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- My name is Paul Fronczak. But who am I really?
[desolate music]
¶ ¶
I thought I knew who I was.
¶ ¶
But what happens if you discover
that everything you thought you knew about yourself
was a lie?
[suspenseful music]
¶ ¶
[siren wails] What really happened to me?
¶ ¶
That's what I needed to find out.
¶ ¶
[investigative pizzicato music]
My mom was upstairs. My dad was at work.
¶ ¶
I was ten years old, and I was snooping around the house,
looking for Christmas presents.
¶ ¶
And I thought,
"This is a great time to go in the crawlspace,"
'cause it's--I know it's a great place to hide presents.
¶ ¶
And I saw a bunch of boxes.
I thought, "This is it. The big score," right?
¶ ¶
It's just, like, papers and things.
It's not a present.
Open another one. A bunch of cards,
more letters, and newspaper clippings.
I'm like, "This isn't Christmas."
[disquieting music]
¶ ¶
So I looked at one,
and it said "500 search for kidnapped baby."
Another one: "Fronczak baby still missing."
So I started reading it,
and it said, "Paul Joseph Fronczak,
kidnapped from Michael Reese Hospital.
And then I saw a picture of my mom and dad,
and they looked really, really sad
and heartbroken and distraught.
I thought, "Wait. That's me."
What happened?
[dramatic music]
¶ ¶
- That year, I was a student nurse
at Michael Reese Hospital in Chicago.
¶ ¶
I was working on the maternity ward.
We were downtown Chicago, and young,
and I came from a small town, so it was fun.
¶ ¶
Michael Reese is on the South Side of Chicago,
and it was a pretty large hospital.
[baby squalling]
Back when I was in nurse's training,
the mother gave birth in the delivery room,
and then she went to her room,
and the baby went immediately to the nursery.
There was always babies coming and going.
If the baby was okay, the next feeding time,
the nursery room nurses
brought the babies out to the mother.
And then, as students,
we were there with the mother and the baby.
[melancholy music]
Dora was just like any mother: very excited.
Her baby wasn't with her yet
when I first introduced myself to her,
and she had already lost a baby,
and so this baby was alive and well,
and so she was kind of, like-- had taken a deep breath.
"We made it, and everything is great."
And so she was very, very excited.
¶ ¶
The nursery room nurse brought the baby in.
¶ ¶
I saw him just like this. He had a lot of hair.
And he smiled. Probably was gas.
But he did smile and look at her.
And she was joyous.
And, you know, I love babies, so I was too.
I was thrilled to be with her while she was seeing her baby
for the first time after delivery.
It was--it was nice.
He was a perfect baby.
¶ ¶
I had another patient on that unit,
so I was leaving the room to go to see another patient.
And as I was leaving, this woman walked in.
She was dressed in white.
I just thought, "Oh, she's a nurse."
She said to Mrs. Fronczak,
"The doctor's here to see your baby."
And she handed the baby over to her.
[uneasy music]
¶ ¶
I noticed that all the babies were going in,
that all the nursery room nurses
were coming to take the babies in.
- Mary Trenchard to the nurses' office.
Could Mary Trenchard go to the nurses' office?
- The head nurse came up to me and said,
"Do you have the Fronczak baby?"
And I said no.
And then she said to me, "Well, then he's gone."
And I'm like, "Gone where?" And she said, "Taken."
And then she said, "I want you to go back
"into Mrs. Fronczak's room and stay with her all day.
Do not leave her side until the doctor comes to see her."
I just tried to be talking joyfully with her
about the baby
and what was gonna happen and--like nothing happened.
[sirens wailing]
- The hospital didn't call the police
for probably an hour.
Well, they couldn't believe it themselves.
By the time they--we were notified,
she had a pretty good leadoff.
¶ ¶
At the time, my wife was having twins,
so I felt a little more involved in the case.
One baby died.
And I know it was hard for my wife,
but she knows that she came home with one baby.
¶ ¶
- Most of the staff knew what was going on.
But we didn't tell the other mothers
and everything.
We all had to act normal.
¶ ¶
So I spent the whole day with Dora.
¶ ¶
I went to a class on bathing babies
that the other student nurses gave with her.
I went to a feeding class with her.
And the whole time, I knew the baby was gone,
and I couldn't say anything to her.
It was long and strenuous, because she was very happy,
enjoying the classes and enjoying the day
and waiting for the baby to come back to her again.
And he wasn't ever gonna come back to her.
¶ ¶
They searched the whole hospital,
thinking that maybe the woman was still in the hospital.
And I think that's why it took so long
before they came and told her.
¶ ¶
Her doctor came in.
And he said, "Mrs. Fronczak, your baby has been taken."
And with those words,
the whole room filled with policemen and FBI.
One of the questions was, "When did she come in?"
And she said, "She was coming in as Mary was leaving."
¶ ¶
I can see her, today, as plain as I saw her back then,
but when you're with an artist and they said,
"What does her nose look like," I was like, "It was a nose."
She was about my height. She was white.
She had brown hair that was shoulder length.
She was thin. She had on a white uniform.
- This motivated thousands of calls.
[dramatic music]
¶ ¶
- Michael Reese is on the lake.
There's an L there
and a train station and an airport.
She had every means of transportation
to leave Chicago
within five minutes of taking the baby.
¶ ¶
- This was premeditated on the part of this woman.
In an interview with the cab driver,
he said she wanted to go to an area of 35th and Halsted,
which was only 15 minutes from the hospital.
¶ ¶
When she got out of that cab, she had a coat on.
She got into another car, and never seen again.
¶ ¶
[shutters snapping]
- Mrs. Fronczak, as a woman and a mother,
do you--would you have any reason to think
why she might have taken the baby?
- The only thing I can think of--she
must have been desperate for a baby that she would come
and take someone else's baby away from them,
when she couldn't have her own or lost hers or something.
But even losing a child,
I don't think you're that desperate to go
and take another woman's baby.
I don't know what more to say.
[desolate music]
- I took care of her for several days.
And she cried a lot.
¶ ¶
Her husband was there, and it was like--
well, it was like a funeral. It was a funeral.
There was crying. And she was beside herself.
She did a lot of praying. She was very Catholic.
And he did too. They prayed together a lot.
Many times said, "Why has God done this to me again?"
"I don't know."
¶ ¶
- Do you--do you have any message for the kidnapper?
- I just want to plead with her to return the baby.
- What kind of shape is your wife in?
- She feels pretty bad.
- Did you spend the night with her in the hospital?
- Yes.
- Is she extremely nervous at this point?
- Yes.
- My darling dad-- he was a Chicago policeman,
and this case was assigned to him
from the minute that Michael Reese Hospital
called the police to say that there was a missing baby.
I didn't hear anything until very early the next morning,
when my dad, who had worked all night, came home,
and I heard him talking to my mom,
and she said, "Oh, Jack,
what is going on that you're so late?"
