stood. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com antoinette saved countless numbers of lives, kids and police officers, and despite being held at gun point, still feels compassion for the man who could have killed her. she tells me she wants to maintain a connection with him. also, a "360" exclusive. her first face-to-face meeting with the 911 operator who helped her save the day. >> how are you doing? >> oh, god. >> we made it!

>> we did. oh, my god. >> made it they did. the most remarkable 911 call we've ever heard. the emergency operator and antoinette, together they prevented a likely massacre, with kendra replaying messages to police on the scene. antoinette was inside talking to the 20-year-old gunman who had already fired off half a dozen shots. he told her he was off his psychiatric medication, he was ready to die and ready to kill. calmly, antoinette tuff reached him, persuading him to surrender to police. >> he said, what are y'all waiting for? what's taking them so long to come on? she said they're coming, they're coming. so just hold on, michael. go ahead and lay down. don't put the phone -- okay, you just got your phone?

okay, that's fine. tell them to come on, come on. okay, he just got his phone. that's all he got. >> on the ground, do not move! >> it's just them. okay. it's just them. >> hello? >> i'm going to tell you, something, baby, i ain't never been so scared in all the days of my life. >> me either. but you did great. >> oh, jesus. >> you did great. >> oh, god! >> oh, god indeed. antoinette talks a lot about faith tonight, because that faith saw her through. fbi hostage negotiator chris voss calls her performance under such pressure amazing. president obama is also a fan. he called her just before she sat down with me. i've been looking forward to meeting her since i heard that remarkable tape and i'm pleased to introduce antoinette and shortly kendra to all of you.

it's extraordinary to hear this tape, and there is such an outpouring of people saying how amazing you are. i think you're incredibly heroic, you really are a hero. you saved people's lives. how did you remain so calm throughout this? >> i was actually praying on the inside. i was terrified, but i just started praying, knowing that if i got as hterical as i was on the inside on the outside that he would wind up panicking. >> so inside you were feeling hysterical? >> oh, i was terrified on the inside, very scared. >> we hear that at the end, once it's finally all over, this flood of emotion comes out. >> yes, because i knew then, they had already captured him, so i knew at that point in time i could take a breather. >> i've heard you say that your pastor talked about being

anchored in the lord. is that something that got you through? >> yes, he had just started this actual series that sunday on being anchored. and i had told myself monday morning that i was going to get up and start studying that morning, so i studied monday morning and i also studied on tuesday. and he had been talking about how you anchor yourself, not actually allowing life, the cares of the world to overwhelm you, but allowing yourself to be anchored. >> that's what it means to be rooted? >> to be rooted and grounded in the word. that allows the situation you're in dictate your actions. >> that was good timing of that sermon. >> really good timing. >> i want to play some of the 911 recordings and get your thoughts on them. this first excerpt we're going to play is when the gunman has first entered the room. let's listen. >> okay. >> i'm in the front office. oh, he just went outside and started shooting.

[ gunshots ] >> can i run? >> can you get somewhere safe? >> yeah, i've got to go. no, he's going to see me running. he's coming back. hold on. >> put the phone down. >> okay, she said she's getting the police to tell them to back off, okay? okay, okay. stop all movement now on the ground. stop all movement on the ground. >> what is it like to hear that? >> umm, realizing how terrified i was, and that was not his actual first interest in the building. he had been in building for a minute by the time that happened. he had already shot before that. >> he left the office you were in, then he came back in. >> that was his second time

shooting. he actually shot the first time in the office with me. >> when that first time when he shot, i mean, did you think this could be it? >> well, what he did is he actually took the shot to allow me and the other person that was in there to know that this was not a game, and that he was not playing, and that he was serious. so then i knew then that it was -- i knew then it was for real, and that i could lose my life. >> how did he appear to you? did he seem -- when you first saw him, he's got this ak-47. how did he seem? what was the look in his eyes? >> like he didn't care. and he made it clear to me multiple times that he didn't care. he knew that he was going to die that day. and he came in purposely knowing that he was going to die and take lives with him. so he let me know that from the minute he entered the building.

>> when somebody says that to you, who is heavily armed. later we now know he had almost 500 rounds of ammunition with him. did you -- what did you do? what did you think? >> when he said that, i actually was like, okay, and so i just kind of started really getting afraid when he shot the gun, because at first i was like okay, maybe he's just playing. but when he shot the gun and pointed the gun up to us, up towards the -- he made gestures with the gun, i knew he wasn't playing. at that point i just started praying on the inside. >> were you afraid he was going to go after the kids? >> he actually did go to the door leading up to -- when the first person actually left out, he told them to let everybody know that this was not a drill, that this was for real. when that person went out, other people went out with her, because they didn't -- he didn't know that other people was in the -- there was another room

around the corner, and he didn't know people was there. so he started seeing all this movement, and he actually went to that door with the gun drawn to start shooting. and the media person was there, and he looked him dead in the face and started drawing his gun up. then i started saying to him, just come back in, stay in here with me. don't go anywhere, stay in here. it's going to be okay. don't worry about anybody out there. you told her to go and do that, so she's doing what you told her to do. so i just started talking to him. but he was unrational at that time. >> we hear in the 911 call, at one point he's talking about wanting to shoot police officers. i want to play that. >> he said for them to back out, he doesn't want the kids, he wants the police. so brake off and what else, sir? he said he don't care if he die, he don't have nothing to live

for. he said he's not mentally stable. >> that's the last thing you want to hear somebody say when they're armed to the teeth like that. he also talked about he should have gone to amential hospital, that he was off his medication. >> correct. >> did that make you even more worried about who you're dealing with? >> yeah, because by the time he had made that statement, he had fired all his rounds in the gun for the first time. i didn't know what was in the book bag at that time, but then he had got the book bag and was filling up the magazines in front of me. >> so he was reloading? >> he reloaded every magazine he had in the book bag. and put them all in his pockets. >> i was amazed too how kind you were to him and how compassionate you were to him. is that something you really felt? >> yes, it was. at one point i just started

feeling sorry for him. when he got to telling me he wasn't on his medicine and everything that was going on and all that, i began to feel sorry for him. i knew that where he was at mentally was not a good place, but i knew he was there for whatever particular reason that it was in life. and he started talking to me and telling me that, you know, he wasn't on his medicine, he should have went to the hospital and he hadn't taken his medicine in a while. so i knew that i wasn't actually speaking to someone that was in their right state of mind. >> i want to play that portion. >> it's going to be all right, sweet heart. i want you to know that i love you and i'm proud of you. that's a good thing that you gave up and don't worry about it. we all go through something in life. no, you don't want that. you're going to be okay. i thought the same thing. i tried to commit suicide last year after my husband left me. but look at me now, i'm still

