The Many Lives of Benjaman Kyle (2026) s01e01 Episode Script
Nowhere Man
automated voice At the tone,
please record your message.
beep
So the detective who's coming over,
she's got all connections
in the schools,
because they'll
go over to the schools,
talk to the school, too,
alert them of the situation.
And how does she know I have twins?
Like, my social media is blocked.
I can't go back.
Because if I could, I would never
have done this show.
Like, ever.
Because she said my children.
Like, kill me, fine, but
Donald I don't have an answer
for that, because we all know
-I literally can't even talk
about it without crying.
-there's so much information.
I get that.
I mean, I stopped being
a prosecutor in part,
like, I left the DA's office
because I didn't want bleep
like this in my life.
Obviously,
they don't want the story out.
-Eric No.
-Now, who is-- who is "they"?
That's the dilemma here.
Shannon Eleven years ago,
I came across
this completely insane story.
It was about a man that had amnesia.
And I was obsessed.
I was gonna do anything
that I needed to do to find out
who this man was.
It's pretty pathetic
if no one's actually looking
for someone that disappeared.
reporter No one recognized
this man with no name.
Benjaman You don't know who I am,
and quite frankly, neither do I.
Josh Come on in, man.
He gained my trust.
-Give me a hug.
-All right.
I thought, "Let's get this guy
on his feet."
man AB marker, mark.
Benjaman Nothing right now
seems familiar to me.
I don't remember anything.
Josh Come here, buddy.
-I thought he was dead.
-Why did he leave?
man He could have got mixed up
with the wrong crowd.
In Lafayette,
we had criminal organizations.
Statute of limitations would be up
unless there was somebody killed.
Benjaman It'd be a nice place
to get rid of a body.
It'd be a while before
they found it.
dramatic chord strike
You and Dad made that in Cub Scouts.
I don't feel like talking.
woman Maybe he claimed amnesia
because he didn't want
the mafia coming after him.
If he was running from something,
why would you want your picture
all over the place?
Who the hell was he for 30 years
when he was living off the grid?
There's no paper trail on this guy.
I'm not an axe murderer
because they can't find
my fingerprints
anywhere on any crime scenes.
raspy laugh
Maybe you killed somebody.
I don't know.
It's almost like a game,
like "You can't catch me."
No, shut up!
This is my life you're bleep with.
Nothing here makes sense.
He's an anomaly of anomalies.
Shannon One weird thing
after the next.
What are you hiding?
That is the million-dollar question.
man
It really is a quest for truth.
Do you have a definition of truth?
laughs
theme music playing
Sue In August of 2004,
the tones went out dispatching us
to a Burger King for a man
that was unconscious and lying
behind the dumpsters.
I was one of
the first people on scene.
My name is Sue Usry.
I'm the paramedic
that responded to the call.
When we got on scene,
he was totally nude,
no wallet, no ID.
Who is this guy?
How did he get here?
What happened to him?
siren wailing
Benjaman
I don't know how I got there,
and I don't have no memories
of who I am.
I was also blind with cataracts.
I was taken to St. Joseph's Hospital
in Savannah.
In the emergency room,
I remember hearing the doctors
talking about that
they already had a John Doe,
and I was found
behind a Burger King,
so they just started
calling me BK Doe.
And I remember they were
all laughing
about that and making a joke
that if I'd have been found
behind a McDonald's,
I'd be McDonald Doe.
Everyone just assumed
I was a homeless bum,
and they didn't know
what to do with me.
They kept asking me
what my name was,
and I told them Benjaman.
For some reason,
that stuck in my mind.
I thought that was it,
with the odd spelling ending
in M-A-N.
And then everyone kept coming
in and asking me
what the hell my last name was.
And I finally, to shut them up,
I just told them it was Kyle,
because they were calling me BK Doe.
And Kyle was the only thing
I could think of at the time
that began with a K.
They fixed my eyes,
got the operations
for cataract surgery.
Right after the surgery,
after it cleared up,
I was in the bathroom shaving,
and I looked
in the mirror and I could not
recognize myself.
I couldn't believe
what I was seeing.
My hair is all gone gray.
I looked so old.
It was just shock.
It was just shock.
I was thinking I was still,
like, 40 years old.
But I'm not 40 years old.
I'm 60 years old.
It just-- just did not look right.
I didn't know who I was.
The FBI did one run of fingerprints.
They did it both electronically
and with the ink.
I never heard a thing from them.
-I finally walked over
to the office
-doorbell rings
and rang their doorbell.
You can't just get
into the FBI, I mean,
but anyway, they came down and said,
"Oh, yeah, yeah,
you weren't in our files.
"You weren't
on the most wanted list."
So, no, I'm not the type
of person to be an axe murderer.
John I read
about Benjaman's story online,
and it was an unsolved mystery.
clapboard clicks
My name is John Wikstrom,
and in 2011,
I was a student
at the FSU Film School.
I had to do a documentary.
I thought, "This is a good subject."
I said, "Sure, why not?"
And we made a documentary,
which has gotten pretty famous.
Hello, my name is Benjaman Kyle.
You don't know who I am,
and quite frankly, neither do I.
If this were a game of Clue
and I had to give my best guess
on what I think went down,
I think Benjaman was homeless.
I don't think he'd got in any crimes
and wouldn't have
any fingerprints anywhere,
but I think there had to
have been some kind of accident.
woman I think he passed out.
People were saying that
I was beaten to a bloody pulp.
reporter Bleeding and possibly
dead man.
reporter #2 Head trauma
from a brutal beating.
reporter #3
Left him with a form of amnesia.
Without memories, without identity,
there's not a lot he can hold on to.
In a field behind
the police department.
because none of the homeless
shelters will take me in
because I don't have any ID.
Without a social security number,
you can't get a job,
you cannot get a bank account,
you cannot get a lease,
you can't do anything.
The documentary is an SOS message.
It was a cry for help.
Nobody has recognized me,
but I still have a past.
It's been almost five years that
I've been working with Benjaman.
We've spent so much time together.
I like walking in the streets
of the big city.
Harry Potter's got his
footprints out here somewhere.
He is a friend to me.
He was a guest of honor
at my wedding.
I know him in the way
that you know a friend
or a family member.
bicycle bell rings
It's amazing,
the outpouring of generosity
people have given to Benjaman.
