and disappeared. >> but getting no attention at all. >> a gunman is holding more than 30 hostages at a high school. >> eight people have been shot, including at least four students. we can only make an appeal to the gunman. stop. there's been enough already. >> an all white jury acquitted four white police officers of assault in the videotaped beating of black motorist rodney king. >> i was scared. i was scared for my life. >> across the nation, people were paying attention to this. >> the officers struck him with batons between 53 and 56 times. >> it was one of the first cases where there was actual video of a case of alleged police brutality. >> for 13 months, the city of los angeles has been a pressure cooker, building up to the rodney king trial. >> we, the jury, in the above entitled action find the defendant, lawrence m. powell, not guilty. >> after the beating in this videotape shocked the world, the officers were found not guilty on every count except the one where no decision was reached. and a number of black leaders who gathered today to watch the verdict were in tears. >> when that decision came down, i got so sick. i was actually sick to my stomach. >> my immediate reaction is, we better get back to l.a. and start having some peaceful demonstrations. >> we need to be heard. >> before i could make arrangements to go, the place was ablaze. >> terrible, terrible pictures. >> immediately, there was anger manifesting itself across southern california. >> while the nation's eyes are glued to los angeles, on the other side of the country, police have been called to a bizarre crime scene. >> fbi agents have joined the search for a missing new jersey executive, sidney reso, president of the exxon international corporation disappeared yesterday morning. >> his wife said he left home early that morning, later that evening his car was left idling in the driveway of their home. >> they had followed their routine, they had breakfast together, and she walked him to the door and said good-bye as she always did around 7:30. >> his car never got beyond the bottom of his driveway and there was no sight of him. the guy had just gone poof. >> friends and colleagues say reso is lot like the home he lives in, solid. he's not the kind that would disappear. >> if you're a cynical person, you're speculating maybe he's got something on the side. but even that scenario didn't fit leaving a car in the driveway with the engine running. >> no ransom note has been received according to the morris county prosecutor's office, but this case is being handled under the assumption of foul play. >> while the rodney king riots following the verdict were tragic to say the least, it actually was somewhat beneficial to us because it directed the national media eyes away from what was going on in morris county. >> the anger that hit l.a. after the king verdict is unfortunately spreading and so is the violence. >> soon after the police officers are found not guilty, south los angeles erupts. photographer kurt mccoy and two colleagues from "the washington post" head to the epicenter of violence, at the corner of florence and normandy. >> there's a huge crowd running from the intersection. and they said, don't go down there. don't go down there. and they said to dana, who's very blond, very white, don't go down there, and that's the worse thing you can say to a journalist is don't go down there. she turns around. she's been hit in the head with a rock. i tell them where the closest hospital is at, and he says come on, let's get out of here. i looked at him and said i live here and i can't go. so i said goodbye and i did what i could do. i took pictures. in the midwest, the story of a notorious serial killer opens another chapter. >> jeffrey dahmer came back to his hometown today, back to face justice and the family whose son he took from them 14 years ago. >> already convicted and sentenced for 15 murders in milwaukee, jeffrey dahmer returns to ohio to stand trial, where his killing spree began. >> jeffrey dahmer, who had made some incriminating statements, if you will, a confession, that he had actually picked up his first victim back in the late 70s in bath, ohio. >> he picked up this young boy on the highway and the kid was about 18 years old. >> steven hicks was hitchhiking. dahmer picked him up and brought him to his house. and when hicks wanted to leave, dahmer attacked him with a barbell and killed him. >> then he chopped the kid up, put him in a garbage bag, and then in the back of his car. the police for some reason stopped him. >> the detective rich muncie made a notation that there was a garbage bag in the back seat of the car and jeffrey dahmer indicated that he was just taking it to the dump. >> police let him go. he turned the car around, went back to his house, and buried the body underneath the house in that area. in new jersey, what started as a missing person's case is now being treated as a criminal abduction. >> sidney reso headed to work and disappeared. he's the president of exxon international. >> by mid afternoon, we realized that probably what we had was a kidnapping and asked the fbi to come in and assist with us. >> we looked at all possible motives, and certainly the exxon valdes, which had occurred a few years prior to that, received such negative publicity for exxon. >> at least 16 lawsuits have