60 Minutes - 1/10/2016: The Road to Syria, Life After Death Row, Hamilton

Episode Date: January 11, 2016

Bill Whitaker reports from inside the Syrian base where Russia is launching air strikes in support of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad; Scott Pelley interviews three people who were unjustly imprisoned; Charlie Rose takes a look at the Broadway musical "Hamilton". To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

When does fast grocery delivery through Instacart matter most? When your famous grainy mustard potato salad isn't so famous without the grainy mustard. When the barbecue's lit, but there's nothing to grill. When the in-laws decide that, actually, they will stay for dinner. Instacart has all your groceries covered this summer. So download the app and get delivery in as fast as 60 minutes. Plus enjoy $0 delivery fees on your first three orders. Service fees, exclusions, and terms apply. Instacart. Gro delivery fees on your first three orders. Service fees,

exclusions, and terms apply. Instacart. Groceries that over-deliver. This was the first face we saw after landing. That's Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. This once was a Syrian airport. Since the summer, the Russians have built barracks, brought in 4,000 personnel, paved roads, rolled in truckloads of equipment and munitions, erecting a bit of Russia in the heart of Assad-controlled Syria. But the relationship between Russia and Syria is far from perfect, as we found out when the Russian admiral we interviewed used a derogatory term to describe President Assad. Ray Hinton stepped out of prison after nearly 30 years on death row, a free man.

What was that moment like? As though I was walking on clouds. But Hinton's story raises serious questions about how we handle unjust convictions. 30 years ago, a judge proudly stood up and said, I sentence you to die. 30 years later, no one had the decency to say, we're sorry for what took place. I'm past patiently waiting, I'm passionately smashing Every expectation, every action's an act of creation The show has reached the loftiest height. I know you're not going to make my shot

In five months at the Richard Rodgers Theatre, So what did I miss? In five months at the Richard Rogers Theater, Hamilton has chalked up nearly $70 million in advance ticket sales. And those lucky enough to get a seat never know who might be next to them. The President of the United States at our sixth preview. It's put my dreams to shame. I'm Steve Croft. I'm Leslie Stahl. I'm Bill Whitaker.

I'm Charlie Rose. I'm Scott Pelley. Those stories tonight on 60 Minutes. Why do fintechs like Float choose Visa? As a more trusted, more secure payments network, Visa provides scale, expertise, and innovative payment solutions. Learn more at Visa.ca slash fintech. The civil war in Syria was a powder keg when the Russians intervened in September. They put up an air base and started bombing targets there.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said the airstrikes were aimed at fighting Islamic terrorism, but it quickly became apparent that the majority of the bombs were aimed not at ISIS, but at other Syrian insurgent groups fighting the regime of Russia's ally, President Bashar al-Assad. Whatever their motives, the Russians have inserted themselves into the Syrian conflict and any discussion of how it might end. A few months ago, 60 Minutes reported from the American base in Qatar, the command center for U.S. operations in the Middle East. We wanted to see the Russian base. So we asked and they agreed. We set out on the road to Syria, which took us on a detour we didn't expect. To get to the Russian air base in Latakia, Syria, you have to start here in Moscow.

You don't just show up at the gates of the air base. You have to be invited by the Russian Ministry of Defense, then taken on a Russian military transport on a circuitous five-hour flight over territory friendly to Russia, the Caspian Sea, Iran, Iraq, before finally landing in Syria. It was almost midnight when our plane took off from a Russian airbase outside Moscow. As we started to take pictures out the window, we were told, nyet, no, something we heard often during the next three days. What is this?

This was the first face we saw after landing. That's Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. This once was a Syrian airport. Since the summer, the Russians have built barracks, brought in 4,000 personnel, paved roads, rolled in truckloads of equipment and munitions, erecting a bit of Russia in the heart of Assad-controlled Syria. This is mostly friendly territory, at least 20 miles from the closest front lines. But the Russians aren't taking any chances. Helicopter gunships constantly patrolled the perimeter.

