that you couldn t see. narrator: and then there were this strange men with thick european accents that some employees reported seeing coming into the office with briefcases to meet privately with weinberger. michelle later learned those men were diamond dealers from new york. i think he bought about maybe $500,000 worth of diamonds before he left. 500,000? mm-hmm. and where did the diamonds go? with him, i suppose. i didn t find out anything about diamonds until after he had left. narrator: diamonds, light, fungible, and untraceable. just the kind of tip that s found in a book michelle discovered among mark s things after he left. michelle came to see that her husband had been planning his vanishing act for months. he had apparently packed two huge suitcases full of water filtration systems, gps equipment, language tapes, all types of bizarre things.
after that deposition was played for the court, weinberger s attorney began his defense by admitting, mark weinberger is probably not a likable guy. but that, he told the jury, is beside the point. this case, he said, is about one thing and one thing only dr. weinberger s treatment of phyllis barnes. james hough was the attorney hired by weinberger s malpractice insurer to defend him. hough did not respond to our request for an interview. however, in court, he told the jury phyllis barnes had needed sinus surgery. her history of chronic sinus problems had not only made her an ideal candidate for weinberger s surgery, he said, but after that surgery, she never again complained about her sinuses. vanity fair writer, buzz bissinger, says that defense fits in perfectly with what he s learned about mark weinberger. i think mark weinberger and i ve heard this he believes that every surgery he did was merited. he did no unnecessary surgeries.
he pulls a knife out that he has concealed and attempts to kill himself. rob stafford: though weinberger managed to inflict a superficial cut on his neck, police officers were able to stop him before he did serious damage. buzz: some say he was trying to attempt suicide, so he would get placed in a prison hospital. i don t think he was thinking that far ahead. i think he was trying to kill himself. rob stafford: days later, while recovering in a hospital, he tried again, this time by putting a plastic bag over his head. buzz: he did not want to go back. there was too much a trail of devastation. rob stafford: within a week, news of mark weinberger s arrest was everywhere. in merrillville, indiana, former patients woke to find their nose doctor on the front page. in alabama, michelle kramer, the wife he d abandoned, was just wrapping up another long day as a psychology intern when she heard the news.
after five years on the run, t capture of mark weinberger in the italian alps was almost anti-climactic. no shootouts, car chases, or international intrigue just friendly cops chatting up an amiable american over pictures, pasta, and wine. you know, it s very italian, and everything seems cool. any sense of what was about to happen next? none. no, i think they were shocked. he says he has to go to the bathroom. as would be police procedure, you know, they follow him into the bathroom. i don t think they have any idea of what s going to happen. rob stafford: an italian cop stood in an open doorway as weinberger sat on the toilet. then, in a flash, the officer saw weinberger s hands jerk toward his own throat.
ever since adam accepted that apple from eve. the man who called himself mark stern was about to fall in love. [music playing] for more than two years, mark weinberger walked the streets of europe safe in the anonymity of crowds. according to vanity fair writer, buzz bissinger, weinberger simply cut away people from his past to anyone who knew his real name with the cool detachment of a surgeon. buzz: i think part of it was, i m rejecting everything that i ve known in the past. maybe you don t like your wife, or maybe you do. he leaves in september of 2004 never, ever contacts her again. he s got a brother, neil, who he s very close to never, ever contacts him again. so that s what we re dealing with. rob stafford: it must have been exhilarating at first using fake names and covering your tracks like a character in some spy novel, but in all pulp fiction stories,