here's john seigenthaler. >> the murder victims were all young women. they were tortured. their nude bodies callously dumped on hillsides for anyone to discover. this was the chilling scenario in los angeles during the fall of 1977, as a serial killing spree thrust the entire city into a state of fear. for more than a year, every woman in l.a. was considered a potential victim of the hillside strangler. >> i've lived in l.a. all my life, and we get pretty used to crime here. we've had the manson murders, of course, which was pretty awful, but you never expected to see something that malicious and evil happen here again. >> i don't think i really understood what a serial killer was until this crime happened, and because it was so close to home, it felt like it could be me or a friend or anyone i knew. >> october 18th, 1977, a few miles from downtown los angeles, the nude body of a young woman is discovered face down on the slopes of forest lawn cemetery. she is later identified as 19-year-old yolanda washington, a prostitute known to work the streets of hollywood. investiga

i'm john seigenthaler. >>> the crime scenes that we responded to, the killer demonstrated a lot of violence. >> doing a lot of horrible things to people. sodomizing, gouging people's eyes out. >> the so-called night stalker may have struck again. >> no matter where we were, there was a report about night stalker. it was on the tv, it was in all the papers. >> most serial killers follow some pattern. there was nothing particular about what this guy did. >> just normal folks like you and i were being slaughtered. >> i'm afraid for everybody, elderly, young. >> there is a faceless, nameless violent criminal out there and you didn't know where he was going to hit next. ♪ >>> "city in fear." here is john seigenthaler. >> over the years, los angeles has seen its fair share of high-profile crime. the manson murders, the hillside strangler killings, the murder of o.j. simpson's wife, but in 1985, a series of random, barbaric attacks by a devil worshipping serial killer created a sense of terror in l.a. this stranger ultimately became known as the night stalker. los angeles, california, city of ange

i'm john seigenthaler

here's john seigenthaler. >> for more than 30 years, a serial killer tormented and terrified e citizens of wichita, kansas. his cruelty devastated the lives of his family, victims and friends. he left everyone in the community with the nagging fear that they could be next. who was this man responsible for the callus murders of at least ten innocent people? determined to go down in infamy, he named himself btk. >> wichita is a very unique, wonderful place to live. and when you come here, it's like an island in the middle of a prairie. >> we have a lot of people from different backgrounds that come here. of course, are located exactly in the middle of the nation, so, therefore, you have people from the east, the west, the north, and the south that all seem to congregate in a community called wichita, kansas. >> in the 1970s, wichita is a typical mid-western bible belt city, rich with family values and a hard work ethic. >> i think it's that time on tv we were watching "welcome back kotter" and "all in the family," "the jeffersons," things like that. we didn't have reality tv. we didn't wo

i'm john seigenthaler. >>> due to mature subject matter, viewer discretion is advised. >>> america's prisons, dangerous, often deadly. there are 2 million people doing time. every day is a battle to survive and to maintenance order. this is "lockup inside angola. over 5,000 men living behind the gates of one of america's oldest prisons, serving sentences so long most will die here. >> one out of every two that you see in this prison is a murderer. >> violence close to the surface ready to explode. >> trouble is not hard to find. if you are not careful trouble will find you. >> i will maintain my mental stability. >> two days out, dead or alive. 90 miles from new orleans up the mississippi river lies louisiana state penitentiary, started as a slave plantation and converted to a prison plantation in the civil war and taken over by the state in 1901 this land has seen more than its share of pain. it was once considered the bloodiest prison in america and its country population served sentences so long it's estimated 90% of them will die here. yet things have changed drastically over the

for msnbc investigates, i'm john seigenthaler >>> there are 2 million people behind bars in america. we open the gates -- "lockup." >> i pull up front and i seen that 35-foot brick wall, and it's like a reality check, you know. >> this place is full of snitches running around thinking they're cool. >> monday, i was totally discharged. and i got tickets to see the minnesota twins play the kansas city royals thursday. >> i shot three people. he cut up two. >> and i made two knives. >> you know, they trusted me with their daughter. i ended up killing her. >> how can you put a padlock on? >> i saw it was a weapon, a class "a" violation. >> okay, i have a life sentence. >> life sentence. >> life without parole. >> i'm doing a life sentence. >> i have a life sentence. >> first-degree murder, life sentence, no parole. >> anamosa state penitentiary is a maximum security facility located in eastern iowa. home of some of the state's most violent offenders, one would think that the overcrowded conditions would lead to a constant barrage of bloody confrontations. well, think again. behind the wa

i'm john seigenthaler >>> due to mature subject matter, viewer discretion is advised. >>> there are 2 million people behind bars in america. we open the gates. lockup. >> i charge pelican bay with the following crimes. extortion, racketeering, police brutality. i charge pelican bay with racism, promoting inmate-on-inmate violence. how it was in the beginning it shall be in the end. the righteous shall live and the wicked shall perish. >> ever since it opened in 1989, pelican bay state prison in northern california has always had a reputation as one of the most violent and volatile penitentiaries in the nation. when we first visited the institution in 2000, it was under lockdown, still reeling from one of the worst prison riots in u.s. history. five years later, we went back inside pelican bay, where the staff has worked to curb gang activity and prevent violent outbreaks. but in an environment simmering with bitter rivalries and racial tension, finding any long-term solution is a never-ending battle. >> inmates in the general population right now consider everything a state of war, so

