WEBVTT - The Girlfriends S1/E7: Cowabunga 0:00:06.519 --> 0:00:14.480 Novel. Hey listener. In this episode, we talk about domestic 0:00:14.560 --> 0:00:18.360 violence and death. There's also a bunch of empowered women, 0:00:18.840 --> 0:00:22.840 New York's feistiest young reporter, and an introduction to a 0:00:22.920 --> 0:00:27.480 new woman with a great nickname, and of course more swearing, 0:00:27.640 --> 0:00:31.600 because you know, I am who I am. If you 0:00:31.720 --> 0:00:35.159 do listen and are impacted by any of our themes, 0:00:35.520 --> 0:00:39.239 you can reach out to no More, a domestic violence 0:00:39.360 --> 0:00:44.000 charity we've partnered with. They have lots of great resources 0:00:44.000 --> 0:00:46.840 to help you or your loved ones. You can find 0:00:46.880 --> 0:00:54.000 them at no More dot org. That's noo Moore dot org. 0:00:56.880 --> 0:01:00.440 In November of nineteen ninety eight, shortly after the Horso 0:01:00.640 --> 0:01:04.120 was removed from Gail's grave, Bob and Janet welcomed their 0:01:04.160 --> 0:01:08.319 first child into the world, a daughter. The Club and 0:01:08.400 --> 0:01:11.080 I learned that Janet was pregnant when the DA came 0:01:11.120 --> 0:01:14.160 to Las Vegas. We talked about the baby every now 0:01:14.200 --> 0:01:17.240 and then, wondering when the do date was and what 0:01:17.319 --> 0:01:21.280 Bob would be like as a father. We didn't know anything, 0:01:21.680 --> 0:01:26.399 but my god, we were curious. So can you imagine 0:01:26.440 --> 0:01:34.720 how I felt. My producer Anna tracked down their nannies. Hi, 0:01:35.040 --> 0:01:36.080 sorry for hanging up on you. 0:01:36.120 --> 0:01:38.440 I just wanted to make sure it was free. 0:01:38.680 --> 0:01:42.080 Yeah, good thing the beer and Bounce had two nannies, 0:01:42.319 --> 0:01:44.360 one for the day and one for the night. 0:01:44.840 --> 0:01:45.040 Hi. 0:01:45.400 --> 0:01:46.920 Hi, how are you doing good? 0:01:47.040 --> 0:01:47.600 How are you all? 0:01:47.680 --> 0:01:50.960 I'm good. I'm good, Which means almost twenty four hour 0:01:51.160 --> 0:01:56.600 visibility into Bob's North Dakota home. Now, the film recordings 0:01:56.640 --> 0:01:59.320 aren't so good, but this is definitely one of the 0:01:59.360 --> 0:02:03.160 most exciting eighty moments of our investigation because, knowing all 0:02:03.200 --> 0:02:06.360 I know now, it feels like everyone had an external 0:02:06.480 --> 0:02:09.280 view of Bob and min not they'd interact with him 0:02:09.280 --> 0:02:12.440 as a patient or a neighbor. It was rarely as 0:02:12.520 --> 0:02:15.720 intimate as someone sharing your home. I wanted to know 0:02:15.760 --> 0:02:18.960 how Bob was behaving behind closed doors as the DA 0:02:19.040 --> 0:02:23.200 prosecutors were closing in on him. I also just wanted 0:02:23.200 --> 0:02:25.959 to know if Janet was okay and their daughter. 0:02:26.760 --> 0:02:30.359 I was more involved with Janet, but Bob would come 0:02:30.400 --> 0:02:32.480 in on Thursday or Fridays. 0:02:32.760 --> 0:02:35.040 This is Barb Cooper, the day nanny. 0:02:35.680 --> 0:02:39.239 Yeah, they feel real comfortable around either one of them, necessarily, 0:02:39.400 --> 0:02:41.800 but I stuck it out. I loved the child and 0:02:41.800 --> 0:02:42.760 loved what I was doing. 0:02:43.200 --> 0:02:46.600 He was weird, he was bizarre. I've never met anyone 0:02:46.720 --> 0:02:47.440 like him before. 0:02:48.080 --> 0:02:51.760 That's Cheryl Sherrick, the night nanny. She used to arrive 0:02:51.840 --> 0:02:54.680 in the evening and sleep in the basement with the baby, 0:02:54.880 --> 0:02:58.800 who at that point required feeding every two to three hours. 0:02:59.200 --> 0:03:01.839 The thing is they had a crip or anything. She's 0:03:01.919 --> 0:03:05.720 left in a car seat, which is not very comfortable 0:03:05.720 --> 0:03:06.320 for a baby. 0:03:07.200 --> 0:03:11.000 For Cheryl, the vibe of the house was just well off, 0:03:11.639 --> 0:03:13.200 especially when Bob was there. 