working and everything is okay. >> it seems that really connected with him. your willingness to share personal details of your life made an impact on him. >> by that time he had called one of his family members and he was talking to them and then they were telling him some things and things like that, what was going on. to i knew that -- i knew how he felt. i had been in that situation. i had been in that devastating moment when all of the things happened to me. so i knew that could have been my story. but because of god's grace and mercy, it wasn't. and i knew that i could help somebody. god sent people, my pastor and people and friends and family in my path to help me through. i knew at that point in time that he needed me and i was the only person there. so i just wanted to be able to

allow him to know there was some hope. that even though what seemed to be devastating for me then, look at me now. i just opened up a brand new business, you know, god had brought me back from what seemed to be hopeless now to hope. and, you know, i just did a grand opening, opened up a motor coach company and a travel agency and just getting ready to start doing a nonprofit for kids on success. so i looked at that to know that if i don't allow him to see what we need to do, it's going to be hopeless for him also. >> there's so much more we talked about. we're going to be playing this interview for most of this hour. off in the news we focus on the negative and people say they want to hear positive things. this woman is extraordinary and has a message for all of us in these difficult times. we'll also play the moment when antoinette meets the 911 operator.

>> i've learned that through everything i've been through, i was actually telling god that even though it seemed like i've been through hell and back, i promised him december 31st that if he allowed me to live, then 2013 would be heaven for me. and so i know today that all that i went through was actually for that one perfect day. and that was to save that young man's life and to make sure that 800 and something children and also all of our staff would be able to know that god is real. and each all of those who don't believe, they're able to see a god in action. i just served my mother-in-law your chicken noodle soup but she loved it so much... i told her it was homemade. everyone tells a little white lie now and then. but now she wants my recipe [ clears his throat ] [ softly ] she's right behind me isn't she? [ male announcer ] progresso. you gotta taste this soup. it guides you to a number that will change your

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scared and praying on the inside, she and the 911 operator who you're going to meet in a moment, were partners in prevents a massacre at the school from antoinette works. the interview left me with a lump in my throat more than once and a smile on my face. antoinette seems to have that effect on a lot of people. here's part two of the interview. sometimes people say things to convince somebody, but i feel like you really believe it, and that authenticity, you're using your own example i think made a big difference. >> yes, it did. i believed it from the heart. that's something we had been taught in our ministry, and i owe that all to my pastor. he has trained us. we've had classes and he sits down and teach us how to deal with people and how to deal in desperate situations and how to pray. we practice that at church. so in all reality, all i was

doing is carrying out what limbaugh every sunday and wednesday. >> do you still feel compassion for him? do you still feel sorry for this man? >> i really do. i would like to go back and visit him. >> you would like to maintain contact with him? >> i would like to go back and contact him and just see how he's doing. i mean, i know that it's beyond what he sees. he's a hurting soul, and so if i can help him and allow him to get on the right path, we all go through something. and i believe that god gives us all a purpose in life. and i believe he has a purpose and destiny for that young man also. >> i want to have you on my speed dial. whenever i'm down, i want to talk to you. my gosh. i mean, you're great. >> thank you. >> i want you to call me sweetie and tell me it's going to be okay. >> it's going to be okay. >> i'm going to get a ring tone with your voice saying sweetie, it's going to be okay. >> yes, and it is. i've learned that through everything i've been through. i was actually telling god that even though it seemed like i've

been through hell and back, i promised him december 31st that if he allowed me to live, that in 2013 would be heaven for me. and so i know today that all that i went through was actually for that one perfect day. and that was to save that young man's life and to make sure that 800 and something children and also all of our staff would be able to know that god is real. and even all of those who don't believe, they're able to see a god in action. so if i don't do anything else, i know that god was seen on that day. >> you weren't even meant to be sitting in that seat in that place, right? >> correct. >> that's just extraordinary, that it just happened to be you. >> right. as a matter of fact, we just had someone that was hired in that position. and really by the time that he came in, i would have been leaving that seat to go back to my desk.

but i was actually late getting up there to relieve her, because i just got devastating news myself. and i had sat at my desk for about ten minutes trying to not get overwhelmed by the news i just got. and so it made me late to relieve her. and so then i -- i'm sorry. >> it's okay. >> ummm -- i got there, ummm, late, because, umm, i was meant -- the news i got was devastating. i know god had me to be late to give that news and to put all that aside that i just got, to be able to help that young man.

because if i had got there the time that i was supposed to get there, and actually leave the time that i was supposed to leave, she would have been there. and i would not have been there. i would have been relieved her and been back at my desk. >> did you know you were capable of this? we're all tested at times and you never know how you're going to react. some people think they'll rise to the occasion and they fall. and some people think that they would run, rise up. and are strong in ways they never anticipated. did you know you would be able to be this person? >> no. i didn't even know i had it in me. if somebody told me i was going to be doing that that day, i wouldn't have believed it. didn't know it was in me. but god has a way of showing you what's really in you. no, i didn't believe that. >> you must feel like anything moving forward, you can do anything. i believe you can do anything.

you have been through not only in your own life and personal things devastation, but this situation. you've survived unimaginable things. >> yes. i have this new thing that i say to myself, it's called push past the pain. my pastor's wife did that teaching in a women's ministry last year. and she titled the message, push past the pain. in spite of what things you may go through in life, just continue to push. and so every time things come on, i always say to myself, push past the pain. it's going to be okay. so i know today that no matter what, i can push past the pain. >> you have given me so many things to write down. i'm just going to tell myself in the years ahead, push past the pain. >> yes. >> sweetie, it's going to be okay. >> just call me, we'll push past the pain together.

>> i like that. for you, what was the scariest moment? >> when he was reloading the magazines. because at first i knew he had the book bag, but i didn't know what was in the book bag. i just seen him with the gun. and i didn't know -- when he opened it, i was just thinking oh, you've just got a couple of bullets. but inside the book bag, he had another bag. so he had bullets inside the book bag and bullets in another bag. >> did you know how many rounds he had? >> no, but i knew it was a whole lot. he sat there and loaded up like three magazines, changed the magazine and bullets in his pockets. pants pockets in his jacket pockets. he had bullets everywhere on top of magazines. so i knew when he made that last call that he was going to go. because he had loaded up to go.

