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tv   60 Minutes  CBS  August 14, 2016 7:00pm-8:02pm EDT

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captioning funded by cbs and ford. we go further, so you can. >> if your model is built upon the fact that you're not going to pay a dead person's loved ones for a policy that they have completely paid in full, to me that is just a bad policy. >> leslie stahl: he's talking about insurance companies that don't pay out life insurance their customer has died. and this man's investigation found that it is more widespread than you can imagine. when you found that, what went on inside of you? >> unleash the hounds of hell. let's go after them and expose them for the unconscionable, indefensible behavior. >> logan: what have we learned about the holocaust that we
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your investigation? >> i learned that you like to see other people dying in front of you, killed by other people when you are sure you will not be killed. >> logan: it was a dramatic finding, one of many revelations this selfless french priest discovered about the holocaust that we never knew before. >> the method that he's used, extraordinary. we can understand minute by minute what happened in hundreds of localities where before we just had fog. >> rose: it is said that you're at one with the car. >> yeah. it's like you're strapped to a rocket. i mean, it's like, "how do you control this rocket?" it's like a raging bull. >> rose: there is nothing like formula one in terms of global popularity, glamour, and speed. and there has never been
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hamilton, who is breaking down all kinds of barriers. >> i'm steve kroft. >> i'm leslie stahl. >> i'm bill whitaker. >> i'm charlie rose. >> i'm lara logan. >> i'm scott pelley. those stories tonight on "60 minutes." my girl cindy bought this fridge from lowe's
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>> stahl: when you take out a life insurance policy, you pay premiums in the expectation that when you die your spouse or your children will receive the benefit. but, as we repor audits of the nation's leading insurance companies have uncovered a systematic, industry-wide practice of not paying significant numbers of beneficiaries. at the time of our broadcast, 25 of the nation's biggest life insurance companies had agreed to pay more than $7.5 billion in back death benefits. however, about 35 insurance companies still had not settled and remained under investigation
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beneficiary was unaware there was a policy, something that is not at all uncommon. >> kevin mccarty: the beneficiary never comes forward, because he or she doesn't know the policy exists. >> stahl: but the companies know, says kevin mccarty, the insurance commissioner of florida, who led the national task force investigating the industry. and the companies don't pay, he says, unless a beneficiary makes a claim. >> mccarty: and what we found is that companies have actual knowledge in their files that people have died, yet they have neglected to initiate an investigation and pay the claim. >> stahl: so in other words, life insurance companies are failing to pay out death benefits when they know the person is dead, and they're claiming they don't know. >> mccarty: in many cases, that has been exactly what we have found. >> stahl: when you found that, what went on inside you? >> mccarty: my first instinct
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let's go after them, and expose them for the unconscionable, indefensible behavior that was going on. >> stahl: he says some of the policies are worth more than a million dollars. but most are valued at less than $10,000. >> joseph bigony: morning, joe! >> stahl: as a result of the audits, joseph bigony of west virginia recently got a long- overdue payment of more than $5,000 from his sister's policy. >> bigony: i was the administrator of her estate when she died in june of 1990, and we didn't know anything about this at all. >> jeff atwater: you're talking about millions of policies. >> stahl: millions? >> atwater: hundreds of thousands of policies that we're dealing with just here in florida. >> stahl: jeff atwater is the chief financial officer of florida in charge of regulating the state's insurance industry. >> atwater: you can assume from what we have found that the policies that should have paid out in the '60s, in the '70s, in
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>> stahl: and you're saying it's part of their plan? >> atwater: after all we've looked at, leslie, it would be hard to imagine. this is not a small dollar amount. these are billions of dollars that now stay in the investment accounts of these insurance companies rather than return money to those families. >> stahl: tell us some of the big names. >> atwater: it would be all the large brand names that you're familiar with: john hancock, metlife, prudential. many of these companies have sat down with us and made right. >> stahl: no one disputes that the insurers pay out on policies when the beneficiary files a but says kevin mccarty of florida, many of the companies routinely and deliberately disregarded evidence in their own files that the policyholders had died. unless someone filed a claim, he says, the companies would cancel the policy and keep the death benefit for themselves. >> mccarty: here's a life insurance policy that's issued in florida in january 2002. the insurer died in april of
