only ones who don't get it are democrats in washington d.c. lou: former u.s. border patrol chief mark morgan former trump campaign manager corey lewandowski among our guests here monday, please be with us until then have a great weekend, >> it's one of the largest armies of its kind. >> would you say it was a hobby? or was he obsessed? >> i think that he was obsessed. >> soldiers of fortune -- and a fortune in soldiers. >> do you have any idea what it's worth? >> yes, we know what it's worth. >> can i know what it's worth? >> the man who raised this army was on a mission... >> he was a true historian. he wanted to bring these battles to life. >> but is it a bridge too far for his heirs? >> he left you with a huge responsibility, didn't he? >> it's just too difficult. >> it's kind of interesting that toy soldiers would get their own trust. >> i don't have my own trust, but they got theirs. [ theme music plays ]

♪ >> i'm jamie colby, and today i'm in new york on the south fork of long island on my way to the beach community of southampton. a viewer wrote to me about her father, whose childhood hobby became his lifelong obsession. he wanted to share his strange collection with the world after he died. his heirs want to honor his wishes, but is the world even interested? ♪ >> my name is linda munn. in 2011, my father, my father, orson, passed away, leaving the family one of the largest collections of its kind, along with the monumental challenge of carrying on his legacy. >> linda has invited me to her parents' country home. hi, linda. i'm jamie. >> jamie, it is such a pleasure to meet you. >> so great of you to invite me here. you wrote me. you said you had something really strange.

>> i have something very special to show you. >> all right. i'm ready. shall we go in? >> come on in. >> yeah. in here? >> yeah, just walk straight ahead. >> what? linda takes me into her dad's war room... >> it's amazing. >> ...where orson spent countless hours over the years on his unique hobby. the room is filled from floor to ceiling with nothing but toy soldiers. thousands strong, the tiny troops stand frozen in time, their miniature faces stoic with expressions of war. this is a lifetime of work, linda. amazing. there's the charge of the light brigade... the battle of cambrai... napoleon's defeat at waterloo... clashes from the boer war all the way up through world war ii. stare at them long enough,

and you can imagine them coming to life. [ gunfire, men yelling ] toy soldiers become a passion for orson munn when he moves from manhattan to long island as a little boy, says his widow, pat. >> he came out here because he has ill health. the doctors felt that he should be in the country. >> orson's chronic ear ailment often keeps him confined in his room. >> that's when he started playing with soldiers on a tray in his bed. >> were they substitutes for friends? >> i think that they were. >> orson iii says his dad kept building his armies through prep school, princeton, and law school. then orson decides, rather than collecting troops, he'll become one. >> he was in the navy during the second world war, and he actually lied to get in because he was stone deaf in one ear. but he felt it was his obligation. >> after the war, orson returns home, marries pat, starts a

family, and launches his career. >> father said, whatever you do, don't go on wall street, but he did anyway, and he was very, very successful. >> the family lives in new york city but spends weekends here in southampton. it's around this time that orson's toy-soldier recruitment begins to ramp up. >> he bought and traded them constantly. >> we had correspondence -- i say "we" -- it's not we -- he -- from all over the world. >> he would go to europe. he'd stop by a soldier store in london that was his favorite, and he would buy them. >> we stayed in a wonderful little hotel in vienna, and naturally, the back door of the hotel was a soldier shop. >> i think he picked it on purpose. >> [ laughs ] on purpose. >> just as he did when he was a boy, orson plays with his soldiers, painstakingly re-creating the world's most famous battles. >> i think that he could have easily have been a general.

he knew more about military history than anyone i ever met. >> orson hand-paints many of the miniature figures himself, spending hours on end adding even more historical detail to his military dioramas. >> he would come home, read his stack of analyst papers, and then go into his painting room. >> every single braid on the uniform, every button is clearly detailed for you. >> right down to the color of the eyeballs of napoleon. >> it's painstaking work. it's so accurate you can see the pain on the faces of some of the soldiers on their way to the ground. it's just incredible to me. >> he was a true historian -- he wanted to bring these battles to life. >> with sand on some shelves and artificial snow on others, no detail is too small for his handcrafted battle scenes. >> would you say it was a hobby? or was he obsessed?

