invasion that left dr. william petit's wife and two daughters brutalized and murdered. the finally doctor finally speaks out. we have the inside story of what really happened that night. plus, being whoopi. she's won the oscar, the emmy, the tony and the grammy. tonight, she dishes on her new book and everything from sex to drunk drivers for our series "seriously funny." and, election landslide? new polls show terrifying numbers for democrats in the mid-term elections next month. some poller thes say republicans may take upwards of 50, maybe even 71 house seats. we look at the enthusiasm gap. >> announcer: from the global resources of abc news, with terry moran, cynthia mcfadden and bill weir in new york city, this is "nightline," october 5th, 2010. >> good evening, i'm cynthia mcfadden.

we begin tonight with a terrible crime and a step toward justice. three years ago, dr. william petit was asleep when intruders broke into his connecticut home, beat him and bound him then the intruders turned viciously on dr. petit's wife and two daughters. today, the doctor passed a milestone in his ordeal. one of the intruders was convicted on murder. tonight, dr. petit talks about how the nightmare unfolded. ashleigh banfield reports. >> reporter: on the steps of a connecticut courthouse, dr. william petit emerges stoic, but relieveded. >> we did our best to keep our faith in god that justice would be served. >> reporter: a guilty verdict for stephen hayes. he's the first of two men to be tried of an unimaginable crime against dr. petit's family three years ago. >> there is some relief, but my family is still gone.

it doesn't bring them back. it doesn't bring back the home that we had. >> reporter: dr. petit has come here, day after excruciating day, relieving a nightmare. >> if your family was destroyed by evil, i think that you would all try to do the same thing, and be there for your family. i mean, it's -- the one thing you can do. >> reporter: dr. petit endured wrenching testimony about the way his wife and daughters were tortured and murdered. it was july 23rd, 2007. two men broke into their home in connecticut, beating him with a baseball bat. they tied him unconscious and bleeding to a pole in the basement. they then turned their attention to his wife and daughters. they tied 17-year-old haley and 11-year-old my kayla to their beds. dr. petit's wife, jennifer, was forced to drive to the family bank and withdraw $15,000.

a harrowing scene that was caught on surveillance video. the bank manager called 911. >> we have a lady who is in our bank right now who says that her husband and children are being held at their house. the people are in a car outside the bank, she is getting $15,000 to bring out to them. that if the police are told, they will kill her children and the husband. >> reporter: jennifer did as she was told, returning to her captor, stephen hayes, in the family's waiting vehicle, outside the bank. en route home, hayes stopped for gas and yet again surveillance video shows him buying canisters of fuel, fuel that would be used to burn the girls alive in an attempt to hide the evidence of the crimes. >> in my 22 years of being a prosecutor, i can't imagine anything that was as horrendous as the facts that we uncovered and heard about during this trial if there ever was a case that deserves the death penalty,

this certainly is one. >> reporter: the hor roe was far from over. mrs. petit, unaware that her youngest daughter lay raped and tied to her bed upstairs was herself raped by hayes and then choked to death and doused in gas. >> right after the strangulation and rape of jennifer, the prerp traitors knew they had to cover their tracks. so, they burned that house down and they did it by pouring gas on the two young girls and down the stairs and on the body of jennifer. >> reporter: the girls were still alive? >> they were. >> reporter: and they struck the match? >> they did. >> reporter: as fire began to engulf the girls and the body of their mother, the two ran from the home, using the family's suv. but they didn't get far. slamming right into police cruisers that had formed a perimeter. they were cuffed on site, face down on the street. many criticized police for not

acting fast enough. >> there will always be monday morning quarterbacking to see if the police did their job. did they rush in there quick enough? it's not like tv where everybody is suited up and ready to jump into that wagon and get out there and attack the house. >> reporter: dr. petit was the only one to survive, freeing his hands and escaping through the basement. he crawled to a neighbor's house, his feet still bound. the neighbor called 911. >> i got bill petit here who's hurt, my neighbor. >> he's at your house? >> yes, he's right here. >> reporter: today's verdict brings to a close just one of many painful chapters ahead. now comes the penalty phase for stephen hayes. a mini trial, where his lawyers will try to save his life, while prosecutors will try to convince the jury to take it. even death penalty opponents say the jury will have a lot to grapple with. >> this trial really is about whether or not hayes is just so beyond redemption that he should be eliminated from the human

community. >> reporter: the death penalty is rare in connecticut. the state has only executed one person since the penalty was reinstatemented in 1976. >> connecticut ranks right at the bottom in terms of number of people on death row by states. it has ten people under death sentence. there are other states that have death rows in the hundreds. >> reporter: and there is still the matter of the second defendant in the crime, joshua komisarjevsky. the 30-year-old has a young daughter of his own. and lived in the same town as the petits. >> i think the state has been greatly affected. i have never heard people in the general public talk about how they couldn't sleep at night when they heard the facts of the case on the news. it has caused people who want to follow our law enforcement system and your criminal justice system to think of issues they never want to think of. >> reporter: for dr. petit and his extended family, they must still endure yet another trial for come skomisarjevsky, but un then, dr. petit hopes for

healing time with the family. >> we'll probably sit on the couch and talk and probably have dinner together and try to decide what we're going to do. >> reporter: and pay tribute to his wife and daughters. >> what matters to me most is my family and my memories, my memories of my family and trying to do good things through our foundation. i don't know, over the last couple of weeks i've just kept trying to tell myself that good will overcome evil and we'll keep trying to do good things and try to refocus on the positive and stay away from the negative. >> reporter: this is ashleigh banfield for "nightline" in new haven, connecticut. >> terrible tragedy. the penalty phase of the trial is set to begin october 18th. and when we come back, is the world getting meaner? superstar whoopi goldberg thinks it is. she tells us why, when we come

