my heart cried out for this kid. >> an abused teenager, lost and scared, turns to a church for help. they offer food, shelter, love. >> i kept saying, i wish you would adopt me. i wish you would bring me into your home. i wish i could live with you. i wish you were my dad. >> but there was something not quite right about this kid. boy, were they in for a surprise. >> stunning, shocking. >> a poignant case of charity

turned into a national case of deceit. nothing was as it seemed. was he really a she? authorities were already confused. a twin sister made things more complicated. >> oh, they were different. whether it was good or bad. they were together at all times. >> they would be hard to prosecute. >> you have two people using different names, operating everywhere from alaska to maine. >> and even harder to figure out. >> i don't know that i could say that i understand anything that motivates these two. >> an uneasy mix of fact and fiction confounded people wherever they went. >> their jaws were floored. nobody seemed ready for this. nobody seemed ready for it. >> i'm just trying not to wind up dead somewhere. >> tz story of good intentions and a scam no one saw coming. in this hour, the kindness of strangers. [ train horn ] >> it happened at a church social in the old mining town of

galena, kansas, on an old stretch of route 66 tucked into the southeastern corner of the state. pastor jim jones glanced up and noticed a young stranger standing in the doorway. >> wearing a 49ers ball cap, heavy over their face. kind of hunched over. and really looked lost. >> the stranger had trouble making eye contact. asked if just anybody could attend church here, the pastor, of course, said, yes. >> what a great day in the lord, huh? >> bit by bit, he pried out the boy's sad story. his name, joshua thomas, j.t., and at just 13 years old, young joshua had endured more pain than any child should have to bear. >> at the age of 5 years old, he went to the garage and found his father who had hung himself. a great trauma. the mother remarried, remarried a gentleman that was abusive to him as a child. he was never allowed to attend school. he was home schooled until he

was 7 years old. >> the boy told pastor jones he was then sent to live with his grandmother, who died the year before he showed up at church. he was living with his sister and her young son across the state line in joplin, missouri, but every time their stepfather came to town, the boy was being physically abused. j.t. said he sometimes slept on the church bus to escape the beatings. pastor jones started leaving the bus unlocked so j.t. could sleep there any time he needed to. >> i bought him a coat and some clothes that he didn't have and said, you keep this 50 cents. if you get scared, call me at my home. here's my number at my house. he would call me every day and talk and say, i'm a little scared. can i talk to you? >> and he talked to forest, pastor jones' 14-year-old son. >> my heart cried out for this kid. because i wanted to give him some of what i had, because i had it much better than he did at the time.

>> after several weeks, j.t. confessed he had not been completely honest. he'd given the pastor a fake name in order to protect himself. said his name was really chris gomez. >> father, we thank you for this food. >> soon the pastor was bringing chris home after church to share sunday dinners with his family. >> he was kind of sad initially when he would sit at our table. he would keep his head down and would not look at us and would just fumble in his food but not eat it. i would sit him next to me. i said, chris, it's okay to eat, you're safe in our house. >> the pastor took the boy under his wing, signed him up for the royal rangers, the church's youth group for boys, even bought him a uniform. he also helped him sign up for middle school, where special education teacher tony cook tested chris to see which grade he should attend. he noticed something unusual about chris, that he looked older than 13.

>> there are certain diseases that can cause that, so we were on the internet, trying to figure out what type of disease this person might have. >> still, he seemed well enough. and by the time cook had spent the better part of four days with chris, the kid had impressed her. >> he actually told me he watched "jeopardy" and that's why he knew so much about different things. >> the months went by. the kind people of galena tried to turn young chris's life around. and echoed, though they had no idea this was so, a remarkably similar rescue in salt lake city, eight years before. it was just a few days before christmas. the year was 1995. >> we begin tonight with a utah story that's touching people across the country this holiday. >> this was a story about a boy named michael, a story so sad it seemed as if it had been lifted straight from a dickens novel. >> his parents abandoned him at the bus depot in downtown salt lake.