>> i think that he was... obsessed. >> he even makes home videos of his collection. >> we have the battle of bastogne. the snow is talcum powder and they'd been fighting it out. the 101st airborne was not going to surrender. >> over the years, the battle scenes grow to include the charging scottish highlanders, the british fighting the zulus, and much more. >> the allies fighting the germans outside of berlin, the french foreign legion fighting the english in the desert. i mean, there are soldiers that are probably 80 years old. >> orson's is eventually one of -- if not the -- largest toy soldier collection in the country, with over 10,000 figurines. and as orson enters his golden years, he begins to worry about the fate of his beloved

troops once he's gone. he has the will, but can his heirs find the way? >> he left you with a huge responsibility, didn't he? >> it's just too difficult. >> coming up...rolling the dice with their strange and valuable inheritance. >> i'm busting your morale by killing all your flag holders. >> and i'm a guest in your home. >> you're the enemy. >> i do need to blow something up on your side. that's next. >> but first, our "strange inheritance" quiz question. in 1645, britain adopted its famous redcoat military uniform. what led to the color choice? is it that red uniforms did not show bloodstains? red dye was cheap? or that red made regiments appear larger? the answer when we return. music]

>> so... it's b -- the red dye was cheap. there is no basis for the popular myth that red was favored to hide bloodstains. ♪ >> orson munn spent over 80 years collecting more than 10,000 toy soldiers, miniature figures he uses to meticulously re-create some of history's famous battles. >> the next group of figures that i have -- i painted them all myself.

>> and as orson reaches his 80s, the toy-soldier general hatches a plan to create a permanent base for his troops. >> what he would have liked more than anything is a museum in southampton. he gave 19 years of his life as a village trustee here. >> and his collection is well known in toy-soldier circles. but nobody in town seems interested in erecting a museum to display all this. but in the fall of 2010, a curator from several states away does come knocking. a museum did approach your father, but it wasn't in southampton. >> correct. >> orson receives a visit from the frazier history museum in louisville, kentucky, which offers to take the entire collection and put it on display. orson isn't ready to give up his men, but he does agree to a lesser donation -- 2,600 so-called flats -- two-dimensional soldiers he has

in formation at his manhattan apartment. so, why didn't dad turn over the collection to a museum that showed such enthusiasm? >> because we still had hope that we were gonna be able to get a building here in southampton. >> so, in august 2011, when orson passes away at the age of 86, his family inherits not only his toy soldiers, but the tall order of creating a museum to house them. did he specify in his will what he hoped the family would do with the soldiers that meant so much to him? >> what we did is we actually put them in a trust so they could be given away tax free to a museum. >> it's kind of interesting that toy soldiers would get their own trust. >> [ laughs ] yeah. exactly. right. i don't have my own trust, but they got theirs. >> these figures were, in their time, 50 cents for a cavalryman. these figures now sell at $250

and infantry at $100. >> with that kind of appreciation, the 10,000 soldiers orson left behind may be worth a small fortune. >> after all, many are not so much toys as tiny sculptures, delicately handcrafted by talented artists. in 1893, an englishman named william britain revolutionized the production of toy soldiers through the method of hollow casting. after the military men are shaped, they are sent to sculptors and painters. >> build up on the metal base buttons, lapels, epaulets, which were then painted to the exact historical regiment. so, extreme detail. >> tara finley is an antique-toy specialist. the munns call her in to tell them what their strange inheritance is worth. >> i walked into the room on a

cold december day, and here before me was an army of thousands, displayed in very realistic dioramas. it was truly amazing. >> and a daunting task to photograph and appraise every last figure. >> there were 37 dioramas and 59 groupings of lead soldiers. it took a good five days. >> in addition to the soldiers orson painted himself, tara identifies thousands of highly sought-after classics, such as these by premier toy-soldier artist roger berdou, pegged at $500 apiece. so all those little soldiers add up to some big-time value. do you have any idea what it's worth? >> yes, we know what it's worth. >> can i know what it's worth?

