>> hi everyone, this is al jazeera america. i'm john siegenthaler. historic hurricane. one of the strongest storms ever recorded slams into mexico. fears of unprecedented destruction. deadline for immigration centers holding migrant families longer than three days. will the agency comply with a federal judge's decision? cutting back. slashing salaries and staff. the new troubles for jeb bush

saps presidential campaign. plus patricia cornwell, the author who sold more than 100 million books joins us to talk about her life as a writer. >> i go out and explore. i'm really ocombination of a journalist and investigator. >> and if truth is really stranger than fiction . we begin with hurricane patricia. it's a category 5 storm one of the most powerful ever recorded. it's made landfall along the pacific coast of mexico. this photograph showing a water spout off the coast of porto vallarta. from space, the picture shows a story. a massive storm, sweeping across

mexico. the national weather receives says purk patricia i hurricane e of the strongest storms ever recorded. reaching 200 miles an hour. >> the national emergency committee has already installed, taking charge as of this moment. preventive measures, for what is estimated to be the biggest hurricane for at least the last 50 years in the pacific ocean. >> ahead of the storm beaches were empty in popular vacation spots, sand bags line streets, businesses boarded up. as residents braced for a catastrophic hit. convention center supposed to be secure only to find out it wasn't considered strong enough for impact of a category 5 storm. >> so we were evacuated from our hotel this morning for the hurricane.

we came to this convention center and then they said that it's not a safe place. >> at the city's airport travelers scrambled for last minute flights. >> we have to make our flight late tonight so we have to fly out now. >> further north, texas is preparing too. patricia is expected to break up before it gets there but officials are keeping a steady watch because of a separate storm system that's already soaking that state. >> if the predicted rainfall happens in the city of houston, there will be localized street flooding. we want to make sure that houstonians take normal precautions, for the most part once that rain starts that we decide to stay home. >> meanwhile u.s. researchers and scientists say the unprecedented storm has taken many of them by surprise. intensifying rapidly from tropical storm to a cat 5

hurricane. >> the other thing that is really interesting is it was such an inability, such a failure on the part of computer models to predict this ultimate intensity. >> rosie cordero spent all the day on a bus being evacuated from puerto vallarta, she's sitting on the floor ever the international hotel. tell us about it. >> hi john everything was done in a very orderly and calm fashion. with so many people that needed to evacuate i feel like that was the most important part. but i mean there has been a lot of anxiety and just restlessness, knowing the category and the size of this hurricane. >> so you were in puerto vallarta to take some time off. >> no, i wish! i was there on a press trip. we were visiting the marriott and before we knew it there was

this hurricane upon us. we were visiting to check tout city. my first time there. >> when did you find out you had to get out and how quick did you have to get out? >> we started to hear about the hurricane about lunch time yesterday and it wasn't going to be that big of a deal to where at nighttime by the time we got back from dinner like half the hotel had already started to evacuate by bus. those that did not have flights. since we had flights we were supposed to leave first thing in the morning and 20 minutes before my ride i was told the airport was closed. >> you are on the floor of the intercontinental can you show me what it's like around you? >> i just came out here. in the room there are a bunch of us who came in from the hold, signinhotel.we are standing aroe hours, in this hallway not much going on. >> tell me how it was on that bus? >> i mean we were happy because we knew we were going towards

safety. we were exhausted and hungry and we tried to do the best we could, singing songs and whatever to keep our minds off of things. >> the people who needed to get out of puerta vallarta were three able to do it? >> since they started the evacuation process yesterday, we were the last group to leave, and after that they closed the hotel. like i said, on the way to guadalajara, traffic was atrocious. i do believe the majorities of the people that needed to get out, got out. >> i assume you're safe there. can you give us a sense of if you've heard anything from the coast? >> oh yeah, we did hear the storm has started, just recently, and the waves are really high and they're starting to get a beating there just now. because up until a couple of hours ago they were staying it was still calm. but now that it started beating down it's going to get worse.

