this is "nightline." >> tonight the missed warnings from the texas shooting. the signs that everyone seemed to have missed. >> he had a past history of violent behavior. run-ins with the law. >> he is cams from a mental health facility. how was he able to purchase that powerful weapon? and what clues could be hidden from authorities on his password protected phone? plus, new and chilling accusations against the movie mogul harvey weinstein from the same who helped bring the misconduct to life. how he says weinstein hired former intelligence officers to

spy on his accusers. >> these are highly trained operatives who excel in using false identities. >> with undercover acts to discredit them. could criminal charges be on the way for weinstein? but first, the "nightline" five.

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we begin with the latest developments in the church massacre, the deadliest shooting in texas history. the harrowing stories of survivors. many of them playing dead. and what we're learning now about the gunman including the blazing red flags in his personal history. here's abc's matt guthrie. >> part of me hopes they're wrong and it's not her. maybe she's just in the hospital. i want my daughter back. >> the last few days feel like a dream that charlene would give anything to wake up from. she dropped her 16-year-old daughter off at church parting the way they always do. >> i told her i love you. i'll see you later. that's what we always said every time she left. she would never leave without kissing me goodbye. giving me millions of kisses because wasn't okay to go to bed

without kisses. that was just haley. she was very loving. and she was always there. >> she couldn't have known it was the last time she'd see her constant companion. >> i wish my alarm hadn't gone off. or i had woke up late so she wouldn't have been there that day. >> with survivors and loved ones crushed. the investigation grinds on. >> this is a massive crime scene. >> the warning signs about the man who methodically unloaded hundreds of bullets in a shoe box texas church he had visited just days before. now a portrait of a monster emergin emerging. while in the air force, he was convicted of assaulting his ex-wife and fracturing his infant son's skull. he carried out death threats

against his superiors and said to smuggle weapons on to the base where he was stationed. >> he seems to be somebody who was angry. he had a past history of violent behavior. these are all characteristics we've seen in mass casualty attackers. >> this documented history should have he pr convenient him from purchasing the, it should have preventing him from purchasing the womens. >> the air force didn't notify the fbi of his conviction which would have precluded him from legally buyer a firearm. so when he went in to buy a gun, there was no record of his conviction in the air force. >> there was nothing in our database that precluded him from buying a firearm. >> the air force issuing a statement saying it has launched a review of how the service handled the criminal records of former airman devin p. kelley. >> we're going to take responsibility and find out what happened and fix it. >> even if the air force had

passed those records along, kelley may have been able to acquire weapons through other means. >> there are informal ways or illegal ways. he can steal it or buy it off the black market in some way to acquire weapons. the reality is there are several million weapons in this country and a lot of assault weapons. if you're really determined to find them, you'll find them. >> the sporting goods store saying, both sales were approved by the national instant criminal back ground check system. many of the survivors and their families would bear the emotional and physical scars. like david brown's mother. >> the shooter was shooting everybody he could see. i guess everybody trying to run. and then after nobody was moving, just laying on the floor, he walked up and down all the aisles shooting everybody as they laid on the floor. >> how did she survive? did she play dead?

>> pretty much. she just lay on the ground. >> and so many never made it out of the church. including eight members of the holcomb family, including three generations, including a pregnant mother and a 1-year-old. >> the whole family was beautiful inside and out. they were always there to help you. >> the debate over gun control once again coming to a head. president trump in south korea. >> you've talked about wanting to put extreme vetting on people trying to come into the united states. i wonder if you could consider extreme vetting for people trying to buy a gun. >> if did you what you're suggesting, there would have been no difference three days ago. and you might not have had that very brave person who happened to have a gun or a rifle in his truck go out and shoot him, and