>> when you were talking to the 911 operator, did her calmness give you strength as well? >> she was talking, but to be honest with you, he was doing so much and so unstable, i don't remember what she was really saying. because he was in the building, out of the building, going out and shooting at the police, going out and trying to go out where the kids were. and just moving. so i was talking to her and he would tell me to call channel 2 news. so i was like back and forth, you know, trying to listen to all of his demands and get on this phone with this person and trying to figure out where he was at at all times. >> have you talked to the 911 operator since then? >> no, i haven't. but she was real calm, though.

she really didn't help me, because she was real calm. >> do you even know her name? >> no, i don't remember. she may have -- i don't remember. it was -- i don't remember her name. i think she said it, though. but i don't remember. >> her name is kendra mccray. >> oh. >> and i have somebody i would like you to meet. >> okay. >> come on in. >> hi. >> this is kendra mccray. >> oh, great! >> how are you? >> how are you doing? >> we made it! >> we did. oh, my god. >> oh, thank you. oh, wow. >> it was really a moment. >> it was. >> oh, i thank you. oh, wow. >> thank you. >> sit down, kendra. we've got to take a quick break but we'll be right back. welcome back. a

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welcome back. it's truly incredible that antoinette tuff was able to remain so calm while talking a gunman to laying down his

assault weapon. she even expressed concern about his feelings. having met her, i'm no longer surprised by that. during the entire ordeal, her link to the outside world but police emergency operator kendra mccray. back now with our "360" exclusive interview. kendra, what do you think of the job that antoinette did? >> she is a true hero. i say that she missed her calling. she should have been a counselor or something. you did so great. >> thank you. >> i never had a call where the caller was so calm and confident in what you were saying and so personable. it was great. you did a great job. you made my job a lot easier. >> thank you. >> the situation that antoinette was in having to listen to what this gunman was saying and also listen to what you're saying and kind of be the conduit between the two and calm him at the same

time as trying to keep yourself safe. i don't know how you did it. >> i don't either, but god. i can't give the credit to each myself. that was nobody but god's grace and mercy. i can truly tell you i was terrified inside. >> and yet talking to you, it didn't sound like that she was terrified. i was amazed how calm she was. >> she was very calm. myself the same. i was terrified. coming on that line and hearing those gunshots and you asking me those questions, should you run? >> yeah. >> and my hands were shaking so bad. >> i have such respect for 911 operators. you all have to remain calm and stuff you never know what's going to be on the other end of that line. you never know what the situation is going to be. i want to play just a little bit

more from the 911 recording. >> we're not going to hate you, baby. it's a good thing that you've given up. >> ma'am, you're doing a great job. >> let's do it before the helicopters and stuff like that come. you hear them? okay. do you want to go ahead and tell them to come on in now? okay. he's getting everything out of his pockets now. >> i love how you say baby. nobody is going to hate you, baby. did you know -- i mean, how did you know what to say to him? how did you know the right things to say? >> to be honest with you, i didn't. while i was there, and she was talking to me and he was saying things to me, i was just praying on the inside of myself saying god, what do i say now? what do i do now? i just kept saying that on the inside, because i knew that i had no words to say.

and i knew i was terrified. that is one reason i said to her one time, can i run? but then i knew if i ran, he was going to go in the hallway and it's an open hallway. he had already had all the ammunition on him. >> and he could have gone for the kids? >> he would have went straight for the kids. he had already went out that door a couple times. i knew that. >> are you typing all this information and it's going to police? >> yes. every word that she gave me, every demand, every request, i was trying to get it in as quickly as possible, and remain calm for her. >> that's important for an operator, to remain calm for the person on the other end. >> yes. if i'm calm, she's calm. she's hysterical -- or if i'm hysterical, she's hysterical. >> you don't have eyes on the scene. so you're hearing everything through antoinette and sending messages to police, but you're not sure where the police location is and how they're interpreting the messages.

>> in this situation, it felt like i was there, like i could visualize what she was seeing and what she was going through. it's like i could see the gunman right there at the door. she said he's right here at the door. it's like i could see him through just her words. >> did he look at you a lot? did he -- was he kind of connecting with you a lot? >> not in the beginning. in the beginning he wouldn't even give me his name. all he said -- kept saying is, i'm not on my medication, i'm not stable. i'm on probation. he told me to tell her to call the probation officer but he wouldn't give me the probation officer's number. told everybody to stop moving. so in the beginning he wasn't. so then i had to say okay, what am i going to do? because now he's getting agitated.

and he really got agitated the last time he went out, because the last time that he went out, the police officers started shooting back at him. and i don't know if you remember, i asked him could i go to the bathroom. >> i don't recall that. >> i don't know if i hung the phone. >> he might have put it on hold. >> you asked if you could go to the bathroom? >> i had to go to the bathroom so bad. >> sorry to be laughing, but in all the things to be in your mind. >> i mean, so bad. i was just sitting there literally shaking i had to go to the bathroom so bad. >> is that the real reason you were shaking? >> i mean, i was just shaking so bad. he had just went out there to shoot at the policemen and they were shooting back at him. and the bullets was coming from and i said to him, come back in here right now, come from out there, come back in here.

don't worry about it. i said come back in here, we're both going to be safe. i said bullets don't have no name. if they shoot you, they're going to shoot me. so come back in here, we're going to work this out. so he came back in. >> that's amazing that you were encouraging him to come back in the room where you were. a lot of people would be happy that he was out of the room. but you said come back into the room. >> he was firing bullets and they were firing back. i knew they were going to kill him. and i knew that he was not in his right frame of mind and he had all those magazines on him and i knew he was going to light it up. >> i want to play another part of the 911 tape where he's already relinquished his weapon, he's put everything down. let's play that. >> okay. she said stay right there where you are. he wants to know if he can get some of his water right quick? yes, michael. you said michael hill, right? okay. guess what, michael? my last name is hill too. my mom was a hill. he said, what are you waiting

for? what's taking them so long to come on? >> when you started telling him your mom's name was hill, i was like, god bless you. you were having a conversation with him. you were just relating to him. >> i was. and my mom's maiden name is hill. >> i believe everything you said. i didn't think you were making up a word of this. but i just thought again, it reflects on the kind of person you are. you didn't have to, in that very moment, you know, continue to connect with him. but you really -- i just think it says a lot about the kind of person you are. >> he started getting agitated and he got up. i started coming, because he started getting up, and i'm like okay, lay down. they coming. he said, can he have some water? i don't think you responded back to me. i just said yeah, you can have some. >> because at that point, when she said he was getting agitated, i had to put my phone on mute. i'm hollering across the room, he's getting agitated, we need to move. >> in a situation like this, is

everyone else in the room listening to you? >> well, there are still calls coming in, so other people are on calls right next to me or across from me. they're on different calls. they're not on the same call i'm on. so it's loud. we have call takers on one side. then the dispatchers on the opposite side. so we have the supervisors that are -- in this situation, they were back and forth trying to make sure the information got relayed from my side to the dispatch side so they can quickly notify the police as to what i was saying. >> there's one more part of the tape i want to play once the police have come in and it's all over. let's listen. >> get on the ground, do not move. >> it's just him. i'm going to tell you something, baby, i ain't never been so

scared in all the days of my life. >> me either. but you did great. >> oh, jesus. >> you did great. >> oh, god. >> you can really hear there the strain that this put on you. >> oh, yeah. >> that moment when the police finally came in and he was taken out, what goes through your head? what goes through your heart then? >> i realized then that they actually -- when they came in, they came in with guns when he told them not to. so once they came in with the guns, because now remember, his gun and all his weapons were not too far from him, and so when they came in, i was like okay, lord, don't let him move. don't let him get up and get that gun. and so by the time they all just swarmed around him and realized he didn't have anything, because i told him to put his hands behind his back and all that, behind his head so they would know he didn't have anything.