0:03:13.960 --> 0:03:18.040 The house was always closed up. I could never open 0:03:18.160 --> 0:03:21.720 the blinds or anything, and he wouldn't let us answer. 0:03:21.400 --> 0:03:22.959 The door to me. 0:03:23.120 --> 0:03:26.560 She was always kind of creepy. They loved him as 0:03:26.600 --> 0:03:30.919 a doctor's here, but he would never treat anyone that smoked. 0:03:31.520 --> 0:03:34.280 He asked me if I smoked. If I did, they 0:03:34.320 --> 0:03:35.200 wouldn't hire me. 0:03:36.440 --> 0:03:39.600 Overall, the nanny seemed to remember a home a little 0:03:39.640 --> 0:03:43.400 like this. The Beer and Bombs lived in a town 0:03:43.520 --> 0:03:46.400 called Grand Forks. Bob would fly to work at the 0:03:46.440 --> 0:03:49.480 hospital and min not and come back home for the weekends, 0:03:49.800 --> 0:03:52.960 so it was mostly just Janet, the nannies, and their baby. 0:03:53.720 --> 0:03:56.760 The nannies both described Janet as a loving mom who 0:03:56.760 --> 0:03:59.920 could at times also be a little emotionless but they 0:04:00.160 --> 0:04:03.880 never saw anything bad happen between her and Bob. When 0:04:03.960 --> 0:04:07.560 Janet got pregnant, she stopped working as a gynecologist and 0:04:07.640 --> 0:04:11.000 started studying law. She was also writing a bit on 0:04:11.040 --> 0:04:14.520 the side, something she'd done a little before, even once 0:04:14.600 --> 0:04:19.040 consulting on scripts for Er and Bob. He was being Bob. 0:04:19.520 --> 0:04:23.280 He loved as badly behaved golden retriever, worked hard, and 0:04:23.440 --> 0:04:27.359 flew a lot. One thing both nannies agree on was 0:04:27.400 --> 0:04:30.360 he was really sweet with his daughter. He seemed to 0:04:30.400 --> 0:04:34.520 love being a dad. But Cheryl did have one really 0:04:34.560 --> 0:04:35.719 weird experience. 0:04:37.360 --> 0:04:40.920 They had me in the basement and they slept upstairs. 0:04:41.400 --> 0:04:43.920 There was one night he came into the nursery and 0:04:43.960 --> 0:04:47.400 I woke up and he was watching me sleep, and 0:04:47.480 --> 0:04:51.440 I don't know what he was planning to do, but 0:04:51.560 --> 0:04:52.280 he took off. 0:04:55.400 --> 0:04:59.680 I imagine at this point Bob felt invincible, But the fact 0:04:59.760 --> 0:05:04.360 is he was being investigated that whole time. And on 0:05:04.400 --> 0:05:08.400 the morning of November thirtieth, nineteen ninety eight, just three 0:05:08.440 --> 0:05:11.560 weeks after his daughter was born, he was about to 0:05:11.600 --> 0:05:17.800 get a rude awakening. I'm Carol Fisher and from the 0:05:17.880 --> 0:05:21.960 teams at Novel and iHeartRadio, You're listening to The Girlfriends 0:05:22.640 --> 0:05:24.880 episode seven Cowabunga. 0:05:59.000 --> 0:06:04.159 We had pretty much finished our investigation, and we decided 0:06:04.200 --> 0:06:07.120 that he had already spent literally tens of thousands of 0:06:07.120 --> 0:06:11.240 dollars going across the country doing this investigation would be 0:06:11.279 --> 0:06:13.720 worth a couple of plane tickets to North Dakota to 0:06:13.760 --> 0:06:16.919 try and see what he had to say. 0:06:18.360 --> 0:06:22.480 On November thirtieth, DA Prosecutor Dan Bibb sent the case 0:06:22.520 --> 0:06:26.680 investigators Andy Rosenswag and Tommy Pond to mine Not with 0:06:26.800 --> 0:06:31.040 the mission ask Bob if he was still represented by counsel, 0:06:31.520 --> 0:06:34.840 and if not, get him to talk on the spot, 0:06:35.160 --> 0:06:39.080 something they couldn't do if he was lawyered. Up that morning, 0:06:39.120 --> 0:06:42.120 they lurked around Bob's clinic and waited for him to arrive. 