The Mammoth Book of Celebrity Murders (10 page)

Landis and his colleagues were unaware of the problems Wingo was facing in the air and continued with the explosive sequences as planned. Two more massive blasts went off and the helicopter span
out of control – somehow the explosion had caused something to go wrong with the controls.

Now concerned himself, Morrow dropped Renee Chen into the water as the helicopter descended from the sky onto the terrified actors. As Morrow made a grab for Renee he was beaten to it by the
helicopter rotors which slammed into the small child killing her instantly. The rotors continued to rotate at great speed even after the initial impact with the water as Morrow quickly became the
next victim and he was sadly joined by My-ca Le. The helicopter’s main rotor blades swept through the air and decapitated Morrow; My-ca met with the same fate, losing his head and a part of
his shoulder. The scene was one of pure devastation – in a matter of moments three people had lost their lives and all for the sake of entertainment. Dorcey Wingo and John Allingham walked
away from the crash, bruised and shaken but otherwise unhurt.

Whether it can be described as a form of professionalism or a totally misplaced comment has been debated by many, but on surveying the scene in front of him Landis held the bullhorn one more
time to his lips and shouted, “That’s a wrap,” signalling for all that the filming could stop – it already had of course.

As the production crew sat staring in awe at the crashed helicopter and the now blood-red river they became painfully aware of the screaming coming from behind them. The mother and father of
Renee Chen and My-ca Le were screaming, unable to stop to draw breath, having seen with their own eyes their children killed in the most gruesome way. Both would now need treatment for shock. As
they were ushered into cars ready take them to the hospital Landis issued his last pleading instruction, “Everyone go home. Please, go home.”

Why Landis wanted his crew to leave is not known – they had all witnessed the three cruel deaths and were all in a state of shock, so they needed each other more than ever. Landis, though,
wanted time to think – he had illegally hired the children and the action scene had presumably used too many explosives; the results were just too terrible to contemplate.

In the aftermath of the three deaths the media sprang into life wanting to know what had gone on. There were many who wanted to tell their side of the story – not in support of Warner Bros
or Landis. Early on it became obvious that Landis had allowed two children to work beyond the strict time barrier, apparently doing so to avoid having to obtain a waiver, which in turn would have
required an official representative for the children to be there, who may have objected to the scene. The reports did not look good for Landis or other members of his senior production crew and
when pictures of the children were aired the nation felt more pain for the parents. This pain had a second airing when it was time for the funerals to take place.

The question as to whether Landis should have attended any of the funerals is a difficult one – being there might have made him the focus for the emotions of those grieving; not to go
might have looked callous and uncaring, while delivering a eulogy may have seemed foolhardy; a respectful silence at the back of the auditorium might have been a more appropriate action to take.
But Landis was a man who had recently experienced foolish action and had survived – one more step in the wrong direction would therefore not matter. And Landis was not alone in his desire to
pay his final respects to Morrow for George Folsey also wanted to say a few words.

Both Landis and Folsey did read eulogies at the funeral service and both managed to deliver what appeared to many as being shallow, self-promoting, hollow words. For the press the words were a
reflection of the hard-faced Hollywood promotions machinery everyone expected – the show must go on, apparently at any cost.

When Folsey stood to deliver his message he could not have judged things worse as he tried to look for the positive side to the otherwise tragic story. “If there is any consolation in this
it is that the film was finished. Thank God. This performance must not be lost. It was Vic’s last gift to us.”

With Folsey’s words ringing in the ears of the mourners like insults heaped upon their injury, Landis took his place at the lectern and followed suit. “Tragedy can strike in an
instant, but film is immortal. Vic lives forever. Just before the last take, Vic took me aside to thank me for the opportunity to play this role.”

Whether the latter conversation ever took place will never be known for sure; what is known is that Landis had to endure the accusing stares of others in attendance at the funerals and at one
point the distraught director had to be supported by his wife.

Landis was certainly severely traumatized by the events and possibly even more so after the funerals when he realized that most of those around him felt that he and his colleagues were culpable.
As the families of those who had lost loved ones talked to their lawyers, Landis turned to his doctor for help, requiring medication for weeks afterwards, wondering if he would ever be able to take
command of a film set ever again.

When the furore over the funerals had calmed down the lawsuits started flying. The Chens filed a suit on 3 August 1982 asking for damages of $200 million and citing Landis, Spielberg, Folsey,
Wingo, Warner Bros, Western Helicopters and the owners of the Indian Dunes Park amongst many others. My-ca Le’s family filed a suit a year later.

Vic Morrow’s daughters, Carrie Morrow and actress Jennifer Jason Leigh filed a suit against Warner Bros, Landis, Spielberg and a number of others in late 1982. They agreed an out-of-court
settlement within a year and the details of their agreement have never been made public.

Warner Bros hired a firm of lawyers who clumsily, in public relations terms, responded to the remaining suits by suggesting that the risk had been assumed by the children who had died when they
accepted their roles – a starting point for the defence but one which sat badly with members of the public, who could only see that the all-powerful studio was seeking to wriggle out of its
responsibilities.

Beyond the civil suits the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office needed to establish for themselves if there was a criminal liability for the accident. The district attorney
appointed prosecutor Gary Kesselman to the case and he was assisted by Sergeant Thomas Budds of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. Between them they needed to gather all of the
facts and assess whether Landis or others should face a criminal court in addition to the civil proceedings already underway against them.

