• August 12, 2005 | 1:44 p.m. ET

Reporting on BTK (Edie Magnus, Dateline correspondent)

This was a rough one: It was difficult for us to report and I imagine it'll be difficult to watch. But I think our viewers will agree it is illuminating, if disturbing, to see into the mind of a killer. All that we've heard thus far from Dennis Rader is what he said in court when he pleaded guilty to 10 counts of murder — and that was a "performance" of sorts for which he was undoubtedly ready. 

The view on the exclusive tapes we present tonight is much more inside, and perhaps less scripted than heretofore seen; Rader is being questioned by a very competent, probing psychologist about his motives and his methods and we think his answers are quite revealing.

It is always troubling to weigh the pros and cons of airing so much of an interview with a profoundly disturbed person — but as Rader is being sentenced next week, we think it’s in the public interest to evaluate what is said in these tapes against whatever he might say in open court regarding his crimes. 

And it's important to note here—  Rader's is not the only voice:  we've included the comments of a pre-eminent profiler of serial killers who helps us understand Rader's mindset, a former Wichita TV news director who was intimately involved in the hunt for him, the police chief at the time of most of the killings, and of course, the families of the victims, whose pain is unimaginable.

"Secrets Confessions of BTK" airs Dateline Friday, 8/7 C. Click here for a preview of some of the things Rader said in his jailhouse interview.

• August 11, 2005 | 11:45 a.m. ET

The clues that led us to the porn spammer (Andy Lehren, Dateline producer)

The story began when senior producer Allan Maraynes asked me if we could trace a piece of pornographic spam e-mail back to the person who sent it. Tracing spam is never easy. And as with any investigative story, we were not sure where the journey would lead.

But there are clues that we could follow.

The idea became a journey into how an adjunct one of the world’s oldest businesses was combining with one of the newest trades. The trail would give us an opportunity to show viewers the money at stake, the lack of regulations, how this affects people’s lives, and the people involved in the industry. One operating theme, as correspondent John Hockenberry said during the piece, was "return to sender."

We began doing something that most people would never do: We sought out spam. Associate Producer Michelle Feuer asked groups who complain about spam to provide us with examples so that we could glimpse the scope of what is out there. Within a couple weeks we had hundreds of different kinds of e-mail.

Once we got the e-mails, we began culling through them.

One of the worst aspects of the story is that we had to do what those who do not want spam should never do: We had to start by looking at those e-mails. The problem with that is, depending on the program you use for e-mail— like Outlook or Eudora— and how you adjust your settings, you run the risk of downloading a virus on your computer.

Here are some of the clues we were evaluating:

1. Every e-mail contains what is known as header information — information that offers clues about the route traveled by the e-mail to reach you. It will have a list of IP addresses. These are like those old stamps you would see on vintage steamer trunks, telling you about the various ports traveled through. Each address—a set of numbers—tells you the computers that e-mail passed through. And you can look up who owns those computers, though there is always a risk that the information is not accurate. These are known as “whois” searches. There are various places you could go for these kinds of searches, including this Web site.
2. You can look up who owns the pornographic Web site promoted by the spammer. For instance, we learned quickly that the owner of the Web site we eventually decided to profile was owned by a Canadian company called Global Media Resources. Trade publications such as Adult Video News profiled the company as a substantial player in the Internet porn business.
3. There are also other ways to learn about sites. For instance, a Web site operator— like any kind of company— could be involved in a business-related dispute. And just like traditional trade name disputes, Internet sites may get tangled in arguments about who owns a Web site name. A springboard to examine those is this site. And like any proceeding, the documents filed can offer another glimpse into a Web site operator.
4. Another resource are anti-spam organizations like Spamhaus. We did not use Spamhaus to track the spammer in our story. But the group compiles a lot of useful information about spammers.
5. Other clues could be embedded in e-mails. Even though e-mails could be filled with fancy graphics—or offensive pornography—there are ways to examine the source code used to assemble the missive. The ways to do so depend on your e-mail software. In the case examined by Dateline NBC, the source code told us what would happened if we “Clicked Here” on the e-mail, the computer routes that would be taken to the porn site. And we could see that there was a numeric code— something we later confirmed was an ID used by the spammer to get paid by the pornographic Web site. That ID number, visible in the source code of the spam profiled in the story, proved crucial to tracking down our spammer.

All of these approaches could be useful to tracking any spammer, not just those in the porn business.

We learned that the spam that so offended Julie in Texas was seemed to have been sent on this continent and that it involved a big pornographic Web site operator in Canada. There’s a lot of spam that comes from all around the world, including China and some of the former Soviet republics. At least we were going to remain in North America for this story.

So at this point, we did not know the identity of the spammer. But we had leads to pursue.

