There’s been a lot of talk about stopping the flow of illegal immigration and drugs from Mexico. But few people are talking about another crisis at the border…guns. Specifically, American guns.

An estimated 200,000 to half million U.S. firearms are smuggled into Mexico every year —part of what’s known as the “iron river.” 

Mexico says those American guns are responsible for much of the cartel violence that’s plagued its country…. and now… it’s taking an unusual approach to try and stop it…. it’s suing. 

The government of Mexico has filed lawsuits in U.S. courts against a handful of gun stores and one of the largest gun manufacturers in America.

It believes damming that “iron river” might also fix some of the problems that plague the U.S. 

Jonathan Lowy: If you think fentanyl overdoses are a problem, if you think migration across the border is a problem, if you think the spread of organized crime is a problem in the United States, then you should care about stopping the crime gun pipeline to Mexico. And you need to stop it at its source. Because all those problems are driven by the supply of U.S. guns to the cartels.

Jonathan Lowy is an American attorney who’s been battling the gun industry in court for 25 years.

Mexico asked Lowy to help devise its strategy to cut off the gun pipeline after one of the deadliest chapters in the country’s history…that culminated with this….

2019, Mexican armed forces captured one of the most wanted drug lords in the world…Ovidio Guzmán López, the son of  the former Sinaloa cartel boss-known as El Chapo. 

In their custody was the man, U.S. prosecutors say was largely responsible for the massive influx of fentanyl in the United States.

But what should have been a turning point in the war on drugs…turned into a deadly, five-hour gun battle with 600 cartel gunmen. That is a 50-caliber belt-fed rifle…sourced from America. The cartel doused soldiers with gunfire, took hostages, and blocked entrances to the city – burning vehicles.

Outgunned, and hoping to end the bloodshed, Mexico’s president at the time….Andrés Manuel López Obrador… ordered Guzmán to be released. 

This past March, we spoke to then-President López Obrador in Mexico City. Homicides and cartel violence soared during his six-year term. We were surprised who he said was, partly, to blame.

Sharyn Alfonsi: Where is the cartel getting their guns?

President López Obrador: From the United States. We have confiscated in the time that I’ve been in government 50,000 guns of high power of high caliber. 50,000 guns. And 75% of them, from the United States.

Which is why he said…his government was pursuing two civil lawsuits in S.S. courts seeking $10 billion for the damages U.S. guns have caused in Mexico.

The first, filed in 2021, included U.S. gun manufacturer Smith & Wesson and one of their wholesalers.

The other filed a year later…against five U.S. gun stores for what mexico claims are – quote “reckless and unlawful business practices” (that) supply dangerous criminals …”

Sharyn Alfonsi: Is it the U.S.’s responsibility to stop guns from getting in the hands of the cartel? Or is it the Mexican government’s responsibility to keep the guns out?

President López Obrador (In Spanish/English translation): : Of both. Of both governments. But there has to be cooperation. You cannot sell weapons to just anybody.

Like the U.S., Mexico’s constitution grants citizens the right to bear arms…. but unlike the U.S., that right comes with a long list of restrictions. 

There’s only one gun store in Mexico…in the middle of a heavily guarded military base in Mexico City…we were allowed in. 

But before customers can enter, they have to show proof they’ve passed psychological tests, drug screens and extensive background checks.

The store sells about a thousand guns a month. Mostly, shotguns, small caliber rifles, and handguns… what civilians can’t buy here are the weapons the cartel favors. Those are not legally sold anywhere in Mexico.

Tim Sloan: Cartels’ favorite weapons are weapons of war. Belt Feds, .50 caliber rifles– guns that you can shoot from a mile away. The more expensive, the more powerful, the sexier they think they are.

Sharyn Alfonsi: It’s a trophy?

Tim Sloan: It is a trophy. 

Tim Sloan worked for the ATF… the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives…for 22 years. His last assignment was running the ATf’s four field offices in Mexico – during some of the bloodiest years on record.

Part of his job was tracing the guns recovered at crime scenes. In 2019, one of those scenes was inside a cartel ranch near Guadalajara.

Tim Sloan: There was um dead bodies everywhere. There was a 14-year-old girl choppin’ up bodies. And so there were 55 gallon drums with body parts in ’em. It’s something that the human mind can almost not comprehend or–or fathom. And all the weapons in that house came from the United States. All of them. Every person there was murdered by a firearm purchased in the U.S. And so it was– it made a very lasting impression on me.