The wheels of justice certainly appeared to turn slowly and while they were grinding away Landis managed to find the heart to work again. It would take four years for the trial to be brought to
court and in that time Landis found himself back in the director’s chair – at least some people in Hollywood were prepared to give him another chance. During this period Landis worked
on the now highly regarded “Thriller” video with Michael Jackson. He directed and starred in the movie
Into the Night
, in which he played a slightly comical murderer. His work
proved once more that he could make money for the studios and this factor easily overrode any other consideration, including the safety of actors and crew. Many were happy to believe that Landis
had learned his lesson and would henceforth be more careful. But even as he continued to prove his prowess as a top Hollywood director, in the background the long arm of the law was still reaching
out to him.

Gary Kesselman applied himself to the task in hand with some vigour and soon established that there was much conflicting information regarding the facts of this particular case. For a start Dr
Schuman, who helped to recruit the children, denied that he knew that they would be in close proximity to such violent explosions, let alone that they should be directly underneath a low-flying
helicopter. Quick to blame Landis, others testified that Landis and Folsey knew they were breaking the law when they hired the children and that Folsey had joked they would be jailed because of
it.

Hollywood and the acting profession as a whole is a heavily controlled cartel; if you speak out against the powers that be you might never work in show business again. The prosecutor therefore
had to use some leverage to get those on the set that night to confirm from their own perspective what actually happened, both before the disaster and afterwards. Kesselman came up with a plan
whereby he would grant several members of the crew immunity from prosecution in exchange for them providing the much-needed information. These were second assistant director, Anderson House, James
Camomile, the man who had been responsible for setting off the explosives and all of the special effects crew who served under Paul Stewart, but excluding Paul Stewart himself.

Anderson House painted a terrible picture when he explained that the children had been deliberately hidden from Jack Tice, the fire safety officer. Tice also occasionally acted as a
teacher-welfare worker and would have almost certainly reported the fact that the children were working after the agreed hours. Casting further blame onto his colleagues House also suggested that
Allingham had been warned about the risks to the children. The evidence of premeditated malpractice seemed to grow and grow and this meant that those involved could be culpable.

The allegations were so serious that Dorcey Wingo and Paul Stewart both pleaded the Fifth Amendment, trying to avoid incriminating themselves. Folsey, however, was prepared to testify and
without admitting there had been any wrongdoing, he now wished he had shot the helicopter sequences separate to the actors in the water.

John Landis on the other hand not only did not accept any wrongdoing on his own part, he felt he knew who should be held responsible. And in his view those who had created the deadly situation
were the technicians and experts who worked for him, together with those who allowed the explosive devices to be too big or badly placed, and Wingo for not controlling the helicopter and for
allowing himself to come in so low that he got caught in the blasts. He assumed Paul Stewart and Wingo had worked out the co-ordination of the scene – it was they after all who were experts
in special effects and piloting the helicopter. Kesselman would not accept that Landis, as the man in overall charge of the shoot, could disassociate himself from the details of the one piece of
the film which was actually dangerous. From all accounts Landis had requested the biggest explosions and had shouted from his director’s chair for the helicopter to come in low. Landis stuck
with his argument: when you employ experts you let them get on with the job and if the director asks you to do something dangerous, you refuse.

The enquiry got heated. When Kesselman pressed Landis, “The final authority in terms of camera, actor positions, helicopter –” Landis jumped in. “Not mine,” he
interjected. “If I asked an actor to stick his hand in a waste disposal unit the actor would say no.”

As the arguments went back and forth the media could not help but represent the Warner Bros crew as a group who were trying everything they knew to avoid taking responsibility – come what
may, the children would not be dead if Landis had gone through the official channels to gain proper authorization to have the kids work after 8.30 p.m. No one ever suggested that the deaths were
anything other than an accident rather than murder, but if you do not take precautions, break some basic rules and do not check and recheck the safety of your plan, then you are responsible for any
resultant deaths – or in this case three deaths.

On 15 June 1983, the grand jury delivered its indictments. Landis, Folsey and Allingham were each charged with two counts of manslaughter in respect of the deaths of Renee Chen and My-ca Le. The
decisions were based on the legal premise that if death occurs as a result of the commission of an “inherently dangerous” unlawful act, then that constitutes manslaughter. The hiring of
the children was most certainly unlawful and as such the grand jury had found its unlawful act.

Landis added one more manslaughter charge to his record, bringing the manslaughter count to three, as did Stewart and Wingo. They were found guilty due to the nature of their actions, which were
described as aggravated, reckless and grossly negligent, resulting in the deaths of Morrow and the two children.

In a shock move, noted by the media and commentators alike, Kesselman decided not to pursue Landis, Folsey and Allingham of the crimes they were most certainly guilty of – that of hiring
the children and then requesting they work past the curfew. His logic was simple – there was a reasonable chance that the jury might see the deaths as being purely accidental, nobody’s
fault; if they did then they might decide to hand down a guilty verdict based on the lesser charges and let the trio off the more serious charges of manslaughter. Therefore by only presenting the
jury with one option, guilty or otherwise of manslaughter, they could choose to punish them or not. There were three families now devastated because of what had happened on that film set – it
would be a brave soul who decided that those in charge should not pay.

Amazingly the film itself was released in June 1983 to the most terrible reviews. One reviewer described it as not worth watching let alone dying for. Neither of the children were shown in the
film and the audience numbers were so low that the movie was soon replaced at the box office. After so much pain and suffering it was soon forgotten by the public, whose only real interest in it
was the trials which were looming up.

At the preliminary hearings the legal teams came out ready to fight; already there was a clear division between the directors and producers and those who were employed to carry out specific
jobs. Landis was still standing by his basic defence that those experts he employed should have acted responsibly in carrying out their jobs. As he wasn’t an expert it was impossible for him
to pass an informed comment on things like the explosives and the helicopter flying.