They took us out along newly extended runways to watch a steady series of planes taking off. The roar was deafening. The Russians invited about a dozen news organizations on this tour of the Latakia air base. They especially wanted us to take note of their newest fighter bomber, the Su-34. Our Russian guide in Syria, Major General Igor Konoshenkov, is chief spokesman for the Ministry of Defense. Over the previous 24 hours, he said, 320 insurgents and 34 armored vehicles were destroyed. Independent monitoring groups told us some of the planes we saw taking off did bomb ISIS targets,

but most bombed more immediate threats to the Assad regime. Groups like the U.S.-backed Free Syrian Army and al-Nusra, the Syrian arm of al-Qaeda. General Konashenkov wouldn't tell us how many planes or flying missions, but American military sources say the Russians have 36 fighter planes and 17 helicopters. The Russian military says they have flown more than 5,000 sorties, mostly from here, since President Putin ordered the bombing campaign in September. What is the primary goal of Russia in this intervention? The main task is to restore statehood in this region, Syrian statehood.

Admiral Vladimir Komoyerov is the chairman of the Russian Parliament's Defense Committee. He was involved in the planning of the Syrian mission. The United States is focused primarily on defeating ISIS, and Russia seems to have other priorities, supporting the Assad regime and helping the Assad regime fight its enemies. And that seems to take priority over fighting ISIS. If you cut off the head, you get chaos. There's chaos in Libya, chaos essentially in Iraq.

Half the country is under ISIL. And the head was chopped off there, you see. So if you want to so stubbornly remove the leaders of Syria, it's an enormous mistake. I'm just wondering if you believe that Assad has a role in the future Syria? The problem is that he has lost some of his authority. The people themselves must figure out in elections whom to follow and how to build their lives, which have been essentially ruined in Syria.

Ruined in large part by President Assad's own military. We got the sense Admiral Komoyedov is not crazy about the Syrian president, who has dropped bombs on his own people. The admiral used a derogatory term to describe Assad, then asked that we not repeat it on TV. We know why the opposition was formed. It was formed due to the mistakes of the president of Syria himself. When they launched this mission back in September, the Russians said it would be temporary.

After months of almost daily bombing, ISIS and the other insurgent groups fighting the Assad regime have barely been budged from the territory they hold. And Russia has added more planes and expanded to other bases here in Syria. The mission doesn't look so temporary anymore. Did Russia overestimate the power of the Syrian army? But we have been fulfilling our obligations to Syria and we will go on fulfilling them. President Assad shouldn't rest on his laurels. He needs to work on his army and raise its morale and, if necessary, lead the army himself. He needs to unite his forces, which are scattered like fingers. They must be clenched into a fist. If you can't beat them,

at least you can give them a black eye. It was the Russians who got a black eye when one of their warplanes was shot down and a pilot killed by the Turkish Air Force in late November. That incident may have been why we were taken to Tartus, two hours south of Latakia. This is the Russian Navy's only foothold in the Mediterranean. Holding on to this base seems to be one key reason President Putin maintained and now is escalating his support for Bashar al-Assad. This day, our destination was the Moscow, a guided missile cruiser that lay a mile offshore.

They brought us aboard and did everything short of firing off one of its missiles to demonstrate Russia's naval might. The Moscow is normally the flagship of the Black Sea Fleet. It now has a new mission. When I see all of this, I just wonder, who are you fighting? ISIS doesn't have any capability like this. General Konashenkov told us the ship's main mission is not to fight terrorists. After Turkey shot down the Russian fighter, the Moscow was supposed to be a war against ISIS and Islamic terrorism, is a sign just how complicated this temporary mission has become. Russia has to be reckoned with, which has been Putin's goal all along throughout the 15 years of his leadership. Maria Lipman is a political analyst in Moscow, one of the few independent voices willing to publicly criticize President Putin.

Seeing Russia waging this state-of-the-art military operation in a very important region made the Russians feel proud. This began with the annexation of Crimea, when Russia reinstated historical justice the way it was seen in Russia. So this is primarily not about Syria, but about Russia's place in the world? Of course, it is also about Syria. But I do not think the goal, the primary goal, was to stop the war. I think the primary goal was Russia's stature in the world.

