1 00:00:01,500 --> 00:00:06,333 ♪ ♪ 2 00:00:11,633 --> 00:00:14,966 (people talking in background, car horn honks) 3 00:00:14,966 --> 00:00:19,100 LISA KORT-BUTLER: We've all lied at some point. 4 00:00:19,100 --> 00:00:21,000 We've all tried to figure out 5 00:00:21,000 --> 00:00:22,800 when someone else is lying to us. 6 00:00:24,933 --> 00:00:26,933 We use these visual clues, 7 00:00:26,933 --> 00:00:28,900 whether it's looking for people to avert their eyes, 8 00:00:28,900 --> 00:00:31,266 or blushing or they shift their body weight, 9 00:00:31,266 --> 00:00:36,366 giving off these tells, essentially. 10 00:00:36,366 --> 00:00:38,666 ♪ ♪ 11 00:00:38,666 --> 00:00:41,300 NARRATOR: It was an ambition as old as humanity itself. 12 00:00:41,300 --> 00:00:45,200 In the first decades of the 20th century, 13 00:00:45,200 --> 00:00:48,000 three very different researchers claimed that by monitoring 14 00:00:48,000 --> 00:00:49,466 the clues within our bodies, 15 00:00:49,466 --> 00:00:51,633 they were able to strip away 16 00:00:51,633 --> 00:00:56,066 the veils of deceit, detect a lie, and reveal the truth. 17 00:00:56,066 --> 00:00:59,900 DOUGLAS FLOWE: People would be able to receive a fair trial, 18 00:00:59,900 --> 00:01:02,866 be interrogated in a way that was humane. 19 00:01:02,866 --> 00:01:04,866 KEN ALDER: You determine guilt or innocence 20 00:01:04,866 --> 00:01:06,433 by use of a machine 21 00:01:06,433 --> 00:01:10,500 that itself can't be corrupted, doesn't have prejudice, 22 00:01:10,500 --> 00:01:14,133 treats everything objectively. 23 00:01:14,133 --> 00:01:16,300 ♪ ♪ 24 00:01:16,300 --> 00:01:19,666 NARRATOR: But this powerful tool proved tragically prone to abuse. 25 00:01:19,666 --> 00:01:24,100 ALDER: The idea is that the machine is doing the detecting, 26 00:01:24,100 --> 00:01:26,200 but of course, that can't be true. 27 00:01:26,200 --> 00:01:28,866 It's the human operator of the machine 28 00:01:28,866 --> 00:01:31,933 that's doing the actual detecting. 29 00:01:31,933 --> 00:01:34,666 GEOFFREY BUNN: People thought that it was going to uncover truths 30 00:01:34,666 --> 00:01:38,100 which you yourself may not have even been aware of. 31 00:01:38,100 --> 00:01:40,533 And they were frightened of it. 32 00:01:42,566 --> 00:01:45,700 NARRATOR: Over time, the lie detector acquired power and reach 33 00:01:45,700 --> 00:01:48,800 beyond anything its creators could have imagined. 34 00:01:48,800 --> 00:01:53,133 Millions of Americans were being tested every year, 35 00:01:53,133 --> 00:01:55,633 thousands of lives changed forever. 36 00:01:55,633 --> 00:02:00,900 I am not, and never have been, a member of the Communist Party. 37 00:02:00,900 --> 00:02:04,666 KORT-BUTLER: It becomes a tool in figuring out 38 00:02:04,666 --> 00:02:08,333 not just are they telling me the truth or lying, 39 00:02:08,333 --> 00:02:10,666 but are you really who you say you are? 40 00:02:10,666 --> 00:02:12,966 FRANKIE BAILEY: They were peddling this idea 41 00:02:12,966 --> 00:02:15,766 of being able to use science to discover truth, 42 00:02:15,766 --> 00:02:18,166 that there is some objective truth 43 00:02:18,166 --> 00:02:21,033 that we can arrive at with technology. 44 00:02:21,033 --> 00:02:25,433 NARRATOR: The lie detector was a uniquely American phenomenon, 45 00:02:25,433 --> 00:02:32,600 an amalgam of crime, science, mass media, and charisma. 46 00:02:32,600 --> 00:02:35,533 It fed on doubt and bred the suspicion and jealousy 47 00:02:35,533 --> 00:02:40,100 that finally consumed the lives of its inventors. 48 00:02:40,100 --> 00:02:45,366 ALDER: Like Frankenstein's monster, it escaped its creators' control. 49 00:02:45,366 --> 00:02:49,066 Indeed, everyone's control. 50 00:02:49,066 --> 00:02:53,100 ♪ ♪ 51 00:03:01,300 --> 00:03:04,900 ♪ ♪ 52 00:03:04,900 --> 00:03:06,400 MAN: Attention! 53 00:03:06,400 --> 00:03:08,433 Forward! (gives order) 54 00:03:08,433 --> 00:03:10,566 Hands on hips. 55 00:03:10,566 --> 00:03:12,033 (continues): Face! 56 00:03:12,033 --> 00:03:13,400 Control! 57 00:03:13,400 --> 00:03:14,433 Turn! 58 00:03:14,433 --> 00:03:15,433 Knee high! 59 00:03:15,433 --> 00:03:17,933 Turn! (marching stops) 60 00:03:17,933 --> 00:03:18,933 Ready. 61 00:03:18,933 --> 00:03:21,866 One, two, three, four, five, six! 62 00:03:21,866 --> 00:03:22,933 Turning to the left. 63 00:03:23,933 --> 00:03:26,233 Stick 'em up! 64 00:03:26,233 --> 00:03:28,333 (gun fires) 65 00:03:28,333 --> 00:03:30,966 ♪ ♪ 66 00:03:30,966 --> 00:03:32,900 NARRATOR: John Larson wasn't like the other cops. 67 00:03:32,900 --> 00:03:38,066 The 29-year-old was a newcomer to California from New England. 68 00:03:38,066 --> 00:03:41,866 He joined the Berkeley Police in 1920, 69 00:03:41,866 --> 00:03:44,933 quickly proved himself the worst shot in the department, 70 00:03:44,933 --> 00:03:48,300 and was such a bad driver that he wrecked two squad cars 71 00:03:48,300 --> 00:03:49,833 in a single day. 72 00:03:49,833 --> 00:03:53,966 Worst of all, as far as the old-timers were concerned, 73 00:03:53,966 --> 00:03:56,933 he was the only officer in the country with a Ph.D. 74 00:03:56,933 --> 00:03:59,633 He spent his spare hours auditing courses 75 00:03:59,633 --> 00:04:01,433 on criminal psychiatry 76 00:04:01,433 --> 00:04:03,533 and was writing a book on fingerprinting. 77 00:04:03,533 --> 00:04:09,066 ALDER: John Larson was a working-class guy who really had 78 00:04:09,066 --> 00:04:11,700 a kind of righteous indignation. 79 00:04:11,700 --> 00:04:13,700 He isn't always that good with people, 80 00:04:13,700 --> 00:04:18,400 but he does have a vision of, of clean policing, 81 00:04:18,400 --> 00:04:20,166 scientific and clean policing. 82 00:04:20,166 --> 00:04:22,700 ♪ ♪ 83 00:04:22,700 --> 00:04:24,066 NARRATOR: In the early 1920s, 84 00:04:24,066 --> 00:04:28,500 policing wasn't scientific, and it was rarely clean. 85 00:04:28,500 --> 00:04:31,233 ♪ ♪ (crowd clamoring) 86 00:04:31,233 --> 00:04:35,033 Most cases were solved by confession, 87 00:04:35,033 --> 00:04:38,533 a terrifying number obtained by what was called 88 00:04:38,533 --> 00:04:40,000 "the third degree." 89 00:04:40,000 --> 00:04:43,666 FLOWE: It was expected and it was accepted 90 00:04:43,666 --> 00:04:46,866 that officers would torture people. 91 00:04:46,866 --> 00:04:50,733 ♪ ♪ 92 00:04:50,733 --> 00:04:52,666 You can use any means necessary, 93 00:04:52,666 --> 00:04:55,066 even if that means mutilating their body, 94 00:04:55,066 --> 00:04:56,566 to get them to confess. 95 00:05:00,033 --> 00:05:02,400 But a lot of the time, people who are being tortured 96 00:05:02,400 --> 00:05:05,166 were innocent, and sometimes they would end up 97 00:05:05,166 --> 00:05:08,633 maybe confessing just to make the torture stop. 98 00:05:10,966 --> 00:05:14,266 NARRATOR: Fortunately for Larson, his boss-- 99 00:05:14,266 --> 00:05:16,833 Berkeley police chief August Vollmer-- 100 00:05:16,833 --> 00:05:21,233 was a pioneer of scientific, humane, and honest policing. 101 00:05:21,233 --> 00:05:24,466 ALDER: Vollmer was the great police reformer 102 00:05:24,466 --> 00:05:26,533 of the early 20th century. 103 00:05:26,533 --> 00:05:30,200 His special tool for making cops themselves law-abiding 104 00:05:30,200 --> 00:05:32,233 was to give them scientific tools, 105 00:05:32,233 --> 00:05:35,233 things like fingerprinting 106 00:05:35,233 --> 00:05:37,300 and analysis of crime scenes 107 00:05:37,300 --> 00:05:39,700 and categorized methods of operation. 108 00:05:39,700 --> 00:05:42,433 ♪ ♪ 109 00:05:42,433 --> 00:05:44,566 NARRATOR: Perhaps the most revolutionary technology 110 00:05:44,566 --> 00:05:47,400 on the horizon was what scientists were calling 111 00:05:47,400 --> 00:05:49,233 a "deception test." 112 00:05:49,233 --> 00:05:53,600 BUNN: There was a vision at the time whereby crime 113 00:05:53,600 --> 00:05:56,200 was going to be solved through an instrument that could detect 114 00:05:56,200 --> 00:05:57,900 a person in the act of telling a lie. 115 00:05:57,900 --> 00:06:02,133 BAILEY: There might not even be a need for a judge and jury, 116 00:06:02,133 --> 00:06:05,000 because the machine would reveal 117 00:06:05,000 --> 00:06:07,800 to everyone whether or not this person was lying 118 00:06:07,800 --> 00:06:09,300 or telling the truth. 119 00:06:09,300 --> 00:06:13,866 NARRATOR: Vollmer knew that an effective deception test 120 00:06:13,866 --> 00:06:18,066 was a huge challenge, but in the spring of 1921, 121 00:06:18,066 --> 00:06:22,600 he asked his scientist cop to build one. 122 00:06:22,600 --> 00:06:27,633 ♪ ♪ 123 00:06:30,066 --> 00:06:33,866 Larson was taking on a daunting scientific challenge 124 00:06:33,866 --> 00:06:36,666 using borrowed equipment; 125 00:06:36,666 --> 00:06:41,866 his only assistant a local high school student. 126 00:06:41,866 --> 00:06:46,633 ALDER: Vollmer brought Leonarde Keeler to study under Larson. 