in new york city, this is "nightline," august 3rd, 2011. >> good evening, i'm bill weir. and we begin tonight with what could be a break in one of the most intriguing cold cases in our country's history in the early '70s, a hijacker calling himself d.b. cooper jumped from a flight and disappeared in the woods of the pacific northwest. his fate remained unknown. his true identity a mystery, that is, perhaps, until now. thanks to this exclusive interview with abc's pierre thomas. >> i'm certain he was my uncle, lynn doyle cooper. >> reporter: this woman has reignited the investigation into the only unsolved hijacking in u.s. hihiory. her name is marla cooper. and she says her uncle is the infamous hijacker,.b. cooper. this is not an alias, you believe that your uncle was d.b. cooper. >> yes, i do. >> reporter: the identity of d.b. cooper has bebe a mystery since november 24th, 1971, when a man calling himself dan cooper hijacked and threatened to blow up a passenger jet flying from portland to seattle. he ordered the plane to land and demanded a $200,000 ransom and a parach

i'm bill weir. dna evidence and johnny depp. the three convicts you're about to meet had both on their side. and that proved to be enough to set them free from prison today. but 18 years ago, when they were rebel teens in their town, accused of a gruesome, satanic murder of three young boys, dna tests weren't available and there were no celebrities around to take up their cause. here's our jim avila for our series "crime and punishment." >> reporter: it's a case so stunning, so controversial, it became a major cause celebre, with actors and musicians like johnny depp, the dixie chicks' natalee maines, and pearl jam's eddie vedder. >> i'm here to show my support for the west memphis three. >> reporter: speaking out for the defendants. three little cub scouts hogtied and left in an arkansas didih, and three teenagers enamored with satanic rituals arrested. it made headlines all over the country, even becoming the subject of three hbo documentaries called "paradise lost." >> we were the obvious choice because we stood out. >> i did

. >> announcer: from the global resources of abc news, with terry moran, cynthia mcfadden and bill weir in new york city, this is "nightline," august 4th, 2011. >> thanks for joining us, everyone, , m bill weir. well, the closing bell on wall street was hardly a death knell tonight, but it was certainly an indication of just how sick our economy is these days. and that sickness, only compounded by fear. anyone with a 401(k) can reasonable worry that unemployment might crash that euro might crash, that unemployment could get worse that recession would be our new normal. but in an effort to replace some of that fear with knowledge, we asked some smart people the four big questions of the day. so, how bad was it really? it was bad. the drop in the dow, the worst since the great recession crash of late '08. >> tough day on wall street today. >> today's massive selloff on wall street.t. >> stocks around the world take a major tumble. >> reporter: both nasdaq and the s&p were down around 5% and today caps a brutal couple weeks. the markets have gobbled up almost $1 trillion in wealth over tha

i'm bill weir. an american woman missing in aruba.ight sound like a headline from six years ago, back when alabama student natalee holloway disappeared on that caribbean island and was never s sn again. but now a second woman has vanished there, and this time the case is complicated by the fact that those closest to her, including her live-in boyfriend back home in maryland, didn't even know she was taking the trip. here's abc's matt gutman. >> reporter: even before her disappearance became the latest mystery to blemish aruba's coast, robyn gardner's life was already shrouded in secrets and lies. the 35-year-old dental assistant left her home in maryland on sunday, july 31st. she told her live-in boyfriend, richard forrester, she need aid vacation. >> she told me she was going to orlando with her family on a short vacation tuesday to thursday to go to their timeshare. >> reporter: it was the first of a tangle of lies she told forester. he was stunned to learn on monday morning that robyn wasn't in florida at all but in aruba. >> she e

that's bill weir tomorrow night on "nightline." and that's it for our program tonight.nks for watching abc news. we hope you check in for "good morning america." they're working while we're all sleeping. and we're always online at abcnews.com. we'll see you here tomorrow. >> dicky: up next on an all-new "jimmy kimmel live." >> jimmy: it turns out that perry was at one time a democrat, but just once in college, he was experimenting. >> dicky: joel mchale. >> i began

