thanks so much for watching "strange inheritance." i'm jamie colby. remember -- you can't take it with you. >> pedal-pushing primates. >> grandpa would go with a young gorilla on a motorcycle, go get a slurpee. >> grappling great apes. >> people would come and watch people box and wrestle. >> but, this whole "gorilla magilla"... >> people would come and picket the facility. >> ...is no barrel of monkeys. >> i was told "don't open this envelope until i pass away." he's a good boy. >> that sounds like an ultimatum. >> it was. game on. ♪ ♪

>> i'm jamie colby, and today i'm headed to palm harbor, florida on the gulf coast, about 20 miles northwest of tampa. you know, sometimes the strange things that people inherit on this show reflect timeless american values. sometimes, though, they tell us how much times have changed. this is one of those stories where the heir is faced with a gorilla-sized challenge. >> my name is debbie cobb. my grandmother, anna mae noell, passed away in october of 2000, leaving behind her 53 primates that i had to figure out how to care for. >> debbie, i'm jamie. nice to meet you. >> glad to meet you. >> you know, i see there's a lot of retirees here in florida. yours are a pretty wild bunch. >> well, you haven't seen the half of it. >> what a beautiful place. it's a 12-acre primate sanctuary, full of irresistible characters.

like pongo, a 400-pound male orangutan. >> he really, really likes you jamie, because he doesn't just purr for anybody. [ pongo vocalizing softly ] >> that's purring. >> that's purring. >> i can tell he's a flirt. >> oh, a big one. >> pongo's original home was a zoo in south carolina. but he didn't play well with the other orangutans. >> bye, pongo. >> these guys don't get the option of being able to go to a zoo, so they would have had to be euthanized if they didn't come here. there's somebody else i want to introduce you to, is blue -- is a spider monkey. he's 57 years old. >> what's special about blue? >> well he's a critically endangered species, and the number one thing that makes him so special to me is he's actually the same age as i am and he was around when my grandparents were here. >> debbie's grandmother, anna mae noell, is born into a north carolina family of traveling performers in the vaudeville era. as a boy, her grandfather bob joins a troop of vaudevillians

from virginia who raised him like a son. anna mae reminisces about those early years in this recording decades later. in 1931 by chance or kismet, their traveling families wind up in the same town, pamplin, virginia at exactly the same time. they combine acts for a one week variety show. >> your grandparents met pretty young. >> oh yeah. they were really teenagers. >> and suddenly, they're teenagers in love. >> grandma would always tell me "we weren't supposed to be seeing each other, but we did." [ laughing ] that's funny. they had planned this big getaway

and off they were. >> they eloped to new orleans and at first stick with what they know, vaudeville. then one day bob goes to see a man about a car. he returns, instead, with a 90-pound chimp named snookie. >> grandpa actually put up $300 to get him, and back then that was a lot of money. >> he plans to make it all back, and more by taking a new act on the road featuring the world's only athletic ape. >> so, they went from juggling and joking to monkey business? >> absolutely. yes. >> and part of this act was allowing people to go in the ring with a chimp. >> they said, "how can we do an act, not get people hurt or killed, make sure the animals have fun... grandpa would go talk to the police department and find out who was the biggest, baddest bully in the town. and then they would spread the word that this big, bad bully was gonna be there to box and wrestle with the chimpanzee. >> did any man ever win? >> no -- people didn't know what a chimpanzee was.

a 95-pound chimp can pull 850 pounds in one arm, and when they're mad 1250, so it didn't happen. >> you got to think if bob tried this today he'd be the one getting the beatdown from a disapproving public. but in 1940, it's a laugh riot. >> nothing like a chimp humiliating you. >> he wasn't the big, bad bully anymore. ♪ >> snookie is such a hit that bob and anna mae add more chimps to their show. they also add two kids -- velda mae, who would become debbie's mom, and bobby jr., her uncle who, years later, recalled the snookie routine fondly. >> for 14 years the troop follows the carnival circuit, not always to screams of delight. >> how many injuries have there been in your family as a result of dealing

