Cold Case s01e14 Episode Script

Don't make me tie you up, Red Feather.
Just come quiet and civilized.
We'll scalp you first, White Man.
Look.
Sister Vivian.
Sister Grace.
He's back.
Sheriff's back, men.
I'm sorry to hear that.
I'm sorry to hear that.
I know you're working on it.
Yeah, I miss you, too.
Boss has something.
Yeah, good.
Oh, I gotta jet, Elisa.
I'm gonna try to come this week.
Can't promise anything, but best effort.
Bye.
Someone left this on the steps of St.
Emilian's Church.
"Unknown boy found in box.
April 6, 1958.
" Will, take a look at this.
Oh, that old job.
Boy in the box.
Even I heard of that one.
City's most famous cold job.
I've seen this up in the comissioner's office.
Still nags the bosses.
They never so much as I.
D.
'd the boy.
Everyone in Philly knew about this kid.
"The unknown boy.
" But week after week, no one reported him missing, and no one could name him.
Where's the body end up? Charity Field with the paupers and prisoners.
- Any tags on those? - Nah.
Think the unknown boy could be this little cowboy? Lil, there's something on the back.
"His name was Arnold.
" Cold Case 1x14 Boy in the Box ORIGINAL AIR DATE ON CBS: 2004/02/15 "Unknown white male, 1958.
Dumped in Fox Chase.
" Better known as the Boy in the Box.
in Philadelphia and Bucks County.
Hundreds of leads, none of them right.
Kid was found in a Liho Punch box, out in a field.
They tried to trace the box in Schools and restaurants.
They got nothing.
We know how he died? Undetermined.
Look at the head wounds.
Look at the hair.
What's the deal? One detective thought he was killed while getting a haircut.
Homicidal barber? That's a cracked theory.
Check this out.
Cops put the body in clothes, propped him up thinking it would make him more recognizable.
- Creepy.
- They didn't think so in '58.
Not that I was on the force then.
We weren't thinkin' that, Pops.
The college kid who found the box turned into a frequent flyer.
He came to Homicide 16 times about the case.
Got obssessed? Or was guilty about something.
Probably want to set up visit number 17.
So who do we think left the suitcase? Someone who's been keeping a secret a long time.
Let's see if we can get prints off it.
We've got the name "Arnold", and we've got this.
Maybe someone with younger eyes can read the lettering on that bus? "Fernwood Home for orphans.
" Sisters Vivian Dole and Grace Ashley ran the Fernwood Home in 1958.
They still got orphanages in Philly? No, we got the outstanding foster care system instead.
Nuns.
/ What about them? Tough ladies.
At least the ones who taught me.
I'm afraid Sister Grace died recently.
I'm sorry.
She gave 50 years to the Church.
That's a life well-lived.
You and her ran the Fernwood Orphanage in 1958? From '52 to '70.
We had up to 60 boys and girls at any given time.
You must know these boys, then.
They look like Fernwood children.
But I couldn't tell you the names.
How about a boy named Arnold? Remember him? Wore a cowboy hat? It's possible.
I saw so many children come and go, I just I don't remember them all.
Did you hear about the Boy in the Box case, back in '58? I don't think so.
Kid was dumped in Fox Chase? It was all over the city.
We lead private lives here.
We read morning prayers, not morning papers.
We know the orphanage is gone now but there must be records from Fernwood somewhere.
I believe they're all in the basement.
But I'm sure you don't want to sift through all that.
Actually, we love that kind of thing.
Well, you're welcome to look.
There was one Arnold at Fernwood that year, Arnold Culliver.
Six years old.
So the Boy in the Box has a name.
We have intake and adoption records for him.
Who adopted him? Rubin and Lila Hanson, April 4.
Two days before he was found in that field.
He was better off at the orphanage.
Those parents got a lot to explain.
We'll track them down.
I want to meet these people.
Arnold came to Fernwood in '53 with a sister, Gretchen.
Can we find her? There's a Gretchen Culliver listed in, uh, Roxborough.
Working in the city library.
You get the names of those other kids at Fernwood? We can figure out who the rest of these boys are.
Maybe if the sister gives her DNA, we exhume the boy's body, make a positive I.
D.
