-- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com tonight, our topic will be murder as a growth industry. >> murder has become an epidemic in america. >> the last ten years the homicide rate has increased by leaps and bounds. >> my god, somebody fired a shot. >> these tragedies keep getting closer and closer to home. >> the crime wave has touched off a new round of gun buying. >> i'll plead not guilty right now. >> there has been a disturbing growth in cult phenomena. ♪

♪ ♪ all the elements from one of the most sensational murder trials in american history. seven people murdered in the

glare of hollywood publicity. >> the '70s is a decade of just brutal violence on every front and anywhere that you look in america. >> at the time of a mass murder, there's a lot of media coverage, but usually after a brief period of time, the identity of the perpetrator tends to fade from the public. the manson case was the biggest case the d.a.'s office had ever had. >> the manson trials begins the 1970s on such an evil, sadistic note, seven innocent people died. abigail folger, sharon tate and others. >> all of you know how beautiful she was, but only a few of you

know how good she was. >> and you had charles manson himself. the charismatic leader of the family who didn't show any remorse or any respect for the system. >> am i happy? it's your court. i wouldn't accept it. >> the problem is he did not physically participate in these murders. but only manson had a motive to commit these murders and that motive was helter-skelter. >> he envisioned white people would turn against the black man if he thought the black man committed these murders and there would be a civil war. he foresaw the black man would win this war, but later on said the brake man, because of inexperience, would not be able to handle the reigns of power. so he would have to look around at those white people who escaped from helter-skelter. in other words, turn over the reigns of power to charles manson and the family. >> when the words helter-skelter were found in blood, i argued

this was tantamount to manson's fingerprints being found at the murder scene. >> today, he had an x scratched in his forehead, his way of saying he's x'd himself out of society. ♪ >> the three sang as they went to and from court today as if to show they are with manson and he can with him. >> the three women were coached by charlie every morning. here's things i want you to do. so they would do everything from sing mocking songs to the judge, to when charlie is making one of his impassioned speeches, mouthing the words along with him. >> i know what i've done. and no man can judge me. i judge me. >> are you bitter? >> bitter? no. no.

open them. >> charlie manson is a great presenter, but vincent was better. and when he put these two antagonists into a courtroom, america thought this is entertainment. >> people who are curious about the tate murders go to the los angeles hall of justice where they wait in long lines. some people are so interested they get to the courthouse at 4:00 a.m. something else this has done is gathered together those members of manson's family who are not in jail. >> the world is getting crazy. >> one read part of a letter manson wrote to the district attorney. >> i'm writing to you because i don't think i'm getting a fair trial. i'm one man standing alone, defending myself. contrast this with the facilities you have available to you. >> coverage of the charles manson case. here is a man who is guilty, directly or indirectly, of eight

murders without reason. here is a man yet who, as far as the coverage was concerned, appeared to be rather a glamorous figure. >> l.a. times, next morning, manson guilty nixon declares. manson stands up in front of the jury with a silly little smile and he shows the jury the headline. >> the manson jury deliberates. members of the manson clan continue their vigil outside the hall of justice. they've been there since the start of the trial. >> if charlie were convicted of these charges, what happens to the rest of the members of the family? >> there's no ifs. charlie will get out. all the people in jail will get out and we'll all go to the desert together. >> the jury hearing the charges against charles manson and three girl members of his so-called family brought in its verdict this afternoon. >> outside the course, manson's girl followers got the news by

radio. >> they've convicted these people and you are next, all of you. there's a revolution coming very soon. >> today, the judge formally passed sentence on charles manson and his girls. the death penalty, he said, for seven senseless murders. he said not only was the sentence appropriate but almost compelled in this case. so death in the gas chamber, he said. >> the very name manson has become a metaphor, for evil, catapulting him to almost mythological proportions. there's a side to human nature, for whatever reason, that is fascinated by pure evil. >> if the death penalty is to mean anything in the state of california, this questionably was a proper case with the imposition of the death penalty. >> the california supreme court

ruled that the death penalty is unconstitutional. that will save five women and 102 women from the gas chamber, including charles manson. >> i don't give you the answer you want -- >> it doesn't matter to me. it's your opinion. >> well, i don't have the authority to say anything like that. >> you have the authority to believe. >> i believe what i'm told to believe. don't you?

