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[Music]
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in the 1950s police searched all over
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california for a man who had committed a
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series of heinous crimes including
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murder all in the same night
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they checked literally thousands of
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leads but eventually the case went cold
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almost five decades later advances in
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computer technology and handwriting
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analysis prove the old adage that you
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can run
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but you can't hide
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[Music]
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[Music]
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mile and mile of sand warmed by the sun
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beach beauties everywhere
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in the 1950s
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life was much simpler
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it was the golden age of television with
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shows that reflected the innocence of
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the times
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beaver how can you lose money just by
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counting it
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every time i look at it well i think
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it's something i need
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and an automobile was more than just a
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way to get around
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[Music]
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now the backseat of a car was kind of
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like a what a motel is now to to the
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young people
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gave you a chance to kiss your
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girlfriend and
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you know be without any interruptions
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and that's what bob was doing on may 22
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1957.
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[Music]
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he and his date and another couple were
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parked on a deserted stretch of road
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near el segundo california an area known
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as lovers lane
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the windows were steamy as they normally
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get when you're sitting with their
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girlfriend kissing for an hour
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or however long it is
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when bob opened the window for some air
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he discovered
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they weren't alone
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now you saw the gun is the only thing
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that came through the window that was my
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whole life in that millisecond
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the man a white male in his early
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twenties demanded their money and
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jewelry then he ordered the two couples
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to get out of the car
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and to remove their clothes
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he then tied their hands behind their
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backs and forced three of them into the
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backseat of the car
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[Music]
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then he sexually assaulted one of the
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girls
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he just
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we couldn't stop it he had the gun
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later he forced all four of them out
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into the field and lined them up in a
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row
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i thought for sure that he would kill
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the girl
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because she probably had seen him
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but i guess he was going to kill all of
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us and we stood out there stark naked
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for like three or four minutes then we
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just expected to hear the gun start
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going off
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but the man drove off in the team's car
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without firing a shot
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before the teenagers could report what
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happened their attacker went through a
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red light in front of two police
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officers
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the car had not been reported stolen at
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that time therefore it was not in the
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system so there was no way for those
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officers to have known that was a stolen
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vehicle or it had just been
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used in that crime
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the policeman signaled the car to pull
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over
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the driver got out of the car
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then started shooting
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[Music]
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both officers were shot three times
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the last thing officer throat did was
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that he
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drew his own firearm and fired six
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rounds in the direction of the fleeing
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suspect
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but by the time help arrived
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both officers were dead
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the stolen car was found a short time
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later just four blocks away there were
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two bullet holes through the back window
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and one through the trunk
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how does an officer who's been shot
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three times point blank in the back
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who's dying get up and shoot at a car
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fleeing down the road and hit it three
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times i mean that is amazing
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two of the bullets were recovered but
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the third couldn't be found
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was it possible
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that before he died officer phillips hit
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the assailant
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you'd look at these photographs and
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you'd say he had to have been hit
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in el segundo california two police
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officers were killed after stopping a
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car for running a red light
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twenty-five-year-old milton curtis had
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been on the force for only two months
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he left behind a wife and two children
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[Music]
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i was like what are they doing here
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and
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it was pretty much like
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he's sleeping why doesn't he come home
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and sleep
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and
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she says he's in heaven
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the other victim 29 year old richard
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phillips was also married with three
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children
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his daughter carolyn remembers the
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promise the police department made to
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her mother
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we vow to you
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that no matter where you are
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no matter how much time goes by
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we will find you if we ever solve this
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case
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police soon discovered that the murder
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suspect had been driving a car stolen
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from the teenagers
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they had been robbed and assaulted
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doerr described the assailant as a white
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male in his early twenties
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six feet tall 190 pounds with dark
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blonde hair and an unfamiliar accent
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he wasn't from this area
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and he was soft-spoken and he was
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slow
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not educated and he kind of had a draw
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howard speaks examined the stolen car
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for evidence
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when they called me that there had been
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two policemen shot and killed
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so i i knew the
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importance of the situation
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if there was any evidence
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that i could get i'd have to get it
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speaks was initially disappointed with
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what he found
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nothing on the rear view mirror i
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that's usually a good place if you're
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going to get a fingerprint
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if it's been moved to adjusting it you
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know for the
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driver but nothing on this on the rear
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view mirror at all
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but the steering wheel was a different
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story
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speaks found two partial prints on the
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steering wheel which appeared to be from
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a left thumb
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[Music]
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and by putting that area together
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the two sides of the thumb put together
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made the whole thumb print
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the likelihood of finding two partial
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fingerprints that are the same finger
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it's very remote
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and in my 18 years of doing latent print
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work
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we we have not done it
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since here
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investigators compared the left thumb
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print to every print in their files of
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known criminal offenders
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at the time those examinations were all
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done by hand
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it took hundreds of hours but they
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didn't find one that matched
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thousands of people were checked against
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that laden
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and like i say since so many people had
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been changed checked
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i began to wonder if it was ever gonna
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uh be identified