0:06:43.320 --> 0:06:47.040 When they spotted him approaching the building, they sped towards 0:06:47.120 --> 0:06:50.960 him on foot and confronted him with their ready prepared script. 0:06:51.520 --> 0:06:53.920 They had a feeling that Bob would see them coming, 0:06:54.320 --> 0:06:56.839 that someone in Las Vegas would have told him that 0:06:56.880 --> 0:07:01.479 they'd been sniffing around, but instead Bob just stood there 0:07:01.560 --> 0:07:04.880 and stared back at them like a deer in headlights. 0:07:05.240 --> 0:07:11.120 He basically says, I'm still represented by an attorney, and 0:07:11.240 --> 0:07:11.720 that was that. 0:07:13.080 --> 0:07:17.280 For Steve Sorako, the other prosecutor, it wasn't just about 0:07:17.280 --> 0:07:21.520 getting him to talk though disguise his intel gathering, the 0:07:21.680 --> 0:07:23.960 DA was sending a message. 0:07:24.520 --> 0:07:27.760 What he knows is this is not over. This sense 0:07:27.800 --> 0:07:31.520 of security I have up here up north. The veil 0:07:31.600 --> 0:07:35.440 has been pierced and they're still looking at me. And 0:07:35.560 --> 0:07:38.800 he knows he's guilty. 0:07:39.000 --> 0:07:41.760 And within a half hour there's a phone call from 0:07:41.800 --> 0:07:48.400 his lawyer and he said, Dan, this is Scott Greenfield. 0:07:48.680 --> 0:07:53.040 What's going on. Well, we're investigating the disappearance of Gail 0:07:53.240 --> 0:07:55.640 Burnbound and we want to know if he wanted to 0:07:55.680 --> 0:07:57.560 talk to us. You know, there is out raised and 0:07:57.640 --> 0:08:01.240 violing right the council. Scott, nobody violently anybody's right to council. 0:08:01.920 --> 0:08:03.960 As soon as my guys opened their mouth, he said, 0:08:04.000 --> 0:08:07.400 I'm represented by an attorney, and they walked away. Nobody 0:08:07.520 --> 0:08:11.120 violated anything. And he said, are you going to the 0:08:11.120 --> 0:08:13.720 grand jury? I can't tell you whether we are or 0:08:13.800 --> 0:08:16.920 we are, so grand jury is a secret proceeding. Can't 0:08:16.920 --> 0:08:23.400 do it in New York State. A defendant if he 0:08:23.480 --> 0:08:26.520 is aware that there is a proceeding in the grand 0:08:26.560 --> 0:08:30.440 jury going on that may involve him has an absolute 0:08:30.520 --> 0:08:33.719 right to testify before that grand jury. Within a day 0:08:33.800 --> 0:08:38.640 or two, I had a letter serving statutory notice that 0:08:39.320 --> 0:08:42.120 doctor Burnbaum wanted to testify before the grand jury. 0:08:43.240 --> 0:08:46.000 Dan knew that Bob was never actually going to testify 0:08:46.080 --> 0:08:49.120 in front of the grand jury. That's pretty rare, but 0:08:49.200 --> 0:08:51.840 it's a clever trick. Attorneys used to make sure they're 0:08:51.840 --> 0:08:56.319 notified if a grand jury is ever assembled, then they 0:08:56.320 --> 0:08:58.720 can keep tabs on the result and get their ducks 0:08:58.720 --> 0:09:02.560 in a row. That's what Greenfield was doing. He was 0:09:02.679 --> 0:09:07.319 essentially setting up a notification service, and nearly a year later, 0:09:07.400 --> 0:09:11.760 on September twenty second, nineteen ninety nine, Greenfield got what 0:09:11.800 --> 0:09:12.760 he was asking for. 0:09:13.760 --> 0:09:16.880 I wrote him a letter saying, here you go, here's 0:09:16.880 --> 0:09:20.480 your opportunity. And he called me up and he said, 0:09:20.720 --> 0:09:23.600 what the hell, what are you doing? I said, Scott, 0:09:24.600 --> 0:09:28.000 you serve notice. I just told you that the grand 0:09:28.080 --> 0:09:30.760 jury is going on. What do you want to do. 0:09:34.960 --> 0:09:38.480 At some point in late September or early October, Bob 0:09:38.600 --> 0:09:41.000 was in New Jersey attending the wedding of his close 0:09:41.040 --> 0:09:45.600 friend and flying buddy, Ernie Sussman. The night before the 0:09:45.600 --> 0:09:49.480 big day, Ernie invited some of his closest friends, including 0:09:49.520 --> 0:09:52.880 Bob and Janet, for dinner at an Italian restaurant. 