enough. i could die 100 times, and it would never be enough to make up for what had happened. keith morrison (voiceover): but then testimony that astounded leslie douglass and brought back all the horror. i had found out some things at the clemency hearing that that i was not aware of.

and so it kind of shattered my world. keith morrison (voiceover): it happened at the very beginning, when the state brought those murder charges against ake and hatch in the first place. they chose not to put leslie through the additional trauma of testifying about the rapes. after all, they could prove murder easily. and leslie never knew, not in all those years, that the killers denied raping her all along. then hatch's clemency hearing when, with his life on the line, he stuck to his story that he had not sexually assaulted her. they had denied raping me. and so i think right then it just really threw me for a loop. i was only supposed to talk, like, 30 seconds, and it ended up being three or four minutes because i was so upset and remembered every minute of it like it was happening right then. not only did i have nightmares. i was afraid to go to restaurants. i was afraid to sleep at night.

i heard noises that would wake me up because i was afraid somebody was coming to get me. and not only did i not get to go to my parents' funeral, i denied that they had died. he just still even after all these years just seemed like there was no remorse. not only denying that he did it-- right --but calling you a liar basically. right. and was just like, oh, i just could see where that poor 12-year-old girl could have thought that i did or this happened. and i was like, there's no thought-- it did. keith morrison (voiceover): the clemency appeal was denied. and so on august 9, 1996, leslie and brooks douglass drove from oklahoma city to mcalester prison to witness steven hatch's death. all of the filings at the supreme court have been denied and we have a green light to proceed with the execution shortly after midnight. keith morrison (voiceover): a brother and sister among the first family members ever to witness the execution of a murderer. that they could do so at all was

because of additional victims' rights legislation brooks helped pass that year. the night of the execution and they give them an option of making a last statement. he didn't even say anything. he knew you were there. right. that just kind of left me kind of numb, kind of stunned. just like, wow, you know, isn't that what we all want to do is change the things that we've done in life that we regret? and go back and amend those things or ask for forgiveness? because he took a big, huge part of me. keith morrison (voiceover): and just after midnight, 17 painful years after their parents were killed, leslie and brooks watched steven hatch, strapped to a gurney, die by lethal injection. hatch left behind a written statement. in it, he called those who sat in judgment of him evil and barbaric and politicians. an hour after hatch was pronounced dead, brooks spoke to the press.

leslie and i have again witnessed the taking of a life. the first time we did so, we were young people who were present when our mother and father were viciously killed. today is the end of a very long ordeal that has dominated our lives. keith morrison (voiceover): a family witnessing an execution was so unusual, leslie appeared on the "today" show. and how has this crime haunted you and followed you since it happened? i dealt with it a lot better then. but as i become older, and have had children, it has become so much harder to try to explain to my children that they're never going to get to know their grandparents. they're never going to see them. so was it what you expected it would be? i now know that i'm never going to get a call, whether i'm in california or wherever it is that i'm living, outer mongolia,

and be told, guess what? i hate to tell you this, but you're going to have to come back and testify against steven hatch again. it was over. keith morrison (voiceover): but was it? he had forgiven ake. felt as if he had put that behind him. accepted things the way they were. but according to brooks' friends, he was troubled after the execution. and not long afterward, his second marriage ended. he was depressed for a while. it brings everything back up, you know. when you have to go to the prison and so forth, and witness it, it takes you back to that place. and i think that that made it tough for him. keith morrison (voiceover): indeed it took him right back there. one of the more bizarre things was i felt like as i was watching him die, that i was also watching the events of that night all over again. part of us died back there.

and i'll never forget it. leslie will never forget it. keith morrison (voiceover): no. and nor could either of them have known then that one day he was going to choose his own decision to relive the worst night of his life in living color. and he was just gut wrenching bawling saying i just feel so bad for my mom and dad because, you know, he knew that that was their last day. and he was so young and had so much to live for, and that whole night was really excruciating for everyone. more real than you would have imagined. keith morrison (voiceover): coming up. i think my parents would be proud. keith morrison (voiceover): freeing his ghosts. the surprising move that helped brooks heal the past at last. when "dateline" continues.

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ask your retina specialist about eylea hd brooks douglass was restless. the man who'd helped murder his parents had been executed. the shooter was behind bars for life. and brooks seemed unsure where he belonged. three terms in the oklahoma senate was enough. he started a business. sold it. served as an army officer in the middle east. enrolled in harvard's kennedy school of government where he met and married julea. the crime that so infected his life, well, he did make speeches from time to time

about victims' rights. it took 14 years for us to get the wedding rings back that these guys had stolen and taken with them, and that one of them they actually had to saw it off of him when they caught him. keith morrison (voiceover): but life was different now. he and julea had two children. settled down in california. and then brooks decided that maybe he could do some acting and writing. i was teaching a writing workshop and brooks came to the class and he pitched three ideas-- one a sitcom, one a drama, and he proceeds to tell me about his life. keith morrison (voiceover): paul brown is a hollywood writer and director. i couldn't believe what i was hearing a story about justice and vengeance becomes a story about forgiveness. and i thought that was a very unique, important story. he said that's the one you need to write. and i said, well, i don't think i can write it. it's too personal and it's too painful. but he convinced me that i should try it. and so i wrote a few scenes and parts of it were very difficult. i mean, extraordinarily difficult.