when i seen that police officer put their hands on him, you know, they were all surrounding him, i knew i could just breathe. >> and go to the bathroom. >> and go to the bathroom. i was like, if i go to the bathroom, them bullets don't have no names on it. they're going to shoot us all because nobody is going to know i'm in the bathroom. >> this is also really a teachable moment it seems in how to respond in an emergency situation. antoinette, you know, this tape could be played in classes in terms of how to remain calm and the importance of remaining calm in an emergency. >> yes, and just being yourself and being personable with the person and sympathizing with the person. we get a lot of calls with people in the same condition that he's in, but a different situation. and that's what we're trained to do, to sympathize with them and keep them calm until help gets there. and no situation where we want anyone to get hurt.

that was my biggest fear. >> as i said before, i think a 911 operators have such a difficult job, and i want to thank you for what you did in this situation and want what you do every day. so thank you. >> thank you. more of our conversation next, including antoinette's reaction to a call from president obama. he called her just minutes before she came out. >> i appreciate you too. but i learned from the best, the best president in the world. thank you too. i greatly appreciate it, and i hope i get a chance to meet you also. >> one other note, she has set up a page with proceeds to help underprivileged kids. the web address is -- gofundme.com/41fqvw. again, that's -- gofundme.com/41fqvw.

you can find the link on our website at ac360.com or my twitter account. we'll be right back with more of antoinette. [ woman ] ring. ring. progresso. i just served my mother-in-law your chicken noodle soup but she loved it so much... i told her it was homemade. everyone tells a little white lie now and then. but now she wants my recipe [ clears his throat ] [ softly ] she's right behind me isn't she? [ male announcer ] progresso. you gotta taste this soup.

antoinette tuff is being hailed as a hero, including president obama. here's what he told chris cuomo in an interview with the president. >> when i heard the 911 call and read the sequence of events, i thought, here's somebody who is not just courage, and not cool under pressure, but also had enough heart that somehow she could convince somebody that was really troubled that she cared about him. you know, i told her, i said that not only did she make michelle and me proud, but she probably saved a lot of lives, including the life of the potential perpetrator. >> absolutely. she was calm in the face of the gunman. did she keep it calm when she got a call from the president of the united states? >> thank you.

i hope i get to meet you also. >> we might have to have her to the white house. >> more now with my operator. you got a call right before you came out here tonight. >> i did. >> who called you? >> president obama. >> oh, wow. >> how was that? >> in the makeup room. awesome. oh, god, it was awesome. >> what's that like when you hear the president is on the phone? >> i was like, president obama, it's really you. you get the call and somebody tell you the president is on the phone, it's like okay. but then you hear the voice and you know it's the president. so it was the best voice that i could ever hear. couldn't have a better leader in place at this time. >> i appreciate you too. but i learned from the best. the best president in the world. no, that's me. you can't get any better when you've got a great leader in

front of you. >> what did he say to you? >> he just wanted to let me know that him and his wife and family was very proud of what i did and everybody wanted to thank me. and they were happy and glad for what i did and that it was just for me being a hero and hopefully one day he would get to meet me. so that would be -- just to see his face was awesome. to hear his voice, but to see his face would be more awesome. >> if the president wants to meet you, he can figure out how to make that happen. >> he figured out how to call me. >> awesome, awesome, awesome. >> that was really cool. that made the night. >> what do you think the lesson is for people? what do you want people to take away from this? >> to know that god is real. to know that it wasn't me.

it wasn't nothing that i did that was so special. >> do you not feel like you're a hero? >> no, not really. i feel like i helped somebody in need, that god was able to use me. and it was an honor to be able to be used. i feel like i was in the right place, and god needed me to be there to be a vessel for him. >> it's interesting that even now, you're talking about helping this young man, help thing man with a gun. that's, again, i think that says something about you. >> yes. >> did you know that the kids were being evacuated during all of this? >> no, no. because what i did, he had me to get on the intercom and to let them know, you know, to give the kids -- because the time he came in, that's how you know god was in control. the time that he came in really was a dismissal time for us. one of the busiest times of the

school day. so if it had been business as usual, we would have had multiple parents and multiple children in the front office trying to go home. and not one baby got hurt. that's the awesome part. not one baby and not one adult. that was the whole key, to be able to have everybody come out safe and go home to their families and know that god did it all. >> you just say to me one more time, baby, everything is going to be okay. >> baby, everything is going to be okay. >> thank you so much. >> you are so welcome. you are so welcome. >> baby, everything's going to be okay. a reminder, antoinette mentioned her work helping underprivileged kids see a world they might otherwise miss. so she set up a website. gofundme.com/41fqvw. we'll have the link on our web

page, ac360.com and my twitter account. she's hoping to raise like $1,500. hopefully she can raise more than that if folks are wanting to donate. we'll be right back. [ male announcer ] these days, a small business can save by sharing. like carpools... polly wants to know if we can pick her up. yeah, we can make room. yeah. [ male announcer ] ...office space. yes, we're loving this communal seating. it's great. [ male announcer ] the best thing to share? a data plan. at&t mobile share for business.

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i'm susan hendricks in atlanta. back to anderson in a moment. late word from the oklahoma district attorney handling the case, the murder of australian exchange student christopher lane was not racially motivated. >> i don't believe that this is a racial crime at all. i have nothing in any of my files, any of the paperwork, any of the audio recordings that would suggest that christopher lane was killed either because of his race or his nationality. >> lane is white, two of the three young suspects are african-american. the youngest of whom has a number of racially inflammatory tweets to his name, including one with the hash tag, hate them. it took a military jury less than seven hours to convict nadal hasan of 13 counts of murder and 32 counts of attempted murder. the verdict puts the death

penalty on the table as a possible sentence. san diego mayor bob filner is stepping down effective august 30. while announcing his resignation, he said he never harassed anyone and has faced a lynch mob. a giant panda gave birth today at the smithsonian national zoo in washington. the baby is about the size of a stick of butter. the panda birth is always exciting as giant pandas are endangered. and take a look at what happened aboard a fishing boat. they were trying to reel in a blue marlin and it jumped on the boat and its snout barely missed one of the men. back to anderson and our "360" special right after this. too big.

too small. too soft. too tasty. [ both laugh ] [ male announcer ] introducing progresso's new creamy alfredo soup. inspired by perfection.