We wanted to know what they thought of Russia's war here in Latakia, a coastal province home to about two million people. This is Assad territory. The shops looked full and life seemed normal as we rode through town. We weren't allowed off the bus for security reasons, our Russian minders said. Instead, they took us to a refugee camp at the city's sports complex. While hundreds of thousands of Syrians have fled to Europe from the bombs and brutality of President Assad and his opponents, the Russians wanted to show us people who had fled to the safety of the Syrian government.

These are about 5,000 of the millions of refugees from this civil war. Amid the tents, we found this woman. She's been here three years after fleeing Aleppo with her daughter and grandchildren. What was happening in Aleppo that made you come here to this camp? They destroyed our homes, she told us. She said her son was killed. You lost everything. She told us she didn't know who was responsible for the barrel bomb dropped from a plane that destroyed her house. But barrel bombs are a signature weapon of the Assad regime. Do you hope to go home again? God willing, she said. She told us she felt safe here in the government-run camp,

and she was grateful to the Russians for helping out. For those on the receiving end of the Russian bombs, it's a different story. The Russians have presented this war through a series of videos of precision strikes with intelligence from satellites and drones. Yet, as we were shown the planes being heavily armed for their missions, we saw many of what are known as dumb bombs being loaded, unguided weapons which human rights groups say have led to more than 500 civilian deaths. Correct me if I'm wrong, I have read that many of the targets hit by the Russians have been selected by the Syrians. Is that true? We use our data and Syrian data.

But I think there's a trick in your question, that supposedly if we're striking, we're hitting the wrong target. Yes, there may be mistakes, but you have to know that such things happen. We know how many times the Americans have missed, you know. War is not like going for a stroll somewhere in the park. War is death. It's weaponry. It's fire. We saw little of that during our trip to Syria. By design, the Russians showed off their firepower, but not the results. And the results have not been dramatic.

According to the Defense and Intelligence publication IHS James, after three months of Russian bombing, the Syrian army has managed to take back less than 1% of the territory seized by the insurgents. But what shouldn't suck is learning about history. I do that through storytelling. History That Doesn't Suck is a chart-topping history-telling podcast chronicling the epic story of America, decade by decade. Right now, I'm digging into the history of incredible infrastructure projects of the 1930s, including the Hoover Dam, the Empire State Building, the Golden Gate Bridge, and more. The promise is in the title, History That Doesn't Suck. Available on the free Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts. About 10 times a month now, an innocent person is freed from an

American prison. They're exonerated, sometimes after decades, because of new evidence, new confessions, or the forensic science of DNA. There is joy the day that justice arrives, but we wondered, what happens the day after? You're about to meet three people who have returned to life from unjust convictions. One of them, Ray Hinton, was on death row. He remembers too vividly the Alabama electric chair and the scent that permeated the cell block when a man was met by 2,000 volts. Hinton waited his turn for nearly 30 years until this past April. That's when Ray Hinton stepped out of the shadow of execution, taking the first steps that he chose for himself since 1985.

What was that moment like? As though I was walking on clouds. I wanted to get away in case they changed their mind, you know. You still didn't believe it? I was not going to allow myself to really believe that I was free, until I was actually free. Free to visit his mother, who went to her grave believing her son would be executed. The cemetery was Hinton's first destination, and he was startled by a world that had moved on without him. We headed toward the graveyard and a voice come on and said, at two points so many miles turn right.

I said, what the hell? Who is that? And he said, it's GPS tracker. I knew I didn't see no white lady get in that car. I wanted to know how did she get in that car, and what is she doing in this car? Man, come on. Any voice tended to be a surprise. On death row, Hinton spent most of every day alone. After 30 years inside, mostly by yourself, did you worry about coming back out into the world?

You get out, and world you get out and you just out if you don't have a place to live or money or whatever you actually said what I'm gonna do but my best friend stuck by me for 30 years and he had already told me whenever you get out you come live with me and my wife what did you have to learn after you got out? I'm still learning. I'm still learning that I can take a bath every day. I'm still learning that I don't have to get up at three o'clock in the morning to eat breakfast. I'm still learning that life is not always what we think it is. Ray Hinton's life was never what he thought it would be after 1985, when he was misidentified by a witness who picked him out of a mugshot book.

