48 Hours - In The Name of Hate

Episode Date: November 11, 2018

A brilliant Ivy League student is murdered after he went to a California park with a former high school classmate. Was he killed because he was gay and Jewish? Correspondent Tracy Smith investigates.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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and even your overall well-being. And you can enjoy Audible anytime, while doing household chores, exercising, commuting, you name it. There's more to imagine when you listen. Sign up for a free 30-day Audible trial and your first audiobook is free. Visit audible.ca. In 2014, Laura Heavlin was in her home in Tennessee when she received a call from California. Her daughter, Erin Corwin, was missing. The young wife of a Marine had moved to the California desert

to a remote base near Joshua Tree National Park. They have to alert the military. And when they do, the NCIS gets involved. From CBS Studios and CBS News, this is 48 Hours NCIS. Listen to 48 Hours NCIS ad-free starting October 29th on Amazon Music. Audio of shots fired inside borderline. Not again. Yes, again. Not again.

I'm Tracy Smith in Thousand Oaks, California, where a madman's bullets left at least a dozen people dead. In America, this has become a devastating ritual. Two weeks ago, it was Pittsburgh. Before that, Parkland, Las Vegas, Charleston. Some of the victims were linked by faith, others by the color of their skin, some simply because they were in the wrong place

at the worst possible time. Our story tonight is about one young man targeted by hate. Meet Blaise Bernstein. He was 19 years old. Boom, boom, boom. Ba-ba-boom, ba-boom. Hey. Ba-ba-boom, ba-boom.

That's going to be the intro. What do you miss most about Blaze? Yeah, that's it. His quirky personality. Ba-ba-boom, ba-boom. He was different. He liked to turn the ordinary into the extraordinary. You went to OSHA together?

Yeah, I started in seventh grade, and he started in ninth grade. One day, my hair will be white. The next day, I'll be wearing that little weird hat. A caring person. A good friend. I give you now, Blaise weird hat. A caring person. A good friend. I give you now, Blaise Bernstein. A talented writer.

Not only were six million Jewish people systematically murdered throughout Europe in concentration camps. I wish I could write like he wrote. A wonderful cook. I wish I could cook like he cooked. He was a risk taker. And somebody who was just so smart.

And you just want to sit back and say, I can't imagine how wonderful the future of this person is going to be. Sam Woburn and I were classmates from 7th grade to 10th grade. How different were Sam and Blaze? Oh, they were so different. Probably about as different as you could be. Sam didn't really talk to many people. He always seemed to have a frown on his face.

He would draw, like, war and, like, guns and stuff. Like, airplanes dropping bombs. He seemed just angry? Yeah. Sam Woodward was linked to Atomwaffen members across the country. Atomwaffen is a small neo-Nazi organization whose members believe that they are preparing for this impending race war.

At one point they had like over 100 members. They had more than 20 cells across America. I found Atomwaffen. What was your philosophy? I wanted society to collapse. I wanted revolution. How involved was Sam Woodward in Adam Woffin? I know that he was involved.

He really became like full-on far-right Nazi. Adam Woffin takes white supremacist ideology and they take it to an extreme level. It makes murder seem logical. It normalizes murder and violence and hate. How easy is this for kids to access? It's as easy as going on Twitter. People like Sam, perfect example, a kind of loner, perfect guy to recruit.

Well, hello, ladies. People like Sam, perfect example, a kind of loner, perfect guy to recruit. Well, hello, ladies. This kid is a member of a militant neo-Nazi group that advocates for murdering gays and Jews. Had you ever heard of this guy Woodward before? No. I'd never heard his name before. I just kept texting and calling him and leaving messages all day. Nobody wants to believe the most awful. We're hoping Blaze is out there. We don't know why he's missing. We know. We know. We don't know why he's not reaching out to his parents. In your guts, you knew. We know.

I got a call from my mom.hea did you hear and i said what she said blaze is missing and it just stopped in my tracks and then my mom said rhea he was with this guy named stan woodward i screamed in the phone he what and she was like do you know this guy and i said yes i know this guy? And I said, yes, I know this guy. He's crazy. Word spread across Orange County. Blaze Bernstein, brilliant, kind-hearted, Jewish and gay, had come home from college for the holidays and vanished. He wanted to spend time with us. He's not going to just disappear like that.

