tonight, what top intelligence officials revealed

for the first time today about the surveillance of u.s. citizens. plus, a former air marshal and whistle-blower was slapped with an irs audit after appearing in the documentary critical of the tsa. he says that audit was payback. a "360" exclusive tonight. and the black forest fire has sparked a criminal investigation, looking, authorities are, for evidence of arson. colorado has been down this path before. tonight, we revisit a stunning piece of detective work. how they culprit behind the hayman fire. we begin with breaking news with another disturbing case. allegations of forced captivity and abuse in ohio, this time in ashland, 60 miles southwest of cleveland. the victims are a disabled woman and her young daughter, held captive for more than two years as house slaves. at a news conference, authorities described what they endured. >> sufficed to say, these victims were exposed to subhuman living conditions, being denied meals, access to bathroom visits.

they were physically punished for toiletry accidents and they were threatened not only with weapons but also with vicious animals to include pit bulls and pythons. >> pit bulls and snakes and pamela brown has learned the victims were forced to eat dog food. and were at times starved. all this while giving their pet iguana food. three people have been arrested, charged with forced labor. according to pam brown, authorities are looking to make a fourth arrest. the u.s. attorney is calling it a case of modern day slavery. scott taylor covering this for our affiliate woio. scott, what are you learning about the case, what's the latest? >> reporter: right now, they are looking for that fourth suspect, as you mentioned your own pam brown reporting that. i do want to explain that investigators believe, john, this is just flat out slave labor. that's what they were doing with

this mom in 2011. jordie callahan and jessica hunt invited her into their home, and then according to this document, they initially put her down in the basement along with her daughter and kept her down there. mom would come up and clean and do the laundry and go shopping for them. they kept her down there and eventually moved her to an upstairs room where they actually locked the doors at night and eventually nailed the windows shut so mom and her daughter couldn't get out. >> scott, how did she get away? >> reporter: well, back in october, she was at a family dollar store, john, and she stole a candy bar. police arrested her. then she started talking to them over a period of time and basically said that people back at my house where i live, well, they're mean to me. now, remember, she has a mental

disability, so police took their time questioning her and eventually handed her over to fbi investigators. they started taking a look at it. they went back to the house and that's when everything started to unravel. >> had been she ever been reported missing? >> reporter: no, as far as we know, she wasn't reported missing. i believe at least her mom lives in ashland. occasionally, she would go back to that house and then according to witnesses in the fbi court document, jessica and jordie would send somebody back over to her mother's house and bring her back. >> that's bizarre. you spoke to the lawyer for one of the defendants. what did he tell you? >> reporter: the lawyer tells me that these allegations are ludicrous. he was ready to go to trial over these same type of charges in county court. well, those charges were dropped. then the fbi indictment came down today.

he tells me this young mother, 30 years old could come and go as she wanted to. that everything, all these facts, simply aren't true. but investigators believe her. >> scott taylor, fabulous reporting. bizarre case, so thank you. now to capitol hill, where the house intelligence committee held a rare public hearing on the secret surveillance programs, those programs recently revealed by the nsa contractor edward snowden. for the first time, officials shared details about the surveillance the government conducts. general keith alexander, he's the chief of the nsa said the programs have helped thwart more than 50 potential terrorist plots around the globe since 9/11, including attacks here on the new york stock exchange and that city subway system. he called the surveillance limited and focused and also described what it does not do. >> does the nsa have the ability to listen to american's phone calls or read their e-mails under these two programs? >> no, we do not have that authority. >> does the technology exist to

flip a switch by some analyst to listen to american's phone calls or read their e-mails? >> no. >> snowden's leak about the scope of the programs set out an outcry over privacy concerns. snowden himself said he leaked the information because he felt these tools could be abused. we should point out there's no way for cnn or any of the reporters to verify the testimony given today. dana bash joins me now. officials wouldn't or couldn't go into detail on the over 50 plots they say these programs have helped thwart, but did elaborate on four of them. what do we know? >> reporter: well, that's right, four of them. two of them were new. the first is a plot to blow up the new york stock exchange. they said they stopped that by the program that allows them to look at internet users, what they're doing abroad. the second is phone record surveillance. and that, they said, helped stop

