The WORST episodes of 48 Hours
Every episode of 48 Hours ever, ranked from worst to best by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The worst episodes of 48 Hours!
Television's most popular true-crime series, investigating shocking cases and compelling real-life dramas with journalistic integrity and cutting-edge style.
#1 - Hidden Dangers of Ambush Alley
Season 16 - Episode 28 - Aired 4/4/2003
It's about 3:30 in the morning, and the headquarters company of the 293rd Infantry Battalion is about to head out. The trip will take a little over eight hours, and it leads up a road that has become known as "Ambush Alley." Correspondent Erin Moriarty reports.
#2 - Cry Rape
Season 16 - Episode 43 - Aired 9/20/2003
Anyone who knows Laura Neuman, 38, knows how much she enjoys her life in Annapolis, Md. A hard-charging businesswoman, she works hard and plays hard. But life hasn't always been such smooth sailing. In fact, Laura says she spent two decades living in fear as a victim of rape. Correspondent Susan Spencer reports. It's been almost 20 years since that horrible night when she was attacked. Laura, then 18, had just moved out of her parent's home in Baltimore. With dreams of college and a career, she was ready to take on the world. On Oct. 14, 1983, Laura says, she fell asleep watching television. She says she heard a noise while she was asleep, but she thought it was her roommate returning home. "It sounded like a shuffling noise in the background," she recalls. "But then, of course I was awakened, and without going into too much detail, I did wake up to a gun to my head and a pillow over my face." According to the police report, an intruder entered Laura's apartment through her roommate's window and forcibly raped the frightened teenager in her own bed. "It was fear, it was shock. I was certain that there was a really good chance I wouldn't live through it. I really thought I might die," she says.
#3 - Tribute to Bob Hope
Season 16 - Episode 40 - Aired 7/28/2003
For the better part of the 20th century, Bob Hope became as much an American icon as mom's apple pie. In small towns, in run down theatres, Hope developed a craft that would allow him to dance rings around Bing Crosby. And even keep up with the fast stepping Jimmy Cagney. Nothing gave him a bigger thrill than hearing an audience erupt in laughter.
#4 - Baby Hope
Season 16 - Episode 39 - Aired 7/12/2003
Hunter Kelley, 7, is on pins and needles as he awaits the arrival of his new baby brother. His very life may depend on it. Correspondent Susan Spencer reports. Randy and Christie Kelley of Birmingham, Ala., have just what they've always wanted - a houseful of boys. First came Taylor, then Hunter and finally Parker. Everything seemed perfect until Hunter turned 5. "He'd always been small, so we kind of questioned that," says Hunter's father, Randy. "And his blood counts were deteriorating." At his annual check-up, routine tests showed Hunter's white and red blood cell counts were dangerously low. So doctors ran more tests. The diagnosis? Fanconi anemia, a rare genetic disease in which the bone marrow fails to produce healthy blood cells, leading to infection, cancer and ultimately, death. "Very rarely did children make it to adulthood," says Randy. "The average life span is between 8 years old and 12 years old. So it was pretty bleak."
