this is "nightline." >> tonight in her own words, exclusive interview with the kentucky county clerk kim davis. still reviewsing to grant marriage licenses to same-sex couples. her conviction so unshakeable she went to jail for them. what she now says about new scrutiny over her own personal history. >> you've been married four times. >> uh-huh. >> you had children in adulterous relationship. plus, art and craft. he may be most successful forrer in american history playing different chakers as he deceived famous museums for nearly three decades. so why didn't he ever go to jail? and coming to america. francis, the people's people, touching down on u.s. soil.

what to expect on this historic visit from a hopope famous for defying expectation. but first, "the nightline 5." >> think your heartburn pill works fast? take the zantac challenge. zantac works in as little as 30 minutes. nexium can take 24 hours. when heartburn strikes, take zantac for faster relief than nexium or your money back. take the zantac it challenge. xwl watch it. >> cash it with macy's money. our best brands, including cosmetics and fragrances. the more money you buy the more money you get. money you get. shop in store on tuesday. money you get. shop in store on tuesday. alaska. finally. the search for brown bears begins. denali highway. low on gas. pit stop. fill up. double points. yep, that's cold. tired. day 2. coffee. eggs. double points. beautiful. majestic... nothing. where are you, bear?

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tonight with an abc exclusive. kim davis, that county clerk from kentucky who made national headlines and did jail time for failing to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. davis says she was simply upholding the word of god, but what about her own four marriages? abc's paula farris with that exclusive interview. >> kim davis, you need to do your job. >> i am doing my job. that's what i'm trying to do. >> you've seen the videos. >> put your phone away. one man and one woman. >> i am paying your salary. i pay you to discriminate against me right now. >> reporter: gay couples trying to obtain marriage licenses, but kentucky county clerk kim davis refusing. >> turn now to that showdown in kentucky. county clerk defying supreme court. >> reporter: her failure to comply with the supreme court's rule that allowed same-sex marriage became national news. it even landed her in jail. >> i'm not doing marriage

licenses today. pending an appeal. >> under what authority? >> god's authority. >> i knew you would say that. >> reporter: through it all she has not granted any interviews until now. do you believe that god told you to do this? >> i think god put me in the position where i'm at and i think god has prepared me for just this time. >> is this about religious freedom or is this about conscien conscience? >> well, they both go together. you can't separate them. if you've got a couldn't shuns and you love god, you know, those two go hand in hand just like hand and glove. >> according to this ruling she does not have the right to refuse us our license. >> reporter: it started back in july when she refused to issue a marriage license to david moore and his partner. he posted this video on youtube that garnered nearly 2 million views. >> you can put that away. okay? >> this is not a house of god. it's the people's house. >> reporter: she would eventually deny the couple four

times. >> i'm asking you to leave. >> some will say that this is discrimination. it's not religious liberty. do you think this is discrimination? >> no, because i didn't issue license to anybody. to not discriminate. for me this whole situation has never been a gay or lesbian issue for me. >> what is it? >> it's all about upholding the word of god. >> how many acres do you have here? >> 35. >> reporter: little did she know that such a peaceful life would be disrupted this summer when the details of her personal history were released for all to know. >> you've been married four times. >> uh-huh. >> you had children in adu adulterous relationships. people call you a hypocrite, are you? >> no, i'm forgiven, washed clean. >> reporter: she says she's since been saved by god's grace. >> i'm just a normal person

that's been touched by the grace of god and his mercy. i haven't always been a good person, paula. when i didn't live for god, i didn't live for him, i was real good at living for the devil. and when god pulled me out of that pit of sin that i had created with my very own hands -- >> reporter: now back at work she still refusing to issue any marriage licenses. her deputies like brian mason have taken over that duty. >> there you go. congratulations. >> reporter: finally david moore and his partner able to get that wedding license they had a legally mandated right to. >> one of the voters who finally received a marriage license, he was in tears, said he finally felt human. people will question, why is your moral conscience, kim, more

important than someone else's happiness? >> i don't think dignity is guaranteed in the constitution. i think dignity is something that you find within yourself. i feel really sad that someone could be so unhappy with themselves as a person that they did not feel dignified as a human being until they got a piece of paper. i mean, there's just so much more to life than that. >> it's not just a piece of paper to some people. and it's not a piece of paper to you. >> but i mean, that's what it took to make him happy, for him to feel dignified as a human being. i just, you know, i don't know. i can't -- it's really sad. >> your name is not on those licenses. in your mind, are they still valid? they're not. >> i have given no authority to write a marriage licenses. they did not will my permission. >> if one of your voters came up

