First Person (2000-2001)
Rollover the images to learn about each of the episodes.
Rollover the images to learn about each of the episodes.
Stairway to Heaven
"What would it be like if I actually was a cattle? Because it's important not to be anthropomorphic."
Temple Grandin, university professor and diagnosed autistic, has designed 1/3 of the slaughter houses in the United States. She's renown for her design "stairway to heaven", a curving high-wall ramp system that utilizes optical illusions to lead livestock calmly from the pen to the bolt gun and ultimately to a humane death.
Temple Grandin understands and relates more easily to cattle than people. At home, she spends some of her most peaceful moments in a customized cattle "squeeze chute" — ordinarily used for immobilizing animals for inoculations.
"What would it be like if I actually was a cattle? Because it's important not to be anthropomorphic."
Temple Grandin, university professor and diagnosed autistic, has designed 1/3 of the slaughter houses in the United States. She's renown for her design "stairway to heaven", a curving high-wall ramp system that utilizes optical illusions to lead livestock calmly from the pen to the bolt gun and ultimately to a humane death.
Temple Grandin understands and relates more easily to cattle than people. At home, she spends some of her most peaceful moments in a customized cattle "squeeze chute" — ordinarily used for immobilizing animals for inoculations.
The Killer Inside Me
"When you're dealing with a serial killer day in and day out..."
Sondra London had lost contact with her high school sweetheart, Gerald. The years had passed and she was in an unhappy marriage and a dead end job writing word processing manuals. But Gerald was in the newspaper — as the suspected killer of forty women. There always had been something about Gerald Schaefer. They rekindled their affair.
Sondra and Gerald eventually broke up for good. But there's a new man in her life, Danny Rollins — the Gainesville Murder. They're engaged.
"When you're dealing with a serial killer day in and day out..."
Sondra London had lost contact with her high school sweetheart, Gerald. The years had passed and she was in an unhappy marriage and a dead end job writing word processing manuals. But Gerald was in the newspaper — as the suspected killer of forty women. There always had been something about Gerald Schaefer. They rekindled their affair.
Sondra and Gerald eventually broke up for good. But there's a new man in her life, Danny Rollins — the Gainesville Murder. They're engaged.
I Dismember Mama
"Immortality is my short term goal..."
Saul Kent didn't make the usual funeral arrangements for his mother. He wanted her severed head cryonically preserved -frozen- for future resuscitation. The San Bernardino County DA wasn't convinced Mother Kent had died of natural causes and was preparing to autopsy the remains. But Saul took the head on the lam. Could he elude police while maintaining the head at a proper temperature until he reached the Alcor Life Extension Company?
"Immortality is my short term goal..."
Saul Kent didn't make the usual funeral arrangements for his mother. He wanted her severed head cryonically preserved -frozen- for future resuscitation. The San Bernardino County DA wasn't convinced Mother Kent had died of natural causes and was preparing to autopsy the remains. But Saul took the head on the lam. Could he elude police while maintaining the head at a proper temperature until he reached the Alcor Life Extension Company?
"The Stalker"
Bill Kinsley was on the fast track at the post office. His dream was to become Postmaster General, that is, until he met Thomas McIlvane, kick boxer, letter carrier, gun freak, and soon to be mass murderer. At the end of the carnage, Kinsley was alive and McIlvane dead, but for Kinsley the nightmare did not end. Today he lives in fear, waiting for someone out there in the night that might be coming to kill him.
Bill Kinsley was on the fast track at the post office. His dream was to become Postmaster General, that is, until he met Thomas McIlvane, kick boxer, letter carrier, gun freak, and soon to be mass murderer. At the end of the carnage, Kinsley was alive and McIlvane dead, but for Kinsley the nightmare did not end. Today he lives in fear, waiting for someone out there in the night that might be coming to kill him.
"The Parrot"
Jane Gill was found dead, smothered in the master bedroom of her 21-room mansion. Near her lifeless body the police found Max, her 16-year old African gray parrot. A brilliant bird with a vocabulary of over 450 words, Max was reduced to repeating one phrase over and over again following his owner's demise: "Richard. No, no, no, no, no..." Gary Rasp, Gill's business partner and the beneficiary of her $2 million insurance policy, was put on trial for her murder. All that stood between him and the California gas chamber was a one and a half pound bird with orange tail feathers. Was Max really repeating what he heard the night of the murder? Would the judge let this talkative African parrot testify in a California court of law? And if the bird really knew what happened, who was Richard...?