Friends hooked him up
with a place to stay
and with some cash.
I guess I'm emotionally
attached to Benjaman.
sniffles
You know, in some ways,
I love the guy like a father
or sometimes like a brother.
Benjaman is quick to be friendly
with people all around.
Benjaman Hey, man. How you doing?
-Josh He's charming.
-It was good seeing you.
Josh You know, he can crack jokes.
You're not going to find
an apple fritter like that
at Dunkin' Donuts.
Josh He's smart as a fox.
Benjaman This computer someone
gave me, Windows XP.
Josh He liked going
to the hardware store.
He loves tools.
I'd really like to have
one of these. laughs
You know, he could fix anything.
This is a radial arm saw.
Very knowledgeable
about history and movies.
Benjaman "Kill Bill," that was
really funny-- I liked that.
And really knows a lot
about restaurants.
One time I went to a restaurant,
and I went in
and ordered French fries,
because I love French fries.
music playing
They came out with
this huge plate of French fries,
and then I started eating
the French fries,
and I noticed what the plate was,
it had a dome in the middle.
When they bring the plate out,
it looks like you're getting
this huge amount of fries,
and you're not.
laughs
# Dream #
# Dream #
# Just a little of you #
Dr. Gorgens
There's so much about memory,
the way the brain works,
that we still don't know.
# I can't forget you #
My name's Dr. Kim Gorgens.
I've been studying head trauma
and amnesia for almost
30 years.
And I love a case
that gets your head scratched,
that is a mystery.
It's a little like detective work.
Movies about amnesia
kind of crack me up.
The Hollywood portrayal of amnesia
couldn't be further from the truth.
It's almost never the case
that someone wakes up and is,
like, completely wiped clean.
I can't remember.
That blank slate phenomena,
we would call that
a generalized amnesia.
In Benjaman's case,
the experience of being
wiped clean is so rare,
the odds of finding
a patient like Benjaman,
it's mind-blowing.
Benjaman is
in the less than one percent.
There's only been
just over 100 cases
in recorded medical history.
In my experience,
people with amnesia
have a lot of suffering.
And if you can imagine,
in Benjaman's case,
to wake up with no memory
of who you are,
where you've been,
it would be devastating.
And, I would imagine, terrifying.
You know, I never talked
to people about it
because I never thought that,
you know,
I had the right to impose
my problems on them.
Sorry.
I think for Benjaman,
it's been heartbreaking
to live in this world
without any means
of helping yourself.
If I had to define
the last 10 years,
I would say it, you know,
it's like being in hell.
That's what I'd say it was.
Without a Social Security,
you're pretty much a ghost
walking through society.
You can't do anything.
You don't exist.
John The reality is,
is there is so little
he can do in his situation.
I think it would be
too painful to have hope.
Benjaman Everyone
we talked to out there
swore up and down that they
were going to solve the case.
They didn't.
John Do you think
there's anyone looking for you?
Maybe a family member?
You know, actually, it's--
when you think about it,
it's pretty pathetic
if no one's actually looking
for someone that disappeared.
I mean, you know, isn't there
anyone important enough
in your past life that
they'd want to look for you?
Sometimes I just wish
I hadn't woke up.
melancholic music playing
I don't-- I don't
like living now like this.
I think, uh
ominous music playing
dramatic chord strike
Benjaman
This is the skeleton of what's
left of the Burger King,
where I was found in 2004.
The only thing
that's left is the-- the floor.
That's the dumpster
I was found behind.
This is where
Benjaman Kyle was born.
I don't know.
I don't know.
I suppose I could have been
sleeping in the woods back here.
There's all kinds of remains
of homeless camps.
I don't know.
I mean, you know,
hell, it's possible that aliens
dropped me off.
This is a big mystery.
I don't know who I am,
why I haven't been found,
what caused it.
I do have some memories
of Indianapolis and Colorado,
but my memories seem to end
in the middle of '86, 1986.
And then after that, you know,
everything is pretty hazy.
Katherine I believe that
Benjaman probably did suffer
some kind of amnesia,
but I think you can use the things
that happened in your life
to become stronger and better.
My name is Katherine Slater,
and I worked
at J.C. Lewis Health Center.
And that's where I met Benjaman.
Life was so rough for him.
He didn't have an identity.
And I just thought the story
was just overwhelmingly sad,
will bring you to tears
if you're human.
When he got out, he didn't have
a place to go,
and so Benjaman lived with me
for about four years.
I wanted to help him,
like a puzzle that just has
to be solved.
I got involved.
I wanted to be the one to solve it.
And I thought, the only way
to really solve this,
is national exposure.
And then eventually,
Dr. Phil got in touch.
traffic noise
coffee gently splashing
That's a damn fine cup of coffee.
My name is Harold Copus.
I worked for the FBI
as a special agent
for almost nine years,
and then did work
for the Dr. Phil show
for almost 10 years.
The Benjaman Kyle case
was just one of several hundred
or more cases I worked.
But this one baffled me.
Here's a guy that couldn't tell you
where he bought his underwear.
When I first got the telephone
call from the show,
they said this guy
suffered from amnesia.
And what they wanted me to do
was see if I could find out
the guy's real name.
Helping to reunite a family somewhere
that's missing either
a father or a husband.
So, we're gonna do something good.
We'll throw Harold into that
barrel and see what he can do.
When I first met Benjaman,
he would say,
"I have a memory of Indianapolis."
One point he mentioned Colorado.
I traveled around
the United States trying
to find his identity.
I'm knocking on doors,
looked through yearbooks,
could not find
a photograph of this guy.
And I've done about everything
you can do.
I've run your fingerprints.
I got your DNA.
I've gone to Indianapolis.
I didn't go to Colorado.
At a certain stage,
you just have to say,
"Hey, we spent a lot of money,
and I'm not sure
where this is going."
But I'm getting
a lot of pressure from the show.
"Harold, what are you going to do?"
And so I said, "We need to do
an age regression"
"to what this guy may look like
when he's 20 years old,
when he's 30 years old."
You know, everyone asks me
that question,
and I get the impression
that people want me to,
you know, stand around pounding
my fist against the wall,
screaming,
"Why can't I remember this?
Why can't I remember this?"
Not until Dr. Phil.
Ben, thank you for being here.
Benjaman When I went
to the Dr. Phil show, they said,
"We're gonna solve this case.