with exotic animals? >> well, i don't know how many injuries, but you have to remember they have great teeth and they can hurt you. i remember that grandpa lost his fingers. >> grandpa bob noell tells the story again and again through the years. >> at least he wasn't also losing an arm and a leg. in fact, by 1954 the noells have socked away enough to purchase 12 acres of incorporated land in florida, a place to call home in the winter months. this is where granddaughter debbie is born to velda mae in 1959. >> how'd your parents feel about you hanging out at the chimp farm? >> well, my dad loved it. my dad was more like a son to my grandparents. my mom on the other hand, she was there,

but, i'll be honest, i think that was very hard for my mom. >> the noells certainly make for interesting neighbors. >> the animals had as much freedom as we did back in the day. >> bill stanton, a kid on a farm a stone's throw away, pals around with debbie and the chimps. >> some of them didn't actually go into cages at all. they literally lived in the houses and the trailers with people. >> was that smart? >> maybe not, but when you have grandparents that aren't normal... ♪ ...and you're playmates are gorillas, orangutans, and chimps it doesn't get better than that. >> somewhere along the way the noells' enterprise begins to shift. they're still entertainers, but with a growing focus on animal rescue. >> grandma and grandpa were one of the first in the state of florida to have a great ape license, and that's how it all began, 'cause they went from chimps to orangutans to gorillas. >> blue the spider monkey,

arrives about that time. then there's a young lowland gorilla named otto that her grandmother rescues in 1968. >> i was a child and i heard my grandmother was gonna go get this sick gorilla. he couldn't even stand up, and he had this septic arthritis and he had tb, so he had to be quarantined. >> the family nurses otto back to health, and he becomes almost a brother to debbie. >> you don't look afraid. >> oh, not at all. i felt more secure with him than with anybody in the world. >> was he dangerous? >> i never was afraid of him -- never. >> he grows up to be a fearsome sight though. so fearsome that american tourister casts him as the 400-pound suitcase abusing star in its famous luggage ads. by then debbie's grandparents have quit the carnival circuit. but they don't retire in florida. instead, they open their home to the public. they call it noell's ark chimp farm.

they're hoping all these lovable creatures can keep tourists entertained and support them and their rescue efforts. it doesn't quite work out that way. >> the attitude and the people changed. people would picket. they were being chastised. >> that's next. >> but first, our "strange inheritance" quiz question -- in 1953, j. fred muggs becomes the first regular animal cast member on a live television show. which show was it? "the nfl on cbs," "the price is right," or, the "today" show? the answer after the break. ♪

>> so, which 1950's tv show featured j. fred muggs? it's the "today" show. to raise ratings, producers cast the chimp as host dave garroway's sidekick. >> in 1971, bob and anna mae noell turned the florida headquarters of their traveling animal show into a family compound and permanent roadside attraction. they call it noell's ark chimp farm. >> everybody would come and see grandpa play with the gorilla... ♪ >> ...because that was very abnormal to see a 650-pound gorilla playing with a 250-pound man. grandpa would go with a young gorilla on a motorcycle,

go up to the 7-eleven, go get a slurpee. >> there would be chimps, orangutans, gorillas sitting up on the front wall. >> neither of anna mae and bob's kids, debbie's mom and uncle, wants a career in the family business. undeterred, anna mae devotes her golden years to the serious work of rescuing more apes. >> we have had practically no social life, because all our life is wrapped up in these animals. i don't go out to cocktail parties, i don't go to tea parties. i don't do any of that stuff. >> not that they're getting invited to a lot of parties down the block. with every passing year more and more neighbors complain the chimp farm is a smelly nuisance. >> new people come in, and suddenly instead of growing lettuce and tomatoes, there's a housing development that goes up. >> steve fiske is chairman of the local chamber of commerce. he says some new residents find the chimps a little too close to home.