Jane Gill was found dead, smothered in the master bedroom of her 21-room mansion. Near her lifeless body the police found Max, her 16-year old African gray parrot. A brilliant bird with a vocabulary of over 450 words, Max was reduced to repeating one phrase over and over again following his owner's demise: "Richard. No, no, no, no, no..." Gary Rasp, Gill's business partner and the beneficiary of her $2 million insurance policy, was put on trial for her murder. All that stood between him and the California gas chamber was a one and a half pound bird with orange tail feathers. Was Max really repeating what he heard the night of the murder? Would the judge let this talkative African parrot testify in a California court of law? And if the bird really knew what happened, who was Richard...?
"Eyeball to Eyeball"
An Interview with Clyde Roper Squid Hunter
Clyde Roper is on a life-long quest to be the first person to see a living giant squid. A lobster fisherman and then an invertebrate zoologist at the Smithsonian Institute, Roper has obsessively hunted the mythic creature for over 30 years. This bizarre animal, which grows to the length of a football field and has eyes the size of volleyballs, has continually eluded him. Roper's obsession has even landed him in the hospital for quadruple bypass surgery. Here is a story about a man who started off trapping seafood, who may end his life being trapped by seafood.
An Interview with Clyde Roper Squid Hunter
Clyde Roper is on a life-long quest to be the first person to see a living giant squid. A lobster fisherman and then an invertebrate zoologist at the Smithsonian Institute, Roper has obsessively hunted the mythic creature for over 30 years. This bizarre animal, which grows to the length of a football field and has eyes the size of volleyballs, has continually eluded him. Roper's obsession has even landed him in the hospital for quadruple bypass surgery. Here is a story about a man who started off trapping seafood, who may end his life being trapped by seafood.
"Smiling in a Jar"
An Interview with Gretchen Worden
Director of the Mütter Museum
The Mütter Museum (located in Philadelphia) is an often overlooked museum of medical specimens and curiosities. Gretchen Worden, its perverse director, presides over an assemblage of wax models of dermatological deformities, monstrosities floating in brackish liquids, Grover Cleveland's bladder stones, and, oh, so much more. Worden's bout with Hodgkin's Disease led her to this museum of oddities. For her, "it's all about stories," and each specimen in her custody has its own unique and important story to tell.
An Interview with Gretchen Worden
Director of the Mütter Museum
The Mütter Museum (located in Philadelphia) is an often overlooked museum of medical specimens and curiosities. Gretchen Worden, its perverse director, presides over an assemblage of wax models of dermatological deformities, monstrosities floating in brackish liquids, Grover Cleveland's bladder stones, and, oh, so much more. Worden's bout with Hodgkin's Disease led her to this museum of oddities. For her, "it's all about stories," and each specimen in her custody has its own unique and important story to tell.
"In the Kingdom of the Unabomber"
An Interview with Gary Greenberg
Unabomber Pen Pal
Gary Greenberg, a psychotherapist fixated on becoming a writer, was unable to get his work noticed. What better scheme than to attach himself to a writer who had not only gotten published but was also something of a celebrity?? The only drawback, Greenberg's writer was the notorious, the infamous Ted Kaczynski, the Unabomber. They started a correspondence. Seemingly innocuous at first. And then, yes, fraught with problems. A couple of misunderstandings. Unexpected competition for Ted's affections, and then all hell started to break loose. Greenberg, who had hoped for a little assistance in his writing career, found himself in the middle of a paranoid nightmare. But was it of his own devising?? And was the Unabomber just a little annoyed or was he a lot angrier than that...?
An Interview with Gary Greenberg
Unabomber Pen Pal
Gary Greenberg, a psychotherapist fixated on becoming a writer, was unable to get his work noticed. What better scheme than to attach himself to a writer who had not only gotten published but was also something of a celebrity?? The only drawback, Greenberg's writer was the notorious, the infamous Ted Kaczynski, the Unabomber. They started a correspondence. Seemingly innocuous at first. And then, yes, fraught with problems. A couple of misunderstandings. Unexpected competition for Ted's affections, and then all hell started to break loose. Greenberg, who had hoped for a little assistance in his writing career, found himself in the middle of a paranoid nightmare. But was it of his own devising?? And was the Unabomber just a little annoyed or was he a lot angrier than that...?