Sloan says most of the guns the ATF traced in Mexico were sold directly to traffickers or to so-called “straw purchasers”… someone who buys a firearm on behalf of another person. In this case, Americans buying guns that ultimately, end up in the hands of the cartel.

Sharyn Alfonsi: What did you learn during your time about how the cartel was getting these guns from the United States into Mexico?

Tim Sloan: Well, I mean, it’s pretty easy, right? So it’s straw purchasers. You know, you’re– you’re offerin’ a 23-year-old girl in Arizona 4,000, 5,000 dollars just to go into a store and buy a gun for you. She’s gonna do that. A lot of people are gonna do that, especially if they have any addiction problems, but no criminal record.

Sharyn Alfonsi: Can you send a 24-year-old to go buy an AK47?

Tim Sloan: Oh, as many as they want. Five, five-hundred. They can buy as many as they want as long as they’re not prohibited.

Sharyn Alfonsi: And how do they get them into Mexico?

Tim Sloan: Well, that’s the easy part. Just drive across the border. 

That porous border…works both ways. Over seven years, the ATF traced 50,000 American guns recovered in Mexico to gun dealers across the United States. 

But Mexico’s lawsuit names just five dealers… from one state.. Arizona. In Mexico City, attorney Alejandro Celorio spearheaded the lawsuits for the Mexican government. 

Alejandro Celorio: We believe they’re liable for actively facilitating the trafficking of firearms that empower the cartels, the fentanyl crisis. A cartel without firearm is– is just a gang. 

Sharyn Alfonsi: The five gun shops that you’ve named in Arizona, how did you choose those five gun shops?

Alejandro Celorio: It’s based off who do we believe are the– the bad actors in this dynamic.

It’s difficult to know which gun dealers could be, “bad actors” because U.S. law prohibits the ATF from publicly releasing specific gun trace information.

But 60 Minutes reviewed internal ATF and Mexican law enforcement documents. According to the documents… 566 guns recovered in Mexico over a four-and-a-half-year period…. were traced back to the Arizona gun dealers named in Mexico’s lawsuit. 

And nearly 200 of the guns came from one dealer, Ammo AZ…near Phoenix. Veerachart ‘Danger’ Murphy is the store’s owner.

Murphy: We sell guns here legally.

Murphy declined to be interviewed by 60 Minutes but after Ammo AZ was named in Mexico’s lawsuit…he posted this response online. 

Murphy: If we were actually doing something illegal, ATF FBI would have already shut us down. And I would be in jail.

The ATF has said a crime gun trace does not necessarily indicate gun dealer wrongdoing.

Jonathan Lowy: If you’re a dealer and you have reason to know that that person is a straw buyer or gun trafficker, it’s your legal obligation not to supply them with guns.

Jonathan Lowy, who is Mexico’s co-counsel, has litigated gun cases in more than 40 states. 

Sharyn Alfonsi: The gun shop owners we spoke to said, “Look, I’m– running the background checks, I’m filling out the paperwork. I’m doing everything that I’m supposed to do. Isn’t that enough?”

Jonathan Lowy: Absolutely not. The dealer’s main responsibility, in my view, is to pay attention to indicators to see if the person standing in front of them, on the other side of the counter, is a potential criminal or supplier to the criminal market.

Sharyn Alfonsi: The gun retailers say it’s really hard to know sometimes if somebody’s a straw buyer, right? That they come in with a good cover story and you have to believe them.

Jonathan Lowy: It’s pretty obvious. I mean, you see these multiple sales of– of AR-15s, you see these large cash payments, you see these persons comin’ back to the store every few days or every few weeks. I mean, these are not normal buying patterns.

There are more than 75,000 licensed gun dealers in the United States, twice as many as U.S. post offices. Jonathan Lowy says most of those dealers are acting responsibly.

Jonathan Lowy: About 90% of gun dealers sell zero-crime guns. I mean, that is a great mark for the gun industry. That shows that if you pay attention to these obvious indicators of trafficking and straw buying, you can actually stop supplying crime guns. The problem is these bad actors. And there’s no good reason why manufacturers don’t say, “Look, if you’re sellin’ our guns, use best practices.

Which is why Mexico filed its other lawsuit…against gun manufacturer, Smith & Wesson. 

