♪ good evening, i'm anderson cooper. in early june, southern california was the scene of a deadly shooting rampage. the suspect murdered five people, including his own father and brother before he was shot and killed. each time these crimes occur, we ask what could have been done to prevent it? were there any warning signs? often it's the team that are closest, their spouses, relatives who feel the most responsible. tonight, a spertective of the most troubled and violent among those. we hear from wives, daughters, brothers and fathers of those who would commit unspeakable acts. >> that child kidnapper operated

a torture chamber and private prison in the heart of our city. >> reporter: a daughter's sickening nightmare. >> if you would have asked me this last week, i would have told you he's the best dead and best grandpa. he's dead to me. >> reporter: a brother's terrible discovery. >> my wife, linda, comes to me one day and says do you think there's any possibility that this unabomber might be your brother? >> there are 11 individuals or parts thereof that were recovered, and those would include 11 in tact skulls. >> reporter: a father's frustration. >> he was ordered by the court to undergo counseling. i visited the psychologist, but she did not indicate to me that she knew what was wrong. >> a single engine aircraft has crashed into a seven story

building. >> reporter: a wife's horrible surprise. >> i can't imagine anybody doing anything like that. let alone my husband. >> reporter: a family's desperate attempt to prevent a massacre. >> his thought process was the world was going to end on friday. >> reporter: what do you do when a loved one becomes a monster? >> how do you know the truth about someone that you love? >> help me. i've been kidnapped and i've been missing for ten years, and i'm here, i'm free now. >> reporter: a chilling 911 call. >> okay. >> we're going to send someone

ry meaning close to family and friends. >> it's a horror movie. only, we're in it. we're the main characters.

>> reporter: angie greg knows the man charged with these crimes very well. ariel castro is her father. >> if you would have asked me this last week, i would have told you he's the best dad and the best grandpa. >> reporter: greg, one of ariel castro's five children, says her father was loving and kind. >> living at home, there were a lot of good memories. i remember my dad lining us up and cutting our bangs himself. going on family outings, carnivals, motorcycle rides with my dad. there were a lot of good times. >> reporter: greg says the good times ended when her mother left her father because he was physically abusive. >> he was pretty jealous. he beat her pretty bad several times. he would make excuses why he was the way he was with her. >> reporter: even after he separated, greg remained close to her father, often visiting him at his home, unaware the

alleged horror taking place, hidden behind closed doors. >> i spent some time in there. i would be in there after two hours at a time, and never noticed anything odd. >> i don't know how my brother got away with it for so many years. that would never cross my mind. >> reporter: ariel castro's brothers pedro and o'neil, are still trying to comprehend how their brother was able to hide his alleged savagery. >> i can't believe that aeriai was committing such a hateful crime, acting like nothing was happening. >> it hurts. it hurts a lot. i want to wake up out of this nightmare and i just can't. >> reporter: both brothers visited ariel's house often,

never suspecting any wrong doing, even when they saw him as a little girl, who they later discovered was amanda berry's child, born in captivity. >> i had no

manipulated people and i could never forgive him. >> reporter: dr. malloy believes castro's family members are just beginning to emotionally process their brother's actions.

>> the sad reality is typically the healthier the family member is, the more likely they are to feel a sense of guilt and responsibility for what's happened and it can take a tremendous amount of work internally for them to overcome the sense that they had some responsibility for what happened. >> there's no doubt in my mind that he's guilty, and i have no problem cutting him out of my life. he's dead to me. >> all of a sudden a big explosion. >> reporter: coming up, his bother terrorized a nation. >> it's going to be to a criminal justice system that could very easily put him to death if we turned ted in. or "make room for more at an embassy suites, deb."