. >> announcer: from the global resources of abc news, with terry moran, cynthia mcfadden and bill weir in new york city, this is "nightline," august 18th, 2011. >> thanks for joining us, everyone, i'll bill weir. so, early in the spring, i checked into a hotel in ukraine and after unlocking my dingy room, the bellman held up a well-worn piece of paper which read, "you want woman?" i was there to do a story on america's biggest international match makers the modern term for what was known as a broker of mail order brides. the bellman, pimp, seemed to confirm suspicions about the romance tour i'd come to see, but we found a story much more completion, one filled with expectation and exploitation, love and heartbreak. friday night, odessa, eukraine. this is what a social mixer looks like on a so-called romance tour. you can tell because the local women outnumber the american men about 10 to 1. and right in the thick of it? that's bob. he just spent 4,000 bucks and traveled 5,00000 miles, not to dance with taller, younger women, per se, though he doesn't mind that part. he says he's come h

our bill weir went vertical on his big outdoor adventure.at time no matter where he is. but you know what? he took camping to new heights. he was on the edge of glory. >> i cannot believe he's smiling doing that. he's in yosemite. so scary. we'll have that coming up. >>> also, the ultimate lottery office pool. a group of math whizzes who figured out how to beat the system win the lottery almost every single time. perfectly legal -- they're geniuses, they figured it out and made a fortune. >> it's legal what they're doing. >> so far it is. trying to crack down on it. >> i hope they share some of those seeks to the rest of us. >>> more on the unbelievable story of the infamous hijacker d.b. cooper. why this picture may be the fbi's best chance to solve one of their unsolved mysteries. >> well have more on that. >>> but let's get right into the fight for casey anthony's future. a florida judge is tryryg to get her back in the hands of the legal system. but her attorneys say, no way. yunji de nies has been tracking the latest. good morning. >> r

i'm bill weir. tonight, the city of philadelphia is saying enough to a cycle of violence driven by crowds of young teenage irs using social media to link up, form a mass and cause chaos. it's a sinister version of flash mobs. for some reason, the city of brotherlrl love, the term flash mob means loosely organized violence. >> reporter: maybe it's summer. but the senseless violence of flash mobs set london on fire this week. philadelphia is not lopden. it's not burning buildings. t the episodes of violence like these have been going on for months. we see kids intent on stealing, on scaring passers by. on trying to have a night out. >> there's no real pattern to it. but it's very troubling. we have had people get serious injuries. >> reporter: so today, as evening approached in philadelphia, a new measure was planned. children under 18, teens like these, were told that as of 9:00 p.m., they had to be off the streets downtown. >> we have had problems with kids gathering in groups for decades. what ps n

. >> a aouncer: from the global recourses of abc news, with terry moran, cynthia mcfadden and bill weir in new york city, this is "nightline," august 30th, 2011. >> good evening. we begin tonight with a health crisis in a billion dololr business. the adult film industry. where production shut down temporarily on monday, after it was revealed that an actor had tested positive for hiv. a similar shutdown in 2004 led to calls for condoms to be required in all porn productions. but the industry, including its actors resisted such a move. and now it's happened again. here's abc's david wright for our series, "modern sex in america." >> reporter: it's a 10 to $15 billion industry. bigger than professional baseball, football and basketball combined. and again the a alt entertainment industry is at a stand still because an unidentified performer has tested positive for the aids virus. >> animals have more protection in the making of films than porn performers. how many cases do they have to have before taking it seriously? >> reporter: performing porn may be taking your life in your hands. so,

. >> announcer: from the global resources of abc news, with terry moran, cynthia mcfcfden and bill weirn new york city, this is "nightline," august 23rd, 2011. >> good evening. we begin tonight with that 5.8 magnitude earthquake outside washington, d.c. today, which grabbed the attention of millimeters on the east coast. one indication, twitter counted more than 5500 tweets per second. so many people were on their cell phones that some service went out. the white house was evacuated and all the national monuments were closed for safety inspections. lala tonight, the national park service reported a crack was discovered in the top of the washington monument. here's abc's david muir with the east coast unexpected case of the shakes. >> reporter: we were pulling into the train station in washington, d.c. when the station suddenry began to wildly shake. officers yelling to us and to everyone to get out. passengers ran to safety. there were immediate fears here that this was something worse. >> grounun started shaking. people started screaming, running around. >> all of a sudden, everything