>> if the wind's in the right direction you're gonna realize it has odors. >> odors? debbie doesn't even notice. throughout high school she helps care for the apes. she then studies nursing and veterinary technology in college. >> at 21, i decided to set off and go visit 21 zoos across the united states. >> and when she does, she keeps hearing something that makes her proud. seems folks everywhere actually know of her grandmother. >> and they would say "you know mae knoll"? i had a job at the atlanta zoo just off of her name and her reputation. >> but by now, back in florida, grandma's reputation is under assault. animal rights groups put the chimp farm on a black list. >> people would come from other places in the world and even stand there and picket the facility. >> how did grandma react when there would be protesters? >> it bothered her, but even then

in her only-grandma style would bring animals out to the picket line and say "this is what you're picketing against." >> things only get harder for anna mae noell. in 1991, debbie's grandpa bob falls into a diabetic coma and dies. anna mae loses her lifelong companion of 60 years. >> if you knew anything about them two, they were a team. it was the hardest time in my life watching her go through that. >> it also leaves debbie's grandma, now in her 80s, to run the chimp farm. so, debbie stays in florida to help keep it going. >> i thought i would just come to the chimp farm and work on the weekends and visit all my friends. and then my whole world changed. >> because in 1999 state and federal authorities closed the chimp farm to the public citing its small cages with rusty or jagged edges. they can keep the animals for now,

but they can no longer charge admission. >> were they right in terms of condition? >> maybe for the enclosures, but not in love, care, and consistency in the care of the animals. >> authorities give the chimp farm three years to make the necessary improvements. 85-year-old anna mae responds by taking in yet more primates. they can live for years, a lot longer than the increasingly frail anna mae can expect to. so what will happen to the place when she's gone? one day she gives debbie a sealed envelope with an explicit instruction. >> i was told "don't open this envelope until i pass away." >> then in october 2000, anna mae noell dies at age 86. >> what would happen to the chimp farm without grandma? >> mm... >> the answer is in that envelope. debbie opens it after the break.

>> here's another quiz question for you. where is america's most-visited zoo? san diego, the bronx, or washington d.c.? the answer when we return. ♪ ♪it's been a long time coming, coming

♪seeming like we all been running, running♪ ♪feeling like the wild west, gunning, gunning♪ ♪listen to our elders shunning, shunning♪ ♪all we see is faces, color, color♪ ♪all the other races, other, other♪ ♪why can't you just be my brother, brother?♪ ♪we don't have to kill one another, kill one another♪ ♪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 ♪(love is our only hope) ♪love, love, love ♪where did we all?

♪ >> so, which is america's most-visited zoo? it's the san diego zoo where the lucky animals live within site of the pacific ocean and captivate more than 3 million visitors a year. >> in the fall of 2000, anna mae noell dies leaving behind her life's work -- the chimp farm she and her late husband created. it's home to more than

50 primates, and it's sitting on some prime florida real estate. but if any of anna mae's heirs have plans for that land, she's about to throw a monkey wrench into them. >> when grandma died... >> mm-hmm? ...there was a brown envelope. >> [ sighs ] >> tell me about it. >> an envelope changed my life. >> inside that envelope is a document that names debbie's uncle bob, her mother velda mae, and debbie as heirs and trustees, and instructs the three of them to hold the property jointly for the benefit of the animals. >> grandma put a trust together for the animals, and it's clearly stated that as long as there was one animal and one person that came back, then the animal park would be there. >> in other words, if one of the trustees wants to keep the chimp farm alive, the other two cannot shut it down and sell off the land. anna mae must have known

it would be just one person -- debbie. >> that one thing she did changed my life forever. i had to either help the chimps or walk away. >> how much was the land worth when you inherited it? >> somebody said that it was worth about $6 million. >> here's the point where a strange inheritance splits a family apart. debbie's mother and uncle, she claims, push her to give up the chimp farm so they can sell the land. >> they told me "why would you want it and ruin your life for a group of animals when you could have $2 million in the bank, and you'd never have to work again?" >> you could do it. >> some would, but who are you going to sacrifice in that? were you gonna lose otto? were you gonna lose her oldest chimp that lived well into his 60s? which animal was gonna be sacrificed for a dollar bill? >> it was two against one. >> i knew that some of those animals had been ones that they had grown up with. could they really, at the end of the day, turn their back on them?

