Jeremy Kyle. Jerry Springer. Trisha. We've all heard of these infamous talk shows, maybe even watched them, laughed at them. But there is a dark side to them. As we've grown as a society, more and more people are realising the awful reality of these programmes, occasionally referred to as 'poverty porn', and just how damaging they can be. But what happens when they go too far?
Scott Bernard Amedure was born on the 26th January 1963, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. At the age of 32, openly gay Scott travelled on the 6th March 1995 to film an episode of The Jenny Jones Show. The Jenny Jones Show was, what I will describe as, trash TV. Jenny Jones originally started off wanting to be the next Oprah, but the ratings weren’t particularly good, so she took the show in a different direction. In the 90s there was an influx of talk shows hosted by celebrities; the more sensational and outrageous the better it was considered. These shows were a mixture of rebellious teenagers, paternity tests, makeovers, and feuding families. There were also shows where your secret crush is revealed; the reason Scott was appearing on The Jenny Jones Show.
For quite some time, Scott had harboured a secret crush on his friend, Jonathan Schmitz (who was born on 18th July 1970), and he was going to be letting him know on The Jenny Jones Show. Schmitz agreed to appear on the show, out of curiosity; he later went on to say that it was heavily implied that his secret admirer was female (although producers later disputed this). Schmitz, who recently had split with his girlfriend, believed it would be his ex, wanting to rekindle their relationship.
Scott appeared on stage with a mutual friend, Donna Lyle, who had introduced the two. Jenny Jones encouraged Scott to talk about Schmitz, how much he wanted him, what his fantasies and desires involved. These fantasies included tying Schmitz to a hammock and proceeding with whipped cream and champagne. Scott also described him, saying ‘he’s got a cute little hard body’ and he’s a ‘tiny little cute thing’. The audience were gasping and wooping like animals at these openly gay fantasies. Schmitz, who had been backstage wearing noise cancelling headphones, came on stage to meet the person who had a crush on him. The two exchanged a very awkward embrace before the host dropped her bombshell; it was Scott that fancied Schmitz. Schmitz turned to Scott and Donna and said, ‘you lied to me’. Schmitz tried to laugh it off while insisting he was ‘completely heterosexual’. Schmitz was visibly uncomfortable, but Jenny Jones continued to press the matter, showing him the clips of Scott describing his fantasies while the audience were laughing and cheering themselves into a frenzy.
After filming had finished, Scott, Donna and Schmitz went for a few drinks together. When questioned during the trial, Donna said there seemed to be no animosity between the two men. Later on, a friend would tell the court that Scott and Schmitz had had a drunken sexual encounter.
3 days after the filming had finished, Schmitz found a sexually suggestive note, that he assumed had been left for him by Scott. Something in Schmitz flipped. He went to withdraw cash, before carrying on to a store to buy a shotgun and ammunition. He then travelled to Scott’s mobile home to confront him about the letter. Schmitz then grabbed his shot gun and aimed at Scott. Scott’s roommate later said he asked him for help, saying ‘Gary, he has a gun’ while trying to protect himself by holding up a wicker chair. Schmitz shot him twice in the chest. Scott died instantly. After murdering him, Schmitz left the trailer and rang 911 from a pay phone, admitting to the killing straight away.
Schmitz: ‘I think I just shot a man’
911: ‘Okay’
Schmitz: ‘I’m just turning myself in’
911: ‘Okay’
Schmitz: ‘I just shot this guy!’
911: ‘Okay why did you do that?’
Schmitz: ‘Because he played a really bad fucking thing on me. He took me on Jenny Jones’.
Schmitz was crying when the police arrived.
The case went to trial and defence attorneys revealed that Smitz had been diagnosed with manic depression (now known as bi-polar disorder) and Graves’ disease (an autoimmune disease that affects the thyroid). Bi-polar can cause extreme mood swings and Graves’ disease, in some cases, can cause violent behaviour. It also came out that Schmitz had suffered a physically abusive father growing up, had issues with alcoholism and had attempted suicide more than once. They argued that Schmitz had killed Scott through a combination of mental health illness and ‘gay panic’. The gay panic defence is a strategy in which a defendant claims they acted in a state of temporary insanity committing assault or murder, because of unwanted same-sex sexual advance. They believed Schmitz had been publicly humiliated and had reacted to that. His defence lawyer, Fred Gibson said ‘he thought his Cinderella was only around the curtain’. The original 911 confession was dismissed, as Schmitz hadn’t been read his Miranda Rights (“You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to an attorney. If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be provided for you. Do you understand the rights I have just read to you? With these rights in mind, do you wish to speak to me?”).