Under U.S. law, gunmakers have typically been shielded from liability when one of their guns is used in a crime.

But Mexico is arguing the manufacturer is “aiding and abetting” gun trafficking to the cartels. In court, Smith & Wesson called that allegation “not true. ” They did not respond to our request for comment. 

Sharyn Alfonsi: How can you say manufacturers are responsible for anything when there are so many steps in the process between the time that they make it and it goes to the retailer, and then maybe it’s sold to somebody else or resold? How can you trace it back and say, “It’s the manufacturers…”

Jonathan Lowy: When manufacturers make the decision, “We’re gonna sell guns through dealers no matter what their record is, no matter how many crime guns they’re sellin.'” You know, that’s on them.

Sharyn Alfonsi: You say they know that the guns are going to the gun stores that are bad actors. How do they know? 

Jonathan Lowy: Well, manufacturers, and dealers, and distributors all get trace data. That is when law enforcement recovers a gun in crime, they determine its commercial history. And every seller in every point of the chain knows that that’s a gun that they sold, that was recovered in [a] crime.

If Mexico’s lawsuit is successful, it could open the door for more lawsuits foreign and domestic – against the gun industry.

Earlier this year, gun manufacturers successfully petitioned the Supreme Court to review the case.

They argued they could face years of costly litigation by another country that is “…trying to bully the industry into adopting a host of gun-control measures.”

Three years after the deadly battle that ended with his release….fentanyl drug lord Ovidio Guzmán López was finally recaptured in Sinaloa in 2023.

His arrest sparked another gunfight that left 10 soldiers dead.

The violence continues today. In the last four months, cartel in-fighting has killed more than 500 people in Sinaloa.

According to documents obtained by 60 Minutes…47 guns were seized after Guzmán’s capture… including an AK-47-style- rifle traced back to one of the defendants in Mexico’s lawsuit…Ammo AZ.

Produced by Katie Kerbstat. Associate producer, Erin DuCharme. News associate, Mary Cunningham. Edited by Joe Schanzer.

Sharyn Alfonsi

Sharyn Alfonsi is an award-winning correspondent for 60 Minutes.

During one of the deadliest chapters in its history, Mexico’s government devised a new strategy to curb gun violence; it filed two lawsuits.The first, in 2021, included U.S. gun manufacturer Smith & Wesson and one of their wholesalers. The second, filed a year later, against five U.S. gun stores, claimed they engaged in “reckless and unlawful business practices” that supply dangerous criminals.

An estimated 200,000 to half million U.S. firearms are smuggled into Mexico every year. Mexico asked American attorney Jonathan Lowy to help cut off the gun pipeline, known as the “iron river.”

“If you think fentanyl overdoses are a problem, if you think migration across the border is a problem, if you think the spread of organized crime is a problem in the United States, then you should care about stopping the crime gun pipeline to Mexico,” Lowy said. “And you need to stop it at its source. Because all those problems are driven by the supply of U.S. guns to the cartels.”

Mexico’s gun laws

Like the U.S., Mexico’s constitution grants its citizens the right to bear arms. But unlike the U.S., that right comes with a long list of restrictions. 

There’s also a big difference in the number of gun dealers. In the U.S., there are more than 75,000 active gun dealers, twice as many as U.S. post offices. While in Mexico, there’s just one gun store. It’s located in the middle of a heavily guarded military base in Mexico City. 

Before customers can even enter, they must show proof they’ve passed psychological tests, drug screens and extensive background checks. The store sells about 1,000 guns a month, mostly shotguns, small caliber rifles and handguns. 

Cartel gun violence in Mexico

The high caliber guns the cartels favor are not sold legally to civilians in Mexico. However, the cartels have no trouble getting them elsewhere. 

On Oct. 17, 2019 Mexican armed forces captured one of the most wanted drug lords in the world, Ovidio Guzmán López, the son of the former Sinaloa cartel boss known as El Chapo. What should have been a turning point in the war on drugs turned into a deadly, five-hour gun battle. Hundreds of cartel gunmen, outfitted for combat, doused soldiers with gunfire, took hostages and blocked entrances to the city with burning vehicles. 

Outgunned, and hoping to end the bloodshed, Mexico’s president at the time, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, ordered Guzmán released. This past March, 60 Minutes spoke with then-President López Obrador. Homicides and cartel violence soared during his six-year term and he said the U.S. was partly to blame.

