i don't know how terrorism can be stopped, but history's rhythm is on our side. tonight our topic will be murder as a growth industry. >> murder has become an epidemic in america. >> in 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. i'm afraid to let my kids walk out the door. >> urban crime wave will touch off a new round of gun buying. >> step out. >> i'll plead not guilty right now. >> there has been a disturbing growth in cult phenomenon in this country. >> i shall be god. and beside me there shall be no other.

♪ ♪ all the elements are present for one of the most sensational murder trials in american history. seven people brutally murdered in glare of hollywood publicity. young girls supposedly under the spell of a bearded svengali, who

allegedly masterminded the seven murders. >> 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 mder, there's a lot ofedia coverage. usually after a brief period of time the identity of the perpetrator tends to fade from the public's consciousness, but not so with the manson case. >> the biggest publicity case the d.a.'s office had. >> the manson trial begins the 1970s on such an evil, sadistic note. seven innocent people died. steve perrin, a teenager. abigail folger, folger coffee. jay sevring. the la byian cas and sharon tate. >> all of you know how beautiful she was. only a few of you know -- know how good she was. >> and you had charles manson

himself. the charismatic leader of a family who didn't show any remorse or any respect for the system. >> are you all happy with your courts? >> yes. >> good. >> are you happy? >> in i happy? it's your court. i wouldn't accept it. >> the problem was he did not physically participate in the murders but only manson had a motive to commit these murders and that motive was helter skelter. >> manson envisioned white people would turn against the black man if they thought black men committed these seven murders and ultimately there would be a civil war between blacks and whites. manson foresaw the black man would win this war but he said the black man because of inexperience would not be able to handle the reins of power. so you would have to look around at those white people who had survived, who had escaped from helter skelter. in other words, turn over the reins of power to charles manson and his family. >> when the words "helter-skelter" were found

printed in blood, i argued to the jury this is tantamount to manson's fingerprints being found at the murder scene. >> manson sat through this saying nothing but had an "x" scratched in his forehead. it is his way of saying he has x'd himself out of society. ♪ >> susan atkins, patricia krenwinkel and leslie van houten sang as they went to and from court today as if to show they are with manson and he is with them. >> the three women were coached by charlie every morning. here's what i want you to do. they would do everything from singing mocking songs to the judge, to when charlie is making one of his impassioned speeches mouthing the words along with him. >> i don't have any guilt. i know what i've done and no man can judge me. i judge me. >> are you bitter? >> bitter, no. >> you've paid a price so far. >> price? you have eyes?

open them. >> charlie manson is a great presenter, but vincent buglioi was better. 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 trial has done is gather together again those members of manson's family who are not in jail. >> the world is getting crazy. >> one read part of a letter that manson wrote the district attorney. >> i am writing to you because i don't think i'm getting a fair trial. i'm an individual, one man standing alone defending myself. contrast this with the facilities you have available to you. >> i noted, for example, the coverage of the charles manson case. here is a man who was guilty, directly or indirectly, of eight murders without reason.

here is a man yet who as far as the coverage was concerned appear to be rather a glamorous figure. >> "l.a. times" next morning, "manson guilty nixon declares." manson got ahold of the paper. stands up in front of the jury with a silly little smile on his face and he shows the jury the headline. >> a tight ring of security surrounds the hall of justice today as the manson jury deliberates. meanwhile, members of the manson clan continue their vigil outside of the hall of justice. they have 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 if. charlie will get out. all of 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 court, manson's girl followers got the news by radio.

>> they have 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. and there's a side to human nature, for whatever reason, that is fascinated by pure, unalloyed evil. >> if the death penalty is to mean anything in the state of california other than two empty words this unquestionably was a proper case for the imposition of the death penalty. >> the california supreme court ruled today the death penalty is unconstitutional. that will save five women and

102 men including charles manson from the gas chamber. >> should there be a supreme penalty for committing a crime? >> what do you think? >> i'm the one who's asking you. >> yeah, but if i don't give you the answer that you want -- >> doesn't matter to me. >> doesn't matter -- >> 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? frizzy, unruly hair?