a plot to give money to a somali terror organization. so those are the two new pieces of information we know about the terror plots. third and fourth, those are things we knew before, john. the zazi plot of 2009 to blow up the new york subway, and preventing david healey, somebody who was going to blow up a danish newspaper, that did the cartoon about -- the anti-muslim cartoon. >> so what was the administration's goal going into the hearing and did they achieve it? >> reporter: the goal was pretty transparent and unprecedented. that was to join forces, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, to join forces with the obama administration to try to lift the veil a little bit, demystify these programs and explain exactly what they do. in that sense, for the first time we heard publicly the idea of what goes into these programs, what they can and can't do. on the other hand, lawmakers

were pretty clear going in, john, that they simply thought the best, most tangible ways to calm concerns of constituents, was to talk about the specific terror plots that were stopped, and they weren't able to do that as much as they could because so much of it had to remain classified. even the ones they did put forward, they couldn't put a lot of meat on the bone because they say even that would have hurt intelligence methods. >> of course, this would not have happened if not were the leaks of edward snowden. he's the reason this happened. he was a major topic today. let's listen to this exchange. >> how damaging is this to the national security of the american people that this trust was violated? >> i think it was irreversible and significant damage to this nation. >> has this helped america's enemies? >> i believe it has, and i believe it will hurt us and our allies. >> a lot of talk about edward snowden. but anything more specific about

just how he did this and where he might be? >> not really. especially to where he might be. i mean, you heard a question, the question was, what's next for snowden? the answer was justice, but they can't bring him to justice because they don't know where he is. heard a lot of discussion about the fact that he's a liar and felon, that he talked about things that could be done with this program that you really can do, like listening to people's phone calls reading e-mails. but he did unveil, unearth this program that the government has been running secretly for years for the first time, and that's why mike rogers, the intelligence chairman, put it in a descriptive way. he said this whole exercise is cleanup on aisle nine. >> that's a good way to put it. supermarket talk in the congress. dana, thanks. president obama has defended the surveillance programs as necessary. they were made legal under the patriot act, which congress enacted when george bush was president. former vice president dick

cheney weighed in on the nsa controversy on fox news recently. not exactly giving a shoutout to president obama but listen here, he does defend the government's surveillance. >> i'm obviously not a fan of the incumbent president. i don't know what he did to the program. the program obviously from what's now been released. it's still in operation. i think it's good that it's in operation. i think it has, in fact, saved lives and kept us free from other attacks. >> critics of the obama administration continuing these policies, most of them to the president's left, say these were implemented by the bush white house and why is this democratic president keeping them? well, the president addressed those critics last night, talking to charlie rose. >> some people say, well, obama was his raving liberal before, now he's dick cheney. dick cheney sometimes said yeah, he took it lock, stock and barrel. my concern has always been, not that we shouldn't do intelligence gathering to prevent terrorism, but rather are we setting up a systems of checks and balances.

so on this telephone program, you've got a federal court with independent federal judges overseeing the entire program, and you've got congress overseeing the program. not just the intelligence committee. not just the judiciary committee, but all of congress had available to it before the last reauthorization exactly how this program worked. >> let's break down this debate, including the "raw politics" from cnn political contributors paul begala and mary fleischer. paul, why go there? >> because that's what is on his mind. probably nothing could be more unkind to barack obama than to bring up a failed dishonest man like dick cheney, to compare president obama to mr. cheney. and there is an important difference. i've been a critic of this program. i still don't like it. but there's a huge difference, as the president pointed out.