>> the last we heard they closed the airport in guadalajara, any way of knowing when you can get out thereof? >> as far as i know, i'll be flying out later, i'm not going to super-hold them to that because i'm not sure if that's going to happen. >> rosie good luck to you. >> thank you so much, john. >> thank you for talking to us. we appreciate it. meteorologist nicole mitchell has been following all of this. here on the storm's track. nicole. >> we had that landfall, all the advisors are puadvisories that n central time. 165 miles per hour now it's over land it's going to lose that intensity pretty quickly both because it's cut off from the warm waters, but it will go down over mountains, still a cat 5.

that set a couple potential records here or at least what we have on record. not only do we still have the large areas under the hurricane warnings but this was one of the strongest storms in this hemisphere, possibly the strongest on record, one of the fastest intensifying and one of the few to make landfall as a category five and will go down as the most intense land falls. one of the problems with this storm this will now track inland so good for the united states that there are all these mountains in the meantime. because that's really going to help shred this storm apart. the bad side of that is that also rings out the rain. so flooding as the storm goes insland a very major concern. are the wind field isn't particularly large but where it is it will definitely be devastating as far as the winds. the winds have already tapped into the united states, we've already had flooding problems from a different system in places like texas. this is going to add for us in

terms of us what we have to watch at home. back to you. >> all right thanks very much. today we have learned the name of the first u.s. soldier killed fighting i.s.i.l. in new york. the army says master sergeant joshua wheeler died while helping to free i.s.i.l. hostages. jamie mcintire reports. >> good afternoon. >> reporter: defense secretary ash carter made no apologizes for putting u.s. operations even throw u.s. combat role in iraq supposedly ended four years ago. >> when we find opportunities to do things had a will effectively prosecute the campaign, we're going to do that. and this is an example of a case where we could do something, we alone had the capability to do that and i am absolutely prepared to do that. >> the american special forces

were simply to helicopter the peshmerga troops to an i.s.i.l. run compound west of kirkuk and get them out after the peshmerga did the fighting and rescue the captives. >> we believed the hostages were there and the kurdish peshmerga fought their way up to the wall that was around this compound. the american special forces personnel who with were advising and assisting they were always to stay back by the helicopters and wait for operation to finish. >> but secretary carter says when master sergeant joshua wheeler and his fellow delta force commandoos saw the peshmerga were unable to advance, they ran in to help. >> protected those who were

involved in breaching the compound and made the mission a success. it wasn't a part of the plan but it was something that he did. and i'm immensely proud that he did that. >> with u.s. pilots flying thousands of missions in the skies over iraq and syria and thousands of u.s. advisors on the ground in iraq carter essentially warned the american public to brace for more deaths. even though the u.s. combat role is supposedly over. >> we do not have combat formations there the way we had ones upon a time in iraq or the way we have had in years past in afghanistan. but we do have people who are in harm's way. >> secretary carter argued the peshmerga rescue mission was not a resumption of ground combat in iraq. he compared it to a u.s. commando raid in syria back in may in which the u.s. killed i.s.i.l. leader abu sayef and captured his wife.

he promised there would be more in the future. when it comes to dangerous assignments, the message is, u.s. troops may not just advise and assist but also accompany iraqi forces into battle. jamie mcintire, al jazeera, the pentagon. >> now the effort to get the entire community involved, secretary of state john kerry met with leaders from russia, saudi arabia, turkey in vienna today. he said an international summit on syria could be held as early as next friday. he welcomes russia's involvement in the war on i.s.i.l. he says russia's military actions in syria are not helping. >> the united states, i want to emphasize, welcomes support in the fight against daesh. and if russia intends to join in that fight, we welcome a constructive role. but targeting moderate fighters doesn't hurt daesh.

>> kerry says a decision has not been made yet on whether iran will take part in the talks. kerry's trip will also include middle east leaders on how to end deadly violence in israel and the west bank. one, holy site in jerusalem claimed by both muslims and jews. mike hannah, in the occupied west bank. >> unlike in recent weeks there was no age or gender restriction for worshipers going to the al-aqsa mosque compound and no checkpoints to navigate. those that had been closely checking each identity on past fridays were relaxing and watching as the palestinian faithful passed by. the scenes were not as calm in the west bank. demonstrators and the israeli army were in a number of areas.