His picture was in there after a theft conviction. When police found a gun in his mother's house, a lieutenant told him that he'd been arrested in three shootings, including the murders of two restaurant managers. I said, you got the wrong guy. And he said, I don't care whether you did or don't. He said, but you're going to be convicted for it. And you know why? I said, no. He said, we got a white man. They're going to say you shot him. Going to have a white DA. We're going to have a white judge.

You're going to have a white jury, more likely. And he said, all of that spell conviction, conviction, conviction. I said, well, does it matter that I didn't do it? He said, not to me. The lieutenant denied saying that, but Hinton was convicted at age 30. He was 57 when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 9-0 that his defense had been ineffective. A new ballistics test found that the gun was not the murder weapon. Thirty years ago a judge proudly stood up and said I sentence you to die. Thirty years later no one had the decency to say Mr. Hinton we sorry for what took place. No one have said it. What did the state of Alabama give you to help you get back up on your feet?

They dropped all charges and that was it. No money? No. No suit of clothes? Nothing. No. No suit of clothes? Nothing. No. And that is where many states are failing the growing number of exonerated prisoners. It turns out in Alabama, if Ray Hinton had committed murder and was released on parole, he would have been eligible for job training, housing assistance, and a bus ticket home. But most states offer no immediate assistance to

the innocent, whose convictions can be embarrassing because of misconduct or incompetence by police or prosecutors. You can't traumatize someone, try to kill someone, condemn someone, lock someone down for 30 years and not feel some responsibility for what you've done. Yeah, that's right. Attorney Bryan Stevenson worked on Ray Hinton's case for 16 years. Stevenson started the Equal Justice Initiative, one of a growing number of legal organizations overturning false convictions. They need support. They need economic support.

They need housing support. They need medical support. They need mental. They need economic support. They need housing support. They need medical support. They need mental health care. They need to know that their victimization, their abuse, has been taken seriously. It was just absolutely unimaginable, and I couldn't even explain the horror of it. He was misidentified by witnesses who collected a $20,000 reward. Convicted in a 1986 rape and murder, DNA proved his innocence. Good morning. Good morning, sir. Because of the rare perspective of an innocent man who's done hard time, the governor put Ireland on Connecticut's parole board. At some point in your life, sir, you have to step up.

So this is your new cell? Well yeah for eight hours a day. It took five years to get this job. At first he lived with his sister and he found work as a counselor for troubled kids. I got a little small apartment in town. I mean there's been nights where I just barricaded myself in a big walk-in closet and slept in there, just thinking, you know, that someone's going to come kick down my door and drag me back. You slept in a closet? Yeah, yeah, a few times I have. Are you over that now, six years later?

Yeah, I don't have them issues now. It gets easier and easier every day. One thing that made it easier was Connecticut's new law that compensates the wrongly convicted. A year ago, Ireland was the first to get a check. What did the state give you? Six million dollars. Six million dollars? Right. Wow.

It's more than most states are giving. Well, it comes to something like $300,000 a year for every year you spent in prison. Yeah. And you say it's not worth it. Oh, absolutely not. Absolutely not. They could give me five million for every year and I still wouldn't be worth it. Ken Ireland was fortunate, if you can call it that. Twenty states offer no compensation at all. One is Julie Balmer's home, Michigan. Other than the time, what have you lost? Everything. Everything. My life is nothing as it was.

In 2003, Balmer was a mortgage broker raising her sister's baby. He became ill, so she took him to an emergency room. Doctors there suspected the boy had been shaken until his brain was damaged. Balmer was convicted of child abuse. She was in her fifth year in prison when new evidence showed that the boy had suffered a natural stroke. She was retried, acquitted, and the judge apologized. After she was released for a time, she was homeless. How did you start over?

It was very, very, very rough. You start from the bottom reclaiming your identity. I didn't have an ID. And then after I jumped over that hurdle, then you start applying for jobs. And then you have to go through, okay, well now there's a five-year gap on your resume. Why is this?

And then you tell your potential employer the truth. In my case, I never got phone calls back. There was no support for you of any kind? No. Our Lady of Redemption. Julie Balmer now works for a Detroit-area parish. Thank you. God bless. Hopefully my testimony as an exoneree...

