-- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com tonight our topic will be murder as a growth industry. >> murder has become an epidemic in america. >> in the last ten years, the homicide rate has increased by leaps and bounds. >> somebody fired a shot. >> these tragedies keep getting closer and closer to home. i'm afraid to let my kids walk out the door. >> urban crime wave will touch off a new round of gun buying. >> step out. >> i'll plead not guilty right now. >> there's been a disturbing growth in the cult phenomenon in the country. ♪

♪ ♪ >> all the elements for one of the most sensational trials in history. seven people murdered in rare hollywood publicity. young girls supposedly under the spell of a bearded svengali, who allegedly masterminded the

seven murders. >> the '70s is a decade of brute 58 -- brown troutal violence on every front and anywhere you look in america. >> at the time of a mass murder, there's a lot of media coverage. usually after a brief period of time the identity of the perpetrator tends to fade from the public's consciousness, but not so with the manson case. >> the biggest publicity case the d.a.'s office had. >> the manson trial begins the 1970s on such an evil, sadistic note. seven innocent people died. steve perry, a teenager. abigail folger, folger coffee. jay see bring. wojciech frykowski, jason sebring, gary hinman, leno labianca, rosemary labianca and sharon tate. >> all of you know how beautiful she was. only a few of you know how good she was. >> and you had charles manson himself.

the charismatic leader of the family who didn't know any remorse or any respect for the system. >> are you happy? >> good. >> am i happy with the court? it's your court. i wouldn't accept it. >> the problem was he did not physically participate in the murders but only manson had a motive to commit these murders and that was helter skelter. >> he envisioned that white people would turn against the black man if they thought the black man committed these murders. manson foresaw the black man would win this war but he said the black man because of inexperience would not be able to handle the reins of power. so you have to look at the white people who survived, who escaped from helter skelter and turn over the reins of power to charles manson and his family. >> when the words helter-skelter were found printed in blood, i argued to the jury this was

tantamount to his fingerprints being found at the scene. >> manson sat through this saying nothing but had an "x" scratched in his forehead. it's his way of saying he has xed himself out of society. ♪ susan atkins, patricia krenwinkel and leslie van houten sang as they went to and from court today as if to show they are with manson and he is with them. >> the three women were coached by charlie every morning. here's what i want you to do. they would do everything from singing mocking songs to the judge, to when charlie is making one of his impassioned speeches mouthing the words along with him. >> i don't have guilt. i know what i have done and no man can judge me. i judge me. >> are you bitter? >> bitter, no. you have eyes. open them. >> charlie manson is a great

presenter, but vincent was better. when he put these two antagonists into a courtroom america thought, this is entertainment. >> people who are curious about the tate murders go to the los angeles hall of justice where they wait in long lines. some people are so interested they get to the courthouse at 4:00 a.m. something else this trial has done is gathered together again those members of manson's family who are not in jail. >> the world is getting crazy. >> one read part of a letter that manson wrote the district attorney. >> i write to you because i don't think i'm getting a fair trial. i'm an individual one man standing alone. contrast this with the facilities you have available to you. >> i noted the coverage of the charles manson case. here's a man who was guilty, directly or indirectly of eight murders without reason. here's a man who as far as the

coverage was concerned appeared to be rather a glamorous figure. >> l.a. times, next morning, manson guilty nixon declares. manson got ahold of the paper. stands up in front of the jury with a silly little smile on his face and he shows the jury the headline. >> a tight ring of security surrounds the hall of justice today as the manson jury deliberates. meanwhile, members of the manson clan continue their vigil outside of the hall of justice. they have been there since the start of the trial. >> if charlie were convicted of these charges, what happens to the rest of the members of the family? >> there's no if. charlie will get out. all of the people in jail will get out and we will all go to the desert together. >> the jury hearing the charges against charles manson and three girl members of his so-called family brought in its verdict this afternoon. >> outside manson's girl followers got the news by radio.

>> they have convicted these people and you are all next. all of you. there's a revolution coming very soon. >> today the judge formally passed sentence on charles manson and his girls. the death penalty he said for seven senseless murders. he said not only was the sentence appropriate, but almost compelled in this case so death in the gas chamber, he said. >> the very name manson has become a metaphor for evil, catapulting him to almost mythological proportions. and there's a side to human nature, for whatever reason, that is fascinated by pure evil. >> if the death penalty is to mean anything in the state of california other than two empty words this unquestionably was a proper case for the imposition of the death penalty. >> the california supreme court ruled today the death penalty is unconstitutional. that will save five women and 102 men including charles manson from the gas chamber.