the wider israeli occupation remains in place. a critical context for the easing of restrictions at the al-aqsa mosque compound. >> this country in the whole world has been occupied, and treating people miserable. we have enough and it's enough. palestinians need to be free. >> reporter: but nonetheless, this tenuous calm on this day in this place, a chink of hope for those diplomats who have been seeking a reduction in the level of conflict. we asked the israeli prime minister's office whether there's any connection between lifting of these restrictions and the meeting benjamin netanyahu had with the u.s. secretary of state. we are told it's a situation on the ground that determines the level of security that is in force, but the question many ask in the light of the calm that has prevailed since the restrictions have been lifted: why were the restrictions imposed in the first place? mike hanna al jazeera in

occupied east jerusalem. >> south africa's president is dropping plans to increase college tuition in 2016. thousands of university students have rallied about the issue. some even tried ostorm government buildings in the nation's capital. there were shall scenes across the country all week. many welcome today's news. others say it's not enough. they want free college tuition for everyone. france today witnessed its worse traffic disaster mr. three decades. officials say a truck collided with a tour bus killing 43 people. most of the passengers on the bus were retirees. eight people survived including the driver. but authorities say the driver of the truck and his three-year-old son were killed as well. up next, a drastic shakeup for bush campaign. why he's having trouble connecting with republican voters. and the cancer drug that researchers say could dramatically improve the life of

some people with parkinson's disease. disease.

>> a major shakeup for the presidential campaign of republican jeb bush. with his poll numbers stuck in the single digits, bush is slashing jobs and cutting rates. randall pinkston has more.

>> the bush campaign raised 24 million and spent 14 million but they are scaling back now to save up for the political battle lady. >> i'm not going to appeal to your anger. it's easy to do. >> jeb bush was upbeat and relaxed at an appearance today in regents. he spelled out what he would do if he was elected president. >> i think we have to reestablish america's leadership in the world. >> his host, pat robertson was friendly. an announcement of budget cuts that include layoffs, pay cuts and a tighter travel budget. >> does this mean lean and mean for the future or does it mean you're in trouble? >> this means lean and mean and i have the ability to adapt. >> adapt, because polls consistentlconsistently show hed the front runner. giving him only a 12% chance of

winning the gop nomination. and republicans in the first state with primaries agree. bush trailing badly with 5%. bush also trails trump and carson in new hampshire. >> i'm a candidate for president of the united states of america. >> his poor showing comes as a surprise to many political pundits who had thought his political pedigree, the son and brother of presidents, as well as experience as former governor of florida would yield more support. today, bush acknowledged a new reality. >> the circumstances when we started the election were different. i have not met a person that thought donald trump would be the front-running candidate at this point. >> the state was florida. the governor was jeb bush. >> more disappointing for the bush team, a multimillion dollar

ad campaign by a pro-bush political action committee as well as bush's own ads, attacking trump's lack of service in the military. >> draft deferments during vietnam. >> none of them have moved that into bush's camp. while the governor has only $10 million of cash in hand, right to rise, a superpack superpac h0 million. >> i'm all in, in all the primaries including virginia. every dollar we can save in overhead is a dollar that goes on television, goes on radio, goes on media, goes oon voter outreach. >> bush hopes that during the tough time will bring more support. high ranking staff member of the dnc had this to say from bush's

reshuffling. quoting now, i hope he will end up being the nominee. eight more years of bush which was terrible or eight more years of clinton, good for the nation. wung democrat'one democrat's op. >> a principal with quir squiret patton boggs, joins us. lean and mean, some say he hasn't been lean or mean and unable to adapt. what do you say? >> i think he has a chance to say he's right and his critics are wrong. i think he felt he could take the high road and meanwhile the market was shifting on him. trump, carson, carly, who would have thought?

a society that loves kaitlin j jener, trump is brilliant, he's a marketer. yet he has amassed a very sizable following. and anybody has to respect what he's done. meanwhile bush hasn't come out with the big ideas that trump has. he has a tax plan, immigration plan. bush needs something like that to say look i've been there, i've been a successful governor and i'll be a great president and here are some of my good ideas for tomorrow. >> some people say this may be less about trump than it is about jeb bush's performance about what he has said and hasn't said. i mean, he was tested in florida, but is he really ready for prime time? has he been ready for prime time so far? >> i think he has been. but i think he's been getting some advice from maybe his brother's advisors, and he may

need to listen to a little younger crowd, a different crowd. i know that cry for an outsider is so powerful now. but i also want to point out in that same iowa poll that shows bush being flat it did show that trump had lost nine points. carson is up there but the reality is that it's interesting that trump lost ground. if i was running the bush campaign i would say keep talking about your achievements as governor, add some new ideas for tomorrow but go ahead and attack trump on all his inconsistencies. they are there for the picking. the bad news is a lot of the defected trump supporters could go to carson, to cruz, but i still think bush has a great story to tell and he's got to get out there and do it. lord knows he's got the money. remember his presidential campaign kind of funds the