rheumatoid arthritis like me... and you're talking to a rheumatologist about a biologic, this is humira. this is humira helping to relieve my pain and protect my joints from further damage. this is humira helping me reach for more. doctors have been prescribing humira for more than 10 years. humira works for many adults. it targets and helps to block a specific source of inflammation that contrubutes to ra symptoms. humira can lower your ability to fight infections, including tuberculosis. serious, sometimes fatal infections and cancers, including lymphoma, have happened, as have blood, liver and nervous system problems, serious allergic reactions, and new or worsening heart failure. before treatment, get tested for tb. tell your doctor if you've been to areas where certain fungal infections are common, and if you've had tb, hepatitis b, are prone to infections, or have flu-like symptoms or sores. don't start humira if you have an infection. talk to your doctor and visit humira.com

this is humira at work. i'm why? because it's red lobster's crabfest. and there's so much crab, so many ways. and with dishes like this luscious crab lover's dream or savory snow crab bake. i'm just getting started so hurry in and get crackin' ♪ ♪

isn't it beautiful when things just come together? build a beautiful website with squarespace.

the boy was shot right at the side of the car, and the girl apparently tried to run. she was shot and found 28 feet further on. >> do you have any idea what the possible motive might be for this killing? >> we have no motive at this time. >> the zodiac killer, this unknown person, committed dozens of murders in the 1960s, the 1970s. we really don't know the full dimensions of the case, but we know he's the zodiac because he started writing to the police, claiming credit in great deal, articulating and explaining what he did to these victims. >> the chronicle received two letters. they notified us immediately, the criminalologist was sent

over to the newspaper, as were inspectors and the two letters were examined and opened. >> the zodiac is reaching out to the police, repeatedly. >> he's already murdered five. one at a lover's lane near a lake north of san francisco. the latest, a taxi driver in san francisco. the zodiac killer seems to crave publicity. he's sent letters to newspapers and the police. threatening more murders and making bay area residents very edgy. >> in the '70s, there are a certain kind of killer who had the kill to get away with murder long enough to assemble a body count where they could be classified as a serial killer. >> in los angeles, a killer, the police are killing the hillside killer, has murdered ten young women and left their bodies on the hillsides along the highway.

today, number 11. two young paper boys discovered the latest victims. the victim was a woman, about 20 years old, and the body was nude. >> the series of murders has had a chilling effect on the people of the city. >> in los angeles, more women than ever before are learning how to defend themselves. susan ball skipped night school for a week. she says she can't sleep. >> i guess i just want to give myself a few seconds so i can live. >> there are been enough bodies to strongly suggest more than one killer. but police say they really don't know. >> today, the los angeles police say they have a suspect. a man in jail in another state. >> los angeles police say they have enough evidence to charge 27-year-old kenneth bianki with ten of the stranglings. he was arrested last january for the murder of two college

students in washington state. >> the police did not know there was not one strangeler but two. >> today, in the hopes of acoding a death sentence, confessed to participation in the los angeles hillside stranglings, and accused his cousin as his cousin. >> he was trying to show his older cousin that he was tough. we've seen this time and time again. pairs of killers who urge each other on and together they are extremely vicious and violent. >> there's a skull, jawbone, everything. >> when did you first get word there might be some bodies buried here? >> this morning. >> had you had any indication before? >> no. >> the man behind the killings was dean corals, 33 years old.