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the teenager said the assailant had a
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southern accent
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investigators thought he might be from
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one of the nearby military bases
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i spent the whole week just going up and
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down the coast fingerprinting army
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personnel
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but that too was a dead end
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i felt that at some point he would be
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caught
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but then over a period of time too it
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was like nothing was being solved
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nothing was coming up everything went
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cold on it
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it took another three years before
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police got their first real break
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a homeowner near the murder scene was
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doing some yard work when he came across
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part of a handgun
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he was clearing out his backyard
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and
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found
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the chamber to the handgun
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and thought well maybe it had something
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to do with the frame he found a year
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prior
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so he went in his garage looked at it
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put it together and found that
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it was a match
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police identified the gun as a nine shot
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harrington and richardson 22 caliber
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revolver
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from the serial number
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police discovered the gun was purchased
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by g d wilson from a sears store in
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shreveport louisiana
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at the time that they interviewed the
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the person who sold that gun he told him
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that he believed the man was from out of
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town
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and uh
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his accent didn't sound like louisiana
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accent it sounded more southern than
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that
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on the same day he bought the gun a
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george d wilson rented a room in the
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ymca just across the street from the
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sears door
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we actually went into the room where
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this george wilson had checked in and
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from this window of this uh room you
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could see the sears store
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um
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and it was just kind of
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for us it was kind of overwhelming being
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in there and seeing that and trying to
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figure out what was going on in this
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man's mind when he was there george
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wilson listed his home address in miami
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florida
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the address turned out to be a rock
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quarry there was nothing there for
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approximately four years
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they checked every person with that name
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in the united states all were dead ends
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it soon became clear
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that george wilson was not his real name
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for years police in california searched
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unsuccessfully for the man
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who robbed four teenagers stole their
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car then killed two police officers
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despite several promising leads
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investigators were never able to
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identify a suspect
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clues in that case that were taken from
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the time of the incident all through the
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70s 80s 90s
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clues to other people that may have been
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involved anybody arrested at a lover's
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lane with a gun anybody that fit the mo
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of this crime
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it was considered a clue
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i can't imagine i wouldn't have i
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i would not have wanted to deal with
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that investigation that would have been
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overwhelming
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then
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in september of 2002
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nearly five decades later
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a woman called the el segundo police
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department with an almost unbelievable
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story
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she said that her uncle had once bragged
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about killing the two police officers
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back in the 1950s
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this call kind of rejuvenated everything
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with hope
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when police confronted the man he denied
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it
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his prints were compared to the killer's
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thumbprint left in the stolen car and
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did not match
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but this dead end piqued the interest of
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a new generation of fingerprint experts
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dale falcon and don keer decided to take
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a fresh look at the thumbprint lifted
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from the stolen car
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they now had computer technology
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not available in 1957
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so they digitally enhanced the killer's
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thumb print
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which made the images easier to see than
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the original ink fingerprint
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sometimes there's areas that are not
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clear
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they could be smudged there could be
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artifacts in there that are not clear so
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the computer
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may count that or
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read that as a particular characteristic
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the digital copy of the killer's print
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was then loaded into iafis the fbi's
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computer database of fingerprints of all
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known criminal offenders from every
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state in the country
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47 million sets of fingerprints were
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compared
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and one
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seemed to match
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we stood hovering over his computer
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screen looking at all the ridge
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structure and the information there and
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everything coincided my words were oh my
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god
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i couldn't believe it i had to sit down
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and
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have them repeat it and make sure they
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weren't
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joking
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the print belonged to gerald mason who
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is now
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70 years old living in columbia south
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carolina he had been arrested for
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burglary in 1956 a year before the
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murders
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officials in south carolina had only
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gotten around to submitting their
00:13:58
fingerprints to the nationwide database
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just two months earlier
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mason was married had children and
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grandchildren he owned a number of gas
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stations and had not been arrested for
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any other crimes in the years since the
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murders
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now we've got a real suspect but we were
00:14:17
still a little bit apprehensive
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okay it's a fingerprint it's an old
00:14:21
fingerprint what else do we have
00:14:24
one of the robbery victims bob door was
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brought in for a photographic lineup
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but couldn't identify mason as the man
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who stole the car
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so police needed to look further
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so they needed something more
00:14:41
and what more was me
00:14:43
the man who bought the murder weapon in
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1956 and rented a room at a ymca in
00:14:48
shreveport louisiana had printed his
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name on the register
00:14:54
paul edholm a forensic document examiner
00:14:57
was asked to compare gerald mason's
00:15:00
handwriting to the signature of george
00:15:03
wilson on the ymca register
00:15:06
we look at things whether
00:15:08
documents are freely and naturally
00:15:09
written whether the slant is the same
00:15:13
the height relationship of letters the
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alignment to the baseline how the
00:15:17
letters themselves are formed and
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whether there's
00:15:21
open loops closed loops retraces
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how you punctuate how you
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dot eyes and cross t's
00:15:29
almost immediately ed holm noticed that
00:15:33
some letters seemed to jump off the page
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first was the capital g
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because we had g and george and g and
00:15:41
gerald
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and
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as far as the height relationship
00:15:45
as far as the width of the letter as far
00:15:48
as the slant the amount of strokes it
00:15:50
took to form the letter each one of
00:15:52
those was consistent and that was
00:15:55
very important
00:15:58
there were other similarities in the
00:15:59
letter d
00:16:01
and
00:16:02
s
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o
00:16:04
n
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and there was something
00:16:06
more what i noted in mr mason's
00:16:10
handwriting
00:16:11
was from 1957 at that time he was 23
00:16:15
years old
00:16:16
until 1999 his handwriting did not
00:16:19
change one iota
00:16:22
it was exactly the same
00:16:24
ed holm was convinced that gerald mason
00:16:28
signed the ymca register with the alias
00:16:32
george d wilson
00:16:36
nearly five decades after the crime
00:16:39
mason was arrested
00:16:40
and charged with murder
00:16:43
when we introduced ourselves and told
00:16:45
them we were homicide investigators
00:16:47
he was a little bit irritated and it was
00:16:49
almost like you're here for that that
00:16:51
happened so long ago i can't believe
00:16:53
you're here bothering me with that you
00:16:55
know
00:16:56
45 46 years later
00:17:01
based on the forensic evidence
00:17:04
prosecutors believe gerald mason bought
00:17:06
the gun in louisiana then checked into a
00:17:10
ymca using the alias george d wilson
00:17:16
mason was a drifter when he went to
00:17:18
california in 1957.
