The Mammoth Book of Celebrity Murders (9 page)

The whole saga of how the families of Booth and Lincoln became entwined is one rich in sadness, yet along with this there is yet one more tale of coincidence, though this time of how a Booth
helped a Lincoln.

Long before the assassination of Lincoln by Booth, two other members of these families had met in quite different circumstances. The encounter took place on a crowded train station platform in
New Jersey, as President Lincoln’s eldest son, Robert, was waiting to buy a sleeper ticket to Washington. Suddenly the impatient crowd surged forward, pinning Robert against a railway
carriage, just as it began to move out of the station. Robert was carried along before being dropped into a space between the carriage and the platform. An alert bystander rushed across and dragged
Robert out by his coat collar. As Robert later recalled, “On turning to thank my rescuer I saw it was Edwin Booth, whose face was well known to me, and I expressed my gratitude to him, and in
doing so called him by name.”

The two men never met again, but in the years following his brother’s assassination of Lincoln, Edwin Booth would often take comfort from the fact that he had saved the life of President
Lincoln’s son.

The world of the Hollywood actor could not be more far removed from that of your average person. Famous actors and actresses enjoy all the trappings of their high-profile
lives, lavish homes hidden in the hill of Los Angeles, apartments in the most chic cities in the world, chauffeur-driven limos and stopovers at the world’s best hotels. Even on the film set,
those with audience-pulling power can demand the most opulent of surroundings, plush trailers with colour-coordinated decor, bowls of expensive fruit and their preferred drinks all cooling nicely
in the refrigerator. Some stars are renowned for their very specific instructions – fresh flowers all of a certain colour, even sweets in a bowl, but only the red ones. Generally then the
film set is just an extension of the pampered lives the stars lead off set. If on the other hand an actor is called upon to take part in an action scene then the film set can be a very dangerous
place, especially if the director takes risks with safety – when this happens people lose their lives.

In 1981 when the acclaimed movie director Steven Spielberg, director of
Jaws
,
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
and
Raiders of the Lost Ark
, decided he wanted to make a
film version of the popular 1950s sci-fi programme,
The Twilight Zone
, he chose his friend and fellow movie maker John Landis to share production billing with him. Although not in the same
league as Spielberg, Landis had shown himself more than capable of coming up with the goods with hit films like
Kentucky Fried Movie
,
American Werewolf in London
and
The Blues
Brothers
. The two men agreed that they would both co-produce the new film, which would be based around four stories of equal length, three of which were based on plots out of the original
series, the fourth to be written by Landis.

Landis hit upon a great idea with a wonderful moral at the heart of the story that fitted nicely with the format of the original series. At the heart of this particular story was the character
Bill Connor, a racist bigot who is initially seen in a bar shouting down the rights of blacks and Jews – as he leaves the bar he steps back in time and finds himself in war-torn,
Nazi-occupied France. The Germans see him as a Jew and the character experiences for the first time what it is like to be on the receiving end of the illogical persecution. As he flees from the
Germans Connor suddenly finds himself back in the southern states of America at the time when the Klu Klux Klan are at large. He now finds that those who see him perceive him to be black and once
again he endures the hardship of being pursued by a gang who want to lynch him. By the time Connor ends up in his third and final encounter, he is launched into the jungles of Vietnam being shot at
by the advancing Americans who see him as a Vietnamese soldier. The final scenes show Connor’s rehabilitation. Pursued through a Vietnamese village he comes across two orphans; collecting
them in his arms he races away from the village and crosses a river to safety. In the final scene, Connor, played by the actor Vic Morrow, tells the kids, “I’ll keep you safe! I swear
to God” – just as an American bomb destroys the village.

The script was approved by Warner Brothers and Landis began making plans to recruit the other actors and secure a shooting location. The first obstacle which Landis encountered was the strict
child labour laws which forbade children to work past eight-thirty in the evening, a problem as the final scene showing Morrow with the two children crossing the river was to be shot as a
night-time scene. Not only that but the children needed to have a teacher-welfare worker with them at all times, for their own protection and representation. If Hollywood is anything, it is fair
– audiences and staff get exploited to the same degree. The requirement for the children to work late together with the nature of the scene meant that the production’s normal casting
company, Fenton-Feinberg Casting, declined to assist. Not only would they have had to have got a special waiver for the children to work late, but the scene involved a low-flying helicopter and
high explosives for the village bombing scene. For the casting company at least, the whole arrangement seemed too dangerous, a comment they recalled making to Landis.

For reasons that would be a cause of major debate later, Landis decided he would not bother with the waiver, deciding instead to ignore the law and make alternative arrangements. In 1982 Landis
asked his associate producer George Folsey to find him two Asian kids who would be able to play the two Vietnamese children, having already decided that he would pay them out of petty cash to avoid
having to include their names on the payroll. Another member of the production team recalled Landis and some colleagues coming out of a production meeting and joking that they would all be thrown
in jail over the illegal hiring of the child actors.

George Folsey began looking around for a family who might be prepared to indulge the production in some “cash-in-hand” work. Contacting his friend Dr Harold Schuman, he was
eventually put in contact with Dr Peter Chen, whose brother and sister-in-law had a six-year-old daughter named Renee. They discussed the proposition and decided it would be an exciting opportunity
for the child, something for her to remember when she was older, and agreed to the deal. In a bid to help secure the second child Renee’s father asked his colleague Dr Daniel Le if his
seven-year-old son, My-ca, would like to be the other child, joining his daughter for the fun and experience. The little boy loved the idea, adored having his photo taken and found the prospect of
being on a film set exciting beyond belief. The children were introduced to Landis who felt that they would be ideal and readily agreed for them to have the parts.