We're gonna need an ADA's help on this one, huh? You know anyone? - Want to go talk to Gretchen? - Sure thing.
Arnold Culliver was my brother, but this isn't him.
I know it's hard to look at.
Well, that's not my brother.
Arnold had curls; blonde curls.
Is he one of these boys, Gretchen? Yes, that's him with his Science Club friends.
Where'd you get that? Someone left it, along with this circular.
Well, that dead boy can't be Arnold.
He was adopted in 1958.
Sister Vivian said there's a family coming that wants a little boy.
They can't have me.
I wish they wanted a girl, too.
- I won't go, Gretch.
- You have to.
Even if we get separated.
You know our plan, right? Meet at the horses.
When? My 18th birthday.
Go to the Bryer Horse Fair, meet you at the horses.
Don't forget.
I ain't leaving you, Gretch.
But he was gone one morning, adopted late the night before.
I never said good-bye to him.
Did, uh, you go looking for him at the horse fair? I did, actually.
He didn't show.
It was a lucky Arnold found a home.
He acted up a lot.
There were two families before this one who had taken him and brought him back.
Because of his behavior? And if you got too old, you didn't get adopted at all.
You were stuck at Fernwood.
That what happened to you? Yeah, I grew up there.
Any idea where Arnold went to live? Oh, they never told us things like that.
I always imagined him with a nice family on a horse farm somewhere.
So nice, he forgot Fernwood.
He was very young when he left.
Gretchen, would you be willing to give us a DNA sample so we can compare it to this boy's? Well, I'd be glad to but I know that's not my brother.
I'd offer a refreshment, but we don't got much in the house.
No problem.
So, what's it all about? We got your name from Gretchen Culliver, Roger.
From the Fernwood Home? Gretchen Was she one of the older girls? Yeah.
Her brother Arnold, he was your age.
Oh, sure.
That's the Science Club gang.
- That Arnold was a cut-up.
- Yeah? Leader of the pack, you know? Drove the Sisters barking mad.
We'll make a posse.
Find that old girl and bring her on in.
I got the rope.
- Freddy, got your spurs on? - Got'em, Sheriff.
What do you think you're doing? We're going to the woods.
Bedtime was an hour ago.
We're gonna lasso a cow, Sister Vivian.
- There are no cows in the woods.
- That's what you think.
Yeah, he was kind of the holy terror of Fernwood, so, of course, uh, well, we all loved him.
Why are you asking about him? We're working a homicide from 1958.
We think the victim was probably Arnold.
Oh, no.
Could you look at a picture for us? Do you think that might be Arnold? Arnold had blonde hair curls.
And if his hair was cut off? I couldn't say yes but I couldn't say no.
I got two boys.
Adopted.
Hey.
Anything off that suitcase? Just that it was bought at Wannamaker's in '54.
Only the biggest department store in the city.
That was before credit cards, so no records.
No prints on it either.
We got the okay from the orphan's court to exhume the boy.
Is his sister gonna give us a swab? She's pretty committed to this boy not being Arnold, boss.
She better get uncommitted.
Blonde curls or not, that's the same kid.
Find any of the other boys in the photo? Two others are dead besides Arnold.
- One we just talked to.
- Yeah.
Says Arnold was a problem child.
If two different families took him in, then changed their mind, he must have been.
So Lila and Rubin bring him home, he throws a fit right off.
Rubin gives him a paddling or shakes him too hard, he ends up dead.
Well, what else do you do with a dead kid besides dump him in a field? Maybe there's a reason they're hard to trace.
You can't find them? No record of them anywhere in Pennsylvenia.
We're trying the national database now.
Nut job.
Must be our rabbit guy.
Good luck.
Detectives Rush and Valens.
Walter Rafferty.
I was the one to find that boy in the box.
Thanks for coming in.
You have something new on the case? Possibly.
He was about six years old.
Wrapped in a blue blanket.
It was 12:00 noon on Sunday, and I followed a jackrabbit into the brush and I came upon a box, a-a-a Liho Punch box, and there was the boy.
Inside.
You didn't recognize him? No.
Absolutely not.
You weren't involved with him dying? Absolutely not.
I took a polygraph test in 1958.
We know you did.
I'll take one right now.
I gave the cops a straight story.