>> if it were auctioned off in pieces, it's probably worth about $300,000 or $400,000. >> $400,000. but only if they break up the collection and sell it off to hundreds of younger orsons just starting off the hobby, hunting down their own missing pieces, constructing their own dioramas, fighting their own wars. that's the catch. why didn't he sell it during his lifetime? >> i think that if something gives you that much joy, the last thing that ever crossed his mind would be to sell it. >> but given the high appraisal, surely it crosses his heirs' minds, right? are you absolutely opposed to separating this collection and selling it? that's next. >> here's another quiz question for you. napoleon's infamous defeat during his 1812 invasion of russia was due in part to what

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>> i've shown a zulu warrior wearing a red coat. >> his collection may be worth $400,000, but that never stops him from toying around with what would become their strange inheritance, say his kids, linda and orson iii. >> we used to take the soldiers out and set them up like a real war game. >> a thousand lead soldiers would be lined up on one side against a thousand lead soldiers on the other side. >> i was the only one that ever beat him in a battle. i surprised him with bringing up a cannon to the top of a church and blowing down the main street where he was approaching. >> you're scaring me now. >> [ laughs ] okay, these guys are going to shoot. both barrels. >> today, linda's challenged me to combat on the miniature war gaming battlefield. who's this guy? >> that's your general. and you got another general here. >> we use dice to determine how many steps the soldiers may take...

>> [ laughs ] >> i'm supposed to measure. ...and rulers to measure strides. got it. >> i'm busting your morale by killing all your flag holders. >> and i'm a guest in your home. >> [ laughs ] you're the enemy, not a guest. >> we were getting along so swimmingly. i do need to blow something up on your side. no guts, no glory. >> ready, aim, fire! boom! >> oh, my flags. >> sorry. >> let's get double something. all right! then we're gonna take the other three and shoot... >> in the end, though, i'm no match for the daughter of a mini commander in chief. i can't watch. >> [ laughs ] >> linda's father, orson, dreamed of a museum here in southampton, long island, for his troops. it's now up to his heirs to make it real. did he leave funds behind for you to accomplish that? or has that been left to your

family's responsibility? >> it's actually been left to the family to figure out how to do that. >> linda is dismayed to learn how much it will take to open and maintain a permanent display locally -- $10 million. did you try to raise any money? >> oh, yeah, we did. >> how much did you raise, do you think? >> we raised about $5,000 or $6,000. >> this is a pretty moneyed town. if you can't raise the interest and the money in southampton, where can you? >> i think it's not gonna happen, which is a shame. >> so what about donating the collection to an existing museum here in town? the family tries that, too, but none is interested in displaying 10,000 antique toys. have you gotten a no at every turn? >> pretty much. >> is that upsetting? >> it was and is very upsetting. >> so, it seems like southampton has spoken. >> it does seem that way, doesn't it? >> are you at a crossroads right now that maybe nobody is

as interested in the collection as your family is? will orson's heirs complete their mission? 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.

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[ theme music plays ] >> now back to "strange inheritance." >> the heirs of orson munn can't seem to fulfill his dying wish, a permanent local home for his massive toy-soldier collection. >> but some of orson's troops do receive their marching orders. remember those 2,600 flats orson donated to that museum in louisville, kentucky? the frazier uses these men to carefully re-create the battle of borodino -- the bloodiest clash during napoleon's failed invasion of russia in 1812. >> they assembled a team of like-minded individuals to himself, and they created this beautiful diorama.

>> the team spends months making sure every soldier is in place, and in november 2012, the display debuts to the public. >> we went out for the opening, and we couldn't believe it. >> you have the russian soldiers on horseback, you have wounded french that are trying to retreat off the battlefield. i mean, the wolves are attacking wounded soldiers. even showing that kind of level of detail. >> the family is impressed. in fact, they return to southampton even more resolved to find a nearby museum to house their father's collection. >> until i hear from a museum in this southampton village, we're probably not gonna make any moves quickly to disseminate the collection outside of southampton. >> i get it, but i have to say, when i think of the munns' strange inheritance story, from the sickly child enthralled with his first toy soldiers to the young man hooked on a

collecting to the wealthy money manager's escape into his war room, would it really be so tragic to split all this up piece by piece? i'd let history go ahead and repeat itself. a present once again inspires a young boy. another middle-aged guy indulges his hobby. and a lifelong collector finally gets the piece that completes his world war i diorama. there's a collector out there who has the entire setup except that one toy soldier they're missing. why not split it up and help a ton of other toy-soldier collectors get as much pleasure as your dad did? >> i believe that it would be in the best hands kept as a collection. you can read about a battle, but when you actually see it played out, you can see in a much more clear way what happened at that battle.

