SEPTEMBER 30, 2018

NEWS AND VIEWS

THIS ARTICLE GIVES MORE DETAIL AND SOME UPDATING TO THE INFORMATION FROM WEDNESDAY AND FOLLOWING. I HAVE BEEN WONDERING WHAT THE FBI IS REALLY GOING TO BE ALLOWED TO DO BY THE SENATE. THE STORY SAYS THAT THE WHITE HOUSE WILL CONTROL THAT, AND IT SOUNDS JUST ABOUT LIKE THE SENATE’S PLAN. THE PRESIDENT HOWEVER, GAVE A MORE OPEN-ENDED PERMISSION TO THE FBI. AFTER THE PRESIDENT SAID THAT, THOUGH, WHITE HOUSE SECURITY BIGWIGS MODIFIED IT A BIT, BUT IN A WAY THAT WILL LIKELY PREVENT KNOWLEDGE ABOUT HIM FROM BEING UNCOVERED. MEANWHILE, I’M JUST WATCHING FOR NEW INFORMATION AND HOPING FOR THE BEST FOR THE NATIONAL JUSTICE SYSTEM. I PERSONALLY WANT CHANGES AND LIMITATIONS ON WHAT THE SUPREME COURT IS ALLOWED TO DO, ANYWAY, SO THE PRESENCE OF A RIGHTWING NUT JOB WILL NOT NECESSARILY CAUSE PAIN AND HAVOC IN THE COUNTRY.

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/white-house-limits-scope-fbi-s-investigation-allegations-against-brett-n915061
Limits to FBI's Kavanaugh investigation have not changed, despite Trump's comments
Trump’s Saturday night tweet has not changed the limits imposed by the White House counsel’s office on the FBI's Kavanaugh investigation, sources say.
by Ken Dilanian, Geoff Bennett and Kristen Welker / Sep.29.2018 / 4:33 PM EDT / Updated Sep.30.2018 / 12:21 PM EDT

WASHINGTON — The FBI has received no new instructions from the White House about how to proceed with its weeklong investigation of sexual misconduct allegations against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, a senior U.S. official and another source familiar with the matter tell NBC News.

According to the sources, the president’s Saturday night tweet saying he wants the FBI to interview whoever agents deem appropriate has not changed the limits imposed by the White House counsel’s office on the FBI investigation — including a specific witness list that does not include Julie Swetnick, who has accused Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct in high school.

Also not on the list, the sources say, are former classmates who have contradicted Kavanaugh’s account of his college alcohol consumption, instead describing him as a frequent, heavy drinker. The FBI is also not authorized to interview high school classmates who could shed light on what some people have called untruths in Kavanaugh’s Senate Judiciary Committee testimony about alleged sexual references in his high school yearbook.

The sources said nothing would preclude the FBI from asking Kavanaugh's high school friend Mark Judge, who is on the witness list, about Swetnick’s allegations, but the sources stressed that this is not a top priority.

Separately, a White House official made clear that the White House is the client in this process. This is not an FBI criminal investigation — it is a background investigation in which the FBI is acting on behalf of the White House. Procedurally, the White House does not allow the FBI to investigate as it sees fit, the official acknowledged; the White House sets the parameters.

Christine Blasey Ford not contacted by FBI investigators
SEP.30.201803:14
Trump announced on Twitter late Saturday that the White House had placed no limitation on the FBI's ability to investigate the allegations against Kavanaugh.

"I want them to interview whoever they deem appropriate, at their discretion," Trump tweeted in response to an NBC News report citing multiple people familiar with the process who said the White House was limiting the scope of the reopened background investigation of Kavanaugh.

While the FBI will examine the allegations of Christine Blasey Ford and Deborah Ramirez, the bureau had not been permitted to investigate the claims of Julie Swetnick, who has accused Kavanaugh of engaging in sexual misconduct at parties while he was a student at Georgetown Preparatory School in the 1980s, those people familiar with the investigation told NBC News.

A member of Ford’s legal team told NBC News on Sunday that neither Ford nor her lawyers have been contacted by the FBI since Trump ordered a supplemental FBI background investigation Friday.

A White House official had confirmed earlier Saturday that Swetnick's claims would not be pursued as part of the reopened background investigation into Kavanaugh. Trump described that as incorrect in a tweet late Saturday. The Wall Street Journal had also reported that Swetnick's allegations would not be investigated.

Trump said the FBI had "free rein" in the investigation.

"They’re going to do whatever they have to do," he said. "Whatever it is they do, they’ll be doing—things that we never even thought of. And hopefully at the conclusion everything will be fine."

The New York Times reported Saturday night, after Trump’s tweet, that the White House has authorized the FBI to interview four witnesses: Judge; Leland Keyser, a high school friend of Ford’s whom she said attended the party but was not told of the assault; P.J. Smyth, another party guest; and Ramirez, the Yale accuser.

Ford said in Senate testimony Thursday that she was "100 percent" certain that Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her when they were both in high school. Ramirez alleged that he exposed himself to her when there were students at Yale. Kavanaugh has staunchly denied allegations from Ford, Ramirez and Swetnick.

Related

KAVANAUGH CONFIRMATION
Senate probed new allegation of misconduct against Kavanaugh

Instead of investigating Swetnick's claims, the White House counsel’s office has given the FBI a list of witnesses they are permitted to interview, according to several people who discussed the parameters on the condition of anonymity. They characterized the White House instructions as a significant constraint on the FBI investigation and caution that such a limited scope, while not unusual in normal circumstances, may make it difficult to pursue additional leads in a case in which a Supreme Court nominee has been accused of sexual assault.

The limited scope seems to be at odds with what some members of the Senate judiciary seemed to expect when they agreed to give the FBI as much as a week to investigate allegations against Kavanaugh, a federal judge who grew up in the Washington DC area and attended an elite all-boys high school before going on to Yale.

President Donald Trump said on Saturday that the FBI has "free rein" in the investigation. "They’re going to do whatever they have to do," he said. "Whatever it is they do, they’ll be doing — things that we never even thought of. And hopefully at the conclusion everything will be fine."

How will Kavanaugh’s hearing affect him if he’s confirmed?
SEP.28.201801:30

The president also said he thinks Flake's role in delaying the vote is fine. "Actually this could be a blessing in disguise," Trump continued. "Because having the FBI go out, do a thorough investigation, whether its three days or seven days, I think it’s going to be less than a week. But having them do a thorough investigation, I actually think will be a blessing in disguise. It’ll be a good thing."

"I don't need a backup plan," Trump said, adding that he thinks Kavanaugh is "going to be fine."

Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., said Saturday that he supports the week-long scope of the investigation. “The FBI works at the direction of the White House in investigating the background of an administration nominee like Judge Kavanaugh," he told MSNBC's Chris Hayes at Global Citizen Festival in New York. "So it’s the White House Counsel or the president who says, ‘This is the scope of the further investigation.'"

Related

FROM POTUS
Trump asks if Feinstein leaked allegation against Kavanaugh, says FBI probe may be 'blessing in disguise'
Sen. Jeff Flake, Republican of Arizona, who led an 11th hour move in the Senate committee for an FBI inquiry, said he thought the bureau would decide how to carry it out. His Democratic colleague Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island said he expected the FBI probe to include "adequate staffing," support from the committee for "rapid immunity and subpoena decisions as needed, plus the ability to investigate claims of a "penchant for drunkenness and inappropriate treatment of women, particularly where specifically related to incidents under investigation."

GOP hires female attorney to question Ford, Kavanaugh's accuser

Senate Judiciary Committee to vote on Kavanaugh Friday
An FBI spokeswoman declined to comment, referring questions to the White House.

A White House official did not specifically dispute limitations on the scope of the FBI's investigation but denied the White House was “micromanaging” the inquiry.

White House spokesman Raj Shah said that "the scope and duration has been set by the Senate. The White House is letting the FBI agents do what they are trained to do.”

The Senate has only said that supplemental FBI background investigation “be limited to current credible allegations against the nominee and must be completed no later than one week from today.”

Related:

ANALYSIS
Analysis: Kavanaugh fight shows Washington is sick. Very sick.

White House counsel Don McGahn, who has shepherded Kavanaugh's nomination since President Trump chose him for the high court on July 9, is taking the lead for the White House in dealing with the FBI on the investigation, those involved in the process told NBC News.

A U.S. official briefed on the matter said its not unusual for the White House to set the parameters of an FBI background check for a presidential nominee. The FBI had no choice but to agree to these terms, the sources told NBC News, because it is conducting the background investigation on behalf of the White House.

If the FBI learns of others who can corroborate what the existing witnesses are saying, it is not clear whether agents will be able to contact them under the terms laid out by the White House, the two sources briefed on the matter said.

Some areas are off limits, the sources said.

Investigators plan to meet with Mark Judge, a high school classmate and friend of Kavanaugh's whom Ford named as a witness and participant to her alleged assault.

>But as of now, the FBI cannot ask the supermarket that employed Judge for records verifying when he was employed there, one of the sources was told. Ford said in congressional testimony Thursday that those records would help her narrow the time frame of the alleged incident which she recalls happening some time in the summer of 1982 in Montgomery County, Maryland.

Two sources familiar with the investigation said the FBI will also not be able to examine why Kavanaugh’s account of his drinking at Yale University differs from those of some former classmates, who have said he was known as a heavy drinker. Those details may be pertinent to investigating claims from Ramirez who described an alleged incident of sexual misconduct she said occurred while Kavanaugh was inebriated. Ramirez's lawyer said Saturday that she had been contacted by the FBI and would cooperate.

The conditions under which the FBI's reopened background check are occurring appears to differ from the one envisioned by Flake, who used his leverage as a swing vote to pressure the Trump administration to order the FBI investigation.

Flake said Friday he thought the FBI should decide the scope of the investigation.

“They’ll have to decide — the FBI you know, how far that goes,” he told reporters. “This is limited in time and scope and I think that it's appropriate when it's a lifetime appointment and allegations this serious and we ought to let people know that we're serious about it.”

An administration official familiar with the process clarified, after the publication of this story, that while investigators may not be interviewing Swetnick herself, that doesn't preclude them from asking other witness about the allegations she has made.


HURRICANES APPROACHING

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/hurricane-rosa-baja-california-tropical-storm-kirk-drenches-caribbean-latest-path-track-forecast-today-2018-09-28/
CBS/AP September 28, 2018, 8:04 PM
Hurricane Rosa expected to increase California surf as Kirk drenches Caribbean

PHOTOGRAPH -- This satellite image shows Hurricane Rosa on Thu., Sept. 28, 2018. NOAA

LOS ANGELES — Hurricane Rosa weakened slightly off Mexico's Pacific Coast on Friday and is expected to increase surf and rip currents along the Southern California coast this weekend. Surf from 6 to 10 feet is possible on Los Angeles and Ventura County beaches as early as Saturday night or Sunday, the National Hurricane Center said.

Orange County may see seas up to 8 feet while surf could reach 5 feet along San Diego County.

Rosa, which is now Category 3 storm, had maximum sustained winds of 120 mph and was located 625 miles southwest of the southern tip of Baja California as of Friday evening. It was moving west at 6 mph.

It is expected to become a tropical storm by late Sunday as it heads northeast toward the Baja California peninsula. The hurricane center said there were no coastal watches or warnings in effect, but swells generated by Rosa were expected to cause dangerous surf and rip current conditions along portions of southwestern Mexico, the peninsula and southern California.

screen-shot-2018-09-28-at-1-17-33-pm.png
This image shows the projected path of Hurricane Rosa on Friday, Sept. 28, 2018. NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER

Remnants of the Rosa are expected to hit Arizona on Sunday, bringing heavy rain, high winds and the threat of localized flooding, the National Weather Service said. Forecasters say up to 4 inches could fall in some areas through Wednesday, including Flagstaff, Payson, Prescott and the Grand Canyon's South Rim. The North Rim could see up to 6 inches.

Forecasters say metro Phoenix, Yuma, and eastern and western Arizona could see widespread rain up to a couple of inches. Normally dry washes could become flooded, as well as low-lying roadways.