You do any investigating yourself? As a matter of fact, I go back to the site every year on April 6 and I'm not the only one.
There's a woman who goes out there, too.
II seen her there for years.
Yeah.
We've got that down here.
She comes with white roses, wearing a green plaid coat.
You ever talk to this woman? I tried a few times.
She didn't want to engage.
Why is this whole Boy in the Box thing so big in your life, Walter? I guess you've seen lots of dead bodies.
Doesn't bother you? Well, I'm not built that way.
This this derailed me.
I wish I never saw that rabbit.
I think this Walter guy's on the level, boss.
Just gotten messed up by finding the body.
What do you think of his story about the lady in the plaid coat? Even if it's true, what's it mean? She could just be an obssessive like him.
How long you think this'll take? One of your girls waiting for you? What I wouldn't give to take a look at Scotty's black book? You know what? Forget it.
I can go tomorrow.
Didn't want to miss the show, huh? We finally found records on Rubin and Lila Hanson.
And? Well, there's a reason they were so hard to find.
They died in the 1887.
Arnold's parents don't exist.
Rubin and Lila Hanson died before the trun of the century.
Buried at the cemetery at St.
Emilian's.
The same church where the suitcase turned up.
So the adoption papers are phony.
So what happened to Arnold the night he was supposedly adopted? Maybe he died in the orphanage.
Someone on the inside covered it up with adoption records.
Here's another layer.
Autopsy of our boy positively I.
D.
'd him as Arnold Culliver from dental records, but, uh Arnold's DNA doesn't match Gretchen's.
So they're not brother and sister? Then Arnold's intake papers were doctored, too.
So this kid came from nowhere and went nowhere.
Who signed these records? Sister Vivian.
And guess who's not talking now? Sister Vivian.
In seclusion.
Nun on the run.
Ever staked out a convent? I'll go anywhere.
- Gretchen's gonna take this hard.
- Yeah.
How do we tell her that not only did her brother die 46 years ago, but on top of that, he wasn't actually her brother.
This must be a mistake.
No.
No, I'm sorry.
Arnold and I came to Fernwood together.
Our parents were killed in a train wreck.
You didn't have the same parents, Gretchen.
Sisters Vivian and Grace knew about this? I think they must have.
And they kept it a secret from me all this time? You were young.
Maybe they were protecting you.
Gretchen, we know now that Arnold was never adopted.
There was no family that came and took him away.
And right around that time, someone hurt him, bad enough it killed him.
The best explanation right now is that he died at Fernwood.
We need your help thinking about who could have hurt him.
I don't know.
Was anyone ever violent with Arnold? Freddy Baker.
He's in that picture you have.
He beat Arnold up pretty bad once.
Who else? Arnold got disciplined a lot.
By who? Sister Vivian.
Why are you back? I didn't like that family and they didn't like me.
They kick you out? I ran.
There was no one to play with.
Well, Arnold, what do you have to say for yourself? Good to be home.
You're pleased with yourself, are you? Didn't hurt.
Arnold's coming to my office.
Don't, Sister Vivian.
I never knew what she did to him in her office, but he came out with a lot of bruises.
Would Sister Grace punish him too? It was always Sister Vivian.
You ask Freddy Baker.
He ended up in her office a lot, too.
Fernwood, ahhh.
Bad memories? The worst.
Sorry to bring it up, but it's a homicide investigation.
Who died? Boy named Arnold Culliver.
Arnold? Crap.
That's one of the few kids I liked.
The way I hear it, Fred, you were kind of a bully at Fernwood.
Yeah, I'd run around dropping guys for looking at me funny.
Real nice kid, you know? You ever drop Arnold? One time.
But mostly I just left him alone 'cause he had spirit, you know? Gave the nuns hell.
He was popular, huh? With the kids, yeah.
Funny thing about him, he loved it at Fernwood.
Everyone else wanted to get out, he kept coming back.
What are your memories of Sister Vivian? Mean old battle-ax.
She's the reason I kept my kids out of Catholic school.
She ever whale on you enough to do damage? Sure.
She was sadistic.
So you think she could have hurt Arnold bad enough to kill him? Are you saying Arnold died at Fernwood? We don't know yet.
- I thought he got adopted.