And he had to swallow, you know,
to tell her this horrible thing that had happened,
and my mother was very moved by it.
You can imagine, as any mother would be--
the heartbreak of thinking
of someone having their baby taken from them.
¶ ¶
My dad worked many long, long hours,
as all the policemen assigned to the case did.
¶ ¶
It was big news in the city of Chicago.
¶ ¶
And the newspapers were full of it.
- "The Daily News" was the newspaper at the time.
They offered a $10,000 reward.
And that didn't bring any results.
The reward didn't interest anybody, didn't help.
¶ ¶
- Oh, I think you couldn't not be moved,
just seeing their pictures,
and how dear Mr. Fronczak was to his wife,
and his arm always around her and always encouraging her.
It was heartbroken to see her facial expressions.
¶ ¶
I don't know that I ever saw a smile on her face
in any of the many pictures I saw in the newspapers.
¶ ¶
- Do you have any further clues?
- No, sir, not at this time.
- Do you have any suspects here in Chicago
that you're gonna question?
- We are questioning suspects throughout the day.
- Do you have some right now?
Some others, apart from those--
- We have other names and so forth to check.
- How many do you have?
- Numerous names. - Thank you very much.
- Thank you, Lieutenant. - Surely.
¶ ¶
- Do you want to make one more appeal?
- Yes. We're again appealing
for the safe return of our son.
And we're asking any person who might have any information
or think that any--
any information they could have might be helpful--
we're asking them to call the FBI.
¶ ¶
Please call the FBI if you have any information
that may be helpful in finding our baby.
¶ ¶
- Mrs. Fronczak, are you still convinced now
that someday you will see little Paul Joseph again?
- Yes, I'm still convinced.
¶ ¶
[tranquil music]
¶ ¶
- July 2, 1965.
Times were much safer back then.
Or at least, the perception was, things were safer.
The baby was left on the sidewalk
for a period of time. Nobody thought it unusual.
They assumed the parent was inside the store.
Until a period of time went by that they said,
"Hey, this is a little unusual.
The baby's been here for a long time."
Somebody notified the police.
My grandfather, Joseph Farrell--
he was the lead investigator of this found baby
that we had back in Newark.
[siren wails]
The baby was in a stroller. Well-dressed.
The stroller was somewhat fancy for the time.
¶ ¶
The baby was subsequently transported to the hospital,
where the baby was examined.
Found to have a black eye, but in good health.
And then, of course, the investigation began
by the police side.
I think it was probably a case
that they didn't expect would last through the day.
"Oh, yeah, somebody left their baby here.
"I'm sure Mom's gonna come looking for him
pretty quickly." But that never did happen.
¶ ¶
- My mom and dad had an adoption home
in the state of New Jersey.
My mother and father were absolutely unbelievable people.
You could feel the love and the warmth in the house.
We had a lot to do. We had over 100 diapers a day.
It was--it was a very busy house,
but it was a joyous house.
[warm music]
When they called,
they just said that a baby had been found.
¶ ¶
I was probably about 17 or 18 when he came to the house.
¶ ¶
My future husband-- he was his barber.
He did his hair. He was very busy.
He was a busy little boy. He loved music.
¶ ¶
He was an outside child.
You know, he'd rather be outside than inside.
And the other kids would follow him.
He was kind of like the leader.
He brought a lot of love into our house.
We adored him.
¶ ¶
Well, the fact that he was a foundling--he had no name.
So the state said, you know,
"Why don't you pick a name for him?"
And my mom said Scott. She said, "It's strong."
And she said, "He is a strong baby."
And she said, "He's a fighter."
[melancholy music]
- They thought it would be a pretty simple resolution
to the case.
You know, somebody's missing a baby,
they'd be looking for it.
But unfortunately, that's not what occurred,
and they actually had to put a lot of man-hours
into trying to find the parents of this child.
¶ ¶
They utilized the Newark newspapers at the time
as well as the New York City newspapers,
to get the word out: a description of the baby,
the circumstances on which it was found.
And they sat back, and I think they waited for the tips
to come flowing in, and they never did.
¶ ¶
As time went on, there was this other high-profile case
halfway across the country, out in Chicago,
where a baby was missing.
Apparently that was a case
that didn't have a lot of leads either.
So the detectives here got in touch
with the detectives out in Chicago,
kind of compared notes a little bit,
put their heads together,
and I think the thought process started to emerge
that maybe we're talking about the same baby.
¶ ¶
- The news came from the police department
in Newark, New Jersey,
that a baby had been found,
and they wondered if it could be the Fronczak child.
So I remember my father saying
this would really be wonderful for Dora and Chester,
who he thought were such fine people.
¶ ¶
- The FBI called and said that they were very interested
in--to see whether he was the Fronczak baby.
¶ ¶
So that's when it was time to contact the Fronczaks
and tell them.
At the time, they didn't let us see the parents
or the parents see us.
We went into a separate room.
And the state worker took him down,
and they opened the door, and the mom said,
"Oh, my God, that's my baby."
¶ ¶
It was completely silenced, the whole room,
and then, all of a sudden, you heard tears.
"Oh, my God, he found his old mom.
He found his father."
¶ ¶
We were so excited because they had their baby.
The lady that was on television
had a broken heart.
And her heart was repaired when she saw him.
His whole life was gonna be just with the Fronczaks.
[children clamoring]
[tender music]
¶ ¶
- "What?"
So I got all excited.
I said, "Mom, what is this? This is about me, right?
What--what is this?" And she was doing something.
She looked over at me, and her face just got red.
And she was just like,
"Why are you snooping around the house?
That isn't your stuff."
And she looked at it, and she said,
"You were kidnapped. We found you.
"We love you.
We'll never talk about that again."
And I was like, "Wow." I was, like, devastated.
But what my parents said, that's--that was it.
Right? There was no negotiating.
So I just went back downstairs, put it away,
closed everything up, and walked out.
I closed the crawlspace door, but I never forgot that.
¶ ¶
I've dated a lot of girls up and down these blocks.
¶ ¶
A lot of memories here.
¶ ¶
I was an altar boy. Used to walk to school.
My grammar school was, like, two miles away.
My friend Jim-- my best friend Jim--
lives about a mile down there.
Used to run to his house every day, and run back down.
We were always running. Like Forrest Gump.
We were just always running somewhere.
So, my mom and dad had a younger son, David.
And he was about two years younger than I was.
I have memories of us on Christmas morning.
He would wake me up and say Santa was here.
¶ ¶
I loved my family, and I loved my family upbringing.
It was--it was, like, a Rockwell painting.
¶ ¶
I grew up in a beautiful area. Beautiful home.
My dad was a blue-collar worker.
He worked in a factory, had a good job,
always had a new car.
