But could they believe him . Can this get any stranger . Enter the beautiful blonde with an xrated career. We just had highend clientele that would pay to come in for a private strip show. She seemed to know everyone, from bad guys to the banker. What did she know about this hit . I figured that it would all get figured out. I didnt do this. Was it a hit that couldnt miss . What did i do . Were you having an affair . No, i was not. Are you offering . Im lester holt and this is dateline. Heres keith morrison. Reporter there are places even in our finest cities where only a particular kind of tourist might find what he or she is looking for, attractions for the damaged and the lost catered by agents who, for a profit, would damage them more. It was late. Early april, 2013, peak of the spring tourist invasion, here in charleston, South Carolina, so lovely, even in the dark as the horde of tourists drifted out of famous restaurants and into fine hotels. Not far away, the moneyed elite of this storied city prepared to tuck securely into their beds, unaware of the cop prowling the avenue that runs north from the heart of the antebellum mansion district past century old houses now sadly derelict to a part of the street more comfortable in the dark. And under the watchful eye of officer daniel wilson. Weve had various problems with different narcotics, and primarily crack cocaine. Heroins one of them. Reporter how horrified those wealthy folk would have been had they known the deadly secret officer wilson was about to expose about the prominent banker. I said, i dont understand. Reporter the glamorous exstripper im just not who they say i am. Reporter the Sparkling Society hostess. It felt like somebody has kicked me in the stomach. Reporter and the deadly plan afoot here on the wrong end of the american dream. That night, i was just conducting my normal patrol activities within the downtown area and the areas that i was assigned. Reporter thats when he saw it the car with kentucky plates dead still in the middle of an intersection. I observed the cars headlights turn off and begin to leave the area. He seemed to start kind of an evasive pattern on his part. Reporter and if by some magic the cop could have read the drivers mind, the result would not have surprised him one little bit. I had run out of the heroin i brought with me. So i was faced with trying to find heroin 500 miles away from where i live in a town id never been to. Reporter the drivers name was Aaron Wilkinson, a visitor in town, like so many others. So i used the google app on my phone and typed where to find heroin in charleston, South Carolina, and it told me on america street. Reporter aarons wife bethany was in the passenger seat beside him. His dog rusty in the back. People just started coming up to the car and asking what i wanted. I told them that i was looking for heroin. Reporter had aaron been more attentive to the pesky details of his troubled life our story might have had a very different end, but addicts, as everyone knows, sometimes forget the Little Things cops look for, and thus, just after midnight, on the morning of april 5th, with a tiny prod fates shifted in a most amazing way. I initiate a traffic stop. Initiated with my blue lights. As soon as the lights came on from the police car, i pulled over. The drivers side window rolls down and i see a white male in his 30s. Hes got tattoos pretty much up to his neck. I was thinking i might get arrested for driving on suspended license. Reporter he lied to the officer. Lied like a sidewalk. Reporter when the officer came up to the car, he asked what i was doing in the neighborhood, and i think i told him i was looking for a liquor store. I said all right you know liquor store closed about four and a half hours ago. He basically looked me dead in the face and said, i you know, i got to tell you, i dont have a license. Kentucky suspended it. Reporter but, trouble tends to follow trouble. The suspended license was the least of aarons problems. The cop invited him, and his wife to a spot outside the police car. Bent over the hood, actually. I said, ok, well you realize that with you not having a license i can search your car. The cars going to be towed, and he said, yeah theres nothing in that car. Go ahead. Reporter by this time, aaron had let it slip he, was on parole had done time for a string of forgeries which he committed to finance his heroin habit. Aaron tried to explain, as addicts often do, that one thing leads to another. When youre in in the midst of addiction, you might know it but theres always im going to take care of it tomorrow. Reporter sad story, certainly, but when officer wilson searched the car underneath the steering column, i found a loaded 32 caliber revolver. Reporter for an excon like aaron, gun possession could be a oneway ticket back to prison. Any type of collegiality he might have had with me was was pretty much lost after the discovery of a loaded pistol in his car. I placed him under arrest. I put him in the back of my cruiser. Reporter a typical bust on a typical night on america street. And then then something happened that was not typical at all. I just felt like it was a good time to just get what i knew out in the open. Aaron is in the backseat telling me, you just want to take me to jail. You dont want to hear what i have to say. And he was adamant enough and persistent enough that i finally said, okay aaron, im going to come back there and i want you to tell me a tale. When he asked me what it was in reference to, i told him a murder. And he didnt believe me. He went and asked my wife. And she immediately broke down into tears, started crying, and said, im not supposed to talk about that. My wife, after a little bit, told him that it was true. Reporter oh, it was true, all right. And something else, the murder hadnt happened yet. But it was due. Oh yes, any day now. There is more to this