127 00:06:46,633 --> 00:06:50,133 One is a Ph.D. dissertation writer, 128 00:06:50,133 --> 00:06:53,333 the other one is a high school student. 129 00:06:53,333 --> 00:06:55,833 But they became a kind of team, an oddball team, to some extent. 130 00:06:55,833 --> 00:06:58,333 ♪ ♪ 131 00:06:58,333 --> 00:07:01,366 NARRATOR: For decades, scientists in Europe and America 132 00:07:01,366 --> 00:07:04,533 had been looking for clues that a subject was lying. 133 00:07:04,533 --> 00:07:08,100 They'd measure the rate and depth of a subject's breathing, 134 00:07:08,100 --> 00:07:09,366 their blood pressure, 135 00:07:09,366 --> 00:07:13,500 or the time it took to answer a question. 136 00:07:13,500 --> 00:07:15,700 They claimed varying degrees of success, 137 00:07:15,700 --> 00:07:19,666 but no single measurement could reliably detect a lie. 138 00:07:19,666 --> 00:07:23,833 So Larson decided to combine several different monitors 139 00:07:23,833 --> 00:07:26,366 in the same device. 140 00:07:26,366 --> 00:07:30,333 KEN QUATTRO: He built a cumbersome machine that allowed him to take 141 00:07:30,333 --> 00:07:32,333 continuous blood pressure readings, 142 00:07:32,333 --> 00:07:34,966 and he also put a tube 143 00:07:34,966 --> 00:07:36,333 around the person's chest 144 00:07:36,333 --> 00:07:40,000 so he can notice variations in the respiration. 145 00:07:40,000 --> 00:07:45,266 ALDER: The way that the machine registered the results gave 146 00:07:45,266 --> 00:07:48,400 a permanent graphical record, 147 00:07:48,400 --> 00:07:50,600 which would ideally be introduced as evidence in court. 148 00:07:50,600 --> 00:07:54,400 BUNN: It was a genuine attempt, a well-meaning attempt, 149 00:07:54,400 --> 00:07:58,466 to try to solve crimes without using violence. 150 00:07:58,466 --> 00:08:02,433 The truth would come out through science. 151 00:08:02,433 --> 00:08:06,866 (birds twittering, people talking in background) 152 00:08:06,866 --> 00:08:10,233 NARRATOR: In the spring of 1921, Larson's device was ready 153 00:08:10,233 --> 00:08:13,066 for a trial run. 154 00:08:13,066 --> 00:08:14,966 Vollmer sent him to investigate a series of thefts 155 00:08:14,966 --> 00:08:16,500 at College Hall, 156 00:08:16,500 --> 00:08:21,133 a women's dorm on the University of California-Berkeley campus. 157 00:08:21,133 --> 00:08:23,833 The case was trivial-- 158 00:08:23,833 --> 00:08:26,733 someone at the dorm was stealing money, jewelry, and clothing 159 00:08:26,733 --> 00:08:30,133 from her housemates, but if Larson was able to solve it, 160 00:08:30,133 --> 00:08:33,133 the implications would be profound. 161 00:08:33,133 --> 00:08:37,500 ♪ ♪ 162 00:08:37,500 --> 00:08:40,766 He started by running tests on each of the women in turn. 163 00:08:40,766 --> 00:08:44,733 ♪ ♪ 164 00:08:44,733 --> 00:08:47,200 After the first round of interviews, 165 00:08:47,200 --> 00:08:49,766 Larson thought he had his culprit. 166 00:08:49,766 --> 00:08:53,300 Sudden changes in blood pressure, heart rate, 167 00:08:53,300 --> 00:08:57,600 and breathing: Helen Graham was hiding something. 168 00:08:57,600 --> 00:09:02,200 Graham was grilled repeatedly until she confessed, 169 00:09:02,200 --> 00:09:05,900 quit college, and left town. 170 00:09:05,900 --> 00:09:11,466 Larson called his device the cardio-pneumo-psychograph, 171 00:09:11,466 --> 00:09:16,200 but reporters came up with a catchier name. 172 00:09:16,200 --> 00:09:20,300 The press treated the College Hall case as a triumph, 173 00:09:20,300 --> 00:09:23,966 proof of the lie detector's revolutionary potential. 174 00:09:23,966 --> 00:09:28,633 But for Larson, doubts began creeping in 175 00:09:28,633 --> 00:09:30,833 when the College Hall thefts resumed 176 00:09:30,833 --> 00:09:32,733 after Graham's departure. 177 00:09:32,733 --> 00:09:37,366 She wrote him from her exile to explain her confession. 178 00:09:37,366 --> 00:09:42,300 Graham had indeed been hiding something, 179 00:09:42,300 --> 00:09:45,800 but it had nothing to do with the College Hall case. 180 00:09:45,800 --> 00:09:47,800 MATTHEW BARRY JOHNSON: This young woman 181 00:09:47,800 --> 00:09:49,966 actually had a really troubled history. 182 00:09:49,966 --> 00:09:52,966 She'd been sexually abused early in life. 183 00:09:52,966 --> 00:09:56,166 In her fear that this machine was going 184 00:09:56,166 --> 00:09:57,666 to uncover her secrets, 185 00:09:57,666 --> 00:10:01,566 she made admissions to try to forestall the questioning. 186 00:10:01,566 --> 00:10:05,600 J. PATRICK O'BURKE: A polygraph's a very blunt instrument. 187 00:10:05,600 --> 00:10:08,200 Human emotions 188 00:10:08,200 --> 00:10:10,066 and other extraneous variables 189 00:10:10,066 --> 00:10:11,366 cause, you know, 190 00:10:11,366 --> 00:10:13,166 physiological arousals. 191 00:10:13,166 --> 00:10:16,900 That was part of the problem in the College Hall case. 192 00:10:16,900 --> 00:10:21,166 ALDER: Larson was never really able to be sure that 193 00:10:21,166 --> 00:10:23,633 Helen Graham committed the crime. 194 00:10:23,633 --> 00:10:25,700 It's the first big case, and right from the beginning, 195 00:10:25,700 --> 00:10:26,966 all the ambiguities are there. 196 00:10:26,966 --> 00:10:31,000 ♪ ♪ 197 00:10:31,000 --> 00:10:32,900 NARRATOR: Larson would spend the rest of his life 198 00:10:32,900 --> 00:10:35,866 with a permanent and vivid reminder of College Hall. 199 00:10:35,866 --> 00:10:39,033 Over the course of the investigation, 200 00:10:39,033 --> 00:10:44,400 he had interrogated the victim, Margaret Taylor, several times. 201 00:10:44,400 --> 00:10:46,066 He found out that she had feelings for him 202 00:10:46,066 --> 00:10:47,400 and he had feelings for her. 203 00:10:47,400 --> 00:10:49,500 And they got married. 204 00:10:49,500 --> 00:10:53,166 The newspapers, as you can imagine, loved this. 205 00:10:53,166 --> 00:10:57,733 (train chugging, whistle blares) 206 00:10:57,733 --> 00:11:00,200 NARRATOR: In the wake of the College Hall case, 207 00:11:00,200 --> 00:11:04,200 Larson and his bride left Berkeley for Chicago. 208 00:11:04,200 --> 00:11:05,966 He planned to study psychiatry there, 209 00:11:05,966 --> 00:11:08,800 while exploring new applications for the lie detector 210 00:11:08,800 --> 00:11:13,566 at the Institute for Juvenile Research. 211 00:11:13,566 --> 00:11:17,466 Larson would continue to refine his lie detector, 212 00:11:17,466 --> 00:11:19,100 but for the time being, 213 00:11:19,100 --> 00:11:21,700 he was wary of using it for criminal investigations-- 214 00:11:21,700 --> 00:11:25,100 the stakes were too high. 215 00:11:25,100 --> 00:11:29,400 "There is no test in its present state," he wrote, 216 00:11:29,400 --> 00:11:35,166 "suitable for the positive identification of deception." 217 00:11:35,166 --> 00:11:39,433 But not everyone shared Larson's scruples. 218 00:11:39,433 --> 00:11:42,866 ♪ ♪ 219 00:11:42,866 --> 00:11:44,633 In the fall of 1922, 220 00:11:44,633 --> 00:11:47,900 Larson received a letter from William Marston, 221 00:11:47,900 --> 00:11:51,400 29-year-old lawyer, head of the psychology department 222 00:11:51,400 --> 00:11:53,966 at American University in Washington, D.C., 223 00:11:53,966 --> 00:11:58,866 and inventor of what he called the Marston Deception Test. 224 00:11:58,866 --> 00:12:01,266 QUATTRO: It was just a matter of him 225 00:12:01,266 --> 00:12:03,800 putting a blood pressure cuff on a person, 226 00:12:03,800 --> 00:12:05,333 pumping it up, 227 00:12:05,333 --> 00:12:08,500 and then anytime it went above a certain range, 228 00:12:08,500 --> 00:12:12,366 it indicated to him that the person was telling a lie. 229 00:12:12,366 --> 00:12:18,766 It was very crude in comparison to Larson's machine. 230 00:12:18,766 --> 00:12:21,566 NARRATOR: According to its inventor, the Marston Deception Test 231 00:12:21,566 --> 00:12:24,200 was practically infallible. 232 00:12:24,200 --> 00:12:29,033 BUNN: Marston's a very gregarious, extroverted character. 233 00:12:29,033 --> 00:12:32,833 He made expansive claims for the instrument. 234 00:12:32,833 --> 00:12:35,300 And Larson was just the opposite. 235 00:12:35,300 --> 00:12:39,533 He was scientifically minded and far more modest. 236 00:12:39,533 --> 00:12:45,266 NARRATOR: In 1922, Marston was trying to get his deception test 237 00:12:45,266 --> 00:12:46,666 introduced in court. 238 00:12:46,666 --> 00:12:48,633 So as soon as he read about Larson's work 239 00:12:48,633 --> 00:12:52,633 in the newspapers, he sent a letter asking for details. 240 00:12:52,633 --> 00:12:56,900 Larson gently warned the headstrong inventor 241 00:12:56,900 --> 00:12:59,633 that his deception test was unreliable. 242 00:12:59,633 --> 00:13:01,100 Too late. 243 00:13:01,100 --> 00:13:06,500 Already, Marston had wrangled himself and his test 244 00:13:06,500 --> 00:13:09,233 to the center of a high-profile murder case. 245 00:13:09,233 --> 00:13:13,000 ♪ ♪ 246 00:13:13,000 --> 00:13:15,700 According to the police, James Frye had confessed 247 00:13:15,700 --> 00:13:18,100 to killing a prominent Black doctor. 