or was. he was shot and killed wednesday evening by wayne henley, 17 years old. henley was one of two teenagers who lured boys to the home. >> dean corals would pick up kids and he would incapacitate them, put them on what he called his death board, and rape and kill them. >> the texas sex and torture killings now have become the worst mass murderses in american history. four more bodies of young boys were dug up today. that brings to 27 the number of bodies discovered so far. >> some people trying to make it appear that the police department has not done all that it could or should have done in these cases. the police department feels that these parents are not discharges their own responsibilities as far as raising and disciplining their children. >> these shocking murders focus on runaway children and what can happen to them. >> the children that run away

from home today are not the children we had running away in the '60s. in the '60s, we had flower children. today, children are running from a situation rather than to a situation. >> it was to the demise of many who in fact were picked up by sexual sadists, like john wayne gacy. >> in illinois near chicago, a man who served time in prison for sex crimes was let out. today, they found the bodies of at least three young boys buried under his house. >> police today found six more bodies under the john gacy house. >> authorities made their first positive identification of the 28 bodies unearthed so far. >> this grisly search ended tonight and will be resumed after christmas. >> prior to his arrest, gacy was well known in this community. he dressed in a clown outfit for the benefit of youngsters and

seen as a man young people liked. >> the coroner of this county has seen nothing like it. >> he's crazy. that's the only word i can use. frightening. is is the model rear end event. the model year end sales event. it's year end! it's the rear end event. year end, rear end, check it out. talk about turbocharging my engine. you're gorgeous. what kind of car do you like? new, or many miles on it? get a $1000 volkswagen reward card on select 2015 passat models. or lease a 2015 passat limited edition for $189 a month after a $1000 bonus.

from new york, this is abc news.

>> good evening. the supreme court ruled today that there is nothing unconstitutional in the death penalty. >> the court says the death penalty is an expression of society's moral outrage at particular crimes. >> in the 1970s, we had a four-year moratorium on the death penalty. the u.s. supreme court ruled the death penalty unconstitutional. in 1976, the u.s. supreme court said it's constitutional and then we started seeing death rows repopulated with new criminals like gary gilmore. >> it seemed the people want the death penalty but not executions. i took them literal and serious and they sentenced me to death. >> crimes were not especially extreme. but when he was convicted, he wanted to die. he wanted to go out in a blaze of glory. so two years later he was put to death by a firing squad and became the first person in

america in this new era to be executed. his words were, let's do it. >> the order of the court of the state of utah has been carried out. gary mark gilmore is dead. >> tonight, our topic will be murder. as a growth industry. these are the national homicide figures. for the past ten years, every year has set a new high for murder in america. >> the statistics were stupendous. violent crime was soaring. the spectacles that people were seeing was unlike anything they had to absorb before. >> a small grocery store has been robbed. the owner of the store has been shot and killed. >> what happened? >> as i understand, the man came into the store and had a gun and asked for the money. my grandfather reached for a gun he had and he grabbed for the

man's gun and it went off and my grandfather fell to the floor. >> why did he feel he needed a gun? >> because there were so many robberies in this area. >> today, ordinary citizens who would not otherwise dream of having a gun, are buying one because they're scared out of their skits. >> william rubiak has been robbed four times in two years. now he bought a gun and says next time he will use it. >> i will shoot and i will shoot to kill. [ gunfire ] >> fear is the biggest seller of guns. studies have shown each urban crime wave has touched off a new round of gun buying. >> we have german lugers, small revolvers, magnums. some of these saturday night specials can be palmed in your hand. >> it was shortly after 10:00 california time when the

president left his hotel. surrounded by secret service agents and there was a hand with a gun coming through the crowd. secret service agents forced the assailant to the ground and handcuffed her. she was identified as one of the earliest followers of charles manson. >> about the same time gerald ford becomes president, charlie in prison writes to squeaky that he's got new rules. they want to do one big thing that's going to get the nation's attention back on charlie. so squeaky, wearing a red robe, comes up to the president of the united states with a big gun, points the gun in his face. the secret servicemen wrestle her to the ground and her first words were, can you believe the gun didn't go off? >> i wonder if this has

convinced you that we need tough gun control legislation. >> i prefer to go after the person who uses the gun for illegal or criminal purpose. that to me is a far better approach than the one where you require registration of the individual of the gun. >> just minutes after making those statements, gerald ford walked into the streets and heard the sound of gunfire. [ gunshots ] >> there's a shot, a shot! >> somebody fired a shot. [ sirens ] >> we don't know if anybody has been hit. my god, somebody fired a shot. >> the president was not hit. witnesses heard the sound and saw a puff of smoke. the woman identified as sarah jean moore, was immediately