"Mr. Debt"
An interview with Andrew Capoccia
Lawyer/Consumer Adocate
Is unending, unyielding, all encompassing debt an unavoidable fact of life...? Perhaps. Perhaps not. OK, if not, then who's responsible...? Who got us into this mess...? Can someone be blamed...? Andrew Capoccia's answer is an unequivocal, "Yes." Credit card companies, collection agencies, in short, banks and their agents are frantically fighting to put Capoccia behind bars. A "credit card revolutionary," Capoccia wants to take down the credit system. He's gotten rich by taking hundreds of thousands of people caught in the endless spiral of credit card debt and confronting creditors on their behalf - and winning. Despite his successes, he's been fined over a million dollars by the courts, sued by the attorney general for fraud, and condemned by an attorney review board. Capoccia is embroiled in a crusade that threatens the system of credit as we know it. But is he a selfless moral crusader or a shyster opportunist? Is he a genius or a fraud?
An interview with Andrew Capoccia
Lawyer/Consumer Adocate
Is unending, unyielding, all encompassing debt an unavoidable fact of life...? Perhaps. Perhaps not. OK, if not, then who's responsible...? Who got us into this mess...? Can someone be blamed...? Andrew Capoccia's answer is an unequivocal, "Yes." Credit card companies, collection agencies, in short, banks and their agents are frantically fighting to put Capoccia behind bars. A "credit card revolutionary," Capoccia wants to take down the credit system. He's gotten rich by taking hundreds of thousands of people caught in the endless spiral of credit card debt and confronting creditors on their behalf - and winning. Despite his successes, he's been fined over a million dollars by the courts, sued by the attorney general for fraud, and condemned by an attorney review board. Capoccia is embroiled in a crusade that threatens the system of credit as we know it. But is he a selfless moral crusader or a shyster opportunist? Is he a genius or a fraud?
"You're Soaking In It"
An interview with Joan Dougherty
Crime Scene Cleaner
After her stepson's tragic shotgun suicide, Joan Dougherty was left with an unnerving and disgusting mess. There was no one to turn to, no one to help, so Dougherty broke out mops, buckets, and scouring pads and got to work. Intent on helping others who find themselves in the same situation, Dougherty started her own business cleaning up after violent crimes and grisly decompositions. A true entrepreneur, Joan now hopes to effectively market her services, build her company's profile and attract clients. She started her career comforting herself in her grief, but has become a "designated mourner," the woman who cares when no one else is willing or able to give a damn.
An interview with Joan Dougherty
Crime Scene Cleaner
After her stepson's tragic shotgun suicide, Joan Dougherty was left with an unnerving and disgusting mess. There was no one to turn to, no one to help, so Dougherty broke out mops, buckets, and scouring pads and got to work. Intent on helping others who find themselves in the same situation, Dougherty started her own business cleaning up after violent crimes and grisly decompositions. A true entrepreneur, Joan now hopes to effectively market her services, build her company's profile and attract clients. She started her career comforting herself in her grief, but has become a "designated mourner," the woman who cares when no one else is willing or able to give a damn.
"The Little Gray Man"
An interview with Antonio Mendez
Master of Disguise
For 25 years as a CIA undercover agent, Antonio Mendez led two lives. Or was it that he was living no life at all...? In his efforts to become invisible, to become "a little gray man," overlooked by everyone, he needed to blur his identity not only to others but also to himself. To his friends he was a bureaucrat working for the Department of Defense. To the leaders of the CIA he was their master of disguise?someone who could create an entirely new identity for anybody, anywhere, anytime. Whether in Hong Kong, Laos, Moscow or Iran, Mendez led many risky missions, including the daring rescue of six American diplomats from 1979 revolutionary Iran and the exfiltration of a Soviet mole from Moscow in the depths of the Cold War. His motto: "Once is an accident; twice is a coincidence, three times is an enemy action."