when you see it, you have that awed feeling, and it's the mass of them that is awesome. >> what happens if it doesn't work out at all? what happens if no museum is interested? would your dad be looking down on you and your sister and say, "i'm disappointed"? >> i don't think so. i think that he would be very pleased. we certainly have tried. and had it been so easy, i'm sure he could have done it. >> so, for now, the soldiers remain frozen in time, and the battle for orson munn's legacy at a stalemate. we mentioned orson painted most soldiers himself, but actually got some help from his granddaughter caroline. every tuesday afternoon during the school year, they would paint until bedtime. caroline remembers being as sloppy as a little girl can be with a brush, yet somehow, the next morning, every soldier looked impeccable.

go figure. i'm jamie colby for "strange inheritance." thanks so much for watching, and remember, you can't take it with you. [ airplane engine buzzing ] ♪ >> a mysterious death. >> the story of my strange inheritance occurred when they fished my cousin's body out of the gowanus canal. >> a flood of questions. >> you think it's something sinister? >> i do think there's something going on. >> are the answers locked in storage? >> i just shook my head and i go, "oh, my god, this is a nightmare." >> he was, one might say, an idiot savant. nobody has what he had. howie frank had the best. >> he was sitting on a photo collection potentially worth $10 million. >> they dubbed him the "million dollar beggar." is it worth a million dollars? >> don't change that channel. it's a made-for-tv "strange inheritance." >> dy-no-mite! [ door creaks ] [ wind howls ]

[ thunder rumbles ] [ bird caws ] ♪ >> i'm jamie colby, and today i'm in brooklyn, new york, on my way to meet three brothers at a self-storage joint in historic coney island. that's where they found their strange inheritance, left to them by a homeless relative with a big surprise under lock and key. >> my name's seth lerner. our second cousin, howard frank, died mysteriously in 2012. that's when my brothers and i found out that we inherited the contents of his five storage units. we were shocked the first time we rolled up those doors. >> hi, guys. i'm jamie. >> i'm ian. >> good to meet you. >> hi. i'm seth. >> nice to meet you both. you wrote me about a wild story about a cousin and that he left all his belongings here? >> his whole life is here in this storage bin. >> howard rented five of these

10x15-foot units. >> when we opened up the lockers, we actually found a place where he might have been sleeping. >> wow. >> we didn't really know until we found this place. he never really told us. >> they did not need to be told back in the spring of 2012 that their 55-year-old cousin's life was unraveling. >> he always looked very disheveled. wore the same clothes over and over again, did not bathe. >> didn't bathe? >> did not bathe. was afraid of water. >> the lerner brothers do what they can to help. seth is a successful art director. todd and ian are dentists. >> i felt bad for him, and if there was something i could do, i would, whether it's doing dental work for him, giving him a little money to eat. >> but they don't know that howard, who once had a thriving business, is now begging for money on the streets -- a familiar figure outside several brooklyn synagogues. you seem to have sadness.

>> it's sad. you know, the whole thing is sad. the best way to describe howard is he was a lost soul. >> was he mentally ill? >> i would say there was a certain amount of mental illness, but not anything that was dangerous to other people. >> then seth gets a distressing call from cousin howard. >> it was an odd conversation. he wanted to remind me that he wanted to be buried near his parents, and i said, "howard, you're a young man. why worry about these things?" and he says, "well, i have to worry about them." >> on june 28th, howard frank's body is found floating in brooklyn's gowanus canal. police suspect it's a suicide. do you believe that he committed suicide, seth? >> no, i don't think so. >> you think it's something sinister? >> i can't put my finger on it, but i do think there was some type of cover-up or conspiracy. >> this much is true. it's, as they used to say on television, one of those 8 million stories in the naked

city that make great tabloid copy. i wanted to read you a section that i found curious. "the city medical examiner's office says the cause of death has yet to be determined but did not conduct an autopsy, at the family's request." is that true? >> no, that's not true. we were never contacted by the medical examiner's office. >> there was no autopsy. >> no. >> no. >> who said "no autopsy," then, if it wasn't you? >> somebody from the jewish community came down there and told the medical examiner that howard had no family, no living relatives, that there should be no autopsy. >> howard's death draws media attention -- not only for its mysterious circumstances, but also because of what his cousins find hidden away inside his five storage units in coney island. >> howard frank used to beg for money, even though he was sitting on a photo collection potentially worth $10 million.