seized. >> she jumped out of the crowd, fired off a weapon and was tackled by another citizen. her background it turned out was a sort of eccentric lower rung political figure. he was kind of an odd duck. >> when gerald ford became president, within the space of one month, were two attempts on his life. both tried to shoot him. it was like, what's going on? why can't this be stopped? >> once again, this nation has narrowly escaped the trauma of assassination of our president. above all else, this points out the need for some additional measures, some additional precautions to protect the life of the highest elected official in the country. will it take another assassination in our lifetime to finally force some action? wow. sweet new subaru, huh mitch?

yep. you're selling the mitchmobile!? man, we had a lot of good times in this baby. what's your dad want for it? ..like a hundred and fifty grand, two hundred if they want that tape deck. you're not going to tell your dad about the time my hamster had babies in the backseat, are you?! that's just normal wear and tear, dude. (vo) subaru has the highest resale value of any brand... ...according to kelley blue book ...and mitch. love. it's what makes a subaru, a subaru.

in the nation, what's precious to you is precious to us. ♪ love is strange so when coverage really counts, you can count on nationwide. we put members first. join the nation.

in the '70s, new york was really in danger. the whole social fabric had been torn in half and crime was just one of the many indications that we were lost. >> i would say the last ten years, the homicide rate has increased by leaps and bounds. we hit our peak probably in 1972, when the bronx had 430

homicides. in the '70s the bronx looked like berlin after world war ii. literally looked like berlin. >> 1.5 million people live in the borough. once that smoke on the horizon signified industry, progress, jobs. now it means someone is burning down a building. it has become the harsh capital of the world. it happens 30 times a day and the flames are the signal of a national disaster. >> is there anything that can change the situation? >> the bronx is doomed with a capital "d." >> a lot of gritty stuff went down in new york and when you think of new york in the '70s you think of the son of sam murders. >> christine freund, soon to be married, is dead today. dead in a shooting that has no apparent motive. >> the end of 1976, they transferred me to queens homicide.

the first victim i came across was a woman named christine freund, who was sitting there with her boyfriend coming from a movie and got her head cut off. >> the comparison determined it was the same killer using the same gun a .44 caliber weapon on these homicides. therefore the police nicknamed it the .44 caliber killer. >> he struck april 17th at 3:00 in the morning, killing 18-year-old valentina suriani, and her fiance, 20-year-old alexander esau as they sat in a parked car in the baychester section of the bronx. >> we got the shooting back in the bronx. a girl named valentina suriani but at the scene where that shooting occurred left a note addressed to my supervisor and called himself the son of sam. >> he talks about being possessed by a man he refers to as sam and the man he refers to to as his father if and he said

his father requires blood. >> this got people's attention. i think it was the sheer randomness of it. the fact you could be doing something as simple as talking to a friend in a car and someone would come behind you and open fire. it was pretty terrifying. it was frightening. >> i was in charge of the night time operation. part of the task force that wanted to shoot him on sight. that was our job, take him out on the street. we flooded the streets of new york. >> people died and we're trying to stop it. it is not you. it's everybody. that's all we are trying to do. >> okay. ♪ >> in terms of the victim count, that doesn't place him at the top of the list in terms of the most deadly serial killers but it was new york city. what happens in new york city, well, that's international news. >> good evening. harry is on vacation. here are our top stories. 100 more police join the hunt for the son of sam killer in new york. >> the search continues for the .44 caliber killer come to

be known as the son of sam. >> he warned in one of his sick and threatening letters to the police that sam is a thirsty lad and won't let me stop killing until he has had his full of blood. >> it was really miserably hot summer in new york. everything went dark. i heard someone on the street go oh, it's a blackout. >> the looters were out almost instantly. and it felt apocalyptic. i remember going to bed that night thinking it was the end of the world. >> new york city in the early morning after a night of no electric power. what it did have in the dark streets was a wild outburst of crime. >> when the greatest city in the world goes black, it showed a crumbling america. then you have the son of sam on the loose. we always look for patterns in