But your thought was? Well, it was just so highly unusual. Where had he been? Who had he gone with? We didn't know. Where is he? Search and rescue teams and helicopters searched the wilderness area in Lake... We're out here conducting a search for Blaze Bernstein. We had a happy life. We really did. Pictures from when Blaze was younger with his siblings,

from all different times. We had many, many good memories. The memories and magic that remain began when the baby was born. That night, I dreamt that his name was Blaze. And the first time I saw him, I looked in his eyes. There's something about this baby. He's going to change the world someday. In his own way, he did change the world.

He already has. It was 1998 when Jeannie Pepper Bernstein and Gideon Bernstein welcomed their first of three children, Blaze, into their Orange County, California home, an oasis of love and creativity. I call him the unicorn. He was magnificently creative. Did you want cheese? Sure. I usually don't use this. I call him the unicorn. He was magnificently creative. Did you want cheese?

Sure. I usually don't use this. I've never tried this cheese before. We were best friends when we were very young, yeah. What'd you learn about Blaze? What'd you know about him? Blaze was always a very kind and caring person. He was always a very cuddly kid.

Cuddly and creative. You were better, better. It was no surprise to Rhea Rofsky when Blaze joined her for high school here at OSHA. It's very prestigious. The Orange County School of the Arts. It's known for getting a quality arts education with a quality academic education. Blaze was honestly one of the smartest people I've ever met. Another classmate, Claire Valloux, also knew Blaze was more than brilliant.

Something that was really unique about Blaze is he always made you feel important. Like, if you were talking to him, like, you knew he was actually listening. For Blaze, OSHA was a feast of educational riches. He was just like a beam of light. Eric Tryon taught his student about writing, which became Blaze's focus. He wanted to do the work, which you can't always say for kids that age. That's a dream student. And then there was another classmate, Sam Woodward.

He was just a very serious guy. Didn't crack jokes and didn't laugh at jokes. Philip Schwadron taught Sam acting. He wanted to do a monologue about the military. He wanted to play an army guy, a general or something. In a school that embraced tolerance and diversity, many thought Sam had deeply troubling ideas. I have a friend who was in a playwriting class with him,

and they were reading Raisin in the Sun, and they all got their individual copies. When everybody gave theirs back, he had had the N-word written all through it. Racist scrawls in the classic American drama about the struggles of a black family. He had a reputation of being what? Racist, homophobic, sexist.

But for Rhea, one particular incident is impossible to shake. He was drawing guns in his notebook in class. Did you say anything? No. But you thought... This is terrifying. What were people saying about Sam? People were saying that they wouldn't be surprised if he came and shot up the school.

People said that about him? Yes, and I thought that too. He's going to be that kid. Did Sam stay at OSHA? He left after sophomore year of high school. And did you find out why? No. Sam transferred to a more traditional high school. And did you find out why? No. Sam transferred to a more traditional high school.

Blaze went on at OSHA, learning more about his world. He'd already learned a key thing about himself. So you guys were kind of walking down the beach alone together and he came out to you? Yeah. Did you get the sense that Blaze had told anyone else that he thought he was lying? I don't think that he did. He was kind of upset to say it.

Something that clearly was a big secret for him. Yeah. You know, coming out to yourself is a really mature, difficult thing to do. And what did you tell him? I told him, it's okay. If you like boys, that's totally fine. Love who you love. And while he hadn't yet come out to his parents, Gideon and Jeannie sensed Blaze might be gay. We went up to him and said, listen, whatever your situation is, we embrace it. We love you. We don't care. We love you for whoever you are.

It was late summer 2016, and Blaze, who'd already achieved so much, was headed to an Ivy League school here in Philadelphia, the University of Pennsylvania. There'd be new friends, mentors, and challenges, and Blaze seemed ready for it all. I can still remember, like, he was wearing, like, this really cool overall outfit the first time I met him.

Overalls? Yeah. Took some fashion risks, it sounds like. Yeah. But he didn't care. College friends Amy Marcus and Grayson Honan, sensed even by Ivy League standards... I'm not gonna do a car wheel. Blaze was something special. The track that he was headed down was psychology,

and he was really, really excited to do some psychological research, especially into happiness, which I thought was really cool. He was also an incredible writer. And gourmet chef. He now was also considering a career in medicine. He wanted to help as many people as he could, and it was really impressive to see. Winter break 2017, Blaze came home to Southern California. It was a much anticipated visit. He was really looking forward to being with us, too.

