>> he leads the most famous charge in american history. >> i am standing right on the site of pickett's charge. >> it cost him hundreds of men, but it made him immortal. >> he leaves his descendants with a suitcase full of heirlooms. >> you want to take a look? >> i really would. >> then a fast-talking con man comes to town... >> he dressed well, he was very glib of tongue. >> ...forcing the general's heir into battle over his strange inheritance. >> what was your reaction? >> i was pissed. it began to dawn on me that i had been really truly ripped off. [ woman vocalizing, theme music plays ] [ wind howls ] [ thunder rumbles ] [ bird caws ] [ folk music plays ]

>> i'm jamie colby, and today i'm in wilmington, north carolina. it's known for its gorgeous beaches and its great surfing, but it was also the last confederate port city to fall during the civil war, so it is fitting that i'm here to meet an heir whose ancestor became famous in defeat at the high-water mark of the confederacy. >> my name is george edward pickett v. i'm the great-great-grandson of general george e. pickett of gettysburg fame. and i never knew exactly what that would bring to my family -- fame, fortune, or dishonor. >> george -- who goes by his middle name, ed -- has invited me to his home. hi, ed. >> hi. you must be jamie. >> i am jamie. how are you today? >> i'm good. >> when the 59-year-old isn't working as a surfing instructor, ed enjoys doing yoga and playing guitar. it's a far cry from his famous great-great-grandfather who fought at gettysburg.

growing up, did your family ever discuss that you had a connection to that battle? >> well, i knew about it. it was discussed briefly. i was not really that interested as a little kid. >> it's easy to understand why. ed's ancestor is best known for being on the losing side of the most pivotal battle in the civil war. >> some people said, "oh, didn't he lose? wasn't he a loser?" because that was the way that a lot of the history books talked about pickett's charge. >> so you don't bury your head like, "oh, i can't believe i came to school today"? >> i remember doing that one time. i didn't know enough to defend him. >> someone who does know a lot about general pickett is civil war historian earl coates. i meet earl right here on the gettysburg battlefield. i am standing right on the site of pickett's charge. >> you certainly are. you're at one of the iconic sites of the civil war. >> what was pickett's contribution?

>> general pickett, till that time, was certainly known as a confederate commander, but after the charge, he was known the world over. >> pickett serves under general james longstreet in july 1863, here at gettysburg, in the army of northern virginia, commanded by general robert e. lee. >> general lee was looking for a great victory on union soil. >> but the federal army holds the high ground. after two days of failing to break through, lee orders a controversial attack, an assault on the center of the union line. general pickett's troops are assigned to break through the middle. [ march plays ] so, earl, right now, we're on the confederate side. >> yes. in fact, you're moving pretty much along the ground that pickett's division came across. you'll see how the ground slopes away here, and then you start up a steady slope up to where the trees are. there were union cannon along

the whole ridgeline. they're high, they're elevated, they can see what's coming, and they can sweep the ground in front of them. >> they had the edge. >> they had it, and they used it. >> pickett's men advance directly into heavy fire. the union guns mow down the rebels. what did the scene look like after? >> well, this field that you're seeing out here was littered with dead. it was just a scene of total devastation. >> earl reads me some firsthand accounts of the bloodshed. >> "on one part of the field, the dead lay almost as thick as they could and men with heads shot off, men shot in two, and men shot to pieces as hardly can be recognizable as any part of a man." >> it's a turning point in the war. never again would the south mount an invasion of union territory. was that the high-water mark? >> that's the high-water mark. from that point on, the fortunes

of the confederacy started to wane. >> just knowing that pickett's charge was a disaster is enough for ed while growing up in north carolina in the 1960s. >> i had other interests that seemed to be more important to me at the time. >> he certainly has no interest in this old suitcase of family heirlooms that his father inherited. when his parents divorce, his dad passes the suitcase along to his mother with instructions to hold onto it for ed. >> ed, this is the actual case? >> it's the actual case. you want to take a look? >> i really would. >> okay. >> as far as young ed could tell, this suitcase only contained some boring, old military-looking knickknacks -- a cap, part of a uniform, some old documents. whatever. >> my mother would kind of say, "there's this legacy you have," you know? "and it's gonna be yours one day." and i would be like, "yeah, okay. sure. can i go outside and play?"