"We are so popular
across the country.
This case is gonna be solved."
We enlisted the help
of 200-plus stations
around the country.
Harold The Dr. Phil show
reached millions of viewers.
I was convinced 100 percent
that somebody's gonna call in,
he will be identified.
When that didn't happen,
my reaction was,
"That's impossible."
I was flabbergasted.
John That was a big loss
to Benjaman.
Once you're on national TV,
if nobody recognizes you,
then that points
to a much bigger problem.
Benjaman I don't know
what's gonna happen to me.
-Shannon Hey.
-Ken Hey, Shannon.
So, Eric is here with me
and Alexander Block.
Can you just walk us
through what happened?
It was 2014 when I first
learned about Benjaman Kyle.
I had been watching
an old movie on amnesia.
How can I make any promises
when I don't even know who I am?
And I Googled "amnesiac"
and Benjaman Kyle came up.
Eleven years has passed,
but Benjaman's progress
on figuring out who he was
hasn't changed since he was
found in 2004.
My husband and I
own Hot Snakes Media,
and we make documentaries.
But before I became
a television producer,
I was a deputy district attorney.
Then I went to the Manhattan
DA's office,
where I was an assistant
district attorney.
After that,
I went into private practice.
I did civil litigation,
and then I became
a television producer.
Thanks, guys.
# Ain't nobody better
than a legend in they prime #
Shannon
We have this amazing team.
It includes Ken Maxwell.
He's the former head
of the FBI Joint Terrorism
Task Force in New York.
# Aye-yi-yi-yi-yi-yi,
all work, no play #
Shannon And I just felt
between Ken, Eric, and I,
with our background in news
and law enforcement,
we're gonna be able to uncover
Benjaman's forgotten past
and hopefully reunite him
with his family.
The coolest thing is I learned
that Benjaman has exactly
twenty three memories of his past.
Colorado holds the majority of
Benjaman's forgotten memories.
When I found that out,
I knew I'd be able to solve this.
man AB marker, mark.
Yeah, it's like there's a huge gap.
I don't have any memories from, uh,
like-- like, the mid-'80s
to, stammers, 2004.
But I've got a lot of memories
from Colorado.
I remember the Top
of the Rockies restaurant
up there.
They had an outside elevator.
Red Rocks.
Blood, Sweat & Tears concert, '78.
I remember the Big
Thompson Canyon flood on '76.
The Oh-My-God Road.
When you're driving on it,
you're saying, "Oh, my God."
I've got really vivid memories
of the two theaters that are
across the street from one another.
Shannon So many people have
tried to help Benjaman
over the past decade,
but no one has
ever taken him back there.
Benjaman hasn't been
back to Colorado in 30 years.
Um, excited, eager, scared,
you knowum,
nervous.
airplane engine rumbles
indistinct PA announcements
Alexander
This could be an amazing thing.
You could unlock a past
and connect them to a family
and loving people.
But there's also that chance
that this man is a recluse
children laughing
and just comes home to nothing
and microwaves his TV dinner
and eats his turkey and peas.
We don't know what
we're getting ourselves into.
But with that one memory,
if we find it,
we can figure out who this guy is
right here, right now.
Benjaman I have scattered
memories of Colorado.
I'm not sure how much
I'm gonna recognize.
I used to ride the buses a lot.
Public transportation in Colorado.
bus honks
I think basically
I'm the same person that I was
then, I mean, I've always said
I was never an axe murderer,
and we've certainly proven that,
at least the ways
the FBI can't prove that now.
dramatic music playing
indistinct chatter
Benjaman
We're at the University
of Colorado in Boulder.
I never attended school here.
I just visited the library
to read the books.
I'm sure I was here.
I recognized the campus.
You know, I was in that library
on an upper floor by a window
that overlooked the atrium.
And we know that was in '76
because that atrium opened in '76.
This does not feel
like I remembered it.
I thought I would recognize it.
I know there was
a three-story atrium, sighs.
But it's not here now.
It just feels completely foreign.
Yes, I know it's this library.
I think they probably
switched everything around.
I came here excited,
hoping that we figure out
who Benjaman Kyle is.
Finding that one memory
that could just unleash
Pandora's box and Benjaman
remembers everything.
But it seems like
this isn't gonna be easy.
This is one of the places
that I was most excited
about visiting.
But it's frustrating
because I don't remember anything.
I'm just disappointed.
Damn it. bleep
Benjaman
We are headed towards Red Rock.
And I'm thinking that's it
up there on the right.
crowd cheers faintly
Benjaman
I was here in 1978 to see
a Blood, Sweat & Tears concert
with the Denver Symphony Orchestra.
electric guitar playing
They did "And When I Die."
And this was one of the places
that we know 100 percent sure
that I was here.
Because that was the only time
that Red Rocks had
a joint concert with
the Denver Symphony Orchestra
and Blood, Sweat & Tears.
I must have come with people
because there's no public
transportation to these concerts.
So I must have been here
with someone.
But I don't know who.
It's starting to come together,
but it's not in
a significant-eureka-moment way
where he suddenly remembers why
he was here
and who he was here with.
Benjaman Right now,
we're on Pearl Street.
When I came here in '76,
they began the construction
of a pedestrian mall.
I think that's tobacco.
No, it says THC.
laughs Want to get high?
All the kids had flat tops
when I was a kid.
Be the guy in the center.
Yeah, all the kids had
flat tops when I was a kid.
It's the Fox Theater.
I just had a memory come back
to me in which the manager
let us, stammers,
I was with someone,
let us in to watch
the movies for free.
We were talking to him,
and he let us in,
and we watched the movie.
I don't know.
I don't know.
All of these memories he has
are shockingly non-personal.
He can't tell us who he went
to the movie theater with.
He can't tell us who he went
to the concert with.
The personal details
are completely missing.
I think McNichols Arena
used to be right here.
There should be a Denny's up here,
too, on Federal.
Okay, this is Colfax.
That'll be a left at the stoplight.
Oh, oh, um
That's a taco place,
that Casa Bonita.
Oh, there's a shopping center
up here on the right.
Right there.
You're gonna angle to the left
and go straight.
Benjaman
I'm familiar with this area.
I'm almost positive there's
a Jewish cemetery over there.
Can we go across the street?
Are we going? I'm going.