An interview with Antonio Mendez
Master of Disguise
For 25 years as a CIA undercover agent, Antonio Mendez led two lives. Or was it that he was living no life at all...? In his efforts to become invisible, to become "a little gray man," overlooked by everyone, he needed to blur his identity not only to others but also to himself. To his friends he was a bureaucrat working for the Department of Defense. To the leaders of the CIA he was their master of disguise?someone who could create an entirely new identity for anybody, anywhere, anytime. Whether in Hong Kong, Laos, Moscow or Iran, Mendez led many risky missions, including the daring rescue of six American diplomats from 1979 revolutionary Iran and the exfiltration of a Soviet mole from Moscow in the depths of the Cold War. His motto: "Once is an accident; twice is a coincidence, three times is an enemy action."
Josh Harris
Harvesting Me
The 3rd millennium has been ushered into existence. No apocalypse. No Four Horsemen. No end of the world. No nothing. Nevertheless, Josh Harris, Internet entrepreneur and aspiring artist has decided that the 2nd coming is at hand. And "the new Messiah" is none other than Gilligan, that's right, the Gilligan, from Gilligan's Island. No, not Bob Denver, the actor playing Gilligan. He is but an avatar or the messianic life force, which is Gilligan himself. For Harris, life is a sad tug-of-war between those who control reality and those controlled by it. The weapon is media. And Harris, in an all-out onslaught on the world, has decided to make his own torpid existence into a new religion.
Harvesting Me
The 3rd millennium has been ushered into existence. No apocalypse. No Four Horsemen. No end of the world. No nothing. Nevertheless, Josh Harris, Internet entrepreneur and aspiring artist has decided that the 2nd coming is at hand. And "the new Messiah" is none other than Gilligan, that's right, the Gilligan, from Gilligan's Island. No, not Bob Denver, the actor playing Gilligan. He is but an avatar or the messianic life force, which is Gilligan himself. For Harris, life is a sad tug-of-war between those who control reality and those controlled by it. The weapon is media. And Harris, in an all-out onslaught on the world, has decided to make his own torpid existence into a new religion.
Chris Langan
The Smartest Man in the World
There's Mensa. There's the Triple Nines. There's the One-in-a-Thousand Society. But the members of these societies are dummies compared to those rare individuals with IQs so high that new tests must be devised in order to measure them. Chris Langan, body-builder and nightclub bouncer, has the highest recorded IQ in history. By his own account, somewhere in the 190-210 range.
The Smartest Man in the World
There's Mensa. There's the Triple Nines. There's the One-in-a-Thousand Society. But the members of these societies are dummies compared to those rare individuals with IQs so high that new tests must be devised in order to measure them. Chris Langan, body-builder and nightclub bouncer, has the highest recorded IQ in history. By his own account, somewhere in the 190-210 range.
Murray Richman
The Only Truth
Human beings are a violent species. Murder. Torture. Mutilation. Murray Richman specializes in the dark and grisly. Guilty of a heinous crime? "Don't Worry" Murray, legal counsel to gangsters and gangstas, arsonists and racketeers, will fix you up. And chances are you'll beat the rap. Murray got a jury to believe that a murder victim had accidentally fallen seven times onto a knife. Oddly cynical for an idealist, oddly idealistic for a cynic, Murray offers up his vision of Truth, Justice, and the American Way. Is he Liberty's last champion or just another wiseguy?
The Only Truth
Human beings are a violent species. Murder. Torture. Mutilation. Murray Richman specializes in the dark and grisly. Guilty of a heinous crime? "Don't Worry" Murray, legal counsel to gangsters and gangstas, arsonists and racketeers, will fix you up. And chances are you'll beat the rap. Murray got a jury to believe that a murder victim had accidentally fallen seven times onto a knife. Oddly cynical for an idealist, oddly idealistic for a cynic, Murray offers up his vision of Truth, Justice, and the American Way. Is he Liberty's last champion or just another wiseguy?
Rick Rosner
One in a Million Trillion
What do you do when things don't quite go your way? Give up? Move on? Try something new? Not if you're Rick Rosner. Obsessed with "getting it right," Rick went back to high school. Not once, not twice, not three times. Four separate times. In fact, he kept going back until he was 34 years old using a combination of fraudulent IDs, wigs, and prosthetics. You might consider him an expert, not on make-overs, but on do-overs. Now a bouncer, a nude model, and a cosmologist, Rick has taken that same commitment to repetition to the television program, Who Wants To Be a Millionaire. You see, Rick was on the show, and he lost to a bad question. With his record-breaking IQ, he didn't take it too well. After two years of exhaustive statistical analysis, looking at every question in every version of the game, he has ruined his very own life. Now on the edge of sanity, he is advancing a theory of cosmology in which the universe is seen as trillions of years old. "Why so old?" you might ask. To give it the opportunity to endlessly copy itself.