when dick cheney and president bush started doing this, it was not authorized by the congress or supervised by the courts. it was on its own. in fact, the attorney general himself, bush's attorney general, john ashcroft, was in a hospital and he and his attorney general had to stop the program because they thought it was illegal. one of the most dramatic moments from the bush administration. that's the difference. president obama has the authorization of congress, the support of the congress, and he's got the court's overseeing, this and within the executive branch are checks and balances. i still don't like it, but it's not illegal. and it looks like it was under mr. bush and mr. cheney. >> ari, jump in. you've said in the past this current administration is basically a third bush term, particularly on national security, after hearing president obama last night. you tweets this. president obama denies he's dick cheney. i love it. he's fighting with one of his strawman. pretty funny actually.

tell us what you meant by that. >> this is one of those weird issues. dick cheney is right. barack obama is right. and paul begala is wrong. and that doesn't happen too often. here's what's going on. barack obama, to his credit, is continuing the very architecture he inherited from president bush when it comes to drone strikes when it comes to indefinite detention, when it comes to the nsa program, when it comes to secret renditions, when it comes to military commissions. he's continued the basic architecture he inherited from president bush. to president obama's credit, he's added extra layers of due diligence and extra audits. the more time spaced from 9/11, that's good and healthy. i'm glad he's doing it. but make no mistake, the basic bones of how to fight terror, the bush-cheney policies remain in place. i understand why he doesn't want the comparison to dick cheney, but he's stuck with it. he is continuing the bush-cheney policies.

>> it's an important point you make about the add-ons. this is former cia director michael hayden and his take how the current administration has changed things. >> frankly, the obama administration was more transparent about this effort than we were in the bush administration. i mean, they made this data collection activity available to all the members of congress, not just all the members of the intelligence committee. >> ari, all the members of congress, not just all the members of the intelligence committee. now that these leaks happened, now that this debate is happening in the public, does the president have to communicate more with the american people and the nsa declassify a little bit of information, does it have to do more is that too risky? >> i think the president does need to communicate more. this is very controversial. people are divided on it. when he has people in his own base of his party like paul against it, the president needs to bring the paul begalas over

the world over. i want to see bipartisanship as broad and as deep as possible. it is the president's job to make the case for his policies, even if his base doesn't like it. it's called leadership and it's required in this age of fighting terror. now, the president can do it, it just doesn't seem to where where he wants to put his political capital. >> paul, maybe the president won't make you a convert to the program, but in the political forum we saw today, the chairman of the house and intelligence committee, a republican, michele bachmann essentially going after mr. snowden and in doing that essentially taking the president's side. >> yeah, if you looked at that hearing today, i saw the coverage of it. the president is winning. if you look at the polls, the president is winning. he keeps pushing a couple of points, nobody is listening to your phone calls and nobody is reading your e-mails. and i think that's important. and then the checks and balances. that is critical. we are a nation of laws again, under bush and cheney, president

bush and vice president cheney, we were a nation of men, not a nation of laws. we were doing things that were not authorized by the congress and supervised by the courts. you can say justin bieber is just like dale earnhardt jr. because they both drive 100 miles per hour. but justin bieber is doing it in a neighborhood where it's illegal. and dale earnhardt is doing it on a track at nascar where it's legal and entertaining. that's a huge difference. >> our new cnn poll shows that the american people support this program, they support the idea that the government might have to do these things to fight terrorism. but we also have a clear majority, around 60%, saying they think this president might be taking it too far. how does he balance that to explain and to improve his own numbers by talking to people and trying to dispute that notion? >> here's the question i would ask. what was the option that went too far? this seems to me you're listening in on every single phone call in america, my lord, that seems pretty broad. i've been in the government. ari hasn't.