0:09:55.080 --> 0:09:58.440 I believe it was Friday evening, and I think there 0:09:58.440 --> 0:10:01.560 were four couple so some of my friends. We went 0:10:01.600 --> 0:10:04.560 out to a nice restaurant that evening, and I don't 0:10:04.559 --> 0:10:06.920 know how the subject came up, but we were talking 0:10:06.960 --> 0:10:11.160 about this doctor in Buffalo. His name was Anthony Pignataro, 0:10:11.800 --> 0:10:16.200 and he ended up doing plastic surgery and doing I 0:10:16.200 --> 0:10:19.400 guess liposuctions and even breast augments, even though he wasn't 0:10:19.440 --> 0:10:22.640 a bird certified plastic surgeon, and he ended up killing 0:10:22.679 --> 0:10:26.640 a woman. But like two thirds of the way into 0:10:26.679 --> 0:10:32.360 the story, Bobby turned white. And I never saw him 0:10:32.360 --> 0:10:34.760 break a sweat no matter what he did, whether he 0:10:34.800 --> 0:10:38.960 was in surgery or flying in that bad weather, but 0:10:39.280 --> 0:10:42.920 he just turned white like a ghost. And next thing, 0:10:42.960 --> 0:10:45.240 you know, he told Johnny, you know, I'm tired. I 0:10:45.280 --> 0:10:49.199 think we need to get going. After he left, we 0:10:49.280 --> 0:10:52.079 made comment boy like he really blew out of here 0:10:52.120 --> 0:10:54.559 in a hurry. It was just very unusual. 0:10:56.000 --> 0:10:58.480 I can't say if Bob knew it or not, but 0:10:58.600 --> 0:11:01.559 while he was running away from dinner parties in New Jersey. 0:11:02.080 --> 0:11:05.360 Women around the country were being called to testify against 0:11:05.480 --> 0:11:09.800 him in New York. A grand jury is a process 0:11:09.960 --> 0:11:14.000 where sixteen to twenty three jurors are randomly selected to 0:11:14.040 --> 0:11:16.400 come to court a few days a month, and here 0:11:16.520 --> 0:11:20.880 prosecutors lay out their case, witnesses and all. There is 0:11:20.960 --> 0:11:25.280 no judge, no defendant, and it's all in secret. At 0:11:25.280 --> 0:11:28.520 the end of the process, which can last weeks or months, 0:11:29.000 --> 0:11:32.800 the jurors decide if charges should be brought against the defendant. 0:11:33.600 --> 0:11:36.120 A proper trial would then take place where they'll be 0:11:36.160 --> 0:11:40.720 found guilty or not guilty. Now I'm explaining this because 0:11:40.800 --> 0:11:43.360 I didn't understand what it meant when Dan and Steve 0:11:43.400 --> 0:11:45.720 first reached out to me and asked me to testify. 0:11:46.400 --> 0:11:48.800 The only thing I was sure of is I didn't 0:11:48.880 --> 0:11:53.360 want to do it, so I refuse to go. Instead, 0:11:53.760 --> 0:11:56.880 I spent the next few months wondering what was going on. 0:11:57.520 --> 0:12:00.960 Sometimes curiosity would get the better of me, so me, 0:12:01.720 --> 0:12:04.760 Mom and Mindy we would call up Bob's clinic in 0:12:04.800 --> 0:12:08.679 North Dakota to see if he was still accepting appointments. 0:12:09.200 --> 0:12:12.360 When the receptionist started to offer us dates or suggest 0:12:12.400 --> 0:12:15.880 a consultation, we would hang up No arrest yet I 0:12:15.920 --> 0:12:20.640 guess until tonight the doctor under arrest. 0:12:20.679 --> 0:12:22.160 He's charged with killing his wife. 0:12:22.520 --> 0:12:25.200 Tops say he dumped her body in the ocean, throwing 0:12:25.240 --> 0:12:31.560 it from a plane. On December eighth, nineteen ninety nine, 0:12:32.080 --> 0:12:34.040 the grand jury cast their vote. 0:12:34.200 --> 0:12:36.720 Fourteen years ago, a surgeon in New York City reported 0:12:36.760 --> 0:12:39.800 his wife missing. Now he's being charged with her murder. 0:12:39.880 --> 0:12:42.640 The investigation went from Long Island to Las Vegas and 0:12:42.679 --> 0:12:44.960 wound up in North Dakota. 