keith morrison (voiceover): oh, yes. difficult. but before long, as important as anything in his life had ever been. could he actually make a movie? he'd never done anything like this before. not even close. and egos are destroyed, fortunes made to vanish, with amazing regularity here. still, this he believed was the answer. he hired brown to co-write and direct his movie. he raided his bank account then went fundraising among friends and family, scraped together a couple of million dollars. poured three years into his labor of love. cast hollywood actors as well as some of his friends. and then called it "heaven's rain," for reasons his father would have understood. "heaven's rain" opened in 2010. and leslie, who had survived the whole, long ordeal in her own very private way, had to watch someone

else very publicly be her. do you realize that every time we go through this, i have to relive everything again? and that i don't know who's going to show up in my dreams? the thing that kept coming into my head was, i wonder how she feels about this? i wonder what she thinks about this? it kind of just made me look back at where my head was, and what i was thinking. and she actually did a great job portraying me because i thought, i can say exactly word for word everything that she said, because those things all came out of my mouth. and you just kind of go on with your life. and then you look back and go, wow, i really did live through that, you know. it's different. it is. it's kind of like seeing yourself as others see you, which is something we normally can't do. that can be scary sometimes. but, no, i think my brother has told a beautiful story. and, you know, i think my parents would be proud of how

he's portrayed our family. keith morrison (voiceover): leslie herself has a small part, a tribute of sorts to her mother, marilyn douglass, who taught her to sing a lifetime (singing) tis seven long years since last i saw you, away rolling river. she has a beautiful voice and that voice got silenced. and in the movie she sings, and people that heard her voice were just astonished by how beautiful it is. so i'm hoping that this will be a new chapter for her to start singing again. keith morrison (voiceover): and brooks? but i'd done local theater here in oklahoma city. and so i knew that i wanted to act in this movie. keith morrison (voiceover): act? oh, yes. but, in fact, there was really only one role he wanted to play one. one he may have been born to. brooks decided he would portray his own father.

nothing excited me more than the possibility of really being able to do that as a tribute to my dad. please go tonight. keith morrison (voiceover): the movie follows brooks and leslie's life. picks it up just after brooks election to the oklahoma senate with flashbacks to their idyllic years as missionary children in brazil. it's a portrait of an american family with, at the heart of it, the words he still remembers contained in his father's very last sermon. delivered, of course, by brooks as his preaching dad. see the joy of life is poisoned by the resentment of past grudges. you intentionally put that particular sermon in the movie. yeah. a lot of that was the sermon he preached the morning before he died. but the theme certainly was forgiveness. yeah. and it was something he preached and believed in.

right. thus that title, "heaven's rain." it's from of shakespeare, "merchant of venice." "the quality of mercy is not strained, it droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven upon the place beneath. it is twice blessed. it blesseth him that gives and him that takes." i am so, so sorry for what i did to you and your family. i want you to tell me why. well, the truth is there was no reason. keith morrison (voiceover): it's the reason he made the movie, this scene. why is that moment one that still makes the emotion come into your eyes. when i was sitting in front of ake? yeah. um, i think it was so revealing.

i look back and it was just building this coat of armor. and that was killing me. and it was killing my marriages, my whatever-- friendships. at the end of the day, it was protecting me but it was keeping me away from people that i loved. keith morrison (voiceover): there's another scene in the movie-- a flashback to the night of the crime, and maybe this was the scene he needed to play to finally move on. [gunshots] [screaming] [gunshots] i wondered how it must have been-- your portraying him when he died. that was one of the very few instances in my life where it was actually much harder and much more painful than i started out thinking it was going to be. keith morrison (voiceover): his wife was with him on set for that one. brooks was upstairs before we filmed.

and he was just gut-wrenching bawling, saying, i just feel so bad for my mom and dad because, you know, he knew that that was their last day. and he was so young and had so much to live for. and that whole night was really excruciating for everyone. more real than you would have imagined. dad, mom's dead. they had to relive that night. and i know how hard that was for him. and we talked about it and how hard that was going to be, and that i was glad it was him going and not me because i couldn't have dealt with it. keith morrison (voiceover): after a los angeles opening, "heaven's rain" was first released in oklahoma and texas, and later across the southwest. and as if to close another chapter in brooks' and leslie's life, in april of 2011, glen ake, the triggerman, died in prison of natural causes.

brooks went on to promote the movie, often speaking after group screenings. the film found its early audience among oklahoma churchgoers. i'm not sure people can fully appreciate the power that the grace of god has had in your life in granting the forgiveness to the people who have murdered your parents. keith morrison (voiceover): an old wound-- he could have left it alone, scarred over as it was. more than once he turned down book and movie deals proposed by others. chose to let the dead lie. but not now, not anymore. and by opening the wound again himself, he might finally have healed it. you could have just said, no. forget about it. you know, forgive someone or something that's happened, or be forgiven. and these are all very old lessons. it's not anything i came up with.

this is what my dad and my mom taught me, and what my faith has taught me. and i wanted people to see who my dad was-- who both my parents were-- and the work that they did and the lessons that they taught me. what do you want people to take away from this movie of yours? the power of forgiveness and the importance of it. if, as individuals, i mean, as people, if we're going to move on past the things of our past, we've got to find a way to forgive or be forgiven. ake and hatch did some horrible things. they threw some huge curveballs our way. but it's always up to me, every day that i wake up, it's up to me whether i want to really live a full life or not. keith morrison (voiceover): brooks chose to live a full life. but in may of 2020, tragedy struck the douglass family

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