“We have confiscated, in the time that I’ve been in government, 50,000 guns of high power, of high caliber,” he said. “Fifty thousand guns. And 75% of them from the United States.”

Three years after the deadly battle, Guzmán was recaptured in Sinaloa in 2023. His arrest sparked another gunfight that left 10 soldiers dead. 

According to documents obtained by 60 Minutes, 47 guns were seized after Guzmán’s capture, including an AK-47-style rifle traced back to one of the gun dealer defendants in Mexico’s lawsuit, Ammo AZ. 

How guns from the U.S. get into Mexico

When a gun is recovered at a crime scene, it’s the job of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) to trace it. Tim Sloan was ATF’s attaché in Mexico from 2019-2022. As attaché he ran the ATF’s four field offices in Mexico. In 2019, an incident at a cartel ranch near Guadalajara made a lasting impression on him.

“There was dead bodies everywhere…There were 55 gallon drums with body parts in ’em,” said Sloan. “And all the weapons in that house came from the United States. All of them.”

Sloan says most of the guns the ATF traced in Mexico were sold directly to traffickers or to so-called “straw purchasers,” someone who buys a firearm on behalf of another person

“You’re offering a 23-year-old girl in Arizona $4,000, $5,000 just to go into a store and buy a gun for you,” Sloan said. “She’s going to do that. A lot of people are going to do that, especially if they have any addiction problems, but no criminal record.” 

If buyers do not have a criminal history, in certain states, they can buy as many guns as they want. After that comes the easy part, “just drive across the border, ” explained Sloan. 

Why Mexico is suing five gun dealers in Arizona

The ATF traced 50,000 American guns recovered in Mexico from 2015 to 2022 to gun dealers across the United States. Mexico’s lawsuit names just five dealers, all from one state: Arizona. Alejandro Celorio, the attorney who spearheaded the lawsuits for the Mexican government, said he believes those dealers are liable for facilitating the arms trafficking that empowers the cartels.

The five gun shops named in the suit were selected based on who Mexico believes are “the bad actors in this dynamic,” Celorio said. 

It’s difficult to know which gun dealers could be these so-called “bad actors” because U.S. law prohibits the ATF from publicly releasing specific gun trace information. But 60 Minutes reviewed internal ATF and Mexican law enforcement documents. According to those documents, 566 guns recovered in Mexico over a four-and-a-half-year period were traced back to the Arizona dealers named in Mexico’s lawsuit. Nearly 200 of the guns came from one dealer: Ammo AZ, located near Phoenix and owned by Veerachart “Danger” Murphy. 

Murphy declined to be interviewed by 60 Minutes, but after Ammo AZ was named in Mexico’s suit, he posted a response online. 

“If we were actually doing something illegal, ATF, FBI would have already shut us down. And I would be in jail,” he said in his online post. 

The ATF has said a crime gun trace does not necessarily indicate gun dealer wrongdoing.

Lowy, who has litigated gun cases in more than 40 states and is now co-counsel in Mexico’s case, said dealers are legally obligated not to sell guns to someone they suspect is a straw buyer or a trafficker.  

“The dealer’s main responsibility, in my view, is to pay attention to indicators to see if the person standing in front of them, on the other side of the counter, is a potential criminal or supplier to the criminal market,” Lowy said. 

Gun dealers who 60 Minutes spoke with say they’re running the needed background checks, filling out the required paperwork and doing what they’re supposed to do. They say it’s challenging to know sometimes if somebody’s a straw buyer, but Lowy disagrees. 

“It’s pretty obvious,” he said. “I mean, you see these multiple sales of AR-15s, you see these large cash payments, you see these persons coming back to the store every few days or every few weeks. I mean, these are not normal buying patterns.”

Most gun dealers in the U.S. act responsibly, Lowy said. 

“That shows that if you pay attention to these obvious indicators of trafficking and straw buying, you can actually stop supplying crime guns,” Lowy said. “The problem is these bad actors. And there’s no good reason why manufacturers don’t say, ‘Look, if you’re selling our guns use best practices.'”

It’s why Mexico filed its other lawsuit, which included gun manufacturer Smith & Wesson and one of its wholesalers.