>> whether he appreciates it or not, ed takes possession of the suitcase in the early '90s. it's his by family tradition as the first-born pickett male. after his 70-year-old mother moves into an assisted living facility, she warns her son to remove it from the family home before someone steals it. >> i'd got it out of the closet. i didn't take the time right away to look through it. i kind of opened it and looked at it and went, "oh, okay," and closed it and moved on. >> it winds up tucked away in a closet again, now at ed's house. but he has no time to play curator. >> i spent a lot of time with my own children. and that was more important to me than looking through stuff. >> ed may not take much interest, but certain people in the civil war collecting world do. rumors spread that a metal case full of general pickett artifacts is still in the family's possession in north carolina.

in september 1995, ed gets a call from a guy named russell pritchard in philadelphia. pritchard says he's an antiques appraiser looking for artifacts to buy for a new civil war museum being built in harrisburg, pennsylvania. >> i was a little bit standoffish because i didn't really believe him. >> a few weeks later, a letter arrives. and i had a letter from the mayor of harrisburg. >> saying? >> russ pritchard is the official representative of the national civil war museum in the city of harrisburg. >> did you get a letter from the mayor because you asked for credentials? >> no. >> it just arrived. >> that's exactly right. >> next thing you know, russ pritchard just arrives uninvited in wilmington and, boy, is he persistent. >> russ wanted to be my new best friend. he followed me around like a puppy -- helped me carry drywall to a construction site, he had sat on the beach with my children while my wife and went

surfing. he kept asking, you know, "can i see the artifacts? when can i see them?" >> ed finally agrees to show pritchard what's inside that old family suitcase. the next few hours are a revelation for ed. that old cap is called a kepi, and it was worn by general pickett at gettysburg. there's his blood-stained uniform sleeve, personal letters, photos, his military sash, and this -- pickett's own hand-drawn map of the gettysburg battlefield. >> he was very knowledgeable. he knew what everything was. >> tell me about the reaction on russ pritchard's face. >> he was delighted. it was like he found a gold mine. and he said, "i'm prepared on behalf of the mayor to make you an offer." >> who did you feel he represented? your interest or the museum's interest? >> as i understood it, he was an appraiser standing in the middle. that's what he said.

that he could not over-estimate or underestimate the value of it. >> russ comes up with an offer to buy most of the contents of the case. $87,500. now it's ed who thinks he's struck gold. >> i thought, "wow, $87,500 is a lot of money to me." >> did it look fair? >> seemed fair to me. it was more money than i'd ever gotten in my life. ed happily accepts pritchard's offer and a check, and signs away the items. pritchard immediately departs with the pickett artifacts. but general pickett's great-great grandson is in for the shock of his life, when he finds out what eventually happens to his family heirlooms. >> it was all lies. he just lied to me completely. >> that's next. >> but first, our "strange inheritance" quiz question.

the answer in a moment.

my "business" was going nowhere... so i built this kickin' new website with godaddy. building a website in under an hour is easy! 68% of people... ...who have built their website using gocentral, did it in... ...under an hour, and you can too. type in your business or idea. pick your favourite design. personalize it with beautiful images. and...you're done! and now business is booming. harriet, it's a double stitch not a cross stitch! build a better website - in under an hour. free to try. no credit card required. gocentral from godaddy. >> so, how many generals were killed or mortally wounded at gettysburg? it's a -- 9. five confederate, four union. no other battle claimed as many general officers. >> in the fall of 1995, in wilmington, north carolina, ed pickett, great-great grandson

of confederate general george pickett, is thrilled to complete the sale of some of his family heirlooms to antiques appraiser and buyer, russ pritchard. >> the total amount was $87,500, which seemed like an awful lot -- more than i had made in a couple years. >> the items had been in the family for generations. now, the artifacts -- including the general's cap, bloodstained sleeve, and his hand-drawn map of the gettysburg battlefield -- are to be showcased at a new civil war museum in harrisburg, pennsylvania. did you talk to at least one other dealer to kind of get a sense of what you had and what it was worth? >> no, he told me he was working for the city and that his job was to appraise it accurately. >> three years later, in the summer of 1998, ed accepts an invitation to speak at a dinner in gettysburg, hosted by the friends of the national parks.