Tension was the order of the day right from the start. First assistant director Dan Allingham and his colleague, Anderson House, the second assistant director, had spoken about their unease at
working the children after the official hours and neither was comfortable with their proximity to the helicopter, which would have to fly low, and the special-effects explosives, which would be
triggered to explode all around the scene to simulate an air attack. House expressed the most concern and pursued Allingham over a number of issues, first asking if Landis intended to shoot the
shots in the day and then simulate night later. Allingham explained this was not Landis’ plan. House also enquired if Landis would be prepared to use dummies for the river-crossing scene, or
even dwarf stunt people, but again was told that Landis felt this would look phoney and ruin the scene. Landis had made up his mind and there seemed little point in trying to discuss it
further.

The location team had found the perfect place to simulate the Vietnamese village scene – Indian Dunes Park, a private property which had the benefit of high cliffs covered in green foliage
and a flat basin where a temporary village had been built out of bamboo poles. In the foreground the Santa Clara River snaked along slowly, with just the right amount of waist-deep water for Morrow
to look like he needed to carry the kids.

Once everyone was on location the detailed planning for the scene began, but there were problems and the production experienced several delays in shooting. Morrow had been told to throw a piece
of wood up at the passing helicopter but the pilot, Dorcey Wingo, was concerned at the unpredictability of something hitting the helicopter rotors, either causing damage to the helicopter or the
rotors batting a block of wood through the set. They eventually decided that it might be possible to use a piece of balsa wood.

Having never been on a film set before the children were understandably nervous so Morrow kept them entertained by pulling funny faces at them. Their laughter, however, continued when the
cameras started rolling and Landis had to stop shooting on several occasions while the children composed themselves. The first scene was captured at 3.30 a.m. and both sets of parents were handed
envelopes with the agreed 500 dollar cash payment.

On 23 July 1982, the evening of the river-crossing scene, Renee and her parents arrived late on set annoying Landis who needed one last scene capturing before the big action scene. In this scene
Morrow collects Renee and My-ca from a small hut and carries them to the river bank. In a prophetic warning of what was to come, a water bomb exploded and the terrified Renee burst into tears,
afterwards saying that dust had blown into her eyes from the explosion. The concerned parents asked George Folsey if the explosion had indeed been dangerous, to which he replied, “No, not
dangerous, just a loud noise.”

With the parents and children reassured they were all sent back to their trailers where they could relax before the night’s big shoot. Their nerves were still tingling as they could still
hear the sounds of gunfire and explosions in the background as Morrow filmed his other scenes.

The first scene was shot from inside the helicopter as it approached the village; Wingo was at the controls as Allingham shone a beam of light illuminating the scene below. The first sign of
trouble emerged when Landis gave the instructions for the special effects to be set off. A water bomb exploded and sprayed water all over the helicopter’s perspex windscreen, obscuring
Wingo’s view. He leaned out of the helicopter in order to see where he was headed and swore loudly as the heat seared his face.

The location fire safety officer had watched the scene and was concerned that the force of the explosions might hinder the flight of the helicopter, but having discussed the issue with his
superior nobody brought it to the attention of the film crew.

Wingo however was not so reserved. Having landed the helicopter he shouted to Allingham that he should tell Landis that the explosions were too strong, that they were flaring up right into the
path of the helicopter. There was equal concern from the camera crew – Roger Smith said he would not film the scene unless the explosions were toned down.

Allingham later told Smith that he had spoken with Landis who had assured him that the force of the explosions would be dealt with, although just what he meant by this only became clear later.
When Wingo and another cameraman were discussing the explosions, Landis was said to have responded, “You ain’t seen nothing yet.”

A bit later George Folsey visited the trailer where the children and their parents were staying. The kids were asleep so Folsey woke them and asked if they would like a bite to eat before the
commencement of the scene. As the time was fast approaching Folsey also warned them not to speak with the firemen who would be operating around the location – he did not want to let them know
that the children were working late, and asked the parents to say that they were friends of his and that the children were just watching.

As the children emerged from their slumber they arrived on a very tense set, the atmosphere seemed full of expectation and the parents too felt a degree of trepidation. Folsey tried to reassure
them once more, “It’ll be scary – but don’t worry.”

With Morrow now knee-deep in water and with a child under each arm Landis ordered the cameras to start rolling – the time 2.20 a.m., 23 July 1982.

Landis was slightly elevated above the river; from his vantage point he could clearly see the action to be filmed in the water and the approaching helicopter. He wanted the helicopter even lower
than it already was and screamed through his bullhorn, “Lower, lower, lower,” an instruction aimed at an operative who was in ground-to-air contact with Wingo.

Landis then shouted the instruction “Fire, fire”, indicating that the special effects should commence. The special effects technicians pressed the keys on the control panel and a
spray of fake bullets exploded in the water around Morrow. Multiple cameramen filmed from various angles – the final scene would be edited together later.

James Camomile, the technician in charge of the explosive devices at the back of the village, ran his finger across the firing board and the whole scene exploded in a kaleidoscope of light and
noise. The explosions were so strong that the two cameramen who intended to film the exploding village had to run up a slope to escape the searing heat that stung their skin.

My-ca’s father, Daniel Le, was completely taken aback by the ferocity of the explosions – he had personally witnessed real scenes of attack while in Vietnam and thought the effects
seemed far too realistic. When a second blast went off Le fell to the ground; afterwards he recalled thinking that everyone was in real danger and that the situation was well past make-believe.

Up in the air Wingo was already struggling with the helicopter which had been affected by the initial blasts. Allingham, who was sitting next to him, suggested he fly away from the action zone
and not into the special effects explosions, but the request came too late – the helicopter was already heading in low through the smoke.