Meanwhile, Tropical Storm Kirk caused power outages and heavy flooding across the eastern Caribbean and forced flight cancellations, officials said Friday. Authorities in Barbados said they helped rescue several people from a flooded home and schools were cancelled in the nearby islands of St. Lucia, Dominica, Guadeloupe and Martinique.

Meteorologists said that up to 10 inches of rain fell in some parts of Martinique, Dominica and Barbados as they warned of flash floods and mudslides. The hurricane center also warned of heavy rains for St. Croix and Puerto Rico, which was badly damaged by Hurricane Maria last year and is still recovering from the storm.

Kirk had maximum sustained winds of 40 mph and was located about 270 miles south-southeast of Puerto Rico. It was moving west at 14 mph. The storm is expected to become a tropical depression Friday night and degenerate into a low pressure trough by late Saturday.

© 2018 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.



THESE ARE VERY INTERESTING. MOST OF THESE PICTURES DO SHOW BUILDINGS THAT ARE OLD AND POORLY KEPT, CRACKED SIDEWALKS, ETC. THE CONCLUSION ON ONE CAPTION WAS THAT MOST OF THE CITIES WHICH HAD A HIGH CRIME RATE ALSO HAD A HIGH UNEMPLOYMENT RATE. NOT ALL CRIME IS COMMITTED BY HARDENED CRIMINALS, AND OTHERWISE NORMAL PEOPLE CAN REACT TO LIFE PRESSURES SUCH AS ECONOMIC INSECURITY WITH ASSAULTS AND THEFTS.

https://www.cbsnews.com/pictures/the-most-dangerous-cities-in-america/50/
The most dangerous cities in America, ranked
52 photographs with informational captions



THIS VIDEO HAS GOOD VISUALS AND A GRISLY DESCRIPTION OF THE WOUNDS BY A BYSTANDER. THE SHARK IS ESTIMATED AT 11 FEET LONG. THAT’S A LOT OF SHARK!

https://www.cbsnews.com/live/video/20180929221808-teenage-boy-airlifted-after-shark-attack-off-san-diego-beach/?ftag=CNM15cf32c
Shark attack off beach in North San Diego


MICHAEL LEWIS’ BOOK IS CALLED “THE FIFTH RISK.” HE SAYS THAT IT CONCERNS THE RISKS THAT WE DON’T EXPECT. HE SPEAKS OF TRUMP AND HIS ADMINISTRATION WHO HAVE USUALLY BEEN SCOFFERS AT THE VALUE OF PRESIDENTIAL BRIEFINGS, GOVERNMENT INFORMATION AND “REGULATIONS.” ALL THAT SORT OF REPUBLICAN CARES ABOUT IS WHAT THE PROFITS AND THE COSTS OF DOING BUSINESS ARE, AND THE “REGULATIONS” AS THEY LIMIT BUSINESS FREEDOMS TO OPERATE BASED PURELY ON PROFIT. THEY CARE NOTHING FOR THE PUBLIC AT LARGE, BUT FOR THEIR UPPER 10% OR SO. HIS BOOK IS APPARENTLY GOING TO BE ON THIS. HE SPECIFICALLY TALKS HERE ABOUT HOW THE TRUMP ADMINISTRATION SO FAR HAS IGNORED HUMAN – AND NATIONAL – CONSEQUENCES. IF I DIDN’T HAVE A LIMITED BUDGET, I WOULD BUY THIS BOOK; AS THINGS ARE, THOUGH, I WILL WAIT UNTIL THE PUBLIC LIBRARY BUYS IT. SO, HERE IS THE WEBSITE. –

https://www.cbsnews.com/video/author-michael-lewis-says-trump-administration-started-from-a-position-of-ignorance/



THE ISLAND MAY NEVER RECOVER – “THE CHALLENGE FOR THE ISLAND IS WHETHER IT CAN HARNESS THE GROWTH THAT COMES WITH AN EXPECTED $9 BILLION IN RECOVERY SPENDING IN 2018 AND 2019. "IF PUERTO RICO DOESN'T EXPERIENCE STRONG GROWTH IN FISCAL 2019, IT NEVER WILL," SAID SETSER.”

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/puerto-rico-hurricane-maria-by-the-numbers-cbsn-originals/
By PETER S. GREEN CBS NEWS September 21, 2018, 9:45 PM
Puerto Rico's grim prognosis: The island may never recover

21 PHOTOGRAPHS
VIDEO – PUERTO RICO EXODUS AFTER HURRICANE MARIA
VIDEO – CBSN NEWS DOCUMENTARY 29:01

A year after Hurricane Maria swept across Puerto Rico, leaving some 2,975 people dead and knocking the economy on its back, it is becoming increasingly clear that the U.S. territory may never fully recover from the storm.

Puerto Rico was already insolvent before the 2017 storm, with creditors and the island's government deep in negotiations about how to jumpstart the economy or strip it bare to pay off $70 billion owed to bondholders. And the island's government owes another $50 billion it doesn't have to cover current and future pensions. Even before Maria, half a million people had left Puerto Rico and its economy had been steadily shrinking since 2005. After the hurricane, there's even less to work with.

While power and water have finally been restored to more than 99 percent of the island's remaining 3.2 million residents, the economy is moribund. Economic output is projected to fall 13.3 percent this year, manufacturing jobs are drying up, tax receipts are down, small businesses are shuttering, and the reconstruction boom that follows many natural disasters is stymied by the slow pace of federal aid and the fact that most Puerto Ricans had little savings or insurance before the storm. Only 15 percent had homeowners insurance, and only 1 in 3 residents has a bank account.

"I am not hugely optimistic," says Brad Setser, an economist at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, who has written extensively on Puerto Rico. The challenge for the island is whether it can harness the growth that comes with an expected $9 billion in recovery spending in 2018 and 2019. "If Puerto Rico doesn't experience strong growth in fiscal 2019, it never will," said Setser.

Puerto Rico's governor, Ricardo Rosselló, blames what he calls the island's status as a "colony" of the united States. He wrote to President Trump this week urging the U.S. to make Puerto Rico the 51st state. "The biggest impediment for Puerto Rico's full and prosperous recovery: the inequalities Puerto Rico faces as the oldest, most populous colony in the world," Rosselló wrote.

Granting statehood, however, would be a multi-year process facing daunting political odds. In the meantime, Puerto Rico's economy is in a tailspin.

How hard is life in Puerto Rico? A fiscal plan published by the Financial Oversight and Management Board for Puerto Rico in June outlines many of the challenges. Here's a look at the numbers:

Hurricane Maria caused approximately $80 billion in damage.

45,000 homes are still waiting for government aid to fix their roofs.

Over 40 percent of the population lives below the poverty line, according to the agency that oversees Puerto Rico's finances.

Over 40 percent of Puerto Ricans depend on Medicaid for health care.

Some 200,000 residents have left Puerto Rico since the storm.

Another 10 percent of the population is projected to leave in the next five years to seek a better life elsewhere.

The island owes more than $70 billion to creditors from a recession that began years before Maria.

The government's pension fund is short $50 billion.

8,000 small businesses, about 10 percent of the total, remain closed in the wake of Maria.

Tax incentives that had helped turn Puerto Rico into a low-cost manufacturing center expired in 2006, slicing manufacturing jobs by 35 percent.

The number of tourists visiting Puerto Rico dropped 52 percent in the key winter months, compared to the year before Hurricane Maria, according to the island's tourism authority.

The median FEMA grant made to Puerto Rican homeowners after Maria was $1,800, compared with $9,127 paid to those affected by Hurricane Harvey in Texas, according to an analysis by The New York Times. Many of those who applied for aid were denied, often because they were unable to prove they own their home.

About 245 of the island's 1,100 public schools have closed. Some were damaged or demolished by the storm, but many others shuttered because teachers and students have fled the island, with about 42,000 school children leaving Puerto Rico as their families seek a better life elsewhere.

Puerto Rico: A year of reporting on Hurricane Maria
© 2018 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.


SANDERS' SAY ON THE FBI PROBE

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/sanders-wants-fbi-to-determine-if-kavanaugh-told-the-truth-under-oath_us_5baff444e4b0c7575965a236
POLITICS 09/29/2018 10:59 pm ET Updated 23 hours ago
Bernie Sanders: FBI Must Determine If Kavanaugh Told The Truth Under Oath
“Lying to Congress is a federal crime,” senator notes.
By Mary Papenfuss

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT.) has called on Judiciary Committee head Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) to direct the FBI to determine if Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh was truthful under oath in his testimony before the panel.

“Lying to Congress is a federal crime,” Sanders noted in a tweet that included a copy of a letter he sent to Grassley on Friday. “Kavanaugh’s truthfulness with the Senate goes to the very heart of whether he should be confirmed to the court.”

A determination of perjury in any statement in Kavanaugh’s testimony would threaten his confirmation.

The FBI was given a week to investigate allegations against Kavanaugh as part of a deal forged Friday by Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) and committee Republicans.


“In order for the FBI investigation regarding Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to be complete, it is imperative the bureau must not only look into the accusations made by Dr. [Christine Blasey] Ford, Deborah Ramirez and Julie Swetnick, it should also examine the veracity of his testimony before the Judiciary Committee,” Sanders wrote.

View image on TwitterView image on TwitterView image on Twitter

Bernie Sanders
✔
@SenSanders
Lying to Congress is a federal crime.

The FBI must examine the veracity of Kavanaugh’s statements under oath in addition to the sexual assault allegations against him. Kavanaugh's truthfulness with the Senate goes to the very heart of whether he should be confirmed to the court.

10:19 AM - Sep 29, 2018
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Several statements that Kavanaugh made Thursday were challenged after he defended himself under oath against Blasey’s accusation that he sexually assaulted her. She testified that he pinned her to a bed, tried to remove her clothing and placed his hand over her mouth when she tried to yell at a house party when they were both in high school.

Kavanaugh testified three times Thursday that Blasey’s friend Leland Keyser “refuted” Blasey’s claim “under penalty of felony.” While Keyser doesn’t recall the party where the attack allegedly occurred, she did “not refute Dr. Ford’s account, and ... she believes Dr. Ford’s account,” her attorney wrote in a letter sent Friday to the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Kavanaugh’s Yale classmates have contradicted his characterization of his drinking in high school and college as moderate and that he never blacked out. Classmates said he was a heavy drinker and sometimes a belligerent, drunk. Blasey said that both Kavanaugh and his friend Mark Judge, who she said was in the room when the alleged assault against her occurred, were “stumbling drunk.”

Judge has written in his memoir, Wasted: Tales of a Gen X Drunk, that he and his friends were determined to drink 100 kegs of beer their senior year at Georgetown prep. Kavanaugh’s bio in the senior yearbook notes that he was a member of the “Keg City Club (treasurer) — 100 Kegs or Bust.”

Kavanaugh also testified that it was legal to drink as a senior when he attended Georgetown Prep, which is located in suburban Maryland. It wasn’t. The drinking age in Maryland was raised from 18 to 21 in 1982 when Kavanaugh was 17.


Bernie Sanders
✔
@SenSanders
Replying to @SenSanders
Kavanaugh repeatedly told the committee he never drank to the point where he didn’t remember something. He also denied ever becoming aggressive when he drinks. There have been many reports from Kavanaugh's high school, college and law school classmates that contradict this. (7/x)

1:14 PM - Sep 29, 2018
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Kavanaugh also denied being in the same “social circles” as Blasey, indicating it was unlikely they’d be at the same party. Yet his calendar marks several get-togethers with a friend nicknamed “Squi” — whom Kavanaugh identified as Chris Garett — who was going out with Ford at the time, she testified.

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Kavanaugh also testified he “never attended a gathering like the one” described by Blasey, but his own calendar and Judge appear to contradict that.