it's here he's introduced to civil war historian earl coates. >> and i knew he was an expert in clothing. and i asked him, "how much would a kepi be worth?" >> he kind of stunned me. i said, "you mean the general's?" and he said, "yes." whoa. >> and of course at that moment, the room got very silent. he said, "well it could be worth a lot of money." 200, 250 just for the kepi alone. >> $250,000? >> yes, $250,000. i said, you know, "that's more than i got for everything." >> but ed does not want to believe he's been swindled. he considers russ pritchard a friend. you trusted him so much, you let him babysit your infant. >> that's correct. >> earl suggests they find out more. through his connections, he discovers how much the museum paid pritchard for the items. how much did they pay? >> they paid over $800,000. >> your reaction?

>> i was astounded. i realized something was really wrong. >> then another shocker -- he learns pritchard flat-out stole some items, including family photos that he'd kindly offered to restore for ed. >> russ pritchard told me that he'd be glad to frame them for me and send them back, no charge. >> no charge. >> you know, he was just going to do it because he was a nice guy. >> wondering what they could be worth, ed takes them to the highly regarded gettysburg antique store, the horse soldier. the owner takes one look and says... >> "these are not real photographs. these are laser copies." i said, "are you sure?" >> upon closer examination, even ed can clearly see the lines from the laser printer. pritchard had re-framed his photos with fakes. ed's embarrassment over making a bad deal is now replaced with a new emotion -- anger. what was your reaction? >> i was pissed.

it began to dawn on me that i had been really, truly ripped off. >> ed decides it's time to take the fight to the enemy. that's next, on "strange inheritance." >> here's another quiz question. 3,903 confederate solders were killed at gettysburg. the answer in a moment. ♪music ♪yea, you can be the greatest ♪you can be the best ♪you can be the king kong ♪bangin on your chest ♪you can beat the world you can beat the war♪ ♪you can talk to god while bangin on his door♪ ♪you can throw your hands up you can beat the clock♪ ♪you can move a mountain you can break rocks♪ ♪you can be a master don't wait for luck♪ ♪dedicate yourself and you can find yourself♪ ♪standin in the hall of fame ♪yea

♪and the world's gonna know your name, yea♪ ♪and you'll be on the walls of the hall of fame♪ ♪you can be a champion ♪be a champion ♪in the walls of the hall of fame♪ ♪be students, be teachers be politicians, be preachers♪ ♪yea, yea ♪be believers, be leaders, be astronauts, be champions♪ ♪standin in the hall of fame

>> so how many confederate soldiers are buried in the national cemetery at gettysburg? it's b -- 7. all soldiers were originally buried on the battlefield, but in november 1863, the national cemetery was

reserved for those who died preserving the union. all confederate killed in action were later reburied in the south, though seven remained by mistake. >> in the fall of 1998, ed pickett is stunned to learn the civil war artifacts he sold to appraiser russ pritchard for $87,000 are later re-sold by pritchard for $880,000. >> i was pissed, because it's not really just me that had been ripped off, but my children. and so that's when i got a lawyer. >> the family heirlooms belonged to his great-great grandfather, confederate general george e. pickett, whose name is synonymous with the failed rebel charge at gettysburg. in 1999, ed heads into battle himself -- this time in the courtroom. a civil jury eventually awards him $800,000 -- the difference between what the museum paid the

con man and the con man paid him. ed is thrilled at first. >> i received a jury verdict against russ pritchard for $800,000, of which i did not receive $800,000 'cause russ pritchard suddenly had empty pockets. i got $250,000 of which my attorney took his cut of the cash. >> how much? >> close to $100,000. >> but the law's not done with russ pritchard yet. as ed's case plays out in court, fbi agent robert wittman is paying very close attention. >> he was very smooth, he dressed well, he was very glib of tongue. >> it turns out, pritchard and his partners had been running the same kind of scam on others who had civil war artifacts. >> usually 10 times was what they were selling material for after they had appraised it for 1/10 of value. >> ed's lawsuit helps wittman and the fbi build a criminal case. >> in the end, there was a

