(CBS) Forty-five-year-old Garrett Wilson was a modern-day Harold Hill.

Like the title character in Meredith Wilson’s “The Music Man,” Garrett Wilson had a charismatic personality that helped him forge a successful career selling musical instruments.

Vicky Wampler of Frostburg, Md., says he’s a wonderful father to their eight-year-old daughter, Marysa.

"He was just engrossed in raising his daughter. That was the most important thing in his life," says Wampler, who became Wilson’s fourth wife seven years ago.

Wampler also says she and Wilson had a nearly perfect relationship: "As close to Ozzie and Harriett as any two people could be."

But in 1998, Wilson was accused of murdering of his own baby son, Garrett Michael in 1987. Pushing authorities to file charges was Wilson’s third wife, Missy Anastasi, the mother of the dead infant.

"I think that he is a cold-blooded, evil killer," says Montgomery County, Maryland, prosecutor Doug Gansler, who led the case against Wilson. Gansler says that Wilson told people he hated the baby.

Which is the real Garrett Wilson? Peter Van Sant reports.

John Farley has known Wilson since they were both young children, and they are still best friends.

"I just can’t believe he could have done it," says Farley. "The Garrett that I know is caring, he’s loving." Farley says that Wilson loved his baby son.


"If you were meeting with Garrett Wilson for the first time and you looked into his eyes, you wouldn’t see a murderer," says Adrian Havill, a writer who penned "While Innocents Slept," a detailed look at the case.

Wampler believes that her husband is innocent. "You can’t be two people- you can’t be a murderer one day, and a loving father and a giving person the next day."

The story begins in 1986, when Wilson and Anastasi married. A year later, Anastasi gave birth to their son, Garrett Michael. According to Anastasi, Wilson showed little interest in the baby after he came home from the hospital.

"I said, ‘Garrett, you seem really withdrawn from the baby lately,’" she remembers. "And he said, ‘Well, I want to make sure he’s gonna be around a while before I get close to him.’ and I thought ‘Why is he thinking something is gonna happen to this baby?’"

She chose to dismiss this behavior until early one morning when their baby woke up crying.

"I jumped up like I always did, to go and feed the baby. And Garrett literally dissuaded me, talked me out of getting up and going. He said, ‘I’ll do it.’…. He didn’t ever wake up in the middle of the night and be wide awake, or in the early morning - and this particular morning, he was awake."

She stayed in bed while her husband went into the baby’s room.

"I heard a patting noise ovr the monitor. And then the next thing I heard was a (a sigh)… I don’t know what it was, but I know that it wasn’t a good sound."

Alarmed, she hurried out of bed, stopping to feed her two cats. When she got to the baby, she knew something was wrong. "I screamed, ‘Garrett, what did you do to him?’" Wilson had gone back to their bedroom.

"He opened the door, and his face was as white as a sheet. And I’m screaming, ‘Call 911,’ and he never moved." Paramedics took the baby to the hospital emergency room.

According to Anastasi, Wilson continued to act strangely. "So we went out to the car, and Garrett stopped and took the time to unlock the car, pull the seat up, reach in the back, and take the baby seat out. And I’m thinking, ‘He knows the baby’s not coming home. He’s done something to him.’"

Within an hour, the baby, then 5 months old, was pronounced dead at the hospital. Anastasi was devastated. She says that Wilson seemed untouched by the death.

Several weeks later, Wilson surprised his wife again: "He brought money home in a brown paper bag and threw it on the bed where I was sleeping. And I said, ‘What is this?’ And he said, ‘It’s some insurance money.’"

She began to suspect that Wilson had killed his son for insurance money. But the medical examiner concluded that the baby had died from Sudden Infant Death Syndrome – despite the fact that the baby’s brain showed swelling, which can be evidence of foul play.

So she put her suspicions aside and decided to stay with Wilson. She and Wilson stayed together for seven years. But the marriage wasn’t easy. With Wilson moving around the country, from one sales job to another, they were apart for months at a time.

Says Anastasi: "He still called - that was the most amazing thing. I’m thinking in my mind, ‘He has no reason to keep up with me, except that he cares about me, like he says he does.’… I wanted to be married. And I loved him."

What happens next? Find out:

Part II: Trouble In River City