248 00:13:18,100 --> 00:13:22,733 Frye said he'd been tricked into confessing. 249 00:13:22,733 --> 00:13:27,000 JOHNSON: Marston comes in, examines Frye, 250 00:13:27,000 --> 00:13:30,200 and reports to the defense attorney 251 00:13:30,200 --> 00:13:34,366 that the confession was false, and that Frye is innocent. 252 00:13:34,366 --> 00:13:38,400 ♪ ♪ 253 00:13:38,400 --> 00:13:41,866 Well, the judge threw it out after about five minutes. 254 00:13:44,300 --> 00:13:47,300 NARRATOR: Perhaps a time might come, the judge concluded, 255 00:13:47,300 --> 00:13:50,566 when lie detectors would determine which witnesses 256 00:13:50,566 --> 00:13:52,366 were telling the truth. 257 00:13:52,366 --> 00:13:53,866 But not yet. 258 00:13:53,866 --> 00:13:59,366 For now, he said, "That is what the jury is for." 259 00:13:59,366 --> 00:14:03,400 A few months later, an appeals court validated 260 00:14:03,400 --> 00:14:05,633 Larson's warning to Marston: 261 00:14:05,633 --> 00:14:08,533 his lie detector hadn't been recognized 262 00:14:08,533 --> 00:14:13,466 by the scientific community, so it had no place in court. 263 00:14:13,466 --> 00:14:17,833 ALDER: It's on that basis that, with a few minor exceptions, 264 00:14:17,833 --> 00:14:22,233 the lie detector has been excluded ever since 265 00:14:22,233 --> 00:14:24,900 from being used as evidence in criminal trials. 266 00:14:24,900 --> 00:14:30,700 ♪ ♪ 267 00:14:30,700 --> 00:14:33,766 NARRATOR: James Frye spent the next 18 years in prison, 268 00:14:33,766 --> 00:14:39,300 his life collateral damage to Marston's ambitions. 269 00:14:39,300 --> 00:14:41,966 JOHNSON: Frye maintained his innocence throughout his life. 270 00:14:41,966 --> 00:14:43,833 He believed that his defense 271 00:14:43,833 --> 00:14:47,966 was lost in all of the uproar about the lie detector. 272 00:14:47,966 --> 00:14:51,766 The lie detector and Marston became the big story, 273 00:14:51,766 --> 00:14:54,766 and his legal defense became secondary. 274 00:14:54,766 --> 00:15:00,833 NARRATOR: The dream of revolutionizing the courtroom was dead. 275 00:15:00,833 --> 00:15:03,666 The lie detector seemed headed for obscurity. 276 00:15:06,133 --> 00:15:08,966 In fact, the device and its creators 277 00:15:08,966 --> 00:15:12,366 were just getting started. 278 00:15:12,366 --> 00:15:16,033 (newsreel music playing) 279 00:15:16,033 --> 00:15:18,566 NEWSREEL ANNOUNCER: It's January 31, 1928. 280 00:15:18,566 --> 00:15:20,933 Dr. William Marston tests his latest invention, 281 00:15:20,933 --> 00:15:22,333 the Love Meter. 282 00:15:22,333 --> 00:15:25,200 He's going to find out whether blondes or brunettes 283 00:15:25,200 --> 00:15:26,866 react more to love. 284 00:15:26,866 --> 00:15:30,366 NARRATOR: In 1928, Marston introduced the world 285 00:15:30,366 --> 00:15:32,800 to a very different take on his deception test: 286 00:15:32,800 --> 00:15:36,566 the Love Meter. 287 00:15:36,566 --> 00:15:39,766 NEWSREEL ANNOUNCER: When results are interpreted, Dr. Marston declares 288 00:15:39,766 --> 00:15:40,866 gentlemen may prefer blondes, 289 00:15:40,866 --> 00:15:44,466 but brunettes prefer love scenes. 290 00:15:44,466 --> 00:15:47,166 (newsreel music ends) 291 00:15:47,166 --> 00:15:48,533 NARRATOR: The road to Marston's reinvention 292 00:15:48,533 --> 00:15:49,866 had been a long one. 293 00:15:49,866 --> 00:15:54,300 In the aftermath of the Frye disaster, he gave up 294 00:15:54,300 --> 00:15:57,233 on the lie detector, stopped practicing law, 295 00:15:57,233 --> 00:16:00,233 and lost his chairmanship at American University. 296 00:16:00,233 --> 00:16:04,133 He got a teaching job at Tufts University, 297 00:16:04,133 --> 00:16:07,100 but it was a big step down the academic ladder. 298 00:16:07,100 --> 00:16:11,233 A more timid soul might have been chastened, 299 00:16:11,233 --> 00:16:16,133 but Marston kept right on courting trouble. 300 00:16:16,133 --> 00:16:19,633 QUATTRO: He became involved with Olive Byrne, 301 00:16:19,633 --> 00:16:21,133 who was one of his students. 302 00:16:23,600 --> 00:16:25,066 He went home to his wife, Elizabeth, 303 00:16:25,066 --> 00:16:28,133 and he basically told her, "I want her to move in with us." 304 00:16:30,033 --> 00:16:33,333 NARRATOR: Marston's wife, Elizabeth, was his equal in every sense. 305 00:16:33,333 --> 00:16:35,666 She was an accomplished lawyer 306 00:16:35,666 --> 00:16:37,600 and had played a crucial role in designing 307 00:16:37,600 --> 00:16:39,733 the original Marston Deception Test. 308 00:16:39,733 --> 00:16:45,633 They also shared abundant and unconventional appetites. 309 00:16:45,633 --> 00:16:48,633 For some time, the couple had been involved 310 00:16:48,633 --> 00:16:53,300 with a polyamorous clique of like-minded friends in Boston. 311 00:16:53,300 --> 00:16:56,133 So Marston's proposal wasn't as outlandish 312 00:16:56,133 --> 00:16:58,300 as it might have seemed. 313 00:16:58,300 --> 00:17:02,133 Elizabeth accepted, and Olive moved in. 314 00:17:02,133 --> 00:17:05,466 Neighbors were told that she was their widowed housekeeper, 315 00:17:05,466 --> 00:17:07,800 but still, rumors spread. 316 00:17:07,800 --> 00:17:11,200 Marston was fired from Tufts. 317 00:17:14,266 --> 00:17:16,433 With his academic career in tatters, 318 00:17:16,433 --> 00:17:19,300 Marston revisited his deception test-- 319 00:17:19,300 --> 00:17:22,366 or, as he now called it, the Love Meter. 320 00:17:24,800 --> 00:17:26,133 Like Larson, 321 00:17:26,133 --> 00:17:30,300 he became interested in using it to track emotions. 322 00:17:30,300 --> 00:17:31,533 But where Larson's path 323 00:17:31,533 --> 00:17:36,166 led to a juvenile reform facility in Chicago, 324 00:17:36,166 --> 00:17:39,766 Marston's landed him in Hollywood. 325 00:17:39,766 --> 00:17:43,033 NEWSREEL ANNOUNCER: Carl Laemmle celebrated his 30th year in movies. 326 00:17:43,033 --> 00:17:47,166 NARRATOR: In 1928, Marston's hair color tests 327 00:17:47,166 --> 00:17:51,433 caught the eye of Carl Laemmle, the head of Universal Studios. 328 00:17:51,433 --> 00:17:55,033 Laemmle was looking for a new way to measure 329 00:17:55,033 --> 00:17:57,800 audience response to his movies. 330 00:17:57,800 --> 00:18:00,233 (projector whirring) 331 00:18:00,233 --> 00:18:03,266 (cries out, groaning) 332 00:18:03,266 --> 00:18:07,433 KORT-BUTLER: Marston was in fact using his device to hook up people 333 00:18:07,433 --> 00:18:10,366 and gauge audience reactions for these films 334 00:18:10,366 --> 00:18:12,066 that were being screened. 335 00:18:12,066 --> 00:18:15,233 ♪ ♪ 336 00:18:15,233 --> 00:18:16,666 There's not a lot of detail, 337 00:18:16,666 --> 00:18:20,066 but we do know that there were edits made to some scenes 338 00:18:20,066 --> 00:18:22,433 that were deemed too emotional, 339 00:18:22,433 --> 00:18:24,766 or too scary, or too violent. 340 00:18:24,766 --> 00:18:28,433 ♪ ♪ 341 00:18:28,433 --> 00:18:31,666 NARRATOR: But instead of building on his success, 342 00:18:31,666 --> 00:18:36,766 Marston managed once again to wear out his welcome. 343 00:18:36,766 --> 00:18:38,266 At the end of 1929, 344 00:18:38,266 --> 00:18:41,733 Marston was released by Universal, 345 00:18:41,733 --> 00:18:43,800 and the job he had invented was handed over 346 00:18:43,800 --> 00:18:47,366 to an ambitious young upstart. 347 00:18:49,600 --> 00:18:52,500 Leonarde Keeler had come a long way since his days 348 00:18:52,500 --> 00:18:55,066 as John Larson's teenage apprentice 349 00:18:55,066 --> 00:18:56,666 at the Berkeley Police Department. 350 00:18:59,333 --> 00:19:03,800 Back in 1923, when Larson left for Chicago, 351 00:19:03,800 --> 00:19:06,466 Keeler followed August Vollmer to Los Angeles, 352 00:19:06,466 --> 00:19:10,133 where the chief had been hired to clean up the L.A.P.D. 353 00:19:10,133 --> 00:19:13,766 There, Keeler set about redesigning the prototype 354 00:19:13,766 --> 00:19:17,166 that Larson had left behind. 355 00:19:17,166 --> 00:19:21,066 Where Larson had obsessed over the device's limitations 356 00:19:21,066 --> 00:19:25,600 and worried about injustice, Keeler dove right in, 357 00:19:25,600 --> 00:19:30,600 taking on real cases and racking up "wins," as he called them. 358 00:19:30,600 --> 00:19:35,600 ♪ ♪ 359 00:19:38,666 --> 00:19:41,833 Larson was much more guarded 360 00:19:41,833 --> 00:19:43,833 and thoughtful about the science, 361 00:19:43,833 --> 00:19:47,166 whereas I believe that Keeler thought this is 362 00:19:47,166 --> 00:19:49,866 a lot more marketable. 363 00:19:49,866 --> 00:19:52,266 NARRATOR: The press fawned over the young inventor 364 00:19:52,266 --> 00:19:54,966 and his futuristic machine. 365 00:19:54,966 --> 00:19:57,600 So when Universal tired of Marston, 366 00:19:57,600 --> 00:20:00,566 Leonarde Keeler was a natural choice. 367 00:20:00,566 --> 00:20:02,900 (film music playing) 368 00:20:05,200 --> 00:20:09,566 But Keeler's stay in Hollywood was short. 