i'm john seigenthaler. thanks for watching. >>> if you want a crowd, start a fight. let's play "hardball." >>> good evening. i'm chris matthews in washington. let me start tonight with this. one of my rules with politics is if the truth about the politician is better than it appears, they'll come out and tell you. if, however, the truth is worse, the politician will clam up and stay clammed. mitt romney has refused to release his income taxes over the years. all he put out was the 2010 return. he promises to put out his 2011 returns. what about all the years he was swashbuckling at bain? all the decades he was making the big money? did he pay taxes in those years like regular people? and if not, why not? and harry reid, the democratic senate leader, is now on the hunt for romney. he says romney has not paid federal taxes for ten years at all. romney says put up or shut up. i don't know whether reid is playing sorry. i don't know if he's playing surrogate or what. but he's popping this guy. >> and what he's doing is he's taking up the oxygen. any time that mitt romney

i'm john seigenthaler . >>> there are 2 million people behind bars in america. for the next hour, we open the gates -- "lockup." >> i pray to god that somebody recognizes what's going on here. you know, we in here just rotting away, you know. >> today we have about 756 inmates serving a life sentence here at folsom. >> i was state raised, federally funded. >> we're dealing with murderers and rapists, and that's always in the back of my mind. >> they treat us like slaves up in here, man. >> sometimes you've just got to do what you've got to do, you know, whether you like it or not. >> a lot of times these inmates just don't get along with each other. they didn't get along with people on the outside. that's why they're here. >> they were stomping his head. he went out code three in the ambulance so he's pretty messed up. >> what you see here, it's like this every day. >> it's the way they lived on the streets so they're living it inside the walls. >> use your imagination. anything that you can imagine, that's probably what goes on here. >> you watch horror movies?

i'm john seigenthaler. >>> daring rescues in frigid waters. >> i can't see anything! i need help! >> massive floods. >> oh, my god. >> it was unbelievable just how quickly that the water was moving. >> and danger at sea. >> absolutely life threatening situation. >> get ready to get wet. catching air and crashing cars. falling in. >> it was a real quick, violent crash. >> and flying out. >> my gosh! >> when it comes to the power of water, expect the unexpected. >>> "caught on camera: wet and wild." hello. i'm contessa brewer. welcome to "caught on camera." water is a force to be reckoned with. we learned as children never to turn our backs on a wave. but there are countless other ways to be caught unprepared. in our first story, a burst water main wreaks havoc on a cold winter morning. motorists trapped in their vehicles when a flood turns roadways into rivers. >> could have killed many people. >> the waters rise so quickly that drivers are unable to escape. among those stranded in the current are a mother with her 9-year-old son. >> i can't see anything! i need help! >> ma'am, we'

i'm john seigenthaler. >>> one week left in the olympics and you are looking at a live picture from london. a lot of history making in the swimming stadium there. we've got today's campus viewing guide and ryan lochte clears up that confusion over what his mother said about his one-night stands. >> i was in shock. i was like -- because i know how the media took it. but i also knew how my mom said it. >> and turning to major news happening overnight. sources say jared lee loughner will plead guilty to shooting 19 people, including representative gabby giffords during a rampage in tucson. >>> mr. romney could announce his vp pick at any time now. so who'sed most likely candidate and who could help him the most? we're going to break that down for you. >>> and historic landing on mars is just hours away. we're going to tell you why it is so important and why the stakes have never been higher for nasa. good morning, everyone. welcome to a special early edition of "weekends with alex witt" ahead of msnbc's day-long olympics coverage. we begin with news from london and the xxx summer olympic game

i'm john singe -- seigenthaler. >>> due to mature and graphic subject matter, viewer discretion is advised. >>> there are 2 million people behind bars in america. for the next hour we open the gates. "lockup." >> it's not our job to extract justice. it's our job to keep these people in these cells here. >> pretty rough, you know. >> you eat yourself. >> it's an adventure every day. >> you can't let your guard down for a second. >> you know where mommy is? and he says, yeah, in jail. >> nobody plans on coming to jail. i don't think they do. i don't. it just happened. >> how come you're all in there? are you having a party in there? >> as you can see, i've got concrete bars. i don't have any place to expand. i can't make another cell. >> i'm not a very violent person, but i can be violent when i want to. >> a lot of people in here with hiv. >> the first one looks like a wire shank. >> a stabbing. knocking a guy down and just kicking him until he's bleeding. >> these kids don't know how to act like proper gangsters anymore. >> los angeles county, california, has a population larger than 42 st