#5 - Rich Kids
Season 16 - Episode 38 - Aired 6/11/2003
48 Hours Investigates reports on Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, Frankie Muniz, Eric Trump and L'il Romeo -- Lifestyles of the young and rich. Rich Girls: The Olsen Twins: Even in Hollywood, where rich girls are a dime a dozen, these two 17-year-olds stand out. Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen aren't just rich and ambitious, they're mini-moguls. And they're already worth, by some estimates, $40 million each and counting. Frankie Muniz: Hollywood Star: Actor Frankie Muniz has not only won fans -- he's made a fortune playing geeky teenage characters. On TV, he's the awkward, brainy middle child in the sit-com "Malcolm In The Middle." On the big screen, he's agent Cody Banks, a not-so-suave junior James Bond. In a few short years, the kid with the cute face and sparkling blue eyes has become one of Hollywood's most bankable teens. His salary for "Agent Cody Banks" was somewhere around $2 million – pretty good for Muniz, who just turned 18 this month. Correspondent Maureen Maher reports. Eric Trump: American Royalty: Eric is a prince to the manor born, part of that peculiar type of American royalty, who grows up behind the headlines with a gold-plated last name. Eric Trump, 19, is Ivana's baby boy and Donald Trump's youngest son. Correspondent Jane Clayson reports. Lil' Rome: Hip-Hop Star: Even in his wildest dreams, 14-year-old Percy Romeo Miller III never imagined a life like this. "Dreams can come true. Like Martin Luther King said, 'Have a dream,'" says Lil' Romeo, a pint-sized, platinum-selling, hip-hop superstar. In just two years, Lil' Romeo has sold an astonishing 20 million CDs. Now, he says he has $50 million in savings. This eighth grader stars in movies, cartoons and even runs a clothing company. When he's not shooting films, he's shooting hoops as a Junior Olympic basketball player. It must be a great life. "I mean Romeo's got cars, man," says his father, rapper Master P. "I'm, like, he can't even drive!" Lil' Romeo gave Correspondent
#6 - For Love or Money
Season 16 - Episode 36 - Aired 5/14/2003
Texas is known for doing everything big. And in Austin, millionaire business tycoon Steven Beard was living large with his new wife, Celeste. "Steven was always very generous. He gave me lovely jewels, lots of jewelry, lots of everything," says Celeste. They had two houses, including a custom-built Texas palace in one of Austin's wealthiest neighborhoods. "I spent a lot of money," says Celeste. "I spent a lot of money redoing the houses all the time." Steven Beard had made his mark as the co-owner of a local television station. He was rich, powerful, and an important member of the community. But his fairy-tale life was soon shattered. Correspondent Peter Van Sant reports.
#7 - To Catch a Stalker
Season 16 - Episode 34 - Aired 4/23/2003
In Shaker Heights, Ohio, just outside Cleveland, Ching L. Chang found a culturally rich and diverse neighborhood where he and his wife, Yoon Wah, could raise their four children. Penny, 15, was the youngest in the family. Growing up, her family says she was very neat, very talkative and very Americanized. She thrived in this affluent suburb, but no one could have predicted what happened. Correspondent Erin Moriarty reports
#8 - Fog of War: Facing Friendly Fire
Season 16 - Episode 32 - Aired 4/11/2003
Even with all the modern weapons of this war, warriors are still bedeviled by old-fashioned problems. It happened just this week. In Northern Iraq, a convoy of U.S. Special Forces soldiers and Kurdish allies was attacked by American bombs. Eighteen Kurds were killed and more than 45 injured, including the brother and son of a Kurdish leader. The weapons fired in this war are supposed to be precision guided and pinpoint accurate. But mistakes still happen. Correspondent Richard Schlesinger reports.
#9 - Hong Kong: Crowded City of Fear
Season 16 - Episode 31 - Aired 4/9/2003
At first glance, Hong Kong seems as noisy and bustling as ever. But there is one conspicuous difference -- the face masks. They are everywhere. And they are the first hint of what the SARS outbreak has done to this famous city. Correspondent Barry Petersen reports. “It’s changed the way we go about our day-to-day lives,” says Whitney Small, a public relations executive originally from Brunswick, Maine. "It’s not so much that you fear you’re going to be the next victim, it’s more that it’s creating a disturbance in what was already a very tense time in Hong Kong.” Hong Kong is a crowded city of fear, in a region that is now Ground Zero for a worldwide SARS outbreak.
#10 - Battling Gulf War Syndrome
Season 16 - Episode 30 - Aired 4/9/2003
One of the enduring mysteries of the last Gulf War has driven 48-year-old Navy veteran Bill Finnegan to the far eastern tip of Long Island. Correspondent Susan Spencer reports. "I live out here in the boonies, and I pretty much stay to myself all the time," says Finnegan, who mostly keeps company with his horses and dogs. "It's my choice, because I just don't feel right." It's easier, he says, than trying to explain the ravages of Gulf War Syndrome to his friends.
#11 - A Widow's Tale
Season 16 - Episode 29 - Aired 4/4/2003
Marine Gunnery Sergeant Phil Jordan was a veteran of the first Gulf War, a soldier's soldier. This week, his body came home from the current Gulf War. And for wife, Amanda, it was devastating. Correspondent Mika Brzezinski reports for 48 Hours. "It's like it's happening to somebody else," she said. "It's not happening to us." Phil and Amanda first met nine years ago, in a whirlwind courtship. Their marriage blossomed, and along came their baby, Tyler. Amanda said Tyler was so proud of his father for what he did, that he put him on a pedestal. In his letters home, Phil always had a message for Tyler, who is now 6 years old. The last letter arrived several days after Phil's death.