I'm going.
traffic noise
-horn honking
-man Get out of the street!
Cemetery.
Kind of pictured the cemetery
as being sort of abandoned.
Benjaman I don't know.
Kids hang around graveyards.
It's a playground.
Smoking pot,
having sex on tombstones,
and laughs doing, uh,
satanic rituals or something.
Wouldn't it be fun to dig up
a skeleton or something
when you were a kid?
Did you ever want to dig up
a skeleton when you were a kid?
I know I've been over here
because they had
equipment sales.
I remember the equipment
being in the parking lot,
and they were selling it.
I know that I worked in restaurants.
I don't know. No.
All right.
What? No.
You're wrong.
You lied to me when you said,
"We're just driving around."
Why the bleep didn't you tell me?
Don't surprise me on this shit.
No, I'm just feeling
like I'm being ambushed
or trapped or something.
Kind of pissed me off because
what the bleep is that bleep?
Shannon Initially, we really
wanted to help Benjaman Kyle,
but the more
that we learned about him,
the more
that he started to get angry.
He wants to control
the flow of information.
I'm not really sure
there's, there's a lot of
good memories for me here
in this town.
Are you, like, worried
that you're gonna, like,
run into people that, like
you didn't like, didn't like you?
You know, I don't think that much.
I think part of part of
the problem is, is this, uh,
this movie thing kind of scares me
a little bit.
Because all
these damn questions about.
Oh, why don't you want to know
what happened during those 20 years?
What the bleep is that bleep?
Of course, I'd like to know.
Okay.
And I feel every time you ask that
that it's, it's, it's, uh.
It's, it's, you know,
you're saying, well, why aren't
you more interested in it?
Well, I am interested in it,
but I'm not yelling and screaming my,
my head off that oh, God.
We got to find this out.
Hell, it's been 11 years
I've been living with this.
No, I know, but if you have. Now.
Now we're getting closer. You like?
Don't you want to know who you are?
And we're trying
to turn every stone.
And the reason why that pisses
me off every time you say that
is because you're implying
that I haven't been trying.
Well, I'm saying we're helping
you in ways
that I feel like
you won't have the opportunity to.
Benjaman laughing
Because I think
these mountain roads take skill,
and when flatlanders come up
here and drive them
they don't really have the skill.
This road is very narrow.
All the locals call it
the Oh-My-God Road
because when you're driving on it,
you're saying, "Oh, my God."
The car is almost scraping
the cliff wall
on the driver's side,
and on the passenger's side,
there's no guardrails.
You're looking straight down
a 200, 300-foot drop.
Benjaman laughs
eerie music playing
train whistle blowing
Benjaman
There's no cell phone service.
We're pretty high up.
Yeah, if anyone wants
to get rid of a body,
this would be a good place
to shove one off.
It'd be years before they found it.
You don't like my body comment?
That's all right.
I was trained
in criminal investigations,
because I had a background
as a prosecutor.
And when someone's lying
or they're guilty of something,
I'm pretty good at figuring it out.
I mean, just think about this
for a second.
You're a person
who's trying to figure out
who you used to be.
The one thing that's gonna
really help you do that is
linking yourself to a person
that remembers you.
But he doesn't want
to be asked about who.
So what this
is starting to seem like
is that he doesn't want us to know.
And then that makes me wonder,
"What are you hiding?"
We cannot trust
Benjaman's version of events.
We need to talk to the people
that were there
at the very beginning.
No.
I was one of the first people
on scene,
and Benjaman Kyle was not beaten,
and he was not bloody.
No, sir, I didn't.
If anybody did hit him,
I don't know.
But there was no bleeding anywhere.
Just nothing made sense
that morning.
It's just odd.
I'm Thomas Auer.
I was the general manager
for the Burger King
that Benjaman was found at.
And this is my wife, Son Yo.
Mm-hmm.
And Son's the one that actually
found him in the dumpster area.
-No blood.
-Son Yo No blood.
-No blood whatsoever.
-Son Yo No.
Thomas I made a phone call
to the Richmond Hill
Police Department dispatcher
and asked them
to dispatch the police
down to take care of the situation.
No.
No, it wasn't 911.
It was straight
to the dispatcher's office.
So you can just press play.
Who's this lady
that claims she found him?
Who say to find kill him?
I don't know who that lady was.
-She did not find him.
-She said "find him?"
He wasn't beaten,
-that we can see.
-No.
-There was no blood
of any kind, anywhere.
-No.
Yeah.
My name's Tracey Davis.
I was a student
at FSU College of Social Work.
I've always wanted to be
an actress, always wanted to be
on TV, wanted to be
in front of the camera,
anytime, all the time.
I heard about an audition
through FSU Film School,
this role being
a frantic caller that calls 911.
And they had about maybe
40 different people that was
reading for that role.
When I did the casting call,
I did it with John Wikstrom
and Benjaman Kyle.
There was some stiff competition,
but after I read
for the line several times,
they picked me because I'm the best.
Yes, that was me.
John gave me the most direction,
and for the most part,
we tried maybe
about 10 different ways,
and then they came up with a
way to not sound so dramatic,
but just actually just being
more shocked, but less dramatic.
Benjaman and John both were
really excited
about the project,
and when I was done,
they gave me hugs,
and they were like,
"Thank you so much.
"This is exactly what we needed.
It's gonna really turn out
really well."
phone line ringing
Um
John I know.
Mm-hmm.
Absolutely.
Shannon If the 911 call is fake,
then what else is fake?
Benjaman I was found behind
a dumpster at Burger King.
I don't know how I got there,
and I don't have memories
of who I am.
Shannon
If he wasn't beaten and bloody
and there's no blunt-force trauma,
then how did he lose his memory?
I think McNichols Arena
used to be right here.
There should be a Denny's
up here too.
Now I was here to see
a Blood, Sweat & Tears concert.
I was definitely here with someone.
Shannon
The 23 memories that we chased
all over Colorado.
I don't, I mean, it just feels
like I'm being ambushed
or trapped or something.
Shannon
Were any of those even real?
Benjaman People want me to
pound my fist against the wall,
screaming,
"Why can't I remember this?
Why can't I remember this?"
Oh, oh, that's a taco place.
Shannon Is the story
of Benjaman Kyle's amnesia
just total bullshit?
I don't know.
Shannon Is there something
he's hiding from his past?