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we actually have in the insurance company's file, a copy, a scanned copy, of the death certificate. and the accompanying envelope which displayed the spouse's return address. >> stahl: with the spouse's address on it. >> mccarty: it's right here. >> stahl: let me see. >> mccarty: less than one month after the death the policy was terminated for non-payment. >> stahl: industry lobbyists, like this one at a recent hearing in florida, argue that the burden falls on the beneficiaries. contracts every day and if you sign that contract, you're obligated to know what's in it. >> stahl: the companies argue that in the policies that these people signed, it says, black and white, that they have to make the claim and show up with a copy or the policy itself. and if they don't do that, we don't have an obligation. >> mccarty: but florida law says something too. and you have to look at it not just in terms of the contract, but to your responsibilities
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and i'm here to say that you have a responsibility to investigate a claim if you know someone has died. and if you have a letter that says you're deceased, you have actual knowledge the person has died. >> stahl: insurance companies are regulated separately by each state and he says similar laws are on the books across the country. >> you see right there? >> stahl: state regulators first got wind of the insurance industry practice from jim hartley and jeff drubner who run a technology and auditing based on an insider tip in 2006, drubner, employing techniques he had used as an f.b.i. agent, combed through insurance company data and discovered that the insurers were routinely using the social security death master file, which is a constantly- updated list of people who have died in the united states. what was the significance to you that they were using the death
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you have--- >> stahl: they knew who was alive and dead, is what you're saying? >> drubner: yeah, because they know who they've insured and if they have a list of everybody that's passed away, i knew that they knew. >> stahl: what was the next step? >> jim hartley: the next step was to speak to the states. there wasn't one treasurer, one controller or one attorney general who didn't have a reaction that this shouldn't be allowed to happen and we have to fix it. >> stahl: drubner went on to discover that most insurance companies used the death master advantage: to cut off annuity, or retirement payments once the policyholder died. but they didn't then notify the life insurance side of the company. >> mccarty: we have actual cases, leslie, where a policyholder had both an annuity and a life policy. and they terminated the annuity, and of course they knew the person was dead, so they-- so-- >> stahl: claimed over here that they didn't know he was dead? >> mccarty: leslie, when we went
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right side told the left side and the other side said-- >> stahl: and you saw it in the audits? you would just see it-- >> mccarty: we saw it in the audits. >> stahl: something else they saw in the audits related to "whole life" insurance policies, that in addition to a death benefit build up a cash nest egg, like a 401k. what they found is that when a beneficiary did not come forward, the company continued to pay themselves premiums out of the dead person's nest egg. instance, the nest egg was drained down more than $9,000 to zero after the person had died. california controller betty yee says that kind of siphoning off was widespread in cases where beneficiaries did not come forward. >> betty yee: how can you not be outraged by this? >> stahl: she says that in about a third of the cases, there was evidence of death in the file.
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>> stahl: is this the actual file that you saw with the word "deceased" in large, large unmistakable letters? >> yee: yes, yes. "deceased" with the date of death. >> stahl: and still they didn't- - they didn't stop paying themselves. >> yee: no, no. and you would've thought with that kind of indication, a next step would be to confirm that by looking at the death master file and beginning the claims process with the family member. >> stahl: and they didn't. >> yee: they didn't. >> stahl: when the cash was all used up, the companies cancelled the policy. under the law, they're allowed their customer's accumulated cash while they're alive. florida's mccarty says the law was originally intended as a way to protect consumers. >> mccarty: for instance, if you have a life policy and you lose your job and you can't make your premium payment, they will take some of the cash value that's built up in your policy and pay the premium. which is great for consumer protection. >> stahl: but in this situation, after they died...