>> should there be a supreme penalty for committing a crime? >> what do you think? >> i'm the one who's asking you. >> yeah, but if i don't give you the answer you want. >> doesn't matter to me. it's your opinion. >> i don't have the authority to say anything like that. >> you have the authority to believe. >> i believe what i'm told to believe. don't you? ♪

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boy was shot right at the side of the car and the girl apparently tried to run. she was shot and found 28 feet further on. >> do you have any idea what the possible motive might be for this killing? >> we have no motive at this time. >> the zodiac killer committed dozens of murders in the '60s and '70s. we really don't know the full dimensions of case but know he is the zodiac because he started writing to the police, claiming credit in great detail. articulating and explaining what he did to these victims. >> "the chronicle" received two letters. they notified us immediately. the criminologist was sent to the newspaper, as were inspectors and the two letters

were examined and opened. >> the zodiac's reaching out to the police repeatedly and in great length was something new. >> the psychotic killer has already murdered five. one at a lover's lane near a lake north of san francisco. three others in nearby vallejo. the latest taxi driver in san francisco. the zodiac killer seems to crave publicity. he sent letters and cryptograms to newspapers and police recounting his crimes, threatening more murders and making bay area residents very edgy. >> in the '70s there was a certain kind of killer who had the skill to get away with murder, long enough to assemble a body count where they would be classified as a serial killer. >> in los angeles, a killer the police are calling the hillside strangler has murdered ten young women and left their bodies on the hillsides along the highways. today, the police found another, number 11 they think. >> two young paper boys discovered what appear to be the latest victim.

the body down an embankment in a residential neighborhood. the victim was 20-year-old woman and the body was nude. >> the series of murders has had a chilling effect on the people in the city. >> in los angeles more women than ever before are learning to defend themselves. susan bal skipped night school for a week. she says she can't sleep because of the murders. >> i guess i want to learn how to give myself a few seconds so i can live. >> there are enough bodies over a wide enough area to strongly suggest more than one killer. police say they really don't know. >> today the los angeles police say they have a suspect. a man in jail in another state. >> los angeles police say they have enough evidence to charge 27-year-old kenneth bianchi with ten of the hillside stranglings. police focused on him after he was arrested last january for the murder of two college students in washington state. >> what the police did not know is there is not one strangler but two. today in a bellingham,

washington, courtroom, kenneth bianchi confessed to participation in the los angeles hillside stranglings and accused his cousin angelo buono of being his accomplice. >> he was motivated because he was trying to show his older cousin, who he revered that he was tough and for angelo, he enjoyed the fact he had his younger cousin listening to him and saw him as ament -- a mentee. pairs of killers who urge each other and together they are extremely vicious and violent. >> is there any doubt this is a body? >> no doubt. skull and everything. >> when did you first get word there might be some bodies buried here? >> this morning. >> had you had any indication before? >> the man behind the killings was dean corll, 33 years old. he was shot and killed thursday

evening by wayne henley, 17 years old. he was one of two teenagers that lured teens to corll's home. >> he would pick up kids and once he had them in his house, he would incapacitate them and put them on what he called his death board and rape and kill them. >> the texas killing have become the worst murders in american history. four bodies of boys were dug up today and that brings to 27 the number discovered so far. >> some people trying to make it appear the police department has not done all that it could or should have done in these cases. the police department feels these parents are not exactly discharging their own responsibility so as far as raising and disciplining their children. >> these shocking murders focus national attention on a major problem, that of runaway children and what can happen to them. >> the children have run away from home today are not the children we had running away in the '60s. in the '60s we had flower

children and they ran away for sociopolitical reasons. today children are running from a situation rather than to a situation. >> police would say they probably ran away. it was to the demise of many who in fact were picked up by sexual sadist like john wayne gasey. >> this illinois, near chicago, a man who served time in prison for sex crimes was let out. today they found the bodies of at least three young boys buried under his house. >> reporter: police today found six more bodies under the john gacy house. >> illinois authorities made their first positive identification of the 28 bodies unearthed so far. this grisly search ended tonight and will be resumed after christmas. >> prior to his arrest, gacy was well known in the community. he frequently dressed in a clown outfit for the benefit of youngsters. he was generally seen as a man young people liked.

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from new york, this is abc news. >> good evening. the supreme court ruled today that there is nothing unconstitutional in the death penalty.