Had family vacations every year.
It was a perfect family.
[indistinct voices conversing]
- A Rockwell painting? Sure.
But underneath, it was kind of different
because my parents were completely overwhelmed.
You know, they were traumatized.
They had a stillborn boy, and then a year later,
their baby was taken a day after he was born.
And then a couple years go by,
and when the FBI found Paul and identified
that he might be Paul,
you know--they brought him home that summer,
and then I was born in November.
And it was a really terribly stressful time for my parents,
especially for my mom.
We didn't discuss things.
I think that my parents always wanted
to have a positive outlook on life and move forward,
and that was their way of doing that,
by not focusing on the past.
[indistinct voices conversing]
[tranquil music]
¶ ¶
I remember Paul and I having a pretty,
you know, typical relationship as brothers
up until, you know, maybe he hit his teens
and I was approaching my teens,
and then--you know, then, your life expands.
You know, you have different friends and whatnot.
And we kind of went different ways.
He was--there was something different about him,
I guess I'd say.
I'm sure it made him feel set apart,
and I'm sure that affected him.
¶ ¶
- He was a fun guy to hang around with,
'cause most of my other friends were really serious.
At that time in a guy's life,
it's all about getting drunk, meeting girls,
music, pop culture, movies, what's on TV.
So I would go to Paul's house, pick Paul up,
and I'd, you know, spend a little bit of time there.
It was a very quiet--I never heard any music in the house.
And for a guy that loved music,
that's pretty odd.
[bass guitar music]
- I loved music more than anything.
I taught myself how to play bass.
I loved progressive rock.
I saw KISS in concert,
and then I saw Rush in concert.
Lots of Rush.
I was at this little restaurant,
waiting for my girlfriend to get off work,
and I heard these two guys about a booth over talking.
And one guy said, "All we need is a kickass bass player."
So I leaned over, and I said, "I'm a bass player."
And they said, "Can you play Rush?"
And I was like, "Oh, I can play Rush."
["New World Man" by Rush playing]
¶ ¶
[laughs]
¶ ¶
I auditioned the next day for the band.
And they said, "Can you move to Arizona?"
I said, "Absolutely."
And that's when I had to tell my parents.
- ¶ He's a rebel and a runner ¶
¶ He's a signal turning green ¶
¶ He's a restless young romantic ¶
¶ Wants to run the big machine ¶
¶ ¶
¶ He's got a problem with his poisons ¶
- Everyone else was just doing the same thing.
I wanted to get away and be in a band.
2,000 miles away.
I love my parents.
But it was--it was really easy to leave.
I'd didn't talk to my parents probably for a year.
To be on my own, playing rock and roll,
it was--it was perfect.
¶ ¶
- ¶ Man ¶
¶ ¶
We had a great run, and it just--
it didn't work out.
So we kind of broke up, parted ways,
and eventually, I found myself in Las Vegas.
[rock music]
¶ ¶
It's definitely not a place
where you're gonna follow rules.
People come here to act stupid,
to do things that they wouldn't do at home.
¶ ¶
So when I first moved here,
I went through about five or ten jobs,
you know, just trying different things.
And someone said, "Why don't you just start acting?"
So I spent 75 bucks, and I got a headshot.
And I went to an agent,
and I think I started working, like, the next day.
- Please place all your metal objects
in the bags.
Excuse me, sir. Sir.
Excuse me, sir.
- Commander. Commander. The headset.
- He?
- Please place all your metal objects in your bag.
[dramatic music]
¶ ¶
- If it's electronic, we need to see it.
- I loved being someone else.
And I loved how I could just bounce into a role
and play that character.
- I think he did a movie called "Domino" or something,
where he was a stand-in for Mickey Rourke.
And then there was some "Ocean's 11" movies,
and he was a stand-in for George Clooney.
- Which one's the Amazing Yen? - The little Chinese guy.
- I remember once, he told me
that he was in a movie "Rush Hour."
And I liked the "Rush Hour" movies.
And so I went with my wife, Alexis, to see "Rush Hour."
[dramatic music]
¶ ¶
So, they get to Vegas,
and I guess they're down in some sewer system.
They come out of the sewer,
and you see the guy's head pop out.
- Las Vegas? - Vegas?
What the hell we doing in Vegas?
- Paul comes walking across the screen
with some woman on his arm, you know.
And I just bust out laughing in the theater.
And my wife's like,
"What the hell are you laughing at?"
I'm like, "That's Paul."
- 2004 or 2005. Spring.
And we actually met online, on a dating website.
I remember seeing his picture and thinking,
"I'm gonna get a date with that guy.
"He's good-looking. Man, he is cute.
"He probably won't go out with me,
but I'm gonna get a date with this guy."
Our first date, we were together.
There was no lapse of time. There was no questioning.
It was just, like, we had our first date,
and that was it. Tell them what you're doing.
- It's almost Christmas, Mish. Our second one together.
2007.
- He was so down-to-Earth.
Just like the guy next door.
Sweet, kind, caring.
Obviously got a lot of attention.
He was in the acting and modeling.
But he just seemed like he needed
that steady, genuine attention
that I don't think he really got
from his jobs or from family.
Something was missing. He was looking for something.
It was just--he just seemed
like a little lost puppy sometimes.
[gentle music]
¶ ¶
When we first met,
he didn't really talk a lot about his childhood.
But once we got a little bit closer,
he did share with me that he was kidnapped.
¶ ¶
I remember him telling the story,
and I thought, "Okay, this is a little strange,"
almost like I didn't believe him at first.
¶ ¶
And the way that he just, matter-of-fact,
told the story-- "Oh, well, I was kidnapped,
"and then I was missing for a few years,
and then the FBI found me, and here I am today."
And it was just... like it wasn't a big deal.
¶ ¶
I think he's restless,
because he constantly went from one job to another.
It's almost like he will kind of do something
and get bored with it,
as though he was always in search for something.
Always looking for something.
Never really completely settled
on what he had or what he was doing.
¶ ¶
I think that it kind of tapered off.
You know, once we got married and we were happy together
and we were secure,
he seemed at peace there for a while.
He seemed--he seemed fulfilled.
And I thought, "This is fantastic.
This is--like, I'm happy. We're gonna--I'm gonna live--
I'm gonna be 100 years old with this man."
¶ ¶
Hello.
- So, who do you have there, Michelle?
- I have our beautiful daughter.
You don't want to say hello?
Open those eyes. A little bit?
Well, we welcomed her today at 1:44.
- She's about 6 1/2 hours old.
We had Emma in our hospital room.
And we never left that room,
for reasons I'm sure you understand.
To see your child breathe
and start their life right there,
knowing that you helped create that child--it was amazing.
¶ ¶
That's my child. That will always be my child.
It's an instant bond that nothing will ever change.
- That's the sweetest thing
I think I've ever seen in my life.