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know in your books and records the person is dead and you drain the policy. now if you think about that, if you would have explained that trying to sell that policy at the beginning-- >> stahl: at the beginning. >> mccarty: you're sitting in your kitchen and saying, you know, you've got all these symbols of security and financial stability and we're going to be there for you with your family in their grief, but they say, "oh, by the way. if you stick that policy in a shoe box and stick it in your closet, not only are we not going to look for you, but we're gonna to take all the cash value in it, and-- >> stahl: give it back to the company. >> mccarty: give it back to the company. and leave your beneficiary with nothing. here, sign here. >> stahl: the 25 insurance companies that have settled with the states admitted no wrongdoing, but agreed to pay out more than $7.5 billion, either directly to the unpaid beneficiaries or to the states,
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beneficiaries by phone. >> we have received some funds from an insurance company that's in your name. >> stahl: or online. >> thousands of oklahomans are owed money from life insurance policies. >> stahl: none of the life insurance companies we contacted would give us an interview, but speaking on their behalf, the industry trade association, the american council of life insurers, told us quote: "most life insurers are going well beyond what the law requires to identify p died and left unclaimed benefits." ken miller, the treasurer of oklahoma, says there are still about 35 insurance companies that have not settled and some are fighting tooth and nail. at stake, he says, is up to $3 billion more in unclaimed benefits nationwide. who's fighting the hardest? >> ken miller: kemper is the main one. >> stahl: kemper, a chicago- based insurance company, has
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bar the states from forcing kemper to go back and search for unpaid beneficiaries. when we called kemper, they referred us to steve weisbart of the insurance information institute, who says making companies like kemper pay now would be unfair. >> steve weisbart: if we can say, "do something today that you didn't expect to do and didn't plan to do and didn't collect money to do 30 years ago," what else can we say today that they should be doing retroactively. it's potentially an open door. >> stahl: a slippery slope is what you're saying? >> weisbart: a slippery slope. >> stahl: kemper has argued in court filings that it's never used the death master file to identify deceased policyholders and that finding and paying their beneficiaries now would result in "a substantial financial loss" and require the company to "...substanially alter its business practices." >> miller: if your model is
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not going to pay a dead person's loved ones for a policy that they've completely paid in full, to me that's just a bad policy. >> stahl: an oklahoma woman, sherry sanders, didn't know about her husband's policy until about a year ago when, because of a settlement, she got a check worth $22,000. we asked oklahoma treasurer miller how much an insurance company can make by holding on to the $22,000. you've hit on something that's the most important issue. and that's the time value of money. because that's what this is all about. this is about money. that $22,000 invested for 50 years at an 8% return becomes $1.2 million. >> stahl: that the company gets because it sat there? >> miller: and that's just one small policy. if you expand that over all the policies that's just due to my state, it's a tremendous amount of money, billions and billions of dollars. >> stahl: the american council
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industry has paid out more than $600 billion in death benefits over the last ten years, so the companies are doing a good job. >> miller: i don't think we should pat them on the back for doing what they're supposed to do. >> stahl: but the companies say that this is only 1% of the life insurance policies. >> miller: then why fight it? if it's so inconsequential, if it's such a small amount, then why be spending your reputation to not pay dead people's loved ones money that's rightfully due them? >> stahl: since our broadcast first aired, 11 additional life insurance companies holding about a billion dollars in unclaimed policies have either agreed to pay back death benefits or have entered into settlement talks to do so. kemper is not one of those companies, and, in states like california, florida and illinois, it continues to fight audits and legislation requiring insurance companies to pay off
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>> lara logan: the holocaust is marked and memorialized at places like auschwitz, bergen of the six million jewish victims were executed in fields and forests and ravines, places that were not named and remain mostly unmarked today. they were slaughtered in mass shootings and buried in mass graves in the former soviet union, where, until very recently, little had been done to find them. as we reported last october, our story is about a man who's brought these crimes of the
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he is not a historian or a detective or a jew. he's a french catholic priest named father patrick desbois, and, for the past 15 years, he's been tracking down the sites where many of the victims lie and searching for witnesses who are still alive, many of whom had never been asked before to describe the horrors they had seen more than 70 years ago. >> patrick desbois: the general order was to eliminate the last jew, even the baby, even the old they never left anybody. >> logan: so it was a policy of total annihilation. >> desbois: total annihilation, and if hitler didn't lose the war, i think today will not be one jew alive. >> logan: father patrick desbois is on a mission across eastern europe to find hitler's hidden killing fields. before him lies a continent of extermination. these mass graves and extermination sites, many of them are invisible?