superseding criminal indictment that had more than 20 counts in it. >> faced with a mountain of evidence against him, pritchard strikes a deal in 2001 with prosecutors and pleads guilty. he's sentenced to a year in prison and 830k in restitution fees. half of that sum is awarded to ed pickett, but... >> russ pritchard doesn't seem to have the money. i think i've received a total of maybe $25,000, $30,000. >> are you furious? >> i'm pretty upset. >> look in the camera and tell russ pritchard what you want him to do. >> i would like for russ pritchard to actually pay the restitution. but moreover i would like the national civil war museum to do the right thing and actually return my items to me. the right thing and actually return my items to me. >> so what about that? ed pickett's charge against the museum -- next.

my "business" was going nowhere... so i built this kickin' new website with godaddy. building a website in under an hour is easy! 68% of people... ...who have built their website using gocentral, did it in... ...under an hour, and you can too. type in your business or idea. pick your favourite design. personalize it with beautiful images. and...you're done! and now business is booming. harriet, it's a double stitch not a cross stitch!

build a better website - in under an hour. free to try. no credit card required. gocentral from godaddy. i let my mistakes kind aof take over my life. i was point-five credits away from completing high school and i didn't do it. angela: i got pregnant and i was the main one working so, i did what i had to do to survive. jocelyn: sentía que la escuela no era para mí. karim: most of my family they never graduated high school or even let alone go to college so i'm trying to break that barrier. jackie: my family never stopped pushing for me to be better because they knew what i could become and who i could become as a person. karim: everyday after work i went straight to school, studied hard, and it paid off. jocelyn: sentía como que si quiero cambiar el mundo tengo que cambiara mi primero. group: surprise! surprise! surprise!

angela: i could not have gotten my diploma without my family. jocelyn: mi consejera, ella fue lo máximo para mí porque me ayudó mucho con todo. jackie: i've been given an opportunity and i'm just thankful for it. angela: yeah it's hard, but keep on going and keep on trying. karim: the high school diploma has just added to the confidence and now i feel unstoppable. narrator: find free adult education classes near you at finishyourdiploma.org >> now back to "strange inheritance." >> in 2001, ed pickett wins a

second legal battle over his civil war artifacts, passed down from his great-great grandfather, confederate general george pickett. but ed feels it's a hollow victory, as those artifacts go on display at the newly-opened national civil war museum in harrisburg, pennsylvania -- whose mayor wrote pickett a letter endorsing the con man who'd swindled him. >> what's most unfortunate is that the city of harrisburg is quite willing to take items that were taken by fraud and keep them. >> fbi agent robert wittman investigated the case. >> ultimately, the museum paid $880,000 for these artifacts, so they paid what they're supposed to. >> i think a better result would have been the city and the national civil war museum to say, "i am so sorry. let me give you your items back and we are going to sue russ pritchard for defrauding

us." >> current museum c.e.o. wayne motts, who took over in 2012, believes the pickett items are best suited at their current home. >> i think it was regretful and unfortunate what happened to mr. pickett but the pickett collection has been well taken care of here. it has been preserved and it has been exhibited for the joy of thousands of people. >> civil war historian earl coates only hopes that ed pickett takes comfort in knowing that the enormous value placed on his great-great grandfather's things reflects history's verdict on his leadership and courage that july day in gettysburg. >> was pickett thinking along the way, "what have i just done?" >> well he was probably thinking, "what have i been asked to do?" but they were told to go and they went. >> pickett and his men failed. so did their cause. but it's a tribute to their valor that gettysburg vets from

north and south would return to this spot, to do their part to bind up a nation's wounds. so should ed take comfort in knowing that general pickett was a soldier through and through, did as he's told, even if he might have believed it was wrong? >> absolutely. it cost him hundreds of men, but it made him immortal. >> wow. that's cool. >> yeah, there's some interesting stuff in here. >> it's certainly made ed pickett better appreciate the heirlooms that remain in that old suitcase. >> this is a copy of general pickett's report of the battle of williamsburg, may 1862. >> look at the handwriting. >> it's a lost art, i think. >> fabulous. what else? >> and that's george pickett's hair. >> would you ever sell that? >> this right here? no. not anymore. >> this is quite a section of your family history. what are you gonna do with it now?