Bernie Sanders
✔
@SenSanders
Replying to @SenSanders
Kavanaugh claimed that he and Dr. Ford “did not travel in the same social circles.” Dr. Ford said she dated Chris Garrett, referenced as a friend in his yearbook. In fact she testified Garrett introduced her to Kavanaugh. (9/x)

1:14 PM - Sep 29, 2018
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Bernie Sanders
✔
@SenSanders
Replying to @SenSanders
Kavanaugh claimed he didn't drink on weeknights but an entry on his calendar for Thursday July 1 states, “Go to Timmy’s for Skis w/ Judge, Tom, Pj, Bernie, Squi.” Kavanaugh clarified to Sen. Booker that “Skis” referred to beer. Was Kavanaugh's original statement truthful? (10/10)

1:14 PM - Sep 29, 2018
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Kavanaugh’s insistence that words he used in his bio in his senior yearbook — “boofing,” “Devil’s Triangle,” and “Renate Alumnius” were relatively innocent have been widely contradicted. While he said Devil’s Triangle was a drinking game, for example, it’s also used as a term for a sexual threesome.


John Trumbull
@TrumbullComic
Replying to @TrumbullComic
...Is it perjury if you lie about the meanings of #Boof and #DevilsTriangle under oath? Asking for a Supreme Court nominee. #KavanaughFord

5:59 PM - Sep 27, 2018
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Sanders also lists several questionable statements under oath by Kavanaugh during his initial confirmation hearings earlier this month.

It’s unclear how much freedom the FBI will have in its investigation to determine Kavanaugh’s veracity under oath.

NBC reported Saturday that the bureau has been given a specific list of witnesses that can be questioned, and that contradictory information about his drinking at Yale will not be probed, according to sources. Agents will also not be allowed to investigate claims by Julie Swetnick, who has accused Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct at parties during high school, NBC reported.

But President Donald Trump insisted Saturday that the FBI has “free rein” to follow any leads.

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THIS WAS NOT ON THE LIST OF THINGS THAT THE SENATE WANTED TO AUTHORIZE THE FBI TO DO, BUT I DO HOPE THEY WILL FOLLOW THROUGH ON SOMETHING AS OBVIOUS AS LYING, THOUGH. THEY OUGHT TO INVESTIGATE HOSPITALIZATIONS FOR ALCOHOL, SUICIDE ATTEMPTS, THE ABUSE OF ANY OTHER DRUG OR GENERAL MENTAL HEALTH ISSUES SUCH AS BIPOLAR DISORDER, ASSAULTS, DRUNK DRIVING, WIFE OR FAMILY ABUSE, THAT CASE IN MARYLAND THAT SUPPOSEDLY TOOK PLACE AT A FRIEND’S HOUSE WHEN HE SHOVED A WOMAN UP AGAINST THE WALL AND BEHAVED SEXUALLY TO HER (THAT WAS RECOUNTED IN AN ANONYMOUS LETTER), AND ANY OTHER DANGEROUS THINGS.

I WOULD EVEN SAY THAT THE SENATE COULD MANDATE THAT HE RECEIVE A THOROUGH MENTAL HEALTH EVALUATION WITH A PROFESSIONAL. CONFESSING SINS TO A PRIEST ISN’T THE SAME THING. THEY SHOULD LOOK ON HIS COMPUTER FOR THREATS, LOVE TALK TO SOME OTHER PERSON THAN HIS WIFE, HOMOSEXUALITY OR PEDOPHILIA WEBSITES/ACTIVITY, SERIOUS PERSONALITY DISORDERS AND INSTABILITY, GAMBLING, VERBAL THREATS, AND POSSIBLY EVEN PSYCHOPATHY. MANY THINGS CAN GO WRONG WITH THE HUMAN MIND. I’M SURE THAT, AFTER ALL THOSE YEARS TOGETHER, HIS WILL COULD TELL WHAT IS WRONG WITH HIM AND HOW DANGEROUS HE IS. I SAY THAT BECAUSE THE PERSON I SAW THURSDAY WAS DARNED NEAR THE STAGE OF MAKING AN ASSAULT, AND BECAUSE WHEN HE ASSAULTED DR. FORD (AS I FEEL SURE HE DID) THAT WASN’T NORMAL SEXUAL BEHAVIOR AT ALL.

I WILL SWEAR TO JUST ONE THING AFTER WATCHING HIS PERFORMANCE ON THURSDAY -- HE IS SURELY MENTALLY DISTURBED IN SOME WAY. ALWAYS, WHEN PEOPLE DRINK VERY HEAVILY, THEY ARE COVERING UP OTHER DISTURBANCE. ABOVE ALL, THEY DRINK TO “FEEL GOOD,” OR TO “FORGET,” OR UNFORTUNATELY TO “BE ACCEPTED” BY THE PRIVILEGED GROUP. IF THEY HAVE BEEN BROUGHT UP WITH THE PHILOSOPHY THAT THERE ARE “WINNERS AND LOSERS,” AS MY SECOND HUSBAND SAID TO ME, THERE’S NO ROOM FOR PEACE OF MIND AND CONTENTMENT IN THAT VIEW OF LIFE.

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/sanders-wants-fbi-to-determine-if-kavanaugh-told-the-truth-under-oath_us_5baff444e4b0c7575965a236
POLITICS 09/29/2018 10:59 pm ET Updated 23 hours ago
Bernie Sanders: FBI Must Determine If Kavanaugh Told The Truth Under Oath
“Lying to Congress is a federal crime,” senator notes.
By Mary Papenfuss

VIDEO – KAVANAUGH’S TESTIMONY WITH SENATOR DURBIN

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT.) has called on Judiciary Committee head Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) to direct the FBI to determine if Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh was truthful under oath in his testimony before the panel.

“Lying to Congress is a federal crime,” Sanders noted in a tweet that included a copy of a letter he sent to Grassley on Friday. “Kavanaugh’s truthfulness with the Senate goes to the very heart of whether he should be confirmed to the court.”

A determination of perjury in any statement in Kavanaugh’s testimony would threaten his confirmation.

The FBI was given a week to investigate allegations against Kavanaugh as part of a deal forged Friday by Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) and committee Republicans.


“In order for the FBI investigation regarding Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to be complete, it is imperative the bureau must not only look into the accusations made by Dr. [Christine Blasey] Ford, Deborah Ramirez and Julie Swetnick, it should also examine the veracity of his testimony before the Judiciary Committee,” Sanders wrote.

View image on TwitterView image on TwitterView image on Twitter

Bernie Sanders
✔
@SenSanders
Lying to Congress is a federal crime.

The FBI must examine the veracity of Kavanaugh’s statements under oath in addition to the sexual assault allegations against him. Kavanaugh's truthfulness with the Senate goes to the very heart of whether he should be confirmed to the court.

10:19 AM - Sep 29, 2018
27.5K
9,372 people are talking about this
Twitter Ads info and privacy

Several statements that Kavanaugh made Thursday were challenged after he defended himself under oath against Blasey’s accusation that he sexually assaulted her. She testified that he pinned her to a bed, tried to remove her clothing and placed his hand over her mouth when she tried to yell at a house party when they were both in high school.

Kavanaugh testified three times Thursday that Blasey’s friend Leland Keyser “refuted” Blasey’s claim “under penalty of felony.” While Keyser doesn’t recall the party where the attack allegedly occurred, she did “not refute Dr. Ford’s account, and ... she believes Dr. Ford’s account,” her attorney wrote in a letter sent Friday to the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Kavanaugh’s Yale classmates have contradicted his characterization of his drinking in high school and college as moderate and that he never blacked out. Classmates said he was a heavy drinker and sometimes a belligerent, drunk. Blasey said that both Kavanaugh and his friend Mark Judge, who she said was in the room when the alleged assault against her occurred, were “stumbling drunk.”

Judge has written in his memoir, Wasted: Tales of a Gen X Drunk, that he and his friends were determined to drink 100 kegs of beer their senior year at Georgetown prep. Kavanaugh’s bio in the senior yearbook notes that he was a member of the “Keg City Club (treasurer) — 100 Kegs or Bust.”

Kavanaugh also testified that it was legal to drink as a senior when he attended Georgetown Prep, which is located in suburban Maryland. It wasn’t. The drinking age in Maryland was raised from 18 to 21 in 1982 when Kavanaugh was 17.


Bernie Sanders
✔
@SenSanders
Replying to @SenSanders
Kavanaugh repeatedly told the committee he never drank to the point where he didn’t remember something. He also denied ever becoming aggressive when he drinks. There have been many reports from Kavanaugh's high school, college and law school classmates that contradict this. (7/x)

1:14 PM - Sep 29, 2018
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Kavanaugh also denied being in the same “social circles” as Blasey, indicating it was unlikely they’d be at the same party. Yet his calendar marks several get-togethers with a friend nicknamed “Squi” — whom Kavanaugh identified as Chris Garett — who was going out with Ford at the time, she testified.

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Kavanaugh also testified he “never attended a gathering like the one” described by Blasey, but his own calendar and Judge appear to contradict that.

Bernie Sanders
✔
@SenSanders
Replying to @SenSanders
Kavanaugh claimed that he and Dr. Ford “did not travel in the same social circles.” Dr. Ford said she dated Chris Garrett, referenced as a friend in his yearbook. In fact she testified Garrett introduced her to Kavanaugh. (9/x)

1:14 PM - Sep 29, 2018
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Bernie Sanders
✔
@SenSanders
Replying to @SenSanders
Kavanaugh claimed he didn't drink on weeknights but an entry on his calendar for Thursday July 1 states, “Go to Timmy’s for Skis w/ Judge, Tom, Pj, Bernie, Squi.” Kavanaugh clarified to Sen. Booker that “Skis” referred to beer. Was Kavanaugh's original statement truthful? (10/10)

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Kavanaugh’s insistence that words he used in his bio in his senior yearbook — “boofing,” “Devil’s Triangle,” and “Renate Alumnius” were relatively innocent have been widely contradicted. While he said Devil’s Triangle was a drinking game, for example, it’s also used as a term for a sexual threesome.


John Trumbull
@TrumbullComic
Replying to @TrumbullComic
...Is it perjury if you lie about the meanings of #Boof and #DevilsTriangle under oath? Asking for a Supreme Court nominee. #KavanaughFord

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Sanders also lists several questionable statements under oath by Kavanaugh during his initial confirmation hearings earlier this month.

It’s unclear how much freedom the FBI will have in its investigation to determine Kavanaugh’s veracity under oath.

NBC reported Saturday that the bureau has been given a specific list of witnesses that can be questioned, and that contradictory information about his drinking at Yale will not be probed, according to sources. Agents will also not be allowed to investigate claims by Julie Swetnick, who has accused Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct at parties during high school, NBC reported.

But President Donald Trump insisted Saturday that the FBI has “free rein” to follow any leads.

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Psychopathy
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychopathy

Psychopathy is traditionally a personality disorder characterized by persistent antisocial behavior, impaired empathy and remorse, and bold, disinhibited, and egotistical traits.[1] It is sometimes considered synonymous with sociopathy Different conceptions of psychopathy have been used throughout history that are only partly overlapping and may sometimes be contradictory.[2]

Hervey M. Cleckley, an American psychiatrist, influenced the initial diagnostic criteria for antisocial personality reaction/disturbance in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), as did American psychologist George E. Partridge.[3] The DSM and International Classification of Diseases (ICD) subsequently introduced the diagnoses of antisocial personality disorder (ASPD) and dissocial personality disorder (DPD) respectively, stating that these diagnoses have been referred to (or include what is referred to) as psychopathy or sociopathy. The creation of ASPD and DPD was driven by the fact that many of the classic traits of psychopathy were impossible to measure objectively.[2][4][5][6][7] Canadian psychologist Robert D. Hare later repopularized the construct of psychopathy in criminology with his Psychopathy Checklist.[2][5][8][9]

Although no psychiatric or psychological organization has sanctioned a diagnosis titled "psychopathy", assessments of psychopathic characteristics are widely used in criminal justice settings in some nations and may have important consequences for individuals. The study of psychopathy is an active field of research, and the term is also used by the general public, popular press, and in fictional portrayals.[9][10] While the term is often employed in common usage along with "crazy", "insane", and "mentally ill", there is a distinction between those with psychosis and psychopathy.[11]


SOMETHING FUN HAPPENED A FEW DAYS AGO IN BRITAIN.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-birmingham-45692710
Man takes his horse into Bilston pub
SEPTEMBER 29, 2108 3 minutes ago

PHOTOGRAPH -- The long-faced customer was filmed inside the pub in Bilston on Friday KERRY ASHFIELD

It sounds like the opening of a joke, but it was a reality for pubgoers in the West Midlands as this horse found its way into a local Wetherspoons.