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they work together on a single mission: saving lives. discover how we are advancing medicine at kp.org join us, and thrive. before we go tonight, i just want to repeat the information of the page antoinette tuff has set up. it's gofundme.com/41fqvw. two extraordinary women. that dose it for this special

edition of "360." thanks for watching. have a great weekend. for two years, the bodies of black children had been found in the woods, then the rivers of atlanta, georgia. in all, more than two dozen victims, most of them strangled. by may, 1981, the police and fbi were hiding in the brush beside and below the river bridges. this was to be the last night, almost the last hour. >> i heard the splash. >> bob campbell, a police recruit, jumped to his feet down beside the chattahoochee river.

>> i was really startled. it sounded like a body entering the water. >> he looked up at the bridge. >> and i saw brake lights of a car coming. i saw red lights. the car started slowly moving away from me across the bridge. >> campbell radioed the other team members up above him. >> i asked, did a car stop on the bridge? because i couldn't believe what i saw. and each person told me they didn't see it. >> then a policeman in a chase car hidden on the other side came on the radio. >> he just said, the car is pulling in the parking lot here turning around in front of me and started coming back across the bridge going back in my direction. >> this is that white station wagon. police followed it and stopped it nearby. fbi agent mike mccomas rushed to the scene. the driver was standing by the highway. >> he was talking with the officers. saw a black male. he had on a baseball hat. had on glasses.

>> the young man was wayne williams, about to turn 23. a self-anointed music talent scout who slept days and roamed the city at night. mccomas invited williams over to his car. >> he got in the car and i said, do you know why we're here? and he immediately said, yes, it's about the missing children. that kind of stunned me and i said, what do you know about that? he said, i don't think that the various news agencies are covering it adequately, do you? >> two weeks later, this headline would break the news of that night on the bridge. wayne williams would be sent to prison to serve two life sentences for murder. at first glance, he hardly looks like a serial killer. not much more than 5'1/2" feet tall now in his 50s. and growing bald. >> the bottom line is nobody ever testified or even claimed that they saw me strike another

person, choke another person, stab, beat or kill or hurt anybody. because i didn't. >> this is the first time wayne williams has talked on tv in at least a decade. why do you think you were convicted? >> fear. >> what do you mean? >> atlanta at the time was in a panic. they wanted any suspect that they could find. and let's just be honest. it had to be a black person because if it had been a white suspect, atlanta probably would have gone up in flames. it came very close to that. >> do you think you'll ever be free? >> no doubt it's not a matter of if to me. it's a matter of when. >> some 30 years after wayne williams' trial and conviction, there is still debate and some doubt. this time, you can be the judge and the jury. we'll lay out the evidence on both sides and you'll hear from wayne williams at length. then we'll invite you to reach

your own verdict, guilty, innocent, or a third choice, not proven. the first clue was found on a dead boy's tennis shoes. the victim was eric middlebrooks. his body left here in a rainy alley. a foster child who rode his bicycle away one night on an errand and was dead by dawn. detective bob buffington saw something red stuck to eric's tennis shoe. >> and i noticed in the flap of the edge of this shoe this tuft of what to me appeared to be wool. and that was it. we could find no other evidence. >> back at homicide, buffington showed the fibers to his superiors. >> the lieutenant made a big joke out of it and told the rest of the squad that if i went over to the lieutenant's house and

cleaned out the lint trap in his dryer, we could probably clear out all the cases in the city of atlanta. >> still, buffington sent the fibers to the state crime laboratory. a young forensic scientists, larry peterson, took a look. why was that a fiber that was stuck in the crack of a shoe, why was that important? >> because it was somewhat loosely there. people normally don't have tufts of carpet fibers stuck loosely in their shoe. >> from those few thin threads, peterson would begin to build a case to try to catch a killer. how many fibers across the board did you look at every day in this case, when the case really started getting busy? 100? 500? 1,000? >> literally there's going to be hundreds if not thousands of fibers there, depending upon the case. >> in the spring of 1980, no one wanted to believe a serial killer was loose in the city, even when bob buffington spotted

a disturbing pattern. >> there had been a sharp increase in the number of children under the age of 14 who had been killed. >> when he told his boss at homicide, the major threatened to transfer him. >> and i truly think that they were afraid that there would be a panic. >> it was this mother, after the loss of her 9-year-old son, who finally forced police to listen, but not until almost a year after her boy died. camille bell and her children lived in these project apartments. poor to the eye, but rich in mind and spirit. yusef bell was an honor student in the gifted program at school. on a warm october sunday in 1979 he walked away on an errand to buy snuff for an elderly lady downstairs. >> he went barefooted in a pair

of brown shorts. he got to the store. he bought the snuff. he started back home. >> less than half a block from this store, yusef bell stepped off this curb and vanished. >> and nobody saw anybody do anything or anything. but they did see him come back across the street. and that's the last that we saw him. >> camille bell called the police. they came and said they'd write a report. that's all. days went by. camille waited with two older children and yusef's 3-year-old sister. >> and so she is terrified. if he can go to the store and they can steal him, then she doesn't want to leave the house. she doesn't want to do anything. >> camille hid her own fear from her children.

>> and you've got to hold them together so you can't act as scared as you are. >> the body of yusef bell was found in an abandoned schoolhouse. >> his body would not turn up for another month. yusef bell had been strangled. >> all of the what could have been, should have been and probably would have been was taken away, and we'll never know now, because somebody decided that it was all right to just kill a little kid because they wanted to. >> for a long time, the 3-year-old would look for yusef every time it was a foggy day. >> and we'd go out into the fog and she would go as far as she could into the fog. and i'd say, come back here. and she'd say, i got to go find my brother. and she said, the clouds came down, so yusef can come down. >> the child, her mother said, had confused the fog with

heaven. still ahead -- the boy who was too brave. >> i mean, he was like, man, i want to find this killer and get this reward money. >> a drive-by threat against the fbi chief's child. >> some guy in a pickup truck said, i'm going to get you, nigger. >> and in the end, the curious question of the cia. >> you're 19. you say you work for the cia. you've been recruited. >> i'll let the document speak for itself. i'm not going to comment on that. >> then -- >> you know how to kill somebody with a choke hold? that's a yes or no answer? >> no, it's not. >> yes, it is, actually. do you know how to kill somebody with a choke hold? >> no, it's not.