In her spare time, she's lobbying Michigan's legislature for a compensation law. No amount of money can ever bring back everything that I've lost. No one can fail to see the injustice in these cases. But when it comes to compensation, there are people watching this interviewer saying, you know, it was just bad luck, and we don't necessarily owe them for the life that they lost. This isn't luck. This was a system. This was actually our justice system. It was our tax dollars who paid for the police officers who arrested Mr. Hinton, our tax dollars that paid for the judge and the prosecutor that prosecuted him, that paid for the experts who got it wrong,

that paid to keep him on death row for 30 years for a crime he didn't commit. This has nothing to do with luck. This has everything to do with the way we treat those who are vulnerable in our criminal justice system. Ray Hinton is considering applying for compensation, but Alabama has paid only one exoneree after 41 claims. In the meantime, Attorney Bryan Stevenson has been Hinton's guide to advances like ATMs and smartphones and to frustrations that never change,

like getting a license at the DMV. And will I ever catch up with the world? I don't know, but I'm going to try. Hinton is working part-time now, speaking about justice and faith. I just never, never believed that God would allow me to die for something that I didn't do. I didn't know how he was going to work it out, but I believed that he would work it out. I can't get over the fact that just because I was born black and someone that had the authority who happened to be white felt the need to send me to a cage and try to take my life for something that they knew that I didn't do. Of course, they did take Ray Hinton's life.

A false conviction isn't about lost time. It's the loss of an education, a marriage, the chance to start a family, settle into a job, and build a pension. The only thing Alabama didn't take was the breath from his body. Are you angry? No. How could you not be? Three decades of your life, most all of your life? They took 30 years of my life, as you say. What joy I have, I cannot afford to give that to them. And so being angry would be giving them, letting them win. You'd still be in prison? Oh, absolutely. I'm a person that loves to laugh. I love to see other people smile. And how can I smile when I'm full of hate? And so the 30 years that they got from me, I count today. I count every day as a joy.

Over the last five months, Hamilton has become part of Broadway lore. It is one of the most critically acclaimed shows ever staged and one of the toughest tickets to get, already sold out until summer. The story of founding father Alexander Hamilton and his contemporaries is played by a young, multiracial cast dancing, singing, and rapping to hip-hop and popular music. As we first reported last fall, the man behind it, 35-year-old Lin-Manuel Miranda, wrote the music, lyrics, and book, and plays the title character, one of the most audacious and brilliant figures in American history. The thing about Hamilton is he spoke in paragraphs. And so the opening sentence of our show

is this crazy run-on sentence. How does a bastard, orphan, son of a whore and a Scotsman, dropped in the middle of a forgotten spot in the Caribbean by Providence, impoverished and squalor, comma, grow up to be a hero and a scholar? That's the question we're going to answer for the next two hours and 45 minutes. I'm past patiently waiting, I'm passionately smashing every expectation,

every action's an act of creation. In Hamilton, the answers come fast. This time I'm thinking past tomorrow. And I am not going out shot. My shot is the show's anthem. The young, scrappy, and hungry immigrant arrives in New York just before the American Revolution. Rise up, take a shot. Rise up, take a shot. Rise up, take a shot. Rise up, take a shot.

And now you're not throwing away my, not throwing away my shot. Took me a year to write My Shot. It took you a year to write my shot. It took you a year? Yeah. Because every couplet needed to be the best couplet I ever wrote. That's how seriously I was taking it. Hamilton demands lots from you. He's calling on my best. Sir, entrust me with the command.

Hamilton was front and center at nearly every major event in early American history. He never became president, but had a bigger impact than many who did. His mentor was George Washington, played by Chris Jackson, who plucked Hamilton out of the ranks and relied on him for 20 years. So what did I miss? What did I miss? Rapper Daveed Diggs plays Thomas Jefferson. He is Hamilton's primary political opponent. The show reflects Miranda's broad musical taste, but hip-hop and rap define it. Your music is rap.