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under a corn field, under a house, under a tomato field, yeah, yeah. >> logan: and many of them would never be recorded. >> desbois: and never be recorded and still buried like animals. >> logan: we traveled with father desbois to the former soviet republic of moldova, where, in one day, he took us to four unmarked mass graves. in this field, he told us, 60 jews; beneath this farm, 100; above this city, under this a thousand bodies-- do you think they're still here? >> desbois: yeah, yeah, they're still here. >> logan: thousands of eyewitnesses, millions of documents, and 15 years of investigating have led him to more than 1,700 execution sites. once in ukraine, under the supervision of a rabbi, he excavated one. jewish tradition forbids moving the dead once buried, and the evidence was just beneath the
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>> desbois: and it was officially a place where no jew have been killed, and we found 17 mass graves. >> logan: and what did you find when you excavated...? >> desbois: you find everything. you see a mother with handing his boy until the end. and the boy try to go out. you see that another one was buried alive, so she had the mouth open because she was buried with the earth. >> logan: in june 1941, hitler invaded the soviet union. just behind his frontline troops were mobile death squadswn as the einsatzgruppen, whose job was to hunt down every last jew. they methodically entered villages, rounded up jewish families, and marched them to freshly dug graves. some of the remains are buried beneath this mound in lithuania. the assassins reached even the most remote corners, like hiriseni, a tiny village in moldova. so, when the killers came here, they really had only one purpose.
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the jews and the gypsies. only one goal always. >> logan: the village is virtually unchanged since the nazis stormed through here. father desbois's team had gone ahead of us, searching for eyewitnesses to a 70-year-old crime. they were led to an 85-year-old named gheorghe, still working in this vineyard. father desbois told us the first question they ask is always the same... >> desbois: "were you here during the war?" and he >> logan: gheorghe was 11 years old then, and he still remembers what he witnessed. >> gheorghe ( translated ): as soon as they came, they locked everyone up. i saw them taking them away. >> logan: he asked him where the jews were killed. >> gheorghe: it's a ravine over there. come and see, if you want. >> logan: so what you're learning here is completely unrecorded? >> desbois: yeah, if we didn't come, we'll never know they killed jews. these jews would have never been counted as dead, never known, and the mass grave is totally
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>> logan: gheorghe brought us down this road where, he said, all the jewish families from the village were taken. he told us the day of the shooting, he was tending to cows nearby. now, 70 years later, we watched as he traced the victims steps to the edge of the ravine. >> gheorghe: the jews were facing the ditch, so they were shooting them in the back of their heads or their backs to they were shooting them as if they were dogs. >> logan: he said it was a beautiful day exactly... >> desbois: a beautiful day... >> logan: ...like this one. >> desbois: ...like today. >> logan: with the sunshine. >> desbois: with the sunshine, yeah. >> logan: when you're doing this, when you're here and in a place like this, do you ever stop and think, "how did i get here?" >> desbois: no, always, i say to people, "finally, we found you. finally, we came back." >> logan: father desbois leads
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his search for these jewish victims his calling. you're not your typical priest. >> desbois: i don't know if there is a typical priest. ( laughs ) i think everybody has to make his way. the pope also is not a typical pope. but he's a pope. and i'm not a typical priest. but i am a priest. >> logan: with the blessing of his cardinal and the vatican, he created, in 2004, the organization yahad-in-unum-- "together as one." >> desbois: we began, so the fi >> logan: based in paris, his team begins by combing through millions of pages of german documents, comparing them to soviet archives that only became available after the collapse of the soviet union. they search for clues that lead them to villages where witnesses point them to mass graves. they always record and archive the witness testimonies. >> logan: to date they have