>> um... i'll probably give it to my children. we don't really get to choose our names when we're born. and we have to do whatever we can or live up to it. i've, to some extent, ducked that legacy, but also honored it in the same way. >> ed is not done fighting the battle over his strange inheritance. for one thing, he thinks there should be a statue right here at gettysburg honoring his great-great grandfather and his men. in other ways, george edward pickett v feels it's time to move on. when his own son was born, he and his wife chose the name doug. perhaps some names just need to rest in peace. i'm jamie colby for "strange inheritance." thanks so much for watching. and remember -- you can't take it with you. >> do you have a "strange inheritance" story

you'd like to share with us? we'd love to hear it! send me an e-mail, or go to our website -- strangeinheritance.com. >> announcer: the heroes of the space race capture the imagination of a young boy. >> we choose to go to the moon. >> the world was fascinated. the astronauts were superstars. >> these are the nation's mercury astronauts. [ applause ] >> announcer: it inspires him to collect all kinds of nasa artifacts. >> that's one small step for man... >> it's one of america's greatest achievements, and i think it's something which will continue to inspire. >> announcer: but when he dies too young... >> i thought, "this can't be happening." >> announcer: ...he leaves his widow an inheritance that's out of this world. ♪

>> i'm jamie colby, and today, i'm driving through southern california, where so much of the groundbreaking work for nasa's moon missions was done. i'm going to los angeles to meet a woman who embraced the lifelong passion of her soul mate -- a love for all things outer space. >> my name is shelly cigel. and when my husband passed away, he left me with an incredible collection and a special gift from beyond the grave. well, this is just a few little things that i took out. >> these nasa artifacts belonged to shelly's husband, rick cigel, samples of a lifelong collection that includes everything from engine parts to autographs. >> and this is actually the flag that they had signed, and that was from apollo 12. >> are these control panels? look at this! can i touch this? >> absolutely. please. >> okay. here we go. can you imagine?

regulator bleed valve open. check. m.o.m. open. check. >> looks like it says "mom" to me. >> mom. this is the button that tells mom we're about to lift off. but i heard you have a monkey chair. >> we do. >> i have to see this. because before humans went into space, primates were launched into orbit so scientists could investigate the biological effects of space travel. i hear they paid them in bananas. it looks small enough. you really think a monkey rode in here? >> absolutely. batteries and power switches. >> look -- the battery from sears. that's funny. was rick proud of owning it? >> he loved telling everybody he had a monkey mobile. >> rick cigel is born in 1956 in stevens point, wisconsin. five years later, in 1961, a russian cosmonaut named yuri gargarin becomes the first human in space. president kennedy ups the ante

and challenges america to be the first to put a man on the moon. >> this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth. >> alan b. shepard. >> i'm john glenn. >> walter m. schirra. >> to launch the space program, seven men are judged by nasa to have the right stuff and are enlisted into a program named project mercury. >> all systems are go. >> their goal -- to complete a series of manned flights around the earth and pave the way for the moon missions to come. >> that's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind. >> human space flight is special, because you're sending people with human eyes and human emotions to truly alien places. >> keith haviland is a space

historian as well as an executive producer of a new film telling the story of astronaut gene cernan and the last voyage to the moon in 1972. >> oh, my golly! >> there's no substitute for human experience, human insight, and human ingenuity in exploration. >> and the awe and wonder felt that by that boy growing up in wisconsin back in the 1960s will last a lifetime. by 1990, rick is a successful l.a. lawyer with the money to start building an impressive collection of space artifacts. >> at the time, nasa was getting rid of all this stuff. they had warehouses of these things, and they were just throwing things away. >> rick tracks down big things and small, from a bottle of cocoa powder carried by astronauts on apollo 10 and a half-dollar flown on the 1965 gemini mission to a pair of soviet space-suit gloves and a