>> neither debbie's uncle or mother would appear in this program. both denied to us they wanted to see the chimp farm closed. whoever said what to whom, there's no doubt debbie was only given two options -- put up or shut down. >> that sounds like an ultimatum. >> it was. game on. >> 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. music in

voice-over: some things in your medicine cabinet are more dangerous than others. when it comes to prescription drugs, opioid pain medicines can be addictive and even deadly. keeping unused opioid medicines in your home is risky. half of the people who misuse prescription pain medicines get them from a friend or family member. over 100 americans die every day

from an opioid overdose, and millions are addicted to opioids. but you can be part of the solution to the opioid crisis. go through your medicine cabinets, drawers -- anywhere you keep unused opioid pills, patches, or syrups. and, find out how to dispose of them safely. visit fda.gov/drugdisposal for details. and remove the risk of opioids in your home. >> now, back to "strange inheritance." >> in 2000 when anna mae noell dies, she leaves behind a shuddered chimpanzee farm with dozens of apes, chimps, and critters. a trust provides that the sanctuary remain open -- so long as her son, daughter, or granddaughter debbie is willing to run it. only when it closes can those three sell the land.

the heirs do not see eye to eye. >> i had to be the person that said these animals needed someone. >> debbie says the family dispute is so bitter it ends her relationship with both her mother and uncle. >> but in the end, anna mae noell's trust for the benefit of the animals prevails. >> did the get anything out of the estate? >> they weren't supposed to get anything in the beginning. remember, it was a trust for the animals. it didn't say "a trust for debbie, a trust for uncle, and a trust for mom." it said "a trust for animals." >> but now what? the antiquated chimp farm is already on notice with authorities for its run-down enclosures. >> i already had planned on building a larger enclosure for the animals, because that was what my heart was. >> and if there's one thing i've learned about debbie, it's that the first thing

she inherited from her crazy family is heart. >> anybody who wants to help come to the chimp farm. it will change your life. it's changed mine dramatically. >> it takes nearly a decade, but her big plans become reality. >> in 2008, she reopens the animal shelter to the public as the gleaming suncoast primate sanctuary. [ ragtime music plays ] >> and to think this all started with a chance meeting on the vaudeville circuit, a boxing chimp named snookie, and a madcap bunch of bike riding apes. but not everything changes aboard old noell's ark. in fact, things come full circle when debbie marries and chooses to raise another generation... >> that's my daughter. say "hi," brandi. >> hi. >> hey, brandi. >> thank you, brandi. >> ...amidst the gorillas

and monkeys and birds and reptiles. it's a decision that affirms all that grandma anna mae worked for. >> good job. >> so, this is sort of a refuge -- hoping that our great-grandchildren will be able to see a live chimpanzee. >> this is the hardest journey i've ever been in in my life. all my blessings were restored by making sure i did the right thing for the right reason. you're my buddy. >> debbie tells me that parting with one of the primates is like losing an old friend. remember otto, the lowland gorilla from the luggage ads who would carry debbie around on his back? well, otto died shortly after his 42nd birthday party. but one of his fans couldn't bear never seeing him again, and so donated the funds to have him stuffed. debbie says if otto can go on display some day he'll continue the sanctuary's mission of wildlife conservation.

i'm jamie colby. thanks so much for watching "strange inheritance." and remember -- you can't take it with you. >> 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. ♪ limu emu & doug and now for their service to the community, we present limu emu & doug with this key to the city. [ applause ] it's an honor to tell you that liberty mutual customizes your car insurance so you only pay for what you need. and now we need to get back to work. [ applause and band playing ] only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪

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>> 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.

>> 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. [♪] lou: good evening, everybody. tonight we are wrapping up what has been another extraordinary week in america. the trump economy and markets roll on, employers adding 145,000 jobs last month. the unemployment rate remains at a 50-year low. 3.5%. the stock market strong climbing above 29,000 before moving back to session lows. just off its record highs. the dow up 189 points for the week. the president celebrating one of his greatest accomplishments as he campaigns for