What kind of person would do this?
ominous music playing
laughing
please record your message.
beep
So the detective who's coming over,
she's got all connections
in the schools,
because they'll
go over to the schools,
talk to the school, too,
alert them of the situation.
And how does she know I have twins?
Like, my social media is blocked.
I can't go back.
Because if I could, I would never
have done this show.
Like, ever.
Because she said my children.
Like, kill me, fine, but
Donald I don't have an answer
for that, because we all know
-I literally can't even talk
about it without crying.
-there's so much information.
I get that.
I mean, I stopped being
a prosecutor in part,
like, I left the DA's office
because I didn't want bleep
like this in my life.
Obviously,
they don't want the story out.
-Eric No.
-Now, who is-- who is "they"?
That's the dilemma here.
Shannon Eleven years ago,
I came across
this completely insane story.
It was about a man that had amnesia.
And I was obsessed.
I was gonna do anything
that I needed to do to find out
who this man was.
It's pretty pathetic
if no one's actually looking
for someone that disappeared.
reporter No one recognized
this man with no name.
Benjaman You don't know who I am,
and quite frankly, neither do I.
Josh Come on in, man.
He gained my trust.
-Give me a hug.
-All right.
I thought, "Let's get this guy
on his feet."
man AB marker, mark.
Benjaman Nothing right now
seems familiar to me.
I don't remember anything.
Josh Come here, buddy.
-I thought he was dead.
-Why did he leave?
man He could have got mixed up
with the wrong crowd.
In Lafayette,
we had criminal organizations.
Statute of limitations would be up
unless there was somebody killed.
Benjaman It'd be a nice place
to get rid of a body.
It'd be a while before
they found it.
dramatic chord strike
You and Dad made that in Cub Scouts.
I don't feel like talking.
woman Maybe he claimed amnesia
because he didn't want
the mafia coming after him.
If he was running from something,
why would you want your picture
all over the place?
Who the hell was he for 30 years
when he was living off the grid?
There's no paper trail on this guy.
I'm not an axe murderer
because they can't find
my fingerprints
anywhere on any crime scenes.
raspy laugh
Maybe you killed somebody.
I don't know.
It's almost like a game,
like "You can't catch me."
No, shut up!
This is my life you're bleep with.
Nothing here makes sense.
He's an anomaly of anomalies.
Shannon One weird thing
after the next.
What are you hiding?
That is the million-dollar question.
man
It really is a quest for truth.
Do you have a definition of truth?
laughs
theme music playing
Sue In August of 2004,
the tones went out dispatching us
to a Burger King for a man
that was unconscious and lying
behind the dumpsters.
I was one of
the first people on scene.
My name is Sue Usry.
I'm the paramedic
that responded to the call.
When we got on scene,
he was totally nude,
no wallet, no ID.
Who is this guy?
How did he get here?
What happened to him?
siren wailing
Benjaman
I don't know how I got there,
and I don't have no memories
of who I am.
I was also blind with cataracts.
I was taken to St. Joseph's Hospital
in Savannah.
In the emergency room,
I remember hearing the doctors
talking about that
they already had a John Doe,
and I was found
behind a Burger King,
so they just started
calling me BK Doe.
And I remember they were
all laughing
about that and making a joke
that if I'd have been found
behind a McDonald's,
I'd be McDonald Doe.
Everyone just assumed
I was a homeless bum,
and they didn't know
what to do with me.
They kept asking me
what my name was,
and I told them Benjaman.
For some reason,
that stuck in my mind.
I thought that was it,
with the odd spelling ending
in M-A-N.
And then everyone kept coming
in and asking me
what the hell my last name was.
And I finally, to shut them up,
I just told them it was Kyle,
because they were calling me BK Doe.
And Kyle was the only thing
I could think of at the time
that began with a K.
They fixed my eyes,
got the operations
for cataract surgery.
Right after the surgery,
after it cleared up,
I was in the bathroom shaving,
and I looked
in the mirror and I could not
recognize myself.
I couldn't believe
what I was seeing.
My hair is all gone gray.
I looked so old.
It was just shock.
It was just shock.
I was thinking I was still,
like, 40 years old.
But I'm not 40 years old.
I'm 60 years old.
It just-- just did not look right.
I didn't know who I was.
The FBI did one run of fingerprints.
They did it both electronically
and with the ink.
I never heard a thing from them.
-I finally walked over
to the office
-doorbell rings
and rang their doorbell.
You can't just get
into the FBI, I mean,
but anyway, they came down and said,
"Oh, yeah, yeah,
you weren't in our files.
"You weren't
on the most wanted list."
So, no, I'm not the type
of person to be an axe murderer.
John I read
about Benjaman's story online,
and it was an unsolved mystery.
clapboard clicks
My name is John Wikstrom,
and in 2011,
I was a student
at the FSU Film School.
I had to do a documentary.
I thought, "This is a good subject."
I said, "Sure, why not?"
And we made a documentary,
which has gotten pretty famous.
Hello, my name is Benjaman Kyle.
You don't know who I am,
and quite frankly, neither do I.
If this were a game of Clue
and I had to give my best guess
on what I think went down,
I think Benjaman was homeless.
I don't think he'd got in any crimes
and wouldn't have
any fingerprints anywhere,
but I think there had to
have been some kind of accident.
woman I think he passed out.
People were saying that
I was beaten to a bloody pulp.
reporter Bleeding and possibly
dead man.
reporter #2 Head trauma
from a brutal beating.
reporter #3
Left him with a form of amnesia.
Without memories, without identity,
there's not a lot he can hold on to.
In a field behind
the police department.
because none of the homeless
shelters will take me in
because I don't have any ID.
Without a social security number,
you can't get a job,
you cannot get a bank account,
you cannot get a lease,
you can't do anything.
The documentary is an SOS message.
It was a cry for help.
Nobody has recognized me,
but I still have a past.
It's been almost five years that
I've been working with Benjaman.
We've spent so much time together.
I like walking in the streets
of the big city.
Harry Potter's got his
footprints out here somewhere.
He is a friend to me.
He was a guest of honor
at my wedding.
I know him in the way
that you know a friend
or a family member.
bicycle bell rings
It's amazing,
the outpouring of generosity
people have given to Benjaman.
Friends hooked him up
with a place to stay
and with some cash.
