By fire. Frontline is made possible by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. And by the corporation for public broadcasting. Major support for frontline is provided by the john d. And catherine t. Macarthur foundation, committed to building a more just, verdant, and peaceful world. More information is available at macfound. Org. Additional support is provided by the park foundation, dedicated to heightening Public Awareness of critical issues. The ford foundation, working with visionaries on the front lines of social change worldwide. At fordfoundation. Org. The wyncote foundation. And by the frontline journalism fund, with major support from jon and jo ann hagler. Its small town america. Its Football Games on friday nights. Everybody gets along, Everybody Knows everybody. This is a nice country community. Corsicana is a wonderful place to live, but every town has their bad people in it, and bad things happen in every town. So were no different than anybody else. It was the 23rd of december. The price is right was on, that was what i was watching. Two or three of the girls went out on the back patio and come running in the house, and said, mamma, i think sheilas house is on fire. I run to the front and out the door, and thats when i seen todd at his front door, and he started screaming, my babies. Oh, my babies, my babies are burning. Narrator their neighbor, 23yearold cameron Todd Willingham, was in the house with his three children when the fire started. A call came across the scanner. There was a house fire with possibly people trapped in it. I remember my mom screaming, go back in, go, go try to get the babies. And i grabbed him, and i said, is there anybody in the house . He said, yes, my twins are in that room right there. Well, i went in the front door, and i went to the left, and thats as far as i could get. It was completely engulfed in fire. sirens blaring i pulled up on the scene, got out, immediately started stretching the fire line. I made entry into the house through the front windows, knocking the fire down as i went. The first fire fighter came out, he was cradling a small child in his arms, and he began to drop to one knee. And as he began to drop to one knee, the little girls arm just. Just fell limp right at her side, just, you know, just like a little rag doll. I went back to the fire room looking for the children. At that time, chief fogg was in there, and he had already located the children, but they were both dead. Narrator firefighters tried to save twoyearold amber, but she died shortly after reaching the hospital. All three children amber, karmon and kameron were dead. Their mother, stacy, was Christmas Shopping at a thrift store when the police told her. In the blackened ugliness, there are remnants of a fire. There are remnants of christmas as well a melted Christmas Tree with a few ornaments, a teddy bear still waiting for christmas morning. And there are two parents who want this christmas to go away. My little girl was crying, daddy, daddy and when i woke up, the whole house was in smoke. Narrator Todd Willingham was virtually unharmed. He did have some minor burns on his shoulder, and his hair was singed. To me, it just was not. The injuries were not consistent with being in a Burning House that was supposedly burning so bad that. That he had to get out and couldnt find his kids. Narrator around town in corsicana, texas, willinghams lack of serious injuries and a night of partying after the fire fueled rumors. Immediately after the children were killed in the fire, he was seen at a local bar essentially exhibiting behavior that was completely inconsistent with a person who had lost his three children. When the willingham children died, several of us thought it would be a good idea if we did a benefit dart tournament to raise funds to help with their burial. Todd and Stacy Willingham showed up the night that we had the tournament. Todd got too involved in the fun. And he was heard to brag to others that he wouldnt have anything to worry about now because the money would start rolling in because people would feel sorry for him. He showed a great interest in a new pair of darts, and that really kind of shocked me. I thought, well, im really not going to let you give me back the money that i just gave you for a new pair of darts. So i just gave them to him so that he wouldnt lose the money that i wanted him to spend on those funerals. Narrator the policlaunched an investigation. Todd willingham was the primary suspect. Youve got to count his actions before and after, youve got to count his actions during the fire, and things like that. That makes the whole story, not just one little segment of it; its every bit of the story. Narrator the police had been to willinghams house before. Wed been over to todds house where hed got physical with his wife stacy on a couple occasions. He was a very mean man. He beat on stacy all the time. I mean, you know. I mean, this was, like, everyday. They could hear the impact of him hitting his wife and his wife hitting the floor. His statements to her that were. Could be overheard throughout the neighborhood dont get up, bitch, or ill hit you again. I figured he would kill stacy, you know. Thats how bad it was. You know, something terrible is going to happen, and he will eventually kill her. Narrator witnesses who had been at the fire also told police that willingham did nothing to rescue his children. Once he got outside, i cannot find anybody who actually said he made an attempt to get back in to save his kids. He didnt try to go back in. Not one time. Putting that whole picture together made me believe that he was guilty of homicide, that he killed his three little girls. And my job was to find how them little girls died, and if it is an act, a criminal act, its my job to build a case so he can be prosecuted for his act. Narrator as soon as the fire was out, the search for the cause of the blaze began. Narrator investigators came to believe that this was a crime scene. You start by eliminating accidental causes. We go back to where the breaker box is. We see wiring again. No evidence of shorting. When you get through with your accidental causes, whats left . Narrator they figured the fire had started on the