it's usually like goldilocks and the three bears, one policy is too big, one too small and you settle on the one in the middle. maybe the president is right and dick cheney is right. i'm not convinced at all that there wasn't a less intrusive way of doing this. >> paul, ari, thanks so much, gentlemen. just ahead, this former u.s. air marshal says the irs slapped him with an audit as retaliation. these claims may be part of a claim. we're keeping them honest. also ahead, a close call at the denver airport where a tornado touched down. we'll have the latest on that. #%tia[

keeping them honest tonight. reporting you'll see only here on "360." we have confirmation tonight the scandal involving the irs could be widening beyond conservative political groups. cnn learned at least one former air marshal who publicly criticized and sued the u.s. government has been interviewed by the irs inspector general office. why? because he was suddenly audited

by the irs after speaking out against the management of the agency. and how he treated not just tea party groups but others who have spoken out against the government. here is investigative correspondent drew griffin with a "360" exclusive. >> reporter: jeff black is a former federal air marshal who spoke out and eventually became a well-known government whistleblower against a federal air marshal service and the department of homeland security. he even testified closed doors before congress, but it is what happened after he retired in june of 2010 that he came to believe someone in the federal air marshal service, the department of homeland security or the obama administration was using the irs to retaliation against him. >> we boarded the aircraft before the passengers, that was one of the flaws in the boarding procedures. >> reporter: jeff black appeared in this documentary movie entitled "please remove your shoes," a scathing spoof of the

tsa's security procedures. its debut in washington, d.c. came on june 30th, 2010. that same day, jeff black found out he was under investigation by the irs. >> almost to the hour that the movie started, there was an irs agent knocking at my door at home. >> you don't think in any way that's a coincidence? >> i think the irs is going to claim it's a coincidence. >> reporter: he was being audited, a $24,000 lien placed quietly was placed on his home, and a year-long intensive investigation into his taxes was under way. but in the end, the irs found out the federal government actually owed him $8,300 and black owed the irs a mere $480. black had to pay that $480, but because the irs decided the statute of limitations had run, the government didn't owe black

a dime, and now the treasury department's inspector general is launching its own investigation, trying to find out if anyone in the federal government used the irs to punish jeff black. >> they wanted to know the history of my whistle blowing, me testifying before congress. they wanted to get a whole history of my employment with the federal air marshal service. they also wanted to find out the origin of the audits. they were very concerned with finding out who actually pushed the button to start the audit. >> reporter: meanwhile, in a sign that the scrutiny of the irs is growing, a spokesperson for the house ways and means committee told cnn it is using the committee website to solicit reports from individuals who believe they were targeted for political beliefs. while it's too early in this investigation to determine what all of the facts are the spokesperson told cnn, some reports received by the committee support claims the irs was targeting taxpayers for their beliefs.

>> is there any doubt in your mind that what the irs did to you is anything other than retaliation for speaking out against the administration? >> extensive retaliation in the past for my whistle-blower. i'm not surprised about this. it is basically the only way they can still come after me and retaliate against me after i retire. >> reporter: jeff black realizes many people will see this and think he is paranoid. but last month, at a congressional hearing, focusing on the irs targets of tea-party type groups, congressman kevin brady wondered if the irs scandal is only beginning. >> is this still america? is this government so drunk on power that it would turn its full force, its full might, to harass and intimidate and threaten an average american who

only wants her voice and their voices heard? >> reporter: do you think there's others like you? >> i do. >> drew griffin joins us now. drew, first, any idea when the i.g. will be done with its review of this specific case and does the committee believe there are more citizens like jeff black that may have been targeted because of politics? >> on point one, we don't know when the i. gmplgts's gmplgts.' office is going to come through. and point two, the committee, they are searching for other people. they want to be cautious, john. a lot of people complain about irs audits and a lot of people are legitimately audited by the irs, no matter what their political beliefs are. but we know that the committee is interested, and the treasury department's inspector general is investigating whether individual citizens may have been targeted because of their beliefs.