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in the spring of 1980, police were still reluctant to listen to camille bell. >> children were dying on the streets of atlanta in the daytime. >> among them, jefferey mathis, only 10. like yusef bell, he walked down the street on an errand to this gas station to buy cigarettes for his mother. she never saw him again. >> what we had here was a predator. and what he was looking for was somebody who was cut off from the herd. and if you don't realize you're in trouble until you're in trouble, then you have no way of getting out. >> it would be another year before jefferey mathis' body was found in the woods, miles from his home. his mother would join camille bell in forming a committee to confront the city's leaders. >> the reaction of the police was that we were overreacting

and that there was no serial killer. >> even though by now six black children were dead. four others were missing. >> perhaps we were like distraught parents that really needed everyone's sympathy, but nobody needed to do anything. >> for years, it has been a dirty little secret among the press and the police. deaths of blacks draw less attention than deaths of whites. >> nobody cared. so you could have several killings go on and if the people were poor, then no one discovered there was a serial killing. if you were black and poor, then really nobody looked. especially the black and poor and southern. >> police were slow to recognize these deaths were different.

many of the bodies were left in the woods, far from home, unlike most murder victims who are found where they fall. >> unsolved murders of children is very rare. if a 9-year-old got killed, it was because somebody slapped him across the room, he hit his head and he died. >> police did not create a task force until a year after the first murders began. fbi profiler roy hazelwood came down to help. three detectives drove him around the city and turned into jefferey mathis' neighborhood. >> as soon as we turned on to that street, everything stopped. a guy cutting the grass stopped. guys playing dominos on the porch stopped. i said, what's going on? everything stopped. they said, laughingly, that's because we have a honky in the car. >> john glover, who took over as fbi chief in atlanta that summer, said that's why he and hazelwood decided the killer had

to be black. >> the killer is someone who is invisible in the black community and who is invisible in the black community but another black person? >> malcolm harris was one of the first task force detectives. he knew it had to be someone who went unnoticed. >> we felt like it was somebody who could come in the neighborhood and get these children and not draw attention to themselves. >> the question of which race struck a raw nerve. it had been only a dozen years since the murder of dr. martin luther king. on the surface, atlanta was a well integrated city. beneath the surface, it remained separate and unequal. >> my prayer and the prayers of everybody in there was we wanted the person to be black. and the reason why you wanted him to be black, i knew what it would do to this town if it had have been a white person or somebody of another race.

>> in the black community, in the early '80s, a black serial killer was unheard of. all the classic serial killers were white. never black. >> didn't mean we didn't have one now. >> today black serial killers are not rare. in 2009, here in cleveland, as well as in milwaukee and los angeles, each time the accused serial killer turned out to be african-american. dr. eric hickey is a psychologist who keeps track of serial killers. >> overall in my study, one out of every five serial killers is african-american. in the past since 1995, over 40% are african-american. we're finally saying, you know what, blacks do this, too. >> there were whites who fed the fear in atlanta.

as fbi chief, john glover had moved into this upper class white neighborhood. his 12-year-old son was playing outside one afternoon. >> some guy in a pickup truck, he was out in the yard in our side yard. we were on a corner. we lived in -- we had a corner lot, you know. said, i'm going to get you, nigger, as he was driving by. >> kasim reed, seen in these childhood photos, was only 10 when the first two bodies were found in the woods close to his home in the summer of 1979. >> my life did change. >> how so? >> not out as late as you used to be. not able to ride your bike unaccompanied. >> in 2010, reed would become the mayor of atlanta. but back then, as the youngest boy in his family, his teenage brothers were his protectors. >> and i didn't move without my brothers for about a year. >> the bulk of the victims were boys like you?

>> you're right. >> your age. >> you're right. >> black boys. >> yes. >> did you personally feel afraid? >> i can't honestly say that i really felt afraid except for at moments. you would have a van slow down and everybody was very mindful of vans at the time. >> people were suspicious of everybody. and they were afraid. and you had children walking the street, car go by, you could see some of them were in fear. >> and for good reason. the murders were about to increase to a body almost every week. ♪ the time of trouble ♪ in the time of trouble coming up, a creature of the night. >> being an ex-news reporter and all nighttime is me. that's the time i'm out most of the time.

>> and the mystery within a mystery. >> he walked into the back of the studio and he had horrible scratches on his arms. and he said he had fallen into a bush.

so many of the children who so many of the children who died were poor, who earned

spending money carrying groceries, running errands for others, or, like lubie geter, peddling car deodorizers outside this supermarket on new year's weekend 1981. his mother worried about him going off alone. >> he said he was a big boy. they'd have to catch him first. >> lubie was a good student, a sophomore in high school. a witness at the shopping center that day saw lubie with a man and helped a police artist draw this sketch, a man with a baseball cap, perhaps a scar on his cheek. lubie never came home. >> i believe he had been kidnapped. >> police searched the woods around atlanta. they did not find lubie. instead, police found two other bodies, young boys who had disappeared ten miles and a month apart, yet both left here

at the same dumping ground. the number of known dead now 15. the unsolved murders of so many children had become front page news around the nation and the world. >> this is the reward -- >> the city announced a $100,000 reward, soon to grow to $500,000. the task force was swamped with sketches of suspects, none of them alike, many suggested by psychics. at the state crime lab, larry peterson was sifting through thousands of fibers, nylon, rayon, acrylic, acetate. is it like looking for a needle in a haystack? >> like looking for multiple needles in multiple haystacks. >> then in january of 1981, a breakthrough. peterson realized they were seeing one green carpet fiber

with a unique shape. this is a cross-section of the fiber magnified many times. >> this particular fiber had two very, very large lobes and one short lobe. >> the lobes are the three ends of the boomerang shape. >> the shape was the most distinctive part of the fiber. >> he showed me a slide taken from another carpet. >> this is a single tuft from the carpet. cut in cross-section. >> yeah, i can't tell that's green. even putting the tiny fibers under the microscope didn't help me. how can you tell what color this is? because in this, this green carpet because of that light green, looks very whitish. >> the colors microscopically is not going to be identical to what overall carpet would be. >> instead, an even more sophisticated microscope. >> so let me just open this up -- >> -- can separate colors to separate fibers. we took another look. now you're talking. now peterson knew what to look

for. >> when i was looking at the fiber at first i had no idea who had made it. i just knew it was very distinctive and i would recognize it instantly. >> but he didn't know where to find it. wayne williams was not yet on anyone's radar. he had freelanced as a tv cameraman who shot fires in overnight news. he told us -- >> i know the streets of atlanta. i've been around a while. being an ex-news reporter and all, nighttime is me. that's the time i'm out most of the time. >> now, almost 23, a wannabe music producer, he was trying to form a singing group modeled after the jackson 5. in fact, the afternoon lubie geter disappeared, williams says this receipt shows he had an alibi, auditioning young singers from 4:30 to 8:30 that evening. >> the studio was a small demo studio. >> kathy andrews was co-owner of that studio.