>> he saved everything. >> what the hell is that? >> is howard really a millionaire beggar? i take the deep dive into this strange inheritance next. >> but first, our quiz question. the answer after the break. ♪all around the world, we are one, we are one♪

♪all around the world, we are one♪ ♪so where did we all go wrong?♪ ♪woo ♪where did we all, where did we all go wrong?♪ ♪love, love, love, love

♪love, love, love >> the answer is "b," fort lauderdale. while self-storage facilities date back to ancient china, the first u.s.-based operation, lauderdale storage, opened in 1958. >> todd, ian, and seth lerner inherit the contents of five storage lockers in coney island, new york, from their second cousin howard frank, who dies mysteriously in june 2012. what they find inside has some in the press speculating that howard had locked away a fortune worth anywhere from $1 million to $10 million. >> it's a mystery that's still unfolding -- a collection vast enough that howard frank needed storage space. >> you wrote me to come take a look at it.

>> i did, yes. >> well, i'm ready to take a look. >> great. >> really? open sesame! is this howard frank's version of aladdin's cave? piled to the ceiling -- photographs of classic tv stars, boxes and file cabinets full of them, going back to the 1950s. captain's log! there are hundreds of "star trek" photos. and from "the flying nun," more than 10,000. and "a horse, of course." it's "mr. ed." lucy? >> yeah. he had a fondness for lucy. >> who doesn't? look at these pictures. oh, my goodness. this is iconic stuff. >> yeah. >> "batman"? >> mm-hmm. >> "happy days." >> "happy days." >> these are some of the greatest shows. look how young they are! and now that you've been in the storage lockers, how many are in there? >> it's probably close to 2 million.

it's just an incredible amount of media. >> so how, and why, did their cousin get it all? that's a real brooklyn tale. it begins in 1956, when howard frank is born in bensonhurst, the second of two sons. >> i know there was a lot of family problems. >> what kind of problems? >> i think there's some type of mental instability. it was a very difficult family to be raised in. >> many of us have been there. thank goodness for tv. howard's a fan of hit shows of the era, like "leave it to beaver" and reruns of one of his favorites, the popular western "the lone ranger." in his teens, howard begins writing to tv studios, requesting photos of his favorite stars. his early collection includes these "i love lucy" photos, behind-the-scenes shots from "batman," and autographed pictures of his hero, clayton moore. >> howie lived and breathed

photos. >> fred westbrook, now a hollywood talent agent, met howard frank when they were both teenagers, prowling around photo shows in manhattan in the 1970s. >> he was, one might say, an idiot savant. he was a walking encyclopedia on the history of television. >> the two become fast friends, despite howard's quirks. >> as much as howie loved photos, he hated water. he didn't go swimming -- deathly afraid of water. so that means he didn't shower that much. >> howard is especially close to his father, alex, a disabled accountant confined to a wheelchair who works from home. >> howie and his father were very, very close. and they supported each other. >> with that support, howard takes his photo hobby to the next level. he drops out of middle school and begins selling his prints at flea markets.

then, in 1974, howard's dad injects the capital to expand his son's enterprise. >> he uses $12,000 from an inheritance to buy out a well-known celebrity photo shop in manhattan. why do you think his dad put him into this business? >> from alex's point of view, he probably knew somewhere down the line that he wasn't gonna be around forever, and he wanted to give him a chance. >> i also think it was something that alex and he could do together. >> in the buyout, howard snaps up photos from game shows, including "family feud" and "the dating game" -- also, sitcoms like "the munsters" and "laverne and shirley." >> there was about 200,000 photos and books in that collection, and suddenly, howard was in business. >> at just 18, howard officially launches his own company, called personality photos, and sets up shop inside the family home.