floor. They were looking for evidence that something flammable might have been poured there. In the childrens room, there. They were signs of what we thought was an accelerant poured on the floor. Usually accelerants will leak through the cracks on the floor and burn underneath, and the fire burns up. Narrator then, at the door to the porch, investigators found what they were looking for. There was an unusual burn pattern on the aluminum threshold plate, which indicates that something had been introduced, poured down, leaked through. We took a sample of that, and it came back as a positive sample for charcoal lighter fluid. And im thinking thats the first time i called it arson. Narrator the official state report on the fire listed 20 indicators of arson. Investigators were now convinced. Narrator the Police Called in Todd Willingham. My dad told him to go down there and give a statement, and when he went and gave a statement, he talks too much. And i dont know what all he said, but whatever he said, that started it. Just his whole demeanor to me looked like he just wanted to tell a story. More like he was bragging about it than, you know, being remorseful. He was more like he was proud of his actions, that he claimed he tried to do to save his kids and stuff. Willingham said he heard the oldest one calling daddy and went into the bedroom and crawled around on the floor because the smoke was so thick and stuff, looking for the babies, but he was unable to find them. Narrator but officer hensley wasnt buying the story. After a while in this business, you get to judge people by their actions and their looks, you know. And youre not 100 percent right, but usually its a good thing to go on. Just looking at his eyes, i didnt see any type of remorse or sympathy in them. Narrator and willinghams story didnt seem to square up with his lack of injuries. He was barefoot when he come out, and he had no burns on his feet. But we could see where there was burns in the hallway, and we cant figure out how he got out without burning his feet. Narrator detectives pushed willingham to confess. They even used pictures of his dead children. Todd didnt show any remorse in the interview until i actually showed him the pictures of his children. And at that time, he started crying. You know, i dont think he was sad so much that he killed the kids as much as that its come into light that, you know, he was a suspect in it. Narrator they charged him with murder. Bail was set at 1 million. They offered him a deal confess and avoid the Death Penalty. His courtappointed attorney, david martin, urged him to take the plea. If all the evidence is overwhelming that the person is guilty of the crime charged, and the chances of introducing reasonable doubt are slim to none in your professional opinion, of course youd rather have him accept a life sentence and save his life. Narrator despite the pressure, willingham refused to plead guilty. Hed take his chances in front of a jury. He wouldnt plead guilty. He was very adamant. He said they could kill him right then and there. Narrator the case went to trial in august of 1992. The prosecution began with a surprising witness, a jailhouse informant. There was the testimony of johnny webb, who had been incarcerated at the same time as willingham and who testified that willingham had confessed. He said, well, you know, i cant deal with what ive done. And i said, what are you talking about . And thats when he confessed to what hed done. Narrator and webb told prosecutors something else. Willingham admitted to him that he spread the accelerant on the floor in the childrens room in sort of a pentagram or a starshaped pattern. Narrator a pentagram. To the prosecutor, it was a symbol for satan worship, and he offered posters found in willinghams room as proof. It was a poster of an iron bar being driven through a persons head, and there was some indication that it was some sort of a. A satanist image. You got three little girls lives involved. They showed these kids to the jury and you hear his past, you see that, and the judge tells them to do what they need to be doing. I mean, i dont know how much more could you stack it against him, do you . Theres plenty of people Walking Around in corsicana, texas, that if that happened to them today, they would get the benefit of the doubt because they had treated their family in a respectful manner and taken care of them, okay . Todd willingham had not treated his family in a respected manner, and he didnt get the benefit of the doubt that some people would have. Narrator the trial lasted three days. It only took an hour for the jury to find willingham guilty. He was sentenced to death. You know, ive been criticized by some because ive said that of course i thought he was guilty. How stupid would you be, how incompetent would you be as a defense attorney if you just went in and swallowed the story the defendant gave you . The real fact of the matter is that willingham was guilty. He wasnt innocent. He really set that fire and killed those kids. I feel like justice was served for those three little girls. It was a jury of 12 people of this community who determined that, with all the evidence presented to them, that he was guilty, and thats the way the system works. Narrator willingham was taken to the texas state prison at huntsville to await his execution. He said the worst thing in the world is to be accused of what he is accused of and to be found guilty of that, and then have to go to death row and live with that. When he was in death row, they would step on his heels, you know, and trip him and call him baby killer and everything else, you know. Narrator willingham sat on death row for seven years. His appeals were going nowhere. There was little interest in his case. Then inmate number 999041 received a letter. It was from 47yearold Elizabeth Gilbert. Someone asked me if i would like to write a man on death row, be a pen pal, and i was like, sure, and i volunteered. I had been in a place in my life a relationship had ended, my parents were getting elderly, i was kind of adrift. The name that was given to me, just randomly, was Todd Willingham. Narrator willingham eagerly wrote back. I was just really struck by the letter from todd. It was very