been filed accusing exxon of negligence. >> we thought that it could be related to an environmental terrorist group looking for retaliation. >> this is as big as it gets. i mean, there had been nothing like in this new jersey since the lindbergh kidnapping, and it was just something that didn't happen. you are about to see some of the most horrible video to come out of the los angeles rioting. >> you can see how this fire is really taking off now. people are running back and forth, looting is under way. >> it was like wildfires that were just sprouting in different parts of the city. >> a helicopter reporter spotted a man being dragged from his truck and beaten. >> i don't think anybody anticipated what took place at the corner of florence and normandy. >> this is just horrendous. >> the man's name is reginald denny. he's alive, but very badly hurt. >> when reginald denny basically was bricked in that crucible that took place there, i think at that moment we knew that this was going to be different. >> los angeles is a city on edge tonight and under curfew as fires, looting, and street violence continue. >> the worst crisis the city has seen in 27 years. >> by mid evening, it was clear that there was full scale rioting going on in los angeles. >> no justice, no peace! no justice, no peace! >> another terrible drama is unfolding in california. a gunman is holding more than 30 hostages at a high school. at least eight people have been shot. >> what is your plea to the charge of aggravated murder as contained in count one of the indictment? the violence that began last night shows no signs of slowing down now. >> when a big headline takes center stage, even the most shocking stories can be relegated to minor roles. >> the fbi's biggest kidnapping investigation in years. >> i need to know if he is well and safe. >> mass murderer jeffrey dahmer made his return to summit county. >> to face justice and the family whose son he took from them 14 years ago. >> the very latest on a city under siege. los angeles is shrouded in smoke from arson fires. >> like scenes from a nightmare, the television helicopters needed to just turn their cameras on, for it seemed anywhere they were focused there was looting. >> i see this guy tearing off down the street pushing a shopping cart and looking up going, are those pampers? >> and it wasn't just south central l.a. large-scale violence broke out in the suburbs too. >> we went towards the edge of korea town and south central and just filmed people going in and out of the stores and coming out with television sets and stuff. >> a store overstocked for mother's day, nothing left. >> why? do you know? i don't know. >> they said, we're going shopping. >> it wasn't just african-americans. it was a lot of latinos. it was white people, lots of them. they were poor people. then suddenly the story wasn't a racial story. it was an economic story. >> looters of every race and color. just like their victims. >> that's not right! that's not right what y'all doing! i came from the ghetto too. >> by late morning, it was clear that if anything, the lawlessness was increasing. >> fbi agents have joined the search for a missing new jersey executive, sidney reso, president of the exxon international corporation, disappeared yesterday morning. >> on the second day, exxon received a phone call and the message of the phone call was that a letter could be found in the livingston shopping mall taped to a lamp post. >> federal authorities say they prefer not to speculate on the conditions or whereabouts of sidney reso while they're still searching for him. they say only that they hope to find him alive. mass murderer jeffrey dahmer made his return to summit county amidst a mass of security. >> they drove me to the prison where they were holding him and he was in a cell that was a suicide watch cell. guards behind glass on a little balcony that watched every move you made. we had to do all the paperwork that would probably take weeks and months in less than 24 hours. i spent that evening trying to figure out what i was going to say. it was very difficult. i had no warm feeling for this guy. he had no compassion. he had no emotion. >> why the cannibalism? >> it made me feel like they were a permanent part of me. >> but on april 30th, dahmer's heinous crimes are not dominating headlines. >> for the past 24 hours, residents of los angeles have seen their city caught up in a kind of free floating anarchy. >> gangs of street thugs neighborhoods and the violence spread well outside the core of l.a. >> the disturbance was moving west toward the affluent areas of the city, and the city's elite were starting to panic. >> while beverly hills and other west side areas are protected, neighborhoods closer to the turmoil are left to fend for themselves. >> the store owners in korea town were arming themselves and making outposts on the top of their stores. >> shopkeepers say all of this damage happened because police ignored this neighborhood and ignored businesses built over a lifetime. >> 20 years down the drain. i mean, can't people realize what they're doing is wrong? this is not the way to overcome racism. >> law enforcement simply could not be everywhere. and quite often, the tv trucks would get there before the police did. >> los angeles is bracing for a second night of burning, killing, and looting in