There were holiday celebrations. Then, sometime on the night of January 2nd, 2018, Blaze left the house. So that night, when did you realize that he was missing? We didn't. I didn't know that night. We didn't even know. We thought he

slept in and the next day we were... I had my aha moment when I was at the dental appointment. The next day, Blaze was due to meet his mom for a dentist appointment. But Blaze never showed up and wasn't answering his cell phone. I called Gideon. He asked me if Blaze had ever come home the night before, and I screamed out, I don't know.

You know, that's when I just basically just rushed out of the office and came home. We both did. We flew home. And checked Blaze's room. His wallet, his retainers, his keys. Those are all still at the house. His glasses.

Yeah. All of that stuff was at the house. They called the police and then tried to log on to Blaze's social media accounts. And then we just jumped on his computer, tried to get into his, you know, files, and this was a big challenge for us. But with the help of family and friends, Jeannie and Gideon got access to Blaze's Snapchat. That's where they discovered that Blaze had sent his home address to someone.

Sam Woodward, Blaze's one-time classmate. The only reason I can think of Sam meeting up with Blaze is because either, number one, he wanted to hook up with him, or two, because he was planning to murder him. Shabbat shalom. Rabbi Arnold Rockless nurtured Blaze's spirit here at Orange County's University Synagogue. Please join me in honoring Blaze Bernstein. A good heart, a good soul.

That's what Blaze had. Within less than a day of Blaze being missing, word spread. Borrego Park became the center of the search. Orange County Sheriff's Department Lieutenant Brad Valentine. So it's going to be a slow, tedious search as they get out there and beat the bushes and look for any signs of him.

Edgy hours turned into anxious days. We're here today to get your help to find our son. Please keep your eyes open for my baby. I want him home with me now. All Jeannie and Gideon had to go on was that clue they found on Blaze's computer. Their home address sent out to a seeming stranger, Sam Woodward. We never heard the name. Never heard the name before. It was already terrifying that I found out that Blaze was missing, but it was even more terrifying to find out that he was with Sam Woodward.

Why? Because he was literally known as being a crazy, homophobic, racist guy. Can you tell us what happened to Blaze? Sam Woodward, now a college dropoutout working part-time, living at home. Well, hello, ladies. Orange County cops went to meet him. Sam Woodward couldn't have been more cooperative. He told Blaze's parents and police that he and Blaze came here to Borrego Park to hang

out. And, according to Sam, after a while, Blaze walked down this path alone and disappeared into the brush. The search for Blaze Bernstein heated up. We printed up thousands and thousands of flyers that people in the congregation put up on wall boards, coffee houses, on poles, and everything like that. There was a Facebook page, find Blaise Bernstein. There were, like, helicopter searches. The police are looking. Everybody's looking.

The search for Blaise Bernstein went airborne Sunday with more than a dozen drone pilots. I really didn't know if we would ever find him. As the days passed, it became more and more difficult. And I thought, we're never going to know. We're never going to know what happened exactly. We're never going to figure it out. Yeah.

That's what I thought. And I just got this gut feeling in my stomach that I just thought to myself, oh, my God. From day one, Blaze's oldest friend had an instinct that chilled. I immediately thought, he's dead. He's dead. Just from hearing that he was with Sam? Yes. It was day seven since Blaze last left home. A family, a community, was beyond frustrated.

Detectives had searched Borrego Park over and over, but they decided to give it one more look. In the pouring rain, a detective stood right over there, and hidden under a large tree branch was a mound of dirt. Under the wet, caked earth lay Blaise Bernstein. NEIL BERNSTEIN, Needless to say, our family is devastated by the news. And we, like so many of you around the world, love Blaise. And we wanted nothing more than to seek his safe return.

This is a senseless murder of a young man who possessed a combination of a high-caliber mind and the heart of a poet. Orange County DA Tony Rakakis. How did Blaze Bernstein die? He was stabbed multiple times in the neck, 19 stab wounds in the neck what does that tell you well it tells me that there was a lot of hate all i could think of was just i knew it i knew it i knew it you knew i knew and then the funeral happened and it was shattering the grief seemed to stretch across Orange County. Neighbors. We're hugging them right now. We're all hugging them.

This is our big, giant hug to them. Friends. Strangers. Teachers. It was devastating to hear. And it's so horrifying to think about what happened. And not stabbed once or twice, but over and over and over again in a crazed, angry, murderous rage.