>> what about the irs itself? any response? >> not to black's case citing federal law that prohibits them about speaking out about individual taxpayer's cases, however, we got a spokesperson from the irs that said audits in general, i'll read, the irs stresses audits are based on information contained on the tax return and the underlying tax law. nothing else. john, i believe that is somewhat of a defense from the irs about this story but again, it's the inspector general from the treasury department conducting this investigation. >> we'll sure you'll stay on top of it. we'll follow this one as it goes forward. drew griffin, thanks. up next, at denver's airport planes weren't the only thing touching down. take a look. yes, that's a tornado. the latest ahead. investigators believe colorado wildfire could be arson. tonight, we'll look at how investigators sift through the ashes to hunt down a culprit. we'll take you inside an investigation years ago that led to an arrest and conviction. getting out of bed in the morning because my back hurt so bad. the sleep number bed conforms to you.

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well, a tornado touched down at denver's international airport this afternoon. take a look at this incredible video from just east of the airport's concourse. the twister touched the ground briefly. winds clocked in at 84 miles an hour. the airport was not damaged and no injuries reported but at least nine flights were diverted to other airports nearby. tonight, firefighters are battling a wildfire on the western fringe of yosemite park in california. burning 1600 acres, hundreds of homes threatened and in colorado the large black forest fire is now 85% contained. that wildfire is being treated as a crime scene to preserve

evidence just in case arson is the cause. colorado fire officials know all too well how important protecting that crime scene is. the investigation into the giant hayman wildfire in denver in 2002 initially thought to be caused by careless campers and became a hunt for an arsonist. how investigators came to that conclusion is a fascinating piece of detective work. here's thelma gutierrez. >> there's flames leaping 30, 40 feet into the air. >> reporter: this was a fast-moving giant of a fire. >> they have never seen a fire burn this hot, this fast. >> reporter: how to slow it, let alone stop it was a massive challenge. >> possible evacuations. >> reporter: before it was over, 5,000 people pled for their lives, above them, ominous dark and choked skies. >> it was a mushroom cloud, what i would imagine for a bomb. >> reporter: the heat was so fierce, the walls of flames so massive, exhausted firefighters could not surround this monster. >> there was just no way to

fight it. there was just -- it wasn't doing anything, the water and fire retardant was evaporating. >> reporter: the catastrophic inferno ranged untamed for 33 weeks. 133 homes burned in an area nearly ten times the size of manhattan. a staggering 137,000 acres transformed into a vast and charred dead zone. eventually, suspicions would tease their way out of the ashes. as it turned out, what really happened here was a mystery. and like any good mystery, it had clues, false leads, ties and tantalizing pieces of a forensic puzzle, and then, of course, it had an unlikely hero. >> i'm so new and at the same point in time this was the biggest fire in colorado's history. >> reporter: special agent kim jones. >> i didn't think it was a crime. when i was going there the first day, i was told it was an escaped campfire. >> reporter: jones was a rookie forest investigator, but a

former police detective. so moments after she arrived, jones was certain this was no ordinary fire, but a crime scene. forest service worker terry barton was on fire lookout in pike national forest when she spotted a fire. these first moments of the fire proved so critical that investigators asked barton to recreate them on tape. barton first tried to smother the flames, then realized she needed backup fast. the fire erupted and raged out of control. when investigators arrived, they photographed the campfire ring and searched for clues. their initial conclusion, a no-brainer, careless campers started the fire. in fact, a witness did report seeing a van leaving the area. >> i'm thinking why am i going to a campfire, you know? >> reporter: jones remembers thinking it was a waste of time trekking six hours through the smoky haze to find and question a negligent camper.