to you, wanted to get married and said, why is your moral conscience more important than my happiness, what would you tell them? >> i'm here for a short while in preparation for an eternity. and my eternity, i mean, that's what we're here for. it's a heaven or hell issue for me. >> reporter: that issue is what landed davis in jail. >> what were those five days like for you behind bars? >> i had an opportunity to read my bible. i know they thought i was crazy. i would walk around and just raise my hands and just praise god. >> did you get any sort of affirmation from god that you were doing the right thing? >> you know when the spirit of god checks you. >> you were checked? >> reporter: she was released after six days, greeting the public in an emotional rally. even getting the attention of presidential hopeful mike huckabee. >> they escort you on stage with

mike huckabee. what was that moment like? >> surreal. i was shaking all over. just the power of god was, you know, overwhelming. >> reporter: she's received encouragement from all over the world, by way of numerous handwritten notes, hand-made prayer shawls, and crosses. >> so, kim, this is just a little bit of the mail that you've received? >> yeah. this box here i haven't even had time to open up. >> would you estimate maybe 20,000 pieces of correspondence? >> at least. >> daily. >> reporter: but the hate mail came, too. >> very vulgar. >> you received death threats. >> oh, yeah, yeah. e-mail death threats, phone call death threats. had people call my office. >> what did they say they were going to do to you? >> they said they were going to burn our house down while we slept. >> what's hurt you most? >> what people say about me does not define who i am. i've been called hitler. i've been called hypocrite. i've been called homophobe.

what probably hurts me the worst is when someone tells me that my god does not love me or that my god is not happy with me am a hypocrite of a christian. >> reporter: legally it's a long road ahead for davis. she's hoping for legislation that allows an exemption for clerks who have moral and religious conscience objections to issuing these licenses. >> when it comes down to it, you you know, i will answer for my actions and my reactions. and so will everybody else. i'm prepared to pay my consequences. i'm prepared to stand in judgment. >> reporter: for "nightline," i'm paula farris in moorhead, kentucky. next here on "nightline" how this man deceived the art world for nearly 30 years getting his

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the guy you're about to meet is a master art forger who perpetrated his deception for nearly three decades, sometimes in costume, sometimes even with camera rolling. he managed to get his knockoffs of famous paintings into museums across the country. why did he do it and why is he not in jail? here's abc's david wright. >> reporter: he may be the most successful art forger in american history, painting incredible copies of great works of art and convincing museums across the country they're real. >> they didn't believe me. i found 46 museums in 20 states with more than 100 pieces that he's offered up to these institutions. >> reporter: mark landis, that's him putting on a priest's collar, part of the elaborate ruse that allowed him to fooled museums into thinking he was a philanthropist. >> and you're a master of disgui disguise?

>> i wouldn't say that. well, i did have the idea you had to be a jesuit priest. >> reporter: his exploits and the story he all exposed all documented in the film "art and craft." landis created his fake masterpieces. >> i just use colored pencils because i can't tell. >> reporter: so he could give them away. >> my name is mark, my recently deceased sister left archives a page -- >> reporter: his con, one part forgery, the other i'm person nation. he posed as philanthropist in order to donate fake paintings. >> i'll bring it by to you this afternoon. >> reporter: in this scene the filmmaker's follow landis as he perpetrates his fraud, pausing first for a littly little liqui courage before going.

>> is that an early form of color? >> i would like to see where you would put it. >> in the film you guys documented two occasions that i can count where he's actually going into the museum to give them a painting. so you were kind of come police it in this in a way, right? >> i think, how we approached it is observational dock men te aa. >> reporter: what did you tell the museums you were doing? >> for the most part they had already spoken with mark because they met him as philanthropist, as the priest. so we told them we were making a movie about his career. >> philanthropist. there's an ethical question there, isn't it? >> it is uncomfortable to be filming something unfolding when you know something that other people don't know. >> the nature of documentary is to document reality as it unfolds. >> reporter: turns out the art and craft of deceiving the world's great museums is not

necessarily as glamorous or as tricky as the "thomas crown affair." >> i knew it. >> oh, no. >> this can't be. >> reporter: landis is more like martha stewart. he shops for his art supplies at the hobby lobby. >> is there a trick, you have to pick somebody that's super obscure but also -- >> oh, no, no, no. >> -- interesting? >> first of all, what's most important is to find something that's not too hard to do, something that one of your children could do. and then you varnish it and bang it up some and throw some instant coffee on the back of it. and you're all done. >> reporter: the thing is landis never charged any of the museums a penny. he just tried to give them the works of art. and for that reason, what he did is not a crime. apparently a forgery is only a forgery if you try and sell it. so technically these paintings are copies, nothing illegal.