#12 - The Profiler
Season 16 - Episode 42 - Aired 9/16/2003
A 33-year-old woman called "Karen" says there is a man out there who wants to kill her. "I still to this day wonder ,"Why me?'," she says. "The only way I will ever get my life back is if he's in jail." Over the last year and a half, she's told police that he's already viciously attacked her – not once, but three times. What's scariest for Karen is that he's a stranger - she has no idea who he is or whether he'll be back. The case has Karen terrified, and the police in two Oregon towns absolutely baffled. "In my 12 years experience, I've had nothing like this before," says Det. Larry Braaksma, with the Tualatin Police Department. With no witnesses to any of the attacks, police are left with little more than the bizarre details provided by Karen, the stalker's only known victim. And they're getting worried, because each attack seems to be more violent than the last. Correspondent Erin Moriarty reports.
#13 - Waiting on Women Warriors: Jessica Lynch
Season 16 - Episode 27 - Aired 3/30/2003
To her best friend Miriah Duckworth, Jessi Lynch is everything from a not-so-aspiring athlete to a beauty queen, reports Jane Clayson. "She could throw up her hair up and look gorgeous, go out and win Ms. Congeniality," says Duckworth. To her father Greg, she is a source of pride. "She's a wonderful girl. Always put others before herself in any situation," he says. And to the U.S. Army, she is Private First Class Jessica Lynch, a supply clerk, one of thousands of women now serving in the war. But after a fierce battle last Saturday night, March 23, near the southern city of Nasiriyah, Jessi became one of only two women officially listed as missing in action.
#14 - How Long a War?
Season 16 - Episode 26 - Aired 3/29/2003
The first days of the war went by in a blur of positive news for the U.S. and its allies. Then, over the first weekend, the picture started to grow darker. 48 Hours Correspondent Lesley Stahl reports on the status of the war, and on what we might expect next.
#15 - One on One with Powell
Season 16 - Episode 25 - Aired 3/25/2003
As chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff during the first Gulf War, Secretary of State Colin Powell was the architect of the campaign to oust Iraqi forces from Kuwait. He has been at the heart of the decision-making process that led up to the current military conflict with Iraq. On Tuesday night, Powell sat down with 48 Hour's Lesley Stahl for an exclusive one-on-one interview.
#16 - The Babysitter's Story
Season 16 - Episode 24 - Aired 3/14/2003
Chris Routh, 16, is the kind of kid you'd like to have living next door. "I don't mean to toot my own horn, but I was a good kid," he says. "I was an 'A' student. I never broke any laws or anything. Never got into any trouble at school. I don't think I've ever lost my temper in my life. I'm a very calm-mannered, very mellow guy." Now, this mild-mannered teenager is about to find out if he will spend the rest of his life living in prison. His mother, Sissy Routh, says: "I think this was a series of tragedies that fell one upon another. And I think that Christopher happens to be the person who was caught in the wrong place at the wrong time." Chris stands accused of sexually assaulting 23-month-old Emily Woodruff, and then shaking the toddler to death. It doesn't get any worse than that.
#17 - The Tale of the Tape
Season 16 - Episode 23 - Aired 3/7/2003
Even by outsized Texas standards, it was one of the most notorious crimes of passion in recent memory: Houston dentist Clara Harris killed her husband David, a prominent Houston orthodontist, because he was seeing another woman. Harris' crime caught national attention both for what she did and for her weapon of choice, her Mercedes Benz. And it was all caught on tape, a videotape shot by a private investigator hired by, of all people, Clara Harris herself.
#18 - The Negotiators aka Desperate Call
Season 16 - Episode 22 - Aired 3/5/2003
An angry man takes his infant daughter hostage and barricades himself inside a house in residential Queens. Can a team of New York Police Department hostage negotiators save the hostages - especially the baby? Take an unprecedented inside look at a hostage negotiation team at work. Find out what it's like to be responsible for people held against their will. Feel the pressure in the heart of a crisis - where success is measured in lives saved. Correspondent Harold Dow reports.