>> what is it like being back at the scene of the crime? >> it's a little strange to be back because it didn't look like anything like it did then. >> reporter: when jones first arrived here, the very place where the fire began, her instincts immediately took over. remember, there was a drought and high temperatures. >> it was a 90-degree day and no one's going to build a fire. >> reporter: she talked to the first investigators. >> as i'm looking at things, i don't see any evidence of camping. they were like maybe it was a hot dog they cooked. where is the trash? >> reporter: it was common sense sharpened by years of police work. in the '80s jones was a cop in missouri and then worked environmental crimes for the epa but jones was new to the u.s. forest service, and she'd only worked a few fires. in fact, jones had only taken her first forensic fire investigation training a year earlier. >> the fire moved directly underneath this rock and went straight out. >> reporter: jones traced the fire to a poorly built campfire ring. what was it about the formation

of the rocks that made you think that something was very fishy here? >> there's a large rock that had been propped up by another rock. it looks like this fire is staged to look like a campfire but it was an intentional fire. >> reporter: then jones took a closer look at the ashes and made an important find. >> it's a paper match and i can see clearly the head of it and clearly the stem. i wanted to get closer to it and then i noticed there is a second match directly underneath it. >> reporter: then a third match. >> and the three matches were stuck in the middle of this clump of grass. >> reporter: what if the person starts their fire and threw the match off to the side. >> they couldn't have been flung there because i found three all within an inch and a half of each other. >> reporter: at that moment jones knew she wasn't looking for a careless camper but evidence to lead her to an arsonist. did you start to think maybe we're being a little too overzealous? >> i was. i did start to think that.

>> reporter: given the magnitude of the devastation, jones also felt she needed help, and she brought in her fire struggler, paul steen, a senior special agent with the forest service. >> we were going to need an expert witness and he's expert and with it being the biggest fire in colorado, there is just my -- >> reporter: did you think you would get picked apart? >> absolutely. >> kim is a very seasoned investigator but very inexperienced with fire investigations. >> reporter: he has more than 35 years of experience and is known to be one of the best in the fire investigation business. >> questions for me you guys? >> reporter: so good, he trains many of the nation's wildfire investigators. >> watch how it comes out low and goes out high. >> reporter: just hours after jones calling for help, he flew to colorado. at the same time, the driver of that suspicious van that was spotted leaving the scene was found, but he had an alibi and was cleared. investigators had no other leads so they returned to the scene

and began a painstaking foreencic investigation. he mapped the path of the flame with colored flags. >> we were going to use the physical marks a fire leaves, which is basically the fire's footprints. >> reporter: and sifted through the ashes at the campfire ring. jones had already removed the crucial evidence, the three matches, but photos showing their exact position when the fire ignited was vital. >> being able to enhance that photograph and bring that original position of those matches out was fairly critical to our theory. there's one, you can see the head and the stem. there's the second one, the head and the stem. and there's the third one, the head and the stem. >> reporter: they theorized an arsonist struck the matches, purposely lighting the dry grass in the campfire. but who? remember the first forest person to spot the fire, terry barton?

he thought she might remember key details. >> bring her up there as a witness and have her reenact her actions on the day of the fire. her story is she smelled smoke. >> she drove up on the fire and saw it and parked her vehicle. >> and found the campfire burning at 20 x 20 feet. >> reporter: if you look there among the trees, you can see them timing barton's every step. and in their reconstruction, they stumbled across something they couldn't explain. >> the story just did not make sense within the fire behavior context. >> reporter: remember, barton said she was first drawn to the fire by its smell, but the experts on fire behavior said not possible. >> we asked the fire behavior analyst, for one, could a person have smelled smoke from a 20 by 20 fire, and they said, no, there's no way you could have. >> reporter: at that moment the mystery would shift once again. >> the more we talked to her, the clearer it became to us that she moved from a witness to a person of interest. >> reporter: it changed from a whodunnit to an even more perplexing question, would a

forest worker, a mother of two, set off what became the worst fire in colorado history? >> up next, part two of thelma's story. the investigators close in on the suspected arsonist, then offers an alibi that just doesn't add up to seasoned detectives. we'll see how they finally got to the truth. [ male announcer ] eligible for medicare? that's a good thing, but it doesn't cover everything. only about 80% of your part b medical expenses. the rest is up to you. so consider an aarp medicare supplement insurance plan, insured by unitedhealthcare insurance company. like all standardized medicare supplement plans, they pick up some of what medicare doesn't pay. and save you up to thousands of dollars in out-of-pocket costs. call today to request a free decision guide