>> with nothing but the clothes on his back and a birth certificate and an envelope in his hand, the lost boy showed up outside a group home just about lunchtime. youth worker jeff birch caught him peeking in the window. >> i said, what's your name? he said, michael. and i shook his hand. i said, can i help you? he said i'm supposed to give this to you. he handed me a sealed envelope and ran. >> it was a letter from michael's stepmother that read "my husband, alan, just found out he's dying from aids. he doesn't want michael around and i can't care for michael alone. his natural mother died shortly after his birth. we give our permission for you to do whatever you think is best. but it will be a waste of time to look for us, because we're leaving the country." >> well, it stunned me. i'm reading the note, i can't believe what i'm reading. i read it again and i called him back. i said, michael, come back, let's talk. >> sometimes this job has got to tear your heart out. >> it really does. it really does. it was cold outside and just the look on his face was one that he was scared.

>> michael, cold, skittish, kept running. jeff caught him, coaxed him back, put him in the boys' home where at least he'd have a warm bed, hot meals and companionship. >> we assigned him a bedroom and he jumped right up on the top bunk, just like a 13-year-old boy would. jumped right up, this is my bed. >> gradually, michael warmed up to the male staff here, to gene eckels, director of the group home, he spilled bits and pieces of his young life, painful and damaged. >> he alluded to abuse and a hard life growing up, a father that was very abusive to him. talked about his stepbrother that was obviously no love there. in fact, she couldn't stand michael. >> the department of human services had to be told. workers there searched about for a foster home for him and tried, without much luck, to piece together the story of michael's tragic life. >> the case worker said he had a birth certificate. i said, that's interesting, when's his birthday? and the case worker said christmas. and i'll tell you, my -- a big lump right here.

i had to swallow hard. that was too much. and i said to myself, this is a story that has to be told. >> and so it was. the story of the boy born during a blizzard on christmas day to a life of pain and sorrow, and abandoned days before his 13th birthday. >> social workers have tried tirelessly to find the boy's parents or any -- >> the story of the blizzard boy quickly spread across the country and kind-hearted people were eager to help. >> can we adopt the boy? can we take him home? i must have this boy, they would say. >> maybe because it was christmas. maybe because some people do care. it was as if love had finally arrived and people all over salt lake began to get a sense of real joy about what was being done. it was amazing, really, that a destitute boy could find himself alone and abandoned here at a city bus station and not a week later have opened christmas presents, had two trust funds set up in his name and have

families eagerly offering to give him a home. time for the next chapter to begin. and what a chapter that is. it begins on the day after christmas in 1995, the day after his birthday, michael found himself in court. >> i asked a few questions, suggested that he put the gameboy down and involve himself in the proceedings. >> michael appeared before juvenile court judge frederick addone, whose job was to find the boy a better life. >> as he would respond to questions, the timbre and the quality of the voice was a little unusual. and that's when it became a little more curious, a little more suspicious. >> suspicious? judge oddone was bothered by his misdemeanor, by the way he avoided the judge's eyes. and he noticed that while michael had been given a medical exam, it was not complete. wouldn't take his clothes off? >> absolutely not. would not even consider it. >> by the morning of the 27th, judge oddone's suspicions had grown and he wasn't alone. >> we were making meals for the

kids and then we got a call and said, you need to keep a close eye on this child. immediately. we might have something going on. and some detectives showed up a short time later. >> detectives? >> detectives. >> we said, we're just trying to find out who your parents are, michael. well, i don't want to talk to you if you're cops. >> by this time, the salt lake city's sheriff's department had found some disturbing information. not only had the boy been using different names, but he had been keeping bigger secrets. the judge called a meeting in his chambers. >> i said, let me ask you, even though this may be a little unusual, are you a boy or a girl? >> what'd he say? >> he paused and he thought and then looked up and said, i'm a boy. >> and back at the shelter, the detective looked this boy, or was it a girl, in the eye. >> then we just said, well, we know who you are and we just need to talk to you about and figure out what you've been doing and why you've been doing this. >> doing what? >> stunning. shocking.