369 00:20:09,566 --> 00:20:10,900 As far as he was concerned, 370 00:20:10,900 --> 00:20:12,600 the movies were a distraction 371 00:20:12,600 --> 00:20:14,766 from the main event. 372 00:20:14,766 --> 00:20:18,133 Keeler and his lie detector were headed for the capital 373 00:20:18,133 --> 00:20:20,766 of American crime. 374 00:20:20,766 --> 00:20:24,733 ♪ ♪ 375 00:20:24,733 --> 00:20:27,400 (flashbulbs popping, people talking in background) 376 00:20:27,400 --> 00:20:30,666 QUATTRO: Throughout the 1920s, because of Prohibition, 377 00:20:30,666 --> 00:20:33,666 organized crime really took hold in Chicago. 378 00:20:33,666 --> 00:20:39,166 Guys like Al Capone, they became public figures. 379 00:20:39,166 --> 00:20:44,300 ♪ ♪ 380 00:20:44,300 --> 00:20:47,166 February 14, 1929, there was the famous 381 00:20:47,166 --> 00:20:48,900 St. Valentine's Day massacre... 382 00:20:48,900 --> 00:20:50,600 (guns firing) 383 00:20:50,600 --> 00:20:52,600 ...where Capone's men just machine-gunned 384 00:20:52,600 --> 00:20:54,400 a bunch of guys in a garage. 385 00:20:54,400 --> 00:20:57,000 NARRATOR: By the time Leonarde Keeler 386 00:20:57,000 --> 00:21:01,033 arrived in Chicago at the beginning of 1930, 387 00:21:01,033 --> 00:21:03,133 gangland killings had become routine: 388 00:21:03,133 --> 00:21:05,700 500 since Prohibition, 389 00:21:05,700 --> 00:21:08,200 and not a single conviction. 390 00:21:08,200 --> 00:21:10,033 But even in Chicago, 391 00:21:10,033 --> 00:21:13,566 the St. Valentine's Day Massacre stood out. 392 00:21:13,566 --> 00:21:19,666 The public outrage inspired a new approach to fighting crime. 393 00:21:19,666 --> 00:21:21,666 A group of businessmen in Chicago got together 394 00:21:21,666 --> 00:21:24,933 and said, "We need to stop the gangsterism in our city, 395 00:21:24,933 --> 00:21:28,666 "we need to put some money into scientific crime detection, 396 00:21:28,666 --> 00:21:32,933 and create a national institution for solving crimes." 397 00:21:35,633 --> 00:21:37,733 ♪ ♪ 398 00:21:37,733 --> 00:21:40,233 NARRATOR: The Scientific Crime Detection Laboratory 399 00:21:40,233 --> 00:21:42,133 was established at Chicago's Northwestern University 400 00:21:42,133 --> 00:21:45,000 in the fall of 1929. 401 00:21:45,000 --> 00:21:48,966 It featured specialists in fingerprinting, ballistics, 402 00:21:48,966 --> 00:21:52,533 crime scene photography, handwriting analysis, 403 00:21:52,533 --> 00:21:55,233 and toxicology. 404 00:21:55,233 --> 00:21:57,300 ♪ ♪ 405 00:21:57,300 --> 00:22:00,966 Leonarde Keeler became the lab's expert in lie detection 406 00:22:00,966 --> 00:22:03,733 with a new machine of his own design. 407 00:22:03,733 --> 00:22:09,400 ♪ ♪ 408 00:22:11,800 --> 00:22:13,533 ALDER: The goal for Keeler 409 00:22:13,533 --> 00:22:15,966 was to turn this delicate scientific apparatus 410 00:22:15,966 --> 00:22:20,600 that Larson had created into a robust box that could be 411 00:22:20,600 --> 00:22:24,366 easily transported and was simple enough to use 412 00:22:24,366 --> 00:22:25,700 that even a cop-- 413 00:22:25,700 --> 00:22:28,733 not some Ph.D. cop, but just an ordinary cop-- 414 00:22:28,733 --> 00:22:30,133 could use the device. 415 00:22:30,133 --> 00:22:33,766 NARRATOR: Keeler's design added a new feature, 416 00:22:33,766 --> 00:22:37,366 a pair of electrodes that attached to a subject's hands. 417 00:22:37,366 --> 00:22:40,500 BUNN: You measure the electrical conductivity of the skin, 418 00:22:40,500 --> 00:22:42,766 on the theory that as a person 419 00:22:42,766 --> 00:22:44,433 is telling a lie, they get nervous. 420 00:22:44,433 --> 00:22:46,533 As they begin to get nervous, they start to sweat more, 421 00:22:46,533 --> 00:22:51,066 and the skin can conduct electricity better. 422 00:22:51,066 --> 00:22:53,566 NARRATOR: Keeler named his new device the polygraph, 423 00:22:53,566 --> 00:22:58,200 the word for any device that recorded several symptoms. 424 00:22:58,200 --> 00:23:01,766 But Keeler patented the machine and made the name his own. 425 00:23:01,766 --> 00:23:06,333 For most people, "polygraph" soon became just another word 426 00:23:06,333 --> 00:23:08,633 for "lie detector." 427 00:23:08,633 --> 00:23:13,800 (bell ringing) 428 00:23:13,800 --> 00:23:15,900 Even as Keeler began marketing his machines 429 00:23:15,900 --> 00:23:20,433 to police and investigators, he was building up a promising 430 00:23:20,433 --> 00:23:22,266 and lucrative new application. 431 00:23:22,266 --> 00:23:23,700 ALDER: Keeler's brought in 432 00:23:23,700 --> 00:23:26,433 to solve a number of crimes at banks, 433 00:23:26,433 --> 00:23:28,300 and one of the things he discovers 434 00:23:28,300 --> 00:23:30,866 is that many different employees of the bank 435 00:23:30,866 --> 00:23:32,500 have committed petty crimes, 436 00:23:32,500 --> 00:23:36,000 pocketing cash on occasion. 437 00:23:36,000 --> 00:23:40,500 Keeler said, "I will come back and retest these people 438 00:23:40,500 --> 00:23:42,633 "regularly every six months, 439 00:23:42,633 --> 00:23:45,166 "and you will be amazed that these will become 440 00:23:45,166 --> 00:23:47,133 your most honest employees." 441 00:23:47,133 --> 00:23:50,533 And this began to spread really widely. 442 00:23:50,533 --> 00:23:52,533 ♪ ♪ 443 00:23:52,533 --> 00:23:55,700 NARRATOR: Where a criminal investigation often involved 444 00:23:55,700 --> 00:23:57,800 a single interrogation, 445 00:23:57,800 --> 00:24:01,100 Keeler tested over a thousand bank tellers 446 00:24:01,100 --> 00:24:02,766 and department store clerks 447 00:24:02,766 --> 00:24:04,833 during his first two years in Chicago. 448 00:24:04,833 --> 00:24:08,400 He split those fees with the crime lab. 449 00:24:08,400 --> 00:24:12,600 This side work soon became his main source of income. 450 00:24:18,100 --> 00:24:19,433 Keeler introduced his polygraph 451 00:24:19,433 --> 00:24:22,366 just as the practice of interrogation was about 452 00:24:22,366 --> 00:24:25,233 to undergo a profound change. 453 00:24:25,233 --> 00:24:28,500 It started in 1931, 454 00:24:28,500 --> 00:24:29,800 when the government released 455 00:24:29,800 --> 00:24:31,900 a study of lawlessness in policing. 456 00:24:31,900 --> 00:24:39,533 ♪ ♪ 457 00:24:39,533 --> 00:24:43,833 Americans had been hearing about the third degree for years, 458 00:24:43,833 --> 00:24:47,033 but still, they were shocked by the horrors chronicled 459 00:24:47,033 --> 00:24:49,566 in the Wickersham Report. 460 00:24:49,566 --> 00:24:52,666 ♪ ♪ 461 00:24:52,666 --> 00:24:55,166 FLOWE: This sort of treatment is not isolated 462 00:24:55,166 --> 00:24:56,400 to some of the large cities, 463 00:24:56,400 --> 00:24:57,900 but it's also happening in small towns. 464 00:24:57,900 --> 00:25:00,333 It's happening in the South, it's happening in the West, 465 00:25:00,333 --> 00:25:03,900 and it's happening in the states of the Heartland. 466 00:25:03,900 --> 00:25:06,500 NARRATOR: In the wake of the Wickersham Report, 467 00:25:06,500 --> 00:25:09,333 the Supreme Court finally banned confessions 468 00:25:09,333 --> 00:25:12,000 obtained through violence. 469 00:25:12,000 --> 00:25:13,133 We know that there continued to be 470 00:25:13,133 --> 00:25:14,800 physical abuse in interrogation, 471 00:25:14,800 --> 00:25:17,466 but it put a demand 472 00:25:17,466 --> 00:25:23,233 on law enforcement to come up with less brutal methods. 473 00:25:23,233 --> 00:25:26,900 NARRATOR: For ten years, very few police departments 474 00:25:26,900 --> 00:25:29,500 had shown any interest in the lie detector. 475 00:25:29,500 --> 00:25:32,066 As New York Mayor Jimmy Walker put it, 476 00:25:32,066 --> 00:25:35,900 "The old-fashioned nightstick is far more effective 477 00:25:35,900 --> 00:25:38,766 than new scientific ideas." 478 00:25:38,766 --> 00:25:42,333 But now that brutality had been ostensibly banished 479 00:25:42,333 --> 00:25:45,900 from the interrogation room, law enforcement started giving 480 00:25:45,900 --> 00:25:48,800 the polygraph a second look. 481 00:25:48,800 --> 00:25:51,266 It wasn't banned from police investigations. 482 00:25:51,266 --> 00:25:55,333 If you confess during a police investigation, 483 00:25:55,333 --> 00:25:58,333 even if it's oral, even if it's one time, 484 00:25:58,333 --> 00:26:00,666 as long as there's a witness, you know, it'll count. 485 00:26:04,566 --> 00:26:06,800 MAN: Have a seat, Joe, right here. 486 00:26:06,800 --> 00:26:08,833 Sit down there, Joe. 487 00:26:10,766 --> 00:26:13,700 We're going to take a little test on you, Joe. 488 00:26:13,700 --> 00:26:17,766 And I want you to sit perfectly quiet. 489 00:26:17,766 --> 00:26:20,233 And this won't hurt you in any way. 490 00:26:21,533 --> 00:26:23,500 We're going to ask you a few questions 491 00:26:23,500 --> 00:26:26,000 while you're connected to this apparatus. 492 00:26:27,666 --> 00:26:32,466 ♪ ♪ 493 00:26:32,466 --> 00:26:35,066 NARRATOR: "The success of this device," 494 00:26:35,066 --> 00:26:38,833 Keeler explained, "is attributed in large measure to 495 00:26:38,833 --> 00:26:43,666 the psychological effect it has in bringing about confessions." 