polite. It was very kind. Narrator gilbert wanted to know more about willingham. She decided to meet him face to face. I walked in expecting to see a black man, you know, the whole stereotype. And here was this handsome young white man who was very polite and very genial. Narrator willingham told her his version of what happened at the fire. The story he told me was, you know, this, he woke up to a fire, you know. He ran out of the house, couldnt get back in to save his children. Theres a writer in me that was like, this is a great story. Narrator gilbert decided to find out for herself who Todd Willingham really was. His story began in ardmore, oklahoma. Todds mother had several children by different fathers and todd had been abandoned in california. Narrator todds father gene had remarried. His wife eugenia raised todd as her own. We got todd when he was 13 months old. I thought he might be anxious and cry, but he just crawled up in my lap and that was it. He acted like hed always lived there. He had a way of telling you how he felt. He never came into the room when he didnt hug my neck. Narrator it was a different story with todds father. Hes the type of guy that. Just that you cant do anything right and everythings wrong. Lets say that he has a hammer there, and you borrow it and you put it back. Thats good, but its not good enough if its not facing the same way. His father was very strict, and todd knew this, but it didnt stop him from doing some things that he got in trouble for. Narrator todd struggled in school, and gilbert was surprised to learn that by the sixth grade, he was already using drugs. He liked to inhale the aerosol from spray paint cans. I think he started huffing paint when he was 11. He started on drugs at 11. You know, id see signs, and id ask him and hed blame it on the other kids, you know. His mind kind of stayed there. To me, his thinking ability always stayed at 11, 12, 13, along in there. Narrator during his trial, prosecutors claimed that as willingham got older, he began to commit increasingly violent crimes. He would have him a gang. He would recruit younger kids that he could intimidate and send them out to pull the burglaries and bring the loot back to him, and then he would pay them off in drugs. Narrator and jurors heard that willingham was a violent sociopath. He was an individual with essentially no redeeming values. This was his crowning achievement as a psychopath, the murder of his three children. Narrator in fact, psychiatrist dr. James grigson testified willingham was a severe sociopath. Grigson had testified in more than 100 Death Penalty cases, earning the nickname dr. Death. Hes hired to come in and make sure they get the Death Penalty by assuring the jury that, you know, this person would be just a. You know, has to be removed from society. Narrator gilbert discovered that grigson had never met willingham, but those who actually knew todd said he was hardly a violent criminal. I just didnt see that person. Thats not the todd i knew. Todd had been arrested for tampering with an automobile. In other words, he had opened the door of a vehicle and not gotten any further. By the time hed opened the door, the police were already on site. I put him in jail, i think, on his 18th birthday because hed screwed up again. And i said, i have tried to save your ass, and now im going to put your ass in jail so you cant enjoy your 18th birthday. Youre going to go to jail for weekend or whatever it was i dont remember the details. He wasnt a sociopath, he wasnt a psychopath; he did stupid crap like steal bikes. Narrator and in todds teenage love of heavy metal music, gilbert found an explanation for those satanic posters; they were from the rock bands led zeppelin and iron maiden. led zeppelins black dog playing we had posters of iron maiden hanging in our house, too. My exhusband probably still has his iron maiden posters, you know, at 40. He. They were iron maiden fans. So what . What they looked at were posters on the wall, which are the typical posters that young men listen to, the heavy metal; that he smoked pot, you know; that he had this horrible past of crime which turned out to be shoplifting and a bicycle. Narrator gilbert followed todds trail from oklahoma to texas. Hed moved to corsicana to be with his girlfriend stacy. Theyd met while she was still in high school and before long had three children under the age of two. He changed their diapers and took care of them and did everything that they needed. And he made them a lot of macaroni and cheese. He did a lot of cooking for them. Narrator stacy wound up waitressing in her brothers bar while todd stayed home with the kids. I know they struggled that year, trying to take care of three babies, and it was very hard, you know. I cant imagine. Id say to the girls, he was a real good dad, but as far as going out and providing a nice home, nice job for the family, and being a family provider like youre supposed to, id say he didnt. Narrator todd and stacys relationship deteriorated into abuse. When you have three little kids and youre stuck in the house always on together and your friends are out doing stuff, i think that was part of todd and stacys problem, you know . Three little kids and youre poor and you get bored and start picking at each other. Narrator nevertheless, only three months before the fire, todd and stacy decided to get married. He told me, he said, im going to try to do whats right. Im going to try to make this work, and were going to get married. And he said, i know its going to be hard, but thats what i should do. Narrator todd would have to change his ways; he had a reputation as a ladies man. Stacy wasnt the only girl in his life, im sorry to say. Todd acted like he really cared for stacy, but he acted like he cared for other girls, too. Narrator there was one woman in particular. She was an older woman that i didnt approve of at all. She was a neighbor that lived across the street and had children his age. Narrator when he married stacy, todd ended the relationship. When he come and he told me that he had married stacy, it. It broke my heart because i knew i was losing at that time, the love of my life, my soul mate. And. But i knew why he was doing it, and i could not ask him to walk