I just try not to think about what that really meant. I don't think that I physically can deal with the trauma of what's happened yet. Can you tell us what happened to Blaze? No comment. Days after Blaze Bernstein's body was found... Were you there when he disappeared? ...investigators were ready to take the next step. No comment.

Undercover officers made their move on Sam Woodward this afternoon as he pulled out of his Newport Beach driveway and went down the road, they pulled that car over and arrested him. Sam Woodward was charged with murder with the personal use of a knife. Woodward pleaded not guilty. Anything to say, Sam?

A community, a school, a synagogue, a family were in shock. But another community, small, twisted with sick rage, greeted the news of Blaise Bernstein's brutal murder in a very different way. He killed a Jew. Like, was there a party? No. But, like, did people joke about it? Yeah, everyone celebrated him. Everyone in the hate group this man belonged to.

They say they are Nazis, and they rejoiced for one of their own, Sam Woodward. I've never physically met the guy, but I knew him online. For months, we've been trying to learn more about the violent neo-Nazi group Atomwaffen from the inside. Like he killed a gay Jew.

And finally, a one-time member agreed to talk. The words are unimaginable, but to understand Atomwaffen, we felt it necessary to hear some of the hate. You know, he killed two birds with one stone, essentially. Which is even better in Atomwaffen, we felt it necessary to hear some of the hate. You know, he killed two birds with one stone, essentially. Which is even better in Atomwaffen's eyes?

Yeah, of course. It's dangerous. Their ideology is at the core deeply hateful. Joanna Mendelson has spent close to 20 years monitoring the dark world of extreme hate here at the Los Angeles office of the Anti-Defamation League. It's important that we shine a very bright light on these groups and understand them for what they are, not to glorify them and not to give them any more notoriety than they already have. But at the same time, to be able to recognize what they're doing.

We have to be able to call it out. to be able to recognize what they're doing. We have to be able to call it out. It's time. Atomwaffen is essentially a extreme, extreme far-right, militant neo-Nazi group in America. And their end goal is the destruction of America as a whole. 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 007 00 Learn what you should know about the hate group Atomwaffen at 48hours.com.

Where's Blaze? Yeah, he's in front. Remember this picture? It was at the Mount Zion Hotel. Blaze, Leah, myself. How would you describe Blaze? He had a lot of imagination and very curious. It's a truth as timeless as the human family. We just loved him. There is no love like the love of a grandparent for a grandchild.

And so it was for Leah and Richard Bernstein and their grandson, Blaze. I feel that he lives in our heart, and every night I have a difficult time going to sleep because I always think of him before I go to sleep. I think the world lost a beautiful soul. The evidence marking the loss of that soul was revealed when the heavens opened up and the rain came down. If not the rain, we would have never known what happened to him. The person that murdered him made like a, you know...

Grave. A grave and covered him all with mud. So the rain uncovered his face. Then, here in Borrego Park, where Blaze ended up with one-time classmate Sam Woodward, investigators found Blaze's phone, and in Woodward's car, according to the DA. The blood on the headliner belonged to both Sam Woodward and Blaze Bernstein.

Blaze Bernstein's blood was in Sam Woodward's car? Yes, yes. And then they went on to search the house? Yes. What kind of forensic evidence did they gather? There was a knife. The knife had blood on it. Blaze Bernstein's blood on the knife.

I just want to know why. I don't, I don't even want to know because I'm not going to like that answer. But it's the why Blaise was murdered that makes an unbearable loss almost unspeakable. And, as with those 11 people slaughtered in a Pittsburgh synagogue, transforms the murder of Blaise Bernstein into a national issue. It's very alarming that this is happening. This atrocious hate is just right there. Sam Woodward was absolutely, definitely a member of Atomwaffen division. We spoke by Skype with British journalist and CBS News consultant Jake Hanrahan. For Jake, the arrest of Woodward brought an awful confirmation.

Atomwaffen was right at home, glorifying an accused killer. Oh yeah, absolutely. Yeah, they made T-shirts using Sam Woodward's mugshot. Jake had been reporting on Adam Woffin for nearly two years. They weren't all that hard to find. Jake obtained their secret chat logs and first made note of an angry college dropout, Sam Woodward. Doing, like, Nazi salutes next to other members of Adam Woffin. I joined Adam Wwaffen in 2016. Did you consider yourself a neo-Nazi? I just considered myself a Nazi. The man Jake

introduced us to wouldn't tell us his name or dare to show his face. He claims to have been a member of Atomwaffen for more than a year. I joined Atomwaffen because of the militancy and the brotherhood that they offered. Brotherhood? Yeah. It was like a camaraderie type of feeling. Common interests. And those interests were hating other groups, hating Jews, hating gays, hating blacks.