Despite this, in 1996 he was found guilty of second-degree murder; second degree murder is a killing that isn’t premeditated, there was only intent to injure, and sentenced to 25-50 years in prison. Schmitz later had his conviction overturned on appeal but was found guilty again at a retrial.
In 1999 Scott’s family decided to sue The Jenny Jones Show, Telepictures and Warner Bros. They argued that the show had been negligent, and it resulted in Scott’s death. Jenny Jones herself testified, reiterating that Schmitz had been told his admirer could be male, but that he assumed it was female. A note had been presented, from a staff member to Jenny Jones. It said, ‘Schmitz hopes it’s a woman’ before going on to say, ‘Scott has an inkling that Jon (Schmitz) is bisexual’ and that Schmitz is ‘going to die when he sees it’s Scott’. The jury found The Jenny Jones Show guilty of negligence, that the show had created topics with no thought to any consequences. The jury awarded Scott’s family $29,332,686.00. However, this judgment was later overturned by The Michigan Court of Appeals and the Michigan Supreme Court refused to hear the case.
The Jenny Jones Show was cancelled in 2003. On 22nd August 2017, Schmitz was released from prison; he earned early release due to ‘good behaviour’ as stated by the Michigan Department of Corrections. After his release, Scott’s brother, Frank Amedure JR told People ‘It might be easier if he was old, an old grey-haired man, but he’s still pretty young at 47 – he’s still got a lot to go, and my brother doesn’t’. In 2017 he talked to the Detroit Free Press, ‘I wanted assurance that the (parole boards) decision was not based on just good behaviour in prison. I’d like to know that he learned something, that he’s a changed man, is no longer homophobic and has gotten psychological care’. He continued ‘But there’s a side if, at least me and maybe some of my family members, that we do feel he was victimised in all of this, and so we can empathise with all of that’. Scott is buried in the Ottawa Park Cemetery, Michigan.
Before I started really researching this case, I genuinely believed it was an open and shut case; that homophobia was to blame for the death of Scott. But the more I’ve looked into it, the more I’m not entirely sure. Now, please do not think for one minute I am excusing Schmitz for what he did – I do believe that a form of homophobia was involved, and you can’t go around killing everyone who makes unwanted advances (I know there are extreme cases but I’m not talking about those particular ones at this moment in time). I think a lot of us, at some point in our lives, have watched these sorts of TV programmes; The Jenny Jones Show, The Jerry Springer Show, The Jeremy Kyle Show etc. And it’s easy to laugh, and mock and demean those appearing on the show. But these are real people, and it’s also easy to forget that. These shows, and their audiences, thrive on human baiting, they’re ‘ambush TV’, we give in to the rubberneck effect. Many of the hosts, producers and audiences would argue, but, in my opinion, it’s exploitative TV making its money from another person’s shame and embarrassment. You can argue that the guests on the show know what they’re signing up for, but do they entirely? Judge Alan Berg described The Jeremy Kyle show in 2007 ‘’It seems to me that the whole purpose of The Jeremy Kyle show is to effect a morbid and depressing display of dysfunctional people who are in some kind of turmoil,’ said Mr Berg. ‘It is for no more and no less than titillating members of the public who have nothing better to do with their mornings than sit and watch this show which is a human form of bear baiting which goes under the guise of entertainment.’
In 2017 Schmitz said it was implied that his admirer was female, yet Jenny Jones asked people to apply for the show if ‘you have a secret attraction to a same sex friend’. The whole episode was called ‘Same Sex Secret Crushes’ – so why not just tell the participants that? Schmitz looked visibly uncomfortable, yet Jenny Jones continued to press the issue. Unfortunately, times were different in 1996. Homophobia was still rife (and sadly is in many places). Same-sex marriage hadn’t even been considered then. The terribly sad murder of Matthew Sheppard was still 2 years away. Some people were still uninformed about acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) and believed that all gay men had the disease – there was a lot of misinformation out there. Could this have contributed to Schmitz’s reaction?
I do believe that these sort of ‘entertainment’ shows should take some responsibility for their guests. I cannot find anything to say the producers of The Jenny Jones Show ever asked Schmitz if he had any current/history of mental illness. Was his reaction due to his health issues? Or was it a combination of everything, pushing him over the edge?
And that is the story of Scott Amedure and Johnathan Schmitz. What do you think? Was Schmitz a rampant homophobe and cold-blooded killer? Or, to some degree, were both of them victims? As always, please let me know what you think in the comments, thanks for reading, take care of yourselves and I will see you next time.
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