that said, landis did embarrass the art world. >> i found his fourth alias -- >> reporter: which only discovered the extent of his fraud in part because of one dogged museum registrar. >> i became obsessed with it just like he is obsessed with making these paintings. he mess we'd the wrong registrar is what he did. >> do you have a clear sense of why he did this? it wasn't money, right? >> the film that we made in essence is an attempt to answer that question. >> certainly a lot of what drives mark in his life is just human interaction. >> reporter: the motivation for his elaborate con, not malice or greed, but loneliness. >> made me feel warm all over. i had a nervous breakdown when i was 17. >> reporter: landis is a diagnosed schizophrenic and by his own account he was a bit of a shut-in before with only his tv to keep him company as he worked late hours on his canvasses. >> i guess it was just years of

watching tv, seeing philanthropists and big important people doing things. it was an impulse. i've always had poor self-esteem, for obvious reasons. and i really did, i got treated like royalty. and, listen, i liked it. >> reporter: now landis says he's out of business as an art forger but he is thoroughly enjoying his new found fame. all this time never a new york visit? >> no, no. this is the first museum in new york that i've ever been to. >> reporter: so we took him to see the collection. no forgeries here, which he scrutinized with, shall we say, professional curiosity. >> you see a lot of those. that's a beautiful -- actually it wouldn't be because you see how carefully the leaves were done? >> reporter: interested not just in the pictures but the frames as well. >> well, i mean, you can get frames that look like that at walmart and then if you bang them up and everything, it's true. but -- but the one -- the ornate

ones -- >> as long as it doesn't say made in china. >> reporter: landis still paints and draws but only on commission these days. landis had earned an accolade he never imagined, his own temporary exhibition. >> must have felt good. you seemed to be enjoying it. >> did i seem to be enjoying it? >> yeah. >> i enjoyed -- i had never been to a show and i never had anybody take any interest in me. so naturally i started talking and that's the part i enjoy. >> reporter: a master forger finally getting the attention he craves. i'm david wright for "nightline" in new york. >> fascinating story. our thanks to david wright. "art and craft" premiers friday on pbs' pov series. what's in store for the pope's multicity tour? i'm angela, and i quit smoking with chantix. for ten long years i was ready to quit. but i couldn't do it on my own.

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♪ ♪ grow old with me ♪ let us share what we see ♪ just you and i ♪ ♪ grow old with me ♪ let us share what we see ♪ and oh the best it could be ♪ just you and i ♪

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...but anyone can help a foster child. finally here tonight pope francis in america. he landed just hours ago. so what should we expect in the coming days from a man known for the unexpected? this afternoon huge crowds as the pope touched down at joint base andrews in maryland. the red carpet rolled out, the entire first family on hand. and as francis emerged from the plane on this wind iy day, he removed his hat and descended the stairs for a hearty welcome from the commander in chief. in a signature moment for the

man known as the people's pope, with the president's limo nearby, the pope opted for this modest choice, a fiat. tonight the pope will sleep here, essentially the vatican's embassy in washington, resting up for a six-day, three-city u.s. tour. tomorrow pope francis will visit the white house. a crowd of 20,000 expected outside. thursday, he will walk the halls of congress, and then it's to new york where 80,000 people are expected to watch the papal procession friday. security at an all-time high. the city shutting down more streets than ever when more than ten miles closed, nearby the famous st. patrick's cathedral spiffed up for the occasion, 9,000 organ pipes restored and communion wafers at the ready. philadelphia is closing 25 miles of streets and highways to prepare for a million people to turn up for sunday's mass with pope francis. and while he's here in

america, the vatican tells us francis' popemobile will be a jeep wrangler, the same type of jeep he used in ek what door back in july. thanks for watching abc news tonight. as always, we're online 24/7 on our "nightline" facebook page and at abcnews.com. thanks again for watching. and good night.

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