>> the court says the death penalty is an expression of society's moral outrage at particular crimes. >> in the 1970s, we had a four-year moratorium on the death penalty. the u.s. supreme court ruled it unconstitutional. in 1976, with new statutes, the u.s. supreme court said it is constitutional. then we started seeing the death penalty back in place, death row is repopulated with new criminals like gary gilmore. >> it seems the people of utah want the death penalty but don't want executioners. i took them literal and serious when they sentenced me to death. >> the crimes were not especially extreme. two robbery murders but when he was convicted he wanted to die. he wanted to go out in a blaze of glory. two years later he was put to death by a firing squad and became the first person in america in this new era to be executed and his words were "let's do it." >> the order of the fourth

judicial court of the state of utah has been carried out. gary mark gilmore is dead. >> tonight, our topic will be murder as a growth industry. these are the national homicide figures. for the past ten years, every year has set a new high for murder in america. >> the statistics were stupendous. violent crimes of all kinds were soaring. the spectacles that people were seeing on their tv screen were unlike anything they had seen before. >> a small grocery store was robbed. the owner of the grocery store, nathan hurt has been shot and killed. >> as i understand a man came to the store and had a gun and asked for money and my grandfather reached for a gun he had and grabbed at the man's gun and it went off or he shot him twice and my grandfather fell to the floor. >> why did he feel he had to

have a gun? >> because there are so many robberies in the area and thought he needed it for protection. >> today ordinary citizens who would not otherwise dream of having a gun are buying one because they are scared out of their wits. >> william rubiak is a ukrainian immigrant that owns a store outside of washington, d.c. he's been robbed at gunpoint four times in the past two years. now william rubiak has bought a gun and said next time he will use it. >> i will shoot and i will shoot to kill. >> fear is the biggest seller of guns. studies have shown the crime wave has touched off a new round of gun buying. >> we have german rugers, small revolvers, magnums, some of these saturday night specials are small and can be palmed in your hand. >> it was shortly after 10:00 california time when the president left his hotel. not seen by the following cameras but scattered by secret service agent larry buendorf was

a hand with a gun in it comes through the crowd. the commotion erupted. secret service agents forced the assailant to the ground and handcuffed her. she was identified as 27-year-old lynnette alice fromme one of the earliest followers of charles manson involved in the tate murders of 1969. >> about the same time gerald ford becomes president, charlie in prison writes to squeaky that he's got new rules. they want to do one big thing that will get the nation's attention back on charlie. so squeaky, wearing a red robe comes up to the president of the united states with a big gun, points the gun in his face. the secret servicemen wrestle her to the ground and squeaky's first words were, can you believe the gun didn't go off. >> i wonder if this has convinced you at all that we need tough gun control legislation in this country? >> i prefer to go after the person who uses the gun for an

illegal or criminal purpose. that to me is a far better approach than the one where you require registration of the individual or the gun. >> just minutes after making those statements, gerald ford walked into the street and heard the sound of gunfire. [ gunfire ] >> my god, there's been a shot! there's been a shot. being pushed back by the police. somebody has fired a shot here. we don't know if anybody has been hit. my god! somebody fired a shot. >> the president was not hit. witnesses heard the sound and saw a puff of smoke. the woman identified by police as sara jane moore was immediately seized. >> sara jane moore jumped out of the crowd, fired off a weapon and was tackled by another

citizen. her background was an eccentric political figure, an odd duck. >> when gerald ford became president, within the space of one month were two attempts on his life, squeaky fromme and sara jane moore. both tried to shoot him. it is like what is going on? why can't this be stopped? >> once again this nation has narrowly escaped the tragedy, the trauma of the assassination of our president. above all else, this points outside the need for some additional measures, some additional precautions to protect the life of the highest elected official in the country. will it take another assassination in our lifetime to finally force some action?

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in the '70s, new york was really in danger. the whole social fabric had been torn in half and crime was just one of the many indications that we were lost. >> i would say the last ten years, the homicide rate has increased by leaps and bounds. we hit our peak probably in 1972, when the bronx had 430 homicides. in the '70s the bronx looked like berlin after world war ii.