story than just Aaron Wilkinson trying to tell me a tale to get himself out of trouble. Reporter oh, and the intended victim . Back at Police Headquarters aaron begged the detectives to believe him. The victim wasnt just anybody, but a member of charlestons elite. I think its latham. Reporter latham, a name to reckon with. Its not every day the police get told about a hit before it happens. And this wasnt just about some drug deal gone bad. This led right to the bedroom of a rich and powerful couple headed to divorce court. His exact words were i dont want to be married to you anymore. I found out about nancys secret life. It was horrible. It was nasty. It was a soap opera. It was a soap opera. My advice for healthy looking radiant skin. A good nights sleep. And aveeno®. [ female announcer ] only aveeno® positively radiant has an active naturals® total soy formula. It helps reduce the look of brown spots in just four weeks. Aveeno®. Naturally beautiful results™. Ooh thats hot. Take it off amore take it off no you dont want me any more . Youre a pizza, ok . and were done dont let food hang around. Nooo for that just brushed clean feeling, eat, drink chew. Orbit. When eating healthy and Drinking Water just isnt enough to ease my constipation i trust dulcolax tablets. I take dulcolax for dependable overnight relief and in the morning i am back to myself dulcolax, designed for dependable relief this is kevin returning to his childhood home. This is the smell of baked pears, making him feel warm. Then pie crust as he wonders if its too soon to ask whats for dessert. Now vanilla, reminding him of pep talks with mom and slightly inappropriate advice from dad. New air wick life scents in moms baking the first constantly changing fragrance that acts like real life and says welcome home, kevy bear. this is him, secretly loving the name kevy bear. Air wick home is in the air. Reporter in a tiny unadorned room, deep in the Charleston Police department, Aaron Wilkinson, a quivering heroin addict, summoned every ounce of his limited store of credibility. You want to talk about whats going on . Yes, maam. Ok. Reporter out rolled his wild story of impending murder, his urgent warning for an intended victim named latham. They wanted to make it look like a, you know, like a murder robbery or a home invasion. Reporter a few miles from aarons police confessional, the sweetly soft spoken wealth of charleston slept. Secure in the knowledge that their fortunes were tended, many of them, by the sure and steady touch of the citys highest paid banker. This is he, chris latham, a bank of america rainmaker, entrusted with billions of dollars of investor money. Board member of the prestigious annual Spoleto Festival and of the united way. The best job in the world. You work with people of wealth, and people of wealth have so many challenges today, more so than ever before. Reporter and here is his wife, nancy. The Sparkling Society hostess, real estate agent, and trusted member of the South Carolina lottery commission. Here behind the gates of their exclusive community, the lathams were blue ribbon. Thwy seemed destined for those lofty heights from the moment they met. Summer of 1988. We actually met on a blind date. It was a lunch date. And when he got out of his car to pick me up, i looked at one of my girlfriends, and i said, that is the man im gonna marry. I was in a convertible, and got out and met her. And yeah, we went to applebees. And over lunch, he said to me, you are so fabulous. Why about you dating somebody . I said, well, ive always believed that the day i meet the man im gonna marry, ill know. I think i made the comment, well, shouldnt we let our parents know first before we move, you know, any further . And he said, so when do you wanna get married . And yes, i fell in love with her. Reporter it was electric an attraction of opposites. She with her outsized sense of humor while he was reserved, quiet, serious. By the end of that magic year, they were married. And there was a huge, big, southern wedding. Reporter they had two girls. Emily in 94, and madison two years later. Cathy harrell and her husband were the lathams best friends. It was fun watching chris make his way up through the food chain of the business world. He was always happy to have nancy there because she was the life of the party. Reporter with nancy by his side, a driven chris rose to become a bank of america superstar. And all the while they entertained, a lot. The bank, every time they contributed to an organization, or sponsored an event, we would typically go to that event, usually as a host and hostess. And we would just entertain, and make everybody feel comfortable. It was almost, like, a p. R. Job for bank of america. So that when they go home at night, its, gosh, wasnt that a great night . Sure. You were good at it. To pep it up. Yup, thats what i did. Dont you feel enthused already . I do, actually. Yeah. Reporter but life and marriage are complicated, as everybody knows. Chris had to travel quite a bit for work. A quiet strain entered the relationship. Then nancy had to fight off Breast Cancer and it seemed to her that he wasnt helping as much as he might. My l very last chemo treatment, chemos cumulative. I can remember he came home from work one day, and was, like, whats for dinner . And i said, i dont think i can get outta bed. He said, you need to get out of bed because we need to have dinner. Reporter and, once she was well again, chris developed a deviated septum. He said he had trouble breathing at night. And he knew he was going to be snoring and in a lot of pain, so he was going to start sleeping in the guest room, and i thought, well, weird, but okay. You know, i appreciate his letting me get a good nights sleep. Thats fine. Reporter but, no. It was more than a deviated septum. It was secrets, roiling somewhere out of sight. And suspicions which metastasized into