day-to-day. but the superpac will buy all the ads and all the rating points he needs to get through iowa, new hampshire and south carolina and even the sec primary would. >> would you think it would help him in the polls but so far it didn't. in the third quarter, trump trailed carson in fundraising. bush raised 13 million. ted cruz is the only other american who raised more than 10 million. he has been able to raise money until recently. what does that say about republican donors? are they beginning to sour on jeb bush? >> i think they're getting restless, i really do. they have put a lot of money in early and they thought there would be movement. and can i say this, that in this town common wisdom by everybody was, we'll get over trump. it's a summer fling and people get tired of him. and then candidates with common sense, john kasich, lindsay

graham, chris christie, the reality is none of this has happened. and we are just living in a time where a guy like trump can say things, i envy him, spent 22 years in congress, everything i said was carefully weighed out. here comes a guy who can say anything, attack people and never apologize and it is a phenomenon. >> let's see the things he says about jeb bush. says he has no energy, has said he is weak, has gone after his brother for the iraq war. is this as much about trump highlighting some of the concerns that many people have about jeb bush? >> i think it is. you know, i think one of the problems with george w. burv bus he's let his critics write his immediate history. if you think about jimmy carter and bill clinton as

nonrepublican presidents they went out and did things. clinton became engaged with the clinton foundation, and jimmy carter went with habitat for humanity. bush could have said, this is what's important and when still counts. the fact that did he not stayed in crawford and it's hurt his brother. >> congressman good to see you, thanks for joining us, appreciate your insight. >> okay john. >> coming up mothers and children locked up by the u.s. government. >> this is like the japanese american internment camps in the 1940s. we take entire families put them in a facility that's designed to confine them and then limit their access to medical care and education and tell everyone else they're doing fine in there. >> the rough conditions in migrant inserts and the push to

shut them down. and after 11 hours of testimony, what's happening in the benghazi investigation?

>> hi everyone. this is al jazeera america, i'm john siegenthaler.

benghazi fallout, what 11 hours of questioning peens for hillary clinton and her adversaries can. detention deadline. u.s. immigration officials ordered to clean up their act. but advocates say they are far from it. what master crime writer patricia cornwell is planning next. mexico now being hit by one of the most powerful storms ever recorded in the western hemisphere. hurricane patricia made landfall just over an hour ago in the puerto vallarta area. the area is under a state of emergency. residents and tourists who have not left the town are riding out in some shermts. shelters. john holman is about 200 mild inland. what's happening in the coast of

mexico right now? >> as you say this storm has now made landfall. we're talking winds in excess of 200 miles an hour here and so far that storm has been ripping up trees, looking up electricity polls and houses off roofs. that's all the officials have got so far. they have battened down the hatches themselves, trying to wait it out. once it's finished and passed on its way they'll be able to get out again and actually assess what kind of damage it's caused. they're saying already this is going to be really devastating. we're talking mudslides, we're talking communities that could potentially be uprooted here. so we're really, the pitch is not looking good. and you have to remember this is biggest recorded storm ever in the western hemisphere. >> john, we talked to someone who was evacuated from puerto vallarta to guadalajara that

suggested that there are thousands of people and that the traffic has been clogged in guadalajara. have you gotten the sense of the people who have been evacuated where you are? >> actually the roads have been cut, military checkpoints, there are about 3,000 military personnel in this state, jalisco where it's actually all happening. they actually blocked the roads so no one could get into guadalajara after a certain amount of time. they tried odo that in safety, if you are in the middle of the motor way we are talking about winds that could turn a car over here. there was a lot of traffic earlier on today, and the place we are staying at guadalajara suddenly full up with people who are heading out of puerto vallarta the tourist resort earlier on. the traffic has to stop now because the military has closed off the roads. >> in some areas we were hearing that evacuations were early enough for people to get out.

do we believe there are a lot of people stranded there or not? >> reporter: oh yes definitely. in these coastal regions that we can talk to particularly ones that perhaps tourists have been able to get out and holiday makers. the storm did past between manzanillo and puerto vallarta that you've been talking about. people without cement houses people with house he made of adobe which is a sort of form of dried mud or wooden houses with laminated wood roofs, these are people they have tried to get into the shelter before the storm hit. some of them have moved in, some have tried to wait it out in their villages. but this is the real worry from the point of maximum devastation. >> john holman reporting from guadalajara, mexico, thanks again. >> enough is enough.