response to the rodney king verdict. >> now officials prepare for night fall. >> i can't predict what's going to happen, but it's going to be worse. good evening, the saga of sidney reso is now a kidnapping case. >> in the case of exxon executive sidney reso, the fbi is racing against the clock to interpret clues from a ransom letter. >> investigators have received a ransom note from a group that calls itself the rainbow warriors. >> rainbow warrior is a name of a ship owned by green peace l.a. >> the first letter clearly wanted to make the point that this was in fact in retaliation for the exxon valdes, which had occurred a few years prior to that. they threatened to kidnap additional exxon executives. >> the fib recovered a ransom letter demanding millions of dollars and a cell phone number for further instructions. >> they set a ransom demand, which was the highest ransom demand in the united states, $18.5 million. >> you made the obligatory calls to greenpeace. you called other environmental organizations had you ever heard of such a thing, and the answer is no. first another terrible drama is unfolding in california. a gunman is holding more than 30 hostages at a high school. >> a horrific story in a small town in northern california is about to play out on live television. in 1992, it's a rare media event, but today all too common. >> 911 emergency. >> listen carefully. it's frank crawford high school, and there's someone with a gun. >> it was a normal workday. i heard a commotion in the dispatch area, and i asked someone what was going on, and they said there was a shooting at lindhurst possibly. >> and my first reaction was i had never heard of anything like that. this was seven years before columbine. i and other detectives took off toward lindhurst high school. fires, looting, and street violence continue. a lawless reaction to the acquittal of four white police officers. >> as the l.a. riots grab the spotlight -- >> people are still reportedly being held hostage by an armed gunman. >> these are the stories that play out in the shadows. >> his wife patricia said he left early that morning. an hour later his car was found idling at the end of the driveway to his home. >> it seemed so strange. where? why? >> what they discovered upon their arrival is almost unspeakable. numerous pieces from as many as 15 human bodies, including three heads preserved in a refrigerator. this has been the worst night of violence in los angeles since the 1965 watch riot. >> a nonstop orgy of burning, looting, and chaos. >> i don't believe this stuff. i just can't. >> the number of injuries has reached two dozen and the number of arrests has reached 2,000. >> los angeles is still a city under siege this morning with scores of fires still burning. >> as a third day of rioting dawns on los angeles, the mayor and police are slowly securing the city. >> we have got to make a commitment to have a sufficient show of force that we can gain control over the situation out in the field. >> good morning. 4,000 additional national guard troops will be sent to los angeles today to beef up the 2,000 troops which are already here. and federal troops regular army have been put on alert. city officials want a massive show of force to quell the rioting, looting, and burning which has rocked this city for the last two days. >> the bringing in of the national guard makes some difference in terms of enabling the existing law enforcement resources to be where they needed to be to try to hold more territory. >> what exactly have they been asked to do? >> we're re-enforcing law enforcement and clearing areas that have yet to be cleared or have yet to be damaged. >> in the short term, it had a very useful effect. however, it also added to the perception in low-income neighborhoods among some people that they were like an occupied territory. i was welcomed by some people and i think was resented by others. >> no justice, no peace! >> while authorities in southern california are bringing order to the streets, spectators in akron, ohio, are lining up to catch a glimpse of notorious serial killer jeffrey dahmer arriving to stand trial for the first murder he committed. >> dahmer is already serving life terms in wisconsin for 15 murders. ohio prosecutors say dahmer killed his first victim in ohio where he was raised. >> part of what made him such a monster was his ordinariness. i think that's what scared people a lot about him is he looked like you and me, and that's pretty scary because his deeds were unspeakable. >> the trial begins nearly ten months after the nation was exposed to the grisly discovers at dahmer's apartment. >> what they discovered upon their arrival was almost unspeakable. numerous pieces from as many 15 human bodies, including three heads preserved in a refrigerator. >> it's been two and a half months since he was convicted of 15 murders in milwaukee. >> jeffrey dahmer, cannibalism, murders, lobotomies, defleshing. >> now dahmer is facing judgment for the final outstanding murder charge in ohio. >> as gruesome as his crimes were, many showed up at the summit county courthouse as early as midnight last night to be one of the 35 spectators allowed to see the proceedings firsthand. >> it's just really interesting to me. it's not often somebody famous comes to akron. i just want to see what's going on and how it's handled