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to me, he was always a good brother. i always looked up to him. he was smart, he was independent. he had principles. >> reporter: growing up, david kaczynski always admired older brother teddy. >> he had a sense of right and wrong that you behaved with integrity. never violent. there was absolutely no indication of what he would later become. >> reporter: david's brother was the unabomber. a domestic terrorist responsible for 16 bombings that killed three people and wounded 23 others. his killing spree went on for

nearly two dekads, until the one person that said would never abandon him -- >> i hope ted will forgive me. >> reporter: faced the dilemma to turn him in, and possibly send his big brother to death row. separated by seven years, david and ted kaczynski grew up together on the outskirts of chicago. with teddy always looking out for his baby brother. >> i remember when i was about 3 years old, i used to push my way out of the screen door and play out back, and i always had a ball. but the frustration was trying to get back inside the house, because at the age of 3, i was so short i couldn't reach the doorknob. and then one day ted, who would have been 10 or 11 years old at the time, came out of the house

and i saw him fiddling around. when he's done, he says dave, see if this works. he had made like a little makeshift door handle for me. >> reporter: david appreciated ted's kindness, but noticed something else about his brother. >> i guess there was a part of me, even as a young child, that thought ted is a little different. and i remember once asking mom, you know, mom, what's wrong with teddy? she says nothing is wrong with your brother. i said, doesn't he like people? why doesn't he have friends? >> reporter: forensic psychologist dr. reed malloy says it's okay for children to be different. until it becomes a problem. >> when parents are getting feedback or comments from other people that a child is behaving in an unusual way or is engaging in isolating behaviors, that's very important to listen seriously to what people are telling you.

>> reporter: kaczynski was socially awkward, but brilliant. >> he was fascinated with rocketry. so he used to make his own homemade, not out of any sort of kit, rockets that he would shoot off in the park. >> reporter: he earned a scholarship to harvard at age 16, received his ph.d. from the university of michigan and became a college professor at the age of 25. it was during his time at michigan that he began losing touch with reality. >> he might have had his first sort of psychotic break when he was there. he began to imagine visits by people who had never visited him. >> reporter: in 1969, kaczynski suddenly gave up his promising career as a college professor.

wanting to divorce himself from modern society and his family. he eventually moved into a small cabin in lincoln, montana, choosing to live in isolation without plumbing or electricity. >> he had this peculiar nexus between ideology, sort of a hatred of the growing and advancing technology within the world. >> reporter: when david married his wife, linda, in 1990, ted was supposed to be the best man. but refused to attend. that's when linda started asking questions. >> i struggled to answer the questions, why did he quit his job? why is he living the way he's living? why has he rejected his parents? why did he refuse to come to our wedding? >> reporter: and then the letters started to arrive. a diatribe of hatred toward

modern technology. >> it used to be that i suffered from hardly any tension at all around here. but the area is now so messed up that my old way of life is all shot to hell. >> this was not just a disgruntled brother. but this was something quite more serious than that. >> reporter: attempts to get his brother counseling in montana were unsuccessful. >> given that ted was an adult, given that there was no evidence that he was an imminent threat to himself or others, essentially there was nothing he could do. >> reporter: around the same time, david was receiving disturbing letters from his brother, ted. universities and airlines received exploding bombs in the mail. many contained meticulously carved wood. >> we suspect this is the handwriting of the unabomb subject. >> reporter: the haunting

similarities between ted's dark letters and a manifesto the unabomber sent to "the washington post" and "new york times" caught the attention of david's wife. >> he was a woodworker, he had connections to chicago and san francisco. >> linda urged me to sit down and read the manifesto and i'm actually reading the first page, all set to turn to her and say, i'm sure this is not ted's writing. and finding myself with a lump in my chest. >> reporter: for david, it was a horrible realization. >> if you looked past the ideas of the manifesto, you see a person as troubled as my brother. >> reporter: he now had to decide what to do. >> if we do nothing and ted is the unabomber, we may wake up

some morning and realize he struck again. an innocent person died if we failed to act, we would have blood on our hands. >> reporter: it took linda two months but finally convinced david to contact the fbi. >> there was no turning back, but it was so painful to say he lives here, realizing i could be sending my own brother to his own death. when ted was arrested, under the bed where he slept was another bomb ready to be mailed to someone. >> reporter: ted kaczynski rejected his attorney's insanity defense and pleaded guilty to murder. he was sentenced to life in prison with no opportunity for parole. but to this day, david believes ted is insane and should be in a mental institution. >> my biggest regret is not to have clearer insight that he was ill. >> reporter: david continues to write to his brother twice a

year in prison. he has never received a response. coming up -- >> it looks like a fireball. >> reporter: keira phillips on simmering anger. a deadly attack. >> i didn't know about the irs. i didn't know that he was violent. >> reporter: and a wife left searching for answers. >> how could i possibly know he was anything like that? american success story," "that starts with one of the world's most advanced distribution systems," "and one of the most efficient trucking networks," "with safe, experienced drivers." "we work directly with manufacturers," "eliminating costly markups," "and buy directly from local farmers in every region of the country." "when you see our low prices, remember the wheels turning behind the scenes, delivering for millions of americans, everyday. "dedication: that's the real walmart"