literally looked like berlin. >> 1.5 million people live in the borough. once that smoke on the horizon signified industry, progress, jobs. now it means someone is burning down a building. it has become the harsh capital of the world. it happens 30 times a day and the flames are the signal of a national disaster. >> is there anything that can change the situation? >> the bronx is doomed with a capital "d." >> a lot of gritty stuff went down in new york and when you think of new york in the '70s you think of the son of sam murders. >> christine freund, soon to be married, is dead today. dead in a shooting that has no apparent motive. >> the end of 1976, they transferred me to queens homicide. the first victim i came of course was a woman named christine freund, who was sitting there with her boyfriend coming from a movie and got her

head blown off. >> there was a series of these random shootings. and the ballistics comparison determined it was the same killer using the same gun a .44 caliber weapon on these homicides. therefore the police nicknamed it the .44 caliber killer. >> he struck april 17th at 3:00 in the morning, killing 18-year-old valentina suriani, and her fiance, 20-year-old alexander esau as they sat in a parked car in the baychester section of the bronx. >> we got the shooting back in the bronx. a girl named valentina suriani but at the scene where that shooting occurred leflt -- left a note addressed to my supervisor and called himself as the son of sam. >> he talks about being possessed by a man he refers to as sam and the man he refers to to as his father if and he said his father requires blood. >> this got people's attention. i think it was the sheer

randomness of it. the fact you could be doing something as simple as talking to a friend in a car and someone would come behind you and open fire. it was pretty terrifying. it was frightening. >> i was in charge of the night time operation. task force that wanted to shoot him on site. that was our job, take him out on the street. we flooded the streets of new york. >> people died and we're trying to stop it. it is not you. it's everybody. that's all we are trying to do. ♪ >> in terms of the victim count, that doesn't place him at the top of the list in terms of the most deadly serial killers but it was new york city. what happens in new york city, well, that's international news. >> good evening. harry is on vacation. here are our top stories. 100 more police join the hunt for the son of sam killer in new york. >> the search continues for the .44 caliber killer come to be known as the son of sam. >> he warned in one of his sick

and threatening letters to the police that sam is a thirsty lad and won't let me stop killing until he has had his full of blood. >> it was really miserably hot summer in new york. everything went dark. i heard someone on the street go oh, it's a blackout. >> the looters were out almost instantly. and it felt apocalyptic. i remember going to bed that night thinking it was the end of the world. >> new york city in the early morning after a night of no electric power. what it did have in the dark streets was a wild outburst of crime. >> when the greatest city in the world goes black, it showed a crumbling america. then you have the son of sam on the loose. we always look for patterns in victims. there was this belief he was only killing women with long dark hair.

>> i know the .44 killer is after girls with long brown hair. so when me and my friends go out at night, we put our hair up. >> my hair is down to my shoulder. >> i cut it short because of the .44 caliber killer. >> his last victim was actually blond. >> a 22-year-old new york city girl died this evening a day and a half after she and her companion were shot by the son of sam. the night time killer that stalked new york residential boroughs for a year. >> easy. >> postal worker walked out of his yonkers apartment last night. turned the ignition key in his car and found himself surrounded by police. well, he said, you got me. police say those words ended the biggest manhunt in new york city history with the capture of son of sam. and this is what they say tripped up the .44 caliber killer, a parking ticket. david berkowitz drove this ford galaxy from his home to

brooklyn. police say he went to stalk his 12th and 13th victims. but in the place he parked was a fire hydrant and police had the lead they needed. >> when we get him and i interrogate him. my attitude at this time, i want to take him and throw him out the window. this guy was so pathetic. like talking to a zucchini, never blinked. constant smile on his face. after a while it is hard to feel sorry for the guy. he is gone. >> i feel great. i think the people of our city will feel great relief. >> praise the lord. it's over. we're very, very happy. >> that was the first thing we heard this morning. it was fantastic. it was great. >> serial killers tend to be cunning. that allows them to stay at large. when they get caught it is usually because of luck. good luck for us. bad luck for them. >> when we caught him, we

searched his car. the bag on the seat had the .44 caliber gun that did the shootings. what more do you need and then a machine gun fully loaded in the backseat and the night of interrogation they directed, i said, well, what were you going to do with the machine gun and he said i was on my way to the hamptons. and i was going to spray the place and kill as many people as i could. sterilize sites. multiple foreign objects in the body. tweezers. (buzz!) (buzz!) if you're the guy from the operation game, you get operated on. it's what you do. (buzz!) if you want to save fifteen percent or more on car insurance, you switch to geico. it's what you do. heart health's important... ...so you may... take an omega-3 supplement... ...but it's the ingredients inside that really matter for heart health. new bayer pro ultra omega-3 has two times the concentration