Yes, and I also believe that that form is uniquely suited to tell Hamilton's story. Because it has more words per measure than any other musical genre. It has rhythm and it has density. And if Hamilton had anything in his writings, it was this density. Miranda wrote this for Hamilton's sister-in-law, Angelica Schuyler, played by Renee Elise Goldsberry. In Hamilton, women get equal time. The idea to cast black and Latino actors to play the founders was deliberate. Miranda wanted to connect America then with America now. Hamilton blossomed during an extended run at New York's Public Theater

and was greeted with fireworks over the Hudson when it opened on Broadway. I come up here in the opening number. The show has reached the loftiest heights. In five months at the Richard Rogers Theater, Hamilton has chalked up nearly $70 million in advance ticket sales, and those lucky enough to get a seat never know who might be next to them. The President of the United States. At our sixth preview.

The Vice President of the United States. Yes. It's put my dreams to shame. Exactly. It's super, super humbling. And when you list those bold-faced names that have come to see the show, I see those as an opportunity to see the show with fresh eyes while I'm doing it. When Dick Cheney is sitting in the audience, I think, what is he thinking when he hears the lyric, history has its eyes on you? You know, when the president is here, what is he thinking as he sees George Washington say,

I have to step down so the country can move on? Hamilton was a complicated figure, war hero, famous philanderer, political thinker, mudslinging politician, and the nation's first treasury secretary. He creates the first fiscal system, first monetary system, first customs service, first central Bank, on and on and on. Ron Chernow wrote the biography that inspired the musical and is the show's historical advisor. Lin-Manuel Miranda, I think, was smart enough to know that the best way to dramatize the story was to stick as close to the facts as possible. Here's the story of a penniless, orphaned immigrant kid

who comes out of nowhere, and his achievements were absolutely monumental. You say he came out of nowhere. He was born on the island of Nevis. He spent his adolescence on St. Croix. When he came to North America, he didn't know a soul. We're still playing dominoes on the street. It is a story Miranda can relate to. His father moved from Puerto Rico when he was 18. They settled in Inwood on the northern tip of Manhattan. Today, Luis Miranda is a prominent political consultant. His wife, Luz, is a psychologist.

Luz and I, we have always known that this kid was destined for greatness. He's looking down. My only concern was always, is this greatness going to come with money so he could survive forever? When did you see the musical talent? Always. From the time he was tiny, he loved to sing. He was always creating and he loved words and songs. Like Hamilton, young Lin-Manuel was something of a prodigy. He gained admission into a school for gifted children. You know, I went to a school where everyone was smarter than me. I'm not blowing smoke. I was surrounded by genius, genius kids. What's interesting about growing up in a culture like that is you go, all right, I got to figure out what my thing is. Because I'm not smarter than these kids. I'm not funnier than half of them.

So I better figure out what it is I want to do and work really hard at that. And because intellectually, I'm treading water to be here. So why do you think I'm sitting here talking to you and not sitting here talking to one of your classmates? Because I picked a lane and I started running ahead of everybody else. That's the honest answer. I was like, all right, this. This was theater. He was in practically every school play. This is upstairs. This is really where we grew up. The family didn't have a lot of money

to see Broadway shows, but they did collect cast albums and Miranda consumed them. Camelot, follow me. The lusty month of May. Lusty month of May. All of the wordplay. If you may take me to the fair.

You'll thrash and bash him. I'll smash and mash him. You'll, you know, he will be trouble, he will be rubble. If ever I would leave you. It would not be in springtime, knowing how in spring I'm bewitched by you, sir. How can you have so many songs in your head?

Because I had a lot of time on my hands. Do you have room for anything else in your head? I mean, I don't know my social security number. He graduated from Wesleyan University in 2002 with a degree in theater arts. That's where he began working on a show about his old neighborhood. Lottery ticket just a part of the routine. Everybody's got a job. Everybody's got a dream. It turned into Miranda's first Broadway show.

In the Heights won the 2008 Tony for Best Musical. Two months later, he picked up Ron Chernow's book during a vacation. This is what I knew from high school. I knew Hamilton died in a duel with the vice president. I knew he was on the $10 bill. But really, I just was browsing the biography section. It could have been Truman. And as you read it, what happened?

I was thunderstruck. I got to the part where, you know, a hurricane destroys St. Croix, where Hamilton is living. And he writes a poem about the carnage. And this poem gets him off the island. You saw a rap artist in him. Yes. I drew a direct line between Hamilton's writing his way out of his circumstances and the rappers I'd grown up adoring. I'm thrilled the White House called me. Nine months after reading the book, he was invited to the White House to perform a song from In the Heights.

