associated him with a lot of things, but never stooping to the level of a common street thug. i was a little surprised by it. >> reporter: still, mcdaniel says he believes his old friend and said carson may have kept them secret all those years out of embarrassment. >> i think he tried to hide it for as long as he could. until he realized that in order to really, really clear his conscious, that he had to make a confession, he said that honestly, i believed everything he told me. >> reporter: while all of the friends and classmates interviewed by cnn are perplexed by the stories of violence mr. carson describes, most of them still expressed a mir ration for him. >> so, why talk to carsons old friend and neighbors? carson's life story has been a huge part about his popularity. we ask our panel, how can he now expect the media to back off?