0:12:45.120 --> 0:12:48.880 In the days following the indictment, the news was everywhere 0:12:49.440 --> 0:12:51.920 and they did not spare any details. 0:12:52.520 --> 0:12:55.320 They say they have new witnesses, new evidence, enough to 0:12:55.360 --> 0:12:57.960 build a murder case even without the body. 0:12:58.600 --> 0:13:01.839 I remember the day I was getting ready for work. 0:13:02.320 --> 0:13:05.240 This is Denise Cassenbaum, Gail's best friend. 0:13:06.040 --> 0:13:09.200 I was getting dressed in my apartment and my sister call, 0:13:10.240 --> 0:13:12.160 She said, turn on the news. 0:13:13.679 --> 0:13:16.200 This almost reads like a screenplay. But what's scary is 0:13:16.200 --> 0:13:17.360 that this is a true crime. 0:13:17.640 --> 0:13:21.120 Turns out. Back in the nineties, news reporters were not 0:13:21.160 --> 0:13:24.320 too concerned with holding back the details before they had 0:13:24.360 --> 0:13:25.240 been proven in court. 0:13:25.480 --> 0:13:28.679 A loving wife would complained constantly about our husband's violent temper, 0:13:28.720 --> 0:13:30.840 but instead of getting away from him. She tried to 0:13:30.880 --> 0:13:33.720 help and sadly paid for it with her life. 0:13:35.520 --> 0:13:41.640 I was just like, oh my god, finally, you know, 0:13:42.120 --> 0:13:43.239 I was screaming. 0:13:45.040 --> 0:13:49.560 I was just Yes, she was never seen again, and 0:13:49.600 --> 0:13:52.600 her family and cops didn't buy the doc's story. 0:13:52.800 --> 0:13:54.600 We've always been certain that it was him. 0:13:55.040 --> 0:13:56.959 He is the last person that saw her. 0:13:57.080 --> 0:14:00.880 His story regarding her whereabouts and what happened never made 0:14:00.920 --> 0:14:01.520 any sense. 0:14:01.920 --> 0:14:07.000 Seeing in court being accused of murdering my sister was 0:14:07.600 --> 0:14:09.000 such a relief. 0:14:09.400 --> 0:14:12.719 I'm very gratified that after fourteen years, the person who 0:14:12.840 --> 0:14:16.640 murdered my sister is finally standing in a courtroom being 0:14:17.000 --> 0:14:20.240 charged with that murder. I'm only very very sorry that 0:14:20.360 --> 0:14:23.080 my parents are not alive to be here to see this. 0:14:23.160 --> 0:14:25.800 And I told him responsible for their deaths as well, 0:14:25.840 --> 0:14:27.920 because they died of a broken heart. 0:14:30.760 --> 0:14:33.720 This was a tireless investigation. Believe me, For two das, 0:14:33.760 --> 0:14:35.320 here are two guys that you don't want after you 0:14:35.360 --> 0:14:36.240 if you're the bad guy. 0:14:36.440 --> 0:14:39.080 Steve and I had agreed that we would be seeking 0:14:39.240 --> 0:14:42.480 half a million dollars baill, so we asked her five 0:14:42.560 --> 0:14:46.120 hundred thousand dollars and the attorney goes, yeah, okay, no, 0:14:46.320 --> 0:14:47.800 Megan Beer, and Baum. 0:14:47.600 --> 0:14:49.920 Was released after putting up a half million bucks in bail. Now, 0:14:49.920 --> 0:14:52.800 if he's convicted of murder too, the doc's next big 0:14:52.840 --> 0:14:55.200 trip will be upstate for the comfort of a four 0:14:55.320 --> 0:14:57.560 x eight cel twenty five years to life. 0:14:58.760 --> 0:15:00.680 I guess me and the other girl old friends were 0:15:00.720 --> 0:15:06.680 onto something all along, and it turns out another woman 0:15:06.920 --> 0:15:25.680 was too. When Bob was charged with Gail's murder, it 0:15:25.800 --> 0:15:29.120 was like a punch to the gut. Everybody wanted to 0:15:29.160 --> 0:15:31.880 talk about it, but I didn't have enough wind left 0:15:31.880 --> 0:15:35.960 in me to say his name. Instead, they'd call Mindy 0:15:36.040 --> 0:15:39.440 to ask for the latest gossip. But everything it changed. 