>> of course, over in galena, kansas, pastor jones, his family an congregation had no idea any of this had happened two states away or as they were about to discover, that the next chapter of their own lost boy story would be an eerie echo of what had come before. coming up -- >> your jaws hit the floor. nobody was ready for this. >> the lost boy reveals his true identity. [ dog ] i am a rockstar. my coat? solid gold. my insides? pure platinum. [ female announcer ] a healthy outside starts inside. new iams simple & natural has chicken as its number one ingredient and zero fillers. it works inside for health you can see on the outside. [ dog ] i can't be a rockstar on the outside if i'm not one on the inside. [ female announcer ] new iams naturals. you'll like what's in them and love what's not. [ dog ] i am an iams dog. [ girls ] he's so cute! [ dog ] groupies!

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it was the dawn of a new year, 1996. and the good people of salt lake city had appealed to the nation, trying to find a home for an abandoned and lonely 13-year-old boy. he said his name was michael ross, born on christmas day and his sad story captured hearts and headlines across the country.

but then authorities in utah discovered some troubling information. people of salt lake were shocked to see their christmas miracle carted off to jail. michael ross was not a he but a she. >> yeah, you could say it was too good or too bad to be true. >> randy ripplinger called in the press, again. >> your jaws hit the floor. nobody seemed ready for this. nobody seemed ready for it. >> we have recently discovered from reports from other states that this individual is not a 13-year-old boy but in fact is a 25-year-old woman. >> they got the gender wrong, they got the age wrong, they got everything wrong. this was a 25-year-old woman, who had used at least six aliases, whose real name, ironically, is birdie jo hoaks. >> police arrested the alleged imposter at a group home this afternoon. >> it took my breath away. the country, the entire country, and even people from overseas responded. how can we help this boy? and now we have to turn around

and tell them, once again, america, we've been suckered. >> and how they were suckered. the police reports that alerted detective jenks now poured in, one state followed another and another and another. birdie jo hoaks had pulled off her scam in at least 17 other states since 1988. in south dakota, she said she was nathan devine, a 13-year-old boy abandoned by his mother. he carried this letter. "i recently found out i have a very short time left to live and don't want nathan around to watch." hoaks spent seven months in jail for welfare fraud there. in montana, she was known as 13-year-old michael and carried this letter. "i don't want to see michael again. as far as i'm concerned, he's no longer my son." when officials became suspicious, hoaks fled. in wichita, kansas, a court-ordered medical exam revealed that birdie jo had a c-section scar and had bound her breasts with tape. in new york, another scam,

another arrest. this one was even covered on television. >> can you tell us why you did this? >> i told you in court. >> can you tell us again? >> just to get a place to stay and food to eat. for the same reason. >> how'd you get away with it? >> well, i look young, and a lot of people tend to believe that i am young. >> what about all those hard-bitten reporters who with tears in their eyes breathlessly told the story in salt lake. >> everybody got suckered, up and down the line. >> reporter: chip got a front-page byline for breaking the story in the "deseret news." >> looking back on it we probably all said to ourselves, we should have known. it was too good to be true. >> all those letters, all those lies. birdie jo had done more than bruised some egos. birdie jo had done real damage. judge oddone, angry now, got ready for an already cynical public to turn its back on needy, itinerant children. >> people were calling from all

over the united states and offering to take this child home for christmas and make christmas for him. and what this did was this slammed the door on all that charity and all that kindness. >> birdie jo spent 30 days in jail in salt lake for forgery and making false statements and then was released to this homeless shelter. she was ordered by the court to complete a life skills course. life skills? birdie jo could write a thesis on the kind you need around here. but as we said, the kind people of galena, kansas, didn't know anything about this when, eight years later, a boy named chris showed up in their church and school, clearly in need of help. galena was about to learn that things and sometimes people aren't always as they appear. would the boy turn out to be a girl? was the lonely kid really all alone? what would become of galena's faith? coming up -- pastor jones meets birdie jo's extended family.