. ♪ it is a man's world >>> good evening, i'm bill weir, thanks for joining us.t you're about to see is among the modern politician's worst nightmares. in a time when belts and budgets need tightening, certain cutbaccutbac cutbacks have startling questions. no better example than the community forced to slash its police force. in no time, cops on beat have within been replaced by hookers working the streets. their first line of defense, fed-up citizens. >> reporter: cathy thought it could never happen here. >> prostitution's not a victimless crime -- >> reporter: and yet here she is at a city council meeting tackling, of all thing, prostitution. >> it's a quiet neighborhood. >> reporter: at first glance, it looks the perfect place to raise a family. believe it or not, this charming historical district just blocks from city hall has been overrun by an alarming influx of newcomers practicing the world's oldest profession. you can find prostitutes and pimps plying their trade, snack dab in the middle of a r residential area. for months, cathy watched the crime rate

. >> announcer: frfr the global resources of abc news,ith terry moran, cynthia mcfadden and bill weir in new york city, this is "nightline," august 25th, 2011. >> good evening, i'm terry moran. well, we're looking at a historic weather event now. it's rare that storms this big and this violent take aim at major american cities along the eastern seaboard, but that is what's apparentry happening with hurricane irene, now a category 3 hurricane, with winds of 115 miles per hour. irene blew past flolorida todayn its way toward landfall in the carolinas, sometimes early afternoon saturday. the big question, where does it go from there? here's abc's matt gutman for our coverage of hurricane irene. >> reporter: hurricane irene rumbled over the bahamas today, bending palms like rubber, toppling trees and ripping boats right out of the water. mike tice caught the brunt of it in nassau this morning. >> wind gusts around 75 or 80 miles an hour and this wind and rainin combined is absolutely ferocious to stand outside in front of. >> reporter: and even before making landfall in the u.s., the stor

. >> announcer: from the global resources of abc news, with terry moran, cynthia mcfadden, and bill weir in new york city, this is "nightline." august 15th, 2011. >>> good evening. i'm cynthia mcfadden. we begin tonight with what increasingly appears to be a murder investigation. it's playing out on the caribbean island of aruba. tomorrow, it will be two weeks since robyn gardner, a 25-year-old woman, disappeared after traveling to the island with a man she met online. he's now under arrest and his troublesome past is coming to light. here's abc's matt gutman. >> reporter: arubans again find their tiny sun swept island the setting another possible murder mystery. with gary giordano, at first blush a bereaved boyfriend who claimed his travel companion had gone missing while snorkeling, now led out of a police station in disgrace. the only suspect in the disappearance of 35-year-old robyn gardner. this evening prosecutors ordered giordano held for another 16 days, here in aruba's kia prison. that's nearly twice as long as they'd originally pushed for. >> it was a good day, yes, but it's no

. >> announcer: from the grow ball resources of abc news, with cynthia mcfadden and bill weir in new york city, and terry moran in washington, this is "nightline," august 2nd, 2011. >> good evening, i'm terry moran. the story of jaycee dugard shocked the nation and revealed the failures of the nation's legal system in deeming with sexual predators. kidnapped when she was just 11 years old, jaycee dugard was held captive for 18 years. a sexual prisoner of phillip and nancy garrido. probation officers repeatedly visited the home but they never found the missing girl. well, tonight, the prosecutor in this case has released disturbing new home movies that show how the older woman here, nancy garrido, stalked and videotaped other little girls to fulfill her husband's perverse desires. david wright brings us the story from california for our series, "crime and p pishment." >> reporter: convicted child rape is phillip garrido used to play guitar in playgrounds. his wife working the camera would zoom in on the kids. she was more than just the loyal wife of a sociopath. >> you got me real goo

. >> announcer: from the global resources of abc news, with terry moran, cynthia mcfadden and bill weir in new york city, this is "nightline," august 16th, 2011. >> good evening, i'm cynthia mcfadden. we begin tonight with a crime story worthy of hitchcock. the suspect in the case was after money and he thought he knew how to get it out of a certain rich man. the crux of his plan was to go after the rich man's teenage daughter. not to physically harm her, even to kidnap her, but to threaten her life in an unusually diabolical way. to make her family so afraid they wouldn't even call police. here's abc's ryan owens. >> reporter: it's now wednesday morning in australia and this young heiress is finally breathing a sigh of relief. >> i'm pretty sure we think we've got him. >> we're feeling good. >> no doubt. >> reporter: 18-year-old madeleine pulver believes australian authorities found the man who broke into her home and strap what she thought was a collar bomb to her neck. remarkably, the arrest went down almost 10,000 miles away in louisville, kentucky. investigators collared and charge