they're calling or house speaker john boehner to immediately shut down the panel investigating the 2012 attack in benghazi, libya. libby casey is in washington. >> john, democrats on the committee have threatened to walk away from the proceeding because they believe it is a persecution of hillary clinton. they are calling for the committee to be disbanded but they say they will not be the ones to step down. it turns out both sides of the aisle are seeing some political advantages. less than 14 hours after her marathon testimony ended on alcohol hillary clinton was back on the presidential campaign trail. >> it's been quite a week, hasn't it? are well, thank you all so much, i am absolutely delighted to be here. as some of you may know i had a pretty long day yesterday.

>> reporter: 11 hours and more than 300 questions. but benghazi select committee chairman trey gowdy admitted. >> i don't know that she testified pretty much differently than she had testified. >> we are better than that, we are so much better. we're a better country. and we are better than using taxpayer dollars to try odestroy a campaign. that's not what america is all about. so can you comment if you like. i just had to get that off my chest. [applause] >> reporter: and throughout the day democrats on the panel questioned the committee's purpose. >> for one thing this committee as it's been in the news in the last several weeks has been yet one more step in denigrating this institution. and i happen to think this institution needs more support not less. >> reporter: on friday a group of senate democrats called on

outgoing house speaker jawrn to shujohnboehner to shut down the committee. democrats agree, but they're not threatening to walk, saying in a quote, in order to make sure the facts are known and the conspiracy theories are debunked. >> i was very proud of the attention of the committee members. >> john, committee members may be calling for the committee to be disbanded but they see their own advantages. to let the hearing go on for 11 hours may have backfired against the gop and hillary clinton's presidential campaign says in the hours after yesterday's marathon hearing contributions to the clinton presidential campaign spiked. and john most of those donors were giving less than $250 and more than half of them were

first time contributors. the clinton campaign now has a fresh batch of potential supporters and future donors to go back to. john. >> libby casey reporting from washington. today is the deadline for obama administration to begin releasing hundreds of undocumented children and their parents from u.s. detention centers. it's been a long battle over what advocates call prison like conditions and it might not be over yet. tristan atone reports. >> these are in every way prisons, they operate like prisons. >> this is video from carnes county residential center in south texas. dozens of children are held stuck inside a months long fight to free them. >> this is like the japanese internment camps in the 1940s. we put them in a facility that's designed to confine them, then limit their access to medical care, education, all the while

telling everyone else, they're doing fine this there. >> this time last year a federal judge said the department of homeland security was violating the terms, hundreds of children from family detention centers like this one in texas. >> in my opinion nothing is going to really change after friday. that for every woman and child who we see released, two women and two children are being taken in to those facilities. >> activist attorneys concede that people are moving through system faster than they did a few months ago but say they now believe the government is playing tricks. shuffling detainees between facilities in order to reset the clock. in an e-mail immigrations and customs enforcement declined to answer specific questions about their facilities citing ongoing litigation and unclear what happens after the deadline if facilities don't comply. in the meantime volunteers from

the refugee advocacy group worked with families including sayda who asked us not to use her last name. she left honduras crossing to mexico in pursuit of asylum. it wasn't a decision that she made out of luxury she says. it was a decision made by necessity. saida and her family were captured at the border, placed in the carnes center and held for three months. lead attorney with the operation helping saida with her case. >> there are 17,000 a year coming across the border, the government is only detaining a small number in that facility. >> what kind of impacts it has in the communities in the u.s., that is a viable worry i think on some level, correct? >> oh absolutely. it's a legitimate concern.

but these people all have their identities verified whether they're apprehended at the border. there are no jane does in these detention facilities. we know who they are. >> she said she found bugs, hair and even finger nails this her food. detention officers yelled at her children and her daughter became sick. so sick she said that she contemplated signing a deportation order so she could get medical care for her child back in honduras. in a statement, ice told us, we remain commitmented to retaining our residential center facilities as we have been doing in the past several months. in the event of emergency or influx of miles an hour into the united states, in those cases, the government shall place all miles an hour as expeditiously as possible. today saida is grateful to be out. she checks in with immigration