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go to lendingtree.com right now. is a boy was shot right at the side of the car and the girl patiently 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 is the zodiac because he started writing to the police, claiming credit in great detail. articulating and explaining what he did to these victims. >> "the chronicle" received two letters. they notified us immediately. the criminologist was sent to the newspaper, as were inspectors, and the two letters

were examined and opened. >> the zodiac's reaching out to the police repeatedly and in great length was something new. >> the psychotic killer has already murdered five. one at a lover's lane near a lake just north of san francisco. three others in nearby vallejo. the latest, a taxi driver in san francisco. the zodiac killer seems to crave publicity. he sent letters and cryptograms to newspapers and police recounting his crimes, threatening more murders and making bay area residents very edgy. >> in the '70s there was a certain kind of killer who had the skill to get away with murder long enough to assemble a body count where they would be classified as serial killer. >> in los angeles, a killer the police are calling the hillside strangler has murdered ten young women and left their bodies on the hillsides along the highways. today, the police found another, number 11 they think.

>> two young paper boys discovered what appear to be the latest victim. the body had been dumped 15 feet down an embankment in a residential neighborhood. 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 in the city. >> in los angeles more women than ever before are learning to defend themselves. susan ball skipped night school for a week. she says she can't sleep because of the murders. >> i guess i want to learn how to maybe give myself a few seconds so i can live. >> there have been enough bodies found over a wide enough area 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 bianchi with ten of the hillside stranglings. police focused on bianchi only after he was arrested last january for the murder of two college students in washington state. >> what the police did not know is there is not one strangler

but two. today in a bellingham, washington, courtroom, kenneth bianchi, in the hope of avoiding a death sentence, confessed to participation in the los angeles hillside stranglings and accused his cousin angelo buono of being his accomplice. >> kenneth bianchi, he was motivated because he was trying to show his older cousin, who he ref revered, that he was tough. for angelo buono, he enjoyed the cter we see this time and te again. pairs of killers who urge each other and together they are extremely vicious and violent. >> is there any doubt this is a body? >> no doubt. there's a skull and jaw bone and everything. >> when did you first get word there might be some bodies buried here? >> this morning. >> had you had any indication before? >> the man behind the killings was dean corll, 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 young boys to corll's home. >> dean corll would pick up kids and once he had them in his house he would incapacitate them, put them on what he called his death board, and rape and kill them. >> the texas sex and torture killings have now become the worst mass murders in american history. four more bodies of young boys were dug up today and that brings to 27 the number of bodies discovered so far. >> some people trying to make it appear the police department has not done all that it could or should have done in these cases. the police department feels these parents are not exactly discharging their own responsibility so as far as raising and disciplining their children. >> these shocking murders focus national attention on a major problem, that of runaway children and what can happen to them. >> the children have run away from home today are not the children we had running away in the '60s.

in the '60s we had what we called then flower children and they ran away basically for sociopolitical reasons. today children are running from a situation rather than to a situation. >> kids were disappearing, and the police would say well, they probably ran away. it was to the demise of many who in fact were picked up by sexual sadists like john wayne gacy. >> in des plaines, 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. >> illinois authorities today 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 the community. he frequently dressed in a clown outfit for the benefit of youngsters. he was generally seen as a man

young people liked. >> the coroner of this county has seen nothing like it. >> it's frightening. that's the only word i can use, frightening. frightening. i love you, couch.

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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. eventually, 1976, with new statutes, the u.s. supreme court said it's constitutional. and then we started seeing the death penalty back in place. death rows repopulated with new criminals like gary gilmore. >> it seems the people of utah want the death penalty but don't want executions. i took them literal and serious when they sentenced me to death. >> the crimes were not especially extreme. it was two robbery/murders. 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 firing squad. and became the very first person in america in this new era to be executed.

and his words were "let's do it." >> the order of the fourth judicial 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 of all kinds were soaring. the spectacles that people were seeing on their tv screen were unlike anything they'd had to absorb before. >> a small grocery store has been robbed. the owner of the grocery store, nathan hurt, has been shot and killed. >> what happened? >> as i understand a man came to the store and had a gun and asked for money and my grandfather reached for a gun he had and grabbed at the man's gun and it went off or he shot him twice and my grandfather fell to

the floor. >> why did he feel he had to have a gun? >> because there are so many robberies in the area and he thought he needed it for protection. >> today ordinary citizens who would not otherwise dream of having a gun are buying one because they are scared out of their wits. >> william rubiak is a ukrainian immigrant who owns a store outside washington, d.c. he's been robbed at gunpoint four times in the past two years. now william rubiak has bought a gun and he says next time he will use it. >> i will shoot and i will shoot to kill. >> 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 lugars, derringers, small revolvers, magnums. some of these saturday night specials are small, they can be palmed in your hand. >> it was shortly after 10:00 california time when the president left his hotel. not seen by the following cameras but scattered by secret