496 00:26:43,666 --> 00:26:45,900 Do you know George Evans? 497 00:26:45,900 --> 00:26:47,466 No. 498 00:26:48,533 --> 00:26:50,166 O'BURKE: Most people don't understand 499 00:26:50,166 --> 00:26:54,500 how powerful a psychological wedge is 500 00:26:54,500 --> 00:26:57,600 in the interview process. 501 00:26:57,600 --> 00:27:00,766 People will see this instrument, 502 00:27:00,766 --> 00:27:03,600 and it causes them to just crater 503 00:27:03,600 --> 00:27:05,566 and go ahead and confess. 504 00:27:05,566 --> 00:27:08,300 Joe, did you kill George Evans? 505 00:27:08,300 --> 00:27:09,733 No! 506 00:27:14,300 --> 00:27:16,600 BAILEY: We want to believe something is certain, 507 00:27:16,600 --> 00:27:19,500 when, in fact, if we're looking at a polygraph test, 508 00:27:19,500 --> 00:27:21,433 it's based on the skill 509 00:27:21,433 --> 00:27:24,966 and the biases of the technician. 510 00:27:24,966 --> 00:27:27,600 It's open to interpretation. 511 00:27:27,600 --> 00:27:30,066 FLOWE: The lie detector doesn't really 512 00:27:30,066 --> 00:27:32,500 play the role that it's supposed to play 513 00:27:32,500 --> 00:27:35,200 in sanitizing the interrogation room. 514 00:27:35,200 --> 00:27:37,133 It doesn't perform that function. 515 00:27:38,933 --> 00:27:41,100 ALDER: What Keeler did was show 516 00:27:41,100 --> 00:27:45,533 that the lie detector could get leads and confessions. 517 00:27:45,533 --> 00:27:47,900 And to the extent he made the lie detector 518 00:27:47,900 --> 00:27:51,700 a more aggressive form of interrogation technique, 519 00:27:51,700 --> 00:27:56,766 the more it appealed to police officers. 520 00:27:58,733 --> 00:28:01,166 NARRATOR: When Keeler started at the crime lab, 521 00:28:01,166 --> 00:28:03,966 he was one of the only operators in the country, 522 00:28:03,966 --> 00:28:06,533 and his department almost an afterthought. 523 00:28:06,533 --> 00:28:10,400 Within two years, he was doing more business 524 00:28:10,400 --> 00:28:13,166 than all the other departments combined. 525 00:28:13,166 --> 00:28:16,233 In 1933, he was given an award 526 00:28:16,233 --> 00:28:19,366 for the most outstanding civic contribution to Chicago. 527 00:28:19,366 --> 00:28:22,400 Cops came from around the country 528 00:28:22,400 --> 00:28:24,433 to study with him at the crime lab. 529 00:28:24,433 --> 00:28:27,100 They spread the word back home. 530 00:28:27,100 --> 00:28:28,933 ♪ ♪ 531 00:28:28,933 --> 00:28:31,866 Keeler was becoming a media darling, 532 00:28:31,866 --> 00:28:33,266 in no small part because of 533 00:28:33,266 --> 00:28:36,500 a woman he'd met back in California. 534 00:28:36,500 --> 00:28:39,866 He and Katherine Applegate first crossed paths 535 00:28:39,866 --> 00:28:42,366 while he was entertaining friends with his lie detector. 536 00:28:42,366 --> 00:28:46,333 They married shortly after he moved to Chicago. 537 00:28:46,333 --> 00:28:49,500 The couple made the town their own. 538 00:28:49,500 --> 00:28:52,300 ALDER: Kay was looking for 539 00:28:52,300 --> 00:28:54,400 an identity of her own as a crime fighter, 540 00:28:54,400 --> 00:28:57,833 so she trained up in handwriting analysis. 541 00:28:57,833 --> 00:29:00,533 They really were living a high life. 542 00:29:00,533 --> 00:29:02,266 They liked to drink 543 00:29:02,266 --> 00:29:05,866 and then solved cases in their spare time. 544 00:29:05,866 --> 00:29:11,600 They have a kind of career as a crime-fighting duo. 545 00:29:15,600 --> 00:29:18,133 NARRATOR: Not everyone was impressed. 546 00:29:18,133 --> 00:29:21,433 John Larson worked just a few miles away from Keeler, 547 00:29:21,433 --> 00:29:24,700 but they inhabited different worlds. 548 00:29:24,700 --> 00:29:27,700 ALDER: Larson goes to the Institute for Juvenile Research 549 00:29:27,700 --> 00:29:30,333 to see if he can work with children to get at 550 00:29:30,333 --> 00:29:32,533 what they're really feeling, and then resolve the issues 551 00:29:32,533 --> 00:29:36,166 underneath their turn to criminality. 552 00:29:36,166 --> 00:29:41,500 NARRATOR: As Keeler's fame grew, so did Larson's resentment. 553 00:29:43,566 --> 00:29:46,833 KORT-BUTLER: In some of Larson's commentary, you see this sort of 554 00:29:46,833 --> 00:29:50,533 disdain he has for what Keeler, in particular, has done, 555 00:29:50,533 --> 00:29:52,900 sort of misusing the science, from his point of view. 556 00:29:54,600 --> 00:29:58,166 ALDER: Larson really felt that Keeler had betrayed him, 557 00:29:58,166 --> 00:30:00,100 he had betrayed the lie detector 558 00:30:00,100 --> 00:30:04,033 and had turned it into this kind of tool of intimidation. 559 00:30:04,033 --> 00:30:08,066 And he really began to despise Keeler. 560 00:30:10,833 --> 00:30:14,300 (birds chirping, wildlife chittering) 561 00:30:14,300 --> 00:30:16,900 ♪ ♪ 562 00:30:16,900 --> 00:30:21,833 NARRATION: John Larson had an unlikely ally in his quiet war with Keeler. 563 00:30:23,500 --> 00:30:25,400 By the late 1930s, 564 00:30:25,400 --> 00:30:28,133 William Marston had walked away from careers 565 00:30:28,133 --> 00:30:31,033 in academia, law, and movie production. 566 00:30:31,033 --> 00:30:33,433 He had two children with Elizabeth, 567 00:30:33,433 --> 00:30:35,600 and two more with Olive. 568 00:30:35,600 --> 00:30:37,300 They all lived together 569 00:30:37,300 --> 00:30:39,533 in the suburbs north of New York City. 570 00:30:39,533 --> 00:30:42,133 QUATTRO: Olive's children thought 571 00:30:42,133 --> 00:30:46,233 their father was a man who had died. 572 00:30:46,233 --> 00:30:47,433 They were never allowed 573 00:30:47,433 --> 00:30:48,566 to ask questions about him. 574 00:30:50,533 --> 00:30:53,433 NARRATOR: Marston's life was a web of lies, 575 00:30:53,433 --> 00:30:55,600 but he had a knack for marketing himself 576 00:30:55,600 --> 00:30:57,333 as a purveyor of truth. 577 00:30:57,333 --> 00:31:01,466 The lie detector suited him perfectly: 578 00:31:01,466 --> 00:31:05,800 sensational, enigmatic, and endlessly adaptable. 579 00:31:07,400 --> 00:31:10,033 He couldn't stand by and watch Leonarde Keeler 580 00:31:10,033 --> 00:31:12,833 become the face of lie detection. 581 00:31:14,466 --> 00:31:17,500 QUATTRO: In 1938, Marston wrote 582 00:31:17,500 --> 00:31:19,433 basically an entire book 583 00:31:19,433 --> 00:31:21,600 talking about how he invented the lie detector. 584 00:31:21,600 --> 00:31:24,466 And he especially attacked Leonarde Keeler. 585 00:31:24,466 --> 00:31:26,800 NARRATOR: Even though the book 586 00:31:26,800 --> 00:31:29,366 contradicted almost everything Larson believed 587 00:31:29,366 --> 00:31:32,000 about the lie detector, he agreed to write 588 00:31:32,000 --> 00:31:35,066 an introduction endorsing its author. 589 00:31:35,066 --> 00:31:37,933 Their shared dislike of Leonarde Keeler 590 00:31:37,933 --> 00:31:40,400 overrode any misgivings. 591 00:31:40,400 --> 00:31:42,333 But not for long. 592 00:31:42,333 --> 00:31:46,433 ALDER: Marston goes to Madison Avenue, and said he could offer 593 00:31:46,433 --> 00:31:48,566 his services to investigate 594 00:31:48,566 --> 00:31:50,433 people's emotional responses to products. 595 00:31:52,733 --> 00:31:56,233 QUATTRO: He would hook up his lie detector to a bunch of men 596 00:31:56,233 --> 00:31:58,133 to get their reactions after they used 597 00:31:58,133 --> 00:32:00,400 the Gillette razor blades. 598 00:32:00,400 --> 00:32:02,233 And unsurprisingly, 599 00:32:02,233 --> 00:32:04,600 they all loved the Gillette razor blades. 600 00:32:06,500 --> 00:32:10,300 ALDER: Gillette was happy to print some of these ads, 601 00:32:10,300 --> 00:32:12,333 but they wanted to check with other experts 602 00:32:12,333 --> 00:32:14,633 before they pursued this ad campaign further, 603 00:32:14,633 --> 00:32:18,000 and they went and approached John Larson. 604 00:32:18,000 --> 00:32:20,733 And he actually conducted real experiments 605 00:32:20,733 --> 00:32:22,866 and measured their responses 606 00:32:22,866 --> 00:32:26,633 and found no difference with Gillette and rival brands. 607 00:32:26,633 --> 00:32:29,833 QUATTRO: Marston contacted John Larson, 608 00:32:29,833 --> 00:32:31,366 and he said, 609 00:32:31,366 --> 00:32:35,700 "If you will validate what," you know, "I've said in these ads, 610 00:32:35,700 --> 00:32:37,500 I'll give you $30,000." 611 00:32:37,500 --> 00:32:39,800 NARRATOR: The marriage of convenience 612 00:32:39,800 --> 00:32:42,700 between Marston and Larson was over. 613 00:32:42,700 --> 00:32:45,300 Not only did Larson refuse the bribe, 614 00:32:45,300 --> 00:32:49,133 he reported Marston to the FBI. 615 00:32:49,133 --> 00:32:52,033 Marston managed to avoid criminal charges, 616 00:32:52,033 --> 00:32:54,766 but he'd burned another bridge. 617 00:32:54,766 --> 00:32:56,800 BUNN: The whiff of scandal followed him everywhere. 