The horse was taken into the Sir Henry Newbolt in Bilston on Friday, as customers enjoyed an afternoon drink.

A video posted on Facebook by Kerry Ashfield has since been shared thousands of times.

'It's an 'oss'

During the clip the horse can be seen inside the pub as his owner is asked by a member of staff to "take the horse out".

And in Black Country dialect, another staff member can be heard saying "it's an 'oss [horse] in the pub, take it out".

Ms Ashfield, 40, said: "He [the owner] drinks in there and he just came in with his horse.

"It's not something you see every day, it was just really funny, everybody was trying to film it."

The pub declined to comment. The BBC has contacted J.D. Wetherspoon for comment.

HERE IS THAT VIDEO:
https://www.facebook.com/kerry.ashfield/videos/pcb.10214554902084044/10214554899483979/?type=3&__tn__=HH-R&eid=ARAPbRGfCJYXgdITYynfiQ9ZqTvdqtd8vWn-AIwlOJ3yjIOm3YCsIB53bG383Jv2FqkhOxUrzUFjXL5J

MURDER ON THE DARK WEB
COMPILATION AND COMMENTARY
BY LUCY WARNER
SEPTEMBER 30, 2018


DO YOU NEED SOMEBODY WHACKED? WELL, HERE’S HOW TO DO IT.

OR PERHAPS YOU’RE DOING RESEARCH FOR A COLLEGE PAPER OR A BOOK, OR YOU ARE MERELY RESPONDING TO THAT VERY NATURAL THRILL OF DREAD AND SUSPENSE. IF SO, YOU WILL POSSIBLY WANT TO GO TO THE WASHINGTON POST FOR CASES REPORTED ABOUT TWO YEARS AGO INVOLVING CRAIG’S LIST. LESSON, DON’T PLACE AN AD, DON’T ANSWER AN AD. OR AT LEAST, DON’T TRUST UNKNOWN SOURCES AND GOOGLE THEM BEFORE YOU DEAL WITH THEM. IT WOULD PAY TO VERIFY CONTACT SPECIFICS, SUCH AS TELEPHONE NUMBER AND ADDRESS. MOST PEOPLE NOWADAYS LIKE EMAILS, BUT EMAILS DO NOT GIVE A CLUE ABOUT WHERE THE OTHER PARTY LIVES OR DOES BUSINESS, UNLESS YOU HAPPEN TO BE A HACKER. JUST AS JUSTICE IS BLIND, SO IS THE INTERNET. ABOVE ALL, I WOULD NEVER ANSWER A DATING SITE AND AGREE TO LET SOMEONE INTO MY HOME.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-intersect/wp/2016/01/11/think-twice-before-answering-that-ad-101-killers-have-found-victims-on-craigslist/


TODAY’S SCARY STORY COMES FROM CBS, IN WHICH THE EXCELLENT TRUE CRIME SHOW 48 HOURS ACTUALLY IS INVOLVED IN SOLVING THE CRIME. SEE BELOW.

48 HOURS TO THE RESCUE

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/48-hours-disrupts-alleged-dark-web-hitmen-in-potential-murder-for-hire-plots/
"48 HOURS" DISRUPTS ALLEGED DARK WEB HITMEN IN POTENTIAL MURDER-FOR-HIRE PLOTS
Sep 29, 2018
CORRESPONDENT -- Peter Van Sant

"Never in my journalistic career have I ever been involved in a murder investigation that led us to prevent other future potential killings," says correspondent Peter Van Sant

Known as the internet's evil twin, the dark web is a place where services offering hit men-for-hire are just a computer click away.

"48 Hours" explores the alarming world of murder-for-hire on the mysterious dark web and exposes an international criminal organization in a hunt for a self-described murder mastermind who uses the name Yura.

A six-month investigation spans the globe and leads "48 Hours" to information in the U.S. and beyond, about murder plots bought and paid for -- but not yet carried out.

Who is Yura? Where is Yura? And can police intervene before someone else gets killed?

HIT TARGET: COTTAGE GROVE, MN
He calls himself Yura -- a man who says he's behind an international murder empire named Besa Mafia. His real name is unknown.

YURA'S VIDEO DIARY: A hit man market place is like any other auction site. It brings customers and vendors together.

YURA'S VIDEO DIARY: Any hit man is welcome to sign up. But not all will be accepted.

yura-diary.jpg
He calls himself Yura -- a man who says he's behind an international murder empire named Besa Mafia. His real name is unknown. YURA
His website invites would-be killers to send him hit man audition tapes. Because the video is anonymously posted online, it can't be verified.

YURA'S VIDEO DIARY: If one searches online for, I quote, "shot dead on street," one will find plenty of news about people being shot dead in the street by unknown people that shoot and leave the site. Those are our hit men. We will be waiting for you to come place your orders, and get rid of your problems.

Yura's ominous brand of high-tech terror extends from an unknown location to the smartphones, tablets and laptops of Middle America. In fact, "48 Hours" discovered Yura and his hit man-for-hire website while investigating the shooting death of Amy Allwine in the Minneapolis suburb of Cottage Grove, Minnesota.

Amy and her husband Stephen, both 43, seemed to live a quintessentially American life surrounded by friends, family and dogs -- lots of them.

Amy ran a dog training business, while Stephen, a freelance IT expert, worked from their home. The college sweethearts married in 1996 and eventually adopted a young boy. Joseph is now 10.

Jane Sharpe: When she talked about her son, her face changed, from happy to happier, if that's possible.

Always thinking of others, Amy was the salt of the earth says her friend, Jane Sharpe.

Jane Sharpe: You could look in her eyes and just see good.

Faith was important, too, says Washington County Prosecutor Jamie Kreuser.

Prosecutor Jamie Kreuser: They were members of the United Church of God, as were all of their family members.

allwine-hero.jpg
Amy and Stephen Allwine, both 43, seemed to live a quintessentially American life surrounded by friends, family and dogs.
Stephen, a respected elder in the church, delivered sermons, counseled couples and even made videos with Amy demonstrating dance moves that complied with their conservative religious beliefs.

Jane Sharpe: She always was smiling, always smiling.

But sometime, somewhere, warmhearted Amy Allwine had made an enemy. In spring of 2016, long before "48 Hours" began its investigation, the FBI learned about a murder-for-hire site called Besa Mafia -- people paying for other people to be killed -- and began looking into it.

Poring over that treasure trove of dark web data, FBI agents were startled to learn dozens of requests for contract killings all over the world. But one in particular stood out. Someone using the chilling screen name Dogdaygod had ordered the assassination of a woman in Cottage Grove. Her name: Amy Allwine.

Capt. Randy McAlister | Cottage Grove Police: It was a case where the FBI had approached us about some concerns … regarding Amy and threats on the internet.

Peter Van Sant: Dogdaygod says, "I need this bitch dead. So please help me." There was an urgency.

Capt. Randy McAlister: Whoever Dogdaygod is -- is sorta chomping at the bit for this to happen.

Eileen Ormsby: Dogdaygod said, "Amy has ruined my life… and stolen my business."

Eileen Ormsby, an Australian writer and CBS News consultant, learned about the Allwine case while researching a book about the dangers of the dark web.

Eileen Ormsby | Writer: So here we have hacking services. Stolen PayPal and credit cards. The dark web is the name that we give to the group of websites that can't be accessed using Google or any of your normal search engines. …You need to download special software and then it opens up this new world to you.

Eileen Ormsby: The technology behind it was actually developed by the U.S. military to hide military secrets. …So that sort of security obviously offers criminals great security as well.

The killing of Amy Allwine had been ordered on that hit man website Besa Mafia.

Eileen Ormsby: Yura is the owner of Besa Mafia, and subsequent websites that are the most profitable group of murder-for-hire sites that have ever existed.

Peter Van Sant: Ever existed?

Eileen Ormsby: Ever existed.

Ormsby's research led her to a like-minded colleague half a world away in London. Chris Monteiro, an IT specialist by day, white hat hacker by night, had also found Besa Mafia.

Chris Monteiro | White hat hacker: If you've passed the barrier of having paid money to get someone killed, you are mentally committed to doing that.

Monteiro didn't want "48 Hours" -- or our footage -- to reveal the location of his apartment.

Chris Monteiro: The people who would use this website are in many cases dangerous people.

Peter Van Sant: Because these are people who genuinely want to have someone else murdered.

Chris Monteiro: Yes. And in many cases are paying a significant amount of money for this.

Capt. Randy McAlister: Dogdaygod spent a lotta money to have Amy Allwine murdered.

Dogdaygod wanted her dead badly enough to pay Yura and the Besa Mafia site more than $12,000 in the digital currency bitcoin.

Even financial transactions are made anonymously on the dark web, says prosecutor Kreuser.

Prosecutor Jamie Kreuser: Bitcoin is untraceable. Because when you use bitcoin, it is done through what is called a wallet.

Peter Van Sant: And so once I get a bitcoin wallet, I can use that to pay for these services on the dark web?

Prosecutor Jamie Kreuser: That is correct.

Peter Van Sant: Even murder?

Prosecutor Jamie Kreuser: That's right.

The dark web is where hackers buy the tools to subvert elections
CBSN Originals: Cryptocurrency: Virtual money, real power
Hacker's paradise: Secrets of the "dark web"
With the hit against Amy bought and paid for, the FBI had decided to tell her and Stephen the frightening news.

Det. Terry Raymond | Cottage Grove Police: I believe it was May 31st of 2016.

Cottage Grove Detective Terry Raymond rode along with the FBI that day.

Det. Terry Raymond: Well, we brought her into an interview room.

Peter Van Sant: You had to ask the question, "Amy, do you know anyone in your life who would want you dead?"

Det. Terry Raymond: Right. And she didn't. …She was completely shocked and had no clue who it could possibly be.

Raymond says, at the time, the FBI never mentioned anything to him or the Allwines about Yura, Besa Mafia or Dogdaygod, but they told her there was a murder-for-hire plot against her on the dark web.

Det. Terry Raymond: It was the FBI's investigation. They have people that are familiar with the dark web. …Other than an extra patrol thing, it's not something that we would get involved in.


The authorities advised Amy and her husband to beef up their home security and then left.

Capt. Randy McAlister: They installed … a video surveillance system. And they purchased a pistol. …So they had taken steps.

Jamie Kreuser: And Amy Allwine, from that point on … lived with this knowledge that someone wanted her dead.

Then two months later, in July 2016, Amy got another death threat – this time sent directly to her.

Peter Van Sant [reading]: "Amy, I still blame you for my life falling apart… Here is what is going to happen. …I will come after everything else that you love."

Suddenly, the death threat hung over Amy's entire family, including her son, Joseph, then 8 years old.

Peter Van Sant [reading]: "Here is how you can save your family. Commit suicide. …So why not do it now and save them?"

Peter Van Sant: How seriously do you take this threat?

Capt. Randy McAlister: You have to investigate it as much as you can. The problem is, the email it was sent from … was anonymized, so it was untraceable.

But someone did want Amy Allwine dead. And soon enough she would be.

"I THINK MY WIFE SHOT HERSELF"
Sergeant Gwen Martin was just starting the night shift on Nov. 13, 2016, when a 911 call came in that made many on the Cottage Grove Police Department drop what they were doing.

Sgt. Gwen Martin: The caller was telling them that a female had shot herself.

911 CALL: I think my wife shot herself. There is blood all over.

Sgt. Gwen Martin: We get in the squad cars, and we start going to the scene.

As an 18-year veteran patrol cop and experienced paramedic, Martin says she was trained to be ready for anything. But nothing had prepared her for a message she received from dispatch about half way through her six-minute drive to the scene.

Sgt. Gwen Martin: I knew it was Amy.

amy-allwine-training.jpg
Amy Allwine during a course for citizens to learn about law enforcement and emergency services. SGT. GWEN MARTIN/COTTAGE GROVE POLICE DEPT.
Martin had grown fond of Amy Allwine after teaching her in an eight-week course for citizens to learn about law enforcement and emergency services. They'd last seen each other just two weeks earlier at graduation.