It did not take long to learn something else about the pornographic Internet business: to combat child pornography, the U.S. government requires Web site operators to post a list of its Custodians of Record. The records are contracts and other documents showing those photographed for the Web sites are 18 years old or older. Often, these are photographers. So at most pornographic Web sites, you may notice a link tucked away that would lists Custodians of Records. You would know who has the documents. You get the company name and often an address. (But you cannot see the actual model contracts documenting the ages. Those are available only to law enforcement officials). These list of document keepers was another avenue for us to pursue. You can learn more about this law here.

One footnote: U.S. law requires spammers and other e-mail mass mailers to include a way to opt out of getting further e-mails. You may have seen these. They say something like “If You Don’t Want More Emails From Us, Click Here.” Spam experts told us you should think twice about ever clicking this. Opting out something you should only do if you trust the sender. If not, and you do click, it could tell a spammer that your e-mail account is for real, and that you read stuff from people you don’t know. It’s added incentive for them to keep spamming you. And since the law is rarely enforced, there is little you could really do to get the spammer to stop using this opt-out provision. Australia is one place that experts say has a much different approach, where you would have to opt in to get mass marketing e-mails to begin with.

On the hunt for the spammer, we learned about the Internet porn industry’s major convention in Las Vegas. It precedes a better-publicized event designed more for those who are fans of porn stars. Producer Lynne Dale and correspondent John Hockenberry went there in January 2004, and saw first hand how the industry is constantly looking for ways to boost traffic—getting people to visit their Web sites. Key players in the business say they oppose spam as a means to do this. But as many people with e-mail accounts know, it still goes on. As you saw in the story, when they spoke with John Hockenberry, the Global Media representatives promised to reveal the name and address of Julie’s spammer— the identity of the person we’d only known by a code number.

It’s important to know that spammers make money not just by spamming you, but by selling your e-mail address (along with millions of others) to other spammers. It’s an added reminder to be careful about giving out your e-mail address.

Avoiding spam

A good way for you to help avoid spam is with a spam filter. Ray Everett-Church, an anti-spam expert who appeared in the story, e-mailed this to us regarding spam filters:

The software that I have come to depend on personally is SpamAssassin, a free software package that is built and maintained by a volunteer community of anti-spam fighters. It’s mainly for use on mail servers by ISPs and enterprises, but the same technology is available to the average user through another free software package called PopFile. It runs on Windows machines and works with just about any e-mail software like Outlook or Thunderbird. (But not proprietary services like AOL or Web mail services like Hotmail or Yahoo.) There are decent anti-spam software offerings from some of the big name anti-virus companies, but they can cost money and aren’t all that more effective than PopFile. The upside of those, however, is that they have good service and support and are easy for the average user to install.

I also use Cloudmark’s SafetyBar which is a plug-in for Outlook. It works alright as well, and is pretty easy to use.

If you want to be safe, anti-spam experts caution you to never open e-mails from someone you don’t know, and to even turn off e-mail preview features. Anti-spam filters can also be a big help to block unwanted missives from even going into your inbox. There is a lot of money at stake with planting viruses on computers. The viruses can hijack your connection to the Internet, making you the unwitting sender of spam. Or the viruses could make you face unwanted popups, and push your Web browser to places you don’t want to go.

Along with practicing safe e-mailing, you can combat viruses with programs like Ad-Aware, Spy Sweeper and Hijack This.

Click here for more tips on how to avoid spam.

• August 11, 2005 | 11:09 a.m. ET

Roy Horn may walk again (Ann Curry, Dateline co-anchor)

NBC's Ann Curry

It was a horrifying attack that happened two years ago: Legendary Las Vegas Magician Roy Horn of "Seigfried and Roy" was mauled by a tiger during a live sold-out show.

The tiger sank its teeth into Horn's neck and dragged him off stage. The attack left Horn partially paralyzed.

But now, doctors say he may be able to walk again: Horn is undergoing a form of stem cell therapy at a clinic in Germany, using stem cells removed from the cartilage in his knee.

His physician says it may be possible for him to make a full recovery.

• August 9, 2005 | 5:28 p.m. ET

Your e-mails on the "What's Missing" segment

The Dateline inbox received a lot of mail from the “What’s Missing” segment, and whether or not there is gender and racial profiling in missing-persons coverage in the media. Below are some of the reactions to the piece:

Thank you, Mr. Mankiewicz, for bringing this injustice to light. As a female, I appreciate the massive coverage of missing women which serves only to find them faster. The Runaway Bride was my favorite story of the year! But as a black person, I have been aware of the one-sided coverage, and in essence, lack of respect that people of color receive from the media for a very long time. And I am surprised to learn that missing men are also being ignored.

