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I landed in the california institution for men in 1983 because of a burglary conviction in los angeles. i was there a couple months. i was out walking around, and there was a hole in the fence, and i just ran. >> mr. cooper started wandering through farms and pastures, areas that were off of the roadways. and ultimately found his way to the lease house. >> when i got to the lease house, i called a couple ex-girlfriends, asked them to send me money. i watched tv, ate, tried to figure out what's next. but i did not murder those people. >> cooper said he'd already set out hitchhiking to mexico by...

And in the closet, we found a small box of prison-issued tobacco from chino institution for men. we checked with prison authorities. got names of any individuals that had escaped within the past week. all of a sudden, we had a suspect. kevin cooper. >> just two days before the murders, 25-year-old kevin cooper had escaped from the california institute for men, a prison just five miles from the ryens' home. police believe cooper hid at the lease house before killing the ryens and chris hughes. san bernardino sheriff floyd tidwell took to the air waves. >> we have evidence in our possession that...

Faced four counts of first degree murder. each carrying the death penalty. >> i hope you die! give him the gas chamber! >> was returned to san bernardino, racial tensions boiled over. >> local authorities say they've received several calls from outraged residents who demanded cooper be sent to the gas chamber. >> they caught him. they should do away with him. >> we're seeking the death penalty ago we have all along. >> cooper's trial began on october 23, 1984. >> i cross-examined him for a day and a half. cooper said, yeah, i was at the lease house. i never went up to the ryen

Norm hile hired former fbi agent tom parker to look into cooper's case. >> when you're conducting an investigation, especially one as complex as this one, you essentially collect the evidence and let the evidence lead you to a suspect. what they did in this case was exactly the opposite. as word of the murders got out, the sheriff's department learned that kevin cooper had escaped, and that started what we refer to in law enforcement as tunnel vision. sheriff tidwell held a big press conference. they started with a suspect. and they didn't start collecting evidence to prove their theory. >> bu...

House. it wasn't me. it must have been someone else who did this. >> kottmeier countered the testimony by showing the jury the hatchet sheathe found in the lease house and the bloody footprint found in the ryens' bedroom. >> in the folds of that sheet was a half-bloody footprint. now those soles were unique. and we were able to determine that the shoe print was made by a prison-issue pro ked tennis shoe. >> blood found at the murder scene also led back to cooper. >> a-41 was a single drop blood in the hallway and cooper matched it. >> finally, kottmeier played the emotional videotaped testimon...