Sgt. Gwen Martin: My -- my heart stopped. No. This isn't possible. Amy wasn't suicidal. Amy was happy. She had a husband. She had a son. What possibly could be goin' on?

As Martin rounded a final curve on the pitch-black country road, the taillights of first responders at the scene appeared in her windshield.

She says she entered the house still hoping that the female might be someone other than Amy.

Peter Van Sant: And what did you see?

Sgt. Gwen Martin: I saw Amy -- lying on the floor … a pool of blood … A blank look on her face, obviously dead.

Amy Allwine was sprawled on the bedroom floor. Her eyes were open and her pants partially unzipped.

Sgt. Gwen Martin: And I started crying… My mind was spinning. I was whirling with disbelief, with shock.

Martin called Capt. Randy McAlister at his home. He rushed to the scene, passing the Allwine's son Joseph outside the house. The boy was being comforted by his father Stephen.

McAlister says he expected to find a suicide. But once in the house, his nose detected something strange. A pumpkin was roasting in the kitchen.

Peter Van Sant: So the notion would be that Amy Allwine put a pumpkin in the roaster, put it in the oven and then shot herself to death?

Capt. Randy McAlister: Yeah. Yeah. …So that was really odd.

Sgt. Gwen Martin: It doesn't look like a suicide.

Amy's gunshot wound was easy to miss at first: a single bullet hole inside her right ear. The Allwine's pistol was lying in the crook of her left arm, which was perplexing because Amy was right handed.

Capt. Randy McAlister: How did her hand end up under the bed and the gun end up on her left arm?

Then McAlister studied the bloody scene around Amy.

Capt. Randy McAlister: I noticed what we call satellite blood drips that were actually outside of the blood pool.

Jamie Kreuser: At some point, Amy's head was suspended above those drops.

Meaning, says Prosecutor Jamie Kreuser, that someone may have moved her body to this spot. And when the crime scene team did a luminol test looking for invisible bloodstains.

Prosecutor Jamie Kreuser: It lit up like a Christmas tree!

allwine-luminol-footsteps.jpg
After a luminol test at the Allwine's home, bloody footprints too faint to be seen with the naked eye suddenly appeared everywhere. WASHINGTON COUNTY, MINN., COURT
Bloody footprints too faint to be seen with the naked eye suddenly appeared everywhere.

Capt. Randy McAlister: They went back and forth to the mud room … But they also went into the bathroom on the main floor. And they went into -- the son's bedroom.

There were no immediate suspects. Amy's son was just a kid, her husband Stephen had helped beef up security at the house after the FBI's warning and even bought a gun. He agreed to be questioned down at the police station:

STEPHEN ALLWINE TO POLICE: We're a normal family. There's nothing -- nothing unique, nothing strange.

Capt. Randy McAlister : The thing that stood out for everybody, I think, is his demeanor.

allwine-interrogation.jpg
Stephen Allwine, right, with attorney Kevin DeVore, was questioned by Cottage Grove police about the death of his wife, Amy COTTAGE GROVE POLICE DEPT.
Even though Stephen Allwine had made that 911 call, McAlister says Allwine was oddly calm for someone who had just found his wife shot to death. Even when he started crying at one point:

STEPHEN ALLWINE TO POLICE: [Sighs] If she did kill herself I didn't see anything comin'. I guess it was my fault [cries]. I guess l don't even know what to look for, I don't know what – [picks up a tissue]

Capt. Randy McAlister: It just seemed kinda fake to me.

Allwine told police he'd spent the morning working in his basement. He says when he came up for lunch, Amy wasn't feeling well.

Capt. Randy McAlister: She was coming down with something.

Allwine said he'd given their son to Amy's parents for the afternoon.

Capt. Randy McAlister: He left the house at roughly 5:30 p.m. to go pick his son up from the grandparents' house.

From there, Allwine says he took his son for dinner and then drove home.

Capt. Randy McAlister: The son apparently went right to the master bedroom to look for his mom and found her -- on the floor.

Sgt. Gwen Martin: When people call 911, they're usually calling for help. …"I need help, I need an ambulance—I -- I need the police." They're … in utter shock, despair … "I need help." And his first line wasn't asking for help. It was more of a statement.

STEPHEN ALLWINE TO 911: I think my wife shot herself. There is blood all over.

As the 911 call went on, Stephen Allwine's distraught young son, who discovered his mother's body, had questions:

JOSEPH ALLWINE: Why did she shoot herself?

STEPHEN ALLWINE: I don't know. I don't know bud, come here.

He then asked:

JOSEPH ALLWINE: Are you going to remarry?

STEPHEN ALLWINE: I don't know bud [chuckles].

JOSEPH ALLWINE: I'm just sad.

Peter Van Sant: Did you hear what I heard? What -- what seemed like a chuckle?

Sgt. Gwen Martin: Yeah.

Peter Van Sant: There was nothing funny in that room, in that scene.

Sgt. Gwen Martin: No. Nothing funny at all.

Although Stephen Allwine's behavior seemed fishy in the 911 call and police interviews, McAlister said there was no apparent motive for him to kill his wife. And there was no definitive evidence linking him to the death scene.

Peter Van Sant: At that point, in your mind, is this a murder case?

Capt. Randy McAlister: I'm thinkin' it's a murder case, I just don't know who'd done it.

DOGDAYGOD: "I NEED HER GONE"
Peter Van Sant: Amy Allwine's husband Stephen called 911. I have it here.

The Allwine's young son can be heard crying on the call.

Jane Sharpe [refusing the offer to hear the call] :I don't even wanna hear her son! … That poor little boy!

Jane Sharpe is furious that authorities who knew about the dark web hit man threat against her friend Amy Allwine didn't do more to protect her.

Jane Sharpe: I think they failed her. They failed her.

Peter Van Sant: So when you arrived at the residence, there's not a sense of … The husband might be someone we should really keep our eye on?

Det. Terry Raymond: No, we didn't discuss any of that.

Terry Raymond and Randy McAlister from the Cottage Grove Police say this was the FBI's case. The Feds took the lead that day. Local police say they did everything they could for Amy: warned her to take security precautions and increased patrols in her area.

Capt. Randy McAlister: You can't park a car indefinitely outside of somebody's house, unless you have more … specific information.

"48 Hours" wanted to ask the FBI about the Allwine case, but the Bureau declined our request for an interview.

Since 2015, Chris Monteiro had been sounding the alarm about dark web murder-for-hire sites. He'd been writing online articles to argue that many hit man sites were phony.

In 2016, he says he noticed someone had edited one of his posts about Besa Mafia, insisting it was real.

Peter Van Sant: This is Yura doing this?

Chris Monteiro: Yes.

Peter Van Sant: So he's basically saying … this guy's not right. Don't listen to him.

Chris Monteiro: Yeah.

An online argument ensued. The sniping continued for months, until Monteiro says he received a chilling video from Yura in his inbox.

Chris Monteiro: And in this video is someone holding up a piece of paper with my domain name … And there's a big flame. And a car's being torched! …was very, very surreal … at this point I didn't know what to do.

Monteiro called a lawyer the next day. In the following weeks, as the threats from Yura continued, he sought help and support from his online community, including author Eileen Ormsby in Australia.

Peter Van Sant: Did you interpret this as a threat upon Chris's life?

Eileen Ormsby: Yes, we both did.

Monteiro also saw it as a declaration of war.

Chris Monteiro: I was gonna take this guy down.

That was easier said than done. Yura's sites were encrypted and he regularly changed their names.

YURA'S VIDEO DIARY: To customers, law enforcement can't easily close our site because the IP is hidden, posting is hidden.

Then Monteiro developed a special computer code to hack into the Besa Mafia site.

chris-monteiro.jpg
"There are people around the world in danger," says Chris Monteiro, an eccentric, white hat computer hacker determined to bust murder-for-hire plots online. CBS NEWS
Peter Van Sant: So you were able to see all the communication that's gone between customers and Yura himself.

Chris Monteiro: Yes. Exactly.

Peter Van Sant: What are you discovering?

Chris Monteiro: I discovered there are lots of sick people out there…

Chris Monteiro: And in many cases, being very graphic about … how they want the person to suffer.

Chris Monteiro [reading miscellaneous kill orders]: "I would like this person to be shot and killed…" "I have a very strong motive to kill my daughter…." "Do you know where I can hire someone to rape another person?" "Do you poor acid on my target? If so how much does it cost?"

Peter Van Sant: Did you come across someone who used the handle Dogdaygod?

Chris Monteiro: Yes, I did.

The target in this kill order, was Amy Allwine. Chris Monteiro found scores of messages between Dogdaygod and Yura discussing how, where and when the hit would take place.

Peter Van Sant: What did Dogdaygod want done?

Chris Monteiro: The target killed … whilst they were on -- a particularly given date…"

DOGDAYGOD WRITES: "I am looking to hire you for a hit."

YURA REPLIES: "We can plan the hit when you are traveling outside the city for a day or two. This makes everyone know you could not be the murderer."

DOGDAYGOD WRITES: "The target will be traveling out of town to Moline, Illinois. What is the price in bitcoin for a hit and ideally making it look like an accident?"

YURA RESPONDS: "Normal killing by gunshot is $5,000. …Killing to make it look like accident is $5,000 plus max 4,000."

Peter Van Sant: It's all organized. It's all ready to go. Yura is offering everything here except airline miles it seems for this hit.

Eileen Ormsby: Dogdaygod has a very intimate knowledge of Amy's whereabouts, her movements and what she's going to be doing at any one time.

And Ormsby says Dogdaygod's messages with Yura, which began about nine months before Amy Allwine died, makes clear that as time passed, Dogdaygod had grown impatient about having the hit carried out.

Dogdaygod writes in an email dated March 20, 2016: "I want her gone. I need her gone."

Chris Monteiro says he was so concerned about the hit man sites, he contacted the FBI.

Chris Monteiro: I … spoke to an agent there and explained the situation…

He admits he didn't get into specifics about any plot in particular – and says the conversation went nowhere. He eventually gave up trying.

Chris Monteiro: This would take over my life even more than it has.

But Monteiro's life was turned upside down in January 2017 when he learned about Amy Allwine's death.

Chris Monteiro: I was so upset when I found out... And this is exactly what I tried to stop. It's really been difficult.

Back in Minnesota, police had been busy investigating Amy's death since the day her body was discovered. They'd made an unusual find in the basement, where Stephen had an office.

Capt. Randy McAlister: He had a lot of very advanced electrical and computer equipment.

Peter Van Sant: I heard there was as many as 66 electronic devices down there.

Capt. Randy McAlister: You're right.

Peter Van Sant: Did it look like mission control?

Capt. Randy McAlister: Yeah.

It was a lot, even for an IT professional like Stephen Allwine. And investigators unearthed startling cyber evidence in his email.

Prosecutor Jamie Kreuser: Stephen Allwine had been going on a website called Ashley Madison. It is a website for married people seeking extramarital affairs.

Ashley Madison's client list was leaked in 2015, publicly shaming some of the most rich and powerful adulterers in America.

Peter Van Sant: How do you think she would've taken that news?

Jane Sharpe: She would've been crushed.

Kreuser says Stephen Allwine's position in the church would have been in jeopardy if he divorced Amy.

Jamie Kreuser: Stephen Allwine had … dated -- at least three women -- through different internet forums. Those relationships ranged from a date to a prolonged sexual relationship.

His texts with one of those women could never be heard in church:

STEVEN ALLWINE: Know what I am dreaming about tonight?

WOMAN: What??

STEVEN ALLWINE: You in a nightie …? Or maybe out of nightie?

Prosecutor Jamie Kreuser: That goes to motive in that Stephen Allwine did not wanna be married anymore.

The incriminating evidence against Stephen Allwine was growing. They discovered Allwine had been shopping on the dark web for an anti-nausea drug called scopolamine.

Prosecutor Jamie Kreuser: Taking -- a large amount of scopolamine would render you helpless essentially.