service agent larry buendorf was a hand with a gun in it coming through the crowd. the commotion erupted. secret service agents forced the assailant to the ground and handcuffed her. she was identified as 27-year-old lynnette alice fromme, one of the earliest followers of charles manson involved in the tate la bianca murders of 1969. >> 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 squeaky's first words were, can you believe the gun didn't go off? >> following your own close brush with death in sacramento i wonder if this has convinced you all that we need tough gun legislation in this country?

>> i prefer to go after the person who uses the gun for an illegal or criminal purpose. that to me is a far better approach than the one where you require registration of the individual or the gun. >> just minutes after making those statements, gerald ford walked in to the street and heard the sound of gunfire. >> my god, there's been a shot! there's been a shot. they're being pushed back by the police. somebody has fired a shot here. 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 by police as sara jane moore was immediately seized. >> sara jane moore jumped out of

the crowd, fired off a weapon and was tackled by another citizen. her background it turned out was as a sort of eccentric, kind of lower-rung political figure. she was kind of an odd duck. >> when gerald ford became president, within the space of one month were two attempts on his life, squeaky fromme and sara jane moore. both tried to shoot him. it's like, what's going on? why can't this be stopped? >> once again this nation has narrowly escaped the tragedy, the trauma of the 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? the future of sleep is here with the new sleep number 360™ smart bed. it senses your every move and automatically adjusts on both sides. right now save on sleep number 360™ smart beds.

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in the '70s, new york was really in danger. the whole social fabric seemed to have 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 this borough. once that smoke on the horizon signified industry, progress, jobs. now it means someone is burning down a building. it has become the arson 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, my own estimation, 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 in a parked car with her boyfriend after coming from a movie and got her head blown off. >> this was a series of random shootings, and the ballistic comparison determined indeed 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 again on 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 that scene where that shooting occurred left a note addressed to my supervisor and he 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. and he says that his father requires blood. >> this got people's attention. i think it was the sheer

randomness to it. the fact you could be doing something as simple as sitting in a car talking to a friend, and someone would come behind you and open fire. it was pretty terrifying. it was frightening. >> i was in charge of the nighttime operation. >> as 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. >> there is people dying and we're trying to stop it, okay? it's everybody. it's 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 press and to the police, sam's a thirsty lad and he won't let me stop killing until he's had his fill of blood. >> it was a 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 i go out, 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. he's the nighttime killer who has stalked new york resential borohs for a year. >> a 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 bensonhurst, brooklyn. then 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. it was like talking to a zucchini. never blinked. constant smile on his face. so after a while i start to feel sorry for the guy. you know, he's -- 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's usually because of luck. good luck for us. bad luck for them. >> when we caught him we searched his car.

the bag on the seat had the .44-caliber gun that did the shootings. what more do you need? then a machine gun fully loaded in the back seat. and the night of the interrogation i 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. if you have moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis like me, and you're talking to your rheumatologist

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there are too many miracles in this church that it's hard to tell about one without telling two or three. because they blend together. a beautiful flow of miracles. for 30 years i prayed to a sky god and got nothing but disappointment and heartache. now we have a father who loves each one of us so much. how thankful we are. thank you. ♪ >> the '70s were a 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. >> and i must say it is a great effort to be god. i don't wish it on another, but no one has the faculty that i do. if they do, i would be glad to hold their coat. in the meantime, he will be god and beside me there shall be no other. >> jim jones was an extraordinary figure. he was a community leader, social worker, then a minister. he carried his ministry to california. ♪ 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 persois going to die?