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black fore, colorado, fire is being treated as a crime scene. once again, here's thelma gutierrez with how investigators solved the 2002 hayman fire. >> reporter: fire investigator kim jones was on the biggest case of her career, tracking the arsonist that started colorado's largest fire. new revelations about the case forced her to re-examine the evidence, the matches and the ashes in the campfire ring. soon, agent jones was zeroing in on a fellow forest worker, one of their own, terry barton spent nearly two decades preventing fires in colorado's national forests. the married mother of two raised her daughters here. this was barton's backyard. she was praised for trying to put the fire out. now jones was closing in on her because her previous statements just didn't make sense, so jones confronted her. >> we don't know what happened, terry, but there is no way anyone else started this fire. you started the fire.

i'm not an arsonist. she's like i'm not an arsonist, i'm a firefighter. >> reporter: barton began to buckle under pressure. what she was about to reveal to agent jones during a taped reenactment. >> terry, you've given previous statements to the agents -- >> reporter: -- would shock her small mountain community. >> -- were those statements correct statements as far as your account of what happened? >> no, they weren't. >> reporter: she said it wasn't arson but an accident. she was in the middle of a divorce and said heartache drove her to light the fire. >> i was the one that started the fire, and it was a fear, and the fear kept getting bigger when the fire kept getting bigger. >> she then admits that in fact she was responsible for the hayman fire by taking a love letter from her about to be ex-husband in a state of emotional trama, carrying it out to the campfire ring and burning it. >> the matches were in my hand with the letter. i put the letter down and i lit

it one match -- let the match down, and i watched it, and i sat here until it burned up. >> this moment is key because she's saying how she lit the letter, and she lit it with one match. i say are you sure it was with one match? she said no, i'm sure it was one match and i would have flung it. i found three matches and that to me was a key piece of evidence that disputes what she says is happening here. >> i just wanted to get rid of the letter. it was an emotional act, and it was a stupid act on my part and i tried to cover it up because of fear. >> we had an admission. she was admitting to being responsible for this fire, and that was the goal. >> reporter: but jones said the evidence never pointed to any letter. >> i never found any remnants of paper. never. >> reporter: but to an untrained eye, it would seem plausible that the paper, along with the matches, were just simply burned

in the campfire and that's the end of that. >> well, i mean i still had the matches, and they didn't blow away. >> you know, i was pretty confident that if there had been paper there, you know, we would have found it. >> reporter: jones and her mentor senior special agent paul steensland sent this ash from the campfire to a federal lab to screen for trace evidence of paper. >> of course, they found not a shred of paper material. we don't believe there was a love letter in this case, and her motivation was to start a small fire, certainly not the biggest fire in colorado history but start a small fire, suppress it and be recognized as a hero. >> reporter: and so whether heart-broken terry barton ever burned a letter remains a mystery. the case never went to court. barton pled guilty to charges of arson and lying to federal authorities. and in the end, what does it say about the evidence you had against her? >> it was strong.

>> reporter: jones says in a strange way she feels sorry for terry barton and her daughters. >> people think they burn something and it's gone but there is evidence there and it speaks loudly and key in this case. >> reporter: also key, this rookie fire investigator's instincts that resurrected clues and solved a mystery out of ashes. thelma gutierrez, cnn, lake george, colorado. >> fascinating story. up next, crime and punishment, we'll go inside the intense courtroom showdown between ex-mob boss whitey bulger and the hit man who confessed to killing at least 20 people. acne medicine from the wintergreen leaf treats breakouts. no parabens or harsh sulfates. for naturally clear skin. [ female announcer ] neutrogena® naturals.