life-size space capsule replica he buys from a former nasa engineer. this is a space capsule. it's being taken off of a tow truck, loaded into his warehouse. >> he has the biggest grin on his face, and -- >> like a kid in a candy store. >> exactly. >> shelly is rick's next major find. actually, the 39-year-old milwaukee native found him on the jewish dating website jdate. what was it about rick that caught your attention? >> well, i had certain parameters i wasn't gonna go with. an attorney was one of the guys i would not date. but as i was looking through, i saw he was from wisconsin. and i sent him an e-mail that said, "you can't be that big of a jerk if you're from wisconsin." >> in 2007, rick and shelly move in together. did you want to marry him right away? >> i actually told rick i would never, never, never get married again. i was married once before. but as the years went by, we

were talking about it. >> then, at the age of only 56, rick cigel's health suddenly starts to fail. he suffers a stroke in 2012. the following year, there's more bad medical news. >> we were told he had stage 4 colorectal cancer. >> did your life change in that instant? >> yeah. yeah, it did. i was never so scared of losing somebody in my life. >> his days numbered, rick knows he must prepare shelly to deal with what will become her strange inheritance. he doesn't want her to keep it all but to sell it, hopefully to space nuts like him. that's when shelly comes to realize how vast and valuable rick's collection is. i heard it was enough to fill a warehouse. >> yes. >> there's a survival radio from mercury 9, a checklist from apollo 17, and this apollo hand controller for adjusting

altitude. then shelly clocks in this old camera, a hasselblad 500c. >> when i found it, i said to him, "oh, i used to take pictures with a camera like this in high school." and he laughed at me. said, "oh, no. you definitely didn't take a picture with something like this." >> that and a lot more is next. >> announcer: but first, our "strange inheritance" quiz question. in a radio transmission from apollo 8, the astronauts reported seeing an object flying near them. what did they say it was? the answer in a moment.

♪ >> announcer: so, what did the apollo 8 astronauts say was flying near them? take a listen to command module pilot jim lovell. >> the stars align all too briefly for soul mates rick cigel and shelly lokietz. at the age of 57, rick learns he has stage 4 cancer and may only have months to get his affairs in order. in his life before shelly, rick amassed a huge collection of space memorabilia, now destined to become shelly's strange

inheritance. it includes hundreds of items you'd expect to find in a nasa warehouse or a museum, like, for instance, the udvar-hazy center in virginia, part of the smithsonian's air and space museum. i asked curator jennifer levasseur how all those artifacts could end up in the garage of a guy like rick cigel. and nasa just let astronauts take home stuff from their missions? >> that tended to happen quite a bit more up and through the end of the apollo period. astronauts often took home memorabilia. afterwards, shuttle astronauts had to give everything back. >> for example, those cameras from the mercury missions. >> the first astronaut to take one to space was wally schirra on his mercury mission. he was an amateur photographer, and they got some more in order to train with them and then, of course, take them to space. >> how important was photography in space? >> it's really fundamental to everything that we understand as people who can't go their ourselves.

it's a tremendous value to scientists who started to study weather from space. so, this is kind of the early phases of learning about the earth. >> now they're sought after by collectors, some selling for six figures. so, looking to provide shelly a cash cushion and a crash course in selling space memorabilia, rick cigel asks his friend, a new hampshire auction executive, bobby livingston to unload his rare hasselblad. >> that's the first time he told me that he -- he was dying, that he had cancer. i'll never forget it. >> livingston knows rick's anxious to complete a sale quickly but must verify the camera is an original that flew into space. turns out it isn't that simple. rick bought it from mercury astronaut gordon cooper in 1995 for $19,000. and he gives the auction house two letters of authenticity to prove it, along with actual photos that the astronaut said

were taken from space with that camera. "i took the photographs with a hasselblad camera. the serial number on the camera body is tv 45279." but when the auction house submits the camera for expert analysis, the results surprise everyone. did it end up being gordon cooper's camera? >> it did not. >> uh-oh. that's next. >> announcer: here's another quiz question for you. how many of the original seven mercury astronauts walked on the moon? is it... the answer in a moment. it does not take an extraordinary person to make a difference. it's just a matter of what kind of difference we choose to make. anyone can join an action team you just join and volunteer and help out.