He decided to take a risk. I'm actually working on a hip-hop album. It's a concept album about the life of someone I think embodies hip-hop, Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton. You laugh, but it's true. So when you did it, and you look at the video now... I see a terrified young Puerto Rican man. Do you?

Terrified, because there's the leader of the free world, newly elected leader of the free world, his entire family. There's Biden. But as he began the story, the room was mesmerized. His entire family. There's Biden. But as he began the story, the room was mesmerized. That video is a microcosm of my entire Hamilton experience. I say, hip-hop, Alexander Hamilton, and everyone laughs. And then by the end, they're not laughing. Because they're in it, because they've been sucked into the story, just like I got sucked into the story. Miranda's gift is making that story come alive. Are you ready for a cabinet

meeting, huh? Witness Hamilton's battle with Jefferson over how to pay off the Revolutionary War debt. In Virginia, we plant seeds in the ground. We create. You just want to move our money around. This financial plan is an outrageous demand, and it's too many damn pages for any man to understand. Thomas, that was a real nice declaration. Welcome to the present. We're running a real nation.

Would you like to join us or stay mellow doing whatever the hell it is you do in Monticello? A civics lesson from a slaver. Hey, neighbor, your debts are paid because you don't pay for labor. We plant seeds in the South. We create and keep ranting. We know who's really doing the planting. I think the secret sauce of this show is that I can't believe this story's true.

It's such an improbable and amazing story, and I learned about it while I was writing it. And I think that enthusiasm is baked into the recipe. Hamilton doesn't hesitate. He exhibits no restraint. Takes and he takes and he takes. Aaron Burr is another key ingredient, the show's narrator. He is Hamilton's cautious alter ego.

Played by Leslie Odom Jr., Burr's jealousy builds throughout the show until their fateful meeting on the dueling ground. The bullet hit him actually on the right side, just above the hip. It lodged in the spine. By the time they faced off in Weehawken, New Jersey, Burr was a lame-duck vice president, and Hamilton, just shy of his 50th birthday, was practicing law.

How could that happen? Think of Duels, Charlie, as a violent form of conflict resolution. Burr was feeling very, very frustrated. It seemed like at every turn, Alexander Hamilton was there, you know, blocking his path. He writes in a letter before the duel, he said, there was no way this could have been avoided. We've been circling each other for a while.

It was always going to come to this. This was going to happen. This was going to happen. They're fundamentally different men, and they run in concentric circles until they meet. And everything around them is moving. Miranda and his director, Tommy Kail,

staged the intensifying rivalry between the two men. Ah, yeah. It's pretty cool, right? It's really cool. The turntable was essential. I imagine death so much it feels more like a memory. Many historians, including Chernow, believe Hamilton deliberately fired into the air,

throwing away his shot. Wait! It is a fatal miscalculation. Here's the thing about Hamilton. I hear wailing in the streets. Somebody tells me you'd better hide. Here's the thing about Hamilton. I think Hamilton was ready to die from the time he was 14 years old. I think what he has is what I have, which is that thing of tomorrow's not promised. I've got to get as much done as I can.

People are saying it's transformative. It certainly changes my life. But I think it's because when great people cross our path, and I'm talking about Hamilton here, it forces us to reckon with what we're doing with our lives. You know, at my age, Hamilton was Treasury Secretary and creating our financial system from scratch. And building a country. Yeah, I wrote two plays. Now an update on the story we called Agro-Mafia. We reported on Italian law enforcement's battle against adulterated and inferior oils sold as extra virgin olive oil by organized crime. For our story, we bought three random, unidentified samples of Italian extra virgin

from American grocery stores and asked an Italian tasting panel to do a test. Only one out of the three bottles passed. After our story aired, we heard from Marco Farchioni, president of his family's olive oil company. He recognized a bottle of his oil among the samples and was concerned about his product's reputation. Congratulations, Signor Farchioni. Your bottle was the only one that passed. I'm Bill Whitaker. We'll be back next week with another edition of 60 Minutes.