Had he pulled the trigger himself or hired a hit man from Yura's website? Yura claimed Amy's shooting was arranged on Besa Mafia in this video diary he sent "48 Hours":

YURA'S VIDEO DIARY: The Besa Mafia hit man visited the Allwine residence and shot his wife with … her gun and then left the location driving in a hurry…

Either way, Amy's autopsy showed an enormous amount of scopolamine in her system.

Capt. Randy McAlister: Well, in-- in high enough amounts, it can kill you.

In spite of the scopolamine, in spite of the messages to the hit man site, Randy McAlister was lacking absolute proof that Stephen Allwine was involved in Amy's death. Could someone else have used Allwine's computers?

Capt. Randy McAlister: I really didn't latch onto Stephen Allwine as the suspect until December 12th.

December 12, 2017 -- that's the day McAlister got a call from another investigator who had just made another crucial discovery.

Capt. Randy McAlister: Stephen moves from being a … grieving spouse of Amy, to the suspect in her murder.

DOGDAYGOD UNMASKED
Jamie Kreuser: I've worked on many murders in my career. This one, far and wide, the most complex, trying case I have ever worked on as a prosecutor.

On Dec. 12, 2016, authorities in the Allwine investigation caught their biggest break of all.

Peter Van Sant: Is there a smoking gun in this case, in your opinion?

Jamie Kreuser: There is a smoking gun in this case.

Prosecutor Jamie Kreuser says the smoking gun was a 34-character code in a message from Dogdaygod, paying for Amy's murder in bitcoin -- that digital currency that people on the dark web often use to buy and sell anonymously. The problem for Stephen Allwine was that code was on his computer. Kreuser says it could not have been a coincidence.

Peter Van Sant: So in the end, who is Dogdaygod?

Jamie Kreuser: Dogdaygod is Stephen Allwine.

The man who swore to God that he would love, honor and cherish Amy Allwine is now suspected of sending her to an early grave.

Sgt. Gwen Martin: We know he tried to hire a hit man to kill her. We know he tried to poison her. …He tried to get her to kill herself with these emails. That didn't work.

Prosecutors say after waiting for nine months, Stephen Allwine was so frustrated that the hit hadn't happened, that he shot his wife to death himself, using that nausea drug to render her helpless and the gun he'd bought for their personal protection.

stephen-allwine-mug.jpg
Stephen Allwine was arrested on Jan. 17, 2017, on murder charges. COTTAGE GROVE POLICE DEPT.
Stephen Allwine was arrested on Jan. 17, 2017, on murder charges. He hired defense attorney Kevin DeVore.

Peter Van Sant: Let's get right to it, did Stephen Allwine murder his wife Amy?

Kevin DeVore: No.

Peter Van Sant: If he didn't, who did?

Kevin DeVore: Well, there were threats that were being made directly to Amy Allwine on the internet.

DeVore claims authorities had tunnel vision from the start, focusing on Stephen Allwine and ignoring other possibilities.

Peter Van Sant: Now, investigators say, nice try with that. But Stephen wrote all those emails. It was Stephen who sought to hire a hit man.

Kevin DeVore: That's what they say … but they didn't provide us with any proof that he sent those emails.

Peter Van Sant: There is a 34 digit code, the same code that was found on Stephen Allwine's laptop and on his cell phone … how do you explain that?

Kevin DeVore: Well, that's -- that was the best evidence the state had in their case. And –

Peter Van Sant: And the truth is you can't explain it.

Kevin DeVore: Can't explain it. But there is another possibility of how it got on there.

Incriminating evidence was uploaded to Stephen Allwine's computer from a device called "S. Allwine iphone." But DeVore will ask jurors to believe the phone wasn't Stephen's.

In any case, DeVore says there's evidence a woman wrote messages like this one:

ANONYMOUS EMAIL TO AMY ALLWINE:"I don't know how a fat bitch like you got to my husband…"

Kevin DeVore: There were other women involved in Amy's life-- friends of hers & other colleagues that ... had full access to her internet to her home.

And he says it was a woman after all – or at least someone claiming to be -- who tried to get Amy to commit suicide just months before authorities found her dead.

Kevin DeVore: It appeared that it was another female that was angry with Amy for -- allegedly having an affair with this woman's husband.

Police found no evidence Amy Allwine was having an affair with anyone.

Peter Van Sant: It sounds like you're making up an excuse for your client.

Kevin DeVore: Well, let me tell you, as a criminal defense attorney my job is … to defend my client is to show that he's not guilty.

Stephen Allwine's arrest rocked the United Church of God, where he had been held in such high esteem. Officials issued a statement expressing their "profound shock and sadness."

As Allwine's murder trial approached in January 2018, authorities were winding down their investigation. But "48 Hours" was launching one of its own. We wanted to learn more about the shadowy figure behind the Besa Mafia site.

Yura had by this time closed down Besa Mafia and opened a new hit man site called Cosa Nostra, another reference to the mob and organized crime. Again, these websites can't be verified.

pvs-darkweb.jpg
"This is the Cosa Nostra website on the dark web. You can see the pictures of somebody who has clearly been shot, a man with a gun, eyes hidden like he's the hit man, cars that have been burned…" Van Sant points out. CBS NEWS
"48 Hours" wanted to talk to Yura ourselves, so we wrote to him on the dark web.

Amazingly, he responded almost right away: "Hi, I am Yura" he wrote. "I got your earlier message…"

Even more amazingly, he agreed to an interview -- with an important condition. He said it had to be in London.

Peter Van Sant [on camera]: "48 Hours" flew from New York London, rented a studio and even brought in a master of disguise to camouflage Yura's face. Now all we need is him.

Eileen Ormsby, who we'd brought to London from Australia, joined us as we waited.

Peter Van Sant: What do you know about Yura? Where does he live, do you think?

Eileen Ormsby: I don't know where Yura lives, but I suspect he's not too far away from us right now.

On our second day, we got a message on the dark web.

Peter Van Sant: What did he say?

Eileen Ormsby: I don't think he's coming.

Peter Van Sant [on camera]: Yura told us he was sure we were being followed by British intelligence. So we offered to meet him in a public place where he could surveil us and see that we were alone. We even offered to talk in a moving taxi making our way through London. But Yura was convinced that if he showed up, so too would the authorities.

Eileen Ormsby [reading Yura's email]: "I do have several millions to live a nice life and start several businesses. Why should I risk being arrested and end up in jail?"

Chris Monteiro says he knows just how risky contact with Yura can be. He experienced it firsthand in his own home.

Peter Van Sant: February 4th, 2017, you're here in your flat in London. What happens?

Chris Monteiro [in his apartment]: Well, I'm just in the living room having some soup and I hear some noises from the door. I think, "What's going on?" So I come out and I go here [to the front door] to listen.

He says he'd spent months monitoring Yura, when Yura cunningly turned the tables on him.

Chris Monteiro: Yura wasn't happy with me. He decided what he would do -- he would try and confuse the matters of who ran the website.

Not long before, he'd discovered that Yura was trying to frame him, claiming Monteiro ran the hit man sites.

Chris Monteiro: And before I know it, there's a battering ram knocking down the door. There's armored police busting in. They push me up against the wall here and say, "Hands in the air." …"You're under arrest for -- for incitement to murder." I'm like, "What?"

He says he was amazed when cops confiscated his computers and locked him up. British authorities dropped the charges and later refused "48Hours"' request for an interview about Chris Monteiro.

Peter Van Sant: What a nightmare.

Chris Monteiro: It wasn't fun. Do not recommend.

Peter Van Sant [on camera]: Knowing what Yura had done to Monteiro, we weren't surprised that he'd backed out of an interview with us during our four days in London. But we didn't walk away empty-handed. Yura did give "48 Hours" some information that took our investigation into a whole new direction.

The man who apparently cornered the market in contract killings, sent "48 Hours" a video diary.

YURA'S VIDEO DIARY: I am doing this video diary entry to give you visual statements about the site.

He insisted he actually wanted to save lives. To prove it, he began giving us the names of the murder targets from his sites.

Normally, as journalists, we report the news and do our best to get out of the way. But this was different. We found ourselves in the middle of an apparent live marketplace for murder – and there was only one thing we could do. We contacted authorities.

Peter Van Sant [on phone]: We have a tip on a murder for hire plot.

"48 Hours" associate producer [on phone]: …knows where the target works, knows where the target lives.

And after "48 Hours" called authorities, we began approaching targets ourselves.

WATCH PART 2

MARKED FOR MURDER
Some days, Jane Sharpe mourns the loss of her friend, Amy Allwine, by blowing off steam at the gym. Prosecutors believe Amy's husband shot her in cold blood after his attempt to hire a hit man failed.

Peter Van Sant: If you had an opportunity to be alone in a room with Stephen Allwine, what would you like to say or do?

Jane Sharpe: I'm not sure that would be a good idea … I'd probably kickbox his ass. I mean, I would.

As prosecutors prepared to try Stephen Allwine, "48 Hours" began its investigation into the criminal mastermind known as Yura. Yura had built a dark web empire advertising assassinations for hire, as described in a video diary he sent us:

YURA'S VIDEO DIARY: The hit man usually goes to the target address, such as home or workplace and waits for them inside a stolen or rental car…

Nothing about Yura, including his diary, can be verified. His website has been rebranded.

As reporters, our job is to cover the news. But in a shocking turn of events, Yura began sending "48 Hours" the names of targets -- turning on his own customers. It defied logic. We turned that information over to authorities.

One unlikely target: Sydney Minor. She's a 22-year-old single mom living in Clarksville, Tennessee.

Sydney Minor: It's very traumatizing to know that I could've been that next person.

Clarksville police summoned Sydney to the station last April after "48 Hours" tipped authorities to the plot against her.

Sydney Minor: We sat in a little room and then he's like, "Someone's trying to murder you." …My instant reaction, I just start crying, and I was like "Why?"

Someone using the alias "Blackjack85" had messaged Yura's website in early February 2018 providing Sydney's name, home address and other details.

YURA'S VIDEO DIARY: You can access it to submit your orders to kill the people you hate…

Sydney is hearing this information for the first time:

Peter Van Sant [reading to Sydney]: "Target works at Woody's Restaurant on Madison Street." … "Will be moving in a week's time and harder to find, should be done as soon as possible."

Peter Van Sant: That means kill you.

Sydney Minor: Yeah.

Sydney was questioned by a detective.

Sydney Minor: And that's when he asked me, "Who do you think would wanna kill you?" And that's when I gave him the four names.

Sydney names her ex-husband and her mother's ex-fiancé. Both men were cleared right away.

Sydney Minor: And, then, that left Brandon and Alexis.

Brandon States and Alexis Shelton had gone to the same high school as Sydney. They'd gone on to marry and have a daughter.

Peter Van Sant: The detective must have asked you, "So why would you give me the name Brandon?" What did you tell him?

Sydney Minor: I told him that I was pregnant with his daughter.

Peter Van Sant: When are you due?

Sydney Minor: I'm due September 20th of 2018. …It is a girl.

Peter Van Sant: You excited?

Sydney Minor: Yes. I'm very excited.

Brandon and Sydney had lost touch after high school. During the next four years, Sydney got married, had a son and divorced. By September of 2017, she started dating again.

Sydney Minor: So I was actually on a dating site and he popped up … he ended up messaging me. He's like, "Hey, you look really familiar." …I was like, "you do too."

They started chatting.

Sydney Minor: He told me he was a father; that he had a daughter and he told me that he had recently gone through a divorce. … So I was like, well, I can kinda relate 'cause I was doing the same thing.

brandonstates-sydneyminor.jpg
Brandon States and Sydney Minor. "48 Hours" tipped authorities to the murder-for-hire plot against her. SYDNEY MINOR
The pair began dating. Brandon was a newly minted Army Specialist, stationed at Ft. Stewart, Georgia. He made the exhausting eight-hour trip back and forth to Clarksville to see Sydney on some weekends.

Peter Van Sant: Did you imagine a future with Brandon?

Sydney Minor: Yeah. I was starting to.

But in January 2018, when Sydney told Brandon she was pregnant…

Sydney Minor: He was not happy. He wanted me to get an abortion. …He gave me $400.

She says he also gave her some disturbing news. Brandon and Alexis were not divorced.

