A Night That Changed A Man's Life

From time to time, CBS News Correspondent Steve Hartman uses the random toss of a dart and a map of the United States to guide him in his quest to prove that "Everybody Has A Story." He found one man with a dark tale he had kept secret for four decades.

This series can't help but make you wonder about all the people you see everyday, but don't really know.

What story might lie inside your mailman, for example?

Fifty-eight-year-old Eddie Williams is a letter carrier for the Gainesville, Fla., Post Office. He's married to a nurse named Suzanne who peddles flu shots at grocery stores. And together, they share enough love to make a sheepdog blush.

Yet, the story I found in Williams turned out to be anything but warm and fuzzy. In fact, it may be the darkest tale anyone has ever told me. It is a chilling revelation about the night the quiet, unassuming postman killed a man - with his bare hands.

For 40 years, he has kept the story to himself.

In 1966, Sgt. Eddie Williams of the Army was stationed in Korea where the war was over, but the danger wasn't. Communist infiltrators had been sneaking across the DMZ to pick off American soldiers. And one of the victims was Eddie's best friend, who, while sitting in a bar, took a bullet in the head.

The same person who shot Williams's friend then pointed the gun at Williams.

"[His] gun jammed," Williams remembers. "He was standing in the doorway, and I took him out. I literally just squeezed him until he could not breathe."

Williams says he didn't realize it at the time, and wouldn't realize it for two more decades, how much that one night hardened him.

"I built a wall around myself," he says. "[I] hardly trusted anyone until I met Suzanne. When I met her, things happened. She brought me out of my shell and made life worth living."

They've been married for 12 years.