and things like that. >> he had letters from women proposing marriage to him. he got mail like he was a rock star. i haven't seen anything like it. i haven't seen anything since that. while the trial unfolds in akron, it's been three days since exxon executive sidney reso was kidnapped and no one has heard from him. >> the media wanted answers and a lot of the time we just didn't have them. >> it's enormously frustrating. frankly, i remembered so many more details about the l.a. riots than i did about a story i was covering. so dramatic was the footage and here we had no footage. >> that night, investigators get a new lead. >> on may 1, around 9:30 at night, we had received a call that directed me to morris park. they said that a second letter could be found under a white rock near a fence. we did in fact find a letter. they wanted a plane. they wanted the money put in eddie bauer bags. and obviously, our concern was we wanted to make sure that sidney reso was alive. we had a lot of concerns about sidney reso's well-being. >> while the fbi's behavioral science unit pours over the letter -- this is an nbc news special report. >> president bush addressed the nation regarding the l.a. riots. >> i want to talk to you about violence in our cities and justice for our citizens. two big issues that have collided on the streets of los angeles. >> george h.w. bush went on television. i assumed at the time he was going to make a statement to try to restore order in los angeles. >> what we saw last night and the night before in los angeles is not about civil rights. it's not about the great cause of equality that all americans must uphold. it's not a message of protest. it's been the brutality of a mob, pure and simple. >> the speech that bush made seemed to make things worse. >> the violence will end. justice will be served. hope will return. >> the president's words echo in households across the country. what is your plea to the charge of aggravated murder as contained in count one of the indictment? >> guilty as charged, your honor. >> an attorney spoke for dahmer and his family. >> jeffrey dahmer is a human being. he is a tortured and sick human being. >> i just talked about redemption and mercy, and i wanted to say he was sorry for his conduct, and i don't believe he was. >> for the first time ever, dahmer faced martha and richard hicks, steven's parents. mrs. hicks called dahmer a monster and spoke of the horror her family endured. >> we saw pieces of our son on tv every night, some smaller than a toothpick. i have always believed in capital punishment. but since the state of ohio didn't have it in 1978, i will not be able to pull the switch on the electric chair, but i know i could do it to this animal. >> dahmer is given his 16th life sentence and returns to wisconsin to serve out his time. >> jeffrey dahmer's stay in akron may have been brief, but his effect on the city will last for sometime to come. as one spectator put it, it may be gruesome, but it's history. pamela dennis, 23 news day at the summit county courthouse. we got word rodney was going to make a statement. >> you know, can we all get along? >> the gunman has released 11, but he has shot at least nine people. >> parents rushed to find out if their child had been released. >> it is happening as we're going live here. a hazardous materials team breathing from air tanks confiscated a number of items from the suspect's apartment. among them police say photographs and drawings of dead, mutilated bodies. >> sidney reso disappeared yesterday, but this case is being handled under the assumption of foul play. >> at lindhurst high school at this hour the s.w.a.t. team is still in place. parents are waiting to get word. >> murder, kidnapping, hostages, major stories playing out in america while all eyes are on the riots raging in l.a. >> at least 27 people are now dead since it all began following the acquittal of four police officers in the rodney king beating trial. >> on friday, may 1, there were still a lot of hot spots, but the authorities were better organized. and my assignment was we got word that rodney was going to make a statement. an enormous assemblage of media gathered around this yard area around this podium, because we hadn't heard from him. >> i just want to say, you know, can we all get along? can we get along? >> initially, that wasn't what he was supposed to say. he was given a script to read. he felt it was necessary to just speak from his heart. >> please. we can get along here. we all can get along. we've just got to -- you know, we're all stuck here for a while. you know, let's try to work it out. >> i have always been very proud of him. very much. that's something that's still brought up to this day. i think it made an impact. >> as king pleas for calm -- people are still reportedly being held hostage by an armed gunman in the library building at the lindhurst high school in olivehurst. >> officers arrive on scene and are briefed by a fellow sergeant. >> they pointed to this big building. they called it building c. there was one suspect perhaps armed with a shotgun, who was last seen entering that building. shots had been fired. didn't really have time to talk about what the plan of action was going to be. when this door to building c burst open, a bunch of kids came running out. >> 25 students and at least one teacher