#19 - Chambers Speaks aka Justice Served?
Season 16 - Episode 21 - Aired 2/26/2003
On Valentine's Day, Robert Chambers walked out of a prison in upstate New York as a free man, but one still pursued by his own infamy. In an exclusive interview with 48 Hours Investigates correspondent Troy Roberts, Chambers apologized for the way he lived his life and took Jennifer Levin's. "Every day, something reminds me of her, reminds me of her family," Chambers told Roberts. "And every day, I know that I'm in prison because somebody died, and I'm responsible for that. It's not an easy feeling. You don't get comfortable with it. And it's part of my life for the rest of my life." Rehearsed lines from a con artist? Or genuine repentance?
#20 - Lust, Lies and Videotape aka The Secret Tapes
Season 16 - Episode 20 - Aired 2/19/2003
48 Hours Investigates a story we're calling "Lust, Lies and Videotape." It's the amazing story of Andrew Luster - now a fugitive from justice - the great-grandson of cosmetics legend Max Factor. His sentencing, in absentia, is set for this week. Correspondent Troy Roberts had the only interview with Luster before he fled California- right in the midst of a trial on 87 counts, ranging from poisoning to sexual battery to rape. If that's not amazing enough, 48 Hours also has the stunning videotape evidence of his crimes, recorded by Luster himself (though a lot of it is just too graphic to air). And then, two of Luster's victims break their silence for the first time on 48 Hours. They tell Roberts how shocked they were first, to learn they were Luster's "victims" who had been drugged with GHB, the date-rape drug - and then to learn he had videotape of it all. It's real-life-drama that's a real stunner.
#21 - Mystery in Room 813
Season 16 - Episode 19 - Aired 2/12/2003
One night six years ago, at a Sheraton Hotel just east of Los Angeles, a woman went over the balcony of Room 813 in the middle of the night. If she screamed, no one heard her. If it was a murder, there were no witnesses. If it was an accident or suicide, the circumstances seemed strange. The woman's death would be Det. Ray Rodriguez's last case in a 33-year career. It was just after 8 a.m. on Nov. 13, 1996, when he got the call. There was an apparent suicide at the Industry Hills Sheraton. But was it murder? Correspondent Bill Lagattuta reports
Watch Now:Apple TV#22 - Murder in Monaco
Season 16 - Episode 18 - Aired 2/5/2003
When billionaire banker Edmond Safra died in a fire, an American ex-Green Beret was charged with setting the blaze. Is he guilty? Correspondent Erin Moriarty reports on the case of Ted Maher, a pediatric nurse who went looking for a chance of a lifetime, and wound up looking at a possible life in prison sentence instead.
Watch Now:Apple TV#23 - Air Sunshine: Flying into Danger
Season 17 - Episode 14 - Aired 12/17/2003
July 13, 2003, was a perfect day to fly. At 2:30 in the afternoon, five adults and four children boarded Air Sunshine flight 502 in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., en route to Abaco Island in the Bahamas. But this hour-long flight would take a tragic turn. Correspondent Troy Roberts reports.
#24 - The Biggest Gamble
Season 20 - Episode 19 - Aired 2/17/2007
In an update to the story from March 4, 2006, titled "The Highest Stakes", as correspondent Erin Moriarty reports, the investigation shifted dramatically when casino surveillance video surfaced, showing Christie leaving the casino with a mystery man. Wilson is dramatically captured on tape leaving the casino and walking into the parking lot with a 54-year-old man named Mario Garcia. She walks out of the frame with Garcia leaving her exact whereabouts in those last few critical moments a mystery. The cameras do show Garcia driving off, apparently alone, moments later. Garcia speaks to 48 HOURS' Moriarty in a network exclusive about his violent past and his interactions with Christie Wilson that night. Is he innocent or is he hiding something deadly? And what will he say to Moriarty under intense questioning?
#25 - Young, Rich and Powerful II
Season 17 - Episode 33 - Aired 6/4/2004
Interviews with Hollywood's young, rich and powerful include Scarlett Johansson, Lindsay Lohan, Mandy Moore, Shia LeBoeuf and former Brat Pack members Molly Ringwald and Jon Cryer.