>> then i saw the sister, and then i was really confused. >> and birdie jo speaks on her own behalf. >> i'm just trying not to wind up dead somewhere. ♪ [ male announcer ] it's easy to see what subaru owners care about. ♪ that's why we created the share the love event. get a great deal on a new subaru and 250 dollars goes to your choice of five charities. ♪ with your help, we can reach 20 million dollars

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950 miles east of salt lake city is sweet little galena, kansas, where for six months, pastor jim jones poured out help and charity to 13-year-old chris gomez after the youngster told the pastor about his abusive home life. >> he kept saying, i wish you would adopt me. i wish you would bring me into your home. i wish i could live with you. i wish you were my dad. >> but pastor jones was noticing some strange things. like the time chris drove himself home after church. >> he was driving what he said was his sister's car. and we told him, he couldn't drive anymore. he was 13 years old, he couldn't drive. >> and then there was the time chris's sister car broke down, and pastor jones went to help her. >> then i saw the sister and then i was really confused, because i wasn't sure if chris

was playing two roles on me. because the sister looked just like he did. and i was confused and so i had a member of my staff go and they were twice as confused. and he said, well, my sister and i just look a lot alike. >> things just weren't adding up. finally, as pastor jones drove chris home from church one day, he decided the time had come to ask a pointed question. >> that's when 13-year-old chris gomez said to me, yes, there is something i need to tell you. i've wanted to tell you for several weeks. i said, what is that? my anticipation was that maybe he had been molested further or had done something inappropriate himself and was embarrassed and just felt like he needed to tell me. and so he said, i'm -- he said, my nephew is really my son. now, i'd met the nephew by this time, the 3-year-old little boy. and i said, oh? then how old are you really? knowing at 13, there had to be

an inconsistency there. and he said, i'm 33 years old. >> and if that weren't enough, soon, another shock. chris took the pastor to meet the rest of his family, his mother, stepfather, and his twin sister, becky. >> when i began a dialogue with the family, they used the word "she" three times. the first two times, i'm just listening. but the third time, i said, okay, so you're not a male, you're a female? and then there was a little bit of laughter and confession and said, that was the next thing i needed to tell you. >> so now the trusting pastor jones knew that chris wasn't who he thought he was at all. birdie jo had done it again. jones said he really had no choice. he had to call the middle school and tell them that they'd all been duped. and of course, the school had to inform the authorities. and once again, the law would have to deal with birdie jo.

now, a kindly pastor would have to decide how to deal with being played for a fool. t why did she do it to so many people in so many places who only wanted to help? once upon a time, we thought we knew the answer ourselves. one night back in 1996, while she was still in salt lake city, birdie jo agreed to meet us in an abandoned railway station. and she told us a story in there and asked us to believe. >> i'm just trying not to wind up dead somewhere. >> when all this began, birdie told us, she was 18 in new york and homeless. >> actually, at first when i was living on the streets, everyone knew i was a girl. i dressed like a girl and acted like a girl. >> which in manhattan street culture, she believed, was an invitation to a nightmare. >> so i might as well be a boy straight off and maybe they won't hassle me as much. >> and it worked? >> it worked.

>> it was, she said, a revelation. where she'd been disbelieved or badly treated as a woman, she was welcomed as a boy. she'd been laughed at, abused, and thrown out of places decent people go. but when she handed over one of her letters, she said it was a magic ticket to acceptance which she'd steal for a day or a week and move on. >> well, i've always wanted to see the country, not exactly the way i'm seeing it. but i've always loved to travel. >> she told us back then that her mother did abandon her as a baby and by the time she arrived in salt lake city, she was a mother herself of a little girl she turned over to an aunt. >> that's not something i can discuss. >> but is any of that an excuse to con a city at christmas? >> do you feel sorry at all for what you did? >> i did cheat people, and for that i'm sorry. i was trying to figure out how to -- how to actually tell the people at the shelter, because i

thought it had gone too far, but then i didn't know how to get out of it or how to change it without hurting a lot of people. >> some people think that you wanted to just take advantage of that situation, wanted to take that money away. >> that's not true. >> you wanted that money, didn't you? >> no, i did not want -- their money. >> she only wanted, she told us, to huckleberry finn her way back to san jose, california, back to the twin sister who could help restart her life. she wanted to us believe that she cares, that she would never do it again. just as she had already promised before. you know, there will be those who say, keith, you just got taken by birdie. >> all i can say is, i'm not a con artist. people are probably going to look at me and say, yeah, yeah, yeah, you're just going to say that you're not going to do it but we'll see. >> you saw the country. >> i saw the country.

