20/20 - Trailer: 'Radioactive: The Karen Silkwood Mystery'

Episode Date: November 12, 2024

Introducing a new investigative true crime series: "Radioactive: The Karen Silkwood Mystery." Karen Silkwood’s death 50 years ago this week continues to haunt Oklahoma and the nation. The 28-year-old plutonium plant worker died in a fatal crash while driving to meet a reporter with The New York Times allegedly to deliver evidence documenting unsafe conditions at the plant. Two reporters who covered the Silkwood story in 1974 have spent years trying to piece together what many in Oklahoma speculate: Karen Silkwood may have died for what she knew. Fifty years later, hear newly-discovered investigative tapes, deathbed conversations and long-awaited interviews reexamining what happened that night. Listen to Ep. 1 now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, or your podcast app of choice. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

50 years ago, Karen Silkwood got in her car alone. She'd agreed to deliver sensitive documents to a New York Times reporter. She never made it, and those documents she was reportedly carrying were never found. Do you think somebody killed her? There's no question in my mind. Someone killed her that night. I think they were trying to stop her in order to get the documents. I'm Mike Betcher.

I've covered the world for Network TV and returned home to Oklahoma to investigate the one story I can't get out of my mind. And I'm Bob Sands. I've been covering the Silkwood story since I read the wire copy on the air in Oklahoma City the night that Karen died in that car crash. Bluntly stated she was spying on her employer, gathering evidence her union wanted to document charges of safety violations at the Kermagee Corporation's nuclear plant.

For years we've run down leads. And in 1994, 20 years after Karen Silkwood's death, a friend gave me a secret tape for safekeeping. An Oklahoma Highway Patrolman had launched his own risky investigation behind the thin blue line. I'm becoming increasingly concerned about security at the FBI office. And that, as I was told in the beginning, I might be in danger. I got the tape on one condition. No one else could hear it until the people named in it were dead.

That time has come. We also found a trove of private investigators' tapes in a storage locker and tracked down physical evidence from the night of Karen's crash. My God. Holy mackerel, there's black stuff in it still. Yeah.

Oh my gosh. The accident investigator believed he had a smoking gun. He told his daughter on his deathbed to hang on to it. We have the bumper. Something's not right with this story. I think it needs to be looked into further. 50 years later, what we've learned about the life and death of America's first nuclear whistleblower.

Radioactive, The Karen Silkwood Mystery, a new narrative series from ABC Audio, coming November 12th, wherever you get your podcasts. Coming November 12th, wherever you get your podcasts. Fifty years ago, a young woman named Karen Silkwood got into her car, alone. She was reportedly on her way to deliver sensitive documents to a New York Times reporter. Bluntly stated, she was spying on her employer, gathering evidence her union wanted to document charges of safety violations at the Kermagee

corporation's nuclear plant Karen never made it to that meeting with the reporter do you think somebody killed her there's no question in my mind someone killed her that night I think they were trying to stop her in order to get the documents and those documents she agreed to deliver were never found. 50 years later, we've tracked down fragments of Silkwood's story, including a trove of never before heard investigative tapes. Mike, you found it.

Oh, now I got goose bumps. And we learned the accident investigators saved something from the crash, something he believed was a smoking gun. He told his daughter on his deathbed to hang on to it. We have the bumper. Something's not right with this story. I think it needs to be looked into further. A new investigation into the life and death of America's first nuclear whistleblower. Listen to Radioactive, the Karen Silkwood mystery from ABC Audio. Listen now wherever you get your podcasts.