"crime and punishment" tonight. more testimony in the trial of james whitey bulgeer, accused of 19 murders and other charges. former hit man john on the stand today describing the killings and said bulger was directly involved in some and said in bulger's gang, death was a way of life. shelley murphy joins us with more. shelley, help us understand this very significant day in court. this was the first time, right, a trial witness in this case a confessed killer, john martorano

testified whitey bulger himself committed murders right? >> that's right. he says that whitey was the triggerman in a bar owner back in '70s. they drove to the scene, they got out, walked down the hill. he heard a burst of fire, they came back to the car and said he's gone. >> eddie connors, is that right, the bar owner? that's the old hood. >> that's right. >> i want you to help me. so john martorano has admitted to 20 murders. he said he doesn't like the word "hit man," doesn't consider himself to be a mass murderer. not a serial killer. what does he call himself? >> i think john has a very different definition that most of us have. he said by his definition a hit man is someone paid to kill someone. after one of the slayings, after the murder of tulsa businessman roger wheeler, martorano says his buddy who actually

authorized the hit, gave him $50,000, but john said it really wasn't for the murder. he just gave it to him because he was so grateful. john said he would have done it nothing, so he didn't consider himself a hit man. there were other slayings, as you said, 20 total, but martorano said, no, no, i'm a serial killer because by his definition a serial are killer takes joy in killing, and martorano said that not only did he never take joy, that he didn't actually really like it. he just did what he had been brought up to do, and that is take care of his friends and family and that most of the hits, except for a couple mistaken identities or accidental, you know, innocent bystanders that got in the way, john says that, you know, really, it was him doing a favor for friends. >> so one of the big questions here is can the whitey bulger defense team chip away at martorano's credibility in part because he did kill 20 people, and in part because he cut a good deal with the federal government in the '90s serving

12 years for 20 murders. what is your sense of the defense strategy? >> i think the defense was very effective today. heath brennan, whitey's lawyer, was very aggressive in going after martorano and got him to admit, yes, whitey, was the trigger man in one of the slayings that john was the guy shooting people between the eyes and in the back of the head. the other thing is, i thought he mixed them up a bit when martorano insisted that one of the victims he stabbed him four times and defense lawyer noted, gee, the forensic evidence, shows he was actually stabbed 20 times, john said, i really didn't remember that, didn't seem like that many to me. so he did trip him up on some of the details and he also showed the fact that, you know, john

who has been out there claiming to be a vigilante, and he tried to make him foolish. but he didn't shake his story, that he and whitey were part of the same gang and they were close friends. and one thing i thought was interesting, they showed the jury a photo of whitey bulger smiling in a nice suit holding john martorano's son at his christening. whitey was the godfather to the child. so they were showing look how close they were, close buddies, they were all in this together. >> shelli murphy at the "the boston globe." it's a fascinating trial. thanks so much. >> thanks, john. let's get caught up on other stories we're following tonight. isha sesay joins us with a "360" news and business bulletin. arizona's wildfire has grown to 5,000 acres. forcing hundreds of homes to be evacuated. high winds and dry conditions are fueling the blaze, which began on the northwest side of granite mountain. 2.7 million jeeps are being recalled after chrysler gave in to a government request. the car manufacturer said today that in some cases it will

provide an upgrade to the rear structure of vehicles for better protection in low speed impacts. the models in question include the 1993 to 2004 jeep cherokees and 2002 to 2007 jeep liberty. and journalist michael hastings was killed in a car accident in los angeles today. he won the 2010 polk award for his rolling stone expose on general stanley mcchrystal who resigned after its publication. he was 33 years old. we'll be right back.

that does it for this edition of "360" thanks for watching, "early start" begins right now. ♪ breaking news this morning, four u.s. soldiers killed in afghanistan. the taliban taking credit, just one day before they were supposed to hold peace talks for the very first time with the u.s. crash cover-up. 230 people killed when twa flight 800 exploded midair near long island. that's 17 years ago. now, those who investigated the crash, revealing the report was false sa fied. what they say really took down the plane. and what a game, five seconds away from ending their season. the heat stay alive with the sweetest three-pointer you will ever see. i am telling you, they will be