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who were children at the time. many were recruited by the nazis or local police to dig the mass graves, or to take the gold teeth, jewelry, and clothing of the victims. what have we learned about the holocaust that we didn't know before you began your
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i learned everybody can be a killer, anybody can be a victim. i learned that you like to see other people dying in front of you, killed by other people, when you are sure you will not be killed. >> logan: it was a dramatic finding-- that villagers chose to watch people being lined up and murdered, a revelation he would never have come to were it not for his grandfather, claudius desbois. he was held as a prisoner of war in a nazi camp in the ukrainian village of rawa ruska. but he never wanted to talk about it. father desbois was drawn to the village to find out what happened there. he made repeated trips, but no one would talk to him, until one night when the mayor took him to the edge of the forest where 50 elderly villagers were waiting. >> desbois: and he said, "patrick, i bring you at the
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movie. >> logan: one by one, they told you their stories, what they witnessed. >> desbois: 50. >> logan: 50 of them. >> desbois: and me, i couldn't bear it. i stopped them, i... everyone in the middle. i say, "ah, it's enough. it's enough. the pieces of woman in the tree, it's enough. it's enough for you." and they cried, and they went. i found finally what my grandfather never say. i say, "they shot the jews in public, and everybody knew. and surely my grandfather saw that." and... but that's it. i was in total shock. >> logan: you believed that the jews were killed in secret. >> desbois: yeah, because everybody told me, and i have read many books about the secrets of holocaust. and in soviet union, everybody told me they knew nothing and... because it was secret. >> logan: what he learned disturbed him. the killings were spectacles. they took place in broad daylight in front of entire villages. >> desbois: they were fighting to have a good place like... like for circus. >> logan: there's no way you
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they were running when they heard when they were killing jews, to see, to try to catch a coin, to check out your clothes, to take a picture. they wanted to be there. >> logan: this photo of a mass shooting is from the imperial war museum archives in london, dated september 14, 1941. >> desbois: and it's a ditch. here we have a woman with a child. >> logan: you don't see any spectators, but father desbois suspected the crowd was just outside the frame. he followed thct brought him to the home of 81- year-old anatoli, who was eight back then. he said he was at the massacre, alongside his mother. >> anatoli ( translated ): we were standing somewhere here. and here were the trenches, here they were falling. >> logan: the carnage lasted two weeks. dimitri, then 16, said he was there, too. he told us he watched from a
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20 people at a time. >> desbois: and he thinks how many jews have been killed like that? >> translator: it was about 18- and-a-half thousand people. >> logan: a number much higher than the official records, which doesn't surprise father desbois, who says the death tolls are often under-reported. the bodies are right behind dimitri's house in these 11 masr sites in eastern europe that's marked and protected. >> desbois: i never saw one like that among the 1,700 extermination sites where i've been. >> logan: no one has shined more light on this dark chapter than father desbois, according to paul shapiro, the director of advance studies at the u.s. holocaust memorial museum, who also sits on yahad's scientific board. >> paul shapiro: the method that he's used, extraordinary.