>> that was, of course, more than a dozen years ago and birdie jo did reunite with her twin sister becky in san jose, where she was again caught impersonating a boy. the two women ran from our camera rather than talk to us there. and in 2003, birdie was convicted in tulsa, oklahoma, for writing bad checks. finally, to galena, where this time birdie and her sister got in trouble with the law. birdie, for the impersonation, and sister becky for helping her enroll in middle school. once the true story was out, the good pastor jones confronted a choice. condemn or forgive? again. >> i don't think she'll do it again. i think she could do it again, she certainly has the capability, but i think in life that we have to make a series of choices. and i think that she's making a choice to change her life. >> not the first time to believe

in birdie jo hoaks, but maybe this time, could it be he'll be right? coming up -- birdie jo and her sister becky both face felony charges. >> my concern and the sheriff's concern was, look at all they've gotten away with. >> what will birdie jo and becky do next? >> i thought somebody was playing a joke on me. i walked in my office and i asked the secretary, i said, okay what's going on? the safe is gone. follow the wings.

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msnbc now. i'm alex witt. within the last hour, president obama spoke about the two-month payroll tax cut extension passed this morning by the senate. the president said he was pleased that the senate was able to pass the measure. the senate also passed the $1 trillion year-end budget extension also passed by the house. that will fund the government through the next year.

i'm alex witt. more news later for you right here on msnbc. see you then at the bottom of the next hour. the assembly of god church in galena, kansas, was shocked by the revelation. 13-year-old chris gomez was really birdie jo hoaks, a 33-year-old woman with children of her own and big sister becky was really birdie jo's twin. galena was just the latest town in a nationwide trail of deceit, and it fell for the sisters' ruse hook, line and sinker. as con artists, they were good. though others saw a potential for a different kind of good. becky and birdie jo were bright and charming. they were hardly bonnie and clyde on some violent crime spree. they were really just moochers living off the kindness of strangers. those who knew them said what they needed was love, affection, attention. and the church community in galena was determined to provide

for those needs. they offered them a second chance. >> at that point we knew they'd done it over and over and our concern was them doing it again. even though the church says no foul, we want to forgive. we didn't want them to go somewhere else to do it again. so we tried to find something to charge them with. >> joanna was the cherokee county attorney. she and her staff worked hard to prosecute the sisters. but they faced obstacles. >> part of their defense was we couldn't prove which of the twins did what. one or both forged papers to state that birdie was something she was not to get her into school. i guess we can announce at this point that becky jo hoaks and birdie jo hoaks have both been arrested. >> joanna's team filed felony charges for theft of services and making false writings. but in 2005 she lost the election for county attorney to michael goodrich. that same year, he filed a motion to dismiss the charges, saying it would be difficult if

not impossible for the state to convict the sisters. >> we had already had a preliminary hearing, where a court had found that there was probable cause to believe they had committed felonies. the court had bound them over and set a jury trial. so when he dismissed it, it bothered us, but we knew it wouldn't be long before they did something again. >> by then the story of birdie jo and becky had made the national news. could they get away with even more? pastor jim jones remained close to the twins and tried to help them make better choices. >> the power of god is amazing. >> but by 2005, galena assembly of god had a new pastor, rich graves. he did his best to make the twins feel welcome. >> the church really had a heart and continues to have a heart for people that are struggling and suffering. these young ladies needed somebody to care enough about them to try and help them. in spite of their history, the church was determined to try and do that, if they would allow them.

>> the twins always seemed to be in need. there was a need every week of some sort. >> their mother was sick for a long period of time, literally, to the point of death in the hospital here. we helped them with food, utilities. >> there were times when the new pastor felt they were making real strides at turning their lives around. >> both of these girls do have redeeming qualities. they were charming. on one of my birthdays, they chased all over the community of joplin, missouri, to try to find me with a gallon of ice cream just to give me a gift. by the time they found me, it was melted. you felt sorry for them, you felt compassion towards them. you felt like, this is somebody that we can help. there was this glimmer of hope that you would always find in them. >> but for every step they took forward something always seemed to set them back again. >> i don't know i can say i understand anything that motivates these two girls, other than to say that they have a keen eye for opportunity.