I guess I'm emotionally
attached to Benjaman.
sniffles
You know, in some ways,
I love the guy like a father
or sometimes like a brother.
Benjaman is quick to be friendly
with people all around.
Benjaman Hey, man. How you doing?
-Josh He's charming.
-It was good seeing you.
Josh You know, he can crack jokes.
You're not going to find
an apple fritter like that
at Dunkin' Donuts.
Josh He's smart as a fox.
Benjaman This computer someone
gave me, Windows XP.
Josh He liked going
to the hardware store.
He loves tools.
I'd really like to have
one of these. laughs
You know, he could fix anything.
This is a radial arm saw.
Very knowledgeable
about history and movies.
Benjaman "Kill Bill," that was
really funny-- I liked that.
And really knows a lot
about restaurants.
One time I went to a restaurant,
and I went in
and ordered French fries,
because I love French fries.
music playing
They came out with
this huge plate of French fries,
and then I started eating
the French fries,
and I noticed what the plate was,
it had a dome in the middle.
When they bring the plate out,
it looks like you're getting
this huge amount of fries,
and you're not.
laughs
# Dream #
# Dream #
# Just a little of you #
Dr. Gorgens
There's so much about memory,
the way the brain works,
that we still don't know.
# I can't forget you #
My name's Dr. Kim Gorgens.
I've been studying head trauma
and amnesia for almost
30 years.
And I love a case
that gets your head scratched,
that is a mystery.
It's a little like detective work.
Movies about amnesia
kind of crack me up.
The Hollywood portrayal of amnesia
couldn't be further from the truth.
It's almost never the case
that someone wakes up and is,
like, completely wiped clean.
I can't remember.
That blank slate phenomena,
we would call that
a generalized amnesia.
In Benjaman's case,
the experience of being
wiped clean is so rare,
the odds of finding
a patient like Benjaman,
it's mind-blowing.
Benjaman is
in the less than one percent.
There's only been
just over 100 cases
in recorded medical history.
In my experience,
people with amnesia
have a lot of suffering.
And if you can imagine,
in Benjaman's case,
to wake up with no memory
of who you are,
where you've been,
it would be devastating.
And, I would imagine, terrifying.
You know, I never talked
to people about it
because I never thought that,
you know,
I had the right to impose
my problems on them.
Sorry.
I think for Benjaman,
it's been heartbreaking
to live in this world
without any means
of helping yourself.
If I had to define
the last 10 years,
I would say it, you know,
it's like being in hell.
That's what I'd say it was.
Without a Social Security,
you're pretty much a ghost
walking through society.
You can't do anything.
You don't exist.
John The reality is,
is there is so little
he can do in his situation.
I think it would be
too painful to have hope.
Benjaman Everyone
we talked to out there
swore up and down that they
were going to solve the case.
They didn't.
John Do you think
there's anyone looking for you?
Maybe a family member?
You know, actually, it's--
when you think about it,
it's pretty pathetic
if no one's actually looking
for someone that disappeared.
I mean, you know, isn't there
anyone important enough
in your past life that
they'd want to look for you?
Sometimes I just wish
I hadn't woke up.
melancholic music playing
I don't-- I don't
like living now like this.
I think, uh
ominous music playing
dramatic chord strike
Benjaman
This is the skeleton of what's
left of the Burger King,
where I was found in 2004.
The only thing
that's left is the-- the floor.
That's the dumpster
I was found behind.
This is where
Benjaman Kyle was born.
I don't know.
I don't know.
I suppose I could have been
sleeping in the woods back here.
There's all kinds of remains
of homeless camps.
I don't know.
I mean, you know,
hell, it's possible that aliens
dropped me off.
This is a big mystery.
I don't know who I am,
why I haven't been found,
what caused it.
I do have some memories
of Indianapolis and Colorado,
but my memories seem to end
in the middle of '86, 1986.
And then after that, you know,
everything is pretty hazy.
Katherine I believe that
Benjaman probably did suffer
some kind of amnesia,
but I think you can use the things
that happened in your life
to become stronger and better.
My name is Katherine Slater,
and I worked
at J.C. Lewis Health Center.
And that's where I met Benjaman.
Life was so rough for him.
He didn't have an identity.
And I just thought the story
was just overwhelmingly sad,
will bring you to tears
if you're human.
When he got out, he didn't have
a place to go,
and so Benjaman lived with me
for about four years.
I wanted to help him,
like a puzzle that just has
to be solved.
I got involved.
I wanted to be the one to solve it.
And I thought, the only way
to really solve this,
is national exposure.
And then eventually,
Dr. Phil got in touch.
traffic noise
coffee gently splashing
That's a damn fine cup of coffee.
My name is Harold Copus.
I worked for the FBI
as a special agent
for almost nine years,
and then did work
for the Dr. Phil show
for almost 10 years.
The Benjaman Kyle case
was just one of several hundred
or more cases I worked.
But this one baffled me.
Here's a guy that couldn't tell you
where he bought his underwear.
When I first got the telephone
call from the show,
they said this guy
suffered from amnesia.
And what they wanted me to do
was see if I could find out
the guy's real name.
Helping to reunite a family somewhere
that's missing either
a father or a husband.
So, we're gonna do something good.
We'll throw Harold into that
barrel and see what he can do.
When I first met Benjaman,
he would say,
"I have a memory of Indianapolis."
One point he mentioned Colorado.
I traveled around
the United States trying
to find his identity.
I'm knocking on doors,
looked through yearbooks,
could not find
a photograph of this guy.
And I've done about everything
you can do.
I've run your fingerprints.
I got your DNA.
I've gone to Indianapolis.
I didn't go to Colorado.
At a certain stage,
you just have to say,
"Hey, we spent a lot of money,
and I'm not sure
where this is going."
But I'm getting
a lot of pressure from the show.
"Harold, what are you going to do?"
And so I said, "We need to do
an age regression"
"to what this guy may look like
when he's 20 years old,
when he's 30 years old."
You know, everyone asks me
that question,
and I get the impression
that people want me to,
you know, stand around pounding
my fist against the wall,
screaming,
"Why can't I remember this?
Why can't I remember this?"
Not until Dr. Phil.
Ben, thank you for being here.
Benjaman When I went
to the Dr. Phil show, they said,
"We're gonna solve this case.
"We are so popular
across the country.