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of localities where before we just had fog. >> logan: how reliable is his work? >> shapiro: he has opened the door to the use of multiple sources to understand what really happened on the ground in a big part of europe. >> desbois: the babies were shot, too. >> logan: we found father desbois a cautious and skeptical interviewer. a woman with a baby would approach the pit, they forced her to hold the baby in sight. first, they shot the baby and then her. >> logan: he never judged or showed emotion as he listened to the darkest accounts of humanity. father desbois insists that every killing site they find is memorialized by recording the gps coordinates. they never physically mark the graves because, he says, people would loot them.
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his work is finished, the number of jewish victims will total more than has been previously documented. but the number, he says, is less important than giving meaning to their lives. sometimes in a small village, he'll find a witness, like 80- year-old anatoli, who remembers not only the death of his jewish neighbors, but their names. >> anatoli: brick, gorovich, shurman, and folst. >> desbois: it's like if he was waiting for us in 70 years and now we are here. every time i come with my team, i say, "they are waiting for us." >> logan: it did seem like he was waiting for you. >> desbois: yes, like the dead. >> this cbs sports update is brought to you by the lincoln motor company. at the john deere classic, ryan
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career on the pga tour at 22 under par. at the rio game, justin rose won first gold medal in golf since 1904. simone biles easily captured the women's vault. and in men's basketball, the united states edged france 100-97. for more sports news information, go to cbssports.com. phil macatee reporting. woman: it's been a journey to get where i am. and i didn't get here alone. there were people who listened along the way.
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and through it all, my retirement never got left behind. so today, i'm prepared for anything we may want tomorrow to be. every someday needs a plan. let's talk about your old 401(k) today. at safelite, we know how busy life can be. these kids were headed to their first dance recital... ...when their windshield got cracked... ...but they couldn't miss the show. so dad went to the new safelite-dot-com. ...before the girls even took the stage. safelite-dot-com is the fast, easy way to schedule service anywhere in america! so you don't have to miss a thing. y'all did wonderful! that's another safelite advantage.
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united for over 35 years. >> rose: there is nothing like formula one in terms of global popularity, glamour and speed. it is considered the pinnacle of motor sports. most americans haven't heard of its biggest star. as we first told you last winter, even if car races aren't your thing, there is still much to admire in hamilton's inspiring story of beating the odds and breaking through barriers. but if you do like speed, buckle up because you're about to experience the indescribable rush of driving one of the fastest race cars on the planet.
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get in the formula one car. knowing that you're driving a multi-million dollar car, and if you crash it, it's going to cost a lot of money and they might not give you another chance, is scary. >> rose: it is said that you're at one with the car. >> hamilton: yeah. it's like you're strapped to a rocket. i mean, it's like, "how do you control this rocket?" it's like a raging bull. it's wild. it's sexy. it's fast. >> rose: lewis hamilton was the fastest in 2008, when he championship at the brazilian grand prix. >> you will never see a more dramatic conclusion to any motor race. >> rose: no one in the crowd was more proud than his father and manager, anthony hamilton. he was only 23; at the time, the youngest champion in the history of the sport. today, hamilton's 49 career
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old. >> hamilton: i want to crush everyone. i want to outsmart everyone. >> rose: you want to crush everyone. >> hamilton: i do. >> rose: at the italian grand prix last september, he did just that as the ferrari faithful and the cream of european society looked on. hamilton in his mercedes was the ultimate driving machine, winning the pole position, recording the fastest lap, and leading the race from start to ni >> congratulations, lewis. >> rose: in racing, that's called a grand slam. when it was over, hamilton was so relaxed, it was as if he had just driven around the block. so, how does it feel, this one? >> hamilton: this weekend is the best i've ever had. i've never been quickest in every session and all qualifying sessions and the race. i've never, ever done that. >> rose: worldwide, formula one generated more than $2 billion last season, but remains a niche
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f1 executives hope hamilton can change that. they have never seen a star like him before. how many black drivers in formula one? >> hamilton: one. >> rose: why is that? >> hamilton: well, i don't know. i think, in the future, there'll be more. >> rose: you're a role model? >> hamilton: i hope so. >> rose: you are, in fact, the face of formula one. you're the guy. so, all of a sudde looks to you and says, you know... >> hamilton: "we need you." >> rose: "we need you." ( laughter ) they need you. >> hamilton: well, i think we need each other. >> rose: no race car driver becomes a champion without a team... and a fast car. we went to mercedes' f1 headquarters in england to see the one hamilton drove in 2014. you said the top speed of this
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>> hamilton: 200... 220, 230. >> rose: how does that compare to indy or nascar? >> hamilton: well, this car will kill both of those cars. >> rose: kill them? >> hamilton: kill them. the speed in which we get to... to a 100 miles an hour is probably similar to... to an indy car. but it's what this car does through a corner. it's like a fighter jet on wheels. >> rose: the aerodynamic wings of the car allow it to hug the ground and take corners at over 100 miles an hour. hamilton says the forces can be five times his body weight, or five gs. he drives to the limit, and sometimes beyond, like when he blew a tire qualifying for the 2007 european grand prix. what's it like to hit the wall? >> hamilton: the journey towards it is kind of exciting. >> rose: really? what makes it exciting? >> hamilton: because you lose control.