>> in 2005, birdie jo was reprimanded by joplin police for calling the station and making a false report. incredibly, she was at it again, pretending to be a teenage boy who'd just been molested by his father and who just couldn't take it anymore. she was advised by police to stop or she'd face criminal charges. >> they have a real issue with deception. it's something that they've dealt with all of their lives and until they make some real changes, are going to continue to. >> jobs were never in short supply. becky and birdie had several, but they never stayed for very long. >> i couldn't even begin to recount how many jobs those two girls had during the period of time that we were associated with them. >> whatever shot they had at redeeming themselves with the church came to an abrupt end on november 6th, 2006. the pastor performed his usual sunday service. that evening, a special offering was taken for mission work,

specifically the angel food ministries, a nonprofit organization that provides food for those who are struggling financially. and the next morning, when associate pastor randy depriest showed up for work, he noticed something was missing. >> i thought somebody was playing a joke on me. i walked in my office and i asked the secretary, i said, okay, what's going on? she says, i don't know, what do you mean? i said, the safe is gone. >> about six weeks prior to the burglary, becky jo came to me and said that birdie jo was planning to steal the safe here at the church. a lot of times she would indicate things of that nature build up confidence from us in her. then when the safe was stolen, i knew pretty much exactly where we needed to go look. >> the twins seemed to have crossed the line and it turns out they left a trail of evidence. they were even questioned on the night of the burglary for suspicious behavior. >> after they opened the safe,

they did their best to dispose of it and it was because of an undercover officer that actually was suspicious, seeing them at about 2:00 in the morning or so, backing up to the dumpster with something large enough that the trunk would not close. >> once the burglary was reported to police, they searched the area again. >> you don't steal from god. you'll get caught. they happened to be stopped leaving the scene where they dumped the safe. >> the safe, which had contained close to $2,500 in cash and credit cards and paychecks and other documents was found at a local truck repair shop. it took the galena police department just a few more days to locate the hoaks twins. >> every time we tried to make contact with them, they would take off. they knew that we wanted to talk to them. they're very, very cunning little people. they know how to work things in a way that keeps you on your toes, especially with birdie. she's very, very conniving. >> monty bean was a police

officer in galena at the time of the burglary. >> we finally caught them and blocked them off on a side street. >> the twins confessed after a few hours in custody. becky had attended church on sunday and left a back door open for reentry. later that night, she drove birdie back to the building, where birdie broke into the pastor's office and made her way to the safe. >> at some point in time in there while she was scooting the safe across the floor, she remembered that there was a wheelchair in the hallway and was able to lift the safe or finagle it around somehow to get in it the wheelchair where she could push it out of the church. >> the two then drove home and smashed the hinges off the safe. >> and they took the cash and wheelchair and grandma and went to the casino in oklahoma. >> birdie and becky tried to explain why they'd done it. >> they needed the money. their mother was sick. they hadn't paid their rent. they were wanting to relocate to oklahoma. >> the people of galena were fed up with birdie and becky's cycle of deceit.

now the sisters were going to be held accountable for their actions. birdie jo spent that night in the cherokee county jail. police decided to let becky go home to care for birdie's young son. >> methodist children's home. >> over at the church, pastor rich graves has a notebook, a guide of sorts. >> this was given to me by becky jo. it is a book that lists several different nonprofit organizations, church groups. this book was where she was doing a lot of her research in relationship to potential other entities that they may want to try and manipulate. >> the church faced an awkward decision. should they press charges against the two women they tried so hard to help? >> i was actually probably more brokenhearted that this had happened because i knew this was probably the end of the end for the opportunity for us to try and be a positive influence in their life, and that they had stepped over the line and this was the final straw.

coming up -- police finally have solid evidence against birdie jo and her sister. will it be enough to keep them behind bars? those first young men. the pioneers. the aviators. building superhighways in an unknown sky. their safety systems built of brain and heart, transforming strange names from tall tales into pictures on postcards home. and the ones who followed them, who skimmed the edge of space, the edge of heaven, the edge of dreams. and we follow them up there to live by an unbreakable promise, stitched into every uniform of every captain

who takes their command: to fly. to serve.

the assembly of god church in galena, kansas, was betrayed twice by birdie jo hoaks. the first time at the age of 33, she pretended to be an abused 13-year-old boy and turned to the church for help. even after the church members learned the truth about birdie and discovered she had an accomplice, her twin sister, they forgave her and tried to help. it didn't take long for birdie to go back to her old ways, but this time she allegedly went a step further. a burglary. she and her sister, becky, confessed to taking the church safe and hoped the church might forgive them a second time.