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♪

i still love joe. i don't think that joe was a bad person. >> reporter: it took some time for cheryl stack to get to this point. for two years, she has struggled. but has found comfort in her music and her faith. >> i have been more sad than mad. suicide is so painful on so many different levels. then you add the public factor, the public suicide. >> reporter: it was february 18, 2010. an angry and violent joe stack set his family's house on fire, then drove here to the georgetown municipal airport,

boarded his single engine plane. >> ready for departure. >> reporter: and was cleared for takeoff. >> 39 delta, >> what's your direction of flight, sir? >> reporter: at 9:44 a.m., joe stack was headed for his final flight. joe stack knew exactly where he was going, the echelon building in austin, which housed the irs. >> it was like a fireball. people let out a scream all around you. >> reporter: stack slammed his plane between the first and second floors of the building. it exploded on impact. one man in the building was killed, vernon hunter, an irs employee. immediately, there were fears that this was an act of terrorism. but it wasn't. it was simply one man's grudge against the irs.

and then came the manifesto. before stack would die by suicide, the 53-year-old software engineer would leave behind a rambling diatribe online, where he railed

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there are 11 individuals or parts thereof that were recovered, and those would include 11 in tact skulls. >> it's gruesome. >> he never gave any idea that he was involved in murdering people or eating them or whatever. >> the suspect is a 31-year-old white male. we're doing a great deal of investigation in the individual's background, his whereabouts. for all purposes, his entire history. >> reporter: today, jeffrey dahmer is remembered as a

monster. who murdered, dismembered and cannibalized 17 victims. but long before then, jeffrey dahmer appeared to be an ordinary boy. >> he was my first child, and we had lots of fun together when he was young. he returned my love. i loved him very much. played in the sandbox i made for him at the university housing. rode the bike with him. took him for a chocolate shake every saturday morning. >> reporter: jeffrey dahmer's father, lionel dahmer, sat down with cnn in 2007 and recalled how jeffrey's happy-go-lucky demeanor was soon consumed by overhemming shyness. >> his schoolteachers noted that and told us that he seemed very shy and a little bit -- not very happy.

>> reporter: psychiatrist fred berlin examined jeffrey dahmer after he was arrested for murder. berlin says there were early signs that jeffrey dahmer had a dark side. but no indication he would become a serial killer. >> there had been one time in his childhood where jeffrey dahmer had brought home a road kill. certainly as a father, you would want to know what in the heck is this all about? but that's a far crying saying having known that happened, my son is going to be a serial killer, that's a heck of a stretch. >> reporter: but by the end of high school, jeffrey dahmer was depressed, drinking, and unknown to his family, having violent sexual fantasies. >> jeffrey dahmer's crimes were motivated by the presence of

abnormal sexual cravings, fantasies and urges. when people are being driven to accused because of the privacy of their sexual makeup, that's very difficult for any of us to detect. >> reporter: three months after his high school graduation in 1978, jeffrey dahmer committed his first murder, bludgeoning a 19-year-old hitchhiker with a ten-pound barbell. then dissecting his victim's body in the crawl space of his parent's home. and burying the remains in a shallow grave. after the murder, jeffrey dahmer dropped out of college, began living at home without a job, and continued drinking heavily. his father urged him to enlist in the army. >> he doesn't have an occupation of any kind. he's not trained for anything. so how about trying the army for

a while? >> reporter: less than three years after joining the army, dahmer was kicked out for excessive drinking. >> we had to do something. so we sent him to my mother's in milwaukee, wisconsin. >> reporter: that's when his behavior changed, from strange to bizarre. >> for period of time he was sleeping with a male mannequin in his grandmother's home in wisconsin, pretending in his mind that he was a corpse. >> reporter: while dahmer was living with his grandmother, he continued abusing alcohol. his father enrolled him in a treatment program. but the psychologist working with dahmer refused to share any insight regarding his mental state. >> h said, i will not discuss his details because he's an adult and that's between him and i.