Sydney Minor: He's married. And he wants to get back with his wife. …I was heartbroken. Finding out that the guy I care about is married is not fun.

Peter Van Sant: He'd lied to you. [Sydney nods to affirm]

Sydney didn't know it yet, but Brandon was about to allegedly start a new online relationship with a man named Yura.

Having decided against the abortion, Sydney says she sent back Brandon's $400 and demanded he sort out his personal life before an upcoming deployment in Korea.

Sydney Minor: I kept asking him, "Have you told Alexis yet?" And he said, "No. I need more time." I was like, "OK. So here's the ultimatum, either you tell her or I'm going to tell her."

After a few weeks of waiting, she sent Alexis a message on Facebook.

Sydney Minor: "I'm pregnant with his child. He told me he wasn't married …"

She says Alexis hinted that this wasn't the first time she had trouble with Brandon.

Sydney Minor: She's like, "Good luck in the future. If the kid is anything like the dad, you'll have your hands full."

Sydney told Brandon she'd go to military court if he refused to pay child support.

Sydney Minor [reading text messages]: He was like … "you're making the wrong choice here. So much for not fighting" … I said, "Oh well, I think I'm -- I'm making the best choice here." And he said, "You'll see."

Peter Van Sant: "You'll see?"

Sydney Minor: [Nods to affirm]

Peter Van Sant: We'll see, like we'll see who has the last word.

Sydney Minor: Uh-huh [affirms]. Exactly.

Sydney didn't know Yura would soon agree to arrange a hit on her. And "48 Hours" was about to learn of even more murder targets.

ALERTING AUTHORITIES
In April, 2018, Sydney Minor began living life as a target in a murder-for-hire plot.

Sydney Minor: It's scary. You will never look at life the same again.

But just hours after notifying Sydney, Clarksville, Tenn., police informed the Army about "48 Hours"' tip. The next day, in Korea, Brandon States was charged with several military violations, including an attempt of premeditated murder.

Sydney Minor : The detective calls me and lets me know Brandon has been arrested. He confessed.

Sydney Minor: I start crying. I was streaming tears.

Peter Van Sant: You worry sometimes, is there still a hit man out there … that has not done the murder-for-hires yet?

Sydney Minor: Every day. Every day. …Brandon's in custody. But there's no person with a gun in custody.

Like Amy Allwine, Sydney had been warned ahead of time. For Amy, it was too little, too late. Sydney feared her ordeal wasn't over. She says she asked the detective if Brandon's wife, Alexis, was part of the plot.

Sydney Minor : He said …"we've taken all precautions. We don't believe she's a part of it."

A law enforcement source told "48 Hours," "there is no evidence at this time that Mrs. Alexis States was involved."

In London, white hat hacker Chris Monteiro had been monitoring Yura's websites as they rebranded and changed names.

Peter Van Sant: You're sure this is the Yura that you've been pursuing all this time?

Chris Monteiro: Oh, absolutely.

Monteiro told "48 Hours" that Blackjack85 seemed to grow impatient when the hit he'd paid for didn't happen. The messages are hard for Sydney to hear.

Peter Van Sant [reading message to Sydney]: Yura says to him, "…unfortunately, these basic hitmen sometimes fail as they are low quality for low price. If you could afford a difference of $5,000, I can assign an expert hitman…"

There's a pattern here similar to the Allwine case. Yura can't seem to get the job done, raising Monteiro's suspicions of whether Yura is really providing hit men. What's more, it struck him that Yura is always asking for more money.

YURA'S VIDEO DIARY: But the truth is that most hit man sites are real …

Peter Van Sant: This must all be overwhelming.

Sydney Minor: Yeah.

Peter Van Sant: And if this Yura fellow can be found, what would you like to see happen to him?

Sydney Minor: The same fate he's been puttin' on everyone else.

Peter Van Sant: The death penalty?

Sydney Minor: Yeah.

Yura was finished with Sydney, but not with "48 Hours." He tipped us to yet another plot. This time, the person who allegedly hired the hit man is a woman living near Chicago.

NEWS REPORT: Last week, police … received a tip about the murder for hire plot from the CBS News program "48 Hours."

NEWS REPORT: Tina Jones was allegedly in a wild love triangle, accused of trying to pay thousands in bitcoin to have her lover's wife murdered.

tina-jones-wedding.jpg
Tina Jones CHRISTOPHER BROCK PHOTOGRAPHY
From the outside, Tina Jones, 31, a registed nurse, and her husband Toby seemed to lead a fairy-tale life -- at least according to social media. But less than two years into her marriage, investigators believe Tina's eye began to wander, and settled on a colleague.

Justin Kmitch | The Daily Herald reporter: "We understand the allegation that she met -- an anesthesiologist at the hospital, and that they had a relationship…

Justin Kmitch has been covering the story for The Daily Herald. Tina's alleged boyfriend was also married. Authorities believe Tina wanted his wife dead.

Justin Kmitch: The hit man was told to make it look like an accident -- and that the husband was not to be harmed in any way in the commission of this crime.

Acting on "48 Hours"' tip, which originally came from Yura, authorities arrested Tina Jones on April 17 and charged her with six felonies including attempted murder.

Chris Monteiro says authorities hadn't heeded his warnings about Yura. When he saw they were listening to "48 Hours," he started passing us new target information from Yura's sites.

allen-vincent.jpg
Armed with information provided to them by "48 Hours," police arrested Allen Vincent, who was later charged with criminal conspiracy to murder the boyfriend of a female colleague. THE STRAITS TIMES © SINGAPORE PRESS HOLDINGS LIMITED
Wong Pei Ting covered the case for an online newspaper in Singapore called "Today." She says, if Vincent is convicted, the notoriously strict Singapore courts may throw the book at him.

Wong Pei Ting: He's being charged with something that -- that could … get him hanged.

"48 Hours" has been working this story for several months now and a tinge of suspicion has crept into our minds. Chris Monterio has had access to Yura's database -- he knows everything about Yura -- and it's time we ask him an important question.

Peter Van Sant: With your breadth of knowledge about Yura, your backdoor access to what he does, people have wanted me to ask you this question: are you [Monterio laughs] Yura?

Chris Monterio: [laughs] I am not Yura.

So far, tips made by 48 Hours have led to three arrests: Brandon States in the Tennessee case, Tina Jones in Illinois and Allen Vincent in Singapore.

Wong Pei Ting: I think it's amazing!

But the most shocking arrest was yet to come -- in a case right out of Hollywood.

HIT TARGET: SAN LUIS OBISPO, CA
In Chris Monteiro's forays into the darkest corners of the dark web, he has seen illegal arms, drugs and murder-for-hire sites.

After the Tennessee and Illinois arrests last spring, he told "48 Hours" about another American targeted for murder on Yura's anonymous website.

YURA'S VIDEO DIARY: I keep my identity private, hide my face, my hands, everything that could help with recognition.

Chris Monterio: They've submitted a photo of a woman called Laurie.

"48 Hours" is not identifying the woman.

Chris Monterio: In San Luis Obispo, California. … the person is very very serious about having Laurie killed.

Seemingly so serious, "48 Hours" immediately contacted San Luis Obispo County District Attorney Dan Dow:

Peter Van Sant: This is Peter Van Sant. I just got off Skype with a internet expert in London … He has some important information about … a murder-for-hire plot in your county.

D.A. Dan Dow: OK, certainly very interested in hearing what you have.

Peter Van Sant: The target is a woman by the name of Laurie. …The person says that Laurie is evil and wants this kill made. …What has been ordered is a hit that looks like an accident because the customer in this case feels that he or she'd become very quickly a suspect.

D.A. Dan Dow: We will definitely … make sure that she's as protected as possible.

D.A. Dan Dow: It's pretty unique to get a tip from the media.

Peter Van Sant: I wanna let you guys get on, do your business.

Dow's team starts its investigation right away.

D.A. Dan Dow: I have an email from Peter Van Sant … background information from the tip that he just gave us.

The first order of business, find Laurie and make sure she is safe.

Dow immediately alerts San Luis Obispo police, including the supervisor of detectives, Lt. John Bledsoe.

Lt. John Bledsoe: Our goal is to locate her. We don't know whether she's alive at this point.

As with the other targets on Yura's hit man sites, Laurie is described in detail: she is a blonde, middle-aged woman, who drives a silver Mercedes with a black convertible top.

D.A. Dan Dow: We have to consider that, that particular victim's life is in danger.

Lt. John Bledsoe: Actually, I'm getting a text right now from one of our detectives. It shows she does live in San Luis.

The next day, Detective Suzie Walsh leads colleagues to Laurie's home. But there's a problem.

Det. Suzie Walsh: We … did a search of her apartment and could not find her -- which was alarming.

Peter Van Sant: You're worried ... has somebody taken her somewhere? Somebody shot her, perhaps?

Det. Suzie Walsh: Right.

To find her, Detective Walsh develops a ruse to use with her son.

Det. Suzie Walsh: That someone had simply reported her missing and we needed to find her.

Laurie's son does find her.

Det. Suzie Walsh: And I told Laurie … no less dramatic than this, but, "I need you to come to the police department right away. I don't want you to make any stops." She was very alarmed. And she said, "I will go straight to you." And she did.

Detective Walsh brings Laurie into an interrogation room. Their conversation is recorded.

Laurie [to Det. Walsh]: This is so bizarre.

Det. Suzie Walsh [to Van Sant]: And I said, "Is there someone that would want you dead?" And that was just an absolute shock to her. …She cried. She got up. She paced.

Just minutes later, Laurie has an answer:

Laurie [to Det. Walsh]: Younger stepson. That's the only person that I know. …Beau. B-E-A-U Brigham.

Det. Suzie Walsh: That's when Beau Brigham came to light.

In addition to her son from a previous relationship, Laurie also has two stepsons, Brandon and Beau, from her 1999 marriage to Jeff Brigham, a successful restaurant and bar owner.

Det. Suzie Walsh: Laurie had co-raised Brandon and Beau since they were approximately 10 years old. So she had a very long standing, familial relationship with them.

Brandon eventually went into marketing. Beau took his shot at Hollywood stardom. A video he co-produced and starred in was seen all over the world:


Dream Music: Part 2 by PermaGrinFilms on YouTube
Dream Music: Part 2 lyrics: "I never did it for the money. I did it cuz' I had a lot of time on my hands…"

Peter Van Sant: The music video that I saw is … compelling to watch. …Did you find it impressive?

Det. Suzie Walsh: It was impressive. …He had a company called BeauFlix, where he did videography and photography in San Francisco.

Beau Brigham was also into extreme sports, living life on the edge.

Their lives seemed picture perfect. Then, tragedy struck.

Det. Suzie Walsh: In 2011, Jeff Brigham dies unexpectedly from a massive heart attack. …And Laurie really, truly, didn't have any knowledge of … how to run the businesses. …Now that started a place of contention.

Eventually, Laurie lost one of the bars. Beau and Brandon successfully sued their stepmother in 2013, and won a significant judgment.

Det. Suzie Walsh: Laurie becomes in debt to them in excess of $1 million.

Peter Van Sant: And does she have the money to pay them?

Det. Suzie Walsh: No.

But she still had assets.

Peter Van Sant: If Laurie dies, who benefits?

Det. Suzie Walsh: Beau and Brandon.

Both stood to gain an inheritance, but police quickly eliminate Brandon Brigham as a suspect. Detective Anthony Pellouso says Beau became their focus. But to prove him guilty, they somehow have to prove he is the one who sent the kill order on his stepmother to Yura's hit man website.

Det. Anthony Pellouso [at a detective briefing]: We, I think, collectively had no clue what the dark web was when we initially got this case.

Dangers of the dark web
Understanding the technology behind bitcoin
And just like in the Allwine case, the digital currency bitcoin is critical to proving a crime was committed.

Peter Van Sant: This is a message that was sent to … Yura. "I have money. I would not put in an order if I wasn't serious. I'm trying to get these damn bitcoins in."

Investigators discovered Beau made a tiny down payment for the hit on Laurie, sending Yura less than $5.

Peter Van Sant: Obviously, $5 is not enough to pay for murder.