>> they did apologize to me personally. it was apologies under the auspice of if we apologize to you, will you not press charges? it was like they never stepped aside from the con artist approach to life to see that they could do things right. >> for all the things they didn't do right, they were never short on people trying to help them. >> i can say she doesn't like being in trouble. i'll put it that way. >> eddie battitori represented birdie jo during her first case in galena. >> i found her very endearing, very charming and very likable. there was also what i thought a little bit of a sadness to her. i couldn't put my finger on it. >> he decided to take the second case for free. >> she really needed help. she seemed pretty alarmed about the situation and the accusation, so i just told her i'd help her out. >> michael goodrich, the same county attorney who had dismissed previous charges against birdie jo and her sister

moved forward with new charges of burglary and theft and criminal damage to property. birdie jo and becky each pleaded not guilty, denying any involvement in the crime. battitori was able to buy them some time. >> i filed a motion to suppress certain evidence, a motion to suppress her statement taken at the scene of the arrest. >> the judge denied the motion, but in the midst of it all, in a twist of fate as unpredictable as the twins themselves, michael goodrich, the county attorney, was indicted by a federal grand jury on four separate felony counts unrelated to the hoaks cases. among the charges, wire fraud, extortion, allegations that he had received money and favors from the owner and employees of sensation, a gentleman's club in galena, kansas. goodrich resigned from office and pleaded guilty to one count of extortion. prosecutors agreed to dismiss the remaining felony counts. once again, it seemed to be

birdie and becky's fate that they would slip past the arm of the law. in cherokee county, the new prosecuting attorney, john bollard, didn't offer much hope for a speedy resolution. >> it ended up being transferred to a special prosecutor, which i think it was just filed away and nothing done with it. i've been looking at a lot of old files that we have that nothing's been done, and this is one of those. coming up -- the twins hit the road and make headlines again. this time, in terre haute, indiana. >> okay, yeah, i did some stupid things in the past, but that's in the past. triplets is such a blessing. not financially. so we switched to the bargain detergent, but i found myself using three times more than you're supposed to and the clothes still weren't as clean as with tide. so we're back to tide. they're cuter in clean clothes. thanks, honey. yeah. you suck at folding. [ laughs ]

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divine intervention or perhaps just dumb luck. bernie and becky's hearing seemed to be derailed because in

2007 the prosecutor became involved in a scandal involving allegations of wire fraud, extortion and a strip club. with the cherokee county attorney's office in turmoil it seemed bernie and becky's cases were no long or their radar. >> this was a story that felt like fiction the whole way. >> reporter jason georgia, tended the hearings in kansas and got to know bertie and wrote about the twins for "the chicago tribunes "wto. >> i read about the things that bertie had done in the past i saw how incredibly personable she could be. she smiled and she talked and she joked with the judge and joked with the attorneys and she was comfortable in any situation and any conversation and she was incredibly quick on her feet. >> he believes the twins are rather calculating and know exactly what they're doing. >> one anecdote that gave me insight into them, when i was in the courtroom before the attorneys arrived and the judge arrived, at one point the sisters were sitting in the courtroom with just them and the

people from the church where the safe had been stolen and becky and bertie joe started small talk telling them about bertie joe's son and the church members were trying to be nice and looked at them, smiled and asked questions and you could tell they were very hurt. at one point one of the assistant pastors asked bertie joe, so where exactly are you living now and all of that humor and all of that glee immediately erased from their faces and said we're not supposed to talk about that. it was all business from the beginning of the conversation. it's all about work. >> the kind of work he's talking about isn't a 9:00 to 5:00 variety. it's the scams the girls have been working on for most of their lives since they were teenagers in illinois. >> these girls were tom boys. jeans, shirt tails out. to be honest with you, the first time i was associated with them, i thought they were twin boys. >> retired police sergeant danny danner dealt with them