officials weekly while she waits for her court date scheduled four years from now in 2019. she told us as long as she's outside the detention center she has no problem waiting. tristan atone, al jazeera, carnes city texas. science say a drug to treat cancer has dramatic effects to some patients with parkinson's disease. found that small doses of the drug improved the mental function and movement of a dozen patients with parkinson's and a symptom called louis body dementia. dr. alessandro de rocca is director of park ins son parkinr

center. this sounds different, this sounds bigger, is it? >> it is unusual. this is a story which has caught the attention of the parkinson's community both at the scientific level, the clinicians and of course the patients. because the study, even though it is quite a small study, only 12 patients were participating in this study, had quite dramatic effect. an effect which had not been reported in number, dozens if not hundreds, of other studies. so patients had, in six months of treatment with this drug, an incredible reversal of their symptoms. and some people were unable to walk independently using walker, and became independent walking, other people regain function in many other ways. and what's more interesting is

that, and this is probably the most striking effect, is that people's indulgpeople's intelle, cognitive functions also improve. >> this sounds like a miracle drug. i'm not trying to get you to say that. >> it's obviously the little bit of the excitement and the concern. so the results are extraordinarily interesting and good. and the hope is that whether the trial will be replicated, in a larger number of patients, we'll see this effect. >> but with that sort of success, with people that have severe parkinson's. wouldn't it be prudent to have more people on this drug or not? >> this is a drug which has been used and is used in cancer. so it is a drug that is potentially very toxic, with very serious -- >> what sort of side effects? >> side effects vary from liver

trouble to drowsiness to tiredness, but it can also cause trouble with the heart. >> but as i understand it, this study use small doses of this drug is that correct? >> you're absolutely correct. the normal dose in cancer was 800 milligrams. in this case was 150 and 300 milligrams and there was no reported toxicity. >> no side effects. >> no side effects yet. only used for six months. >> the national parkinson's foundation put out a statement, the scale of study was small only ten or 12 patients were treated and it was not placebo controlled. should we be skeptical? >> we should be skeptical. there as you mentioned, there are probably a dozen if not hundreds of trials which there is miraculous break through and then whether the drug or the treatment is verified in larger studies, in a placebo control

group -- >> it doesn't turn out, sometimes it doesn't turn out? >> some of the times. >> that's why we have to be very careful about how big a deal we make out of some of these studies and yet there sounds like groundbreaking, sounds like i mean, you know you've seen movies where they discover all these things and people sufnld come back to life. suddenly come back to life. that's what you reported, almost. >> that's what was reported. we are eager to go through next step. >> would you recommend this drug? >> would i not recommend this drug. i can tell you a lot of our patients called us when this report came out and say why can i not be on this drug? if the drug is available why can't you prescribe to me? >> especially because we know that what happens with parkinson's patients is painful and they deteriorate right before their own eyes. >> and this was especially important because the people who improved were people with

advanced parkinson's for whom treatments, current treatments is not effective. so -- >> i understand that but i just push this question, i know that you have to protect people. but at the same time, you sort of wonder why people who are really needing something like this couldn't try it. >> there is one simple answer to that. is that the drug could be, could be very dangerous. the fact that there were no decide effects in just a small group of patients doesn't mean that if you test a drug in a number of patients in larger number let's say 20% of the people may have very serious side effects. you may have missed that. >> you don't want that. >> and people could die from this drug. >> it's always important to remember, doctor thank you, we appreciate it. the federal government has warned the secret service about overworking employees saying it's putting u.s. security at risk. the warning from the department of homeland security says the problem is urgent. we're concerned that the secret

service's staffing and schedule process does not ensure that officers receive adequate breaks while on duty and time off between shifts. two officers were recently caught sleeping on the job. the secret service says they were given sufficient rest. now to our arts and culture segment tonight. patricia cornwell is the author of nearly 30 new york times best sellers. she sold more than 100 million books worldwide. tonight she talked to us about writing, reality versus fiction, and her latest novel featuring forensic pathologist dr. kay scarpetta. the book is called depraved heart. i asked her when she first knew writing would shape her life. >> i just know when i was a little kid i was always writing stories, illustrating, book coughs on them. the other thing i was doing i was riding my bicycle in the

neighborhood with spy missions, i had an imaginary friend mr. owl when sent me out in the neighborhood to take care of problems. i was eight, nine years old. someone said i was a little nancy drew. i was finding things out and writing stories. then in college after i fled from chemistry and computer science, wasn't good in majoring, maybe go ahead and do it, be a journalist because you're not good at anything else. >> what's the process, how do you do your research? >> do i that, enjoy out in the field. -- i do that, enjoy, out in the field. what i learn if i want to learn about a certain type of firearm i will go to texas and practice with that kind of gun, learning from experts the physics of it. if it's a certain type of case, i go to the lab or the morgue, i'm seeing thousands of autopsies and all this. >> you had a fascination with