Why Mexico is suing Smith & Wesson 

Under U.S. law, gunmakers have typically been shielded from liability when one of their guns is used during a crime. But Mexico is arguing the manufacturer is “aiding and abetting” gun trafficking to the cartels. Smith & Wesson called that allegation “not true.” Smith & Wesson did not respond to a request for comment from 60 Minutes.

“When manufacturers make the decision, ‘We’re going to sell guns through dealers no matter what their record is, no matter how many crime guns they’re selling,’ You know, that’s on them,” Lowy said. 

According to Lowy, gun manufacturers, dealers and distributors get trace data, though the ATF has said a crime gun trace does not necessarily indicate gun dealer wrongdoing.

Lowy explained, “Every seller in the chain knows if a gun they sold was recovered in a crime.”

If Mexico’s lawsuit is successful, it could open the door for more lawsuits, foreign and domestic, against the gun industry. Earlier this year, gun manufacturers successfully petitioned the Supreme Court to review the case. They argued they could face years of costly litigation by another country that’s “trying to bully the industry into adopting a host of gun control measures.”

During his interview with 60 Minutes, then-President López Obrador said it was the responsibility of both the U.S. and Mexican governments to stop the gun trafficking. 

“But there has to be cooperation,” he said. “You cannot sell weapons to just anybody.”

Sharyn Alfonsi

Sharyn Alfonsi is an award-winning correspondent for 60 Minutes.

In 2021, jazz vocalist Samara Joy graduated from college. Months later, she released her first album. Now, she has three. She’s won three Grammys and is up for two more for her latest Christmas release. Talk about joy to the world—she has sold-out concerts all over America and Europe and is lining them up in Asia and South America. Music critics are comparing her to jazz royalty Sarah Vaughan and Ella Fitzgerald. Not bad for what she calls an accidental career. We caught up with her Christmas tour, singing what else?

You may know Samara Joy as a jazz headliner, but come December, she’s just one of the McLendon family. This year, her foray into Christmas music scored two Grammy nominations. 

It’s been a whirlwind few years. 

She’s as surprised as anyone at her head spinning success. After all, much of the jazz she sings was last popular a half century ago.  But with a voice as limber as a gymnast…

She’s given the old standards a cool new gloss.

Hard to believe that jazz was something she sort of stumbled upon.

Samara speaking during Purchase College concert: Freshman me had no idea that this was in store. Okay, that three years after graduation, I would be standing here before you like this.

This was a homecoming: the first time Samara Joy had returned to Purchase College in New York, where she studied jazz. 

It almost didn’t happen. She told us it was a toss-up between business or music.

Bill Whitaker: Well one of your professors told us that when you showed up for your audition that you only had one song prepared?

Samara Joy: I was like “this is the only jazz song that I know.” He allowed me to sing a hymn too, which was very nice of him. Very kind of him. Um but that was what I had to offer at that time.

Bill Whitaker: So what was it that pushed you on that path?

Samara Joy: I never wanted to regret it. I felt like I could always – even if I was in school for music, I could always get another job. But I – I just wanted to prioritize it first. 

Bill Whitaker: Worked out.

Samara Joy: Worked out. I’d say so.

She recorded her first songs in college—with help from her professors—and posted them online. 

Soon, she had a record deal. Critics say she sings like an old soul.

But when she got her first Grammy nominations in 2022, she went full Gen Z, sharing the moment with millions online.

Bill Whitaker: You danced? You, you shouted?

Samara Joy: Yeah, in New York, nobody cared. Nobody cared at all. They’re like, “Just another Tuesday” to them. 

And then… 

She won. Both. Including the Grammy for best new artist. 

Samara Joy during Grammy acceptance speech: Oh my gosh, I can’t even believe—I’ve been watching y’all on TV for like so long. So, to be here with you all, I’m so, so grateful, thank you.

Bill Whitaker: So where are you keeping all this golden hardware?

Samara Joy: They’re with my parents. 

Bill Whitaker: They knew you wanted to do this?

Samara Joy: Yeah. And my dad, you know, he’s a singer and a musician. My grandparents were singers. And my aunts and uncles. Music is a part of my family. It’s an integral part of how we express ourselves and share, you know, love for each other.

Bill Whitaker: So there was no way you were gonna be an accountant?

Samara Joy: Nope.

Joy celebrated online too. Her Instagram and TikTok accounts are pulling in a younger crowd, a rarity in jazz. They come for the ride and stay for the music. 

Now with a bigger band, Samara Joy’s third album, “Portrait,” is her most ambitious yet. 