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>> hamilton: true, yeah. i... i can't really explain that. >> rose: perhaps it's because hamilton has never been seriously hurt in a crash. a generation ago, one or more drivers could die each season, like his hero, ayrton senna. it's considerably safer today. >> hamilton: it is. formula one was a very dangerous sport. it still is dangerous, but the danger factor is also the exciting part. >> rose: it wasn't possible to drive in hamilton's race car, so could find. this is the fastest mercedes? >> hamilton: yeah. ( laughs ) >> rose: nine miles from the team's base is silverstone, home of the british grand prix. we drove straight onto the same track where hamilton has won four times. what are we at now, about 100? >> hamilton: doing 140 right now.
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i'm on one of the great race tracks in the world with the greatest driver in the world. how good is that? >> hamilton: this is good fun. >> rose: and my heart is somewhere up around my ears. unbelievable, lewis. but tell me about driving. talk to me about what you're in >> hamilton: i know that i have to hit the curve right here, so there's... there's an ideal apex... >> rose: see there, that's not the way i would've anticipated hitting the curve. ? ? ? >> hamilton: you press the music? >> rose: ( laughs ) i did. i hit... oh, boy, that was my heart. races are won and lost in the turns. drivers are looking for the most efficient angle or line through each one. >> hamilton: so what you're trying to do when you're driving a racecar, you notice there's lines i'm taking. so right now, the next one is
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to the right as possible. >> rose: so it's going to be a left. so you're going to be as far as you can to the right? >> hamilton: yeah. and basically, you want to make... you want to turn as little as possible. ( brakes squeal ) >> rose: you want to turn as little as possible? >> hamilton: yeah. >> rose: yeah. >> rose: do they make too much of this idea that great drivers can feel it throughout their body? >> hamilton: yeah. i can feel it, but i know my... i know my boundaries. i know the limits to the car. >> rose: before lewis hamilton was old enough to drive, he was already a racing prodigy. he got his first remote control car at age five. not long after, he beat the british national champion on a bbc children's show called "blue peter". >> and we have a winner! who won the race? lewis, well done! >> rose: and then he got a second-hand go-kart for christmas from his father, anthony hamilton. >> anthony hamilton: it's quite a unique story. because normally, racing drivers come from a long line of, you know, previous successful sports people. but here we were, just a normal family.