>> the pictures were everywhere -- on the bed, under the bed, turn the oven off, put them in the oven. but, boy, what a treasure trove. >> after howard's mother dies in 1978, father and son become inseparable. who was taking care of who? >> i think it was mutual. howard was basically alex's legs, and alex was the business guy. >> in the days before the internet, newspapers, magazines, and tv stations rely on independent dealers like howard to provide them with photos. and howard builds an impressive client list. >> howie would physically walk to the major publications and meet the editors and say, "hey, i have all these archives." 'cause nobody had what he had. >> picture an editor on deadline who needs a shot of fred gwynne or one of adam west without his batman cowl. fastest way to get it -- call howard, who locates the physical photo in a cabinet, box, that oven, or even in this messy

stack next to the sink, then mails the print, with an invoice of 75 bucks an image. >> we found loads of tv guides that he sold photos to, and we found evidence that he supplied photos for the franklin mint for their plates and things like that, for john wayne, lucille ball, elvis presley. >> did he own them? >> no, he didn't own them, but studios sent out press photos for years and years, and they were handed out for promotion. so he had just as much right to them as anyone else. >> by the early 1990s, howard and his dad are raking in more than $200,000 a year. things are looking good. howard next surprises both friends and family with some big news. >> i get a call from howie, and he says he's gonna get married. i was the best man. i was happy for him and shocked. >> but the honeymoon is short-lived. howard gets divorced less than a year later.

then, in 2001, another loss -- howard's father passes away. >> he was the rock that i think kept howard together in terms of having a connection to somebody, and i think it was kind of devastating for him. >> he started to spiral, he started to lose focus. >> at the same time, howard's business becomes one of the many wiped out by the internet. when you need that picture of gary coleman or david hasselhoff fast, why call howie from brooklyn when you can instantly download your choice of shots from an online catalog? for the next several years, howard lives off his savings, but eventually lands on the street, moving his trove of pictures to those five storage units in coney island. >> he loved the pictures so much, he would go without eating. it was his life and made him who he was. >> then in the spring of 2012, howard tells his cousins he

fears for his life. he even makes a fatalistic request, in connection with his favorite show, "the lone ranger." >> somehow, he identified with that character. he told me at the time we make his tombstone, he wanted the word "lone ranger" somehow brought onto that. >> howard's cousins just don't know what to make of his ramblings about an overdue loan, money he says he borrowed from a business associate to cover the rent on his storage lockers. was he paranoid or did he have a legitimate reason to be concerned? >> i think he had a legitimate reason to be concerned. he may have pushed the wrong people. >> whether murder, suicide, or accident, on june 28, 2012, the body of howard frank is found floating in the gowanus canal. >> howard frank was last seen alive the night of june 27th, begging for assistance at one of his usual spots. >> no one in howard's family, including his estranged older

brother, is contacted to approve an autopsy. the d.a. opens an investigation, but with a lack of evidence, soon closes the case. and for years, that's where everything sits, until the heirs call in "strange inheritance." we can tell their story, but can we help? well, turns out i know a guy. what are some of the valuable things that you did stumble across? >> here's another quiz question for you. the answer when we return.

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>> so, which actress was originally offered elizabeth montgomery's role of samantha stephens in "bewitched"? it's tammy grimes. the two-time tony award winner didn't like the premise of the show and wanted to know why samantha wouldn't use her magical powers to stop wars or untangle l.a. traffic jams. >> after their second cousin howard frank dies a mysterious death in 2012, brothers todd, ian, and seth lerner are the sole heirs to howard's nearly 2 million entertainment photos. media reports speculate the inventory of howard's defunct business could still be worth a fortune. could that be true? auction house executive bobby livingston volunteers to help sort things out. so, this is just one of the lockers you looked at. >> that's right. >> so, did howard know what he was doing? >> i think howard knew what he

was doing for his time. he's got every television show. he was obsessed with getting one of everything. >> so, rummaging through the unit is like a flashback to our childhoods. "good times"! >> these were publicity photos. you would have to get someone like howard to find you a picture of "good times." if people magazine, for instance, was doing an article on "good times," they would call howard. >> and then he would give it to them for a fee. >> that's right. but those days are long gone, and so, unfortunately, the value of these prints have gone down considerably. >> well, one thing that is never gonna be gone -- "dy-no-mite!" i love this guy. oh, my god -- j.j. bobby tells me you could sell these prints on ebay for a few dollars apiece -- and the signed ones, more like 10 bucks. >> it's fantastic, right? neat. >> but bobby does find, among the dime-a-dozen don johnsons, alfs, and mr. t's, some real gems. what do you have? >> well, you know, one of the