- No.
Sister Vivian was pretty cruel.
But murder? It might have been accidental.
I'll tell you it got pretty bad.
I still got scars on my back from where she took the belt to me.
She used a belt, huh? With me.
She mixed it up.
Spoons, paddles.
Had a lot of tricks in her bag.
I'm sorry as hell that kid died.
Sister Vivian.
You're a hard lady to get to.
- I'm in seclusion.
- It'll only take a few minutes.
I'm not comfortable with this.
You know, I'm not comfortable with a few things myself.
Like Arnold's phony intake papers and his phony adoption records.
I don't know anything about that.
And the fact that his supposed parents died in the 1800s.
I'm also uncomfortable with what I'm hearing about the corporal punishment you gave out at Fernwood.
Raising Children calls for discipline.
Oh, you were extra rough with Arnold Culliver.
He had a serious behavior problem.
Oh, now you remember him? Because before, you couldn't place him at all.
Yes, I remember Arnold.
He was a troubled boy.
And you just didn't feel like telling me and my partner that before? We lead private lives here, and I believe in discretion.
I don't like prying eyes.
Because they might discover what you did.
I didn't do anything out of the ordinary to those children.
You left kids with lifelong scars.
Maybe it sounds scandalous today, but it was routine in 1958.
Mm.
So maybe in a routine pummeling of Arnold one night, he fell unconscious from one of your blows.
Died, in fact.
You'd want to be discreet about that event, so maybe you cut off those blonde curls so no one recognized him, put him in a box, and privately took him to a field and dumped him.
That's a remarkable thing to say to a woman of God.
Is it true? No.
Why did you fake Arnold's intake and adoption records? I didn't.
Your signature's on both sets of papers.
Sister Grace did the paperwork and I, as the senior sister at Fernwood, signed the documents.
Was Sister Grace as fond of corporal punishment as you are? - I won't speak ill of the dead.
- Why did she fake the records? Why did she do any of the stupid things that she did? Sister Grace was a screwup.
She was weak-willed, and she was unreliable and she couldn't discipline the children, and that's why I had to.
What's your name? He's Arnold.
Do you like swimming, Arnold? I like horses.
Afraid we don't have any of those, but we do have a membership at the Haverford swimming pool.
Does that sound like fun? Pow, pow, pow, pow! Don't socialize with the parents so much.
I'm sorry.
Arnold just shoved a woman.
I told him, best behavior.
We have to control him, Grace.
He'll never get a home if we don't.
Could Grace have hurt Arnold? Grace Some stories shouldn't be told.
Vivian claimed Grace was the one to doctor the records.
Is she offering a reason why? She was mysterious about her.
And conveniently, Grace is dead.
How'd it go with Fred the bully? He's a decent guy.
Adopted twins from Romania.
Did he do in Arnold? Nah, but he confirmed Sister Vivian was good and vicious.
Found the last kid in the photo, it's Paul Evans.
He add anything to the picture? More of the same.
Loved Arnold, terrified of Sister Vivian.
One thing struck us, though.
He said he couldn't have kids.
Yeah.
First guy we found, Roger he adopted his kids.
Fred adopted, too.
That's what we mean.
Three out of the six boys on that photo don't or can't have kids.
Maybe orphans are more likely to adopt when they grow up.
Three out of six, Lil? That's a cluster, not a coincidence.
Gretchen said this is a picture of the Science Club boys, right? Right.
Maybe we need to find out what they did at this club.
Uh, the boys went to the Science Club on Fridays, while the rest of us had music class.
Science Club wasn't at Fernwood? No, they went someplace else.
So, took that bus.
- By themselves? - Sister Grace went with them.
You know what they did there? No.
It was only for boys.
And you don't know where it was.
No, but I think that picture you have was taken wherever the club was held.
Was it? That building's not Fernwood.
Maybe we blow this up? Science Club was, um, just a weekly field trip.
To where? A hospital-type building.
What kind of things did you do there? It was different every time.
Could you give us a for instance? One time we had a breakfast in the afternoon.
- Hello, Doctor.
- Sister Grace.
Hello, boys.
Do we have to give blood today, Dr.
Thayer? No.
Today all you have to do is eat cornflakes.
We just had lunch! I hope you're hungry.