Yeah. Oh, yeah. This is some of the most intense hating gays, hating blacks. Yeah. Oh, yeah. This is some of the most intense and some of the most extreme rhetoric that I've seen in a long time. Adam Woffin began in Florida in 2015. They believe that the so-called alt-right that converged at the violent 2017 demonstration in Charlottesville doesn't go nearly far enough. They don't even like to be associated with the alt-right at all.

They hate the alt-right. Their rhetoric and their ideology is white supremacy on steroids. In fact, the name of Atomwaffen translates in German to atomic weapon. We'll just obliterate you. We'll wipe you out. According to investigators, Sam Woodward, a privileged upper-middle-class kid from Southern California, was drawn to this ideology, drawn to Atomwaffen's heroes. Adolf Hitler, Charles Manson, Timothy McVeigh, and James Mason, author of Adam Woffin's favorite neo-Nazi publication, Siege.

Sam went to meet him. Did I think that this guy was going to do something like this? Honestly, I wasn't surprised. And by 2017, Sam Woodward, at times sporting his absurd Adam Woffin mask, attended their version of a corporate retreat. Hate camps have occurred across the country involving Adam Woffin members. They talk about cutting telephone wires and power grids and shutting down the system. The images and ambitions are surreal, but their hatred could not be more real. They want to kill, obviously, first and foremost Jews.

They want to kill gays. There were people congratulating this accused killer for what he has done, killing my son, congratulating him. They're calling the one man gay Jew wrecking ball, you know, like kind of reveling in this idea that he's killed this gay Jewish kid. Nazi wannabes laughing at the murder of Blaze in Orange County. LOL OC.

LOL OC laughing at the fact that Blaze Bernstein's life was extinguished. Everyone in Atomwapen believes Jewish people just need to be wiped off the face of the earth. As the story unfolded that the murder was related to homophobia and anti-Semitism, well, then the anger in the community and the anxiety ratcheted up.

AMNA NAWAZ Do you think that Blaise was murdered because he was gay and because he was Jewish? DR. ANNE BLAIR Yes, 100 percent. DR. ANNE BLAIR Permission has been granted for the ugliest kind of racism, anti-Semitism, immigrant bashing and hatred. AMNA NAWAZ We used to monitor these groups that lurked

in the shadows, but, today, they are emerging front and hatred. We used to monitor these groups that lurked in the shadows, but today they are emerging front and center. Had you ever heard of Adam Waffen before this? No. But we should have, because we're a perfect target for that group. A perfect target for today's Nazi. Just as Gram Grandma Lea, a Holocaust survivor,

was so many years ago. A little Jewish girl forced by Hitler's Nazis to wear a yellow star. Yes, we did wear the stars. You all had to wear the stars. Yes. You've seen a lot. Quite a bit.

It's a horrible irony that what you escaped is... Is following me. Clear across the country from where Sam Woodward morphed into an Atomwaffen Nazi, Nick Giampa grew up with his own set of insecurities and issues that eventually led him to find Atomwaffen's online propaganda. This is the website of the Atomwaffen division. By the time he was in second grade,

Nicholas wasn't your ordinary little boy. Nick's sister Emily and her husband Chris stuck by Nick. They say he was bipolar and suffered from other psychological issues. He was in one school in the second grade, another school in the third grade, another school in the fourth grade. I think it was eight or nine different schools. Nicholas was bullied, called a freak, called a retard, stupid, dumb. He thought he was invisible. He said, nobody ever sees me. Nobody ever calls my phone.

He was a lonely child on the Internet. A perfect profile to be vulnerable to the postings of a hate group. Still, in his junior year of high school, Nick's life changed in a positive way. Such a self-confidence boost. Like, wow, I found someone that loves me. Nick had his first-ever girlfriend, a classmate.

48 Hours agreed not to show her face. She was the 16-year-old daughter of a Reston, Virginia, couple, Scott Fricker and his wife, Buckley Kuhn Fricker. She was always learning, always wanting to see if she could figure out how to serve people better. NANCY GRACE, Buckley was a lawyer turned advocate for the elderly. Deb Mariner was her assistant. DEB MARINER, Buckley School of Law, They were amazing parents. I was blown away by the dedication to making sure that their kids were raised right. It was three days before Christmas.