just get some of your friends together it doesn't have to be some huge thing. do something that you're passionate about, find something that you like. make the world a better place. my favorite activities from this year would be buddy baseball because since i'm a baseball player i find it really near and dear to me that i'm helping kids with disabilities play the game that i love. we do what we do on the field but we have a duty off the field as well. it's our duty to give back to the community any way we can and events like today helping out special needs kids i mean that's what it's all about. it's doesn't take much to make a big impact. just having a positive attitude or helping someone every now and then makes more of a difference than i think any of us realize. action team for life. ha ha. believe it. to learn more about starting an action team visit our website. anyone can really make a difference.

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>> announcer: so, how many of the original seven mercury astronauts walked on the moon? only one -- alan shepard during the apollo 14 mission. >> it's 2014 in los angeles. shelly lokietz and her longtime boyfriend, rick cigel, are stunned when rick is diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer. >> rick said he felt like charlie brown with lucy and the football. and i said, "you're not gonna die. we're gonna -- we're gonna get this -- you're gonna get better." >> but rick seems to know the end is near, and he's determined to give shelly a head start on dealing with the strange and valuable inheritance he'll leave her -- a huge collection of space memorabilia. it took him decades to amass, and he may only have months to live. >> he really saw his mortality. he wanted these items to go to people that would appreciate them like he did.

>> of the hundreds of items, rick zeroes in on this hasselblad camera for a quick and easy sale. he bought it from astronaut gordon cooper, who stated, in writing, that he used it snap some of the earliest pictures from outer space in 1963. but it now appears that couldn't be true. the auction house gets a confusing report from the authenticator. what was the news? >> it's not authentic. >> a fake? >> it's the proper period, but this camera was not gordon cooper's. >> how did you know that it wasn't gordon cooper's? it came with a letter saying it was. >> this scratch right here -- that's the smoking gun. >> houston, we have a problem. it takes precious days to solve the mystery. the key clue comes when the auction house compares rick's camera with the one wally schirra took into space the year before cooper's flight.

>> our forensic expert, with photographic evidence, was able to find scuff marks that matched exactly to schirra's camera. this is schirra's camera, taken in 1962, and it matches exactly to the one that rick bought. >> so, rick thought he was buying gordon cooper's space camera, but he was really buying wally schirra's. but how could that be? >> they took home each other's things, but both astronauts sold their cameras believing that this was schirra's and this was cooper's. >> far from being a problem, it turns out to be a good thing. schirra was the first guy to take it up in space. this is the most famous hasselblad there is. >> so, wait a minute. that sounds like it's worth more. >> it is worth a lot more, not only financially but historically. i mean, this is the most important hasselblad ever made. >> when the auction is announced online, it's no surprise the camera catches the eye of filmmaker and space historian

keith haviland. >> it's the first such device that captured images of the quality necessary to give a sense of the world as it is -- the blue, fragile planet on which we live. >> then comes the live auction in boston on november 13th, 2014. >> our first item is the first hasselblad camera in space. >> haviland makes the winning bid, a whopping $275k. >> sold! >> when it arrived, i mean, that was a magic moment, holding it in my hands for the first time. >> there will be one more strange twist involving that hasselblad. but not before, back in los angeles, rick's health worsens. he has time to get just one last thing done. >> he said, "would you still want to get married, knowing that you could be a widow so soon?" >> mm.

>> i said, "i would rather be your wife for one day than to be your, quote, girlfriend of eight years." >> you ever regret the decision to marry with him being so ill? >> no, because i have his name. and that was the other thing i said to him. "i want your name." >> the doctors remove his breathing tube for a few moments, and a justice of the peace marries the couple. >> right before he died, he opened his eyes one last time. he looked at me, and he squeezed my hand. and that was it. his heart just stopped. >> on the same day she is a bride, shelly is a widow. and soon, she will have to deal with her strange inheritance. >> there's no way i could go through everything. i think there were things that rick forgot he even had. >> but there's one thing rick did not forget. you get a call that he has

another little something for you. >> yes. >> that's next. what's your strange inheritance story? we'd love to hear it. send me an e-mail or go to our website, strangeinheritance.com.