It was fun.
Nothing scary about it.
Do you know Dr.
Thayer's first name? Nah, sorry.
Roger, we have to ask you a personal question.
/ Okay.
Did you adopt kids because you couldn't have your own? Yeah.
That was your side, not your wife's.
How'd you know that? All three men still alive from Science Club confirmed as sterile.
How you gonna blame that on cornflakes? I don't know and I don't know what it's got to do with Arnold's head wounds, either.
We gotta find out what else was going on in this place, Lil.
Got a partial name on the building.
Uh, H-O-something-I-N-something.
Something Institute? Hoover Institute, in Fairmount.
So let's look for anyone who worked there in '58 starting with Dr.
Thayer.
Uh I got some, Lil.
Okay.
You know what, I can go tomorrow.
You've been saying that all week, Scotty, but you never go.
Yeah.
I'll meet you in the morning, Scotty.
First thing? First thing.
All right, you want me to auto-track Thayer? Uh, maybe let me, boss.
No, I got to learn how to run this computer sometime, Lil.
Is it on? Sorry I'm late.
The bus was parked right over there.
We know what was going on here in the '50s? Government research.
Dr.
Milton Thayer was using volunteers including the boys from Fernwood as test groups.
What was Fernwood getting in return? They were paid a fee for every boy they brought over.
I got the contracts.
Sister Vivian set this up? No.
Sister Grace.
What kind of tests are we talking? That's what we got to ask Dr.
Thayer.
He's an emeritus researcher here.
Yeah, I remember the Fernwood boys.
They were subjects in a series of radiation tests for us.
- Radiation.
- Right.
We heard something about cornflakes.
That was one of the methods.
How'd that work? The milk was irradiated.
You gave radioactive milk to six-year-old boys? Very low levels.
We also put it in the toothphaste and had them brush their teeth with it.
This was government-sponsored? You're what, 30 years old? Yeah.
So you don't remember the Cold War.
What about it? We lived in fear of the bomb.
Radiation research was considered necessary.
It was even patriotic.
Did you know your tests left three men sterile? We didn't intend to harm anyone, but at the time, we were working for a cause.
So you don't regret the tests? We worked within the boundaries of what we knew.
Back in the '50's, we thought those tests would do us good.
We also performed lobotomies, which we now think are barbaric, but at the time, it was considered cutting-edge medicine.
Uh-huh.
Can't help the times you live in.
So Sister Grace arranged the visits to the Institute.
Think she knew what she was doing to these kids? She was a nun, not a doctor.
And back in '58, the culture was, doctor could do no wrong.
You didn't question them.
You didn't question the government, either.
They funded the tests.
Been looking into what else was going on at the Hoover Institute in '58.
A lot of behavioral research.
What's that mean? Trying to straighten out psychotics by way of insulin treatments, isolation tanks, electroshock.
Oh, God.
Tell me they didn't test that on the orphans.
That would explain Arnold's head wounds.
I auto-tracked an ancient nurse, used to work in Behavior.
Still in Philly? Sally Thurber, old lady now, kicking it in a retirement community.
I remember that Boy in the Box case.
I never put it together with Fernwood.
No one did.
Those boys were darlings.
Did you know any of them? Maybe they were research subjects? Oh, not for us.
No.
I just saw them around the Institute in theirlittle gray uniforms.
I'd talk to the nun who brought them sometimes.
Sister Grace? She'd come down to Behavior once in a while.
Yeah? Why would she do that? Well I suppose everyone's dead now, so I can speak out of school.
Please.
She'd come visit Clayton an assistant in our lab, a medical student, and they were friendly.
Friendly how? Well, more friendly than a nun should be with a young man, in my opinion.
He's a good boy at heart, but he acts up.
You look beautiful, Grace.
/Shh.
- I can't tell you that? - Clay, he needs a family.
I'm worried he won't get one if he doesn't change.
He'll outgrow it.
No.
It's getting worse.
Please help him.
I don't know what you want me to do.
The treatment you give the patients here - That's not for children.
- Does it work? It's very effective.
Calms them down, right? Right.
I know it could help him.
Grace There's an adoption party tomorrow.
Please.