Caller is still upstairs with her boyfriend. Shots fired. I got a call from the office very early in the morning saying that there had been this horrific double murder in a fairly upscale neighborhood just outside of D.C. Washington Post crime reporter Justin Juvenal would learn about the rich family values of Scott and Buckley and the bankrupt ideology of Adam Woffin.

So I jumped in my car early that morning and made my way out to the neighborhood and began reporting on what happened. reporting on what happened. According to Nick Giampa's own family, just hours earlier, Nick grabbed a gun from his home and drove to Buckley and Scott's. There was yellow crime tape up around the house. A house decked out for the holidays. There was snowflakes on the house, Christmas wreaths. There were detectives going in and out,

crime scene investigators. Buckley and Scott had been shot to death in their own home, likely in front of their 16-year-old daughter, Nick Giampa's first girlfriend. It was absolutely horrific. The daughter was not shot, but Nick Giampa was in the house, still alive, after allegedly shooting himself through

the skull a trail of blood led to adam waffen nick giampa allegedly killed his girlfriend's parents because they found out about his white supremacist beliefs and they told her not to date him anymore they forbade their daughter from dating him. The daughter agreed to stop seeing her boyfriend. This set him off. Buckley, a concerned and involved mom, had confronted her daughter after discovering Nick's retweets of Adam Woffin on her daughter's phone.

The teenage girl had nothing to do with Adam Woffin, but Nick was sharing their racist posts. Very slick propaganda, which they've pushed out via social media. That's been picked up by people who are, you know, perhaps vulnerable. It was a way for Nicholas to be the bully for once. If you're looking at their propaganda,

they're seeking to attract ostracized youth and outcast youth, especially white kids that are just bullied. That was just him trying to get a rise out of people on the Internet, and that's what he did. The boy who once felt invisible had found a horrendous way to get the world's attention. Nicholas was not part of any Attawaffin group. He was never part of that.

You can't say Nick was a member of A.W., but you can say Nick was an initiate in A.W. I don't think he would ever be part of any Adam Woffin group. This was my little brother. But just as they did when Blaise Bernstein was murdered, Adam Woffin's small membership of Nazi wannabes mocked a murder, this time the unconscionable killing

of Scott and Buckley Coon Fricker. Yes, they made Nick Jempa propaganda. They sent out a tweet with his picture superimposed on a Kalashnikov. Sam Woodward allegedly embraced Adam Woffin. Nick Giampa was infected by far more casual contact. But in each case, the Nazi cancer proved deadly. They reaffirm hate, they desensitize the viewer,

and they create a sense of normalcy. That this is okay. This is acceptable. Do you think if Buckley and Scott hadn't found those Nazi images on their daughter's phone, would they still be alive today? Probably. Detectives say Sam Woodward went online trolling gay men, pretending he was interested in a sexual hookup. But the DA believes it wasn't a hookup Sam had in mind with Blaze.

It was a setup for murder. Does it seem like Sam is sexually conflicted himself? He doesn't claim to be sexually conflicted. He claims to be somebody who hates gays and wants to cause harm to them. In fact, on his Tinder, he said, I'm going hunting. This kid was planning to kill someone because of his ideology. Ladies and gentlemen, we're about to start the press conference. On August 2nd, 2018, the Orange County DA added an enhancement to the charges against

Sam Woodward in the murder of Blaze Bernstein. From Blaze's family to his friends, no one was surprised by the DA's decision. This increases the maximum penalty to life without the possibility of parole. We will prove that Woodward killed Blaze because Blaze is gay. After police seized physical evidence, including this Adam Woffin mask in Woodward's car,

they found a trove of Nazi hate on his phone and computer. They found evidence of Sam being involved in Adam Woffin. Blaze's murder was now considered a hate crime. Sam Woodward is a hater. He hates homosexuals. He hates people who are Jewish. He hates people of all different kinds of categories who are not white. Good afternoon.

We are Blaze's parents. For Gideon and Jeannie, it deepened the darkest tragedy. Today we suffer an added layer of pain from learning that he was likely killed simply because of who he was as a human being. For Blaze's oldest friend, Raya, who's Jewish and identifies as bisexual, it brings an unsettling fear. I have to be careful, and I'm terrified. You truly feel unsafe. I have to be careful, and I'm terrified. You truly feel unsafe.