When the alleged suspects of crimes are people of color, I see their faces plastered all over the TV. But it is the opposite when the victims are people of color. The people that own, and therefore, control the media outlets set the standards and allow these prejudices to continue.

Thank you, Mr. Mankiewicz, give me hope that a new day will come when everyone in need, regardless of color, economic status, etc. will be considered valuable and worthy of respect. I am glad Dateline is leading the way.
—Brenelle Futrell

Do none of you news folks really see the difference between the cases of Laci, Natalee, and even Jennifer Wilbanks... and Tamika?
It has little to do with race...The cases that capture the public's interest supercede race. You mistakenly assume the playing field is equal.  People in this country are fascinated when persons of privilege (even slightly upper middle class) have problems.  As for the Laci case, about 98 percent of the viewing public thought Scott did it from the get go. We just watched to see if he'd get caught. (then Amber got in the picture, and more ratings bonanza!)

The Natalee case plays to every parent' nightmare, black or white. A kid on a senior trip, with every good thing life has to offer waiting for her when she gets home... vanishes. A devastated mother going door to door in a tropical paradise. Who can turn away from this?

The Wilbanks case was unbelievably nutty from the start...(and most of the public believed the poor husband had to be innocent in that one...)  to its quick tragic /comedic end. 

Black or white, the Tamika story is what it is: an unsolved mystery. And every city has a cold case file, with interesting details. This one just doesn't have the elements for any network to commit the money and manpower. It is a local story that will eventually be solved by good solid police work.  You guys mistakenly see race, even when race is a non-factor.
—Lola, Charlotte, NC

Josh, I just want to say thank you for the story.  It was something that I suspected for some time, but your story confirmed it and finally brought it out into the light.  Let's hope that this begins to change the way the media covers missing people.  My only regret about it was that I didn't get a chance to video tape it.  You did a great job, Josh.  It was certainly a bold move on your part, and I wanted to let you know how much I appreciate it.  Thanks.
—Daniel Isobe

Thank you for your report on missing persons cases.  It's very frustrating for families with missing loved ones to see some cases get so much coverage while others are ignored or considered "uninteresting."  

My brother disappeared over 26 years ago.  It was 1978, he was 16 yrs. old, and he was a boy.  Those cases were not taken seriously at all back then, and even now it's difficult to get any help.  What I'd really like to share with you, and what I think people would be would be very interested in knowing, is what those of us with longterm missing persons cases are up against in trying to find our loved ones. 

There are thousands of John and Jane Does in this country who belong to somebody.  They are missing from somewhere, yet they are ignored.  In addition to spending time looking for our loved ones alive somewhere, we spend countless hours looking through all the cases of unidentified persons we can find in hopes of locating our missing loved one's remains, if that is the case.

The reality is that there are tens of thousands of families with missing loved ones in this country. Those of us who think we may have found our loved one's remains often wait up to two years to find out the truth through DNA testing.  Unlike the cases featured in the media, we do not find out in a week.  It's an agonizing journey that families have to claw their way through, just to get the help they need. 

This is a problem that, I believe, if properly addressed would solve thousands of missing persons cases.  I believe the American public would be outraged if they knew there were thousands of people out there who remain unidentified when the resources are available to return some of them to their families.  Please consider looking at this aspect of what families are faced with when they have a missing loved one.  We need all the help we can get.
—Laura (Allen) Hood

• August 8, 2005 | 1:05 p.m. ET

Entering Brittany's world (John Block, Dateline producer)

In the course of producing the "Dateline" report, I spent about 3 and a half days with Brittany.  She was unfailingly pleasant to be around.  I got the impression that if left completely to her own devices, she would happily play her piano morning through night. Brittany does not enter your world — you enter hers. While she didn't seem to mind having me around, she made no effort to "know" me.  In trying to relate to her, I would sometimes take Brittany's hand and softly sing a song.  When she would continue to hold my hand, rather than pull away, I knew that, for at least the moment, we were connecting.

Someone who did not make it into the report was Brittany's 14-year-old sister Charlie who continues to live in South Carolina while Brittany lives in New York.  She is beautifully spoken and especially charming, and shows tremendous affection and admiration for her sister.

Final Note: Sara James served as the correspondent on the story, and Craig White was the principal videographer. Both of them are among the best in the news business at what they do.  In addition to Sara's superior reportorial skills, she plays the piano and has a particularly enchanting speaking voice. Craig, who spent several months in Iraq covering the war, also has a wonderful sounding voice. I considered Sara and Craig's standout "pipes", as well as Sara's piano playing, true assets in our efforts to create a comfortable, stimulating environment for Brittany while we worked with her.

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