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there are too many miracles in this church that it is hard to tell one without telling two or sthee -- throw because they blend together. for 30 years i prayed to a sky god and got nothing but disappointment and heart ache. now we have a father who loves each one of us so much. how thankful we are. thank you. [ applause ] ♪en >> the '70s were very fertile period for new religious movements. what was so interesting about the rise of cults in our country is how many people wanted to ally them selves with these

stigmatized and fanatical organizations. >> i must say it is a great effort to be god. i lean upon another but no one else has the faculty that i do. in the meantime i shall be god and beside me there shall be no other. >> jim jones was an extraordinary figure. he was community leader, social worker. and minister. he carried his ministry to california. ♪ walk with me >> what was particularly distinctive about him at that time is he created a community that was united between whites and blacks. this came at a time when the country was still very racially divided and churches were not integrated. >> some leading scientists say we have to have euthanasia. oh, no. oh, no. who's going to decide who and when a person is going to die? we must never allow that. this kind of thing ushers in the

terror of a hitler's germany. we must not allow these kind of things to enter our consciousness. >> i wanted to write a story about this guy and his power an the reach he had. so i began to contact ex members and they said all is not so good inside. there were beatings if you got out of line, a lot of sex abuse and the story took on a new life at that point. very soon afterwards, the church members began leaving san francisco for guyana. he figures if i'm in guyana, it really doesn't matter what is said or written. nobody's going to get me here. ♪ we are a happy family we are a happy family yes we are ♪ >> it was an escapade almost unparalleled in the history of religious movements. they had very little communication with loved ones at home.

and naturally there was concern with where they had gone and what was happening out there in the jungle. >> i think jim jones took his group down there because he was afraid to face publicity and answer questions here in this country. >> he was talking immigration, he was talking helping people. he was talking better this and better that. >> what about now, what's your impression now? >> my impression now those are fronts for him. i think he's gone crazy. >> congressman ryan started hearing the name jim jones more regularly. he wanted to expose what he believed was going on down there that was wrong. he thought it was certainly worth inviting members of the press to join him. >> very glad to be here. this is a congressional inquiry. i can tell you right now whatever the comments are, there are some people here that believe this is the best thing

that happened to them in their whole life. >> toward the end of the evening, don harris, who was the nbc reporter had been walking around the pavilion and two people slipped him notes an he hands the notes over to congressman ryan who opens them and says, oh, my god, it is true. everything we have been told is true. >> always a place. >> then word spread and more and more people wanted to leave. >> do i both understand you to say that you both want to leave on this date? >> yes. >> then i remember seeing this couple with a child between them. >> you bring those kids back here! you bring them back! don't you touch my kids!

>> you could feel the tension. >> last night, someone came and passed me this note. >> people play games, friend. they lie. they lie. what can i do about liars? you people leave us. i beg you. please leave us. >> instead of just letting that plane take off with minimal damage to his movement, jones snapped. >> good evening. for about the last 30 hours we here at nbc news have been trying to establish what happened last night at the airstrip at a place called port kaituma. we have a particular interest in it. two nbc news men were shot to death there. >> don harris was killed. bob brown was killed. congressman ryan was shot 45 times. >> every time somebody would fall down wounded they would walk over and shoot them in the head with a shotgun.

>> i was shot five times. i was lying on my side with my head down, pretending i was dead. and then all of a sudden they just came and -- um -- shot me at point-blank range. >> they are shooting. people die including leo ryan and back in jonestown, jim jones is calling for a revolutionary suicide, where we are all going to kill ourselves make a statement to the world. >> i first flew to jonestown last evening around sunset. there was absolute silence. nothing living was around. jonestown was a city of the dead. >> they found tremendous quantities of potassium cyanide poison. it had been mixed with kool-aid. it killed quickly, within five

minutes. >> we will never know how many people voluntarily drank the poison. but other people were either coerced, brainwashed or took it against their will. they were murdered. >> i was lifted into this medevac plane, and i was so grateful. >> good evening. the searching american soldiers have finished counting the bodies in jonestown, guyana. 910 died in the poison ritual of the people's temple last week. >> this is americans killing other americans and themselves. in its own interest for its own well being this nation will have to find out why. can a business have a mind? a subconscious. a knack for predicting the future. reflexes faster than the speed of thought. can a business have a spirit?