seem to have escaped what is now a very dangerous situation there at lindhurst high school. >> first room i went in, there were two victims there. a teacher and a student. that would set the tone for what we have a person who has committed homicide. >> we know that eight people have been shot, including at least four students. >> medical professionals are calling this a phase 3 disaster. the highest level of medical alert. on the east coast, days turn into weeks as authorities hunt for missing exxon executive sidney reso. while his kidnappers remain at large. fbi agents are still investigating the ransom letter and the kidnappers possible affiliation with an environmental organization. >> that's when we learned about the kidnapping of victor samuelsson. >> 18 years earlier, exxon plant manager victor samuelsson had been kidnapped by marxist guerrillas. >> there's no word from argentina today on the whereabouts of an american oil company executive named victor samuelsson who has been kidnapped. >> after $14 million in ransom was paid, samuelsson was returned unharmed in april 1974, 18 years to the day sidney reso disappeared. >> we need to know if indeed there is a group that is holding mr. reso. >> but the fbi's behavioral science unit becomes suspicious of the group's international claims. >> there were no international calls. i think we had one call from new york and then one call late in the investigation from georgia. all of the phone calls that we were able to capture were all within maybe a five to ten mile radius. >> in fact, the kidnappers seemed to have intimate knowledge of morris county. investigators have a hunch the kidnappers are not the environmental crusaders they claim to be. they're locals. >> mrs. reso says she's concerned about her husband's health. he had a heart attack three years ago, but she says she has faith. >> he's courageous, he's honest, and he's good. so if anybody can survive any set of circumstances like that, he can do it. the suspect has been identified by the sheriff's department as eric houston. >> in olivehurst, california, the local community is facing a terrifying hostage situation. >> tom, are we any closer toward understanding what it is he wants? >> no, we still know nothing other than he came here with a grudge over treatment here when he was a student. >> i just remembering about the teacher that failed him, the teacher that broke up with him, that he had lost his job, so basically his entire life that's unraveling or falling apart so to speak all came back to the one teacher. >> school authorities and peace officers are trying to establish some sort of contact with the gunman. i don't know if they have been able to achieve that yet. >> at this time, we're trying to gather intelligence as to the exact location of which room he appears to be moving. >> come to find out he's directly overhead on top of us. he had placed lookouts on the stairwells. >> at that point, jim downs started communicating with the student on the stairs. >> i had probably anywhere from four to six cops with their pistols on me. then i had eric with his shotgun pointing at me. so i had two different sets of people pointing their guns at me. they don't know what to expect in either of us. it was pretty intense. so it was crazy. >> it is a very tense situation here and we just keep waiting for more news and hopefully more people to come out of that building. the national guard is now out in force in los angeles. >> while the cameras closely followed the l.a. unrest, elsewhere other crises intensified. >> sidney reso headed to work and disappeared. he's the president of exxon international. >> in california, a gunman is holding more than 30 hostages at a high school. >> 6,000 california national guard troops on the streets of los angeles. their weapons will be loaded and they have orders to return fire if fired upon. >> by 3:00 p.m. on may 1, marines begin amassing south of the city. >> unless you've been in the service, you never get that sense of power of guys in uniform and heavy machinery that comes with the army showing up. >> the regular army troops and marines ordered up by president bush moved to staging areas. >> our main weapon is our physical presence, be a visual deterrent. >> it's the weirdest sight to see a tank kind of roll in up over a hill and kind of drop in and descend over los angeles with the cityscape in the background. that pretty much brought order. you don't argue too much with a tank. >> there was an interesting mood change in some areas of los angeles neighborhoods as firefighters arrived at yet another store that had been looted and set afire. there were no rocks and throwing bottles, but lots of helping hands. >> a lot of those people wanted to undo the damage, do anything they could to undo the damage and were extremely helpful to the fire department, the police department, would go on television and make statements and decry the violence and say, this isn't us. >> i want the people to stop this and really think about what you're doing. you're hurting yourself more than you're hurting anybody. as angelinos fight for their city, a life or death battle is being waged in northern california. >> eric houston, he may be holding 35 to 40 students hostage. he has released 11, but he has shot at least nine people as we understand, including students and a