>> to my best recollection, he auditioned young kids for a group that never existed. they were roughly as young as 8 and as old -- for the kids, they were as old as 11 or 12. >> now living in another state, kathy andrews did not want her face shown because of what she saw on another day at her studio. >> at one point in time when wayne came to one of the sessions, he walked into the back of the studio and he had horrible scratches on his arms. >> deep and painful crisscrossing both arms. >> it was more this way and that way and that way and that way and that way. and they were angry looking. and when i looked at him, the first words out of my mouth was, oh, wayne, what happened? that looks awful. and he said he had fallen into a bush. >> 15-year-old terry pue died

late that january. his body dropped by the roadside in a rural county 20 miles from home. he had been strangled. his mother -- >> whoever killed him, he had to tussle with him because he had scratches all over him. >> it gives me chills down my spine still. >> to this day, kathy andrews does not believe wayne's explanation. >> he did not fall in a bush. it was after you realized, it was fairly obvious. and i don't know what else could have caused that kind of wound on his arm. >> the intervals between murders were shrinking. 19 days from lubie geter's disappearance until terry pue's death, then 15 days until the next victim. soon 13, then 11, and before long, a body a week. fbi profiler roy hazelwood says this is not unusual for serial killers.

>> they come to believe that they in fact are almost immune to mistakes, if you will. and they can take greater risks because it's more exciting and because they're so superior they don't have to worry about the inferior police catching them. >> after a month, lubie geter's body would be found in the woods. the boy left naked except for scraps of underwear. the medical examiner would testify geter apparently had been killed by, quote, a choke hold around the neck, a forearm across the neck. it's a question we'll have reason to ask wayne williams by the end of all of this. it's actually a very simple question. can you kill someone with a choke hold? >> you probably could. you probably could under the right circumstances. >> i know for a fact i could not. when we return, the boy who wanted to catch a killer.

>> the body was indeed another victim of atlanta's child killer or killers. >> i just knowed right away it was his body. oh, my god, momma. >> and later, a failed lie detector test. >> it surprised him that he didn't beat that polygraph test. he was convinced he could beat a polygraph test. ( bell rings ) they remind me so much of my grandkids. wish i saw mine more often, but they live so far away. i've been thinking about moving in with my daughter and her family. it's been pretty tough since jack passed away. it's a good thing you had life insurance through the colonial penn program. you're right. it was affordable, and we were guaranteed acceptance. guaranteed acceptance? it means you can't be turned down because of your health. you don't have to take a physical or answer any health questions.

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there's yet another twist in

the missing and murdered children case. >> atlanta is a city of frustrations and fears. >> as the number of missing and murdered children grow -- >> the body was indeed another victim of atlanta's child killer or killers. >> patrick baltazar was the kid convinced he could catch a killer. >> he was like i want to find this killer and get the reward money and i'm going to buy my mom a house and i'm going to do this and i'm going to find this killer. >> his stepmother, sheila baltazar, was worried. >> for a 10, 11-year-old child to be talking like that, that was just like, wow, where is his mind at? >> patrick was a latch-key child living unsupervised with an older brother in a project apartment near downtown. >> he was very streetwise.

>> he stayed out late at night, often at the omni center, now the headquarters of cnn, but back then a hotel complex with an indoor skating rink and a game room for kids. >> that's where he spent a lot of his time at, at the games arcade. >> wayne williams was known to frequent the omni, passing out these fliers as a talent scout to offer auditions to boys from age 11 on up. >> 15 kids are dead. two others are officially missing -- >> by early february, 1981, more than a dozen young african-american boys had been found dead, many dumped in the woods around atlanta. >> i was very fearful. my god. >> sheila baltazar pleaded to send patrick back home to the rest of his family in rural louisiana. >> if i had somewhere to send my son, i would have sent my son. >> one evening, a white man in a big car appeared to threaten patrick and a small friend.

>> the little boy said that patrick said, man, that might be the killer. >> patrick used a pay phone to call police. he told them, a man was chasing me and my friend in a brown cadillac. >> well, actually, thought it was a crank phone call. they didn't send a car out. >> this is a sketch the other boy provided to police after patrick was dead. two weeks later, on february 6, patrick stopped by the restaurant where his father worked to ask for money, then walked back toward the omni. he never made it home that night. >> i'm like, he didn't come home? oh, my god! that was the first thing popped in my head. missing. murdered. oh, my god! >> the atlanta missing persons bureau continue their hunt for this missing child. >> one day seemed like it was a

week. that was the longest search in the world. >> it was almost 2:00 p.m. when maintenance man ishmael strickland found the lifeless body of a boy. >> on the seventh day a maintenance man spotted a body tossed down into the woods behind a parking lot at a suburban office complex. >> the bank was fairly steep. >> medical examiner joseph burton had to hold on to a rope to get down to the scene. >> he had a ligature mark on his neck like if somebody had a ligature and they were behind you or off to the side behind you and they closed their hands or fists together and pulled the ligature, basically. >> in other words, killed from behind. >> most likely, yes. >> all right. let me place another sample on this side. >> state crime lab scientist larry peterson attended the autopsy. >> i can recall at one autopsy pulling a fiber off of one of the victims. it was a green carpet fiber and mounted the sample on the slide

went over and looked under the microscope and it's the same one. >> you knew right then? >> knew right then. >> apparent it's another victim of atlanta's child killer or killers. >> local television carried these pictures live from the crime scene. >> as it was studied it was apparent it was one of the three children listed as missing. we're told the child's body -- >> sheila baltazar got a call from her mother. >> she say, they found another body. she say, i really feel like this is patrick's body here, you know. oh, my god. >> but if he is one of the three missing children, the chances are strong that he was 11-year-old patrick baltazar -- >> mrs. baltazar and her husband went to the funeral home to identify their child.

