American Justice

- Season 8

(1999)

The 1963 kidnapping of Frank Sinatra Jr., who was taken from his hotel room in Lake Tahoe, Nev. He was released by his captors three days later after his father paid the $240,000 ransom, and his three captors were caught and convicted.

A chronicle of the legal battles of publisher Larry Flynt. Included: Flynt v. Falwell, a libel suit heard by the U.S. Supreme Court; Flynt's conversion to Christianity; and the shooting that left him wheelchair-bound. Interviewed: Flynt, his brother Jimmy, his attorneys, Rev. Jerry Falwell.

The lives of the Beatles' John Lennon and his killer, Mark Chapman, are paralleled. Lennon's success is contrasted with Chapman's emotional instability. Also: the murder and trial are documented using film footage and photographs.

The circumstances surrounding the 1991 murder of a Pennsylvania teenage girl and the convoluted legal proceedings that followed. Among those interviewed are the victim's mother.

The story of how a serial killer and his wealthy accomplice were apprehended is chronicled using video footage, photographs and interviews.

The 1920s investigation and trial of Leopold and Loeb for kidnapping and murder in Chicago is chronicled.

Three murders---each involving women's remains found in railway baggage---that took place in England during the 1920s and '30s are detailed.

Serial killers Gary Heidnik and Jeffrey Dahmer are profiled. Included: comparisons of common elements of their crime sprees, such as cooking their victims.

The case of homicidal divorcee Betty Broderick is chronicled. Included: her marriage to Dan Broderick, their divorce, the murder of Dan and his second wife, and the two ensuing trials.

A look at the case of a family murdered while on vacation in France and the local farmer suspected in the mysterious crime.

A report on the 1955 disappearance of a Florida judge and his wife.

American Justice profiles the 1975 murder of 15 year old Martha Moxley in the rich and well to do gated community of Greenwich Village, CT. Moxely was brutally beaten to death with a golf club on the eve of Halloween in 1975. Initially investigators determined that one of the main suspects was Thomas Skakel, brother of Michael. The Skakel family were neighbors to the Moxley's and part of the powerful Kennedy clan, and it was highly speculated that it was this wealth and power that was able to protect the Skakel boys from the investigation. Former Los Angeles detective...

Profiling John Duffy, the convicted British murderer and rapist, who earned the nickname of "Railway Killer" because he used the train to escape from the scene of the crimes. Included: how "profiling" was used to help capture him; footage of the crime scenes.

A look at the criminal activities of Ma Barker and her gangster sons. Included: reenactments of their crimes; archival footage.

Profiles the case of Henry Lee Lucas, who confessed to murdering women and whose victims may have numbered in the hundreds, giving him the notorious distinction of being America's most prolific serial killer.

Profiling Graham Young, the infamous British killer, who was obsessed with poison from his youth. Young was finally caught after the deaths of several colleagues at the factory where he worked, and his life was the subject of the 1995 film "The Young Poisoner's Handbook."

The case of Ronald ("Butch") DeFeo Jr., an Amityville, New York, man convicted in 1975 of the murders of his parents and four siblings. The house in which the murders were committed later became the subject of speculation that it was "haunted."

Examining the case of boxer Hurricane Carter and his friend John Artis, who in 1967 were wrongly convicted of a 1966 triple homicide. Artis was eventually paroled in 1981, while Carter's conviction was finally overturned in 1985. Included: comments from Artis, Carter and their attorneys.

Examining two cases in which wrongly accused people were imprisoned because their trials were mishandled. Included: Florida farmer James Richardson, who spent 21 years in prison until his conviction was overturned in 1989; Chicago residents Perry Cobb and Darby Tillis, who were tried for the same crime for a record five times.

In 1980 Shannon Mohr believes that she has found the man of her dreams, right to the point where he murders her. Soon afterward he disappears and the truth about him starts to become all too clear. American Justice examines the investigation and the seven year hunt for Dave Davis.

Reports on the 1996 murder of Anne Marie Fahey, assistant to Delaware's Governor by Thomas Capano, politically connected lawyer, the subsequent cover-up and trial.

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An investigation into the mysteries surrounding the death of Helen Brach, who disappeared in 1977 and was declared legally dead, although her body was never found.

In the spring of 1981 an usually high number of patients are dying at Community Hospital of the Valleys in Perris, CA. After the hospital is closed for an inquiry investigators discover a sinister pattern. American Justice examines the case of serial killer Robert Diaz who was convicted of murdering 12 patients with lethal injections of the drug Lidocaine.

The case of Barbara Stager, a North Carolina woman who was convicted in 1989 of the 1988 shooting death of her second husband, Russ. Stager claimed the killing was accidental, but hindering her defense were similarities in the deaths of her first and second husbands; and an incriminating tape recorded by Russ shortly before his demise.

Documentary about the Jonesboro school massacre which occurred on Tuesday, March 24, 1998. The show depicts how 4 students and a teacher were killed by 2 armed middle school boys in Jonesboro a town in northeastern Arkansas. Mitchell Johnson, 13, and Andrew Golden, 11, pulled a school fire alarm and fired into the crowd as people filed out of the Westside Middle School, killing four girls and a teacher, and wounding 9 others. In August 1998, they were both sentenced to confinement until they reached the age of 21, the maximum under Arkansas law. The docudrama searches...

On June 3rd, 1986 at a hotel in St. Louis, Edward and Julie Post are in town from New Orleans for a real estate convention. Julie Post drowns in the bathtub of their motel room while Edward goes out for an early morning jog. Investigators initially thought the drowning to be accidental. But as they learn of Edward Post's financial debt and the insurance money that he was going to collect from the death of his wife they take a much closer look, and discover what they believe is a motive for murder.

The case of Alex Kelly, a high-school athlete who fled the country for Europe just before his 1987 rape trial. Kelly surrendered to authorities in 1995, and was convicted in 1997.

The 1995 murder of Adrienne Jones, a high-school student shot to death by David Graham, with whom she'd allegedly had a fling. Graham and his girlfriend, Diane Zamora, were convicted of the murder in 1998. The pair were found out after Zamora confided the crime to classmates at the Naval Academy.

American Justice profiles some of the more bizarre defenses in the history of the American legal system. First up, the so called "Twinkie Defense". On Nov. 27, 1978, San Francisco City Supervisor Dan White shot and killed Mayor George Moscone and Harvey Milk who was another supervisor. White claimed he committed the crimes after binging on junk food. Next, "The Sleepwalking Defense" where Scott Falater stabbed his wife 44 times, but claimed he was sleepwalking while he did it. Then, "The Nymphomaniac Defense" where a woman claimed she was engaged in sexual surrogate ...

The case of Ken Arrasmith, an Idaho man who, in 1995, gunned down a couple who had allegedly sexually abused Arrasmith's daughter. Arrasmith was convicted of their murders in 1996.

Chronicles the life and career of John Donald Merrett. Included: the "not proven" verdict at his matricide trial, his drug smuggling and his suicide after he was considered to be a suspect in the murders of his wife and mother-in-law.

Recalling the attempted 1996 murder of California resident Sunny Han by men hired by Sunny's identical twin sister, Gina. Gina received a 26-year sentence for the crime.

On July 14th, 1993 eight kids in their teens to early twenty's get together for the evening in Hollywood, Florida (a suburb of Ft. Lauderdale)to hang out. Several of the teenagers gang up on 20 year old Bobby Kent, who was with their group, and stab him repeatedly. Kent dies from his wounds, and despite the efforts of the youths to cover up the incident, the truth comes out and they are all charged with 1st degree murder. In their defense they claimed that Bobby Kent was a "vicious bully and this was his payback".