618 00:32:56,800 --> 00:32:58,833 But he had the last laugh, of course. 619 00:33:01,733 --> 00:33:05,733 NARRATOR: In 1941, Marston tried on another career, 620 00:33:05,733 --> 00:33:09,666 pitching a new comic book character to Detective Comics, 621 00:33:09,666 --> 00:33:12,200 better known as DC. 622 00:33:12,200 --> 00:33:15,433 ♪ ♪ 623 00:33:15,433 --> 00:33:17,766 QUATTRO: The character that he came up with was 624 00:33:17,766 --> 00:33:21,400 totally innovative and extremely popular. 625 00:33:25,400 --> 00:33:28,733 Comic books by 1940 626 00:33:28,733 --> 00:33:31,366 were selling hundreds of millions of copies. 627 00:33:32,400 --> 00:33:36,633 By late 1941, 1942, Marston is on top of the world. 628 00:33:38,566 --> 00:33:41,366 ♪ ♪ 629 00:33:41,366 --> 00:33:43,766 NARRATOR: Wonder Woman's most powerful weapon 630 00:33:43,766 --> 00:33:47,566 was familiar to anyone who had followed Marston's career: 631 00:33:47,566 --> 00:33:53,066 a golden lasso that could compel anyone to tell the truth. 632 00:33:54,266 --> 00:33:55,966 KORT-BUTLER: Marston's showmanship 633 00:33:55,966 --> 00:33:57,466 as important as 634 00:33:57,466 --> 00:33:58,733 the work that Keeler does, 635 00:33:58,733 --> 00:34:02,800 as they contribute to the lie detector 636 00:34:02,800 --> 00:34:06,800 becoming ingrained in the American consciousness. 637 00:34:08,466 --> 00:34:11,033 NARRATOR: But Marston had just a few short years 638 00:34:11,033 --> 00:34:13,966 to enjoy the phenomenal success of Wonder Woman. 639 00:34:13,966 --> 00:34:18,166 He contracted polio in 1944, 640 00:34:18,166 --> 00:34:20,933 was diagnosed with cancer the following year, 641 00:34:20,933 --> 00:34:23,666 and died in the spring of 1947. 642 00:34:25,366 --> 00:34:28,733 William Marston went out rich, famous, 643 00:34:28,733 --> 00:34:30,366 and widely heralded 644 00:34:30,366 --> 00:34:33,533 as the inventor of the lie detector. 645 00:34:42,133 --> 00:34:45,933 ♪ ♪ (crowd cheering) 646 00:34:45,933 --> 00:34:49,033 NARRATOR: Even as Americans were still celebrating 647 00:34:49,033 --> 00:34:51,733 the end of the Second World War, 648 00:34:51,733 --> 00:34:53,800 a new struggle was taking shape 649 00:34:53,800 --> 00:34:56,466 against a new kind of enemy. 650 00:34:56,466 --> 00:35:00,300 ♪ ♪ 651 00:35:00,300 --> 00:35:04,000 O'BURKE: The fear is that Russian agents can penetrate us, 652 00:35:04,000 --> 00:35:05,666 that Russian agents 653 00:35:05,666 --> 00:35:08,000 can steal our technology, 654 00:35:08,000 --> 00:35:11,200 that they can infiltrate our government. 655 00:35:11,200 --> 00:35:14,900 The threat was terrifying. 656 00:35:14,900 --> 00:35:19,366 And so what can we use that will make us feel better? 657 00:35:19,366 --> 00:35:20,933 And polygraph was really 658 00:35:20,933 --> 00:35:22,500 the only thing that filled that niche. 659 00:35:28,100 --> 00:35:30,266 NARRATOR: Six months after America's nuclear program 660 00:35:30,266 --> 00:35:32,166 was revealed to the world at Hiroshima, 661 00:35:32,166 --> 00:35:34,800 Leonarde Keeler was summoned to the government's 662 00:35:34,800 --> 00:35:39,233 top-secret uranium plant at Oak Ridge, Tennessee. 663 00:35:39,233 --> 00:35:41,566 ♪ ♪ 664 00:35:44,266 --> 00:35:48,266 Keeler's orders: to determine the "loyalty, 665 00:35:48,266 --> 00:35:51,066 "integrity, reliability, mental stability, 666 00:35:51,066 --> 00:35:55,100 and suitability" of the plant's employees. 667 00:35:55,100 --> 00:35:59,633 The program started by focusing on select workers, 668 00:35:59,633 --> 00:36:02,233 but soon, everyone at Oak Ridge-- 669 00:36:02,233 --> 00:36:03,866 5,000 people-- 670 00:36:03,866 --> 00:36:08,733 was being tested on the lie detector every six months. 671 00:36:10,466 --> 00:36:14,966 Fear and suspicion were seeping into the national psyche. 672 00:36:14,966 --> 00:36:18,566 The lie detector's moment was at hand. 673 00:36:18,566 --> 00:36:22,033 So was Leonarde Keeler's. 674 00:36:22,033 --> 00:36:24,066 In the summer of 1948, 675 00:36:24,066 --> 00:36:28,066 he was drawn into the first big show trial of the Cold War. 676 00:36:28,066 --> 00:36:30,100 (newsreel music playing) 677 00:36:31,566 --> 00:36:32,733 NEWSREEL ANNOUNCER: Alger Hiss, 678 00:36:32,733 --> 00:36:34,300 former high State Departmental official, 679 00:36:34,300 --> 00:36:36,233 is branded a Communist spy. 680 00:36:36,233 --> 00:36:38,133 His accuser, Whittaker Chambers, 681 00:36:38,133 --> 00:36:40,333 self-confessed former Communist, 682 00:36:40,333 --> 00:36:42,266 testified before the un-American affairs committee. 683 00:36:42,266 --> 00:36:45,433 Mr. Hiss 684 00:36:45,433 --> 00:36:47,800 represents the concealed enemy. 685 00:36:47,800 --> 00:36:50,466 NARRATOR: The House Un-American Activities Committee 686 00:36:50,466 --> 00:36:52,133 had taken up Whittaker Chambers' 687 00:36:52,133 --> 00:36:56,266 accusations against Alger Hiss half-heartedly. 688 00:36:56,266 --> 00:36:58,633 There was one conspicuous exception. 689 00:36:58,633 --> 00:37:02,966 Freshman Representative Richard Nixon despised Hiss 690 00:37:02,966 --> 00:37:06,200 and was working around the clock to bring him down. 691 00:37:06,200 --> 00:37:09,500 I am not, and never have been, 692 00:37:09,500 --> 00:37:11,366 a member of the Communist Party. 693 00:37:13,166 --> 00:37:15,866 NARRATOR: The case boiled down to one question: 694 00:37:15,866 --> 00:37:19,400 which one of these two men was lying? 695 00:37:19,400 --> 00:37:22,700 Few Americans agreed with Nixon. 696 00:37:22,700 --> 00:37:24,000 They trusted Alger Hiss 697 00:37:24,000 --> 00:37:25,733 as President Roosevelt had trusted him, 698 00:37:25,733 --> 00:37:28,300 and President Truman. 699 00:37:28,300 --> 00:37:31,866 But on the 16th of August 1948, 700 00:37:31,866 --> 00:37:34,766 as the hearing was wrapping up, 701 00:37:34,766 --> 00:37:37,700 Hiss walked straight into Nixon's carefully laid trap. 702 00:37:39,166 --> 00:37:42,666 "The committee has a difficult problem here," he told Hiss. 703 00:37:42,666 --> 00:37:45,366 "I wonder if, under the circumstances, 704 00:37:45,366 --> 00:37:49,000 you would be willing to take a lie detector test." 705 00:37:49,000 --> 00:37:53,100 KORT-BUTLER: As the government becomes interested in figuring out 706 00:37:53,100 --> 00:37:56,166 who may be spying on behalf of the Soviets, 707 00:37:56,166 --> 00:37:58,000 threatening people with lie detector tests 708 00:37:58,000 --> 00:38:01,600 becomes a tool of 709 00:38:01,600 --> 00:38:03,733 discerning who those people might be. 710 00:38:03,733 --> 00:38:07,566 NARRATOR: Nixon assured Hiss that the test would be conducted 711 00:38:07,566 --> 00:38:09,700 by Leonarde Keeler himself. 712 00:38:09,700 --> 00:38:12,866 Hiss understood the law. 713 00:38:12,866 --> 00:38:15,766 His objections and evasions covered two pages of transcript. 714 00:38:15,766 --> 00:38:17,533 The test never happened. 715 00:38:17,533 --> 00:38:22,933 But Nixon understood political theater. 716 00:38:22,933 --> 00:38:25,133 The test was never the point. 717 00:38:25,133 --> 00:38:30,400 Hiss's credibility had been irreparably damaged. 718 00:38:30,400 --> 00:38:32,100 "I don't know anything about polygraphs," 719 00:38:32,100 --> 00:38:34,000 Nixon later declared, 720 00:38:34,000 --> 00:38:37,000 "but I know they'll scare the hell out of people." 721 00:38:39,466 --> 00:38:42,533 When a grand jury decided that Nixon had been 722 00:38:42,533 --> 00:38:44,400 right all along about Alger Hiss, 723 00:38:44,400 --> 00:38:47,933 millions of Americans drew an ominous lesson. 724 00:38:47,933 --> 00:38:49,300 ALDER: We needed to have 725 00:38:49,300 --> 00:38:53,000 this constant vigilance against enemies within. 726 00:38:53,000 --> 00:38:55,266 And that's what lie detectors did. 727 00:38:57,700 --> 00:39:00,700 Mr. Keeler's all ready for you, Frank. 728 00:39:00,700 --> 00:39:02,766 Sit down, Frank. 729 00:39:02,766 --> 00:39:05,800 Just take it easy, relax. 730 00:39:05,800 --> 00:39:07,533 NARRATOR: Around the same time that Keeler 731 00:39:07,533 --> 00:39:09,566 was being drawn into the Alger Hiss affair, 732 00:39:09,566 --> 00:39:12,600 he played himself in a major Hollywood feature 733 00:39:12,600 --> 00:39:15,600 opposite one of the biggest stars in the business. 734 00:39:15,600 --> 00:39:17,800 Now, just face forward, don't watch the machine. 735 00:39:17,800 --> 00:39:20,133 NARRATOR: "Call Northside 777" 736 00:39:20,133 --> 00:39:21,800 recounted a recent case 737 00:39:21,800 --> 00:39:24,333 in which Keeler had helped free a man 738 00:39:24,333 --> 00:39:27,000 wrongfully convicted of murder. 739 00:39:27,000 --> 00:39:28,200 You're six feet tall, aren't you? 740 00:39:28,200 --> 00:39:29,266 Five-foot-nine. 741 00:39:29,266 --> 00:39:30,533 Just a minute now. 742 00:39:30,533 --> 00:39:32,366 Just yes or no all the way through. Oh. 743 00:39:32,366 --> 00:39:33,966 I'm sorry, sir. And sit properly. 