the job of a medical examiner? >> i didn't. i was intrigued when i was a police reporter at the charlotte observer, the medical examiner when i was covering a homicide would never answer my phone calls. they were creepy people like quasimoto. when i started to get into crime fiction, i have got to research it, i didn't get to as a journalist. i got permission to go to a medical examiner's office. i got a tour, one of the few people who wanted such a thing, i thought i ain't going anywhere, i want to learn. let me do anything to just hang out. they were talking about dna and lasers and all the labs upstairs and i thought wow. this is a universe nobody knows about. so i decided to tackle it. >> okay we got lot more to come from patricia cornwell.

she tells me why for her truth is often stranger than fiction. after this. this.

patricia cornwell is one of the world's top selling crime authors. depraved heart, dr. kay scarpetta. cornwell told me there are several things that set this book apart. >> i think that all of us these days are rather absorbed and obsessed by technology and the good and the bad that it can do and we live in a culture of surveillance and spying and hacking. this is kind of sort of hacking where scarpetta is literally in the crime scene where she's got an alert on her smartphone, she's not supposed to be on her phone but something weird is going to happen. this video begins to play that was a secret video of her niece

at the fbi academy, 20, 18 years old. you go, she's never seen this before. we don't think lucy knows about it. who sent it to her and why? she starts watching this and let the games begin. what you have to ask the reared is this dead body on the floor and something is connected with what just landed on her phone. >> is true crime scarier than fiction? >> yes it is. there are strange things and some of them are just you don't want to laugh but they're sort of they're so absurd, where you know, like somebody who leaves a bar drunk and they're hit by a car at 3:00 in the morning and their body is at the morgue the next morning and the state trooper that goes through wall and finds a fortune cookie, you

will soon encounter something that will change your life. this is an absurd moment. if i put this in my novel, people won't belong. i've seen all kinds of weird stuff go on. >> this book reads and flows so well and i wondered as i read it how you write dialogue, where does that come from? how does it come so particularlily to you? >> that's such a natura great q, i'm not sure anybody ever asked me. i would eavesdrop on everybody. i would not because i cared about their stories but their dialogue. because if you listen the way people talk they don't talk in complete sentences, they talk in nonsecond bnon sequiturs.

it's believable if you do it. >> it's the detail, the minute detail. you know the subject you're talking about. how deep do you go? >> i go as deep as i need to go. and if there's -- as long as it's an okay thing i don't go around killing people to see what that's like. at least i wouldn't admit to it. i try to drill into it, whatever it is, to put on those boots so to speak. when i come back i'm like the hunter gatherer, i'm going to bring in my booty and i want you to have the experience and if i can't do that i can't give it to you. >> you refer to american sniper or to technology. is that a conscious effort to say okay, this is in our world today, and it's modern? >> well, it is a conscious effort but it's also that i live in the same world that everybody else does and so does scarpetta and she would know about the chris kyle case. i had actually recommended his

book several times before the movie had come out and all of that and i was extremely upset about his homicide because these things shouldn't happen. i tend to pull them in. i try have a fabric that reflects the world around us. >> what are your goals in the next ten years when it comes to writing? >> my goal is the last book i write is scarpetta is going to work a crime quee scene on the . i just don't want to go there. there is a possibility down the road, i'm not really joking, if you did put astronauts back on the moon and anybody died up there, somebody has got to go get them and that would be our girl scarpetta. >> the idea about talking to you you are clearly so passionate about this character, you live through her yes? >> in a way. i created a friend. i was a lonely little girl whether i was growing up. i made up an imagine flare friend, she is nice, she sends me on mission but i don't ride a

bicycle anymore. >> thank you for coming by. >> it's great to see you. thank you. >> that's our broadcast. thank you for watching. i'm john siegenthaler. the news continues with sheila macvicar.

>> monster storm. mexico is getting hammered by record breaking hurricane patricia. the storm expected to leave widespread damage in its wake. fighting i.s.i.l. >> we've now heard from rescued hostages. they expected to be execute they'd day. >> secretary of defense ash carter on this week's mission to