victims. there was this belief he was only killing women with long dark hair. >> i know the .44 killer is after girls with long brown hair. so when me and my friends go out at night we put our hair up. >> my hair is down to my shoulder. >> i cut it short because of the .44 caliber killer. >> his last victim was actually blond. >> a 20-year-old new york city girl died this evening a day and a half after she and her companion were shot by the son of sam. the nighttime killer that has stalked new york residential boroughs for a year. >> easy. >> postal worker walked out of his yonkers apartment last night. turned the ignition key in his car and found himself surrounded by police. well, he said, you got me. police say those words ended the biggest manhunt in new york city history with the capture of son of sam. and this is what they say tripped up the .44 caliber

killer, a parking ticket. david berkowitz drove this ford galaxy from his home to brooklyn. police say he went to stalk his 12th and 13th victims. but in the place he parked was a fire hydrant and police had the lead they needed. >> when we get him and i interrogate him, my attitude at this time, i want to take him and throw him out the window. this guy was so pathetic. like talking to a zucchini, never blinked. constant smile on his face. after a while it is hard to feel sorry for the guy. he is gone. >> i feel great. i think the people of our city will feel great relief. >> praise the lord. it's over. we're very, very happy. >> that was the first thing we heard this morning. it was fantastic. it was great. >> serial killers tend to be cunning. that allows them to stay at large. when they get caught it is usually because of luck. good luck for us. bad luck for them.

>> the bag on the seat had the .44 caliber gun that did the shootings. what more do you need? and then a machine gun fully loaded in the backseat and the night of interrogation they directed, i said, well, what were you going to do with the machine gun and he said i was on my way to the hamptons. and i was going to spray the place and kill as many people as i could. and ones you never thought you'd make. we help connect where you are. to places you never thought you'd go. this, is why we travel. and why we continue to create new technology to connect you to the people and places that matter. when you're not confident your company's data is secure, the possibility of a breach can quickly

become the only thing you think about. that's where at&t can help. at at&t we monitor our network traffic so we can see things others can't. mitigating risks across your business. leaving you free to focus on what matters most. devhighest quality,the clinically proven nutrition isn't easy, so at gnc, why do we do it?

why do we include key ingredients found in fruits and vegetables to create the world's best multivitamin programs? why do we do over 150 quality checks before putting them on the shelf? well, here's why... ♪ celebrating 80 years of quality life and quality products. for a limited time buy one vitapak and get one half off. the worlds best multivitamin program, only at gnc. pwhat've we got? 5. bp 64/40 sterilize sites. multiple foreign objects in the body. tweezers. (buzz!) (buzz!) if you're the guy from the operation game, you get operated on. it's what you do. (buzz!) if you want to save fifteen percent or more on car insurance, you switch to geico. it's what you do.

can a a subconscious. mind? a knack for predicting the future. reflexes faster than the speed of thought. can a business have a spirit? can a business have a soul? can a business be...alive?

there are too many miracles in this church that it is hard to tell one without telling two or three, because they run together. for 30 years i prayed to a sky god and got nothing but disappointment and heart ache. now we have a father who loves each one of us so much. how thankful we are. thank you. [ applause ] ♪ >> the '70s were very fertile period for new religious movements. what was so interesting about the rise of cults in our country is how many people wanted to ally themselves with these

stigmatized and fanatical organizations. >> i must say it is a great effort to be god. i lean upon another but no one else has the faculty that i do. in the meantime i shall be god and beside me there shall be no other. >> jim jones was an extraordinary figure. he was community leader, social worker. and minister. he carried his ministry to ♪ walk with me >> what was particularly distinctive about him at that time is he created a community that was united between whites and blacks. this time at a time when the country was racially divided and churches were not integrated. >> some leading scientists say we have to have euthanasia. oh, no. oh, no. who's going to decide who and when a person is going to die? we must never allow that. this kind of thing ushers in the