>> reporter: dahmer served short prison sentences for indecent exposure and molesting a minor. >> he was ordered by the court to undergo counseling. i visited the psychologist, but she did not indicate to me that she knew what was wrong. show knew something was wrong, but she really didn't know. >> reporter: by 1988, dahmer moved into his own apartment and attracted little attention. >> he was someone who you could sit down and speak with and seemed affable. so there's nothing about his appearance that would have given any clue to the sorts of crimes we know he committed. >> reporter: during a span of three years, the affable guy next door would kill and mutilate 16 more victims, all young men or boys. with most of the slayings taking place in his milwaukee apartment. but his father was completely

unaware of the grisly evidence inside the apartment. >> it was a very nice apartment actually inside. it was neat and clean when we went there. there was nothing to give us any signals that something was wrong. but there were red flags, but we couldn't see them. >> reporter: in 1991, jeffrey dahmer was finally caught and arre arrested. >> talking to a head that's been severed and eating somebody. >> reporter: it wasn't until his trial that his father would learn about the hor rufk -- horrific atrocities his son committed. dahmer was convicted and sentenced to life in prison. in 1994, less than two years after his conviction, jeffrey dahmer was brutally killed by a

fellow inmate while cleaning the prison gymnasium. he was 34. could dahmer have been stopped before the rampage? his father says he begged his son's lawyer and the judge to keep his son locked up after his earlier molestation arrest. >> i wanted to have a little time, keep him in prison for the maximum time to try to find some solution to the problem. i wish he was alive that i could still, you know, we could have pursued this and really found out what might have been the triggers. i think i would have really quizzed jeff on his inner thoughts. i could have pushed more, you know. i could have.

>> reporter: coming up, confronting mental illness. a family alerts authorities to a tragedy waiting to happen. >> he had on body armor when i was talking to him through the window. i saw the butt of a rifle. so i knew the danger was there. matt's brakes didn't sound right... ...so i brought my car to mike at meineke...

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♪ >> reporter: december 14, 2012, the connecticut elementary school under assault. within minutes, six adults and 20 children massacred. just three days later, another school. this one in florida, goes into lockdown. and miami-dade police negotiator victor millian is called into action. >> part of the information i received was that there were multiple weapons involved, to include grenades. >> reporter: the shooter isn't in a school, but across the

street, living here. he's distressed and heavily armed. inside his apartment, the walls are covered with violent rantings, and silhouettes used for target practice. his name is franklin rosario. earlier that day, his sister, alma, sent this desperate e-mail that alerted authorities. i lived with him and have seen his suicide note written on his wall at home. and he has personally told me about plans he has to do mass public shootings. what were your immediate concerns as soon as you got there? >> as i'm pulling up to the scene, there's a private school across the street. >> reporter: the police special response team surrounding the area, as millian begins talking to rosario. >> he had on body armor when i was talking to him through the window. i saw the butt of a rifle. so i knew danger was there. >> reporter: and he knew rosario

suffered from mental illness. he's a combat army veteran 100% disabled, who skufrs from ptsd, schizophrenia, bipolar and depression. it's unlikely he's taking his medication. give me an idea of his state of mind. >> he was in a crisis mode. his thought process was that the world was going to end on friday, and that americans were potentially in harm's way. >> reporter: how so you rationally speak to someone suffering a mental breakdown? >> a lot of patience. >> reporter: he says rosario was suspicious of police. but he somehow finds a way to build trust. >> i explained to him that i'm a veteran myself. i actually showed him my military i.d. card. i think that was the turning point. >> reporter: after more than five hours, no bullets fired, no

storming the building, rosario surrendering peacefully. he's take on the a treatment facility, not a jail. >> he was very sick, but he didn't break a law. they got to him before he did something terrible. >> reporter: it was miami-dade county judge's staff that received the e-mail and alerted police. >> which wait until someone is so sick that ethey are getting arrested or hurting somebody, and it's ruining families and lives and very unnecessary. >> reporter: he's spent years ensuring that when possible, mentally ill people are taken to appropriate facilities for evaluation. instead of being arrested. he showed me the alternative here. ninth floor of the miami-dade detention center where the most