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look at all this stuff for coffee. oh there's tons. french presses, espresso tampers, filters. it can get really complicated. not nearly as complicated as shipping it, though. i mean shipping is a hassle. not with priority mail flat rate boxes from the postal service. if it fits it ships anywhere in the country for a low flat rate. that is easy. best news i've heard all day! i'm soooo amped! i mean not amped. excited. well, sort of amped. really kind of in between. have you ever thought about decaf? do you think that would help? yeah. priority mail flat rate shipping starts at just $4.90, only from the postal service. a simpler way to ship. i'm frank kratovil and i approve this message. the real andy harris. his past attacks have been called deceptive, his new attack, false.

harris voted for deregulation increasing our electric bills by 72% it's not surprising, harris always sides with the big guys. he opposes cracking down on wall street and supports tax breaks for companies that ship jobs overseas. harris even opposed making big insurance cover cancer screenings. andy harris' extreme ideas will cost us. we tur we turn now to show business and civility. and a woman who has won all of the profession's top awards. the oscar, the emmy, the grammy and the tony. whoopi goldberg is also known for his lion tamer role on "the view," and now she's written a new book. about the things that bug her. it is both profound and

seriously funny. >> aren't they fab? what size is your foot? >> reporter: like an eight. >> reporter: welcome to whoopi goldberg's dressing room. perhaps better called her shoe room. backstage at "the view." i love them. >> you look adorable. >> reporter: i feel like a new woman. i feel funny. of course, it isn't the shoes that make whoopi funny. take a look at what happens when a light falls over during our interview -- >> black people move quickly. see, cynthia was like, what is that? what's happening? i was like, [ bleep ] it. i'm out! and this is why, in the movies, white girls get eaten by the monster. because they go, they -- >> reporter: this is why -- >> they turn on the light and they open the door, and they go -- is anyone there? black people like, what the [ bleep ]?

take the cell phone! call the police as we're driving away. >> reporter: that is so funny. whoopi is a master of the uncanny, often raw, always real and sometime s absolutely offcolor riff. >> who are you? you can kiss my behind. >> so glad you're doing. >> reporter: the earthy yang to the barbara waters yin. >> i think for both of us it was a new venture, or a new adventure. but it's been so successful. i mean, the audience just loves you. >> reporter: whoopi's take? >> you ever seen the tarzan movies where they always call him over? like, find out if anything is waiting up there to eat us. i'm that. i go through the forest, i get to the slap in the back of the

head. but i have to make time cues happen and sort of move subjects along. >> reporter: she's never been shy about being anything but totally honest. ironically, her first role was a serious one, in 1958, when she played an abused wife in stepve spielbe spielberg's "the color purple." she went on to win an oscar for the 1995 film "ghost." >> my name is sam. can you hear me? say my name. say it. >> leave me alone! >> reporter: she'd come a long way from the housing project where she grew up as karen elaine johnson. >> ladies and gentlemen, whoopi goldberg. >> reporter: by 199 4, hosting the oscars. >> there haven't been this many showbiz executives so nervous sweating over one woman since heidi fleiss, honey. >> reporter: still, whoopi confesses, hollywood's never been entirely easy for her. >> as it turns out, people keep reminding me that i'm black, so i have a different kind of career.

i didn't know this, clearly, because i just thought i was just whoopi, but i'm black whoopi, as it turns out. so, i have to always find things to keep myself occupieoccupied. they're not looking for me. they got a lot of younger versions. and, you know, ones they can put with matthew perry and tom cruise. i think they would have a very hard time in their own minds thinking, oh, well, let's make her the love interest, because they're not interested in making love with me. >> reporter: today, we're here because she's also an author of a new book called "is it just me?" is it just you? >> no, it's not just me. >> reporter: the book is a sort of etiquette book on speed. i want to ask you, we're going to start with the cover. >> yes. i love that. >> reporter: whoopi on the toilet. >> yes. because this is what happens. i'm sitting on the can --

>> reporter: you have to zoom in here. what's happening is, someone is -- >> asking me for an autograph? >> reporter: has that happened? >> yeah. you're in the bathroom, i'm in the bathroom. we're here to do the same thing. so, why would you not wait until i did what i needed to do to ask me for an autograph? >> reporter: that got her to thinking, she says, about how people treat each other these days. >> i just address a lot of stuff that's been freaking me out. >> reporter: like the way people drive. >> doing your eyelashes, you know, putting on lipstick, talking on the phone, doing too many -- all you should do in the car is drive. because it weighs, like, a gabillion pounds and can hit somebody and kill them. >> reporter: you have real contempt for people who drink and drive. >> oh, yeah. to me, if you drink and drive, you shouldn't have a car. you shouldn't president given a warning. your car should go instantly away. instantly. and the fact -- >> reporter: one time?