we must never allow that. because this is the kind of thing that 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. that there were beatings if you got out of line. there was a lot of the sex abuse. and the story took on a new life at that point. very soon afterwards, the church members began leaving san francisco for guyana. >> you're seeing in the distance housing complexes that are going to be built. >> he figures if i'm in guyana, it really doesn't matter what's 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 about 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 the questions here in this country. >> he was talking integration. 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 leo 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 who believe this is the best thing that ever happened to them in their whole life. >> so it's towards 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's true. everything we've been told is true. >> then word spread and more and moreeople wanted to leave. >> do i both understand you to say that you both want to leave jones camp on this date -- november 18, 1978. >> yes, ma'am. >> then i remember seeing this couple with a child between them. >> you bring those kids back

here! you 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 just 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 kaituma. we have a particular interest in it. two nbc newsmen were shot to death there. >> 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 -- shot me at point-blank range. >> they are shooting. people die including leo ryan. and back in jonestown, jim jones is calling for a revolutionary suicide, where we are all going to kill ourselves and make a statement to the world. >> i first flew into jonestown last evening around sunset. there was absolute silence. nothing living was around. jonestown last evening was a city 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 was americans killing other americans and themselves. in its own interest for its own well-being. this nation will have to find out why.

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. there were a lot of strange people who committed a lot of strange crimes in the 1970s but none of them were as mediagenic at ted bundy. >> i don't know what to expect. never been arrested before. >> ted bundy was a serial killer. we don't know how many but dozens. he was handsome, involved with

politics but was in law school and didn't seem like classy guy lunatics that many americans believed serial killers would be. >> we still don't believe it. just can't be. i keep shaking my head day after day saying how can this be because my son is the best sun in the world. >> but the press wrote about bundy. the fact that he would have section with your corpses, mutilate the victims, that didn't fit with his image of boy next door. >> you feel that everything will turn out all right, do you still feel that? >> yeah, more than ever. >> do you think about getting out of here? >> well -- well, legally sure. >> bundy was to stand trial on the charge of murdering a young woman in aspen, trial never completed. during a court hearing break he was left alone in a law library.

bundy bald out of second story window and escaped. >> he high tailed it up into the hills where they chased him for nearly weeks. they caught him and he was put back in jail and at christmas time, 1977 he escaped again. >> bundy starved down to less than 140 pounds slipped through a whole in the ceiling of his cell and was free again. >> the fbi put bundy on ten most wanted lists. posters circulated throughout the nation. >> ted did not have a plan when he escaped, he wanted to get as far as away where he might be identified. so he stole a car and wen to florida. >> he's under 24 hour guard and faces intense questioning. >> bundy was living in tallahassee at the time when

five coeds were attacked on or near the campuses. two of the young women died. >> the police in florida stopped a man driving a stolen car and found it was bundy. >> step out mr. bundy. what we have here, let's see, oh it's an indictment. >> won't you read it to me? >> your up for election around you? >> mr. bundy. >> you fold me you were going to get me. he said he was going to get me you got the indictment, that's all you're going to get. >> bundy having some legal training and arrogant decided to rep himself. >> since i have been in dade, county. >> don't shake your finger at me young man. >> inside the courtroom the trial will be covered by a still photography and one television camera. up stairs there are reporters and technicians from around the

country. >> bundy's personality is karz mask for a lot of people. he doesn't fit the criminal. he's fascinating for people to watch. >> each day the trial is -- what is unusual to see the many of the onlookers are young women who are fascinated by him. >> he doesn't look like the type that will kill somebody. you try to imagine yourself in his place. >> the bizarre spect bl of ted bundy as a section symbol bummed out feminists. his violence were so incredibly woman hating and his attitude about that wound up being pretty depressed. >> i had -- back in -- i had a broken arm and a crushed finger.

>> i had five skull fractures and large contusions in my head. >> is that man in the courtroom today? >> yes, he is. >> would you point him out for us please. >> are you paerrepared for a guy verdict? >> i think so but never know. >> after 6.5 hours of deliberation the jury had a verdict. 32-year-old theodore bundy remained exposed as he listened. guilty of first-degree murder in the strangening death of the sorority sisters 19 months ago. >> it is therefore the sentencing 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 show business and violence in a way that had

never been done before. >> at the end of the '70s we had a destruction of our innocence that he had at the beginning of the '70s. >> it became a year when americans began to expect the worse. american has lost its way, killers who were roe about what time sized. it was the news media that helped carry this message that america was a dangerous place. it had a love affair with violence, and it was something like a marriage. >> for time, essential scientist describe a way of the violence that struck our cities as an epidemic and they identified some of the causes. poverty, broken homes, for some violence has become a permanent part of life. it's called a sub curl of violence. the current wave of violent crime is well into its second

decade. while we have deplored violence we have not done much about it. perhaps this is because confronting violence forces us to confront the serious defects of our society.