♪imagine no possessions ♪i wonder if you can ♪no need for greed or hunger ♪a brotherhood of man ♪imagine all the people ♪sharing all the world...you, ♪you may say i'm a dreamer

♪but i'm not the only one ♪i hope some day you'll join us♪ ♪and the world will live as one♪ ♪ >> announcer: and now, the conclusion of "strange inheritance." >> in 2015, shelly cigel inherits the daunting task of dealing with her late husband, rick's, enormous space collection -- thousands of relics accumulated over a lifetime. >> i think there were things that rick forgot he even had. >> having just watched a space camera rick bought for $19,000 bring in $275k, she reaches out to rick's friend bobby livingston for help. >> there's no way i could go through everything. we had so many different things, even from the astronauts themselves. >> she starts small and puts 20 items on the auction block.

shelly follows the action from what is now her home in brentwood, california. >> what was that like for you? >> that was the first time i watched an auction by myself, without rick. >> among the artifacts, a buzz aldrin-signed life magazine cover goes for $530. a piece of mercury 4 cable fetches $1,300. an apollo light meter -- $1,700. michael collins' slide rule -- $3,000. gene cernan's apollo 17 checklist -- $4,800. gordon cooper's command wings -- $6,000. a soviet cosmonaut's soyuz 17 film cannister -- $13,000. and prices keep going up. take cooper's survival radio. >> in case he needed to communicate with nasa, should he be lost somewhere, if he crashed out in the desert. what do you think this sold for?

>> $10,000? >> very close. a little under $15,000. >> and this apollo altitude controller fetches $74,000. >> i kept saying to rick, "we did it. we did it." >> how much did you get? >> um... >> a lot. >> a lot. yeah. >> shelly's final tally for the auction -- over $100k. but a big part of shelly's strange inheritance remains, like that monkey chair, nasa instrument panel, autographed photos, and full-size replica space capsule, plus hundreds more artifacts. shelly hopes to find a buyer for them someday. and who knows what it all might be worth? do you feel that you fulfilled rick's wish in having the items you sold recently get into the hands of other people who will appreciate them as much?

>> oh, absolutely. you realize that these are people who know what they're buying. these are once-in-a-lifetime items. these things don't come up again. >> and now, that final twist we promised was coming. you get a call that he has another little something for you. >> yes. >> it was just a few days after her husband's funeral. an e-mail appears in shelly's in-box. it's from an auction house telling her that, before he died, rick had bid on a rare wedding ring. >> an e-mail popped up that said, "congratulations. you won the ring by proxy bid." when rick was in the hospital, he put a secret bid in. where everybody should be thinking about him, he was always thinking about me. >> someone still had to pay for it, but it seems rick thought of that, too. remember that space camera rick

was so anxious to sell? bobby livingston wires some of that cash, and just like that, a package arrives. >> i opened it up, and it was more beautiful than i imagined. >> rick had good taste. >> yeah, he did. >> now, that's a "strange inheritance" story. one look at shelly and you can tell she's over the moon. roger that, mission control. it is kind of amazing that more than half of americans living today weren't even born when man last walked on the moon. will we ever go back? well, at least one space-tourism company is taking reservations for a to-be-determined blast-off date. shelly wishes rick would have lived to see such a day. he would have done anything to get one of those boarding passes and no doubt return with some incredible photos and souvenirs for his collection. i'm jamie colby for "strange inheritance."

thanks so much for watching, and remember -- you can't take it with you. >> by a friend across the aisle has shut down the government for hundreds of millions of governments. >> his inability to clinch a deal has created the shed down. cheryl: breaking news this morning. patriot the government shut down as the senate plans to hold a procedural vote in a few hours to try and end the stalemate. a live shot of capitol hill. the key but expected hours from now. lauren: stock market futures overnight as the government shut down continues into day number three. dow futures set to open lower by 50 points. train to buy tec