searing jealousies. And finally burst into the open air in the 23rd year of their marriage, the last day of a summer vacation. They were sitting in a boat on the lake, said nancy, and quite out of the blue, no warning at all. His exact words were, i dont wanna be married to you anymore. Reporter but chris was the jealous type, she said he had overreacted before to her chatty ways with men at their parties. So i thought, hell get over it, whatever it is, hell get over it. And he didnt. He meant it. Reporter oh, chris meant it alright, but without warning . No, he said, hed been brooding over a bitter discovery. I found out about nancys secret life that she had for six years. Reporter found out, he said, by discovering quite by accident a stash of emails that proved infidelity. I said, why would you do this . And she says, im a narcissist and i need the attention. And i asked her i said, how can you do this to me . How can you do this to our daughters . And i said, theres no way i can go forward in this marriage. Reporter but chriss socalled discovery, said nancy, was no affair. The emails came from a professional colleague in real estate. Were you having an affair . No, i was not. Are you offering . Oh, im sorry. And because this became a very serious allegation. It was huge. It was huge reporter a wounded nancy, still living with the man who wanted out of their marriage, responded, whats the word, proactively. I sniffed around to see if there was another woman. I pulled up his phone records, and noticed that from the time that he had moved out of our bedroom, and into the guest room, he was texting a phone number all night long. Reporter so then nancy hired a private investigator who followed chris on his business trips, and recorded this video of a woman who seemed to accompany him and repeatedly spent nights in his hotel room. And i said, do not let her destroy our marriage. And he said to me, dont you ever mention her to me again. It will kill the kids if you start down the road. Reporter anyone could see where this was going. And it was nowhere good. Oh, the relationship with that other woman ended, but the marriage was beyond saving. He moved out. They hired lawyers to work out an amicable divorce. But before long, in the escalating tit for tat, replaced them with courtroom gladiators out for blood. It was horrible. It was nasty. It was a soap opera . It was a soap opera. Reporter by christmas time 2012, it was all out war. Neither side ceding a point. Hatred blooming like a noxious weed. Its getting tougher and tougher and tougher between the two of you. More and more expensive. How much money did this thing cost . I would say just in legal fees for both of us, at least 600,000 to 700,000. Reporter they had finally managed to divide their investments and property. But the issue now was alimony. Nancy demanded 7,500 a month the from chris. I said, 7,500 a month, ill walk away. In the scheme of things, that is nothing. And he wouldnt do it. Reporter in fact, he claimed he didnt have to. Why . Reporter marital politics varies from state to state and here in South Carolina, said chris, an old rule governing the fidelity of married women still applied. If he could prove nancy had that affair, he wouldnt have to pay alimony. You had proof that you could present yes, we had proof reporter what was your proof . Absolute proof. Well, number one is there were 9,355 phone calls. Also that various emails back and forth between her and her paramour. Reporter what was true . Just three days hence, a judge would be asked to decide. You know all of this was going to be settled in the divorce. The proceedings that were gonna take place april 8th. Reporter but if what Aaron Wilkinson was telling investigators was true, one of the lathams wasnt supposed to live that long. Coming up, aarons story of murder and money. Tells you to go deposit it . In my bank. But could he be believed . When dateline continues. Without it the virus spreads from cell to cell. Only abreva penetrates deep and starts to work immediately to block the virus and protect healthy cells. You could heal your cold sore, fast, as fast as two and a half days when used at the first sign. Learn how abreva starts to work immediately at abreva. Com dont tough it out knock it out, fast. With abreva. Lowes presents how to put your foot in your mouth. Man. Wish my yard looked like yours. 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Reporter no cop could simply, naively, believe the tall tales of a man like him. But Aaron Wilkinson insisted that his news was too urgent to put off. A prominent charlestonian named latham was in mortal danger, would be dead within hours or days if the cops didnt believe him. I promise what im going to tell you, every bit of its true. Reporter it began, said aaron, with a friendship. Not a good one. His friendship with a volatile man named sam yenawine. It takes very little to set him off. He doesnt he doesnt have talks. He doesnt argue. He just kind of lashes out. Reporter aaron was in prison for forgery when he met sam and heard sams story about killing a man in self defense, then setting his own house on fire. So they both did their time, and then resumed their friendship in louisville, kentucky. Where aaron was sometimes sams little helper in the illicit drug business. And thus, one day sam called me and asked me if id ride shotgun with him to nashville to pick up some drugs. I told him that i would. Reporter except that was a lie. Couple of hours down the road, said aaron, sam admitted they werent going to nashville and it wasnt a drug deal. And he said no, were going to South Carolina because he had taken money to kill someone. Reporter kill someone . Was he kidding . Aaron wilkinson is many things, he told us. Not all of them good. But a murderer . No. Im just not violent. I dont ever want to be the cause of somebody being hurt. Reporter but firm resolve wa