teacher. >> i seen a student come out of spanish class down below, and he actually was shot in the leg. and me and the other student down below was pretty much like, hey, you've got a student bleeding out on the floor. eric said, yeah, yeah, get him to the doors and get him out of the building. i opened the door and the cops grabbed me and grabbed the other student and they took us out with them and they wouldn't let us go back in. >> parents rushed to find out if their child had been released. it was a scene of great fear and anxiety, but also occasional scenes of great joy and relief. >> i remember my mom. it was good to see her. >> the gunman says this could be a long night. of course, it could be a very long night for the parents waiting to hear if their child is inside. authorities said soon after sidney reso disappeared the fbi recovered a ransom letter demanding millions of dollars and a cellular phone number with further instructions. >> eventually sidney reso's kidnappers tried to set up a ransom drop. >> they wanted the money put in eddie bauer bags, divided into certain currencies. this was their game plan. >> the fbi sets up a massive sting operation and intentionally leaves the media in the dark. >> we were being spoon-fed a false narrative in order to help the authorities lure the kidnappers into a false sense of security and make a mistake. and then they did make a mistake. >> june 18th, the night of the scheduled ransom drop. the fbi plants over 250 agents in the morris county vicinity. >> we had all these agents out and i was wired so the command post could hear the exact conversation. and one of the female agents who were sitting in a car, saw the guy. he had glasses and a fisherman's hat on, and she saw this individual on the phone. >> the agent observes the man hanging up the phone at the same time the recorded call is terminated. the fbi traces the man's license plate to a local rental company. not long after agents show up to investigate, the agents arrive at his car. >> the executives and all kinds of pertinent information relative to sidney reso. >> two people including a former exxon employee were arrested and charged with kidnapping. reso's fate, however, remains a mystery. >> well, the situation is still very tense as you might imagine at lindhurst high school at this hour. the s.w.a.t. team is still in place. parents are waiting to get word on their loved ones inside. >> houston has reportedly told negotiators that he's afraid the s.w.a.t. team will break in and kill him. >> he seemed real insistent that he didn't want to see any cops in black clothing because to him that meant s.w.a.t. team. he didn't want to hear a helicopter. because the media was flying overhead. >> some comments were made and he did get a little bit agitated. >> we heard a radio broadcast that he heard and it listed numbers of people injured, shot, which enraged him. so we made a request of the news media to please don't do those reports again because it's making it difficult for us to keep a peace situation in negotiations. >> they have asked us not to continue with any more coverage of the story. we can only make an appeal to the gunman. please, put it down. stop. there's been enough already. >> the negotiation process begins with houston asking for food about 6:00 p.m. >> he wanted pizza, so we asked him to give us a count. we took a count. when the count came back, it was 84 hostages, which is astounding. it was -- it was wow. >> captain dennis moore telling reporters -- >> they have been delivered their pizzas and their food that they requested. the activity has been rather light. the conversations have been minimal on the telephone. >> he sent down a couple of students, two or three, and said, go down and get the pizza. if you don't come back, i'm killing your friends. do you let the kids go back up or do you keep them safe? we ultimately decided to let them back up. 33 years in law enforcement. that's the toughest decision i've ever been involved in. >> tracy, sheriff's deputies do have contact with the man by telephone, right? >> at first he was very agitated and very upset. >> gunman eric houston releases 15 hostages as an act of goodwill. >> the students we have seen walking out of here were very badly shaken. many were weeping. they looked stunned. they looked dazed. >> i just remember seeing my family and just being so relieved to be able to just hug my mom. >> when they called the kids' names as they were being released from the school, we would go over and see if our kids were there. in my heart, i knew something was wrong, but i just kept staying and waiting. while americans are glued to the news of chaos, tragedy, and recovery in l.a. -- >> i don't believe this stuff. i just can't. >> a hostage crisis and a harrowing kidnapping case are still simmering elsewhere. >> mrs. reso appealed for the release of her husband of 37 years. she said she and their four grown children wanted their father home for father's day. >> we can only make an appeal to the gunman. please, put it down. stop. in los angeles, 6,000 looters and arsonists have been rounded up. >> we just want it to be clean and nice like it was. >> this awakened los angeles. it broke it out of a slumber it had been in for many, many years. there were reforms that began in the los angeles police department, and i think that was