One in a Million Trillion
What do you do when things don't quite go your way? Give up? Move on? Try something new? Not if you're Rick Rosner. Obsessed with "getting it right," Rick went back to high school. Not once, not twice, not three times. Four separate times. In fact, he kept going back until he was 34 years old using a combination of fraudulent IDs, wigs, and prosthetics. You might consider him an expert, not on make-overs, but on do-overs. Now a bouncer, a nude model, and a cosmologist, Rick has taken that same commitment to repetition to the television program, Who Wants To Be a Millionaire. You see, Rick was on the show, and he lost to a bad question. With his record-breaking IQ, he didn't take it too well. After two years of exhaustive statistical analysis, looking at every question in every version of the game, he has ruined his very own life. Now on the edge of sanity, he is advancing a theory of cosmology in which the universe is seen as trillions of years old. "Why so old?" you might ask. To give it the opportunity to endlessly copy itself.
Denny Fitch
Leaving the Earth
The plane was out of control. The flight control systems were inoperable, severed by shards of the Number Two engine. There were 296 S.O.B.'s, souls on board. A flying bomb filled with tens of thousands of pounds of explosive aircraft fuel. No one knew what to do. Not the pilot, not airline maintenance, not the manufacturer, not the aircraft designers, absolutely no one. Check pilot Denny Fitch, a passenger in first class, went forward to the cockpit, where he managed to control the plane using only the thrusters. The crash landing was a miracle. In subsequent simulations, no pilot could pull it off. Why was Denny Fitch on that plane? How did he manage to land it at all? 186 people lived, but 111 people died. Of course, everyone would have been dead if not for Fitch. Will the memory of the 111 ever leave Fitch in peace? Even though he did the impossible, will he always be haunted by the belief that he might have done the impossible better? The dream of a perfect landing...
Leaving the Earth
The plane was out of control. The flight control systems were inoperable, severed by shards of the Number Two engine. There were 296 S.O.B.'s, souls on board. A flying bomb filled with tens of thousands of pounds of explosive aircraft fuel. No one knew what to do. Not the pilot, not airline maintenance, not the manufacturer, not the aircraft designers, absolutely no one. Check pilot Denny Fitch, a passenger in first class, went forward to the cockpit, where he managed to control the plane using only the thrusters. The crash landing was a miracle. In subsequent simulations, no pilot could pull it off. Why was Denny Fitch on that plane? How did he manage to land it at all? 186 people lived, but 111 people died. Of course, everyone would have been dead if not for Fitch. Will the memory of the 111 ever leave Fitch in peace? Even though he did the impossible, will he always be haunted by the belief that he might have done the impossible better? The dream of a perfect landing...
Michael Stone
Mr. Personality
Michael Stone thinks he has figured out the human psyche. Classify the negative traits. Draw up lists, charts, Venn diagrams. Fill books with them. Take those books, compare them with other books, use them as "diagnostic tools." Metaphors abound: the Radial Tire Model, the Wiggins Circumplex Model, anxiety clusters, the lost continent of incest. What makes a serial killer? Why are certain people prone to fits of rage? Take a candidate, run him through the proscribed formulas, and you end up with a precise and definitive answer. Psychopath, sociopath, pathological narcissist. Stone has built an endlessly self-reflexive world out of nomenclature. In the quest to classify others, has he merely gotten lost in himself?
Mr. Personality
Michael Stone thinks he has figured out the human psyche. Classify the negative traits. Draw up lists, charts, Venn diagrams. Fill books with them. Take those books, compare them with other books, use them as "diagnostic tools." Metaphors abound: the Radial Tire Model, the Wiggins Circumplex Model, anxiety clusters, the lost continent of incest. What makes a serial killer? Why are certain people prone to fits of rage? Take a candidate, run him through the proscribed formulas, and you end up with a precise and definitive answer. Psychopath, sociopath, pathological narcissist. Stone has built an endlessly self-reflexive world out of nomenclature. In the quest to classify others, has he merely gotten lost in himself?