0:15:39.880 --> 0:15:42.640 It was a real case now, with the real victim 0:15:42.800 --> 0:15:47.280 and a real potential murderer. Even Mindy wasn't excited by 0:15:47.280 --> 0:15:48.000 that anymore. 0:15:48.960 --> 0:15:55.240 There was a shift from the sensational and the speculative 0:15:56.120 --> 0:16:04.320 to the real and present, so it was no longer funny. 0:16:04.400 --> 0:16:08.200 We were really starting to doubt ourselves. If, like the 0:16:08.240 --> 0:16:12.120 investigators were saying, this case hinged on the testimony of 0:16:12.280 --> 0:16:14.920 all of us women who knew Bob, then what if 0:16:14.960 --> 0:16:17.440 we had gotten it wrong. What if we'd let in 0:16:17.440 --> 0:16:18.520 our game go too far? 0:16:19.360 --> 0:16:21.760 What if he's not guilty, will he come after us 0:16:21.800 --> 0:16:25.240 for slander? And if he is guilty, will he come 0:16:25.360 --> 0:16:26.240 after us? 0:16:26.480 --> 0:16:30.520 After us? But little did we know that while we 0:16:30.520 --> 0:16:34.760 were starting to doubt ourselves, another girlfriend was about to surface. 0:16:40.080 --> 0:16:43.760 It was right after Burnbaum had been indicted. I got 0:16:43.760 --> 0:16:48.480 a phone call from a woman and she refused to 0:16:48.560 --> 0:16:52.760 identify herself. And she actually says to me, oh my god, 0:16:53.440 --> 0:16:55.880 I slept with this guy right after his wife disappeared. 0:16:56.880 --> 0:17:01.400 And I'm literally on the phone motioning to Steve to 0:17:01.520 --> 0:17:05.320 come into my office and basically telling him there's somebody 0:17:05.400 --> 0:17:06.280 we need to talk to. 0:17:06.720 --> 0:17:09.440 I said, what's it all about, Goodwill, there's another one 0:17:09.440 --> 0:17:12.720 of his one of her better word girlfriends has just surfaced. 0:17:13.920 --> 0:17:17.840 She refused to identify herself. She said, I'm afraid of him. 0:17:18.080 --> 0:17:20.160 She said. She called me back in a couple of days. 0:17:21.160 --> 0:17:24.920 A couple of days later, phone rings. It's the woman 0:17:25.000 --> 0:17:27.879 I had spoken to a day or two before, and 0:17:28.000 --> 0:17:30.119 she said, I'm Cary Carojuana. 0:17:30.840 --> 0:17:34.560 I know Bob Bernbaum. We worked together in my Minas 0:17:34.640 --> 0:17:38.080 Medical Center in Brooklyn in nineteen eighty four nineteen eighty five, 0:17:39.040 --> 0:17:42.720 and this is my story. 0:17:42.920 --> 0:17:45.439 I said, we'll see in a day or two booked 0:17:45.480 --> 0:17:49.360 flights to San Francisco, flew in one day, drove down 0:17:49.400 --> 0:17:53.080 to San Jose. Next we met in the diner of 0:17:53.119 --> 0:17:59.000 all places, and sat there while she told us the story. 0:18:00.080 --> 0:18:02.600 And told them that when she first met Bob, she 0:18:02.800 --> 0:18:06.000 was a nurse working on the cardiovascular unit where Bob 0:18:06.080 --> 0:18:10.080 was undertaking a residency as a surgical intern. She didn't 0:18:10.119 --> 0:18:13.480 think much of them. He'd gotten a reputation for having 0:18:13.520 --> 0:18:17.120 a terrible bedside manner with patients and their families, and 0:18:17.160 --> 0:18:21.160 he was rude to the nurses. But outside of work, 0:18:21.359 --> 0:18:23.760 they had attended the same parties, and they would go 0:18:23.800 --> 0:18:26.800 to clubs or restaurants with the other young hospital staff. 0:18:27.760 --> 0:18:30.720 Karen even met Gail a few times, only enough to 0:18:30.760 --> 0:18:34.840 make introductions, but she remembers her as small and submissive. 0:18:35.840 --> 0:18:38.560 There was always a feeling that things were just not right. 0:18:40.640 --> 0:18:44.080 He was at the nurses station in the cardiovscer I 0:18:44.119 --> 0:18:48.560 see you, and he was yelling at somebody on the phone, 0:18:48.640 --> 0:18:51.720 and it was obvious it was Gail that he was 0:18:51.760 --> 0:18:54.880 talking to, and I had to tell him a couple times, 0:18:54.880 --> 0:18:58.240 you know, please lower your voice. I mean, the nurses 0:18:58.240 --> 0:19:01.280 station was right next to where we recovered patients. From 0:19:01.440 --> 0:19:04.480 open heart surgery. It wasn't appropriate for him to be 0:19:04.560 --> 0:19:07.200 yelling at anybody at the nurses station. 