terror of a hitler's germany. we must not allow these kind of things to enter our consciousness. >> i wanted to write a story about this guy and his power an the reach he had. so i began to contact ex members and they said all is not so good inside. there were beatings if you got out of line, a lot of sex abuse and the story took on a new life at that point. very soon afterwards, the church members began to leave san francisco for guyana. he figures if i'm in guyana, it really doesn't matter what is said or written. nobody's going to get me here. ♪ we are a happy family we are a happy family yes we are ♪ >> it was an escapade almost unparalleled in the history of religious movements. they had very little communication with loved ones at home. and naturally there was concern

with where they had gone and what was happening out there in the jungle. >> i think jim jones took his group down there because he was afraid to face publicity and answer questions here in this country. >> he was talking immigration, he was talking helping people. he was talking better this and better that. >> what about now, what's your impression now? >> my impression now those are fronts for him. i think he's gone crazy. >> congressman ryan started hearing the name jim jones more regularly. he wanted to expose what he believed was going on down there that was wrong. he thought it was certainly worth inviting members of the press to join him. >> very glad to be here. this is a congressional inquiry. i can tell you right now whatever the comments are, there are some people here that believe this is the best thing that happened to them in their

whole life. >> toward the end of the evening, don harris, who was the nbc reporter had been walking around the pavilion and two people slipped him notes and he hands the notes over to congressman ryan who opens them and says, oh, my god, it is true. everything we have been told is true. >> always a place. >> do i both understand you to say that you both want to leave on this date? >> then i remember seeing this couple with a child between them. >> get back here! bring them back!

don't you take my kids! >> you could feel the tension. >> last night, someone came and passed me this note. >> people play games, friend. they lie. they lie. what can i do about liars? you people leave us. i beg you. please leave us. >> instead of just letting that plane take off with minimal damage to his movement, jones snapped. >> good evening. for about the last 30 hours we here at nbc news have been trying to establish what happened last night at the airstrip at a place called port >> don harris was killed. bob brown was killed. congressman ryan was shot 45 times. >> every time somebody would fall down wounded they would walk over and shoot them in the head with a shotgun. >> i was shot five times. i was lying on my side with my

head down, pretending i was dead. and then all of a sudden they just came and -- um -- shot me is calling for a revolutionary suicide, where we are all going to kill ourselves make a statement to the world. >> i first flew to jonestown last evening around sunset. there was absolute silence. nothing living. it is a scene of the dead.

>> they found tremendous quantities of potassium cyanide poison. it had been mixed with kool-aid. it killed quickly, within five minutes. >> we will never know how many people voluntarily drank the poison. but other people were either coerced, brainwashed or took it against their will. they were murdered. >> i was lifted into this medevac plane, and i was so grateful. >> good evening. the searching american soldiers have finished counting the bodies in jonestown, guyana. 910 died in the poison ritual of the people's temple last week. >> this is americans killing other americans and themselves. in its own interest for its own well being this nation will have to find out why. ♪ ♪ isn't it beautiful

when things just come together? build a beautiful website with squarespace. hiking brought us togetherdom hikers. but that's not the only thing that keeps us coming back. here's to friends who reach for better. fewer carbs, fewer calories, superior taste. michelob ultra. the superior light beer.

you aren't treated like a priority. we do things differently. we'll take care of it. we put members first. join the nation. thank you.

there were a lot of strange people who had committed a lot of strange crimes in the 1970s, but none of them was as mediagenic as ted bundy. >> were you surprised to be in jail. >> i didn't know what to expect. never been in jail or arrested before. >> he was a prolific serial killer. we don't know how many killed. we know dozens. he was handsome, involved in politics. was in law school. didn't seem like the glassy eyed lunatic that many americans

believed that serial killers would be. >> we still don't believe it. it just can't be. i keep shaking my head day after day saying how can this be because our son is the best son in the world. >> what the press wrote about bundy, his crimes wasn't the full details. the full extent of the barbarism, the fact he would have sex with their corpses, mutilate the victims, that didn't fit with this image of the boy next door. >> you feel that everything will turn out all right, that you are innocent. do you still feel that? >> more than ever. >> you think of getting out of here? >> well -- well legally, sure. >> bundy was to stand trial on them charge of murdering a young woman in aspen. the trial never completed. during a court hearing break he was left alone in a law library. he bailed out of the second floor window and escaped. >> he high tailed it up to the