a good thing. >> los angeles begins the long road to normalcy. it would take weeks for investigators to find sidney reso. >> the fbi's biggest kidnapping investigation in years has become a murder case. >> despite the successful capture of the kidnappers, it was too late to save the victim. >> reso's body was found in a shallow grave here in this heavily wooded area near the new jersey shore. law enforcement officers were taken there by irene seal along with her husband arthur is accused of kidnapping reso and attempting to extort money from exxon. >> they were bunglers. it was bungled from the beginning. just wanted to get rich quick. and they were stupid enough to think that a kidnapping at gunpoint is going to be easy. >> during the abduction, reso attempted to break free and was shot in the arm. he was bound, gagged, and placed in a wooden box. the seals testified it was not their intention to kill reso, but three days after the abduction he died from heat and exhaustion. irene seal provided information to the authorities and pled guilty to extortion and conspiracy. she was released in 2009. arthur seal pleaded guilty to kidnapping and murder and is serving life without parole. ongoing telephone conversations between the hostage taker identified as eric houston and negotiators. they say he appears to be getting calmer and quieter. >> eight hours into the siege in california, eric houston is negotiating with the police. >> i think we did start to feel a little bit hopeful seeing him be more willing to let people go. you could see that he was a little bit more mellowed, a little bit more calm. >> there was a lot of conversation between eric houston and the negotiating team about you've got to be the last person to come down. you're not going to come down, you know, surrounded by hostages. >> just moments ago, those students, some very shaken and very emotional, were loaded onto buses and taken to be debriefed and counseled. >> the final group of students is released. >> i remember seeing my mother and my sister-in-law and just kind of bearing myself. sorry. >> they were releasing the last bunch of kids and announcing them over the intercom and they stopped. me and my husband just kind of turned and looked at each other and put our arms around each other. when i got home, i had a yard full of kids. and we stood out in the yard for another couple of hours, holding hands and singing and just being together because they all knew too. >> three students and teacher robert brenz died in the siege that day. eric houston received the death penalty and awaits execution at san quinton prison. >> in 1992, there was no playbook for this. what we now call active shooters, which unfortunately is common language in law enforcement, that wasn't part of our vocabulary in 1992. so it's not something we had trained for. >> the lindhurst shooting wasn't the first of its kind or the last. >> the teenagers killed 12 students and a teacher at a littleton, colorado school, before committing suicide. >> 30 people have been killed in this rampage at virginia tech university. >> just minutes after the shootings at sandy hook elementary school, radio transmissions reveal the scale of the tragedy already unfolding. >> today a school shooting happens almost every week in the united states. in 1993, officers stacy koon and lawrence powell were convicted in federal court for their role in the rodney king beating. >> at least he was able to be a symbol of change and a symbol of hope for people. he was our hero, my sister's and myself. >> the city realized it had to make stronger connections, and the police department had to make stronger connections with the community. >> the fact when one of these incidents occurs there's a pretty good chance somebody is going to be taking some video of it and it will go viral, that is obviously making the question of police brutality a different one if people have the ability to do something about it. >> all of los angeles is under curfew tonight as violence continues in the streets. >> the murder and destruction in the streets of los angeles must be stopped. >> when some big thing happens, everything else gets shoved off the radar where it normally would be maybe the lead story. >> for us in akron, dahmer was the headline for the day and he was killed. dahmer was killed in prison. >> it happens all the time. there are lots of other really big deal stories that are occurring that are getting no attention at all. >> the hostage situation is over. eric houston has been arrested. >> it's weird way human beings are. you can only keep one thing in your head at a time i guess. >> jeffrey dahmer's stay in akron may have been brief, but his effect on the city may last for sometime to come. as one spectator put it, it may be gruesome, but it's history 9:00 eastern time. there's a bunch of poll closings right here. this could be a real turning point. >> nbc news has projected al gore the winner in florida. >> cable news, the presidential election is your super bowl, so we knew it was going to be big. >> florida has been prematurely called. >> we realized this story is bigger than we realized. >> nbc news is now taking florida out of vice president gore's column. >> there were so many headlines that could have come out of november 7th. >> thank you, new york. >> hillary clinton, she put her hat in t r