0:19:08.000 --> 0:19:11.800 Whatever people thought about Bob and Gail's relationship, when Gail 0:19:11.880 --> 0:19:14.440 went missing, it shook the staff. 0:19:15.320 --> 0:19:17.639 I remember the first time I saw him come back. 0:19:18.280 --> 0:19:22.680 He looked horrible. He hadn't shaved, he was very disheveled. 0:19:22.960 --> 0:19:25.840 There evidently had been no word as to where she 0:19:26.119 --> 0:19:28.880 was or if she had run away, if something had 0:19:28.880 --> 0:19:31.880 happened to her and someone had taken her. We didn't know. 0:19:32.760 --> 0:19:36.080 In fact, I do remember going out to Central Park 0:19:37.000 --> 0:19:40.400 with people that I worked with, nurses, and we put 0:19:40.480 --> 0:19:43.280 up posters in Central Park with her picture. 0:19:44.200 --> 0:19:47.359 Sometime at the end of July, about three weeks after 0:19:47.440 --> 0:19:50.760 Gail went missing, Karen rented a little beach house in 0:19:50.800 --> 0:19:55.280 the Hamptons for the week, just a vacation. Before she left, 0:19:55.440 --> 0:19:57.840 one of her colleagues told her that Bob was also 0:19:58.000 --> 0:19:59.840 going to be out in the Hamptons that week. 0:20:00.520 --> 0:20:02.520 She had said, you know, why don't you get together 0:20:02.600 --> 0:20:05.000 with Bob. Maybe you could go out to dinner with him, 0:20:05.119 --> 0:20:08.000 give him some companionship. He's really lost without Gail. 0:20:08.600 --> 0:20:17.879 So Karen obliged. After arriving in the Hampton's, She drove 0:20:17.960 --> 0:20:20.440 over to his rental house, which was a really large 0:20:20.440 --> 0:20:24.679 building with the pool just away from the ocean. Karen 0:20:24.720 --> 0:20:27.320 parked her car and Bob drove them out to a 0:20:27.320 --> 0:20:34.600 seafood restaurant on the water in sag Harbor. Over the meal, 0:20:35.000 --> 0:20:38.440 she started gently probing Bob for information about Gail. 0:20:39.280 --> 0:20:43.080 He said that in the last month he had hired 0:20:43.080 --> 0:20:46.959 a private investigator and they found Gail in California and 0:20:47.000 --> 0:20:51.240 she was waiting tables on the coast. I mean, it 0:20:51.280 --> 0:20:54.280 didn't sound totally right, but he kind of convinced me 0:20:54.400 --> 0:20:56.440 that that was what he knew. At the time. 0:20:57.040 --> 0:21:00.800 What Bob had told Karen was a lie. We spoke 0:21:00.840 --> 0:21:05.000 to the investigator and the investigator said, absolutely not, that's 0:21:05.040 --> 0:21:10.080 not true, but never found evidence of Gail anywhere. 0:21:10.720 --> 0:21:13.960 Bob also described how Gail was a difficult wife and 0:21:14.000 --> 0:21:16.600 how on the day she went missing, they'd had a 0:21:16.600 --> 0:21:17.560 big argument. 0:21:18.119 --> 0:21:20.240 They said she had no shoes on, and I said 0:21:20.240 --> 0:21:22.200 to him, I said, who lives in New York City 0:21:22.240 --> 0:21:25.239 and doesn't wear shoes to walk to Central Park from 0:21:25.320 --> 0:21:26.000 their apartment. 0:21:27.400 --> 0:21:32.440 Again, another embellishment lie about what had happened that morning. 0:21:33.800 --> 0:21:37.000 Sitting in the diner, Dan and Steve knew they'd stumbled 0:21:37.000 --> 0:21:40.600 onto something big. These are exactly the kinds of details 0:21:40.640 --> 0:21:46.119 they wanted, Bob telling different versions of Gail's disappearance, Bob lying. 0:21:47.080 --> 0:21:49.520 They even gave their new star witness. 0:21:49.080 --> 0:21:52.720 A nickname, Karen Cawabunga Karen Cowabunga. 