frequently. a tough word to use is mooch. they would mooch off of anybody and everybody. the red cross, they would mooch, mooching dinners, lunch, breakfast, supper, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. everybody in town knew the girls. so they didn't look like it as they were mooching off of us. we're helping them. >> he is not surprised that the twins have continued to play off the kindness of others. >> they are very, very good at conning people. i think that's why they have sur viefred so well and that's why they've never been prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. they don't hang around long enough to be prosecuted. >> perhaps no one fields as many calls about the twins as mark dillinger. >> we received calls from police, social services and law enforcement agencies on a regular basis. when they're not in custody it

seems like it's almost on a monthly basis. when they are in custody it's when the calls subside. >> they're the ultimate con artists. >> they befriend people and they ensure their trust and in a matter of weeks or months it's gone upon and so are their wallets. >> neither dillinger or danner have any explanation for what triggered the twins' life of deceit. they say the girls grew up with little, but in a town that gave a lot. >> they were brought up like typical kids. it would be easy to say if they were battered and came from a rough childhood, but the fact of the matter is they grew up in middle america and were instilled with the same values that everyone in this community was. upon. >> by most accounts, bertie and becky grew up without knowing their father and their mother was out of the picture for most of their lives leaving them in the care of their aunt and the girls attended their local high

school. >> they were different. they did not hang around other kids. they were loners. upon. >> i think from an overally age they adopted an us against the world mentality. >> we talked to his half-brother. he's been estranged from his sisters and mother for more than 20 years and has no desire to connect with them at all. he says they've run up thousands of charges on his name. thus doing some damage to his credit rating. he thinks they should go to jail for what they did. >> and just for the record, no charges have been filed against the twins for these allegations. >> the only explanation i can come up with on how they're able to keep doing it is no one has ever taken this offense seriously. i think they feel out of sight, out of mind. they'll get a quick conviction and they'll move on to another community. they're not their problem anymore, they're someone else's

problem and they're poster children for career criminals. >> the cases are pending, but the twins left the area and their seemingly endless cycle of cutting and running and getting into trouble continued in terre haute, indiana, in 2008, where again, they managed to make headlines. >> they're being scammed out of done donations posing as volunteers. >> to top it off, get this, police say they're using a child to get to your money. >> bertie and becky were accused of posing as volunteers for a chairet called dime-a-thon, going door to door with bertie's son asking for do nations. bertie strongly denies the allegations. >> we didn't do anything wrong. we were legally working for dime-a-thon. we're not going around door to door to people asking for mono pep. >> this latest incident ruined her family plan of moving to terre haute to start new lives. >> it's going to be harder.

people are going to judge us on the past. okay, yeah, i did some is stupid things in the past, but that's in the past. upon. >> in what seemed like a very familiar twist, the police in terre haute said they were unable to gather enough evidence to press charges against the twins and that becky and bertie wanted to leave town because of the incident, just like they've done in so many other towns. >> i used to tell people if they wanted to see the world, join the military. i think if they would tag along with thugs they'd see every bit of the country. >> if convicted for the cases in kansas, there's a chance they could face serious jail time, up to four years. after so many missed opportunities, who is to say if they'll ever be able to turn their lives around and fulfill the promise that so many others have seen in them. >> this is not a situation where they've benefited in vast financial sums from these scams. they have alternatives, yet

something has drawn them back to this time and time again and i don't have the answer. i asked bertie joe when we spoke. why do you do it? she said that's for me to know. >> they've had people willing to got extra mile to try to help them and in spite of everybody's attempts to try and show kindness and give them opportunity to start living differently, they continually come back to the same way of life. >> and it's been that way since the day we first met them. the hoaks twins scamming people and maybe fooling themselves, too. >> can you stay the course? can you do it? >> once i set my mind to do something, i can do it. it won't be easy, but then, nothing is.