. >> announcer: from the global resources of abc news, with terry moran, cynthia mcfadden and bill weir in new york city, this is "nightline," august 26th, 2011. >>> good evening, i'm terry moran. welcome to a special west coast edition of our show. the eastern u.s. tonight is in a state of emergency because of this massive storm, hurricane irene. it is a powerhouse. just take a look. driving waves to heights of 30 feet near its center and creating tropical storm-level winds being felt over an area 600 miles wide. here's the latest updated map. the very latest of irene's expected path. as you can see, the storm is still on course for a direct hit on the carolina coast, new york city, and boston. abc's matt gutman joins me live now from nags head, north carolina. matt, the storm is coming ashore there on the outer banks. what are you seeing and feeling? >> reporter: terry, with each passing hour the storm is intensifying here. just over the past couple of hours a tornado spawned within the hurricane out at sea. you can basically just see a a g patch of white. you can't even see the atlan

." >> i'm bill weir. carolyn, coming up, he stole 200 grand and jumped from an airliner in flight. now, we have exclusive clues in the search for the most notorious hijacker in u.s. history. and a sneak peek of the new "jersey shore" on" nightlinenene [ female announcer ] at the jcpenney huge sale, back to school style is hugely affordable! with unbeatable doorbusters... ...find huge savings... like $14.99 juniors' dresses.... ...$12.99 boys' and girls' arizona jeans.... ....and $4.99 guys' screen tees. sa huge on nike and new balance shoes too -- just $38.99! plus, with jcp cash, earn 10, 15 or 20 dollars off on the spot. no exclusions! unlike other stores, we don't make you come back to save! go to jcp.com to see everything on sale. we make back to school style affordable. you make it yours. jcpenney. [ female announcer ] sweet honey taste. 80 calories per serving. 40daily value of fiber. i'm here in the downtown area where the crowd is growing. [ female announcer ] watching calories at breakfast never tasted this sweet... i'll go get my bowl. [ female announcer ] ...or this huge

. >> abc's bill weir gets answers to questions we're all asking. >> reporter: who's to blamam some onwant to pit it on the smurfs. after all the dow jones is down more than 550 points since they rang the bell. there's a lot more legitimate anger aimed at the cartoon characters in washington. after political mud wrestling america came been ten hours of proving to the world it can no longer pay its bills. >> there isn't much washington can do. even if there was there isn't much trust. >> reporter: we can aim an eye at the italians and greeks. if started when the european markets lost faith that there is any fix for it. some guy in athens dodges his taxes and you get scalped. such is life in our ever more connected world so with so much bloom around the globe, is it time to sell, sell, sell? well, all the money men and womemewe heard from tonight say, not yet. >> a snap-back seems more likely, could be in the cards. definitely at a lower level after this hit but you know what, eighth a snap-back. >> reporter: just about everything was down today, commodity, oil, even gold which means tod

yesterday it was bill weir. today, it's cam.er treacherous terrain. and we'll see e re coming up. >> these guys get real bravery badges this week. >> whichever you prefer. >>> we're also going behind-the-scenes of "jersey shore." saw a little bit of it yesterday. but today, our cameras get all the outtakes, everything that happens behind the scenes, the things you don't see on camera. we'll have a big preview of the new season tonight. >> spent a little time with chris connelly. >>> the wait is over for fans of "the h hp." the story that attracted some of hollywood's hottest actresses. four of the stars will be with us live with a sneak peek of this brand-new film. >> it is such a fantastic movie. so heartwarming. cannot wait for that. >>> first news with josh elliott and "ice, ice baby." >> lots to get to. tropical storm emily is expected to make landfall on haiti today. a major concern because more than 600,000 people are still living in tent cities, exposed to the elements following last year's earthquake. 20 inches of rain c