American Justice

- Season 7

(1998)

The history of the FBI's "10 Most Wanted" list and criminals who have been apprehended after making the list. Also: how criminal profiles have changed over the years. Interviewed: author Michael Newton, FBI agents and other law-enforcement officials.

Retracing the steps of John Lennon's confessed killer Mark David Chapman, who shot the ex-Beatle on Dec. 8, 1980. Included: interviews with police, doctors who tried to save Lennon, and Chapman's attorneys.

The history of organized crime in Los Angeles, including its connections to Hollywood. Key figures such as Jack Dragna and Jimmy "The Weasel" Fratianno are profiled. Also: attempts by law-enforcement officials to curtail mob activity. Interviewed: former police chief Daryl Gates; a former FBI agent; mob insiders; journalists.

The case of a convicted rapist who was pardoned when his alleged victim recanted her testimony. Included: interviews with Illinois governor James Thompson, attorneys, detectives, a polygraph examiner.

1958. Charles Starkweather, a surly and rebellious 19-year-old teenage malcontent who fancied himself to be just like James Dean, embarked on a crime and killing spree across the states of Nebraska and Wyoming. His 14-year-old girlfriend Caril Fugate served as Starkweather's accomplice. The duo were responsible for the deaths of ten people altogether. They were eventually apprehended by the police in Wyoming. In the wake of their arrest Starkweather was executed on the electric chair while Fugate served seventeen and a half years in prison before being paroled.

David Graham and Diane Zamora were two teenagers who were intensely devoted to each other during high school and had both joined the U.S Naval Academy in Annapolis. While at the academy, Diane confides in roommates that her and David had murdered Adrianne Jones while they were in high school in Mansfield, TX. They had murdered Jones because David Graham had cheated on Zamora by having a one-time sexual encounter with Jones, and Zamora wanted to kill her in order purify their relationship. American Justice profiles this case of murder and jealousy that also became a ...

Karla Faye Tucker, the Texas woman who converted to Christianity while on death row. Included: her conviction and execution for two 1983 murders. Interviewed: Tucker's sister, her spiritual advisor, a victim's husband, attorneys.

The case of Lawrencia "Bambi" Bembenek, the former Milwaukee police officer whose conviction for the 1981 murder of her then-husband's first wife was overturned in 1992. Bembenek escaped from prison in 1990, but was recaptured in Canada.

Profiling Charles Whitman, who killed more than a dozen people during a shooting spree from the University of Texas tower on Aug. 1, 1966.

The stories of three people accused of murdering their spouses are chronicled. Included: the trials of Debra Hartmann, Steven Steinberg and Charline Brundidge. Interviewed: attorneys, investigators and a psychiatrist.

The case of Jeffrey MacDonald, a doctor and former Green Beret captain convicted of the murder of his family, is chronicled. Interviewed: MacDonald, investigators, attorneys, relatives of the deceased.

How Ted Kaczynski, was captured following 17 years of sending mail bombs. Included: how Kaczynski's brother turned him in after reading his "manifesto" in the newspaper. Interviewed: FBI officials, friends of Kaczynski, attorneys.

Hollywood madam Heidi Fleiss is chronicled. Fleiss is interviewed about her call-girl business and the sting operation that led to her prosecution. Included: her 1994 trial for pandering and cocaine possession; her Federal trial for tax evasion and money laundering.

American Justice takes a look at the impeachment process that was pending against President Bill Clinton in 1998 by chronicling Watergate and the events that led to the impeachment proceedings against President Nixon in 1974.

Featured: the case of Aileen Wuornos, a prostitute sentenced to death for a series of Florida highway murders. Included: the police investigation; Wuornos's first trial; videotape of her confession and trial testimony.

The 1995 murder of Tejano singer Selena, and the subsequent trial of her associate Yolanda Saldivar, is chronicled. Interviewed: Selena's father, attorneys, an eyewitness.

Chronicling the celebrity trials of sportscaster Marv Albert, former congressman Mel Reynolds and one-time Miss America Bess Myerson. Interviewed: attorneys Roy Black and Raoul Felder.

A 1982 civil lawsuit brought by residents of Woburn, Mass., following the leukemia-related deaths of 5 children is examined. Interviewed: the plaintiffs, attorneys, and judge in the case.