¶ ¶
Beautiful.
- So once we had Emma,
the doctor asked me for my medical history,
a question I've been asked
a hundred times all through my life,
and I always spouted out the same answer.
Okay, Mom, what are you doing?
- Well, right now, I'm feeding Emma.
Enjoying feeding Emma.
Our little angel. We really love her.
- But this time, when they asked me,
I'm looking at my child, I'm thinking,
"What if it's not true?"
It took me back
to when I was ten years old, finding those clippings.
Really wondering, "Could I be that kidnapped child
"found 2,000 miles away a couple years later?
That sounds like-- like a fairy tale."
You know, and then you really start wondering.
"Is this really true? Am I really Paul?"
[disquieting music]
¶ ¶
So, my parents loved me. I know they did.
And they raised me really well.
But it was two brothers,
and David had a certain easiness with him,
a familiarity, that I didn't have.
And I really feel in my heart
that they knew that David was theirs without question,
but was I really their child?
And if that's in the back of your mind,
it's gonna come out in--it's gonna come out.
¶ ¶
So, in this picture, I'm with the FBI agents who found me
and with my mom and dad.
And honestly, looking at this picture...
It's kind of funny.
'Cause the FBI looks like they just--that's it.
"We did it." You know?
I think it's funny that my mom and I
are both looking at the camera,
and my dad's looking down at me,
like, maybe wondering, "Is this really my son?"
[moody string music]
¶ ¶
- It is very difficult to disagree with the FBI.
They were there for a certain mission.
And they wanted this case to be over and done with.
¶ ¶
- I know that my grandfather wasn't 100% sold
on the concept
that this baby belonged in Chicago.
But at the time, that's really all they had.
We were missing a baby in Chicago,
we have one found in New Jersey,
and I think that's the way the consensus went.
But the family was extremely confident that was their child.
¶ ¶
- I can imagine
that you would want it to be your baby so much,
you would take one look and say,
"Of course that's him."
¶ ¶
- He wanted to find out, you know, and he was thinking,
"Well, now there's DNA. We can find out for sure
if I really am Paul Fronczak."
His parents were in town.
It's--it really is kind of blurry now,
but I just remember sitting at the table
and almost, like, Paul brought it up like,
"Hey, do you want pizza? You want takeout?
What do you want for dinner?"
in his joking way.
You know, I mean, he did it in a nice way,
but it was--it was very much lighthearted,
and he just brought it up and spoke to them about it,
and why he wanted to know.
And I think his parents were caught off guard.
I know they were caught off guard,
because they just agreed.
¶ ¶
And the next thing you know, they're sitting at the table,
and they're all swabbing away.
And I thought, "Wow, we're gonna find out."
But then they got back in town.
I don't remember if it was his mom or his dad
that called and said, "Don't send it in.
We don't want to know." Which I understand.
They had time to think about it.
They had time for it to really process.
And they were able to think, "I don't want to know."
Which--I don't blame them.
¶ ¶
I remember him talking about it and thinking about it
and trying to understand their point of view.
But he just--he needed to know for himself.
¶ ¶
And I know that he really wrestled with that
for quite some time.
But in the end, he needed to know for himself.
¶ ¶
- I was at work, and my cell phone rang.
And it said, "This is Identigene.
Is this Paul Fronczak?" And I said yes.
And then the guy took a beat, and then he said,
"There's no remote possibility that you're Paul Fronczak."
Chester and Dora are not your biological parents."
And I said, "Okay.
Thank you very much." Hung up.
And then I just stopped breathing.
I just sat there.
And it's like my life just flashed before my eyes.
Everything I thought I knew about myself just vanished.
And you don't know anything about your life.
[ethereal music]
¶ ¶
- I just remember when he said it.
I was like, "Oh, my gosh."
I said, "Are you okay? How do you feel?
Do you want me to come there right now?"
He's like, "I don't know what to think.
I don't know what to feel."
But he--he was upset,
but yet masking it, I could tell.
¶ ¶
He's like, "I can't believe it."
He's like, "I'm not the real Paul Fronczak."
He's like, "I don't know my birthday."
He's like, "I don't even know where I was born
or who my parents are." He's like, "I have no idea."
He's like, "I don't even know how old I am."
¶ ¶
I was like, "Wow. Yeah."
And I think that's when it became so real.
I was like, "Holy shit."
¶ ¶
I think that's when it hit me too.
And I knew--it's almost like I knew that day.
I thought, "This is not-- this is not the end of this."
I knew that he was not just gonna leave it at that.
I knew that he-- his personality--
he needed to find out.
He was gonna start digging into it
and trying to find out, "Who am I?"
¶ ¶
- So after I got the news saying that I wasn't Paul,
I knew the only way to move this story forward
would be to turn to the media.
And there was only one guy I could think of in Las Vegas,
and that was George Knapp.
- Hello, and welcome to "On the Record."
Flying saucers, extraterrestrials,
monsters from outer space.
The government has been telling us for years
that they're not real.
They're weather balloons or swamp gas
or the ravings of lunatics.
You know, I'm not exactly sure what the final factor was
in why he picked me,
but I've been on the air in Las Vegas a long time.
I've done some big stories here and there.
I'm generally regarded as a trustworthy person.
I keep my word.
At the time, he seemed wounded.
He was still trying to get his head around it himself.
He had just got the DNA test results.
He was still trying to figure out what to do with it.
He wanted to solve two mysteries:
one is, what happened to biological Paul?
And two, who was he? Where was he born?
What was his nationality?
How old was he? Where's his real family?
How did he end up on a street in New Jersey?
And the real thing that was hanging over his head was,
"What do I tell my parents?" He was struggling with that.
And once we set a date
for when our first report aired,
it was sort of a deadline for Paul, as well,
to tell his parents something he had never been able to do.
- Dear Mom and Dad.
First, I am your son, and I always will be.
You and Dad have been wonderful parents
and have shaped me into the person that I am today.
I love you both, and that will be forever.
The DNA test results came back,
and it turns out that I am not your biological son.
I want to find out if the real Paul Fronczak is alive
and what happened to him.
And I want to find out who I am,
and what happened to me.
I hope you and Dad will be with me on this
and be a part of this process.
Thank you for all you have done for me in the past
and for the rest of our future together.
Your loving son, Paul.
[melancholy music]
¶ ¶
So they called me.
I saw the number on my phone, and I answered it.
I said, "Hey, Mom." Started screaming at me.
"How could you do this to us?
"We're not good enough for you?
"You don't like us as parents.
You want to find other parents?"
And I was trying to tell her,
that--that was never even a thought in my mind.
I hear a scuffling. My dad gets on the phone.
He said, "You're an asshole." Click.
[dial tone]
And I was like, "What the fuck?"
You know? It was like--
¶ ¶
- The three of us were very angry at Paul.