acute cases end up. walking around here, i've never been to a place like this. this is an awful place. we can't argue with that. it used to be doubled the forgotten floor he told me. >> people forgot about the inmates with serious mental illness. >> reporter: he said today it's much improved. and incredibly costly. about $60 million a year to house these people in such horrific conditions. when you're here and you look around, what disturbs you most? >> the overcrowding, 24/7 in the same cell. it's not conducive for treatment, there's no therapy here. they stay locked up and they get a pill. that's pretty much it. that's not treatment. >> reporter: that's why he started an intense 40-hour course. >> last year, 1.5 million people were arepsed with serious mental illness. >> reporter: which gives miami police the training they need to

get them help. lieutenant jeff locke went through the crisis intervention training. on this night, we joined him on a fairly quiet patrol. so before there was cip, before officers were specifically trained to deal with mentally ill, how did they deal with snem >> confrontational. grab them, arrest them, handcuff them, put them on a gurney, and ship them off to a receiving facility. >> reporter: he says cip officers are taught to take a step back, to deescalate the situation. >> we're not showing up in that macho level to where i'm here, i'm going to take you here and do this. it's more of we are here to help you. what can i do for you? what do you need? really try to become their friend. >> reporter: the judge says more than 3900 officers are trained and on the team. keeping those suffering from

mental illness out of jail and in treatment. >> we're not criminalizing their mental illness, which is what we've done in this country. >> reporter: unfortunately, getting the mentally ill help is not enough. rosario had been in treatment for months when -- >> sir, you may not possess any firearms. do you understand that? >> yes, your honor. >> reporter: at this hearing, he convinced the judge to let him go home. days later, he committed suicide, sbbing himself to death. but the programs have many more success stories. like this man. >> justin is amazing. he was a chef at a nice restaurant on south beach. he had a schizophrenic break. he attacked the owner of the restaurant. >> reporter: it was 2007. justin was taken to the ninth

floor, the very same ninth floor we visited. >> i do remember being completely delusional when i went in there, and things not getting better after i went to the ninth floor. and things got eventually worse. >> reporter: do you think it's the right place for someone who is mentally ill? >> i don't think it's the right place for anyone, let alone somebody that's mentally ill. >> reporter: justin entered the judge's program eventually. after he completed it, the judge hired him to work as a program peer counselor. >> i feel great giving back, and what i do is i offer the experience of, i've been there, i've been arrested. i know what it's like to not want to take your medication. >> reporter: justin has come a long way. he still takes medication for bipolar disorder, but he's now a married father. he showed me photos of his wedding, officiated by the

judge. >> just because you have a mental illness doesn't mean you don't have aspirations and dreams and goals. we're giving people hope again and they can recover. it is a remarkable, beautiful thing to see every day. i'm the next american success story. working for a company where over seventy-five percent of store management started as hourly associates. there's opportunity here. i can use walmart's education benefits to get a degree, maybe work in it, or be an engineer, helping walmart conserve energy. even today, when our store does well, i earn quarterly bonuses. when

people look at me, i hope they see someone working their way up. vo: opportunity, that's the real walmart. checking out of the hilton shouldn't be a pity party. your next trip is calling. saying, "deb, find a view for two at a conrad." or "make room for more at an embassy suites, deb." or "deb, lead a victory dance at a hampton." so chin up, love, and never stop vacationing. book during the great getaway for great rates at our ten top hotel brands. travel is calling you to hiltongreatgetaways.com.

over the last hour, we've seen how family members can often miss the warning signs. in miami, judge steven likeman has started a new program that identifies kids who may be suffering from mental illness and get them the help they need. similar programs have been launched across the country. they say it's important to know that the most dangerous part of mental illness is not the potential for violence but rather the stigma that prevents individuals and their loved ones from seeking help. i'm anderson cooper. thanks for watching.

trayvon martin's stepmother, the young man she calls not a stepson but a son. >> i'm the one that went to the football games. i'm the one that was there when he was sick. >> she feels she's been pushed aside in all of this, and she's telling her story tonight. our exclusive conversation just ahead. another arrest in the murder case of former nfl star aaron hernandez. details about his checkered past and the southwest bracing for extreme heat this weekend, heat that can be deadly, where and flooding elsewhere. we'll tell you what you need to know to stay safe. let's begin with the zimmerman trial and once again a prosecution witness that could