I do. There has to be zero tolerance of homophobia, zero tolerance of racism, of anti-Semitism, of immigrant bashing. For Blaze's grandma, Leia, who wore that yellow Nazi star, sadness and belief blend into one. It's very painful. It's very, very hard. After seeing all of this, are you hopeful?

I'm very hopeful because there are lots of good people in the world. And at least one new way to fight hate with love. We blaze it forward. Blaze it forward. Just days after they learned of their son's death, the Bernsteins made the remarkable decision to channel their grief into kindness. Let's do something where we go onto this, you know,

Blaze It Forward Facebook page and tell people to go give money to some charity. Gideon and Jeannie targeted foster care kids and at-risk youth. And the Bernstein family is here to present a scholarship to honor the memory and legacy of Blaze. They raised money for a scholarship at OSHA, the high school where Blaze shined so bright.

We are delighted to award two scholarships this year from the Blaze Bernstein Memorial Endowment Scholarship. 525,600 minutes. Thousands of friends and strangers gathered to honor Blaze. Somewhere over the rainbow. I want to do my piece to repair the world in Blaze's honor and to promote his legacy. As they embraced each other, their community blazed it right back. to promote his legacy. As they embraced each other, their community blazed it right back. This parade is rededicated as our community's official

Blaze Forward Orange County LGBT Pride Parade. Whoo! I want to thank you for giving us this honor, for honoring my son and his memory, and for blazing it forward. LISA DESJARDINS Blaze forward. It's much more than a slogan. It's now a calling and a new way of life for Jeannie and Gideon.

At its heart is finding some sort of silver lining in an unspeakable tragedy. And here at Orange County's Pride Day, the spirit of Blaze It Forward is everywhere. It's a promise made to a young man targeted by hate, now inspiring love. And perhaps steering one hater away from the poison that is Atomwaffen. Do you feel like you owe Blaze Bernstein's family an apology? Yes, I do.

And if he's to be believed, because of the murder ofise Bernstein's family an apology? Yes, I do. And if he's to be believed, because of the murder of Blaise Bernstein, he says he's no longer a Nazi and has quit Atomwaffen. You can say something now. To them? Sure. Yeah, so... I'm so sorry that...

I'm so sorry that this happened to your son. I would like to see A.W. brought down. I would like to see Sam put behind bars for life. In Borrego Park, where Blaze Bernstein's light was extinguished, people from around the world leave stones in his memory. It's beautiful. You see all the stones, you feel the love. I think that sometimes I dream. I can't control that.

And I dream and I wake up and it just haunts me. Those dreams can haunt me for days. Dreams about? About my son. Just him alive. Watch a tribute to Blaze on Facebook at 48 hours. If you like this podcast, you can listen ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app. Before you go, tell us about yourself by filling out a quick survey at wondery.com slash survey. Before you go, tell us about yourself by filling out a quick survey at wondery.com slash survey.

In the Pacific Ocean, halfway between Peru and New Zealand, lies a tiny volcanic island. It's a little-known British territory called Pitcairn, and it harbored a deep, dark scandal. There wouldn't be a girl on Pitcairn once they reach the age of 10 that would still a virgin. It just happens to all of us. I'm journalist Luke Jones, and for almost two years, I've been investigating a shocking story that has left deep scars on generations of women and girls from Pitcairn. When there's nobody watching, nobody going to report it,

people will get away with what they can get away with. In the Pitcairn Trials, I'll be uncovering a story of abuse and the fight for justice that has brought a unique, lonely Pacific island to the brink of extinction. Listen to the Pitcairn Trials exclusively on Wondery+. Join Wondery in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Have you ever wondered who created that bottle of sriracha that's living in your fridge?

Or why nearly every house in America has at least one game of Monopoly? Introducing the best idea yet, a brand new podcast from Wondery and T-Boy about the surprising origin stories of the products you're obsessed with and the bolder risk-takers who brought them to life. Like, did you know that Super Mario,

the best-selling video game character of all time, only exists because Nintendo couldn't get the rights to Popeye? Or Jack, that the idea for the McDonald's Happy Meal first came from a mom in Guatemala? From Pez dispensers to Levi's 501s to Air Jordans, discover the surprising stories of the most viral products. Plus, we guarantee that after listening, you're going to dominate your next dinner party. So follow The Best Idea Yet on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts.

You can listen to The Best Idea Yet early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus. It's just the best idea yet.