>> first time out. you get caught, you have no car. >> reporter: she says she's sick of rude behavior like young folks who won't offer their seats to the elderly. >> if you're a young strapping dude, get up! just get up! oh, it just makes me crazy. >> reporter: you think there's more meanness in the culture than there once was? >> yes, i do. i do think there is more meanness. and i don't know why. i guess it's easier. and we, you know, also, we validate it. we have shows about mean girls, movies about them. girls want to be mean. because they think that's the hip thing to be. >> reporter: whoopi would like to change that. her inspiration, her mother, who died this past summer and to whom she dedicated her book. >> i think i'm just sad sometimes that i think, who will love me the way that she did? she was good. >> she was good. >> yeah. >> reporter: you said something that so struck me, that you wondered if anyone else would ever love you the way she did. i mean, that's a powerful idea.

>> she's the deepest root that i have. she's the relationship that i've had the longest in my life, and so -- she accepted the good, the bad and the strange about me. >> reporter: after three marriages, she says there is no man in her life, at the moment. >> sex is time consuming. it's very time consuming. because it's not just what you do, there's a buildup and, you know, there's, like, a whole relationship thing and even if it's a one-night stand, you have to, like, you nope, really sort of be into the person. i'm really into me. i'm into me. i'm 55, man, i'm into me. me and my cat. >> reporter: and into the rest of us, being a whole lot more civilized. she's got a point. "is it just me" is in stores today, as is a new book in her

children's book series, it's called "terrible terrell." she's something. up next, we go to the kitchen, where an alabama chef dishes up an irresistible plate list. 3ç3ç3ç3ç3ç nighttime nasal congestion meant, i couldn't breathe right.

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>> announcer: "nightline" continues from new york city with cynthia mcfadden. >> and now food. for 25 years, chef frank stitt has run the popular highlands bar and girl in birmingham, alabama, with an unwavering faith in the pure southern ingredients he loved as a boy. he now has two more restaurants,

and two cook books who his name, but the delicious basics remain the same. as he shows us in tonight's plate list. >> when you come south and you come below the mason-dixon like, there is something that changes. and there is a lot about your ha handshake, your integrity, your honesty, and those were values that, you know, i think are passed on, in a way that, it's kind of profound here in the south. just got some fresh cream and some, a good bit of fresh mint. chop up the fresh mint, and then, with a half of a lemon, put it in a mortar, pestle. infusing some of this mint into

the lemon juice. strain this. and you can see all of that lemon juice that's kind of flavored with the mint. just that lemon juice is beginning to thicken this heavy cream, so it makes it into a really nice sauce. we just have this ripe fig with walnut and some country hall. ill just wrap that around, one time. you just want to char them so that it's a little blackened on the edges. and just for a minute or two, perseid. we have a story, talking about the weary traveler. and that somebody's had a horrible day, and that they've come into our restaurant at ten minutes after closing time. well, what you are going to do? you're going to take care of them. you're going to welcome them. you're going to make them feel at ease and you're going to, you know, nourish them and restore them. you have an opportunity to impact, you nope, a person's

life. that wonderful ha fuful hammy s. it good to have a bit of fat on there. and that's our grilled figs with country hall, wall met nuts and lemon-mint cream. some of my fondest memories are so of the summertime, having this summer lunch that was peas and butter beans and green beans cooked with onions and new potatoes, all that have just been picked. those kinds of humble country rustic cooking of the south was something that was just some of my most wonderful memories of great food. i've got my peas, my charred onion, my okra, some sweet corn and then these cherry tomatoes. and i do have a little bit of shallot. sherry vinegar.

i'm going to call this a clam suck tash. and i'm going to cook these until they pop open. these are big flounder. these guys are about this big. and you give it a little shake and you can see that it's not sticking at all so that's a really nice thing. i love that golden color, just like that. now, those are just popped open. and that's as long as you want to cook them. you know, you could serve this for a family, just one big platter, bring it to the table like that. and that's our flounder with a lady pea and clam suck tash. we have our causes that we've got to fight for, and i think that the origin of our food, knowing where our food comes from, sustainable, organic farming, those are things that politically i think we've got to get off the couch and fight for those things.

tastes so wonder. . like summer. >> yum. diverse greens like no place else in the u.s. when we come back, a bad news poll for democrats, that's the subject of tonight's closing argument. but first, here's jimmy kimmel with what's coming up next. jimmy? >> jimmy: tonight, courteney cox. bruno tonioli. phoenix on our outdoor stage. and jake byrd at the paris hilton sentencing in vegas. "jimmy kimmel live" is next.

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