BY JOHN KIESEWETTER
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Deborah Dixon's dream of freeing a West Virginia man from prison could become a reality, thanks to CBS' new 60 Minutes II.
60 Minutes II, which premieres Jan. 13 (9 p.m., Channels 12, 7), is digging into a West Virginia murder case first reported by Ms. Dixon on WKRC-TV two years ago.
Avowed racist Joseph Paul Franklin confessed to Ms. Dixon that on June 25, 1980, he had killed two young women in West Virginia after leaving the Cincinnati area. He said a West Virginia man named Jacob Beard was wrongly convicted in 1992, 12 years after the murders. Mr. Franklin's account was so graphic that police reopened the investigation into the 1980 deaths of hitchhikers Nancy Santomero, 19, of Huntington, N.Y., and Vickie Durian, 26, of Wellman, Iowa. "Everything Franklin said matches all the evidence," Ms. Dixon says.
But the West Virginia prosecutor who sent Mr. Beard to jail has fought reopening the case since the Channel 12 broadcast on Nov. 18, 1996.
"West Virginia can blow me off," Ms. Dixon says, "but not 60 Minutes."
For competitive reasons, CBS refuses to confirm or deny that 60 Minutes II is researching the story. But Mr. Beard granted an exclusive interview to a 60 Minutes II crew last week in West Virginia's Mount Olive State Penitentiary, Ms. Dixon says. She has provided video tapes and phone numbers to researchers assigned to 60 II correspondent Charlie Rose.
"They've reviewed hundreds of boxes of documents. They're really doing their homework," she says.
It makes sense for 60 Minutes II to jump on this story:
The serial killer who claims to have shot Larry Flynt in 1978 and Vernon Jordan in 1980 gives the show an infamous figure.
The potential for freeing a wrongfully accused man from prison, as 60 Minutes did in 1983 for Lenell Geter, would make national headlines. It would instantly establish PBS talk show host Charlie Rose as a credible investigative reporter.
"I'm just excited somebody like 60 Minutes saw what I saw in this story," says Ms. Dixon, who starts her 25th year at Channel 12 in January.
After breaking the story two years ago, she sent tapes to CBS' 48 Hours. Nothing happened. Dateline NBC and 20-20 called Ms. Dixon. Nothing happened. Finally 60 Minutes II bit.
Since his 1980 murder spree, Mr. Franklin had kept in touch with Ms. Dixon. He called her from a St. Louis jail in 1996 and admitted killing the women in Pocahontas County, W.Va.
Those deaths occurred 13 days after the murders of Bond Hill teens Dante Evans Brown and Darrell Lane. Mr. Franklin, 48, was convicted of those killings in October.
Hamilton County Prosecutor Joseph Deters pursued Mr. Franklin for the Bond Hill deaths after Ms. Dixon's broadcast two years ago. In his 1997 taped confession to assistant prosecutor Melissa Powers, the white-supremacist said his "most prolific month for murders" was June 1980.
"I was trying to get rid of all the ugly people in the world . . . and I considered the blacks the ugliest people of all," he said, trying to explain his attempt to start a "race war."
Mr. Franklin says he killed the West Virginia hitchhikers after they admitted to inter-racial affairs. He boasts about the killings to get attention, Ms. Dixon says.
"There's no question in my mind that Jacob Beard is the wrong guy," she says.
Even if 60 Minutes II does the story, the fight isn't over.
"When Jacob Beard walks out of prison, then I'll celebrate," she says. "Then I'll take the congratulations."
John Kiesewetter is Enquirer TV/radio critic. Write him at 312 Elm St., Cincinnati, 45202.