00:17:21
he may have been drinking near the
00:17:23
hawthorne airport when he saw bob door's
00:17:25
car parked in the lover's lane
00:17:29
[Music]
00:17:31
he robbed the teenagers
00:17:33
committed a sexual assault then stole
00:17:36
the car at gunpoint
00:17:39
while fleeing the scene mason went
00:17:41
through a traffic light and was stopped
00:17:43
by two police officers
00:17:47
the officers didn't know the car was
00:17:49
stolen
00:17:53
mason got out of the car so the officers
00:17:55
wouldn't see the stolen goods on the
00:17:57
back seat and when officer phillips
00:17:59
turned away
00:18:01
he fired three shots into his back then
00:18:04
three more through the windshield
00:18:06
killing officer curtis
00:18:09
while speeding away officer phillips
00:18:11
fired three shots with the world class
00:18:14
precision
00:18:15
one went through the trunk hitting mason
00:18:18
in the back
00:18:21
when gerald mason was arrested
00:18:23
investigators asked him
00:18:25
to remove his shirt
00:18:27
sure enough
00:18:29
he had a bullet wound on his back
00:18:31
proof that officer phillips got him
00:18:35
very last thing he did in life
00:18:37
was to mark forever
00:18:39
the man who killed him and his partner
00:18:43
and
00:18:44
that's pretty compelling
00:18:46
because it's almost as if
00:18:48
someone is speaking to you from the
00:18:49
grave telling you
00:18:51
ladies and gentlemen
00:18:52
i told you who it is i pointed him out
00:18:55
with my gunfire that was never reported
00:18:58
as far as i know
00:19:00
to the media i said why didn't you tell
00:19:02
us because we didn't want anybody to
00:19:04
know about it
00:19:05
and we didn't want him to go and get
00:19:07
plastic surgery or to
00:19:10
you know whatever
00:19:11
and
00:19:13
it's amazing
00:19:14
the gun was traced to shreveport
00:19:16
louisiana
00:19:18
the handwriting was gerald mason's as
00:19:20
was the thumbprint on the steering wheel
00:19:24
of the car
00:19:25
[Music]
00:19:26
i didn't realize i ran a red light and i
00:19:28
got out of the car walked back to their
00:19:30
car
00:19:31
my feelings were
00:19:34
that what i had done was going to cause
00:19:36
me
00:19:37
to go to death row so when the officer
00:19:40
turned
00:19:41
away from me
00:19:43
i
00:19:44
shot those officers
00:19:47
to avoid a public trial
00:19:49
gerald mason pleaded guilty to the
00:19:51
murder of the two police officers
00:19:54
and was sentenced to two consecutive
00:19:56
life terms in prison
00:20:00
he only admitted the crime because it
00:20:03
was in his best interest to do so
00:20:06
so that his family his wife his
00:20:09
grandchildren would not hear how he
00:20:12
raped a teenager
00:20:14
he traded the lives of two on duty
00:20:15
police officers to avoid capture
00:20:19
it's impossible to express to so many
00:20:22
people that's our name to the homeland
00:20:24
collected that night
00:20:27
i do not understand why i did this
00:20:30
it's contrary to one region
00:20:32
it does not fit in my life
00:20:35
it is not the person i know how to test
00:20:37
these crimes
00:20:40
what people would say
00:20:41
about him being at 24 years old and
00:20:44
committing these crimes and living a
00:20:46
life crime free it doesn't matter he's a
00:20:49
thief he's a rapist and he's a murderer
00:20:51
he just got old
00:20:53
that's all there is to it all the
00:20:55
scientific this forensic evidence we're
00:20:57
going to see a lot more cold cases being
00:20:59
solved based on the advancements in
00:21:02
technology
00:21:03
[Music]
00:21:14
[Music]
00:21:26
[Applause]
00:21:31
[Music]
00:21:41
you