And it made it really difficult
to try to bridge that gap again
for quite a while.
I was all emotion at that point.
And, you know, I don't think it was fair, looking back.
You know, he was going through a lot.
And I could have, you know, attempted
to kind of have a deeper conversation with him
about how we might manage all this stuff at once.
But I just--I just decided, you know, the heck with him.
¶ ¶
- So after that phone call,
we didn't speak for a couple of years.
I could not see their side.
I couldn't see a downside of this.
Your child was kidnapped. It was never solved.
I'm not your real son. I was--I was a proxy.
I was put in his place. And now we know the truth.
So how could you not want to learn the truth
and move forward
and, you know what, maybe find your real son?
Wouldn't you want to know the truth?
People are gonna fucking hate me, aren't they?
"He's a dick!"
- Well, we certainly had the conversation
multiple times: be careful what you wish for,
because you don't know where this leads.
This is a dark beginning.
Paul is on a sidewalk, abandoned, in New Jersey.
¶ ¶
Nobody came looking for him.
It's not like some accidental thing,
they just left him at the bus stop.
He was put there on purpose.
- We'll be on network just in case.
¶ ¶
- Michelle and I very rarely saw eye-to-eye on anything,
but this was definitely a hard no.
She wanted me to just let it go.
- So we're gonna do headlines, and we're gonna go to weather.
- And I tried to explain to her
that this is bigger than just my parents now.
You know, we know--we now know
that their son could be out there.
¶ ¶
And what kind of injustice would I be doing
if I knew that and just ignored it?
I mean, for all we know,
maybe we could be helping out the real Paul too.
- Stand by, seeking. He is minus five seconds.
- She said, "Your parents don't want you to do this,
then just don't do it."
- Stand by. Sound check.
And fade up.
- Well, it's a case that began
with a sensational kidnapping in the Midwest,
but has now spread to southern Nevada
and to the I-Team.
George Knapp here with this exclusive story.
- You have had that feeling when you're a kid
that you must have been switched at birth or something,
or that aliens had dropped you off,
because you couldn't possibly belong to your own family?
Well, for Paul Joseph Fronczak of Henderson,
it's more than a fuzzy feeling.
Tomorrow is supposed to be his birthday,
but he's just recently learned
that he has no idea when he was actually born,
that his parents aren't really his parents,
and that he hasn't a clue where he's from or who he is.
It started with a kidnapping
that exploded onto an international stage,
and it's one amazing, puzzling tale.
- I don't even know how old I am.
Or who I am. Or what nationality.
All those things that you just take for granted.
- The response to the first story we did
was off the charts. Phones ringing off the hook.
There were inquiries from CNN, NBC, ABC, everywhere,
coming to me, coming to Paul, all over the place.
Everybody wanted in on this story.
[dramatic news fanfare]
¶ ¶
- It's a mystery once believed solved.
Now the FBI is revisiting a half-century-old case.
- His name, his parents, his background:
none of it was true.
- A bizarre mystery nearly 50 years in the making.
The story was first reported by our Las Vegas affiliate--
- And it was like overnight,
the whole country just erupted with this story.
- To another story that we're following this morning,
a strange twist now in a 50-year-old cold case.
The FBI is reopening a 1964 kidnapping case.
- I told Paul, "Look, you know,
I've got a feeling we're gonna help you solve this."
- Here's Barbara Walters. - Good evening.
Tonight, a most bizarre story.
What would you do if everything you thought
you knew about your life was a lie?
And the real truth--
- Doing the "20/20" episode with Barbara Walters,
to me, was an amazing experience.
I mean, you look at Barbara Walters.
She's a legend. She hits good--good questions.
And she wants to get to the heart of the story
as quick as possible. That's what I wanted,
because I figured the more eyes on this story,
the better our chances of finding answers and solving it.
- In the summer of 1966, the Fronczaks believed
their family had been miraculously reunited.
Do you remember how you felt when Paul said,
"I'm not really sure who I am"?
- The first time he told me, I thought he was joking.
I thought he was just kidding around,
but then-- It wasn't fun.
It was exhausting and tiring
and, you know, schlepping our kid across the country
to go to New York and meet with all these different people.
Just really hits home with how my mother-in-law felt.
And then it hits home that--the pain
that she went through then. I'm sure she's feeling it now.
It was very uncomfortable for me, but I did it for him.
I did it for him, to be supportive,
and to, you know, be there for him,
and whatever he needed, I would do.
[somber music]
¶ ¶
- Paul had done a story with George Knapp out of Las Vegas,
and that was the first time that I heard about his story.
¶ ¶
I sent a message to him, saying, look, I think
that DNA testing could help him
find the answer to his mystery.
I strongly feel that everyone has an equal right,
a birthright, to know about their heritage.
It doesn't mean they have the right
to have a relationship with their biological family,
but it certainly means that they deserve the knowledge
of where they came from.
- In the meantime, Fronczak is doing what he can
to fill in some of the missing pieces
of his life.
- All right, you ready, Em? - Uh-huh.
- I'm gonna do this.
- What's that? - This is a DNA kit.
- A Band-Aid? - Kind of.
- Now, because this one was in the media,
I knew that he was getting a lot of tips from the public.
But I was really just focused on the DNA
and just trying to find those answers.
And then other people are gonna take it from there.
¶ ¶
I had cofounded a DNA interest group,
and we had gone to dinner after one of our meetings,
and I was talking about Paul's case.
¶ ¶
- We would always go and have drinks,
which was really the best part.
- It was the best part.
- It was kind of a core group of us.
- CeCe offered that, if I had empty time,
I could fill it up with this.
And boy, did that turn out to be true.
- It was all women,
all taking time away from their families
to try to help Paul find his answers.
¶ ¶
- The DNA is sequenced,
and then that sequence is unique to Paul.
Then they run that sequence up against everybody else
in the database, so when you get your matches,
you could get a thousand matches.
So there were a thousand people potentially to reach out to.
Paul didn't really have a sense of what was going on,
and part of the reason is because, how do you explain?
You know, we didn't have anything to show him.
Almost all the time, we had nothing to show him.
¶ ¶
- He didn't know who he could trust.
But we knew that we were gonna solve the case.
But it was hard to convince him
that we were the ones that were gonna do it.
¶ ¶
- They were called the Search Angels.
And their mission was to help people, using DNA,
to build their family trees.
But I wasn't getting anywhere.
No biological hits. No family.
And all of a sudden, this name popped up:
Alan Fisch. And it said second cousin.
¶ ¶
I thought, "This is huge."
Because when we're second cousins,
we share great-grandparents.
¶ ¶
So Alan and I decided
that we would meet in New York.
And he was super excited, and I was--I was ecstatic,
because I've been on these DNA sites for a long time,
with zero hits on family.