0:21:53.800 --> 0:21:57.159 When Dan and Steve saw Karen Cowabunga, they saw a 0:21:57.200 --> 0:22:01.320 star witness. But I just see myself because just like me. 0:22:01.720 --> 0:22:05.840 After Bob told Karen all about Gayle's disappearance, she still 0:22:05.880 --> 0:22:07.000 went home with him. 0:22:07.400 --> 0:22:10.480 I mean, he was different than he had been. I 0:22:10.520 --> 0:22:13.240 went from dreading even talking to him at work, to 0:22:13.680 --> 0:22:18.159 really sympathizing with his plight. I hadn't been with anybody 0:22:18.200 --> 0:22:23.120 in a while, so I think I was probably lonely horny, 0:22:23.280 --> 0:22:27.520 I cass, you could say. I mean, he was pretty persuasive, 0:22:28.320 --> 0:22:34.800 and I remember climbing upstairs to the bedroom. 0:22:35.119 --> 0:22:38.119 Back in New York, they kept seeing each other. They'd 0:22:38.119 --> 0:22:41.520 go out for Japanese food, they went dancing in clubs 0:22:41.600 --> 0:22:44.680 down in the West Village. On the weekends, Bob would 0:22:44.720 --> 0:22:47.600 go back to the Hampton's and party at West Hampton 0:22:47.720 --> 0:22:51.920 Beach's famous club, the Marrakesh. He ditched his ll Bean 0:22:52.000 --> 0:22:55.840 clothing for Saturday Night Fever shirts with the shirttails tucked 0:22:55.880 --> 0:22:58.640 right in. All of this just a month or two 0:22:58.840 --> 0:23:00.480 after his wife had dispeared. 0:23:01.240 --> 0:23:04.119 I was still having fun with him at that point, 0:23:04.119 --> 0:23:07.840 probably not even thinking about Gail, I'll be honest. And 0:23:07.960 --> 0:23:08.800 he wasn't either. 0:23:09.760 --> 0:23:13.280 But after only six weeks of dating, Karen says, their 0:23:13.320 --> 0:23:16.040 relationship literally hit the curb. 0:23:18.920 --> 0:23:21.320 We had gone out to dinner and we argued at 0:23:21.359 --> 0:23:26.400 the restaurant and we were in a cab. My recollection 0:23:26.600 --> 0:23:28.760 is a little bit fuzzy, just because I think I 0:23:28.840 --> 0:23:31.960 was pretty drunk at the time, but I remember the 0:23:32.040 --> 0:23:35.680 cab was still moving, and somehow he had pushed me 0:23:35.800 --> 0:23:41.320 out of the door onto the curb. And I remember 0:23:41.480 --> 0:23:43.399 my best friend in New York at the time was 0:23:43.600 --> 0:23:46.720 woman Carol, who was a nurse at my Moonodes and 0:23:46.800 --> 0:23:51.160 I called her and I was hysterical, crying. And I've 0:23:51.200 --> 0:23:54.320 talked to her since and she said I kept saying 0:23:54.359 --> 0:23:55.960 that he hurt me. He hurt me. 0:24:00.000 --> 0:24:02.280 Reached out to Bob for comment on this, but he 0:24:02.400 --> 0:24:07.880 never responded. These stories, like Bob allegedly pushing a woman 0:24:07.920 --> 0:24:10.920 out of a moving car are the ones I care 0:24:11.000 --> 0:24:14.800 about most. In fact, there's a lot I wish i'd 0:24:14.880 --> 0:24:17.920 known before I met Bob, some of which never made 0:24:17.960 --> 0:24:43.680 it into trial. That's after the break. On a warm 0:24:43.800 --> 0:24:47.800 day in early August two thousand, a young New York 0:24:47.840 --> 0:24:51.640 Times reporter by the name of Catherine Eban walked into 0:24:51.720 --> 0:24:54.520 the Manhattan Criminal Court for the first time. 0:24:55.200 --> 0:25:00.760 I was completely new to legal reporting, but the beat 0:25:00.800 --> 0:25:03.399 had been sold to me. As you develop sources for 0:25:03.520 --> 0:25:06.879 life and you cover interesting trials, so you get a 0:25:06.880 --> 0:25:08.120 lot of ink that way. 0:25:09.119 --> 0:25:11.800 Catherine had been told that if you want to get 0:25:11.840 --> 0:25:14.600 ahead on the biggest cases, you have to cover the 0:25:14.680 --> 0:25:18.879 pre trial hearings to secure an early scoop. The only 0:25:18.960 --> 0:25:22.320 problem is it was notoriously boring, you know. 0:25:22.320 --> 0:25:27.959