The Mammoth Book of Celebrity Murders (11 page)

Judge Brian Crahan presided over the preliminary hearing before the Los Angeles Municipal Court. He faced the outgoing, rather flamboyant character of Landis’ attorney and head of his
defence team, Harland Braun. In the courtroom the defendants were sat according to their allegiances – Landis, Folsey and Allingham were seated together, while Paul Stewart and Dorcey Wingo
were also together. One of the groups would have to take the blame and both parties were keen to pin it on the other.

After Harland Braun had delivered his pitch on why the specialist staffs were to blame, Eugene Trope, acting on behalf of Wingo and Western Helicopters, responded defiantly, “The
responsible party here is the director-producer, and I think Landis is trying to shift the blame off to anyone and everyone he can.”

To gather support for his case and to portray Landis in a positive light, Braun described the movie as a cinematographic statement, explaining that the film was about overcoming bigotry and that
the children were there to demonstrate this point in the most poignant way. Most of those listening were more content to think it was just another film, a remake of a 1950s classic, nothing more
nothing less.

As Renee’s mother was called to the stand the clamour of reporters out in the corridor could be heard all around the court. Talking through an interpreter Shyan-Huei Chen cried as she
described watching her daughter die. It was a poignant moment and one which Landis himself could not help being moved by. Talking to a reporter a short time later he said, “This is a
terrible, terrible accident and it will cause pain and anguish to all of us for the rest of our lives. I can think of nothing worse than losing a child. The idea that this can be anything other
than an unforeseeable accident is not only wrong, it’s bewildering.” A heartfelt comment no doubt and possibly the only thing to say at that moment. The sheer emotional outpouring at
seeing Chen on the stand would have been enough to swing any juror in favour of a guilty verdict – for the sake of the mother someone must pay.

To add more weight against Landis the casting director Marci Liroff testified that she had warned Landis about working the children after curfew and had also pointed out the danger attached to
shooting the scene in the way it was planned. In a final shot at Landis, Folsey and Allingham she looked across at them and said they were guilty of wilfully hiring the kids illegally.

As the preliminary hearing was entering its final stages the defence and prosecution argued their cases once more. Braun side-stepped an expert witness who had said the helicopter crashed
because of the explosion and instead developed his own theory. He claimed that the helicopter had suffered “heat delamination” which had pared off the rotor blades’ protective
skin and that it was this which had caused the helicopter to crash. Calling his own expert defence witness Braun put Gary Fowler, a metallurgist, on the stand. Fowler explained that the explosions
had created a 180-degree fireball, a temperature much lower than would normally cause heat delamination. On this basis Braun argued that the defendants could not have foreseen the danger as the
situation was unprecedented.

Kesselman quickly responded that the exact cause of the crash was immaterial because the helicopter was brought dangerously close to the explosions.

Finally in April 1984, Judge Crahan announced his decision. He dismissed the manslaughter charges against Folsey and Allingham on the grounds that homicide could not be established on the
grounds of them hiring the children. He did however uphold the charges against Landis, Stewart and Wingo. Landis as the director had staged the events leading to the deaths, he had gone beyond
simply setting the scene, and he had actively sought to direct key staff to push their roles into the danger zone. Paul Stewart had been the man responsible for the special effects and as the
expert he allowed the explosive devices to be too large and inappropriately placed. Wingo, an experienced helicopter pilot, had knowingly flown too low through the action scene and had therefore
contributed to the failure of the helicopter.

In a final whirl of last-minute negotiations, the prosecution sought to have the charges against Folsey and Allingham upheld, a request which was eventually agreed by Judge Gordon Ringer. So in
November 1984, all five were now facing charges, a decision the California Supreme Court decided not to review – it would now go to a full trial.

Once the press were aware that there would now be a full trial there was a race to re-evaluate the case all over again. Landis and the others were in the dock and would now remain the focus of
media attention until the final results were through.

Landis, disappointed at having to face a trial at all, decided to replace his legal representative. Braun had despatched a letter without consulting Landis and this spelled the end of the
relationship. He was therefore replaced by James Neal, a well-respected and very experienced lawyer from Tennessee. Neal had come to public prominence during the 1970s when he had acted as a
prosecutor on the Watergate case. He had also won a number of high-profile media-centred cases representing and successfully defending the Ford Motor Company in the case of the exploding Pinto
motor car. When the autopsy revealed the extent of Elvis Presley’s drug use his doctor was indicted on over-prescribing medication, a case which Neal won, much to the bemusement of the public
who had lost a major national figure at such a young age. Although Braun had lost the role of defending Landis, he did however secure the task of representing Folsey.

The prosecution suffered a shake-up as well. The high-profile nature of the accused meant that all parties were becoming public figures. Kesselman, who had prosecuted the case so far, had to
relinquish the task when the media jumped on a story regarding a club in which he had a significant interest. Hostesses at the club had been arrested on lewd conduct charges and several were also
illegally resident in the United States. It was thought that the bad press surrounding Kesselman might spill over and affect the prosecution. Now everyone was in the papers for one reason or
another.

The new prosecutor had a reputation of her own to protect, being referred to in the press as “The Dragon Lady”. Lea Purwin D’Agostino was a strikingly beautiful, petit and
extremely tough prosecution lawyer. She had a string of victories to her name and became something of a media figure herself, always arriving in court dressed in designer clothing and sporting an
array of expensive jewellery.

The personality mix in the courtroom demanded as many column inches as the details of the case itself. D’Agostino and the defence attorneys enjoyed what can best be described as an
acrimonious relationship. Their styles could not be more different. D’Agostino would often be bold, assertive and arrogant, whereas the defence team often came across as sexist, the whole
defence group including the accused often looking like an old boys’ club. Neither appealed to the media and neither easily commanded more empathy than the other.