For me, Clay? Did you ever see the boy they were talking about? That same night -- I was leaving, I saw Grace again with that little boy in tow.
Where were they going? I assumed to see Clayton, to get that treatment she asked for.
What was that treatment? ECT.
Shock treatment.
I remember that night, because that's the only time I ever saw Grace out of her habit.
I never even knew she had blonde hair.
What was she wearing that night? A plaid coat.
A green plaid coat.
Sounds like Sister Grace and Clayton were some kind of item.
And he knew how to administer ECT, which was supposed to control wild behavior.
And she wanted a boy controlled for an adoption party.
There was a party at Fernwood on April 5.
The day before Arnold was found.
So maybe on April 4, Grace and Arnold secretely come to the Institute.
She's wearing lay clothes so no one recognizes her Except for Sally the busybody.
She's in a green plaid coat, just like the woman our Rabbit Guy saw in that field over the years.
Probably Grace.
And before you give shock treatment, you cut off the patient's hair.
Grace had the same coat, all those years? How many coats does a nun have? Why does she go to such lengths for this kid when she's got 60 kids who need help? Yeah.
Why Arnold? Sally makes it sounds like Grace and Clayton had a relationship.
Yeah? We still don't know who Arnold's parents were.
And why Grace doctored those intake records.
That's sacrilegious.
Lil, she was a nun.
She was also human.
We can talk here.
You probably don't want the sisters overhearing this conversation.
What is it now? We think we know who Arnold's mother was.
I didn't want to tell the story of Grace.
I know you didn't.
But a little boy died, Vivian.
Her little boy.
Grace was not a good nun.
No kidding.
She was dreamy.
Weak.
She had good intentions, she just didn't have self-control.
Do you know Clayton Waters? He was Grace's ruin.
She was in love with him? Till the day she died.
When she was 18, she came to me and told me she was pregnant.
I probably should have just told Mother Superior, but instead, I helped her go away for a few months.
You and Grace were close? Like blood sisters.
She promised to leave the baby at a Pittsburgh orphanage.
But she just couldn't, and so she brought him back to Fernwood.
And slipped him in as Gretchen's brother.
He became our cross to bear.
Misbehaving all the time.
Couldn't hold on to a family.
And he was getting older, less adoptable.
Did he know Grace was his mother? We never told him but I think a part of him knew that he was home with Grace.
That's why he kept coming back.
So what happened to Arnold on April 4? Oh, April 4 well On April 4, Grace was desperate to find him a home.
Right.
Before I tell you the rest, I want you to know that everything Grace did, she did because she loved him.
Vivian.
Vivian! What are you wearing? Arnold's sick.
What in the world happened? Clayton treated him.
To help him behave.
You're not supposed to see Clayton.
We had to cut his hair off, his beautiful hair Did Clayton say he'd be sick like this? He said he might feel tired, but Vivian, he's got such a fever.
We have to pray for him.
I thought it would help.
He'd behave, and then some couple would want him, and keep him.
Say a prayer, Grace.
It was supposed to calm him, to control him.
Grace never dreamt it would be harmful.
Did Arnold make it to the adoption party? No.
No, his fever got worse.
We're out of punch, Sister Vivian.
Mm.
.
th-there's a new box in the kitchen.
Where's Arnold? He'll be down soon.
Go talk to people.
He's going, Vivian.
I'll meet you Oh, Arnold I hope you know I loved you.
I'll meet you at the horses.
What are you doing? Clean the room up.
- I wanna come.
- Grace! This is not one of your little screwups.
This is very serious.
I'm coming, too.
~~ Rick Nelson "Sweeter Than You" ~~ ~~ I could never be loved by anyone sweeter than you ~~ ~~ And I could never belong to anyone sweeter than you ~~ ~~ With you to stand beside me ~~ ~~ I'll never be alone ~~ ~~ And what more could I long for ~~ ~~ than to have you for my own ~~ ~~ My only desire is loving you eternally ~~ ~~ For no, no other love could ever mean so much to me ~~ ~~ So if you say you love me forever ~~ ~~ I'll be true ~~ ~~ And what more could I long for ~~ ~~ than to live my life with you ~~ ~~ I could never be loved by anyone sweeter than you ~~ ~~ And I could never belong by anyone sweeter than you ~~