hills where they chased him nearly a week. he got lost up there and probably would have died of exposure if they hadn't arrested him. they caught him and he was put back in jail and at christmastime 1977, he escaped again. >> bundy, starved down to less than 140 pounds slipped through a hole in the ceiling of his cell and was free again. >> the fbi responded by putting bundy on the ten most wanted list. posters with a picture of ted bundy were circulated throughout the nation. >> ted did not have a plan when he escaped. he just wanted to get as far away where he might be identified as he could. so he stole a car and went to florida. >> his new quarters are cramped. he's under 24-hour guard and faces intense questioning. he is theodore bundy, jailed in florida. >> bundy was living in tallahassee at the time when five florida state university coeds were attacked on or near the campus. two of the young women died as a result of the attacks.

>> the police in pensacola, florida, stopped a man driving a stolen car and found to their surprise, and perhaps pleasure it was bundy. >> step out, mr. bundy. what do we have here, an indictment. why don't you read it to me. >> mr. bundy -- you told them you were going to get me. he said you were going to get me. you got the indictment. it's all you are going to get. >> bundy, having had some law training and a great deal of arrogance decided to represent himself. for him he was the star in the courtroom. >> since i have been in dade county -- >> don't shake your finger at me, young man. don't shake your finger at me, young man! >> inside the courtroom, the trial will be covered by a still photographer and one television camera. upstairs there are some 250 reporter and television technicians from around the country. >> bundy's personality is

fascinating to a lot of people. he doesn't fit the usual profile of a criminal. when he defends himself in court it is fascinating for people to watch. >> each day the courtroom is filled with spectators drawn bay fascination with theodore bundy himself or the gruesome details of the crimes. what is unusual to see is many of the onlookers are women, young women. >> you are fascinated by him? >> very. i'm not afraid of him. he doesn't look like the type to kill somebody. to try to imagine yourself in his place and see how he is feeling. >> the bizarre spectacle of ted bundy as a sex symbol really bummed out feminists, as you can imagine. he became a folk hero. there were t-shirts because he was handsome. on the other hand, his violence was so incredibly women hating and his insouciance about that wound up being pretty depressed. >> i had a broken arm and crushed finger. >> i had five skull fractures

and multiple contusions on my head. >> is that man in the courtroom today? >> yes, he is. >> would you point him out for us, please? >> are you prepared for a guilty verdict? >> i think so. but you never know. i've never had to go through this before. >> after six and a half hours of deliberation, the jury had a verdict, 32-year-old theodore bundy remained composed as he listened. guilty of first-degree murder in the strangling deaths of two florida state university sorority sisters 19 months ago. >> it is therefore the sentence of this court that you be sentenced to death by a current of electricity and such current of electricity shall continue to pass through your body until you are dead. >> in some ways, ted bundy is an icon of the '70s. he mixed kind of showbiz and violence in a way that had never been done before.

>> at the end of the '70s, we have had a destruction of our innocence we had at the beginning of the '70s. >> it became an era where americans began to expect the worst. >> america had certainly lost its way. criminals were lauded and killers were romanticized. >> it was the news media that helped to carry this message that america is a dangerous place. that americans had a love affair with violence. it was much more like a marriage and the marriage for some people was until death to day they part. >> for a crime social scientists the violence that struck our cities as an epidemic and identified the causes, poverty, broken homes. for some, violence has become a permanent part of the fabric of life. sociologists call it a subculture of violence. the current wave of violent crime is well in to the second decade. while we have deplored violence, we've not done much about it. perhaps this is because confronting the problem of violence forces us to confront

the most serious defects in our society. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com ♪ this is the way jonestown looked the day it died, november 18th, 1978. >> die with a degree of dignity. lay down your life with dignity. >> a self-proclaimed religious paradise in guyana in south america. carved out of the jungle by jim jones, a man who called himself god.