>> they told me he had struggled, you know, for his life. and seeing the print -- the rope print across his neck. all the way around in the front. ♪ >> at patrick baltazar's funeral, she would insist on an open casket. >> i just wanted the world to see that this child could have been anybody's child. >> patrick's fifth grade classmates wrote a poem read at his funeral, this from local tv coverage that day. >> patrick baltazar, our school mate, you came to school though sometimes late, but you were

never mean to anyone. you tried to help people and thought it was fun. then one night, one terrible night, you didn't come home, not even at daylight. something's happened to that boy, the people said, patrick is missing. is patrick dead? we cried some and we bowed our heads. >> and hoped for your safety and prayers were said. oh, god, please bring back that missing boy. when he returns, we will shout for joy. the police and the news people came and went. in all our hearts was no content. no one could rest until we knew whatever, whatever had happened to you. then one day your body was found out in the woods on the cold, cold ground.

someone killed you and dumped you there. it was a mad cruel person who did not care. there was not a word about how you died. it is no wonder that we all cried. patrick, we miss you and wish you knew how much your schoolmates grieve for you. just ahead -- the klan under suspicion. >> it was an entire family of brothers that were involved in the klan. >> and then a disappearing nylon cord. >> could have been the murder weapon, as far as i knew. i did not sleep well because i have some back i did not sleep well issues. the bed was too soft.

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in february 1981, a troublesome tip reached the police. a man involved in the ku klux klan could be atlanta's serial killer. >> atlanta was about to explode, and here was information

potentially that the klan could have been doing this. >> bob ingram with the gbi, georgia's bureau of investigation, got the case. >> it was an entire family of brothers that were involved in the klan that were the focus of this particular intelligence information. >> an informant said one brother had threatened lubie geter, the child found dead only weeks before. the klan associate lived here on a dead-end street in the railroad town of mountainview on the outskirts of atlanta. >> we're tapping telephones. we heard a lot of rhetoric. we heard a lot of racial slurs. >> on one wiretap, the detectives heard this said. go find you another little kid? the gbi followed the four brothers for almost two months. >> these family members were under surveillance at that time, physical surveillance where we had an eyeball on them.

>> in those two months, six more black youths would disappear and die. detectives saw nothing to link the klan to them. >> if somebody was in there with a van or two or three men who -- to grab somebody and dump them in the back of the van, people would have noticed if they were white. >> the brothers were called in. they took lie detector tests and passed. >> they were polygraphed and cleared as to their involvement in the killing of atlanta's children. >> clearing the klan didn't stop the murders. jo-jo bell was one of the victims who vanished during the surveillance. he used to hang out at this seafood carry-out place. manager richard harp. >> come here and do anything, i'd give him a dollar just long enough to get money to go to a show or get money to -- you know, to buy stuff at the store or something like that.

>> jo-jo bell, unrelated to yusef bell, came by cap'n peg's one last time. >> around 3:30, 4:00 monday he came by and stuck his head in the door. said, richard, i'm going to shoot basketballs, i'll see you later. throwed his hand up, went on up the street. >> to a school yard basketball court like this. this witness, lugene laster, knew him and said he saw him and left in a station wagon that looked like this. lester testified he got in the car, got in wayne's car. in court lester would identify wayne williams as the driver. >> lugene laster pretty much an eye witness said you gave a ride to jo-jo bell in your station wagon. >> okay. >> did you? >> no, i did not. >> williams did not deny he was

the driver. he instead insisted his passenger had to be someone else. jo-jo bell was never to be seen again. >> it would be horrendous if another child dies, period. >> a week later, sammy davis jr. and frank sinatra came to atlanta for a concert to benefit the children. the photographer up on stage, that's wayne's father, homer williams, with the black newspaper "atlanta world." >> how come you got no tuxedo on there on the stage looking like that there? >> backstage with sammy davis jr. in a photo which made the front page, that's future mayor kasim reed. >> i remember that. that's so cool meeting frank sinatra. >> as a young child, reed would help the volunteers searching atlanta's woods every saturday. >> we literally would walk

through wooded areas chaperoned and we would walk for a period of time until about an hour before nightfall. >> but now a new twist in the murders. patrick baltazar, the 20th victim, would be the last child to turn up in a wooded area. a day or two later an official would tell reporters fibers and dog hairs were being collected from the victim's clothing. the next child to die would be found in a river wearing nothing but underpants. fewer clues now for larry peterson. >> we're talking maybe a dozen or dozens of fibers as opposed to hundreds or potentially a thousand fibers. >> the 13-year-old victim was found beneath this bridge over the south river in atlanta's suburbs. a driver crossing that bridge earlier in the week saw a man leaning over the railing. it turned out to be the same

afternoon jo-jo bell disappeared. at trial, the witness said the man was wayne williams. jo-jo's body would not be found for seven more weeks, until easter sunday. it had floated far down the south river, almost into another county. >> he also had nothing on but underwear basically. >> medical examiner joseph burton went out in a boat to retrieve the boy. >> we've got the body wrapped in a sheet. i'm the one with the shirt off. >> dr. burton ruled both jo-jo and the other boy found in the river had been asphyxiated. >> we didn't have any history of either one of these boys swimming in the south river in their underwear. >> other bodies were now washing up in the chtahoochee river to the west and the north of atlanta. five victims in that river in the next six weeks. >> i said, you know, if i was doing that, i'd be throwing them

off the bridge. >> fbi agent mike mccomas grew up along a river in tennessee. he knew if something were to float on downstream, it had to be dropped in the middle of a river. mccomas suggested the bridge stakeouts. >> we looked at remote places, dark places. we believed it would be at nighttime as opposed to daytime. >> the fbi and police began night watches at 14 bridges over the chattahoochee and south rivers. the stakeouts were to last four weeks. nothing until the very end. >> we at that point were ready for that to be our last night. and wayne williams showed up. that night. >> just before 3:00 a.m., the station wagon drove onto the bridge. >> had he waited a couple more hours we might not have been there. >> otherwise, we would have missed him.

next, the night on the bridge. >> you said, i know this is about those boys, isn't it? >> correct. that's what i said. >> pretty damning statement, don't you think? d g

that night on the bridge, wayne williams says police made him the scapegoat because he was black. >> soledad, when this case happened, if those police had arrested a white man, atlanta would have erupted as well as several major cities. you possibly would have had another race war. >> no, says the fbi chief. >> atlanta police department's side, they were looking for a white guy. so why would all of a sudden the black guy be considered a scapegoat?

>> williams disputes almost everything police witnesses said about that night. what happened that night on the bridge? >> okay. in the first place -- and i'm not being facetious -- but nothing happened on the bridge. that's the whole misconception. >> as he tells it, there was no splash. he never stopped and didn't turn around. so you never stopped on the bridge? >> no, i didn't. >> you didn't throw trash? >> no. >> you didn't throw anything? >> no, i did not. >> you didn't throw a body? >> definitely not a body, no. >> his story. >> i crossed the bridge. i turned off briefly after i crossed the bridge at what i call a liquor store. >> williams said he pulled into the parking lot only to look up the phone number of a singer he was trying to locate at that hour. >> i turned back on the highway. i went to a starvin marvin store. i used the telephone and i came back.