744 00:39:33,966 --> 00:39:35,800 NARRATOR: He was as well-known as 745 00:39:35,800 --> 00:39:38,466 almost any lawman in the country. 746 00:39:38,466 --> 00:39:40,100 ALDER: To the extent that Keeler 747 00:39:40,100 --> 00:39:43,166 made the lie detector more coercive, 748 00:39:43,166 --> 00:39:45,800 he became a kind of poster boy 749 00:39:45,800 --> 00:39:48,600 for lie detection interrogation gone wrong. 750 00:39:48,600 --> 00:39:50,233 What's the verdict? 751 00:39:50,233 --> 00:39:52,133 ALDER: But then after the war, 752 00:39:52,133 --> 00:39:54,766 Keeler gets involved in what today we would call 753 00:39:54,766 --> 00:39:57,566 an innocence project. 754 00:39:57,566 --> 00:39:59,966 Keeler begins to sell the lie detector 755 00:39:59,966 --> 00:40:02,700 not just as something that will find that people are guilty, 756 00:40:02,700 --> 00:40:05,066 but to use it to exonerate them. 757 00:40:05,066 --> 00:40:07,400 ♪ ♪ 758 00:40:07,400 --> 00:40:08,900 NARRATOR: But Keeler's conversion 759 00:40:08,900 --> 00:40:12,133 from jailer to liberator had hardly begun 760 00:40:12,133 --> 00:40:15,600 before it was interrupted by his own multiplying problems. 761 00:40:18,033 --> 00:40:20,733 His marriage was coming apart. 762 00:40:20,733 --> 00:40:24,300 Leonarde hired a private detective to follow his wife. 763 00:40:24,300 --> 00:40:27,233 ALDER: Kay had been cheating on him. 764 00:40:27,233 --> 00:40:30,866 And it's clear that the fault was as much his as hers-- 765 00:40:30,866 --> 00:40:33,866 he'd been drinking very hard, and he was often a mess. 766 00:40:35,200 --> 00:40:38,766 NARRATOR: Marital troubles, alcoholism, and paranoia 767 00:40:38,766 --> 00:40:42,066 were all common afflictions in the profession. 768 00:40:42,066 --> 00:40:44,500 O'BURKE: You're sitting there for hours and hours and hours 769 00:40:44,500 --> 00:40:49,266 doing mental combat with someone who may be 770 00:40:49,266 --> 00:40:51,333 the worst criminal you've ever seen 771 00:40:51,333 --> 00:40:54,000 or someone who's absolutely innocent. 772 00:40:55,466 --> 00:40:59,300 If I wrongly accuse you, 773 00:40:59,300 --> 00:41:01,033 your life is over with. 774 00:41:01,033 --> 00:41:03,833 If I say you're innocent 775 00:41:03,833 --> 00:41:06,700 and you're, and you're guilty, and I let you go, 776 00:41:06,700 --> 00:41:09,333 you're going to walk out to go out and commit more crimes. 777 00:41:09,333 --> 00:41:13,566 And that, that stress is just palpable 778 00:41:13,566 --> 00:41:17,033 to most examiners. 779 00:41:19,266 --> 00:41:22,566 NARRATOR: At the end of 1948, Leonarde Keeler, 780 00:41:22,566 --> 00:41:24,300 the man who'd made the lie detector 781 00:41:24,300 --> 00:41:29,066 a feature of American life, suffered a major stroke. 782 00:41:29,066 --> 00:41:34,366 He died on September 20, 1949, at the age of 45. 783 00:41:42,133 --> 00:41:45,200 NARRATOR: John Larson had watched Keeler's downward spiral 784 00:41:45,200 --> 00:41:47,000 from Logansport, Indiana, 785 00:41:47,000 --> 00:41:48,766 where he was medical director 786 00:41:48,766 --> 00:41:51,566 of the state's psychiatric hospital. 787 00:41:54,066 --> 00:41:56,000 Larson was widely admired 788 00:41:56,000 --> 00:41:59,133 for improving the lives of his patients, 789 00:41:59,133 --> 00:42:02,533 but his attempts to use the lie detector in therapy 790 00:42:02,533 --> 00:42:04,733 had met with limited success. 791 00:42:06,166 --> 00:42:08,833 ALDER: Larson held out hope always for the device 792 00:42:08,833 --> 00:42:11,900 as just a way to get people to sort of open up 793 00:42:11,900 --> 00:42:13,933 and perhaps even resolve 794 00:42:13,933 --> 00:42:17,333 underlying complexes within them. 795 00:42:17,333 --> 00:42:20,000 Whether this is a successful strategy is a different story. 796 00:42:21,933 --> 00:42:24,266 NARRATOR: But this earnest, quiet man 797 00:42:24,266 --> 00:42:27,500 was consumed by jealousy for his dead rival. 798 00:42:27,500 --> 00:42:30,066 Larson obsessively gathered news clippings, 799 00:42:30,066 --> 00:42:33,433 letters, and reports for a book that he believed 800 00:42:33,433 --> 00:42:37,166 would finally expose Keeler's fraudulence. 801 00:42:37,166 --> 00:42:39,833 "Unmasking the Lie Detector" it was called. 802 00:42:39,833 --> 00:42:43,466 Larson hoped it would drive a stake 803 00:42:43,466 --> 00:42:46,466 through the heart of his own creation. 804 00:42:46,466 --> 00:42:49,000 The machine had gotten out of his hands. 805 00:42:49,000 --> 00:42:51,500 He starts out with this machine, 806 00:42:51,500 --> 00:42:53,866 he's going to use the scientific method, 807 00:42:53,866 --> 00:42:56,500 he has controlled experiments. 808 00:42:56,500 --> 00:43:00,366 Now you have this psychological interrogation. 809 00:43:00,366 --> 00:43:02,900 And people are telling you their secrets 810 00:43:02,900 --> 00:43:04,466 because they believe that 811 00:43:04,466 --> 00:43:06,300 the lie detector is actually working. 812 00:43:06,300 --> 00:43:08,233 ♪ ♪ 813 00:43:08,233 --> 00:43:09,900 ALDER: The lie detector is used first at Oak Ridge, 814 00:43:09,900 --> 00:43:11,733 but then it expands. 815 00:43:14,233 --> 00:43:16,800 It's used by the C.I.A. 816 00:43:16,800 --> 00:43:20,000 It's used at nuclear facilities. 817 00:43:20,000 --> 00:43:21,733 And it's used on 818 00:43:21,733 --> 00:43:27,233 police officers and the Army to quite a heavy extent, 819 00:43:27,233 --> 00:43:29,333 often just as a kind of prophylactic, 820 00:43:29,333 --> 00:43:31,633 just as a kind of constant testing to make sure 821 00:43:31,633 --> 00:43:34,033 that people have a sense that they're being watched. 822 00:43:35,833 --> 00:43:37,800 NARRATOR: And businesses were catching on. 823 00:43:37,800 --> 00:43:42,533 From banks to fast-food chains, thousands and then millions 824 00:43:42,533 --> 00:43:44,000 of applicants and employees 825 00:43:44,000 --> 00:43:46,233 were screened with lie detectors. 826 00:43:47,733 --> 00:43:50,033 O'BURKE: The Cold War caused 827 00:43:50,033 --> 00:43:52,633 this explosive growth 828 00:43:52,633 --> 00:43:55,500 in the use of polygraph tests in America. 829 00:43:55,500 --> 00:43:57,866 It was largely ignored anywhere else in the world, 830 00:43:57,866 --> 00:44:00,333 but it was explosive in terms of 831 00:44:00,333 --> 00:44:02,933 how quickly it spread in the United States. 832 00:44:02,933 --> 00:44:04,800 (doorbell rings) 833 00:44:07,133 --> 00:44:09,133 Oh, hello, Jedd. Hello, Tom. 834 00:44:09,133 --> 00:44:11,066 I see you brought the machine. 835 00:44:11,066 --> 00:44:12,300 Yeah, it's real heavy, too. 836 00:44:12,300 --> 00:44:13,866 NARRATOR: More and more Americans 837 00:44:13,866 --> 00:44:17,200 were encountering lie detectors in problematic situations. 838 00:44:17,200 --> 00:44:19,733 But on television, in movies, 839 00:44:19,733 --> 00:44:22,800 and comics, it was never wrong. 840 00:44:22,800 --> 00:44:25,333 Uh, what is your name? 841 00:44:25,333 --> 00:44:28,066 Joan Stevens. 842 00:44:28,066 --> 00:44:30,700 TOM: See that, Jedd? 843 00:44:30,700 --> 00:44:32,166 Needles are all moving evenly. 844 00:44:32,166 --> 00:44:34,100 That's because she told the truth. Uh-huh. 845 00:44:34,100 --> 00:44:35,566 FLOWE: In popular culture, 846 00:44:35,566 --> 00:44:38,800 we've come to see lie detectors as entirely accurate. 847 00:44:38,800 --> 00:44:41,766 And that in itself is probably the most powerful aspect 848 00:44:41,766 --> 00:44:43,066 of a polygraph test. 849 00:44:43,066 --> 00:44:44,066 I confess! 850 00:44:44,066 --> 00:44:45,366 I did it, I did it. 851 00:44:45,366 --> 00:44:46,566 I confess! 852 00:44:46,566 --> 00:44:47,700 I'm sorry I did it, but I did it. 853 00:44:47,700 --> 00:44:49,500 It's done and I did it, I confess. 854 00:44:49,500 --> 00:44:51,500 I did it, I did it, I did it... 855 00:44:51,500 --> 00:44:54,033 ALDER: From the era of the big headlines 856 00:44:54,033 --> 00:44:56,600 to the era of the comic strip 857 00:44:56,600 --> 00:44:58,266 and to the movies... 858 00:44:58,266 --> 00:44:59,700 ♪ ♪ 859 00:44:59,700 --> 00:45:01,266 What's it tell you now? 860 00:45:01,266 --> 00:45:03,366 ALDER: ...the lie detector, in a sense, 861 00:45:03,366 --> 00:45:06,600 lived in the media. 862 00:45:06,600 --> 00:45:08,533 You got 16 positive reactions. 863 00:45:08,533 --> 00:45:09,866 Yeah? What would that mean? 864 00:45:09,866 --> 00:45:12,033 You lied, Henry, 16 times. 865 00:45:12,033 --> 00:45:13,700 BAILEY: Most of us 866 00:45:13,700 --> 00:45:16,933 do not have direct experience with serious crime. 867 00:45:16,933 --> 00:45:19,866 And so much of what we think we know 868 00:45:19,866 --> 00:45:22,833 about policing, about prisons, lie detection, 869 00:45:22,833 --> 00:45:25,933 polygraphs, most of that is coming from 870 00:45:25,933 --> 00:45:28,333 exposure to popular culture and mass media. 871 00:45:28,333 --> 00:45:30,166 You feel that thing around your fingers, Bill? 872 00:45:30,166 --> 00:45:31,266 And this thing over here on your arm? 873 00:45:31,266 --> 00:45:32,500 You're hooked up to a lie detector! 