This case is gonna be solved."
We enlisted the help
of 200-plus stations
around the country.
Harold The Dr. Phil show
reached millions of viewers.
I was convinced 100 percent
that somebody's gonna call in,
he will be identified.
When that didn't happen,
my reaction was,
"That's impossible."
I was flabbergasted.
John That was a big loss
to Benjaman.
Once you're on national TV,
if nobody recognizes you,
then that points
to a much bigger problem.
Benjaman I don't know
what's gonna happen to me.
-Shannon Hey.
-Ken Hey, Shannon.
So, Eric is here with me
and Alexander Block.
Can you just walk us
through what happened?
It was 2014 when I first
learned about Benjaman Kyle.
I had been watching
an old movie on amnesia.
How can I make any promises
when I don't even know who I am?
And I Googled "amnesiac"
and Benjaman Kyle came up.
Eleven years has passed,
but Benjaman's progress
on figuring out who he was
hasn't changed since he was
found in 2004.
My husband and I
own Hot Snakes Media,
and we make documentaries.
But before I became
a television producer,
I was a deputy district attorney.
Then I went to the Manhattan
DA's office,
where I was an assistant
district attorney.
After that,
I went into private practice.
I did civil litigation,
and then I became
a television producer.
Thanks, guys.
# Ain't nobody better
than a legend in they prime #
Shannon
We have this amazing team.
It includes Ken Maxwell.
He's the former head
of the FBI Joint Terrorism
Task Force in New York.
# Aye-yi-yi-yi-yi-yi,
all work, no play #
Shannon And I just felt
between Ken, Eric, and I,
with our background in news
and law enforcement,
we're gonna be able to uncover
Benjaman's forgotten past
and hopefully reunite him
with his family.
The coolest thing is I learned
that Benjaman has exactly
twenty three memories of his past.
Colorado holds the majority of
Benjaman's forgotten memories.
When I found that out,
I knew I'd be able to solve this.
man AB marker, mark.
Yeah, it's like there's a huge gap.
I don't have any memories from, uh,
like-- like, the mid-'80s
to, stammers, 2004.
But I've got a lot of memories
from Colorado.
I remember the Top
of the Rockies restaurant
up there.
They had an outside elevator.
Red Rocks.
Blood, Sweat & Tears concert, '78.
I remember the Big
Thompson Canyon flood on '76.
The Oh-My-God Road.
When you're driving on it,
you're saying, "Oh, my God."
I've got really vivid memories
of the two theaters that are
across the street from one another.
Shannon So many people have
tried to help Benjaman
over the past decade,
but no one has
ever taken him back there.
Benjaman hasn't been
back to Colorado in 30 years.
Um, excited, eager, scared,
you knowum,
nervous.
airplane engine rumbles
indistinct PA announcements
Alexander
This could be an amazing thing.
You could unlock a past
and connect them to a family
and loving people.
But there's also that chance
that this man is a recluse
children laughing
and just comes home to nothing
and microwaves his TV dinner
and eats his turkey and peas.
We don't know what
we're getting ourselves into.
But with that one memory,
if we find it,
we can figure out who this guy is
right here, right now.
Benjaman I have scattered
memories of Colorado.
I'm not sure how much
I'm gonna recognize.
I used to ride the buses a lot.
Public transportation in Colorado.
bus honks
I think basically
I'm the same person that I was
then, I mean, I've always said
I was never an axe murderer,
and we've certainly proven that,
at least the ways
the FBI can't prove that now.
dramatic music playing
indistinct chatter
Benjaman
We're at the University
of Colorado in Boulder.
I never attended school here.
I just visited the library
to read the books.
I'm sure I was here.
I recognized the campus.
You know, I was in that library
on an upper floor by a window
that overlooked the atrium.
And we know that was in '76
because that atrium opened in '76.
This does not feel
like I remembered it.
I thought I would recognize it.
I know there was
a three-story atrium, sighs.
But it's not here now.
It just feels completely foreign.
Yes, I know it's this library.
I think they probably
switched everything around.
I came here excited,
hoping that we figure out
who Benjaman Kyle is.
Finding that one memory
that could just unleash
Pandora's box and Benjaman
remembers everything.
But it seems like
this isn't gonna be easy.
This is one of the places
that I was most excited
about visiting.
But it's frustrating
because I don't remember anything.
I'm just disappointed.
Damn it. bleep
Benjaman
We are headed towards Red Rock.
And I'm thinking that's it
up there on the right.
crowd cheers faintly
Benjaman
I was here in 1978 to see
a Blood, Sweat & Tears concert
with the Denver Symphony Orchestra.
electric guitar playing
They did "And When I Die."
And this was one of the places
that we know 100 percent sure
that I was here.
Because that was the only time
that Red Rocks had
a joint concert with
the Denver Symphony Orchestra
and Blood, Sweat & Tears.
I must have come with people
because there's no public
transportation to these concerts.
So I must have been here
with someone.
But I don't know who.
It's starting to come together,
but it's not in
a significant-eureka-moment way
where he suddenly remembers why
he was here
and who he was here with.
Benjaman Right now,
we're on Pearl Street.
When I came here in '76,
they began the construction
of a pedestrian mall.
I think that's tobacco.
No, it says THC.
laughs Want to get high?
All the kids had flat tops
when I was a kid.
Be the guy in the center.
Yeah, all the kids had
flat tops when I was a kid.
It's the Fox Theater.
I just had a memory come back
to me in which the manager
let us, stammers,
I was with someone,
let us in to watch
the movies for free.
We were talking to him,
and he let us in,
and we watched the movie.
I don't know.
I don't know.
All of these memories he has
are shockingly non-personal.
He can't tell us who he went
to the movie theater with.
He can't tell us who he went
to the concert with.
The personal details
are completely missing.
I think McNichols Arena
used to be right here.
There should be a Denny's up here,
too, on Federal.
Okay, this is Colfax.
That'll be a left at the stoplight.
Oh, oh, um
That's a taco place,
that Casa Bonita.
Oh, there's a shopping center
up here on the right.
Right there.
You're gonna angle to the left
and go straight.
Benjaman
I'm familiar with this area.
I'm almost positive there's
a Jewish cemetery over there.
Can we go across the street?
Are we going? I'm going.
I'm going.
traffic noise
-horn honking
-man Get out of the street!