coolest things i found, which is an original elizabeth montgomery "bewitched" photo. >> i love elizabeth montgomery. >> well, these are original "bewitched" test shots, and you can see she went through herself and put "kill" on them -- she didn't like it -- and she put a question mark on that one, which was kind of neat. >> "i look like i should be sitting in the dentist chair. kill." well, for elizabeth montgomery, someone that's a big fan of hers, this has value? >> yeah, absolutely. probably these are worth $100, $200 each. >> what if there are more like these filed away in these cabinets? here's my bottom-line question about all this. is it worth a million dollars? that's next. what's your "strange inheritance" story? we'd love to tell it. send me an e-mail or go to our website, strangeinheritance.com. i can't tell you who i am or what i witnessed, but i can tell you liberty mutual customized my car insurance so i only pay for what i need. oh no, no, no, no, no, no, no... only pay for what you need.

♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ i want some more what's he doin? but, he can't look at him! it's just not done! please sir. i want some more more? more? more? more? please sir

he has asked for... thank you what? well he did say please sir yes he did and, thank you yeah. and thank you he's a wonderful boy (laugh) a delightful boy (all boys): thank you, thank you, thank you.

>> now back to "strange inheritance." >> after inheriting their cousin's trove of nearly 2 million entertainment photos, the lerner brothers are trying

to figure out what to do with it. do you have a plan? >> we pretty much don't know what we're gonna do with it. it's too big for us to do anything with. >> to help them weigh their options, i've invited auction house executive bobby livingston to meet us here at the storage lockers, where he's taken a deep dive into the photo hoard. what kind of condition is it in? >> it's in all kinds of condition. your cousin just didn't really care too much about condition. he cared about quantity. >> so, based on your analysis, do you have good news or not-so-good news? >> well, it's a very difficult thing to be able to give you a value, 'cause i didn't get to go through everything. but i think you could probably look at maybe a couple hundred thousand dollars. [ cash register dings ] >> so, call him the "quarter million dollar beggar." maybe. because, as bobby livingston explains, his estimate can only be realized by scanning, listing, and selling the photos individually. >> well, you have to inventory it because there are some really

great things in there, and then there's a lot of things that aren't so cool. but if you really want to understand its value, that's something you're gonna have to do. >> but think about that. if you spent just two minutes on each image, it would take nearly eight years working around the clock to get through howard's 2 million pictures. so, do you have the time to do these individually? >> no, we don't. >> because you guys have day jobs. >> yes, real jobs. >> and it's costing you a pretty penny to keep them stored up. >> we've probably spent, in storage fees, about $6,000 a year. >> so, what do you think you'll do? >> i think if a person came along and said, "we'll give you a couple hundred thousand dollars for it," i would say, "here. take the whole thing. bye. see ya." >> would it be a relief? >> it would be a big relief. >> what would really ease their minds would be to finally answer the questions they continue to have about howard's death. did it somehow stem from a dispute over those 2 million pictures?

they still think so but have found no proof. and listening to cousin todd talk about his strange inheritance, i can't help but think this is just not the way a made-for-tv story is supposed to end. >> you know, i think when people leave you something, you hope that there's some legacy to it, but in this case, when you have to go through somebody's life and clean it up, it's like somebody leaving you something that you really don't want. >> so, unlike the tv shows that howard frank cherished, where all plot points get resolved before the credits roll, he mostly left his cousins nagging questions, still locked up among 2 million pictures. the lerner brothers recall their cousin's request that when he died, he wanted the name of his favorite tv show, "the lone ranger," inscribed on his gravestone. the brothers plan to honor his wish with a stone that quotes from the show -- "ride on, lone ranger.

ride on forever." i'm jamie colby. thanks for watching "strange inheritance." and remember -- you can't take it with you. monday, maria bartiromo is next. maria: happy weekend and welcome to the program that analyzes the week that was and helps position you for the week ahead. this weekend coming to you from san francisco. i'm maria bartiromo, with this very special edition of the program. coming up my exclusive interview with jp morgan chase chairman and ceo jamie dimon. this week i hosted mornings with maria from the jpmorgan annual healthcare conference here in san francisco. this conference is the most well -attended event in the entire business world. close to 500 companies presenting, 9,000 people from biotech, bigrm