874 00:45:32,500 --> 00:45:34,866 KORT-BUTLER: The media and the movie industry 875 00:45:34,866 --> 00:45:37,766 propelled this instrument into 876 00:45:37,766 --> 00:45:39,633 this place in pop culture 877 00:45:39,633 --> 00:45:41,600 that we have yet to escape. 878 00:45:41,600 --> 00:45:43,233 All right... 879 00:45:43,233 --> 00:45:45,466 NARRATOR: This aura of infallibility 880 00:45:45,466 --> 00:45:48,466 was helping to fuel the phenomenal spread 881 00:45:48,466 --> 00:45:51,000 of the lie detector. 882 00:45:51,000 --> 00:45:53,433 In fact, it was a temperamental instrument, 883 00:45:53,433 --> 00:45:55,633 easily misinterpreted. 884 00:45:55,633 --> 00:45:58,266 Only a small percentage of operators 885 00:45:58,266 --> 00:45:59,933 had any professional training. 886 00:45:59,933 --> 00:46:03,233 Abuses were everywhere. 887 00:46:04,466 --> 00:46:05,933 ALDER: In practice, 888 00:46:05,933 --> 00:46:08,933 there weren't that many Communist spies 889 00:46:08,933 --> 00:46:10,266 in the United States. 890 00:46:10,266 --> 00:46:12,633 But what there were 891 00:46:12,633 --> 00:46:14,666 were people with secrets to hide. 892 00:46:16,200 --> 00:46:18,266 Secrets that might make them vulnerable. 893 00:46:21,266 --> 00:46:24,966 And one of the sort of saddest parts of the lie detector story 894 00:46:24,966 --> 00:46:26,400 happens in this period, 895 00:46:26,400 --> 00:46:28,300 where in fact the lie detector is used 896 00:46:28,300 --> 00:46:30,766 to out people as homosexuals, 897 00:46:30,766 --> 00:46:32,533 particularly at the State Department. 898 00:46:32,533 --> 00:46:36,466 ♪ ♪ 899 00:46:36,466 --> 00:46:39,666 NARRATOR: "The Purge of the Perverts" it was called. 900 00:46:39,666 --> 00:46:42,166 "The Lavender Scare." 901 00:46:42,166 --> 00:46:44,566 Through the 1950s, 902 00:46:44,566 --> 00:46:47,566 anti-Communist witch hunts made more headlines, 903 00:46:47,566 --> 00:46:52,733 but gay Americans made far easier targets. 904 00:46:52,733 --> 00:46:54,366 The accused were offered a chance 905 00:46:54,366 --> 00:46:57,100 to clear their names with a lie detector test, 906 00:46:57,100 --> 00:47:00,400 but the odds of success were vanishingly small. 907 00:47:01,466 --> 00:47:03,633 In the State Department alone, 908 00:47:03,633 --> 00:47:05,900 1,000 employees lost their jobs 909 00:47:05,900 --> 00:47:08,133 and suffered the social consequences 910 00:47:08,133 --> 00:47:11,133 of being labeled homosexuals. 911 00:47:11,133 --> 00:47:14,766 ♪ ♪ 912 00:47:14,766 --> 00:47:16,833 FLOWE: Ultimately, while the lie detector 913 00:47:16,833 --> 00:47:19,666 was supposed to circumvent the need for coercion, 914 00:47:19,666 --> 00:47:23,100 it ended up being a part of the list of options 915 00:47:23,100 --> 00:47:24,966 that the state could use 916 00:47:24,966 --> 00:47:28,066 to coerce and manipulate someone. 917 00:47:29,933 --> 00:47:32,133 NARRATOR: Larson could only watch as 918 00:47:32,133 --> 00:47:35,466 his invention was used in ways he could never have imagined 919 00:47:35,466 --> 00:47:37,900 in those hopeful days back in Berkeley. 920 00:47:37,900 --> 00:47:41,566 "Beyond my expectation," he wrote, 921 00:47:41,566 --> 00:47:45,600 "through uncontrollable factors, 922 00:47:45,600 --> 00:47:48,100 "this scientific investigation became, 923 00:47:48,100 --> 00:47:51,600 "for practical purposes, a Frankenstein's monster 924 00:47:51,600 --> 00:47:56,100 which I have spent over 40 years in combating." 925 00:47:56,100 --> 00:48:01,800 His book, his only weapon, had grown to 9,000 pages. 926 00:48:01,800 --> 00:48:06,666 He died of a heart attack in September 1965 927 00:48:06,666 --> 00:48:08,633 at the age of 74, 928 00:48:08,633 --> 00:48:12,133 sorting through the pages of his manuscript. 929 00:48:12,133 --> 00:48:17,166 ♪ ♪ 930 00:48:24,233 --> 00:48:25,833 ♪ You get what you want ♪ 931 00:48:25,833 --> 00:48:27,900 ♪ When you want it at 7-Eleven ♪ 932 00:48:27,900 --> 00:48:30,833 ♪ There's so much stuff ♪ 933 00:48:30,833 --> 00:48:33,233 QUATTRO: In the mid-1970s, I was dating a girl 934 00:48:33,233 --> 00:48:34,633 who was a schoolteacher. 935 00:48:34,633 --> 00:48:36,200 Well, during the summer, 936 00:48:36,200 --> 00:48:38,566 she went to 7-Eleven to get a job. 937 00:48:40,366 --> 00:48:41,933 She comes out after about an hour, 938 00:48:41,933 --> 00:48:44,466 and her face is all red and everything, 939 00:48:44,466 --> 00:48:45,900 and I go, "What happened?" 940 00:48:45,900 --> 00:48:47,033 And she goes, 941 00:48:47,033 --> 00:48:49,800 "I flunked the lie detector test." 942 00:48:51,200 --> 00:48:53,566 Have you stolen anything from an employer? 943 00:48:53,566 --> 00:48:55,800 MAN: Have you ever used illegal drugs? 944 00:48:55,800 --> 00:48:57,866 Have you been convicted of a felony? 945 00:48:57,866 --> 00:48:59,966 NARRATOR: In the decades since Keeler 946 00:48:59,966 --> 00:49:01,700 introduced the lie detector 947 00:49:01,700 --> 00:49:03,766 to banks and department stores, 948 00:49:03,766 --> 00:49:06,066 it had spread throughout the American economy. 949 00:49:06,066 --> 00:49:07,866 By the 1980s, 950 00:49:07,866 --> 00:49:10,600 half the retail businesses 951 00:49:10,600 --> 00:49:12,433 in the United States were polygraphing 952 00:49:12,433 --> 00:49:14,533 their employees. 953 00:49:14,533 --> 00:49:17,066 There were no guardrails on the lie detector's 954 00:49:17,066 --> 00:49:19,533 exponential growth. 955 00:49:19,533 --> 00:49:22,100 Things finally came to a head 956 00:49:22,100 --> 00:49:25,366 when President Reagan ordered a dramatic increase 957 00:49:25,366 --> 00:49:28,066 in the testing of government employees. 958 00:49:28,066 --> 00:49:32,433 The public response was overwhelming. 959 00:49:32,433 --> 00:49:38,433 300,000 honest Americans are branded as liars every year. 960 00:49:38,433 --> 00:49:39,733 (gavel bangs) 961 00:49:39,733 --> 00:49:41,866 NARRATOR: Reagan backed down, 962 00:49:41,866 --> 00:49:44,766 and in 1988, Congress responded to the outrage 963 00:49:44,766 --> 00:49:47,266 by passing the Polygraph Protection Act, 964 00:49:47,266 --> 00:49:48,700 which effectively 965 00:49:48,700 --> 00:49:51,433 banned the lie detector from the business world. 966 00:49:51,433 --> 00:49:56,433 Overnight, usage plummeted by 90%. 967 00:49:57,833 --> 00:49:59,966 But despite all the controversies, 968 00:49:59,966 --> 00:50:03,733 the lie detector was too useful to discard entirely. 969 00:50:03,733 --> 00:50:06,533 The new law did nothing 970 00:50:06,533 --> 00:50:09,233 to limit its use by government, law enforcement, 971 00:50:09,233 --> 00:50:12,400 or national security agencies. 972 00:50:12,400 --> 00:50:14,733 O'BURKE: To go to the heart of the question, 973 00:50:14,733 --> 00:50:17,033 the polygraph probably 974 00:50:17,033 --> 00:50:19,400 works better than what a lot of people want to admit, 975 00:50:19,400 --> 00:50:21,733 but sometimes it doesn't work as good as 976 00:50:21,733 --> 00:50:23,400 what we're hoping it does. 977 00:50:23,400 --> 00:50:27,300 ♪ ♪ 978 00:50:27,300 --> 00:50:29,466 FLOWE: The lie detector persists, 979 00:50:29,466 --> 00:50:32,100 even though we understand that it's not necessarily accurate. 980 00:50:33,600 --> 00:50:36,800 It's about this uniquely American confidence 981 00:50:36,800 --> 00:50:37,966 in technology. 982 00:50:37,966 --> 00:50:40,566 NARRATOR: For over a century, 983 00:50:40,566 --> 00:50:44,900 the lie detector has remained an American phenomenon, 984 00:50:44,900 --> 00:50:48,366 largely ignored by the rest of the world. 985 00:50:48,366 --> 00:50:52,633 ALDER: It does speak to a particular way that the United States 986 00:50:52,633 --> 00:50:56,233 went about solving really contentious social issues, 987 00:50:56,233 --> 00:51:01,166 turning over judgments not to fallible human beings, 988 00:51:01,166 --> 00:51:03,666 but to machines. 989 00:51:03,666 --> 00:51:06,000 BAILEY: Americans want to believe 990 00:51:06,000 --> 00:51:09,100 that somehow there is this one truth, 991 00:51:09,100 --> 00:51:11,166 this truth that represents who we are. 992 00:51:13,466 --> 00:51:17,266 And we have the ability to reach in 993 00:51:17,266 --> 00:51:19,533 and use this technology and determine what it is. 994 00:51:19,533 --> 00:51:23,766 FLOWE: The lie detector takes a problem that can't be controlled 995 00:51:23,766 --> 00:51:26,266 and turns it into something that, 996 00:51:26,266 --> 00:51:28,300 at least in your imagination, can be controlled. 997 00:51:28,300 --> 00:51:30,566 ♪ ♪ 998 00:51:30,566 --> 00:51:32,633 There can be a sense of certainty. 999 00:51:32,633 --> 00:51:35,333 And Americans are looking for certainty. 1000 00:51:35,333 --> 00:51:39,366 ♪ ♪ 1001 00:51:47,900 --> 00:51:52,833 ♪ ♪ 1002 00:51:59,533 --> 00:52:10,333 ♪ ♪ 1003 00:52:14,966 --> 00:52:19,433 ♪ ♪ 1004 00:52:24,033 --> 00:52:27,466 ♪ ♪