Det. Anthony Pellouso: Correct, however, it is enough to show that he has had intentions to continue with this thing. …he wanted to make sure that this hit man that's on the dark web actually got the $5 before he gave him the full $10,000 that was required.

Then, detectives discover something about the bitcoin used to pay for the hit in this case. It had been bought on a website where users had to register with a photo ID.

Det. Anthony Pellouso: In this case, Beau Brigham uploaded a picture of his California driver's license.

Peter Van Sant: We call that a smoking gun, do we not??"

Det. Anthony Pellouso: So, yes.

Two months after the San Luis Obispo police got their tip from Chris Monteiro and "48 Hours," cops finally have Laurie's suspected tormentor in their sights.

Det. Anthony Pellouso: We needed to find out where Beau was.

FOLLOWING THE DIGITAL FOOTPRINT
Creative, handsome and charismatic, Beau Brigham had it all. The music video he co-produced and appears in has more than two million views online. Brigham now has new people desperately wanting to see him, to find him -- people with a badge who consider this talented artist a danger to society.

Det. Suzie Walsh: He had a clear intent to have Laurie murdered.

Once Laurie is located and safely in hiding, San Luis Obispo, Calif., detectives Suzie Walsh and Anthony Pellouso focus on finding her stepson.

Det. Anthony Pellouso: We found that his phone was pinging down … in Palm Desert. …That's when we made the decision … to actually go down.

Palm Desert is near the wealthy playground of Palm Springs, Calif. Investigators learn Brigham's biological mother Alexis lives there. She is a former Hollywood actress who had a bit role in the 1997 courtroom drama, "The Rainmaker."

But when police get to her last known address, nobody's there.

Peter Van Sant: Do you literally just start workin' the streets back and forth like a grid?

Det. Anthony Pellouso: So, that's the intention.

Det. Suzie Walsh: That was the plan.

Det. Anthony Pellouso: That was the plan … Beau drives a Mercedes Sprinter van. …it's pretty easy to spot.

After several hours of driving around, the detectives find the van at a Starbucks parking lot. Beau Brigham's mother Alexis drives away. The detectives follow her to a house and approach her in the driveway.

Det. Anthony Pellouso: The look on her face was, "Oh, my gosh, what is this?" … She allowed us to go inside the house.

They're surprised to find Beau Brigham in bed. He complained he was suffering from many illnesses, including cancer.

Det. Anthony Pellouso: He would try to divert from the actual conversation to how sick he is. "I'm dying. I'll be dead tomorrow. I can barely breathe. You know, I'll die in two days."

In 2015, Beau set up a GoFund Me page where he raised more than $40,000 to allegedly pay for medical treatment. Detectives say they didn't see proof of any official diagnosis.

Det. Anthony Pellouso: From what we talked to him and Alexis, he hasn't been diagnosed with anything.

Peter Van Sant: He has not.

Peter Van Sant: Could he be acting?

Det. Suzie Walsh: Yes.

Pellouso then confronts Beau with the dark web kill order telling Yura, "Look I need this f-----g person dead."

Det. Anthony Pellouso: He finally said, "You're right. Ok. I did it. I sent those"

But detectives want more than just an admission.

John Lehr | Computer forensics specialist: There needs to be evidence to support that.

They seize computers and an iPhone from the house.

At the Central Coast Cyber Forensics Laboratory in San Luis Obispo, Lehr, a computer forensics specialist, will be looking for the evidence. For "48 Hours," it is now a waiting game.

Peter Van Sant: Have you ever had a case like this, a dark web case?

D.A. Dan Dow: No. This is really an emerging technology. And I think we are really trying to play catch up in terms of law enforcement.

Two days pass. Then, a whisper.

John Lehr: I got something here. … This is Beau's iPhone. …And one of the first applications that it lists here is something called Tor Browser Pro.

Tor is a browser that can access the dark web.

Peter Van Sant: And so this is evidence?

John Lehr: Oh, absolutely.

D.A. Dan Dow: We made the decision … to charge Beau Brigham with … solicitation of murder.

At 9 a.m. on August 9, in Palm Desert, San Luis Obispo police arrive to the arrest site.

Peter Van Sant [outside of arrest site]: And they are heading for Beau's residence. Just knocked on the door. Beau Brigham's wake up call and in they go.

Peter Van Sant [on camera]: This began months ago when "48 Hours" got a tip from Chris Monteiro in London about a murder-for-hire plot in San Luis Obispo.

Alexis Brigham: Could you stop?

Peter Van Sant: Beau is now coming out...

brigham-arrest.jpg
"We know that you wanted your stepmother murdered but we don't know why. Why did you do it?" Van Sant, left, asks Beau Brigham after he was taken into custody. CBS NEWS
Beau Brigham is handcuffed.

Peter Van Sant: We know that you wanted your stepmother murdered but we don't know why. Why did you do it?

Beau Brigham: I don't … I'm deathly ill. I'm sorry. I should be on a ventilator. I'm about to pass away. I'm dying of ALS.

Peter Van Sant: Do you understand, Beau, the terror that you have caused?

Alexis Brigham [yelling]: Do you understand my son is very sick!

Cop: We'll get you checked out man.

Peter Van Sant: You also hired a hit man to take someone else's life.

Beau Brigham: No I did not. I'm brain dead. I'm in very serious situation.

The whole scene is too much for Beau's biological mother Alexis, who admits she knew about Beau hiring a hit man on the dark web.

Alexis Brigham [to Peter Van Sant]: …he never ever wants anything to happen to her at all, he was just angry.

Alexis Brigham: And then I was thinking what do we do, do we contact the police, do we you know contact Laurie?

Peter Van Sant: Did you do that? Did you contact Laurie?

Alexis Brigham: No, I was overwhelmed. I didn't know what to do.

About a month after Beau's kill order, Alexis tried convincing him to ask Yura for a refund.

Alexis Brigham: I told him get it out, so they know you are not wanting anything done.

Beau is taken to a nearby hospital where doctors examine him.

Neil Clayton | Senior investigator for San Luis Obispo D.A.'s Office: They asked him acute symptoms, what are you dealing with today and when he couldn't name any basically, they ran his vitals and discharged him.

Now Beau Brigham is headed for county jail. Six weeks later, "48 Hours" obtained a letter from his defense team. Beau Brigham's doctor states "Mr. Brigham is extremely ill," but he never mentions cancer or ALS.

And just five days ago, Beau Brigham agreed to an interview with "48 Hours" in jail.

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This week, Beau Brigham spoke to "48 Hours" from jail. He is charged with solicitation of murder. CBS NEWS
Peter Van Sant: Why did you seek to hire a hit man on the dark web to kill your stepmother?

Beau Brigham: I didn't, I'm actually terminally ill.

Peter Van Sant: The investigators believe you are faking this.

Beau Brigham: That's f-----g outrageous. They are insane.

Beau's anger with his stepmother stems from his belief that she hasn't supported him during his health problems.

Beau Brigham: She left her own son to f-----g die for four years. Who does that?

Peter Van Sant: So does she deserve a death sentence for that?

Beau Brigham: Absolutely, not.

Peter Van Sant: On April 19th, 2018, Beau, you wrote, "Look, I need this --"

Beau Brigham: OK. That is -- that is--

Peter Van Sant: -- f-----g person dead." You knew exactly what you were doing.

Beau Brigham: OK. I don't remember any of this, by the way.

Peter Van Sant: You gave specifics about your stepmother. "Look for a silver Mercedes with a black, convertible top." You gave specific instructions. "Do not go through with the job unless it can be done as an extreme, clear accident, because it will be very easily traceable."

Beau Brigham: You know, there is only one way -- to get anyone's f-----g attention. And to do something stupid on a f-----g site, was the only way. I've been emailing Laurie to come f----n' see me for four years now.

Peter Van Sant: So you admit you went on the site.

Beau Brigham: I can't remember doin' it. I can't remember.

Again and again, Beau told us he didn't remember anything. Despite Beau's memory issues, despite that he admitted to both the police and his own mother that he did this, Beau's attorney plans to take this case to court.

Alexis Brigham: No one would do something like this, no one, especially my son, if he was of sound mind.

Ilan Funke-Bilu | Beau Bingham's attorney: Mr. Van Sant, the people's case is in a lot of trouble. Be patient. Come to court.

YURA'S VIDEO DIARY: We will be waiting for you to come place your orders.

Chris Monteiro in London says Beau Brigham's arrest assures him that his work has made a difference.

Chris Monteiro: I wasn't sure … what I was doing really mattered. Now, I can see that it's so important that this information … is acted on.

Monteiro hopes the authorities will also find and arrest Yura, who he says is concealing something explosive.

A BIG CON?
Chris Monteiro says, through all the years investigating Yura, though all the murder plots and all the lives threatened -- including his own --he and Eileen Ormsby reached an explosive conclusion: that Yura's dark web murder-for-hire operation is all a big scam.

YURA'S VIDEO DIARY: They are claiming that all hit man sites are fake.

Eileen Ormsby: Nobody is being killed.

Peter Van Sant: What?

Eileen Ormsby: Nobody is being killed.

Chris Monteiro: It's a scam site. You know, it's designed to take people's money.

YURA'S VIDEO DIARY: Always pay with bitcoin through escrow.

Turns out, Yura is a con man, and not some hit man commander. According to our investigation, he never arranged for a single actual hit.

YURA'S VIDEO DIARY: We have hundred of people who love to kill for money.

But Yura still insists his websites are real:

YURA'S VIDEO DIARY: The hit men don't get paid until the job is done.

Either way, the most dangerous thing about him may be his customers -- some so driven to kill that if Yura doesn't get the job done, they might do it themselves … like prosecutors allege about Steven Allwine. Just ask Amy's friend, Jane Sharpe.

Jane Sharpe: Cottage Grove lost an awesome citizen.

As Stephen Allwine's trial begins, the State argues he paid Yura to have Amy murdered. But when Yura didn't deliver, Allwine drugged her and shot her to death himself. Prosecutor Jaime Kreuser says he wanted out of his marriage, but divorce was discouraged in his fundamentalist church.

Prosecutor Jamie Kreuser: Marriage was considered a covenant … And that covenant was not to be broken…

Defense attorney Kevin DeVore countered that authorities never looked beyond Stephen Allwine and that there were other people who may have wanted Amy dead. He says those people could have left clues at the crime scene, but first responders bungled the investigation.

Kevin DeVore | Defense attorney: They had no fingerprints, no DNA … no eyewitnesses … they had no confessions, they had very little, you know, traditional evidence.

After an eight-day trial, where Allwine never took the stand, the jury took just six hours before convicting him of first-degree murder. Stephen Allwine was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Jamie Kreuser: When it was read, "Guilty," he just kind of fell. He put his hands in his face. And he began to cry.

Peter Van Sant: He finally shows emotion.

Jamie Kreuser: Finally.

The death of Amy Allwine is hard for Chris Monteiro too, but for different reasons.

Chris Monteiro: It was totally preventable from a law enforcement institution point of view.

After six months, about 30,000 miles and four arrests, "48 Hours"' dark web murder-for-hire investigation is nearing a close.

In San Luis Obispo, Beau Brigham last month pleaded not guilty in the murder plot against his stepmother Laurie.

Beau Brigham: I don't even remember actually doing it. And it's not something I wanted. Laurie knows I love her. I mean, it's a really f----d up situation to be honest.

In Singapore, Allen Vincent awaits his day in court. If convicted, he could face the death penalty.

In the Tennessee case, Brandon States pleaded not guilty in the plot to kill Sydney Minor. He faces a court-martial in January. Just 13 days ago, Sydney gave birth to their baby, a daughter named Saylor.

In the Illinois case, Tina Jones has pleaded not guilty, too. She made bail and awaits her next court date at her parents' house in Georgia.

Peter Van Sant: Today as we sit here, after all the trauma that you've been through … no one's touched Yura. He's still operating.

Chris Monteiro: Yup.

Chris Monteiro says Yura knows there will always be people who believe his sites are authentic, people who expect him to deliver death when they click for a killer. So he remains in business, somewhere out there … on the dark web.

Yura is still generating new customers

One inquiry, just last week, was trying to secure a hit man in NYC

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