Cemetery.
Kind of pictured the cemetery
as being sort of abandoned.
Benjaman I don't know.
Kids hang around graveyards.
It's a playground.
Smoking pot,
having sex on tombstones,
and laughs doing, uh,
satanic rituals or something.
Wouldn't it be fun to dig up
a skeleton or something
when you were a kid?
Did you ever want to dig up
a skeleton when you were a kid?
I know I've been over here
because they had
equipment sales.
I remember the equipment
being in the parking lot,
and they were selling it.
I know that I worked in restaurants.
I don't know. No.
All right.
What? No.
You're wrong.
You lied to me when you said,
"We're just driving around."
Why the bleep didn't you tell me?
Don't surprise me on this shit.
No, I'm just feeling
like I'm being ambushed
or trapped or something.
Kind of pissed me off because
what the bleep is that bleep?
Shannon Initially, we really
wanted to help Benjaman Kyle,
but the more
that we learned about him,
the more
that he started to get angry.
He wants to control
the flow of information.
I'm not really sure
there's, there's a lot of
good memories for me here
in this town.
Are you, like, worried
that you're gonna, like,
run into people that, like
you didn't like, didn't like you?
You know, I don't think that much.
I think part of part of
the problem is, is this, uh,
this movie thing kind of scares me
a little bit.
Because all
these damn questions about.
Oh, why don't you want to know
what happened during those 20 years?
What the bleep is that bleep?
Of course, I'd like to know.
Okay.
And I feel every time you ask that
that it's, it's, it's, uh.
It's, it's, you know,
you're saying, well, why aren't
you more interested in it?
Well, I am interested in it,
but I'm not yelling and screaming my,
my head off that oh, God.
We got to find this out.
Hell, it's been 11 years
I've been living with this.
No, I know, but if you have. Now.
Now we're getting closer. You like?
Don't you want to know who you are?
And we're trying
to turn every stone.
And the reason why that pisses
me off every time you say that
is because you're implying
that I haven't been trying.
Well, I'm saying we're helping
you in ways
that I feel like
you won't have the opportunity to.
Benjaman laughing
Because I think
these mountain roads take skill,
and when flatlanders come up
here and drive them
they don't really have the skill.
This road is very narrow.
All the locals call it
the Oh-My-God Road
because when you're driving on it,
you're saying, "Oh, my God."
The car is almost scraping
the cliff wall
on the driver's side,
and on the passenger's side,
there's no guardrails.
You're looking straight down
a 200, 300-foot drop.
Benjaman laughs
eerie music playing
train whistle blowing
Benjaman
There's no cell phone service.
We're pretty high up.
Yeah, if anyone wants
to get rid of a body,
this would be a good place
to shove one off.
It'd be years before they found it.
You don't like my body comment?
That's all right.
I was trained
in criminal investigations,
because I had a background
as a prosecutor.
And when someone's lying
or they're guilty of something,
I'm pretty good at figuring it out.
I mean, just think about this
for a second.
You're a person
who's trying to figure out
who you used to be.
The one thing that's gonna
really help you do that is
linking yourself to a person
that remembers you.
But he doesn't want
to be asked about who.
So what this
is starting to seem like
is that he doesn't want us to know.
And then that makes me wonder,
"What are you hiding?"
We cannot trust
Benjaman's version of events.
We need to talk to the people
that were there
at the very beginning.
No.
I was one of the first people
on scene,
and Benjaman Kyle was not beaten,
and he was not bloody.
No, sir, I didn't.
If anybody did hit him,
I don't know.
But there was no bleeding anywhere.
Just nothing made sense
that morning.
It's just odd.
I'm Thomas Auer.
I was the general manager
for the Burger King
that Benjaman was found at.
And this is my wife, Son Yo.
Mm-hmm.
And Son's the one that actually
found him in the dumpster area.
-No blood.
-Son Yo No blood.
-No blood whatsoever.
-Son Yo No.
Thomas I made a phone call
to the Richmond Hill
Police Department dispatcher
and asked them
to dispatch the police
down to take care of the situation.
No.
No, it wasn't 911.
It was straight
to the dispatcher's office.
So you can just press play.
Who's this lady
that claims she found him?
Who say to find kill him?
I don't know who that lady was.
-She did not find him.
-She said "find him?"
He wasn't beaten,
-that we can see.
-No.
-There was no blood
of any kind, anywhere.
-No.
Yeah.
My name's Tracey Davis.
I was a student
at FSU College of Social Work.
I've always wanted to be
an actress, always wanted to be
on TV, wanted to be
in front of the camera,
anytime, all the time.
I heard about an audition
through FSU Film School,
this role being
a frantic caller that calls 911.
And they had about maybe
40 different people that was
reading for that role.
When I did the casting call,
I did it with John Wikstrom
and Benjaman Kyle.
There was some stiff competition,
but after I read
for the line several times,
they picked me because I'm the best.
Yes, that was me.
John gave me the most direction,
and for the most part,
we tried maybe
about 10 different ways,
and then they came up with a
way to not sound so dramatic,
but just actually just being
more shocked, but less dramatic.
Benjaman and John both were
really excited
about the project,
and when I was done,
they gave me hugs,
and they were like,
"Thank you so much.
"This is exactly what we needed.
It's gonna really turn out
really well."
phone line ringing
Um
John I know.
Mm-hmm.
Absolutely.
Shannon If the 911 call is fake,
then what else is fake?
Benjaman I was found behind
a dumpster at Burger King.
I don't know how I got there,
and I don't have memories
of who I am.
Shannon
If he wasn't beaten and bloody
and there's no blunt-force trauma,
then how did he lose his memory?
I think McNichols Arena
used to be right here.
There should be a Denny's
up here too.
Now I was here to see
a Blood, Sweat & Tears concert.
I was definitely here with someone.
Shannon
The 23 memories that we chased
all over Colorado.
I don't, I mean, it just feels
like I'm being ambushed
or trapped or something.
Shannon
Were any of those even real?
Benjaman People want me to
pound my fist against the wall,
screaming,
"Why can't I remember this?
Why can't I remember this?"
Oh, oh, that's a taco place.
Shannon Is the story
of Benjaman Kyle's amnesia
just total bullshit?
I don't know.
Shannon Is there something
he's hiding from his past?
What kind of person would do this?
ominous music playing
laughing