hit him, and neutralize him. i can only say this. if he didn't have a gun, instead of having 26 dead, you would have had hundreds more dead. so that's the way i feel about it. >> but president trump's nominee for assistant sect of defense made this statement today. >> i would like to, and i may get in trouble with other members of the committee, to say how insane it is that the united states of america, a civilian can go out and buy a fully, a semi-automatic assault rifle like an ar-15 which is apparently the weapon that was used. >> this is not just an issue of gun control. this is an issue of being better able to identify people living in our communities, who are exhibiting the behaviors consistent with somebody preparing to carry out an attack like this. >> one key to identifying

potential killers, past incidents of dmv like the ones in kelley's criminal record. >> devin kelley a long history of being a dangerous person. we know that he abused animals. we know that he fractures the skull of his infant stepson. we know he tried on strangle his wife which is a huge indicator for someone who may commit a mass shooting. >> one study found 54% of mass shootings were tied to domestic or family violence. investigators believe this killing spree was rooted in a domestic dispute. they say kelley was hunting for his mother-in-law. >> these women are the canary in the coal mine for mass shootings. >> samantha even highlighted this connection earlier this month. >> mass shooters come in all male shapes and all male sizes but most rehearse for it the same way. >> this is omar mateen's ex-wife who told abc news he regularly beat her. >> you've got it.

the common thread is domestic violence. >> it is incredibly important that we understand the implications of domestic violence. that we are ensuring they're prohibited from buying guns. also that they have to relinquish the gun that's they already have. >> local law enforcement in sutherland springs, the fbi and the atf have been able to unearth a great deal about the killer's motives and the time line of the day. but there's one resource they have not been able to tap. >> the phone of the suspect is turned over to us at this point in time. we are unable to get into that phone. >> predictably most mass shooters, particularly his age, communicate electronically. to see what's on his phone may give you a window into what he was doing moments before the shooting. >> what is painfully clear here tonight at a vigil at the high school, it won't heal the hurt that has touched almost every one here. or feel the absence left by so

many lives senselessly taken during a sunday service. so they lean on one another in song and faith to guide them through the darkest chapter this town has ever seen. for "nightline." in sutherland springs, texas. next here tonight, new allegations against harvey weinstein. did he hire a net boring of high priced intelligence agents to investigate and discredit his accusers? afi sure had a lot on my mind. my 30-year marriage... ...my 3-month old business... plus...what if this happened again? i was given warfarin in the hospital, but wondered, was this the best treatment for me? so i made a point to talk to my doctor. he told me about eliquis. eliquis treats dvt and pe blood clots and reduces the risk of them happening again. not only does eliquis treat dvt and pe blood clots. eliquis also had significantly less major bleeding

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tonight in the harvey weinstein scandal including reports that the first criminal charges may be coming soon and allegation that the hollywood titan may have deployed a whole network of security agents to investigate the personal lives of his accusers, including the actress, rose mcgowan, in order to discredit them before they came forward. here's abc's lindsey davis. >> this latest story has -- in a way even the initial allegations as deeply horrifying as they were didn't. >> today yet another bombshell in the harvey weinstein saga. an explosive new story in the new yorker reports how far weinstein went to try to silence and intimidate not only his accusers but the journalists working to expose his misconduct. >> what this story pulls back the curtain on is a set of tools that i didn't know were

available to the most powerful men in the country when they are bent he on stopping allegations against them. >> he alleges that weinstein hired elite security agents to befriend his accusers in order to get personal information and use to it discredit them should they decide to come forward. >> i have been silent for 20 years. i have been shamed. i have been harassed. >> one of those women allegedly targeted by weinstein's operation was actress rose mcgowan. >> she said it was like the movie gas light. she said she was living for a year in a world of fun house mirrors. what is so striking about this story is just how far this effort went and how elite the operatives used were. >> one of the groups was black cube. >> an elite israeli private intelligence agency, staffed by form he mass oud members.