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there were a lot of strange people who had committed a lot of strange crimes in the 1970s, but none of them was as mediagenic as ted bundy. >> you said you were surprised when you went to jail. >> i didn't know what to expect. never been in jail or arrested before. >> he was a prolific serial killer. we don't know how many he killed. we know dozens. he was handsome, involved in politics. was in law school. didn't seem like the glassy eyed

lunatic that many americans believed that serial killers would be. >> we still don't believe it. it just can't be. i keep shaking my head day after day saying how can this be because our son is the best son in the world. >> what the press wrote about bundy, his crimes wasn't the full details. the full extent of the barbarism, the fact he would have sex with their corpses, mutilate the victims, that didn't fit with this image of the boy next door. >> you feel that everything will turn out all right, that you are innocent. do you still feel that? >> more than ever. >> you think of getting out of here? >> well -- well legally, sure. >> bundy was to stand trial on them charge of murdering a young woman in aspen. the trial never completed. during a court hearing break he was left alone in a law library. he bailed out of the second floor window and escaped. >> he high tailed it up to the

hills where they chased him nearly a week. he got lost up there and probably would have died of exposure if they hadn't arrested him. they caught him and he was put back in jail and at christmastime 1977, he escaped again. >> bundy, starved down to less than 140 pounds slipped through a hole in the ceiling of his cell and was free again. >> the fbi responded by putting bundy on the ten most wanted list. posters with a picture of ted bundy were circulated throughout the nation. >> ted did not have a plan when he escaped. he just wanted to get as far away where he might be identified as he could. so he stole a car and went to florida. >> his new quarters are cramped. he's under 24-hour guard and faces intense questioning. he is theodore bundy, jailed in florida. >> bundy was living in tallahassee at the time when five florida state university coeds were attacked on or near the campus. two of the young women died as a result of the attacks.

>> the police in pensacola, florida, stopped a man driving a stolen car and found to their surprise, and perhaps pleasure it was bundy. >> step out, mr. bundy. >> what do we have here? oh, an indictment. why don't you read it to me. >> mr. bundy -- >> he said he was going to hit me. you've got the indictment. that's all you're going to get. >> bundy, having had some law training and a great deal of arrogance decided to represent himself. for him he was the star in the courtroom. >> since i have been in dade county -- >> don't shake your finger at me, young man. >> inside the courtroom, the trial will be covered by a still photographer and one television camera. upstairs there are some 250 reporter and television technicians from around the country. >> bundy's personality is

fascinating to a lot of people. he doesn't fit the usual profile of a criminal. when he defends himself in court it is fascinating for people to watch. >> each day the courtroom is filled with spectators drawn by fascination with theodore bundy himself or the gruesome details of the crimes. what is unusual to see is many of the onlookers are women, young women. >> you are fascinated by him? >> very. >> i'm not afraid of him. he doesn't look like the type to kill somebody. to try to imagine yourself in his place and see how he is feeling. >> the bizarre spectacle of ted bundy as a sex symbol really bummed out feminists, as you can imagine. he became a folk hero. there were t-shirts because he was handsome. on the other hand, his violence was so incredibly women hating and his insouciance about that wound up being pretty depressed. >> i had a broken arm and crushed finger. >> i had five skull fractures

and multiple contusions on my head. >> is that man in the courtroom today? >> yes, he is. >> would you point him out for us, please? >> are you prepared for a guilty verdict? >> i think so. but you never know. i've never had to go through this before. >> after six and a half hours of deliberation, the jury had a verdict, 32-year-old theodore bundy remained composed as he listened. guilty of first-degree murder in the strangling deaths of two florida state university sorority sisters nine months ago. >> it is therefore the sentence of this court that you be sentenced to death by a current of electricity and such current of electricity shall continue to pass through your body until you are dead. >> in some ways, ted bundy is an icon of the '70s. he mixed kind of showbiz and violence in a way that had never been done before.

>> at the end of the '70s, we had a destruction of our innocence we had at the beginning of the '70s. >> it became an era where americans began to expect the worst. >> america had certainly lost its way. criminals were lauded and killers were romanticized. >> it was the news media that helped to carry this message that america is a dangerous place. that americans had a love affair with violence. it was much more like a marriage and the marriage for some people was until death do them part. >> for a crime social scientists the violence that struck our cities as an epidemic and identified the causes, poverty, broken homes. for some, violence has become a permanent part of the fabric of life. sociologists call it a subculture of violence. the current wave of violent crime is well in to the second decade. while we have deplored violence, we've not done much about it.

perhaps this is because confronting the problem of violence forces us to confront the most serious defects in our society. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com a drive-by shooting on an alaskan highway. and the bomb sent through the mail. two apparently random acts of senseless violence, until forensic science discovered an important link. on an october night in 1990, rob chamberlain and his friend were driving along glenn highway in anchorage, alaska, headed to a local restaurant. as he approached the exit ramp, chamberlain heard a loud crack.