¶ ¶
- It was so exciting to hear that he had a second cousin.
And I thought, "Oh, great, this is gonna be easy," right?
But when I learned that Alan was adopted,
that was pretty crushing, because we had found a match
who didn't know his family tree either.
¶ ¶
So it wasn't really gonna help us
resolve Paul's mystery
unless we could solve Alan's mystery as well.
The good news is that Alan was legally adopted,
unlike Paul, who had been abandoned,
so there were records in existence
that would tell us who Alan's birth parents were,
at least who his birth mother was.
¶ ¶
- A couple of days before we're supposed
to meet in New York,
Alan wakes up, and he's not feeling well.
So he goes to the hospital.
A couple hours later, Alan was dead.
¶ ¶
I remember driving home, and I pulled over,
and I just started crying.
And he'll never see his children again,
his wife again.
¶ ¶
And he was just-- he was just there.
He was excited to meet.
And all of a sudden, it's--he's just gone.
- I just felt terrible for Alan's family--
the loss of such a warm, enthusiastic person.
And Paul--he'd already been through so much.
¶ ¶
But even though Alan was deceased,
we were able to successfully
get his adoption record unsealed,
and so we learned who his biological mother was.
[distant pop vocals]
¶ ¶
We learned that Alan's birth mother
was very young at the time.
So I knew that his biological father
either went to high school with her
or at least lived in the neighborhood.
¶ ¶
Now, there's a lot of people, obviously.
That doesn't narrow it down.
But there was a name, Rocco,
that appeared in Alan's genetic network.
And when I had a conference call
with our team here,
a name came up, and they said,
"You know, there was a guy named Lenny Rocco
that was a boxer who lived in that area."
¶ ¶
- My name is Lenny Rocco. Grew up in South Philadelphia.
I boxed and became a boxer for a couple of years.
After that, the show business thing came into effect,
and really enjoyed that.
I got a phone call.
And on that phone, I hear a beautiful voice saying,
"Do you know a girl by the name of Marlin?"
And I--"Oh, my God, yeah." I was 15 years old,
and this girl lived up the street.
Supposedly had a crush me. I won't go into details.
But five seconds, maybe ten, at the most.
That was the end of the whole relationship.
Gone.
She said, "I have good news, and I have bad news."
I said, "Well, what's the good news?"
She said, "You're the father of Alan Fisch.
He's been searching for you for a long time."
I get a little emotional. Excuse me.
I mean, this was just a strangest experience
that anybody could experience.
It was amazing.
¶ ¶
I said, "Wait a minute. What was the bad news?"
"He passed away eight months ago."
So they lifted me up and then dropped me down.
Because if I have a son, I want to meet him.
¶ ¶
And she said, "There's another fellow,
"a Paul Fronczak,
"that's searching for his parents.
He ended up being related to Alan."
And I'm thinking, "Oh, my God, so whoever this fellow is,
"looking, he's looking for his parents,
and they're related. He's got to be related to me!"
¶ ¶
- When Lenny's results came back and we learned
that he was Alan's biological father,
that was huge.
Now, we had someone
sharing about 6% of Paul's DNA.
That told us that one of Lenny's first cousins
should be one of Paul's birth parents.
That was amazing,
and I knew we were starting to go in the right direction.
So even though I was focused
on getting the answers for Paul
about his own identity,
I was still helping him
with who might be the real Paul
and finding the real Paul for his parents.
It was clear that this was of ultimate importance to him,
and this is something that he desperately needed--
not just wanted, but needed.
- As everything played out and we got deeper into it,
it was on the news.
We used to get strange phone calls.
We used to get letters in the mail.
"I think I'm the real Paul Fronczak."
"I think my dad is."
I was supportive, but when our life became a circus,
that's when I started to become frustrated,
because he then became obsessed.
[somber music]
He would come home from work and get on the computer.
He would be checking emails.
He would be talking to George on the phone.
He was so focused on that
that he was letting everything else in his life go.
He wasn't focused on all the good that he did have.
¶ ¶
- I think Michelle would think I was obsessed.
I was just committed.
And I-I...
I could have been more present
at that moment with my family.
But I thought I was working towards a greater good.
¶ ¶
Trust no one. I like the "X-Files."
- Is that your life philosophy, then?
- Yes. It really is.
¶ ¶
- I don't know that there was any one moment
where I thought, "We can't do this,"
or, "This is impossible."
I think the more that he was absent from our day-to-day life
and, you know, we started fighting about things...
I just knew. Like, this needs to stop.
But never in a million years
did I think I was gonna be divorced.
I don't like talking about this stuff.
I don't want to talk about this anymore.
¶ ¶
- We started to build out Lenny's family tree
because we knew we had to find somebody
who was living to test for DNA.
But we were starting to run out of people.
We found that Lenny had
two cousins named Gilbert and Leonard.
Gilbert was dead, and Leonard had disappeared.
But I managed to track down his ex-wife Lynn.
- I wondered whether she would maybe talk,
and so I decided to give her a call.
[line trilling]
- So, from Florida, Lynn started telling me
a little bit about Gilbert and his wife, Marie.
They were kind of a secretive couple
who mostly kept to themselves.
And we knew that Gilbert and Marie had three children,
but Lynn revealed to me that they also had a set of twins
who were around the same age as Paul.
She remembered visiting the family,
but one year the twins were there,
and the next year they visited,
they had vanished.
And no one in the family knew where they were.
[moody music]
¶ ¶
- I mean, my hands were shaking.
- We were in shock.
- I was shocked to hear that these twins existed.
¶ ¶
Knowing that Gilbert and Marie's family
had contained twins that were now unaccounted for--
we needed to figure out exactly when they were born,
what she remembered about them, what their names were.
¶ ¶
And she did remember that they were either born
in October of '62 or October of '63,
and she was absolutely certain of that
because she remembered that the twins were born
on their older sister's birthday.
¶ ¶
And in fact, she remembered that there had been
a newspaper article published
because it was such an unusual thing.
¶ ¶
She knew that she had seen this newspaper article
at some point.
So that was really a big, big piece of information,
because if we could find that newspaper article
about the birth of these twins,
we could prove that they existed.
¶ ¶
- I was at work,
and CeCe texted me, "Can you talk?"
She said, "Everyone's here.
The team's here. We're all on speakerphone."
And she said, "What do you think of the name Jack?"
And I said, "That's a good name.
That's a strong name."
She said, "That's your name."
And before I could even process that,
she's like, "But there's more.
"You had a twin sister.
And her name is Jill. And she vanished."
And I was like, "What the fuck?"
[mysterious music]
¶ ¶
I get this elation to find out
that I think we might know who I am.
I know my name now.
But then it's taken away immediately,
with the fact that I had a twin sister,
which is huge news in--by itself,
but the fact that she was missing too.
¶ ¶
I've got to find out more about this.