these are highly trained operative who's excel in false identities, who construct companies to cover for their false identities. >> how involved was he? >> he was direct will he involved. he had contact with investigators, approved their work plans at multiple points over the last year. was receiving reports directly from several of the firms. these were routed through his lawyers but he was pulling the strings. >> mcgowan is just one of 60 women who have come forward with allegations against weinstein including sexual abuse and even rape. weinstein has denied any allegations of nonconsensual sex. in 1997, weinstein is reported to have reached a settlement with mcgowan. after an alleged encounter. but according to farrow, some 20 years later, just this past may, mcgowan received an e-mail. >> rose mcgowan received an

mostly from diane phillip of ruben capital partners. and die an phillip offered her to speak at a women's gala. over the course of many meetings, offered to invest in her production coil. >> she said they met at the same site where he had met many women of she said he was very kind but soon began pressing her for information. >> unbenoenls to rose, she was recording tens of hours of audio and sending it back to harvey weinstein. her alleged attacker. in fact, diana phillip was not a real person. diana phillip was a false identity used by black cube. >> according to farrow, the deception didn't end there. he said there were additional operatives. in a contract signed by a lawyer, black cube agreed to hire an investigative journalist

to conduct interviews and propertily reported the results. the journalist contacted rose mcgowan, saying to farrow, it scared me that harvey was testing to see if i would talk. just last week, she came out alleging in the 1990s, after driving her home, weinstein forced his way into her apartment, held her down and raped her. several journalists were allegedly targeted by weinstein himself, including farrow. >> what did she say? >> she was working on a women's empowerment initiative and wouldn't i as a male advocate. i did not respond. >> they tried stop a publication in new york magazine. which included aggressive human intelligence operations around one of the reporters of that magazine. detailed psychological profiles

of the editor of that magazine. a profile of the ex-wife of the reporter that explicitly says we will use it as leverage. >> the idea that they are posing as journalists to try to gather negative information on the accusers crosses any ethical line. >> he says he came across a document by another firm. psops. it focused on unaccording his sources, as well as those of a "new york times" journalist, jodi kantor, also investigating weinstein. >> listing every possible interaction. detailing sources that both jodi and i spoke to who then reported back to weinstein and detailed the questions we were asking. >> ps ops allegedly created detailed dossiers on various people. >> in one profile of rose mcgowan, there are exhaustive

lists of net posts about her. sections entitled past lovers, for instance. adverse character witnesses. people willing to say negative things. this was an all-out campaign to discredit and smear these women. >> but much like the plot of a weinstein film, there is a twist. the same lawyer who previously represented weinstein and signed a contract with the intelligence firm in an attempt to discredit accusers and journalists, was also representing the "new york times" in a libel suit at the same time. in a statement to abc news, he called it a mistake on contract with and pay investigators who he did not direct and control. he said had he known what this was for, he would have never signed it or been associated in any way with this effort. the "times" called it a grave betrayal of trust and has terminated their relationship. >> are you surprised by their reaction and how there is a tidal wave of change. >> what i never could have

fathomed was the outpouring in industry after industry of women and men with sexual harassment and assault coming forward. and this was a deep seated source of pain for a lot of people who were silent for too long. >> for "nightline," new york. up next, here's something totally different. what do conan o'brian, the chili peppers and bob woodruff have in common? find out when we come back. >> abc news knight lionel brought to you by ford. let's get the big guy in place. the ford year-end sales event is here. i can guide you in? no, thanks , santa, i got this. looks a little tight. perfect fit. santa needs an f-150. that's ford, america's best selling brand. hurry in today for 0% financing for 72 months across the full line of ford cars, trucks and suvs!

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our own bob woodruff, a beloved figure here at abc news, and his foundation, i know what the new york comedy festival, they told 11th annual stand up for heroes benefit at madison square garden tonight with a spectacular lineup. there were comedy performances. and a musical performance by the red hot chili peppers. ♪

for more information, visit bob woodruff's foundation.org. thank you for watching abc nuts. as always, we're online. thanks again for watching. good night.

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