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and not only that, you know, we're the only black family on the grid. not only that, lesser equipment to others... >> rose: six years old, and he said, "i want to be a formula one racer." >> anthony hamilton: yeah. that's all he ever said till he got there. >> rose: while other kids played, young lewis drove. in only his second year racing go-karts, hamilton became the champion of britain. >> anthony hamilton: and it's like, "hang on. lewis can become a british karting champion with his father as mechanic, then the world is his oyster." >> rose: and what did you know about racing? >> rose: anthony hamilton had to teach himself racing so he could then teach his son. he worked as a computer manager for the railroad, but he took on odd jobs to finance lewis' dream. father and son spent hundreds of hours here at the rye house kart track in a suburb north of london. what does rye house mean to you? >> lewis hamilton: rye house was my school. >> rose: and the most important lesson was when to brake. you helped him appreciate the
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>> anthony hamilton: yes. >> rose: that happened on this track. >> anthony hamilton: yes, absolutely, absolutely. that very corner over there... >> rose: yes. >> anthony hamilton: ...right on the bend. he learned to brake later, harder, and keep the speed on the go-kart. >> lewis hamilton: the best drivers were braking here, and he would make me brake later than them. >> rose: and that contributed to your dominance? >> lewis hamilton: yes. and it still does today. >> rose: young lewis hamilton was so dominant, he got his first pro contract at 13. despite the success as the only black family in the sport, t hamiltons did not always feel welcome at the track. >> lewis hamilton: yeah, i mean, i had parents come to me, other drivers' parents would come up to me and be sort of, "you don't belong here. go back to wherever you came from." >> rose: so what does it say about you that you survived all that and became the world champion? >> lewis hamilton: my dad would always say, "do your talking on the track." so i get on the track and i'd
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hamiltons won their first world championship in formula one, the wheels came off their relationship. lewis no longer wanted his father to be his manager. >> lewis hamilton: so it was a point where i was like, "dad, i just want you to be my dad." and that was incredibly hard for him to take, and it was hard for me to... to be able to do it. it had to be a hard break at the time. >> rose: and how hard was it for him to take it? >> lewis hamilton: that bridged a gap between us that was, like, the grand canyon. >> rose: did it affect your >> lewis hamilton: absolutely. yeah. >> rose: disappointing results mounted, as did crashes, like this one in the 2011 belgian grand prix. hamilton's father was convinced his absence was a factor. >> anthony hamilton: i couldn't understand it. what do you mean you don't need me? so that hit me pretty hard. but it was... it was probably the best thing, you know. he's not a boy anymore. he wasn't a kid anymore.
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>> rose: what would you do different? >> anthony hamilton: my desire for him to be so successful took me over from being the father to more manager. and that's probably the thing i would... >> rose: you wish you'd stayed more father. >> anthony hamilton: yeah. but if i'd have stayed the father, i... he probably wouldn't have been as successful. >> rose: four years after their professional split, lewis hamilton won his second world championship in abu dhabi. prince harry congratulatedim >> prince harry: lewis, well done. you're an absolute legend. >> rose: and waiting in the garage was anthony hamilton. no longer a manager, now just a proud dad. >> lewis hamilton: what he did for me, i can never pay him back. the only thing i can do is make sure that every time i'm in the car today with the opportunity that he's helped create get and give me, i've got to grab it with both hands and never take it for granted. >> how good does that sound, lewis-- "three times world champion"?
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>> rose: hamilton clinched his third world championship this past october in austin, texas, at the u.s. grand prix. now managing himself, he claims to be the happiest he's ever been. we believed him, not because of something he said, but because of the way he drove. >> lewis hamilton: the way i drive, the way i handle a car is an expression of my inner feelings. ( laughter ) >> rose: oh, boy. i hope you're enjoying this as much as i am. >> lewis hamilton: i have the best job in the world. >> rose: go, man, go. midway through the current 2016 season, lewis hamilton entered formula one's summer break in a
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field to become world champion. with nine races left, hamilton is poised to take his fourth f1 title, a mark that would tie him for third all time in the history of the sport. >> lewis hamilton takes charlie rose out for a spin. ride along at 60minutesovertime.com.
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>> stahl: i'm leslie stahl. we'll be back next week with another edition of "60 minutes." tomorrow, be sure to watch "cbs
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