I need to find out the family, the story,
where are we from, all these things.
I've got to find Jill.
I've got to find my twin sister now.
¶ ¶
- So it includes Philly cheese steak...
- Okay, it's got everything.
Right? Dijon...
- And it even comes with Jack cheese.
I just noticed that. - [laughs]
Jack cheese! - Oh, my gosh.
I'm gonna get the sausage patties and eggs.
- Excellent choice, madam.
- Actually, I do have a question for you,
now that I think about it.
- What's that? - How many names do you have?
- So, I have Jack, Scott, Paul--
- Wait, why are you--you're Scott?
- I was Scott too. - Did I not--Scott McKinley.
- Scott McKinley. Yeah.
But the most important name is what?
- Daddy.
- So, do you want to know about Jill?
- Think she's still alive? - Do I think she's still alive?
I hope she's still alive. I'm gonna find her either way.
You want to help me find her?
- I mean, as long as I don't have to dig
anything from the ground, then yeah, I'm down.
- Well, hopefully she's alive.
- First thing is track her location.
Find my iPhone. And then boom.
Welcome. Meet Jill.
Best friends reunite. Ta-da. And done.
- How cool would that be?
- Ready? - Yes.
Thank you.
- Thank you very much.
I found out that my real family--
I had two older sisters and a younger brother.
One older sister passed away at a very young age,
which is very concerning for me,
because the main reason
I started this was to let my daughter know
about my true medical history.
¶ ¶
I was able to reach out to my younger brother.
And he informed me that he had no idea
that he had a brother and sister.
At first, he was very open with me,
and apologized for what happened,
and then he did a complete 180 and said,
"I want nothing to do with this.
I think it's a scam. Don't contact me again."
I was able to meet my older sister,
who kind of said she never heard of the twins,
but also seemed like she was guarded.
So it's--it makes me wonder, you know?
What--what do they really know?
So right here? - Sure. Can you go further?
- Okay.
Most people know where they came from.
They know their history. They know their upbringing.
I really don't.
- Nice job! - Thanks.
That pain is with me every day.
But I just choose not to think about it.
I do want to experience things more emotionally.
I want to be human.
So I want to go back
and understand why everything happened.
And if I understand why it happened,
I think that'll help me-- help me move forward.
So right now, I'm heading towards Atlantic City
to meet with my second cousin Tobe.
Atlantic City was my home. I was born there.
I lived the first two years of my life there.
I'd like to find out how two children
that were there completely vanished
and were never thought of or spoken of again.
[laughs]
This is really fucked up. Like, this is, like--
I've watched a lot of movies.
I've never seen a movie this fucked up.
I mean, this is really twisted.
It's like a "Twilight Zone."
[ethereal music]
¶ ¶
- So, your father was a nice person, originally.
That--this whole thing is very difficult for me to understand.
Gilbert and I would come on the boardwalk,
and then we would just walk, and we would have fun,
and we would play in the ocean together.
And he was just a very kind, nice boy.
The last time I spoke to Gilbert
is when he came back from Korea with shell shock,
as they called it then--and I knew that.
He was a different person.
But I never realized
what he had gone through from the war.
And he--when he came back, he was a different person.
He was not the Gilbert I know.
- All right, so Tobe,
what do you-what do you see in that picture?
- Well, I see your mother.
I see she's pregnant. She looks happy.
I have no idea who the girl would be.
- I believe that's my older sister.
- Marie was very quiet. They were like two shadows.
Like, Gilbert would make a decision,
and Marie would go along with it.
I really did not hear her talk too much.
- Marie's pregnant with Jack and Jill right there,
'cause this is from August '63. We were born in October.
- Well, she looks happy,
so I don't know what happened along the way.
- Something sure snapped.
A woman called Susan
has contacted me through my website.
She says she was a neighbor here in Atlantic City.
And knew me and my sister when we were babies.
Nice to meet you.
- Oh, my God, look at you. - How's everything going?
I'm Jack.
- Hi, Jack.
This is me when I was 14, turning 15.
It was when I babysat for you. Just one time.
I used to babysit for the people next door,
and as I was coming out one day, your mother Marie--
she had asked me if I would babysit the girls,
your sisters.
And I told her I would do that. When I got there,
she said that the girls could sleep anywhere they wanted,
they could have anything they wanted to eat.
I didn't need to bother with the twins upstairs.
- How did you know that there were twins up there?
Did she come out and say that?
- She told me, "The twins are upstairs."
She said, "You don't have to bother with them."
I didn't know that she had twins to begin with.
And once she left, I went upstairs,
because I couldn't understand
how you could not take care of babies.
So I went upstairs,
and when I walked into your room,
you had--your crib was here, and Jill's crib was here.
And that's all there was in that room.
- No toys? Nothing?
- No. I didn't see any toys.
And it smelled.
The sheets on the bed were stained from urine.
And I walked over to your crib, and you were dirty.
You had a black eye.
- I had a black eye? - You had a black eye.
And...
you looked afraid. You really looked afraid.
Like, most babies,
when you walk in a room, they get all excited.
"There's somebody coming," you know?
They want the attention. You didn't do that.
Neither did Jill.
She was just sitting there, watching.
But when I picked her up, she was so quiet.
It was like she was resigned to the fact
that this is how it is.
- Wow.
Did you stay with us all night, in that room?
- Mm-hmm. Yeah.
And your parents didn't come home that night.
They didn't come home till the next day.
- So they went out all night. - Yeah.
- That's crazy. - Yeah.
And then--so when they came home,
they were angry, very angry.
Your mother especially was really angry.
- Because you actually helped us.
- Yeah. And she smelled like liquor.
So I guess they were out partying.
I don't know. Your father didn't say much,
but he had a mean look on his face.
So after I left, I went home.
And my mom told me that it's none of my business.
So I didn't know what to do.
So all my life, I've wondered where you went.
And I really convinced myself at one point
that maybe they took you to relatives,
that maybe you had a good life, you know?
And--but I didn't know.
I didn't know what to do.
- It's okay. Just...
- [crying]
[ethereal music]
¶ ¶
So, my whole life, I've always been searching for a job,
for a different gig, for a different girlfriend.
Maybe all this started
when I was taken apart from my twin sister.
You have to keep searching for something
to fill that void.
¶ ¶
I think something bad happened to Jill,
'cause why else would they give me away?
¶ ¶
But I really also want to think that she's alive.
Because I could have thought the same about real Paul.
But I didn't.
I chose to only think that he was alive.
¶ ¶
- This is George.
- Hey, George. It's Paul.
- Hey, man. What are you doing?
- I'm doing well. Do you have a second?
- Yeah. Of course.
- Have you heard anything?
- We're--we're on standby. We're ready to go.
And when--whenever the story pops,
we're gonna go on the air
and put out the information,
and we'll take it from there.