She’s writing her own songs, drawing inspiration from the jazz canon of the 1940s and 50s. 

Bill Whitaker: And you’re how old now?

Samara Joy: Twenty-four. Oh gosh. I just turned 25. I forgot.

Bill Whitaker: What do you think when you hear yourself compared to Sarah Vaughan and Ella Fitzgerald?

Samara Joy: When I first got to Purchase, Ella and Sarah were the first people that I listened to. They were part of my fundamental, you know, core and fundamental foundation.

Bill Whitaker: How do you make Ella fit you?

Samara Joy: Listening to her, and listening to all of these singers, I feel like it allowed me to, to shape my idea of what my role could be as a vocalist. Not just learn the melody, sing the melody and that’s it. But you really have to think like a musician and open your ears to what’s happening around you so that you can contribute to it and interact with it.

Christian McBride: Her voice is going to be remembered for a long, long time.

Christian McBride is a world-renowned bassist, we met him at Minton’s Jazz Club in Harlem. McBride told us, joy is a once-in-a-generation talent. He first heard her sing in 2019. He was a judge in a competition she had entered.

Bill Whitaker: And in comes Samara Joy and you’re goin—what?

Christian McBride: We see this young woman with this voice. She had such a mature sound and a way of having you believe what she was singing. We’re like, “Huh? Who—whose grandma’s in that little body, in that young body, you know?” 

She was born Samara McLendon. Joy is her middle name but she’ll tell you the McLendon name is her secret power. Her grandfather sang with the acclaimed Savettes, a gospel group out of Philadelphia. Her father toured with gospel superstar Andrae Crouch. Gospel was the lifeblood of the McLendon household.

Bill Whitaker: So how does gospel fit in with your music?

Samara Joy: It’s an inspiration and a—an influence that will never go away in my voice. And I don’t want it to. It’s been a part of my life, and in my ears, and in my voice um for so long that it’s just an innate part of who I am, I feel like and it just reminds me that this is, this is for a higher purpose. 

Christian McBride told us, Joy’s gospel upbringing gives her voice an emotional depth not all jazz singers can muster.

Christian McBride: In jazz, you get points for being smart. You get points for being creative. You don’t always get points for tapping into the emotional pool. And I find that um, all of my favorite singers who come outta church—Sarah Vaughan being one of them, Aretha Franklin, obviously all – all the way down through somebody like Samara, there’s that little thing. They, they can get here quicker, you know? 

Bill Whitaker: You grew up with R&B and gospel and you could’ve gone in that direction but you chose to go toward jazz, why?

Samara Joy: If anything I kinda felt at home with jazz, you know. I felt like I could still be myself while I was learning about all of this – this new language. I could still absorb it and then apply it in my own way. 

She was raised in a close-knit family in the Bronx. So how do you know a McLendon? Give ’em a mic. It’s a family joke, but everybody sang. All the time.

Joy’s father told us, his daughter was always experimenting.

Or mimicking artists on the radio. so when Tony McLendon joined us, we had to ask…

Bill Whitaker: So I understand that um, you two are pretty good at car karaoke?

Tony McLendon: Oh, yeah.

Bill Whitaker: Can you give us a little taste?

Samara Joy: (Bursts into laughter) We, okay, so we did go to the um, the Stevie Wonder concert. And on the way home we were singing along to one of my favorite deep cuts of Stevie.

Samara Joy: See, if—another thing about a McLendon, we don’t remember the words to anything.

Tony McLendon: We don’t remember.

We met more McLendons as part of Joy’s Christmas tour in Morristown, New Jersey…

…where she was joined by her dad, her cousins and an uncle.

No one is more pivotal to the McLendon family than its 94-year-old patriarch, Elder Goldwire, Joy’s grandfather. He told us, he was in awe of her. And you just know what happened next…

But nothing prepared us for the power Elder Goldwire unleashed on stage. His frailty vanished. 

The McLendon legacy looks to be in safe hands with Samara Joy. She may not have planned for a career in jazz but she told us, she thinks she’ll stick with it. 

Produced by Heather Abbott and LaCrai Scott. Associate producer, Mariah Johnson. Edited by Craig Crawford.

Bill Whitaker

Bill Whitaker is an award-winning journalist and 60 Minutes correspondent who has covered major news stories, domestically and across the globe, for more than four decades with CBS News.