The jury was equally diverse consisting of seven women and five men, amongst them a mix of Asian, black and Hispanic citizens. Their occupations were clearly far removed from the closeted world
of the rich and famous Hollywood set, and indeed the wealthy legal teams who were about to confront them. Amongst the group there was a pallet repair person, a chemist and a typist.

In the middle of the opposing teams sat the experienced, well-known judge, Roger Boren. He had made his name as the Judge who presided over the court case against the cousins Kenneth Bianchi and
Angelo Buono, better known as the “Hillside Stranglers”.

So with four years having elapsed since the deaths on the set of
The Twilight Zone
, the case finally came to court on 3 September 1986. As Landis and his co-accused sat in silence,
D’Agostino stood to deliver her opening statement. Her case was simple: Landis had sought to illegally hire the children not only because he wanted to work at night but because he knew the
teacher-welfare worker would have objected to the obvious danger the scene presented. She also suggested that Wingo and Stewart were both aware of the danger that they were in, yet proceeded
anyway. Then in a shock move D’Agostino announced that the jury would be asked to watch the film footage showing the moment when the scene went terribly wrong. Leaving no one in any doubt she
reminded the jurors that the crash and the deaths they were about to witness were real, ironically not Hollywood make-believe.

It would be a hard act to follow but James Neal needed to respond to provide some balance to the arguments. He opened by describing the meticulous planning which had gone into the preparation
for the scene. He suggested that if no other events had occurred to change the outcome, then the scene would have been shot successfully and no lives would have been lost. Neal argued that
something had happened, something that the director and his colleagues could not have planned for. Pointing the finger of guilt at James Camomile, the man who triggered the explosions, he suggested
that he had detonated two explosive devices simultaneously, causing the explosive blasts to combine in an effect much larger than was planned. It was this unfortunate blending of the explosive
effects which had caused the helicopter rotors to delaminate. Camomile had also failed to act safely in checking the proximity of the helicopter before allowing the devices to explode.

The prosecution now called their first witness, Donna Schuman, who although a close friend of Folsey confirmed that Landis and Folsey had contrived to employ the two children illegally. In a
twist that grabbed headlines, Schuman now added some detail which she had previously kept quiet during the preliminary hearing. She now recalled a conversation between herself and Folsey during
which she had asked Folsey if he knew the penalty for working the children after curfew, to which he replied, “A slap on the wrist and a little fine – unless they find out about the
explosives.” A ripple of shock ran through the courtroom and the defendants visibly blanched at hearing the statement given in such a damning way.

The case descended into legal technical detail at this point. When asked why she had not disclosed the nature of this conversation before she maintained that Kesselman had suggested she keep
this quiet on the basis that you never reveal your full case until you are in front of the jury. The defence were quick to point out that under the rules of discovery it was incumbent upon the
prosecution to make the facts available to the defence prior to commencement of the case. In a dramatic gesture James Neal pointed out to the jury, “We either have a witness who is a liar or
a prosecutor who is withholding information.”

In a series of bizarre twists Kesselman was asked to take the stand and then D’Agostino was asked to take the stand, each arguing a particular angle. These hearings were in the presence of
the Judge only, as neither defence nor prosecutor could be called as a witness. By undertaking this unusual strategy the defence were successfully able to give the impression that the prosecution
had a problem and if nothing else had drawn the jury’s attention away from the cold facts of the case. Even the press followed the diversion, entertained by the infighting and quarrelling the
two legal teams indulged in.

When the prosecution asked Colleen Logan, Deputy Labour Commissioner, to take the stand, it was their turn to get the case back on track. After Logan confirmed the laws on employment of children
within the movie industry, she whacked another nail into Landis’ coffin when she confirmed that her office had already levied fines on Landis and Warner Bros for infringing the strict child
labour rules in respect of Renee and My-ca.

Although the Judge ruled against D’Agostino being allowed to ask the hypothetical question as to whether she would have granted the waiver for the children, Logan was able to confirm that
she would have taken a dim view of allowing the children to work in such close proximity to the explosives and the helicopter.

The media waited intently for the most moving of the eyewitness testimonies, that of the children’s parents. My-ca’s mother was the first to take the stand and under questioning from
D’Agostino she denied knowing that a waiver was required for her children to work, or indeed that there would be explosives or a low-flying helicopter. She also claimed that Folsey had
suggested she needn’t come back for the second night’s shooting, saying, “I’ll treat them like my own.” Although My-ca’s father attended the next night’s
shooting, My-ca’s mother would never see him alive again, a fact that D’Agostino brought home with high emotional impact.

When it was time for the jurors to watch the scenes they were taken down to the Samuel Goldwyn Theatre on Wiltshire Boulevard. As the scenes from the first night’s shooting unfolded the
jurors were able to see Vic Morrow pick up the children and run towards the river, the village burning behind them. When Landis calls for the scene to be halted he is seen waving his arms,
indicating the helicopter should move away. As the helicopter turns away the audience could clearly see the downdraft blowing the children’s hair around, a stark reminder of how close the
chopper actually was.

The audience were quiet and nervous as the final scene was about to be shown – other than the outcome they were not precisely sure just what they were about to see. Nobody wanted to watch
the deaths of the three actors in beautiful Technicolor. Luckily the explosions around the water were so strong that a wall of spray was thrown up so high that hardly anything else could be seen.
When the spray dispersed the helicopter could be seen lying at an awkward angle in the river and before the filming actually stopped rolling crew and staff could be seen running down towards the
river.

Other cameras around the set caught the terrible scenes from other angles; one clearly showed Morrow struggling against the downwash of the rotors before the helicopter hit the water, its rotors
whipping up a spray of water which thankfully hid the moment of death.