- So, how does this usually work?
Like, when do these stories actually,
like, break--when something's gonna break?
- [laughs]
I don't think there's anything
about your story that's normal,
so for me to predict would be--
it would be foolish to try.
Everyone is getting pretty ferocious
about trying to track it down and figure out who it is
and where they are, and I think you're probably in
for a little bit of a shitstorm coming.
- Wouldn't be the first time, right?
- No.
So, assuming that the information
that we've heard is true, that it's gonna break,
I'm waiting for them to come out,
saying that baby Paul,
the child that was kidnapped 55 years ago, is alive.
[upbeat music]
- A baby mysteriously kidnapped in 1964
may finally have been found, more than half a century later.
- 55 years after Paul Fronczak's disappearance,
George Knapp says he's been found.
Fronczak's now living in Michigan
and has kids of his own.
- His children became convinced that their dad
was the real deal, was the real Paul.
- Their father, whose DNA matched the baby's,
wants to remain anonymous.
- Imagine what a shock it would be.
You're 55 years old. You think you know who you are.
You think you know who your family is.
And you suddenly get a bolt out of the blue
that tells you you're not that guy after all.
You're this guy. You were a kidnapped baby.
- So far, the man believed to be the true Paul Fronczak
has not reunited with his mother.
[desolate ambient music]
¶ ¶
- I can't imagine waking up and being told my mom
wasn't my mom.
It just caught my father completely off guard.
And it took him quite a while
to even fully understand what did happen,
that there was a kidnapping,
that the baby never reappeared,
and that it was him.
[moody string music]
¶ ¶
- We are the real Paul Fronczak's daughters.
- Our father's a very private man,
and we wish to respect that.
¶ ¶
- I ordered a DNA kit from online,
thinking I wanted to learn more about our family.
And it came back that I had a connection with somebody
who I'd never heard of as a relative.
And that person told me that there was a possibility
that we would have some kind of connection to this story.
So we did another DNA test to confirm it.
¶ ¶
- He was raised by a single mom.
- Our grandmother.
- She loved him.
- Our grandma was being accused
of being the kidnapper,
but there were no facts, and there still are no facts,
for us to know what happened and how he was kidnapped.
¶ ¶
- This was a huge shock,
and it came at the same time
as he was diagnosed with a stage IV cancer.
His cancer started spreading fast.
And it was just over a year later
that he was taken-- that he passed away.
¶ ¶
- We would love to have a relationship with Dora.
We think about her often, and just pray
that she has some peace in knowing what she does now.
¶ ¶
[gentle music]
¶ ¶
- You know, it's heartbreaking to lose anybody to cancer.
But after 50-plus years,
you finally find your kidnapped child,
you reconnect, you're talking and hopefully planning to meet,
and then they're gone.
But at least my mom had closure.
She was able to speak with him.
She got to say goodbye to him.
And she knows that--that he was there,
and that he lived a decent life.
Hey, Mom.
- Oh, my goodness.
I was so happy and so pleased to hear from him.
We didn't have a long conversation.
I asked him a few questions about his life and so forth.
But it was just such a thrill to be able to hear his voice
and talk with him.
But it was difficult for me, because I had so many questions
that I really wanted to ask him,
but it was really talking-- knowing it was my son,
but that it was talking to a--I was talking to a stranger.
So then, when he did call again at Christmastime,
he tried to--he just mainly called to say
that he wished me a merry Christmas,
and had hoped that maybe one day
we would be able to meet one another.
But at that time, he was getting very ill.
[melancholy music]
¶ ¶
It's just sad that--that his health was in jeopardy,
and I just--I just feel so hurt
that we never really got to meet him and see him.
Just so enlightening to think
that I was able to be able to be talking with him
and had that joy of hearing his voice.
- That's amazing.
¶ ¶
So, when--when you were notified
that the FBI thought they found Paul
and you drove to New Jersey
and you were placed in the room with Dad,
and then I came in, you had to make your mind up.
How did you feel about being--
being there in that situation?
- When you walked into the room,
the light just-- everything just lit up.
[gentle music]
¶ ¶
You were such a beautiful child,
such a beautiful boy.
And I-I-I just thought, this child is here.
There's a possibility he might be our biological child,
or he might not.
If I--if I said no, I would live with that all my life.
I said--we said yes, and this--we lived with that.
We lived with peace, because we--we felt--
regardless of what had--what had occurred,
we felt that we did the right thing.
¶ ¶
I found peace with that. I found peace.
I didn't feel like I had to be searching for something else,
because I felt I had the answer right there.
But it took many years just to find the difference.
So...
- But we're still a family. - Right.
- Yeah, I'm still your son. - That's right. That's right.
Yes. So...
- Well, I just wanted-- I just wanted to say
I'm really thankful that you and Dad were my parents.
- Well... - And that you raised me,
you took care of me, you put up with me.
And I'm really grateful for our relationship now.
- Well, I'm glad that we raised you, too,
and I'm glad that you kept us
on our toes a little bit.
So... it was great. I got two Pauls.
- [laughs]
You don't have to stand up.
- Huh? - I'll just give you a hug.
¶ ¶
- Love you, Paul. - Love you too, Mom.
¶ ¶
[gentle music]
- There he is. - What's happening, cuz?
- Nothing much. - How you doing, man?
- Good to see you. - You look amazing.
Look at the hair. Love it, man.
- You look good too, man. - Good to see you.
How's everything going?
- Same here. Good. - Yeah?
- Everything's great.
- So, you just practicing? - Yeah.
- [strumming]
- It's weird.
I feel like I'm sitting with your father here now.
You're looking a lot like him.
- I want to--I want to hear a lot of about him.
- Well, I can tell you everything I know.
["If You Leave Me Now" by Chicago playing]
¶ ¶
¶ If you leave me now ¶
¶ You'll take away the biggest part of me ¶
¶ Ooh, girl, baby, please don't go ¶
¶ ¶
If you leave me, you'll break my heart.
Nah.
¶ ¶
- ¶ A love like ours is love that's hard to find ¶
¶ ¶
¶ How could we let it slip away? ¶
¶ ¶
¶ Ooh ¶
¶ We've come too far ¶
¶ To leave it all behind ¶
¶ ¶
¶ How could we end it all this way ¶
¶ When tomorrow comes ¶
¶ And we'll both regret ¶
¶ The things we said today ¶
¶ ¶
¶ If you leave me now ¶
¶ You'll take away the biggest part of me ¶
¶ ¶
¶ Ooh, no, baby, please don't go ¶
¶ ¶
¶ Ooh, girl, I just got to have you by my side ¶
¶ ¶
¶ Ooh, no, baby, please don't go ¶
¶ ¶
¶ Ooh, mama, I just got to have your loving ¶
¶ ¶
¶ Ooh, mama, I just got to have your loving ¶